Erica

Sweet Potato Sushi Bowl

December 5, 2012 by Erica

Introducing my new favorite dinner, the sweet potato sushi bowl. That boring rice post yesterday was just a way to make sure you were prepared for this.

Make. It. Tonight. (!!!)

This weekend was officially deemed Asian Cooking Weekend in my apartment. I actually didn’t get through all the dishes I wanted to, but luckily I made this sushi bowl a priority. After we ate it, I couldn’t stop smiling. It is just SO GOOD that I couldn’t believe it had come out of my kitchen! It tastes like high-end sushi and really requires minimal effort.

So what’s in this little beauty?

Seasoned rice, roasted sweet potato, avocado, sliced veggies, seaweed, sesame seeds, and green onions, all topped with a gingery sauce. Just tell me that doesn’t look like salmon! And it’s just sweet potato, chopped up like this:

… and then marinated and roasted.

If you like sushi, seriously make this tonight. If don’t have an Asian market nearby, you are excused until tomorrow night. There are a few things in here (sesame oil, nori, and mirin) that you probably can’t find in your grocery store, but I can’t emphasize enough how worth it the extra trip will be. (Don’t skip the nori whatever you do – it’s what makes it taste like sushi!)

If you’re like me, this is also an excellent chance to use those Asian-looking dishes you bought for absolutely no reason and have been occupying shelf space ever since :)

Sweet Potato Sushi Bowl

Serves 4

Time: about 1 hour (less if rice is cooked ahead of time)

Ingredients:

For the sushi bowl:
1 ½ cups dry brown rice
1 large sweet potato
2 Tbsp low-sodium tamari or soy sauce
1 avocado, sliced
8 radishes, sliced
4 cups shredded napa cabbage
6-8 green onions (light and dark green parts), thinly sliced
2 4×8 in sheets nori (seaweed)
2 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

For the sauce:
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced
juice of 1 orange
¼ cup + 2 Tbsp low-sodium tamari or soy sauce
¼ cup mirin (Japanese rice wine)
2 tsp sesame oil

Instructions:

Cook rice according to these instructions. (This could also be done ahead of time and then reheated.)

Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with tin foil or parchment paper.

Peel sweet potato and slice into pieces 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick (see photo above). Toss in a ziploc bag with 2 Tbsp soy sauce. Lay flat and let marinate 5-10 minutes, turning once or twice to get the soy sauce all over. Spread out on the baking sheet, pouring any soy sauce left in the ziploc over top, and bake for 15 minutes, until tender.

While the sweet potato is roasting, blend or whisk together all sauce ingredients. (I used an immersion blender.)

Toast sheets of nori at 350 degrees for a few minutes, until fragrant. (I like to do this in my toaster oven, but you could also do it just before or after the sweet potato.) Chop or crumble into small pieces. Still at 350, toast sesame seeds for several minutes until golden brown and fragrant.

When rice is done, mix it with about half the sauce, a quarter of the nori, and a quarter of the green onions.

In bowls, layer the rice and napa cabbage and arrange the avocado, radishes, and sweet potato on top. Top with additional nori, green onions, sesame seeds and sauce.

Enjoy with green tea!

Tastes best on the first day made.

Perfect Brown Rice

December 4, 2012 by Erica

This one of those annoying posts where I give you one part of a recipe, then wait until the next day to give you the exciting part. Kind of like pizza dough without the actual toppings.

But hold on, because this is kinda life-changing! Wait… is your life more exciting than mine? Or just less rice-based? If it’s less rice-based, then this will be life-changing.

Let me start by saying that I was always a basmati rice girl. I had seen a bunch of “never make mushy brown rice again!” Pinterest posts, but I thought, no big deal, I never have trouble with white rice. Then I started trying to eat whole grains, and WOAH – I just could not get my brown rice to cook right. Order it from my favorite Thai place and it’s deliciously chewy and tender, make it at home and it turns to mush and burns the bottom of my pot to boot. And I do NOT have room for a rice cooker in my tiny little kitchen. So I dug up those old pins, and I found: Make it like pasta.

Revolutionary.

That’s the secret, you guys! You use more water than you usually would for rice, then you strain it (and let the rice steam a bit more).

See? Life-changing.

It doesn’t really matter how much water you use here (just like pasta). Just make sure you use a pot that’s big enough to hold a bit more water than you’re used to.

Try this method and see if it doesn’t change your opinion of brown rice!

Coming tomorrow is my new favorite dinner, featuring: (you guessed it) Rice.

Perfect Brown Rice

Adapted from SkinnyTaste

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice (I prefer short-grain)
3-4 cups cold water

Instructions:

Rinse rice in a strainer under cold tap water.

