FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Summer Soup

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When people say that summertime is too hot for eating soup, I think what they really mean is summertime is too hot for eating soup in public.  I’m perfectly fine with wearing PJs, eating soup, and sweating it out in the comfort of my own home.  Twice.

I’ve been on a central market kick lately because I’m crushing hardcore on their produce department.  It lures you in with sheer beauty and then, once you realize how cheap everything is, you’re a total sucker, totally willing to sit in rush hour traffic to get your produce fix.  Two dollar-ish shitake mushrooms.  Dollar-ish bok choy, green onions, and cilantro.  Four cent serrano pepper.  Umm yeah, this gigantic boat of soup hovered around the ten dollar mark.

FoodFash Summer Soup (yields 4 servings)

12 cups of water

4 Not-Chick’n Bouillon Cubes

2 heads of baby bok choy, chopped

1/2 cup of fresh cilantro, stems removed

1 bunch of green onions, chopped

1/4 lb of shitake mushrooms, sliced

1 serrano pepper, sliced (remove seeds if you’re sensitive to spice)

juice of 4 limes

8 oz of udon noodles

Bring water to a boil and add everything but the udon noodles.  Let boil for 5 minutes and then add the noodles.  Let boil for an additional 10 minutes and then remove from heat.  Let cool for a couple minutes and then serve.

I LOVED this soup.  Spicy cilantro lime should be the basis of every soup that even thinks about getting in my belly.  It’s tangy and spicy and, even though it’s temperature hot, still maintains that freshness vibe.  The moral of this story – embrace a good summer soup and sweat it out.  It’s totally worth it.

Mexican Polenta Casserole

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Weekends are for baking, Mondays are for veggies.  I had to remind myself of this constantly tonight to resist the urge to reclaim the pie I left with the boys on Saturday.

I distracted myself by heading to the market and loading up on lots of produce to vegify an already vegiful dish.

FoodFash Mexican Polenta Casserole (yields 8 servings)

Adapted from this Eating Well recipe

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 poblano peppers, chopped

1 zucchini, shredded

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups of frozen chopped spinach

2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound ready made polenta

1-1/2  cups enchilada sauce

top with Greek yogurt, sour cream, or non-dairy sour cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions and poblano peppers and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add shredded zucchini, tomatoes, beans, spinach, cumin, and salt.  Let cook over medium heat for another 5 minutes.  Slice polenta into 1/4″ thick slices (you’ll need about 24 slices).  Layer the bottom of 8×11-ish pan with 1/3 of the polenta slices.  Top with half of the veggies and 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce and repeat.  Top the casserole with the last 1/2 of the polenta slices and 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take me a second to adjust my palate to eating a mostly dairy free meal again.  But by the time I was a few bites in (and I forgot about this weekend’s peanut butter pie and cheesy Mexican feasts) I began to appreciate my meal.  It reminded me of a hearty, polenta topped, stew – a perfect dinner for a thunderstormy eve!

A FoodFash Best

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I had no idea how much goodness I was getting myself into tonight.  I had some leftover dip ingredients and frozen salmon fillets and thought “why not?”.  If you follow me on Instagram, surely you could sense my hesitation when I posted this picture.  But boy was I wrong!

FoodFash Salmon Cakes (yields 1 – 425 calorie serving)

6 oz. salmon fillet, thawed

1/2 small avocado (the 99 cent size)

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup fresh parsley

2 green onions, chopped

salt to taste

nonfat plain Greek yogurt for garnish

In a food processor, puree avocado, lemon juice, and half of the salmon fillet.  Add the onions, parsley, salt, and remaining salmon and pulse a few times until all of the ingredients are mixed, but the salmon is still chunky (see below).

Heat frying pan over medium heat.  Spray with olive oil (or a high heat oil may work better).  Remove all of the salmon mix and form into a patty with your hands.  Cook patty for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, flipping gently so the salmon cake stays in tact.  If a small piece breaks off, gently form back together with the spatula.  Dollop with Greek yogurt and serve.

I’m going to try my hardest to use a word other than wow to explain what was going through my mind as I ate every last bite.  The tartness of the lemon, the slight texture of the chunk salmon, the crunch of the green onion, the coolness of the Greek yogurt…  It all came together more perfectly than I ever could have imagined.  And the avocado?  The avocado just did it’s little glue-like thing in the background.

Arugula In Moderation

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Stuffed mushrooms should happen and they should happen often.  Fill them with your favorite pesto, pop them in the oven, and…  Boom.  Dinner.

I made a mental note prior to the move to make Jenna’s arugula pesto when I settled.  And even though I have yet to hang anything on the walls yet (this weekend, I promise!) I’m definitely settled enough to whip out the food processor and get it all green.

I used an entire bunch of fresh arugula to make this vibrant little pot of pesto.  And if I had to give you my opinion of this sauce based on appearance alone, I’d say A++.

But it turns out that arugula pesto is not a good fit for stuffed mushrooms.  Why?  Because arugula has a hefty funk and it was just wayyy too much for the shrooms.  I did, however, make a bowl of artichoke pasta with this exact batch of pesto and it was pretty darn tasty.  New rule:  Arugula in moderation.