Quick Lunch Series: Roasted Eggplant & Cauliflower

This recipe is adapted from here.

Ingredients:

1 Japanese Eggplant, sliced into wedges

1/2 Cauliflower cut into florets

1-2 tbsp red curry paste

1 cup chickpeas

1-2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 small piece of ginger grated

olive oil

salt to taste

a few fresh basil leaves

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

If using dry chickpeas, soak in water overnight and steam. If using canned, rinse and set aside.

Toss eggplant, cauliflower, ginger, garlic, oil, salt and curry paste. Roast in oven for 30-40 minutes until lightly brown.

Add chickpeas and mix well. Continue to roast for another 5-10 minutes.

Garnish with basil and serve warm over a bowl of rice. Perfect for that office day meal.

Guilt free Vegan, Banana, Coconut, and Dark Chocolate Bread

So, I had some ripe bananas, finals and stress.

What better way to beat the two, but to bake some bread.

I baked some guilt free, vegan, banana, walnut, coconut, and dark chocolate bread with white and whole wheat flour and ate guilelessly, while I stressed out over my finals!

I followed the recipe almost to a T.

You can find the full recipe here.

Sunday Morning Brunch & Panda

So, last weekend, I met up with my old co-workers for a bagel brunch….

I baked fresh home-made bagels: sun-dried tomato, olive and jalapeno.

and visited the Smithsonian Zoo to see Bao Bao, who was leaving 😦

We will miss you, Bao Bao!

Quick Lunch Series: Cauliflower Rice and Kale Soup

As soon as I came across this soup recipe, I was propelled to try it! Here’s how I made mine.

Ingredients:

1 small Cauliflower, separated into florets
1 bunch of Tuscan Kale, chopped
1/4 red onion chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 carton of light coconut milk or use Almond milk
cumin powder
paprika
curry powder
red pepper flakes
salt and fresh ground pepper
olive oil
lemon juice
3-4 cups of broth or water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Toss Cauliflower florets in olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Layout in a baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare other vegetables.  Heat a little oil in a large pan or dutch oven. Lightly fry onion and garlic till translucent. Add carrot and kale and lightly fry. Add seasoning, coconut milk and broth or water and bring to a boil. Reduce flame and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Process the roasted Cauliflower in a food processing, pulsing lightly to create Cauliflower rice. Transfer to the soup pan and continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes.

Season with salt and fresh ground pepper. Sprinkle croutons or pumpkin seeds. Drizzle lemon juice. Sprinkle herbs as needed and serve warm!

Black-eyed Peas and Collard Greens for the New Year

I am a little late in posting this. Following the tradition from the last few years I made black eyed peas and collard greens on New Years Day.

For lunch, I made these Mediterranean flavored wraps with steamed black eyed peas seasoned with salt, sun dried tomatoes in oil, black olives, sliced cucumber, sliced orange pepper, banana peppers and roasted pepper hummus.

For dinner I made soup loosely following the recipe here.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup black eyed peas, soaked over night and steamed
2-3 large collard greens
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 bay leaf
1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup broth (or use use water like I do)
1/2 tsp berbere spice
touch of turmeric
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
cilantro to garnish
squeeze of fresh lemon juice (optional)

If using dry black eyed peas, soak in water overnight. Steam in a pressure cooker with twice the amount of water.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large dutch over or pan. Add bay leaf, turmeric, onion, jalapeno, ginger and garlic and fry till lightly golden. Add berbere, salt, fresh ground pepper and tomatoes and continue cooking for five minutes.

Add broth or water, coconut milk and bring to a boil. Reduce flame to medium low and continue to simmer for 20 minutes. Add the cooked black eyed peas. Add more broth or coconut milk as needed and continue to simmer for another 15-20 minutes.

Add chopped greens and mix well. Keep cooking for another 5-10 minutes.  Garnish with some cilantro, drizzle of lemon juice  and serve warm with some rolls.

See Also:

Black-Eyed Peas for Prosperity in the New Year
Hoppin’ John
Black-eyed Peas and Greens with Navrattan Spices to start the New Year
Black-eyed Peas and Collard Greens

Mango Chia Pudding

Lately, I have been enjoying chia pudding for breakfast. My favorite combination is using mango!

Ingredients:

1 cup lite coconut milk
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 tbsp of maple syrup
1 mango

In a bowl, mix the coconut milk and chia seeds thoroughly.

