Leek Potato and Chickpea Soup

To use up the rest of the leeks I bought, I decided to make a leek soup. To be honest, cream of leek soup was about the only thing I thought leeks were actually used for. Now that I know the mild creamy flavour a little better, I will definitely be cooking with leeks more often and in more creative ways. This soup was actually very delicious...I kinda just made up the recipe as I went along. I reserved about 1/4 can of the chickpeas from my hummus and added it to the recipe and it added great body to the soup.

Ingredients

2 large leeks washed thoroughly and sliced into half moons

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large potato, peeled and diced

1/4 can chickpeas

2 cups chicken stock

1/4 tsp cumin

2 tbsp cream cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Sauté leeks and garlic and cumin with a little butter in a large pot until fragrant and softened. Add potatoes, chickpeas and chicken stock and simmer until potatoes are cooked (20 minutes or so). Remove from heat, stir in cream cheese and purée (careful not to splash, it's hot!) with an immersion blender until smooth.

Spicy Hummus

My father-in-law taught me many kitchen lessons. With his hummus recipe I learned:

1. Making your own hummus is easy and tastier than the store-bought version

2. Remembering to keep the lid on the blender is easier than cleaning hummus off of the ceiling.

xo, Trevor ;) !

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed

2 tbsp tahini

3-4 tbsp olive oil

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 clove garlic

1/4 tsp chili powder (not Mexican chili powder...Indian chili powder, or you can use cayenne)

1/4 tps cumin

salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Place everything in a blender (don't forget to close the lid!!) and purée until smooth. Add a little water to loosen as necessary. I garnished this with an extra sprinkling of cumin and chili powder. Serve with warm naan or pita.

Roasted Sweet Potato and Rapini Salad with Sunflower Seeds

I love rapini. It kind of reminds me of gai lan (Chinese broccoli) but with a slightly bitter bite. I happen to like the contrasting tastes of bitter and sweet, but if you don't like rapini, you could always substitute broccoli in this recipe.

Ingredients

6 stalks of rapini chopped in 2-inch lengths

1 large sweet potato peeled and cut into medium cubes

2 cloves garlic, smashed

2 tbsp olive oil

1/4 lemon, juiced

1 green onion sliced finely

2 tbsp sunflower seeds

Directions

Bake sweet potato cubes tossed in a little olive oil in a 400 F oven for about 30 minutes until tender but not mushy.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a skillet and add smashed garlic to infuse oil. Once fragrant, remove garlic pieces and sauté rapini until bright green and tender crisp (about 6 minutes).

Remove from heat and add lemon juice, green onions, sunflower seeds and roasted sweet potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and toss to combine salad. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Roasted Tomato, Onion and Penne Fritatta

I'm baaaaaaaack! It takes an extra effort to cook with a newborn on hand, but I'm getting back into the swing of things. I saw a recipe for fritatta on the Food Network's, Giada at Home, so I thought I'd give it a try with my own spin of course!


Ingredients
5 large eggs
3 tbsp milk
1 1/2 cups cooked and cooled penne pasta
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 onion cut into thin wedges
2 cloves garlic minced
handful fresh parsley chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Toss grape tomatoes and onions in olive oil, salt and garlic and roast in the oven on a baking sheet for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees F. Allow to cool.
Boil and drain penne pasta and leave to cool.
Beat eggs with milk, herbs, salt pepper. When pasta has cooled, add to egg mixture along with cooled roasted tomato and onion mixture.
Heat a skillet on medium heat and pour in egg pasta mixture. After 10 minutes when the egg has almost set and bottom is golden brown, use a plate to flip and cook the other side for about 5 minutes.
Serve warm or cool with a salad.

Eggplant Provolone

My friend Bella came over for dinner last night, and I taught her how to make eggplant provolone sandwiches. It's pretty much the same thing as Eggplant Parmesean except with delicious provolone cheese!
We documented our cooking with lots of pictures, but for some inexplicable reason, when I tried to upload the pictures they were GONE....wiped clean from the memory card!!! I'm really irritated about it. The sandwiches were soooooooo good and photographed really well. But anyway...please try to use your imagination. The recipe is still worth writing about. This recipe makes 6 sandwiches, and we ate them all between 3 of us!!

