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Asian Noodle Soup To Cure a Cold (Vegan)

January 9, 2013 by Erica

I guess I forgot to knock on wood last week when I said that I had a cold, but wasn’t going to stay home from work.

On Friday morning, I woke up coughing and sneezing all over everything. Gross.

I thought I was done with colds this winter, after fighting one off just before the holidays, but it turns out that was wroooong. And based on my recollection of getting sick right around the Bachelor premier 2 years ago, apparently I get sick at this time every year.

It doesn’t help that it’s been absolutely freezing in Salt Lake for the past week – highs in the teens. Who wouldn’t get sick?

So on Friday morning, instead of going into work, I cuddled up on the couch with my laptop, a box of tissues and a cup of tea.

Tea is good… but soup is better.

Luckily, I also had the ingredients to make this soup.

Soup fixes everything. So I made it and proceeded to eat it for lunch and dinner all weekend.

What is it about soup that makes me feel so much better – nature or nurture? It must be both… warm fragrant broth to warm you up from the inside out and clear the sinuses, plus the recollection of exactly the same sensation every time you’ve been sick since childhood.

Mmmmm… yep, nothing better to cheer you up when you’re sick than hot, noodley soup.

So can I recommend that you make this immediately? If it’s cold where you live, if you’re coming down the the sniffles, if your boyfriend or roommate or co-worker just sneezed… take action and cook up a big pot of (vegan!) soup. And don’t forget the sriracha… or tissues!

4.8 from 4 reviews

Asian Noodle Soup To Cure a Cold (Vegan)

Hands-on time

5 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

30 mins

This fragrant vegan soup will warm you to your toes. Recommended for times when you're sick and feeling sorry for yourself.

Author: Erica

Yields: 3-4 bowls of soup

Ingredients

1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 heaping Tbsp chopped fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 a jalapeno, seeds removed and thinly sliced
6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (preferably one without tomatoes, such as Whole Foods 365 Organic)
3 green onions plus extra for serving, sliced
3 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar
3 baby bok choy, chopped
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled and sliced into very thin coins
7 oz extra-firm tofu, cubed
5 oz soba noodles
chopped cilantro, for serving
sriracha sauce, for serving

Instructions

In a large pot, heat sesame oil over medium high heat. Once hot, add ginger and garlic and saute until fragrant, 2-3 minutes. Add jalapeno, vegetable broth, and green onions. Cover and simmer 10-15 minutes.
While broth is simmering, cook soba noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. (These are cooked separately to keep your nice broth from getting murky!)
Strain broth into a large bowl. (This step is optional, but I prefer to remove the solids.) Once strained, pour broth back into pot. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, vegetables, and tofu, and simmer until veggies are heated through, 1-2 minutes. Add soba noodles and heat for 1 more minute, until both noodles and broth are hot.
Remove soup from heat and ladle into bowls. Serve alongside sliced green onions, chopped cilantro, and sriracha.
Note: This soup is best eaten immediately, as it won't reheat well once the vegetables and noodles have been added. If you're planning to have leftovers, I recommend saving half the broth just after straining and before adding anything else. For leftovers, you can assemble the bowl of soup just before reheating, which will prevent mushy veggies and noodles.

Chipotle Black Bean Dip

January 7, 2013 by Erica

Last week, as I was writing Friday’s Bachelor cupcake post, I realized something terrible.

Tonight = Bachelor season premier.

Tonight also = National championship bowl game.

Uhhhhh ohhhhh.

Let’s just say that this is Nate’s and my first “bowl season” living together. (Did not know that was a phrase until last week.) Sure, we’ve been together for many football seasons, but shit got real once my TV was also his TV.

There is football on ALL THE TIME.

I actually forced him to watch multiple episodes of Honey Boo Boo on New Year’s Day, just so we could take a break from football. Believe it or not, Honey Boo Boo was a compromise. What we were not doing was watching The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which sat on our coffee table for 5 whole nights before I gave up and returned it to Redbox, unwatched.

The Bachelor doesn’t even stand a chance.

Yay football.

OK, I don’t really hate football; it’s just the crazy frequency of games recently. (And don’t even remind me about that March Madness thing coming up…)

One thing that all these bowl games are good for, though, is experimenting with new recipes on unsuspecting taste testers. Enter: a new bean dip!

There have been many bean dips on here lately, and I’m basically just hoping that you love bean dip and all his hummus cousins as much as I do. This one, made with black beans, is much different than my hummus recipes, and much more appropriate to serve to a living room full of hungry football fans. It tastes like classic football food without having any cheese, has a little kick to it, and is unbelievably quick and easy to make.

