Lucky Soup

Eating black eyed peas at New Years is a tradition in the south.  Sharing in a meal of black eyed peas traditionally brings a year of luck and prosperity.  This tradition dates back to the Civil War and folklore has it that this bean plant, along with collards, were the only foods left behind by Sherman’s troops.  Confederate soldiers and slaves survived on these simple foods.

Since I grew up west of the Mississippi, I only occasionally had seen or ate this unique bean.  After spending a year in the south, I found these beans at potlucks, celebrations, and learned about the tradition of eating it at the New Year.

This year, my family celebrated the New Year and my son’s birthday with a hearty soup of black eyed peas, corn bread, and wedge salad. 

Lucky Soup

2 cups of dried black eyed peas soaked overnight in 4 quarts of water with 1 teaspoon of salt.

Or

3 cans of black eyed peas drained and rinsed.

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

1 TBSP olive oil

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper

3 cups broth

1 16 oz. bag of frozen okra (or fresh)

greens are great in soup

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 can of sweet corn, drained

2 cups of chopped collard greens, chard, or kale.

Sauté onion, garlic, and ginger until soft in olive oil.   Add dried spices and quickly stir for 30 seconds to temper spices.  Add beans and 3 cups of chicken/vegetable broth.  Add tomato, okra, and corn. Simmer for one hour.

Toppings: fresh cilantro, diced green onion, sliced radishes, cooked chicken, Tabasco

Happy Birthday!

Like a mentioned earlier, we had cornbread and wedge salad.  Our cornbread is a Krusteaz mix that substitutes the egg with a flax egg. A wedge of iceberg lettuce is my son's favorite salad and since it was his birthday, I was happy to oblige. He chose homemade cookies for dessert and I made the recipe from this blog, Chocolate Chip Cookies+.

Dressed Up Black Bean Soup and Corn Meal Biscuits

The dawning of warmer temperatures and tulips also brings along the spring soccer season.  Adding multiple evenings a week spent out at the soccer field means that I have even less time to prepare a meal for my hungry, dribbling, shooting soccer stars.  We do not have the ability to drop by a fast food place or pop a pizza in the oven due to food allergies.   But, a little planning and preparation goes a long way.

I like easy and convenient options when I can find them at the store.  One of my favorite things to do is to ‘dress’ up a boxed soup with a can of beans, tomatoes, diced carrots, celery, onion, etc.  

Dressed Up Boxed Black Bean Soup

1 box of black bean soup (I used the Simply Balanced brand available at Target)

1 can of black beans

1 can of diced tomatoes (optional)

2 carrots, diced

2 stalks of celery, chopped

½ onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

Place everything in a crock pot, stir, and race onto to soccer practice. 

Once home, top the soup with shredded cheese, pour in some of your favorite milk for a creamy soup, place in a dollop of plain coconut yogurt, diced avocado, cilantro.  Serve with cheesy tortillas (corn, rice, or flour) heated in your toaster oven.   If you have extra time, try serving the soup with cornmeal biscuits.

Corn Meal Biscuits

¾ cup rice milk (or milk of choice)

1 tablespoon lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar)

1 ½ cups gluten free flour blend (reference breads and baking)

½ cup corn flour, finely ground

¼ teaspoon xanthum or guar gum (omit if your flour mixture contains this ingredient)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

6 tablespoons of butter spread (Earth balance or real butter if you can!)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Combine milk and lemon juice and let it sit for 10 minutes.  This is to ‘sour’ the milk.
2. Combine the ingredients, flour through baking soda.  Cut in the butter spread with the flour mixture using a fork or pastry knife until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
3. Stir in enough of the soured milk so that the dough leaves the side of the bowl and combines into a round ball.  There might be some milk left over-that's okay.   The dough should not be too sticky or too dry, just right.  Turn the dough a few times onto a floured surface.  Roll the dough into a ¾ inch thick circle.  Cut the biscuits using a small cup.  Place biscuits onto a baking sheet.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm!  

I browse food magazines for new recipes that are well suited for my family.   The biscuit recipe came from Delicious Living, May of 2013.  I didn’t need to make any substitutions as the recipe met our allergy needs.

Brazilian Black Beans and Kale

I am volunteering with a program called Happy Healthy Cooks (link) while in Roanoke, Virginia.   This program focuses on teaching young children about nutrition, healthy eating, and provides a ‘hands on’ approach to learning about cooking healthy meals.  By ‘hands on’, I mean chopping, mincing, stirring, cooking, smelling, and tasting real food in the classroom.  Twice a week, I visit a classroom of second graders and we learn about new cultures and prepare a gluten free, vegetarian meal native to that culture or country.  This week we made Black Beans and Kale from Brazil.  It was so good that I made the meal at home for my family.  Everyone loved it and it was so simple to make. 