Add water and rice to a pot. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Strain, then return rice to pot and close lid. Let steam for 20 minutes.

Fluff with a fork and serve!

Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

December 3, 2012 by Erica

I think it’s safe to say that I’m not the only one on the internet with a soup recipe today.

From what I hear, it’s been raining on the West Coast for the past week, and every California food blogger I follow has spent the whole time making soup. Who can blame them? Even here in Utah, where it’s not raining, it’s been cold and gray and just DARK all the time, so of course I’ve made my fair share. And it’s all culminating in one big soup throwdown in the blogosphere today.

So here is my submission: A yummy spiced butternut squash soup with apples, carrots, and onions from the archives of the lovely blog Daily Garnish. I have to say, if you were considering making the Mexican Squash Soup I posted a few weeks ago, make this one instead. Then make that one next week! This soup, with the apples and spices, is so warm and fragrant… it’s perfect for when it’s midnight-dark at dinnertime and you need something to cheer you up. It’s actually what I was making when I took the picture that’s now my blog header. See?

Apples, carrots, and squash, oh my!

Seeing that squash on my cutting board reminds me that something exciting happened this past Friday: a Trader Joe’s opened in Salt Lake!! I drove by on Saturday and the crowds looked INSANE – I am definitely staying away until after the holidays. I already have about 5 grocery stores too many in my regular rotation, but I’m excited to have Trader Joe’s around for things like pre-chopped butternut squash. (Now you see where this tangent came from.) Sadly, no wine at this new TJ’s because we’re in Utah… sigh… but I’ll take it!

Anyway, I love soups like this because the only dishes you get dirty are a peeler, a cutting board and knife, and a soup pot and a ladle. Unless you’re like me and splatter soup all over the kitchen as you’re cooking, there’s very little clean-up involved. Enjoy!

Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

Recipe from Daily Garnish

Time: about 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, chopped
1 medium-sized butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and chopped into about 1/2-inch chunks
2 apples, cored and chopped but peels left on (I used Gala)
2 carrots, chopped
4 cups vegetable broth
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup almond milk (or your choice of milk)

Instructions:

In a soup pot or large dutch oven, saute the onion with a bit of olive oil over medium heat until until softened and starting to brown. Add squash, apples, carrots, broth, and spices (everything except the almond milk). Stir, cover and bring to a boil.

Simmer over medium-low heat until vegetables are soft and even starting to look a bit mushy. This will depend on how small you’ve cubed up your veggies, but generally takes me around 45 minutes.

With an immersion blender, blend until smooth. (You could also transfer the soup in batches to a regular blender and then to a bowl.)

Remove from heat and stir in the almond milk.

Serve hot!

Vegan Pizza with Mushrooms, Roasted Red Peppers & Caramelized Onions

November 30, 2012 by Erica

It's Friday, and that means Pizza Night! Whenever I ask Nate what he wants for dinner this week, he says pizza. You'd think by now I'd get the hint and just make a pizza every week... but for some reason I keep asking. Maybe this time he'll request my favorite tahini kale rice bowl? No dice. Well, making a pizza every once in a while seems like the least I can do for the man who's forced to be my Vegan Guinea Pig the rest of the time. (I am still trying to dig my way out of the hole that a certain Hippie Bowl got me into a few months back.)

vegan pizza with mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and caramelized onions

So here is a pizza for Nate. If you're not vegan, by all means add some parmesan or goat cheese. (I put goat cheese on Nate's half, and a little bit just miiiiiight have rolled onto a few of my slices.) Even with no cheese, this pizza has great flavor! Use my whole grain pizza dough or your favorite crust. You could even use pesto and this mushroom mixture on pasta or a sandwich. It's hard to go wrong!

P.S. I'm kinda wimping out with the pesto here. I have a favorite vegan pesto that I make... but it deserves so much more than an out-of-season mention in a post that's really about pizza and features nighttime iPhone photos. I plan on featuring it in the spring! In the meantime, you can use your favorite pesto recipe, or (because I know many people who read this blog aren't vegan) use some store bought stuff.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

5.0 from 2 reviews

Vegan Pizza with Mushrooms, Roasted Red Peppers & Caramelized Onions

Hands-on time

5 mins

Cook time

55 mins

Total time

1 hour

Yields 2 10-inch pizzas or 1 extra-large pizza

Author: Coffee & Quinoa

Yields: 6

Ingredients

1 recipe of my multi-grain pizza dough (link above) or 2 store-bought pizza doughs
olive oil
1 sweet onion, quartered and sliced
20 oz. sliced baby bella mushrooms (I used 2 10-oz. pre-sliced bags)
2 red bell peppers
1 1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
cornmeal
1/3 cup pesto (homemade or store bought)
parmesan or goat cheese (optional)

