Minestrone Soup!

Alex was feeling a little sickly on Sunday and requested soup for dinner. I gave him a choice between sausage and lentil or a vegetable minestrone, and he opted for the veggie soup. (I think this may be the first time ever he picked the non sausage option. :-) )

I googled around a bit, but couldn’t find a recipe I liked so decided to make something up. Minestrone is basically veggies, beans and pasta in a tomato-y broth right? Close enough.

This turned out REALLY good! YUM. Soothing and filling, and super healthy I might add. Perfect for a chilly evening and sick husband.

Minestrone Soup
1 yellow onion
1 large carrot
1 stalk of celery
4 cloves of garlic
½ can of black beans drained and rinsed
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1/3-1/2 Cup corn kernals
1 box of vegetable broth (about 5 cups)
¼ Cup or so quinoa
About 1 cup of small pasta
Olive oil
Spices: parsley, basil, oregano, Marjoram , sea salt, black pepper, bay leaf

Finely chop all of the raw vegetables and garlic. Saute onions, garlic, carrot, and celery in olive oil in a large pot until the onions soften. Add diced tomatoes, zucchini, squash, and black beans. Stir. Add the veggie broth, quinoa and corn. Add spices, to taste. I ended up with probably 2 TBS of parsley, 1 TBS of Oregano, 1 TBS of basil, 1TSP of marjoram, a few grinds of pepper, salt to taste and a few shakes of crushed bay leaf. Add what looks right and smells good!

Bring to a boil, cover and let simmer about 15-20 minutes. While this is cooking, cook the pasta to package directions. When it’s al dente, strain and add to the soup. Enjoy!


I forgot to take a picture at the table, but this works just as well!

A breath of fresh air.

I love living in the city. However, one of the great parts of NYC is that on days when you just need a breath of fresh air, a bit of peace and quiet, you can head north for 30 minutes, and find this.



And a little of this as well.





This Sunday was truly a beautiful fall day and just the right amount of chill in the air to make hiking in Harriman State Park the perfect way to spend the afternoon. A great time had by all!

Warm Beet and Lentil Salad

So I realized it's been WAY too long since I last posted. Opps! I'm not quite sure what happened, but I figured I couldn't leave you hanging too much longer without something new and exciting from the kitchen.

I have been pretty uninspired by the recipes I've been finding in my reader lately, but saw this one on Savory, Spicy Sweet this morning and thought it might be just the thing to get me out of the slump.

I have never actually cooked beets before. In fact, I tried them for the first time ever this summer at Alex's grandmothers. Since they're still in season at the farmers market, I figured today was as good a day as any.

Aside from roasting the beets, this was actually really quick and easy. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but both of us thought this was delicious! Light but filling and the flavors worked great together!

I modified things just a bit for what we had on hand, otherwise, stuck pretty closely to the recipe. I cut the dressing amount in half from the original, and it ended up being perfect for the two of us with just a bit of lentils left over.




Warm Beet and Lentil Salad

For the Dressing:

Sherry Vinaigrette:

*1/8 cup sherry vinegar
*1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
*a few dashes of dried thyme
* a dash of sea salt
*1/4 cup olive oil

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl

For the Salad:

* 3 medium beets
* 3/4 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered
* 1 carrot, quartered
* 1 stalk celery, quartered
* 4 cups chicken stock (I used 2 C stock 2 C water)
* 1 cup dried French green lentils
* Salt and Pepper
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1/4 pound sliced turkey bacon, diced (about 3-4 good sized slices)
(I imagine fancy bacon would be better, but this is what we had)
* 3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 1 small carrot finely diced
* A few shakes of dried thyme
* 2 tsp sherry vinegar
* mixed greens (we had a mixture of lettuce and arugula)
* goat cheese
* French bread, for serving

Begin by roasting the beets.

Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees F.

Take 3 medium beets (red or gold), scrubbed, leaves trimmed, and coat them lightly with olive oil. Wrap them loosely in tin foil and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for about an hour until cooked through. Let cool for a few minutes, peel, and then cut into thin slices.

While the beets are roasting, start to cook the lentils. Fill a pot with 4 cups of water or stock and add the carrot, celery, and half an onion. Bring to a boil. Add the lentils and turn down the heat and cover. Cook about 20 minutes until the lentils are tender. Drain well and remove the carrot, celery and onion.

As the lentils cook, Add the bacon to a frying pan and cook until lightly golden brown. Remove the bacon. Add the garlic and carrot and a quarter of chopped onion to the pan and cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the cooked lentils and bacon to the pan and stir to combine. Stir in a bit of thyme and 2 tsp of sherry vinegar. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Keep warm.

To assemble the salad, place the mixed greens on a plate, top with the lentil mixture, and then add the beets. Top with goat cheese. Drizzle each salad with vinaigrette. Serve with slices of French bread.

Enjoy!

Juviza and Gihuber | Brooklyn Engagement Photographer

When I'm not taking photos, my day job is managing an Americorps program at a community health center. Juviza was part of the first crew of Americorps I took over when I started. We had a great time taking photos down by the Brooklyn Bridge and I'm so excited to be a part of her wedding in a few short weeks!

