Sprucing Up: New Additions and (of course) Roasted Cauliflower and Leek SOUP

There are some weird things on the internet.

In an attempt to make my blog a little more grown-up (because Lord knows my pictures look like I handed my phone to my 2 year old niece), I'm trying to add some more 'gadget'-y things to the side to make it easier to follow and share on social media. Well, apparently some people like to add some other things to their blogs. Would you like see a new 'Twilight: New Moon' quote on the blog every day? How about Darth Vader quotes? Perhaps something in Dutch? I aim to please.

And to comfort those of you who (like me!) are completely weirded out by the randomness of the internet sometimes, I have a great comforting recipe for you. I'm kind of a one-trick pony. Comforting recipes are my thing. On the bright side, this one is also healthy! I generally like healthy things, or at least like to try them (for example: I drink green tea because it's healthy, even though I sort of think it tastes the way dirty dishwater smells). However, this recipe is healthy AND tasty. Just the way I like it. 

Roasted Cauliflower and Leek Soup

Serves 4, Generously(with a salad or sandwich) or 8 as an appetizer for a big meal

Ingredients

1 large head of cauliflower, cut up into florets (I used orange cauliflower because I liked the color, but regular old plain white cauliflower will do just fine)

4 garlic cloves, peeled but whole

5 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 onion, chopped

3 leeks, washed carefully (tons of sand and dirt in those things!) and chopped, the tough green tops removed

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon rosemary

fresh black pepper

6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

3 tablespoons red wine

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Toss the cauliflower and garlic with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, black pepper, and a dash of oregano. Spread onto a baking sheet and roast until cauliflower is fork tender, about 25 minutes. When it comes out, the sides that were on the baking pan could be a little black. That's ok!

Orange Cauliflower, all ready for the oven

While the cauliflower is roasting, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Put in the diced onion and let cook until onion is browning, about 6 minutes. 

Ok, these are raw onions. They will soon be delicious brown onions.

Add in the leeks and cook until the leeks are soft and almost translucent. Add in the oregano, rosemary, and black pepper to taste. 

And here come the leeks

Add in the roasted cauliflower and garlic. Add in the chicken stock and red wine. Bring the entire mixture to a simmer and simmer for 30 minutes. 

Cool the soup slightly, and either in batched in a regular blender or with an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth and creamy. Add in more water or stock if you like your soup thinner. Continue simmering for another 20 minutes, and adjust seasonings to taste. 

Here is a picture of soup!

Here is a picture of soup being mysterious.

Most importantly: enjoy.

Love and rosemary,

Dalia

P.S. Want to see my first attempt at a poached egg?

Unmitigated disaster. I'll keep trying! But thus far: Egg-1 Me-0

The Hotter the Better

When I was engaged and working out like a maniac for the wedding, one of my favorite things to do with my roommate  and my fiance at the time (now hubby!) was take a night off from working out, order in Chinese food, and marathon The Big Bang theory. I partially blame TBBT because in the opening they're always eating some sort of takeout and it ALWAYS made me want chinese food. And the one dish we always ordered, no matter what, was hot and sour soup.

Unfortunately, where we live now there is no Chinese restaurant. No kosher one, anyway. Going from living down the block from a great kosher place that delivered processed MSG (and sushi!) right to your door to a place with no delivery available is great in some ways (waistline) and not so great in other ways (tastebuds). Over shabbat, we ate at a friend's house, and for dinner, what was served? Yup. Hot and sour soup. Homemade. Delicious. Why did it never occur to me before that this could be done? Brilliant. Ladies and gents, I give to you, homemade hot and sour soup. MSG not included.

Hot and Sour Soup

Serves 2 generously, 4 as a first course for a meal

Ingredients
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup sliced shitake mushrooms (shitake are best, but any fresh mushrooms will do)
2 teaspoons fresh ginger root
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more if you like heat!)
1/2 tablespoon garlic chili sauce
1 block of firm tofu, slice into thin pieces
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten

In a large stockpot, combine the chicken stock, mushrooms, ginger, soy sauce, garlic, red pepper flakes, garlic chili sauce, and tofu. Simmer for 10 minutes. 

It's getting hot!

Prepare the vinegar and cornstarch. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar and cornstarch together in a bowl. 

Oh, hello messiest cornstarch mixture ever. Nice to see you.

After the soup has simmered for 10 minutes, pour the cornstarch mixture into the soup. Let simmer for 5 more minutes. In a small glass beat two eggs together. 

Oh, hello eggs. Nice to see you.

