Fisherman’s Pie Anyone?

What is it they say?….’You can take the boy out of England, but you cant take England out of the boy.’  Matt continues his quest to perfect (and convince me to enjoy) the traditional Fishermans Pie.  Here, he substituted sweet potato for regular potatoes, and topped it off with a bit of cheddar cheese. Happy Thursday all – go ahead and get your pie on, winter is just about over!

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1-2 small fillets of haddock (or cod works too)
• 1/2 peas
• 1/2 roasted or sweet corn
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp sourcream
• 1 tbsp Earth Balance
• juice of a lemon
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Sweet Potato Mash Prep: Heat oven to 350F and bake sweet potatoes for about 30 minutes (or until soft).  Once they are soft, the skin will peel off fairly easy.  Mash in a bowl, season with salt and pepper if desired, and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat oil in fry pan, and saute celery, onion, garlic until soft.  Then add haddock, corn, peas, sourcream, butter and lemon juice and continue cooking until fish is cooked through.  Season as desired.  Once the fish is cooked, with a fork begin to chop up into smaller bite-size pieces so the mixture resembles a filling.

Next, spoon haddock mixture into french onion soup bowls and top with a layer of sweet potato mash and sprinkle with cheddar cheese.  Broil in the oven for 4-5 minutes or until browned.

Serve with crusty bread or not!

mangia!

Juice For All!

I’ve been into juicing for a while now, but recently Matt has gone a little juice crazy.  We drink a green juice almost every morning, but as of last week we’ve been experimenting with all sorts of combinations. Some of you have been asking for recipes, so I thought it would be helpful to post some of the delicious combinations we’ve come up with.  Also, if you are interested in why juicing is good for you, check out ‘Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead‘ or read Kris Carr’s ‘Crazy Sexy Diet‘.

Note: To make this juice, you will need a juicer.  The Breville Ikon Juice Fountain is a good middle-ground juicer, but depending on your budget there are others that work nicely both more expensive or cheaper.

All these recipes make about 16oz of juice.

Super Green Juice

• 1 cucumber
• 3-4 stalks of celery
• 3-4 carrots
• 2 apples/pears (or 1 of each)
• 1 inch ginger
• 1 lemon or lime
• parsley

Purple Sunrise Juice

• 1/2 head red cabbage
• 1 beet
• 1 apple
• 3-4 carrots
• 1 inch ginger
• 1 lemon

Spicy Green Juice

• 1 green chile pepper
• 1-2 cups kale, chopped
• 3-4 stalks celery
• 2-3 carrots
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 lemon

Rainbow Juice

• 1/2 head red cabbage
• 2-3 carrots
• 2-3 stalks celery
• 1 green apple
• 1 inch ginger
• 1 lime

Apple Pie Juice

• 1 butternut Squash
• 1 sweet potato
• 2 apples
• cinnamon
• nutmeg

Vegetable Guolash!

Goulash Goulash for all! Its as scrappy and delicious as it sounds.  Adapted from the cookbook, ‘STEWS’ it makes for a hearty fall meal on a cool November evening.

serves 4

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup of green lentils
• 2 1/2 cups of water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 small celery root, cut into chunks
• 1 cup of carrots, chopped
• 1 cup of fingerling potatoes, cut into chunks
• 1-2 small sweet potatoes, cut into small chunks
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 1/4 cup vegetable stock
• 1-2 tsp paprika

To serve with:

• Crusty bread
• Sour cream or yogurt

Instructions

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in a small bowl of water for 15-20 minutes.  Drain and reserve the remaining water.

Meanwhile, rinse and drain the lentils and put then in a pan with the cold water and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large pan with a tight fitting lid and cook the vegetables, garlic with the red pepper.  Stir frequently for 5-8 minutes or until soft.  Blend the tomato paste with a little bit of stock in a separate measuring cup and pour over the vegetables.  After that, add the remaining stock, lentils, sun-dried tomatoes and their soaking liquid.  Add the paprika.

Bring all to a boil and then reduce and simmer.  Cover for 15 minutes.  Serve with spoonfuls of sour cream or greek yogurt and crusty bread.

mangia!

