Category Archives: vegetarian

garlicky broccoli slaw

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Broccoli_Slaw

Last week I awoke to a bountiful produce delivery from From the Farmer on my doorstep. For any friends in the DC area, I couldn’t recommend From the Farmer more highly – they deliver fresh produce to your doorstep weekly. I love it because of the flexibility of From the Farmer vs. traditional CSAs or produce delivery services. I can suspend my deliveries if I know I’m traveling and won’t have time to put my produce to good use! This week my bin overflowed with peaches, heirloom tomatoes, peppers, baby eggplants, beets, broccoli, apples and more. I wanted a fresh and hearty salad, so whipped up this garlicky broccoli slaw with beets, apples, and almonds.

BrocSlaw_Ingredients

For the salad:
Three heads of broccoli
Two beets, peeled and diced
Two apples, skin on and diced
1/3 cup sliced raw almonds

For the dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic
juice from half of one lemon
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Start by roughly chopping your broccoli so it’s small enough to fit through the tube of your food processor. I used my the slicing disc attachment on my food processor to thinly slice the broccoli, but you could also use a mandolin or just roughly chop with a big chef’s knife.

Peel your beets and dice into bite-sized pieces. Dice your apple into similar sized cubes. In a large bowl combine broccoli, beets, and apples.

Mixture_slaw

Add your almonds.

Mixture_almonds

Next, make your dressing in the bowl of a food processor by combining garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle over all ingredients and toss to combine.

DressedSlaw

Serve as a side or enjoy all on its own as a salad!

xo,
julia

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pineapple salsa

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pineapple salsa_title

The Baltimore Ravens & San Francisco 49ers have two weeks to prepare for the big game in the Big Easy. While the teams practice kicking, throwing, and clobbering, these Hungry Texans will be hard at work prepping a Super Bowl menu full of culinary “touchdowns”. This pineapple salsa will brighten any Super Bowl spread, and it’d also make a killer topping for fish tacos!

salsa ingredients

 

Start with:

1 whole pineapple, diced
1 jalapeño, diced
½ red onion, diced
¼ cup cilantro, diced
juice of one lime

DSC_0210

Chopping and a little time are the only tricks to this recipe. Finely dice all of your ingredients and then combine. With a juicy pineapple the flavors meld quickly, but give your ingredients at least 30 minutes to marinate together before diving in & starting scoop with your favorite chips!

Soy Ginger Tofu with Bok Choy

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sweet&sour tofu

This is more exciting than you know! I’ve been a vegetarian for sneaking up on 4 years and this was my first successful attempt to cook tofu in such a way that it evoked the same “yum!-I-ordered-this-for-dinner-at-a-restaurant-and-I’m-extremely-satisfied” feeling. Huge win! The recipe couldn’t have been easier, either. Boston Boy & I hiked Great Falls Sunday and arrived home in desperate need of a quick & nourishing meal pre-movies (we saw Lincoln, and I don’t know that you need to rush to see it while it’s in theaters, but I definitely recommend it!). Did a quick dash to the grocery, cooked & ate it all in under an hour!

This Soy Ginger Tofu is great to keep in your wheelhouse for a simple, scrumptious din din!

bok choy sauce ingredients

For the Sauce:

1/4 c honey

1/4 c lemon juice

1/4 c soy sauce

2 tbl pickled ginger (fresh would of course be wonderful too, but this was a quick operation!)

1 heaping tbl garlic

1 1/2 tbl sriracha

Everything Else:

1 bunch of bok choy (thoroughly cleaned!)

1 package of firm/extra-firm tofu

1/3 c flour

pinch of salt

2 tbl canola oil

So, I recommend you start by situating your tofu. Slice your tofu into 1/2 an inch thick pieces and lay on a bed of paper towels. Lay more paper towels on top and perhaps even a cutting board on top of those paper towels. We want to remove as much liquid from the tofu as possible, as quickly as possible! While that’s being pressed/patted, start on your sauce. I recommend using one liquid measure and adding your honey, then lemon juice, then soy. Mix in your g&g & sriacha & let that rest.

