Pasta e Ceci (Pasta With Chickpeas)

When I am short on time, but still want a wholesome dinner, this is my absolute favourite. Pasta with ground chickpea sauce is not only creamy, but very filling. This thick and hearty sauce is rich in fiber and protein, and that makes me feel at ease for not including vegetables in a meal, as I normally do. With common pantry ingredients, this dish comes together in a snap. Or if you are like me, you will always have soaked legumes on hand.

Pasta e Ceci (Pasta With Chickpeas)
(serves 2)

Ingredients

Chickpeas – 1½ cups, cooked or 1 16-ounce can
Onion – 1, chopped
Garlic – 2 cloves, chopped
Tomatoes – 3, chopped or 1 small can of chopped tomatoes
Fresh rosemary – 1 tbsp, chopped
Red pepper flakes – 2-4 tsp
Short Pasta – ½ pound
Oil – 2 tsp
Salt
Pepper

Crumbly cheese such as queso fresco, feta or paneer – for garnish
Chopped parsley – for garnish

Method

Heat oil in a deep pot, sauté onion, and garlic until soft. Stir in rosemary, and cook for another minute. Stir in tomatoes, red pepper flakes and salt and cook until tomatoes are softened. Stir in 1 cup of chickpeas (reserve the rest for later), 1 cup if water and heat through. Remove from heat, and blend the mixture until smooth. A hand blender is very handy for this job. Return to heat, keep warm.

While you are preparing the sauce on one side, bring a pot of water to boil and cook pasta following package instructions. Pasta should be cooked, but still firm. Drain pasta and reserve 1 cup of cooking water.

Mix cooked pasta with the chickpea sauce, along with the reserved whole chickpeas. The pasta should be slightly soupy, as it will absorb more water. Add some of the reserved pasta water, until desired consistency is reached.

Serve with a garnish of crumbled cheese and fresh herbs. Omit cheese for a vegan version.

Artisan pasta with chickpeas

This is my entry to My Legume Love Affair, Sixth Helping: Hot & Spicy. If you have spicy legume dishes to share with us, send 'em to me before the end of this month.

Japanese Udon - Tofu Soup

When I am down with cold or fever, I generally resort to a set of recipes that clears my nose. These recipes are easy on stomach, but not light on flavour; meant to kick start our system with a spicy jolt. Like spicy tomato soup/rasam, Pepper-cumin-garlic rasam, and now miso soup.

My love for miso is not new. Mellow, but salty, miso makes a great soup. The broth is infused with spicy ginger and fragrant lemongrass and the noodles and tofu are let to soak up the flavour. I made up this recipe according to my tastes; feel free to modify it by adding mushrooms or mixed vegetables.

Ingredients

Silken tofu – ¾ cup, cubed
Dried or frozen udon noodles – 8 oz
White miso – 2 tbsp
Better Than Bouillon – 1tbsp
Ginger – 4 thinly sliced rounds
Lemongrass – 2, sliced, soft light green parts only
Green chilli – 1 (optional)
Scallions – 1, thinly sliced

Shredded ginger for serving (optional)

Method

Boil 4 cups of water with miso, bouillon, ginger, lemongrass and chilli for about 5 minutes. When the flavors have infused well, remove and strain. Transfer the stock back to the sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add udon noodles and cook in the miso broth. When the noodles are almost cooked, add tofu cubes and allow the soup to gently simmer, for about a minute. Let the noodles to cook thoroughly. Ladle onto bowls and serve hot topped with scallions and shredded ginger on the side.

Tofu is a good vegan source of calcium. Japanese udon-tofu soup is my entry to Beautiful Bones, hosted by Susan of Food Blogga. Its an event focused on bringing awareness about osteoporosis.

TECHNORATI TAGS: Udon Noodles, Soup, Miso, Tofu, Ginger, Lemongrass

Udon – Miso Bowl

Have you ever yearned to visit a place for months together and suddenly realized that you can actually make to it in a matter of hours? That precisely explains my sudden disappearance this past week. I am hoping to share this experience with you when time permits.

Coming to today’s recipe, this is yet another restaurant-inspired meal. I have this bad habit of recreating meals that I enjoy in any eatery, be it a local café or a fine diner. Why bad? Because I know how to make it at home, so why bother ordering it again? This practice reduced our eating out options, until I learnt to enjoy the dish even if I know how to prepare it. This is one such dish that I appreciate, no matter where it is prepared.

For this recipe, I have used frozen udon noodles, which are available at Oriental supermarkets. Frozen noodles have much shorter cooking time and are smooth and chewy. They come in blocks which are easier to store and use. Dried udon or soba noodles can be used in its place. Learn to make udon noodles at home from Lara.

Mirin is Japanese cooking wine. This light gold coloured liquid adds sweetness and flavour to the dish. There are two types of mirin – Hon Mirin, which contains 14% alcohol and Shin Mirin, that contains 1% alcohol. When cooked, the alcohol evaporates leaving behind concentrated flavours. Use mirin sparingly because the taste is strong.

