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Spicy Veggie Tortilla Soup

26 Mar

(This post is from a week ago. I apologize for the time warp but hope you enjoy it anyway.)

I had a delightful kitchen victory on a very sleepy Sunday night. When I say “very sleepy,” I mean running on four hours of sleep for no good reason at all. I was sick on Friday and half of Saturday with a migraine, so as soon as I felt better, I decided to take advantage of it. The mister and I stayed up late playing games and having a ton of fun on a dreary, drizzly day. I rolled into bed at 3:30, an unheard-of hour for me. 7:30 struck the next morning, and I was wide awake with no chance of going back to sleep. My internal clock needs to be bashed over the head.

Anyway, I was unable to go back to sleep but still barely functional all day (thanks also to some nasty cramps, TMI), and yet I managed to meal plan, grocery shop, cook soup, and tidy the kitchen afterward. Victory!

I have been thinking about making tortilla soup for about a month now, and the time finally came. After looking at several different vegetarian versions, I based my final one on this recipe from the FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I tweaked the ingredients quite a bit, but the method is still mostly Susan’s. Here’s my version of:

Spicy Veggie Tortilla Soup

  • Cooking spray
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped finely
  • 1 15-ounce cans diced fire-roasted tomatoes (mine had added green chiles, too)
  • 1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, chopped (seeds removed if you want less heat)
  • 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped (optional)
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
  • 4 cups water
  • 3 cups beans (I used two cans of a medley of red kidney, pinto, and black beans)
  • 1 cup frozen or fresh corn (optional)
  • 6 corn tortillas
  • 2 limes, cut into quarters
  • A bunch of Swiss chard, scrubbed and chopped
  • Black pepper (to taste)

Spray a large soup pot with cooking spray and set over medium heat. When warm, add the onions and salt, cooking until softened. When the onions are nearly done, add the garlic and cook about two more minutes.

Meanwhile, pour the diced tomatoes into a bowl and add the jalapeno or serrano, chipotle (if using), oregano, and chili powder into a bowl and combine well with an immersion blender. (If you don’t have one, you can use a regular blender.)

When the onions and garlic are cooked, add them to the bowl (or the blender) and combine. Return everything to the pot and cook over medium heat until the tomato mixture thickens slightly, stirring often. Now add the broth, water, beans, and corn (if using) and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to a simmer, allowing the flavors to marry.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375° F. Cut the corn tortillas in half and then slice into 1/4″ strips. Spray a baking sheet with oil, scatter the tortilla strips, and then spray the tops with oil. Sprinkle a little salt over the top. Place the sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, stirring once every five minutes, until they get crisp but not browned. Set aside.

When soup is done, serve topped with black pepper, a squeeze of lime juice, and a sprinkling of tortilla strips.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

The soup tastes even better the next day! Just store your tortilla strips separately and add them to each serving.

Once again, I prepared this soup in my Le Creuset, much to the mister’s chagrin. It weighs a ton, and he’s the official dishwasher. Sorry, baby, but it’s love. It tastes equally good in a bowl and in a mug.


Sweet n’ spicy eats

19 Mar

In my last post, I shared some recent restaurant eats. Today, I want to focus on some homemade stuff. We are trying to get back in the swing of cooking again (again again). Here’s what I’ve been brewing in my kitchen:

X’s Spicy Portobello Chili for the billionth time! Every time I make it, I change something because that’s just how I am. I’ve been working on thickening it up lately, so this batch contained:

  • Olive oil spray instead of regular olive oil
  • 2 large Portobello mushroom caps instead of 5 (shh! don’t tell the mister)
  • Closer to 1 cup of water instead of 3
  • 1 can of chickpeas and 1 can of black beans, our current favorite combo
  • 4 chipotle peppers instead of 2, per his request
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder instead of 3
  • No cumin instead of 1 tablespoon because I’m out and way cheap

But everything else is the same ingredients-wise and preparation-wise. This time, I also used my new Le Creuset Dutch oven for the preparation, and I love how it deliciously caramelizes the onions. Thanks to my work committee who bought it for me as a wedding present!

