Tag: noodles

Thai-Style Peanut Chicken Noodles

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This Thai-inspired peanut stir-fry comes together in a jiffy for a healthy, satisfying weeknight meal.

Thai-Style Peanut Chicken Noodles

3 stalks celery, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 carrot, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/2 onion, sliced thin
1/2 lb. chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 Tbsp. canola or peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 lb. whole wheat spaghetti, cooked until barely al dente

For the sauce

1/4 c. peanut butter
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. pomegranate molasses
2 tsp. rice vinegar
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. chili garlic paste
4 Tbsp. rice wine
4 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. +1 tsp. lime juice
Water to thin

Whisk all sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Add water, a Tablespoon full at a time, until thin enough to pour as a sauce (I ended up using 4 Tbsp.).

Heat 1 Tbsp. canola or peanut oil in a large wok over high. Add chicken and stir-fry until golden brown and cooked through. Set aside.

Add the rest of the oil, onion, celery and carrot. Stir-fry until beginning to brown.

Add garlic, stir-fry until softened. Add spaghetti and sauce. Remove from heat and toss to combine.

Serves 2 for dinner.

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Pasta with Broccoli, Pistachio Pesto & Lemon

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Pasta with Broccoli, Pistachio Pesto & Lemon

Adapted from Pasta with Pistachios Meyer Lemon & Broccoli from the Tasting Table newsletter

1 cup shelled pistachios
1 Tbsp. kosher salt plus
½ pound whole wheat elbow macaroni
2 cups broccoli, chopped
2 garlic cloves
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Juice of ½ an orange
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 cup flat-leaf parsley
½ cup mint
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. sesame oil
½ cup finely grated Pecorino Romano (omit for vegan)
2 Tbsp. finely chopped chives

Preheat the oven to 350°. Bake the shelled pistachios until really fragrant and just starting to brown, about 5 – 6 minutes. Watch your nuts carefully; they can go from pleasantly golden-ish to a hot mess in seconds. Set aside to cool, then whiz in a food processor until they resemble a coarse meal.

While you’re babysitting the pistachios, bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Chop your broccoli while you are waiting for the water to boil and set aside. Once the water is at a boil, add a handful of salt and the pasta and boil until the pasta is almost al dente, about 7 minutes. In the last 2 minutes of cooking, add the broccoli. You want tender but not overdone. Drain the whole shebang, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid for the sauce. If you aren’t ready to add the pasta back to the pot for saucing at this point, run it under cold water to stop the cooking process.

While you are cooking the pasta/broccoli, add the garlic, lemon zest, red pepper flakes and kosher salt to the food processor and grind into a fine crumb. Add the parsley and mint and pulse to process down. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the olive and sesame oils. Transfer to a medium saucepan and add the reserved pasta water. Bring the watery pesto to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and add the pasta/broccoli. Stir in the lemon juice and cheese and let sit for 5 minutes to give the lemon a chance to work its magic. Top with the chives and serve.

Serves 2 for dinner + 1 for lunch.

Soba with Starfruit

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Soba with Starfruit

Adapted from Ottolenghi Soba Noodles from 101 Cookbooks

1/2 c. rice vinegar

1/3 c. brown sugar

large pinch kosher salt

2 garlic cloves, pressed

2 big pinches red pepper flakes

1 tsp. sesame oil

zest and juice of 1 lime

canola oil

5 small Asian eggplant

soba noodles (2 bundles or enough to serve 3)

2 star fruit

Red onion

Handful Italian basil

Handful cilantro

Prep your eggplant by trimming the ends and cutting into a small (about 1/4 inch) dice. Set aside.

Prep your starfruit by cutting into 1/4 inch slices and quartering.

Put a large sautee pan on medium high heat and a large pot of water on to boil. Add a good glug or two of canola to the large sautee pan (you want the bottom covered).

While your pan and pot are coming up to temperature, combine the vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved fully (about 1 minute). Set aside. Add the pressed garlic, red pepper flakes and sesame oil.

Your oil should be just getting up to temperature (you’ll know it is hot enough when a drop of water sputters when added to the pan). Add half of the eggplant and fry until nice and browned. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel. Sprinkle with salt. Add the second half of the eggplant and repeat.