Drizzle the eggs into the simmering soup. They will break apart and ribbon. This is what you want. At this point, the longer the soup simmers, the more the flavors will combine and meld. Taste after 10 minutes and see how it is. When you're ready, dish it out and eat hot. 

Love and a beaten egg,

Dalia

*Tuna Casserole with a Twist

I don't know where you are, readers, but where I am, it is currently drizzly, and has definitely turned cold. It's the kind of weather for cuddling up under soft blankets and sitting in front of roaring fires and drinking hot drinks and wearing fuzzy pajamas with feet on the bottom. And I think (and I think most people agree with this) that that means it's the time of year for cheesy, carby goodness. Something warm and filling that will stick with you and heat you from the inside as you wrap yourself up in a blanket and watch 'Sleepy Hollow'.

One of my comfort foods growing up was tuna casserole. Creamy, salty, cheesy, carby...it's basically the ultimate in wrapping yourself up in warmth and calories. As I've gotten older and made an attempt to be more health conscious, I've tweaked it to be a bit more health savvy as well. I'm not saying this is your ultimate health meal, but when it's Fall and drizzly, it's ok to make some exceptions. :)

*Tuna Casserole with a Twist (*The twist is that I use canned salmon instead of tuna. But feel free to keep the tuna!)

Serves 4, if you're willing to share

Ingredients:
1 box whole wheat pasta, cooked to al dente (I used rigatone, but feel free to use the pasta of your choice)
2 tablespoons of canola oil
1 onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 large cloves of garlic, sliced
7 kale leaves, stems removed, washed and sliced into ribbons
3 tablespoons cream of mushroom soup
1 can of pink salmon, mashed in a bowl (or 2-3 cans of tuna, depending on how tuna-y you like your dishes)
Dash of oregano, black pepper and white pepper to taste
3 slices of mozarella cheese

Make your pasta according to box directions. Set aside

In a large skillet (I used my cast iron skillet, but this should work well in any large non-stick pan) heat up the canola oil on medium heat. Once it's hot, throw in your onion and celery (well, you don't need to throw it...you can place it gently. Up to you). Sautee until the onion is soft and translucent. Throw in your garlic slices and sautee for another 30 seconds. Garlic burns pretty quickly, so don't leave this step too long. Add in your sliced kale and stir and cook until slightly wilted. 

Like zis!

Mix the salmon in a bowl until everything is blended and all the bones in the can are pulverized (blecchhhh. This is by far the grossest part, and you can skip this if you use tuna). Add the salmon to the veggie mixture in the pan. Stir in your cream of mushroom soup and spices. (We were out of sage, but that would also probably be wonderful in this dish, and if you have fresh sage, even better, chop it up and throw it in) Stir in the pasta and mix until coated and heated through.

This is perhaps not the neatest dish you will ever make...

Lay the sliced cheese on top of the mixture and let it melt. Stir it around until it's incorporated into the dish. Scoop into bowls and serve.

Let it get melty and amazing!

Hugs and cheesy cheesiness,

Dalia

Scalloped Potatoes

OK, Fall is the best.  Seriously, really, the best. That nip in the air, the pumpkin everything (I loooove pumpkin) and sweater weather. It is my favorite season. I also like how it makes me crave warm filling carby foods, and I don't even feel guilty because that's kind of what you're supposed to eat so it doesn't count, right? Right.

Enter the scalloped potatoes.

Creamy and oniony, it's basically savory goodness. Savory autumnal goodness in potatoey form. It's just gooood. 

Scalloped Potatoes
Adapted from this recipe, serves 6-8 as a side dish, if you don't eat them all immediately out of the pan.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons oil 
1 large onion, sliced (I used a purple onion for color, but you can use a yellow onion as well)
2 leeks, heavy green leafs removed, sliced and cleaned well
1 1/2 cups hot water
3 tablespoons of Earth Balance margarine, melted
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons chicken stock powder (alternatively, just use 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of oregano
8-10 medium sized potatoes, peeled and sliced into rounds
Paprika for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large skillet, heat the oil. Sautee the onions and leeks together until soft, translucent and fragrant.

In a small bowl, whisk together the hot water, melted margarine, flour, chicken stock powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper and oregano (the sauce will not thicken, and that's a-ok). Set aside.

Grease a round casserole dish (I used a large pie dish) and place half of the onion/leek mixture. Layer the potatoes on top of the onions. Repeat, until all of the ingredients are used or until you run out of room.

Like this!

Pour the sauce mixture into the casserole dish, and sprinkle the top with paprika.

