Monday, January 29, 2007

Spicy Sweet Potato-Coconut Soup

When I added sweet potatoes to my online cart at Fresh Direct, the site recommended the Spicy Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup recipe. When I prepared it, I hated the color of the broth and was considering dumping it out until I though of blending it. Now I love it!!



Verdict: A
Credits: Real Simple magazine [via Fresh Direct]
Leftovers? Yes, though you might need to thin with a little water.

Notes: Instead of the one inch dice, I just slice the sweet potato into pretty thick pieces and then after five or ten minutes to heat them (because I baked them a day or two before usually) use the hand blender to blend the whole thing. There's sesame oil in the picture but I usually don't bother.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Bloody Bowties


Fresh Direct recommended this recipe when I was shopping for beets, so I tried it. The recipe title is Shockingly Pink Pasta so I thought it would be a bright fuschia pink. It is when you first stir in a little beet sauce to a lot of light colored pasta, but by the time it is all added, it looks like blood. Now we're talking shocking!

Roast 3 medium to large beets in the oven, wrapped in foil with a little olive oil for an hour. At the same time, wrap a whole head of garlic in foil with a little olive oil and roast.

When the beets have cooled, take out of the foil and peel the skins off. They should just slip off by hand. Sometimes I have to use the paring knife. Slice into chunks. These can be stored, refrigerated for a few days and added to salads.



Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of the head into the beets. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive and puree. I use my hand blender in this tupperware container. Salt and generous pepper.

Make a box of farfalle. Add the beet puree to the drained pasta. Serve with parmesan cheese.
Bloody!

Verdict: A
Credits: Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon [via Fresh Direct]
Leftovers? Yes, very good.

Notes: It was so good that I bought the book, Passionate Vegetarian I have also made it with raw, not roasted, garlic and it is way hot with garlic. If you are roasting the beets anyway, roast the garlic.