When the water comes up to a boil, add the soba noodles. Cook according to package directions until al dente (about 3 mins). Drain and immediately rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. Knock as much water off as possible. Add a little olive oil to your hand and toss the cooled noodles around in the colander to coat. This will help the noodles from clumping all together into a gluey mess while they sit.

Prepare the rest of your ingredients.

Slice the onion into wafer thin slices (you only need a handful or so).

Sliver the basil.

Chop the cilantro.

Zest and juice the lime and add to the dressing.

In a medium sized bowl, combine all ingredients. Toss with the dressing and let sit an hour to give the flavors a chance to marry.

Toss again just before serving & enjoy.

Serves 2 for dinner with enough left over for a nice-sized lunch.

Roasted Sesame Radish Soba with Kale

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This dish started with the question, what can I do with these CSA radishes other than serve them raw or pickled? I’d made simple roast English breakfast radishes before, and knew they turned sweet with heat. I’m happy to report that this dish turned out great – the radishes were sweet, almost turnip-y and the greens worked well with the sauce and carrot. All in all a satisfying, healthy weeknight dish.

Apparently the dish was so good I forgot to take a picture of it. These are watermelon radishes.

Roasted Sesame Radish Soba with Kale

3 watermelon radishes
1 bunch kale
2 small carrots
1 c. vegetable stock
1/2 palm sesame seeds
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. honey
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. soy
1 Tbsp. mirin
1 tsp. chili garlic sauce
1 shallot, thinly sliced
2 servings soba

Preheat the oven to 425 F. While your oven is preheating, chop the radishes into roughly 1 inch chunks. De-stem the kale and slice it into ribbons. Slice the carrots into thin rounds.

Put the radishes into the oven on a cookie sheet. Bake 25-30 mins. or until they reach your desired softness. I left mine a little al dente, and they tasted just fine.

While your radishes are cooking, add the vegetable stock and kale to a large pan and cook approximately 10 minutes until the liquid has evaporated and the kale is soft. Add the carrot halfway through the cooking time (this will give you crisp carrots – for softer carrots, add at the beginning with the kale).

While all this is working, toast your sesame seeds in a dry pan over high heat until they just begin to brown and smell nutty. Set aside and make your radish dressing.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine 1 Tbsp. honey with 1 Tbsp. soy. When the radishes are done, pull the sheet from the oven and pour the radish sauce over. Add the shallots, toss to combine, and put back in the oven for 3-5 minutes. Watch carefully so the mixture does not burn.

Cook the soba according to package directions, about 3 minutes, and drain.

When the radishes are done, add the sesame seeds and toss to coat.

Add the noodles to the pan with the kale and carrots, along with the miring, 1 tsp. honey, 1 tsp. soy, and chili garlic sauce. Toss to combine.

Serve topped with the roasted sesame radishes.

Serves 2

Faux Pho

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This pho, while not strictly traditional, has a nice taste and satisfies those mid-week noodle in broth cravings nicely.

Faux Pho

Broth

8 c. beef broth
2 stalks celery
2 small carrots
2 cloves garlic, well and truly smashed
1 shallot, chopped
2 star anise podsa
12 peppercorns
1 Tbsp. grated ginger
Pho

1c. when chopped red yard long beans (or any other bean, really)
1/2 lb. baby pac choi
1 package per person instant noodle soup Udon noodles (I used the brand from the picture, which I picked up at Super Target)
Fixins

Ground ginger
Fish sauce
Soy sauce
Cilantro
Sriracha
Lime juice

First, make the stock. The goal here is for a flavorful stock in its own right. You want something that tastes good before you add all the fixins.

Add the stock to a medium pot over high heat. While your stock is coming up to the boil, slice your celery into thin moons, your carrots into thin rounds, and smash the garlic. Add to the pot as you go.

Once the broth and its additions come up to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer 30 minutes. You can go longer if you would like, just don’t loose too much volume. You want the flavors to marry and the stock to pick up some great fresh taste from the veggies and spices.

While your broth is working, prepare your vegetables. I went with red yard long beans and pac choi, since that’s what came in my CSA share this week. My rule of thumb for any asian soup is this: a green + a color. Any green + something from any other color. Slice the beans thin (about 1/4 inch long) and chop the pac choi into bite-sized pieces.

