Homemade Creamy Chunky Herby Tomato Soup

Say that titles 10 times fast. It's been a while since I posted a good decent recipe. In my attempts to balance work and my love for cooking, it can get a bit difficult at times. But fear not, I still love food to the 100th degree and I do cook once in a while, but from recipes that I've already done. This little soupy soup recipe is a simple take on the classic tomato. The thing I like about this recipe is that it doesn't use any cream or milk at all. The thickening agent is a little unsalted butter and all purpose flour. Neat, eh? Well...at least, for those who haven't tried this variety.

I chose soup because the weather was perfect for it. Granted, here in Los Angeles it's been on the weird crazy side. Last week it was in the 90s this week it's like winter came back for one last ride. Sheesh! Mother nature seems a bit confused as to what season it is. Who knows what it will be tomorrow.  But for now I enjoy me some creamy chunky herby soup with a side of some leftover breadsticks I had gotten from the restaurant Olive Garden and some homemade parmesan crispies.

Serves 2-3

Homemade Creamy Chunky Herby Tomato Soup

3 small ripe tomatoes
1 small onion
2 large garlic cloves
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 12 oz can tomato sauce
1 12oz can chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 Tbsp dry basil
1 Tbsp dry thyme
1 Tbsp dry parsley
1 Tbsp dry sage
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
extra virgin olive oil


Finely chop the onion. Set aside. The finely chop the garlic. Quarter the tomatoes and remove the seeds, give the tomato wedges a rough chop. Set them aside.

If you have a food processor, you may use that to chop the tomato, onion and garlic.

In a pot, medium to high flame, heat a small drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Saute the garlic for 30-60 seconds. Thenadd the onions and saute until tranluscent. One the onions look cooked, melt the butter and add the flour. Stir well to combine together. Be sure to scrape the pot occasionally to keep the flour from sticking.

When the mixture looks a bit like a mushy dough blob, add the tomato saute for a roughly 2 minutes until the tomato has cooked down. Then add the tomato sauce and chicken stock. Bring the soup to a boil. Stir occasionally to combine all the ingredients. Once it's boiling, bring the heat down. Add the dry herbs and salt and pepper.

Serve with a topping of cheese and/or avocado with a side of bread. :)

Homemade Potato Chips

This is the one and only exception to when I would deep fry something. Well, it wasn't really deep fried as the slices of potato float in about 1 1/2 cups of canola oil in a tiny sauce pan. I needed to do something with a handful of baby red potatoes I've had since last week. Don't you hate it when you forget what vegetables you have in your fridge and then you realize you had it for sometime. Yeah me, too.

Anyway...I don't have a mandolin, which would be a great tool to have in the kitchen, so I very carefully sliced the baby reds into super-duper thin slices. I used the end nubs and made baby french fries with them. Then fried them up and sprinkled some kosher salt for flavoring. It made enough for small bag of chips. Delicious snack.

Homemade Potato Chips

5 baby red potatoes or 1 russet
2 Tbsp white vinegar
canola or peanut oil
kosher salt

Peel the potatoes and thinly slice them into really strip or coins. You may use a mandolin or a carefully cut them with a knife.

In a large enough container, soak the potato slices in in water spiked with the white vinegar. For at least an hour. Then pat dry with a paper towel.

Heat at least 2-inches worth of canola or peanut oil in a small sauce pan. To see if the oil is hot enough. test it by dropping one piece of potato. If it sizzles immediately, it is ready. Work in batches and carefully drop the slices. Cook until they turn golden brown. Remove and drain on a paper towel. while it is still hot, season with a little kosher salt.

Shiitake Onion Panini

I decided to make a "sort of" fat sandwich for my Fat Tuesday (aka Mardi Gras) meal, which is always celebrate the day before Ash Wednesday. Luckily over the weekend, I had gotten a couple beefy tomatoes and a couple fat plump avocados. Perfect timing would you say? What was that Carl's Jr slogan? If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in you face. (or something like that). Well, this is one is that kind of sandwich. Slighty messy, check. Tasty, check. And belong in my face, check.  Looks like we covered the basics.

