TF and I both agreed that these cookies came out a bit fluffier than we would've liked. I like my peanut butter cookies to be rich and a bit chewey, not light and fluffy. I do like that they're not too sweet though. And TM pointed out that they'd be excellent made with hazelnut butter in place of the peanut butter and a little chocolate ganache on top. I may have to give that a try next time!

Sourdough Nut Butter Cookies

Slightly adapted from Cultures for Health

Ingredients

• 250g unfed (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. nut butter of choice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 300g flour¹
• 1 tsp. baking powder² (optional)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 c. chocolate chips or chunks (optional)

Directions

1. Combine starter, butter, sugar, nut butter, eggs, vanilla and mix thoroughly.
2. Add flour, baking powder (if using), baking soda, and salt on top of wet ingredients and stir to combine.
3. Stir in chocolate chips (if using).
4. Form into balls and press flat with a fork dipped in granulated sugar.
5. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 8-10 minutes.
6. Once cooled, glaze with ganache if desired or enjoy them just as they are.

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¹ Type of flour is not super important here. I used a mix of hard and soft flour. I think next time I'll try adding a bit of whole wheat flour to the mix. ^Back
2 Omit baking powder for denser cookies. Include for fluffier cookies. ^Back

I've always found flatbreads intimidating. I'm not sure why. I guess it feels like there's less margin for error with most flatbreads; there's nowhere to hide. (My harcha failure probably hasn't improved my confidence either.) I really wanted some pitas this week though. I was prepared to buy them, but then I took another look at the giant jar of sourdough starter loitering in the fridge and decided that maybe I should give sourdough pitas a try. TM made some a few weeks ago and they turned out great.

I debated whether to follow the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book recipe for these or search elsewhere. On the one hand Laurel and the gang have proven invaluable in making all sorts of whole wheat breads. Things that other people swear can't be done as 100% whole wheat, they pull of flawlessly. That book has been my bread bible. That said, they don't really deal with sourdoughs. Sure, they include a few "sourdough" recipes, but they only use the sour as a flavouring and conditioning element, not leavener. All their "sourdough" recipes include commercial yeast. Given that, and my relative inexperience with both sourdoughs and flatbreads, I decided that I'd be better off finding a sourdough pita recipe and following that for my first time though. Maybe I can try the Laurel's Kitchen recipe next time. Or possibly I'll try converting this one to a 100% whole wheat version.

Flour choices not withstanding, I'm extremely pleased with how these pitas turned out! The dough rose well. It was fairly easy to work with. The pitas puffed up spectacularly well in the oven. They all got a nice little pocket. And they taste wonderful. Great success!

Sourdough Pitas

Slightly adapted from Baking Sense

Ingredients

• 225g (100% hydration) fed/active sourdough starter
• 1 c. warm water
• 150g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 230-250g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour

Directions

1. Ensure your starter is nice and active. If not, start with just 75g and feed it (with 75mL of water and 75g of flour). Once it's had a good 3-4 hours to get going, move on with the rest of the recipe.
2. In a large bowl, combine starter, warm water, and whole wheat flour. Mix well to form a thick batter and then cover and set aside for 30-60 minutes.
3. Add olive oil, sugar, and salt and mix well.
4. Mix in remaining flour until a soft dough is formed.
5. Turn dough out onto work surface and begin kneading. You may need to add a little more flour during kneading, but use it sparingly. Dough should be stiffer than a brioche but looser than a bagel. Knead for 5-10 minutes.
6. Return to bowl, cover, and set aside for 30 minutes.
7. After 30 minutes the dough needs to be stretched and folded. Reach down to the bottom of the bowl on one side, grab the dough, and fold it up over itself into the middle. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Repeat two more times until all four sides have been folded up and over. Cover and set aside for another 30 minutes.
8. After 30 more minutes, repeat the stretch-and-fold procedure. Cover and set aside for 60 minutes.
9. After 60 minutes, stretch-and-fold one more time. Cover and set aside for another 60 minutes.
10. Transfer dough to fridge overnight.
11. After its long, slow overnight rise in the fridge, bring the dough back out of the fridge and give it an hour or two to come up to room temperature.
12. Place a pizza stone or dark-coloured baking sheet in the oven and preheat it to 230°C (450°F).
13. Divide the dough into eight (roughly) equal portions. Work with two portions at a time and keep the rest covered so they don't dry out.
14. Roll out each portion of dough to a thickness of ~5 or 6mm on a lightly floured surface.
15. Bake the pitas on the preheated pizza stone/baking sheet for 3-5 minutes. (Mine only needed 3.) They should puff up during baking.
16. Remove pitas from pizza stone and wrap in a tea towel while remaining rounds get cooked. They do not need to be flipped or cooked on the other side. Once they puff, they're done.
17. Eat immediately or freeze for later enjoyment.

