Sunday, March 17, 2024

Recipe: Honey-Glazed Sweet Potato Steaks with Brussels Sprouts

Honey-Glazed Sweet Potato Steaks with Brussels Sprouts
Food & Wine Magazine, Mar 2019, p. 95
4.6 stars

This turned out better than we expected! Glad we decided to make it -- we'll definitely do it again but with the changes below.

Ingredients: sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, ginger, sea salt, coriander, red pepper, canola oil, honey

Tips/Notes:
  • Cooked on sheet pans; did not do any of the cooking on the stove
  • Doubled the recipe
  • Put brussels sprouts on a separate sheet pan from the sweet potatoes
  • Next time, use a LOT less salt -- instead, sprinkle sea salt on the vegetables vs. putting it in the rub mix
  • Remember to add honey to the vegetables about halfway through the cooking process
  • Use a little less ginger

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Recipe: My Favorite Salad I Created!

My Favorite Salad
I took ingredients that I love and put them together in an amazing salad.

Ingredients:
  • Mixed greens
  • Green beans
  • Hearts of palm
  • Avocado
  • Pistachios
  • Dates
  • A vinaigrette
I didn't have any fingerling potatoes, but that would be a delicious addition and perhaps cucumbers and red onion.

In restaurants, they often also add either rotisserie chicken or salmon.

Recipe: Kimchi-Fried Grains


Bon Appetit Magazine, Apr 2018, p,69
4.8 stars

Really delicious and SUPER EASY to make -- I probably don't even need the recipe to make it!

Ingredients: kimchi, carrots, cooked grains, scallions, extra-virgin olive oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, Kosher salt

Tips/Notes:
  • Forgot to eat this with the roasted seaweed I bought
  • Used 2 carrots instead of 1
  • Used a mix of farro and quinoa
  • Didn't squeeze the kimchi -- it was fine with the juice
  • Didn't make the eggs separately; instead made room on the side of the pan, cracked the eggs, cooked them on the side and then stirred them into the rest of the dish
  • Added the reserve scallions at the very end so that they had a little "cook" to them
  • Could serve with eggrolls next time

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Recipe: Green Goddess Wraps

Green Goddess Wraps
Better Homes & Gardens, Mar 2023, p.62
4.7 stars

I didn't put the ingredients into a wrap but made it into a salad and used Primal Kitchen's bottled Green Goddess dressing. So good!

Ingredients: spinach flour tortillas, green cabbage, cucumber, green onions, pepitas, green goddess dressing, avocado, hard-boiled eggs, radishes

Tips/Notes:
  • Made soft-boiled eggs instead of hard-boiled
  • Didn't use pepitas
  • Since I made mine into a salad, added croutons for some crunch.

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Recipe: Fall Harvest Quinoa Salad



Overall a pretty good salad, but like most of Half Baked Harvest recipes, the flavors sometimes taste muddied. BUT, I would make this again...

Ingredients: quinoa, delicata or acorn squash, baby kale, apple, pomegranate arils, roasted pistachios or toasted pumpkin seeds, halloumi cheese, avocado, maple syrup, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, olive oil, Kosher salt, pepper

Dressing Ingredients: tahini, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, turmeric, olive oil, Kosher salt, pepper

Tips:
  • Used BOTH delicata and also acorn squash. Will cut them thicker next time so there is more "bite" to them
  • Didn't use pomegranate arils (grocery store was out!)
  • I thought the baby kale might need to be sauteed so I did -- next time I won't
  • Used roasted pistachios
  • Make 2/3 of the dressing recipe
  • Next time, need to add more heat -- more cayenne and/or add red pepper flakes


Sunday, February 11, 2024

Recipe: Zucchini Quesadilla with Spicy Salsa Roja

Zucchini Quesadilla with Spicy Salsa Roja
Food and Wine Magazine, Mar 2014, p. 99
Quesadilla: 0 stars
Spicy Salsa Roja: 4.7 stars

The zucchini quesadilla isn't good -- the Monterey Jack gets completely lost; the zucchini needs to be cooked a little and has no flavor. The salsa, however, is good and SPICY!

Spicy Salsa Roja Ingredients: tomatoes, small onion, garlic, dried arbol chiles, chipotle chile in adobo, apple cider vinegar, canola oil, sugar, salt


Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Recipe: Buckwheat Pancakes with Compote and Sweet Cream


OprahDaily.com
4.6 stars

Pretty good for a pancake that is "healthy" -- I REALLY LOVED the texture!
We didn't make the compote and instead added walnuts and chocolate chips on top -- rest of the applesauce is on the side in the photo.

BTW, I didn't know that buckwheat flour is GLUTEN-FREE!

Pancake Ingredients: unsweetened vegan milk, unsweetened applesauce, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar, extra-virgin coconut oil, maple syrup, light buckwheat flour, almond or oat or all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda

Compote Ingredients: seasonal fruit, coconut sugar, cinnamon, ground ginger

Ingredients for serving (all optional): almond or pistachio butter, maple syrup, toasted nuts, mixed fruit

Tips/Notes:
  • Will use butter instead of coconut oil next time
  • Used almond milk
  • Used almond flour
  • This makes 6 pancakes, not 12!