Making this bean dip tonight: Mandatory. Making your boyfriend watch The Bachelor instead of the bowl game: Optional.

Chipotle Black Bean Dip

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 cans low-sodium black beans, rinsed and drained (or 3 cups cooked black beans)

2 Tbsp olive oil

juice of 1 lime

1 vine-ripened tomato, roughly chopped

1 large clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

1/4 onion, roughly chopped (I used white, but yellow or red onion would also be good)

2 chipotle chilies from a can of chilies in adobo

1 tsp adobo sauce

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp kosher salt

chopped cilantro for sprinkling

tortilla chips or veggies for serving

Instructions:

Add all ingredients to a food processor and process until smooth. Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Easy peasy!

This dip keeps in the refrigerator for several days, and will become firmer when cooled.

Enjoy!

Three Roses Cupcakes for The Bachelor

January 4, 2013 by Erica

Warning: A million cupcake photos ahead. It was too hard to narrow these down, so I didn’t even try. Try not to drool too much.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let me tell you why I made these cupcakes. Three little words: BACHELOR SEASON PREMIER.

Were you aware of the national holiday this coming Monday, when 20- and 30-something women everywhere celebrate the new season of ABC’s most addictive TV show by sitting on the couch for 2-3 hours drinking oaky chardonnay, judging people, and cringing as dozens of women humiliate themselves on national TV?

Oh… you’re not a Bachelor fan? I’m sorry. Much of my Tuesdays during Bachelor season are devoted to debriefing last night’s episode with friends, reading recaps, and laughing so hard I squeak as I read my favorite Bachelor blog. I will spare you the lengthy recaps and Bachelor bashing sessions on here… but it’s probably going to come up once or twice. You should probably watch so you can keep up with the times!

I may or may not participate in a fantasy league.

I’ll just let that sink in for a sec.

Anyway, each episode of The Bachelor culminates in a rose ceremony, where the bachelor hands out a rose to each girl he’d like to keep around for the next week.

And so, I introduce to you Three Roses Cupcakes. Rosemary chocolate cupcakes. Rose scented buttercream frosting. Gumdrop roses on top. That was as many roses as I could squeeze into one cupcake.

Several years ago back in Boston, I stayed home sick on this Monday and ended up making cupcakes with gumdrop roses for our Bachelor premier party.

I guess I wasn’t that sick.

And I decided to do it again this year! (Make cupcakes that is, not stay home… although I do have a gross cold. But I digress.) The other roses (rosemary and rose water) entered my head during my holiday trip to Boston. My family did a beer tasting at Night Shift Brewing before Christmas and tried their Rose brew, a “saison brewed with rosemary, rosehips, and honey, aged on crushed pink peppercorns.” The rosemary and rose combo was interesting and these cupcakes seemed like the perfect fit for it.

I’ll be honest, these cupcakes are a bit of a project, mostly because there are 3 components. I’m posting them today so that you can set aside a leisurely weekend afternoon to make them :) I’m going to give the cupcake and frosting recipes here, and then a longer photo tutorial for the roses.

If rosemary and/or rose water isn’t your thing, feel free to skip one or both of them, and you’ll end up with a delicious chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting. You could obviously skip the gumdrop roses, too… but they’re so pretty! No one will believe you made them.

Three Roses Cupcakes

Rosemary Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from Flour by Joanne Chang

Yields 10-12 cupcakes (depending on how much batter you sample!)

Ingredients:

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/3 cup water

1/2 cup milk (I used almond milk)

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 Tbsp chopped finely fresh rosemary

Instructions:

Do not preheat oven yet – the batter must sit for an hour beforehand. Sorry!

In a large bowl, combine the chopped chocolate and cocoa powder.

In a heatproof dish, microwave the sugar, butter and water, stopping to stir every 30 seconds to 1 minute, until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Pour the hot butter-sugar mixture over the chocolate and whisk until chocolate is completely melted.

Next, whisk the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla into the chocolate mixture until thoroughly combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add salt and rosemary and stir until well mixed. Dump the flour mixture on top of the chocolate mixture and whisk until thoroughly combined. The batter will be quite soupy.

Now the batter must sit for an hour at room temperature. This allows the liquid to absorb into the batter and thickens it up. Don’t skip this step! I once exploded these cupcakes in my oven after doing just such a thing. You can also keep the batter in your fridge for several days before baking.

After the batter has sat for an hour, you can now preheat the oven to 350. Position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a muffin tin with paper cucpake liners.