Palak Pulao (Rice with Spinach)

This is a nice simple pulao that comes together quickly with just a few ingredients and allows you to boost the vegetable content of your meal a little bit. I thought it would make a nice substrate for the mutter paneer we had for dinner last night. The curry already had peas in it, but it felt like we could still use some more veg. This worked quite well. Especially when served along with some vegetable-stuffed paratha.

The original recipe was written for white basmati rice and had you cooking the rice in the pot with the spinach and onion mixture. I had some leftover long-grain brown rice that I wanted to use up, so I adjusted the recipe slightly to use that. I also omitted the salt and swapped out the fresh spinach for frozen.

Palak Pulao

Adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. cooked long-grain brown rice
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 small red onion, sliced thin
• 1 1/2 c. frozen chopped spinach
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt (optional)

Directions

1. Heat ghee over medium-high heat.
2. Add cumin seeds and sizzle for 10-15 seconds.
3. Add onion, reduce heat to medium, and cook for a minute or two.
4. Add spinach and continue cooking until spinach is fully thawed.
5. Stir in rice, water, and salt (if using) and cook until heated through.
6. Serve topped with your favourite curry!

These were ok, but honestly, neither of us liked them anywhere near as much as the kimchi breakfast bowls, and it's a bit more effort to put together. So we probably won't ever make them again, but if you have some spare pineapple kicking around and don't have (or don't like) kimchi, they might be worth a look.

Interestingly, it calls for twice as much rice as the kimchi bowls do; presumably this is the counterbalance the additional condiments and significant quantity of pineapple, but be aware that as a result it produces more food per bowl.

Pineapple Sriracha Breakfast Bowl

Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1 C cooked rice
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sriracha
• ½ tsp sesame oil
• ⅓ C pineapple bits
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Reheat rice
2. Stir in soy sauce, sriracha, sesame oil, pineapple, and green onion
3. Fry the egg with salt and pepper until the whites are set and the yolk is still runny
4. Top the rice with the egg, then break the egg apart into the rice and serve.

Mutter Paneer (Fried Cheese with Green Peas)

I had been intending to make some black bean enchiladas for dinner last night, but was suddenly hit by a desire for cheese. I didn't want beans for dinner, I just wanted a giant bowl of cheese! And one of the nice things about being an adult is that if I want a huge pile of cheese for dinner, I can have a huge pile of cheese for dinner. And one of the nice things about owning a copy of 660 Curries is that I can even find a delicious cheese-for-dinner recipe that lets me feel... well, maybe not exactly virtuous, but at least not excessively guilty about my casein craving.

Mutter paneer served over palak pulao.

