Spicy Lima Bean Dip

Pureed lima beans with Mexican seasonings make a very good dip not unlike hummus or white-bean dip. This also works well as a filling for enchiladas. In fact, it was inspired by a recipe for guacamole-filled enchiladas with adobo sauce. (We didn't have any avocados, and I also wanted a higher-protein, higher-fiber filling.)

Spicy Lima Bean Dip

1 1-lb bag frozen lima beans
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 cup water

Bring lima beans, jalapeno, garlic, and water to a boil. Cook until the lima beans are very soft, about 10 minutes. Drain. Using a food processor (regular or mini), process beans, jalapeno, garlic, oil, lemon and chili powder until mostly smooth - some texture is nice. Add water by the tablespoonful if needed for processing. Garnish with additional chili powder.

Makes dip for a party, or enchilada filling for 3.

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.

Salmon Tacos

We ate these recently. This sauce is adapted from Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken and Other Stories. It's amazing. You could just eat it forever.

Salmon Tacos

1 recipe Green Sauce (except use only 1/2 cup coconut milk unless it absolutely won't blend without more, and include the stems. You can also leave out the mint or basil, and substitute jalapeno peppers).

1 large salmon filet
Spinach leaves
Corn tortillas
(Chopped red bell pepper, optional)

Grill the salmon on a George Forman type grill (if it's frozen, it may take a bit longer -- even close to 10 minutes).
Flake the salmon. To make tacos, put some salmon, some spinach, and more sauce than you think necessary into a tortilla; add red bell pepper if you want; eat.

Number of servings depends on the size of your filet; I would say at least 5.

Penne with Red Pepper Parmesan Cream Sauce

A good dish to serve when you need something fast, cheesy, fairly nutritious, and filling -- for example, after a beautiful early-fall bike ride with friends on a chilly afternoon when you forgot to bring a snack and it's been eight hours since lunch.

Penne with Red Pepper Parmesan Cream Sauce

1 box penne rigati
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1/2 habanero pepper, chopped VERY FINELY (this is IMPORTANT)
2 tbsp butter
2 cups skim milk
2 tbsp flour
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 dashes nutmeg
paprika for sprinkling

Start the water boiling for the pasta. Make sure your habanero is diced very small -- you want some heat in the dish, but you don't want someone to eat a large or medium-sized piece of it and have to run and fill her mouth with bland crackers to cut the heat. Saute the habanero and red peppers over medium heat in 1 tbsp butter until the water boils, stirring often. Put the pasta in to cook. Add the second tbsp butter and nutmeg to the peppers. When the butter is melted, add the flour and stir carefully so that it coats the peppers. Cook over medium-low heat about two minutes, stirring to make sure it does not burn. Add the milk all at once, turn the heat up just above medium, and stir rapidly for minute or so; after that, stir frequently until the liquid is slightly thickened (coats the back of a spoon), which should be approximately when the pasta is done. Drain the pasta. Turn off the heat under the pepper/milk mixture. Add the cheese, and stir very well to make sure it melts and combines evenly. Combine the sauce and pasta, and serve immediately. Sprinkle each serving with paprika.

Serves 4-6 depending on what else you are serving.

Spicy Tofu and Vegetables with Black Bean Sauce

An excellent and healthy summer meal to make while listening to the president talk about health insurance reform. Combines many flavors into something new -- not identifiably black bean, but still tasty. It's good with experimental half-whole-wheat cornbread.

Spicy Tofu and Vegetables with Black Bean Sauce

1 large red pepper, diced
1/2 habanero pepper, diced
8 diced scallions, divided
1.5 cups chopped green beans
1 brick firm tofu, diced in small cubes
1/2 can (8 oz.) refried black beans
2 heaping tbsp peanut butter
1/2 to 1 tsp Sriracha or other hot sauce
1 can no-sodium-added diced tomatoes
1 sliced avocado (for garnish)

In a large frying pan, saute the red pepper, green beans, habanero pepper, and 4 of the diced scallions in a little oil over low to medium heat, about 5 minutes. Add the tofu and continue to cook about 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix the beans and peanut butter together until smooth, adding a little bit of water -- a couple of tablespoons -- to form a smooth paste; mix in the Sriracha. Add this paste and the can of diced tomatoes to the pan. Cook over medium heat about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until fairly thick and smooth. Serve with cornbread, garnished with avocado slices and the remaining scallions.

Serves 4.

Summer Spicy Chicken Salad with Rice

Yum. Nice cool chicken salad. Cilantro. It's a meal-in-a-bowl.

Summer Spicy Chicken Salad with Rice

1 1/2 cups of the green sauce listed here, or a little over 1 cup of this green sauce with 1/2 cup coconut milk stirred in (if you have the second handy one in the freezer)

2 cups cooked basmati rice or other long grain rice
3 chicken breast halves, poached and diced
3 cups diced green cabbage
2 diced scallions
salt to taste

Combine all ingredients, using enough sauce that it is quite moist but not mooshy or runny. Chill. Eat.

Serves 3-4.

Spicy Chickpea and Potato Soup

I've been cooking a lot of late, but nothing entirely new: a week where everything I cooked had cilantro green sauce in it, a lot of cooking from recipes, etc. But I finally made up a new recipe, and it is one of my favorite new recipes ever.