Pre-paprika, the potatoes are sitting pretty

Bake at 350 for an hour and a half, or until a knife can slice through the potatoes easily and the potatoes are tender and cooked through. The top of the dish should have a nice brown on it. 

Yum.

Have leftover potatoes? Pop 'em in the skillet for some homeslice french fry action.

Yes, the liquid on the paper towel is oil, pretty please stop judging me.

Fall, thanks for letting me eat endless amounts of potatoes and not making me feel guilty about it. You're the best. 

Love and paprika,

Dalia

Gourment Kosher Style: Salted Caramel Pecan Tart

Last week was my first week back at work after a while away. And while I love my job, I feel like the first week back after a vacation is always a slog. It was a week of checking emails and listening to the Top 100 Billboard list on Spotify over and over again (OK, one aside: That new Taylor Swift song, the one where she's learning her colors, there's this one part that almost sounds like morse code. And I always wonder: What is she trying to communicate? Is she asking for help? An SOS? Relationship advice? Somebody help her! But then I figure she's just probably trying to make her song dance-y and I'm not worried anymore). After a week like that, all you want is junk food, pretty much anything with lots of sugar. A while ago, a friend here recommended the latest Food Network magazine, as it has an entire section with recipes featuring salted caramel. And who doesn't love salted caramel? Not I, said the duck. 

So when I was looking through the magazine again, trying to decide what to make for dessert for Friday night dinner, of course I decided on the dessert with toasted pecans and chocolate goodness in addition to the salted caramel. I wanted to make the dessert pareve[a yiddish term meaning containing neither dairy nor meat ingredients; also, colloquially used as a synonym for 'neutral'. As in, 'Oh, wow! What did you think of (insert name here)'s dress at the Emmy's? Eh, it was kind of pareve.'] because traditionally Shabbat meals feature meat, and Orthodox Jews dont' eat milk and meat together in the same meal. However, I wasn't sure it would work out with substituted ingredients. (Ok, I lied, two asides: A while ago, Buzzfeed featured a Thankgiving menu for Chanuka, because the two overlap this year, and they declared that it couldn't be done kosher because Thanksgiving food needed lots and lots of butter. Now, I like butter as much as the next person, but don't tell me an entire meal can't be made kosher. We orthodox do it every single week and we do it right.)

I'm very glad to report I needn't have worried about substituted ingredients. I don't know what it would taste like with all the authentic butter and cream, but let me tell you, with the substitutions, it worked out juuust fine. 

Salted Caramel Pecan Tart

Adapted from Food Network Magazine

Serves 8 (if you all are good sharers)

For the crust:

Cooking Spray

1 3/4 cups pecans

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons cold Earth Balance margarine, cut into small pieces

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling:

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup non-dairy whipped topping, thawed

4 tablespoons Earth Balance Margarine, at room temp

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 ounce pareve chocolate chips

Sea salt, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly coat a 9 inch fluted tart pan with cooking spray. Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and roast until golden brown, about ten minutes. Eat some of pecans to make sure they're not poisoned. They're fine. Eat one more just to be sure. Still fine. Let them cool.

Transfer 1/2 cup of the pecans to a food processor and add the flour, sugar and kosher salt and pulse until the nuts are finely ground. 

Looks good to me.

Add the butter and pulse until it is in pea-size bits. Pulse in the egg yolk and vanilla until large clumps form. 

Ready to make the crust full of delicious fake-buttery goodness.

Transfer the dough to the prepared pan and press it into the bottom and up the sides. Prick the bottom all over with a fork, then freeze until firm, about 20 minutes.

Step one for the crust...                                                                         ...Step two for the crust!

Put the crust into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Let the crust cool completely.

Make the caramel for the filling: combine the sugar, 1/4 cup of water and kosher salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring until the sugar just dissolves. Cook, swirling the pan but not stirring, until amber, 8-10 minutes. Brush any sugar crystals off the edge of the pan with a wet pastry brush. 

Getting there! (This is actually my second batch. My first batch burned. Mistakes happen!)

Remove from heat (but don't turn off the burner--you'll need it again in a minute) and whisk in the butter, whipped topping, and vanilla. Return to the heat and simmer, whisking constantly, until thick enough to coat a spoon, 3-4 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. 

Whisk the eggs and flour together in a bowl until smooth, and then whisk in the caramel. Place the crust on a baking sheet, and arrange the remaining pecans in the bottom and add the filling. Bake until set around the edge, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Almost there, but come on...what's a dessert without chocolate?

Put the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth. Drizzle over the tart and sprinkle with sea salt. Let the chocolate set before slicing.

