Mushroom Quinoa Pilaf with Sundried Tomatoes and Pesto

I am still cooking out of the pantry and the freezer. I think this is the last bit of quinoa in my house. So far the pantry challenge is going fine. If you missed it, look at my cupboard and freezer here. 

When I make quinoa pilaf all the veggies tend to rise to the surface during cooking. This one was different than my usual, with the addition of pesto and sun-dried tomatoes. The concentrated tomatoes gave it a wildly deep complex flavor. It is full of summer sunshine. Try it in your own kitchen. Made with frozen vegetables it a matter of dumping it all together and setting it to cook. Even the mushrooms and pesto were from the freezer.

Obviously it is easy as pie. Switch up the veggies, add in carrots or kale, you really can't go wrong.

I have a bowl as a meal by itself. It would make a luscious side to grilled fish. 

Mushroom Quinoa Pilaf with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Pesto

2 cups quinoa

4 cups water

1/2 cup frozen or fresh leeks (sliced)

1/2 cup frozen green peas 

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil

1/2 cup mushrooms cooked in olive oil (frozen or fresh)

1/4 cup basil pesto

generous pinch of salt

If using fresh mushrooms, slice and saute in olive oil with a pinch of salt. Slice the sun-dried tomatoes into bite sized pieces.  Put tomatoes and green peas, leeks, mushrooms and pesto into a pan with a tight fitting lid. 

This is a quick pilaf, the kind your whip up when you want to eat soon. The sun-dried tomato richness means we can skip a sauté step and still have complex flavors.

Add the water and quinoa to the same pot. Bring it to a boil. Give it a stir, cover, and cook for 20 minutes on low heat.

Enjoy!  

I embark on a Freezer & Pantry Challenge - no grocery shopping allowed!

A confluence of events has lead me to challenge myself to a Freezer & Pantry Challenge. How long can I cook meals in my kitchen without going food shopping?

Thinking of ditching my grocery shopping habit this is what I feel:

But then I thought: 

So this is the question: how creative can I be with all the things in my pantry and freezer? I also include the contents of the fridge, but that is currently pretty empty. 

Why, you wonder. For one, I am tired of all the "fresh" food I purchase going bad in days. Potatoes grow sprouts or shrivel up, lettuce melts into slime overnight. Food in Massachusetts is bleak in February. If I had all the time in the world, I would recommend shopping more often during the week. But for many people, including myself, that is not a reality. Work schedules, car sharing, snow related parking bans, all make grocery shopping less than simple. 

I normally food shop once a week. I went a week ago and decided to skip this weekend's shop in light of challenging myself. 

Two other reasons.
1) My husband rolls his eyes at the amount of food I have in the kitchen and still feel the need to go out an buy more. I like having a good selection and I have this feeling I like to be prepared, like if the zombie apocalypse ever happens. I will be able to barricade myself in my kitchen eating gourmet meals for weeks. If that happens, and you are really nice, I'll share with you.

2) Lets be honest, February was a rough month here for those of us not on salary.  All those snow days don't pay the bills.

Pictures of my pantry before I start. As I was taking these pictures I began to feel that I was really exposing something to you here. Is there such thing as a food hoarder? Do I have that problem? My large upright freezer certainly seems to. Disclaimer: I did not include a photo of my chocolate bin.

Ok, so there are loads delicious summery things in my freezer that totally should be eaten up. I deserve to take on this challenge.

To begin the Pantry Challenge, I had a nice lunch yesterday, Mushrooms, Green Peas & Black Beans. Easy as pie and it took only minutes. For one portion, sauté about 1/2 cup frozen green peas and the same amount of frozen cooked mushrooms in some olive oil. Once they are hot and sizzling add 1/2 a can of organic black beans. Add a pinch of cumin, salt and simmer until hot and steamy. 

The mushrooms give the dish a meaty element. The beans are full of fiber and protein, the peas are green and nutritious. Of course it could be made using fresh ingredients. It is just so fast and easy this way. And a good stand by for those days when you feel like "there is no food in the house." 

Because if your freezer looks like mine...there is. Stay tuned I have a busy week ahead there will be some slow cooker and pressure cooker meals comin' up!

Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes with Cranberries and Apples

Ok, so I have been on hiatus from writing for a week or two. Life got busy and between running from jobs to projects, getting to the gym and back, and lets be honest- Netflix, the blogging lost out. I have been cooking a lot, things like soups which turn out well, but I took no photos of the process because...its just a soup and I was hungry. So I am back, and here is a weekend pancake recipe to kick off the Thanksgiving week with ingredients like cranberries, pumpkin and spices. Happy weekend before thanksgiving, which means menu planning and planning all the planning ahead we can do. Like, what day should I make my pie crust? As of now, still undecided. 

