Makes Great Leftovers! – Page 7 – Trust in Kim: an ad-free recipe blog!

Green Couscous

This scrumptious recipe comes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty – love this book! I used the larger Israeli couscous, which is also called pearl couscous, but you can feel free to use the smaller version. I really liked the texture of the larger couscous, which has a bite more similar to a small pasta. The recipe involves cooking the couscous, then coating it with a lovely green herb paste, then topping it with pistachios, green onions, fried onions, arugula or spinach, and a little green chile.

I enjoyed this salad alongside roasted cauliflower and squash with tahini sauce. I absolutely love this meal, and my leftovers at work were the envy of many. This would also make a great picnic salad, instead of a pasta salad.

What you need:

1 cup Israeli couscous (or regular – just cook it according to the package directions)
just over 1 cup boiling water/ chicken broth/ vegetable broth
1 small onion, thinly sliced (I like to use a sweet onion)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup unsalted pistachios, lightly toasted and chopped
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 fresh green chile, finely sliced
1 & 1/4 cups arugula or baby spinach

What you need for the herb paste:

1/3 cup chopped parsley
1 cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped tarragon
2 tablespoons chopped dill
2 tablespoons chopped mint
4 tablespoons olive oil

What you do:

Cook the couscous according to the package instructions. I used homemade chicken broth to give it a little more flavour, but you can use water or veggie broth if you have it.
Fry the onions in the olive oil over medium heat until they are golden and soft. Mix in the salt and cumin, then set aside to cool
Blend all the herb paste ingredients together. You can use a food processor, but I used an immersion blender because that’s what I have in my tiny kitchen, and it worked well. Add a bit more olive oil if you need; I left out 2 tablespoons of oil that the recipe called for.
Mix the herb paste into the cooked and slightly cooled couscous, then mix in the pistachios, green onions, green chile and arugula or spinach. I added the spinach to individual portions because I knew I would have leftovers, and I thought it would wilt over night if I mixed it in.
Serve at room temperature.

Seedy Tahini Coleslaw

I’m a sucker for a coleslaw – as long as it’s a healthy one; no mayo for me! Okay, so I love the mayo ones with sunflower seeds, but… I think it kind of defeats the purpose of eating healthy cabbage, to load it up with mayo.

So this recipe has no mayo, but it is still creamy and loaded with flavour. I made some and ate it for leftovers for days, and enjoyed it every time.

What you need:

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 large orange, freshly squeezed
4-5 Tbsp Tahini
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp chili powder or 1/2 tsp cayenne (used a freshly ground dried guajillo pepper)
1 Tbsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp salt

1 medium head of green cabbage, chopped into thin strips
1/ small sweet onion, chopped

1/4 cup sesame seeds, black and/or white
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

What you do:

Combine the dressing ingredients, from apple cider vinegar to salt. I find it works best to put the tahini in a bowl, then add a little liquid to make a paste, then a little more liquid, and then the rest of the ingredients.
Combine the dressing with the cabbage and onion until every bit of cabbage is coated in dressing. Let this sit in the fridge for an hour or two.
Toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan until they are lightly browned. Crush them with a mortar and pestle or in a grinder; this allows you to digest them better. Toast the pumpkin seeds.
Serve the salad with some seeds sprinkled over top. Do this at the last minute so the seeds remain crunchy.

I found the recipe here.

Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup

I love creamy soups, but I don’t love cream, so I’m always looking for ways to get the texture and taste without the heaviness of cream. I’ve heard of using cashew cream before, and finally got around to trying it. The verdict? So good! Next time I’d leave some of the mushroom pieces whole, but this is great as is.

I found this recipe on Joy the Baker.

What you need:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3 cups vegetable broth (I used chicken)
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
salt to taste

For the Cashew Cream:

1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup water

What you do:

Soak the cashews in the half cup of water and set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot on medium heat and add the onions, sautéing them until they are slightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for a minute more, then add the mushrooms, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the broth and cook until the mushrooms are soft, about 10-15 minutes.
In the meantime, puree the cashews until they combine with the water to make a smooth, thick liquid.
When it is ready blend the soup until there are no large chunks of mushroom. Stir in the cashew cream. The original recipe says to strain the soup now, but I liked it the way it was.
Reheat the soup and serve.