Our pantry and fridge were pretty bare this weekend, but I still managed to concoct a tasty vegan breakfast Saturday morning:

Breakfast quinoa with a few chocolate chips (maybe 7), 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract, two pinches of brown sugar, hefty sprinkling of cinnamon, and toasted slivered almonds. Perfection!

That same day, I made an easy lunch that we both absolutely loved — and it’s one I can add to the quick and easy tag for the first time in forever! Behold:

Barbecued Mushroom Wraps

  • Olive oil spray (or use water or veggie broth)
  • 1/4 of a large onion, sliced thinly
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
  • 2 Portobello mushroom caps, washed and chopped (cremini ‘shrooms work, too)
  • 1 cup of prepared barbecue sauce
  • 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced (optional)
  • Hot pepper sauce (to taste)
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • Black pepper (to taste)
  • Four whole wheat tortillas

Spray a medium pot or skillet with cooking spray and place over medium heat. Add the onion and salt, cooking until softened. Add the garlic for about a minute. Now add the mushrooms and cook for about two more minutes. Pour in the barbecue sauce, chipotle (if using), hot pepper sauce, chili powder, and black pepper, stirring to combine. Let it do its thing while you heat up the tortillas. I add them one at a time to a dry skillet over low heat, about 20 seconds per side. When they’re pliable, plate ‘em and fill with the barbecued mushroom concoction. Enjoy!

Serves two hungry people.

I served ours more like tacos than wraps because, frankly, I suck at the wrapping thing, and I wanted to maximize the amount of filling we could use.

I have been using a Trader Joe’s barbecue sauce recently, but my other favorite cheap-ish, healthy-ish one is Bull’s-Eye Kansas City Style. It’s still kinda high in sugar, but it doesn’t contain any corn syrup or anything else too nasty.

What’s your favorite kind (or style) of barbecue sauce? I’ve always preferred the molasses flavor of KC-style, as long as it isn’t too sweet.

Budget- and bulge-friendly barley

2 Mar

My cooking lately has been haphazard, thanks to finishing up the wedding plans, actually getting married, and then not shopping this week. However, I did have a few goodies left in my kitchen this week, so I decided to whip up a barley dish. I was heavily inspired by The Broccoli Hut’s Edamame Barley Risotto, as you can see, but I increased the portions and made a few tweaks. Here’s mine:

(Eaten out of a Santa mug/bowl with a red plastic spoon. Classy!)

And here’s my method:

Barley with Mushrooms and Split Peas

  • 1/2 large onion, chopped
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 container white mushrooms, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup pearled barley
  • 2 cups plus 1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth, divided
  • 1/2 cup water
  • Black pepper (to taste)
  • Crushed red pepper (to taste)
  • Dried oregano (to taste)
  • Dried thyme (to taste)
  • 1/4 cup dried green split peas

Spray a medium saucepan with cooking spray (or use a small amount of olive oil or vegetable broth) and heat over medium. Add the onions with the salt and cook, stirring when needed, until translucent and starting to brown. Now add the garlic and mushrooms and cook, stirring, until they soften. This part takes just a couple of minutes. Add the barley and stir for about 20 seconds, and then pour in 2 cups of vegetable broth, the water, and the spices. Increase the heat to boil the liquid, then cover with the lid slightly vented and reduce the heat to bring the dish to a simmer.

About 20 minutes into the cooking time, add the split peas and the remaining 1/2 cup of vegetable broth and continue cooking until the barley and peas are tender, about 20 more minutes. Add additional spices as needed.

Makes four servings.

I don’t normally calculate calories and such for my recipes, but this one is incredibly tasty, easy, and healthy, so I wanted to share it with you:

Calories

 224.3
Total Fat 0.9 g
     Saturated Fat 0.2 g
   Polyunsaturated Fat 0.4 g
   Monounsaturated Fat 0.1 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 240.9 mg
Potassium 389.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate 48.0 g
   Dietary Fiber 10.8 g
   Sugars 2.9 g
Protein 8.0 g
Vitamin B-6 12.5 %
Copper 20.8 %
Folate 8.2 %
Iron 15.1 %
Magnesium 13.4 %
Manganese 43.5 %
Niacin 21.8 %
Selenium 33.8 %

Not bad, eh? It’s really delicious, too, and reheats extraordinarily well. Plus, barley has been shown to be one of the most diabetic-friendly grains out there, which is good news for my household.

