Slow Cooker Indian-Style Black Eyed Peas with Coconutty Green Beans

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I love slow cooking on occasion with recipes that really hold up well in my Crock-Pot. I’m usually inspired on mornings when I have a little time on my hands (like an extra 20 minutes to prep the ingredients and wash the dishes utilized), and I know my night will be either super busy, or one where I want to just sit back, relax, and worry little about cooking.

These Slow Cooked Indian-style black-eyed peas hold up really well in a Crock Pot! They are vegan, delicious, and just the right amount of spicy. The coconutty green beans on the side are an added bonus (nearly as good as your Christmas bonus each year), and perfect served with steamed jasmine rice and naan (if you have the calorie budget for it). I ran 9 miles this morning, so my plate was pretty full, but from my estimated dietitian guess, I think this whole platter has less than 650 calories. So plan this next week on one of your less busy mornings, if you get a chance, so that you have a little less cooking to do than usual in the evening.

Slow Cooker Indian-Style Black Eyed Peas with Coconut Green Beans

Hands on Time: 30 Minutes
Total Time: 7 Hours
Serves 8-10

Black-Eyed Peas
2 medium tomatoes
3 cups dried black-eyed peas
4 medium serrano chilis, halved
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 large yellow onion, peeled and quartered
1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and quartered
2 tbsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp light brown sugar
8 cups water
1 14 oz can unsweetened coconut milk (light if preferred)
1/4 bunch cilantro, leaves roughly chopped, for garnish
Steamed jasmine rice, to serve (optional)
Naan, to serve (optional)

Coconutty Green Beans
2 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup white onion, chopped
1 bunch fresh French-cut green beans
1.5 tsp salt
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tbsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne chili powder

Directions
Heat a large pot of water over high heat and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, prepare an ice-water bath. Cut an X on the bottom of each tomato and add to water, boiling for about 45-60 seconds, until fully blanched, and skins appear loose. Add tomatoes to ice-water bath and peel and quarter when cool.

In a food processor, combine tomatoes, serranos, garlic, onion, and ginger and process to a fine paste.

Spread out black eyed peas on a large cookie sheet or platter and sort through. Add to colander and wash thoroughly.

Add black-eyed peas, onion-chili paste, salt, cumin, turmeric, coriander, and sugar to a 5-quart slow cooker. Pour water over and cook on high for 6 hours. Test for doneness, add coconut milk, and keep warm (or cook a little longer on high, uncovered, if needed) while preparing remaining ingredients.

Prepare green beans by adding olive oil to a medium skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute for 5-6 minutes, until soft. Stir in green beans, cover, and cook for 10 more minutes.

Remove lid from skillet and add shredded coconut, salt, turmeric, and cayenne. Add additional olive oil if needed, stir occasionally, and saute for 10 minutes, until greens are tender and dark green.

Ladle black-eyed peas over rice with green beans and naan on the side.

Mushroom Tacos with Roasted Chilies and Corn

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Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the healthiest tacos you have ever seen! These vegetarian tacos with mushrooms, corn, and chili peppers are tasty and full of textures that will please even the most stubborn meat eater. You can probably taste the flavor from here, but if you’re not sure, these tacos have all that roasted yumminess you’d expect with an additional scrumptious bite from the corn and mushrooms.

Adrian and I left a note on our recipe a while back that these tacos are also the most gourmet tacos that we make, and we still agree. So now it’s your turn to tell me, are these on your list for Taco Tuesday yet? It’s only Friday now, so you have plenty of time to prepare!

Mushroom Tacos with Roasted Chilies and Fresh Corn

Serves 4
Time: 30 Minutes

Ingredients
3 Anaheim and/or poblano chili peppers
1 poblano chili, charred over gas flame, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 ear corn, kernels removed from cob (about 1 cup)
Olive oil, about 2 tbsp, divided
Sea salt
1/2 white onion, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
4 garlic cloves, minced
12 corn tortillas
6 oz baby bella mushrooms, stems removed, roughly chopped
1 tbsp fresh epazote leaves, roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup feta, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1/4 cup Roasted tomato salsa, divided
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Directions
Char chilies over gas burner on all sides. Place in a medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let cool. Peel (do not wash) and cut into 1/2 inch dice.

In a small bowl, add corn, 1 tsp olive oil, and a pinch of salt.