Miso is a salty condiment used in Japanese cooking. It is prepared by fermenting soy beans, rice or barley with salt and koji(a mold culture), and are aged in wooden caskets. They are differentiated by factors like the type of grain used, how long they are aged etc. Red and white miso are the common varieties available. If you are not introduced to miso before, start with white miso, because it is milder and smoother than red miso. When stored properly in a refrigerator, it stays fresh for a year.

Ingredients

Frozen udon noodles – 2 blocks (about 8 oz)
Red onion – 1, sliced
Fresh spinach – 1 cup, chopped
Sambal oelek (fresh chilli paste) – 1 tsp
Grated ginger – 1 tsp
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
Sesame oil – 1 tbsp

Miso sauce

Miso – 2 tbsp
Mirin – ¼ cup
Rice vinegar – 2 tbsp
Water or stock – ¼ cup

Method

Cook udon noodles according to instructions. Drain, rinse and set aside. Combine all the ingredients for the miso sauce into a smooth mixture.

In a skillet or wok over medium-high heat, heat oil and sauté onion. When the onions have caramelized, reduce the heat, add ginger, garlic and spinach. Let the spinach wilt and add miso sauce. When the sauce bubbles vigorously, add cooked noodles. Toss to combine, squirt lemon juice and serve hot. No additional salt is required as miso is salty enough.

On a different note, my Baked Portabella has won last month’s challenge of No Croutons Required, hosted by Lisa and Holler. Many thanks to the hosts and to those who voted for me.

Arundathi, Miss Bellevue, Namratha, Cynthia have awarded me with ‘Yummy Blog Award’.

I thank these ladies and pass the award to all food bloggers who expend their time and energy to enrich the food blogging community.

Rice Noodles in Vegetable Sauce

Pasta is versatile. Be it a soup or a salad or an entrée, it lends hand to a cook who has to bring dinner to the table with limited resources. Though called under different names like spaghetti, fettuccine or bucatini, wheat noodles can get boring sometimes. At those times, I jump to the oriental camp and cook with soba or udon noodles. If you are once again bored, then try rice noodles. You will be surprised.

I always have rice noodles in my pantry. Instant idiyappam, as they are called, my mom prepares them as you would prepare any mixed rice. Lemon, coconut, tamarind and tomato are the common flavours. But when I want to get my vegetable fix of the day, I do what I normally do – stir fry. And then serve it with rice noodles.

One of the things I do when I am grocery shopping is stock my freezer with frozen vegetables. Apart from the usual peas, corn, broccoli, I also buy various blends of mixed vegetables. All you have to do for a quick meal is thaw and sauté the vegetables. With a little creativity and few flavoursome sauce ideas, dinner time is something to look forward to.

Ingredients

Rice noodles – ½ packet
Onion – 1
Garlic – 2 cloves
Lemongrass – 1 stalk, minced (optional)
Carrot – 2, cut into thin slices
Baby corn – 1 can, drained and rinsed
Bean sprouts – 1 cup
Tomato puree (canned tomato sauce) – 1 cup
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Soy sauce – 1 tbsp
Chilli powder or red pepper flakes – 1 tsp
Cilantro
Salt
Oil

Method

Place noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand until it is cooked, according to package instructions. Drain and keep warm.

In a skillet, heat oil, add onion, garlic and lemongrass and sauté until soft. Add carrots, baby corn, tomato puree, coriander powder, soy sauce, chilli powder and salt. Stir to combine. Allow the sauce to bubble and the vegetables to get partially cooked, yet remain crunchy. Add bean sprouts, adjust seasoning and liquid, if necessary. The vegetable mixture has to be soupy to soak the rice noodles.

Spoon the cooked noodles onto a bowl and top with the vegetable mixture with sauce. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Other vegetables that can go into this bowl are bell peppers, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots etc. You can even add a can of beans of your choice. My favourite way is to sprinkle some toasted peanuts on top.

Vegetable Lo Mein With Soba Noodles

Lo mein is a Chinese cooking method, where boiled noodles are mixed with sauce, vegetables and/or poultry and/or seafood. If the boiled noodles are fried and then sautéed with sauce and vegetables, then the cooking method is called chow mein. Naturally, soft noodles soak up more sauce and therefore lo mein recipes often use more sauce. Instead of ordinary noodles, I have used soba noodles.

Soba noodles are Japanese noodles made of buckwheat. These light brown coloured noodles can be served cold with a dipping sauce or hot, as in this recipe. Even though buckwheat is a gluten-free grain (a pseudograin, strictly speaking, since buckwheat is not a grain, rather a fruit), the noodles are made by mixing wheat flour. So people with special dietary needs should be cautious while consuming them. Otherwise, these noodles are an excellent source of protein and good source of fiber.

They are slightly nutty, but when mixed with a sauce, soba noodles hardly taste different than wheat noodles. They cook faster than ordinary noodles too, just 4 minutes. I see no reason why soba noodles shouldn’t be a part of a healthy diet. For nutritional information and details on the brand that I normally buy, visit here. Learn how to make soba noodles from a chef master.

