Minestrone Soup

After a very long hiatus, I've decided to start blogging my food adventures again. It may not be every week but at least when I make something that stands out to me, I'll post it here. Yesterday I made minestrone soup for our community group with church. People asked for the recipe which inspired me to just post it. Enjoy! (PS, it was even better the next day!)

Minestrone Soup, serves 6 as a main dish (with some good sourdough bread on the side!)

1½ cups dried great northern beans, soaked at least 4 hours
2 Tbs olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
6 carrots, sliced or diced
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 bunch chard, leaves separated from stems and chopped 
3 garlic cloves, minced
28 oz can diced tomatoes in juice
½ tsp dried rosemary
5 cups chicken broth
5 cups water
1 oz piece of parmesan rind
 kosher salt and pepper to taste

Place soaked beans in large soup pot, cover well with water and boil until tender, about 1 hour. Drain beans and set aside. Rinse soup pot and return to stove. Add oil and heat through. Saute onion, carrots, celery and chard stems only about 10 mins or until beginning to soften. Add garlic and saute another minute. Add tomatoes with juice, rosemary, broth and water. Heat to boiling and then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until veggies are tender, about 30 mins. Add parmesan rind, chard leaves, reserved beans and salt and pepper to taste and cook another 10 minutes or until chard is soft. Mash up some of the beans on the bottom with a potato masher or immersion blender. Stir well, taste for seasoning, and serve with some crusty sourdough bread.

(You can add bacon, potatoes and/or zucchini to this soup as well. Add bacon first, then use a slotted spoon to take it out after it's crispy and reserve until the end. Add potatoes w/the carrots and onion and add zucchini with the chard leaves).

Summertime Quinoa Salad

This was a "clean out the fridge" lunch that turned out so fresh and delicious I had to post it here! Super versatile so you could add or omit as desired.

Summertime Quinoa Salad, serves 1

approx. 1/4 cup cooked quinoa (use up some leftovers)
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 small tomato, diced
1 green onion, sliced
1/2 carrot, sliced
1/2 avocado, diced
1/4 jalapeno, thinly sliced (more or less depending on heat desired)
juice of 1/2 lime
EVOO
sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper
dulse flakes
cumin
1 hard boiled egg, chopped

Toss the quinoa with the veggies. Squeeze half a lime over. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt, cracked pepper, dulse flakes and cumin to taste. Toss gently to combine. Top with chopped hard-boiled egg. Enjoy!

Easy Insalata Caprese

This is my go-to snack lately. It's a fancy way of saying Italian tomato and mozzarella salad. It's low-glycemic, super easy, and delicious. The sure-fire way to make this extraordinary is to use the freshest, highest quality ingredients.

Insalata Caprese Recipe

4-5 slices fresh buffalo mozzarella
1 ripe organic tomato, sliced into 4 or 5 rounds
4-5 big basil leaves
high quality extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
fresh cracked black pepper
high quality sea salt

Layer the mozzarella slices, tomato rounds and basil. Drizzle with EVOO. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Gluten Free Dinner - Vegetarian Chili and Cornbread

Today I delivered dinner to a friend who recently had a baby girl. She is gluten-free and vegetarian so I looked up some recipes online and got to cooking. The vegetarian chili I adapted from Gluten-Free Goddess's Butternut Chili and the cornbread from her Skillet Cornbread with Green Chilies. I made double and we had ourselves a gluten-free vegetarian meal as well. I will say that I prefer my Colorful Chili but I'm not sure if it's because of the meat or because of the multitude of spices. The cornbread was absolutely delicious! Super moist and I love the diced green chilies in it. So make your favorite chili and enjoy this recipe for gluten-free cornbread.