Next (or meanwhile if you have a wonderful Boston Boy as your sous chef) clean and chop your bok choy (both the stalk and the leafy part) into bite-sized pieces.

bokchoyprep

 

Finally, once your tofu has rested for a while, slice each piece 3 times so you have 1 by 2 inch rectangular pieces, then coat each piece in your flour/salt mixture. Now it’s time to cook these babies! Heat your oil in a large skillet. Once your oil is hot enough gently place your tofu (you should see itty bitty bubbles surround it) in the oil. Let the tofu fry for 3-4 minutes and then flip once the bottom is beginning to look golden brown. Cook the second side (it’ll cook a little more quickly than the first) until it’s also golden brown.


tofu_sweet&sour

I removed a good amount of the oil in my pan (I know we’re frying, but we’re health conscious when we can be!) and then added the bok choy. Start by adding the stalky, crunchy parts. Let those get off to a good start cooking & then pour in your sauce. Let it all start to simmer then add the leafy green parts of your bok choy.

Let it all jive together for 5-7 minutes (the stalky parts of your bok choy should be tender with a slight crisp), and then remove from heat. Serve on top of your favorite grain – I choose quinoa!

Give it a try, you’re going to love it! And…I promise, even for all you tofu skeptics. This is a great gateway tofu!

creamy cauliflower soup

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I saw cream of cauliflower soup on a menu Tuesday and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind. The only hope of exercising these cauliflower demons was to try my hand at my own and I’m glad I did! Now if the fam and I hadn’t risen at the crack of dawn and Turkey Trotted with a couple thousand of our favorite Houstonians, I might have opted for a lighter Thanksgiving lunch in anticipation of the real meal later this evening, but alas we jogged/ran/walked 5k miles and deserve to refuel our weight in whole milk and half and half. Sass aside, this soup could have been way heavier. Baby bro even remarked it tasted “light”.

I borrowed the recipe from the Pioneer Woman, and it’s a keeper! You’ll need:

~20 chopped baby carrots

2 stalks of celery

1/2 one white onion

1 stick of butter

3 tbl dried parsley

2 heads coarsely chopped cauliflower (I used one white & one golden)

8 cups of veggie broth

2 cups of whole milk

6 tbl flour

1 cup 1/2 & 1/2

1 cup soup cream

salt & white pepper to taste

Chop your holy trinity, your mirepoix & roughly chop bothheads of your cauliflower. I think it’s fun to have a mix of floret sizes–some itsy bitsy pieces & some coarser, rougher, bigger pieces.

In your favorite soup pot, melt 1/2 a stick of butter and add your onions. Sautee until they’re soft and then add your carrots, celery, and parsley. Sautee for 5ish minutes until they get soft and then add your cauliflower. Put a top on your pot and wait about 15 minutes (this is where I got impatient, but it’s worth the wait!). Then pour in all of your broth.Put your top back on and bring the pot to a boil.

Once you reach a boil, turn the heat down a little bit & in a separate sauce pan melt the other half of your stick of butter. Pour in 2 cups of milk & whisk in 6 tbl of flour. You’ll have a great white sauce, then pour this into the simmering pot. Add your cup of 1/2 & 1/2 and let those flavors gel for at least 10-15 minutes or until you’re ready to serve. I seasoned throughout, but now’s a good time to start tasting spoonfuls until your salt & pepper are just right.

Right before you serve, dump and stir in your cup of sour cream. Serve with your favorite crispy bread–I recommend an herbed loaf (ours was rosemary!).

 

middle eastern roasted cauliflower

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Cauliflower is such a versatile and easy ingredient.  Mashed into potatoes or pureed into a soup, these hearty stalks are usually just happy to be eaten.  I rarely enjoy them in their whole form, but this recipe is so easy and tasty, it would be a shame not to.  These Middle-Eastern Roasted cauliflower are roasted to bring out their nutty goodness, then dressed with tahini and date syrup.  The result?  One of the most incredible veggie sides I’ve had to date (thanks to BB’s uncle in LA!).  Try this for a non-traditional Turkey-Day side or with a quick chicken curry.

You’ll need:

2 heads of cauliflower (I used one white and one mix of purple, green & yellow cauliflower)
3 tbs olive oil
4 tbs date syrup
4 tbs tahini
s&p

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Roughly chop your cauliflower into 2-inch pieces and spread them out in a baking dish.  Toss in olive oil and salt & pepper, then roast for 45 minutes, until they’re golden and crispy.

When they’re out of the oven, cover the roasted florets in tahini and date syrup.  Don’t have date syrup on hand?  Click through for this recipe!  Pop them back into the oven for a few more minutes to let all of the flavors come together.  Serve warm!

