Lentil Soup With Kielbasa

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This is one of the best soups I have made to date. It was so delicious, and exactly what I needed after a day outside in 8 degree weather! I’m definitely trying to eat a little healthier and using the New Year as my motivation. I find that in the winter all I want to do is curl up on the couch and eat a nice warm baguette covered in butter. But it turns out the baguette diet is not trending right now, so I am trying other things until it comes around. Homemade soups are a great way to keep healthy (and warm) in the colder months. Just toss your favorite vegetables in a pot with some stock an herbs and your good to go. Then eat the soup by scooping into your mouth with a baguette.

Ingredients: Adapted from GlutenFreeMom (serves 2-4)
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large yukon gold potato, diced
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 cup lentils, rinsed
handful cherry tomatoes, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
6 oz cooked turkey kielbasa (I bought mine at Trader Joe’s)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a little olive oil in a heavy pot, add the onions and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute or so until fragrant. Next, add the chicken stock and water, followed by the potatoes, carrots, lentils, dried herbs, and cayenne pepper. Cover and simmer for 1 hr, stirring occasionally. After about 20 minutes add the tomatoes as well. I waited to add them because I didn’t want them to cook down too much over the full hour. When the hour is up and the lentils are fully cooked, add the kielbasa and cook just a few more minutes to warm the sausage through. Serve as is or with topping of choice- I added fresh avocado and loved it. Enjoy!

 

Potato and Shiitake Tart With Truffled Goat Cheese

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Pretty much anything you put on puff pastry is going to be great- it’s buttery, flaky, and delicious! So when I got some potatoes and mushrooms in my bag I thought I would experiment a little. This tart took about 30 minutes from beginning to end and was delicious. I think next time I will add more mushrooms and use some colorful purple potatoes as well. I actually thought I had purple potatoes because the skin had a purple tint, but they were white when I cut them open so not sure what type they were! Either way they were good. Next time I make this I think I will also roast the sliced potatoes in the oven first so they get a little browned before adding them to the tart. Th potatoes will look prettier that way. In the end I topped it with some fresh miner’s lettuce to add some nice color, but you could use other greens such as arugula.

Ingredients:
1 box puff pastry, thawed
1 egg
1 large potato, thinly sliced
1/2 large shallot, chopped
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and cut into chunks
5 ounces truffled goat cheese (I used half)
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Truffle oil, for drizzle (optional)
Handful of pretty greens- such as miner’s lettuce or arugula- for topping

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the thawed dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment. I sprinkled a little flour to help the dough from sticking. With a knife, make a 1/2 inch border around the tart, without going through to the other side. Poke some holes in the center of the tart with a fork to let the heat escape while cooking. Brush with the egg and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden. You will see that it puffs up a lot when it cooks, but don’t worry! When you remove it from the oven, poke a few additional holes with a sharp knife then while wearing oven mitts, gently press down on the dough to release the air- it will flatten.

In a pot of boiling water, cook the potatoes until fork tender. Careful not overcook them! Alternatively, you could also drizzle with olive oil and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until they start to brown- which is what I will try next time. Remove and set aside. Add some olive oil to a pan and cook the shallots for about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue for another 5 minutes until softened and cooked through. When the dough is ready, top with the potatoes, followed by the mushroom and shallot mixture. Break up the cheese and add as much as you like. Place in oven for 10 minutes. Once removed, drizzle with some truffle oil, fresh ground pepper, and a small handful of greens. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Carmelized Fennel, Celeric, and Sunchoke Soup

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I got some celeriac in my CSA bag this week, which I have never cooked with before! It is the root of a celery plant and smells and tastes a lot like celery- but in root vegetable form. I also had some sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) as well as some turnips, fennel, and kale, so I decided to make a soup. It was absolutely freezing today, so it was the perfect thing to make. I sort of winged it, but it came out pretty good! My immersion blender is magic when it comes to making soups, I just love it. A great holiday gift if you have a cook in your life!

