Marinated Vegetable Salad

I'm forever in search of new ways of preparing vegetables.  New salads, fritters, breakfast options, you name it I try them all.  The find this week is a marinated vegetable salad from The Seasoned Mom.  Hmmmm, marinated vegetables sound interesting to me.  I like the idea of putting on a dressing (marinade), putting in the fridge and have it taste better after it sits for a while.  Sure beats soggy salads.

This variation looks like an old family recipe and when mom passes it down to daughter, there's something that makes it more interesting.  The best - it takes 10 minutes to put together and lasts a few days in the fridge.

Ingredients

3/4 cup slice mushrooms
3/4 cup halved cherry or grape tomatoes
3/4 cup sliced zucchini
3/4 cup peeled chopped carrots
1 small sweet bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup broccoli florets
1/2 cup cauliflower florets
1/2 tsp minced garlic (I used a little more)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp chopped fresh chives
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1.  Place all vegetables in a large bowl
2.  Place all remaining ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake until completely combined.
3.  Pour dressing over vegetables
4.  Refridgerate salad at least 2 hours (or overnight)

Fresh, addictive and healthy

Lentil and Sweet Potato Sheperd's Pie

Sheperd's Pie?  I remember loving it many years ago and somehow it landed into retro culinary. I'm eating so little red meat that the memory of sheperd's pie was a more interesting memory than anything.  That was until I saw a recipe for Lentil and Sweet Potato Sheperd's Pie over at One Ingredient Chef

Bonanza!!! I had all the ingredients and that was the end of that.

4 medium sweet potatoes

1/2 cup diced onions

1/12 cup diced celery

1/2 cup diced carrots

4 1/2 cups prepared lentils

2 15 oz cans diced tomatoes (I used 1 large 28 oz)

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp basil and more for garnish

1/2 cup chopped spinach

2+ Tbsp non-dairy milk

Sea salt to taste

1.  Peel and chop the potatoes and boil on medium for 15-20 minutes.
2.  Prepare the onions, celery and carrots and add to large skillet with two tablespoons of water (I used the water that I was cooking the lentils in)  Heat on medium to soften the vegetables.
3.  Add the prepared lentils to the vegetables and cook together  for a few minutes.
    NOTE:  You can use any lentil you like.  I used about 2 cups of dry lentils with 4 cups of water;      bring to a boil and simmer to soften the lentils (about 30 minutes); drain
4.  Add diced tomatoes, basil and spinach together with soy sauce.  Cook for 15-20 minutes on medium low.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

5.  Mash sweet potatoes with a couple of tablespoons of non dairy milk (I used coconut milk) until smooth.
6.  In a 9x13 casserole, add the lentil filling mixture and top with mashed potatoes.

7.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the top begins to brown slightly.

I did add a little garlic and some chopped red pepper to suit my taste and I believe you can either boost or minimize this recipe however you like.  Both delicious and nutritious.  Your body will thank you.

Thai Curry Noodle Bowl

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I received a review copy of The Complete Leafy Greens Cookbook and was blown away by how much I didn't know about the varieties of leafy greens out there.  In part, I think I'm a product of using greens that are easily accessible in Canada.  This book makes me want to go on some scavenger hunts to find and cook with leafy greens like Chinese Celery,  La Lot Leaf and Purslane (to name a few).  

I like the way this cookbook is organized.  Separate sections are devoted to each green.  Each section starts off with some background information, the varieties, where to buy, how to store, how to prepare and how to consume the green.  Then, some recipes, often vegan-friendly, are provided.  

I'm a visual person, so I really like that simple colour pictures of the greens are provided throughout.  I also like how the information is laid out in separate text boxes.  It reminds me of when I used to study my textbooks in university.  There's something about separating out information into different boxes and colours that makes it more digestible (don't mind the pun).  I used to look through my textbook chapters and make visual milestones for myself (e.g., ok -- I am going to read from here to the text box three pages from now).  Pages that didn't have any visuals or text boxes were always challenging for me to get through.  Kind of like the month of January (long, cold and nothing to break it up).  Anyways - I am digressing.

Another thing that I like about this cookbook is that each recipe contains the usual suspects (ingredients, quantities, directions), but there is also a "Tips" section on the left sidebar of the page.  It never really occurred to me, but having this tip section made me realize how often I have to Google information to understand a recipe.  Whether it be an unfamiliar ingredient, technique or figuring out substitutes, there can be a fair amount of research that goes into not screwing up a recipe.  With the tip section, these questions were answered.

