Category Archives: vegetarian

Spicy Squash and Carrot Soup

Posted by Dave in soup, vegan, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Spicy Squash and Carrot Soup

Here’s a zippy soup for a rainy autumn day, which is what we have here today.
It’s sweet, from butternut squash, and definitely spicy, from poblano pepper.

Ingredients (to make about 2 quarts of soup):

  • 1/2 large butternut squash, seeds removed, peeled, and cubed
  • 4 medium carrots, cut into large pieces
  • 2 medium red bell peppers (I used one large bell pepper and one smaller ripe pepper of unknown variety)
  • 2 green poblano peppers
  • 4 medium to large scallions
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • olive oil, ~1/3 cup
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • water, ~2 cups (saved from boiled squash and carrots)

Preparation:

First, boil the cubed squash and carrot until quite tender.

Boiled butternut squash and carrot

While the squash is boiling, roast peppers and onions under the broiler. Turn and move while roasting to blister pepper skin evenly and to avoid burning scallions.
Peel, core, and remove seeds from the peppers, and roughly chop the scallions.

Roasted red bell peppers, poblano peppers, and scallions

Dry-roast two cloves of garlic until tender, then peel and roughly chop.

Dry roasting garlic cloves

Lastly, using a food processor and/or blender, purée all the ingredients while adjusting the thickness with the water; add olive oil, salt, and pepper to your taste.

I used both a food processor and traditional blender, in two rounds each with about half the ingredients because the quantity of soup exceeded the capacity of my blender.

Spicy Squash and Carrot Soup, topped with thyme and toasted squash seeds

Serve the soup topped with dried or fresh thyme leaves and toasted squash seeds, perhaps accompanied by a piece of sourdough toast.

(I toasted the lightly oiled seeds with salt, pepper, and paprika on a baking sheet in a 250° F oven.)

I hope you enjoy this blended vegan soup – it’s perfect for cool fall days!

It was inspired by this recipe:

Butternut Squash Curry

Posted by Dave in indian, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Butternut Squash Curry

It’s hard to pass up the beautiful squash at the farmers’ market this time of year.  I’ve been anxious to use the ones I bought recently, so this is my first squash recipe of the season.

Butternut squash, onion, red pepper.

For four servings, here are the ingredients:

  • 1/2 large butternut squash, cleaned of seeds, peeled, and cubed
  • 1 medium yellow onion, medium chop
  • 1 large red pepper, medium chop
  • ghee (or substitute canola or sunflower oil)
  • cumin seed
  • 1 habanero pepper, finely minced
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
  • powdered ginger
  • turmeric powder
  • garam masala
  • salt

Tip: ave, rinse, and toast the butternut squash seeds just like pumpkin seeds!

Squash, onion, and red pepper, prepared for roasting.

To prepare, toss the squash,onion, and red pepper lightly in canola oil, lay out on a baking sheet, and bake at 375-400° F for 30-45 minutes, until squash is tender, but not completely mushy.  Stir these ingredients on the sheet occasionally, to cook evenly.

When the vegetables are nearly done roasting, prepare curry spices in a large pan over moderate heat.  Toast cumin seeds in ghee, add turmeric, garam masala, then stir in a paste made of the garlic, ginger, and habanero.  Once the turmeric is cooked satisfactorily, stir in the roasted vegetables to coat evenly with these curry seasonings and salt to taste.

Combining the roasted vegetables with curry seasonings.

This dish was served accopanied by raita and rice.
The raita consisted of the following:

  • homemade yogurt
  • carrot, finely chopped
  • red pepper, finely chopped
  • scallion, finely chopped
  • salt

The basmati rice was prepared in a rice cooker with cumin seed and saffron threads.

My housemate had earlier prepared a nice dal that we served with the meal along with a store-bought naan.

Butternut Squash Curry served with basmati rice, raita, naan, and dal.

All in all, this was a pretty complete meal for a couple of computer science students… and a welcome return of fall/winter vegetables to the table.

