Roasted Cauli-Garlic Soup - VEGAN

It was a bit cold yesterday, and grey and rainy - a cool, wet, spring day. I'm not complaining, everything looked very green and I was a bit chilled so the weather made the perfect excuse for a spring soup.

I had saved a recipe on pinterest that looked interesting so I hunted it down to determine if I had the ingredients required and it looked makeable for a big, warm pot of dinner.  Here is the original pin from the recipe that inspired my version of this soup.  I had a bit of a time pulling up the original recipe on mobile as the blog has so many ads and I kept accidentally clicking on them.  It made the original recipe on the phone an annoying experience - watch out.

What caught my attention when I found the recipe was that the soup called for the addition of hummus - that to me seemed wonderfully odd and I liked it!  I have a vegan lasagna recipe that uses garlic hummus mixed with tofu to create the "ricotta cheese" filling and it works really well so I felt good about trying hummus in soup.

Ingredients for Roasted Cauli-Garlic Soup

(I prefer to use all organic ingredients)
1 large onion (white yellow or red)
1 large or 2 small heads of garlic
1 small head of cauliflower
1/2 cup smooth and creamy hummus
1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 cup raw cashews
32-48 oz vegetable broth
1/2 lemon or 1/4t dried lemon peel
1/4 c fresh chopped cilantro
olive oil
salt and pepper

Photo directions -- here goes.

Set a 1/2 cup (mine was heaping) of raw cashews in a bowl and cover with boiling water.  Since I had to set the kettle to boil, I went ahead and enjoyed a cup of tea.  I left the cashews soaking about one hour 15 minutes.

 
Start the quinoa cooking according to package directions.  I used tri-color quinoa.

Prepare veggies for roasting.  I managed to get them all on one pan, lined with baking paper.  For the garlic heads I just cut off the very top of each.  Drizzle the veggies with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  I roasted the veggies on convection roast at 425F for about 30 mins.  The most important thing is that the cauliflower be soft enough to stab a dinner fork into.

I usually turn the veggies half way through the cooking to get them browned on all sides.  This was half way.

I pulled asided some of the smaller cauliflower pieces to add back into the soup whole for a bit of bite to the pureed finale.

Into the blend went the big chunks of cauliflower and all of the onions.  I also added enough broth to each blender batch so that the blender could do its thing without the mixture being too thick.  My broth was room temperature so the batch wasn't very hot.  If you are blending hot ingredients and especially pureeing a soup - remember to remove the center section from your blender top so that the steam doesn't make the blending dangerous.

I ended up using about 1.5 of these containers by the time the soup was done.  How much broth you use will depend on how thick you want your final product or how much help your blender needs to smooth and blend your ingredients.

Here is the blended cauliflower and onion.

Next, pop the roasted garlic cloves into the blender.  Then add a heaping half cup of hummus.  The original recipe creator called specifically for Sabra hummus because maybe they sponsor her? But I don't use Sabra since their soybean oil and other ingredients are GMO and I avoid all GMO products.

 

I think the original recipe called for garlic hummus but I didn't have that - mine was original which is why I used two small heads of roasted garlic in my recipe.

 

It was a bit smoother and thinner and I did add more broth.

 

 

 



Next in - the cashews and quinoa!  Crazy but awesome - love the inventiveness of this recipe by the original creator.

I have a large blender so the entire recipe filled it to the top but it did fit.  Add the blended ingredients all at once or in batches to a soup pot.  Once in the pot, I added more broth until I had the consistency I was looking for and then added in the reserved pieces of cauliflower.

Taste the soup and season.

I added quite a bit more salt but the soup tasted like it needed a bit of brightening up.  I felt like half a lemon squeezed in would have done the trick but I was plum out of lemons.  However, on my last trip to Mom's Organic Market, I had picked up some dried lemon peel from their bulk spice section.  I used about 1/4 teaspoon, maybe a bit more... I didn't measure.  That definitely brightened things up but I thought the soup still needed something herb-y.  Cilantro seemed like the right thing.  I had frozen some freshly chopped cilantro about a week earlier so I grabbed it from the freezer and dumped in the whole bit.

