Soft Herb Pesto

I hate throwing away leftover herbs. And I love pesto, so this is a win win. You can use pesto on pretty much anything. On pasta, to dip bread into, in a omelette, under the skin for roasted chicken, spread on fish. . . on a spoon like I sometimes do. Traditionally pesto has Parmesan cheese, but you really won't miss it here.

Herbs:
The only thing to remember is to use mostly soft herbs. That would be parsley, basil, cilantro, tarragon, chervil, chives, mint. They usually have soft stems. Woody herbs would be rosemary, thyme and oregano. It's not that you can never include the woody ones, but just a little bit or else it won't blend up nice and smooth. Plus their flavor can be much more potent, so you don't need a ton.

For this batch, I used cilantro, mint and a little basil.

Nuts:

Pinenuts are usually used in pesto. If you have them, but all means use them because they're creamy and delicious. I hardly ever use them because they're so damn expensive. However, I usually have almonds in my freezer (where all nuts should be stored) and they work great. Trader Joes is great for nuts. They have the best prices. I've also used pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, what have you. This recipe is a guideline, not set in stone. 

The toasting of the nuts, however, IS. This is a vital step not to be skipped. It really brings out the flavor of the nuts and adds richness to the pesto.

Garlic:

My mother and I have a rule. Whatever the recipe says, triple the garlic. Ok, I know for some people that sounds extreme. In the case of pesto, or any application where you're using the garlic raw, this rule does not apply. My sister Emily once made that mistake with Gazpacho and YEOWZA! Holy garlic!!! So I put 1-2 cloves in this pesto. If you're not a fan of garlic, you may even go half a clove. 

So here we go...

Soft Herb Pesto

1/4 cup sliced almonds (or other nuts)

2 1/2 cups soft herbs, lightly packed

1-2 cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled

1 1/2 Tbs fresh lemon or lime juice

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Place the nuts in a dry skillet. Turn on to medium heat and slowly let the nuts toast, tossing pretty regularly. Keep an eye on them because they can burn pretty easily. Once you can start to smell them and they get lightly golden, they're ready.

Place nuts, herbs, garlic and juice in a blender and puree. With the blender running, slowly pour in the olive oil until you have a smooth emulsion. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put it on everything.

Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus

Many years ago, I WAY OD'd on hummus. To this day, I don't usually love it because of how much I ate at one time. This recipe isn't technically a hummus because I don't use (or really care for) Tahini. If you love it, by all means, add a bit.

This is a sweet and savory bean dip that is great with veggies, pita or as a spread on a sandwich.

Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 2" pieces

4 Tbs olive oil, divided

1 14.5 oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 clove of garlic, peeled

1-2 Tbs fresh lemon juice (or to taste)

1 Tbs fresh parsley or chives, chopped

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400.

Place the sweet potato on a sheet pan and drizzle with 2 Tbs olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss and roast for about 20 minutes, or until golden.

Place roasted sweet potato, drained garbanzo beans, and garlic in a food processor and puree.  If it's having trouble mixing well, you can add a couple Tablespoons of water to get it going. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and puree again until smooth. Add the herbs at the last minute and season to taste.

Winter in a bowl

The other day I was craving some stick to your ribs soup. But being the holidays and with my increased consumption of sugar and crap in general, I wanted to keep it healthy. Here's what I came up with. It's delicious. Sorry there are no pics with this one. I sort of threw it together and didn't photograph anything because I didn't expect it to be blog-worthy. Boy was I wrong.

Notes:

As far as the fresh herbs I used, I love buying the Poultry pack from herb section of the grocery store. You get a few of just enough without having to buy whole, individual packets.

If you don't have an immersion blender, you can definitely use a regular one, but be sure blend the hot soup in batches. DO NOT fill the blender past half way. Hot liquid expands and you risk burning yourself. Return the blended soup to the pan when the soup is smooth.

