#love me some leafy greens hate cleaning them alas

[moth-time]

Reblogging with some meatless meals in response to our chat in the comments! I'm not much of a nutrition nerd so I have no idea how balanced my food is but hey, I'm still alive I have to be doing something right :p I do use a lot of cheese and butter when I'm not cooking for the vegan roomie, because it's delicious. I also tend more toward one-pot-meals, because I don't really have the space for more pots n pans.

Since you mentioned eating gluten-free I'm picking things that can be made as such! I'm writing the recipes down very roughly but if anyone wants more detailed step-by-steps, let me know. I measure with my heart but I can write shit down if I must x)

Gorgonzola Pasta. Really easy one, subtitute gorgonzola with any strong blue cheese of your choice (I've been making it with bleu d'auvergne bc it is very cheap in fall). Pasta sauce is just one shallot, fried in butter until it's glassy, then a cup of cream and as much blue cheese as your heart desires, melted into the cream. Add pepper, salt, nutmeg to taste. Serve w a salad.

Minestone-ish. My go-to fall/winter soup, it's delicious, it's hearty, it fills your heart with joy and soup. This is basically a minestone except the Italians would shoot me on sight for saying so. Ingredience: as many root vegetables as you can get your hands onto but at least four different ones (no beetroot, too sweet), leek or onion, garlic, splash of white wine, can of tomato. Spices of choice but i usually use clove, rosemary, garlic, bay leaf. Fry all your vegetables in butter or oil, glaze with white wine, add a can of tomato and enough water to cover your veggies plus some. Bring to a boil and let simmer for half an hour. If you're feeding an army, you can also add a can of beans and/or noodles towards the end. Serve with grated parmigiano for decadence.

Shakshouka. I know it, you know it, spicy tomato sauce with eggs stays winning. I usually beef mine up with potatoes and carrots (dice and boil in the sauce) and serve with couscous, rice or pasta.

Red or yellow thai curry. My go-to gluten-free, vegan recipe. I make yellow curry with potatoes, peas, carrots, canned lychee if I have them. Red one I usually make with more summer-y vegetables like zucchini and bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, whatever, but I'll also toss carrots or potatoes in there. I use ready-bought curry paste because I am not insane enough to make my own, and I spice it up with fresh ginger, garlic, peppers and generous amounts of soy sauce. I'll also use fish or oyster sauce if I'm not making it veggie, but yknow :p Very filling, very creamy, 10/10 everybody loves curry. Serve with sticky rice.

Mushroom or tomato risotto. I make mushroom risotto if I have nice mushrooms, otherwise tomato. The latter is made with dried tomatoes, lots of garlic, lots of parmigiano. Pine nuts if you can get em for a reasonable price. Very nice with a leafy salad side, with a good strong vinaigrette with balsamico and mustard.

Pumpkin soup. Diced pumpkin and onions, fried in butter or olive oil. Top off with water and vegetable soup stock, bring to a boil. Puree when the pumpkin is soft, add a can of coconut cream, heat again for a few minutes. Spice with either pumpkin spice mix, or yellow curry paste, or garam masala. I kinda spice this one different every time. It's very creamy and sweet so I like to give it a kick with chili, too.

Caponata. Really nice for summer. I'm linking the wikipedia article for that one but you can find recipes online, just make sure yours has aubergine, capers, olives and balsamico. I like to sweeten mine with honey, too. Typically eaten with bread, probably works as a pasta sauce too. Also an excellent side-dish, though a bit labor intensive as a side for me.

Stir fry with whatever the fuck you want. Also one of my go-to for when I have to feed people with food restrictions because you can just toss whatever vegetable you want into a stir fry, you just gotta know your cooking times. Green beans, carrots, bell peppers, zucchini, aubergines, pumpkin, leafy greens, leeks, you name it, you take it. Anything that fries fast is game. I usually beef it up with smoked tofu, which you can marinate before, and should toss into the wok first because you want to fry it nice and crispy. Also add a fried egg on top. Also serve with rice. I really like making my stir-fry with szechuan pepper as my main spice because I'm a sucker for it, but you can also go as simple of weird as you want on this one.

Fried rice. That one takes a little bit of forethought because ideally you need to let your rice sit for a few hours before frying it. Otherwise, pretty easy and very satisfying. I usually put in carrots, onions, spring onions, garlic, ginger, sambal, sesame oil, and unreasonable amounts of egg in mine. I also use shrimp paste if I'm not feeding vegetarians, and sometimes substitute with mushroom sauce or vegetable stock if I got veggie eaters. It is punchier with shrimp paste.

Menus, Oct. 23-30

Several people were open to seeing my menu planning, and it's something I enjoy doing well, so here we go!