Mutter Paneer

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredeints

• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 (Indian) bay leaf
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 3 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 fresh green Thai chilies, minced
• 1 c. tomato sauce¹
• 2 tsp. bin bhuna hua garam masala
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 1/2 c. frozen peas
• 250g paneer, cubed and pan-fried
• 1/4 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat ghee over medium-high heat.
2. Add cumin seeds and bay leaf and cook for 10-15 seconds.
3. Add onion, ginger paste, garlic, and chilies and stir-fry until light brown (5-7 minutes).
4. Add tomato sauce, garam masala, and salt and reduce heat to medium.
5. Simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
6. Add water and peas. (If using frozen fried paneer, add it now as well.) Cover and simmer until peas (and paneer) are thawed and warmed through.
7. Fold in paneer (if not already present), cream, and cilantro. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for ~5 minutes.
8. Serve with rice/pulao and/or naan.

---

¹ I didn't have any ready-made tomato sauce on hand, so I whipped up a quick batch of sauce before starting the curry. I basically just emptied a can of diced tomatoes into a pot and then added spices and let it simmer for a few minutes. You can season it however you like. Here's what I put in mine (to the best of my recollection): 800mL diced tomatoes, 1 tsp. coriander seeds, 1 tsp. jaggery, 1 tsp. dehydrated minced onion, 1/2 tsp. dehydrated minced garlic, 2 Indian bay leaves, 1 (3") cinnamon stick, 2 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies (although 1 probably would've been sufficient), 3 green cardamom pods, 1 tsp. chopped basil, 1 tsp. chopped cilantro, 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, 1/2 Tbsp. ghee. ^Back

I desperately needed to use up some more sourdough starter and I was craving chocolate cake: problem solved!

This cake is leavened with baking soda, but it also ferments overnight. This helps give the wheat bran time to soften as well as producing acid for the bicarb to react with. According to the original recipe, only the flour, water, and starter are meant to go into the initial mixture. Everything else gets added just before baking the next morning. However, next time I think I'd try mixing the coconut oil with the flour first to help inhibit gluten formation. Otherwise you end up with a fairly glutinous batter. It still bakes up tasty enough, but it isn't quite as tender as you'd normally want for a cake. I'm hoping that mixing the fat and flour first will help it keep a nice, tender, cake-y texture once fully mixed and baked.

It also occurs to me that this would've been a good place to use some soft whole wheat flour. With the lower gluten content, you probably wouldn't need to worry about mixing fat into the flour and trying to inhibit gluten formation. So, I guess, if you have soft whole wheat flour, proceed as directed. If your flour is hard, mix the fat into the flour first before adding your water and starter.

Sourdough Chocolate Cake

Slightly adapted from Real Food Real Deals

Ingredients

• 300g soft whole wheat flour
• 150g (100% hydration) fed/active sourdough starter
• 3/4 c. water
• 2 large eggs
• 1 c. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 c. coconut oil, melted
• 3/4 c. cocoa
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground

Directions

1. Combine flour, starter, and water, mix well, cover, and allow to ferment overnight.
2. The next morning, preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23x33cm (9x13") pan.
3. Combine eggs, maple syrup, vanilla, and melted coconut oil and mix well.
4. Sift cocoa and baking soda into wet ingredients. Mix in salt.
5. Add flour mixture to cocoa mixture and stir to thoroughly combine.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 25-30 minutes.

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Variations

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 300g soft whole wheat flour
• 150g (100% hydration) fed/active sourdough starter
• 3/4 c. water
• 2 flax eggs
• 1 c. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 c. coconut oil, melted
• 3/4 c. cocoa
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground

Oh my goodness, this paté is so good! I cannot even express just how in love with it I am. Amazing! I have always loved paté, it's delicious. Even before I was trying to cut down my meat intake, I basically never bought it because I knew I wouldn't be able to control myself and would end up eating way too much of it way too fast. And then I stumbled across this lentil-walnut paté recipe. And it sounded fabulous. So, of course, I had to try it. And it came out beautifully.

