Curried Turnip Soup

I don't ever recall in my entire life eating a turnip. I also cannot recall a time where I ever thought I should eat them. Until this week's trip to the grocery store. I try to get new veggies/foods when I can, and these purple and white beauties called out my name. The parsnips nearby also shouted to me, but ultimately I went for the turnips instead. Maybe next week, parsnips.

Not having had them, I blanked on preparation methods. For some reason I've had curry on my mind this week and had to talk myself out of making curried cauiflower soup last night. Good thing I held off as I had a miniscule amount of curry powder left.

Curried Turnip Soup
6 turnips, peeled and chopped
.5 cup uncooked quinoa
1 small yellow onion
2 cups soy milk (I use unsweetened)
curry powder
4 cloves garlic, minced

Steam turnips. Combine quinoa, onion, and 1 cup water in small pot. Bring to a boil then simmer 15-20 minutes or until water is absorbed.

When turnips are soft, place in large pot (I saved about 1/3 of them because I like my soup chunky). Add milk and curry powder (1-2tsp probably works for most people, though I use more). Blend until creamy. Add garlic.

Ladle into bowls and top with quinoa. Makes 2 large servings.

This was so easy to make and absolutely delicious. Who knew I would love turnips? I bet it would be good with a dollop of Better Than Cream Cheese. Tomatoes might somehow make a nice pairing. I can't wait to experiment this fall. Of course I will roast them, assuming my oven is ever fixed. Yes, I cry every day that I don't have the ability to roast everything in my apartment.

White Summer Salad (Hot or Cold)

I've taken a blog hiatus for the summer since I was globetrotting: Philly, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Vegas, Houston, Charleston, and San Francisco (next week). There was little innovation and lots of reliance on standbys (split peas and barley or lentils and bulgar), though I am happy to report that I had no problem getting my airplane food past security this time. I can't remember everything I took onboard, but some highlights include my stuffed acorn squash (which I pulled out in first class), some roasted zuccini and carrots, fresh strawberries with the tops cut off, and many peanut/cashew butter sandwiches.

I just got home from an amazing trip to Charleston and didn't feel like cooking. And didn't have much to cook with. Before I left I remembered my head of cauliflower I bought and didn't want it to go bad while I was gone for 5 days. So I stuck it in the freezer. The entire head. Plunked it right in. I thought I'd see if my experiment worked.



White Summer Salad

• 1-2 TB olive oil
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 onion, sliced into semi-rings
• 1 head cauliflower
• 1 cube vegan bouillon with sea salt and herbs
• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
  

Prehead oven to 375. Add chopped garlic to olive oil in a small bowl and set aside. Bring 1 cup water to boil. Add quinoa and cook 15-20 minutes or until water is absorbed. Toss onions and cauliflower with olive oil (I use my pump sprayer). Roast until brown- 25-30 minutes.

Mix quinoa and veggies together in a large bowl. Crush boullion in olive oil mixture until it dissolves. Add to bowl and toss to coat.

This was a perfect easy to make summer salad, and it made 2-3 large servings. I'm sure it will be even better tomorrow cold once the flavors mix. Next time I might add some nuts or seeds for crunch or white beans for a little more substance. Oh, and the cauliflower seemed unscathed by the random freezing.

Lentil Creamed Spinach with Garlic Quinoa

I thought I'd be creative and make a creamed spinach with soy milk and pureed lentils. I envisioned a thick "cream" sauce so I could eat my spinach on a plate next to my quinoa. That's not quite what I got. And I dirtied 3 pans and numerous other utensils in the process. It was better than watching TV.

Lentil Creamed Spinach
2 small/medium red onions, chopped
1TB olive oil
2 TB flour
1 bag spinach, chopped
3 portabellas, cubed
.25 cup lentils
.75 cup soy milk
touch of nutmeg (1/4 tsp)
salt/pepper to taste

Cook lentils in small amount of water until all of it is soaked up and the lentils are mushy. You may need to keep adding water as necessary. In a blender, puree lentils with soy milk and nutmeg.

