Last night’s dinner (and leftovers tonight). A really yummy chickpea potato soup. Even though it was 94 here today, this soup hit the spot!
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Sent to Rob! He’s on a low cholesterol kick, some recent bloodwork not so awesome.
He made a very dry & not delicious lentil loaf & asked for mushroom gravy to help it become edible, lol.
I. Could. Drink. This. Stuff.
Sauté finely chopped onions in butter & oil on low heat sprinkled with salt & pepper until very soft. Add some very finely chopped mushrooms (any kind! I used white button) & cook until soft. Stir in herbs, I added thyme & sage, rosemary would be good, & minced garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Here add whatever to deglaze, I used mustard powder mixed with Worcestershire sauce, tamari, red wine, water.
Now I cooked that down then removed it from the pan, then flash fried some sliced mushrooms to brown them a bit, deglaze with a bit of tamari, add the rest back in again with as much water or broth as you want. I simmered here, then thickened with tapioca.
Seriously delicious.
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Oooo!!! Sounds and looks amazing. Would improve any loaf!!
Good luck to Rob!!
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I have no idea how this tastes at the moment. Sometimes I can taste the salt and garlic, other times nope… 
Anyhoo, tried my hand at a wanna-be hummus. Didn’t have any sesame seeds, so I roasted some pumpkin seeds in place of the tahini. Also, I didn’t bother with any oil in the seed mash as I overdid it with the water in the chickpea flour (however, I may not care to add any extra oil regardlessly, 
) . 1+1/2 cup water to 1/4 cup chickpea flour was just a hair off. Next time I’ll try to use 1/3 cup chickpea flour.
Welp, here’s to hoping my taste & smell will give me at least a tiny taste, heh.
Okie dokie! It took sitting in the fridge over night to thicken up right. So the 1/4 c. flour was perfect.
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I spent two hours last night making a chicken curry served with homemade flatbread. Late dinner, but worth it!
I used some overgrown tatsoi from the garden instead of spinach, and it worked. Plus used up a leftover piece of zuccini. The tomato marmalade from last year was a decent substitute for chutney.
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I’m on an overnight trip and I just had my packed lunch, including a thermos full of delicious soup. Seriously, delicious, and I make / eat a lot of soup. Late last night, I inspected the fridge and took out everything that would go bad before I’m back home. I then got out my stock pot, heated some olive oil, then added one onion, parsley, three carrots, a pound of cherry tomatoes, half a leek and a regular tomato. I put the lid on it and let it be for about 15 minutes, then I added water and vegetable stock powder (the health food store variety with just salt and herbs, no additives). Then I put it all in the blender and froze all but one portion. It really is delicious, the nicest soup I’ve had for a while.
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Black bean refried beans, and I’m pretty sure they taste good…i just don’t know, 
, man, this erratic taste/smell is just driving me nuts. I can taste the beans, and a hint of the cumin, but no salt, pepper, onions, garlic…
and a batch of hummus. Chickpea flour, ground cashews, garlic, and salt & pepper. And since my taste is messed up, turmeric and black pepper (as they’re supposed to be good for pain).
Pshew, a little runny, but I hope it thickens up over night like the last time I made it. 
. However, if it doesn’t thicken up, might be a good thing. I found a recipe for a hummus pizza…Would have to change it, but meh, I probably won’t taste what I do with it anyway, 
.
Also, about to make a batch of gnocchi, too. I’m debating on adding a duck egg to it (niece gave me quite a few). Pppp! Just don’t know if I want to do it, but I have been having a brain block and can’t think of much to make with them, .
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It’s CSA season, and I’m happily drowning in vegetables! Here’s a few of the things I’ve been making…
Today’s lunch: Salad greens & green pepper from the CSA, orange pepper, Persian/mini cucumber, edamame beans, steamed beets, cashews, and crispy fried onions, with a Sesame Miso Dressing. Guys. GUYS, this is the best dressing I’ve ever made. (And I make a lot of salad dressings, because I think store bought ones taste like chemicals.) I made it for dinner salads last night, with seared Ahi tuna. I literally made this salad for lunch, just so I could have more of the dressing! Serve some sort of bread or roll with it, so you can sop up the extra dressing.
