Cookie and Kate

15 Recipes for Leftover Veggies

October 15, 2017 3 Comments

Raise your hand if you have some random vegetables going south in your kitchen. I’m raising my hand high over here. Here’s a collection of flexible recipes to reference when you have leftover veggies or greens in your fridge. Let’s save the vegetables!

This roundup was requested by my mom, and I hope it’s a handy resource for you, too. (Be sure to bookmark it.) You can always use the search bar at the top of the page to find recipes for a specific type of produce. I also have an ingredient index, which you can bookmark or access through the menu bar—hover over “all recipes” then “ingredient” then “view all”.

When I write recipes, I always try to include tips on how to “change it up”, which you can find in my recipe notes. In my cookbook, those tips turned into cute banners that you’ll see over the recipe photos. You can also skim the comments to learn how C+K readers have successfully changed the recipe. Please get creative with your vegetables and leave a comment on the recipe to share how it turned out!

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Build-Your-Own Buddha Bowl

October 11, 2017 15 Comments

It’s a crazy time to be alive, isn’t it? So much is happening that I can hardly wrap my head around. Sometimes I worry that I’m being negligent by not mentioning major world events here, let alone personal events. At the same time, I’ve always wanted this website to be a safe refuge and a mostly-happy place. I want it to be a destination and a healthy escape. Cookie and Kate is where food is delicious and approachable and good for you, too.

Plus, we always have to eat. To that end, I’m sharing a colorful recipe that has been slowly taking shape in my kitchen over the past few months. I’ve seen “Buddha bowls” all over the internet and menus lately, so I set out to make one. What are they, though? How did ambiguous-whole-grain-and-veggie-bowls-with-tasty-sauce all become abbreviated as “Buddha bowls”?

I found some guidance in Katherine’s article on Epicurious. Buddha carried a bowl with him on his journeys and accepted food as donations, which he would eat at the end of the day. Katherine also mentioned that Buddha bowls are similar to macrobiotic (macro) bowls with whole grains and steamed or raw veggies.

I created this versatile bowl with those factors in mind. The base of the meal is brown rice with steamed edamame and vegetables, which all cook together in one pot (this would actually be a super easy meal in itself). For the vegetables, you can choose from snap peas, snow peas or broccoli. If you have another favorite vegetable that steams well, I bet it will work, too.

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Quick Dal Makhani

October 7, 2017 29 Comments

This post is sponsored by Frontier Co-op.

Are you familiar with dal makhani? It’s a rich, spiced, lentil-based stew made for special occasions in India (especially in the Punjab region in northern India). Someday, I hope to travel there and taste it for myself. Maybe next year, if I’m lucky.

For now, I’ll enjoy this dal makhani at home. Dal makhani traditionally takes quite a long time to make, starting with soaking the lentils and then cooking them for hours on the stove (or more quickly in a pressure cooker). It’s often reserved for special occasions, like birthdays and holidays.

I couldn’t find traditional whole black lentils (urad dal) in grocery stores, so I used regular black lentils instead, which cook much faster. I also used canned kidney beans rather than dried, so this dish only requires about 45 minutes on the stove.

Dal makhani is generally made creamy with lots of butter and cream, but I stole a trick from my favorite lentil soup to make this creamy—I blended up about two cups of the cooked stew and stirred it back into the pot. The starchy lentils get nice and creamy that way.

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Toasted Sesame Hummus

October 5, 2017 11 Comments

A few weeks ago, I tasted some intriguing hummus at one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants, Eden Alley. Hummus always has some sesame flavor thanks to the tahini component (tahini is ground sesame paste, like peanut butter made with sesame seeds).

This hummus, however, had a more pronounced sesame flavor. I loved it. A few bites in, I realized their trick—they drizzled toasted sesame oil on top. Clever, right? I generally associate tahini with Mediterranean cuisine and toasted sesame oil with Southeast Asian cuisine, but they’re both made from sesame seeds. They go great together.

I looked across the table and declared, “I’m going to make hummus with toasted sesame oil and sesame seeds and share it on the blog soon.” Boom! Here we are. You’ll start out by making ultra creamy hummus from scratch, with a little toasted sesame oil blended throughout. Freshly toasted sesame seeds and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil take it to the next level.

