Gluten-Free Moroccan Macaroni Bowl (+ a giveaway!)

I don't follow a gluten-free diet or think of gluten as an evil thing to avoid, but I know there are a lot of people out there who have to avoid it for health reasons, and for their sake I'm happy that there now seem to be so many gluten-free alternatives out there.  People should not have to go without food like pasta!

Catelli pasta is one of my favourite brands here in Canada because they offer so many alternatives to regular white pasta.  I love their line with vegetables in the pasta, but I usually buy the whole grain pasta.  Last year they launched a line of gluten-free pasta including penne, fusilli, and spaghetti, and recently they added macaroni to the line-up and asked if I wanted to give it a try. 

Turns out it tastes just like regular pasta, even though it's made from white and brown rice, corn, and quinoa.  I still prefer using whole grain pasta whenever I can, but it's nice to know there's a tasty alternative out there for those with gluten sensitivities or intolerance, or for me to use in dishes where whole wheat doesn't really work as well, like in this pasta bowl.

Catelli has lots of awesome pasta recipes on their site, and I decided to go with a Moroccan version to test out this pasta, and I'm so glad I did!  Everything about this pasta is so different from your typical tomato sauce pasta, and even though it looks like there are a lot of strange ingredients in this, they all work together so well!

Instead of a sauce, this pasta is tossed with a light dressing full of fresh lemon flavour and lots of spices.  You also use some of this dressing to roast some cauliflower and chickpeas, giving them awesome flavour and texture.  I never roast chickpeas for pasta, usually tossing them in raw, but now I always want to eat them this way - I love that they get a little crispy!  Also mixed in there are some green olives, sliced dried apricot, feta cheese, and mint leaves.  I know it sounds a little weird, but trust me that it all the ingredients are balanced and together make an amazing flavour, so don't leave anything out!  I couldn't stop eating this right after I made it and already look forward to making it again.

If you want to try out this gluten-free pasta yourself, you can get a coupon for $1.00 off here.  And if you're lucky (and live in Canada), you have a chance to win a whole year's supply of Catelli's gluten-free macaroni!

To enter to win this awesome prize (with a retail value of approximately $180), please follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below - there are three ways to enter: leaving a comment on this blog, following me on Facebook, or on Twitter - pick one or all three for more entries!

Please be sure to enter with a valid e-mail address or Facebook account so I can contact you if you're randomly selected as the winner.  The contest will close at midnight EST on Sunday, June 8th, 2014.  Please note that as this is a Canadian product, this contest is open to Canadians only (sorry, American friends!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don't forget to check out the recipe below!

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post.  I received one box of pasta to make this recipe but was not compensated in any other way for my time, ingredients, or thoughts, which are all my own :) I just thought this was a great giveaway opportunity for my readers!

Gluten-Free Moroccan Macaroni Bowl with Roasted Cauliflower & Chickpeas

Slightly adapted from Catelli Pasta

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

1 (540mL) can of no-salt added chickpeas, drained and rinsed

4 cups cauliflower florets (about 1 small head or 3/4 of a larger head)

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper

1 box (340g) Catelli® Gluten Free Macaroni

3/4 cup slivered dried apricots

1/3 cup sliced green olives

1 cup crumbled feta

3/4 cup loosely packed chopped fresh mint leaves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F and line a large baking sheet (I used two) with parchment paper or foil.  Add cauliflower and chickpeas to a large bowl.  Whisk lemon juice, oil, honey, ginger, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, salt, and pepper in a small bowl until combined.  Drizzle 3 tablespoons of the dressing over the cauliflower and chickpeas and toss to combine.  Spread cauliflower and chickpeas onto prepared baking sheets in an even layer.  Roast in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until browned, tossing halfway through.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water before draining.  Toss cooked pasta with roasted cauliflower and chickpeas, apricots, olives, feta, mint, reserved pasta water, and reserved lemon dressing.  Stir until combined and serve warm.

Thai Coconut Red Fish Curry with Quinoa

I'm super excited for today's post for two main reasons - first is that this is one of the tastiest dishes I've had in a while, and second is to announce that I've partnered with the Sustainable Seafood Blog Project!

The idea of the Sustainable Seafood Blog Project is to unite food bloggers and businesses interested in promoting sustainable seafood choices.  When Jessie from Life as a Strawberry asked if I'd be interested in joining, I admit that I was a tiny bit hesitant because while I've heard a lot about sustainable seafood lately and know that it's a really important issue, I didn't feel like I was well informed on it enough myself to talk about it with you guys.  But after a bit of research, I was happy to find out that there are so many resources out there to help consumers make smart choices, so while the idea of sustainable seafood might sound complicated, it's much easier than you might think!

We've all probably heard about the health benefits of eating fish, but many of us (myself included) are perhaps less aware of the impact certain fishing practises have had on the environment, including overfishing certain species of fish, damaging the environment through harmful fishing methods, and catching unwanted types of fish or marine life.

Without getting into too much detail or trying to sounding too preachy, the idea of sustainable seafood is to support fishing practices that will not damage our oceans or deplete marine life.  The infographic below (courtesy of Jessie) summarizes these issues in a much prettier way than I could put together!