Heat a large dutch oven or heavy skillet over high heat. Spread out corn in pan and roast for about 30 seconds until slightly blackened. Set corn kernels aside.

Add 1 tbsp olive oil to the same pan over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and reserved chilies and saute, until onions are soft and begin to brown, about 6-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Meanwhile, lightly fry corn tortillas and blot on paper towels.

Add 1/2 tbsp olive oil to the same pan over medium heat. Add mushrooms and saute until mushrooms are soft, about 4-5 minutes. Add the reserved chilies, corn, and feta, and stir in epazote. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, spoon about 1/4 cup vegetables onto each tortilla. Dollop with salsa, cilantro, and garnish with parmesan. Serve immediately.

Poached Black Cod with Butter Beans and Brussels Sprouts

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For those of us who love to cook, weekday meals are usually a bit quicker than those on the weekend. Because of that, we sometimes miss out on delicious flavors that take time to develop. Not so with this meal!

Whether you’ve had a hum-drum Monday at work or stayed late on a Thursday to finish up your busy day, you will have time to make this healthy omega-3 packed recipe. The fish broth that develops in ten minutes from poaching the fish is so delicate that you’ll feel as if you’re eating like royalty at a high-end restaurant, when in fact, you’ve saved a few dollars, and you’re sitting comfortably at your dinner table, which is no doubt one of the best places you can be!

Poached Black Cod with Butter Beans and Brussels Sprouts

Time: 30 Minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tbsp lemon zest
4 cloves garlic
3 tbsp minced chives
4 6-oz black cod fillets
2 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, sliced
30 Brussels sprouts, quartered and cored
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 (15 oz) can butter beans

Directions
In a small bowl, make a gremolata by stirring together lemon zest, garlic, and chives.

Pat the fillets dry and season with salt and pepper and half of the gremolata.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallot and saute for 1 minute. Add the Brussels sprouts, season with salt and pepper, and sautee until brussels sprouts turn bright green, about 2 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a simmer. Carefully ladle fillets into broth. Cover the skillet and cook until fish is cooked through and the sprouts are tender, about 10 minutes.

While fish poaches, heat beans in a microwave-safe bowl for about 1 minute. Lightly mash beans with the back of a fork and divide between deep plates or bowls. Serve fish over beans in a deep plate or bowl, and ladle in broth. Garnish with gremolata and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Thai Basil Pork

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Adrian and I have been obsessed with Thai Basil Pork ever since we visited Thailand in 2012. I have a fuzzy memory about how we actually discovered the dish there – I think one of our Thai friends recommended it, but couldn’t quite explain what it was. We thought the name was funny enough that we set out to learn its true components and master them when we got home. And that we did! It’s jam packed with flavor and quick to make, which means that we make it at least once a month!

Below is our recipe that we’ve adapted from several different variations online. I’ve tried to make notes where you can adjust ingredients if you don’t have access to them. But if you’re not sure what they are (maybe you’ve never heard of holy basil), do Google them! They’re worth learning about and even trying.

Thai Basil Pork

Time: 25 Minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients
3 Limes, juice of, divided
1.25 lb ground pork, chicken, turkey, or beef
4 tablespoons peanut oil or canola oil
10 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 shallots, finely chopped
3 green onions, sliced thin
10 bird’s eye chilies, minced (less for mild, more for Thai spicy)
3 tbsp toasted rice, divided
2.5 tablespoons fish sauce
1.75 teaspoons palm sugar or light brown sugar
1 teaspoon kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
2 bunches holy basil, stems removed (sweet basil and Thai basil work well)
¼ tsp ground white pepper + more for garnish
Steamed jasmine rice, to serve
4 Fried Eggs

Directions
While prepping above ingredients, marinate pork with juice of one lime.

Add oil into a heated wok. Add chopped garlic, shallots, and green onions. Stir fry until aromatic, then add the pork. Use the spatula to quickly stir-fry and break the pork into small lumps.

When the pork changes color, toss in the chilies, 2 tbsp toasted rice, and the seasonings (fish sauce, palm sugar, and sweet soy sauce) and continue to stir-fry.

Add in the basil leaves and do a few quick stirs until the basil leaves are wilted. Sprinkle in ground white pepper powder, do a final stir, and and serve immediately over steamed jasmine rice, garnished with toasted rice, a dash of ground white pepper, and topped with a fried egg.