To be clear, it's unlikely that anyone would mistake this for meat-based pat&eactue;. The flavour and texture are both a bit different. I think you could get the texture a bit closer by either cooking it down a bit after blending or using a food processor or some other appliance that doesn't require quite so much water to get it smooth. It's still not going to be quite the same though. And while the flavour is different, it's in the right ballpark. It definitely scratches to paté itch for me. It's full of herb-y, salty, umami-y goodness. It tastes like paté, it just doesn't taste like meat. I am extremely happy with this recipe. And TF actually likes it better than regular meat-based paté!

Vegetarian Paté

Slightly adapted from Beauty Food Blog

Ingredients

• 1 c. chopped walnuts
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 small red onion, quartered and sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. brown sugar¹
• 2 bay leaves
• ~100g shiitake mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
• 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary
• 8 large fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp. fresh thyme
• 1-2 Tbsp. miso paste²
• 1 1/2 c. cooked brown lentils³
• 1/8-1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Toast walnuts at 180°C (350°F) for 8-10 minutes, checking halfway through to see if they need to be turned.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil over medium heat.
3. Add onion, garlic, sugar, and bay leaves and cook for 4-5 minutes.
4. Add mushrooms and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
5. Add balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, soy sauce, rosemary, sage, and thyme and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
6. Add lemtils and miso paste and stir to combine.
7. Stir in toasted walnuts and remove bay leaves.
8. Transfer to blender or food processor and blend until smooth, adding water as necessary to achieve desired consistency. (I needed to add ~1/2 c. water before my blender was able to get it smooth. Food processors will likely need much less.)
9. Season to taste with black pepper.
10. Serve with cheese and crackers and/or bread. (Or just eat it with a spoon. Seriously, so good!)

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¹ This was listed as a vegan recipe. And it can be vegan. Just be very careful with the sugar you use. Most brown sugars are just white sugar with molasses added. And many white sugars use bone char in their production. You may also want to double check the vinegars, soy sauce, and miso paste to make sure they're vegan too. I'm not vegan, so I'm not aware of all the potential problem ingredients. I just mention it in case you're either vegan or cooking for someone who is. Cooking vegan food can be tricky since it's not always obvious which ingredients use animal products somewhere along the line and which don't. There are a lot of things that seem like they should be safe for a vegan diet since they don't directly involve animals, but could actually be a no-go due to animal products getting used somewhere else along the line. So, uh... caveat emptor and all that jazz. ^Back
2 Whoops! So I just realized that the recipe called for 2 tsp. of miso paste, not 2 Tbsp. I really like how mine came out though, so maybe try it with 1 Tbsp. to start and add more to taste. (I used white miso for mine.) ^Back
3 I cooked my lentils from dried in a nice, herby mushroom stock with a bunch of extra garlic, onion, paprika, bay leaves, and pepper added to the pot. The recipe above is written for unseasoned lentils. If you're using seasoned lentils, you may want to halve all the herbs and reduce the garlic to 2 cloves (which is what I did when preparing mine). ^Back

Korean Egg Breakfast Bowl

This is a great find by symbol -- it's really quick and easy to put together, we both like it a lot, and even the Kidlet will eat it if you swap out the kimchi for ketchup (although she's not as enthusiastic about it as we are). You do need to have the rice on hand, but it's easy to make a huge batch of it on the weekend and use it up making breakfasts over the course of the week.

Ingredients are per person; scale up linearly (ideally in separate bowls) if serving more.

Korean Breakfast Bowl

From somewhere on youtube

Ingredients

• ½ C cooked brown or red rice
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 green onion, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp kimchi, chopped
• 1 large egg

Directions

1. Reheat rice.
2. While rice is heating, whisk together soy sauce, sesame oil, green onion, and kimchi.
3. Fry egg in a bit of butter or oil until whites are set, but yolk is still runny.
4. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Break up egg and mix everything together.

I picked up a couple bags of dried seitan/gluten the last time I was at the Asian grocery. Of course, I could just use them as a meat substitute the next time I'm making soup or curry or something, but I thought it'd be nice to find some seitan-specific recipes. And I found a whole treasure trove of delicious-looking dishes! But they all use home-made/fresh seitan, not the dried stuff. This recipe for barbecue "ribs" looked so good that I couldn't resist giving it a try. It's lovely with a bit of grilled corn and/or creamed kale.