Autumn’s early sunsets have been causing me much trouble with photographing dinners. Lots of adjusting color in photos, due to the exclusively artifical light in the house, and I’m still not very happy with it.

Here are some related recipes that I consulted when concocting this meal:

Kohlrabi Curry and Paprika Fish

Posted by Dave in fish, indian, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Kohlrabi Curry and Paprika Fish

A friend with a garden plot gave me a nice selection of vegetables that I used for this curry:

  • kohlrabi
  • eggplant
  • onion
  • jalapeno peppers (seeded)
  • zucchini

Additionally, I used these ingredients:

  • apple (e.g., Braeburn)
  • oil
  • garlic
  • cumin seed
  • turmeric
  • garam masala
  • salt
  • water
  • homemade yogurt
  • cooked rice

I usually wouldn’t add rice into a curry (but rather serve it on the side, as is traditional), but I had added too much water (to boil off without overcooking the vegetables), so I added some cooked rice at the end to soak up some of the water and thicken the curry.

Fresh Curry Ingredients

I’ve not cooked with kohlrabi before, but upon dicing it, I realized it’s going to take a lot longer to cook (until tender) than the other ingredients.  Cut the apple and vegetables to their desired size for the curry; for instance, I like onion in strips (top to bottom of onion), zucchini in slices.

Curry Ingredients

To further spice the curry, I added bay leaves, cardamom pods, star anise, and to the oil with the cumin seed, turmeric, and garam masala, then cooked the kohlrabi in that mixture for 15-20 minutes (until somewhat tender) before adding any more vegetables.  (I removed the cardamom, star anise, and bay leaves at that point.)

Oil and spices

While cooking the vegetables, I periodically added water and covered the dish to steam the vegetables.  Once they were the desired tenderness, I stirred in yogurt and some cooked rice.

The curry: almost finished

For the fish, I prepared a mixture of mild spanish paprika, fennel seeds, salt, and pepper, and coated swai fillets (thawed from frozen) and pan-fried them in hot oil.

Pan-frying the fish

Before turning the fillets over, I applied minced garlic liberally to the top side, then flipped them (once) to cook through until flaky.

I really enjoy anise and fennel, and quite liked how this flavorful preparation of fish went with this somewhat mild curry.

Kohlrabi Curry and Paprika Fish

Sailcooking: Wood-Fired Steak and Spicy Green Beans

Posted by Dave in meat, salad, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Our chartered sailboat docked at an island, as seen from the firepit near the beach.

Some of my friends are experienced sailors, and I recently had the awesome opportunity to sail Lake Superior with them; specifically, we explored the Apostle Islands.  There were a total of four of us guys on our chartered sailboat for four days in early September.

I don’t know much about sailing, so I made my primary contribution be our food; I did the food shopping and the cooking of our evening meals including chicken fajitas, birch-grilled steak, and grilled pork chops marinated in salsa verde.

We stayed on the boat every day of the trip; it was conveniently equiped with quite a complete kitchen, and even a propane-fueled grill over the stern.

The sailboat galley with gimbaled stove.

On one day we sailed to an island that had a dock in water deep enough for our keelboat, so that day we grilled ribeye steaks ashore over local birchwood from the boreal forest.

While we are all meat-eating men, we’re not savages.  We accompanied the dinner with a salad with freshly-made croutons of diced sourdough bread browned in olive oil, minced garlic, and salt.

Garlic sourdough croutons.

Mixed greens salad.

Our side dish was spicy green beans, similar to szechuan-style green beans.  Red pepper flakes and garlic were soaked in olive oil for a while, then we sautéed whole, trimmed green beans in that spiced oil.

Spicy green beans.

While I was aboard preparing the sides, one of my fellow sailors expertly grilled our thick ribeye steaks (rubbed with garlic olive oil, and minced garlic, salt and pepper) at the beach over a birchwood fire.  They were excellent, as evidence by my eating before taking a photograph; grilling over wood makes a huge difference in flavor as compared to gas or charcoal.

Ribeye steak grilled over birchwood, spicy green beans, and salad.