I sauteed the onion and shiitake together and assembled the sandwich together with the beefy and jumbo tomato and avocado slices on top. Pressed the sandwich with ol' Georgie. Even if it looked slightly smushed, it was still a bit hefty in a sense that it looked big, bit not too filling to the stomach at the same time.

Makes 2 sandwiches

Shiitake Onion Panini

1 c shiitake mushroom - sliced
1/2 medium onion - sliced
2 Tbsp Ponzu Sauce
pepper to taste
4 slices of bread
1 ripe avocado - deseeded and sliced
1 medium tomato - deseeded and sliced
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese
mayo
yellow mustard

in a skillet, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil and saute the onions until they have wilted, then the ponzu sauce, then add the mushrooms and saute until they have slightly turned dark in color. Remove from the heat.

To make a sandwich:
Take a slice of bread and spread a thin layer of mayo, take another slice of bread and spread a thin layer of mustard over that. Place some of the mushroom onion mixture over the mayo slice, followed by some shredded mozzarella, then a couple slices of tomato, then avocado. Top it with the mustard slice of bread.

Cook in your panini press or grill or heat in a skillet with a plate and 12oz can over to add weight. Cook each side for roughly 5-10 minutes or unti the cheese has melted.

Serve warm.

Yam Fries

It's time to yam it up? Get it.  Yam it up. har har har. *crickets* Sorry, that was my bad attempt at being funny. Yams or should I say sweet potato. There's a couple different varieties out there. Mostly a lot of people are familiar with the orange variety. But there's also the white and purple variety. For these I used the white variety. They're oven fried and seasoned with herbs. They're great alone or serve them with a sandwich or burger. The possibilities are endless.

Yam Fries

3 medium yam or sweet potatoes
salt
1 Tbsp dry Basil
1 Tbsp dry thyme
1 Tbsp dry rosemary
1 1/2 Tbsp Extra Vigrin Olive oil
salt


Preheat your oven to 400˚F

Wash, peel and cut the yams into 1/4-inch strips. Place them in a bowl and toss together with the olive oil and dry herbs.

Lay them out on a lightly greased baking sheet and baked for 30-minutes. Give them a quick toss halfway through to give them an even browning.

When they are done season with a little salt before serving. 

Zucchini Cakes

One thing I've noticed is that when I'm writing I have the tendency to spell zucchini with two z's. I don't know why. Maybe it's because there are two c's or some other factor. Anyway...These are great. A type of veggie cake. Think the crab cake but with zucchini. Shredded some zucchini and set it aside with some salt. That helps take the moisture out of the vegetable. Easier to cook with. It's a neat little trick I learned a couple months ago. It good to use if you're going to roasting and baking with certain watery vegetables. It helps them crisp up during the cooking process.

After I strained all the liquid, I mixed in some binding agents like an egg, flour and my all too favorite panko crumbs. i really don't know where I'd be without that stuff. Then I did a quick pan-fry. I paired it with a simple garlic yogurt sauce.

With Christmas just a couple days away I'm scrambling to get everything done. And I mean DONE!!! I barely just finished baking my (now-a-tradition) giveaway treats, so I'm glad that's over with. They're all wrapped in lovely little gift boxes and ready to go to the recipient. Come Christmas day, I just want to be able to eat some honey baked ham and all the other foods i have planned and chill out the whole day through. Maybe light a fire in the fireplace.

Makes 6 to 8 cakes

Zucchini Cakes

4 small to medium zucchini
2 eggs - lightly beaten
3 Tbps all purpoase flour
1 1/2 c panko crumbs
salt
pepper
garlic yogurt sauce (recipe below)

Shred the zucchini and sprinkle some salt over and toss. Set aside in a strainer over a bowl or over some paper towel. This will take out some of the extra moisture from the zucchini. Toss out the liquid and squeeze out any liquid that remain with in the shredded pieces. Place in a separate and clean bowl.