Jennie’s Miso Sesame Salad Dressing (makes about 5-6 servings)
1.5 Tablespoons white miso paste
2 T rice vinegar
1.25 T honey
1 T minced fresh ginger (or 1/2 tsp dried ground ginger)
1 T sesame oil
juice of 1/2 a lime
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 T mayo (I used Hellman’s plant-based)
(Original recipe came from All Recipes, but it was so thin and watery. I added the 1 T of mayo to help hold it together, and it was perfect!)
In other salad dressing news, my second favorite new dressing is Bang Bang Shrimp Dressing. I had tons of salad greens last week, and a bag of popcorn shrimp in my freezer, so I went looking for a good dressing recipe. If you like Bang Bang Shrimp in restaurants, this is a pretty good flavor comparison, without the grease of deep batter-fried shrimp, and dry cabbage slaw. The dressing is a bit thinner and more pourable, with some pleasant heat. I cannot for the life of me, remember where I found this one online, but I wrote it down for my home recipe binder, so here it is.
Bang Bang Shrimp Dressing (makes 6-8 servings)
1/3 cup mayo (I used 3 T Kewpie Japanese mayo for that flavor + 2 T plant based mayo to cut down on calories and cholesterol)
4 Tablespoons sweet chili sauce
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoons honey
2 Tablespoons water
A week or two ago I made Stuffed Pattypan Squash (I stuffed mine with 1 breakfast-sized link of chicken sausage, fresh herbs, local corn, and toasted quinoa, then topped with a slice of aged cheddar and a pinch of Parmesan during the last 5 minutes of cooking), and a White Bean & Quinoa Salad with Persian Cucumbers, Cherry Tomatoes, Pistachios and a Balsamic Dressing. (She makes the recipe using chickpeas, and pomegranate molasses, but gives options for using other ingredients based on what’s in season, and what you have on hand. I had tomato, cucumber, and aged balsamic.)
I managed to use up last week’s Rainbow Chard leaves very easily in a Turkey Stir Fry (though I served mine over brown rice), but I wasn’t sure what to do with the stems. After a bit of searching I found this recipe for Pickled Chard Stems. Crunchy and bright pops of flavor to put on salad, avocado toast, sandwiches, etc.
I also had 2 heads of lettuce to use (on top of the salad mix they gave me), so I went looking for alternate ideas beyond salads, and found a recipe for Hot or Cold Lettuce Soup, which also called for fresh parsley and lemons, both of which I had on hand too. I liked this, and served it as a side with dinner one night, and had it for lunch two more days, topping it with a few croutons. My only complaint is I should have blended longer for a smoother texture, and added something for a bit more thickness and creaminess. Perhaps half an avocado, a bit of coconut milk, or some soaked cashews? All in all, it was bright, flavorful and screamed SPRING TIME in my mouth. But a little thickness would have been good too. Sadly, I forgot to get a pic of the bright green soup. (Which I served out of my HP Cauldron mug, to great effect as it looked like Polyjuice Potion.)
I also did a batch of Vegan Garlic Scape Pesto, and a White Bean & Garlic Scape Dip. I don’t love garlic scapes, so I didn’t care for the dip, but we have a friend who is a garlic fiend. I froze the dip in a few small containers to give him when he’s next over for dinner. The pesto was great. It made 3 small containers, so I used one, and froze the rest. I used it on a batch of air fried gnocchi, and in egg white scrambles with sun dried tomatoes and roasted mushrooms. I think the basil and lemon helped balance this one for me, flavor wise, so I didn’t mind the scapes.
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Awesome and adventurous makes, my friend. I’m not sure how I feel about lettuce soup, lol.
I wonder if tahini would help add some thickness/binding for your salad dressing…it’s my favorite go-to for that purpose.
