You know when you finally get off your ass and go grocery shopping, buy everything in sight, and then most of it goes rotten before you get the chance to cook it? No? Just me? Ok… So, I started to do this thing where I throw my veggies into the freezer before it gets the chance to go bad as a solution (why don’t you just cook them up right away and eat them instead of going out on dinners you shouldn’t be spending money on, you may ask? To which I say, stop asking me so many damn questions).
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| KALE/BEET/POMEGRANATE/RED QUINOA SALAD |
I finally had some time on Sunday night to do some cooking but since I hadn’t gotten any groceries for awhile, I scrounged up everything I had that was still fresh and some stuff I had in my freezer and came up with the following ingredients: 1 beet, kale, 1 pomegranate, 1 lemon, shallots, garlic, some dried up basil and mint, and Ziploc bags of frozen chopped Portobello mushrooms, Japanese eggplant, jalapeno, and Vidalia onion. With that, I came up with the following 3 dishes below. Cook what you got y'all!
DISH #1:
LEMON PENNE WITH MUSHROOMS
I really wanted lemon linguini (I dream of Dominick’s version of this very dish almost on the daily) so my one lonely lemon stepped in and the result? Absolutely delicious, of course.
Ingredients:
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp of butter
- Basil, roughly chopped
- Portobello mushrooms, cubed
- Salt and pepper
- Pasta
Instructions:
Boil whatever pasta you got on hand.
Meanwhile, heat up a pan on medium, throw in the butter and garlic. Once the garlic and butter have melted together nicely, add the zest and squeeze some juice from the lemon in there too. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Let it party together for like 5 minutes.
Your pasta should be al dente by now, so throw it into the garlic/lemon butter sauce. Once all that goodness is mixed up real nice (about 2-5 minutes) transfer to a serving bowl.
In the same pan with the remnants of the garlic/lemon butter still there, add the mushrooms, and fry them up until golden, then mix in the chopped basil, some salt and pepper and pour it on top of the lemon pasta. Add some grated parmesan on top and you're set.
DISH #2
KALE, BEET, POMEGRANATE, RED QUINOA SALAD
Ingredients:
- 1 cup cooked red quinoa
- Kale, roughly chopped
- 1 beet, grated
- 1 pomegranate
- 2 shallots, diced
- Dried cranberries, handful
- Sunflower seeds, handful
- Pumpkin seeds, handful
- 2 tbsp Cashew butter (you can use any nut butter you have)
- Hot sauce (I had some Portuguese pimento)
- Coconut oil (extra virgin olive is fine too)
- Chipotle
- Henderson's Relish (or Worcestershire)
- Salt and pepper
Instructions:
Heat up a pan on medium-high heat with a tablespoon of the coconut oil and add the diced shallots and the chopped up kale (don't dry after washing, the water on the leaves will help cook it). Cover the pan for 2 minutes or so until the kale just becomes soft. Transfer to a serving bowl.
Add cashew butter, and all your favourite sauces (I like pimento for heat and chipotle and Henderson's for flavour). Then throw in the pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, craisins, grated beets, some pomegranate seeds and salt and pepper for taste, and mix it all up with 1 cup of cooked red quinoa.
The pomegranate seeds add a nice tart kick but I only used like a quarter of what's in the actual pomegranate and saved the rest for a snack on its own. The red colour from the beets and pomegranate seeds look kick ass with the kale but leaves your kitchen looking like a murder scene, so don't wear your vintage YSL for this one.
Add cashew butter, and all your favourite sauces (I like pimento for heat and chipotle and Henderson's for flavour). Then throw in the pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, craisins, grated beets, some pomegranate seeds and salt and pepper for taste, and mix it all up with 1 cup of cooked red quinoa.
The pomegranate seeds add a nice tart kick but I only used like a quarter of what's in the actual pomegranate and saved the rest for a snack on its own. The red colour from the beets and pomegranate seeds look kick ass with the kale but leaves your kitchen looking like a murder scene, so don't wear your vintage YSL for this one.
DISH #3
EGGPLANT AND MUSHROOM CURRY
Ok, so this dish only works if you have a stocked up spice cabinet. Although my fridge may not always be full, I always have a variety of curry powder, paprika, saffron, etc. as well as a tons of different sauces (every hot sauce you could name, soy, chipotle, Worcestershire, mustard, etc.) on hand. If you're like 2% of the single twenty-somethings out there who have insane amounts of exotic spices in their kitchen, then this recipe is for you.
Ingredients:
- 2 tsp Cumin seeds
- 2 tsp Saffron
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1tsp Coriander powder
- 2 tbsp Curry powder
- 2 Japanese eggplants, cubed
- 2 Portobello mushrooms, cubed
- 1 Onion, chopped
- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Instructions:
On high heat, drizzle some olive oil on to a pan and sauté the garlic, jalapeno, and onions until golden and then add in the eggplant and mushrooms. Turn heat down to medium, mix in all the spices and add about 2 tbsp of water. Set it simmer for 15-20 minutes on medium-low.
Serve with the quinoa left over from Dish #2.
P.S. skip the jalapeno if you are sensitive to spiciness.
The aftermath.
Clean-up complete. Time to eat.
(Yes, that 2x2 countertop is my cooking space. If I can do it, you can do it)
