Spring Break

It's spring break and I decided to actually cook good things for myself this week. I've been eating veggie burgers, pizza and beer since the semester started...time for something green. This was a killer salad that I threw together last night:

Warm Pasta Salad with Roasted Tomatoes and Pesto

1/2 box of Penne
1 cup roasted grape tomatoes [about 2ish cups raw]
2 Tablespoons of pesto [I used this vegan pesto from Oh She Glows]
4 cups salad mix

Cook the pasta. Save about 1/2 to 1 cup of the water.
Mix the pasta water [a little at a time - you just want it a little saucy], roasted tomatoes and pesto in a sauce pan [maybe even the same pan you used to cook the pasta in] – then throw the pasta in. You can either serve it over the greens or mix it up a little so they wilt. Your decision.

Super delicious.



Side note:
[In case you don't know how to roast those tomatoes, here's an easy way to do it:

Place sliced tomatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for about 45 minutes to an hour at 400F. Watch closely during the last 15 minutes of roasting.]

Bright Green Vegan Risotto

I love risotto - so easy to make - and this is definitely not the first one I've posted on this site. These days I skip the cheese partly because it's expensive, and partly because it ends up creamy enough that I don't miss it anyway.

Please note: I am not vegan...though, I have cut back on significantly on dairy in general. Anyway...here it is my new risotto recipe:

Bright Green Vegan Risotto

Some olive oil for the big-ish sauce pan
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
2-4 garlic cloves minced
1 cup arborrio rice
½ to 1 cup white wine [or just use extra vegetable broth or water]
3-4 cups of vegetable broth [or you can just use water and add salt to taste]
1 cup frozen peas
1 whole bunch of cilantro, chopped
zest of 1 lime [or lemon]
black pepper

heat the pan up over medium heat.
Add oil, onion and garlic. Cook until the onions are soft.
Add the arborrio and fry it up for a minute with the onions and garlic
Add the white wine and stir pretty often til absorbed
Add the vegetable broth ½ cup at a time til the rice is soft, stirring frequently.
Once the rice is cooked add the peas and cook for just a couple of more minutes. Then take off the heat and add cilantro, lime zest, and a few turns of freshly ground pepper.

The taste of this risotto is clean and bright!

tiny bags of grains

I noticed it's been over 10 months since I've posted anything. Well, please just know I've had good reason - this past year has been a doozy. I'm just gonna leave it at that because it's not that kind of blog here.

What I am going to write about is soup. I made an amazing soup yesterday. Now, I'm not gonna lie, soup might be my forte. I can whip together an insanely good soup from just about nothing at all. That's what I did last night.

Trying hard these days to not spend a lot on groceries, I've been trying to use everything I have before I buy more. Last night, I was rummaging through my cupboard and I found 3 tiny bags of left over grains and lentils from some other recipe. [this one actually.]

And so here's what happened: amazingness. I don't know where my knack for soup comes from - but I'll take it. I love soup.

here's the recipe:

8 cups of water
1/4 cup Bulgar wheat
1/4 cup pearled farro [barley would also work here]
1/4 cup lentils
3 small Thai chilies chopped [optional]
1/2 inch fresh ginger root peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp hungarian paprika
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
3 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 15oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1. Bring water to a boil
2. Add grains and all the seasonings, chilies and tomato paste
3. Simmer for a good 25-30 minutes.
4. Taste it. [perhaps add a couple of bouillon cubes if you like for extra flavor - I did]
5. Simmer for about 20-25 minutes more until the grains are cooked to your preference [nobody wants to chip a tooth on an undercooked lentil!]
6. Add garbanzo beans and cook until they're heated through.


Get some crusty bread and go to town!

Fun with Fennel

I love fennel. Raw, roasted, grilled, sauteed, boiled, whatever. I freaking love it. And after joining back up with the CSA here our first pick up was chock full of it! We grilled it after I tossed it around with some olive oil, salt, pepper and herbes de provence.

But there were leftovers. my goodness were there leftovers...now, I'm a "leftover" kinda person - but one has their limits. so, what to do?

my answer came in pizza form. that's right. as in grilled fennel as a pizza topping.

so, I made pizza as I generally would and chopped up some...er, all, of the leftover grilled fennel and schmeared it all on there. Grilled fennel is now competition to pineapple for my favorite pizza topping.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........

To Bruce with love...

Saturday was Bruce Willis's 56th Birthday - I generally don't care about these things but a BBQ was long overdo and we just needed a title for the Facebook invite. We Googled the date [March 19th] and we found it was Bruce's birthday. Perfect. [I mean, srsly, have you ever seen Die Hard? Classic.] So after queuing up my Netflix with as many BW movies as I could find, I made these cupcakes in his honor [not really, I'd been wanting to make these for a while; and I knew some guests of ours are vegan and gluten free and the timing was just perfect].