I'm happy to say that the two main grocery stores I shop at here in Ontario (Loblaw and Sobeys) have made commitments to selling sustainable seafood, and in addition, the Marine Stewardship Council has made it really easy to identify smart choices when you're shopping by just looking for their seal of approval on the product (see the blue checkmark in the images below).

I still only buy fish (or any meat) when it's on sale because it's usually expensive, but all the products pictured below were on sale and cost just as much or less than the fish without those labels, so it's nice that I didn't have to pay a fortune to choose them (unlike with organic fruits and vegetables)!

And if you want to read more, there are tons of resources available to you, such as:

The Marine Stewardship Council
Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch
Vancouver Aquarium Ocean Wise
Sea Choice
And of course, the resources page of the Sustainable Seafood Blog Project.

So moving on to this recipe, this curry is one of the tastiest meals I've made in a while!  It may look a little complicated at first, but is actually really easy (sound familiar?)... All you have to do is sauté some veggies, throw in a little curry paste (I used red curry paste but green or yellow would work well too!), coconut milk, and a little chicken broth, then add the fish to simmer and that's basically it.

Most curries like this would be served with white rice, but to add a little more nutrition I decided to use quinoa, which I think tastes even better.  The flavours in this dish all come together in such a great way, and it's a pretty healthful meal too, so you can feel good about eating it for lots of reasons!

And if you like seafood, please check out these fabulous bloggers who are also part of the Sustainable Seafood project and are posting more great recipes today!

Buffalo Shrimp Tacos from Barbells and Bellinis

Cobb Salad Salmon Burgers with Blue Cheese Mayo from Cooking for Keeps

30 Minute Skillet Shrimp Paella from Wanna Be A Country Cleaver

Strawberry Basil Glazed Salmon from Life As A Strawberry

Crispy Baked Salmon Sticks from Running to the Kitchen 
Beer steamed mussels with ginger, mango, and lime from Mangoes and Palm Trees

Thai Coconut Red Fish Curry with Quinoa

Adapted from several sources, such as recipes from The Foodie Physician and Kristen’s Kitchen

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

~2 cups cooked quinoa

2 teaspoons canola oil

1 medium shallot, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 red bell pepper, sliced into 1” long slices

1 yellow pepper, sliced into 1” long slices

1 thai chili pepper, minced (optional for added spice)

2 tablespoons red curry paste

1 cup fat-free low sodium chicken broth

1 (400mL or 13.5oz) can light coconut milk

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1-1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

150g or about 5oz snow peas

4-6 white fish fillets, cut into 1” pieces – choose a mild white fish that is a sustainable option for your region, such as wild Pacific cod, Wild Alaskan or Pacific halibut, or wild haddock (Canadian)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons chopped cilantro (optional)

Directions:

Cook a box of quinoa according to package directions – I ended up using about 1/2 cup cooked quinoa per serving which was approximately one 200g box.

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add shallot and garlic and cook for about 1 minute, stirring often.  Add ginger, red and yellow peppers, and chili pepper.  Let cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened.  Add curry paste, stir to coat, and let cook for another minute.  Add chicken broth and coconut milk and let simmer for 8-10 minutes.  Add fish sauce, brown sugar, and lime juice, and let simmer for another 1-2 minutes.  Add fish, cover, and let simmer 5-7 minutes, until fish is cooked through (may depend on type and thickness of fish).  Season with salt.

Add about 1/2 cup quinoa to each of four bowls.  Pour curry overtop and garnish with about 1 tablespoon cilantro, if desired.  Serve warm.

Ponzu Glazed Salmon with Miso Slaw

I leave for a conference in Japan tomorrow, and as with any trip, the most important thing I’ve researched beforehand (I haven’t done much preparation for this trip) is what the food will be like!   I don’t have a lot of experience with Japanese food outside of sushi, and even the sushi rolls I normally choose are more like Western versions of sushi (yes I like California rolls, sorry sushi purists!).  So I decided to buy a few Japanese ingredients I haven’t tried before – specifically, miso and ponzu sauce - and use them in a dish before I left, and this is what I came up with!

I’ve always wanted to try miso (a thick, salty soy paste), but whenever I see it I talk myself out of it because it’s kind of expensive and I’m never sure what to do with it.  I’d also never tried ponzu, but from the description – like a citrusy soy sauce – I knew I’d like it.  I considered using them in some sort of soba noodle salad, but I’ve eaten lots of soba noodles before (I love them!), so I decided to go with something a little different and use the ponzu as a marinade and glaze for salmon, and the miso in a dressing for a simple slaw on the side.

Because I’ve been pretty busy the last few days, I tried to keep things as simple as possible, making an easy 2-ingredient ponzu and ginger marinade for the salmon along with a 3-ingredient glaze of ponzu along with rice vinegar and orange juice to lighten it up.  For the slaw, I cheated and used a storebought bag of coleslaw mix (but feel free to make your own), and then played around with a dressing until I reached a combination of flavours - trying to balance out the salty miso with rice vinegar for acidity, honey for sweetness, and some fresh orange juice to lighten it up - that I liked. 