Barbecue Seitan Ribs with Sticky Tamarind Sauce

Slightly adapted from Sunny Side Hanne

Ingredients

Seitan

• 1/4 c. tahini or peanut butter
• 1 tsp. liquid smoke
• 2 tsp. sweet or smoked paprika
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 2 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
• 1/2 c. chickpea flour
• 1 1/2 c. hot vegetable broth¹
• 1 1/2 c. + 2 Tbsp. gluten flour

Sticky Tamarind Sauce

• 1 Tbsp. tamarind concentrate
• 1/2 c. hoisin sauce
• 1/4 c. sambal olek (or chili sauce of your choice)
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 Tbsp. mirin
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar

Directions

Seitan

1. Combine tahini/peanut butter, liquid smoke, paprika, tomato paste, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, and chickpea flour and mix well.
2. Pour in hot broth and stir to form a homogeneous mixture.
3. Add gluten flour and stir to combine.
4. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5-6 minutes. You may need to add an extra Tbsp. or two of gluten, but be conservative; don't add too much.
5. Lightly oil a large piece of heavy duty aluminum foil and place the seitan on it.
6. Press the seitan into a large flat slab.
7. Score the seitan to make it easier to separate into "ribs" once cooked.
8. Fold the foil over and seal to form a tight packet.
9. Grill over indirect heat for 30 minutes. (Aim for a grill temperature of 180°C/350°F.)
10. Meanwhile, prepare the barbecue sauce. (See below for instructions.)
11. Open the packet and brush the ribs with barbecue sauce. Flip them over and coat the other side with sauce as well.
12. Cook for another 15 minutes being sure to keep the ribs over indirect heat!
13. Serve with coleslaw, grilled corn, fries, or other side(s) of your choice.

Sticky Tamarind Sauce

1. Combine all sauce ingredients and mix well.
2. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes.
3. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

NB: The original recipe billed these as "BBQ Vegan Ribs", but I'm not confident in calling the recipe vegan as written. I think it would be appropriate for a "strict vegetarian" (ie. someone who doesn't directly eat animal products, but doesn't necessarily avoid animal products elsewhere), but not necessarily a vegan. Hoisin sauce and mirin both contain sugar which often uses bone char in its production. As such, unless you can find sauces that use some sort of vegan sweetener, this recipe wouldn't actually be vegan, but it's still a great egg-and-dairy-free vegetarian offering!

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¹ I used a 2:1 mix of vegetable broth and mushroom stock for mine. ^Back

So, I made an apple upside down cake recently. And that left me with a lot of peels and cores. And I hated to just throw them out, so I decided to use them to make apple jelly. But my apples were a sweet variety that didn't have enough pectin to set the jelly. So what I've ended up with instead is apple syrup. It's delicious, but it's not remotely spreadable. It's about the consistency of maple syrup.

So now I have just shy of a litre of apple syrup. Great. Well, it would go really well on some nice whole wheat waffles, I think. So, I set about putting together an overnight yeasted waffle batter...

At which point I notice that my sourdough starter really, really needs to be fed. So I add a bit of starter to the waffles, but that still leaves me with a lot of starter. And I really hate being forced to actually discard my discard. So, I start hunting through my discard recipes looking for something that'll use up enough starter that I can feed the rest. And this muffin recipe was the first thing I found that looked quick, easy, and tasty enough for me to want to make. (I'm still going to have to make bread or crackers or something in the next few days, but this buys me a little time for now.)

So that's the long chain of events that lead to me making these muffins. As an added bonus, the cinnamon flavour complements the apple syrup very nicely!

