Hot and Sour Soup!

I had a craving for some Asian-inspired cuisine and came across this recipe on cooks.com. Admittedly, I didn't have a lot of the ingredients on hand (for example, garlic chili sauce or sesame oil), which is sort of a downfall to this recipe. On the other hand, I do like to try my hand at Asian cooking every now and then, so I will end up using the sesame oil eventually.

Ingredients

4 cups chicken broth (or veggie!)

1/4 cup cooked, shredded chicken or pork

3 tbsp soy sauce (I use reduced-sodium)

1/2 cup mushroms, diced

1/2 tbsp garlic chili sauce

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1/4 white vinegar

1/3 cup canned bamboo shoots, julienned

1/2 cup cubed tofu

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp cold water

1 egg, beaten

2 green onions, diced

1/2 tsp sesame oil

Directions

1. Bring broth to a simmer.
2. Add soy sauce, shredded meat, mushrooms, and garlic chili paste.
3. Simmer for 5 minutes
4. Add white pepper, white vinegar, bamboo shoots, and tofu.
5. Simmer for 5 minutes
6. While it's simmering, combine corn starch and cold water in a measuring cup. Mix until smooth.
7. Add cornstarch mixture to soup and stir well.
8. Simmer for 5 minutes until soup has thickened.
9. In a fine stream, slowly pour beaten egg into soup.
10. Stir several times.
11. Wait about 30 seconds (for egg to cook).
12. Add sesame oil and green onions. Stir.
13. Remove from heat and serve!

A few notes about this recipe:

• I didn't have any shredded meat, so I cooked up some ground turkey and used that instead. It tastes alright but I will probably leave it out next time.
• I also didn't have white pepper, so I used black. Same diff.
• I'm not sure I added the egg in properly. I was stirring as I was pouring the egg in, and I ended up with little flakes of egg everywhere. I think you're supposed to pour the egg in and then stir, so that the egg goes into little ribbons. Oh well. It still tastes alright!
• You could leave out the tofu if you preferred. I found it didn't really add anything extra, other than it kept with the Asian theme.
• The spice level was perfect for me, but you can adjust how much chili sauce you use depending on what you like.

All in all, this was a very yummy dish! It was very easy and quick, but it does require you to be in the kitchen the whole time (as opposed to other soups where you can just let them simmer away!). I will definitely make this again!

Farfalle with Turkey Sausage, Peas, and Mushrooms

My good friend, Scubes (aka Helen), came to visit yesterday and brought a favourite recipe with her! It's by Giada DiLaurentiis (Everday Italian, Giada at Home) and is a sauceless pasta made with turkey sausage, cremini mushrooms, frozen peas, and parmigian cheese.

Ingredients

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1lb ground turkey sausage, removed from casing

salt and pepper

10 oz cremini mushrooms, coarsely chopped

10 oz frozen peas, defrosted slightly

1 lb farfalle pasta (big bowties)

1/2 freshly grated parmigian

Directions

1. Put a pot of water onto boil.
2. While the water comes to a boil, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large saute pan.
3. Season turkey meat with salt and pepper and add to pan.
4. Cook until brown, breaking up and large chunks with a wooden spoon.
5. Remove meat from pan and set aside.
6. Add 2 more tbsp olive oil into the pan and heat.
7. Add mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.
8. Saute util all the mushroom liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes.
9. Add the peas and saute for a few more minutes.
10. Add the meat back to the pan and heat for 3 minutes.
11. While all this is happening, keep your eye on the pot of water. When it comes to a boil, add the pasta and cook al dente.
12. When pasta is ready, add to the pan with the meat and veggies and stir to combine.
13. Drizzle with remaining olive oil.
14. Turn off heat and add the cheese.
15. Stir well and serve!

A few notes....

I think we added too many peas! Also, we chopped some red bell pepper and added that into the mix, sauteing it while we cooked the mushrooms. Scubes also seasoned the turkey with some dried spices - thyme, sage, and chili flakes... just to add some more flavour!

Other than that, we didn't change the recipe much! It was delicious and made plenty... in fact, we ate this morning for lunch after spin class!

Also - wondering why we used sausages and then took them out of the casings anyway? Why wouldn't we just use ground turkey? Answer: Store bought sausages are already seasoned, whereas if you used ground turkey, you would have to season it yourself. The sausages are a nice little shortcut!

Cucumber Mustard Salad

I've recently been tuning into CBC's cooking show Best Recipes Ever. The host prepares a different meal each episode, following certain themes such as 'Best Meat-and-Potato Dinner' or 'Double-Duty Appetizers'. In a recent episode titled 'Lighten Up! Dinner', the host made a salad of cucumbers and onions, with a Dijon vinaigrette dressing.

Ingredients

2 English cucumbers

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion

4 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

pinch each of sugar and black pepper

Directions

1. Cut cucumbers in half, lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds.
2. Thinly slice cucumber so that you have a bunch of little c-shaped slices.
3. Put cucumber in a bowl and salt. Let stand for 20 minutes or so.
4. Toss in onion, vinegar, mustard, sugar, and pepper.
5. Stir well.