The whole dish didn’t take long to prepare and I ended up loving it so much!  The ponzu and orange juice glaze gave the salmon such a great flavour that was similar to soy sauce but not quite as rich and salty, and the marinade made the salmon so tender.  The slaw was also really flavourful, though perhaps almost a little too similar to the taste of the salmon for them to be served together with no other side dish to cleanse the palate.  Next time I think I’d either add in another simple side like mashed potatoes (even though that’s not Japanese at all, but then the salmon and slaw might not really be either!), or serve the ponzu salmon alongside a brighter and lighter orange slaw like this one. 

Nevertheless, I still loved both components, and they were a great way to get me looking forward to trying some real Japanese food soon!  I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures of anything I try so I can share it when I get back!

And if you have any suggestions on things to eat or look for there, feel free to share!  Tips on vegetarian restaurants/food would be especially welcome for my sister who will be traveling with me!

Ponzu Glazed Salmon with Miso Slaw

Loosely guided by a recipe from Bon Appetit

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the Salmon:

2 fresh salmon fillets (about 3-4 ounces each)

2 tablespoons ponzu sauce

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

For the Ponzu Glaze:

2 tablespoons ponzu sauce

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar

For the Miso Slaw:

3 cups prepared coleslaw mix (or make your own using cabbage, carrots, red pepper, cucumber)

1 tablespoon white miso

1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1/2 teaspoon honey

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon ponzu sauce

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon grated ginger

Directions:

Add salmon fillets, 2 tablespoons ponzu, and 1 teaspoon grated ginger to a ziplock bag.  Seal and rub the sauce around to make sure salmon is coated, then place in refrigerator to marinate for 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 425°F.

Meanwhile, prepare miso slaw.  Add miso, water, orange juice, sesame oil, ponzu, rice vinegar, and ginger to a small bowl and whisk to combine.  Taste and adjust any amounts to your liking.  Add coleslaw and toss to coat.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Once salmon has marinated and oven is ready, transfer salmon to a foil-lined baking sheet (skin side down, if skin is attached), and roast for 10-14 minutes, until tender.  Meanwhile, prepare the ponzu glaze by adding the 2 tablespoons ponzu, 1/4 cup orange juice, and 1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar to a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and let simmer until sauce is thickened and reduced by about half (about 5-7 minutes).  Brush on cooked salmon.  Serve salmon alongside slaw.

*Note: You might want to add in another more plain side dish (like a carb) to balance out the flavours.

Smoked Salmon & Avocado Fresh Spring Rolls with Soy Dipping Sauce

While my wishing for the snow to stop seems to have worked because we haven't had snow the last few days, now we are getting rain - A LOT of rain! - much of Southern Ontario has been issued a special rain warning with flood watches for the week.  I guess the old saying "be careful what you wish for" has some truth to it - so now I'm wishing that the phrase "April showers bring May flowers" is also true, and that the May flowers part includes May veggies!  And to help wish Spring along, I made spring rolls - clever right?  :)

When it comes to spring rolls, I actually much prefer fresh rolls made with rice paper than the more common deep fried version, because the focus is on the fresh ingredients inside the roll, whose flavour isn't masked by a thick fried wrapper.  Plus fresh rolls are super easy to make - just lay some ingredients you like on a circle of rice paper and roll it up!  Rice paper wrappers get pretty sticky when they're wet so they'll stay together well as long as you wrap them up tightly.  The only down side is they have to be eaten pretty soon after making them so they don't harden, but with these smoked salmon and avocado rolls, you won't have any problem eating them all up right away!

Here are the ingredients I put in my fresh rolls: smoked salmon, avocado, carrots, cucumber, basil, lettuce, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Just soak your rice paper wrapper, lay it on a clean surface (I used a damp paper towel), place your ingredients in the bottom half, then roll it up!  Easy peasy!

I loved how the creamy avocado and smoked salmon paired with the crunchy veggies in these fresh rolls, but the best part was the soy dipping sauce that infused the whole thing with even more flavour - it's an absolute must!

If smoked salmon isn't your thing, I also love these sweet & spicy kiwi mango fresh rolls with lime dipping sauce.  And if you have other fresh rolls flavour combos that you love, let me know - I have a ton of rice paper wrappers to use up now!

Smoked Salmon & Avocado Fresh Spring Rolls with Soy Dipping Sauce

Adapted from Eating Well

Makes 6 fresh rolls

Ingredients:

For the Fresh Rolls:

6 (9-inch) rice paper wrappers

6 pieces of lettuce

1 (100g or 3-4oz) package smoked salmon, in 6 slices

1 large carrot, peeled and julienned (you might not use the whole carrot)

Half a cucumber, julienned

1 ripe avocado, sliced (you might not use the whole avocado – I only used about half of one but that was being stingy)

1/4 cup sliced basil

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

For the Dipping Sauce:

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon sweet thai chili sauce

2 teaspoons sugar

1 green onion, chopped

Directions:

Have all of your components for the spring rolls prepared before you start rolling them (i.e. slice your carrot, cucumber, avocado, basil, and salmon, and have the lettuce and sesame seeds ready to go).  

