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Hearty Minestrone Soup

January 4, 2012 by 1 Comment
Here’s another easy weeknight meal. We made this on Monday night after our weekend away. A hearty soup is a great way to get back to eating your veggies and not eat something so rich and gluttonous after the holidays. We love our soups.

I found this recipe on the Whole Foods iPhone app in the car on the way home. I changed out some veggies to suit what we like, and served it with mini cornbread muffins that I made real quick. If it were just for me, I would have added mushrooms and some squash, but that’s a no-go for the other one eating.

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The recipe called for chickpeas and cannellini beans, but Jeffrey doesn’t like beans so I left that out and just used the chickpeas. It gave the soup a nice crunch to go with the other softer veggies. I also left out cabbage and replaced with more carrots and celery. And I love fusilli in soups.

We thought the soup was very thick and tomato-ey. I didn’t mind and like thick soups, but Jeffrey would have used less tomato or more broth. However, 6 cups of broth and 28 ounces of tomatoes makes a lot of soup! There was lots leftover. A great soup for freezing too! On the second night, I added some water to thin it out and it helped a lot. Do that.

Hearty Minestrone Soup

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
  • 6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • 1 tablespoon chopped basil (subbed rosemary)
  • 2 large stalks of celery, sliced
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 1 dried bay leaf
  • 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their liquid
  • 1 cup canned chickpeas, drained
  • 1 cup dried fusilli pasta
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 3/4 to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

  • In a large stockpot, heat oil over medium high heat.
  • Add garlic and onions and cook until translucent.
  • Add broth, tomato paste, parsley, basil, celery, carrots, bay leaf, and tomatoes with their juice and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, until vegetables are tender.
  • Add chickpeas, pasta, and simmer for another 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
  • Ladle soup into bowls and serve with Parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top.

To go with the soup, I made a half batch of cornbread mini muffins. If you have cornmeal in your pantry, you probably have everything else you need–flour, egg, milk, oil. I amped it up by adding some frozen corn kernels, rosemary that we used for the soup, and some cayenne to give it a slight kick. A half batch made about 16 mini muffins–good to last a few days or take for lunch too!

As you can see, I love it when meals last a little while.

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Hearty Minestrone Soup
Print
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Total time: 1 hour 20 mins
Ingredients
  • Hearty Minestrone Soup
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
  • 6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • 1 tablespoon chopped basil (subbed rosemary)
  • 2 large stalks of celery, sliced
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 1 dried bay leaf
  • 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their liquid
  • 1 cup canned chickpeas, drained
  • 1 cup dried fusilli pasta
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 3/4 to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
  1. In a large stockpot, heat oil over medium high heat.
  2. Add garlic and onions and cook until translucent.
  3. Add broth, tomato paste, parsley, basil, celery, carrots, bay leaf, and tomatoes with their juice and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, until vegetables are tender.
  4. Add chickpeas, pasta, and simmer for another 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
  5. Ladle soup into bowls and serve with Parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top.
Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes · Tagged With: , ,

Falafel Burgers, Round 2

September 21, 2011 by 2 Comments

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Quite a while ago, I made falafel burgers. We enjoyed them ok, but thought they were a little dry, and basically tasted like baked hummus. It wasn’t bad, just tasted like hummus. Then I saw a recipe recently that added some jalapeno, and more spices, and also cooked them on the stovetop instead of in the oven. Worth a try! I love falafel, and remember liking that the burgers lasted me for lunch for many days.

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We really liked these, but thought they needed a good sauce! What goes with falafel? Tzaziki. I don’t have that in a jar in the fridge. These falafel were much more flavorful, and stovetop method was really good too. I added some shredded carrot to help keep them juicy, and liked the addition of an onion and jalapeno. I also changed the spices from the original recipe because I didn’t have them and didn’t want to buy more spices. It’s all about using what you’ve got.