Gluten Free Cornbread Recipe
Combine in a medium bowl:

1 cup gluten-free cornmeal

1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Baking Mix

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp baking soda

1½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp fine sea salt

½ tsp chili powder

½ tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup granulated coconut sugar

Mix in a separate large bowl:

2 eggs

1 cup kefir or buttermilk

½ cup grapeseed oil

¼ cup water

Mix dry ingredients into wet and stir just to combine.
Add and mix until combined:
1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies

Pour into a greased 9x9" baking dish or a greased 10" cast iron skillet. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon and/or chili powder if desired. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 25-30 mins or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Colorful Chili

I love chili. It's so versatile and you can pretty much put anything in it. This is my most recent version, which I'm calling "colorful" because of all the different veggies that went into it. It also has a variety of spices for the flavor and for the health benefits (chili peppers for the capsaicin and turmeric for the anti-inflammatory properties).

Colorful Chili Recipe, serves 6

Brown the following in Dutch oven or stock pot:
1 lb ground beef or bison (preferably from a grass-fed animal)
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
2 cups chopped kale or other sturdy green

Add and stir for a minute until fragrant:
¼ cup chili powder
1 Tbs cacao powder (or unsweetened coco powder)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp ground corriander
½ tsp cayenne (more or less to taste)
¼ tsp turmeric
fresh cracked pepper

Add:
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 can drained beans of choice (I like kidneys)
2 cups water
1 Tbs blackstrap molasses

Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer about an hour or until flavors are mingled to your liking.

Top with some or all:
shredded cheese
sour cream
chopped chives
more cayenne or red pepper flakes

Garlic and Greens Spaghetti Squash

This is adapted from Food Network Magazine's Great Easy Meals. Instead of using actual pasta, I opted for spaghetti squash which considerably takes down the glycemic load on your body (meaning you won't get the blood sugar spike that you would from traditional pasta). You could certainly try this with a low-glycemic pasta if you wanted to go that route.

I was shocked that the kids (ages 4 and 1½) gave this dinner rave reviews! They both cleaned their plates and asked for more! I knew that would happen if I had used real pasta but was very impressed that they both loved the spaghetti squash so much (and the greens)!

Garlic and Greens Spaghetti Squash Recipe, serves 4
1 small spaghetti squash
16 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/3 cup EVOO
1 medium onion, halved and sliced
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes, or more to taste
sea salt
1 bunch hearty greens such as kale or chard, thick stems discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
cracked black pepper and fresh grated Parmesan or Romano cheese for topping

Cut squash in half the long way. Scoop out seeds (I just discovered that my ice cream scooper works great for this!), place in baking dish, and bake in 375°F oven about 45 mins or until very tender.

When squash is almost done, begin with the rest of the recipe. Fry garlic in EVOO in a large skillet over medium heat. You want a nice color beginning to form but don't over brown or the garlic will be bitter. Transfer garlic with slotted spoon to a bowl or plate. Pour off all but about 2 Tbs of the EVOO (reserve the garlic-infused EVOO for another use or for dipping crusty bread into - which I didn't feel bad about in the least since we were having spaghetti squash instead of actual spaghetti). Add onions and red pepper flakes to the skillet. Cook until onions are softened and beginning to brown, about 10 mins. Season to taste with salt. Add greens and sauté until just wilted, about a minute.

While the onions are cooking, you can remove the squash from the oven and shred into "spaghetti". Use a fork and scrape the flesh, across the short side, to form the strands. Remove all the strands and place in the skillet with the greens and onions and toss to coat, adding more EVOO if necessary. Top with fried garlic chips. Grate Parmesan over the top, do a final seasoning with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Polenta with Roasted Tomatoes and Swiss Chard

This recipe is adapted from Food Network Magazine's Great Easy Meals. This makes a great lunch or a light dinner. Polenta is coarse cornmeal. I generally use Bob's Red Mill brand.

Polenta with Roasted Tomatoes and Swiss Chard Recipe, serves 4
28 oz can plum tomatoes, drained, or 2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 Tbs EVOO
sea salt
1 cup polenta
5 cups water
fresh ground pepper
1 bunch Swiss chard
4 Tbs butter
Feta or goat cheese, for topping
crushed red pepper flakes, optional

Preheat oven to 450ºF. Toss tomatoes, EVOO and 1/4 tsp salt in large ovenproof skillet. Cook until tomatoes are beginning to caramelize, about a half hour. Turn oven down to 300ºF but keep tomatoes in until needed later.

