1/2 cup to 1 cup mixed fruit (your choice of mixed berries, or sliced bananas, or apples, or dried fruits)
Directions:
Toast the quinoa over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add in water and cook over medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes, until most of the water is evaporated.
Add in soymilk through cinnamon.
Stir in pumpkin seeds and fruit just before serving.
Belgian Burritos! So not really, but I'm really missing Mexican and Tex-Mex foods. I even bought a casserole dish just for this. Well the casserole was advertised as being on sale, but I couldn't understand the Dutch well enough to read that I needed to have 8 Carrefour (the local grocery chain) stamp/tickets to get the "sale" price. Sara - You would LOVE this dish. Miss you lots. Make the salsa first so the flavors can steep.
Ingredients:
For the burritos
1 large baking potato (or 2 medium sized ones, or 4-6 small ones), diced and cooked. Sweet potatoes are even better in this dish than regular potatoes.
2 cups black beans cooked, or 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 package 8" tortillas (this made enough for 8 burritos)
1 cup shredded cheddar, you can use more or less if cheese is your thing (use monterey jack or whatever yummy US mexican cheese blend you can find)
1/2 cup onion, chopped (you can use the other half in the salsa)
2 cloves garlic, chopped and divided (1 clove in the potatoes, the other in the black beans)
2 tsp cumin, divided (1 tsp in the potatoes and the other in the black beans)
1 tsp ancho chili powder or regular chili powder, divided (yep, same as above)
pinch cayenne
salt to taste
1/2 of a lime (probably one of the halves used to make salsa)
Ingredients for the salsa
3 ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
1 large green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 T chopped onion
1 large garlic clove chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1 avocado, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and deveined, and chopped
juice of 2 limes
salt to taste
Directions:
Heat oven to 350 F, and oil a casserole dish.
Cook potatoes either in microwave or boil them. Once done cooking, add in 1 tsp cumin, salt, pinch cayenne, 1/2 tsp of ancho chili powder, and 1 garlic clove. Mash together and set aside. Adjust seasonings if necessary. You can reserve some of the cooking water to make the mashing easier.
In a saucepan, heat 1 tsp olive oil over medium heat and add onion and the other garlic clove. After 5 minutes, add in cumin, salt, and ancho chili powder.
Next, add in black beans and stir to combine, adding water if it gets too dry. Squeeze 1/2 a lime over the black beans, stir and set aside. Adjust with salt and pepper if necessary.
Meanwhile, set out tortillas to warm in the oven to soften them up. Once warm, like a burrito, layer the tortilla with potatoes, cheddar cheese, and black beans. Roll up and place in casserole dish. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
For the Salsa
Combine the tomatoes, garlic, onion, bell pepper, jalapeno, lime juice and salt. Mix well. You may need more or less lime juice, so squeeze in 1 lime, then taste and adjust.
Stir in cilantro and avocado. Adjust seasoning with salt if needed.
Kavitha & Hunter's Hot & Sour Soup - one of the best of its kind.
Serves: 4
Ingredients
2 T cornstarch
4 T water
2 T soy sauce
3 T rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 red chili or 1/4 tsp crushed red chili
1 egg
2 T vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
3 3/4 cups vegetable stock
1 open-can mushroom, sliced
2 oz extra-firm tofu, diced 1/2"
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Directions:
Blend cornstarch with water to form a smooth paste. Add the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, pepper and chili, mix well.
Break the egg into a separate bowl and beat well.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat (or wok) and stir fry the onion for 1-2 minutes.
Stir in the vegetable stock, mushroom, and tofu and simmer for 10 minutes.
Pour cornstarch mixture into the soup and cook the soup, stirring constantly, until it has thickened.
As you are stirring, stir in the beaten egg very slowly into the soup, to create threads of egg.
Garnish with the toasted sesame oil and serve immediately.
We are coming up to 1 month here in Belgium. Everyone has told us it is unseasonably cold, and yet the days are filled with overcast skies that drop steady snowflakes upon us. It is nowhere near the blizzards of the US East coast, but I think snow makes the cold tolerable and bearable. We still miss you NC!
This past weekend we made a beer pilgrimage to the St. Sixtus Trappist Monastery known as Westvleteren. It is located in West Flanders near Poperinge. We took a train to Brussels and from their to Poperinge. Poperinge is Belgium's main hop growing region. Upon arrival, the Flemish bus service De Lijn offers shuttle service, BelBus, in almost every region, so we were able to call ahead and get picked up directly at the train station (the Thirsty Pilgrim Blog has an extremely useful post on how to do exactly this and without a car). Taking the shuttle gave us a very scenic route through the towns of Poperinge and Watou. We passed hop fields, farm fields and the St. Bernardus and the Van Eecke Breweries.