On top of that, it’s cheap! Excluding the spices (which would only add pennies), the whole dish cost $6.43 to make — that’s only $1.61 per serving! Add a spinach salad (~$1 per serving for organic) with a splash of balsamic vinegar on the side, and you have a complete, affordable meal. Obviously, costs vary according to where you shop, but it is 100% possible to eat well, both taste-wise and health-wise, without breaking the bank.

Embrace the ugly: Mexican lasagna

7 Feb

It’s been a bit dull in the meal-planning department here recently, but I wanted to share a delicious recipe that has quickly become part of our tasty-quick-and-ugly repertoire: Mexican Lasagna.

Yep, looks vommy, but tastes yummy. I promise. Pictured above is a slice of my vegan, cheese-free serving. You can also add the shredded stuff, which is how Mr. X likes it:

Ever-so-slightly more photogenic.

So here’s how you make it:

Mexican Lasagna

  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 1 red bell pepper, de-stemmed, seeded, de-veined, and chopped
  • 1 container mushrooms, chopped
  • 10 corn tortillas
  • 1 14 oz can vegetarian refried beans or 1 can black or pinto beans, drained and mashed
  • 1 4 oz can diced green chiles
  • 1 jar salsa of choice (less watery is better)
  • 1 cup shredded cheese OR 1/4 to 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (optional)

Preheat oven to 375° F. Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the bell pepper and cook until it softens to desired consistency, about 5 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for another minute or two, until they reduce. If your veggies are taking too long to soften, you can add a pinch of salt to draw out the liquid. Turn off heat and set aside.

In a 9×13 baking dish, lay out your bottom layer of tortillas. I actually make this using two 8x8s, since I don’t have a bigger one. To make the bottom layer in my small dishes, I cut all the tortillas in half and use 2.5 in each. Just do it however it works best for you. On top of the tortillas, spread 1/2 the refried beans. You can heat them slightly if it helps, but I am too lazy to clean an extra dish. Now add 1/2 the green chiles, 1/2 the salsa, 1/2 the sauteed veggies, and 1/2 the optional cheese or nooch. Repeat starting with the rest of the tortillas and working your way up.

Put the lasagna(s) in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes, until either the cheese melts or they’re heated through.

Serves 4ish as part of a larger meal. He eats it in two servings, and I make three out of mine.

This recipe, obviously, is very flexible. You could saute the veggies with garlic and onions (which I would do if that didn’t take extra time). You could add jalapenos or chopped chipotle peppers. You could ruin it by throwing in black olives — it’s all up to you. I can say we love this with blue corn tortillas, refried black beans, and Trader Joe’s Garlic Chipotle salsa. It’s warm, comforting, and filling, and it reheats nicely.

Embrace the ugly and give this recipe a try.

Call me the pizzaiola

20 Jan

That’s me! Or at least it was last night.

Delicious vegan pizza on a whole wheat crust. I asked for crust recipes last week and gave one submitted by my fellow former Scrippsie Jessie a whirl. Here’s her recipe, and below are my modifications:

  • I used one cup of unbleached white flour and one cup of whole wheat
  • I used a Fleischmann’s yeast packet, which has slightly more than two teaspoons
  • The seasoning was oregano and thyme only
  • I reduced the olive oil to 1 tablespoon
  • I subbed two pinches of raw sugar for the honey (and mixed it with the dry instead of the wet)

The tweaks sound like a lot more than they really were. We followed the instructions to a T, except that I “rolled” the dough out by hand since I don’t own a rolling pin. It was actually really fun, but obviously it resulted in oddly shaped pizzas. The dough came together super quickly and tasted incredible. Seriously. I can see spicing it up differently and using it like a flatbread with all kinds of toppings: hummus, refried beans, pesto pizza, etc. If you’ve never worked with yeast before, I highly recommend this recipe. It was foolproof, even with the small changes I made. Thanks so much, Jessie!