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Jim ate the Lettuce Soup without complaint, but said he wouldn’t go out of his way to eat it again. Mostly, it is an intense lemon-parsley flavor, with more of a background of a refreshing lettuce flavor. And it can be hot or cold, so could make for a nearly no-cook dinner on a miserably hot night. (You do saute an onion in butter, then wilt the lettuce with it, before pureeing it. Because the CSA gives us so much lettuce at the beginning of the season, I would make it again, because even with liking salads more and more, there are still only so many I can eat in one week.
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Grumble grumble, moan and whine.
Many of ya’ll know I’ve been making sweet bean paste out of a type of bean called mayocoba as it was the least strong bean-flavored…Welp, this erratic taste has changed that, now that’s almost the only flavor I taste. Yeesh! However, I had my wife try a very small piece, and she said the cinnamon is the strongest flavor. So, I’m going to say they are good, heh.
Anyway, here’s my first attempt at making mochi, and other than the pain of standing for so long and that I should have dried/frozen the bean paste a little, they really were not that difficult to make.
(Just found out, filled mochi is actually called daifuku. 
, well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. )
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How awesome!!
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Hmm! I’ve been perusing other daifuku and mochi flavors, and three catch my eye the most. Peanut butter and chocolate daifuku, and coffee mochi.
Lightly freezing a thick chocolate cream and peanut butter would make forming them easier.
The coffee mochi would just be a thick coffee added……1 tsp per every half cup of rice flour.
Also, I could substitute the water with either milk or condensed milk (which would remove the sugar).
Aaaaaaand I have to keep myself from crying because I’ll never know how these would taste. …i hate this, 
Heh!
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Ok! First batch of licorice mochi is done…and something felt a little off, . This batch didn’t seem to cook right. I wonder if the amount of sugar matters, as I cut this one way way down. Pppp! Guess the next batch will have to be the full amount (or at least closer).
Also, if my broken nose could smell…whatever that smell licorice has in the background, I can only imagine how much my wife could smell if she were here, .
Ok! Maybe it isn’t the amount of sugar…Oh my word my lower back and my thighs hurt something fierce. So definitely cut down the length of time to make these.
Peppermint (no red food coloring, so improvising).
OOOOOOOooooooow! Too early to nap…must rest…Ooooooof!
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The CSA gave us eggplant this week. Both Jim & I hate eggplant. I’ve tried so many recipes, trying to like it, and they always fail to sway me. (I do enjoy eggplant Parmesan, but let’s face it, it’s a giant pain in the bum to make, and is so messy, and gets the stove all greasy with the frying.) So this time, instead of trying to find a recipe I would like the eggplant in, I decided to try to make the eggplant to disappear into the recipe.
I made this Creamy Coconut Eggplant Curry. I did make two tweaks: I added a pint of new potatoes that I also had to use up from the CSA, and they came out velvety soft. And I cooked it in the Instant Pot instead of on the stovetop. I cooked it under pressure for 7 minutes. Everything was fully cooked, but the eggplant was still very solid and noticeable, and the sauce was a bit watery. So I set it to sauté, and brought it up to a low boil for 30 minutes. This made the eggplant melt into the sauce, and thickened the sauce up nicely. I served it over brown rice, with fresh parsley.
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That was clever, I commend you. For something we didn’t like I’d be roaming the neighborhood offering it away. Well done!
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Alrighty Funky Monkey! Made another batch of hummus, and may have over-toasted the cumin and fennel…Meh, my erratic taste can mostly taste the chickpea, tahini, and sunflower oil. Not getting much else, 
. Funnily enough, I can taste the vegetable roasted ritz crackers better. But that’s how erratic my tastes are, .
The recipe I followed made a pretty runny batch, too. Will have to modify it the next time around.
Also, turns out I was right about being able to use pumpkin seed butter for the tahini…with how I taste things now, not much of a difference, . Heck, I bet they both would work for you taste-capables, too. .
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