I haven't been great at staying on keeping up with cooking and meal planing lately. There's been a lot going on and it's been hard to stay on top of everything.

I needed a vegetable side to round out a meal. (I no longer remember which meal since I didn't get along to writing this up right away.) We didn't have a lot in the way of vegetables on hand. But we did have a bunch of fresh tomatoes and some bell peppers. And it turns out that you don't really need much beyond that to make peperonata. So that worked out quite well!

Peperonata

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2-4 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 bell peppers, seeded and sliced
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh Basil and/or flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Warm the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and cook until softened (~5 minutes).
3. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
4. Add the bell peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown (~10 minutes).
5. Add the tomatoes and cook until they break down and the sauce thickens (~20 minutes).
6. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Garnish with basil and/or parsley.
8. Serve with eggs, steak, and/or garlic bread.

Reiver wanted to try some unusual waffles while he was here. Initially I made croque-madame waffles, which were delicious, but not weird enough for him. (The toppings were interesting, but it was still just a basic waffle underneath.) So this was the next waffle recipe that I decided to try.

I'd made the buckwheat waffles that form the base of this recipe before. But hadn't had a specific set of toppings or flavour profile in mind when I did. This time I figured I'd follow the suggested recipe in the book and top them with smoked salmon and sour cream¹. So, basically like blini, but in waffle form.

Buckwheat Waffles with Smoked Salmon

Slightly adapted from Waffles: Sweet, Savory, Simple by Dawn Yanagihara

Ingredients

• 4-6 buckwheat waffles
• 250g smoked salmon
• 1/2 c. crème fraîche or sour cream
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives and/or dill
• 2 Tbsp. capers
• black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Prepare your waffles.
2. Top each with a couple slices of smoked salmon and a dollop of crème fraîche/sour cream.
3. Garnish with red onion, chives, dill, capers, and/or pepper and serve.

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¹ The recipe technically called for crème fra&icric;che, but they didn't have any at my usual grocery store and I didn't want to make a separate trip out to get it, so I just used sour cream instead. Still delicious and slightly lower fat than the alternative! ^Back

I've made a few different versions of huevos rancheros over the years. Usually it involves eggs poached in tomato sauce along with some sort of beans served on warm tortillas. This version replaces the tortillas with cornmeal waffles. And, honestly, it works pretty well!

TF voted for cheddar-chipotle cornmeal waffles, but plain cornmeal waffles will also work just fine. (Although, in that case, I might opt to serve the eggs topped with a little grated cheddar or crumbled feta.)

Recipe as written, you're meant to slightly "doctor" a can of ready-made refried beans. I already had a can of pinto beans in the pantry though, so I elected to make my own using those. I just sautéed some onion and garlic in bacon grease and then added the beans, a little broth, some chili powder, and a bit of pepper and lime juice.

Waffles y Huevos Rancheros

Slightly adapted from Waffles: Sweet, Savory, Simple by Dawn Yanagihara

Ingredients

Sauce

• 680g tomatoes
• 1-2 jalapeños
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1-2 Tbsp. oil
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Beans

• 1 Tbsp. bacon grease or lard
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 c. cooked pinto beans
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. dhania-jeera masala
• ~1/2 c. chicken stock
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1-2 Tbsp. lime juice

Assembly

• 8 cornmeal waffles
• 8-16 large eggs
• grated cheddar cheese or crumbled feta (optional)
• chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions

Sauce

1. Preheat the broiler. Halve the tomatoes if large and arrange them and the jalapeño(s) on a rimmed baking sheet.
2. Broil for 12-15 minutes, rotating as necessary.
3. Transfer the tomatoes to a blender jar and the chilies to a plastic bag (or wrap in tin foil) until cool enough to handle.
4. Once pepper(s) are cool enough to handle, unwrap and remove stem and skin. If milder sauce is desired, also remove the seeds and pith. For spicier sauce, leave the seeds in place. Add the pepper(s) to the blender with the tomatoes.
5. Add the onion and garlic for the sauce to the blender and purée until smooth.
6. Heat the oil over medium heat.
7. Pour in the sauce.
8. Bring to a simmer and add the salt and pepper.
9. Simmer, uncovered, until slightly thickened (8-10 minutes).
10. Adjust seasoning to taste, cover, and keep warm until ready to use.

Beans

1. Melt the bacon grease/lard over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and cook until softened (3-5 minutes).
3. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
4. Add the beans, chili powder, masala, and stock.
5. Mash the beans with a fork or potato masher.
6. Season to taste with salt and pepper and cook until heated through and desired consistency is achieved. (Add a little more broth or water if beans are too thick/dry.)
7. Remove from heat and stir in lime juice.

Assembly

1. Cook your waffles (or reheat if prepared in advance).
2. Fry some eggs. Plan to top each waffle with 1-2 eggs depending on how hungry everyone is.
3. Spread some beans onto each waffle and top with however many eggs are desired.
4. Spoon a generous quantity of sauce over the eggs.
5. Optionally top with a bit of cheese and/or cilantro and serve.

