Glorious Garlic

This week Lufa farms gave us the gift of garlic. Garlic keeps well in the fridge, but why not make the most of its germ killing properties in one delicious dose? I decided to treat myself to some fine tasting roasted garlic and let that inspire me. From there, I made some amazing roasted garlic and rep pepper soup, and a hybrid guacamole dip. Enjoy!

Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper Soup

Ingredients:

2 bulbs roasted garlic

4 roasted red peppers

4-5 shallots or a small onion

1 medium tomato

3 tbs. olive oil

6 cups vegetable stock

1 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp. dried oregano

½ tsp. chili flakes

salt and pepper to taste.

Start by roasting your garlic and peppers.

Slice the tops off the garlic and seed the peppers and cut them in half. Drizzle the garlic with olive oil. You can be generous with the oil because you can throw it into the soup later or keep it in the fridge for up to a week. Lay the peppers skin side up and place into 450 degree oven until garlic turns brown (30 minutes).

Your peppers will need about 10 minutes more for their skin to char. Let the veggies cool until you can peel the skin off of the peppers and squeeze the roasted cloves out of their papery shells.

Start frying the onion and tomato in olive oil until fragrant and soft. Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Liquify the soup in the blender or food processor and return to pot to simmer for 10 minutes more.

This soup tasted great enriched with a drizzle of cream!

I had some extra parsley and cream cheese hanging around in the fridge so I decided to experiment, so I made some hybrid guac. This dip had a great contrast of deep rich flavor from the roasted garlic and lots of zing from the parsley.

Ingredients:

2 bulbs roasted garlic

2 ripe avocados

2 tbs. cream cheese

4 tbs. chopped parsley

juice of half a lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Bung everything in a food processor or mash with a fork. Done. I ate mine with celery and crackers, yummy!

tofu green bean szechuan stir fry

Bonjour les amis! We've really been enjoying our bountiful veggie baskets from Lufa Farms, one of the world's only commercial rooftop farms. They amplify the bounty with fresh and local produce from local farms as well. The baskets have provided a variety of veggies and as a result I have been inventing new recipes and pimping old ones (tomatillos in my bean chili--booyeah!) Moreover, I collect my box at the local Green Peace office, and the people there are so friendly! I often end up chatting with other neighbourhood folk collecting their veggies. It's nice to feel part of a community of good eaters.

Here's a yummy stirfry that I think really captures some nice Chinese flavours like sesame oil, spicy szechuan pepper, and the delicious salty kick of soya. It helped me use up the tomatoes, onions, soya beans and green beans that were in my basket.

The flavour culprits that comprise most Chinese cookery: sweet, sour, salty, and umami.

Mix 2 teaspoons of sweetener (agave, honey, sugar, etc), 1 teaspoon rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil together, then taste. Does it taste like the makings of delicious stirfry? If so, you're good to go! If not, keep tweaking it, you'll get there. 

Once your taste buds are happy, mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in about a 1/4 cup of water.Mix those two together, then incorporate into the stirfry sauce, like so.

Now to get your spicy szechuan salt ready. If you don't have szechuan peppers, just add regular pepper or chili flakes, whatever you fancy to get your hot on.

It was my first time cooking with szechuan peppers, which actually aren't from the pepper family at all. They're some sort of flower pod. Neat! I toasted them over a medium hot flame and waited for them to change colour, stirring often.

I decided to turn my pepper into a pepper salt by crushing about 3 teaspoons of peppers and added that to 3 tablespoons fine sea salt. Now it's stirfry time!

The regulars in my wok: garlic and ginger, about 2 tablespoons each.

A pound of tofu, chopped up and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

A sliced onion and some chopped tomatoes will add some body to the stirfry (and use up some excess from the veggie basket!)

I shelled about a cup of fresh, organic soya beans and trimmed three big handfuls of green beans while watching bad internet TV (What Not to Wear--looking hot is all about showing your waist shape, apparently) while imagining that I was a farm girl in some parched and dusty town in the deep south, fixin' my vegetables on the front porch while mama was out back poundin' the grits.

Now for the actual stir fry process: are you hungry yet? First, fry the tofu in a bit of oil over medium high heat to cook t the cubes to a golden brown crisp.

I then added the soya beans and the green beans to the wok, giving a good stir occasionally. These greens were deceptively dense, took about 10 minutes to soften.

Next, the tomatoes, garlic, ginger, and onion went in. I wanted these flavours to stand out, so I added them last and cooked for about 5 minutes.

Remember the sauce you made earlier? Add that in now and give it a good stir. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of the szechuan salt mix and let that cornstarch in the sauce do its thing. Get everything nice and coated now!