We decided to whip up a homemade sauce to go with it. This is more of a method than a recipe, since most of the measuring was to taste, but I’ll share anyway.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes
  • Two drizzles of olive oil
  • 1/2 medium onion, chopped
  • 2-6 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly (depending on your preferences)
  • Dash (maybe 1/4 cup) dry red wine, optional
  • Pinch of salt
  • Dried oregano
  • Crushed red pepper

Preheat oven to 400° F. Wash and dry the tomatoes, then place them in a small baking dish (not a cookie sheet — use something with sides) and drizzle on a little olive oil. Toss to coat, and stick ‘em in the oven until they get soft and start to shrivel. It’ll take 10-15 minutes, or longer if you like ‘em thoroughly roasted.

Heat the other drizzle of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic with a pinch of salt, and saute until they soften. Add the tomatoes as well as the juices they released in the baking dish. Use your stirring implement to mash the tomatoes and stir it all together so it becomes saucy. Add the wine, if using. I only threw some in because we were drinking an old-vine Zinfandel. Now add the oregano and crushed red pepper to taste. Stir and reduce the heat to low while you finish preparing the rest of your pizza ingredients. If you like your sauce pureed, feel free to throw it in the blender or use an immersion blender.

It was a really tasty and easy sauce. It’s a little oniony, though, so if that’s not your thing, feel free to use less. I’m pro-onion myself. Same goes with the garlic. I may have used more than six cloves honestly, but I do have a love affair with the stuff. The recipe made the perfect amount for two people, plus a little extra for today’s lunch, which I’ll talk about below.

We each had our own incredibly delicious, filling pizza topped with the sauce, fresh cremini mushrooms from the farmers market, artichoke hearts (from a can, but packed in water), and caramelized onion (thanks for the suggestion, Lynn!). These totally made the pizzas!). His also had mozzarella cheese, but I went with a healthy sprinkle of nooch. These were a meal in themselves, and I can’t wait to make them again!

Ways to reduce the fat from this meal:

  • I will use less oil in the pizza dough next time. The result wasn’t oily-tasting at all, but I think I could get away with a teaspoon.
  • Tossing the tomatoes with oil before throwing them in the oven wasn’t necessary. I was worried about them sticking, but a shot of cooking spray would have done the trick.
  • I might even try sweating out the onions and garlic in a little broth next time.

The best part about making pizza for dinner last night is today’s experimental lunch. I set aside a small amount of the dough and some toppings to throw together a calzone of sorts.

Yes, very rustic. I didn’t pre-bake the dough like I did for the pizzas. Instead, I just piled sauce, veggies, nutritional yeast, and crushed red pepper in the middle of the dough, folded it, and coaxed the edges together. I baked it for about 15 minutes by accident (did I mention the old-vine Zin?), but it survived the cooking time admirably. Today, I reheated it for 1:30 in the microwave, and it was delicious! It didn’t get mushy or anything. The flavors had time to meld and mingle overnight, and it was really a mid-day delight. I served it up with some farmers-market lettuce topped with salad dressing (TJ’s balsamic vinaigrette) stolen from the work kitchen again.

Delicious and a lot more exciting than yesterday’s PB sammie.

Quinoa Mushroom Soup

12 Jan

I made soup. A lot of soup. I intended to end up with four servings, but the result was at least six. Maybe eight. It’s hard to tell, since I’ve only consumed three bowls, but I expect Mr. X will do away with the rest soon.

I had planned to make taco salad for my lunches and barley mushroom soup for dinners, but X decided he really wanted the salad, so I switched ‘em. Because I’m trying to save money on my grocery bill, I decided to use quinoa instead of barley because I already had some in the house. I also subbed green split peas for another type of bean to eliminate soaking and pre-cooking time. I also cooked the whole thing in my slow cooker, which was an excellent choice. The result was earthy and surprisingly filling. I will add a picture when my memory card stops misbehaving.