An Ethiopian Feast Fit for a Sunday: Doro Wot with Gomen

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Ethiopian food is one of my favorite cuisines. It might be because I’m allowed to eat with my hands (with a little injera as my utensil), which makes me feel just a little more connected with my food than usual. But it’s mostly because it’s tasty! If you haven’t tried it before, it could be your favorite cuisine too. The flavor profiles are similar to Mexican and Indian and the dishes are imbued with healthy spices that are addicting to boot.

Luckily in 2016, the spices in my recipes below (berbere, fenugreek, korerima, tikur azmud), butter (niter kibbeh), and bread (injera) can be purchased online if you don’t live near a local Ethiopian market (do Yelp your local metropolitan area to find out). If purcashing online, try amazon.com and ethiopianspices.com for spices and pureindianfoods.com for niter kibbeh. Injera can also be found at ethopianspices.com, but I just found a listing on Etsy from Fassica’s store that offers 100% teff, which is most authentic, and what I prefer. You can fold the injera over a couple times and freeze any leftovers for your next meal. We typically use a little over one injera per person. So if you’re serving four people, you’ll need about five.

Now for those of you who don’t mind putting a little time into your Ethiopian pantry, you can make your own berbere, kibbeh, and injera. Recipes aplenty exist online for berbere and kibbeh, but for injera, take a trip over to Avery Moore’s YouTube Channel where I learned how to make injera perfectly. Written instructions are on her blog, which are great to pair with the video instructions. It’s just a little bit of work for impressive rewards and some serious bragging rights. You don’t need the injera cookware that she uses either. I’ve used a large non-stick frittata pan without a problem.

Okay, so what do you do when you’ve read this post and have purchased the ingredients? You make a feast, of course! Below is a recipe for one of my favorite Ethiopian platters. It’s absolutely delicious and I promise that if you follow the instructions, you can prepare restaurant-quality Ethiopian cuisine in your home kitchen.

An Ethiopian Feast Fit For a Sunday

Time: 2 Hours
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Gomen
1 large or 2 small bunches collard greens or kale, roughly chopped
2 medium yellow onions, minced
1/4 cup niter kibbeh (Clarified Ethiopian butter)
2 medium roma tomatoes, chopped
2 jalapeños or 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tbsp fresh garlic, minced
1 tbsp tikur azmud (a.k.a. black seed, black cumin; nigella)
2 cups warm water
Salt, to taste

Doro Wot
1.5 lbs chicken pieces (boneless thigh, legs)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp salt
2 onions, minced
1/3 cup berbere
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp niter kibbeh (Clarified Ethiopian butter)
1 tsp ginger root, minced
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds, ground
1/4 tsp korerima, ground (varied spellings; a.k.a. Ethiopian Cardamom)
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup dry red wine
3/4 cup water
4-6 eggs (older eggs = easier peel)
2 tbsp vinegar
1/2 tbsp salt
Ice, for ice water bath
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Salad
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
1 medium tomato, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1-2 jalapeños, finely chopped or 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
4 oz Danish white cheese or feta, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Olive oil & vinegar salad dressing, to taste (about 3 tbsp)

To Serve
Injera, 5 rounds

Directions
In a medium mixing bowl, rub chicken with lemon juice and salt. Cover and place bowl in refrigerator to marinate while preparing the rest of the dish.

To prepare Gomen, in a large saucepan, add onions over low heat without oil, and stir occasionally, for 15-20 minutes, until golden. Add tomatoes, jalapeños, garlic, and tikur azmud, and cook for 2 minutes. Add kibbeh, and cook for 5 minutes. Add greens and water and simmer until tender for 35-45 minutes. Set aside and keep warm.

Meanwhile, prepare Doro Wot. In a large dutch oven, cook onions over low heat, stirring occasionally until golden, for about 15-20 minutes. Add berbere, garlic, and 1/4 cup water and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in kibbeh and sauté for 2 minutes. Add remaining spices, 1/4 cup water, and sauté for 3-5 minutes. Add wine, 1/4 cup water, and bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, on a high simmer for 5 minutes. Add reserved chicken and coat with sauce, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

While chicken simmers, start eggs in saucepan with 6 cups water, vinegar, and salt, and heat uncovered to a 180F simmer (e.g. bubbles should just begin to break the surface). Shut off the heat and leave on burner for 10 minutes, and prepare an ice water bath. When eggs are done, add to bath and let sit for 5 minutes to cool. Carefully peel eggs and pierce with a fork on all sides and reserve.

