Tag: recipes

Sausage Mix

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I miss Italian sausage. Or any sausage, really, that isn’t merguez, sojuk or a loose mix for kebabs.

The only sausage other than those I’ve seen where I live are chicken or beef hot dogs, and occasionally some smoked turkey or beef kielbasa. Delicious, but not exactly what I’m after. I’ve also seen Beyond Burger brats a couple times, but haven’t for months and I’m tired of waiting.

I used to make sausage back in my Charcuteapalooza days and loved it. This isn’t that, and maybe someday I’ll have the access and equipment to make legit sausages again, but this is a step in at least having those flavors in my life again.

I used my mix two ways: sprinkled liberally over ground chicken in a hash type situation, and sprinkled over potatoes with a little sun dried tomato oil before roasting. Both were delicious.

gluten-free, paleo, vegetarian, vegan

Sausage Mix

1 tsp. each of the following dried spices:

Oregano

Basil

Paprika (I used sweet but smoked would also be delicious)

Black pepper

Onion powder

Dill

Rosemary

Celery seed (or celery salt)

2 tsp. each of these:

Garlic powder

Salt

Cayenne pepper

If you have fennel, this mix will lean more Italian sausage – add 2 teaspoons to the mix. I did not, so I added half the amount of dill. Caraway would also be nice in the 1 tsp. quantity, as would thyme or sage.

Makes about enough for 1 lb. of meat + 1 tray of potatoes

Salmon Soba Salad

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This makes a nice little Summer dinner. It’s low fuss, can be eaten cold or room temperature, and dressed a bunch of different ways. As pasta salads can.

Gluten-free, pescatarian

Salmon Soba Salad

1 package soba noodles

2 salmon fillets

4 – 6 ounces watercress or microgreen

1/4 cup chives, snipped

1/2 cup scallions, sliced thin

Dressing

Juice of 1 lime

1 medium cucumber, sliced into thin ribbons or diced

1 Tbsp. rice vinegar

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 Tbsp. soy sauce or coconut aminos

1 tsp. honey

1 tsp. sriracha

Marinade

2 tsp. gochujiang

2 tsp. honey

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

Combine the marinade ingredients. Marinate the fish 30 mins – an hour. Discard marinade and bake or sauté the fish until your desired done ness is reached. I pan sautéed mine until medium with nice and crispy skin. Do watch the fish; your marinade has honey in it so it is like to burn. Mine did a bit, but it was still delicious.

While your fish is working, whisk the dressing ingredients together in a large bowl.

Cook your soba according to package directions, drain and set aside, adding a scant sprinkle of sesame oil and tossing quickly to avoid the noodles sticking together while they sit and cool. If you want your salad cold, chill in the fridge.

Dice and mince the cucumber and herbs. Add to the bowl. Add the micro greens. Add the noodles. Toss to combine.

To serve, plate up a bowl of noodle salad, topped with thick batons of fish and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Serves 2

Ginger Scallion Chicken

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This recipe sounds simple but omfg it’s like comfort in a bowl. If you’re thinking about skipping out on the browning stage for your chicken because you’re lazy: don’t. I often do (see previous excuse) and I’m beyond glad I didn’t for this recipe. It absolutely made the rice.

gluten-free, FODMAP friendly

Ginger Scallion Chicken

4 boneless chicken thighs

2 inches ginger, peeled

1 cup rice (I used sushi rice because that’s my family’s favorite)

2 cups water

2 Tbsp. soy sauce or coconut aminos

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar, divided

1 tsp. salt + sprinkling salt

2 tsp. sugar

1/4 – 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

6 scallions

Black pepper

Fat of choice

Note: Other versions of this recipe call for onion and garlic; if you’re not FODMAPping, these would be lovely additions, I’m sure

Sprinkle your chicken with salt & pepper. Chuck into a pan over medium-high with a little fat (I used garlic oil) and cook until browned on both sides.

While the chicken is working, add the rice (wash if you wash rice; I can never be bothered and really liked the way it was kind of pasty in this dish – reminded me of a casserole), water, 1 tsp. salt, 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar, soy sauce, and the chunk of ginger.

