Recipes

Recipes

Vegan Corn Chowder

• 4-5 cups fresh sweet corn
• 4 cups potatoes (Yukon Golds ideally)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 poblano pepper (or other pepper)
• Fresh garlic to taste
• 1 can light coconut milk
• 2.5 cups stock

Saute the veg in some olive oil, add coconut milk & stock. Simmer until potatoes are cooked. Season with salt, pepper, thyme, paprika. Blend half until creamy. Serve sprinkled with cilantro and scallions.

Potato Leek Soup

• 3 big leeks
• Potatoes, probably 4 cups
• Optionally an onion, if you're short on leeks
• Stock or broth

Saute alliums in butter until soft. Add potatoes, cook a minute or two to coat. Add broth, enough to cover the veg. Simmer until potatoes are well cooked, about an hour. Blend about half until creamy.

Camp Slaw

• 1-3 cups red and/or green cabbage
• Up to half as much volume as cabbage in turnips, carrots, kohlrabi
• Apple cider or white vinegar
• lemon juice
• Olive or canola oil
• sumac
• salt, pepper
• pinch of white sugar, to taste to balance the sours.

Shred veggies and mix in bowl or gallon freezer bag. Mix dressing ingredients to taste in a mason jar. 10 minutes to 1 day before serving, mix in the dressing.

Turkish Fusion Weeknight Chicken Pasta

Original Video

by Obi & Salma ‘middleeats’

Chicken wet rub:

• ~1.5 lb chicken breast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp garlic granules
• 1/2 - 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Chop up chicken, roughly bite sized, mix into the above wet rub. Allow to sit, if you have time.

~

Pasta and sauce:

• 250g / 1/2 lb pasta cooked to al dente with 1 chicken stock cube in water
• 1 medium onion (diced)
• 15g / 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 red pepper (diced)
• 2 padron peppers (thinly sliced)
• 4+ garlic cloves (minced)
• 15-30g / 1-2 Tbsp pepper paste [if you cannot find biber salcasi, you can use sriracha, doubanjiang (chinese spicy ben paste), sambal oelek, gochujang, or chili crisp]
• 15g / 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• 3 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp sumac
• 1/2-2 tsp pul biber [aka aleppo pepper]
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt (will vary depending on how salty pasta water is)
• 300-400 ml pasta water [added stock already in]
• 45g/3-4 Tbsp yogurt

Saute butter and onions for a few moments, then add half garlic. Then add chicken. After about 10 minutes, add peppers. After few moments, add the rest of garlic. After a few moments, add spicy pepper and tomato pastes. Add dry spices. Add pasta water, a bit at a time to deglaze. Aim to use about 300-400ml of pasta water (~1.5 cups). Then gently stir in yogurt. Serve with a dollop of yogurt on top.

Scallion Oil Noodle

Original Recipe Page

Chili Garlic Noodles

Original Recipe Page

Gochujang Garlic Noodles

Original Recipe Page

The Cat's Enchiladas

We typically make this with shredded chicken, but you could use any filling. Whatever filling you choose should be fully cooked before you assemble the enchiladas; they don't bake long enough to cook anything through.

First, get the chicken roasting. Thighs or breasts will work. Trim like you normally would, then set in an oiled baking pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a little oil (use a little more oil when using breasts). Bake until cooked through, flipping once or twice if you think of it. We just need them cooked, they'll get most of the flavor from the sauce.

Onto the sauce! Ingredients:

• 5 dried chili guajillo (these are pretty mild, and full of flavor.)
• 3 dried chili ancho or pasilla (these are a bit more spicy)
• 1 dried chili morita (this adds heat, fruit, and smokiness)
• 1 fresh jalapeno
• 1 medium onion
• 1 small tomato (note: this is not at all traditional, but I like it)
• 3-5 cloves of garlic. Or more, if you want. I'm not going to stop you.
• Cumin seed, coriander seed, dried oregano (ideally Mexican oregano, but use what you have. That's the best.) I don't measure these, but I'd guess 1 teaspoon of cumin and coriander along with 2 or 3 of oregano.