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

3 carrots, cut into 2" chunks
2 medium rutabaga, peeled and cut into 2" chunks
2 medium turnips, peeled and cut into 2" chunks
4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
Half of a medium yellow onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
1/2 cup brandy, cognac, or sherry
6 cups vegetable stock
1 Tbs minced fresh sage
1 Tbs minced fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the carrots, rutabega, turnips, thyme, and 2 Tbs of olive oil on a large sheet pan. Toss with salt and pepper and roast for 45 minutes to an hour, until soft and lightly browned. Toss a couple times throughout the roasting process so they brown evenly. Remove from the oven and set aside.

In a medium sized pot, heat 1 Tbs olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, celery and garlic and saute until onions are translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Add the cognac (carefully if you're using a gas range) and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook about 30 seconds. Add the roasted root vegetables and 4 cups vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and add sage and rosemary and turn off the heat.

Using an immersion blender (See note above), puree the soup until everything is very smooth. At this point, the texture of the soup is up to you. I added the additional 2 cups of stock because I wanted it a bit thinner and bisque-like, but it's entirely your own preference. Season the soup well with salt and pepper and reheat if necessary.

I ate it with some toasted grainy bread and a drizzle of good olive oil.

Mmmmmmmm

Isn't it hard to make pickles??

A couple weeks ago I was at work at the restaurant. I was doing my morning opening duties and I noticed that our giant jar of Spanish Queen Olives that we use for martinis was almost gone. "Ooohhh", I thought. "That would be good for pickles". So I put a note on the jar for the other girls to save me the jar when it was empty. A couple of them asked me, "isn't it hard to make pickles???" Heavens no. Couldn't be simpler. And pickles aren't just cucumbers. You can use any hard vegetables. Cauliflower, carrots, green beans, zucchini, summer squash, cabbage, turnips, kohlrabi, what have you. What's great about this recipe is that they are ready in 1-2 days and they can stay  in the fridge for 3 months! If they last that long. Due to the massive size of my jar, I doubled this. Just make sure the vegetables are completely submerged in the brine.

YAY PICKLES!

Crispy Pickled Vegetables
recipe from: The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Berley

4 cups water
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup coarse sea salt
1 Tbs finely chopped garlic
3 bay leaves
2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)
8 cups assorted hard vegetables, but into bite-sized pieces
3 or 4 sprigs fresh dill

1. To make the pickling brine, combine the water, vinegar, salt, garlic, bay leaves, mustard seeds, and turmeric in a saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

2. In a 3 quart glass or ceramic bowl, combine the vegetables and dill - or pack the vegetables into clean mason jars. Cover with the cooled  brine and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

Before

After

What should I make with that stock??

How about this?

In most of the country (though not here in Los Angeles) the days are getting chillier. How about warm up with this yummy Indian inspired soup...

Indian Spiced Cauliflower Soup

2 Tbs Coconut oil
6 cups cauliflower, cut up into florets
2 carrots, cut into a large dice
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 small onion, diced
1" pice of ginger, peeled and finely minced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp curry powder
1 quart vegetable stock
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tsp tamarind paste (if you don't have this/don't feel like buying it, you can use the other half of the lemon's juice)
sea salt

Melt the coconut oil into a soup pot over medium high heat. Add the cauliflower, carrots, garlic, onion, ginger and saute until the onion starts to soften. Add all spices and saute, stirring often to toast the spices. Add the stock and cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until cauliflower and carrots can be broken up with a wooden spoon, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from the heat and puree' the soup with an immersion blender (or in a conventional blender) until smooth. Be careful, it's hot. Add tamarind paste, the juice of half a lemon, and sea salt to taste.