Soak one rice paper wrapper at a time in a shallow dish of hot water for about 10 seconds until it is soft and bendable.  Remove, let excess water drip off, and lay on a damp paper towel (the original recipe suggests a cutting board, which would work too, but I liked to keep the wrapper damp).  Lay lettuce on bottom third of wrapper, top with a piece of salmon, a few pieces of carrot, a couple pieces of cucumber, a slice or two of avocado, a bit of basil, and a sprinkle (about 1/2 teaspoon) of sesame seeds.  Fold the wrapper up over the filling and roll into a tight cylinder, folding in the sides as you go.  Remember that the wrapper will stick to itself, so make your folds where you want them, as it can be hard to undo!  Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.  Cut each finished roll in half.

*Note: I also tried rolling one with the ingredients placed in the center before rolling and found that it worked that way too, but I preferred starting to roll from the bottom.

To prepare dipping sauce, whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.  Serve rolls immediately with the dipping sauce, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours covered with a damp paper towel so they don’t harden (the original recipe suggests individually wrapping them in parchment or wax paper).

Asian-Style Chicken Noodle Soup

Even though it's now officially Spring and it seems like everyone's already talking about spring produce like asparagus and peas and all those bright and crunchy fresh veggies, it's hard to get into the spring mindset when this is your view out the window:

With the seemingly never-ending snow and cold, I'm naturally still craving warm and cozy comfort food.  And with a sore throat signalling the start of another cold yesterday, I quickly developed a particular craving for the ultimate comfort food, chicken noodle soup.

But because I couldn't show you guys just any old chicken noodle soup, this one has a twist!

This soup takes on an Asian flavour with the addition of ingredients like mushrooms, bok choy, cilantro, fish sauce, lemongrass, and lime juice, and the use of soba noodles instead of more traditional egg noodles or other pasta.  This gives the soup such a great depth of flavour that still has the comfort factor and familiar taste of chicken noodle soup but is a little more exciting!

Even better, the addition of ingredients like ginger, garlic, and spicy chiles are great for fighting off a cold (at least I hope that's what I'm telling myself!)

If you're lucky enough to live somewhere that actually felt like spring on the first day of spring, send some warm and sunny thoughts up north!  In the meantime, I can't really complain when I have a giant pot of this delicious soup to keep me warm :)

Asian Chicken Soba Noodle Soup

Loosely adapted from LCBO’s Food & Drink

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon canola oil

2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

8 oz sliced mini bella or crimini mushrooms

1 large carrot, julienned (I used a couple handfuls of pre-sliced waffle cut carrots instead)

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 liters (8.5 cups) chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon frozen chopped lemongrass (or 2 stalks lemongrass)

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, fat trimmed off

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (or more if you want it to be really spicy!)

8 oz soba noodles*

4-5 heads baby bok choy, ends trimmed and sliced lengthwise

Juice of half a lime

2-3 green onions, thinly sliced

Salt and pepper

Cilantro and additional lime wedges for serving, if desired

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add ginger, garlic, mushrooms, carrot, and onions.  Cook for 5-7 minutes until softened, stirring often.  Add chicken broth, red pepper flakes, lemongrass, and chicken breasts.  If using a lemongrass stalk, remove the outer stalks, cut into chunks, smash, and wrap in cheesecloth – you will need to remove it before serving.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer.  Let simmer for about 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

Remove chicken breasts and set aside.  Add fish sauce and chili garlic sauce to broth and stir.  Add soba noodles and cook in the simmering broth for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, shred chicken.

Add bok choy and shredded chicken to the pot and let cook for another 2-3 minutes, until bok choy is slightly wilted.  Remove from heat.  Stir in lime juice and green onions, and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Use a sharp knife or clean kitchen shears to cut some of the soba noodles in half, otherwise they will be difficult to divide into bowls.

Serve with additional lime wedges (I highly recommend this) and cilantro, if desired.

*Note: I used soba noodles because I have a ton of them to use up right now (and I like them!) but you could substitute rice noodles if you like.  Just cook them separately according to the package directions (usually soaking in hot water), toss with a bit of sesame oil to keep them from sticking, then add to the soup at the end.

Curried Chickpea & Kale Soup

I’ve made three holiday cookies/dessert recipes over the last week, I’ll be making two more for our annual department cookie swap tomorrow, and I’ll be coming home from the cookie swap with an entire container full of about a million more cookies… I’m certainly not complaining, but around this time of year I always try to make sure I make my meals as healthy and nourishing as possible to help balance out the excessive cookie consumption a little!

When I saw this pretty green soup in Clean Eating magazine, I knew it was just what I needed, plus it featured a flavour combination – curry powder, kale, chickpeas, and coconut milk – that I hadn’t seen before in a soup!  And it used beans as a thickener, which I liked so much from the roasted tomato & white bean soup I tried last week.