Place the chicken and any pan drippings on top of the rice, hit the rice button and cook until done. If you’re not using a slow cooker with a rice function, cook rice however you cook rice with the chicken on top – the little bits of chicken fat and the juices from the meat run into the rice creating yummy goodness.

While the chicken and rice are going, chop the green onions (if you’re FODMAPping, green parts only) and add to a small bowl with the 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, sugar and red pepper flakes. Mash as best you can with a spoon – or, if you have one, mash in a mortar with a pestle. That would be great. Mine didn’t mush up as much as I wanted with a spoon but the onion still broke up enough to release some good flavor. Taste yours and if you want another tiny bit of sugar add that in. I was on the fence about adding more sugar to mine, but left it out because I like a nice acerbic bite.

To serve, fish the ginger chunk out of the chicken & rice and top with the scallion dressing. I mixed mine together for leftovers and that worked even better for subsequent meals.

Serves 2 for dinner and 2 for lunch

Potato Salad with Damn Good Dressing

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This dressing, which was based on an everything dressing posted by one of the blogs I’ve been following long enough to be on its mailing list but whose name escapes me as I’m sitting down to type this up (maybe First Mess?) is fantastic and I could see it being equally as good on vegetarian as meat dishes (I served my salad with some simple seared salmon and it was delicious), and even great on salads. I would also stir this into some nice rice or orzo for a little quick saucy flavor boost. Yum.

gluten-free, paleo, pescatarian, vegetarian, could be made vegan, FODMAP friendly

Potato Salad with Damn Good Dressing

Salad

1/2 kg new potatoes (or other small variety that doesn’t turn to mush when boiled)

4 – 6 hard boiled eggs

2 big hands arugula

Dressing

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup water

2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

2 Tbsp. soy sauce or coconut aminos

1/5 tsp. flax seeds

1 tsp. sturdy brown mustard

2 tsp. lemon juice

3/4 cup neutral oil

1 big hand parsley

1/2 bunch chives

1.5 tsp. anchovy paste (you could swap for miso – what you’re after is umami)

Boil your potatoes 10 minutes or until fork-tender. Drain and quarter. Add to a large bowl.

Hard boil your eggs. Peel, quarter and add to the bowl.

Add the arugula.

In your blender or food processor, combine all dressing ingredients. Hit with some salt and pepper. Whiz until the herbs are chopped and the dressing is combined. Taste. Add more salt/pepper/lemon juice as necessary.

Pour about a cup over the still-warm potatoes. Toss to combine and let sit until you’re ready to serve.

I served my first round of this salad room temperature with nicely seared salmon. Subsequent servings have been heated in the microwave with a little dressing added and they’ve also been great. It’s even decent cold and I’m not a fan of cold cold potato salad.

Serves 4? 5? Depends what you’re doing with it. I got 2 dinners + 2 lunches out of it. And I have about 3/4 of a cup of dressing leftover for the rest of the week.

Kale & Squash One-Skillet Meal

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This dish feels like a return to my OG ‘everything in skillet; every dinner with a leafy green’ ways. And it was (almost) glorious. A note of caution: watch your salt levels. I wanted my finished dish a bit on the salty side and ended up veering into bad territory. Oops. Stock, as luck has it, still gets saltier as you cook it down – funny how those constant truths never change.

gluten-free, paleo, vegetarian & vegan as written, FODMAP friendly

Kale & Squash One-Skillet Meal, pictured here with added chicken thighs

Kale & Squash One-Skillet Meal

1 bunch chard, kale or other leafy green

2 cups chopped butternut or other squash variety (I had a big slice off of some sort of pumpkiny thing and it worked well)

Stock (I had FODMAP-friendly chicken stock; vegetable would also work well

Half a jar (1/3 cup when chopped) sun dried tomatoes

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

Zest of 1 lemon

Neutral oil

Salt & pepper

De-seed, peel and chop the squash. Wash and chop the chard. Chop the sun dried tomatoes. Zest the lemon.

Add a few good glugs of neutral oil to your largest skillet over medium-high heat. Add the squash and shallow fry until just beginning to soften or until your veggie begins to stick, if you’re like me and decided to give your new cast iron pan it’s inaugural run with something that could have easily failed. Add glugs of stock every time the pumpkin is dry, cooking and stirring frequently until 3/4 of the way cooked through.