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Variations

Vegetarian Version

Ingredients

Sauce

• 680g tomatoes
• 1-2 jalapeños
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1-2 Tbsp. oil
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Beans

• 1 Tbsp. corn oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 c. cooked pinto beans
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. dhania-jeera masala
• ~1/2 c. vegetable stock
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1-2 Tbsp. lime juice

Assembly

• 8 cornmeal waffles
• 8-16 large eggs
• grated cheddar cheese or crumbled feta (optional)
• chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

I was initially planning on making waffles rancheros for breakfast this morning (which is basically huevos rancheros but with cornmeal waffles replacing the tortillas). But I ended up using up most of my fresh tomatoes to make the soup last night. So I decided to swap around the breakfast menu and make the shakshuka first and aim to have the waffles later this week.

I didn't have the requisite bell pepper for the shakshuka, but I had everything else, so I just omitted the pepper and rolled with it.

Shakshuka with Feta and Farro

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 roasted red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 tsp. cumin, ground
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. bebere
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika
• 1/8-1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 large (~800mL) can diced tomatoes
• 125g feta, chopped
• 6 large eggs
• 3 c. cooked farro
• 2 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Heat olive oil over medium heat.
3. Add onion and garlic and cook for 4-5 minutes.
4. Add bell pepper and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
5. Add cumin, salt, pepper, bebere, paprika, and chile flakes and cook for another minute or two.
6. Add the tomatoes and cook until heated through (3-5 minutes).
7. Stir in feta.
8. Make wells in the sauce and break an egg into each well.
9. Transfer pan to oven and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10 minutes.
10. If whites are not fully set, turn broiler to high and broil for 1-2 minutes.
11. Divide farro among 6 bowls and top each with an egg and ~1/6 of the sauce.
12. Season to taste with salt and pepper, sprinkle with parsley, and serve.

These were meant to be made with black sesame seeds -- which I could've sworn we had -- but I couldn't find them anywhere in the pantry, so I ended up rolling with toasted white sesame seeds instead. They were still nice that way, but it definitely didn't have the same visual effect as black sesame would have.

Steamed Sugar Snap Peas with Sesame

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 450g sugar snap peas, trimmed
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. black sesame seeds
• salt (optional)

Directions

1. Set up a steamer and steam the peas for 3 minutes.
2. Transfer peas to serving dish.
3. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
4. Add a little salt (if desired).
5. Serve hot or room temperature.

Our dinner plans got a little mixed up for tonight, so I ended up scrambling to come up with alternative ideas.

I remembered that we had a bag of perogies in the freezer, but the sauerkraut that we normally would've had with them had gone off!

Bex ended up frying up some onions and Beyond Meat with a little baby spinach and we had that with our perogies. However, dinner still felt a little lacking in vegetables. So I made up this soup to supplement the meal.

Chickpea and Roasted Tomato Soup

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 500g tomatoes, halved
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. Kashmiri garam masala¹
• 1/4 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1/4 tsp. hot paprika
• 4-5 c. cooked chickpeas
• 4 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 Tbsp. sour cream²
• 4 sprigs fried rosemary³

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
2. Place the tomatoes cut-side-up on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil.
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil over medium heat.
5. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Add the garam masala and both paprikas and cook for another minute or so.
7. Add the chickpeas and stock.
8. Once the tomatoes are done, add them to the pot as well.
9. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 20 minutes.
10. Mash or purée about half the soup, stir in the sour cream, amd garnish with the fried rosemary.
11. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

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¹ The original recipe called for 1 tsp. of ground cumin, 1 cinnamon stick, and 1/2 tsp. of sweet paprika. I decided to replace those seasonings with the ones listed above. ^Back
2 We were all out of sour cream, so I was going to use a bit of whipping cream instead. Turns out we were all out of that too, so I just made do without any dairy. I think the extra richness would've been nice, but it was still fine without it. ^Back
3 If you have fresh rosemary on hand, then heat up some oil and either deep or shallow fry it for ~1 minute per side over medium-high heat. I didn't have any fresh rosemary, so I just took some whole leaves that I'd dried myself and added them to the pan along with the onion and garlic. This seemed to work well and provided a nice hit of rosemary flavour in the final dish. ^Back

I think this is possibly only the second time in my life that I've made hollandaise sauce. I vaguely recall making it once before. It's been ages though and I remembered basically none of the procedure. That said, it's not all that complicated. The main this is just making sure that you don't overcook/curdle the egg yolks. The method employed in the Breakfast Bible of drizzling hot butter into a running blender seems to work well for this. The sauce came out smooth and buttery with a minimum of fuss.

It is, of course, quite tricky to reheat. But that's true of a lot of egg- and/or dairy-based sauces in my experience.

Hollandaise Sauce

From the Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 c. unsalted butter

Directions

1. Combine the egg yolks, salt, and lemon juice in a blender.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat.
3. With the blender running, slowly drizzle the hot butter into the egg yolk mixutre. Sauce should form a smooth, thick emulsion.
4. Pour sauce into a small pot, cover, and keep warm over very, very low heat, stirring occasionally, until ready to use.