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Modified a recipe for chana masala and came up with this. It’s really yummy and very easy. Almost no prep work, about 15 mins to get started, and 20-30 mins to simmer.

Ingredients

• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 yellow onions, chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 4-5 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 tin diced tomatoes, including juice
• 5oz or so baby spinach

1. Heat oil over medium in a 4qt pot. Saute onions and garlic for a 5-6 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Add spices and stir well. It’ll be weird and a little lumpy, but don’t worry about that. Cook for a few more minutes.

3. Add lemon juice, stir well, then add the chickpeas and tomatoes. Bring to a low simmer, and cook uncovered for 20-30 mins. Remove from heat, and stir in the baby spinach until it wilts. Serve with brown rice or a tasty grain medley.

I love oatmeal cookies. I also love steel-cut oats. This recipe, cribbed from Eat Feed Autumn Winter is all of that and more. I’ve slightly modified the recipe, and these are currently my favourite cookies ever.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c rolled oats
• 1/3 c steel-cut oats
• 3/4 c flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 c granulated sugar
• 1/4 c packed brown sugar
• 1/2 c soft butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 c dried cranberries (optional)
• 1/3 c chopped walnuts (optional)

Procedure

1. Heat oven to 375F.
2. Mix dry ingredients together (everything up to and including salt).
3. Cream butter and sugars together for a few minutes.
4. Mix egg and vanilla into butter + sugar. Make sure they’re well blended…should be uniform and sort of fluffy and light.
5. Stir in oat mixture until blended.
6. Mix in cranberries and walnuts.

Drop in 2″ balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. Leave some space between because they will spread out a bit. Bake for 5 mins, then turn the pans, then bake for another 6-7 mins (until golden brown). This made 20 cookies.

Cool on the pan for 2-3 mins, then on a cooling rack. Eat ‘um.

With autumn (my favourite of favourite seasons*) comes soup and stew season. So far I’ve already made a spicy sausage + bean stew and (my best yet) beef stew. Tonight is leek + potato soup because I’m on my own for the rest of the week and I happened to have all the stuff on hand.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 med onion, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 4 small (or 2 lg) potatoes, rough dice (unpeeled)
• 3 med leeks, white parts only, sliced + washed super well
• 3-4 c low sodium chicken stock
• Fresh ground pepper to taste

Method

1. Melt butter in a med stock pot over medium heat + toss in the celery and onion. Saute for a few minutes. Add sliced up leeks and saute for a few more minutes, stirring well. Add pepper + potatoes, stir.
2. Add chicken stock and bring to a low boil, then turn down to med-low and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through (30 mins or so, it’s not a precise science here…they just need to be soft).
3. Salt to taste if needed and either leave all chunky or blend with a stick blender until it’s at the chunky level you prefer. Yum.
4. Optional: add 1/4-1/2 c of cream or milk if you want, but it’s really not necessary.

That’s it!

* Seasons, in order of perference: autumn, early summer, early winter, spring, late summer, late winter. February is right out.

I’m experimenting with different sorts of grains and just scored a bag of local organic quinoa from the Speerville Mill (local food + local business, woo). Invented this on the fly to go with a roasted chicken last night, and had leftovers for lunch today. It’s pretty tasty. Add more salt and/or vinegar if it seems too tame.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c wild rice (before cooking), cooked and cooled
• 1/2 c quinoa (before cooking), cooked and cooled
• 2 ribs celery, sliced thinly
• 1/3 bulb fennel, sliced thinly
• 3-4 scallions, sliced thinly
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Juice from 1 lemon
• Splash of white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp honey
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Method
After cooking and letting the wild rice and quinoa cool, mix them together in a bowl. Add celery, fennel, and scallions, and mix.

Now put shallot, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, honey, oil, salt and pepper in a jar and shake well to make a basic vinaigrette. Pour all of this over the stuff in the bowl, and mix well.

Ideally, you’ll make this a few hours in advance so the flavours can blend, but you can just serve it immediately if necessary. Leftovers keep well and taste even better the next day. x

The original intention was to make a fairly standard black bean soup, but after digging around a few dozen recipes settled on this. It’s really, really tasty.