Red Chile Salmon with Grilled Corn and Sweet Potatoes

During the summer months, Matt and I opt for the grill most nights.  Its simple, an easy clean-up and allows for a long, lingering dinner on a hot, swampy summer night in DC.  Tonight we chose salmon and experimented with this rub, inspired by Bobby Flay’s Boy Meets Grill recipe.

serves 2-4 people

Ingredients

• 2 fresh salmon steaks
• 2-4 ears of corn
• 2-4 sweet potatoes, whole and with skin

For the Rub

• Cayenne
• Cumin
• Red pepper flakes
• Cinnamon
• Brown sugar
• Olive oil
• Sea Salt
• Fresh Ground Pepper

Instructions

To start, put the corn and sweet potatoes (with skin) on the grill as they take about 25-30 minutes to cook.  To get a ‘grilled’ corn look, husk it first, so the kernels can grill some.  Putting whole sweet potatoes on the grill is a new thing, but has proven to be a winner as its easy and delicious!  When the potatoes are cooking with the skin, they almost caramelize from the inside out and when you go to eat them the skin just peels right off.  You will know the sweet potatoes are done when they start to ooze.

Next, combine all ingredients for the rub and brush over the top and bottom of the salmon steaks.  Let it marinate (if theres time) for as long as you can (20-30 minutes is probably good).  On the grill, cook on one side for about 2 minutes and then flip to top side and cook for about 5 minutes.

Serve the corn with a Chipotle-Butter (by simple combining melted butter with siracha sauce, chipotle spices or tabasco).

mangia!

Oh – and we enjoyed these delicious tomatoes – a gift from the generous Sandy – while cooking away!

Whole Wheat Ravioli Times Two

After a wonderful, but whirlwind of a weekend in NYC with the girls, a hearty Italian meal seemed like the perfect way to finish off the weekend.  With a recent urge to make homemade ravioli (it was my first time!), I decided this was the night to go for it.  I completely winged it (no ravioli cutter or much consultation with books, blogs or family members)  - but sometimes those meals are the best.  The ones you have no real idea of how it will turn out, but you simply surrender to the fact that its cool if it works out or not.  This time, it worked out and I even got a ‘best- raviolis-in-the-world-award’ from Matt (which I actually dont agree with, but Ill take it!).  At the least, his optimism will encourage me to make them again!

serves about 4

Ingredients for Pasta

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup water (or until dough ball forms)
• dash of sea salt

Ingredients for ‘Ricotta Filling’

• 1 package tofu, crumbled
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 /2 package fresh spinach, cooked (or frozen spinach works too)
• lemon juice, to taste
• salt, pepper, garlic salt to taste

Ingredients for Sweet Potato Filling

• 1-2 medium-large sweet potatoes
• sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg

Ingredients Butter Sage Sauce

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance
• 1 bunch of sage, chopped
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

Instructions

Make the ‘Ricotta’ filling:  In a medium bowl, crumble up the tofu with a fork.  Add noosh, lemon juice and spices all to taste (For me, I tend to not measure, so its actually hard to say how much I use of each.  Thus my measurements above are an approximation, so I leave it to you to experiment as well).  Meanwhile, saute the spinach in a pan on low heat until wilted.  Gently mix in the spinach to the tofu mix and set aside.

Make the Sweet Potato Filling:  On medium heat, boil peeled potatoes in about 2 cups of water.  Once cooked (about 10-15 minutes), strain and mash with fork in a medium bowl.  Add spices and Earth balance to taste.  Set filling aside.

Back to the pasta:  Divide the dough into 4 small balls.  Flour your surface and roll out dough into a square about 1/4 inch thick (or the thickness of a pie crust).  Take whichever filling you choose and scoop about 1-2 tbsp of filling on the bottom pasta layer.  Leave about 1-2 inches between each filling scoop so there is enough room to cut out your ravioli.  See picture below.

Next, place another layer of pasta on top and seam the outer edges together (like you would a pie crust) and also lightly press around each filling to start to shape the individual ravioli.  To cut the ravioli you can opt to simply use a knife or use the top of a glass and cut them into 3-inch circles.  Once you cut them out, continue to seam the edges to ensure that there are no holes (it becomes a ravioli disaster if the filling comes out once boiling).

