Cashew Asparagus

I'm terrible at blogs. Sorry. Here's a new recipe for anyone who's interested. This recipe came into existence mostly because I associate on-sale asparagus with the arrival of spring. It's also a very quick and healthy recipe.

I might be creatively inspired to update the blog more regularly soon- the first co-op pick-up of the season is scheduled for Thursday morning! I don't know that I will be able to make that market, but hopefully I will have lots of new vegetables to try and find uses for on a regular basis soon!


Cashew Asparagus

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup cashews (or almonds or other type of nuts)
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp garlic powder
Cayenne pepper to taste
1 bunch asparagus
Soy sauce to taste

Apparatus:

Knife
Cutting board
Large frying pan (or wok if you’re lucky enough to have one)
Spatula

Process:

1) Prepare asparagus by cutting the woody ends off. Dispose of the ends and then cut the remaining asparagus in half.
2) Place oil, garlic powder, ginger, cayenne pepper, and cashews into pan. Saute over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes.
3) Add asparagus to the pan, and sauté just until asparagus becomes tender.
4) Serve over brown rice.

Black Beans and Collard Greens Soup

I’m back to un-orphan my blog! Here’s a new soup recipe that’s good for cold days, and helping to keep that New Year's resolution to eat more leafy greens. It's also ridiculously easy to make.





Black Beans and Collard Greens Soup

Ingredients:

1 bunch collard greens**
4 cans black beans, or equivalent amount pre-soaked dried beans
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon allspice
Cayenne pepper to taste
6 cups water

**You can substitute any leafy greens for the collards. Kale is also in season this time of year and tough enough to withstand the cooking in this recipe, but collards are a bit milder flavored.

Apparatus:

Knife
LARGE pot with cover
Wooden spoon
Mashing implement


Process:
1)Wash your collard greens extremely well! (Public health note-leafy greens, while being excellent sources of vitamins, are usually covered in dirt. So wash them!)

2)Remove and discard the large center stalk from the greens. Cut the remaining leaves into bite-sized pieces and place into pot.

3)Add beans, garlic, onion, spices, and water to pot. Cover and let simmer for about an hour and a half.

4)Mash beans using mashing implement of choice while still in pot. Stir, and if soup is too thin, continue to cook until soup thickens to desired consistency.

5)Serve and enjoy!


*Notes: This recipe makes quite a large batch, but can easily be halved if you are not a fan of leftovers. I’ve become very fond of cooking only 2 or 3 times a week and eating that food for days at a time as a matter of efficiency. This recipe would also probably work well in a slow cooker.



For anyone who did not grow up in Georgia, and therefore might not know what a collard green looks like off hand, the above is a picture of collard greens.

Butternut & Potato Soup

Due to Tropical Storm Ida taking up residence over Richmond, the temperature has dropped significantly and left me craving warm soup. This recipe is also a good way to use some of the butternut squash that is everywhere currently. Unfortunately, it’s not a very pretty recipe so the picture doesn’t look very good, but try it anyway!

Butternut-Potato Soup

Ingredients:

5 yukon gold potatoes
1 butternut squash
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
½ cup vegetable broth
1 tsp sage
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup plain lite soymilk

Apparatus:

Knife
Plate
Microwave
Pot
Wooden spoon
Masher

Process:

1)Scrub potatoes and remove eyes. Scar potatoes with knife, place on plate and put in microwave for 10 minutes until soft.
2)Carefully remove skin from squash and dice into small cubes.
3)Place oil, onion, garlic, and spices into pot and sauté until onions are translucent.
4)Add squash and sauté for approximately 2 more minutes.
5)In the meantime, remove potatoes from microwave and dice coarsely. (CAREFUL! They will still be hot!)
6)Add potatoes, vegetable broth, and soy milk to pot. Stir, then cover with plate and let simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes.
7)Using potato masher, mash. (If the soup is watery for your liking, add a bit of flour. If you want the soup even creamier, add more soymilk.)
8)Serve into bowls. Enjoy!

Swiss Chard Rice Pilaf

A friend recently offered me her share in a co-op for a week, and I wound up with more leafy greens then I knew what to do with. Here is my first attempt at a Swiss chard recipe ( I’ve included a picture of the greens raw for easy identification)-I hope you enjoy!



Swiss Chard Rice Pilaf:


Ingredients:

1 pound Swiss chard
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup pearl onions (frozen)
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp fennel
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sage
¼ cup chopped mushrooms
1 ½ cups uncooked brown rice
½ cup chopped parsley
2 ½ cups water
1 tsp black pepper

Apparatus:

Knife (serrated if available, trust me it makes it much easier)
Deep pot
Wooden Spoon

Process:

1)Rinse Swiss chard thoroughly under running water. Grab 1 stalk of Swiss chard in non-dominant hand, and with other hand, wrap hand firmly around stalk and pull quickly to effectively remove all leaves from stalk. (Minor side note: Yes you will feel slightly ridiculous during this process. You could opt to simply use a knife to remove leaves from stem. I found that this method is easier and faster.) Repeat process until all leaves are removed from stems and discard stems.
2)Chop leaves into small pieces
3)Place oil in pot and add onions, mushrooms, garlic, fennel, sage, and coriander. Saute until onions are soft and garlic is fragrant.
4)Add rice, and stir briefly to coat.
5)Add Swiss chard, parsley, and water. Stir, then cover, and leave for 20 minutes or until rice has absorbed all water.
6)Add black pepper, give a final stir, and serve!