Prepare salad by adding all ingredients to a large bowl. Mix and set aside.

When the chicken is tender and the sauce has thickened, add eggs and simmer until eggs have soaked up the sauce, about 5 minutes. Add black pepper and remove from heat.

Serve Gomen, Doro Wot, and the salad over injera with extra rolls of injera on the side.

Mahi Mahi With Avocado-Chile Salsa & Tropical Rice

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Healthy Mahi Mahi with Tropical Rice is surely a taste of paradise  Like my rhyme? Lol, regardless, here is a really, really good recipe that might take your taste buds on a trip to your favorite vacation spot for a little while.

Time: 45-60 Minutes
Serves 4

Mahi Mahi
4 Mahi Mahi fillets (about 1.5 pounds)
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Salsa
1 ripe avocado, diced into ¼-inch chunks
2 plum tomatoes, diced into ¼-inch chunks
3/4 cup red onion, minced
1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1/2 cup cilantro, minced
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Tropical Rice
1.5 cups Whole Grain Brown Rice
1 cup Light Coconut Milk
2 cups Low-Sodium Chicken Broth
8 ounces, Canned Pineapple
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
1 teaspoon Brown Sugar
Toasted Coconut, for Garnish
Green Onions, chopped, for Garnish

Directions
Line an oven safe dish with foil. Add fish and marinade ingredients and let sit for 20-30 minutes before broiling. Preheat broiler.

While fish marinates, prepare salsa ingredients and add to a large mixing bowl. Mix and set aside.

Prepare tropical rice. You have two options here: First option: combine the first three ingredients in a rice cooker and cook until rice is tender. Second option: Combine rice, coconut milk, and broth in a medium pot or dutch oven and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook covered for 30 minutes. Test the rice for doneness and add more liquid if not soft (note that brown rice tends to be a little al dente). Fluff rice with fork and add remaining ingredient, topping with toasted coconut and green onions.

While rice cooks, broil mahi mahi for 6-8 minutes per side.

Serve the fish with the salsa on top and tropical rice on the side.

Purple Cauliflower Soup

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Utilizing different varieties of every day foods can mix things up and make cooking more fun and enjoyable. Case in point: Purple Cauliflower Soup! I eyed four different varieties of cauliflower at the store last week with colors ranging from white, to yellow, to green, and purple. Without having a recipe in mind, I grabbed the purple variety without hesitation because I felt like I needed more anthocyanins in my diet at that moment. We all know that feeling when we’re yearning for one pigment over another, right?

Haha, okay, so if you don’t know what anthocyanins are, they’re a pigment that belongs to the flavanoid class of molecules, and tend to make foods look red or purple (think blackberries or cranberries). But what’s really cool about them is that they might be antioxidants and could potentially fight cancer. We don’t have enough studies to prove this yet, but at least know that eating different varieties of fruits and vegetables can provide you with diverse chemical compounds to keep you healthy in the long run.

Want to know the coolest thing about my recipe below? Sprinkling lemon causes a chemical reaction that transforms the anthyocyanin pigment from purple to pink! So if you have kids (or just want to entertain the child within you), have fun getting a little artsy at home with this easy, delicious, and absolutely healthy meal!

Purple Cauliflower Soup

Time: 50 Minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 large head purple cauliflower, roughly chopped
2 medium shallots, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
4 cups vegetable stock
2 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt, to taste
Juice of 1 lemon, to garnish
Olive oil, to garnish
Smoked paprika, to garnish
Chives, to garnish

Directions
In a large saucepan or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic and cook until soft, about 4-5 minutes. Add cauliflower, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Add stock and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer uncovered for 25-35 minutes, or until cauliflower is soft. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Puree soup immediately with an immersion blender or let soup cool for a few minutes before pureeing in batches with a food processor or a conventional blender. Ladle soup into bowls and serve with drizzled lemon, olive oil, smoked paprika, freshly ground pepper, and snipped chives.

Fettuccine with Guanciale and Garden Fresh Tomato Sauce

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Sometimes your best meals are impromptu and deliciously unexpected. Adrian and I were really hungry, but weren’t sure we had anything on hand to make for dinner. That is… until we saw a bunch of ripe tomatoes and fresh basil in our garden, begging to be cooked up into a sauce!