Ingredients
1 medium eggplant cut into 1/4 inch rounds
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 tsp dried basil
salt & pepper
6 slices provolone cheese
1 cup marinara sauce, heated (I used Ronzoni's Tomato & Basil, which is my favourite jarred sauce)
6 large fresh kaiser buns, split

Directions
Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet at medium heat.
Set up 2 plates - one with beaten egg, and the other with breadcrumbs mixed with basil, salt and pepper.
Coat both sides of eggplant rounds in egg and dredge in breadcrumbs.
Fry eggplants in hot skillet until golden brown on both sides and soft in the middle (about 4 minutes per side).
Place 1 or 2 rounds of breaded eggplant on kaiser bun, top with cheese and marinara sauce.
We also added my homemade "La Bomba" Antipasto hot sauce to the sandwiches which gave them and extra flavourful spicy kick.

Spanokorizo

Fasting for Lent is a quite a culinary challenge! Steve and I have been working hard to prepare meatless and dairy-free meals on Wednesdays and Fridays.

So I looked to my Greek family for ideas. Yiasou!

Ingredients:

• 1 med onion chopped
• 1 clove garlic chopped
• 2 cups of cooked brown rice
• 2 frozen packages of spinach thawed
• 28 oz of pureed tomatoes
• feta
• oregano
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. Add rice and tomatoes. Turn down heat and let simmer. Add spinach. Stir. Add oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Top with feta (unless fasting) :)

Pavlova

Dessert for tonight's home church meeting was pavlova. It's such an easy and yummy dessert. I first had it in Montreal made by one of my Grandma's friends who was from New Zealand. I'll never forget my first crusty chewy pillowy bite of the delicous merengue topped with cold whipped cream and fresh kiwis. I made the pavlova last night as the recipe said that it could relax all day in a dry oven. I got the recipe from Joy of Baking.

Sarah came over before home chruch and helped prepare and assemble the toppings.


Et voilà!


Since we have a lot of people at home church, I added an extra egg white and sugar from what the original recipe called for.

Ingredients
Pavlova:
5 large egg whites
1 1/4 cup icing sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tbsp cornstarch

Topping:
1 cup whipped cream (could have used more)
1 pint each of strawberries and blueberries macerated with sugar and vanilla
4 kiwis, peeled and sliced

Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F
Beat egg whites in a medium bowl until soft peaks form.
Slowly mix in the icing sugar 1 tbsp at a time until well blended.
Add vinegar and cornstarch and fold in with a spatula.
Put some parchment paper on a large baking sheet and mound mixture into the shape of a circle. I like to create a big well in the middle of the circle with the edges slightly higher to create a space for the whipped cream and fruit.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the pavlova is slightly golden and crispy on the outside
Turn off oven, keep the oven door ajar and leave the pavlova inside to dry overnight.
(You can also remove from the oven and cool if you are serving sooner)

Once the pavlova has cooled, fill the well with whipped cream and fruit.

Grilled Vegetable and Havarti Sandwiches

My inspiration for this sandwich came from Closet Cooking. I had some vegetables leftover from making the 'La Bomba' hot sauce so I sliced the leftover vegetables and grilled them in the oven (450 F for about 10 minutes per side). Here's what I came up with...


Ingredients
4 rounds of grilled eggplant
4 slices of grilled red peppers
4 thick strips of grilled zucchini
2 tsp la bomba sauce (or marinara sauce)
4 slices whole grain bread
butter
havarti cheese

Directions
Make sadwiches from the grilled eggplant, red peppers, zucchini and havarti cheese.
Spread 'La Bomba' sauce on the inside of the sandwiches.
Butter the outsides of the sandwiches.
Grill sandwiches on a hot grill pan for about 6-7 minutes per side until cheese is melted and oozing and bread is nicely toasted. I put a heavy pan on top of the sandwiches to press like a panini maker would.

"La Bomba" Antipasto Hot Sauce

It's St. Patrick's Day... I can hear the pub downstairs getting lively. They've set up tents and outdoor porto-potties on the patio too. It's quite the set up. Pretty soon it will be filled with drunken party-goers. I can't drink since I'm all knocked up, the husband is out drinking green beer somewhere, so to celebrate I'm staying in and cooking up a storm. More importantly, I'm raising a glass (of chocolate milk) to my BESTIE and flog partner-in-crime, Amanda because it's her birthday today!
Happy Birthday, special!!

