Tag Archives: ginger

Feb27

Slow Roasted Carrot Ginger Soup

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This is for all my friends living in colder climates. A little liquid sunshine just for you. A little spice to warm you up on those chilly nights. A little comfort food to let you know that you are going to be okay. And a little reminder that Spring is just around the corner.

Carrots are perfect for a pureed soup. They have just the right texture, sweetness, taste and the most beautiful color. Slow roasting the carrots brings out even more depth of flavor. I love this technique, one that I borrowed from the New York Times’ Mark Bittman.

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Apr29

Easy Noodle Stir Fry

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I love eating vegetables. I love drinking vegetable juice. I love smoothies with vegetables. I love shopping for vegetables at the farmers market. I love growing vegetables. I FRIGGIN’ LOVE VEGETABLES! And…I’m a mom of two teenage boys who until relatively recently hated most vegetables. This seemed really unfair to me. I took it personally. And felt like I had somehow failed as a mom.

I mean, come on, this is a big part of my life and I was unable to share it with my kids. Over the years, I would talk to other moms whose kids ate vegetables and pretty much whatever was served for dinner. I’d hear things like: “I’m not a short-order cook,” or “They have to at least try a tasting portion.” Well, this never, I mean never, worked in my house. It always lead to drama at the dinner table which took all of the fun out of our family dinner. I want that time to be one where we share and laugh and connect…not a time to argue, fight or negotiate.

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Jan13

Chai-Spiced Pecan Butter

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If I had to make a prediction for a 2014 food trend, I’d pick artisan nut butters. Yep, I’m talking $12/jar fancy shmancy nut butters. They might be a blend of different nuts or have special spices and flavors added. Of course, chocolate-hazelnut has been done and people love it. What about vanilla cashew butter or ginger brazil nut butter or cardamom almond hemp seed butter?

So I thought I’d whip up my own batch of trendy nut butter using good ole Texas pecans and chai spices. Making nut butter is so easy. Um, you put the nuts in a food processor and let it whirl around until it turns into nut butter. That’s pretty much it. I liked using pecans because I can get them locally since I live in Houston.  It’s our state tree and everything. Pecan trees, a species of hickory trees, are actually native to the U.S. and our country produces more than 80 – 90% of the world’s supply. So that’s neat, too.

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Dec11

Carrot Sweet Potato Juice

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SWEET POTATO JUICE??? Wah??? Um, yes! It’s awesome.

Got this idea today after yoga class. My friend Mayra and I were talking about juicing. (This is a typical post-yoga class conversation, btw.) I mentioned that as it has been getting colder, I mostly want to juice carrots. They seem more warming to me; because of their color, because they are a root vegetable and because they go really well with ginger.

Mayra told me about her friend or maybe her sister or maybe her sister’s friend who combines carrots, sweet potato and ginger for her cold weather juicing. SWEET POTATO???? Wah??? How cool! So I immediately went home to try it.

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Oct18

Cauliflower Eggplant + Potato Korma

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I bought Julie Sahni’s book, Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking, a REALLY long time ago. Like, I hate to admit this, but maybe 20 years ago. It has travelled all over the place with me, sat on many bookshelves and has hardly ever been used…until this week.

The book always intimidated me. The recipes are very authentic and somewhat involved. I’d never heard of most of the ingredients and had no idea where to begin. But I’ve been going to this awesome Indian street food restaurant here in Houston called Pondicheri and now I’m inspired. Big time! I’ve been making my way through the menu and discovering some amazing new things. This led to a field trip to my nearest Indian market.

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Aug13

FYG Savory Snack Time

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My inner kindergartener loves a good nap and depends on snack time to get me through the day. While I’ve pretty much mastered the art of trail mix and love a crunchy rice cake with nut butter, I thought it might be time to try a few new things. And, I’m trying to steer away from sweet things this week just because I do that sometimes. So I’m cutting back on dried and fresh fruit and other sweet things.

So today I made Blue Corn Paper Bag Popcorn; Ginger Sesame Roasted Chickpeas and Dill Carrot Chips. It took about an hour to make all three snacks, which I am happily munching on as I type this post.

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Aug5

Iced Rooibos Chai

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So do you ever go on vacation and pick up a new thing that you don’t regularly do at home? Like taking an early morning walk everyday or sleeping late and reading a book in bed or getting a massage. Whatever it is, when you’re on vacation it feels extra special, right?

I just got back from a two week road trip to Northern New Mexico. One thing that I adopted as my vacation thing was drinking chai tea almost everyday. It all started when we went to an Ayurvedic Indian restaurant in Santa Fe called Annapurna’s World Vegetarian Cafe.

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Apr24

Thai Vegetable Soup

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Look at all that gorgeous produce! That’s not even half of what I put into this yummy soup. I stuck my head in the fridge and just started grabbing things. I love to keep lots of fresh veggies available. Chances are they will be going into juice, salads, stir fries, you name it.

I was so excited when I found patty pan squash at a produce market this weekend. Yeah, I know it pretty much tastes just like yellow squash, but it’s so cute. And it was the inspiration for this recipe.

I sauteed onions, garlic, carrots, patty pan and zucchini squash, mushrooms, spinach and fresh ginger in coconut oil. I steamed some sweet potato and added that to the mixture. Then I poured veggie broth and coconut water over the whole thing and seasoned it with a Thai seasoning blend from Penzeys. To serve, I topped the soup with fresh cilantro, basil and lime juice.

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Feb18

Roasted Butternut Squash and Pear Soup

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This is my go-to recipe for a quick, light and easy soup/salad dinner. To me, it’s like a hot, savory smoothie. If you are used to cream or milk in your pureed soups, you won’t miss it a bit in this soup.  The texture and color are amazing: it’s silky smooth and bright, bright orange.

Start by roasting squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions and pears. The variety of vegetables gives the soup more depth of flavor.

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