Falafel Burgers

Ingredients:

  • 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 red onion, minced
  • 1 jalapeno, minced
  • 1/3 C shredded carrot
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cumin
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 3 T plus 2 tsp EVOO
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 C Panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 egg white
Instructions:
  • In a food processor, combine the chickpeas, 2 tsp of olive oil, lemon juice and tahini. Blend well and scoop out into a large bowl. Set aside.
  • Heat up 1 tbsp olive oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. Once hot, add the onions and jalapeno and sauté for about six minutes or until tender. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute until toasty and fragrant. Add cumin and paprika and mix well.
  • Add onion mixture and carrots to the chickpea mixture and stir well to combine. Add the salt, egg white and breadcrumbs and mix well.
  • Heat the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in the same skillet as before. Form patties with the chickpea mixture and fry for about three-four minutes per side, until golden and crunchy. Drain on paper towels.

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We also had some sliced, roasted carrots as a side, and roasted potatoes. The carrots were cut like fries and roasted with EVOO, salt and pepper at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. The potatoes included rosemary, garlic powder, EVOO, salt and pepper, and were roasted at 400 for about 30 minutes.

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We served our falafel over a salad of lettuce and tomato. Delicious and healthy meal!

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Falafel Burgers
Print
Ingredients
  • 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 red onion, minced
  • 1 jalapeno, minced
  • 1/3 C shredded carrot
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cumin
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 3 T plus 2 tsp EVOO
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 C Panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 egg white
Instructions
  1. In a food processor, combine the chickpeas, 2 tsp of olive oil, lemon juice and tahini. Blend well and scoop out into a large bowl. Set aside.
  2. Heat up 1 tbsp olive oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. Once hot, add the onions and jalapeno and sauté for about six minutes or until tender. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute until toasty and fragrant. Add cumin and paprika and mix well.
  3. Add onion mixture and carrots to the chickpea mixture and stir well to combine. Add the salt, egg white and breadcrumbs and mix well.
  4. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in the same skillet as before. Form patties with the chickpea mixture and fry for about three-four minutes per side, until golden and crunchy. Drain on paper towels.
Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged With: ,

Dinner

July 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

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Vegetarian:

Soups and Salads:

Tofu:

Side Dishes:

Other:

 

Chicken:

Ground Turkey:

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Meats/Fish:

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Lunches and Snacks

July 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

 

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Our little garden update + recipe

May 19, 2011 by 1 Comment

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You may remember that we started planting a garden with Burpee Home Garden plants last month. I wrote my first post about our planting process here. It has been almost a month since our herbs and vegetables were planted, and we’ve made some progress.

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First, you may remember that our herbs were in little cups like the picture above, and we planted the cups in soil in balcony containers. I left them in the cups for a few weeks because I was unsure if I was supposed to remove them or not. I decided to finally remove the plants from the cups and plant directly in the soil because the cups were not decomposing even though they say “compostable.” It’s not the same thing.

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Our herbs have started to really grow tall, and I even used some fresh basil for my favorite hummus recipe, see below for details. The tomatoes and peppers have not started to bloom, but I assume they will take a while.

I water them daily or every other day, and they get a small amount of direct sunlight in their location, but mostly indirect sunlight.

In the picture below, you’ll see little dots in the center, which I think are the beginning of tomatoes.

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Now for the recipe! Basil is probably my favorite herb, and I’m excited to have a few varieties now. There is traditional basil that looks like the leaves below, and also Italian Basil, which are much smaller leaves. I didn’t use those yet.

For the recipe, I picked about eight leaves and cut them in a chiffonade, a fancy word for ribbon. You just roll them up together and cut.

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Then it looks like this below. Basil in this shape is a great addition to a salad or pasta dish.

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I added mine to the food processor for my hummus. I talk over and over about my love of homemade hummus, and how store brands aren’t for me anymore. I recommend you try this if you like a simple, healthy dip or spread with simple and few ingredients.

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Basil Hummus

Ingredients:

  • 1 garlic clove
  • 2 C cooked chickpeas (1 can), rinsed
  • 3 T EVOO
  • 2 T tahini
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 2 T lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • Water (I used about 3-4 T to thin it out)

Instructions:

  • In a food processor, pulse garlic and chickpeas. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse to combine.
  • Add basil and pulse again.
  • Add water as needed to thin it out. It will congeal in the refrigerator so you can make it looser knowing it will thicken.