Quinoa Mushroom Soup

  • 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
  • 3/4 cup green split peas, rinsed and picked over
  • 1 container shiitake mushrooms
  • 2 ribs of celery, chopped
  • 3 medium carrots, chopped
  • 1/2 large onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme, plus more to taste
  • 1/2 to a whole bunch of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse what needs to be rinsed, and chop what needs to be chopped. Throw everything but the salt, pepper, and parsley into the slow cooker with five cups of water. Set it on high for about three hours, or until the split peas have softened. Add the parsley and reduce to low for as long as you like. I did about three hours. Add salt and pepper (and more thyme, if desired) to taste and serve.

Makes 100,000 6 servings.

The soup is warm, thick, comforting, and incredibly healthy. Notice that there is no fat at all. You could add tomato paste or other veggies, but I loved how basic and satisfying it was with just the thyme and delicate veggie flavors shining through. Feel free to make it on the stove. I would guess that you should simmer it for about an hour. Serve it and savor the homey, happy taste.

Taco salad

10 Jan

Dinner #1 (to be repeated tonight) this week is taco salad.

Taco salad isn’t sexy or fancy or ground-breaking, but it is delicious and healthful, when prepared lovingly. And if you have cooked beans on hand, it qualifies as a quick and tasty meal suggestion!

Here’s our variation on Taco Salad this week:

  • 1 bag of organic greens (the crunchier, the better, but we used baby romaine this time), squeaky clean and dry
  • 3 cups cooked pinto beans, warmed and tossed with spices (cumin and chili powder) – optional
  • 1 large or 2 small avocados, sliced
  • 1 jar prepared salsa (anything low in sugar, sodium and salt — I’m in love with Trader Joe’s garlic chipotle salsa)
  • 1/2 a bunch green onions, washed and sliced
  • Baked tortilla chips*

Just layer everything in order (or your preference) in a large bowl. Toss and enjoy! Serves 4.

Basic but delicious. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll note that X topped his salad with low-fat sour cream, but mine remained dairy-free. I made the pinto beans from scratch — actually, Mr. X did! And the kitchen didn’t catch on fire! I’m so proud. I also baked the tortilla chips myself using an incredibly simple method. You just preheat the oven to about 375, cut tortillas (I use whole wheat from Trader Joe’s) into 1/8ths, lightly toss with olive oil and sprinkle with salt (and optional cumin and/or chili powder), and bake for a little under 10 minutes. I like to flip mine after a few minutes, but I think it’s unnecessary. I’m just paranoid of burning the chips, having done so on several occasions in the past.

It was lurve — healthy, spicy, beany love. Mr. X revealed to me this weekend that he loves salads, just not basic lettuce-tomato-dressing ones, so expect more slightly jazzed-up versions in the coming weeks.

On a slightly related subject, I’m aching to try making pizza next week, so I was hoping some of you might have homemade dough recipes to share. I prefer it to contain some whole wheat, and it cannot require a food processor or mixer, as I’m totally technology-less in the kitchen still. I’ll keep Googling, but a tried-and-true recipe from a reader would be great!

PB&J Cookies and more planning

9 Jan

First, let’s get to the good stuff: PB&J Cookies. These were created by looking at a bunch of different recipes, and the end result is a tasty, fluffy, fairly fiber-loaded treat.

PB&J Cookies

  • 1/2 cup unbleached flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if peanut butter contains salt)
  • 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • About 1/4 cup warm water, as needed
  • 3 teaspoons (or a little more) jam, flavor of your choice

Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flours, oats, 1/4 cup of sugar, and salt. In a small bowl, combine peanut butter, vanilla, oil, and 2 tablespoons of water, mixing with a fork until combined. Add the wet to dry and mix until just combined. If the dough won’t hold together, add water a tablespoon at a time until it’s workable. I used my hands.

