Broccoli White Bean Soup

Winter is still showing no signs of slowing down here in Ontario, so despite it technically being spring, I'm still eating comfort food like cozy warm soups.  Which I'm not complaining about, as soups (at least the versions I make) are one of the easiest and quickest meals to prepare and they make great leftovers to be welcomed home to after a cold bus ride home after school!

This broccoli white bean soup is not only quick and easy to prepare but is nutritious and filling too.  I've used beans as a soup thickener before (like in this curried chickpea and kale soup or this roasted tomato white bean soup) and though it doesn't give it the same silky smooth texture that full fat cream would, I actually prefer the slightly chunky texture and thickness that beans add, not to mention it's a great way to sneak in protein to a vegetable soup!

In addition to the white beans, this simple soup mainly just consists of broccoli and vegetable broth along with some basic flavourings like onion, garlic, and lemon juice.  I added nutritional yeast to the soup to give it a bit of cheesy, nutty flavour (and added nutrition) without any cheese, but some shavings of good quality parmesan on top are also critical for flavour.  I decided to only halfway puree my soup to leave some texture in it, but you can definitely puree it all if you prefer a smooth soup.

While you won't trick anyone into thinking this is a traditional butter, cream, and cheese filled broccoli soup, it's a great alternative if you're looking for a more nutritious but still comforting version of broccoli soup!

Broccoli White Bean Soup

Adapted from Whole Living

Serves around 3-4

Ingredients:

1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium to large yellow onion, diced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 (540mL) can of no-salt added white kidney beans or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

2 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup nutritional yeast (or grated parmesan if desired)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Salt and pepper (I used around 1/2 teaspoon each)

Shaved parmesan for topping

Directions:

Steam broccoli in a steamer basket, covered over simmering water, for about 3-4 minutes, until bright green and tender.  Set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic and sauté until softened and translucent, about 6-7 minutes.  Add the beans and broth and bring to a simmer.  Add broccoli and red pepper flakes and stir.  Remove from heat and puree about half to two-thirds of the soup either by transferring to a blender or using an immersion blender.  I wanted to leave some texture to the soup, but you can puree all of it if you prefer the soup to be smooth.  Return to saucepan and stir.  Stir in the nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve warm, topped with shaved parmesan.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Chickpea Sauce, Broccoli, & Tomato

I got back from my little vacation up north almost a week ago now and somehow I still haven’t cooked a meal for myself yet.  Usually I’m dying to get back to cooking my own meals when I return from a trip, but this time I’ve been too busy to go grocery shopping or plan a meal and have therefore been eating a lot of peanut butter and jam sandwiches (thankfully I froze some fresh blueberry chia jam before I left) over the last week!  But seeing as I used up the last of my frozen bread today, I think tonight I’ll finally force myself to go shopping and make some food to get me through the rest of the week!

One of my go-to meals when I need an inexpensive and healthy meal that will give me leftovers for lunches through the week is this chickpea pasta.  A sauce that’s made out of chickpeas may sound a little weird, but it tastes so good!  I want to say it tastes like a white wine cream sauce but I’m sure someone who regularly eats cream sauces will disagree, so I’ll just say that it’s hard to guess it’s a chickpea sauce (unless you’re looking closely at the texture, which is of course a little chunkier than a cream sauce).  

I’ve adapted this Cooking Light recipe over several meals to my own liking, so that in my version I eliminate the raw garlic as I don’t think it’s needed, add cooked onion to the sauce for more flavour, use vegetable broth instead of chicken (not just to make it vegetarian but because I think it tastes better in this dish), and I add broccoli and increase the amount of veggies.  I also like to use whole wheat pasta and have tried shells, rotini, and linguine – they all work.  Feel free to use whatever vegetables you want too – mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, leafy greens – they’d all be great if you want to boost the nutrients even more.  

With the protein in the chickpea sauce, this makes a great vegetarian meal that will fill you up to power you through the rest of the work day, which, along with coffee, I will definitely be needing this week!

Whole Wheat Pasta with Broccoli, Tomato, & Chickpea Sauce

Adapted from Cooking Light

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (540mL) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1-3/4 cups vegetable broth
375g (one box) uncooked whole wheat pasta (any type works)
1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1-1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Grated parmesan cheese for topping
Salt and pepper for extra seasoning

Directions:

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until softened, about 4 minutes, stirring often. Add garlic and stir for another minute. Add salt, red pepper flakes, chickpeas, and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in salted boiling water according to package directions. During the last few minutes of cooking, place broccoli in a steamer and set covered over the boiling water until bright green. Drain broccoli and pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta water.

