Arugula and Potato Soup

A few months ago, back when my TV was actually plugged in, I saw Giada De Laurentiis make a Creamy Arugula and Lettuce Soup that inspired me to make something similar with spinach instead of arugula awhile back. However, I have not stopped thinking about arugula since. It's delicious and it always called my name at the grocery store, but I always held back from purchasing it.

Today I summoned my inner hippy. I rode my bike to work (a practice ride for next week). I walked the mile to and from the farmers market where I purchased some beautiful beets with greens, apples I'd never heard of, and rhubarb. I brought it home and walked a mile to and from the organic store where I finally gave in and purchased arugula to accompany some red potatoes I had leftover. Thanks for the inspiration, Giada.

Arugula and Potato Soup
2.5-3 cups water
1 medium/large red onion, sliced
2 red potatoes, cut into small chunks
3 cups arugula
1 cube veggie boullion

Bring water to a boil and add onion and potatoes. Cook 15 minutes or until onion is transluscent and potato is soft. Add arugula and cook until just done and wilted (it will turn bright green), about a minute. Blend all ingredients with immersion or normal blender. Add boullion. Stir until it's all dissolved. Enjoy.

All of my exercising left me needing some protien so I served mine atop a bed of quinoa. Delicious and easy. Perfect as a rooftop dinner on a beautiful evening. Yum.

Easy Curry Lentil Stew with Quinoa

Earlier this week I decided to do a quick run by the grocery store after work, and evidently every single other person in the city decided to do the same. I popped in for the essentials- dog food and nut butters, but I also needed some cumin for a pink bean dish I made but didn't blog about because I was lazy. Some how I meandered into the international food aisle and stumbled upon dirt cheap spices, including smoked paprika (something I've never had but always wanted), cumin, chili powder, and curry powder. My last curry efforts have been less than stellar because I'm fairly certain the curry somehow went bad. Really bad.

My old curry was always in a teeny jar and that always spoiled, so of course I bought this giant jar that had no information other than a simple label with the word curry (it was from Mexico). Undaunted, I threw it in my basket and headed to the checkout with the rest of the world.

I wasn't exactly looking for something easy tonight, it just happened that I needed a lot of protein since I had catered lunch at a meeting with no real veggie option. So I went for my go-to lentils.

Easy Curry Lentil Stew
.5 cup lentils
3 cups water
1 medium/large red onion, chopped
2 red potatoes, chopped
15 baby carrots, quartered
salt
3-4 tsp curry powder (adjust to your level)

I brought the water to a boil and added all the ingredients. It looked for 15-20 minutes. With about 5 minutes left I added 2 tsp of the curry. Once it was done, I removed from heat and added the rest. It sat for a few minutes so the flavors could mingle, then I served atop a bed of quinoa.

This dish was one of my favorite things I've cooked in quite some time. The lentils were a bit mushy, which is how I love them, and the curry flavor was perfect. It made 2 portions at about 375 calories each (including the quinoa). Yum!

Roasted Potato Soup

More potatoes. Hooray!

I've been salivating over the idea of roasted potato soup for days. More than a week, in fact. I've decided to throw together my favorite things- taters (as Little Mommy calls them), onions, and garlic. I wedged up 2 medium taters and tossed them with .5TB olive oil. I also sliced up a red onion (both because the produce was lacking and because of my possibly false belief that it has more nutrients because it's red) and tossed with .5TB olive oil. Really, between the two I used .75TB in case you are a stickler. Then I got 6-8 cloves of garlic with paper on them. I put them on baking sheets on 375-400 and stirred every 10 minutes or so until they started to brown. The garlic went on the sheet with the onion- paper on but no oil.

Before we go any further, you may be concerned about all the garlic. Don't. I'm a huge garlic lover, and I could easily add more. When it's roasted, it becomes much milder and really soft. It's good to spread on bread. But I digress.

I then added one cube of veggie bullion to some boiling water (3ish cups) and half of the roasted veggies, blended with my immersion blender, and added in the rest of the veggies. Pretty simple. You can use any type of broth- it's really to add a little flavor and thin it out some. You may also want to add salt, but it depends on how salty the broth is you use. The whole thing makes 2 sort of small servings at about 250 calories a piece by my estimate. So I added in some couscous (I used .5 serving- 110 calories) and topped with Better Than Sour Cream.

It was exactly what I wanted. Only there's not enough.

Roasted Potatoes and Onions with Cheeze Dipping Sauce

I bought some regular potatoes at the grocery store on a whim. Mostly because I wasn't ready for more sweet potatoes. I'd been dreaming of ways to cook them since they seem like a special treat because I consider them a forbidden food.

The first up in my potato madness is to continue with my roasting obsession. I cut up 2 medium potatoes into wedges, added .5 TB olive oil and some salt, and roasted on 375-400, turning every so often. I also roasted an onion (sliced then sprayed with cooking spray) because I can't stop thinking about them. And I also dreamt about a dipping sauce- Better than Sour Cream and nutritional yeast. It tastes like French onion dip to me. Amazing. Greatest dinner ever.