Spoon in the batter, filling each cup no more than 2/3 full.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until the tops spring back when pressed with your fingertip, and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out with moist crumbs. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before frosting.

Rose Scented Buttercream

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature (but not warmer)

2 tsp rose water (if leaving out, substitute with 1 tsp vanilla)

4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

2-4 Tbsp milk (I used almond milk)

Instructions:

With an electric stand or hand mixer, cream together butter and rose water on medium speed.

Sift in sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well and scraping down sides of bowl between each addition.

When all the sugar has been beaten in, the icing will appear dry. Add milk, 1 Tbsp at a time, and beat until light and fluffy.

Keep icing in the fridge, covered with a damp cloth or paper towel, until ready to assemble cupcakes.

Icing can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Re-whip before using.

Gumdrop Roses

Adapted from Real Simple

Ingredients:

12 red gumdrops (or more – 3 gumdrops per rose)

3-4 green gumpdrops

granulated sugar for dusting work surface

rolling pin

Instructions:

Dust a clean work surface with granulated sugar. Place one gumdrop on the sugar and press with rolling pin.

Press and roll the gumdrop into a long tongue to about 1/8 inch thick. I like to flip the gumdrop over to re-coat it with sugar each time I roll it out to avoid sticking.

Repeat with remaining gumdrops.

Have you ever “sugared” your work surface before instead of “flouring” it? Isn’t it funny that you can do that?! It makes me giggle. The sugar really does a great job of keeping these from sticking, though. Add more sugar if they do start to stick, and wipe the sticky bits off your rolling pin. That being said, don’t worry too much if the edges turn out rough. Imperfect roses are some of the best ones!

Now cut each tongue in half crosswise.

Now we’re ready to make the roses! Roll one piece up like so:

Then wrap the other 5 halves around it, one by one:

Pinch the bottom of the rose together between each petal to hold it in place.

Repeat until you have 4 roses.

You will end up with a kind of ugly tail on each rose as you pinch the petals into place. No worries! Cut it off when you’re done so that the rose will be able to stand upright. Then handle as LITTLE as possible until you place them on the cupcakes.

For the leaves, roll out the green gumdrops in a similar way. You will first want to clean any red sticky bits off your rolling pin and work surface first. Then cut little leaf shapes out of the green tongues.

I like to cut 1-3 leaves for each rose; varying the number of leaves looks nice.

You don’t need to do anything with the leaves until you’re ready to assemble the cupcakes.

And that’s it! A couple things to note about these roses:

– I don’t recommend eating them, unless you like gumdrops. I don’t think they taste very good.

– I’ve tried making them with Swedish fish, because those taste better! But I found that the Swedish fish took a lot more elbow grease to roll out, and didn’t stick together as well. I don’t really recommend Swedish fish. But if you know that you are serving these to people who will insist on eating them and then be grossed out by the gumdrop flavor, you could definitely give Swedish fish a try.

– With rolling out the gumdrops, thinner is not necessarily better (unless you’re trying to do Swedish fish, where I’d advise that you roll them out pretty thin to get them sticky enough). The picture below illustrates the difference between a rose where the gumdrop petals are rolled out very thinly (left, and as pictured in the “tongue” pictures above) or not so thinly (right). Whichever you prefer!

Now the moment you’ve been waiting for… you’re all done with the many components of these cupcakes! To assemble:

Remove the completely cooled cupcakes (still in their paper liners) from the muffin tin.

Pipe icing (or spread with a knife) onto the cupcakes.

You will most likely have some icing leftover. You can freeze it! Just thaw and re-whip before using.

Place the roses on the cupcakes, sticking a few leaves into the icing next to each one. I think it looks nice to have roses on only a few of the cupcakes, but of course you could make more roses if you’re ambitious enough.

Voila! Impress your friends with these beautiful and fragrant cupcakes.

Time:

About 3 hours total

Enjoy and have a good weekend, friends! Let’s make sure to discuss The Bachelor on Tuesday.

Lemon Pepper Hummus

January 3, 2013 by Erica

Must Love Lemon: that’s the warning that comes with this hummus.

If you aren’t interested, I understand. You can have your hummus plain. But if you’ve ever wanted your hummus to have a bit more kick to it, this lemony, peppery, fluffy and delicious hummus is for you.

This was the first thing I made when I got back from my parents’ house after Christmas. I just couldn’t wait to make it and then the next afternoon when I finally did, I ate so much of it that I called it dinner. It’s good stuff!