You can eat this on rice or noodles, but I just had it on its own with some sesame seeds as a garnish. Oh, I probably added tons of sriracha as well.  The peppers made the stir fry taste quite zingy, without the burn of regular chili peppers, for example. I enjoyed the electric feeling on the tongue created by the szechuan peppers.

fancy food

A few months ago I was consulted for vegetarian menu ideas by my friend who cooked this lovely meal two summers ago. He is now working as a chef in Taiwan and cooks up fancy meals for embassadors and consular people at the Canadian embassy. He is "The Guest Canadian Chef Representative" for the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei. He is used by the Head of Mission to cater events at the Official Residence, showcasing Canadian cuisine and talent. He also promotes Canadian cuisine, performing cooking demos at cooking expos and culinary schools. Swank! 

I was so honoured and surprised when he asked me to share some ideas with him. The theme was French Canadian food with a vegetarian twist, which is why he decided to call in the "big guns!" i.e. little old me. French Canadian cuisine is not inherently meatless, but I came up with a million ideas, from lentil shepherd's pie, to pea soup, to sugar pie. I was even more honoured and surprised when he actually took some of my ideas and ran with them, adding his amazing culinary touches.

Vegetarian Split Pea Puree, Garniture of Leek Confit and Yellow Split Pea, Extra Virgin Olive Oil Scented with White Truffle

Wow. Just...wow. I wish I could taste this right now. People, I had suggested a simple split pea soup. This dish has been pimped to its maximum potential, and even involved truffle oil! This is why I have a lowly food blog and not a 5-star restaurant. I need to learn to extrapolate my cooking ideas. Otherwise, I see a lot of nondescript lentil mush meals in my future.

Terrines of Spring Watermelon, tones of Tomato and Basil, Pickled Red Onion and Watermelon Rind, Kalamata Olive, Feta and Organic Water Cress

This dish seems dead sexy to me. So fresh and colourful. It must taste like how splashing around in a lake on a hot summer's day feels: an invigorating journey to pleasure land.

Quebec Tarte au Sucre, Vanilla Black Pepper Ice Cream, Fresh Local Seasonal Fruit

VANILLA BLACK PEPPER ice cream. I scream "yes"! Give me it, now.

Let me know if you need some ideas or inspiration to help you cook up something delicious. Thinking about food is one of my favourite things, ever.

curry in a hurry

Greetings fellow eaters. I made a veggie curry, wanna see?

 The veg in question. Later I added mushrooms and frozen peas, because my dad loves frozen peas and he was partaking in this particular curry. That, and my mom asked me if I would put peas in for my dad 130,004,287 times during the making of this curry.

Chop the veg up. Put some effort into it!

Stir fry the veg (I like to use coconut oil) starting with garlic and ginger. Then add the firmest veggies in first, such as potatoes and carrots. After frying and softening the veggies a little, I added the curry paste.

I like to doctor the jarred sauce with a variety of India spices. It makes me feel like I actually cooked rather than mixed things around. Anything to boost the self-esteem, people!

Time to add in the softer veggies like peppers and mushrooms.

I love mushrooms in curries.

Yes, I finally added the peas, minutes before serving this on some quinoa. Quite the satisfying meal, and even tastier the following day!

green goddess stirfry

So fall is upon us, as is the time for heartwarmingly delectable stirfries. This here recipe is taken from the People's Potato cookbook and comes highly recommended by my taste buds. What's especially tasty about this stirfry its heavy reliance on peanuts and peanut butter. Sign me up, son!
I used a variety of green vegetables: broccoli, snow peas, cabbage, and leek. Use whatever you've got, though! You'll also need a couple cloves of garlic, minced, and a dice sized piece of minced ginger. Use some protein, like this nice chunk of organic tofu.

Put on some music and get choppin'.



This bowl of condiments is what makes the stirfry extraordinary: awesome sauce
- 3 big plops of peanut butter
- 1 plop of hoisin sauce
- 2 glugs of rice vinegar
- hot sauce to taste

Start seasoning your tofu cubes with salt and pepper. Fry until golden in coconut or olive oil. Set aside. You could totally add the tofu at any time during the stirfry process, but I like mine nice and crispy so I do it first.

Then,stirfry your veggies in coconut or olive oil starting with the most dense ones. I added the cabbage and leeks at the end because I like to keep things crispy around here.

When everything is nearly tender; between 10 and 15 minutes of stirfrying over medium heat, add the garlic and ginger, and the awesome goddess sauce. Add in a few glugs of water and stir well. Garnish with peanuts and enjoy!