Cooking:

• Very Important: De-string and de-seed all the chilies! The membranes and seeds are quite bitter and will ruin the sauce. Don't worry, it'll be plenty spicy.
• Chop the vegetables. I just leave them in big chunks, it's all getting blended anyway.
• (Optional) Toast the chilies and spices in a dry pan. They only need about 15 seconds on the heat, just till you can smell them. The chilies can burn quickly, so err on the side of taking them out sooner, or just skip this step. Remove and set aside (ideally set the chilies aside in boiling water, see step after next).
• (Optional) Char the vegetables (onion, tomato, jalapeno, garlic). I do this in the same pan I toasted the spices in, and I just set them on high heat in a dry pan for a few minutes until they pick up some color. Turn them once or twice to get color on a few sides.
• Soak the dried chilies in boiling water. About a cup is good, but if you need a little more to cover them, that's fine. Leave them soaking until they soften, which I find takes 5 minutes or so. Don't discard the water, that'll go in the sauce.
• If using chicken, and it's cooked, add any drippings to the chili water.
• Put the chilies, liquid, spices, and veg in a blender and blend till smooth. Add water or stock if needed. Once blended, add salt to taste and adjust any other seasonings.

At this point, you can cool the sauce and keep it in the fridge for a day or two, or use it right away. When you're ready to assemble the enchiladas:

• Bring the sauce up to a light simmer. It doesn't need much cooking, just enough to bring the flavors together. It'll cook a bit more when it bakes, too.
• Mix a couple of scoops of the sauce with your filling. Most of it's going on the outside, but I like a bit with the filling too.
• Warm a tortilla, dip it in the sauce, fill it, and lay it in a roasting pan. Repeat until you run out of filling. This is messy and time consuming, and if you want to get 80% of the way there, you can just layer everything in the pan and pour the sauce over it.
• Pour any remaining sauce over the enchiladas.
• Top with cheese and crema (or sour cream, or yogurt, or skip it--can also gently fold crema or yogurt or sour cream into sauce before using it, if you wish for a dreamy flavor)
• Bake about 15-20 minutes. Everything should already be cooked, we just want to melt the cheese and get a bit of color.
• Serve with fresh cilantro, limes, green onions, or whatever strikes your fancy.

Coconut Saag

Adapted from NYTimes Cooking

• 3 tablespoons olive oil, butter, and/or coconut oil blended
• 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 3-6 green cardamom pods or teaspoon ground cardamom (freshly ground is best) [might need more!]
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 1 piece ginger, 1-2 inches, peeled and roughly chopped
• 5-20 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 pound mustard greens, roughly chopped, or any greens you have around like spinach, radish, carrot, etc (10 to 12 cups) (~half cup of celery is good too)
• lime, juiced
• 1 small Indian green chile, serrano chile or Thai bird’s-eye chile, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt (such as Morton) or to taste
• 1 (13-ounce) can coconut milk
• 1 (12-ounce) block extra-firm tofu (drained/pressed) or 1 (8-ounce) package paneer, cut into small half inch cubes [can use twice this without a problem] [If you wish to keep the paneer chunks in warm water at this point, it will be faster to warm them.]
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• half teaspoon asafetida (optional, but really fantastic)
• half teaspoon red chile powder, such as cayenne or Kashmiri
• Rice or farro or roti, for serving

In a large, deep pan or stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, warm the fats. Once it shimmers, add the coriander, cumin, cardamom, and toast the spices until fragrant and starting to brown, about 2 minutes. At this point, you can remove and grind them if you wish! Or keep whole.

Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute more.
Add the mustard greens, a large handful at a time, and cook until just wilted and still bright green. Don’t overcook the greens!
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lime juice, chile and salt to taste. At this point you can add a masala blend (ie baharat or garam masala) if you desire a bit more depth.

Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend into a chunky or smooth paste. Return the mixture to the same pan over low heat. Add tofu or paneer, stir in the coconut milk. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes more, until the white chunks are warmed through and has soaked up some of the sauce. 


Optional: While this cooks, in a small pan or butter warmer over medium-high heat, melt 2 tbsp of coconut oil. Add the 2 tsp cumin seeds, and once they start to brown and dance around in the pan, about 1 minute, remove the pan from the heat and stir in half tsp asafetida, if using, and half tsp red chile powder.
Pour the coconut oil mixture over the saag.

Before serving if you wish to stir in some yogurt or cream, it will be even better.

You may also top with pepper threads, crispy garlic, green onions, sprouts, anything really!