Peel and dice the mango. Place roughly half in a food processor and blend to a pulp. Transfer the pulp to the milk mixture. Add maple syrup and mix well. Top with the rest of the diced mango.

Refrigerate overnight and enjoy the next morning for breakfast!

Makes 3-4 servings.

Quick Lunch Series: Cauliflower Fried Rice

I have been meaning to make Cauliflower Fried Rice since I saw this Coconut and Lime Cauliflower Fried Rice recipe and this one.  Although, I had a cauliflower at home and could make the rice from scratch, I found a bag at Trader Joes and this is how I ended making my dish.

Ingredients:

2 cups cauliflower rice
1/4 cup lite coconut milk
some lemon juice (optional)
1 cup mix vegetables – I used shredded carrot, corn, peas, red pepper sliced, broccoli florets and sliced red onion
1-2 tsp chili oil with crushed red pepper
1 tsp coconut oil
drizzle of soy sauce
salt to taste

Heat the coconut oil in a pan. Add the cauliflower rice and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add coconut milk, lemon juice and cook on for 8-10 minutes or unitl the liquid evaporates and the rice is cooked.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan add the red chili oil and stir fry the vegetables on medium high for 5-10 minutes until lightly browned. Season with salt, red crushed pepper, and a drizzle of soy sauce. Mix in the cauliflower rice and serve warm.

It turned out delicious! It looks very much like brown rice, but once you taste it, it was pleasantly tasteful. Especially being cooked in coconut milk gives it extra flavor.

Makes 3-4 servings.

Quick Lunch Series: Quinoa Bisibele Bath

I’ve been meaning to try this for a while, and finally cooked it this weekend. It is perfect for an office day meal. I do love one pot meals!

I swapped in  Quinoa, instead of rice, as has been the norm lately in my routine.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup white Quinoa
1/3 cup Toor dal (Pigeon Pea)
1 small white or yellow onion cut into 1in pieces
1 jalapeno, sliced
1 Chayote squash, peeled and cut into 1in pieces (typically bottle guard is used, but I often substitute with Chayote Squash)
1-2 medium tomatoes, chopped into large pieces
2/3 rd cup tamarind juice
1.5 cups water
1 tsp oil
a dash of turmeric
a dash of asaphoetida
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2-3 dry red chillies
2-3 tsp Bisibele powder, I typically use the MTR variety
2-3 tbsp fresh (or dry) grated coconut
a few curry leaves
cilantro to garnish
coconut slices to garnish
salt to taste
2-3 tbsp ghee (optional)

I like to use a pressure pan to cook this. Heat oil in the pressure pan, add turmeric, asaphoetida, cumin, mustard and dry red chillies and fry for a minute till lightly brown. Add onions, jalapeno,  curry leaves and squash and fry lightly. Add tomatoes and mix well.

Rinse and add Quinoa and toor dal and mix well. Add bisibele bath powder, salt and coconut powder and mix well. Add water and tamarind juice and mix well. Close pressure cooker lid and let simmer on medium low for 2-3 whistles. What makes this dish especially yummy is to add 2-3 tbsp of ghee!

Let cool, before opening the pressure pan. Garnish with cilantro and coconut slices and serve warm.

Makes 3 servings.

Cherries are in the air

Cherries are most economic in April/May, and I hoard up on them. More than I can eat anyway.

Sometimes too many!

While they are refreshing and fun for that late afternoon snack, there are many cherry recipes I love to try when this happens…

Salads

Cherry and Avacado Salad

Baking

Mini Cherry Crumbles

Cherry and Cardamon Cake

Cherry Cake

Healthy Whole Wheat Cherry and Chocolate Muffins

Homemade Granola

Ice Cream

Cherry,  Dark Chocolate and Coffee Popsicle

Cherry Swirl, Dark Chocolate and Cherry Bits

Refreshing Drinks

Refreshing and Homemade Cherry Lemonade

Patio Garden 2016

I normally get very excited with growing my vegetables in my small patio garden. But lately I have been too busy with work and classes, and frustrated with the squirrels, but not so much that I would give up entirely!

I didn’t try my organic seeds this Spring, but I did finally plant a tomato, zucchini, red bell pepper, fresh herbs: basil, parsley and mint and blueberries!

I still have my curry leaf plant, safely indoors tucked away from the elements!

So far so good…

My Patio Garden this year is not to its usual standard. But I still hope to plant some greens, once there is a breather…

Will keep you posted.

See:

Patio Garden 2015
Patio Garden 2014
Patio Garden 2013
Gardening