Categories
Soups & Stews Uncategorized

Peanut Soup with Rice and Scallions — Chopping Block Report

KC’s favorite soup is tomato, and she eats A LOT of peanut butter, so this recipe for Peanut Soup with Rice and Scallions seemed right up her alley! Sometimes, I think the beauty of the pureed soup is also its Achilles heel — the simple, smooth texture.  So, in order to avoid monotony from that texture, I generally serve smaller portions of pureed soups than of soups with more textural variety.  This recipes says that it makes 6 servings.  I halved the recipe, and I would say that I still got 6 servings from it.

It’s pretty foolproof.  You sautee the vegetables and aromatics.

Then, add stock and tomatoes, bring to a boil, and simmer for a while.  Then puree.  I use an immersion blender to puree hot liquids right in the pan, which makes life a lot simpler and less dangerous than using a blender!

 

Then after serving, sprinkle with sliced scallions. I omitted the tofu because the rest of our meal contained plenty of protein already.

When I tasted the soup, at first I thought, “Oh, this is just another tomato soup.”  Then, the peanut flavor snuck up and mingled with the tomato flavor in a way that was very surprising to my American palate.  Of course, if you were raised in Africa, this flavor combination will seem obvious to you!

I’ll definitely make this again!

Categories
Veggies Starring as....Themselves

Cooking….Art We Can Eat

When KC’s aunties started to help her paint pumpkins this past weekend, I was staunchly in observer mode.  A paint brush does nothing to stir my soul.  But a rainbow of fresh produce?  Now we’re talking!

When I posted about Stir Frying Fall Flavors, I failed to provide photos.  Tonight, though, I was ready!  The basic premise for the meal was that I was broiling some white fish, cooking up some brown rice, and stir frying an assortment of some beautiful veggies, all to be accompanied by a very simple curry sauce.  After I started the rice, I prepped the veggies…sweet potato, purple cabbage, onion, sweet red bell pepper, and curly kale.

Categories
Veggies Starring as....Themselves

Stir Frying Fall Flavors

As much as I like to try new cuisines and new recipes, I tend to be boxed in by some “purist” thinking when it comes to combining flavors within a single recipe or meal.  For example, when my sister recently raved about a recipe for ginger risotto balls, I had a difficult time wrapping my mind around an Asian flavor like ginger in a classic Italian streetfood.

So, tonight’s dinner represented a big step for me.  I passed by some of the usual suspects when considering veggies to stir fry as a side for our orange chicken and cardamom rice, and julienned some cabbage and sweet potatoes.  The resulting Cabbage and Sweet Potato Stir Fry was pretty (sorry, no pictures!), nutritious, and it really showcased some of our seasonal produce at its best.