This one also freezes well. Enjoy!

coq au vin

This delicious recipe is from Bonnie Stern’ Heartsmart Cooking for Family and Friends. A good friend of mine recently told me that he needed to start watching his cholesterol, so a neighbour loaned me this cookbook full of heart-friendly recipes. Any cookbook with coq au vin is worth giving a second look, especially one that tastes this good. I served this with a baguette and a spinach and mushroom salad. This dish made some amazing leftovers!

Sadly, I broke this beautiful blue antique bowl before I could use it again, so this is the first and last recipe I get to use it for.

What you need:

1.5 kg chicken pieces (thighs work very nicely)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 slices bacon
2 tablespoons brandy
12 pearl onions or shallots (or 1/2 an onion)
12 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 lb mushrooms – wild if you can get them
2 large carrots sliced diagonally into 2 cm slices
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup homemade chicken or beef stock
1 bay leaf
1 & 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme
1 & 1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary
1 & 1/2 teaspoons fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons fresh parsley

What you do:

Rinse chicken and pat it dry. Combine flour, salt and pepper in a shallow dish and coat the chicken with this mixture.
Cook the bacon in a large skillet, then remove it from the pan onto a paper towel to absorb the fat. Cook the chicken in the bacon fat (or olive oil if you choose not to use the bacon.) Sprinkle on the brandy and let it cook for a minute. Remove the chicken from the pan.
Add the onions, garlic, mushrooms and carrots to the pan and let them brown for about 8 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Add the stock, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary and tarragon. Add the chicken to the pan and bring to a boil. Cook on low heat for about 45 minutes, with a lid on the pan.
Discard the bay leaf, then remove the chicken and vegetables from the pan and keep it warm.
Bring the pan juices to a simmer and cook uncovered until thickened. Pour the sauce over the chicken and vegetables and sprinkle with parsley.
Serve over mashed potatoes or with a crusty baguette to soak up the juices.

Tomato Soup

(Revised January 2021: This is a great soup recipe, however, my favourite is closer to the actual Burgoo recipe. And it has red wine in it! Click here to find the recipe.)

Burgoo is a great comfort food restaurant in Vancouver. They don’t have a lot of dairy-free options, so I tend to eat the tomato soup – which is the best tomato soup I’ve ever had! I found this tomato soup recipe recently and omitted the milk to make it a dairy-free tomato soup. I think it may be as good as the one I had at Burgoo; it is flavourful, and full of healthy ingredients. It is also really easy to make, and freezes well.

What you need:

1 tablespoon olive oil

about 1 cup diced carrots

about 1/2 cup diced celery

about 2 cups diced zucchini (skin on)

1 large yellow onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, rubbed off the stems

2 bay leaves

salt and red pepper flakes to taste

about 4 cups (2 28-ounce cans) crushed Italian tomatoes

4 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth

What you do:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the carrots, celery, zucchini and onion. Saute for 10-12 minutes, until the onion is very soft and the zucchini has cooked through. Add the garlic and stir for one minute.
Add the thyme, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, tomatoes and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, until the carrots are very soft.
Remove from the heat, and take the bay leaves out. Blend the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender until smooth. Add salt to taste.

Enjoy it hot! And I can imagine it is awesome with a grilled cheese sandwich, but this theory is yet untested.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Burnt Eggplant and Pomegranate Molasses

Fall is here, so here’s a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe that is delicious and comfort-foody. It isn’t the simplest recipe, as you have to bake the squash, burn the eggplant (doesn’t sound yummy but it is) and make it into a sauce, plus toast some nuts and seeds. But if you love to cook you’ll probably enjoy making and eating this one. The recipe is from Ottolenghi the Cookbook. (Thank you John for this fabulous surprise birthday gift – he saw me oohing and awing over it, and went back and bought it for me.)

I found it wasn’t necessary to add all the oil that the recipe called for, so I cut the oil content from 6 tablespoons to 3. Feel free to add more oil if you wish. The cookbook says to let the squash cool before serving, but I changed the order of the preparation so I could take the squash out of the oven last and serve it hot.

What you need for the squash recipe:

1 large butternut squash

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon sunflower seeds

1 tablespoon black or white sesame seeds

1 teaspoon nigella seeds (if you can’t find them it is still so delicious without)

3 tablespoons sliced almonds

1/2 cup basil leaves (I forgot to buy these! but it was good without them too)

salt and pepper

What you need for the burnt eggplant recipe:

1 medium eggplant

2/3 cup Greek yogurt (I used my regular yogurt)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1.5 teaspoons pomegranate molasses

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 clove garlic, crushed

salt and pepper

What you do:

1. Set the oven temperature to 350F. Sprinkle the seeds and nuts on a baking sheet and toast for 8-10 minutes or until slightly browned.