Well the first thing I made today was an antipasto hot sauce. I got the idea from the MOST delicious hot sauce I've ever tried, called La Bomba. I was introduced to it when I asked for hot sauce at Cafe Cinquecento. Since then, I found it at Metro in Liberty village. I'm almost out of it so I thought I'd try to make some at home. I basically just looked at the ingredients listed on the jar and threw in what I had on hand and thought would taste good.

Here's what I came up with:



Ingredients
1 cup eggplant diced very small
8 mushrooms diced very small
1 red pepper diced very small
1 banana pepper diced very small
5 cloves garlic minced
1/4 cup of the best olives you can find, pitted and minced
4 tbsp olive oil
6-7 basil leaves torn
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
7 HOT dried chilies crushed

Directions
Saute garlic and dried chilies on med-low heat in 1 tbsp olive oil until fragrant. Add the mushrooms, red peppers, banana peppers, olives, basil leaves and fennel seeds. Saute until all the veggies are soft. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool for a bit and transfer to a jar. Pour 3 tbsp olive oil over the top and store in the fridge. This should last in the fridge for about a month.

La Bomba sauce tastes DELICIOUS on pizza, pasta sauces, crunchy bread or even just tossed with fresh hot pasta.

Balsamic vinaigrette glazed vegetable pita

Ingredients:

• 1 green pepper julienned
• 1 red pepper julienned
• 1 cup asparagus
• 1 medium onion thinly sliced
• 2 tomatoes finely chopped
• Pitas
• 4 tbsp balsalmic vinegar
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
  

Saute all vegetables with vinegar and brown sugar until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Serve in pitas topped with chopped tomatoes. This is a great Lenten meal! Steve loved it.

How to prepare and eat whole artichokes

I had never grown up eating artichokes. The only kind I had ever eaten were the marinated artichokes in jars or antipasto bars. The first time I saw fresh artichokes in the grocery store I decided to buy some and experiment. It was not so intimidating once I found out how easy it was to prepare them and I discovered how delicious they are!! Now artichokes are one of my go-to easy appetizers to serve when guests come over. They are pretty and fun to eat.

Here is my step-by-step method or preparing fresh artichokes.

1. Run water vigorously over the tops of the artichokes separating the leaves slightly so any dirt that may be inside the layers are forced out.

2. Peel away the tough outer petals. (Approximately 2 layers) Using a sharp knife, cut off the stems of the artichokes so that they can stand upright. Also cut the top of the artichoke off to expose the inner layers.


3. Using kitchen scissors, snip the thorny points off of the remaining outer petals.


4. Cut a piece of garlic in half and rub the tops of the artichokes.


5. Squeeze a quarter of lemon into the tops of the artichokes, separating the petals slightly to get inside the layers.


6. Stand the artichokes upright in a pot. Place some crushed garlic cloves on top and fill the pot with about 1-2 inches of water. Add the just-squeezed lemon wedges into the water to create aromatic steam. Cover the pot and steam the artichokes on medium heat for about 20-30 minutes or until the petals can be removed easily when pulled.


7. Serve artichokes with lemon wedges and dijon-mayo dip (recipe below...)


Dijon-Mayo dip
Artichokes and mayo are a match made in heaven.
To make a perfect mayo dip for the artichokes, mix the following into a small bowl:
3 tbsp mayo
1 tsp dijon mustard
squeeze of lemon
1/4 tsp of dried dill
salt & pepper to taste

To eat the artichoke, pull a petal, dip the end into mayo, and use your bottom teeth to scrape off the inner flesh of the petal. Discard the outside as it will be too woody to eat. The further you go into the artichoke, the more tender the petals become.
Once you reach the center of the artichoke, you'll come to the heart. Pop off the 'cone' of remaining petals, and you'll see the fuzzy 'choke' that looks like a thistle. Using a teaspoon, gently scrape out and discard the choke, and you will be left with the delicious tender heart at the base of the artichoke. You can eat the entire base...it's the best part! Dip into mayo and enjoy!

Spaghetti with chickpeas, cherry tomatoes & spinach

I think a sign of success of a good vegetarian meal is if I can get my husband to eat it without noticing he's missing meat. ;) We both LOVE chickpeas, and I could snack on them like chips. This recipe was super easy and tasty and all the ingredients are of things I always have in the pantry or fridge.