Butternut Squash Soup

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Confession. Until this soup, I’d never cut, cooked, or seen the inside of a butternut squash before. It was a lot more like carving a pumpkin than cutting a vegetable. Pro tip #1: don’t try to peel it with a vegetable peeler. Pro tip #2: when skinning try to cut rectangular pieces. Pro tip #3: I recommend scooping the seeds with a spoon. Another confession. I used Rachel Ray’s veggie stock. It was very good. It was seasoned way better than your typical veggie stock.

Collect all of these ingredients:

Your spices: thyme, cayenne, 1 bay leaf, salt, pepper
4 cups of your preferred stock
1 cup water
2 average-sized butternut squashes
1 leek (just the white and light green parts!)
3 tbl Butter
1/4 cup heavy cream

Chop, seed, and skin your squash in 2-inch cubes. Put it all in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and zap it for 14 minutes (14 minutes! yes, you read correctly). Once that’s thoroughly cooked, melt butter in a large pot, add the leeks & squash, cook for 10+ minutes. Then add 2 cups of your broth, to loosen your veggie mix up. Then add the second 2 cups, 1 cup of water & your spices (a couple dashes of thyme, 1 bay leaf, a pinch of thyme). Take the heat up a few notches until you get to a simmer, once you’re simmering reduce your heat and cook until your leeks look tender. Add the mix to your blender/food processor (be careful not to excede your “no liquid above this line” line). Pulse until smooth. Bring it back to the pot and back to a simmer. Add a 1/4 cup of cream for good measure. And season with S&P ’til it tickles your tastebuds.

Red, White & Blue Nachos

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Don’t wait another four years to make these red, white & blue nachos!  While this patriotic platter is a strong candidate for any gastronomical election, it can also make an appearance at a Fourth of July celebration or your next All-American Sunday potluck.

You’ll Need: 

1 bag blue corn tortilla chips

2 cups Monterrey Jack cheese (I used slices because it’s all I could find, but you could use shredded)

1 cup Pico de Gallo (store-bought, or make your own with tomatoes, cilantro, red onion, lime juice & jalapeno)

1 cup sour cream

1 lime

1 jalapeno, diced very small

1 can black beans

1 bunch cilantro

 

This is all about the construction, people.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and lay aluminum foil over a baking sheet (no mess!).  Spread your blue corn chips over the sheet pan and layer monterrey jack cheese on top.  Then spoon a tablespoon of black beans over each chip.  Yes, I know black beans are not red, white, or blue.  But what they are is delicious and full of protein.  Top with a sprinkle of cilantro and pop these in the oven for 6-8 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling.

While the cheese is warming up, combine your sour cream, juice of half a lime and half of the diced jalapeno.  Start stirring until…bam!  You just made Kicked Up Sour Cream.

Once the nachos are out of the oven, squeeze the other half of the lime over the whole thing.  Then top with your pico de gallo, jalapenos, cilantro & Kicked Up Sour Cream.

peace, love & snacks,

hungry texans

Election Night Chili

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“Chili today, hot tamale” has long been one of my fam’s favorite phrases. While yesterday brought chilly temperatures and piping bowls of chili, today brought neither warmer temps nor hot tamales (stay tuned for these HungryTexans annual holiday tamales coming soon!). Today did bring reheated lunch and dinner chili and I dare say this funky spin on chili improved with age. Important to note, this is not this HungryTexan’s normal chili recipe — that I can whip up blind folded, but this was inspired by a real recipe (Cook’s Illustrated, of course) and required a wee bit more focus. It also requires a lot more time, so I might recommend you file this as a weekend recipe or a weeknight you’ll be glued to your TV (ahem…election night).

los ingredientes:

2 cans of black beans

2 cans of white beans

4 racquetball-sized onions

12 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup walnuts

2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms

1 can diced tomatos (reserve that juice!)

3 tbl tomato paste

3 tbl soy sauce

2 jalapeños

1/4 cup chili powder

3 tbl oregano

cumin

veggie oil

1 cup barley

3 cups water

I recommend these three prep steps first:

  1. Combine mushrooms & walnuts in food processor until you’ve got a coarse walnut/mushroom meal
  2. Combine tomatoes (sans juice), tomato paste, soy sauce, coarsely chopped jalapeños, & garlic in your food processor
  3. Chop all your onions

With these steps under your belt, you’ll be ready to start simmering. Heat the oil (about a 1/4 inch high in your pot) and then dump in your onions, let those get soft and start browning, and be sure to salt them while they’re sizzlin’. Next, dump in your beans, add your chili powder, cumin, oregano. StirStirStir. Add your tomato mixture. StirStirStir. Pour in your walnut/mushroom mixture. StirStirStir. Add 1 cup barley & 3 cups water. Cover and let this bubbling pot ride the heat wave until your bulgar’s tender.