Cinnamon Sourdough Muffins

Slightly adapted from The Southern Lady Cooks

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce¹ (optional)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 c. (100% hydration) sourdough starter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a muffin tin (or line it with muffin/cupcake papers).
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugars and mix well.
3. Mix in melted butter, vanilla, milk, and egg.
4. Stir in starter.
5. Scoop batter into prepared tin.
6. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 18-20 minutes².

---

¹ I found these muffins just a touch on the dry side. It's possible that they ended up slightly overdone due to the unusually high oven temperature. But the batter was also extremely stiff, so I wonder if maybe it just needed a bit more moisture added to it. In future, I think I'd try adding a little bit of applesauce to these to see if that would help them to bake up a little moister. The apple flavour isn't likely to come through at all, but if it does, it should complement the cinnamon anyway. ^Back
2 The original recipe calls for baking at 200°C (400°F) for 17-20 minutes, but notes that you can use either a 6-(large-)well or 12-("regular"-)well muffin tin. I baked mine at 400°F and they were done after 15 minutes. I think I'd stick with an 18-minute, 350°F bake for my "regular" (5cm) size muffins next time. ^Back

I needed a quick vegetable side to go with dinner tonight, so I turned to Cook's Country for inspiration. This creamed kale recipe is meant to be served with steak, but it also made a nice complement to our barbecue seitan "ribs".

Creamed Kale

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country August/September 2019

Ingredients

• 6 c. water
• 200g black or green kale, cut into 2cm pieces
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 2 small cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small red onion, halved and sliced thin
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Bring water to a boil and add salt and kale.
2. Boil kale for 2-3 minutes, then drain, pressing out as much water as possible.
3. Heat oil over medium heat.
4. Add onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Add kale and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
6. Add cream and cook for 3 more minutes.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This is actually two Cook's Country recipes combined -- "garlicky white beans with sage" and "white bean dip". (They're combined in the magazine too; you use the output from the former as one of the ingredients for the latter.) The result is a thick, delicious spread good on crackers and bread.

The recipe calls for the use of a food processor, but we used a blender with a "food chop" setting and it worked just fine with the addition of a bit of water (which the recipe warns you may need anyways).

Cannellini Dip

Cook's Country, April/May 2020 p.15

Ingredients

• 4+6 Tbsp olive oil, divided
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced thin
• 6 fresh sage leaves
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
• 3½ C cooked cannellini beans
• ¼ tsp table salt
• 5 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Heat 4 Tbsp oil in a skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the garlic and cook until it just starts to brown, 2-3 minutes.
3. Add sage and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, another 30 seconds.
4. Add beans and salt and cook, stirring often, until heated through, ~2 minutes. Remove from heat.
5. Combine beans, water, lemon juice, and remaining oil in a food processor or blender. Process until smooth, ~2 minutes, scraping down sides and, if necessary, adding extra water 1 tablespoon at a time.
6. Sprinkle with parsley, drizzle with additional olive oil to taste, and serve.

I tend to be very dubious about artichoke, but this recipe turned out ok; the artichoke didn't really add much to it but didn't detract either. I did note that it came out much saucier than expected, and had to choose between leaving it over-sauced or overcooking the noodles; adding a bit less liquid next time might be prudent.

You can also sautee the mushrooms, onion, and garlic in the pot before adding the liquids. I'm not sure how this will affect the taste.

One-Pot Spinach & Artichoke Pasta

Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 8 oz (225g) mushrooms, sliced
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 13 oz (370g) artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped
• 5 C (1250mL) vegetable broth
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
• 12 oz (340g) fettucini, linguine, or similar
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• black pepper
• 4 oz (113g) fresh or frozen spinach
• 100g feta, diced or crumbled

Directions

1. Combine mushrooms, onion, garlic, artichoke, broth, oil, red pepper flakes, pasta, organo, thyme, and pepper in a large pot.
2. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for ~10 minutes or until pasta is mostly cooked.
4. Remove lid and stir in spinach. Continue to simmer, uncovered, until pasta is cooked, spinach is warmed through and sauce has thickened.
5. Remove from the heat and stir in feta.