Add the egg, flour and panko. Mix until a chunky mixture and divide it into 6 cakes.

Heat some canola oil in a skillet. Sear each side of the cake until brown. Roughly 3-5 minutes for each side. Place the finished patties on a paper towel to drain off any excess oil.



To bake place in a 400˚F oven on a baking sheet for 15-20 minutes.

Garlic Yogurt Sauce

3 Tbsp plain greek yogurt
1-2 tsp hot sauce
1/2 Tbsp garlic powder

Combine all ingredients together.

Tuna Daikon Bake

 
I wasn't sure how this dish would turn out. It's one of those "I don't have much left in the pantry, so I'm going to throw whatever I can into the pot." This was the result of all that. Tuna, diakon radish, orzo pasta. A trio you wouldn't really find together. Okay maybe you would, but not something you'd easily find appealing to eat.

I turned the tuna and daikon radish in a sauce with some diced chunk tomatoes. A tuna-daikon sauce. The cool thing about the radish is that it absorbs the flavors its put in. Assembled it like you would for any pasta rish and placed it in a casserole. Topped it with a good helping of cheese.

Serves 3

Tuna Daikon Bake

1 c uncooked orzo
1 5-6 oz can tuna in oil
1 daikon radish - peeled and chopped
1 12 oz diced tomatoes
1 garlic clove - chopped
2 green onions - chopped
1 to 1 1/2 c shredded cheese - your choice
extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

Drain most, but not all the oil from the tuna.

Bring a pot with water to a boil. When boiling, season with salt and drizzle of olive oil and cook the orzo until al dente. Roughly 8-10 minutes. Be sure to give the pasta a quick stir to keep them from sticking to each other. Drain the water and set aside.

In a sauce pan, heat a little olive oil and saute the garlic for 30 seconds. Then add the green onions and saute until slightly tender. Add the tuna and heat for roughly 2-3 minutes.

Next add the tomatoes. bring to a boil then lower the heat and let it simmer. Add the diakon radish. Add the orzo to the tuna daikon sauce and mix well. Place the pasta mixture in a casserole and top with the cheese.

Preheat your oven to 350˚F

Place the casserole in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Serve warm.

Grilled Eggplant Sammies

Who says you can't grill when it's not summer? Thank goodness for old Georgie. Very handy during the colder months and when there's unfavorable weather. Add on to it when the body says "I'm being lazy today, so you better not over work me or I'll make you tired even more!" Apparently, my mind and body weren't in sync with each other on this particular day. My energy was drained without doing much during the day. Granted, I had some errands, but they weren't very strenuous.

Anyway, this one's a simple sandwich. Grilled eggplants with avocado, cucumber slices and sauteed balsamic onions on ciabatta bread. Make it sound fancy without it being fancy.

Makes 2 sandwiches

Grilled Eggplant Sammies

1 Medium Eggplant - 1/2-inch sliced
1/2 small cucumber - sliced
1 small avocado - sliced
1 small sweet onion - sliced
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 ciabatta rolls (or your choice of bread)
horseradish mustard or mayo

Prepare your grill.

In a skillet melt the butter and saute the onions. Once the onions are translucent add the balsamic vinegar. Saute for a few more minutes. Then remove from heat and set aside.

Season the eggplant with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Both side. Grill the eggplants until tender depending on the heat of your grill roughly 5-10 minutes.

Toast the bread on the grill or in the oven for a few minutes.

Putting all together:
Once the bread has been toasted on both slices. Spread a thin layer of horseradish mustard or mayo. Add a few slices of the eggplant, followed by the cucumber, avocado then the onions. Top with the other half of the bread.