2. To make the sauce begin by placing the eggplant over a flame – on your stove-top if you have gas, on a barbecue if you don’t, and in the oven if you have neither of those. Burn the eggplant for 12-15 minutes, turning with tongs from time to time. The skin should be dry and cracked, and you should smell a smoky aroma. If you do this in the oven it will need a much longer cooking time.

3. Make a long cut through the eggplant and scoop out the flesh, doing your best to avoid the burnt skin. Drain in a colander for 10 minutes, then chop coarsely. (you could get the eggplant into the oven now if you want-see step 5 )

4. Stir together the eggplant, yogurt, oil, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, parsley and garlic. Mix together and add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Raise the oven to 425F. Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Cut into wedges that are about 2cm thick. Arrange the squash on a baking dish preferably with the skin side down and brush with a tablespoon of olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until the wedges are tender and slightly browned.

6. Arrange the squash slices on a serving platter and drizzle with a little olive oil. Sprinkle the nuts and seeds on top, then garnish with the basil. Serve with the sauce on the side.

Enjoy!

Roasted Cauliflower with Tomato, Dill and Capers

Here’s a fabulous vegetable recipe that you will love if you enjoy cauliflower. I’ve changed the recipe a little (from Ottolenghi the Cookbook) by roasting the cauliflower instead of steaming and then frying it, as the recipe calls for. I love the flavour you get when you roast cauliflower, and the method in the cookbook was too many steps for me at the time. I was happy with the results, as was my sweetheart who was dining with me. I also used less oil in the dressing: 1/4 up instead of 1/2 a cup. Even 1/4 cup in one vegetable recipe seems like a lot of oil to me. Anyways, another yummy vegetable recipe that I will definitely make again.

What you need:

2 tablespoons capers, drained and chopped coarsely

1 tablespoon French whole-grain mustard

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cauliflower divided into florets

1 tablespoon chopped dill

1 & 2/3 cup baby spinach leaves

about 20 cherry tomatoes, halved

salt and freshly ground pepper

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Place the cauliflower florets on a baking pan and roast for 20-30 minutes, or until they are nicely browned. You’ll want to check on them halfway through and give the pan a bit of a toss.

2. To make the dressing mix the capers, mustard, garlic, vinegar, and some salt and pepper. You can do this in a food processor, with an immersion blender as I did, or if you’re feeling energetic you can just use a whisk. Add the olive oil slowly while blending, until the dressing is thick and creamy.

3. Cut the tomatoes in half, and wash and dry the spinach and chop the dill. When the cauliflower is done combine it with the dill, spinach, tomatoes and dressing. Add more salt and pepper if needed.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!

Romertopf Roasted Chicken

Ah, roast chicken, comfort food and so easy to make. Of course you can just go buy one from the grocery store… or you could fill your house with the scent of roasting chicken and treat the ones you love to something homemade. I made mine in a Romertopf, a clay roaster with a lid that you soak before using, but you can make it in any covered roasting dish. The Romertopft keeps the chicken really moist, and you can just throw the chicken with some herbs, potatoes and veggies into your oven and forget about it while you get other parts of the meal ready.

What you need:

a chicken, preferably free-range

1-2 tablespoons room temperature butter (or olive oil)

thyme (preferably fresh)

rosemary (preferably fresh)

sage (preferably fresh)

paprika

salt

pepper

1 head of garlic

small potatoes halved

pearl onions, or a large onion cut into chunks

dry white wine, optional

What you do:

1. If you are using a Romertopf soak it for at least 15-20 minutes before using. This provides some moisture for the cooking process, and keeps the roaster from cracking.

2. Spread the butter all over the skin of the chicken.

3. In a bowl combine a little of each of the thyme, rosemary, paprika and pepper, and a liberal amount of salt. Rub this into the skin of the chicken. If you have fresh sage or thyme you can put some under the breast skin, along with a few cloves of garlic.

4. Distribute the potatoes and a few onions in a layer on the bottom of the roaster, then place the chicken on them, breast side up. If you have any more potatoes and onions you can put them in around the edges of the chicken with the rest of the garlic. If you have some white wine on hand you can add a few splashes of that.