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 fennel bulb, top cut off and white sliced
1 celeriac, peeled and chopped
3 small turnips, peeled and chopped
2 medium sunchokes, peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small shallot, chopped
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup water
3 celery stalks, chopped
Big handful of kale, chopped
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Additional salt and black pepper, to taste

In a large pot, add the olive oil and saute the fennel until slightly browned, about 7-10 minutes. Add the shallot and garlic and cook for another minute or so. Next, add the chopped turnips, celeriac, and sunchokes. Cook for another 7-10 minutes until softened. Pour in the chicken stock and water, cooking the vegetables until fork tender. Add the white pepper and salt. Turn off the heat and with an immersion blender (or a real blender in batches) puree the soup. Toss in the celery, kale, and cannellini beans. Turn the heat back on and cook the soup for another 10-15 minutes, until the kale is wilted. Add additional salt and black pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Homemade Sloppy Joes

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Who doesn’t love sloppy joes! They’re so yummy, and messy, and awesome. My mom used to make them with the Manwich sauce and they were so good. I had some ground beef on hand and thought I’d give it a shot as I’ve wanted to try making them for a while. Another really easy recipe that I will definitely be making again soon. I got some sweet brioche buns which were a nice alternative to the potato buns that I really wanted, but couldn’t seem to find anywhere. Knowing the sauce would likely make the bread soggy, I toasted the buns with a little butter under the broiler so they’d hold the sloppy joes a little better. All in all a successful dinner! I think next time I’ll add some roasted poblano peppers to the mix as well.

Ingredients:
1 lb 85%  lean ground beef
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup barbeque sauce
1 cup water
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a large skillet or dutch oven over medium heat. Cook the beef until browned. In the meantime, chop all of the vegetables and set aside. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the ketchup, BBQ sauce, water, tomato paste, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar. When the beef is browned, add the garlic and cook for a minute or so, then add the onion and pepper mixture. I did not drain the liquid from the beef because I bought lean meat so there wasn’t much to drain. If you have fattier beef and there’s a lot of liquid, drain most of it out and just leave a little. Once the onions and peppers have cooked down for 5 minutes or so, add the wet ingredients and mix well, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pan. Salt and pepper to taste, then cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and continue to cook for another 15 minutes to allow it to thicken a little. Lastly, butter each side of the bun and toss under the broiler for a minute or so until toasted. Plate and spoon sloppy joe mixture onto your bun! Enjoy with lots of napkins.

Swiss Chard and Potato Gratin

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Thanksgiving is next week and I am heading to Georgia to spend it with my father! Every year my sisters and I like to come up with a fun menu and cook everything for the family. We try to jazz up traditional dishes to make them more modern and fun, but without being too wild that it doesn’t feel like good ol’ Thannksgiving food. I had wanted to try making a gratin with greens in it, so when I got a big amount of Swiss red chard I went for it. It was a really easy and fast dish to make- perfect for Thanksgiving!

Ingredients: (adapted from fiveandspice)
2 big bunches of Swiss chard
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
2 large red bliss potatoes, sliced 1/8 thin
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Trim the Swiss chard where the stem meets the leaf (you can save the stems and pickle them!) then wash the leaves well and julienne into ribbons. Place in a pot over medium heat with a tablespoon of water and cover. Let cook for about 5 minutes or until wilted and the water absorbed. Next add 2 tablespoons of butter to the greens and melt completely, followed by the 2 tablespoons of flour. Mix well and cook for another minute or two so that the flour cooks. Add the chicken broth and cook until it thickens, about 2 minutes, then add the cream, cheese, and salt/pepper to taste. Turn off the heat. You’ll notice it is pink from the red chard, but when you bake it the pink goes away. I was a little worried I was going to have pink gratin myself!

Spray a baking dish with non-stick spray or butter and layer the bottom with sliced potatoes. Top with half of the creamy greens, followed by another later of potato and the rest of the greens. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan and add the bread crumbs, tossing together and toasting slightly. Sprinkle over the top of the gratin and into the oven it goes for 30 minutes. Toward the end I noticed my bread crumbs were perfectly browned, so I covered the gratin with tin foil for the last 5 minutes or so to make sure the top didn’t burn. Just keep and eye on it and cover if you feel like it needs it. Let cool for a few minutes before serving, then enjoy!

