Great flavors think alike!

In my house, I'm known for looking at the veggie drawer in the refrigerator and start pulling out random items and somehow, they combine to be an excellent dish.  As was the case with this recent dish.  I blended bitter, sweet, smokey, and pungent flavors for this awesome dinner. 

Assembly list:

• 2 slices of bacon
• several handfuls of kale
• 2 small sweet potatoes; peeled, diced
• 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed
• spices: cumin, curry, garlic
• honey
• 1/3 c feta cheese for each serving

In a small bowl, combine cumin, curry, and garlic, add some salt and pepper, a small drizzle of honey, and pour in about 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil.  Scramble up this, so that all of the spices are incorporated.  Peel and dice your sweet potatoes and set aside in a larger bowl.   Pour the olive oil spice mixture over the sweet potatoes and toss the bowl a few times so that they are coated. Put the potatoes on a small roasting dish, covered, at 375 - 400 degrees in a toaster oven.  Cook for approximately 45 minutes, or until done.

About 15 minutes before the potatoes are done, you can begin cooking the greens. Start off by chopping up your two pieces of bacon and letting them get warmed up in the pan.  Once the bacon begins cooking, add the kale and cook on low heat until wilted and they get nice and bright.  Add the chickpeas to the kale and cook until warmed through. 

To serve, put the sweet potatoes in the bowl first, top with the greens, then add the feta cheese on top. I found an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil was a nice addition. 

Merry Christmas

I hope all of my readers/fans are enjoying this holiday season.  Are you trying any new recipes?

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and if you don't celebrate this day, have a wonderful 359th day of 2011.

This place is missing something

I know!! A dessert recipe!!!

The fall is my favorite time of year because pumpkin is very much in season and part of many recipes. I cannot get enough pumpkin--lattes, ice cream, soup, and...PIE!!!

A few years back, I made this "healthier" pumpkin pie recipe that I got from Stoneyfield Farms.  A direct link to the recipe is here.  This pie tastes SOOOO wonderful. 

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (organic!)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 2 large eggs (local!)
• 15 oz. canned pumpkin (organic!)
• 1 cup Stonyfield Lowfat Vanilla Yogurt  (buy two small yogurts at the store, since one yogurt contains 6 oz)
• 1 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shell (I prefer a whole wheat pie shell)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Combine sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in yogurt. Pour into pie shell. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F and bake for 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours.

Top with ice cream (vanilla, or...pumpkin!!) or fresh whipped cream. 

Post-Thanksgiving: The only thing left to make was...

We ate most of our Thanksgiving dishes this year (for the first time ever, I did not make too much of any one dish and sent leftovers home with family). So, with very little remnants of Thanksgiving left in the refrigerator, I decided to whip up some turkey soup. 

Super easy "assembling" of this dish:

• Several cups of veggie, turkey or chicken stock (I think I used 8 cups, maybe more)
• bay leaf
• 3 carrots (chopped)
• 3 celery ribs (chopped)
• onions, garlic, thyme (to taste)
• 1 cup (dry) of mini pastina, whole wheat
• a few handfuls of kale
• 2 cans of white beans, rinsed and drained
• leftover turkey meat

In the stockpot, I tossed in some oil, the onions, carrots, and the celery. Let those cook a bit on medium heat until the onions were translucent.  I added the bay leaf and the thyme and made sure they were incorporated in the veggie/oil mixture.

I then added my stock, brought it to a rapid boil for 5 minutes, stirring regularly, then brought it down to a simmer. Remove the bay leaf at this time.

I added the pastina, stirring to make sure none stuck to the bottom of the pot. Once the pastina was cooked (about 4-5 minutes), I added the white beans. I also added the leftover turkey meat at this time. From there, I tossed in the handfulls of kale until they wilted and turned bright green.

The best bet is to allow this soup to mellow for at least 24 hours.  Allow the soup to come to room temperature on the stovetop and then refrigerate until ready to enjoy at dinner the next day.  The starches have then broken down and will give the soup more heft. 

Top the soup with grated Parmesan cheese and enjoy with a crusty piece of bread (or leftover stuffing).

This soup can be made vegan f you stick with veggie stock and remove the turkey meat from the recipe. Either version is incredibly enjoyable.



Turkey version


Vegan version