Meanwhile, boil water in medium sauce pot. Slowly whisk in polenta. Stir constantly until mixture boils. Turn heat down to low and simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened and creamy. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, prepare chard: cut leaves from stems and roughly chop. Keep the stems and slice into 1/2" pieces. Remove tomatoes from oven and place over medium heat on stovetop. Add butter to skillet and swirl to coat. Add chard stems and cook until almost tender, about 5 mins. Add leaves and sauté just until wilted.

Divide polenta between 4 bowls. Top with tomato/chard mixture. Sprinkle cheese over the top and season with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes, if desired.

Roasted Pears with Blackberries, Ricotta and Lavender Sugar

This dessert recipe comes from Bon Appetit. As soon as I saw it in the magazine I absolutely knew I had to make it. Right away. I was not disappointed. It is amazing. I modified it slightly to make it a little less glycemic (it's not bad anyways) by using a mixture of coconut sugar and fructose instead of regular sugar. I've already made this three times in less than a month! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do :)

Lavender Sugar (makes a lot, save in an airtight container for future use):
1 cup fructose
1/2 cup coconut sugar
(or 1 1/2 cups regular sugar)
1 Tbs dried lavender flowers (I found at Sprouts and Whole Foods)

Grind all in food processor until lavender is finely chopped and thoroughly incorporated into sugars.

Remainder of ingredients:
2 unpeeled pears, preferably just ripe or slightly under-ripe, quartered and cored
1 Tbs lemon juice
about 1/2 of a 12 oz package frozen blackberries, preferably Marion blackberries
1/2 cup fresh ricotta cheese (needs to be a good brand, from the deli or fresh section, or you could also use crème fraîche)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease a 9x9 baking dish. In medium bowl, toss pears, lemon juice and 1 Tbs lavender sugar. Transfer pears to baking dish, cut sides down. Roast 10-15 mins. Turn pears so the other cut side is down, sprinkle with another Tbs of lavender sugar. Roast another 10 mins. Turn pears again so the skin side is down, add blackberries among pears, sprinkle with another Tbs lavender sugar. Set oven to broil and broil about 5 mins or until pears begin to brown, berries burst a bit and juices begin to caramelize. Divide pears, berries and every last bit of juice among 2 plates. Make sure to get every last bit of juice because it is lick-your-plate-good. Dollop ricotta on top and serve warm. 

You can easily increase the servings by using one pear per person and adjusting the sugar, lemon juice, and blackberries accordingly. Enjoy!

Gluten-free Pancake Challenge

Coconut flour pancakes topped w/applesauce and crème fraîche

I took it upon myself this morning to test out some alternative pancake recipes. I have both almond flour and coconut flour and thought certainly one of the two would make a good pancake. So I tested them both out and here are the recipes and results.

 Almond Flour Pancakes
1/2 cup almond flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
2-4 drops liquid stevia
pinch salt
milk to thin to desired consistency

Mix everything together and pour batter into hot, greased skillet. I used coconut oil for greasing and made the pancakes about 4 inches in diameter. They came out pretty good, if a bit mealy. I liked the flavor a lot though.

Almond flour on left and coconut flour on right

Coconut Flour Pancakes
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (plus more to thin if needed)
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 drops liquid stevia
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/4 cup coconut flour

Beat eggs and 1/2 cup milk together. Mix in remaining ingredients. The coconut flour clumps a bit so be sure to really beat it smooth. It also absorbs a lot of moisture so I had to add more milk to thin it out some. Pour batter into hot, greased skillet. Again, I used coconut oil for greasing and made the pancakes about 4 inches in diameter. These came out really eggy, more like crepes. Which isn't bad, it's just not pancakes. I think I would keep this recipe around for crepes, just add more eggs and possibly more milk to thin it out further. I ended up eating the crepe-like pancakes topped with applesauce (the best ever comes from Ela Family Farms and is Colorado local!) and a dollop of crème fraîche. Pretty good!

I had a thought after everything was cleaned up that I could have mixed the two flours together and see what they created! Maybe next time...