Place chickpea mixture in a food processor. Add lemon juice and reserved pasta water and blend until smooth. Season with additional salt and pepper if desired.

Combine chickpea sauce, pasta, broccoli, and tomatoes in a saucepan or large bowl and toss to combine. Serve warm, topped with grated parmesan cheese.  Season again with salt and pepper if needed.

Asian-Style Chicken Noodle Soup

Even though it's now officially Spring and it seems like everyone's already talking about spring produce like asparagus and peas and all those bright and crunchy fresh veggies, it's hard to get into the spring mindset when this is your view out the window:

With the seemingly never-ending snow and cold, I'm naturally still craving warm and cozy comfort food.  And with a sore throat signalling the start of another cold yesterday, I quickly developed a particular craving for the ultimate comfort food, chicken noodle soup.

But because I couldn't show you guys just any old chicken noodle soup, this one has a twist!

This soup takes on an Asian flavour with the addition of ingredients like mushrooms, bok choy, cilantro, fish sauce, lemongrass, and lime juice, and the use of soba noodles instead of more traditional egg noodles or other pasta.  This gives the soup such a great depth of flavour that still has the comfort factor and familiar taste of chicken noodle soup but is a little more exciting!

Even better, the addition of ingredients like ginger, garlic, and spicy chiles are great for fighting off a cold (at least I hope that's what I'm telling myself!)

If you're lucky enough to live somewhere that actually felt like spring on the first day of spring, send some warm and sunny thoughts up north!  In the meantime, I can't really complain when I have a giant pot of this delicious soup to keep me warm :)

Asian Chicken Soba Noodle Soup

Loosely adapted from LCBO’s Food & Drink

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon canola oil

2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

8 oz sliced mini bella or crimini mushrooms

1 large carrot, julienned (I used a couple handfuls of pre-sliced waffle cut carrots instead)

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 liters (8.5 cups) chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon frozen chopped lemongrass (or 2 stalks lemongrass)

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, fat trimmed off

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (or more if you want it to be really spicy!)

8 oz soba noodles*

4-5 heads baby bok choy, ends trimmed and sliced lengthwise

Juice of half a lime

2-3 green onions, thinly sliced

Salt and pepper

Cilantro and additional lime wedges for serving, if desired

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add ginger, garlic, mushrooms, carrot, and onions.  Cook for 5-7 minutes until softened, stirring often.  Add chicken broth, red pepper flakes, lemongrass, and chicken breasts.  If using a lemongrass stalk, remove the outer stalks, cut into chunks, smash, and wrap in cheesecloth – you will need to remove it before serving.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer.  Let simmer for about 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

Remove chicken breasts and set aside.  Add fish sauce and chili garlic sauce to broth and stir.  Add soba noodles and cook in the simmering broth for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, shred chicken.

Add bok choy and shredded chicken to the pot and let cook for another 2-3 minutes, until bok choy is slightly wilted.  Remove from heat.  Stir in lime juice and green onions, and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Use a sharp knife or clean kitchen shears to cut some of the soba noodles in half, otherwise they will be difficult to divide into bowls.

Serve with additional lime wedges (I highly recommend this) and cilantro, if desired.

*Note: I used soba noodles because I have a ton of them to use up right now (and I like them!) but you could substitute rice noodles if you like.  Just cook them separately according to the package directions (usually soaking in hot water), toss with a bit of sesame oil to keep them from sticking, then add to the soup at the end.

Cauliflower Linguine with Lemon & Capers

This past weekend, the temperature went up to 12°C (about 54°F for my American friends!) and it was glorious.  The snow had all melted, I didn't need my winter jacket, and something about the spring-like air just made me so happy!  Of course it was just a big tease and it's now back to being even colder than it was before, but that glimpse of Spring got me in the mood for lighter meals than the stews and chilis I've been enjoying lately.

This almost sauce-less pasta dish with lemon juice felt like a Spring-like dish, but the addition of cauliflower reminded me I still have a ways to go before I can add things like asparagus and peas in there!

Because there's not much of a sauce on this pasta, the mix-ins are really important!  And this has plenty of mix-ins: along with the cauliflower and lemon juice, there are sauteed onions and garlic, capers, fresh parsley, parmesan cheese, and a toasted breadcrumb and walnut mixture that gets mixed throughout for a little added crunch. 