Meanwhile, in a frying pan heat olive oil and add onions. Cook on medium-low heat until they start to brown and carmelize, which may take 20 minutes or so. Add flour and stir. Add cream mixture and stir like crazy. I had to add water because it was too thick (and evidently I added too much). Add spinach. Let it cook down for a minute or so, then stir in with the sauce. Add mushrooms and let cook until spinach is bright green but wilted. Remove from heat and let cool, praying the sauce thickens.

On the side I made some garlic quinoa (toast some garlic in olive oil, then add quinoa and cook as usual).

The dish was not amazing, mostly because it wasn't what I pictured when I dreamed it up. It was alright and could have used some more flavor, though I'm not sure what. Maybe some lemon would have helped it? This will not be my last lentil sauce attempt, but I probably won't make this again.

Spicy Garlic Sesame Broccoli with Red Beans and Quinoa

Work was less than ideal today so I had to let off some steam by taking a long walk with the dog. When I got home I wanted something relatively simple so I could eat and go straight to bed. I knew the fresh broccoli in my fridge would do the trick.

Ingredients
.5 cup quinoa
1TB sesame oil
Several medium heads of fresh broccoli cut into trees (I had maybe 6 cups?)
4 cloves of garlic (less if you aren't a garlic lover like me)
1 cup light red beans
Red pepper flakes to taste
Salt to taste

Cook quinoa (combine with 1 cup water, bring to the boil, simmer 15 minutes or until all water is absorbed). In a large pan (I wanted to use my wok, but it needs to be retired), heat oil on medium. Add broccoli and garlic. Toss to coat. Cook for 5-7 minutes until broccoli becomes bright green and is your desired level of crispness, stirring regularly. Add beans, salt, and red pepper flakes. Cook another minue. Remove from heat.

I ate the broccoli and quinoa side by side, but you could mix them all together or eat the broccoli atop the quinoa. It made 2 large servings (I used a LOT of broccoli). This was so easy and tasty. The sesame oil gave it a nice, unexpected flavor (since I rarely use it). It would have been even better with sesame seeds, but I've never bought them in my life. Maybe next time.

Spring Vegetable Salad: Harnessing the Power of Steam

All winter I've been obsessed with roasting. Since spring is around the corner I decided to try a new cooking method to obsess over, one that doesn't raise the temperature in my apartment. Tonight, the steamer basket became my new best friend.

I needed something with protein but didn't want to use the usual suspects (lentils/split peas), then I had the brilliant idea to use quinoa since it is a complete protein. I also wanted to use some fat in my favorite form- olive oil- to help me feel full when I reheat it for lunch. And the asparagus made me feel like it is spring, which it almost is. This dish was incredibly easy to make.




Ingredients

• 1 bundle of asparagus (I estimate mine was about 24 stalks), bottom woody part removed and cut into bite size pieces
• 2 medium/large tomatoes
• 1 large red onion, sliced into large pieces
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• .5 cup quinoa
• 1 cup water
• 1-2 TB capers
• 1 TB olive oil
• Fresh dill to taste, I think I used about .25 cup
• Salt and pepper to taste

Bring garlic, qunioa, and water to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed, just like rice. I actually stick my ear in the pot to see if I hear water. In another pan, add onions to steam basket for 7-10 minutes or until they begin to soften. Add tomatoes (whole) and steam for about 4-5 minutes or until the skin starts to pull away. Remove tomatoes and add asparagus. Steam with onions for 2-3 minutes (it's done when it's bright green).

In a large bowl, cut/mush tomatoes so they are bite sized. Add olive oil, asparagus, onions, capers, dill, quinoa, salt, and pepper. Thoroughly mix and adjust seasoning as necessary. It makes 2 large servings or could be 4-5 servings as a side dish.