This salad was really refreshing and simple. It's light and summery. I would change a few things, though. First of all, the Dijon mustard was a bit strong. I might try using regular yellow mustard, or a mix of both. Also, let the salad marinate a bit before you eat it. The sugar needs time to dissolve and neutralize the vinegar a bit. Also, refrigerate before serving. Cucumber just tastes so crisp when it's chilled!

I really like this recipe and have made it a few times since I first tried it. It makes a great, low-calorie, snack.

Honey Ginger Cookies

I found this recipe on epicurious.com. I'm not much of a baker, but I have been craving something sweet for nearly a week and needed something to cure it!!

Ingredients

1 & 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup light honey

1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, ginger, and salt) together in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and brown sugar together in a large bowl until smooth and fluffy.
4. Beat in the egg and honey until smooth.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir well.
6. Spoon batter in heaping tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies. These cookies spread quite a bit.
7. Bake for about 12 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool.

Notes

1. These cookies tasted really delicious, but the text was more cake-like than cookie-like. I would probably serve them with some whipped cream or icing. Or maybe as ice cream sandwiches!
2. The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of minced candied ginger, but I didn't have that so I substituted. Next time I might try it with the candied ginger.
3. Otherwise, these cookies were very light. The bottom and edges became a little crunchy (but not burnt) which was a nice contrast against the fluffy center.

Zucchetti

Here's a neat twist on pasta that raw foodists can enjoy too!! A friend of mine passed the idea onto me, but the sauce recipes are my own.

First of all - what is zucchetti? It's not as complicated as it sounds. It's a zucchini, shredded into long, thing, spaghetti-like strips. This is done using a little machine called a spiralizer.

So you put the zucchini onto the spiralizer, turn the crank, and voila! Zucchetti!

Now comes the fun part - picking the sauce. Rob and I have tried a few different recipes, some of them keeping with the raw food theme and some of them not. Here are a few that we've tried:

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 can of diced tomatoes, drained

1 clove of garlic, finely diced

6-10 grape tomatoes, halved

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together, adjusting amounts to taste.

2. Pour over zucchetti and toss until everything is coated.

Roasted Garlic Sauce

Ingredients

1 bulb of garlic

4 tbsp olive oil

1 shallot, finely diced

pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Chop top of garlic bulb off and peel it down, leaving just enough skin to hold the cloves together.
3. Coat garlic in 1/2 tbsp of olive oil.
4. Wrap garlic in tin foil and roast in oven for about 45 minutes, or until garlic is soft.
5. Let cool.
6. Squish roasted garlic into a small dish, being sure not to let the garlic skin fall into the bowl.
7. Add olive oil, pepper, and shallots and mash well. (You may have to adjust the amount of olive oil or even add some balsamic vinegar... play around with it until it tastes good)
8. Toss with zucchetti and other diced vegetables.

Black Bean Sauce

Ingredients

1/4 cup of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 garlic clove, finely diced

3-4 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp of vinegar (your preference)

1 tsp sugar

salt and pepper

Directions

1. Put beans into a small bowl and mash until smooth.
2. Stir in olive oil, garlic, vinegar, and sugar.
3. Season to taste.
4. Toss with zucchetti and other vegetables.

IMPORTANT!

There are a few general notes to take into consideration when making zucchetti.

1. Make your sauce first. The last thing you should make is the zucchetti itself. Zucchini gives off a lot of water, and if you shred it too early, it will give off water and make your sauce runny.
2. Do not over-salt! Salt causes vegetables to lose their water, and, as mentioned above, zucchini already gives off a lot of water. Salt will just add to this problem and make your zucchetti even more watery.
3. When making the sauces, be creative! Season everything to your taste. Throw extra ingredients in.
4. You can also put other vegetables through a spiralizer. If you get a good spiralizer, you can get it to shred at different thickness. If you use the wide blade to "spiralize" a potato, you get the perfect curly fry! If you use a slicing blade, it can slice vegetables and fruits super-thin. Slice some apples and bake at a low temperature in the oven to make delicious apple chips!

Anyway, I am certainly getting good use out of my spiralizer. It's a great investment, and it can make some pretty fancy and healthy dishes!

Veggie Broth

My Grandma Stella recently gave me a slow cooker, and I've been dying to use it. So when my mom mentioned that she had made her own veggie broth, I knew I had found a way to use my newly acquired appliance!

Over the past few weeks, I have been saving scraps of veggies - the end of a head of lettuce, the stumps of carrots and onions, pieces of sweet potato, and so on - and keeping them in the freezer. Finally I had enough to make broth.

I simply put all of the veggies into my slow cooker, covered them with water, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and dried thyme. I also added a crushed garlic clove.

I set the dial to high and checked it periodically. It's been three hours and it's still going. I've been adjusting the seasoning as necessary.

I can't really give you an appropriate cooking time... It depends on how many veggies you have and what kind... But just keep an eye on it and keep tasting - you'll know when it's right!!

Alternately, if you don't have a slow cooker, you can do it in a pot on the stove. It will cook faster that way. Bring it to a boil and reduce to a simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Once it's done, you can freeze it into an ice cube tray or measure it into 1 or 2 cup portions and freeze it in a plastic container.