*This works well with parmesan cheese added as a garnish as well!*




Swiss Chard-prior to being de-stemmed and chopped: So many pretty colors!!

Acorn Squash and Lima Bean Risotto

Acorn Squash and Lima Bean Risotto

This is one of autumn’s finest comfort foods in my opinion. Warm and filling, and the texture is nice and smooth. Definitely shop around for the risotto though-I can usually find a good deal by looking in the rice aisle for the larger containers, don’t fall for the small bags in the organic section unless that’s your thing.

Ingredients:

1 Acorn Squash, halved and seeded
Cooking Spray
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp sage
1 ½ cups risotto (Arborio rice)
3 ½ cups vegetable broth
½ bag (5 ounces) frozen Fordhook lima beans
Black pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Apparatus:

Baking pan
Fork
Bowl
Pot (Grab one that’s larger than you think you will need-risotto expands much more than you expect it to)
Wooden spoon

Process:

1) Spray the baking pan with cooking spray. Place the halves of the acorn squash recipes on the baking pan, and place in the oven for half an hour at 300 degrees F.
2) Remove pan from oven. Very carefully, use the fork to remove the flesh of the acorn squash and place it in the bowl. Make sure none of the skin makes it into the bowl too!
3) Place olive oil in pot. Add onions, garlic, and herbs and sauté until onions are translucent.
4) Add risotto and stir until coated thoroughly.
5) Pour ½ cup of the broth into the pot. Stir until all liquid is absorbed. Repeat until only ½ cup of the liquid is left.
6) Add lima beans and acorn squash to the pot. Add the final ½ cup of broth to the pot and stir until all liquid is absorbed.
7) Add black pepper to pot and give risotto one final stir.
8) Remove from heat, cover, and “let rest” for five minutes before serving.
9) Enjoy! (Garnish with parmesan cheese if desired.)

Tortilla Soup

Tortilla Soup

This recipe is a favorite of mine, and got excellent reviews from the taste tester aka fiancé (he’s biased towards Mexican-leaning dishes in general though.) This recipe is a life-saver for me though because it is no-brainer easy AND I usually already have everything I need for the soup. It’s also great now that the weather is getting chillier. Enjoy!!

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, diced (or equivalent amount of frozen pre-diced onions)
28 ounces diced tomatoes
10 ounces tomato paste
24 ounces vegetable broth
2 cups frozen corn
24 ounces black beans (preferably ones you have soaked yourself, but canned is ok as well)
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons cumin
2 tsp chili powder
2 bay leaves
2 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
Pinch of dried oregano
Pinch of dried thyme
1 tsp black pepper

Tortilla chips
Mexican blend cheese (optional)

Apparatus:

Crockpot
Stirring Spoon
Ladle

Process:

1) Place all ingredients (except for tortilla chips and cheese) in crockpot.
2) Stir. Place lid on crockpot. 
3) Set crockpot on low and leave all day. ( I left mine alone for over 12 hours and it turned out fine.)
4) Serve. Garnish with tortilla chips and cheese if desired.



Tortilla soup shown with chips and cheese

p.s. I have now added planning a wedding to the list of things I do!! I think that means we will be seeing strong emphasis on easy, quick, no-brainer recipes for the months to come. But, I am also sure I will be inspired by some of the fancy food that I have to deal with so there will still be more fun posts too!

Strawberry Shortcake

"Ned: I’m out of counter space, so I’m stress baking in my head." Pushing Daisies Episode 2.7 "Robbing Hood"

This quotation sums up the reason this recipe exits. Please enjoy!

Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup margarine
1 cup light vanilla soymilk (or use regular milk-if using non-flavored add 1 tsp of vanilla extract)
Non-stick cooking spray

1 pint strawberries, halved
Fat free whipped topping

Apparatus:

Bowl
2 butter knives
Fork
Oven sheet

Process:

1) Combine flours, baking powder, and sugar in bowl and use fork to blend together.
2) Place margarine in flour mixture, and using cutting motion with knives, cut into flour until dough is crumbly.
3) Add soymilk and mix until just moist. (It’s important not too over-mix because the dough will become overly chewy.)
4) Spray oven sheet with cooking spray.
5) Roll dough in hands in approximately quarter-cup quantities and drop onto sheet.
6) Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees F.
7) After biscuits have cooled slightly, cut biscuits in half. Place a few strawberries on the bottom half of biscuit. Place 1 tbsp of whipped topping on top of strawberries, and place top half of biscuit onto strawberries.

*Notes* This is a more traditionalist strawberry shortcake. You can also use angel food cake instead of biscuits, but my Georgia upbringing does come through every once in a while in my baking preference for biscuits. However, don't tell anybody from the deep South I used whole wheat flour or the grease in their arteries may finally congeal to the point it gives them a heart attack!