Serve piping hot and serve with your favorite dairy (I recommend that other HungryTexan’s sauced up sour cream!)

Gingered Parsnip & Carrot Soup

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As survivors of many a hurricane & tropical storm, these Texans weren’t terribly concerned about the Frankenstorm Sandy that threatened the East Coast.  But still, a girl’s gotta eat.  This is a recipe from my Boston Boy’s mama- she made it for Yom Kippur dinner last year and I would have seriously slurped up the whole pot if the rest of dinner hadn’t been so yummy (well, and because slurping up a whole pot of soup in front of your new boyfriend’s parents is pretty inappropriate.)

Full disclosure: I made this soup 2 days ago, also, for my house’s portion of an 11th street progressive dinner.  And then I made it again because it was so good.  It was the perfect amount for ~10 people at a dinner party or 2 people for lunch one day and breakfast the next morning when your eggs have somehow turned gross overnight.

you’ll need:

2 tbs olive oil, divided

1 lb carrots

1 lb parsnips

2 1/2 cups diced onion

1 tbs fresh ground ginger

4 cups stock (I used veggie stock the first time b/c my fellow HungryTexan is a veggietarian)

2 cups water

1/4 cup cream (omit if you’d like. BB’s mama doesn’t use this, but I couldn’t help myself)

1/2 cup thinly sliced parsnip to garnish

1 tbs chives to garnish

s&p, to taste

Start by dicing up your onion (I used red onion because that’s what i always had). Heat 1 tbs olive oil in a soup pot or dutch oven and let your onions simmer, covered, for about 5 minutes until soft.  While the onions are getting happy, peel and chop your carrots and parsnips into ~1 in slices.  Add your parsnips, carrots, ginger, stock, and water.  Bring this to a boil, then reduce to medium-low heat and cover.  Let this simmer for ~40 minutes until all of the veggies are tender.  Remove the pot from the heat for about 10 minutes.  Then blend using a food processor or your new adorable green emulsion blender.  I chose the latter 🙂  Season the soup with salt and pepper, to your taste.

And to top the soup, heat 1 tbs olive oil in a small saucepan and crisp up the thinly sliced parsnips until golden.  Finish with chives.

But wait!  You’re not quite finished yet.  I made some tasty gruyere croutons (which translated to a gruyere grilled cheese for our lunches).  Layer slices of Gruyere cheese between two thin slices of french bread or ciabatta and bake at 375 for ~15 minutes or until toasty.  Cut them into halves or into croutons.

Stay Dry!
xoxo,

The HungryTexans

football season: oven roasted jalapeno poppers

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just as there are different types of texas girls, boston boys come in all shapes, sizes, and levels of football addiction.  i happen to have found one with an overwhelming addiction to the patriots- so I know that one sacred time each week, he’ll be watching football and i’ll be dreaming of NFL strikes.  just kidding, it’s not that bad.  in fact, i could actually glue myself to a couch once a week…as long as i have these jalapeno poppers to keep me company.   they’re stuffed with goat cheese and neufetchal cheese and baked in the oven so you’ll get all the pop with a fraction of the fat.

 

you’ll need:

10 jalapeno peppers

3 tbs neufetchal cheese

5 tbs goat cheese

2 tbs non-fat sour cream

1/8 cup diced red onion (or chives, but i was using red onion for something else that night)

2 tbs bread crumbs

1 tbs olive oil

 

Start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees.  Slice each jalapeno in half and remove the stems and seeds

(if you love spicy, leave a bit of this in).

In a bowl, mix together the neufetchal cheese, the goat cheese, and the sour cream.  When it’s smooth, add the chopped onion.

Using a spoon, carefully stuff each jalapeno boat with the cheese mixture.

Sprinkle bread crumbs on top for crunch, drizzle the whole thing in olive oil.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until they are golden brown on the top.

Then, plop down on the couch, start snacking, and just remember: 4 hours of football earns you at least 3 installments of Real Housewives of Wherever (including WWHL).