Chickpeas and Potatoes with Singed Spices

This curry, despite its long ingredient list, comes together very easily. It requires very little prep and most of the time spent cooking it is just watching it simmer and stirring it occasionally.

It was also a huge hit with the family. symbol immediately declared it a favourite; Alex went back for seconds, and then thirds, and requested it in her lunch tomorrow. I thought it was ok but not great, but everyone else loves it.

Very little is changed from the original recipe. Toasted cumin-coriander blend is replaced with equivalent proportions of the untoasted spices, and the raw sliced chilies used as a garnish are omitted (since Alex is not a fan of the spicy).

Pindi Waale Aloo Chana

660 Curries

Ingredients

• 1 large Yukon Gold potato, cut into 1cm cubes
• 750mL cooked chickpeas
• 30mL amchor
• 15mL dried pomegranate seeds, ground (a spice grinder works well)
• 6mL coriander, ground
• 4mL cumin, ground
• 2.5mL cayenne
• 2.5mL sweet paprika
• 5mL Punjabi garam masala
• 2.5mL coarse salt
• 2.5mL black salt
• 30+60mL corn oil
• 1 large red onion, finely chopped
• 1 large tomato, cored and finely chopped
• 60mL finely chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine 750mL water, potato, chickpeas, amchor, pomegranate seeds, coriander, cumin, cayenne, paprika, garam masala, and both salts in a large pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then simmer vigorously, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are fork-tender and sauce has thickened, ~20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat 30mL of oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and stir-fry until starting to brown around the edges, ~5 minutes.
3. Add tomato and continue to cook until it softens but does not disintegrate, another ~3 minutes.
4. When potato-chickpea mixture has thickened, remove from heat and stir in onion-tomato mixture.
5. Put the remaining 60mL of oil in the skillet and heat until just below the smoke point, then pour into the curry and stir in to scald the spices.
6. Top with cilantro and serve.

Mango-Coconut Muffins

The last batch of muffins I made were a huge hit, so I figured maybe another batch was in order. I was tempted to just make more lemon muffins, but we got a couple mangoes in our produce basket this week, so this seemed like a nice way to use up some mango and test a new recipe. The mango was slightly under-ripe, but hopefully the muffins'll still come out okay.

Vegan Mango-Coconut Muffins

Slightly adapted from Love & Lemons

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. ground flax
• 3 Tbsp. water
• 7/8 c. lite coconut milk¹
• 2 tsp. lime juice
• 300g whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. cane sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 c. coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. finely diced ripe mango
• 1/2 c. sweetened flaked coconut

Directions

1. Combine flax and water and set aside. (You're basically making a flax egg here.)²
2. Combine coconut milk and lime juice.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together, buttermilk mixture, flax egg, coconut oil, and vanilla.
5. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until combined.
6. Fold in diced mango.
7. Spoon into greased muffin tin. (This should make 10-12 muffins.)
8. Sprinkle coconut on top.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 18-20 minutes.

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¹ The original recipe called for a non-dairy coconut-almond milk blend. I still had some vanilla almond milk left over from making the lemon muffins yesterday, so I just used that. That said, I think coconut milk would make an even better choice here! I think full fat coconut milk might be too thick, but lite coconut milk should be just about right. And it would add a little more coconut flavour. ^Back
2 If you don't have ground flax easily to hand, ground chia should also work. Alternatively, if you don't need these to be vegan, you can use one large egg in place of the flax or chia egg. ^Back

A Cook's Country recipe card, the original version uses swiss chard and cooks the potatoes, greens, and eggs separately before combining them on the plate. I'm not a fan of the intense bitterness of chard, so this verson uses the much milder baby chard along with other greens. The cooking process is also simplified, although it might be possible to simplify it further by cooking the garlic with the potatoes and then adding the greens once the potatoes are browned.