Icelandic Thunder Bread (no molasses)

I tried another version of Icelandic thunder bread a few weeks back. I liked it, but I felt like the combination of brown sugar/molasses and whole grain flour made it taste more like a giant bran muffin than bread. It's honestly a nice option if you're looking for a lower fat alternative to the standard bran muffin!

I wanted something that let the rye shine a little more though. This recipe doesn't call for any brown sugar or molasses and uses a higher proportion of rye flour in the batter, so I was hoping it might provide a better rye flavour. That said, there's a lot more sugar in this recipe than the first one I tried. It's not a bad loaf, but it is very sweet. I think I'd probably halve the sugar if I was making it again. I've adjusted the recipe below to reflect this.

Icelandic Thunder Bread

Slightly adapted from The Travel Bunny

Ingredients

• 320g whole rye flour
• 85g all-purpose flour
• 100g sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 450mL milk

Directions

1. Combine flours, and sugar.
2. Sift in baking powder.
3. Add sugar and thoroughly mix.
4. Pour in milk and mix until just comgined.
5. Pour batter into greased and floured casserole dish.
6. Cover casserole dish and place on trivet inside slow cooker/InstantPot with enough water to come about halfway up the side of the dish.
7. Set slow cooker to high and allow bread to steam for 4 hours.
8. Carefully remove casserole dish from slow cooker/InstantPot, uncover, and allow to cool for 10-20 minutes.
9. Turn bread out onto wire rack to cool.

This calls for 15oz (440mL) tins of beans. We mostly had 500-600mL tins and just scaled it up. This resulted in almost too much to fit in the pot, but it did turn out tasty and the Kidlet has been eating it with enthusiasm. For the purposes of this writeup, I went with the original proportions, but it appears to be a very forgiving recipe.

symbol and I both found that topping it with sriracha and a small amount of cider vinegar gives it some much-needed presence.

One Pot Vegetarian Chili Mac

Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 15oz tinned pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 15oz tinned black beans, drained and rinsed
• 15oz tinned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 15oz tinned diced tomatoes
• 15oz tomato sauce (if you have a surplus of diced tomatoes or tomato sauce, dial back the other one accordingly)
• 1 C frozen corn kernels
• 2 C vegetable broth
• 2 C uncooked short pasta (macaroni, rotini, etc)
• 2 C shredded sharp cheddar

Directions

1. In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the garlic and onion and sautee until the onion softens and turns translucent.
3. Add the flour and chili powder. Continue to cook, stirring, until the onion is well coated, 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the beans, tomatoes, corn, and vegetable broth. Deglaze.
5. Stir in the pasta, raise heat to medium high, cover, and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10-20 minutes (depending on pasta shape), until pasta is cooked to desired tenderness.
7. Remove from heat and stir in cheddar. Serve.

TF was in a salad-y sort of mood, so I spent a while casting around for hearty salads that could be a complete meal on their own. I found this recipe for "Asian noodle salad" on the Woman's Day website. It appears to be inspired by Vietnamese rice noodle salads. It was pretty good, but a bit lacklustre. Adding some chopped roasted peanuts helped. I'd be tempted to add a bit of fish sauce to the dressing next time too. And maybe toss in a grated carrot or two to boost the veggie content and make it a little more colourful and flavourful.

Asian Noodle Salad

Adapted from Woman's Day

Ingredients

• 1 c. mushroom or vegetable broth
• 1 c. water
• 2 c. TVP crumbles
• 150g rice vermicelli
• 1/4 c. seasoned rice vinegar
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 4 tsp. ginger paste, divided
• 1 tsp. fish sauce¹ (optional)
• 1 fresh red Thai chili, sliced crosswise into very thin discs
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced thin and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 cucumber, quartered and sliced thin
• 85g snow peas or green beans, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 carrot, grated (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1/4 c. hoisin sauce²
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1/4 c. roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped
• 1 sprig Thai basil (optional)