I still have a lot of reading to do before I can fully comment on the recipes.  But, in general, I like the diversity and quality of recipes. Many of these greens are mainly found in certain ethnic cuisines.  So, I like that these uses are reflected in the cookbook (e.g., African Sweet Potato Leaf Stew, Taiwan Lettuce Mei Fun, West Indies Pepper Pot Soup). Here's the recipe I decided to make:

Thai Curry Noodle Bowl

6 oz snow peas (3 cups, loosely packed), trimmed and halved (the snow peas at the store looked really sad, so I opted for snap peas)
12 oz dried chow mein noodles
2 tbsp oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp Thai red curry paste (I used more like 3 tbsp)
4 cups vegetable stock
1 can (14 oz) coconut milk
1 tbsp granulated sugar
4 oz baby spinach leaves (about 5 cups)
1/4 chopped fresh cilantro (we tend to never use this up, so I excluded this)
2 large green onions, slivered (not a fan of green onions, plus recipes has shallots, so I excluded)
kosher or coarse sea salt
1/4 cup crispy shallots (basically deep fried shallot rings -- I pan fried minced shallots)
1 red finger chilli (couldn't find, so I got Thai chilli peppers)
lime wedge

1. In a large saucepan of boiling salted water over medium heat, blanch snow peas for about 1 minute, until tender-crisp.  Using a mesh scoop, transfer to a colander (leave cooking water in a pan) and immediately rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.  Drain peas and set aside.
2. Return pan of cooking water to a boil over medium heat.  Add noodles and cook for about 10 minutes or according to package directions, until tender but firm.  Drain.
3. Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, heat oil until warm.  Stir in garlic and curry paste for 30 seconds.  Stir in stock, coconut milk and sugar until smooth.  When mixture comes to a simmer, reduce heat to low and add spinach, cilantro and green onions.  Cook for about 1 minutes, until heated through.

 4. Divide prepared noodles among 6 wide, shallow serving bowls.  Top with equal quantities of snow peas.  Ladle hot broth with spinach over noodles.  Pile crispy shallots in center of each bowl.  Scatter chilli slices over each serving.  Place a lime wedge at the edge of each bowl, to squeeze over the noodles.  Serve immediately.

Verdict: We both liked this dish.  Even E liked it.  I figured the sauce might be too spicy for her, but she was having a meltdown (didn't nap at daycare, don't want to sit in a highchair moment), so I had her sitting on my lap through dinner.  She pushed away her plain noodles and ate mine that had the broth on it.

My main beef with the dish is that I still cannot get my dishes to have the flavours I would get from a Thai restaurant.  I've tried to make my own curry paste before and that didn't work either.  I don't think this is the fault of the recipe because all it really says is to use a tablespoon of Thai red curry paste.  I think I need to take a trip to Thailand and take a cooking course.  OK - problem solved.

Vegan Eggplant Lasagna

The other day, I talked about eating more vegetarian meals.  Although there are some meat dishes I really enjoy, for the most part, eating less meat hasn't required too much effort or restraint.   In contrast, becoming vegan would be a completely different story for me.  

The vegan salad I made tasted great -- but I don't think I would survive never having feta cheese in my salad again.  This eggplant lasagna was already really flavourful!  But, I missed having real cheese on top.  Daiya is a great substitute.  But it doesn't melt the way real cheese does.  

Okay -- enough knocking vegan food.  In fact, this dish was actually really good.  I made a vegan eggplant lasagna (no noodles).  Here's what I did:

First I peeled and sliced eggplant into rounds. Then I sprinkled salt on both sides of the eggplant to remove the bitterness.

After letting the eggplant sit for about an hour (maybe longer), I rinsed off the eggplant to remove the salt.

I looked all over the place for a soy-based ricotta or cottage cheese.  I should have started with Google because it turns out that it's really easy to just make a ricotta-like substitute by blending a firm tofu and adding some spices (e.g., oregano, basil, garlic powder).

For the first layer, I spread out a fair amount of crushed tomatoes

Then eggplant

Then more crushed tomatoes

Then I put a layer of cheese

Then, the tofu ricotta and a layer of spinach

sliced mushrooms

and canned San Marzano tomatoes

Next comes the last layer of eggplant

I put the last of my crushed tomatoes on top of the eggplant and finished it off with more Daiya cheese.

I let the lasagne cook at 350 for about an hour (partly to make sure that the eggplant was cooked through, partly because the cheese was slow to brown and partly because we were eating the salad and visiting with friends)

Like I said, the dish tasted good.  It was a bit messy plating it.

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Hopefully you're not pictured out because I also wanted to quickly share the appetizer.  At the end of the garden season last year, we had a bunch of cherry tomatoes to use up.  So, although I could probably just eat them standing over the counter, we decided to preserve them by oven roasting them with garlic and freezing them in ice cube trays.

I took a bunch of the cubes from the freezer and warmed them up,

The entire appetizer was motivated by wanting to try the Apple Cider Vinegar Pearls we recently got.  Gingras makes these caviar-like pearls that are little bursts of apple cider vinegar.