Eggs with Sweet Potato and Greens Hash

Cook's Country

Ingredients

• 450g Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled and cut into 1cm cubes
• 450g sweet potatoes, unpeeled and cut into 1cm cubes
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 10mL Lawry's seasoned salt
• 60mL olive oil
• 350g baby chard, kale, spinach, or other assorted greens
• 6 garlic cloves, sliced thin
• 10mL lemon juice
• 4-8 large eggs (depending on preferred egg:hash ratio)

Directions

1. Combine potatoes, sweet potatoes, onion, and half the salt in a large bowl and microwave, covered, until potatoes are almost tender, stirring halfway through, ~10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat 15mL oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add garlic, and cook until fragrant, ~30 seconds.
3. Add greens and remaining salt, and cook until just starting to wilt, 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Buffer greens in a bowl and mix in lemon juice.
5. Heat remaining oil in the same skillet over medium high heat and add potato-onion mix. Cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 10-15 minutes.
6. Mix in greens.
7. Make wells in the hash for the eggs. Crack the eggs into them, cover, and cook until eggs reach desired done-ness.
8. Serve.

Lemon Muffins

I'm normally a bit wary of vegan recipes, but these came out pretty good. And I've just now realized that I completely forgot to make the glaze for them! They were still good, even without the glaze, but it'd be nice to try them with it next time and see how it is.

Vegan Lemon Muffins

Slightly adapted from Love & Lemons

Ingredients

Muffins

• 1 c. + 1 Tbsp. vanilla almond milk
• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 260g whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. almond flour
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/3 c. coconut oil, melted
• 2 Tbsp. meyer lemon zest
• 3 Tbsp. meyer lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. chia seeds

Glaze

• 1/2 c. vegan cream cheese
• 2 Tbsp. meyer lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. meyer lemon zest

Directions

Muffins

1. Combine almond milk and cider vinegar and set aside
2. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.
3. Whisk together sugar, oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla.
4. Add almond milk to sugar mixture.
5. Stir wet ingredients into dry and mix until combined.
6. Fold in chia seeds.
7. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin. (It should make 10-12 muffins.)
8. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 18 minutes.

Glaze

1. Beat cream cheese with lemon juice, maple syrup, and lemon zest until smooth.
2. Spoon glaze over cooled muffins.
3. Sprinkle with more lemon zest and/or chia seeds if desired.

This recipe boasted of being "the best" shrimp ramen, but I honestly found it pretty "meh". Too much soy sauce. Too much sauce in general. Too salty. And just texturally very... disappointing. I think it would've been dramatically improved by cutting the soy sauce by at least 50% and giving the noodles a good fry while the sauce cooks.

Shrimp Ramen

Adapted from Delish

Ingredients

Noodles

• 3 packages of ramen, flavour packets discarded
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 2 scallions or 1/4 c. Fried Onions

Sauce

• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1/2 tsp. chile flakes
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. black vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. shaoxing wine
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp. sriracha
• 1 c. vegetable broth

Veggies and Protein

• 3-4 c. veggies of choice (broccoli, peas, corn, bell pepper, etc.)
• 400g cooked shrimp

Directions

Noodles

1. Cook ramen according to package directions. Drain.
2. Heat oil over medium heat.
3. Add noodles and cook, stirring and turning occasionally, while sauce and veggie cook.

Sauce

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add garlic, ginger, and chile flakes and cook for 30-60 seconds.
3. Stir in dark soy, light soy, black vinegar, wine, sugar, lime juice, sriracha, and vegetable broth and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened.

Veggies & Protein

1. Add veggies to sauce, cover, and cook until just tender.
2. Stir in shrimp and cook until heated through.
3. Stir in noodles.
4. Top with scallions and/or fried onions.

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Variations

Vegetarian Ramen

Ingredients

Noodles

• 3 packages of ramen, flavour packets discarded
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 2 scallions or 1/4 c. Fried Onions

Sauce

• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1/2 tsp. chile flakes
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. black vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. shaoxing wine
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp. sriracha
• 1 c. vegetable broth

Veggies and Protein

• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 head of broccoli, cut into florets
• 1 recipe Extra Delicious Tofu

I feel like there's probably a name for this type of dish. If so, I don't know it. Whatever else it is, it's also reasonably tasty and filling. The lentils bulk it up nicely and the beef is only really incidental. I think this would work just fine with TVP or tempeh as a meat substitute.

