Creamed Spinach with Roasted Cipollini Onions and Toasted Bread Crumbs

Creamed Spinach with Roasted Cipollini Onions and Toasted Bread Crumbs

Serves: 4
Adapted from Tyler Florence

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 pounds cipollini onions
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 lbs fresh spinach, stemmed and washed
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cups panko breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place the unpeeled cipollini onions in a bowl and cover with very hot water. Set aside for 15 minutes to soften the skins. Drain the onions, then peel and pat dry.

2. Heat a large skillet over high heat and add 2 Tbsp of oil. Add the onions and saute until they are golden brown. Roughly 10 minutes.

3. Add the vinegar and honey. Then reduce the heat to medium, and cook until the mixture has reduced to a syrup and the onions are soft, about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400° F.

4. Heat a large pot over medium heat. Drizzle with 2 Tbsp of oil, add the butter, and stir it around until it melts.

5. Next, add the onions and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes, or until soft.

6. Add the spinach in batches, pushing it down into the pan to help it wilt. Add more spinach as soon as there is room in the pot. Cook the spinach until it’s dry. Reduce the heat and add the cream and nutmeg. Stir and cook for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

7. Pour the creamed spinach into a baking dish and top it off with the onions, panko and the Parmesan cheese. Bake until the breadcrumbs are golden brown…15 minutes. Serve hot.

This dish was super delish! I think next time I’ll be making it vegan instead. I realize now that I can no longer tolerate dairy in my diet. I had too much ice cream last night and now I’m paying the price. My body hurts so bad. I’ve never experienced this before. I couldn’t figure out why I was in so much pain this morning. Then I had more ice cream again tonight. A couple hours later and the pain has returned. My feet, legs and back ache so bad. I feel like I need a nice hot bath and massage. I should really be going to bed, but the pain is too much. Instead, I am writing this blog post, laying in bed, trying to get my mind off of this horrible debacle. Lesson learned…NO DAIRY EVER AGAIN!!!

Cauliflower Mash

I was in L.A. last summer eating at “Veggie Grill” Somehow, I ended up trying their cauliflower mashed potatoes. I don’t normally eat cauliflower and i never had them mashed. Boy was I in Heaven. I sure have been missing out all these years. Anyways, I decided I would make some tonight. First attempt and I think they turned out Devine!

Adapted from detoxinista

Mashed Cauliflower
serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 Medium-sized head of cauliflower, chopped into florets (about 3 lbs.)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 6 roasted garlic cloves
• 2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 2 fresh chives, chopped
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper, to taste

• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Fill a large stockpot with about an inch or two of water, and insert a steamer basket. Bring the water to a boil, and add the cauliflower. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Steam the cauliflower for 6-8 minutes, or until fork tender.

2. Drain the steamed cauliflower, and transfer to the bowl of a large food processor. Next, add in the roasted garlic cloves and seasonings, and process to your desired texture.

3. Put into a baking dish and sprinkle with Panko and Parmesan. Broil until lightly browned on top.

I made this tonight with creamed spinach and salmon. It was amazing. My friend told me that is topped her favorite dish from The Cheese Cake Factory. That made me smile. I do love to cook good food, for all the special people in my life. Don’t mind the cut in the creamed spinach. I dropped my iPhone on my plate, before I could even take a picture. Lol!!

Hummus

I’ve grown up eating hummus since I can remember. It’s so delicious. My Mom always made this recipe. I tend to like it more then store bought hummus. It’s very simple and easy to make. I tend to cut this recipe in half, since I’m the only one eating it. It lasts me a week, if I have one serving a day. I like to put it on a sandwich daily, after my morning yoga. I don’t really like breakfast food. I would rather eat leftovers from dinner, the night before, for breakfast.

Anyways, I was visiting my mom the other day and decided to get the official recipe from her. It’s from this cookbook. Now, I am realizing, that it has been too long since Ive been home to Calgary.

A Taste of Calgary
Served by Douglas Leighton

Hummus
By Chef Costas Stathakos
Yield:6-8

Ingredients:

• 32 oz can chick peas, drain & retain juice
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp tahini
• 5 Tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Put the chick peas, garlic, lemon juice and oil into a blender and blend on low speed.

2. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add retained chick pea juice and blend to achieve pudding-like consistency.

3. Serve with pita bread or veggies. (Hummus will keep for a week in the fridge in a sealed container)

Update:

I learned a new trick, for those of you looking to make really smooth hummus. The key is removing the outer skin. It only took me about 15 minutes, after I boiled dried garbanzo beans for 2 hours.

Sweet Potato Fries

Sorry i haven’t posted in a while or that much in the last month. It’s been very busy on the home front. Hopefully, things will calm down shortly. Anyways, I love sweet potato fries. They are easy to make and taste so good. They sure don’t last long around here.

Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:

• 2 large yams, peeled and cut into fries
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp raw cane sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place the cut up yams into a bowl. Drizzle with the oil and vinegar. Stir to coat evenly.

2. Place the yams onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle the sugar, salt and pepper on top of the yams. Bake @ 400 F for 20 minutes. Flip half way through.

Vegan Jalapeño Poppers

I’ve been dying to have some jalapeño poppers for quite some time now. It’s been over a year since I’ve had any. Since I became vegan, I never even thought about making them myself. Just the thought of fake cheese would make me queasy. There have been very few times that I like fake cheese. Other times, the same fake cheese made me want to vomit! I can only handle diaya in moderation in dishes. I mainly stay away from any dish that has any type of fake cheese substitute. Slowly but surely, I’ve been finding out what cheese substitutes I can handle and what I like.

This past week, I set out on a search to make poppers, that didn’t have vegan cream cheese or a huge amout of diaya in them. The cheddar diaya I really don’t like. These ones use cashews and a small amount of mozzarella diaya. I think they turned out rather well. I made another batch last weekend and the inside was a mix of cashews with tofu. I didn’t like them that much. I could only eat one! I ended up throwing the rest of them out. They gave me that same queasy feeling. These ones did not. I ate 7 last night. I never eat that many poppers, but they were just too good.

Soaked cashews with garlic, lemon juice, chives, salt and pepper.

Blended cashews and spices. Then diaya is mixed in with a spoon.

Setting up my dredging station.

Now I just wanted to say, wear gloves!!!
I took mine off prematurely. I didn’t realize that all the rinsing I did in the sink, left a ghostly residue that would later haunt me. My hands payed the price for a good hour after I was done cleaning up my mess and doing all the dishes. I finally resorted to sticking them in a glass of milk. It helped, slightly.

Vegan Jalapeño Poppers

Yield: 30

Ingredients:

About 15 large jalapeños

For the Filling;

• 1 1/2 cups raw cashews soaked for about 3 hours
• 4 tsp lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 Tbsp chives, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• dash cayenne
• 1 cup diaya, mozzarella

Dredging:

Flour mixture;

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• dash chipotle
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

• 2 cups panko, roughly
• 1 cup soy milk* or vegan milk of choice
• 1 cup of safflower oil, great for high heat

* I actually used coconut milk and it coated the jalapeños fantastically.

Directions:

1. Take your soaked cashews and purée with all of the filling ingredients, except for the diaya. Purée until smooth. Then mix in the diaya with a spoon. Set aside

2. Time to make the flour mixture. Put all the flour mix ingredients in a bowl. TI like to mix them together with a whisk. Get two more bowls. One for milk and one for panko.

3. Cut jalapeños in half lengthwise. Deseed with a spoon, while wearing your handy dandy, gloves ;)

4. Fill your jalapeños with the cashew mix.

5. For coating I did
Milk
Flour
Milk
Flour
Milk
Panko

This made a really nice, thick, crunchy, outer coating.

6. Heat oil on med-high to 350 in a sauce pot. If you don’t have a thermometer, when u drop a piece of panko in the oil and it sizzles, the oil is ready. Now, put 4-5 jalapeños in the oil for 1 1/2 minutes. Then turn over and fry for another minute and a half. They should be lightly browned and crispy when done.

I ended up taking the extra jalapeños that i didn’t want to fry and placing them on sheet pans, to freeze for a couple hours. Then I transferred then to ziplock bags. Now I have a boat load of jalapeños ready to pop in some oil for a quick and easy snack. I hope you enjoy them. I sure have.