I stirred it in (about 1/4 cup in total).  I tasted again, added a bit more salt, thinned the soup a tad bit more and claimed it ready for dinner.

The original recipe calls this soup a chowder.  It uses a potato and miso paste.  I didn't have either so my recipe differed that way as well.  Also - the original doesn't use the roasted onion but since I wasn't going to use Miso paste I thought I needed the added flavor of the onion.  This soup didn't say chowder to me, it was more like a nice thick bowl of soup puree.  It was delish.  Enjoy. Cheers. Sher.

Crushing on Roasted Garbanzos!

Hey Folks - Anyone still out there remember me? It's been SEVEN MONTHS since I've posted here.  So let's get right to it.  Lately I've been obsessed with Roasted Garbanzos.  Here's how I make them (photos first then explanation).

Set oven to 400 degrees F.

Rinse and drain beans (I used two cans for this batch).

Drizzle with oil of your choice (I used Olive Oil).  I didn't measure...all the beans should be lightly coated but not swimming in oil.

Add spices of your choice.  My favorite combo is Sea Salt, Granulated Garlic and Cayenne.  (I've tried tons of other options including curry and Italian herb, etc).  I sprinkle on the spices, taste, sprinkle some more, taste... that's my measuring method.

Toss beans in the oil and spices to coat.

Dump onto a baking pan.  I like to cover mine with parchment paper. Spread out into one layer.

Set oven for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes, pull the pan out and giggle it around or toss them with a utensil so that they roll around a bit.  You will see they have lost some of their oily shine and perhaps shrunk a bit which is what you want.

Add another 15 minutes to the timer.  Pull out and check again.  They will look smaller, darker and they will feel harder.  I don't mind having some really crunchy and others cruchy-ish but if you want them all crunchy, you might need another 5 or ten mins.  Try not to let them burn.

Remove from the oven.  Try one... if the flavor is the way you like it, you are done.  Often times, I find they need a light dose of one or more spices while they are still warm from the oven.  I sprinkle a bit more of whatever is lacking, toss them on the pan and let them cool a bit.

I pickup the sides of the parchment and form a bit of a funnel shape to pour the beans off into a bowl.

Now - enjoy their gorgeous roasty color and see if you can keep your hands out of the bowl!

NOTE: they are beans... and they taste like a snack but they will still do all the things beans do (you know what I'm talking about), so keep that in mind.  Delish! Pair with a beverage or a tall glass of water, you'll need it!

Enjoy - Cheers! Sher

Roasty Toasty

This post title has nothing to do with the roasty toasty feeling I got when we FINALLY had our first fireplace fire last night (It was 61 degrees F on Christmas eve! so the holidays didn't see a single fire).
I also woke up this morning to the first snowfall of 2015.  It was just starting to salt the yard in white when I woke up and it's continued all day tho. with minimal accumulation.

And, it's quite cold now - truly feels like winter.

What I actually mean by Roasty Toasty is a bit of kitchen talk here.  Do you roast? I mean vegetables?

To me, roasting veggies is like the cooking secret that makes superb vegetables seem almost too easy. If in doubt - roast it out!  I mean, I roast every vegetable I can and when I serve it the reviews are nothing short of rave.

What do I roast? Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Carrots, Onions, Garlic, Broccoli, Zucchini, Eggplant, Squash, Potatoes, Peppers (yes, I know, some of those things are not technically a vegetable).  But seriously, there is no better taste than a roasted veggie.

I am not a big cooked carrot lover but roast me some carrots and I could eat a bushel.

Don't know how to roast - well here are few tips:

TIP#1: keep it simple
TIP#2: there aren't many rules and those that there are can be altered
TIP#3: don't be afraid to try
TIP#4: roast different types of veggies separately because some cook at a different speed

Last night I made roasted carrots, potatoes and onions to accompany our salmon.