Roasted BroccoBean in Garlic Browned Butter Sauce

There's no such thing as a broccobean. But wouldn't it be cool if there was? What would it look like? Would it have the florets of the broccoli with the thin body of the green bean? What about the taste? We can only imagine. Let ponder that for a moment. ...  ... Ok, back to out regularly schedule recipe.

Whatever it may be, the broccoli and green beans are the stars of this dish. Slightly accentuated by the browned butter sauce. It actually reminds me of a garlic broccoli dish I would always get from Whole Foods. I would be happy with a small to-go box of that from their hot foods section. I tossed the vegetable in some extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika. To put a little kick to it, I spiked it with a teeny bit of tobasco. While that roasted, I made the sauce. The key is to let the butter cool after removing from the skillet before adding the garlic. Or else it will cook and burn pretty quick. No need to go to Whole Foods to get the garlic broccoli. I can now make it at home.

Serves 2

Roasted BroccoBean with Almonds in Garlic Browned Butter Sauce
1 lb green bean - rinsed with ends removed
1 head of broccoli or one small frozen bag.
1 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp tobasco
1/4 c sliced almonds
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
garlic-almond browned butter sauce (recipe below)
shredded cheese topping - optional

Preheat your oven to 375˚F

Toss the green beans and broccoli in a light drizzle of olive oil. Season with some salt, pepper, and paprika. Add the tobasco as well. You may add more to your liking.

Place the green beans and broccoli on a foil-lined baking pan and roast for 25-30 minutes.

When roasted toss it with the garlic-almond browned butter sauce, add the almonds and serve.

Garlic Browned Butter Sauce
3-4 Tbsp butter
2-3 large garlic cloves - finely chopped

In a saucepan, melt the butter.  Heat it until it begins to foam. Carefully remove the top foamy layer, then transfer the melted butter into a small bowl and let it cool for 2 minutes. Then add the chopped garlic. Let it sit for for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Broccoli with Cheese Sauce

A combination of vegetables and cheese. Also a classic meal from yesteryear. You can't go wrong with that. Broccoli and cheese. Broccoli with cheese. Broccoli topped with cheese. A cheese sauce.

They seem at odds with each other, yet they taste so good. A simple steaming of the broccoli cook it until it's tender. I was tempted to add some pasta into the dish, but...actually I don't have an excuse why I didn't add the pasta. Come to think of it, why didn't I? Laziness maybe? Whatever the reason while the broccoli steamed away, I made a simple cheese sauce. Making a simple roux and adding a Mexican blend of shredded cheese with ricotta. It added an extra creaminess to the sauce.

Serves 2-3

Broccoli with Cheese Sauce


2 heads broccoli (chopped in sizable pieces) or 1 package frozen broccoli

Cheese sauce:
1 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp flour
1 c milk
1/2 c shredded cheese
1/2 c ricotta cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Place the broccoli pieces in the steamer and steam until tender.

Note: To steam in the oven. Place the broccolie in a cake pan or pie tin. add a small layer of water at the bottom and cover with foil. Place in a preheat 350˚F oven and bake until tender.

For the cheese sauce:
In a sauce pan, melt the butter and add the flour. Combine until like a dough-like substance. Then add the milk and stir until milk becomes slightly thicker. Add the cheese and stir again to combine.

Once the broccoli has been cooked through, serve on a plate and top with the cheese sauce.

Baked Kabocha

I know two kabocha recipes in a row. But I couldn't let this sit and wait. Call me pumpkin head, if you want, because I'm crazy for the stuff. It's been cracked open and it's whispering "eat me." "Sure thing," I happily reply. I've been seeing a lot of roasted pumpkins and squashes lately. A couple examples over at Girlichef (here) and For the Love of Cooking (here). I've decided to jump on the bandwagon. Why, you ask? Well because I want to and I had the other half kabocha from when I made that kabocha bread in the fridge giving me the puppy dog eyes.