Spicy Chickpea and Potato Soup

4 cans chickpeas, rinsed well and drained
3 medium-large red potatoes, peeled and diced
1 very large sweet onion, diced
1 large red bell pepper, diced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
6 oz. tomato paste
4 1/2 cups water (approximate)
1 tsp sweet Pimenton de La Vera (smoked paprika)
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 to 1 tsp black pepper
VERY SMALL dash cayenne
3 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

In the bottom of a large pot, saute the onions and bell pepper in the olive oil until the onions are translucent and beginning to be soft, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and the Pimenton de La Vera, and cook until fragrant, about one minute. Add the chickpeas, 3 cups of water, potatoes, and spices. Bring to a boil; turn the heat down to a low simmer and simmer covered about 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are soft but still in cubes. You will probably have to add the rest of the water after about an hour and a half. Serve immediately with good crusty bread.

Serves about 5 as a main dish.

Green Pasta with Asparagus

I had leftover cilantro, but didn't have all the ingredients for the green sauce I like, so I decided to make up a new one. I'm posting the recipe that makes a lot of green sauce--I froze a lot and just used the leftovers for the pasta. It's a bit like pesto, but with cilantro.


Green Pasta with Asparagus

Enough pasta for two people
1/2 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Green Sauce
zest of 1/2 lemon
salt to taste

Cook pasta. A few minutes before it's done, about 3, add the asparagus to the pot. Drain, and return to pot. Add cheese, green sauce, lemon zest, and salt if necessary. Mix well.

Serves 2.

Sauce
1 bunch cilantro, leaves and stems
3-4 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/3 cup water
1 tbsp sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp salt

Combine ingredients in blender and puree--start with just a little cilantro and add it little by little.
Makes about 2 cups or a little less.

Chicken in Green Sauce

No picture, because the oven's pilot light went out (again) just as I was about to put the chicken into the oven. Despite having watched someone light the oven's pilot light before, my roommate and I couldn't find it to light it on our own--it's not in the same place as the one for the stove. So we had to call the management company, and wait for them to come light it for us, as gas seeped into the apartment. But the management people are good folks and came in only 20 minutes--enough time to get the chicken into the oven about five minutes before the guests showed up. However, it wasn't done until an hour later, so that is the long explanation of why no picture.
The sauce is adapted from Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken and Other Stories, my newest free-with-Lexis-points cookbook. It is extremely delicious--I cannot stop eating it (alone, on bread, on couscous, on anything). It will, however, give you terrible breath.

Chicken in Green Sauce

14 chicken parts (thighs and drumsticks), skin on or off
5 garlic cloves, chopped
olive oil, salt, pepper

Sauce:
2 large bunches cilantro, minus the stems
8 cloves garlic, chopped
juice of 4 limes
2/3 cup coconut milk
2 serrano chile peppers or more to taste
1 tsp salt
some fresh mint leaves, fresh basil leaves or 1 tsp dried basil

Put all the sauce ingredients in a food processor or heavy-duty blender and blend until a thick paste. If using a blender, you will need to stir a few times.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange the chicken pieces in roasting pans. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and chopped garlic. Spread about 1 tbsp green sauce over each piece of chicken. Bake for 1 hour.

Serve, passing remaining green sauce for guests to spoon onto their own chicken (and rice, bread, potatoes, straight into their mouths, etc).

Serves at least 8, with lots of extra sauce.

Pumpkin Curry Stew with Tofu

What to do with leftover pumpkin, when you have about four minutes to eat and you're starving? (This helpfully also uses up your leftover tofu.) The sunflower seed butter gives the sauce some body.

This is another dish that just doesn't photograph well.

Pumpkin Curry Stew with Tofu

1 medium onion, diced
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned is fine)
2 tbsp sunflower seed butter
1/2 block firm tofu, cubed
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
1 tsp vegetable oil
1+ tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp black pepper
dash salt
2 shakes hot pepper flakes
1/2 cup water

Steam or boil the broccoli and reserve.
Saute the tofu and onions in oil over medium-high heat until the tofu is lightly browned (you might need to start the tofu before the onions to avoid burned onions). When lightly browned, add the spices and saute for another minute. Add the pumkpin, water, and sunflower seed butter, and turn the heat to low. Stir well to combine. Add the broccoli and stir to coat. Cook another minute or so, until all ingredients are coated in sauce and everything is hot. Serve with rice.

Serves 2.

Variations: Chicken would be good, instead of tofu. Alternately you could add some crushed tomatoes and remove the sunflower seed butter.

White-Bean Chili

This dish was born in Washington, DC, where I was subletting an apartment for the summer. I had planned to make chili, but was shocked to discover--just before my guests arrived--that the girl I was subletting from had no chili powder. She did, however, have "Yemenite hwaig" seasoning, which seemed to be a mixture of cumin and turmeric. Combined with hot pepper, it did a fair job of approximating chili. Now, I add some regular chili powder as well, but I still concentrate on cumin and turmeric.

White-Bean Chili

2 cans small white beans (Goya brand is good)
2 cans cannellini beans, or 1 of cannellini and 1 of large butter beans
1 medium onion, chopped roughly
1 clove garlic, crushed
6-8 green onions, chopped finely
1 medium bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup tomato sauce, any type
2 tsp tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
Good pinch red pepper flakes
olive oil
about 2 cups water
3 oz queso casera or feta for garnish

Saute half the onion and the garlic in olive oil till translucent but not too soft, about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse the beans carefully. Combine beans and remaining half onion with onions and garlic in pot. Add 2 cups water and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to a simmer. Add cumin, turmeric, black pepper, chili powder and red pepper flakes. Simmer about 15 minutes, adding water if becomes too thick. When you have about 3 minutes to go, add 1/3 of the cilantro. Just before serving, add half the remaining cilantro and half the green onions.
Garnish with remaining cilantro, green onions, and queso casera (if you have a good Hispanic foods section at your grocery store) or feta.

Serves 3 or 4.