The St. Sixtus Abbey is private and secluded. It is not open to the public, but they have a main cafe, In De Vrede, that is open for visitors and which shows the monastic way of life. Westvleteren beers are regarded as some of the best beers in the world on RateBeer and BeerAdvocate. They brew 3 styles, the blond, the 8 and the 12. The abbey has refused to market their beers, forgoing labels and distribution. To pick up a case of any of the beers you must call ahead probably months in advance to secure a time slot and pick up date. You can check and read about the brewery on their website. Needless to say this may work to also increase the beer's popularity and offer visitors elaborate stories to share on how they acquired the beer, if not make it impossible for beer lovers to actually get the beer. The cafe itself is huge and modern, and they were fairly busy throughout the day. If you love beer, a visit to this area will not disappoint. You can bike along relatively flat farm roads, stay at a bed and breakfast, tour museums & churches, visit WW1 memorial sites, and visit at least 3 breweries (St. Bernardus, Westvleteren, and the Van Eecke Brewery).
Now, the beer. I sampled the 12 first (it was Beeradvocate's #1 ranked beer until just recently), and the blond. The 12 was delicious. I can't say I had a beer epiphany or found it to be the best beer I had ever tried. It was delicious, dark and brown ruby colored, with hints of coriander and clove spices, with a slight bitterness of blackberry. I don't think it will replace my all time favorite beers, but I'm certainly happy and grateful that I was able to sample this divine brew, and while living in Belgium, try to get my hands on some more. The 12 shot all my taste perceptions, so sampling the blond, it was hoppy with lemongrass aromas.
The Westvleteren 12 (above)
The Westvleteren Blond (above)
In and around Leuven, we've explored some of our own snowy rural countryside and I also went around town to explore the Botanical Gardens (the gardener in me is getting that itch), on the way to the gardens, I got lost and ended up in the Groot Begijnhof. The gardens date back to 1738, when the herb gardens were used by medical students. They have a huge orangery complete with probably hundreds of plant species, a small vegetable and herb garden, a Japanese garden, and a chicken coup, compost demonstration, and beehives.
Near the gardens is the Groot Begijnhof which today is used by KU Leuven as housing for professors and some students. It is a truly beautiful community within a community. The begijnhofs have medieval origins in which women or beguines took vows to live a monastic type of life, but were free to leave. Typically they lived in small communities (a beguinage) at the edge of towns and did either service work or manual labor. I found this post with its history and pictures of the Groot Begijnhof in Leuven to be exceptional. Below, I share some of my photos:
A few shots from the Botanical Garden properly called Stad Leuven Kruidtuin:
Being in Belgium, I am tempted to recreate my version of Belgian croquettes. We have had salmon, shrimp, and Trappist cheese ones. They have all been delicious.
We recently ate at a very bland and boring vegetarian restaurant, and while I feel inclined to support places that do vegetarian foods, I am less inspired when the food is only attempting to replace commonly consumed meat foods. I got a "seitan" version of beef stew, and my meal consisted of seitan pieces in a hot broth served with a side of potato coins and a salad. Ew. Boring. We also got a Thai dish, which tasted like jar-curry with Quorn pieces used to replace chicken.
Fail.
The lentils, beets and quinoa can all be cooked within 30 minutes. Use the time while they are cooking to prep the rest of the ingredients. It should go fast.
Beet and Green Lentil Salad
2 large (2" in diameter) beets, roasted or boiled. If you are roasting the beets, they will take on a sweeter flavor. You can scrub them well, then peel, then dice into 1/2" cubes. If boiling instead, just scrub well and simmer in about 2" of water until soft (about 20 minutes). Once cooled, you can peel off skin and cut up. If you peel before boiling, the beets really lose a lot of color and probably a lot of nutrients.
1/2 cup uncooked green lentils, rinsed and picked over
1/2 of a carrot, diced finely
1/2 of a red onion, reserve 2 T for the lentils, and set aside the rest (they will go in the dressing and the croquettes)
1 sprig parsley
1 bay leaf
1 - 1 and 1/2 cups water
1/4 of a lemon
1/4 tsp mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
Cook the beets.
To prepare lentils, simmer the lentils with the onion, carrot and aromatics. They can be cooked over medium heat for about 25 minutes.
While the beets and lentils are cooking make the salad dressing. Combine the juice of 1/4 of a lemon, the mustard, olive oil and about 1 T of the chopped red onion together. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Once the lentils are cooked and cooled, combine them with the beets and toss with the salad dressing. Garnish with parsley and set aside. Next, assemble the croquettes.
Quinoa Croquettes:
1/2 cup quinoa, dry
1 cup water
1 clove garlic
2 T parsley, chopped
1 scallion, chopped
2 T red onion, chopped
salt to taste
1 tsp cumin
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
1 large egg, beaten ( or 2 medium eggs)
5" segment of 2 days old french bread, toasted and crushed
enough oil to pan-fry the croquettes
Toast the quinoa in a saucepan for 5 minutes. Shake often. Add the chopped garlic and water and cook over medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes.