I ate it hot, but I bet it's great cold. It was nice, light, and refreshing. It seems like a good potluck food.

Lentil Burgers Pt II: Repurposed and Back with a Bite

Since my lentil burger recipe made a million burgers, I had some for dinner last night and lunch and dinner tonight. I figured I'd do something a little different for tonight, so I changed them up a little bit. Not much, but enough.

To the cauliflower cheeze sauce I added a little spicy brown mustard. It was the best move I've ever made. Since I bought bread today, I made an open faced sandwich with my new sauce on the bread side and on the top so my roasted onions seasoned with salt and pepper would stick. Amazing.

Sweet Potato Lentil Burgers

I had an extra sweet potato, and, while I was tempted to make another pot of soup with it and some peanut butter, I opted for something new. I did some Googling and found someone else who's done some Googling and came up with something similar to what I wanted. These red bean, sweet potato, and quinoa patties seemed great, so I took a crack at it and made a few substitutions.

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

1/2 cup uncooked lentils

1 medium (fist-sized) sweet potato

1 medium red onion

4-5 cloves garlic

6-7 baby carrots

1-2 TB chopped fresh basil

1-2 tsp dried basil

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 TB red wine vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/4 cup uncooked couscous in lieu of breadcrumbs

This used up a lot of pots, so I inititally cooked the lentils until tender but not quite mushy. Then at the same time in different pots, I:

1. Boiled the sweet potato that I'd cut into small chunks
   
2. Cooked the quinoa


3. Cooked the onion in a little olive oil until clear, then added garlic and carrots for another few minutes.

Once done, I added them all to a bowl that could have been slightly bigger, along with the basil, vinegar, salt and pepper. I smushed the sweet potatoes on the side of the bowl and mixed everything together. I added the couscous at the end and gave it a few more stirs. Then I let it sit in the fridge for a few hours until I was ready for it.

I'm not a big fan of frying, whether it's deep or pan. After shaping into patties, I sprayed some olive oil (my mom gave me a great pump thing so it sprays just a little pure oil) on both sides and put on a baking sheet at 350 for 20-30 minutes, flipping mid-way through the cooking time. I cranked it up to 400 for the last 10 or so minutes to get it crispier. It made 7 large patties, though I ate one before I cooked it. You can easily stretch it to 8, and I calculated there are about 1000 calories in the whole batch.

I didn't have any bread, and didn't want to make roti since the patties were slightly labor intensive. So I steamed a head of cauliflower and made a cheezy cauliflower sauce for the patties. I put about 1/2 cup of the cooked cauliflower in my immersion blender attachment (a blender is fine) and added some salt, pepper, fresh cilantro, soy milk, tahini, and nutritional yeast.

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup with Quinoa

I've been eating leftover soups this week as well as going with my fallback of barley and split peas, so tonight I thought I'd get a little exciting with my food choices. I had a lot of good ingredients sitting around so I came up with this soup, which is a variation of of sweet potato soup I've made before.

I cut 2 medium sweet potatoes into small wedges and boiled them until soft. I also added about 1tst of fresh ginger. When the potatoes were done I added another 1tsp or so of fresh ginger, some chipotle powder, chili powder, and salt. I blended with the immersion blender and added 1 cup of soy milk and 2 TB of red wine vinegar. I'm pretty sure I should have added the vinegar in before the milk, but oh well.

In another pan I sauteed 4 cloves of garlic in a little bit of olive oil and then added 1c water and .5cup quinoa. Once that was done, I added 6 chopped scallions, salt, and juice from 1/2 of a lime. I scooped the soup in a bowl and, surprise, surprise, added the quinoa mixture to it.

It was pretty spicy but delicious.

Ginger Lime Sweet Potato Soup

In the past I have professed my love for the sweet potato. Sometimes I struggle with moderation, and I overdosed on the poor tasty tuber a few too many times. I was running out of new ways to enjoy it and reverting to my regular fallback recipes.

