Category: Easy Recipes

Beets with Maple-Grapefruit Glaze

Beets are a beautiful vegetable to make for a winter feast.  The glaze is tangy yet sweet, and can be served hot or cold.  I’ve served them hot as a side dish, and cold on a green salad with some ground toasted sesame seeds.

What you need:

1/2 pound beets, cooked (You can use beets that have been boiled or baked, with the skins rubbed off.)

juice of 1 pink grapefruit

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

2 or more tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon corn starch

What you do:

1.  Bring the grapefruit juice and vinegar to a boil, then mix the corn starch with a little cold water.  Mix it so there are no lumps, and stir it into the boiling juice. Make sure it is boiling when you add the cornstarch or you will get lumps.

2.  Add maple syrup to taste.  Remember that the beets are sweet, so you don’t want the sauce to be too sweet.

Easy Pesto

Here’s your basic pesto recipe.  You just need a food processor or mortar and pestle, some lovely fresh ingredients, and you’re set!

What you need:

1/4 cup very lightly toasted pine nuts

3/4 – 1 cup basil

1/2 clove of garlic

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan (I use lactose-free l’Ancetre brand)

olive oil

salt

What you do:

1.  Toast your pine nuts very very lightly; you still want them to be creamy when you puree them.

2. Place the pine nuts, basil,  and garlic and a bit of salt in the food processor and add as much olive oil  as you need to make it smooth.  Then add the parmesan and give it one last whirl.

3.  That’s it – use it on some pasta, add it to hummous, make a lasagna, add it to eggs, whatever you want!

The Easiest Tomato Sauce Ever

Here’s a tasty tomato sauce, and really really easy – thanks Chad for the recipe!  I made it to use in a lasagna, and it was fabulous . . . I would imagine there are many other uses for it.

What you need:

1 – 750   mL tin whole tomatoes

1/2 onion

1/4 cup butter

salt and pepper

What you do:

1.  Put the onion and butter in a pot with the tomatoes and cook for 45 minutes or so.

2.  Take out the onion, season with salt and pepper, and voila, a fabulous sauce.

For the lasagna I pureed the tomatoes, and I added about a teaspoon of brown sugar.

Yogurt Cheese

Yogurt cheese is a great versatile spread, and it’s really easy to make.  I usually use it as a spread for crackers or bread, as in the recipe below, and it can also be used as a substitute for cream cheese or sour cream in a lot of other recipes.  I’ve never tried baking with it though – I’m not sure how it would react when heated.  As a person who is lactose-intolerant but can eat yogurt, this recipe has been a god-send!

I like to sprinkle sumac on my yogurt cheese.  I’ve never seen it in my local grocery store, but I found it at a Lebanese shop.  It’s got a bit of a tartness to it that goes perfectly with yogurt, and it’s got a great deep red colour.

What you need:

plain yogurt, must not be no- or low-fat or thickened with corn starch!

salt

ground sumac

cheesecloth

sieve

bowl

What you do:

1. Line a sieve with cheesecloth, and place it in a bowl.  Pour the yogurt into it, then tie up the cloth and place in the fridge.  About half the liquid will drain out, so use about twice as much yogurt as you would like to have at the end.

2.  Leave several hours, up to a day or two – I usually leave it draining for just less than a day.  You may need to pour off some of the liquid that collects in the bowl.

3.  Place yogurt cheese in a bowl and top with sumac and salt. Of course you can also substitute any of your favourite herbs – I’ve used garlic salt before, and a bit of oregano.

4.  Serve with naan, flatbread, crackers or any bready substance of your choice.  It can also be used as a vegetable dip.

I make my own yogurt – it’s easy to do, and really cheap… stay tuned for that posting.

Black Bean and Corn Soup

This is my new favourite soup recipe –  hot sauce makes it a little spicy, corn adds a little sweetness, and a there’s a ton of flavour in here.  Some of the soup is pureed, but there’s lots of colour from the remaining vegetables.  Topped off with a little yogurt, it tastes decadent.

What you need:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 red pepper, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

1 – 398 mL can of diced tomatoes

5 cups black beans, cooked (about 1 & 1/2 cups dry)

6 cups vegetable broth

2 – 341 mL cans of corn

salt and pepper

hot sauce

plain yogurt

1 lime

What you do:

1. If you are cooking your own beans, place them in a pot of boiling water, bring back to a boil and cook for a few minutes.  Turn heat off and soak for about two hours.  I like to drain in the middle of the soaking time and bring back to a boil – this helps ward of the gas causing properties beans can have.  The last step is to rinse, then bring the beans back to a boil, then lower the heat and cook until soft.  This shouldn’t take too long.

2.  Heat the olive oil and add the onions, garlic, peppers and carrots.  Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.