I was in a hurry to photograph this before the day's light disappeared so I hadn't tasted it yet when I took pictures.  It definitely didn't disappoint - it was just what I was in the mood for and I loved how all the flavours combined, but as I ate, I thought of two extra add-ins that would have made it even better.  Sliced kalamata olives would complement the salted, pickled flavour of the capers well, and golden raisins would add a nice burst of sweetness throughout.  I added a handful of raisins to my leftovers today and loved it, and tomorrow I'm going to add olives!  As always, taste and customize to your liking!

(Update: I didn't have kalamata olives in my fridge so I added green olives today and it was delicious!)

Cauliflower Linguine with Lemon and Capers

Adapted by combining recipes from William Sonoma and Clean Eating Magazine

Serves 4

Ingredients:

10 oz linguine pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup chopped walnut pieces

1 yellow onion, diced

1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets

3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons capers

1/4 cup chopped parsley, plus more for topping

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for topping

3 to 4 tablespoons lemon juice (or to taste)

Freshly ground pepper

Optional add-ins: Sliced Kalamata olives and/or golden raisins

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add the pasta and cook according to package directions to bring it to al dente.  Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add garlic, bread crumbs, and walnuts.  Cook, stirring often, for 2-4 minutes, until bread crumbs are golden brown and toasted.  Remove and transfer to a small bowl.  Add remaining tablespoon of oil to the saucepan and heat over medium heat.  Add onion and sautee until golden brown, stirring occasionally, 5-6 minutes.  Add cauliflower, red pepper flakes, and salt.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for another 5-6 minutes.  At this point, the pasta should be ready.  Add 3/4 cup of the reserved pasta cooking water and cook until cauliflower is tender, 5 to 7 minutes, adding more cooking water if needed.  Add the pasta to the saucepan, and stir in the capers, parsley, parmesan, toasted breadcrumb mixture, and lemon juice.  Taste and season with more salt if needed, along with freshly ground pepper. You can also add more lemon juice or throw in more capers if you like!

Serve immediately, topping each portion with additional parmesan cheese and parsley if desired.

Note: As I was eating this I thought that either golden raisins would have been a nice addition for a hint of sweetness, or Kalamata olives to complement the flavour of the capers.  Either ingredient would boost the overall flavour of the dish, and could be stirred in at the end along with the capers, etc., but it was also fine without them!

Eggplant & Zucchini Pasta with Chickpeas and Feta

Because it's Friday, I'm sure you guys would rather hear me talk about something entertaining rather than making this entire post about pasta, right?  If you answered no, then skip down towards the end where I will tell you all about this lovely pasta dish, but if you answered yes, then you are about to hear about my first adventure in celebrity stalking!

Last Saturday, my sisters and I went to the vegetarian food festival in Toronto (which my sister Genevieve wrote all about on her blog Vanilla & Spice, if you're interested).  The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) also happened to be on, which is a pretty big deal and draws lots of celebrities.  Before we left for Toronto in the morning, I quickly researched if any big celebs would be there at the same time as us, and noted the time for a Johnny Depp red carpet!  We ended up heading over there half an hour early, thinking we would have a great spot if he did show up, but little did we know that people show up super early to these things, and it was already packed!  I knew I would never see anything down on the ground, so I found a lovely spot up a bit higher, in the middle of a bush.  Literally, I stood in the middle of a bush, in a pile of mud, with branches in my hair, and a guy blowing cigarette smoke directly in my face from beside me, for half an hour, waiting to catch a glimpse of Johnny Depp.  And guess what?  It paid off!  I got to see him (and Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks) from about 15-20 feet away and took lots of pics - it was so exciting being part of a big crazy screaming crowd and being so close to such a big celebrity!

I guess celebrity stalking is addicting, because my sister and I decided to head back to Toronto Monday evening after we heard that Ben Affleck was going to be at a red carpet premiere.  We arranged it so that we would take a Greyhound that would arrive in Toronto at 5:30, we'd walk a block to one premiere where we would arrive in plenty of time to see Bill Murray and Laura Linney before their movie premiering at 6:30, then walk another block to the 7:00 premiere featuring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams, then head back home.  It involved a lot of bus riding, but we knew it would be worth it!