If you missed my other recent hummus post, let me summarize quickly: You shouldn’t be afraid of making homemade hummus just because it’s come out badly in the past. I recently learned a trick to making creamy hummus, and it’s super simple: you just blend the tahini, water, and lemon juice before adding the other ingredients. That makes the hummus light and fluffy instead of thick and gunky! It’s magic.

Before we move on to the recipe, there’s something kind of important to mention about the pepper. I used pre-ground black pepper, and I’m pretty sure that the pre-grinding of this pepper happened circa 2004. Oops. I know I really shouldn’t be using old spices… but I kind of inherited Nate’s spice collection (that he inherited from an old roommate who probably inherited it from another old roommate) when we moved in together, and it just seems like a waste to throw out about $50 of Whole Foods spices. I’m “thrifty.” So I’m trying to use them up! But really, 2 tsp of 2004 ground black pepper could equate to like 1 tsp or less of 2013 pepper, especially if it’s freshly ground. So tread lightly and don’t say I didn’t warn you, OK?

Should it bother me that I was possibly in high school when that pepper was ground? Don’t answer that.

Lemon Pepper Hummus

Adapted from my Extra Creamy Hummus

Ingredients:

1/2 cup tahini
3/4 cup water
juice of 2 lemons
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
zest of 1 lemon (about 5 packed tsp)
3 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2 15-oz cans, rinsed and drained)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
veggies or pita for dipping

Instructions:

In a food processor or blender (I used a blender this time), combine the tahini, water, and lemon juice. (You may wish to start with 1/2 cup water and add the rest later if the hummus is too thick.) Blend until tahini is light and fluffy, about 10 seconds. Add in the garlic and lemon zest and blend again until smooth.

Add chickpeas and olive oil, 1/3 at a time, blending until smooth after each addition. If hummus is too thick at any point, add more water or olive oil. Add salt, black pepper (start with 1 tsp if you like), and red pepper flakes and blend until smooth.

Serve with veggies or pita. Will keep in the fridge for several days.

Time:

5-10 minutes

Warm Breakfast Quinoa with Agave and Cinnamon

January 2, 2013 by Erica

It probably comes as no surprise (given the name of this blog) that I’ve wanted to post this recipe for quite some time.

The problem was pictures. It’s really hard to take a picture of anything in a bowl with an iPhone, because the lens distorts everything and makes it look like you’re eating out of funhouse dishes.

Not that these are the best pictures ever (still learning… lots), but with my spiffy new camera, they at least accurately portray this meal in all its whole grain glory without making it look like I shot them through a funhouse mirror.

Anyway, about this quinoa. When I was down in Moab with my parents in September, we got breakfast (and lunch) both days from the Love Muffin Cafe, an adorable cafe on Main St. that I had never been to before. If you’re ever in Moab, I highly recommend it! They have the best ever breakfast quinoa (that Mom and I ate both days) and that I just had to recreate when I came home. Actually, in the car on the way home from that Moab trip, Mom and I discussed blog names, and I had this dish in mind when I registered this domain name a few weeks later. :) I intended for this to be my first post! But like I said… the pictures.

I’ve tried making other breakfast quinoa recipes before, but they never turned out well enough to start my day with. Thank goodness the Love Muffin Cafe came along! I would have been stuck in a never-ending cycle of oatmeal and Cheerios. Well actually, I still kinda am, but now I have this to mix it up with.

The recipe is simple: quinoa, agave, cinnamon, nuts and fruit, and a splash of milk.

If you’re wanting to eat healthier, eat more whole grains, or eat better breakfasts this year, this is pretty much the best place you can start! I’ve never tried another grain here, but if you prefer farro, wheat berries, etc. you could definitely try substituting that. I don’t recommend using white quinoa, though… it doesn’t have the same rich nutty flavor as red quinoa. Rainbow or black would probably be OK, though.

Warm Breakfast Quinoa with Agave and Cinnamon

Inspired by the Love Muffin Cafe in Moab, UT

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked red quinoa (this can be prepared ahead of time)

1 Tbsp agave syrup

heavy sprinkle of cinnamon

small handful of chopped walnuts (toasting is optional)

handful of seasonal fruit such as pomegranate arils or strawberries and blueberries

splash (1-2 Tbsp) of milk (I use plain unsweetened almond milk)

Instructions:

If using leftover quinoa, microwave until warm.

Mix warm quinoa with agave and sprinkle with cinnamon. Top with walnuts and fruit. Pour a splash of milk over the top and stir – the milk will coat everything with the agave and cinnamon. Serve!

Time:

<5 minutes if quinoa is cooked ahead of time, 20-25 minutes if cooking quinoa

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