Chickpea dumpling soup

Kale season. I do love my kale and don't even need an excuse to buy it anymore. If it's stocked in the produce aisle, one or two bunches go straight into my kart.

This is a modification of a recipe that I make quite regularly, since I was gifted Homestyle Vegetarian (published by Murdoch Books) for Valentine's Day back in 2009. It's definitely homestyle but has a little bit of kick with some cumin, coriander and chili. This rather simple tomato soup is transformed into a hearty fall meal when chick peas, chick pea dumplings and kale are added.

Another great thing about this recipe, is that you can make it out of basically what you already have in the pantry. I always have flour, onion, garlic, canned tomatoes and various canned and dry beans in my pantry. The addition of anything fresh and a little grated Parmesan go a long way into making this soup presentable for guests as well.

Ingredients: 
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, diced
cumin, coriander and chili to taste
vegetable bullion
3 cups cooked chick peas
2 cans tomatoes
1 cup of flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
30g cold butter
4 tbs grated parmesan
3 tbs mixed herbs province
3 tbs milk
Optional: Bunch of kale, chopped

Soften the onion, garlic and spices in the olive oil in a saucepan. This should take only a few minutes. You can add the kale and wilt it at this point. Add the chick peas, tomatoes, veggie bullion and 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.

While the broth is heating, make the dumplings. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and mix together in the dry ingredients with your hands until there is a coarse crumble. Mix the herbs and the Parmesan. Finally, mix in the milk lightly enough to combine the dumpling dough. With your hands, shape the dumplings into small balls, keeping in mind that they will double in size once boiled.

Add the dumplings to the soup to boil for about 5 minutes until puffed. Serve immediately.

Tip: Only add the dumplings you want to eat in that serving and spare the other uncooked dumplings for later. Re-cooked dumplings can turn to mush if boiled multiple times.

Megzican's Black Bean Soup

While it wasn't too long since I was in Mexico for the first time (in May), I miss it already. The quest for the perfect fish tacos brought us to a lot of great digs all around Tulum. We had our fair share of ceviche, calamare, camarones, tacos, empanadas, not to mention salsa. A lot of very spicy salsa.

This soup is just the protein you need. And because black beans help regulate your body's glucose levels, your metabolism will be working as hard as you are. If your transition from summer to fall goes from 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye (like mine), you'll be glad for the extra energy. And this recipe is a fast cook, if you're short on time.

You can make this from canned black beans, which will result in a creamier texture. I chose to use the rest of my dried beans, which meant that I decided to make this soup a day in advance, so that I had time to soak the beans over night, rinse them, and set them boiling an hour before I threw in the other ingredients. Yep, I just threw 'em in. Also, feel free to use ground pork, chopped ham cold-cuts, etc. I used sausage because it was leftover from a bbq season... sniff..

Easy Black Bean Soup
2 cans or 1 cup dried black beans, soaked and cooked
1-2 pork sausages, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 carrot, chopped
chicken bouillon cube, oregano, cumin and chili, spiced to taste.

If you feel like fussing a little more, sauteing the onions, garlic and spices in a little olive oil before adding them to the beans, feel free. It will soften the flavour of the garlic, and release the aroma of the spices. If you don't, that's fine too. Boil all ingredients together until the carrot is softened, and then using a hand blender, blend all ingredients together.

Squeeze some lime juice and garnish with an avocado. Serve hot or room temperature.

This soup serves 6, or one greedy chick 3 days worth of cholesterol lowering, gut satisfying soup to keep me going. Perfect for a gal on a budget, too. Yep, I spent all my pesos and Mexico and don't regret it for a minute. I think after this post I'll go for a run and start getting in shape for my next Mexican holiday.

Side note: Lacking a submersion blender, I decided to wait for the soup to cool a bit and then pour it into the regular blender. Ooops, the liquid was still too hot, resulting in a crack down the side of my glass blender. Truly devastating for me, as my precious Kenwood Robot Culinaire is one of my only prized earthly possessions...(along with my Nikon and my passport). A true sign that smoothie making season is just about over for a while....

Spinach Crepes with Mushroom and Ricotta

A little short on Magnesium? You may feel generally fatigued, and think it's from all the partying you've been doing this festival season. You may feel bloated and blame the beer. But hey, let's not get caught up in the blame game, because we both know that there is one whole month of Summer left and the show must go on!