The flavours in this soup all work together and make a thick and filling soup that you can feel good about eating!  You could probably fit a lot more kale in there too if you want to feel even better about it! The original recipe had a quick, 15 minute preparation, but I decided to sauté some onions, garlic, and ginger first to add some flavour.  This made my version slightly longer to prepare, but it’s still really easy to make on a weeknight, leaving you plenty of time left in the evening to bake some cookies :)

Curried Chickpea & Kale Soup

Adapted from Clean Eating Magazine, Quick & Easy Meals Special Issue

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups low fat coconut milk (canned)
2 cans (15-19 fl oz each) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 cups packed torn kale leaves
1 teaspoon honey or agave
Salt & Pepper

Directions:

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until soft and translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and sauté for another 30 seconds to 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Add curry powder and cumin and stir together for about 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add vegetable stock, coconut milk, chickpeas, and kale, and let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Transfer soup to a blender in two batches, remove the plastic stopper from the top of the blender and cover with a paper towel to allow steam to escape. Puree until smooth, then return to saucepan. Add honey and season with salt and pepper to taste, reheating the soup for a couple of minutes. If the soup is too thick, add more vegetable stock or water to thin it out to desired consistency.

Serve warm with naan bread.

Sweet Potato Peanut Bisque

My twin sister recently returned from a trip to Kenya, and of all the delicious food she tried and described to me, some familiar and some completely new, the one that stuck with me the most was peanut soup.  Maybe it's just because it's been getting colder here, but ever since she mentioned peanut soup I haven't stopped craving it!

One of the first recipes I came across in my search for peanut soup was this sweet potato peanut bisque from Eating Well.  Not only is it inspired by (West) African cuisine, but I also loved that it included sweet potatoes, which Gen had talked about during her trip, as apparently the sweet potatoes in Africa are much better than here!

I knew I'd love the recipe because I've already paired sweet potatoes and peanut butter together in two other African inspired recipes that I love: sweet potato and peanut stew and sweet potatoes with West African style peanut sauce.  If you're hesitant about the combination of sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and peanut butter, don't be!  It works!

I absolutely loved this soup and it satisfied my craving for something warm and comforting perfectly!  The flavours all worked so well together and the bisque was so thick and creamy while still being healthy.  The addition of the green chile made this really spicy, which I liked, but you can definitely cut down the amount of chiles for less spice, or use a dash of cayenne at the end to more easily control the amount of spice you add.

While this soup is (supposed to be) more reflective of West African cuisine, if you'd like to read about the food my sister enjoyed in Kenya (in East Africa), along with some cute safari animal pictures, you should check out her blog post about it!

Sweet Potato Peanut Bisque

Adapted from Eating Well

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato (around 12 ounces), peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 tablespoons olive oil

Pinch of cinnamon

Salt and pepper

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

1/2 to 1 small green chile, minced (use half a chile for less spice, I used a whole green chile and the soup was quite spicy)

1/2 teaspoon allspice (I used 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon + 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg + 1/8 teaspoon cloves)

1-1/2 cups strained crushed tomatoes (or just crushed tomatoes if you can’t find strained)

1 cup chicken or vegetable stock

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

Chopped cilantro and peanuts for garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°F.  Toss chopped sweet potato with 1 tablespoon olive oil, cinnamon, and season with salt and pepper.  Spread on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast in preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, until tender.

Meanwhile, heat remaining tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add onions and sauté until softened and beginning to brown, stirring often, about 4-5 minutes.  Add garlic, ginger, chiles, and allspice, and cook, stirring, for another 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Stir in crushed tomatoes, reduce heat to simmer, and let simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Add vegetable stock and peanut butter to the tomato sauce.  Transfer half the sauce along with half of the roasted sweet potatoes to a blender and puree until smooth (you don't want to fill the blender too high with hot liquid so blend it in two batches).  Puree the remaining half the sauce, then pour all the puree back into the saucepan to heat.  Add the remaining half of the sweet potatoes to the soup and cook over low heat until heated through.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve and garnish with chopped cilantro and peanuts.

Harvest Snack Cake

I probably should have posted this recipe a little closer to Thanksgiving (which was this past weekend), because it would have tied in with it with perfectly, but I just haven’t been very organized lately! 

Canadian Thanksgiving is a celebration to give thanks for “the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed” (source), along with all the other good things in our lives, especially our family and friends.  I love that there is a holiday specifically dedicated to celebrating the harvest and all the amazing food we are lucky to have readily available here!

I’d love to tell you that I made this cake in honour of the harvest and Thanksgiving, but I honestly didn’t make the connection until now.  Still, this harvest snack cake is a great way to celebrate fall food and flavours!

This cake is easy to make, will fill your kitchen with the smell of fall, and is full of good-for-you ingredients like carrots, apples, and walnuts.  Plus, it uses whole wheat flour and contains no butter or oil, so in my books that makes it a pretty healthy snack.  Of course, there’s still sugar in it, so I’m not putting “healthy” in the title, but I certainly don’t feel guilty about eating a piece for my snack every day!

