"Fake" Mashed Sweet Potatoes

....or I guess you could just call it Cauliflower, Carrot, Sweet Potato, and Cottage Cheese Puree..  But that sounds too scary.

I was making steak for dinner and wanted to make an appropriate side dish... Potatoes!  But I don't like potatoes.  Really, I think they're nasty (unless in fried form, which isn't necessarily suited to dinner).  

So I thought... sweet potatoes!  But then I'm thinking, too many carbs.  Sooooo.... I'll mix in some veggies!  And that's what I did.  But, it wasn't quite what I was hoping for.  It just needed something... delicious and fatty.

Cheese or butter or something.  I compromised taste and healthiness and went with a blend of parmesan cheese and 1 % cottage cheese.  Perfect.  This may not taste quite like your usual mashed potatoes, but I promise, it's a delicious and hearty side to any meal.

What you need:

1 head of cauliflower, cut into bite-size pieces
Olive oil spray
Salt and pepper
1/2 of a large sweet potato (or maybe 1 small), cut into chunks (for me, 4 largish chunks)
1/2 of a large (and I mean LARGE) carrot, cut into large chunks
1 cup Silk coconut milk (or normal milk, maybe 1 %)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup 1 % cottage cheese
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Pepper, garlic powder, and Season-All

Heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Boil potato and carrot in a SALTED pot of water until fork-tender (I really don't know how long this took... I was doing other things at the time and just let it happen).  Spread cauliflower over a lightly sprayed baking sheet and season with salt and pepper.  Bake until lightly browned and cooked through... about 30 minutes.

Place cooked potatoes, carrots, and cauliflower in a bowl.  Add milk, broth, cottage cheese, and parmesan cheese.  Puree with an immersion blender until (somewhat) smooth.  Add seasonings to taste.  Enjoy!

Chipotle Vegetable Soup

Mmm... I love pureed soups.  And nice autumny ones like this help me feel more like it's Fall, even though it doesn't seem like it here in the Caribbean.  This came about because I had certain things that needed to be used up in the fridge, the vegetable mixture is a little random.  I'm sure variations depending on what you have in your vegetable drawer would work as well.  

I served this with Pan-Seared Red Snapper and garlic bread for Rob.

What you need:
1 pound fresh pumpkin
1 large carrot
olive oil spray
salt and pepper
1 medium onion, chopped roughly
1 head of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
3 stalks of celery, sliced
1 yellow or red bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2-3 canned chipotle peppers plus a little of the adobo sauce (I used 2, but was torn between wanting more.  The flavor definitely came through with two, but 3 would have added some nice heat)
3 cups broth of choice (I used seafood in this because I was serving it with fish and had concentrated seafood broth packets that I wanted to try... but normally I'd use chicken)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 spicy V-8 juice (or tomato juice)
2 cups Silk Coconut Milk (or regular milk- I like this because it is slightly sweet which is nice with the pumpkin, and tastes richer than skim milk, which has comparable calories)
3-4 tablespoons fat-free cream cheese
1-2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
goat cheese and red pepper flakes


Start by roasting the pumpkin and carrot.  This can be done ahead of time if you want.  Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cut pumpkin into VERY rough chunks (maybe a few inches across) and the carrot into smaller rough chunks (about 1 inch pieces).  Spray a baking sheet with olive oil and spread the pumpkin and carrot across it.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Spray again with oil and then roast for about an hour, or until cooked through.  Set aside (or refrigerate until ready to use if doing this a while ahead).

Now for the rest of the soup: Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pot.  Add onions, celery, garlic, and bell pepper.  Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and just slightly beginning to brown.  Add in the roasted pumpkin and carrot, the broth, the soy sauce, and the spicy V-8.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat to medium-low and cover with a lid.  Let simmer for 20 minutes.  Add the milk, cream cheese, and apple cider vinegar.  Use an immersion blender to puree.  At this point, you may want to add more salt and pepper... I did (but I like salty and peppery).

Serve with a little crumbled goat cheese and red pepper flakes on top.  Enjoy!

Carrot-Sweet Potato Hummus

I made this using some of the leftovers from yesterday's Carrot-Sweet Potato Puree.  Tastes mostly like the regular hummus I make, with a little extra flavor.  Though that might be due to the slightly disgusting amounts of raw garlic I put in it... it's hard to taste too much of.  Anyway, it's delicious.  I also added a little tapenade-like topping for extra pizzazz, but you can skip it if you don't feel like it.  It's pretty intense, what with the extra raw garlic and red pepper flakes.  But I think it's delicious.