At the 30 minute mark, strain your broth to take out the solids. They’ve given their all at this point and you have fresh things to add to the pot.

Add the beans and simmer 5 mins.

Add the pac choi, simmer an additional 2 minutes. Kick the heat up to a boil

Add the udon and boil 3 mins or until done.

Split into 2 bowls and season with fixins to your particular taste. I used 1 tsp. ground ginger, 1 Tbsp. fish sauce, 2 Tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tsp. cilantro, 1 tsp. sriracha and 1 tsp. lime juice.

Serves 2, with enough broth left over for a third serving.

Kohlrabi & Apple Slaw Noodles

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Kohlrabi & Apple Slaw Noodles
I’m cautiously optimistic that this single dish will pull me out of my cooking rut. This was great, though next time I may double the sauce amount. It came out on the dry side for my taste so I finished with an additional drizzle of sesame oil. A nice touch, but the sweet/sour/bright sauce would have been even better.

1 Kohlrabi bulb, julienned
Kohlrabi greens, ribboned
2 small carrots, julienned
1 Fuji apple, julienned
2 cloves garlic, slivered
8 oz. fettuccini-width rice noodles
1 Tbsp. sesame oil

For the sauce

4 tsp. honey
2 tsp. sesame oil
2 dried chili peppers, de-seeded & minced
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. water
2 tsp. pomegranate molasses
2 tsp. rice vinegar
2 tsp. ponzu

Set a large pot of water on to boil for the noodles. Boil noodles 6 minutes (or the lowest cook time listed on the noodle package – you want al dente). Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking.

While you’re waiting for the noodles to cook, make the sauce. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk. Adjust seasoning to taste. You want it to taste great on its own.

Add the sesame oil to your your largest pan over high heat. When the noodles go into the boiling water, toss the kohlrabi bulb and garlic into the pan. Cook, stirring, until the noodles are done.

When the noodles are done, add them to the pan. Keep everything moving so the noodles don’t stick all over the place. Add the kohlrabi greens and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add the sauce, carrots and apples. Stir fry an additional 2 minutes to combine everything well.

Serves 4

Faker Pot Roast

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Beefy, Satisfying Goodness

This recipe takes leftovers from a pretty good dinner and transforms them into satisfying comfort food that won’t break the calorie bank.

Dinner 1: Slow-Cooker Chipotle Beef Tacos with Cabbage and Radish Slaw from Real Simple Magazine

This dinner was pretty good. The beef smelled great, but came out somehow lacking in the spice and smoke department. Don’t get me wrong, this beef was good — juicy, perfectly tender and all around a nice main component — it just wasn’t the ballsy spicy richness I half hoped it would be. It tasted more like a pot roast.

Which got me thinking….

Dinner 2: Faker Pot Roast

Mmmm…. pot roast. Pot roast is one of those dishes that picks you up, gives you a nice snuggly blanket, a soft place to sit and a nice book to read. Pot roast tucks you in. I remember as a kid opening the door to the house on cold winter nights and being buffeted by the wall of warm beefy goodness only pot roast that’s cooked all day in the Crock Pot can provide. Good times.

I wasn’t feeling making another haunch o’beast, so I decided to do the next best thing. I winged it with ingredients I had on hand.

Faker Pot Roast

This spin on pot roast transforms humble leftovers into a deeply satisfying super quick to throw together weeknight meal.

Leftover slow cooker chipotle beef, approximately 1 1/2 cup.
1 c beef broth
1/4 c. red wine
1 1/2 c. carrots, sliced into 1/4 inch thick coins
1 leek, halved lengthwise and sliced into 1/4 inch thick moons
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 lb. egg noodles
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1 Tbsp. butter

Warm 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a large high-sided pan over medium heat. Once the oil is up to temperature, add the leeks, onions, carrots, wine and broth. Sautee 5 mins.

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Once the water is boiling, add the egg noodles. Cook to al dente according to package directions

Continue cooking veggies 10 minutes, or until the carrots are soft. If at any time things look too dry, add additional wine and/or stock.

About 2 minutes before cooking is finished, add the leftover beef. Stir to combine until the beef is warmed through. Add the noodles and toss to combine. Remove from the heat. Add the butter and parsley and stir to combine until the butter has melted.

Serves 2