It is paleo, and thus low sugar. Wanting more sweetness in the pancakes, but not having any sort of sweet juice in the house I used an unusual technique of soaking dried fruit to extract some of the sugary flavors. Prunes, figs, or dates work well as they have a high sugar content. I used prunes here. So take about a 1/4 cup of dried fruit (9 prunes) cover with boiling water, let steep for 5-10 minutes, while you whip together the rest of the pancakes. You will want 1/4 cup of this fruit juice to put into the pancakes, the now soft dried fruit can be eaten or used on oatmeal tomorrow, or chopped up and put into quickbread, stuffing, or whatever!

So grab a can of pumpkin, some coconut oil, eggs, and your favorite "milk" product and lets go. Melt your coconut oil, I throw the jar into the microwave for 30 seconds and that does the trick. Whisk the eggs, pumpkin, "milk", and oil together.

Measure the arrowroot and almond meal into a bowl, break up any lumps before adding it into the wet ingredients. Add the spices and other dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture. (spices from top, clockwise are: cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and clove.)

Then add anything we missed, like maple syrup, prune juice, vanilla and apple cider vinegar. The batter is thick and custard-like.

Fresh cranberries are easily run over with a knife for chunks and bits which cook quickly in the batter. I always have some fresh cranberries in my freezer, which can easily be sliced up while still frozen. Stir the beautiful red berries into the batter and away we go.

I find success in a medium low heat, number 3 on my stove. And in my cast iron griddle pan which takes up two burners. I use coconut oil to grease the pan, since there is already coconut oil in the pancakes themselves. And because it is tasty and makes pancakes brown nicely. (Yes, butter is awesome too, I'll leave this choice up to you.)

Pour batter onto the griddle in 2"-3" rounds. If it does not flow easily, add more "milk". Cook slowly, bubbles will appear across the surface of the pancake when it is ready to flip. These can be delicate and my favorite tool is a fish spatula, it has an angled tip and is very thin, so it slides right under the pancakes. 

Once flipped over, they PUFF up, and when the pancakes reaches a puffy stage which is at the maximum puffyness and just before it begins to deflate...this is when it is done. Remove the pancakes from the griddle and begin to pile them up. Pour, cook, flip, cook, pile up. Repeat until done. 

Call everyone to the table and serve pancakes with maple syrup and cut apples.  

Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes with Cranberries and Apples

Serves 3-4

Wet ingredients: 
4 eggs
1 can pumpkin
2.5 T coconut oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup (or 1 packet stevia)
1 t vanilla
1/3 cup fig juice (something sweet)
1/2 cup hemp or almond milk (more as needed)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Dry ingredients:
1/2 cup arrowroot flour (or potato starch)
1 cup almond meal (or quinoa flour)
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon clove
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 t salt

Fruit:
1/2 cup of fresh cranberries
Sliced apple for serving
maple syrup for serving


Enjoy! ;)

Italian spring soup

New potatoes, chives and olive oil

I am happy that springtime seems to be giving way to summer, the days of fresh fruit are ahead of us. The farmers market opened yesterday, the slow start as we try to catch up to the rest of the country's growing season. Soon there will be peaches, tomatoes, beans, its going to be good. And the outdoor concerts, beach traffic, lackluster craft fairs and hot car seats that burn the backs of your legs... summer is the best.

New potatoes chives and garlic

Spring has been so enjoyable this year, with loads of tender vegetables, shoots and flowers. And am not quite ready to let it go. So I plan to fit a few more spring themed posts into the next week. Since its not really summer yet as far as the vegetables know.

I made this soup for my book club, all who are foodies, and everyone was surprised by the broth, as it is so simple it seems different and exotic. We probably all smelled of garlic afterwards! 

New potatoes and chives steamed for 8 minutes in olive oil.

My Italian Spring Soup was inspired by Marcella Hazan's Spring Vegetable Soup in The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. I don't claim to know better than her, but I made some changes, like adding asparagus and green onion, which is a good touch. And making it easier with frozen artichoke hearts. I did retain the simpleness of the broth, simply water with lemon juice added as the last thing. So bright, and full of clean flavors, surprisingly different.

Soup making with colorful potatoes

Easy prep for springtime soup

New potatoes have less starch than their larger cousins and hold together well in soup. They come in many shapes and colors. I found a charming mix of tiny blue, red and yellow potatoes. The color variation makes for a beautiful dish. 

Use what you can find, the red skinned ones are pretty, but the yellow have the most creamy texture.

A word to the wise. All the veggies begin as nice bright colors, once cooked they loose some of the vibrance. If served right away, all is colorful. The longer the soup sits in the pot waiting for your friends to arrive, the greens fade and fade. It is still delicious, and will recieve ohhs and ahhhs. 

Next time I make this for a party, I will add the final vegetables in a right-beofre-we-eat sort of way. To keep the asparagus and green peas more green.

Have more lemons on hand to finish the broth, mostly 1 lemon will be enough, I made a double recipe of soup and needed two whole lemons. If you taste the soup before you add the lemon juice, and then taste it after, it will become obvious if you want more lemon juice at that point. Or not. It comes across as bright tasting, not sour.

Everything gets more green

There are some either-or's in this recipe for easy spring conversions. green garlic, and spring onions if you have it. If you have garlic scapes some of them would be right at home here too.

