FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Chilled Charred Pepper & Sweet Corn Soup

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Charred Pepper & Sweet Corn Soup 4

Today was the first noticeably scorching hot day this summer.  As I lowered into my car and avoided direct skin to seat contact, I eyeballed a 101 degree reading on my dash.  I thought “yikes!”.  And then I thought about soup.  Confused, I redeemed myself {to myself} with ideas of chilled soup.  Because chilled soup in 101 degree weather makes sense.

Corn on the Cob

A few minutes after arriving home, I had my mind set on this soup.  But after flying to and from Dallas today, I also had my mind set on not braving the Whole Foods crowd.  The likelihood of Fresh Plus, my neighborhood grocer, having golden beets was oh so slim.  And I didn’t feel much like roasting beets anyway..

Charred Peppers

But what I did feel like doing was setting cutesy bell peppers on fire.  And then putting all of the lovely bits of char into a {coconut} cream-based soup.

Charred Pepper & Sweet Corn Soup 2

I really enjoyed how the sweetness of the corn paired with the smokiness of the peppers.  And even more so, I appreciated how creamy this soup was, naturally, without cream.

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Homemade Dr. Praeger’s Spinach Cakes

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Spinach Turnip Cakes

While diving back into Pinterest land for bedroom inspiration, I allowed myself the more-than-occasional food pin distraction.  And during one of these food tangents, I was drawn to a pin showing a stack of spinach pancakes.  I clicked on it, secretly hoping the post would outline a homemade recipe for Dr. Praeger’s spinach cakes {one of my favorite freezer staples}.  And it did!

Turnips

I really liked Meg of Veggie Staple’s recipe, but knew immediately that I wanted to try a few things differently.  Like more spinach {puréed} and turnips in place of potatoes.

Spinach Pancakes

The turnip version yielded a lower carb, lower calorie, higher calcium-containing cake. And puréeing the spinach made for the most vibrant cake in all of the land!  I’ve enjoyed them solo as a quick snack or topped with an egg for a nutrient-dense breakfast.

Turnips have a slight bitterness, so if you’re not a turnip fan, try replacing half of the turnips in this recipe with a white or sweet potato.

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Vegan Mashed Potatoes With Garlic Chives

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Vegan Mashed Potatoes

My entire life, I’ve been fooled into thinking that mashed potatoes take so long to make and are so special that they are a side reserved only for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And even after years of being one of the kitchen leads during the holidays {knowing that mashed potatoes are not tough} they still feel like a special occasion thing.

Boiled Potatoes

With that said, nothing particularly special happened today to warrant mashed potatoes.  I’m about to finish my first restaurant project {the construction portion}. And I’m about to head to Italy for the trip of a lifetime.  But nothing out of the ordinary happened that called for mashed potatoes today.

Mashed Potatoes

But as I wandered around Whole Foods after yoga {an atypical 40-ish minutes of wandering}, I kept thinking about potatoes.  And not quite the holiday potatoes I’m accustomed to, but vegan potatoes with garlic chives that I would later confuse by pairing with a steak.  Vegan potatoes with garlic chives that my steak-eating roommate said was the best part of his meal.

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The Quinoa Archives

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Quinoa Stuffed Grape Leaves

Other than the occasional quinoa with onions and green veggie side I’ve been making, I haven’t been too creative with quinoa lately.  So I decided to dig through the archives for some inspiration from FoodFash past.  And what I landed on were three recipes that I can’t wait to re-integrate into my meal rotation over the next few weeks!

Quinoa Stuffed Grape Leaves {pictured above}

Breakfast-Quinoa1

Better Breakfast Quinoa

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Quinoa Tabbouleh