Farro Salad

I like the idea of meatless dinners, although we are not a vegetarian house. Often, I end up making a meatless dinner purely accidentally. Since I like Le Creuset on Facebook--I know, no one's shocked--I saw a recipe for farro salad. It seemed to be toted as a side dish, but the deliciousness here can be the star of tonight's dinner. I made some adjustments to our taste and I have a brand new recipe to add to my Evernote menu database.

Ingredients and Tools

• 8 ounces farro
• 8 ounces feta cheese
• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• 1/4 red ontion
• 1 lbs. spinach
• a bunch of basil
• 3 teaspoons minced garlic
• 3 teaspoons Kosher salt
• black pepper
• olive oil
• 2 large pots

Cook the farro following the package's directions and get started with the chopping. Cut the tomatoes in half. Over medium heat, add a good coating of olive oil to a large pot. How much is "a good coating" you ask? I think Rachel Ray would say 3 go 'rounds of the pan. 

Add the tomatoes and the crazy amount of garlic. We love garlic. I'll use even more the next time I make this, but you can do whatever you like in your kitchen. Although, less garlic would be a serious mistake that you'll likely regret for years. Years!

As the garlic is making your kitchen smell like all things good, prepare the feta and onion.

I am not a fan of raw onion, but Mr. Crying Cook is. He lets me win this one. I add the onions to the tomato and garlic and let that oniony "sharpness" dissipate. If you have no such problems, add your onions in at the very end and add more. I'm sure my husband would love twice as much onion, but I'm the one cooking, so...

Add the basil. I didn't bother chopping it. I just tore it right over the pot.

Wash and chop the spinach. It's going to look like a ton, but it wilts down quickly. Add the salt and pepper, stir, cover, and let the spinach wilt for a few minutes.

In about four minutes, all the spinach had wilted.

I used quick cooking farro, so it was done before the vegetables. I drained it and put it off to the side.

Finally, add the farro, feta, and toss.

You can serve this immediately, at room temperature, or cold. This seems like the perfect make-ahead meal for company. We are off to visit my husband's parents this summer and father-in-law Crying Cook likes garlic even more than his son. I know just how to adjust this for him.

Cheers to accidental vegetarianism!

Cooking Fail: Mashed Cauliflower Ain't No Mashed Potatoes

Don't make this. Read this post and revel in the fact that you probably knew to stay away from such a recipe. If you like cauliflower like I do, eat some. Roast it or make this delicious soup, but, by all means, do not make this recipe. You won't fool anyone.

There are too many faux this and faux that recipes on Pinterest and some of my favorite food blogs. Here's the lesson: if you really like something that is less than healthy, eat it once in a while, in moderation, and save faux stuff for your winter wardrobe.

Ingredients & Tools

• a head of cauliflower
• 1 cup of ricotta 
• 4 to a million garlic cloves
• Parmesan cheese
• Kosher salt
• pepper
• immersion blender

Chop and cook the cauliflower in simmering water until it is fork-tender, about 20 minutes.

Add the ricotta and garlic to the drained and cooked cauliflower. I really love garlic. Mr. Crying Cook does too, but, yowzers, raw garlic is too much for me. Not only did I use it raw like the recipe indicated, I. ADDED. MORE. Don't do that. Seriously.

Blend it all with an immersion blender until it's smooth and fools you into thinking it may be tasty.

Season it with salt and pepper. Grate fresh Parmesan.

See, it looks like it could be okay. My husband was very generous with his review. He's a good guy. Thankfully, the pork chop and the kale was good.

Baba Ghanoush

Reading nutritional and ingredient labels can lead to heartbreak. I really like baba ghanoush, the roasted eggplant dip, and was disappointed and disgusted to find out that the brand I buy is made with mayo. Mayo is wrong. Everything about it. I had been duped.

A visit to one of my favorite food sites, theKitchn, had an easy recipe. I made it even easier. Do this. It's tasty, healthy, vegan, and there is no mayonnaise.

Ingredients and Tools

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 lemon
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup tahini
• Kosher salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• roasting pan/cookie sheet
• food processor

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut off the top of the eggplant and cut it in half lengthwise. Do not peel. That would be crazy. Use a generous amount of olive oil, Kosher salt and pepper. Roast for one hour and cool for another hour.

Once the eggplant is cooled and can be handled safely, it's time to blend. Add the tahini. Tahini is just ground sesame seeds. Add the peeled garlic cloves. I really like garlic and will use two more cloves next time. I added a bit more salt and pepper at this stage. Juice a lemon in a separate bowl to avoid getting seeds in the food processor and then cursing and then digging them out with a spoon and then being annoyed. Not that I did that.

Scrap the "meat" of the eggplant into the food processor, but none of the skin. Process until smooth, about a minute.

You will get a smooth and fresh baba ghanoush that will make you want a big bag of pita chips. I ate this with my fake Middle Eastern chicken salad.

This picture is terribly out of focus, but the baba ghanoush was delicious!

Slow Cooker Potato Leek Soup

The temperature has taken a plunge and that always means it's time for soup. This recipe is simple, with few ingredients and accidentally vegan if you ignore the bacon. I did not ignore it. I wanted a lot more of it.

Ingredients & Tools

• 4 potatoes
• 4 leeks
• 6 cups of water
• 3 tablespoons of salt
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 3 garlic cloves
• 6-8 slices of bacon [triple this to make yourself happier]
• slow cooker
• immersion blender

Leeks are delicious vegetables from the onion and garlic family. They taste like mild onions and you only use the white and light green parts. Chop off the dark green tops, usually at least half of the leek.