3.  Add the oregano, cumin, beans, tomatoes and broth.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for about half an hour.

4.  Puree about a third of the soup.  I just put my immersion blender in and blended until I thought it looked good.

5.  Add the corn, along with its juice, and cook just long enough to heat through.

6.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

7.  Top with a big dollop of yogurt and some hot sauce.  Serve with a wedge of lime to squeeze on top.

Easy Vegetable Stock

Making your own vegetable stock is easy to do, and will give your soups amazing flavour.  I usually make some when I’m making a soup, and try to make extra so I can put it in the freezer for another time.  I don’t salt my soup stock – I wait until I put it into a recipe, and adjust the salt in a way that suits that particular recipe.

What you need:

1 onion

1 celery stalk

1 carrot

a small chunk of ginger

a few garlic cloves

1 star anise

1 bay leaf

pepper corns

What you do:

1.  Put all the ingredients in a large pot, cover with cold water, then bring to a boil.

2.  Lower heat and simmer for 1-2 hours.

3.  Strain and use right away, or freeze for later.

 

 

Halloween Witch’s Brew

Would you like to try my Eye of Newt Brew?  It is guaranteed to make you ten years younger, but you get to keep the wisdom you have already attained.

The Eye of Newt sinks to the bottom, leaving you with a little surprise at the bottom of your cup.  Enjoy, and bottoms up!

Here’s the recipe:

Pureed newt skin (Happy Planet Extreme Green fruit smoothie or other green beverage)

Bat saliva (vodka)

Eye of Newt (frozen grapes)

Blood of a werewolf, cooked until no colour remains (club soda)

How to brew the concoction:

Carefully combine the ingredients whie chanting the following:

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble,
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Fresh Salsa

Homemade salsa is easy to make, as long as you’ve got really great tomatoes.  Over the winter you can still make it, but it won’t be nearly as good as when you make it with tomatoes ripe from the garden or farmer’s market.

What you need:

3-4 tomatoes

1/4 sweet onion*, finely diced

1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced

salt

1/2 freshly squeezed lime

a pinch of sugar may be needed

optional: cilantro

What you do:

1. Cut up tomato into chunks of about 1 cm.  Place in a colander over a bowl to drain.

2. Add a little chopped onion, and a diced jalapeno pepper.  If you don’t want it to be very hot, take out the seeds.  That’s where most of the heat is.

3.  After the tomatoes have drained, add the rest of the ingredients.

4.  After letting it sit for a while to allow the flavours to mingle, have a taste and adjust the salt and lime juice as needed.  You may also want to add a pinch of sugar.

5.  I like to let the salsa sit for a while, then serve at room temperature with tortillas, fajitas and lots of other dishes.

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* I prefer to use sweet onion because I tend to cry less – if you’ve got very sensitive eyes, you know how important this is.  Especially if you’re expecting company.  I also think they taste great!

Brown Basmati Coconut Rice

Mmm.  So simple, so good.  Just a few little additions to your regular rice make it so rich and tasty!  I serve it with palak “paneer,”  but it would be great with Thai dishes too.

You could use white rice too, but brown has so much going for it that it might be worth a try!

What you need:

1 cup brown basmati rice

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup water

a few tablespoons dried unsweetened coconut, preferably ribbons

a little salt

What you do:

1.  Add all the ingredients to a pot and put it on high heat.

2. Bring it to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover.

3.  Cook for 45 minutes and work on the rest of your meal.

4.  After 45 minutes remove from the heat and let it sit, covered, for 10 more minutes.

5.  Fluff it up and serve!

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Lots of people are drinking pumpkin spice lattes on these cooler fall days.  Here’s a homemade version to warm you up.  Just whip up a batch of the syrup, then add it to your coffee with some hot frothy milk.  I know it’s supposed to be a shot of espresso, but I don’t have an espresso machine at home, and I drink decaf anyways… but this is still really yummy, and it’s waaay less than five bucks a pop!

Oh, and there’s actually no pumpkin in it.  Just the spices!

What you need:

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 -1& 1/4 cups water

1 cup sugar

a piece of cheesecloth for straining

What you do:

1.  Bring water to a boil in a small pot.  Add the spices and boil on low for about five minutes.

2.  Line a sieve with cheesecloth and strain the liquid through it.

3.  Pour the liquid back into the pot and add the sugar, heating until the sugar has melted.  Stir in the vanilla and remove from the heat.

4.  Once the syrup has cooled you can pour it into a jar.  Use a teaspoon or two per cup of coffee, depending on how sweet you like it.

I just make some really strong coffee, heat some soy milk, add it to the coffee along with some syrup.  I froth the last bit of the soy milk, then add a dusting of nutmeg to the top.