Pour 3 remaining tablespoons of sugar on a small plate. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls, roll them in the sugar, and place on the baking sheet. Flatten each ball slightly. Grab your 1/4 teaspoon measure and use it to make an indentation in each cookie. Now use it again to fill each dent with your jam of choice (mine was a strawberry-raspberry-blueberry blend from the Hollywood Farmers Market). Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes. Do not over-bake. Mine were perfect — lightly browned on the bottom and not runny) at 12 minutes.

Makes 12 cookies.

These will go fast! They have the classic flavor of America’s favorite sandwich but with a grown-up sophistication.

I wanted to talk a little more about meal planning. We finalized our plan for the week (after realizing we aren’t allowed to grill on-site — boo!). The plan outline:

Monday: lunch — quinoa soup; dinner — taco salad
Tuesday: ditto
Wednesday: lunch — quinoa soup; dinner — chili
Thursday: lunch — zucchini wrap; dinner — chili
Friday: lunch — zucchini wrap; dinner — leftovers?

I want to prepare all my legumes from dried this week, so I decided to take my meal plan a step further by writing a daily schedule of when to soak or cook what. This will be especially helpful as I use the slow cooker multiple times. Here is the plan

Sunday: day — make quinoa soup in the slow cooker; night — soak pinto beans (for taco salad)
Monday: day — X makes pinto beans on the stove; night — soak black beans
Tuesday: day — make black beans in the slow cooker and soak chickpeas; night — cook chickpeas on the stove
Wednesday: day — make chili (containing chickpeas and black beans) in the slow cooker; night — cook zucchini and make cilantro spread (for wraps)

I’m hoping this plan will keep me organized and de-stressed. I’ll let you know how it goes (and the meals, too!).

Progress and (im)perfection

6 Jan

I woke up with allergy nonsense today: itchy dry eyes, burning throat, the snufflies, and the sleepies. Blech. It’s just about 9:30 in the morning here, and I’m already on my fourth hot beverage of the day (one cup of black tea with honey followed by two mugs of miso soup and now a cup of DeTox tea). They are helping somewhat, but I’m in still in that yucky days that accompanies the sickies. If anyone has good, natural allergy remedies, please let me know. I’m using my neti pot, gargling with salt water, drinking hot liquids and cold water, and putting raw local honey in my tea.

Anyway, despite being sick on top of the awkwardness of settling back into my routine, I’ve been working hard this week to made progress on both sets of goals I mapped out. Here’s how it’s gone so far:

January:

  • 1. a. Cook dinner at home three days a week every week in January. So far, I’ve cooked dinner twice (see details below) and plan to do so again tonight! I’m proud of myself. I love cooking, but the long days make having the energy difficult. Still, the rewards are worth it.
  • That’s it so far, but I have plans for the others.

This Week (things I’ve been putting off):

  • 2. Do more yoga. The night I wrote that post, I went home and did one of my favorite 20-minute podcasts from Yoga Download! It felt incredible. My arms are still a little sore from it today, which is a good thing.

Not a ton of progress, but not bad either for only a couple of days.

Now back to that cooking thang. I can’t tell you how excited we are to have our stuff in our new apartment. Not that it’s all (or even mostly) unpacked yet, but we’re working on it. Slowly.

One thing I was happy to be reunited with was my rice cooker. Not that cooking rice on the stovetop is terribly burdensome, but I like being able to ignore the little cooker and have it not take up real estate on my cooking area. Well, we decided to do a simple, cheap stir fry of mushrooms, bell peppers, carrots, onion, broccoli and tofu over brown rice on Tuesday night. My rice cooker is very unsophisticated (it doesn’t have any settings other than cook and warm, so nothing special for different kinds of rice or grains), which means I have to guesstimate how much water to use when I cook up brown rice. Apparently I was rusty. The result was a total disaster. The rice was all waterlogged, and then I stupidly thought to add more rice to soak up the rest. I don’t recommend it. I would have taken a picture, but it was really, really gross. Instead, I had to send Mr. X to the Chinese place up the road to get some precooked rice. Dinner was saved, thankfully, but the rice was one exciting kitchen failure.