Here's what I do:

Grab some carrots.  I find skinny ones work best.

Give their tops a chop.  I use my kitchen scissors.

Give them a little bath to free them of any excess earth.

Add them to a baking pan.  I have used cake pans, pie pans, cookie pans, jelly roll pans, etc.  I find they do best in metal.  I have also started using parchment paper and they work well on the paper which saves a bit on the cleanup as well.

Drizzle them with oil.  I'm sure you can experiment with oils, I tend to use Olive Oil.  And they don't need a ton, seriously just a drizzle.

Give them a bit of flavor.  For the carrots I simply ground some pepper and then ground some pink salt.

Since I also did potato and onion, I'll show you those as well.

Peel the onion and give it a rough chop.  I cut my potatoes randomly and try to keep the sizes similar.  I don't bother to peel the potatoes unless the outside is really bad looking or they are a bit older than they should be.  And any type of potato does fine - these are organic redskins.

For the onion, it was just oil and a tad bit of sea salt.

For the potatoes it was oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and a little dash of granulated garlic powder.

(by the way - the potatoes do well with all types of experimental flavors - I love to do them with curry powder or mexi-spices - just add whatever goes nicely with your dinner, I'm sure it will work).

Then, just pop them in the oven.

I usually put mine on convection roast but I've also done just the bake setting as well.  If I have to cook something other than the veggies at the same time, I adjust to make it all work but for the most part I roast at 425F.  I'd say 400F to 450F is all good.  I also try to keep the roasted veggies etc on the top rack but when I use convection it really doesn't matter.

I try to keep like veggies together because potatoes take longer than zucchini for instance and if they are all mixed together, it's harder to pull out the ones that are done.

Timer? Well, I rarely use one.  I just look at them from time to time.  I do usually pull them out about 10 minutes in and use a metal spatula to give them a shuffle and flip them over a bit.  I'd say around 20 mins is average, a bit less for zuchini, a bit more when it's potatoes.  And by the way- the browned and burned bits are super yummy so don't worry about them.  They add to the flavor!

At the end of their cooking time they should look a bit like this.  These guys all cooked for about the same time which wasn't much more than 20 mins.  And bonus that the salmon took about the same time in the rack below.

The dinner was DELISH and so easy!

Lighten and Brighten Your Lunch

If you work from home like I do - maybe, sometimes, you don't really fix yourself a real lunch.  Maybe you just munch a bit here and there - like grab an apple, eat a bagel.  Maybe you eat standing up or don't even use a plate.  Ok- I have bad eating habits even though I eat healthy, the fact that I don't fix a real meal and sit down to enjoy it probably has an impact on my digestion and my lunch health as a whole.  How about you?

One of the benefits of staying home to work is not having to buy meals - or even prepare them to carry in to work.  But sometimes, that makes meal time both boring and lonely.  Or at least that's how it is for me.  I've been trying to create exciting lunch meals for myself that I actually sit down and eat - from a plate.

Here's what I made today:

Crisp butterhead lettuce from my CSA.  A layer or organic pea shoots (Trader Joes).  Some shreds of raw organic sharp cheddar (Oakmont Farmer's Market).  I put these on a plate and then made up a fancy tuna salad to put on top.  I used a can of TJs tuna, a tablespoon or so of organic mayo, salt, pepper, shredded carrots, chopped red pearl onions (CSA), walnut pieces and topped it off with fresh dill (CSA).

It looked super pretty and it tasted great! I was satisfied all day.  It felt more like a treat than my usual stand around and grab some food kinda lunches.  Now, I'm not opposed to having a friend join me for such a lunch, but today - I ate this solo.

Do you work from home?  What's lunch like for you - do you sit down and eat a formal meal?  Anything that you love to make that's easy and filling and quick to both make and eat?  I'm happy to hear all about it - Sher

Pan Fried Stir Fry

I really don't know nothin' bout cookin' Asian food.

In fact I don't know nothin' bout cookin' most food - but I wing it and get lucky pretty often.