Directions

1. Bring the water and broth to a boil, remove from heat and add TVP. Stir to combine, then set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
2. Pour boiling water over the vermicelli until it's completely submerged. Allow to sit in hot water until softened (~5 minutes). Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
3. Combine rice vinegar, sugar, 1 tsp. ginger paste, fish sauce, and chili and mix well.
4. Add veggies to dressing and stir to combine and thoroughly coat. Set aside.
5. Heat oil over medium-high heat.
6. Add rehydrated TVP and remaining 1 Tbsp. ginger paste. Cook until fragrant (3-5 minutes).
7. Add hoisin sauce and cook for another minute or so.
8. Remove from heat and stir in green onions.
9. Serve noodles topped with veggies and TVP. Garnish with chopped peanuts and Thai basil.

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¹ As implied by the name, fish sauce is not vegetarian. Leave it out if you're trying to keep it vegetarian or vegan. ^Back
2 While hoisin sauce doesn't generally contain any animal products directly, it does contain sugar and other ingredients that typically use animal products in their production. If you want to make this dish vegan, you may need to make your own hoisin sauce or search for a specifically vegan variety. ^Back

I liked this cake. It had a nice flavour that was pleasingly distinct from banana bread. There was a bit of banana flavour, but it didn't take centre stage. I didn't really feel like the crumb topping contributed much though. It contained all the spices, but I think I would've preferred having the spices mixed into the main batter and giving the whole idea of a topping a miss. I also felt like an 8" round pan made this cake a little too tall. I think I'd try it in an 8" square next time to give it a little more surface area and a little less height. Other than that though, it was great! Nice use for some sourdough starter and extra bananas.

Although the picture shows the cake with its crumb topping, for the recipe below I've left out the topping and incorporated the spices into the cake batter. If you really want to try the crumb topping, just bump up the cinnamon to 1/2 Tbsp. and the nutmeg to 1/2 tsp. and mix them with 1/3 c. brown sugar and 2/3 c. all-purpose flour and cut in 1/4 c. of unsalted butter. Sprinkle this mixture over the cake before baking.

Brown Butter, Rye, and Banana Sourdough Cake

Adapted from Bread and Basil

Ingredients

• 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 c. rye flour
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 2/3 c. (100% hydration) unfed sourdough starter
• 3 medium eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Butter and flour a 20cm (8") square cake tin and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Melt butter over medium heat and simmer until water evaporates and butter is browned but not burnt.
3. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
4. Combine flours, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt and mix well.
5. In a separate bowl, stir sourdough discard into mashed bananas.
6. Add the eggs and vanilla to the banana mixture and whisk to thoroughly combine.
7. Stir in the browned butter.
8. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
9. Pour batter into prepared tin and smooth the top.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-40 minutes.

As written the recipe uses white rice. This version swaps it out for brown rice and adjusts the liquid quantity and cooking time accordingly, but makes no other changes (apart from increasing the garlic).

It's quite tasty topped with cheddar.h

Tomato Herb Rice with White Beans and Spinach

Adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp dried basil
• ¼ tsp dried thyme
• ¼ tsp dried rosemary
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
• black pepper
• ¼ C tomato paste
• ½ tsp brown sugar
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 C fire roasted diced tomatoes, with juice
• 2 C cooked cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• ¼ lb frozen chopped spinach
• 1 C uncooked long grain brown rice
• 2 C vegetable broth

Directions

1. In a dutch oven, combine the olive oil, garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, red pepper flakes, and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Sautée over medium-low heat until fragrant, ~1 minute.
2. Add tomato paste and brown sugar and continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes.
3. Add onion and cook for a few minutes more, until it starts to turn translucent.
4. Add tomatoes, beans, spinach, rice, and broth. Stir to combine.
5. Cover pot and raise heat to medium high until it reaches a boil.
6. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and rice is fully cooked.
7. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes; serve.