Unfortunately, this plan didn't work out so well.  The bus ended up being an hour late arriving in Toronto.  ONE WHOLE HOUR!!  I was fuming!  So when we finally pulled in at 6:30 (after leaving our home over 3 hours earlier), we sprinted past the first theatre, which already had no one left outside, and continued on to Ben's theatre, praying we didn't miss him.  There was still a humongous crowd, which was a good sign!  As I stood balanced against a filthy pole (which I didn't realize was staining my butt until later), we overheard others in the crowd talking about how they had already seen Bill, Laura, and Rachel, but that Ben still hadn't arrived, so we were counting on him to save our night and make this trip worth it.  We waited .. and waited ... and waited .. until we were pretty much the only ones left waiting and realized that Ben had decided not to show up after all. 

Our friend in Toronto ended up saving our night by taking us out for a delicious feast of all-you-can-eat sushi, but we were still pretty disappointed about Ben.  I'm veeeery tempted to go back tonight to see Matthew McConaughey, who is supposed to be making an appearance, but I'm too worried that things won't work out again (especially trying to get to Toronto with Friday rush hour traffic), so I think I'll play it safe and spend the weekend resting and recovering from this cold!

My story really didn't have a point except to distract you from your work for a while, and it has nothing to do with this pasta either, so I'm not even going to try to connect the two here!

If you just want to hear about this pasta, here's what you need to know: This is a fresh and healthy vegetarian dish that you may think is just an ordinary pasta, but a few unusual ingredients like chickpeas, olives, and feta, make this unique and flavourful.  It might look like a few more steps than a regular pasta, but it's worth it (especially for the amount of leftovers, if you're cooking for one like me!), and it's a great way to use up some of that end-of-summer zucchini and eggplant you might still have in your garden!

Has anyone else been celebrity stalking at TIFF (or elsewhere)?  I'd love to hear your stories!

Eggplant & Zucchini Pasta with Chickpeas, Olives, and Feta

Adapted from Clean Eating magazine, April/May 2012

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 medium zucchinis

1 small eggplant

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt & Pepper

1 pound tri-colour vegetable rotini pasta (or whole wheat rotini)

1 (398mL) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 (340mL) jar roasted red peppers (or 2 roasted red peppers), drained and rinsed, chopped

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Pinch red pepper flakes (optional)

1 (540mL) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup sliced green olives

4-5 oz low-fat feta cheese, crumbled

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to Broil.  Quarter zucchinis lengthwise, then cut into 1/4-inch thick slices.  Cut eggplant into ½-inch rounds, then slice into bite-sized pieces.  Toss chopped zucchini and eggplant with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.  Spread into one layer on a foil-lined baking sheet and broil in the top-third of the oven for 10-15 minutes, tossing halfway through, until golden brown and soft.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and rinse, reserving a bit of pasta water.

Meanwhile, add diced tomatoes, roasted red peppers, basil, and red pepper flakes to a medium saucepan, bring to a simmer, and cook over medium-low heat while the pasta is cooking, about 10 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Transfer to a blender, remove plastic stopper from lid, cover loosely with a kitchen towel, and puree briefly into a slightly chunky sauce.  Add a bit of the pasta water to thin out the sauce, if necessary.

Combine cooked pasta, roasted vegetables, tomato sauce, chickpeas, and olives in a large saucepan and cook over low heat 1-2 minutes to heat through.  Serve and top each portion with 1 oz crumbled feta and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley.  Season with additional pepper, if desired.

African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew

If you’re craving something hearty and comforting to warm you up on a fall day, this is the recipe for you! I made this many times to get me through last winter and plan to make it many times again this winter. This is my kind of comfort food, and unlike many traditional comfort foods, this one is really good for you too - while still managing to taste rich.

The recipe comes from Janet at the the taste space, a blog (by a fellow Canadian!) that’s full of really unique and healthy recipes that are so different from anything I see anywhere else, and I’ve loved everything I’ve tried from there.

I didn’t want to change much about the recipe because I knew it was perfect as is, but you could definitely mix things up with other ingredients if you want. Janet mentions that the peanut butter taste is not very dominant, so I doubled the peanut butter because I really wanted to be able to taste it. I wrote the recipe with the amount I used below, which I thought gave it a perfect hint of peanut butter, but if you’re not crazy about peanut butter then feel free to halve that amount back down to 2 tablespoons.