Ingredients

• 2 19oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 med onion, diced fine
• 1 med carrot, diced fine
• 1 rib celery, diced fine
• 1 med sweet potato, peeled and diced to 1/2″ or so
• 1/2 tsp salt (and more to taste, later)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp (or so) chile powder
• 3-4 c chicken or vegetable stock
• Juice from 1-2 limes

Method

Put oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. When hot, add onions, carrots, celery, sweet potato, and 1/2 tsp salt. Saute, stirring frequently, for 10-15 mins or so. As the sweet potato gets soft, brown bits will start sticking to the bottom of the pot. That’s fine. By the time I finished this part there was a good thick coating of browned stuff on the bottom.

When sweet potato is mashably soft, turn the heat down to medium-low and use a potato masher to turn it all into a nice chunky puree right there in the pot. Add garlic, cumin, and chili powder and continue cooking for two or three minutes, stirring. Pour a cup or two of the chicken stock in and let that heat for a minute or two to loosen up the brown stuff that’s stuck to the bottom of the pot, then scrape all that up into the soup (brown stuff = flavour, it’s tasty stuff).

Add the beans and enough of the remaining chicken stock to cover, then stir well to combine. There should be enough liquid to make it soupy, but the mashed sweet potato should thicken it slightly. Turn heat up to high, bring soup to a boil, then turn down to low and simmer for 25-30 minutes or so.

After it’s simmered for a while, get the potato masher and mash some of the beans in the pot. I probably mashed just over a third of the beans, stirring frequently to check the consistency. The mashed beans will thicken the soup, so just mash and stir until it’s thick, but still more a soup than bean puree. Continue simmering on low for another 5 or 10 minutes.

When ready to serve, squeeze in the juice from one or two limes. The potato adds a level of sweetness that you’re looking to counteract here a little. I ended up using the juice of 1.5 limes. Just add the juice a half-lime at a time and continue tasting and adjusting until it’s nice and bright without being too powerfully citrusy. Taste again then add salt if needed. I had to add about another 1/3 to 1/2 tsp of salt at this point.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a few gratings of fresh ground pepper on top, and sharp cheddar cheese and tortilla chips on the side.

Notes

Next time I make this I will probably increase the cumin and chili powder by a full tsp each, maybe using a blend of regular chili powder and chipotle chili powder. The nice smokiness would work well here, I think.

I stopped buying pre-made salad dressings a long, long time ago because a) they’d get used once then end up rotting in the back of the fridge because they’re not really very good, b) it’s ridiculously easy to make your own from scratch, and c) making your own is about 1000x cheaper than buying pre-made.

I’ve established a base template for vinaigrette dressings which has held up pretty well through on-going tests. It is:

• 1/2 c oil (olive oil, generally)
• 1/3 c vinegar/sour (vinegar(s) + citrus juices, etc.)
• 1 finely minced clove of garlic (not optional, unless you really hate garlic (weirdo))
• 1 finely minced small shallot (not really optional, but you can substitute a couple of tablespoons of red onion if you must)
• 1/2 tsp sweet (sugar, honey, maple syrup, whatever)
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• Pinch salt to taste

Put it all in a mason jar, make sure the lid is nice and tight, then shake like hell. A lot. Make it about an hour or so before you need it if you can, but that’s optional. Shake it again later. Don’t bother making enough for leftovers — it doesn’t store well and making it fresh is easy and awesome.

Now, I am a crazy vinegar-loving person, so you may want to ratchet the vinegar/sour back a bit. Starting with this basic template (which takes about 10 mins to make once you master the shallot/garlic mincing process) you can add whatever extras you want — fresh chopped herbs, grated cheeses, mustards, chopped capers, minced citrus zest, etc. Whatever.

The most recent was: olive oil, white wine vinegar, and lime zest (quite a lot…it was really tasty). Tonight’s is: olive oil, white wine vinegar, and about 1/3c finely grated parmasean cheese. Yum.

Update: If you’re going to use balsamic vinegar, don’t do the whole 1/3-1/2c with it. Cut that with something else. More than a few tablespoons of balsamic is a) a waste of balsamic, and b) going to be profoundly overpowering. Use the medium-good stuff, not the super-good stuff. Save the good stuff for drizzling over strawberries.