5. Place the cover on the roaster, then put it in a cold oven – this is important to prevent the romertopf from cracking when it goes into a hot oven. If you are using a different roaster you can preheat the oven. Turn the temperature to 4ooF and set the timer for 1 & 1/2 hours. You can leave it to cook without peeking; this will help keep all the moisture inside.

6. After the 1 & 1/2 hours of cooking time, remove the roaster from the oven. Test to see if it’s cooked all the way through by cutting into the leg joint to see if the juices run clear. If not, return it to the oven for a little longer. As well, if the skin doesn’t look browned, pop it back in without the lid and let it brown a little. Once it is done let it sit with the cover on for about 20 minutes before carving. I like to ladle a little of the juices over the chicken, and you could also make a gravy with the juices.

I keep the bones and excess juices in the freezer for a day when I want to make a stock.

Kamut and Veggie Salad

During summertime I like to have food in the fridge that I can grab as a quick healthy snack, or take out on a picnic. I love the taste of Kamut (which is a trademarked name for khorasan wheat) because it tastes buttery and nutty, and I like that it’s a sturdy grain that has a good chewy bite to it. It is high in protein, so it makes a good meal-in-a-bowl salad. It is also high in a number of nutrients, including zinc, manganese and magnesium. I’m particularly interested in the magnesium because it helps absorb calcium.

I love this dressing, from the Whitewater Cooks book. I use it often on a green salad, but it works great on this heartier salad as well.

So yes, it’s nutritious, but it also tastes great.

What you need:

about 3/4 cup Kamut (I used farro because I couldn’t find any Kamut at the stores near my place)

1/2 cup sugar snap peas, chopped into 2cm pieces

1/2 large sweet onion, chopped

1 sweet orange or red pepper

a few medium-sized tomatoes chopped, or a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

optional: herbs of your choice, or salad greens

optional: freshly ground black pepper

What you need to make the Whitewater Glory Salad Dressing:

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon tahini

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 cup vegetable oil

What you do:

1. Cook the Kamut in lots of water for at least an hour, or until the grains are tender. Drain any excess water and let the grains cool. This step can be done ahead of time.

2. Put all the dressing ingredients except the oil into a blender, or use an immersion blender, and give it a good mix. In a steady slow stream, add the oil until it is all blended in.

3. Put all the chopped veggies into a bowl along with the cooled Kamut and mix with the dressing. Add some dressing and taste to see if it needs a little more dressing, or some pepper.

4. Serve cold or room temperature, either on its own or on a bed of salad greens.

Pollo Asado al Carbon – Barbecue Chicken Mexican Style

On my recent holiday in Mexico I saw and smelled this awesome barbecued chicken at roadside stands, but whenever we happened to be near one, it was around breakfast time and I really wasn’t in the mood for chicken. One day, shortly before we came home, I found this place called Polleria Alba just down the road from our apartment in Tulum. They’ve got a barbecue outside and then some tables inside and outside of a garage. I ordered chicken for one, and out came this huge portion – a whole chicken on one plate, and a platter of rice, pasta and salad on another, and some fresh tortillas. It was amazing, so I promised myself I’d learn to make it at home. I found a recipe on this site. It’s pretty easy to make, and surprisingly moist, even the breast. I served it with Mexican rice and beans, with various sauces. And Mexican beer, Negra Modelo, my fave.

What you need:

1 roasting chicken

1 & 1/2 tablespoons ground ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I didn’t use these because I didn’t have any)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 garlic cloves, peeled & minced
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tsp. salt

What you do:

1. Combine all the ingredients for the marinade.

2. Start the barbecue.

2. Rinse and then pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Turn the chicken so it is breast-side down. Cut through the middles of the back, then turn the chicken breast-side up. Give it a bang with your fist so it lies flat. You are going to barbecue the chicken whole. (see terrible picture below)

3. Spread some of the marinade all over the chicken and let it sit until the barbecue is smoking hot. Place it breast-side up on the barbecue. Let it roast for about 45 minutes with the lid down. Baste with the marinade every 10 minutes. It’s really important to leave the chicken alone, other than the basting, so don’t go flipping it or anything. When it is done,you can turn it breast-side down for a few minutes to get some colour if you want, but I found it was nicely browned from facing up the whole time.

4. To make sure it’s done, pierce the thigh with a fork and check if the juices are clear; if not, leave it on for a little longer. Remove the chicken from the barbecue to a serving plate and cover with foil for 10-15 minutes so the juices can settle back into the chicken, then carve it up!

Inside the chicken restaurant in Tulum, Mexico

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