Happy autumn, everyone!

Cleanse Smart

I've undertaken one of the nicest things you can do for your three cubic feet of blood and bone and meat. If you think about it, that's what we are, and why shouldn't we give our insides a good scrubbing? I am presently doing a cleanse from Renew Life and I feel amazing. What has happened to me so far:

-more energy, thus more yoga and running
-no dips in energy throughout the day, nice and steady!
-cleanse clarity: clear thoughts, less mental rambling
-my pores look smaller
-skinnier!
-lots of poop
-more motivated and concentrated
-awesome mood all the time
-no food cravings
-feel energized from eating, no more afternoon fatigue

What's more, here's what you can EAT when on a cleanse. I pretty much cut out all dairy, wheat and sugar. Everything is yummeriffic nonetheless.

Typical cleanse dinner: roasted veg mixed with red rice, some brussel sprouts (I LOVE BRUSSEL SPROUTS) and half a plate of salad. Awww yeah.

Following the greens/grain/protein train, here we have a tabouleh salad with tomato, some barley with a swirl of sriracha and a tofu burger. Did you know you can stick a tofu burger in the toaster? So quick and easy.

A delicious spicy vegan chilli with pinto and kidney beans. Made it epic with some fresh avocado and nutritional yeast sprikled on top.

Brunch for winners: omelette with leeks and peppers. Didn't even miss the toast!

Green goddess stirfry with peanut sauce. Snow peas, broccoli, cabbage and leeks turn into a feast of healthy goodness. Gonna blog this dish, it's definitely a keeper.

I'll continue to document my eating on the cleanse as I get cleaner and cleaner. I like thinking about food to begin with, and the cleanse is just another awesome challenge to encourage me to keep thinking up creative and healthy dishes!

Holy Tabouleh

You know you want an easy and extremely healthy salad that keeps well in the fridge. Trust me.


Gather the ingredients. A clove of garlic, a medium tomato, two cucumbers, parlsey, couscous, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Get cutting! Chop the veggies into uniform small bites. Mince the garlic and throw it in all together in a bowl. You can do this while listening to music, or watching something on your computer!

In the meantime, get your couscous cooked. It requires boiling water and 5 minutes of waiting time. The package or google will provide you with more information. As a wheat free alternative, you could substitute the grain with quinoa.

Rince the parsley well, trim off the stems and chop away as if your life depended on it. Do your salad proud.

Combine the ingredients and squeeze the juice of a lemon all over. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Done!

French Onion Soup

Can you feel the chill in the air? Why, just last weekend it was balmy and warm...September you fickle fool. I know what's coming though, and it's only going to get worse! The one saving grace about autumn is nature's bountiful harvest, and inexpensive, fresh and local produce. Although I enjoy visiting the Jean Talon market at any time of the year, it seems as though we are now in the apex of freshness and possibility.

I made a simple onion soup to keep the chill away on the first of fleeting fall days. Why is fall so short and winter so long?

The culprits in question: 5 onions, veg stock, thyme, butter, olive oil. Put these humble ingredients together and it makes a party for your mouth!

Methods I have seen used firsthand to prevent onion tears:

1) Wearing ski goggles whilst chopping.

2) Shoving a piece of bread inside your mouth between the teeth and upper lip.

3) Holding an unlit match between your teeth.

4) Keeping the onions cold in the fridge.

What I do: Nothing. I just cry through it. Enjoy the cathartic release, people!

After wiping away the tears, I massaged the onions in a soup pot with:

3 Tbs butter
3 Tbs olive oil
a few pinches of salt
a splash of water

Then it was time to sweat the onions. Cover with a tight fitting lid and cook over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. When the water has evaporated, remove the lid and it's time for the best part: caramelizing the onions! They go from firmly pungent white strings to sweet, softly yielding golden filaments. All in one hour, while making your kitchen smell absolutely fantastic.

When an hour has passed, it's time to make these caramelized onions into soup!



Add 6 cups of stock. I used veggie bouillon cubes but I am sure this soup would work amazingly with a homemade stock. Then, add about a teaspoon of thyme and simmer for 15 minutes. I tasted mine and it was way too sweet so I added a tablespoon of port vinegar to impart some tang to the soup.

Ce n'est pas une vrai soupe aux onions sans le fromage et le pain! Yes, so we need some bread and cheese to finish this baby off. Some multi grain baguette and some emmenthal grated and over top and then broiled should do the trick!

Get that bread in the soup bowl and laddle your creation over top. There's something slightly subversive about wetting toasted bread. It expects to stay crispy but I had other ideas for it!