Cashew Butter Cardamom Cupcakes [adapted from: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World]

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons soy milk [I used coconut milk]
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoons ground flaxseeds
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup smooth cashew butter
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour [I used 1/3 cup plus 1 TBS coconut flour**; 1/3 cup plus 1 TBS white rice flour; and 1/3 cup tapioca flour - to make these gluten free!]
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom [I may or may not have doubled this...]
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp grated orange zest

1. preheat oven to 350 line muffin pan with paper liners
2. in large bowl, whisk together soy milk, orange juice, orange zest and flaxseeds until frothy. add oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cashew butter to soy milk mixture and beat for one minute till frothy.
3. in separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom and cinnamon.
4. add dry ingredients to wet in two separate batches, and beat with electric mixer or whisk for about two minutes in total. fill cupcake liners 2/3rds of the way full and bake for 22-24 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

**If using coconut flour, you're gonna want to increase the liquid in the recipe. I did the following: 2/3 c coconut milk; 1/3 c OJ; and added one extra TBS of oil.

I was too lazy to make the frosting [to be fair I was elbow deep in carrots for a Raw Carrot Cake [that's another post - let me just say, I'm now, officially, ready to move to L.A.: I have broken into the Raw Food realm.]] - but if you're feeling up to it - here are the details:

1/3 cup smooth cashew butter
3 T non-hydrogenated margarine [such as Earth Balance], softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 cup soy milk powder

Beat cashew butter and margarine on low until pale and thick. Add vanilla, syrup, and cardamom and beat for another minute, then add the milk powder in two batches.

Seriously. Delicious. Seriously.Amazing.

I need to start using cardamom more often...

Greyhound Pie

wow, March...2011...already? geez...

I really am not great at keeping this blog up - but I'm hoping one day I'll get better at it. But until then, it's gonna have to be sporadic.

So, I made this pie a few months ago. I LOVE a "greyhound" cocktail [grapefruit juice and vodka] and it's been grapefruit season here. I had a few extra and I wanted a cocktail; but I also wanted pie. So, i combined the two!

Essentially, you make this pie as you would a key lime pie. Here's what I did:

Greyhound Pie

Pie Crust:
1 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 stick butter
1 1/2 Tbsn rose water or orange flower water
1 1/2 Tbsn vodka
Mix flour and salt in a good size bowl. Then grab your pastry cutter and cut in the butter. Add the orange flower water and vodka.

Filling:
1/2 c grapefruit juice
3 eggs
One can condensed milk
1 Tblsn vodka

Mix all together and throw in pie shell. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Let cool for a while then refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Whipped Cream:
16 oz container of Heavy Whipping Cream
2 Tbsn sugar [granulated or confectioner's]
2 Tbsn Triple Sec [or more to taste]

Whip it. Whip it good. Throw on top of pie.

Enjoy getting your cocktail and eating it too.

Spicy Lentil Pumpkin Soup

Oh boy...December. Been a long time since I've had time for this...and still I don't really, but I needed to do something other than study for finals.

I'm pantry cooking once again and here's what's happening:

What I currently have in my oven: Chocolate Banana Teff Flour Bread [because, yes, I have things like Teff flour in my pantry.]

What I currently have in my cup: Strong Black Coffee.

What I currently have on my stove:

Lentil Pumpkin Soup. This is an original - and I figured I should write it down because it smells so freaking amazing!

Here's what you need: [and please keep in mind - all of these numbers are approximate - I don't measure things when I'm just throwing things in a pot].

Coconut Oil for the big soup pot
4-8 garlic cloves peeled
1 roasted red chili pepper chopped
1 cup of lentils - rinsed
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground cumin
Some black pepper
[perhaps a pinch of saffron just 'cause you might have some]
1/2 - 1 cup of white wine
3 cups pureed fresh pumpkin
6-8 cups of water or vegetable broth
1 14oz can of coconut milk
Salt to taste

here's what you do:

1. Pray you still have some pureed pumpkin in your freezer from some previous dream of pumpkin bread or pumpkin pie when you saw those big, beautiful pumpkins starting to arrive at your grocery store back in September. [You did all that prep work and still haven't used them? Thanksgiving was even in that time frame...but that will work in your favor today!]

2. Throw some coconut oil in the pot and warm it up on medium-low.

3. Toss in those garlic cloves and let them get all deliciously fragrant; wipe the drool from your mouth.

4. After that, get those diced chilis in there. Let 'em cook up for a couple more minutes. Maybe get yourself a fresh mug of coffee.

5. Get those lentils in there and push 'em around with a wooden spoon. Add all those spices and push around some more. Then get that white wine out of your fridge that you used to make risotto on Thursday; and maybe pour yourself a glass to make sure it's still ok.

6. Pour in some wine and let it talk itself down for a few minutes.

7. Add your "hopefully not freezer burnt" pureed pumpkin. Now, there can be quite a bit of water in this - so don't drain it or anything when you thaw it [or you can just throw the whole frozen slab in still frozen and put a lid on the pot, if you're anything like me]. Nothing short of heresy in the world of professionals, I know.

7b. At least wait for the pumpkin to thaw out completely before you move onto the next step.

8. Add 6 cups of water [or broth]

9. Let this cook until the lentils are tender. Maybe 40 mins. Proceed to write your blog about this soup just because it smells so good and you're convinced this is your best idea EVER - and at least all your friends should know about it.

10. Now, this is an optional step: puree the whole thing, in the pot, with a hand blender. But if you like a soup that's got some big chunks of what have you in it - move on to the next step.

11. Add the coconut milk simmer for maybe 5 more minutes or so, then proceed to eat it.

General cooking tip: Never be afraid to just throw things in a pot.