What you need:

1 cup Carrot-Sweet Potato Puree (or just roast enough sweet potatoes or carrots to make a cup and add those in with a little extra liquid)

1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 head of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped (or just a few cloves- the raw garlic flavor it pretty intense, so if you don't support a pretty passionate love affair with garlic, reduce it)

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

3-4 tablespoons tahini

1-2 teaspoons chili oil

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon fat-free italian dressing (or just add olive oil... I'm just trying to cut back a bit on the calories and this works well for me)

Simply put everything into the blender or food processor and puree.  In the blender, you'll definitely have to stir it around a few times to get everything to blend.  If it still isn't working, add a little more italian dressing or olive oil.  Refrigerate for at least an hour to let it firm up and allow the flavors to meld a bit.  Top with my tapenade-y stuff (recipe below) or just leave it plain.  Enjoy!

Oh, and try making some Veggie Chips to dip with.  Awesome.  Or stick with baby carrots, cucumber slices, or the chips of your choice.

"TAPENADE" TOPPING:

Chop the following finely and mix together along with 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt:

2-3 tablespoon pecans, toasted

4-6 cloves of garlic

scant 1/4 cup dried tomatoes

2 tablespoons green olives

up to 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

Carrot-Sweet Potato Puree

A nice side dish for fall. I served it last night with my Pork Chop Slop.  

I'm thinking about making leftovers into hummus for a little variation (blending it up with chickpeas, tahini, and more garlic).  I also think it would be good as an oven bake with a bread crumb/ nut topping, or thinned down with chicken broth into a soup.  But it's pretty darn tasty in it's own right as well, so don't feel like you need to change a thing.

What you need:

1 large sweet potato

2 medium/large carrots

1 medium onion

Olive oil spray

Salt and pepper

1/2-1 cup water

2 cups Silk Coconut Milk (not the regular canned stuff.  If you want to use that, I'd recommend just using 1/2-1 cup of it and adding water to make up the difference.  Or just regular milk, maybe 1%)

1-2 teaspoons garlic powder

2-3 teaspoons curry powder

2-3 teaspoons Ketjap Manis or soy sauce

Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cut sweet potato and carrots into 1-1 1/2 inch cubes.  Spray a baking sheet with olive oil.  Spread sweet potato and carrot chunks across it.  Peel onion and cut in half.  Place both halves on the baking sheet.  Spray with olive oil again and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast for 40-50 minutes, flipping once, until cooked and slightly browned.  Dump the vegetables into a large pot and pour 1/2 cup of water over them.  Turn heat on stove to medium-high and bring the water to boil.  Boil for a few minutes and then add the coconut milk, garlic powder, curry powder, and Ketjap Manis.  Bring to a boil again and reduce heat a little.  Cover and simmer until the sweet potatoes and carrots are quite tender.  Use an immersion blender to puree (at this point, add a little more water if needed to help with the blending). Add any extra seasoning if needed (I needed to add a bit more salt to mine).  Enjoy!

Baked Veggie Chips

Crispy, flavorful, and totally healthy.  The perfect accompaniment to any dip, or delicious on their own.  We made these to go with a brie, peaches, and hot pepper dish for a "fun supper" night (which I like to have every now and then while drinking a few glasses of wine).  They take a while, but the actual labor is not so much and the oven temperature is low enough that you do not need to be super attentive (also see note at the bottom for a quick fix alternative).

What you need:

Variety of vegetables (we used sweet potato, beets, carrots, and zucchini), sliced as thinly and evenly as possible.  A mandolin would be handy for this, but I just used a sharp kitchen knife and mustered up whatever patience I could manage (let's just say the slices were not perfect).  But, really, the thinner and more even they are, the better the results.

Olive oil spray

A couple of baking sheets 

Seasoning- salt and whatever else you want to add (pepper, garlic, cumin, seasoned salt)

After slicing the vegetables, pat them dry with paper towels to get rid of extra moisture.  Spray two large baking sheets LIGHTLY (all the vegetables are going to really shrink up and will end up greasy if you add to much oil.).  Spread the vegetables across the baking sheets so that they are just touching.  Spray lightly again and season with salt and whatever else you like (I've done just seasoned salt, just salt, and salt, pepper, and garlic on different occasions- all worked well).