The next night, I planned to make my Gnocchi with Arrabbiata Sauce, but X ended up getting booked for a show that filmed later, so he didn’t get home until after 9. I knew better than to make myself wait that long, and when he said they were feeding him dinner on set, I decided to make something I haven’t in a very long time: farinata. Also called socca, it’s kind of a chickpea flour “pizza,” though I use that term loosely. Maybe “pancake” would be more accurate. Anyway, I used to make it all the time in my previous life but haven’t attempted it in over a year. It’s crazy-easy, though, and requires few ingredients, so I gave it a whirl. The result:

Seriously the best one I’ve ever made! Somehow my cheap-o IKEA frying pan has a perfect nonstick coating that made removing the usually sticky result so easy I couldn’t believe it. The spices were spot-on, too, and I devoured every bite after my yoga session. Here are the basics of making farinata:

Basic Farinata

  • 2/3 cup garbanzo flour
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1 cup water
  • Spices to taste
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

In a medium bowl, combine the garbanzo flour and salt (I use Bob’s Red Mill garbanzo/fava flour combination because it’s tasty and also the only kind I’ve ever found in a store) with about 1/4 cup of water until it forms a paste. Slowly add the rest of the water, stirring vigorously with a fork until all the lumps are gone. Cover the bowl with a towel (or whatever) and let it hang out on the counter for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the broiler. Stir the batter from the bottom and add any spices you want. I like to go Italian with mine and this time threw in dried oregano, nutritional yeast, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Now heat two teaspoons of olive oil in a 12-inch frying pan (make sure it’s oven safe!) over medium or medium-high heat. When warm, pour in the batter. Drizzle on the remaining tablespoon of oil. Let it cook for about four minutes or until it’s set. It’s a little like eggs in texture, if that helps, and you don’t want any runniness.

Now stick it under the broiler for about four minutes or until light brown spots begin to appear. Cut into triangles, like a pizza, and serve. Makes enough for one hungry person or two as part of a larger meal.

You can really add any kind of herbs and spices you want to the batter, but I pretty much always use this combination. A generic Italian seasoning is great in place of the oregano, and I suspect herbes de Provence would be great, too.

So while my rice cooking was a total, unequivocal disaster, the next night I managed to make the best farinata of my life. Go figure.

Have you had any major kitchen mishaps or successes lately?

Mushroom pasta delight

12 Oct

The big, nasty fight with our roommate went down on a Monday, and we weren’t willing to hit the kitch again until Friday. I won’t even recount the fast-food meals and wasted money that characterized the rest of the week.

Anyway, we decided to make a third recipe from The Voluptuous Vegan, namely the Pasta with Fresh Shiitakes, Tomatoes, and Basil. However, by the end of the week, the fresh tomatoes were gone, as was nearly all of my garlic, so our version was highly, highly altered. Plus, a 1/2 cup of olive oil? Really? I cut that way, way down. Enter the B&X spin:

Shiitake Mushroom Pasta with Basil
6 to 8 ounces of fresh shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 box whole wheat pasta (I used rotini, but farfalle or fusilli would have been good, too)
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced thinly
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thinly
1 cup basil, washed and cut into a chiffonade
Black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Add the mushrooms to a bowl and top with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and the soy sauce, mixing to coat thoroughly. Pour them on a prepared baking sheet and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring every 10 or so.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of water until al dente (according to package directions). Drain and set aside.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive in a pot over a medium-low flame. Add the sliced onions and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until caramelized and fragrant. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for about two minutes or until softened but not browned. By now, the mushrooms should be warm and soft. Remove them from the oven and add them along with the pasta and basil to the pot, stirring to combine. Cook for a couple of minutes until everything is warmed through. Top with black pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

It was deeeeeeliiiiiicious. The mushrooms cooked with soy sauce were an ingenious addition to super-basic pasta. I never would have thought to combine them with fresh basil, but I certainly will again. I topped mine with nutritional yeast, which was tasty but not necessary. I would increase the garlic next time and cook it a little longer, but this method worked in a pinch.

What’s your favorite pasta ingredient?

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