It was a spectacular trip, and the four of us guys managed to eat better than we ought to have. Ah, roughing it. :)

Stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers for 18 people!

Posted by Dave in meat, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers to serve 18

So after a bit of a posting hiatus, I’m back… life got busy, mostly with fun stuff, so I haven’t been cooking a lot of new things, but I did find some interesting cooking situations, so here goes.

My girlfriend recently moved into a co-op house with 14 residents in total.  While the house doesn’t share all their food, as some co-ops do, huge dinners are prepared to eat communally; every resident signs-up for nights to make dinner for everyone, and this happens nearly every single day!

Whomever is making a dinner also typically invites other guests of their own. So, for this first dinner, we were preparing for 18 people!  That’s definitely the biggest sit-down home meal I’ve ever participated in preparing.

At the co-op house, appropriately, a lot of the cooking vessels are king-sized.

A giant colander.

And, an advantage is one gets to cook on this huge Viking gas range!

The co-op’s huge Viking gas range.

For the stuffed peppers and tomatoes, we prepared a stuffing of the following:

  • brown rice (cooked)
  • fresh tomato (cores, chopped)
  • fresh mushroom (finely chopped)
  • fresh garlic (minced)
  • fresh italian sausages (removed from casing and browned)
  • both fresh and dried oregano
  • fennel seed
  • cayenne pepper (powder)
  • fresh parsley (finely chopped)
  • salt and pepper
  • parmesan cheese (grated)

This was the first meal we prepared for the co-op; having no idea how long it would take to prepare, we started at about 2pm for a 7pm dinnertime.  (As it turns out, that was none too soon for this first effort.)

Hours of prep, prep, and more prep!

The peppers (selected for large size, and so they could stand upright) and tomatoes were cored and packed in baking pans (lightly greased with olive oil).

Hollowed-out peppers and tomoatoes; italian sausage for stuffing.

The stuffing ingredients were mixed and lightly cooked with the sausage after browning.

Chopped mushroom for the filling; also, tomatoes and minced garlic.

A relatively small amount of sausage was used (5 sausages for 18 total servings), and browned in a large pan.

Browning italian sausage.

Once the filling was mixed together with the cooked brown rice and seasoned to taste, the peppers and tomatoes were filled.  We also made some vegetarian only filling, substituting some more cheese instead of the sausage, and we were careful to keep track of which were the vegetarian ones.

Stuffed and ready for the oven.

For a side, we washed and trimmed 3-4 pounds of fresh green beans.

Prepped green beans.

The green beans were steamed while sliced almonds and garlic were sauteed in oil.

Toasting/browning sliced almonds in olive oil with garlic.

Humongous steamers are great for preparing the vegetables, and the range top with so many gas burners allows many things to be going at once.

To finish the beans, they were tossed with the almonds and some tamari (a gluten-free alternative to soy sauce.)

Green beans with garlic, almond, and soy sauce.

The co-op has a large dining room with a great table, here set for 17 residents and guests!  Two kinds of sliced melon were also served with the dinner.

The co-op’s dining room table, awaiting the dinner bell.

For those residents don’t make it for dinner, the leftovers are packed individually for each of them and left in their respective refrigerators.

So, from this monumental task, here’s what I learned:

  • Food prep takes a long time; in total we took over 4 hours to prepare this meal.  We’ll get better at using the food processor for chopping.
  • Adding spices for very large dishes takes practice… I kept having to add, taste, add, taste, add, add, add!
  • Easy summer foods like sweet corn on the cob and watermelons are great side dishes.
  • The hollowed-out bell peppers can be blanched and partially cooked in boiling water before stuffing them, so that they cook in much less time, similarly to the time for the tomatoes.
  • Some wine before dinner, near the end of the cooking, definitely helps relieve stress. :)
  • A large group makes for quite the convivial kitchen and dinnertime.