Notes: My dishes can all be gluten free (they are, for us) by using gf pasta (we like Rummo brand gf noodles and Tinkyada are good too). Otherwise, we're pretty generally low carb and most things are from scratch, but typically pretty simple. Most of these rely on root vegetables or beans for their carbohydrates.

Feta tomato pasta and sausage --This was viral on Instagram a while back, and I decided to try it. Now my daughter requests it pretty often. I don't make it quite like the original--mostly, I add some zucchini, double the feta, and add a bunch of Italian seasoning. This link is pretty much the same thing. They add shallots, which does sound lovely but costs a bit extra. I cooked some sausage with the meal because I didn't want to load up on pasta, personally, as I'm still staying very low carb.

"Bowl of the Wife of Kit Carson"--modified caldo tlalpeño--Pity poor Maria Carson, whose indigenous name I can't even learn, now remembered by her husband's name. That aside, it's a family favorite. We make it with the entire can of chiles in adobo, but that's a family preference. The avocados are pretty much the vegetable in this one so uhh...have plenty. I make the rice separate, both because that way you can vary it depending on your spice tolerance and because that way the rice doesn't suck up all the soup for leftovers.

Roast whole chicken, roasted mixed root vegetables, and garlicky kale. I basted the chicken with avocado oil (expensive but healthy; feel free to sub cheaper vegetable oil), seasoned it with a Penzey's mix I like called Ozark Seasoning, and stuffed it with rosemary, onions, and garlic. The root vegetables can be whatever; mine were yellow beets (slightly less "earthy" tasting than red, which might be more appealing to some), rutabaga, and carrots. Salt, pepper, and garlic powder is enough, seasoning-wise. And the kale, I blanch and then saute with a LOT of garlic.

Garlic parmesan white beans, brussels sprouts, and Gujerati carrot salad. I've not made the beans yet; they'll be a new dish for us. Sound great, though, and I'm trying to learn more meatless dishes generally and bean dishes specifically. We like to halve or quarter our brussels sprouts, depending on size, steam them, and then eat them with sour cream. And the carrot salad is a longstanding family favorite, which I got from my well worn copy of Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking. This is almost the same recipe, but I don't add cayenne, and I wouldn't use olive oil, since it has such a low smoke point. I'd use peanut or canola or something. It's not spicy or "exotic" tasting, and it's been well-received at potlucks.

Pot Roast. There's no point giving a recipe for this one; just pick one that looks good to you. Just include lots of good veggies. I like carrots, onions, potatoes, and parsnips. It's fun to add a bag of frozen pearl onions, and I like frozen peas put in at the very end of cooking.

Tuna salad. I eat it over lettuce, the others eat it as a sandwich. Dinner for a tired night. My tuna salad is made with well-drained chunk light (in water), finely diced celery, finely diced green salad olives, salt, pepper, and mayo to bind. My family really likes the olives so I go heavy and also use a little of the jar liquid as a salt stand-in.

Deviled eggs and raw veggies with hummus. Another phone-in meal, or it would be if I didn't find making deviled eggs such a hassle. We all love them, but I have some inexplicable personal antipathy for how long they take to make. ANYWAY, my deviled eggs are the bestest, and you will not think so if you eat yours southern-style with (shudder) "salad dressing" instead of mayo, or sweet relish. No, mine are made with salt, pepper, mayo, and lots of finely minced green salad olives, and topped with paprika, preferably sharp paprika.

Pork tenderloin, frozen corn, and stewed apples and quince. Aren't we just POSH? Jacob got me a quince to try at the farmer's market. It's uh...well pretty much I guess it's like a rock-hard and fairly tart apple, with the granular texture of an Asian pear. They're generally eaten cooked, which is why I decided to stew it mixed with apples. So I just sliced the apples and the quince up fine (just leave out the quince if you don't have it which you probably don't, and maybe add a dash of lemon juice instead), simmered them in a couple tablespoons of apple cider (or juice; we had cider), and threw in a teaspoon of pie seasoning, a fistful of dried cranberries (the recipe called for raisins) and very approximately a tablespoon of allulose syrup. Obviously you could just use sugar instead. I topped mine with pecans and it was so so good. Oh, and also the pork: Usually two tenderloins come in a pack of tenderloins, so I put a different seasoning on each just for fun. Various blends. Lemon pepper and Montreal Steak Seasoning are favorites, but tonight I opened an unlabeled container in the pantry and discovered that it was rosemary salt the bestie made and left here, so I mashed it up with some garlic and put that on one, and did bbq rub on the other. The frozen corn....is frozen corn. Except, you know, microwaved.