The final product, with specs of green inside and topped with paprika.

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It’s pretty neat to walk to your garden to pick your herbs for a recipe!

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Do you have any gardening tips? Any fresh herb favorite recipes to share?

Filed Under: How To · Tagged With:

Week in Review

April 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This week has been cra-zay. Last week ended wacky, and then this week started wacky. My computer isn’t quite back to 100% after dying on me a week ago. That’s not fun to deal with when you try to write a daily blog and get real work done regularly.

I started a new job, which I might talk about a little on the blog or maybe not. Maybe you’ll see some new “how to pack a lunch” pictures. Have any tips?

Last weekend I ran my first race of the year, the race picture is above. Not bad!

This week started with Springtime cookies, then there was a chickpea goat cheese appetizer, some raw cookie dough cookies, a look behind the blog on Thursday, and the blogs I love on Friday.

Coming up next week is more craziness with getting ready for Passover! I will be making a matzoh toffee to freeze for our family seder. It’s a signature family dish easy to make ahead.

Pardon the all-text post again, I am running short on time!

Tomorrow I’m running a 5K benefiting brain cancer and children’s cancers. I wrote a short preview about it here for CultureMap.

See you back on Monday!

Filed Under: Week in Review ·

Easy Appetizer–Roasted Chickpeas with Goat Cheese

April 5, 2011 by 8 Comments

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Last month when we spent 24 hours in Austin, we had the best appetizer at a restaurant called Lambert’s. I rarely remember a dish so well that I actually want to recreate it at home, but this dish was right up my alley.

I have a slight addiction to chickpeas (I make hummus every week now), and this dish also had caramelized onions (yum and Jeffrey loves them), roasted tomatoes (I know how to do that, just did it), and goat cheese. The restaurant served it with soft pita, we had hard pita chips. Soft is probably better.

Just from the memory and checking the online menu, I recreated this dish.

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Smokey Roasted Chickpeas with Roasted Tomatoes, Caramelized Onions and Goat Cheese

Ingredients:

  • 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas
  • 2 large tomatoes, squish out the juice, chopped roughly
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 3 T oregano
  • 2 oz goat cheese (or more if you like it extra cheesy)
  • pita chips or soft pita
  • EVOO, salt, pepper, cayenne

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 450*.
  • Drain and rinse chickpeas and add to a small bowl. Coat with 2 T EVOO, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/4 tsp cayenne.
  • Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and line half with foil. Pour chickpeas on the unlined half and spread evenly.
  • On the foil lined half, spread out tomatoes and drizzle with 1 T EVOO, salt and pepper.

(I did this so I didn’t dirty two baking sheets, and one sheet was too big for them individually. I lined with foil because the tomatoes give off a lot of juice and I didn’t want it to make the chickpeas soggy.)

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  • Bake for 25-30 minutes, until chickpeas are crispy. Turn every 10 minutes.
  • On the stovetop, drizzle with 1 T EVOO and add red onions to pot. Sprinkle generous amount of salt to let out the sweetness.
  • Caramelize for about 35 minutes over low heat, stirring frequently. This is different than a saute.

(minute 0, going into the pan)

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  • When chickpeas and tomatoes are done and onions are done, add chickpeas and tomatoes to the onions and stir together over low heat.

(roasted chickpeas are great just as a snack too. spicy and crunchy, mmm.)

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(about 30 minutes later, soft and sweet)

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  • Right before serving, add goat cheese to get creamy. Add oregano and mix together.
  • An alternative that Jeffrey suggested would be to put the goat cheese at the bottom of a bowl and the chickpea mix on top.
  • Serve over a salad for a meal, or with pita chips for an appetizer.

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All mixed together with goat cheese mixed in and a dollop on top.

The flavors are creamy from the cheese, sweet from the onions, and spicy from the chickpeas.