Ingredients
Dried Spaghetti (cooked al dente - 10 1/2 mins)
1 can of chickpeas drained and rinsed
1 pint of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
2 cups fresh baby spinach
6 or 7 cremini mushrooms
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp hot chili flakes (for a milder dish, use less or omit, but I like things SPICY!)
parmesean cheese

Directions
While pasta is boiling, heat up olive oil in a large skillet.
Saute garlic until fragrant. Add mushrooms and continue to cook until softened, about 3-4. Add tomatoes, chickpeas and hot pepper flakes. Allow to heat through until tomatoes release their juices and become slightly wrinkled. Ladle some boiling water from the pasta pot into the sauce, and season with salt and pepper.
Drain spaghetti, and toss with sauce and spinach. Spinach will slowly wilt from the heat of the spaghetti. Top with parmesean cheese and enjoy!

Cauliflower and Chickpea Curry

I got this great curry book from my mother in law called "50 Great Curries of India" by Camellia Panjabi. It's got all sorts of recipes from different parts of India. I found this book helpful because there are pictures of all the spices.
Curries can seem like a lot of work becuase of the long list of ingredients, but once you buy all the basic spices and have them on hand, it's pretty easy.

I am all about using what you have on hand to cook, so I modify recipes all the time. I had cauliflower in the fridge, so I decided to make a cauliflower curry called aloo gobi (maybe you'll remember this dish if you've seen Bend it Like Beckham). It's supposed to be cooked with potatoes, but I fancied chickpeas instead. I also modified the recipe slightly to accommodate the spices I had on hand. Here was my version of this vegetable curry. It was spicy and flavourful and tasty!



Ingredients
1 head of cauliflower broken into florets
1 can of chickpeas drained and rinsed
1 can coconut milk*
3 onions diced finely
4 garlic cloves minced
2cm of ginger grated or finely chopped
5 dried red chilies
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1/8 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
4 peppercorns
1/8 ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon turmeric

*I didn't have any coconut milk on hand so I substituted 3/4 can of Half-fat sodium reduced Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. Yes, I know this probably sounds weird and completely unauthentic, but it was really good, I promise! It helped create a rich creamy sauce to the curry. (I have a feeling my father-in-law would cringe at this substitution.)

Directions
1. Heat some cooking oil in a pot and saute the onions, garlic, chilies and ginger until the onions start to become golden but not brown.
2. Push the onions to the edges of the pot so that there is a little hole in the middle. Pour a little more oil in the centre and add in the spices together, allowing them to fry for about 30 seconds. Add about 1/2 cup of water to form a paste.
3. Add the cream of mushroom soup or coconut milk and simmer for about 6-7 mins. Season with salt to taste.
4. Add the cauliflower and chickpeas and cook until done.

Serve with basmati rice and/or naan.

Breaded Zucchini- Snack, side dish or entree!

OMG... this side dish is soo good. We made it last night with bruschetta and broiled chicken thighs covered with mustard, rosemary, and salt. But the showstopper of the night was the breaded n' baked zucchini chips . I made it really quickly because I was hungry, but I bet if I took my time it would be even better! Initially, I questioned the 1/4 slices but it makes sense because you can really taste the zucchini. The best part about it is that it's so crunchy on the outside but soft and hot on the inside...and its so healthy.

The thing about the zucchini chips is that you feel like you're splurging, but you're not. I would have to rate it as one of the best healthy alternatives to fried food I have ever had. I was thinking that a dip would be so good with this. Blue-cheese? Ranch? The zucchini chips leave you with some calories to spare. I could eat this as a side, snack, or main entree.

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4 " slices
• 1 egg, mixed with
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 clove smashed garlic
• 1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450°.
• Combine egg, milk and garlic in a shallow dish and set aside for about 15 minutes to let flavors combine.
• Combine breadcrumbs, cheese, parsley and pepper in another shallow dish.
• Dip zucchini slices into egg mixture, then into crumbs and place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
• Bake for 10 minutes, then turn over and bake for 5 minutes more or until brown and crispy.

"Breaded 'n Baked Zucchini Chips".<http://www.recipezaar.com/Breaded-n-Baked-Zucchini-Chips-90331> February 2009.