I’m also not a big fan of peppers in stews, so I decided to switch the pepper for carrots, which I thought would work well in this dish. I bought one of those ginormous bags of carrots at the grocery store, lugged it home on the bus along with all my other groceries, and when I finally went to take my first spoonful of the completed dish I realized I’d completely forgotten to put the carrots in. Urggh. Unless I write something down, I never remember it - does anyone else have that problem?

Anyways, if you have a better memory than me, you could try adding some chopped carrots in at the same time as the sweet potatoes. But even without any extra vegetables, this stew was still amazing. It also makes great leftovers for a filling lunch later in the week, so make lots!

African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew

Adapted from the taste space

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper (green or red), deseeded and chopped (optional – I omitted)
2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon peeled and grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/2 pounds sweet potato (about 2 medium or 1 ½ large potatoes), peeled and cut into small chunks
1 (14-oz) can crushed tomatoes (I couldn’t find a can in this size so I just used half of a 28oz can)
1 cup vegetable stock
1 (19-oz) can red kidney beans
1/4 cup peanut butter

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion (and pepper if using) and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, ginger, and spices and briefly sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds to one minute.

Add the crushed tomatoes and vegetable stock, followed by the sweet potatoes. Cover and let simmer gently on medium-low for 30 minutes, until sweet potatoes are soft.

Add kidney beans, stir and heat through. Add the peanut butter and stir until completely incorporated into the sauce. Serve warm.

Kiwi Mango Fresh Rolls with Lime Dipping Sauce

Starting this blog has encouraged me to try new things in the kitchen that I may never have challenged myself to do otherwise, like making a savoury crepe dish and shaped yeast bread, and using familiar ingredients in new ways, like asparagus ribbons and frozen banana ice cream. The best part about trying new things is that I realize how easy recipes that have always intimidated me actually are.

These fresh rolls are a perfect example of something I’ve always wanted to make but have been too scared to actually try. The idea of trying to make the filling myself and then somehow wrap it up in rice paper seemed like something only professionals could do, but it turns out they’re not only easy to make, but fun too! You just have to make sure you don’t put too much filling in a roll, then roll it up tightly around the filling. And be careful with the wrappers because they get quite sticky, so if you accidentally fold it in a way you don’t like, it might be hard to undo!

The hardest part about them was actually finding the rice paper rolls in the grocery store (I ended up finding them in the international aisle) so if you’re unsure what to look for, here’s a picture of what I used to give you an idea:

For my first fresh roll attempt I chose a recipe for kiwi summer rolls from Eating Well, but decided to throw some mango in there too, since it complements the other flavours in the roll really well. These didn’t take very long to make and turned out so pretty! They were also really tasty and so different from anything I’d usually eat. All the flavours – lime, honey, mango, kiwi, mint, and a hint of chili pepper - worked well together, creating the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. The rolls really absorb the lime dipping sauce which I loved, so I definitely wouldn’t recommend leaving the sauce out!

These would be a great appetizer to bring to a party if you want to impress your friends! You can customize the recipe below to your tastes (I should note that if you don’t like spicy food you might want to omit the red pepper flakes in both the rolls and the sauce) or create your own flavour combination – have fun!

Kiwi Mango Fresh Rolls with Lime Dipping Sauce

Adapted from Eating Well

Makes 8 rolls

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces thin rice noodles (vermicelli)

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, divided

1/4 cup honey, divided
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

8 round rice-paper wrappers (8-inch)

4 kiwifruit peeled, sliced in half lengthwise, then thinly sliced crosswise

1 mango, julienned

1/3 cup peanuts, coarsely chopped

Directions:

Cook the rice noodles according to package directions (mine only required boiling them for 1 minute). Drain and rinse under cool water, and pat dry with paper towels. Transfer to a medium bowl and toss with the chopped mint, 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and 1 tablespoon of honey.

To make the dipping sauce, whisk together the remaining 3 tablespoons honey, lime juice, 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl.

For each roll, soak a rice paper wrapper in a bowl of warm water until softened, according to package directions (10-30 seconds). Transfer to a work surface or clean tea towel. In the centre of the right half of a wrapper, lay 1/8 of the noodle mixture, 1/8 of the kiwi, 1/8 of the mango, and 1/8 of the peanuts. Fold the top and bottom of wrapper over filling. Wrap the right end of the wrapper tightly over filling, then roll tightly toward the left to enclose filling. Cover with a damp tea towel until ready to serve. Repeat with remaining wrappers.

Cut each roll in half on the diagonal (if desired) and serve with dipping sauce.