Toasted sesame oil is very strongly flavored, so be sure to follow my suggested measurements rather than pouring straight from the bottle. You could cheat and drizzle sesame oil and sprinkle sesame seeds over store-bought hummus (no judgment here).

I brought this hummus over to my friend’s housewarming party last night and it was a hit. As always, please let me know how you like it!

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What to Cook This October

October 2, 2017 23 Comments

Some big news—I’ve started adding nutrition information to my recipes here, based on popular demand. It’s been a giant project and we owe a lot of thanks to my former assistant, Meaghan, for making it happen.

I designed the label so that you have to click on it for the nutrition facts to display—which is how I prefer it, since calorie counting doesn’t do me any good. You’ll see it underneath all the recipes from 2013 through 2017. I’m still working on the recipes from earlier years.

There are a lot of reasons why you might want to know nutrition details about a recipe, so I made sure to include every nutrient possible, from Vitamin A through Thiamin. It’s amazing to see how ingredients work together to produce an end product with such a range of nutrients. Sometimes, I’m surprised by the analysis results—I wouldn’t have guessed that this spinach dip offers nearly 50 percent of the recommended daily values for protein and fiber.

Please keep in mind that nutrition “facts” are always estimates, and will vary based on the freshness and size of your produce, the brand of tortillas you use, the database used to calculate the details, and a million other factors. I wanted to provide as much detail as possible, but I’m not suggesting that you should track anything, unless you’re working on a health plan with your doctor.

I’ve been glancing at the Vitamin K content of my recent recipes, since I took a DNA test that suggested I might have a tendency for vitamin K deficiency (important for blood clotting and calcium retention). Fresh greens and leafy herbs are loaded with vitamin K, and I eat lots of those, so I’m not concerned. That’s the beauty of the whole foods philosophy—if you eat a colorful variety of whole foods, you’re probably meeting your nutritional needs without even trying.

I’ve been meaning to tell you about that DNA test, too. I met the marketing director of Vivaliti DNA on a trip earlier this year, and she offered to let me take the test for free. I was actually surprised by my results. I thought they would suggest that I have an inherently fast metabolism, but it turns out that a lot of odds are stacked against me. According to their test, I have genes for a sweet tooth and sensitivity to bitter foods, increased hunger, difficulty losing weight, etc. In good news, my HDL and blood pressure respond particularly well to exercise.

Overall, the test results made me feel even better about the recipes I share here. If they work for me, I hope they’ll work for you, too! Enough about all that, though. Pumpkin month is here, and I can’t wait to tackle the recipes on my must-make list for October. I hope this roundup inspires you to cook up some seasonal goodness.

Links lately:

How to Write a 5-Star Cookbook
Cabbage Chemistry—Finding Acids and Bases
How to Start a Dinner Club
Mystery Solved: LaCroix’s “Natural Flavor”
The Baffling Rise of Goop
Hacking Your Genes Has Never Been Easier
3 Easy Ways to Streamline Your Wardrobe
The New Science of Treating Lower Back Pain
If It’s Not a Bold Yes, It’s a No
Seriously Vetted Natural Skincare and Makeup (I just placed an order and will report back on new favorites next month)
Perfect for Layering (or half-tucking or tying at the waist)
Love Real Food has 250 five-star reviews! Thank you!

The last three links are affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

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Cucumber Elderflower Gimlet

September 30, 2017 12 Comments

It’s been unseasonably warm here in Kansas City. As much as I want to dust off my boots, I’ve decided to embrace the warmer weather and milk it for all it’s worth. It’s sunny and 70 degrees today! How could I complain?

I wanted to share this refreshing cocktail with you, in the hopes that you’ll savor this warm weather with me. Let’s sit on the patio and enjoy a cool cucumber drink. There’s still plenty of time for pumpkin spice everything.

What is a gimlet, you ask? It’s like a martini, but with lime juice instead of vermouth. This version has been my sipper of choice lately, which was inspired by an elderflower martini that I enjoyed with Tessa in Minneapolis. It’s made with cucumber-y Hendrick’s gin, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, fresh lime juice and cucumber.

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