It looks wwaaaaaayyyy more professional in Food Network Magazine. But there you have it! A great, pareve dessert for any meal. 

Love and pecans,

Dalia

Pooooootaaaaatooooooo

Hello! I've had to take a hiatus, life got busy, but now I'm back! No idea if I'm better than ever. I guess that remains to be seen.

Does everyone know that joke? The one that inspired the title? If not, let me know in the comments and I'll tell it. But it's a great joke.

It's been freezing and raining here for the past week (you may have heard about the epic flooding in Boulder. We're about 45 minutes away from that. So no flooding, other than some friend's basements) and I have been craving soup. Totally didn't help that soup was featured on MasterChef a few episodes ago and it set me to a-hankerin (I was going to write 'a-hankering for some liquid love' but that sounded super weird in my head and if it sounds weird in my head, guaranteed to sound even weirder on the page).

I finally broke tonight and decided I was going to make some soupified things, but I really really didn't want to venture out into the rain and cold to pick up ingredients from the store. So I scrounged around my pantry and found most of the ingredients for this soup.

All blended and ready to devour

With modifications, of course. Wouldn't be me if I didn't change it up! (plus, my modifications make it pareve. Score!)

Ingredients:
2 tbls butter (or, my fave, earth balance margarine)
2 onions, peeled and sliced
2 more tbls butter (or eb)
6 potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
2 cups almond milk
4 cups chicken stock
black pepper
white pepper
oregano
cayenne pepper
bay leaf
dash of nutmeg

Heat the butter in a large stock pot on medium-low. Add in the onions and cook until tender and a deep caramel color, but not brown, about 10 minutes. Add in the potatoes with the rest of the butter. Cook for 5 minutes, until the potatoes and onions are coated in melted butter. Add in the almond milk (you can also sub milk if you're making it dairy) and the stock. Add in the other spices to taste. You will also season the soup after it's done cooking, so start with less. You can always add more spice later! Let simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and immersion blend until smooth. Taste for spice, and enjoy! Next time I'll garnish with cheese or caramelized mushrooms. But just a plain bowl was also great!

Mellow Yellow: Cauliflower Soup

It's been one of those weeks. You know the kind, where you (I) stress eat a bag of chocolates and then come home and you (I) binge on ice cream and sugar and...

Some weeks the stress just gets to you no matter how many crafty and healthy blogs you look at for inspiration and laughs because really, who has TIME to paint a bookshelf a million shades of blue? Of course, as soon as I saw this craft I wanted to do it. I digress.

So I thought I'd bring you an awesome healthy soup because a) it's summer and who doesn't love soup in summer? Amiright? b) it's just so damn good.

The soup was a group effort. I had an idea for a roasted cauliflower soup, and Dani took it over halfway through to give it some flair and spice and boooyyyy am I glad he did. Truthfully, I enjoyed it hot plain, warm with a little greek yogurt and a squeeze of lime, and cold mixed with some red quinoa and salmon, almost like a fish stew. Needless to say if you want a gorgeous, healthy light dinner, here is your answer, however you like your soup.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup
1 large head of raw cauliflower
4 cloves of garlic, whole
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Pepper
Garlic Powder
1 tablespoon Earth Balance
1 leek
6 cups of water or chicken stock
Some of each of the following spices, to your taste:
Oregano
Cumin
White Pepper
Paprika
Cayenne Pepper (the more of this, the more heat!)
Turmeric (here is where the lovely yellow color comes from)

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Wash and chop the cauliflower into florets. Peel the garlic, but keep it whole. Toss the cauliflower and garlic together with the olive oil, pepper, and garlic powder.
3) Spread the cauliflower and garlic mixture onto a baking sheet and pop it into the oven for 40 minutes, or until soft.
4) In a large stock pot, melt the Earth Balance over medium heat. Wash the leeks (wash well...they grow underground and can have sand and dirt stuck between the layers) and sautee the leek (only the white part!) until soft and translucent.
5) Take the veggies out of the oven and put it into the large stock pot with water or chicken stock and spices. Bring to a simmer for ten minutes.
6) Turn the soup to low, and blend in batches or immersion blend until the soup is smooth. Continue to simmer for another 10 minutes until all the flavors are blended. This makes a huge pot of soup, so when you reheat it, you can add a little water, as the soup thickens as it cools.

Mmmm....yellow soup

More yellow soup!

I love colorful things, and this soup is just the ticket. Dani's spices add a great zing to it and it's super amazing and easy and YELLOW. Who doesn't love a soup the color of sunshine and Big Bird?

Stress-free and fancy free,

Dalia