Alas, this post isn’t a recipe, per se… I’ve lost track of many quantities and there were a lot of adjustments to taste.  I trust most of you don’t need measurements to prepare such a meal for 18 people, though. :)

If you’d like a stuffed pepper recipe, here are some places to start:

Baked Lake Trout and Crispy Kale

Posted by Dave in fish, vegetarian and tagged with , , , ,

Baked Lake Superior Trout and Crispy Kale

Here’s an easy but great meal, whipped up last night with some wonderful companions.  We shopped at the market quite late, but found a nice Lake Superior Trout fillet (wild, frozen) large enough to serve three, after the seafood counter had closed.

Prepare a sauce for the trout from yogurt (plain, thick yogurt, e.g., greek style, perhaps 1/2 cup), finely chopped chives or garlic grass, Worcestershire sauce (~1-2 T.), lemon pepper, salt to taste.  Here, we used garden-fresh garlic grass from a friend.

Place the (thawed) trout fillet(s) in a baking dish and coat the top with the sauce, perhaps with a small amount of olive oil underneath to assure it doesn’t stick to the dish when cooking.  A tip: if you leave a large fillet whole, you can cut it to test for done-ness and cut into servings at the same time.

Arrange coarsely chopped fresh kale on a baking pan and toss with olive oil. We included the stems as well; if you do, they’ll just likely be a bit chewy rather than crispy, like the leaves.  Luckily, we had plenty of home-grown kale. :)

Bake both the trout and kale in a 400° F, perhaps for 10-12 minutes for the trout and 5-7 minutes for the kale, until the fish is cooked through, but still moist, and the kale leaves are somewhat crisp. Toss the kale occasionally to cook/crisp evenly.

We plated individual-serving-size portions of the trout, topped with a bit more finely chopped garlic grass/chives, and the crisp kale on the side, accompanied by a pretty insalata caprese (unfortunately, not pictured) of ripe, yellow tomato slices, fresh home-grown basil leaves, and sliced fresh mozzarella.

Lake trout with yogurt/garlic sauce and baked crispy kale.

Here are some related links:

Note that the crispy kale can be prepared easily at many oven temperatures, e.g., 250° F – 400° F, to share the oven with your entree.

I was away from home; these smartphone photos don’t quite do this meal justice. :)

Pan-fried Noodles with Vegetables

Posted by Dave in asian, gluten-free, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Pan-fried Noodles with Vegetables

Here’s a quick vegetarian, and potentially gluten-free, noodle dish.

To prepare: place rice noodles in warm water to soften (20-30 mins.)  I used rice noodles that were approximately 1/4 inch wide, but wider noodles would work well too.

Prepare a sauce by combining fish sauce, soy sauce, water, and honey, and fresh lemon or lime juice … perhaps 1/2 cup total.  (To be gluten-free, use tamari rather than soy sauce.)

Sauté vegetables in canola or peanut oil to desired tenderness in a large pan or wok; for this dish I used matchstick carrot, sliced white button mushroom, sweet onion, and minced shallot, adding a portion of the sauce as well.
Remove the vegetables from the hot pan and set aside.
Quickly scramble an egg in oil in the pan, and place it with the vegetables.

Once the noodles have softened, drain pan-fry them likewise in a bit of oil, until they begin to crisp or brown slightly.  Control cooking with the sauce (which can also be used to add some color to the noodles.)

To finish, return sautéed vegetables to the warm pan, add any remaining sauce, add chopped fresh cilantro and chopped peanut and combine thoroughly.

I served this in one large bowl per serving… a pretty simple but satisfying meal just for myself, this time. :-)

Pan-fried noodles with vegetables.

Summertime Bounty Breakfast

Posted by Dave in breakfast, potatoes, vegetarian and tagged with , ,

A breakfast of summertime bounty

I’ve been away from blogging for a bit but have just wrapped up weeks of work (on this year-long project) that culminated in a research paper manuscript submission last night; now I’m looking forward to time for friends… and for breakfast, and perhaps the two combined.

Here’s my morning’s breakfast of summertime bounty with ingredients from the farmer’s market and some lovely friends:  scrambled egg and skillet potatoes with avocado and mesclun of arugula and other salad greens home-grown on my front porch, thanks to a lovely person that trusts me to babysit them.