Once the quinoa is cooked and cooled, combine it with parsley, green onions, and parmesan, and salt.
Add in the eggs, and combine. Next add in crushed breadcrumbs, until the mixture is slightly dry and doesn't fall apart
Heat up a cast-iron skillet over medium heat and add enough oil to pan fry (usually about 1/2" of oil) the croquettes. Form 3" flattened balls and pan-fry for 10-15 minutes each side, or until golden brown.
I call this saucepan lasagna (my lack of casserole dishes at the moment) because that is how it's getting served. Biking home today in 25 F degree weather caused hallucinations of comfort food. Try this when your pressed for time and don't feel like waiting around for the baking time. Assemble the ingredients in a large skillet (like a lasagna) and heat. Of course, you can also assemble in a casserole and bake (400 F, covered with foil, for 35-45 minutes).
Serves 4-6
1-1.5 cups uncooked bowtie or farfalle pasta (you can use fettucine or whatever you desire)
Water for boiling
salt to get it going faster
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, quartered
1 lb mushrooms, quartered
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
salt to taste
Marinara sauce (recipe below, or your own)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup to 1 cup fresh mozzarella (the rubbery wet kind), sliced
Ingredients for Marinara Sauce:
2 T olive oil
3 T carrots, chopped
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1/2 white onion, chopped
few parsley springs
2 T mixed herbs (basil, marjoram, oregano etc), chopped
1 28 oz can pureed tomatoes (low-sodium)
generous pour of red wine (I used this merlot)
Directions:
Boil water for the pasta, and cook pasta according to package directions.
Meanwhile prep the veggies for the sauce and lasagna.
Drain pasta and reserve about 1 cup of the cooking water, to use if the pasta sticks.
In the same pan (or a new one), heat 1 tsp of olive oil over medium-high heat, and add mushrooms. Cook 4-5 minutes or until golden, turn heat to medium.
Add in peppers and zucchini. Continue to cook 5 minutes.
Stir in crushed red pepper and season with salt, set aside.
Directions for Marinara Sauce:
In the same pot (no need to dirty a new one, right?) heat up 2 T of olive oil over medium-high heat, and add in garlic and onions. Cook for about 3 minutes, and turning heat down to medium, add in carrots, and parsley sprigs.
Add in pureed tomatoes, wine, and herbs. Cook covered, over medium-high heat until the marinara thickens (about 20 minutes). Remove parsley sprigs before using, adjust salt if needed.
Next, assemble your lasagna, layering sauce, noodles, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, and veggies.
Heat up, over low-medium heat for about 15 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh herbs and parmesan. While its cooking you can make a salad =)
A veggie bean chili that is an easy one-pot meal. The garlic bread is a must. This is the kind of garlic bread that Paresh mama would be proud of. Since the chili uses canned beans, make the chili powder first, and while the chili cooks on the stove, make the garlic butter for the garlic bread.
Bean chili
Yield: 4 servings
Ancho chili powder: 2 T cumin 1/2 tsp red chili powder 1 1/2 T ancho chili powder 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 T dried oregano 1 tsp salt Fresh cracked black pepper
For the bean chili:
1 tsp olive oil
1 bay leaf
1 small onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 carrot, diced fine
2, 14 oz cans beans, rinsed and drained (I used white beans and kidney beans, but you can use whatever beans you like, such as pintos, black beans, and red kidney beans)
1 can diced tomatoes (no-salt added tomatoes)
chopped green onions and cilantro for garnish
Juice of 1/2 lime
Directions:
In a stockpot heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, and once hot add the bay leaf. Once fragrant add in onions and garlic. When they take on some color, add in carrots.
Meanwhile mix together spices and herbs, cumin through black pepper, and add to the pot after the carrots look soft.
Add in beans and the can of tomatoes. Add in a bit of extra water (about 1-2 cups) and stir to combine. I usually fill up the tomato can with water and add it, to get all the tomatoes out.
Cook over low-medium heat for an hour or so. Adjust heat as necessary for slow cooking. Once ready to serve, stir in lime juice and garnish with green onions and cilantro.
You could do this in a slow cooker - just dump this all in your cooker and set over low heat for the day, omitting the lime juice, cilantro and green onions, until just ready to serve. If using soaked beans, instead of canned, cook over high heat for the day (8 hours).
Garlic bread
1 loaf French bread or ciabattta
1/4 cup butter, softened, but not melted
2 T fresh parsley, chopped fine
1 large clove, shredded or minced very fine
salt to taste
Directions:
Combine butter, parsley, garlic and salt. Mix until well combined.
Once soft, cut loaf horizontally and coat bread.
Heat in warm oven (whatever suits you)
Serve warm with the chili.
Serve with a nice dry white wine (Karl recommends a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc)
