Spicy Peanut-Sweet Potato Soup

Sweet potatoes make such a plush-textured soup, good for cold weather. This vaguely African-inspired soup is very filling and, if you use two unseeded chiles de arbol, aggressively spicy. You might consider using 1 chile, or seeding them. The rice helps create a smooth texture - but it will continue to absorb liquid, so add a little more water if you are reheating leftovers the next day.

Spicy Peanut-Sweet Potato Soup

2 large orange sweet potatoes, peeled
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 heaping tbsp white rice
2 tbsp soy sauce
1-2 dried chiles de arbol, seeded if you like less heat
1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Dice the sweet potatoes. Add them to a large saucepan or soup pot along with the chiles, rice, and garlic, and add about eight to ten cups of water and the chiles. Bring to a boil, and boil until the sweet potatoes are very tender, about 15-20 minutes. Add the soy sauce and smoked paprika. Remove from heat and puree thoroughly (easiest with an immersion blender). Return to low heat and stir in the peanut butter until well combined and creamy.

Garnish with nuts if desired.

Serves 4-5.

Cumin-Orange Fish on a Bed of Spaghetti Squash

We've discovered tilapia!

Cumin-Orange Fish on a Bed of Spaghetti Squash

1 medium spaghetti squash
2-4 small thawed tilapia fillets (1-2 per person depending on how hungry you are)
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup raw almonds
1 medium orange (grate and reserve zest)
1 tbsp butter
Olive oil for greasing pan
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ginger
1 medium clove garlic, minced, or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried dill

An hour ahead of time, cut the squash in half and bake, cut side down, at 375 for about an hour. Remove from oven.

Scrape spaghetti strands from squash. In a medium mixing bowl, mix squash, raisins, spices, 1 tbsp butter,orange zest, and garlic. Squeeze a small amount of the orange juice over the squash; stir gently. Add salt to taste. Cover and keep warm.

Preheat oven to 450. Brush a rimmed baking sheet with oil to prevent sticking. Place fish fillets on baking sheet. Squeeze orange juice over the fish and sprinkle with dill. Cut thin slices from the orange and place on top of the fish. Cook 4-5 minutes, flip, and cook 4-5 minutes more (just put the orange slices on top again), until flakes easily and is no longer transparent. Meanwhile, chop almonds and toast them in a pan.

To serve: put half the squash mixture on each plate. Top with fish, with the orange slices on top. Sprinkle with nuts, and squeeze the remaining 1/3 orange over the plates.

Serves 2

Stuffed Acorn Squash

These make a very pretty individual-serving vegetarian dinner. The taste of the squash mixes very well with the taste of the stuffing, if you scoop the soft squash into the stuffing with your spoon as you eat. If you wanted to add some sausage to the stuffing, I don't think anyone would mind. It's not the world's fastest meal -- they need to bake for an hour -- but if you have leftover cooked rice the prep time is very fast, and then you can forget about them while they cook

Stuffed Acorn Squash

4 small acorn squash
1 cup cooked brown rice
1/2 cup almonds, chopped roughly (measure before chopping)
1/2 large onion, diced
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp soy sauce
6-10 leaves fresh sage (depending on how much you like it)
pinch of dried thyme (fresh would be good too, obviously)
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium-low heat. (It seems like a lot of butter. It's for 4 people, so I don't think it's extreme, but 2 tbsp would probably be ok.) When it has bubbled for a while and is just starting to turn color, add the onions and almonds and cook until the onions are soft, about 4 or 5 minutes. Add the herbs after about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, cut (and reserve) little "hats" out of the top of the squashes, and scoop out the seeds. When the onions are soft, add the rice, turn the heat to low, and stir thoroughly. Add the soy sauce. Taste, and add salt as necessary. Add more pepper than you think it needs (should be a bit spicy). Cook, stirring constantly, two or three more minutes.

Using a teaspoon, stuff the squashes full of rice stuffing. You'll probably have some left over, depending on the size of your squashes. Replace their hats, place in a baking dish or roasting pan, and bake for an hour to an hour and a half -- they should be easily-pierced with a fork. (For me, they were done enough to eat, but not soft enough to be ideal, at 75 minutes). Let cool a few minutes, and serve.

Serves 4.

Pasta with Mushrooms-Almond-Beer Sauce

Normally, I don't like mushrooms very much. Liking them more as I get older, but still. However, I've really been craving them the last few days. Mushroom pasta sauce to the rescue!