The skillet potatoes are sliced red potato from the market, pan-fried in canola until tender, seasoned red pepper flakes, oregano, fennel seed, salt, and pepper and with shallots and garlic from a generous friend’s garden.

The scrambled egg is prepared with crisp corn tortilla strips and red pepper spread. Unfortunately, I did not know the chicken. :)

A breakfast of summertime bounty

Happy summertime eating with your fresh ingredients and friends!

Open-Faced Poached Egg and Hummus Quesadilla

Posted by Dave in breakfast, mediterranean, texmex, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Open-Faced Quesadilla with Poached Egg and Hummus

Here’s a colorful quick breakfast (and, for me, lunch) idea: poached eggs atop hummus on a open-faced quesadilla of flour tortilla with sharp cheddar cheese, tomato salsa, fresh scallion and habanero pepper.

This is simply a melenge of favorite ingredients that I almost always have on hand.

Poached Egg and Hummus Quesadilla

Oh, on an urelated note, Happy Canada Day! :)
Here some interesting Canadian craft beers for the occasion:

Colorful Coconut Cream Curry

Posted by Dave in asian, indian, potatoes, vegan, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Colorful curry with carrot, red potato, broccoli, and coconut cream served with jasmine rice and raita

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, mostly because I’ve been making some old favorites that I’ve already posted and otherwise enjoying the nice weather and summertime.

Today’s post is a new off-the-top-of-my-head vegetable curry with a lot of color. I’ve done a number of indian and thai curries, but this one may be something of a haphazard fusion of the two, as I just chose my ingredients by whim.

Ingredients for the rice:

  • jasmine rice
  • cumin seed
  • bay leaves
  • cinnamon stick
  • hot curry powder
  • salt

Ingredients for the raita:

  • yogurt (I was lucky to have been given some homemade, from cow’s milk)
  • garlic, minced
  • carrot, julienned
  • green pepper, finely chopped
  • tomato, cored, seeded, and finely chopped
  • garam masala
  • saffron threads
  • salt

Ingredients for the curry:

  • canola oil
  • water
  • carrot, peeled and sliced
  • red potato, skins intact, small-diced
  • broccoli, bite-sized pieces, steamed
  • red onion, sliced (top to bottom) into thin strips
  • garlic, minced
  • habanero pepper, seeds and veins removed, finely minced
  • cumin seed
  • turmeric
  • garam masala
  • salt and pepper
  • coconut cream/milk
  • cilantro (chopped fresh or crushed dried)
  • thai bird peppers (one per serving)

I chose coconut cream for sweetness; you could substitute coconut milk (or even a yogurt) if you prefer.  Here’s one discussion of Coconut Milk vs. Cream.

Preparation:

First, to prepare the rice, I simply put the ingredients in a rice cooker and let it do its thing; afterwards I removed the cinammon stick and bay leaves and added them to the curry.

While the rice was cooking, I prepared the raita.  (Of course, if you want a vegan dish, you’ll have to skip the yogurt-based raita.)  Simply mix all the ingredients together, and let sit.  (This is also nice to make in advance, and refrigerate, as the flavors mellow and blend together.)

I prepared the curry in a 12 inch cast iron skillet; first toasting the cumin seed, then mixing the spices and oil, garlic, onion, hot peppers, and cooking the potatoes.  I added the sliced carrot later, as it was sliced thinner and would cook faster.  Add water occassionally as necessary to avoid sticking to the pan, and add the (separately steamed) broccoli and the coconut cream after the potatoes and carrot are cooked to suitably tender.

Coconut Cream Curry with raita and spiced jasmine rice.

I served the rice, curry, and raita sprinkled with some crushed dry cilantro leaf and a (cooked) whole red thai bird pepper.  (This hot pepper makes it easy for each diner to spice it up to their own taste.)

A colorful curry with rice and raita

That’s it! I hope this inspires some colorful cooking for you to share to likewise share with the wonderful people that color your life. :)

By the way, WordPress tells me this is my hundredth post!
(Now the money will start rollin’ in, right?)