This is one really simple. I quartered the remaining kabocha and generously spread some butter on the top and gave it a nice generous sprinkle of some brown sugar. Baked it until it was tender. That's all there is too it. Nothing else to do but sit and wait. Fee free to change up the brown sugar for spices and herbs of your choice. But for my version the sweet melted syrupy sugar with bites of pumpkin a simple awesome weeknight dinner. Yummy!

Serves 4

Roasted Kabocha

1 medium kabocha (deseeded and quartered)
butter
brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 400˚F

Spread a good about of butter on the flesh of the kabocha and sprinkle a generous helping of brown sugar on top.

Place on a baking sheet and bake until tender. roughly 45-60 minutes.

Daikon Miso Soup

I had bought a large fresh daikon radish from the farmer's market. I love diakon radish. It's some good stuff. It's used in a Philippines soup called sinigang. I'll be making that in the near future. For this one soup, I just wanted something fairly simple. It can't get any more simple than making miso soup. How easy is it? Well, all you need is stock or water and miso paste. Then add tofu and green onions. It only takes minutes to make.

I love miso soup. I always make it a habit to order a nice hot bowl of the stuff whenever I eat out at a Japanese restaurant along with with some fresh edamame and whatever sushi I'm in the mood for.

Traditional miso soup uses dashi, which is fish stock. Since fish stock isn't readily available as vegetable or chicken, I went for some veggie stock. making this a perfect vegetarian dish. So some veggie stock, water, daikon radish and a little salt and pepper and that's about it. I added some ramen noodles shortly before serving as it doesn't take long to cook.

Serve 2.

Daikon Miso Soup

1 12oz can vegetable stock
1 Tbsp white miso paste
1 1/2 c water
1 long daikon radish - peeled & cut into 1/8-inch slices
1 packet ramen noodles (minus seasoning)
salt & pepper

Combine the water and vegetable stock in a pot. Add the radish and bring to a slight boil and until the radish becomes tender.

Dissolve the miso paste in a small bowl with some of the stock before adding into the soup. Then add the dissolved miso into the pot and let it simmer for several minutes.

Add the ramen noodles 5 minutes before serving.

Baked Potato Cassserole

With Thanksgiving approaching here in the US, I figured I'd get a little head start as to what I might be making for that day. I've been thinking about what I will be cooking up on that day. How many dishes, which one I'll have to make in advance, which I'll have to make first thing on the day of.

Rather than going to a traditional mashed potato, I figured I'd give a baked potato with a twist a try. It's similar to making mash potato except that it's filled with the baked potato goodness of sour cream, cheese, and onion (or green onion). Topped with more cheesy goodness on top. Must not forget about the butter, too. What you see before is what happens when mashed meets baked. Oh, you can add bacon, too. I would have put it in this, but i didn't have any left. I'll be sure to pile on the bacon bits on Thanksgiving.

Cheesy goodness with every bite. It looks like a mess in the casserole, but every single mouthful is worth it. I had it with some walnut salad.

Serves 2-3

Baked Potato Casserole

9 baby potatoes or 2 large russet potatoes (rinsed and peeled)
1 c shredded cheese (plus extra for topping)
2-3 Tbsp Sour Cream
1/2 medium sweet onion chopped or 2-3 green onion stalks chopped
1/4 c milk
2 Tbsp sour cream
1 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper
bacon bits (optional)

Boil the potatoes in a pot until tender. A knife should pierce through without hesitation.

Preheat your oven to 425˚F

Mash the potatoes with a masher ricer orr food processor.

In a large bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, onions, sour cream, cheese, milk, and butter. Mix well. Season with a little salt and pepper. Mix in the optional bacon bits as well.

Transfer the mixture into a lightly greased casserole. Bake for 25 minutes. Just before removing, top the casserole with some extra cheese and leave for another 2-3 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Serve warm.