Instructions

First, roast your red peppers (or buy roasted red peppers in a jar and skip this step). Cut each pepper into 2-4 pieces and remove the stem, seeds and membrane. Place them, skin up, on a baking sheet and broil until skin is black and charred all over. This will take 6-10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them after the first few minutes, and rotate the baking sheet partway through if your broiler has hot spots. Once the skins are charred all over, remove them from the oven, place them in a plastic bag, seal it, and let them steam for at least 20 minutes. Then remove from plastic bag and peel the skin off each piece with your fingers. It's OK to leave some charred bits. Cut into bite-sized pieces.
Preheat oven to 425.
Next, caramelize onions. Add a little bit of olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Saute the onions for about 25 minutes. They should have some good color to them. At this point, add the sliced mushrooms. Continue sauteing another 5-7 minutes, until mushrooms are softening. Add balsamic vinegar and peppers and stir. Remove from heat.
Sprinkle cornmeal on 2 pizza pans or an 11x17 baking sheet. Roll your pizza dough out to fit whichever pan you've chosen.
If your pesto is not oily, brush a bit of olive oil over the crust. Then spread pesto out evenly. Top with mushroom mixture. Add cheese if you desire.
Put pizzas in the oven for 12 minutes, until crust is done and cheese, if using, is melted.
Slice and enjoy!

Yoga

November 29, 2012 by Erica

I think I’ve overdone it on the beets and butternut squash.

Is it too early in the season for that? Probably. But that’s OK… I’m moving on to soup this weekend. Maybe beets and butternut can get another rotation early in 2013.

So while I’m busy being grossed out by the foods I loved last week, it’s probably a good time to talk about yoga.

I love yoga! I’ve really gotten into it in the past 3 or 4 years, and think it’s a great complement to my running (and motivation to get in some exercise after work). When I moved to Salt Lake, I found a great yoga studio within just a few days of being here, and have been going regularly ever since.

I love the feeling of being strong. But I’m also kinda lazy… and that’s where yoga comes in. Yoga can be intense, but it can also be relaxing, and you have someone guiding you through every pose. Especially with a good teacher, yoga is enjoyable for me, and I don’t mind going 2-3 times a week. That is vastly different from weight-lifting, which I find difficult to keep up. I’ve had personal trainers in the past, and while I do develop muscle quickly from weight lifting… then I’m always too tired and sore to do the things I enjoy (like yoga and running). Yoga is probably never going to make me look insanely buff, but it does give me some upper-body strength that I definitely do not come by naturally. It also strengthens and stretches my legs for running.

During my first year in Utah, my roommate Kera and I went regularly to the Power 1 & 2 class at our studio. It’s a 90-minute class, hard but not excessively so, and the teacher loves working up to inversions and arm-balances. It’s a good balance of stretching and strengthening, and I always felt awesome after class. Then this summer, something bad happened. I hurt my hip trying to get into twig pose (twig? stick? I can never remember the difference) at class and had to stop running. It was actually really painful and took weeks and weeks to heal. So I started to rethink my approach to yoga. Maybe, if I wanted to focus on running, I should stop with these crazy poses. Just focus on strength and forget headstands and deep stretching, anything that could injure me.

So I switched from my Power class to Yoga for Athletes at the same studio. Objectively, it made sense – I was focusing on quad and core strength, which I need for running. But it was hard. At first it was hard in a good way – like “hey, I’m getting better at this!” – but then it just wasn’t fun anymore. Like, standing at the top of my mat at the beginning of class, DREADING the next 75 minutes and wishing I hadn’t come. That is not what yoga is about! I was definitely getting stronger, but I was also getting tighter, and before I knew it, my old knee injury was back in full force, keeping me from running yet again. Initially I thought that more strengthening was the solution, and I kept going to class regularly. Then, realizing how little stretching and opening we were doing in class, I started rethinking my yoga practice a second time.

So now I’m back at Power 1 & 2 – thank goodness! The first night back in that class, I realized how much more fun it was than Yoga for Athletes, and how much more relaxed I was – not at all dreading what the teacher was going to do to me over the next 90 minutes. After a month back in that class, my knee is already feeling quite a bit better, and I actually went on 2 runs this weekend! Hooray!

Basically, between yoga and running, I would choose running. But I realize that I need some strength training in my life, as well as a regular excuse to stretch and breathe deeply. Right now, yoga plays a supporting role in my workouts, but I think it’s a great hobby long-term. Someday when I’m old and gray, I hope that my bones will still be strong and I’ll still be going to yoga several times a week!

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