Overall, the appetizer was just okay.  I really like the crackers (I just randomly chose them while shopping).  I think the vinegar pearls didn't add much to the flavour of the tomato, which already have their own acidity.  I suspect they would be better with a cheese or meat topping.  They also didn't visibly stand out very much against the tomatoes. Thankfully, I still have 2 out of the 4 sachets of pearls left.  So, I'll keep experimenting with them.

Peanut Butter Boy & Tangled Thai Salad

About a year and a half ago, Peanut Butter Boy (aka: Nick) contacted us about trying out some peanut butter samples for a line of PB that he was developing.  Nick started out as a food blogger who blogged about peanut butter recipes.  With all of his experience cooking and baking with peanut butter, Nick began to focus more on the quality of the peanut butter he was using.  In his search for the perfect peanut butter, Nick decided to take matters into his own hands and developed his own line of peanut butter.  

For now, Peanut Butter Boy has two peanut butters to choose from: Super Smooth and Crunch Power. Both peanut butters include only three ingredients: roasted peanuts, palm oil and sea salt. 

Since the peanut butter uses no fillers and is vegan-friendly, I knew I wanted to use it to make a vegan meal for friends we had invited for dinner.  I searched around for vegan salad dressings that include peanut butter and found this recipe for Fresh Restaurant's Tangled Thai Salad.  Even though the list of ingredients is long, I was drawn in by the pictures and a desire to try some ingredients that I don't normally use.  

Ingredients

Salad

• 1 cup chopped napa cabbage
• 1⁄3 cup jicama, cut into small sticks
• 2⁄3 cup peeled raw carrot, spiralized (or cut/peeled into julienne)
• 2⁄3 cup peeled raw yellow beets, spiralized (or cut into julienne)
• 4 tbsp Peanut Lime Dressing (recipe follows)
• 3 slices cucumber, halved (or cut into julienne)
• 2 tsp chopped raw peanuts
• 2 tbsp Fresh Salad Topper (recipe follows)
• 1⁄4 lime
• Cilantro to taste

Peanut Lime Dressing

• 1 tbsp ginger, peeled and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 3⁄4 tsp sambal oelek (a South Asian chili sauce)
• 2 tbsp cilantro, densely packed
• 2 tbsp natural peanut butter
• 2 tbsp plus 2 tsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp plus 1⁄2 tsp tamari (a type of soy sauce)
• 1-1⁄2 tsp organic sugar
• 2 tsp coconut milk
• 3⁄4 tsp sesame oil
• 1⁄2 cup sunflower oil (or extra virgin olive oil)

Fresh Salad Topper

• 1 cup puffed quinoa (optional)
• 1⁄4 cup goji berries
• 1⁄4 cup currants (optional)
• 2 tbsp sliced almonds
• 2 tbsp hazelnuts, chopped
• 2 tbsp pistachios, chopped
• 1⁄4 tsp sea salt

Panko Crusted Tofu

• ½ block of tofu (about 225 g)
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• ¼ cup Japanese panko breadcrumbs
• 3 tbsp coconut or peanut oil

Instructions

Peanut Lime Dressing

1. In a blender, purée all but sunflower oil. With blender running, add oil in a thin stream.
2. Makes 1 cup, enough for 4 salads

Here is the dressing with just some of the ingredients.  I made a double recipe of the dressing.

Fresh Salad Topper

1. Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix.
2. Makes approx. 1-3/4 cups; refridgerate unused portion

Panko Crusted Tofu

1. Slice tofu into 1 inch rectangles or triangles.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
3. Place cornstarch and breadcrumbs in two separate small bowls. Coat tofu pieces with cornstarch, and then press breadcrumbs into them.
4. Fry until golden brown on both sides. Pat dry with paper towels and set aside.

Salad

1. Put cabbage into a large bowl and top with jicama. Pile the carrot and beet strands on top and drizzle with Peanut Lime Dressing.

 

2. Garnish with cucumber, peanuts, Fresh Salad Topper, lime and cilantro.

Verdict: 

The salad was delicious!  The dressing really makes it.  I wish I knew how to mix ingredients to create a blend like this without a recipe.  I need to do more experimenting.  The peanut butter was just one of many ingredients.  I  have also tried some on a spoon and loved the flavour.  But, I'll need to continue to try the peanut butter in other recipes!  

There were some bumps in the process of making the salad.  For one, it took quite a while to put together -- between getting the ingredients (I never did find jicama, so I substituted Asian pear) and all of the chopping.  Yet another reminder that I need to be more prepared.  Sometimes I over-estimate how productive I can be with a baby in tow.  Thankfully, E was happy to hang out on my back while I made dinner.  Yay for babywearing!

Another challenge was trying to puff quinoa.  I Googled what this meant.  But, really had no idea what I was doing.  I tried to keep shaking the pot, so as to avoid burnt quinoa.  But, I still ended up burning it.  Below is my dutch oven, sitting on my balcony to avoid the burnt smell from circulating in the house.