We found that we had a partially used box of fettuccine noodles, a little bit of parmesan, and frozen guanciale from a lovely farm in Davis. Scouring our pasta recipes, we adapted one by by Scott Conant featured on Serious Eats, but simplified it a bit. I’m not kidding when I say that this is definitely the most delicious pastas we’ve ever made and possibly ever eaten (sorry Scott!). I can’t quite vouch for this being the healthiest thing you’ll eat all week, but that’s okay on occasion! A little guanciale or bacon every now and then is perfectly fine. Just serve this one with a side salad, and this Diet Assassinista says you’re good to go.

Fettuccine with Guanciale and Garden Fresh Tomato Sauce

Serves 4-6
Time: 45 Minutes

Ingredients
Ripe plum tomatoes, 20
Ice
Olive oil, 3 tbsp
Butter, 2 tbsp
Crushed Red Pepper
Salt and pepper, to taste
Garlic, 6 cloves, chopped
Basil, 1 small bunch, chopped
Guanciale, ½ cup, chopped
1 lb. dry fettuccine noodles
Parmesan Reggiano, 1 oz , about ½ cup , grated

Directions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Have a large bowl of ice water nearby. Cut a small X on the bottom of each tomato. Ease about 5 tomatoes in the pot and cook. Let boil for about 15 seconds or until skins appear loose and promptly move them into the waiting ice water. Do this with remaining tomatoes.

Pull off the skin of the tomatoes with the tip of a pairing knife. Cut the tomatoes in half, squeeze tomatoes to take the seeds and a little juice out. Reserve juice if needed to thin pasta later.

In a wide pan, heat olive oil and butter over medium heat until hot. Add garlic and sauté until soft, 30-60 seconds. Add the tomatoes. Stir in basil, guanciale, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and season very lightly with the salt and pepper. Let the tomatoes cook for a few minutes to soften and then use a potato masher to break them up finely. Cook the tomatoes for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tomatoes are tender and the sauce has thickened.

Cook fettucine noodles in separate pot to 90% of doneness, reserving ½ cup pasta water. Add noodles to tomato sauce and cook for about 3 minutes, until sauce is incorporated. If dry, add some reserved tomato juice and/or pasta water. Serve pasta garnished with parmesan and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Chicken Salad Sandwich with Cherries and Walnuts

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I’m so enjoying this sandwich right now and you should be too! It’s healthy, portion-controlled, and guess what, doesn’t require cooking! Well, unless you want to roast the chicken yourself, but that’s not something I feel like doing often in the middle of the week. Now I can look forward to just a few dishes and being well-nourished with protein, whole-grain carbs, a little fruit, and a little veg. Yum!

Chicken Salad Sandwich with Cherries and Walnuts

Time: 10 Minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup dijon mustard
2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped or 1 tbsp dried
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Black pepper, one pinch
2 cupsroasted chicken, breast and/or legs, chopped
1/4 cup shallots, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1/3 cup dried cherries, finely chopped
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
Whole-grain bread, 8 slices, toasted
Butter lettuce, 4 leaves

Directions
In a medium bowl, add mayonnaise, dijon, thyme, lemon juice, and pepper and mix to combine. In a separate bowl, add chicken, shallots, celery, cherries, walnuts, and mix to combine. Stir in mayonnaise mixture.

Add chicken salad to toasted bread and top with a leaf of butter lettuce.

Blackberry Balsamic Chicken

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This is another recipe adapted from Leanne Ely’s Saving Dinner. I paired it here with a summer salad of garden-grown tomatoes, red onions, and a couple slices of baguette. It’s super delicious and takes just a few minutes to make. Plus, with fewer than 7 ingredients, it’s easy to meal plan. Theflavor of the chicken preserves is to die for if you haven’t had that combination. It’s August now, but these flavors are soooo making me look forward to Thanksgiving, yum!

Blackberry Balsamic Chicken

Time: 15 Minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1⁄2 cup chopped red onion
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tsp fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried)
4boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1⁄3 cup seedless blackberry preserves
2tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Directions
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add chicken to skillet and saute 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from skillet and keep warm. Add onion to skillet and saute till translucent. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and thyme. Add preserves, vinegar, and salt and pepper, stirring constantly until the preserves melt. Spoon the sauce over chicken to serve.