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Over a salad as a meal with pita chips. We thought it would be a great appetizer. The cheese made it look not as sharp, but it tasted great.

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Also, I have a new story posted on CultureMap. This month, the theme is Green Living, and I have a lot coming up. The first one is How green is your kitchen? 7 tips to get started.

Have you tried to recreate a dish from a restaurant?

Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes · Tagged With: ,

Homemade Falafel Burgers

March 15, 2011 by 7 Comments

Falafel is not something I ever considered making from scratch, but then I read a recipe and realized it’s quite simple! It’s basically baked hummus, and I have a minor obsession with homemade hummus lately. I love cooking with chickpeas because they are a great source of protein, are in can so they are easy to store and always have on hand, and with minimal added spices and flavors, you have something great like hummus or falafel. And they’re great plain too. That is why I love chickpeas.

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Homemade Falafel Burgers

(recipe adapted by Oh She Glows and by Savvy Eats)

First off, the original recipe said it made 12 large burgers. There are only two of us, and I wasn’t so sure what this would taste like or how they would turn out, so we halved the recipe and it made 7 burgers. If you want the original 12, just double everything.)

Ingredients:

  • 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 1 small carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1/2 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1.5 cloves garlic
  • Juice from 1 lemon (1T)
  • 1/8 C EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
  • 1/4 C tahini
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp paprika (and more for sprinkling on top)
  • 1/3 plus a little more, whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 C sunflower seeds

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 375* and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a mat (I use Silpats, they are great). In a food processor, process garlic, carrot, onion. Add chickpeas, lemon juice, olive oil, tahini, cumin, and salt. Process until fully combined. (now it’s basically hummus)
  • Add the flour and process again. Scrape down sides to fully incorporate. Stir in sunflower seeds and pepper and paprika (do not process).
  • Spoon about 1/4 C – 1/3 C batter onto baking sheet with wet hands. Flatten until patty is about 1/4 inch thick.
  • Sprinkle top of each patty with paprika.
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  • Bake for 20 minutes, then flip for another 5-10 minutes. They are done when golden brown and slightly firm. Let cool for about 15 minutes. Store in refrigerator only when completely cooled.
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We served ours with a side salad of mixed greens, red pepper, feta cheese, cucumber. Mixed with a dressing of olive oil, greek seasoning, salt and pepper. It was all delicious together!

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Have you made falafel before? Or eaten it?

Also, yesterday I had a picture of my pita chips on Food Gawker AND TasteSpotting! Holla.

Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged With: ,

Avocado Hummus

March 7, 2011 by 4 Comments

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Green with deliciousness is what this hummus is about. Hummus is something that I always have in my refrigerator. I have tried many brands, but recently have been on a kick to make it at home from scratch.

I made a basic one recently, and then I saw this one on Edible Perspective. Ashley added avocado and spinach to make a beautiful green hummus filled with iron, good fats, and protein. It’s almost like a complete meal in a food processor.

Avocado Hummus

(By Edible Perspective)

Ingredients:

  • 1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
  • 1/4 C bean liquid (from the chickpea can)
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/4 C tahini
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • dash pepper
  • 1/4 C lemon juice
  • 1 avocado
  • 2-3 C spinach

Instructions:

  • In a food processor, combine all ingredients except spinach and process until semi-smooth.
  • Add spinach and process again until it’s all incorporated.
  • Scrape down sides so everything is included.

 

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Whirl away!

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Above picture is before spinach, below is after. The spinach gives it a beautiful green color and the avocado makes it extra creamy. Still tastes like regular hummus.

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Serve with pita chips, carrots, you name it. Top with paprika for extra color splash.

I eat hummus as a dipper/dressing in lunch all the time. It goes with everything!

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This kept in the refrigerator for a few days, but since it has avocado in it, it turns a little brown. Stir it up and it’s good to go, but original hummus lasts many days more.

A Jeffrey approved recipe! Even with spinach.