Ingredients

Soba Noodles – ½ lb
Red or green bell pepper – 1
Sugar snap peas – 1 cup, stringed
Carrot – 2, cut into 1 inch cubes
Teriyaki sauce – 1/3-1/2 cup
Garlic – 3 cloves, minced
Ginger – 1 inch piece, finely chopped
Crushed red pepper– 1 tsp
Eggs – 2
Salt
Pepper
Cilantro – 2 tsp, finely chopped
Sesame oil

Method

Cook soba noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water, drain again and set aside.

Take a flat bottomed wide skillet. Put this on a medium heat stove and heat a tsp of oil. In a bowl combine eggs, salt and pepper. Whisk to combine and pour into the skillet. Lift and tilt the skillet to form a thin layer of egg on the bottom. Cook, without stirring for 2 to 3 minutes or just until set. Lift the omelette, flip and cook the other side for an additional minute. Slide out onto cutting board, cool slightly and cut into thick strips. Set aside.

In the same skillet, over high heat, heat 2 tsp of oil. Add bell pepper, sugar snap peas, carrot, ginger, garlic and crushed red pepper. Cook and stir for 3 minutes. Add teriyaki sauce and salt and bring to boil. Boil gently for 2 minutes. Add cooked noodles and cilantro to the vegetable mixture, toss well and serve immediately.

Orzo Salad

Am back. And, its nice to be alive and kicking. First of all, a big Thank You, for each and one of you who were kind enough to visit here and wish me good health. Its nice to hear from you all, my blogging buddies.

After a week, spent indoors, I went to the vegetable market yesterday. The sight of bright, fresh and colourful vegetables and fruits, stacked neatly, is a feast for both eyes and soul. I came across these beauties and couldn’t resist picking them.

These tomatoes were slightly bigger than a chickpea, but each bite was a sweet, fresh and a juicy burst inside our mouths. For $3.50 a lb, they better be.

Though ideas of using them in a tart or pie showed up in my mind, I decided to use them as is. I was in no mood for a cold salad, therefore put together a warm pasta salad, that can also be served at room temperature. Orzo is a rice shaped pasta that cooks fast and works great in salads and soups.

As I am still under medication, I made a basic, less spicy version of the salad. Also I made one whole pound of pasta and snacked on it as and when I was hungry.

Ingredients

Orzo – 1 lb
Tomatoes – 1 lb
Red onion – 1, medium sized, chopped fine
Mixed herbs (cilantro, basil, mint) – ¼ cup, finely chopped
Salt

Dressing

Red wine vinegar – 1 tbsp
Extra virgin olive oil – 3 tbsp
Zest and juice of a lemon
Red pepper flakes – 1 tsp
Salt
Pepper

Method

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta water before draining.

Whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing in a large bowl. Add the cooked warm pasta, onions, tomatoes and the herbs. Mix well and taste for seasoning. If the pasta becomes dry, add some of the reserved pasta water till each grain is separate. You can also add more olive oil.

Some other interesting additions would be

1. Chickpeas – Soaked and cooked.
2. Olives – Not the regular canned or jarred ones, but fresh ones from the olive bar. Their brine is an excellent addition to any salad.
3. Pine nuts – toasted
4. Any left-over vegetables.
   

I tried all of these variations every time I helped myself with the salad.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce over Tortellini

Tortellini are ring shaped pasta stuffed with various fillings such as meat or cheese. Originally from Bologna, Italy, legend has it when the gods walked the earth, an innkeeper was so enchanted with the beauty of Venus, he modeled the little tortellini after her navel.

Vegetarian frozen tortellini are usually stuffed with cheese and can be used in soups. Boiled in vegetable broth with salt and pepper is my favourite way of preparing them. But most of the times I prefer tortellini light, hence I buy dried ones stuffed with a variety of vegetables. Though they taste good with bare vegetable broth, I jazz them up with a special ‘something’ that adds a homemade touch to the otherwise ordinary store-bought dinner.

The sauce is easy to whip-up with just your pantry ingredients. Roasted red pepper gives it a sweet, smoky but scrumptious flavour. I have used sun dried tomato and oregano tortellini in this recipe.

Ingredients

Tortellini – ½ lb dried or 1 lb frozen
Roasted red pepper – 4 (about ½ of a 12 oz jar)
Onion – 1, small
Garlic – 3 cloves
Chilli powder – ½ tsp
Sugar – 1 tsp
Herbs of your choice (Cilantro, basil, oregano, thyme or parsley)
Salt
Oil

Method

Cook tortellini according to package directions, drain and reserve. Puree the roasted red peppers until smooth.

In a pan, heat oil, sauté onion and garlic until soft. Add the pureed roasted pepper, chilli powder, sugar and salt, and heat through. Stir in the herb and pour the sauce over pasta. Toss gently to coat and serve.

This is my entry for Waiter There Is Something In My... Sauce hosted by Andrew Barrow of Spittoon Extra.