Harvest Snack Cake

Adapted from Taste of Home

Makes about 16 squares

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

2 large eggs

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup grated carrot

3/4 cup grated apple (about 1 large apple – if one apple doesn’t reach ¾ cup, you can increase the amount of carrots so total grated carrots + apples = 1.5 cups)

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line the bottom of a 13x9 baking pan with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Soak your raisins in hot water for 5-10 minutes so they won't absorb the moisture from your cake during baking (drain your raisins before using them).

Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour to ginger) in a large bowl.  In a separate medium bowl, whisk the eggs, applesauce, and vanilla.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together with a spatula until just incorporated.  Fold in the carrots, apples, raisins, and walnuts.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan, and bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.

Note: I knew I wouldn’t eat all of this in a few days, so I kept about half of the squares in the freezer and found that they froze well.

Baked Sweet Potatoes with West African-Style Peanut Sauce

My twin sister Genevieve (from Vanilla & Spice) is in Kenya right now and I'm super jealous, so I thought I'd make myself an African-style meal to pretend that I'm also over there.  It didn't quite work (the pretending I'm in Africa part), but the meal did turn out to be delicious!

This is a simple, filling, and comforting dish made by baking a sweet potato and smothering it in a thick, creamy tomato-peanut sauce.  I know Kenya isn't in West Africa, and honestly I don't even know if this is a true West-African dish anyway, but Cooking Light says it is, so I'm going with it!

You might think it's weird to pair sweet potatoes and peanut butter together, but trust me, it works!  This actually reminded me of a lot of the African sweet potato and peanut stew that I love so much, except that the sweet potato is more the star of this dish.

If you're not convinced, the sauce pairs well with veggies too.  I served some of my extra sauce with steamed broccoli for a light lunch, and really enjoyed it!

Cooking Light suggests pairing a sweet potato with chicken, but I was really full from the sweet potato alone.  This may be because I doubled the amount of sauce called for, and the sauce is pretty filling, but I thought it was necessary to double it to make sure there was enough for every  bite of sweet potato.  I think pairing one of these smothered potatoes with a side of salad makes for a satisfying vegetarian meal, but go ahead and add a protein if you like too, I do think the sauce would work well with chicken!

This may or may not be a completely authentic African meal, but it's still something a little different than what I'm used to, and is a great autumn dish!

Baked Sweet Potatoes with West African-Style Peanut Sauce

Adapted from Cooking Light

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 medium sweet potatoes

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 a small onion, finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 teaspoons grated or minced fresh ginger

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Dash of cayenne

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup crushed tomatoes (tomato sauce)

3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

2 tablespoons chopped peanuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Pierce sweet potatoes with a fork all over, and bake directly on the middle oven rack for 45 minutes or until tender.

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion, ginger, and garlic, and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring often.  Add cumin, coriander, and cayenne, and cook for another minute.  Add water, tomato sauce, peanut butter, lemon juice, sugar, and salt.  Stir or whisk until smooth, bring to a simmer, and cook for 2-3 minutes, until slightly thickened.  Remove from heat.

Split potatoes lengthwise (not cutting all the way through), and squeeze the sides of the potato (with oven mitts on) so the filling fluffs out, if desired.  Spoon sauce over potatoes and sprinkle with peanuts and cilantro.  If you want to make sure sauce covers more of the sweet potato, cut the sweet potato up before adding the sauce.

Sesame Soba Noodle Salad

I'm back!  I had a wonderful, relaxing week on vacation in beautiful Cuba, but now I'm having a hard time adjusting back to work and reality!  I apologize for the lack of posts lately, as well as my delay in checking in with other blogs (I currently have over 800 unread blog posts in my Google Reader to get to!), but I'm hoping this tasty and refreshing sesame soba noodle salad will help make up for it!

This is actually a dish inspired by a meal I ate in a Japanese restaurant on my earlier trip to Singapore.  I wasn't exactly sure what I was ordering when I requested the soba noodle salad, but I certainly didn't expect to see lettuce and noodles mixed together!  I didn't have high hopes for it when it appeared in front of me, but was pleasantly surprised when I took a few bites.  Since the noodles were cold, the whole salad was light and refreshing with an interesting mix of textures that worked well together.  But what really made the dish stand out was the delicious sesame dressing that was served with it.  

You may remember the picture I posted of the dish back in my recap of what I ate in Singapore, where I promised I would try to replicate it back at home.  Well, I stayed true to my word and recreated it the weekend after I got home from that trip!

The salad part was easy - I just used some of my favourite salad ingredients, topped them with a pile of cooked soba noodles and a garnish of sliced nori and sesame seeds.  The salad dressing was a little harder as I had to play around with different ingredients quite a bit until I found the perfect balance, but I think I ended up with a pretty amazing dressing!

This salad tasted just as good as the one I remembered eating in Singapore - it was cool, fresh, and full of flavour thanks to the filling sesame peanut dressing.  It's great for summer and I will definitely be making this again now that my trip to Cuba has given me a taste of the hot weather I have to look forward to!