Brazilian Black Beans and Kale

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 onion, diced

1 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoons minced fresh ginger

2 cups of diced tomatoes or 1 can of diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste (half of a small can)

1 can of light coconut milk

2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon of salt

1 bunch of kale (7-9 large leaves) torn into bite size pieces

2 cups cooked brown rice

½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat the oil in a large skillet or dutch oven.  Sauté onions, garlic, and ginger until onions are soft.  Add the tomatoes and stir.  Combine coconut milk and tomato paste until blended and add to pan.  Stir in black beans, crushed red pepper, paprika, and salt.  Add kale and cook until kale wilts.  Add cilantro.  Spoon black beans and kale over brown rice and serve.

Amore!

When I think of romance and love, I think of Italy.  I think of Italy, I think of pasta.  This dish is made with love for St. Valentine’s Day.  It uses my new favorite brand of gluten free pasta, Barilla.  I made mine with sausage and chicken, but it can easily be vegetarian.  It’s a great dish for your valentine, especially if they do the dishes, because it is a one pot meal.

PASTA FAGIOLI

A one pot meal

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 stalks of celery, finely chopped

1 TBSP olive oil

2 cups of tomatoes, diced (or a 14 oz. can of fire roasted tomatoes)

1 cup cooked ground sausage

1 large carton chicken or vegetable broth (or water)

2 cups of gluten free pasta (penne, shells) I like Barilla!

1 can of white cannellini beans

4 cups of torn greens (kale, escarole, turnip)

3 TBSP of fresh basil, chopped (or 1 TBSP dried)

3 TBSP of fresh parsley, chopped (or 1 TBSP dried)

 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

A great soup needs a great salad...

CAESAR DRESSING

This is easy, dairy and egg free and so, so good! A special thanks to my sister and mother for sharing the recipe. They learned about it from Darlene Lopez, my sister's mother-in-law.

1 lemon reamed, save the juice

2 oz. tin of anchovies packed in olive oil

3 garlic cloves

1/4 cup of olive oil (or more if you like)

Salt and pepper to taste

Whirl together in a blender or mini-food processor.  Serve with romaine lettuce and croutons (see below for croutons). Also delicious with steamed cauliflower.

CROUTONS

Do not bother to buy the croutons in the store because it is so easy to make them at home.  Use leftover artisan bread, gluten free bread, or cornbread.  

Slice bread into 1" cubes and place on a sheet of foil that will fit in your toaster oven.  Toast in the toaster oven for 3 minutes on toast setting, turn and toss croutons, place in toaster oven again for another 2-3 minutes on toast.  You can get fancy and toss with olive oil and "Garlic Gold", but if you are using these croutons with the Caesar dressing-the dressing will pack all of the punch you need!

When I think of Italy, I also think of...

CHOCOLATE SORBETTO

Let your love shine

2 ½ cups of water

1 ¼ cups sugar

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

3 ounces of chocolate finely chopped.  Try Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate bar.

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, stir in sugar and cocoa and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in chocolate and vanilla until chocolate is melted completely.  Cover and chill completely.

Pour chocolate mixture into your ice cream maker and let it whirl for about 30-45 minutes.  Remove from ice cream maker and transfer the sorbetto to a freezer safe container and chill for about an hour.

Adapted from a recipe in a magazine-can’t remember which one!

I need to include a special recognition to my valentine, dishwasher, best friend, and husband of 15 years, Scott.  Happy Anniversary, Ti amo!

I Smuggled Red Chile to Virginia for this Dish

Posole

Red Chile is the key ingredient in Posole.  The broth is red and the flavor is smokey and deep with a little heat, all thanks to the red chile. This is a New Mexico dish that is traditionally served at Christmas Eve to celebrate the years' blessings. This soup uses foods that native Pueblo Indians relied upon for their subsistence: corn, beans, and chile.  The whole recipe is gluten free.  If you are adding meat to this recipe, two options are available.  See below for the "*" details before you start.

Okay, so I didn't smuggle it, but I made sure that there was room in the suitcase for it.  Isn't it beautiful?

3-5 dried red chile

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1 garlic clove, minced

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

1 large can of hominy, rinsed and drained

1 can of beans (pinto, kidney, etc)

32 oz of stock/broth (chicken or vegetable)

1 lb of cooked pork that is either cubed or shredded*

Extras:

Lemons, halved and quartered

Green onions, sliced

Cilantro leaves

Cabbage, thinly sliced

Radishes, thinly sliced

Plain yogurt

Remove seeds and stems from chile and tear into small pieces and place in a blender or small food processor.  Pulverize chile until it is a small coarse powder.  

Add 2 TBSP of canola oil to a 5 quart stock pot. Add onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. Sauté for 10-15 minutes until onions are soft.  Add red chile, cumin, and oregano and sauté for an additional few minutes. Add hominy, beans and broth. 

If you are making the vegetarian version, cook over medium heat for 30 minutes and serve.

* Meat options:  

• Diced uncooked, pork or chicken:  Add the diced meat prior to sautéing the onions and then continue with recipe.
• I prefer to slow cook a pork loin and shred the meat for the soup.  There are two ways to cook a pork loin and both require advanced planning.  
• Bake the pork according to these directions:  http://www.porkbeinspired.com/Resources/Images/2924.pdf 
• Slow cooker method:  Place a 2-3 lb whole loin in a slow cooker with 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup water, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp red pepper.  Cook in high for 4-5 hours.  Shred meat using two forks.