Tag Archives: easy dinner

Spicy Chickpea Carrot Soup

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What’s more comforting than a bowl of soup? How about some spicy soup? You can decide how spicy, onion-y, and garlicky you want to make this. For diced tomatoes, I used fire roasted with green chiles from Muir Glen. This recipe is all up to your own taste. Also, I prefer to use a neutral veg stock/broth because some brands are “too vegetable-y”. (IYKYK.) Use a hand blender to smooth out, or you can use a blender. (I use a hand blender). These are the ingredients:

Ingredients

  • 2 cans chickpeas, rinsed, drained
  • 2 cans diced tomatoes (either spicy or regular)
  • 1/2 large onion, diced
  • 2 carrots, chopped (you can roast them first too!)
  • 1-2 TB garlic
  • olive oil
  • 1 carton of veg broth (I like Swanson’s veg broth)
  • a little lime juice and zest to taste
  • corriander, to taste
  • cumin, to taste
  • crushed red pepper, to taste

Directions:

In a Dutch oven or stock pot, sauté onion, garlic, carrots in olive oil, medium heat until softened. Add the diced tomatoes, cover and cook until some of the liquid has cooked out and the tomatoes have cooked down (10-15 min, depending on your stove). Add the 2 cans of chickpeas and the spices, lime juice and zest too. Again, all are to your own tastes. I like it medium spicy, not too many onions or garlic. Stir and let simmer for 20 minutes. Then, take out your hand blender, use until the soup is well blended and smooth. There, you’re finished. Now go enjoy your soup.

Bitchin’ Potato Salad

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Did I need to make another post about potato salad? Yes, I did because I changed up the dressing! I am now a HUGE fan of Bitchin Sauce. Primarily the Chipotle flavor, which I used here in this iteration of potato salad. I mean, this stuff is dangerous, in that I could eat the entire 8oz tub of sauce. (okay, that would probably be a terrible idea). This recipe is basically the same except for a few minor adjustments. Enjoy!

Salad:

  • 2 medium russet potatoes, washed, skin on
  • 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
  • 2-3 dill pickle spears, chopped
  • 2 stalks of celery, chopped

Dressing:

(you can eyeball this. I estimated measurements):

  • 1/4C of mayo (or, as I “measured” it, several squirts from the bottle)
  • 4TB Bitching Chipotle Sauce
  • 1 glug of canola oil

Directions:

Wash/scrub potatoes and dice them into bite size pieces, add to large, glass bowl and cover them with water. Cover the bowl with a piece of wax paper and cook in microwave for about 10 min. My microwave has a “potato” setting, so I used that and selected “2 potatoes” which was about 8 minutes. I added a couple extra minutes to that. You can figure out the done-ness of the potatoes by piercing with a knife.

Once cooked, drain potatoes in a colander and run under cold water for a brief moment. Let them cool. Once cooled, add the chopped red pepper, pickles, and celery to the same bowl. Now, let’s make the dressing.

In a small bowl, add mayo, Bitchin’ Sauce and oil, mix with a fork or a tiny whisk. Throw in some crushed red pepper too. Taste it to see if the measurements are okay, if not, adjust according to your tastes. Add dressing to the vegetables. Stir it up so everything is coated. Do you need more dressing? Well, make a little more! I don’t like “soupy” potato salad. I like everything just coated.

chipotle Bitchin' Sauce potato salad in glass bowl
Bitchin!

Fire Roasted Tomato Soup

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fire roasted tomato soup

Mmmm, perfect tomato soup for a cold night.

fireroastedtomatosoup2

Add a dollop of pesto and some cheeeeeze!

My mom made this soup when I was recently home for a visit. It is perfect with some crusty bread and a glass of red wine. My version omitted the celery tops (because I rarely buy celery), but it is good with the celery and I used dried basil because I forgot to buy fresh basil (whoops!). The addition of sun-dried tomatoes gives the soup a nice depth. Anyway, I got to use my immersion blender which is one of my favorite kitchen tools ever.

Fire Roasted Tomato Soup

  • 1TB butter
  • 2 shallots, minced
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 3/4C finely chopped carrots
  • 1tsp sugar
  • 1TB dried basil or 10 large basil leaves, torn
  • 4 sun-dried tomato halves, packed in oil
  • 1 28oz can of fire roasted tomatoes
  • chopped celery tops
  • 1 14oz can of vegetable broth
  • salt and pepper
  • dollop of pesto (to add on top when served, if desired)

Melt butter in stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add shallots, garlic and carrots. Cook for 5 minutes, or, until soft. Add the sugar, basil, celery tops and salt and pepper, cook for 5 more minutes. Then add the canned tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes and broth. Stir and let simmer for about an hour. Check on it occasionally and stir. Remove from heat and use an immersion hand blender to puree the soup (or, you can use a blender instead). Pour soup into bowls, dollop with pesto and a little bit of Pecorino or parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

(Somewhat lazy) Lactino Kale Pesto and Lumachine

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I was going to make some butternut squash risotto for dinner later, then I realized that I only had one carton of vegetable stock. Well, that wouldn’t do because I need 6-8 cups of stock. I didn’t feel like going outside and interrupting my work flow, so, the risotto will have to wait another day. And here I was all jazzed about risotto. Oh well. I searched in my fridge (which makes it sound like I have a bottomless vegetable crisper) and decided to use the lactino kale and make some pesto. So, I made it, tasted and adjusted and I’m still not sure about it. I added toasted walnuts, a clove of garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper…BUT, it was still too bitter. Hm. So I added dash of white balsamic vinegar, some lemon zest and half a lemons worth of juice. Still not too sure. I will try it later. If it’s a fail, well, that’s okay. We should embrace our failures as much as our successes. I froze more than half the huge portion and will eat the remainder this week. After all, it’s just me here. No one to impress, really..

I wanted to use tiny shell pasta or even orzo for this. Of course you can use penne, rigatoni, or a tube pasta. Or, you can use a grain like couscous, farro, or barley too.

Kale Pesto

  • One bunch of lactino kale, washed trimmed
  • 1/3 -1/4 C. extra virgin olive oil
  • Handful of toasted walnuts
  • Zest of one lemon
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic
  • Juice of 1/2 a lemon (optional)
  • Dash of white balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar (optional)
  • Salt, pepper to taste
  • Dash of red pepper flakes

Concerning the kale, I cut off the very end of the stalks but used most of the stems in addition to the leaves. (Hm, maybe that’s where some of the bitterness comes from?). Put all ingredients in a food processor until well combined. You may only need 1/3 cup of oil. If you have walnut oil, you could use that instead too. If you don’t have walnuts, use almonds. Those are good too. I don’t like pine nuts, hence they’re not in the recipe. Serve with warm pasta. Also, don’t drain out all the pasta water. While adding the pesto to the pasta in the bowl, add a few ladles (1/2 cup) of the pasta water. The starchy water makes the sauce creamier/thicker and helps with the consistency.