In trying to figure out what I was going to finish up in my fridge before the holidays, I stumbled upon some sweet potatoes. So I Googled "sweet potato soup" and found this recipe for Ginger Lime Sweet Potato Soup, which is kismet because I had all 3 of the titled ingredients. I didn't have celery or, gasp, onions, so I just sauteed some diced baby carrots until tender. I, of course, had no cumin, so I added some chipotle flakes and chilli powder along with grated lime and ginger leftover from my delicious homemade ginger ale. I added 4 med-large sweet potatoes (cubed) and boiled until done. Then I got out my favorite tool of all time, the immersion blender, and blended half of it (ladeled out the other soup into a bowl because I like chunks). I added the 1/2 cup of soy milk and swired it around so it looked pretty until it mixed in. Meanwhile, I boiled 3/4c lentils and 3/4cup quinoa. When it was done, I added some salt and lime juice.

It made 4 very large but low-cal servings. It really would have been fine doing .5c each lentils and quinoa, but I needed some extra protein for dinner, so tonight's bowl was a little fuller than the others.

I never would have imagined using these flavors together, but it was amazing. I could definitely taste the lime and the ginger but not in an overpowering way. It was just so unique. I think the lime turned my lentils and quinoa into crack, too, because they were amazing on their own. Next time, it gets some Better Than Cream Cheese instead of the soy milk.

Steamed Cauliflower atop a Bed of Tomato-Cumin Cilantro with Spicy Cool Tofu Sauce

A long title, a tasty dish. I'm a huge fan of all in one dishes (not necessarily casseroles...or is that the definition of the word?), and today I needed a little of each food group (except fruit).



So, I cooked some quinoa with tomatoes and cumin, steamed some cauliflower, and made a sauce with 1 package of silken tofu , a bunch of cilantro (that's PARSLEY to you, jennilicious!), chipotle pepper, and salt. When I first made the sauce, it was missing something, so I added more of everything. I retasted and it still wasn't perfect, and then I realized the key: garlic. So I added 3 cloves and it was amazing.




















Not only is it tasty, but it looks pretty. The picture doesn't do it justice- cauliflower seems to be camera-shy lately. But if I actually cared when I "plated" it, it could have looked so much better. What's that atop you ask? Green onion. It was dirt cheap so I've been cooking with it all week.




As far as changes/improvements, it could really, really use some lime. I'd probably put it in the quinoa and possibly the sauce as well. And perhaps the quinoa could have used some chili powder.

Since Mother Nature didn't get my memo that winter is over, it's yet another soup evening for me. I opted for split peas and cauliflower, which I often cook up with a little curry powder. This time I decided to be different.

I added .75cups green split peas and one large onion to some boiling water and cooked until the split peas softened up some. Meanwhile, in an effort to dirty every single dish in my kitchen (which I do often), I also cooked up .5cups quinoa and simultaneously blended 2 chipotles (canned in adobo sauce, my favorite...I freeze the leftovers), 2 TB Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, and some of my mint from my freezer. This made a very, very tasty sauce.

When I was done with the sauce I put 3/4 of the split peas/onion in the blender until smooth. I then readded to the pan and put 1/2 large head of cauliflower in the pot with some salt and cumin. I thought about adding turmeric, but got scared and didn't. Now, I had this beautiful vision of a nice, green soup with pretty white cauliflower floating around and a deep red swirl, all on a bed of tasty quinoa. However, I can't seem to ever learn that when you mix red things (peppers, tomatoes, etc) with white things (cream cheese, milk, etc), it turns pink.

And I need to work on my swirling skills...

Overall, I was pleased with the minty taste- not over the top, but you could definitely taste it and it seemed to go well with the spicy chipotle. The cumin also helped town down the heat from the peppers. Next time I'll probably make it with brown basmati rice just for some better texture since the quinoa is a little soft. But I'll be making this one again.