Sesame Soba Noodle Salad

Inspired by a dish I ate at Rakuzen in Singapore

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the Dressing:

2 tablespoons peanut butter

1 tablespoon tahini

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon honey

Dash of salt

2 tablespoons water

For the Salad:

4-6 oz soba noodles (depending on desired amount)

Lettuce (desired amount for 2 people)

Sliced cucumber, carrot, mushrooms, and snowpeas (or other desired salad ingredients)

For Topping:

1 sheet of nori, thinly sliced for garnishing

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Directions:

Cook soba noodles as per package ingredients.  Drain and rinse well with cold water.  Let cool.

In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients for the salad dressing.  Taste and adjust any amounts to your liking, and add more water to thin it out if necessary.

Divide lettuce and salad ingredients between two bowls/plates.  Top with cooked cooled soba noodles.  Garnish with nori and sesame seeds and serve with sesame dressing.

Thai Turkey & Carrot Meatballs

Since I returned home from my brief trip to Thailand, I've been really eager to try my hand at cooking Thai dishes at home. I wish I could say that this recipe was a brilliant and creative attempt at recreating Thai flavours in my own dish, but I actually made this dish a couple of months before I even went there, and it wasn't my idea but was inspired by an intriguing recipe I found from Foodland Ontario.

Nevertheless, these little turkey and carrot meatballs do pack a ton of Thai ingredients like ginger, lime, cilantro, fish sauce, and chili hot sauce, and they make for a juicy and tasty little bite that's bursting with flavour! They obviously aren't a dish you'd expect to find in Thailand, but I thought they were a really nice way of incorporating some Thai flavours into more of a familiar Western-style dish.

I also love that these are fairly healthy because they're baked instead of fried, and they're made with lean ground turkey, lots of carrots, and other good-for-you ingredients like ginger, garlic, and cilantro. I can imagine a vegetarian version made with something like lentils and cashews, though I haven't tried that yet - maybe that will be my next project!

These are really easy to make and the recipe makes a ton of meatballs, so they can serve a big group as a party appetizer, or can be frozen to be eaten later in any recipe you like! I ate some of mine on their own with the peanut dipping sauce suggested in the original recipe. I wasn't a fan of the sauce because it had a coconut milk base that was too sweet for me, but with a regular peanut sauce or Thai chili sauce, these would be great!

I then discovered that throwing the meatballs in a sub bun with carrot slaw, cilantro, and lots of peanut sauce made for one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. It was really messy but as long as I ate it in private so no one would see my sauce covered face and hands, it was amazing! I think the meatballs would also be great in a peanut noodle dish or a coconut curry soup - be creative and let me know what works!

I hope to start experimenting with more authentic Thai dishes soon, and hopefully I'll end up with a few successful recipes to share with you guys!


Thai Carrot & Turkey Meatballs

Adapted from Foodland Ontario, as seen on 50Plus

Makes about 50 small meatballs

Ingredients:

3 cups grated carrot (about 2-3 large carrots, weighing about 1 pound total)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large egg
1/2 cup minced cilantro
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon lime zest
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce (or more for more spice)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 pound lean ground turkey
1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Add all ingredients except for the last two (breadcrumbs and turkey) to a large bowl and mix well. Add breadcrumbs and ground turkey and mix in until everything is thoroughly combined.

Roll about 1 tablespoon of the turkey mixture into a ball and place on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the mixture, until you have about 50 meatballs. Place in preheated oven and bake 12-16 minutes, rotating pans halfway through, until meatballs are firm and no longer pink inside.

Serve warm on skewers with a peanut sauce dip, sweet chili sauce, or other dipping sauce.

To make Meatball Subs:

I used a white baguette for the bun, covered the bottom half in a storebought broccoli-carrot slaw that I'd coated in a good amount of (storebought) peanut sauce, placed as many turkey meatballs as I could fit on top of that, sprinkled some fresh cilantro on top, then added another drizzle of peanut sauce.

Tropical Chicken Cups

I've never been to an Oscars party and I usually don't last through the whole awards show, but I've been seeing a lot of Oscar menu ideas lately and I decided to make myself an Oscar-themed appetizer this year to eat during my favourite part of the show, the red carpet!

The four Best Picture nominees that I've seen are Moneyball, The Help, Midnight in Paris, and War Horse, so if I wanted to make something to match one of those, it would mean either baseball food, Southern food, French food, or.. horse food? None of those really appealed to me today, but when I read that The Descendants takes place in Hawaii, I decided to make something Hawaiian to eat because it seemed like the perfect thing to brighten a cold winter day. Even though I haven't seen The Descendants, I may have to root for it now - it deserves to win just for inspiring these delicious tropical chicken cups!

My sister showed me the original recipe for coconut mango chicken cups on Liv Life because she thought they'd be up my alley, and she was right! I hadn't seen this blog before, but it has tons of fantastic looking recipes and photos so I can't wait to try more from it. Kim says that she's made her chicken cups for lots of different gatherings, so I knew they would be good. Hers had mango chutney and curry paste in them, but I decided to give them a Hawaiian twist by using pineapple instead, and I added in avocado because I think it pairs really well with pineapple. I left in the coconut milk and lime juice so that the whole thing would have a tropical taste!