Add the chopped chard stems and another glug stock, letting simmer until the stems are tender.

Add the chopped chard tops, lemon zest, chopped sun dried tomatoes and another glug or two of stock and let simmer until the stock has cooked down.

Now, I foolishly added salt & pepper with every addition and mine was way too salty. I’d say add salt & pepper with the squash and then taste at the end to see if you need more.

Despite the saltiness, this dish made a great base for additions and I ended up dressing it different ways for a few days. I added leftover fried potatoes the next day after breakfast. I added some leftover fried up turkey ham and served it with eggs for lunch. Leftover chicken thigh made a good second dinner addition, and I had originally intended on adding sausage to the mix but couldn’t find my beloved Beyond Burger bratwurst (aka the only sausage I can find where I live that isn’t merguez or some sort of Middle Eastern spiced beef varietal).

Serves 4 – 6 depending on how much squash you put in and what you add later – I stretched mine to 6 servings with additions

Tuscan “Chicken”

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I was craving a creamy, luxurious meatless chicken pasta, and I think this fits the bill.

vegetarian, vegan

Tuscan “Chicken”

Extra firm tofu

1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

1 tsp. poultry-ish seasoning (I used the kelp seasoning from Bragg’s)

Salt & pepper

1/3 cup or so flour

Spritz oil

1 cup raw cashews

1 + 3/4 cup veggie broth, divided

2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

6 cloves garlic

1 cup sun dried tomatoes

3 cups fresh baby spinach

Bow tie or other pasta

Add the cashews to a saucepan with water; simmer 15 minutes or until soft. Alternately, soak them overnight in water to soften – but I never remember to do this.

While the cashews are doing their thing, make the “chicken”.

Slice the tofu into batons or chunks, cover with paper towels, press to release as much water as possible.

Lay out a dredging station with 1 dish full of soy sauce and 1 of panko mixed with the poultry seasoning, salt, pepper and flour.

Dip the tofu in the soy sauce, coat in the breading, and lay on a prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Spritz with some oil if desired. Bake at 400F/220C for around 25 minutes or until browned and crispy.

While the “chicken” is chicken-ing, make the sauce by blending the (mostly drained) cashews, broth (starting with 1 cup and drizzling in more as needed), nutritional yeast, garlic, and a little salt and pepper.

When done, add to a large pan with the sun dried tomatoes (chopped). Add the spinach and stir gently to wilt. Add a little more stock if you’ve got it or water if you don’t if the sauce thickens too much. Taste for salt and add more if necessary.

Serve with pasta or rice.

Serves 4 for dinner

Peachy Keen Steak Bowl

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This dish *started* as a riff on a Mediterranean steak bowl … and then my local grocery had nice peaches. So we went a different way. FYI, hummus pairs quite well with peaches.

gluten-free

Peachy Keen Steak Bowl

Steak:

1kg. flank steak or something similar

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp. garlic powder

1 Tbsp. onion powder

Liberal cracked black pepper.

First, combine all steak ingredients in a bag or vessel of some sort and marinate at least an hour and up to over night. When it’s time to cook, remove the steak to a prepared baking sheet. Toss the marinade.

Salady bit:

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1/2 red onion, fairly thinly sliced

1-2 peaches, sliced into quarters or eighths

1 small cucumber, chopped

Splash rice vinegar

Splash oil

Salt & pepper

Juice of 1/2 a lemon (I halved and roasted mine along with the veggies)

Set your oven to broil. Add the cherry tomatoes, halved lemons, peach wedges and onion slices to the prepared sheet with the steak.

Pop into the oven for 4 minutes, flip the steak, and back into the oven for 2 more for rare (if your steak is thin); more for not-rare. When the steak is cooked to your liking, remove and let sit 4 – 10 minutes to rest. Slice thinly against the grain with rested.

While the steak and veggies are broiling, make the dressing.

When the tomatoes are blistered and the peaches have some color, add to a large bowl with the cucumber (chopped). Add the rest of the ingredients, toss, and taste for salt and acid.

Dressing:

1/2 cup yogurt (I was lucky enough to find plain soy yogurt this week)

1 Tbsp. neutral oil

The other half lemons’ juice

1 clove garlic, grated

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. dried dill

1/2 tsp. salt

A little black pepper

Stir all dressing ingredients to combine. Taste for salt and add more if necessary.