Potato Nest Benedict With Pancetta

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Holy amazing breakfast decision. I’ve wanted to try making potato “nests” for a while and had a few leftover potatoes and eggs from this weeks CSA bag, so it was a good time to experiment. I decided to try making an eggs benedict type thing but put it inside the potato nest. It was so good, I wanted to knock on my neighbors door and make them take a bite, but thought that might be creepy seeing we’ve never met. I could have eaten a thousand of them, but I probably would have died of cardiac arrest, so I only had two. As for the hollandaise, it really isn’t that difficult to make, you just have to take your time to do it right so that it doesn’t “break” and have to get tossed in the trash. It was hard to take photos of myself making the hollandaise because you really need to whisk it at 100 mph, but I tried to explain it as best as I could below!

Ingredients: makes 4

Potato Nests:
2 yukon gold potatoes, peeled
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Hollandaise:
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted
Salt and pepper, to taste
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and grate the potatoes, then place in a paper towel and squeeze out as much of the liquid as possible. Toss in a bowl with the garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Mix well. Next, spray 4 muffin tins with non-stick spray and divide the potato evenly among them, pushing the potato to cover the bottom and sides of each muffin cup. Place in the oven for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, make the hollandaise. Add about two cups of water to a pot and bring to a simmer, keep on low. Melt the butter in the microwave and set aside. In a metal mixing bowl, add the egg yolk and lemon juice, whisking vigorously until it thickens and almost doubles in size. Next, place the metal bowl on top of the pot and turn off the heat. Immediately start whisking very fast, slowly pouring in a tablespoon or so of the melted butter. Don’t stop vigorously whisking the entire time! Add a little more butter and repeat until all the butter is added. Make sure to do just a little butter at a time. Set aside and add a little salt, pepper, and cayenne. To preserve before using, I always add some saran wrap to the hollandaise to keep it from getting a film.

When the potato nests have cooked the 15 minutes, remove from the oven and add the pancetta (you could also use spinach for a vegetarian option) then crack the egg into the nest as well. Place back in the oven and cook for another 12-15 minutes depending on how runny you like your eggs. I took mine out somewhere in the middle. Just gently poke the egg with your finger to check the temp of the yolk. Plate and top with a gallon of some hollandaise!

Sweet Potato and Kale Stuffed Shells

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I really love stuffed shells and usually make them the popular way with ricotta and spinach, but this time I went for a fall version and used sweet potato, ricotta, and kale. They came out great and didn’t take a long time to make, which was a bonus. I was thinking of what type of sauce to use, and decided a simple brown butter would do the trick. The shells are already sweet from the potato, so I didn’t want to overdue it with a heavy or rich sauce. This is an easy comforting fall meal!

Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1/2 shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 bunch of kale (about 2-3 cups roughly chopped)
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon powdered sage, halved
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 box large pasta shells
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the cubed sweet potato on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon dried sage, and salt/pepper. Bake for 30 minutes or until fork tender. When the potatoes are about half way done cooking, get a pot of boiling water going and cook the pasta shells as directed on the box. Next, sauté the garlic for about a minute in some olive oil over medium heat, then add the shallot and cook for another minute or until translucent. Toss in the kale and cook until wilted. Once the sweet potato is cooked, place it in a food processor with the ricotta cheese and pulse until smooth. Next, add the kale mixture and blend until the kale is chopped and incorporated. Salt and pepper to taste.

Lightly oil a baking dish to prevent the pasta from sticking. Fill the shells with the sweet potato mixture and place in a single layer in the baking dish. At this point you could sprinkle some freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top if you’d like (I forgot to buy the cheese so I skipped it) then cover with tin foil and bake for 15 minutes. While the shells are baking, make the brown butter sauce. Melt the butter over medium heat and cook until golden in color with a nutty fragrance, then turn down the heat to low. This only takes a minute or two, so watch the butter to make sure it doesn’t burn! Add the maple syrup, powdered sage, and cinnamon to the butter and cook for a minute then turn off the heat. When the shells have cooked for 15 minutes, remove them from the oven and pour the browned butter over the shells. Place back in the oven (without the foil) for 10 minutes, or until slightly golden.

Let cool for a few minutes before serving. Top with some extra Parmesan cheese and drizzle some of the butter from the bottom of the baking dish. Enjoy!