Place in the oven and heat to 275 or 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cook forever.  Or 1 and half to 3 hours, depending on how thick you cut them.  Since the oven temp is pretty low, you do not have to check them too often and worry about burning.  The end result should be lightly browned, shrunken, and slightly crispy.  Once they cool a little, they will finish crisping up. 

Repeat with two more pans if you have the dedication (Two pans don't really make much because they shrink so much).

Enjoy by themselves or with the dip of your choice!

OR, IF YOU LACK PATIENCE:

You still have to suck up thinly and evenly slicing the veggies.  But I've made the beets, regular potatoes, and carrots in my toaster oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit or on a low broil in the oven for much less time (maybe 20 minutes with a possible need for flipping over).  For these, I didn't even spray the beets or carrots with oil, just added a little salt.  I did spray the potatoes though.  You have to keep an eye on them with this method because they can burn quickly.  Good luck!

Mediterranean Chicken and Roasted Vegetable Salad

Lately I've been on a serious roasted vegetable kick.  So this recipe is pretty similar to others I have posted recently, but has the significant addition of chicken.  No need for any sides other than maybe a little bread (though I did make a naan bread pizza with anchovies, fresh tomato, olives, and feta to accompany this for Rob).

Start by making the roasted veggies (these could even be made the day before and then stored in the fridge):

What you need:

A couple pounds of eggplant (maybe two medium- I used a variety of baby ones and part of a big one, because that's what I had), cut into 1-inch thick rounds
1/2 pound carrots or baby carrots- carrots should be cut into 1/8 inch slices and baby carrots cut in half if they are fat ones
1-2 red peppers, kept whole
1 medium onion, chopped roughly
1 pound cremini mushrooms, cleaned and kept whole

Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray two 13 x 9 pans with olive oil (or if you only have one, you can do this in batches, which is what I actually did).  Spread the eggplant and carrots across one pan, and the onion, red pepper, and mushrooms on the other.  Spray everything with olive oil and then season with salt and pepper.

Roast the eggplant pan for an hour and the other pan for 30 minutes.  If done, the vegetables should be soft and slightly browned.  Let cool and chop everything into bite sized pieces (make sure to remove the skin and seeds from the red pepper).  Place everything in a bowl.

For the rest of the salad:

1/2 pound- 1 pound cooked chicken, depending on how protein heavy you want it to be (see note below for cooking tips/ ideas)
1 cup sliced and quartered cucumber
1-2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 tablespoons capers
1/4 chopped Greek or Kalamata olives
1/2-1 cup chopped artichoke hearts (use the marinated ones if you don't mind the extra oil, or just the ones in brine, which is what I did)
4 anchovies, finely chopped
3-5 pickled jalapenos, chopped
1-2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
Black pepper, garlic powder, oregano, basil, and salt to taste (I probably used about 2 teaspoons each black pepper, oregano, and basil.  A ton of garlic powder, and a just a bit of salt, because my chicken was already seasoned, as were the veggies from the oven)

Optional (I would have added all of these, but circumstances on Saba prevented me from doing so):
1 head of roasted garlic, with the garlic squeezed out
Fresh Basil leaves
Fresh arugula (add this at the very end)

Mix everything together, refrigerate for an hour or a few, and serve on a bed of lettuce.  Sprinkle a little feta cheese on top if ya like.  Enjoy!


*Making the chicken:

You can simply boil the chicken, use meat from a rotisserie chicken (though not if you live on Saba), use leftover grilled, or saute some up like I did.  I used boneless chicken tenderloins and cooked them whole, because they are small enough that this works.  If I use breasts, I cut them up first.  Just heat your pan, add a good spray of olive oil, and add the chicken after it heats a bit.  Add a bit of salt right from the get go, because this helps the meat cook.  I also seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, poultry seasoning, and za'atar ( a Middle East spice mixture that I thought would work well with the rest of the salad).  When the chicken was almost done, I added a splash of white wine and lemon juice, turned down the heat to low, and covered it for the last couple minutes.  Once it's cooked, let it cool and cut into bite-sized pieces.