Spring Italian Soup

servings for 4

Garlic, 2 tablespoons minced. or 1 head green garlic, chopped fine

4 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound new potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick

1 spring onion, white and green parts sliced fine. Or 4 scallions, sliced.

4 cups water
rind from parmesan cheese (optional)

1 handful frozen artichoke hearts.

1 bunch asparagus, about 8 ounces, 1 inch lengths sliced on the diagonal

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup peas (thawed if using frozen)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Good quality Parmmigiano-Reggiano grated

Slice the potatoes and place into the soup pot. Add sliced onion, minced garlic and olive oil. Put the pot over high heat, for about 40 seconds, stirring often.

When the garlic is fragrant add the sliced potatoes begin to stick, cover the pot with a lid and turn down the heat to low.

Cook covered for about 8 minutes, lift the lid a few times to stir the potatoes, they may begin to stick on the bottom, check that they don't brown.

After 8 minutes, or if the vegetables stick too much to the pan, cover with water and scrape the bottom. First bring liquid just to a boil, then turn to a low simmer. 

Add the cheese rind, asparagus, artichokes, and salt. Keep the heat low to retain the tender flavor of the spring vegetables. After about 15 minutes at a low simmer, when the potatoes are fork tender, add the peas. Take off the heat, the peas will warm through with the residual heat. Add lemon juice to taste.

Serve in soup bowls with large amounts of grated Parmmigiano-Reggiano cheese and slices of good crusty bread. 

Serve with crunchy bread and lots of grated parm

Asparagus Chard & Cherry Tomato Frittata

Asparagus Chard Tomato Frittata

I admit that frittatas are my go-to dish for breakfasts and lunches when I am serving a group of people. Nobody seems to be tired of them, in fact, they always seem to be enjoyed. I was bringing breakfast up to my parents house for a very sunny Mothers day, homemade scones, turkey bacon, and of course frittata. 

5 Reasons Frittata is Awesome:

1: Cooked and served in the same pan.

2: Equally delicious when hot, cold or room temp.

3: Travels well to gatherings.

4: Versatile, almost any veggies go into it.

5: Even frozen veggies, and you cant tell!

Also two things I aways have in the house are eggs and veggies. Once mastered they aways come out perfect, so it is a no brainer to put them together. Sometimes I make them for the two of us for dinner, and it is a good way to use up leftovers too.

A secret is to cook all the water out of the veggies first. Soggy sautéed veggies equals a soggy frittata. I find when I use frozen veggies they have much less water and this is very easy.

Asparagus Chard & Cherry Tomato Frittata

drizzle of olive oil
handful of sliced mushrooms
pinch of salt
bunch of Swiss chard or other leafy greens sliced in skinny ribbons
6-7 fresh farm eggs
1/2 cup water or milk
6-8 cooked asparagus (thaw and dry if using frozen)
cherry tomatoes
cheddar cheese, sliced thin

I use a 8" cast iron skillet, it holds the heat well and the bottom never burns. An oven proof non stick pan would be ok. Cook the mushrooms in olive oil and a pinch of salt on high heat so they soften and release their juices. Throw in the ribbons of swiss chard. I find frozen chard, spinach or kale are really handy here. Put them frozen right into the pan.) Cook the greens and mushrooms so they wilt, and then keep cooking until any collected water in the pan is dried up. Turn the heat to low.

drizzle in olive oil and stir is around so the pan has a thin gloss of oil, this helps keep things from sticking. Arrange the greens so they cover all the pan, no need to press them down or make a fuss, the point is to have them scattered all over.

Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl, add the water or milk, a good pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper. Beat the eggs very well with a fork or fancy egg mixing gadget. Pour the well beaten eggs over the greens. If necessary use a fork to move the greens so the beaten egg is evenly everywhere, but don't disturb the bottom very much, ok. Keep the heat on low.

The top of the frittata allow for making pretty patterns if you want. Scatter asparagus and cheddar cheese on the top of the eggs, and place the raw cherry tomatoes on top also.

Step away for about 7 minutes, the eggs cook slowly from the bottom up. And it will be finished in the broiler. When the egg at the edges has set, and steady tiny bubbles come up in the center take a look, you will be able to tell the egg has set in the lower 2/3 of the pan. The upper part will still be liquid.

Turn on the broiler in your oven. When it is hot, put the frittata under it to cook. It is smart to stay close as this can go fast or need to be spun around a few times. So babysit the broiler for this part. Allow the top to cook, first it will set and the eggs will be cooked but pale, then the cheese will start to bubble (awesome) and the top will turn dark golden brown in parts (awesome).

Remove it from the broiler when it looks delicious. If you are worried about the eggs being cooked through, stick the tip of a knife into the center and pull back so you can see if it is still wet. Real wet eggs can go back onto the heat (either broiler, oven or stovetop) for some more time.  If the eggs are just a little wet let it sit for 5 minutes and they will finish cooking all on their own.