Potato, Carrot, and Parsnip Soup With Sausage

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I’ve had a big craving lately for some homemade soup, so when I got a bunch of potatoes, carrots, and parsnips this week, I though it was a good opportunity to get my fix. Soups are great because they really don’t take very long to make, plus you can basically throw in whatever you like. I used sausage in this recipe but it could be substituted for any meat you like, or no meat!

Ingredients:
1/2 shallot, finely chopped
2 red bliss potatoes, skin on and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 large parsnip, peeled and diced
4 cups water (or enough to cover your veggies in the pot)
2 Italian sausage links
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar, optional

Add some oil to a heavy pot over medium heat and sauté the shallot until translucent, about one minute. Add the potatoes, carrot, and parsnips, then cover with water and bring to a boil. Once the potatoes are cooked through (about 10 minutes) turn off the heat. Take half of the soup and put it into a food processor, blending until smooth, then pour it back into the pot with the rest of the soup. Mix together to incorporate. Keep the soup on low heat while you cook the sausage in a separate pan. Once the sausage is browned, add to the pot of soup along with the fresh dill, paprika, and red wine vinegar. I added the vinegar because I felt like it needed a little acidity when I tasted it, but up to you if you add it! Ladle into bowls and top with a little more dill for garnish.

 

Leek, Mustard Greens, and Corn Pizza

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I could probably eat homemade pizza every night. It might sound sort of intimidating to make, but it seriously could not be easier! Especially if you buy pre-made dough at the supermarket, or at your local pizza place for a buck or two, which is what I love to do because it’s super fresh.

Ingredients:
1 ball of pizza dough
1 large leek
2 ears of corn, cut off the cob
3 cups mustard greens, cut into 1/2 inch ribbons
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small can of tomato sauce
3 ounces St. Andre cheese
All-purpose flour
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Start by preheating the oven to 425 degrees. To trim the leeks, cut it where the light part meets the dark part, then toss the dark stuff. Cut them lengthwise then run the leeks under the water to remove any dirt. They can be pretty dirty sometimes so really make sure to rinse them well. Cut them crosswise in 1/4 inch slices. Next, remove the stems of the mustard greens and layer the leaves on top one another, roll them up together then slice 1/2 inch ribbons. Lastly, cut the corn off the cob.

Add some olive oil to a pan and saute the garlic for a minute. Add the leeks and cook for about 7 minutes until slightly browned. Next add the mustard greens and cook about 4 minutes until wilted, then toss in the corn, salt and pepper to taste, and cook everything together for another 10 minutes. While that is cooking, roll out your pizza dough. Make sure to flour the surface and rolling pin, and continue to sprinkle the dough with flour as you go. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Add the toppings to the dough starting with the tomato sauce, then the leek mixture, and lastly the cheese. Bake for 25 minutes until everything is golden! Let cool for a few minutes before cutting.

Roasted Romanesco and Potato Soup

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Romanesco broccoli is one of the prettiest vegetables out there. I almost didn’t want to eat it because I loved the way it looked so much! It tastes like broccoli and cauliflower had a baby. Simply roasting it in the oven with some olive oil is really good, but I decided to go one step further and make a soup. This week it finally started getting cooler outside, so a big bowl of soup sounded perfect. For a quick topping, I make some easy Parmesan crisps in the oven!

Ingredients:
1 head romanesco, florets chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
3 cups chicken stock
2 Yukon potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder (or 1/2 real onion)
Extra salt and black pepper to finish
Parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the chopped romanesco on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 30 minutes. In the meantime, saute the garlic for about a minute or so in a large pot. Add the potato, chicken stock, white pepper, salt, and onion powder. Cook until potatoes are fork tender. When the romanesco is ready, mix that into the soup as well. At this point, you can either put the contents into a blender and blend until smooth, or if you have an immersion blender like I do, you can use that! Once fully blended, add the Greek yogurt (don’t let soup come to a boil again) and salt and pepper to taste.

To make the Parmesan crisps, simply form the cheese into a rectangular shape on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and broil for 2 minutes or until the edges are crispy and golden. Cut into strips or place the whole crisp into the soup!

**My intention was to add an onion to the soup, but once I got started I realized I didn’t have one! I used the onion powder in its absence which worked out okay. If I had the onion though, I would have cooked it down with the garlic until translucent, then added the potato etc.