Quinoa Stir-Fry

I don't often cook with tofu. I do however love cooking with quinoa and a good stir fry so when this recipe popped up in my google reader, I thought I'd give it a shot.

The last time I made a stir fry with tofu it failed miserably, but I followed the directions more closely then I usually do with this and it turned out really great! I loved the flavors, subtle sesame oil and just enough ginger. It was also really quick, always appreciated on a weeknight. I would never have thought of quinoa in a stir fry, but it worked really well! Alex said this was just ok, but he had three plates full, so take that as you like. :-)



Stir Fried Quinoa with Vegetables and Tofu
From the New York Times

Ingredients:
1/2 pound extra firm tofu, drained and sliced thinly
2 broccoli crowns, broken into florets
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon soy sauce (regular or low-sodium)
1 tablespoon fish sauce (may substitute soy sauce)
2 teaspoons dark Asian sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (grated on a microplane)
1 tablespoon minced ginger (grated on a microplane)
2 tablespoons peanut oil or canola oil
1 medium red bell pepper, cut in thin strips (we used 1 yellow and half a green)
3/4 pound (2 medium) baby bok choy, trimmed, washed and dried, cut in 1-inch lengths
1 bunch scallions, sliced very thin (I used one large scallion sliced thinly)
1.25 Cups quinoa, prepared to package directions


1. Place the tofu slices on paper towels. Place another paper towel on top, and prepare the remaining ingredients.

Cut the tofu slices into 1/2-inch dice. Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of water to a boil, and add the broccoli. Boil one minute, and transfer at once to a bowl of ice water. Drain and dry on paper towels.

2. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the soy sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil. Combine the garlic and ginger in another small bowl. Have all the ingredients within easy reach of your pan.

3. Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or 12-inch steel skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two when added to the pan. Swirl in a tablespoon of the oil by adding it to the sides of the pan and tilting the pan. Add the tofu. Reduce the heat to medium, and stir-fry one to two minutes until it begins to brown. Add the garlic and ginger, and stir-fry for no more than 10 seconds. Add the pepper and bok choy, and stir-fry for one minute. Add the broccoli, and stir-fry for one minute.

4. Swirl in the remaining oil, and add the scallions, quinoa and the soy sauce mixture. Stir-fry, scooping the ingredients up from the bottom of the wok, for about one minute until heated through and fragrant. Serve at once.

Enjoy!

Tomato Almond Pesto Pasta

I saw this recipe pop up in my google reader from Smitten Kitchen the other day, and with the mounds of tomatoes at the market, I figured it would be an easy dinner to try.



It was super easy, though I had to make it in batches due to the size of my mini food processor. We also added in a few handfuls of shrimp to add some protein to the mix and subbed in spaghetti as that's what we had in the house. Yum!

We served it with a nice green salad with some fun rainbow carrots and cherry tomatoes.





Overall, if you're looking for a delicious light pasta dish that's easy for a weeknight, you've found your dinner!



Linguine with Tomato-Almond Pesto [Pesto Trapenese]
From Smitten Kitchen
Adapted from Gourmet

3/4 cup slivered almonds
1 large handful fresh basil leaves
1 to 2 large garlic cloves
Several sprinkles of sea salt
6 ripe plum tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup grated Pecorino or Parmesan
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
1 pound linguine

In a large skillet, sauté the almonds in a little olive oil until toasted. Let cool, then blend them in a food processor or blender until they are in coarse pieces. (“The size of orzo,” the original recipe suggests.) Scoop them out of the processor and set them aside.

Put the basil, garlic and a few pinches of sea salt into the food processor and chop. Add the almonds back to the food processor (keeping them separate will keep them from getting too finely chopped as you get the basil and garlic to the right texture) with the tomatoes, cheese and olive oil and whirl briefly. Season it with freshly ground black pepper.

Cook your linguine until it is al dente and could use another minute of cooking time. Reserve one cup of pasta cooking water and drain the rest. Immediately toss the hot linguine with the pesto and mix quickly so that it drinks the sauce up a bit. Add more pasta water if needed.

Reason #234

Beautiful Bread.



One of the things I loved when I lived in Spain was the fresh bread. Every day my host mother would be sure to bring home a fresh loaf of delicious crusty bread to have with our lunch.

New York allows us to have a piece of that, as we often find ourselves shopping for food on a near daily basis. I always am picking something up, and with the market so close to work and the little shops in the neighborhood, we've become accustomed to having lots of stuff fresh!

However, the best part of the market along with the beautiful food are the people that stand behind the produce. I think it's so important to know where your money is going, and in the case of Hot Bread Kitchen, I couldn't be happier with the cause I'm contributing to. On their website, their mission states:

"Hot Bread Kitchen is a non-profit social enterprise that creates better lives for low-income women and their families. We do this by paying women while they learn the skills necessary to launch food businesses and achieve management track positions in food manufacturing.

To help offset the cost of our training and to build esteem in the contribution of immigrants, we sell delicious multi-ethnic breads that are inspired by our bakers and the many countries that they come from. We make it a priority to use local and organic ingredients."

How cool is that? I just got the ciabatta and a few little rolls for today, but I'm excited to try all the fun different kinds as well.

Here's to knowing where your food comes from, and using your dollar to make a difference.