And here are your homemade ravi prior to boiling!

Make the Sauce/s (simultaneous to cooking pasta): For the Butter Sage Sauce, combine all ingredients into a small saucepan on low heat.  Let it stay warm on low heat until you are ready to pour over the Sweet Potato Ravioli.

For the Marinara: Try this one – Muma’s Homemade Sauce (or if its just too much, you can always use jarred sauce – which I do not prefer, but understand if there is too much going on already.  Just add some fresh basil to the sauce before lathering on Ricotta Ravioli and it will be an acceptable stand in).

Time to cook and bring it all together: Once all the ravioli are prepared, boil about 4 cups of water in a large sauce pan (if you arent sure which size to use opt for the bigger pan).  Once the water is boiled, gently drop in and cover.  They should boil about 5-10 minutes or until they begin to float to the top of the water.  Strain and let them dry off a few minutes before topping with Butter Sage Sauce or marinara.

Pictured below is the Sweet Potato-filled Ravioli with Butter Sage Sauce

mangia!

Sweet Potato Logs

A simple, yet healthy alternative to french fries – sweet potatoes are packed with beta carotene (for the eyes), Vitamin C (keeps your immune system strong) and dietary fiber (keeping you feeling energized and full).  These sweet potato logs are one of our favorite sides dishes to compliment almost any meal.  Healthy, tasty and filling, they are also super easy to prepare – just chop, drizzle and bake.

Ingredients

• 1-2 medium sweet potatoes
• olive oil
• sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Slice potatoes into logs (or whatever size you prefer) and lay out on a baking tray.  Heat oil in a pan and drizzle heated oil over the logs and generously sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake for about 10 minutes on each side.

mangia!

Spicy Orange ( Pumpkin, Sweet Potato + Carrot) Soup

Every September, I start to get excited for fall when the orange vegetables show up.  Pumpkin and sweet potatoes are my two favorites – and those veggies combined in a soup is one of the most comforting, yet healthy soups of the season.  Inspired by this recipe, we tweaked it a bunch and added pumpkin. Another experiment that turned out delicious. I think this could be my favorite pumpkin soup recipe. The garam marsala gives it a nice kick!

serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp Earth Balance
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 tsp garam masala spices (cinnamon, black peppercorns, cumin, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves). *if you dont have all these spices, use what you do have.
• 3 cups of vegetable broth (or 1 cup broth 2 cups water)
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 can of pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup coconut or soymilk

Instructions

Saute the onion in the butter until browned and soft.  Add the spices and cook for about 1-2 minutes.  Add the broth, milk, potatoes and carrots and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer until vegetables are soft.  Remove from heat and puree.  Put the puree soup back in the sauce pan and add pumpkin puree and additional spices to taste.

mangia!

A Taste of Risotto

Risotto is such a feel-good pasta and works well with many options. Sweet potato or mushroom and pea are my favorite for fall, but I also love a good lemon asparagus risotto in the summer. Pictured here is the mushroom-pea risotto.

serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups risotto
• 6 cups of veggie broth
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 small onion
• olive oil
• pepper, to taste
• thyme, to taste
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup white wine

Possible add-ins

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 box of baby bella mushrooms and 1 1/2 cups of peas
• a bunch of asparagus and lemon juice

Instructions

Saute garlic and onion in olive oil in sauce pan until soft.  Add pepper, thyme and wine. (add mushrooms here if making a mushroom risotto). Add risotto and mix until browned.

Meanwhile, warm veggie broth separately in a sauce pan on lowest heat.  Slowly begin to add 1 cup of broth at a time to the risotto, stirring slowly. Once the cup of broth is almost absorbed, add another cup (about 6-8 minutes each).

Meanwhile, depending on add-ins, par-boil peas or sweet potatoes until soft or saute asparagus with olive oil and lemon juice.  Add whichever add-ins you desire (asparagus + lemon juice OR peas OR sweet potatoes) to risotto.

mangia!