I'm going out on a limb here and suggesting that a little bit of nutritiously fortified feed will go a long way into putting that spring back into your step so that you don't miss another spontaneous moment of fun while the sun's a-shinin'. Spinach is full of good stuff, such as magnesium, Vitamins A,C, E, K.... This little recipe should get you started. For other recipes packed full of spinach goodness, check out these other recipes.

Crepes are fun because they sound fancy, but they're really as basic as it gets. These are green because the spinach goes right into them. Pretty.

Spinach Crepes
1 bunch of spinach (about 300 grams)
1.5 cups of milk
3 eggs
3 tablespoons olive oil + more for the frying
1 tbs marjoram
1 cup flour

Cook the spinach until wilted in a pan on medium heat with a pinch of salt. Mix in with the wet ingredients in a food processor and blend until a nice green color is throughout. Slowly add the flour.

Ricotta Filling
1 cup ricotta
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 tbs marjoram
some chopped spring onion, greens only
salt and pepper to taste

Mushroom Filling
2 tbs olive oil
1 small spring onion, whites only, chopped
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup of cream or sour cream

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil and sautee the onions until transparent. Add the mushrooms and wilt (if fresh. I used canned so there wasn't much need for the cooking). Whisk in the wine wine vinegar and cream and remove from heat almost immediately.

Eat these crepes with either filling or both. Surprisingly filling and it'll keep you going for a long time. Now get outside and get some sunshine.

Coconut & Peanut Chicken with Avocado Salad

Though I have a million excuses why I haven't been blogging lately, I won't bore you with any of them. In general, I don't like excuses anyway. They're as bad a habit as starting out everything with an apology. Therefore, I won't make either.

What I will make, however, is some fully roasted chicken, with a thai inspired sauce that combines some of my favorite things: spicy chili, coconut and PEANUT BUTTER! And then of course pair it with another one of my favorite things: AVOCADO. Yes, these fat-laden foods are some of my favorite things (next time I'll try to incorporate some of the bacon fat I've been rendering and storing in my fridge.) This chicken could also be served with a few other Thai inspired side dishes, like Stir Fried Garlic Bean Sprouts and Shrimp or Wilted Bok Choy with Cashews.

I bought a whole 'old chicken' from the Asian store down the street. What does it mean, 'old chicken'? Your guess is as good as mine. It did have some remaining hairs on its skin and I even had to pluck off a few of the feathers once it had defrosted. Kinda gross, I know, but people have been doing this forever and ever, and I figured it couldn't be worse for you than eating any other part of the bird, so let's not split hairs here. I prepared the bird as recommended, about 15 minutes at 220C and then another 50 or so at 190C, breast side down, uncovered.

Thai sauces always have a lot of ingredients, but they're repeated in so many of the dishes that they're worth it to have around if you make enough Thai food. The pastes typically last months in the fridge.
Here's the list:

Chili, Coconut & Peanut Sauce

1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1/4 cup of sweet chili sauce (I substituted papaya jam)
1 tbs saracha (chili paste) or to your liking
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs shrimp paste
1 tbs fish sauce



Toast the coconut - I put mine in a small teflon coated pan and cooked on high heat without any oils added until it browned a bit and smelled great. Add the rest of the ingredients, tasting and modifying as you go along.

Avocado Salad: 
2 avocados, chopped
2 limes, juiced
1 spring onion, greens parts only, diced
2 tbs tamarind past (or 1/4 cup tamarind water)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp vegetable oil
crushed cilantro
dash of saracha if you like it

Toss all the liquid ingredients and the sugar and cilantro together. Fold in the chopped avocado delicately, so as not to mash them too much.

I also threw together a little mango salad for something sweet:

Mango Salad: 
1 mango, diced
1 small red onion, diced
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
cilantro
sugar
saracha
fish sauce

Toss these together in a bowl, adding the last 4 ingredients incrementally to taste. That simple.

Serve the chicken and the salads with a little steamed rice and enjoy.

Now, for my own reference for the future, and perhaps little helpful hints for you:

1. Chicken is not blow fish, it's not as dangerous as all the bird-flu hype has it out to be, and doesn't need to be charred inside and out for it to be safe to eat. I cooked mine 15 min at 220C and then flipped it to give it a nice bronze on both sides before I turned the heat down, resulting in a slightly dry bird. I will TRUST the chicken roasting instructions AND the meat thermometer next time.

2. Fresh cilantro beats the hell out of the jarred preserved kind (that I used, because I didn't have time to go to the store on Sunday). For guests, I will get my butt into the store for the fresh herbs. (my potted cilantro died while I was in Kenya.)