Sunday, February 4, 2024

Recipe: The Mean Green Detox Salad


4.9 stars

Super healthy and hearty salad! This does take a little time to make as there are a lot of components. With two people making it, it's fine time-wise for a weekday meal -- just make sure to allocate 30 min to bake the chickpeas (and falafel that we added). This is a restaurant-worthy salad ~ I can see this easily being $18 in a restaurant.

Notes/Tips:
  • Added 1 more tbsp of EVOO to the dressing as the dressing was super thick
  • Used 2 cans of chickpeas/garbanzo beans
  • Didn't use any coconut
  • Steamed some frozen broccoli instead of using fresh
  • Didn't add parsley, hemp seeds or chia seeds
  • Used regular Parmesan
  • Served falafel on the side

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Recipe: Spicy Stuffed Peppers


4.8 stars

I loved this recipe! It was super flavorful -- but I have to say that we did add some additional spice so perhaps that really "made" it. See tips below. I can't wait to eat these leftovers.

To make this vegetarian, we left out the chicken and swapped the smoked turkey sausage with Impossible Sausage

Ingredients: red bell peppers, green bell pepper, turkey sausage, chicken, yellow onion, celery, avocado oil, chili powder, Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper, ground fennel, frozen jasmine rice, chicken broth, tomato paste, Mexican-blend cheese, black pepper

Tips/Notes:
  • Eliminated chicken
  • Swapped turkey sausage for Impossible sausage
  • There was a lot of filling left over so get 5 large red bell peppers next time
  • Didn't have Italian seasoning so added dried basil, oregano, parsley
  • Added ground cumin and red pepper flakes
  • The bell peppers got a bit soft in step 2 (baking them for 20 min before adding the filling) -- next time, try 14 min

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Recipe: 30 Minute Creamy Sesame Miso Ramen with Crispy Mushrooms


4.8 stars (after thinking about it, we won't make this one again -- we prefer Marcus Samuelsson's Vegetable Ramen recipe)
HalfBakedHarvest.com

So this dish did not take 30 minutes to make (it took 50 min), and the mushrooms weren't crispy, but overall this was still a really nice ramen recipe. 

We changed some things as you'll see from the notes below, but think next time it'll be even better with double the soup base and the addition of hot chili oil (I didn't realize we didn't have any so used some hot chili crisp).

Ingredients: ramen noodles, kale or spinach, mixed mushrooms, shallots, vegetable broth, dried porcini mushrooms, sesame seeds, chili flakes, cilantro, salted butter or olive oil, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar, tahini, white miso paste, hot chili oil

Serve with: eggs, carrots, green onions

Tips/Notes:
  • Because of everything extra we added ~ tofu, a ton of kale, cabbage... make 2x the entire soup base
  • Added tofu! (definitely add!)
  • Instead of using dried porcini mushrooms, we had some dried porcini powder from another recipe. Used 1.5 tsp but would use at least 2 tsp next time ~ and then double that for the doubled soup base.
  • Used a whole head of kale which is much more than 4 cups
  • Chopped the mixed mushrooms ~ baby bella, white button and shiitake
  • Didn't have carrots but had purple cabbage so added to the soup
  • Added green onions to the soup at the end
  • Mushrooms weren't crispy as they release so much water in the sheet pan
  • Could serve with egg rolls!
  • Per Half Baked Harvest's note on the recipe, she recommends storing the soup and noodles separately as the noodles will soak up the soup and become mushy.

Drink Recipe: Orange Spritz (non-alcoholic)



This was not too bad for a non-alcoholic drink. I just happened to have a bottle of sweet tea so this was easy to make. Note that it required quite a few splashes of bitters for the bitters to come through.

Ingredients: orange juice, sweet tea, orange bitters, top with sparkling water


Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Recipe: Crockpot Spicy Vegetarian Tortilla Soup with Quinoa



We made this on the STOVE, and it tasted so much better than I thought it was going to taste! As usual, chipotle in adobo and also fire-roasted tomatoes give recipes like this a great flavor.

Really FAST and EASY for a weekday meal -- took about 30 min with most of the time (20 min) needed for the quinoa to cook.

Ingredients: quinoa, yellow onion, poblano, jalapenos, fire-roasted tomatoes, chipotle in adobo, vegetable broth, cilantro, lime juice and zest, garlic, ground cumin, oregano, Kosher salt, pepper

Serve with: cilantro, mango, avocado, feta, yogurt

Tips/Notes:
  • Saute the onion, poblano, jalapens and garlic 
  • Use 1/2 the amount of lime juice and zest
  • Used cotija instead of feta
  • Definitely needs the avocado!
  • Could add potatoes and lentils into the soup next time
  • The mango was extra and not really needed