My friend JoAnn (yes this post is for you dear!) and I joined a CSA (community supported agriculture).  We split one full veggie share and we each get our own fruit share.  Neither of us has ever done a CSA.  So far it's been fun - and adventurous and new and fresh and cool.  So far, we have eaten a mountain of lettuce!  It's really awesome to be trying this with a friend.  Today JoAnn gave me some funny looks when I told her to take her share of certain CSA items and I instead came home with all of the beets and all of the swiss chard.  We also got a bunch of stuff I'd never eaten: fennel, radicchio, escarole.  AND... I had never cooked my own beets.

Because we are trying so many new things, I often suggest to JoAnn things that she can try to cook with the items that are new to us.  Today, I came home and experimented with all the food we got and tasted everything and decided I would make some sort of an Asian inspired dish.  Now, as I said before, I don't know nothin' bout cookin' Asian food - and that is the truth!

But, I do know that I like fresh veggies and I do know that I like pan fried (crispy) noodles.  So I decided to do that.  Here is what I came up with and it was REALLY - seriously like I was some kinda cooking pro - REALLY good.  Give it a try JoAnn - I think you have all the ingredients!

Oh yeah, did I mention that I had the beet greens because I roasted my own beets?  I put the beets in a little foil packet with some olive oil and put them in the toaster oven at 375F and then promptly forgot about them for 40 mins which as it turned out was the perfect amount of roasting time.  When I took them out of the foil and ran them under cold water, the skins came right off.  I then sliced them up and stored them in the fridge to add to salads - YUM.

Once the noodles are almost crisped enough, I toss all the separate veggies (and shrimp) back into the pan and let them warm and blend together on medium heat for just a bit.  At that time, I dump in any sauce I have made for the dish.

Now, when it comes to the sauce, you can simply buy a sauce you like at an Asian market but I usually make my own.  I have no idea what I'm doing when I make it - I simply take every Asian inspired ingredient from my fridge and mix them til it tastes right to me.  Today I used: ginger/garlic paste, chili sauce (Siracha would work here as well), sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, peanut sauce and a bit of brown sugar.  I just kept mixing until it tasted the way I wanted it to.  So - good luck.  Mine was delish by the way.

As soon as I add the sauce and give it all a stir, I turn off the heat and get ready to serve.

Put some crispy noodles on the plate and top with the veggie/sauce mixture.  Whether you eat it with a fork or chop sticks, ENJOY!

Bread Glorious Bread

When it comes to the bread recipe I just found there is no "KNEAD" to worry that it won't be perfect every time!  No-knead artisan bread recipes are all over the internet right now - and now I can attest that I understand why!

It's AWESOME and it's EASY!

Tho I could cite a ton of places where I've read about this no knead method of bread successes, it was this recipe that finally gave me the courage to give it a go.

Why? Simplicity.

I followed her suggestions pretty much EXACTLY... I used the same yeast she did (got it on Amazon), I used King Arthur flour (because I really like it), I got the same dough whisk (again, Amazon) and I finally purchased myself an enamel coated dutch oven (which I have been coveting for a while), I got this one (you guessed it, Amazon).

Yesterday at 2 pm, I threw together the "batter" for 2 loaves.  I was pretty sure the white bread would work but not so sure about the whole wheat (actually more of a light wheat as it's a blend of wheat and white), but it did.  This morning at 6:30am, I baked them off.

white loaf

The white loaf used 2 cups of organic all purpose unbleached and 1 cup of organic bread flour (both King Arthur).

wheat loaf

The wheat-ish loaf used 1 cup of organic all purp., 1 cup of organic bread flour and 1 cup or organic whole wheat.  I added another 1/4t of yeast to the wheat-ish batter as folks had said their wheat attempts didn't rise well - apparently, the extra 1/4 t did the trick.

amazing crusty bread with such fabulous texture!

And yes, if you think it looks good, it tasted even better.  This bread scenario will DEFINITELY happen again.