I made quite a few substitutions and adjustments for this recipe. First off, I don't tend to keep canned lentils on hand, but I do have an ample supply of dried pulses, so I substituted 1 c. of dried Puy lentils for the canned lentils called for in the recipe. Then we were all out of ground beef, so I just chopped up a pound of stewing beef instead. I didn't really feel like peeling and chopping garlic, so I used a few Tbsp. of garlic paste in place of the three cloves of minced garlic called for in the original. I don't generally keep pumpkin pie spice on hand either. I have all the individual spices I'd need to make it. That said, I figured the pumpkin pie spice was only acting as a stand-in for another more "exotic" spice blend in this particular instance. Given that, I decided to use 1 tsp. of ras el hanout in place of the 1/2 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice called for and then cut the cumin and pepper both down to half what was called for in the original. I also swapped out the long-grain white rice for long-grain brown rice. The last change I made was to reduce the amount of liquid used to cook the rice (and now lentils as well) and replace some of the water with vegetable broth and omit the salt called for later in the recipe.

Mediterranean Rice and Lentils with Beef

Adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2019

Ingredients

• 1 c. dried Puy lentils
• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 3 c. vegetable broth
• 4 c. water
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 500g extra lean ground beef or chopped stewing beef
• 3 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 tsp. Ras el Hanout
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. plain Yogurt
• 1 c. Fried Onions
• 1/4 c. fresh dill, chopped

Directions

1. Combine lentils, rice, broth, and water in a pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
2. Cook, uncovered, until lentils and rice are both tender (~25-30 minutes).
3. Meanwhile, heat oil over medium heat.
4. Add beef and until it starts to brown (~8 minutes).
5. Stir in garlic paste and cook for another minute or so.
6. Add ras el hanout, cumin, and pepper and cook for another minute.
7. Add lentils and rice (along with any residual liquid) to the pan with the beef.
8. Cover and cook until all liquid has been absorbed.
9. Stir, remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 10 minutes.
10. Drizzle with yogurt and sprinkle fried onions and dill over.

I've made my own cheese before -- several different kinds, in fact -- but I've never done homemade yogurt. With cheeses it can sometimes be difficult to find a really good cheese of the variety you want. Or the labeling is too vague for you to really be able to tell what it's gonna be like. So making your own can provide some clear benefits. With yogurt, the labeling generally provides ample information and I'm really spoiled for choice on types and flavours. All that being said, I figured it'd be nice to try making some yogurt because it's one of the quicker and easier cultured dairy products to make. And also, from a somewhat completionist standpoint, it'd be nice to say that I've done it.

Yogurt

From the Home Creamery by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley

Ingredients

• 1L whole (3.25%) milk
• 1/4 c. plain yogurt¹

Directions

1. Heat milk to 85°C (185°F).
2. Allow to cool to between 40 and 46°C (105-115°F)².
3. Whisk in yogurt.
4. Hold at 43°C (110°F) for 6-12 hours. (I like to pour it into Mason jars before incubating. Volume will be slightly more than 1L due to added yogurt so use three 500mL jars.)
5. Transfer to fridge. Yogurt should keep for ~2 weeks.

Tips:

• For milder yogurt, use less starter (only 2-3 Tbsp.) and incubate only 6 hours. For tangier yogurt, use the full 1/4 c. of starter and incubate 12 hours.
• Some whey may separate out. It may be poured off or stirred in. Stirring in will result in thinner yogurt.
• To make thicker yogurt, stir 1/3 c. dry milk powder into milk before heating.
• For even thicker yogurt, sprinkle 1 tsp. unflavoured gelatine over milk after stirring in milk powder.

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Variations

Greek Yogurt

Ingredients

• 1L whole (3.25%) milk
• 1/4 c. plain yogurt

Directions

1. Make yogurt as above.
2. Line a fine mesh strainer with a double layer of cheesecloth (or a single layer of butter muslin) and set over a large mixing bowl or pot.
3. Once yogurt has finished incubating, pour into lined strainer and let drain overnight.
4. Transfer yogurt back to jar (or storage container of choice) and refrigerate.

Vanilla Yogurt

Ingredients

• 1L whole (3.25%) milk
• 1/4 c. plain yogurt
• 2-4 Tbsp. honey
• 1-2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Make yogurt or Greek yogurt as you prefer.
2. Stir in honey and vanilla. If your honey has a very strong flavour use only 1-2 Tbsp. and, if it's still not sweet enough, add 1-2 Tbsp. of sugar instead of more honey.

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¹ Make sure that the yogurt you're using as a starter has live cultures. Also be sure that it doesn't have any sweeteners, flavourings, or gelatin. ^Back
2 The author says that it should only take 5 minutes for the milk to cool down to an appropriate temperature, but mine took ~30 minutes! ^Back