Camera is currently misplaced. You're not missing much; mushrooms aren't that pretty.

I made this sauce with a 1 lb box of penne rigate, but I recommend using twice as much sauce to pasta -- make this amount for only half a box.

Edit as of 10/16: this is tasty, but it definitely still needs some work to make it more of a sauce and less of a pasta-with-vegetables. Stay tuned for an update.

Pasta with Mushroom-Almond-Beer Sauce

1 pint package white button mushrooms, roughly diced
1 half large onion, sliced into thin ribbons
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup ground almonds (throw some almonds into a ziploc bag and run over them with a rolling pin a bunch of times)
1/2 bottle beer (something not too bitter -- not an IPA)
salt & pepper

If you start the recipe when you start the pasta water boiling, it will be done by the time the pasta is done.

Start sauting the onions in the oil over medium heat. Let them cook, stirring occasionally, about three or four minutes, then add the mushrooms. Continue to stir occasionally. The mushrooms will release their liquid after a few minutes. When their liquid has reduced by about a third (it's not an exact science), add the beer. Turn the heat to high and cook until the beer has reduced by more than half. Add the almonds; you should notice the liquid thicken almost immediately. Turn the heat to low and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the pasta is done. Adjust salt and pepper. Mix with the pasta and serve immediately, with a dusting of Parmesan cheese if you want. (Too much will overwhelm the sauce's flavor.)

Lemon-Garlic Sauce for Green Beans

A perfect summer dinner! Green beans this way are great on their own, or would be excellent with fish.

Lemon-Garlic Sauce for Green Beans

1 lb green beans

1 lemon, juice and zest (Note: this makes a VERY, VERY tart sauce. If you're not up for that, use only half the juice and add a couple spoonfuls of water.)
1/4 cup almonds
6 saltines or club crackers, or one slice stale bread
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 tsp plus 1 tbsp olive oil

Start the water boiling for your green beans. Meanwhile wash them and pick them over. While they're boiling (this should only take a few minutes), fry the garlic in 2 tsp olive oil over medium-low heat until it begins to color, about a minute; turn and cook another minute or so. Turn off the heat.

Combine almonds and crackers/bread in your mini-chopper or food processor and pulse until they are reduced to crumbs. Add lemon juice (and water if using), lemon zest, garlic, the oil the garlic cooked in, and remaining 1 tbsp oil. Pulse until combined -- should be quite thick; should still have some texture.

Arrange green beans on a platter. Spread sauce over them decoratively -- each bean should have some sauce on it, but only a little.

Serves 4 with a meal or 2 if you really like green beans or are not eating much else.

Green Beans with Shallots, Spiced Pistachios, and Blue Cheese

I have time to cook again! For a potluck last night, I made these green beans (no photo because it just didn't occur to me yesterday). The idea came from a figs-green beans-and-hazelnut salad I saw on a restaurant menu; what I actually made turned out to be something entirely different, but equally interesting. It's pretty rich for a vegetable dish, so you don't need that much per person.

Green Beans with Shallots, Spiced Pistachios, and Blue Cheese

1 large bowlful of green beans, about 2lb
3 large shallots, sliced thinly
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/3 cup unshelled pistachio nuts, salted or unsalted
2 tbsp brown sugar
1-2 tbsp fennel seeds, to taste
3-4 grinds fresh black pepper
4 tbsp olive oil, divided

First, make the nut topping. Place the pistachios in a small plastic bag and roll over them a few times with a rolling pin to break them up a bit. In a small frying pan, combine 1 tbsp olive oil, pistachios, sugar, fennel seeds (don't be afraid of using a lot), black pepper, and some salt if using unsalted nuts. It should be enough pepper to make it slightly spicy. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar has melted and coated the nuts and the nuts are fragrant but not blackened--about 4 minutes. Pour into a bowl, and stir with a fork every so often while it cools to keep it from solidifying into one big glob.

Second, cook the green beans: the idea is to get them charred in places and starting to be wilty. The fast method is to boil them for about one minute, drain, and saute in 2 tbsp olive oil over medium-high to high heat; you can also skip the boiling and saute them in oil over slightly lower heat for a bit longer, maybe 10 minutes total. When their skins have begun to blister all over, remove them from the heat.

Third, cook the shallots. Saute the three sliced shallots in 1 tbsp oil over medium-low until light brown, stirring frequently; about 7 minutes.