Bowl:

Hummus

Microgreens (optional, I used radish)

Toasted pepitas (Optional)

Chives or green onions (would also be lovely)

To assemble the bowl, lay a Tablespoon or a few of hummus down. Top with greens if you’re using and some salad. Lay the steak on top, top with dressing, and sprinkle with the optional garnishes. Hit with a few grinds pepper & an extra sprinkle salt.

Serves 2 for dinner + 1 for lunch

Orange Salmon

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This recipe is unabashedly stolen from a (mostly) Internet friend, who daily sets his sights on making the rest of us in our little corner of the (virtual) world drool.

Gluten-free, pescatarian

Orange Salmon

2 salmon fillets

1-2 cups cooked rice

1 cup snow peas

1 orange

1 thumb + 1 thumb ginger

1 Tbsp. + 2 Tbsp. sesame oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp. rice vinegar (the original recipe called for mirin, but I can’t get that where i live)

1 Tbsp. honey

2 cloves garlic

1 green onion

Sesame seeds

Mix together the soy sauce, 2 Tbsp. sesame oil, rice vinegar and honey. Grate and stir in the garlic and 1 thumb ginger.

Brush the mixture over your salmon and place skin side up on a prepared baking sheet.

Broil 3 – 5 minutes, flip, baste, and broil another minute or two – until your desired done ness is reached.

While the salmon is working, bring the other Tablespoon of sesame oil up to medium-high in a large pan. Add the snow peas in and toss. Grate the second thumb of ginger in and toss. Zest the orange and toss in.

Sauté until browned in spots. Remove.

Supreme the orange and slice each segment into thirds.

To serve, toss the rice with the segmented orange. Thinly slice the green onion and toss in.

Arrange the rice mix in a bowl, top with a bed of snow peas, and a salmon filet. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the whole lot.

Serves 2 for dinner

Sumac Chicken

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This is a nicely spiced little weeknight chicken that goes perfectly with a side of roasted or fried potatoes.

gluten-free, paleo

Oops. I had no idea my Hipstamatic phone app was set to moody black & white when snapping the leftovers – picture a nice spice crust on a chicken breast with a dusting of lemon zest

Sumac Chicken

3 – 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 tsp. sumac or lemon powder

2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. coriander

Zest of 1 lemon

Salt & pepper

Pat the chicken dry and dust liberally with the spices. Pat the spices in and hit with salt and pepper. Cook using your favorite method – I baked mine at 220C/375F for 15 minutes; this would be an awesome addition to flour for fried chicken.

I served mine alongside a semi-failed potato rosti (my potatoes didn’t form a cake, but who’s kidding – fried potatoes are always awesome).

Serves 3 – 4

Hibachi Bowls

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Not *quite* the same as hibachi out, but still satisfying. And the sauce is kind of addicting – I’ve had it twice in as many days and plan to slather a Beyond Burger with it next burger night 🙂

gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan

Hibachi Bowls

Sauce:

Heaping Tablespoon tahini

2 Tbsp. spicy mustard

2 cloves garlic, grated

4 Tbsp. coconut aminos

1 inch ginger, grated

2 – 3 Tbsp. water

Sesame Tofu:

1 block extra firm tofu

1-2 Tbsp. sesame seeds

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 Tbsp. coconut aminos

1 Tbsp. corn starch

Sesame Ginger Snow Peas:

2 cloves garlic, grated

1 inch ginger, grated

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 package snow peas

1 Tbsp. coconut aminos

Black pepper

To Serve:

Rice

Pickled ginger, chopped

Sesame seeds

Scallions, chopped

Preheat your oven to 375F/220C. Cut the tofu into 1/2 inch thick slices, cover with a paper towel and press to get the water out. Cut the slices into cubes and toss with the rest of the tofu ingredients.

Spread out in a single layer on a prepared baking sheet.

Bake 25 minutes or until crispy and browned.

While the tofu is working, stir-fry the snow peas until browned in spots.

Whisk the sauce ingredients together, adding more water if you want the mixture more runny.

Serve with the rice, chopped ginger, sesame seeds and scallions.

Serves 4