These were pretty easy to make and were bursting with bright flavour! I think they'd make a perfect party appetizer that would be very quickly gobbled up (I know from the surprising rate that these disappeared from my own plate!) You could probably make a vegetarian version of them too by replacing the chicken with black beans, or even adding some coconut sticky rice for a bit more substance.

I realize you won't have time to make these in time for tonight's Oscars yourselves, but they'd be great for any occasion (and really, it's a bit of a stretch for me to call them Oscar-inspired anyway)! And now that I know what a great vessel wontons make for appetizers, I keep thinking of other filling ideas that would be fabulous in these - and if you decide to experiment, let me know what works!

Are you watching the Oscars tonight, and did you make any Oscar-inspired food?

Tropical Chicken Cups (with Pineapple, Avocado, Coconut, & Lime)

Adapted from Liv Life's Coconut Mango Chicken Cups

Makes 24 cups

Ingredients:

24 wonton wrappers
1 tsp canola oil
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 cups cooked diced chicken (or you could use fish instead!)
3/4 cup light coconut milk
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1-1/2 cups diced fresh ripe pineapple
1 ripe avocado, diced
salt and pepper
cilantro for topping (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a mini muffin pan with non-stick spray. Press 24 wonton wrappers into the mini muffin tin, pressing any folds firmly to the sides. Bake for 5-10 minutes, until golden. Set aside to cool.

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté about 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Add the chicken, coconut milk, and lime juice, and cook for a few minutes until coconut milk is mostly absorbed. Gently stir in pineapple and avocado. Season generously with salt and pepper, tasting to adjust any amounts to taste. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Spoon filling into wonton cups (you may have a bit of extra filling, which you can taste before filling the wonton cups to make sure it’s to your liking). Sprinkle chopped cilantro on top, if desired (if you're serving these to a big group, you may only want to put cilantro on half of the chicken cups because a lot of people don't like it). Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sesame Soy Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli and Edamame

After the rather indulgent caramel latte pancakes I last posted (not to mention the amount of pancakes I ate yesterday), I felt like I should post something healthier today. This sesame soy spaghetti squash with broccoli and edamame is a dish I’ve made quite a few times lately because it’s so healthy and really tasty!

I think the inspiration for this dish originally came from this steamed broccoli and squash with tahini dressing that I saw in a Whole Living magazine. I liked the idea but ended up changing everything around to my own tastes, so that the only parts of the original that really remained were the broccoli and tahini.

For my tahini sauce, I wanted to give it more of an Asian flavour with sesame and soy sauce. After a bit of experimentation, I came up with a sauce that I thought was full of flavour, and is filling and healthy from the addition of the tahini (sesame seed paste).

The first time I made the sauce, I paired it with steamed broccoli and sweet potato over brown rice (pictured below):

While I loved the sauce and veggies, I didn't like the way the rice absorbed all of the sauce and didn't think the textures of the dish were quite right.

So for my second try, I decided to make the same dish over soba noodles instead:

The soba noodles provided a much better base for both the sauce and the vegetables, and I really loved this version.

But a few days later I had a spaghetti squash to use up, so I decided to try the dish again, using the spaghetti squash as the base instead of soba noodles. Since I already knew that the sesame soy tahini sauce went well the sweet potatoes, I figured squash would also pair well with it.

If you've never tried spaghetti squash before, it's a lot like other winter squashes except that when the flesh is cooked, it scrapes off like strands of spaghetti! This makes it a great healthy and low-carb substitute for pasta - I've seen it in lots of recipes from basic tomato sauce with spaghetti squash to baked dishes with lots of other add-ins.

I used the cooked spaghetti squash "noodles" as the base for my latest version of this sesame soy tahini dish. I kept in the steamed broccoli but this time I added cooked edamame for protein. This combination turned out to be my favourite version of all, and was also the healthiest!

I think I've now found the dish I'm going to stick with, but if I experiment more in the future, I may try pairing the sesame soy sauce with salmon or chicken, I think that would go really well!

Sesame Soy Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli and Edamame

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

Sesame Soy Tahini Sauce:
3 tablespoons tahini (sesame seed paste)
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
Dash of cayenne pepper
1-2 tablespoons water

Half of a spaghetti squash
Half a head of broccoli, chopped into florets
1 cup frozen shelled edamame
Sesame seeds for topping
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut spaghetti squash in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp from the center. Place one half with the cut side facing down on a greased or lined baking sheet (keep other half wrapped in the fridge for another use). Roast for 30-40 minutes, or until tender - it may take longer, depending on the size of your squash. When done, use a fork to scrape the flesh off the skin and into a bowl (it will scrape off in strands, like spaghetti).

While the squash is cooking, prepare the remaining components:

Whisk together all ingredients for the sauce. Taste and adjust any seasonings to taste. If the sauce is too thick, add a bit more water to thin it out.

Place chopped broccoli in a steamer basket and steam over boiling water for 3-5 minutes, until crisp-tender and bright green. Set aside. Cook edamame according to package directions.

When all components are ready, divide spaghetti squash into two bowls, top with broccoli and edamame, and drizzle sesame soy tahini sauce overtop. Top with sesame seeds and season with salt and pepper, if desired.

This is best eaten on the day that it's made.