Spinach Dip

I love to get Trader Joe's brand of spinach dip. It's been a while since I've gotten it and I've been craving for some for quite sometime now. It just so happens that I had bought a bundle of fresh spinach from farmer's market, so this gave me the push to try making my own. Have I mentioned that I love spinach dip? I like to snack on it as a sandwich between some slices of toast or with some crackers.

It's a simple recipe. A lot that I have seen use mayo and sour cream. I used some plain yogurt instead of sour cream for mine. The rest of the ingredients are pretty straight forward. Mayo, water chestnuts, some dry herbs and fresh chopped spinach. You can use frozen, too. The key to this is to let it sit. Like you would for coleslaw. It's to help blend all the flavors together and really let marinate the spinach well. You want every sing nook and cranny of the spinach to really be fused with the flavors of the herbs, mayo and yogurt. It's definitely worth the wait. Trust me because the taste is amazing. Serve it on some bread or crackers. Perfect for parties and gatherings.

Makes roughly 4 cups.

Spinach Dip

1 lb fresh spinach or 1 pack frozen (rinsed and squeezed of excess water)
1 c light mayo
1 c plain greek yogurt
1small can water chestnuts (drained well and roughly chopped)
1 dry parsley
1/2 tsp dry oregano
1/2 tsp dry basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder


Combine all ingredients together. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. Best if made ahead of time.

Cinnamon Chicken Bowl

The rice bowl. I can always go for a cool rice bowl every once in a while. I don't eat rice as much as I used to, but I still enjoy a nice hefty bowl of the white variety every once in a while. It's the Asian in me. For this one I decided to make some cinnamon chicken strips with oyster sauce.

I marinated the slices of chicken breast in a sort of cinnamon paste rub concoction. I was really playing around with some of the spices I had in the pantry. The mixture looked like a science experiment gone bad. But I went ahead anyway. I rubbed the chicken pieces really good. I let it rest couple hours to let the flavors blend into the meat while I did my errands. When I came back all I had to do was broil it. Can you tell I love broiling things? Got a nice char on them. You can grill it also if you'd like. While that cooked I made a simple oyster sauce to go on top.

To serve with the chicken, I made some Japanese short grain white rice rice that I added some rice wine vinegar and sesame seeds turning it into sushi rice. Really good. I also made some simple steamed chopped baby bok choy. Topped it with a few chicken slices and drizzled some of the oyster sauce.

Cinnamon-y goodness. 

Serves 2

Cinnamon Chicken Bowl

4 baby bok choy - chopped (or you choice of vegetable)
1 chicken breast - cut to slices
3-4 c cooked white rice (preferably short grain Japanese rice)
3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

 Rub/Marinade:
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dry rosemary
1 large garlic clove - minced 
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

Oyster Sauce:
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine evineger
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp fish sauce


Combine all the ingredients of the marinade together. Rub the mixture into the chicken pieces and let it sit for at least 30 minutes. This can be done in advance.

Combine the ingredients for the oyster sauce and set aside.

Combine the rice, rice wine vinegar and sesame seeds. Gently fold in the rice to mix the three together. Set aside and keep warm.

Preheat your broiler and prepare your steamer.

Place the chicken on a lightly greased baking sheet and broil for 2-3 minutes. Basted the chicken with some of the oyster sauce and flip the chicken slices and broil for another 2-3 minutes.  Baste the other side as well.

Let the chicken rest for 2-5 minutes before handling.

While the chicken bakes, Place the chopped bok choy in the steamer and cook until it is tender.

Combine the rice, rice wine vinegar and sesame seeds.  Gently fold in the rice to mix and keep warm.

Put it together:
Take a large bowl. One side place a serving of rice. Next to it place some of the steamed baby bok choy. Place a few strips of the chicken on top and drizzle some of the oyster sauce on top.