I made this up the other night. I have no idea whether it’s remotely like authentic arrabiata sauce, but it’s yummy and easy.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced
• 2-3 tsp hot red pepper flakes
• 1 shallot, finely diced
• 1 med yellow onion, diced
• 1 28oz tin diced tomatoes
• 1 14oz tin crushed tomatoes
• 1 tsp salt, give or take – to taste
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp decent balsamic vinegar

Method

1. Set a decent sized sauce pot on med-low heat and add oil. Toss in garlic and let warm up for a bit, then turn heat up to medium.
2. Throw in red pepper flakes, shallot, and onion, and saute for 3-4 mins until the onions are translucent and getting soft.
3. Turn heat up to med-high and add diced tomatoes, including all the juice from the tin. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 mins then add the crushed tomatoes. Add some salt and pepper, stir well, turn down to med-low or low, and let simmer for a while until it’s a nice saucy consistency and the tomatoes taste cooked.
4. Stir in balsamic vinegar, simmer for a couple more minutes, and serve.

You might want to start with less than 2 tsp of hot pepper flakes and adjust the recipe to suit. We like some pretty spicy arrabiata, and tend to serve this with sliced chunks of hot italian sausage, red onion, and yellow peppers over fusilli. It’s also great with straight up spaghetti and meatballs.

Update: Rob thinks it could have used a hit of sugar (1/2 tsp or so). This is possibly true.

Ingredients

• 1 cup plain yogurt, drained*
• 3/4 cup cucumber, drained**
• 1 tbsp diced shallot
• 1 tsp (or more) minced garlic
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 3/4 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp chopped fresh dill
• Fresh ground pepper to taste
• A bit of salt

Method

1. * I used 6% fat plain “balkan style” yogurt, drained by leaving it in a coffee filter in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl for 30-45m. This drained out a bunch of the extra water and made it nice and thick.
2. ** To drain the cucumber, I diced and salted a bunch of cucumber then left it in a strainer over a bowl for half an hour. I then rinsed it in a collander and pressed between paper towels to squeeze out as much water as possible.
3. Put the cucumber, shallot, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, and dill in a small food processor, and chop it up nice and fine. More water will be released at this point, so drain most of that off.
4. Put cucumber mixture in a small bowl and add the yogurt. Mix it up and salt + pepper to taste.

I served this with sauted pork tenderloin cubes that I had marinated with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and some finely chopped rosemary. Simple salad (romaine, cherry tomatoes, goat cheese) on the side with a lemon/lime vinaigrette.

Basic, incredibly yummy salad: iceberg lettuce, sliced cucumber, diced apple, walnut pieces, chunks of a high-quality mild blue cheese, blue cheese dressing, fresh ground black pepper. Very tasty.

Sort of made this one up as I went, using what I had on hand. Turned out really, really well.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp peanut oil
• 1 med red onion, roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1 med clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 15oz can of diced tomatoes, do not drain these – you want the juice
• 2 med sweet potatoes, cut into half-inch dice
• 1/3 c water
• 1 19oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed well
• 1/2 c plain yogurt (whatever fat content you prefer, I used 2.5%)

Method
Heat peanut oil in a medium-sized sauce pan (with lid) over medium heat. Saute onions in oil for 5-7 minutes or so. Toss in grated ginger and garlic and saute for another 2 minutes. Stir in curry powder and cook for another 4-5 minutes or so — the curry powder will stick to the bottom of the pot but don’t worry about it, it’ll all work out in the end.

Dump in the diced tomatoes, including all the juices. Stir and heat until simmering — at this point the curry powder will stop sticking to the pot. Simmer the tomato mixture for a few minutes then add the cubed potatoes. Add water, stir, and cover. Turn down the heat to med-low, and simmer until the potatoes are soft but not falling apart, 20-25 mins.

Add drained chickpeas, stir, and continue to simmer at med-low heat until the potatoes are as soft as you like. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 mins or so, then stir in the yogurt. You should end up with a nice rich slightly saucy curry.

Serve over rice.