Mmmm, spicy comforting goodness

Secret weapon

I'm about to let you all in on my secret weapon, and it's made from garbage. That's right, garbage, waste, refuse, what have you. I started doing this years ago and it still proves to be one of my greatest innovations, though I'm SURE I'm not the first to do this. As we all know, stock imparts far more flavor  than water, but it can get expensive. So I started saving all of my veggie scraps (of which I always have many).  I throw them in gallon sized freezer bags and let them freeze till I have 2 bags full, then I make a great stock with all items that would have ended up in the trash. The last batch I made gave me 4.5 quarts! What a money saver! The following recipe is sort of a throw together. The measurements are approximate and according to taste. Some people don't salt their stock so they can have more control of the seasoning of their soup etc. Me, I like to season it. Also, I add tomato paste (which I also always have in the freezer. I mean who uses a whole can?) because I find it adds a nice richness. If you like a lighter stock, just leave it out. This is very much up to your own taste. Also, I make this in 2 large stock pots because I don't have one that's big enough. If you're lucky enough to have one of those MASSIVE Ina Garten, feed a crowd sized ones, lucky you ;) 2 great things about this stock: 1. It's basically free 2. It has practically no fat at all. WIN! WIN!
Happy stocking...

Veggie Stock

2 galon sized freezer bags worth of veggie scraps: Leek tops, butternut squash peels and seeds, the outside cap of fennel bulbs and their fronds, herbs that are starting to wilt, the woody ends of asparagus, kernel-less corn cobs, tomatoes that have gone soft (but not moldy), carrot peels, kale ribs, potato peels, pretty much you name it.

a few fresh carrots, broken in half

a few fresh celery stalks, broken in half

1 large onion, cut in quarters (no need to peel it)

3 cloves of garlic, smashed

small handful of whole peppercorns

2 bay leaves

combination of fresh/dry herbs of your choice

5 Tbs tomato paste

5 Tbs sea salt

1/2 lemon (optional)

Remove the veggie scraps from the bags and combine all ingredients except for tomato paste and salt into your stock pots (doesn't matter if they're still frozen). Top everything with water up to a few inches above the veggies. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling reduce to a simmer and cook 30 minutes, or until carrots are soft and falling apart.

Next is the straining. This is done twice. The first strain I do is through a colander. I do it in batches and squeeze the veggies with a wooden spoon to get out as much of the stock as I can. Discard the scraps after this. Next I strain it again through a fine mesh strainer to get out anything the colander missed and combine all the strained stock back into one of the pots (assuming it fits).  Now it's time to add the tomato paste and turn the heat back up to high.

Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer and cook another 30-45 minutes, uncovered. Add salt and taste. If using, squeeze in the juice of half a lemon. Pour into quart sized freezer containers and freeze. This batch made 4.5 quarts.

Inexpensive goodness

For those of us on a budget, and hell, these days who isn't, the bulk bins are our BFF's. If you don't have a store that has bulk grains, beans etc, I highly recommend finding one. Sooo much cheaper. This recipe is a new favorite at Chez Beaudin. It's good warm, cold, the day of, the next day. Overall very versatile, easy and inexpensive. It comes from a wonderful cookbook called The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Berley. I've made a couple modifications, but I want to be sure to give my boy Peter credit. While I love me some meat, vegetarian cookbooks are great because they prevent your veggie dishes from becoming boring. For my novice cooks out there, the reason you rinse and sort your lentils is because...
1. They get dusty, yuk
2. Sometimes little stones find their way into the mix. Nothing ruins a meal like eating a rock. Just sort through them and make sure there is all lentils in your lentils

Ok, here we go!

Warm Lentil Salad with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

6-8 dry-pack sun-dried tomatoes
1 cup green lentils, sorted and rinsed
coarse sea salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large red onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1/2 stalk of celery, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice, about half a juicy lemon
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
black pepper
chopped fresh parsley or cilantro for garnish

1. In a small saucepan, combine the tomatoes with water to cover. Bring to a boil, remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan, bring 2 quarts water to a boil. Add the lentils and boil, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Add 1/2 tsp salt and continue to boil for 10 to 15 minutes, until the lentils are tender, but still hold their shape. Drain, transfer the lentils to a mixing bowl, and toss them with 1 Tbs of the oil.

3. In a heavy skillet over medium heat, warm 2 more Tbs of the oil. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook, stirring often, until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes longer. Stir the vegetables and remaining olive oil into the lentils.

4. Drain the tomatoes, slice them into quarters, and add them to the lentil mixture.

5. Season the salad with lemon juice and vinegar, add salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with chopped parsley. Serve

Makes 4 servings