Combine the beans, nuts, and shallots in a serving bowl. Chill until cool. Add half the blue cheese; mix thoroughly. Sprinkle the rest of the blue cheese on top as garnish.

Serves 8 as one of several side dishes.

Smoky Almond Chicken

This is what happens when it is Passover, I have leftover almonds, and a new tin of pimenton de la Vera. Picture not forthcoming, because I kept forgetting to take one until all the chicken had been eaten.

Smoky Almond Chicken

1.5 lb boned, skinned chicken breasts or breast tenderloins
6 oz. sliced almonds
3 tbsp olive oil plus more to grease the pan
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup matzo meal
1.5 tbsp pimenton de la Vera
1/2 tsp black pepper
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat; add pimenton de la Vera and stir to combine well. Add the almonds and stir until well-coated and fragrant, about one minute. Turn off the heat but leave in the pan.

Oil the bottom of a roasting pan. Dredge each piece of chicken in matzo meal, dip in beaten egg, and coat with almonds. Place chicken pieces in pan, if possible spacing them slightly apart (mine were crowded, though, and turned out fine). Bake about 35-40 minutes or until juices run clear.

Serves 4.

Tomato-Pistachio Loaf

Owes a lot to the Tomato, Pistachio, and Chorizo Loaf in Clotilde Dusoulier's Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook, but of course I had no yogurt on hand, no chorizo, no parsley, no dried tomatoes, no loaf pan... so it's morphed into its own thing. Cilantro and toasted mustard seeds make up for some of the sharpness of flavor that the chorizo would bring.

Tomato-Pistachio Loaf

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3 large eggs
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2/3 cup grape tomatoes
3/4 cup shelled unsalted pistachios, toasted
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds

In a small skillet, saute the tomatoes in 1tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat until they begin to blister and blacken. Turn the heat to low, add the mustard seeds to the oil, and cook several minutes longer, until the mustard seeds are browned. Remove from heat.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 6 by 6 baking dish (or probably a 9 by 5 loaf pan, since that was what this was meant to be baked in). In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, salt, and pepper with a wooden spoon. Beat in the oil and ricotta and continue beating until creamy and well-blended, with no ricotta lumps. Add the flour and baking powder, and mix just until incorporated. Do not overmix. Fold in the pistachios, tomatoes (with any oil remaining), and cilantro.

Bake 40-45 minutes, until slightly golden and a knife inserted comes out cleanly. Serve in cubes as a cocktail appetizer or in more substantial slices as a light lunch with a green salad.

Serves about 16 as an appetizer or 4 - 6 as a lunch.

Pistachio Cookies

Pistachios are my new favorite nut. These showcase the pistachios very well; the flecks of lime zest pick up the green color. They are crisp and not too sweet, ideal for dunking in tea.

Pistachio Cookies

3/4 cup pistachio nutmeats, chopped roughly (put them in a plastic bag and whack them with a rolling pin)
1 2/3 cups white flour
2/3 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp powdered cardamom
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, chilled and diced
2 tbsp water, or more as needed
grated zest of 1 lime


Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, oats, nuts, sugar, baking soda, salt, cardamom, and lime zest. With your fingers, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it reaches the texture of coarse sand. Add the egg and stir until incorporated (the dough will still not come together into a ball). Add the water, beginning with 2 tbsp, and mix with your hands until the dough just comes together into a ball (it may take more like 4 tbsp). Shape into balls slightly larger than walnuts, flatten slightly, and place on cookie sheet. Bake about 30 minutes, until crisp and slightly colored. Makes about 24 - 28 cookies.

Tofu and Green Beans with Peanut Sauce

Easy, filling, and full of flavor. Definitely more appetizing than it looks in this photo!

Tofu and Green Beans with Peanut Sauce

About 20 green beans, trimmed and rinsed
7 oz. extra-firm tofu (about 1/4 package), cubed
1/2 small onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped roughly
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 heaping tbsp peanut butter
3 green onions, sliced
1 squeeze lime juice
1 pinch dried basil
1/4 tsp ginger
one good shake red pepper flakes
vegetable oil

Saute green beans over medium-high heat about three minutes. Add onions, garlic, and tofu cubes. Saute until tofu begins to brown and onions are soft but not burned. Add basil, lime juice, ginger, red pepper flakes, and soy sauce, turn heat to medium, and continue to cook about four minutes or until the soy sauce has reduced about by half. Turn heat to low. Add peanut butter and stir to coat evenly.
Serve garnished with green onions.

Serves 1.