Leeks often have dirt and sand within its layers. You probably noticed that in the picture above. Split the leek length-wise and fan out the layers under running water to make sure any trapped dirt is rinsed off.

Chop the leeks into one inch pieces and add them to the slow cooker's stoneware, but do not chop them into two inch pieces. Do you want to ruin everything!?

Peel and chop the potatoes and add them too.

Add the salt. If you prefer to use vegetable or chicken stock instead of just water, you may want to adjust the amount. If you're not adding the bacon, you may need more salt.

Add the thyme and the crushed garlic cloves.

Add 6 cups of water. Cook this on high for 4 hours or on the low setting for 8. 

Cook and dice the bacon.  While the bacon is cooking, blend the soup with an immersion blender.

This was so good, mainly because of the bacon. I'll make this again and ensure I have a lot more bacon in the house. I may edit the title of this post: Bacon and a little soup on the side.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

I prefer recipes with minimal steps. I'm more likely to make it again and again and who wants to a sink full of dirty dishes? This recipe is an exception to my-not-so strict rule. This soup calls for roasting the vegetables before cooking them in broth. I usually prefer to make all soups in my slow cooker, but the roasting imparts loads of flavors and it's worth doing on a Sunday when your team is definitely out of the playoffs.

The flavors of this soup seem Middle Eastern to me, but I've already proven that isn't something I know much about it. Still, the honey at the end makes the finished product worthy of company.

Ingredients & Tools

• 2 heads of cauliflower
• 1 large onion [I had 2 medium-sized ones; perhaps I should start measuring onions in cups]
• 6 cups of liquid [I used 2 cups of homemade chicken stock and 4 cups of water]
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons turmeric
• 3 tablespoons Kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons curry powder
• honey
• olive oil
• 2 baking sheets or roasting pans
• large stock pot
• immersion or traditional blended

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. The high temperature will produce excellent color and that brown color means flavor.

Chop the cauliflower and onion. It produces a lot. Split it evenly in two roasting pans or baking sheets. If you overcrowd one pan, the vegetables will steam instead of roast and you won't get the browning.

I used one pan and my dutch oven, since I needed the latter later in the recipe and it's one less thing to wash. Take the wins where you can.

Drizzle the vegetables liberally with olive oil and toss with your hands.

Roast for 30 minutes. Set a timer for 15 minutes and give everything a good toss at the half way mark.

Add the beautifully roasted vegetables to a large stock pot. 

Add the cayenne pepper, turmeric, curry, and salt. 

Mix and cook for 2-3 minutes over low heat to ensure all the cauliflower and onions have been seasoned.

Add the stock and the water. You could easily make this vegan by only using water or vegetable stock. If you use 100% stock, you may want to adjust the salt depending on the salt content of the stock.

Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over a low flame for 20 minutes. This lets the cauliflower soften and the liquid to absorb flavor.

Transfer the soup in small batches to a traditional blender or use an immersion blender right in the pot.

Serve this with a drizzle of honey and hope your team plays more consistently next year.

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

There will be a lot of  slow cooker recipes on this blog. I've had one my entire adult life because they're so easy to use. My first one was a very basic CrockPot brand slow cooker. I bought it with a coupon during some sale nearly a decade ago and paid about $14 for it. Another generous bridal shower gift replaced it, though.

My fancy 6 quart CrockPot with digital timer

Photo from www.Crock-Pot.com

This is a very simple way to cook. The ingredients go in, the CrockPot works its slow cooking magic, and delicious food comes out without any stirring, watching, or fussiness. I use it most on weekdays, so I can turn it on in the morning and come home from work with dinner waiting for me.  This CrockPot automatically switches to warm after it's reached the total cooking time, but things seldom burn in a slow cooker. This is also a kitchen must-have in the summer, so you can bake or roast without turning the oven on.

Soups and stews are probably the ideal recipes for a slow cooker since their flavors develop best over time. This recipes makes a ton of soup, so my freezer is getting nicely stocked.

Ingredients & Tools

• 3 sweet potatoes
• 2 onions
• 2 carrots
• 1 apple
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 10 cups of water
• 4 teaspoons of salt
• 3 teaspoons of allspice
• 2 teaspoons of nutmeg
• 1 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
• 6 quart [or larger] slow cooker
• immersion or standard blended

Do you want another reason to try this recipe? It's cheap! The spices eliminate the need for vegetable or chicken stock. This also accidentally makes it a vegan soup. I think soup recipes in the slow cooker rarely need a stock if it's spiced well. Depending on your taste and tolerance for spice, adjust the cayenne pepper. Just one teaspoon, even in this large quantity, was enough for me with the other spices. I love the garlic in this soup, even though the cloves didn't make their way into the picture. Don't forget them!

Peel the carrots and the sweet potatoes. You don't need to peel the apples. Chop everything up and put in the slow cooker's stoneware. Try to get similar sizes, but you don't need to be perfect. You never need to be perfect in the kitchen. Add the water and the spices and stir.

Set your slow cooker on low and cook for 8-10 hours.

I prepared everything the night before and set it to cook before I left for work. This cooked for nearly 11 hours and I immediately blended it. Be very careful since the soup is very hot and splatters will burn. I blend from the bottom, stirring as if it were spoon. After about 3 minutes, it was a great consistency. If you use a traditional blender, very carefully blend the soup in small batches and move to another pot. 

The apples and carrots add a bit of sweetness to balance the flavors, though I wish these carrots hadn't been so wimpy. I may try one more apple next time. This is a fiber-rich, healthy soup.

My husband and I ate this with our wonder bread and had it for lunch for two days. The freezer now has some spicy sweet potato soup waiting for some future cold night.