 

P.S. Announcements:

Here is my latest story on CultureMap. Do you watch Dancing with the Stars? I used to, but the talent is so terrible! That’s what I wrote about.

Dancing with the D-list stars; where has all the celebrity talent gone?

Also, another picture on TasteSpotting. These things make me very happy, kind of like validation that my photos are good sometimes!

Link to my page here.


Filed Under: Lunch, Snacks · Tagged With: , ,

Clean Food

February 14, 2011 by 5 Comments

Recently, I have read a lot about a book called Clean Food by Terry Walters. The secondary headline describes it best:

A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source with More Than 200 Recipes for a Healthy and Sustainable You


It is a recipe book, and there’s a sequel called Clean Start. It happens to be a vegetarian cookbook, but not because she is opposed to eating meat. She spends the beginning of the book explaining ways to eat cleaner and talks a lot about beans, nuts, and different kinds of vegetables. It also talks about being more in tune with how foods make you feel and taking time to think about what you’re eating and where it’s from. It’s not a diet book, just a clean eating cookbook.

I liked that the book is divided by seasons instead of meals because it focuses on eating locally and seasonally, and many recipes can be combined to make a meal + side, or served lighter for lunch or heavier for dinner.

I did not like that there were no pictures of recipes, and I wish that the calorie counts were on each recipe. However, I did earmark a few dozen recipes to try, which led us to our first experiment with hummus and a vegetable pasta dish.

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Traditional Hummus

This hummus dish is the first recipe in the book. I love hummus and buy it every week, so this week I made my own. Hummus is based on ground chickpeas, which is a great source of protein. It is also so versatile, used as a dip for carrots or chips, or as an alternative to salad dressing. You can also change the flavor by adding red peppers or more spice.

Ingredients:

  • 1 garlic clove
  • 2 C cooked chickpeas (1 can)
  • 3 T EVOO
  • 2 T tahini
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 2 T lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • Water (I used about 3 T)

Instructions:

  • In a food processor, pulse garlic and chickpeas. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse to combine. Add water as needed to thin it out. It will congeal in the refrigerator so you can make it looser knowing it will thicken.
  • I added paprika for garnish.
  • This was a winning recipe, approved by Jeffrey too! If you live in Texas, this recipe reminded me most of Central Market’s hummus, which is my favorite of all the brands I try. My favorite store bought brand is Athenos Greek style original if you’re wondering.
  • It honestly took longer to get out the machine and then clean it than it did to make the dish and put the ingredients away. That’s the one downfall of the food processor!

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Artichokes, Fennel and Olives over Penne

(serves 4)

The second recipe we made was Artichokes, Fennel and Olives over Penne. I was surprised Jeffrey agreed to this one without chicken on top or a pasta sauce, but he was a good sport and was pleasantly surprised at how filling and flavorful it was. His finger was the only casualty opening the can of artichokes.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 lb penne (this was way too much for 2 people, but we wanted to follow the recipe and not cut it down. We also used whole wheat.)
  • 3 T EVOO
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 can artichokes, quartered
  • 1/2 C kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
  • 1 fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced
  • 1 bunch arugula (this ended up wilting down significantly so I added more, probably 3 very big handfuls)
  • 1 C chopped tomatoes
  • 1/4 C fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 T lemon juice
  • Sea salt and black pepper

Instructions:

  • Cook penne as instructed on package. Rinse, drain and return to pot. Add 1 T EVOO.
  • In a large pot over medium heat, saute onion and garlic with 2 T EVOO (about 3 minutes until soft). Add artichokes, olives, fennel, arugula. Saute until heated through, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and saute for 2 minutes. Add parsley and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.
  • I poured the penne over the vegetables and cooked together for a minute with the fire off.
  • We topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese. I served mine over more arugula. He had his with added red pepper flakes.
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Since we are two for two out of the book, look for more recipes out of here coming soon.
P.S. Check out yesterday’s post for recipes with Red in them for Valentine’s Day. And check out these posts for other red recipes as part of an ingredient challenge.
Do you own these books? What’s your best tip to eat clean?
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