Baked Green Bean Fritters with Onion Dip

Fritter critter as I like to call these little thing.This is actually my attempt at making a baked version of some green bean fritters. I'm surprise that it actually turned out pretty good. It's like the green beans were roasted like it baked in the batter. Though, not the shape I would have liked and I do think that I made the batter was a little bit too thin also. I'd also chop up the green bean a little more rather than cutting them into 2-inch sticks. Don't worry I adjusted my recipe below in case you decide to give this a try.  It's pretty easy to make.

I paired it it an onion dip somewhat reminiscent of a french onion dip. I had sauteed some minced onion just close enough to where they started to caramelize, then I tossed them into some sour cream and added herbs as well.

Not necessarily a combination you'd find out there, but I really liked it.Another good snack or appetizer to add to the list.

Makes 13-15 fritters.

Baked Green Bean Fritters

1 lb green beans - fresh or frozen
Onion dip (recipe below)

Batter:
1 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 c milk
1 tsp garlic powder

In a bowl, combine the ingredients in the batter and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

If using fresh green beans, wash and remove ends. Chop them into half inch pieces.

Mix the green beans into the batter and pour onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Baked for 15-20 minutes or until the edges had turned a golden brown.

Serve warm.

Onion Dip
1/2 c sweet onion - minced
1/2 c sour cream
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp dry parsley
1 tsp dry thyme
salt
pepper
extra virgin olive oil

In a skillet, heat a little olive oil. Add the onions and caramelize them. You want them just until they reach a golden brown color. Remove from heat and let cool for a couple minutes.

In a bowl, mix together the sour cream, parsley, thyme, lemon juice. Then add thr onions. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Chill in the fridge if not serving immediately.

Gnocchi with Spinach & Tomato

Yummy gnocchi. Pillows of deliciousness. Now that I've gotten the hang of making these potato pasta, I figured I'd try having them with something else. I had some grape tomatoes and a bell pepper I had gotten from the farmer's market I've been planning to use. Okay, I'll make a kind of sauce. Cool.

But I didn't want to make it just a "tomato" sauce. During this time of the week, my fridge looks like a a near empty cave. Check the freezer. I do have some frozen veggies. Picked up one of the small boxes. Spinach, okay. I get one of those one eyebrow raised expressions on my face. I think this could work.

I boil the potatoes, while that's going I get the tomato spinach sauce going. I quickly roasted the tomatoes and bell pepper in the broiler for 15 minutes to give get the juices going. Saute some garlic and add the tomato and bell pepper. Drizzle a good helping of olive oil and bring the whole thing to a simmer.

Then I got to making the gnocchi. I made then in a wheat version by replacing half the required flour with wheat flour. It still tasted great. Turned them into little dumpling and boiled them in some salted water. Then tossed the freshly boiled gnocchi into the spinach, scoop out a nice serving and chow time. It's oh-so-delicious!
 
Serves 2-3

Gnocchi with Spinach and Tomato


For my Gnocchi recipe click here

Note: you can use your choice of pasta for this recipe as well.

Spinach and Tomato
1 lb grape tomato or 3 medium ripe tomatoes - quartered
1 medium yellow bell pepper - deseeded and quartered
1 lb spinach - fresh or frozen - washed and drained
1 garlic clove - finely chopped
1/8 c extra virgin olive oil (plus extra)
salt
pepper

Preheat your broiler.

If using large tomatoes, chop them into chunks.

Place the tomatoes and bell peppers on a baking sheet coat them in some olive oil and season with salt. Make sure to coat them evenly.

Roast for 15 minutes.

In a sauce pan, heat a nice drizzle of oil on medium heat.. Saute the garlic for about 30. Then add the tomatoes and bell pepper.

Add the spinach and stir to combine everything together.  Drizzle the 1/8 c olive oil. Stir again to combine.

Let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes to let the juices of the tomato blend in, then mix in the cooked gnocchi or pasta of your choice.

Toss together

Serve warm with an optional sprinkle of parmesan cheese.