Pepper Paints

Thursday’s Recipe …. Raw Butternut Squash Rice

Isn’t this the most beautiful dish?? And it’s tasty too!

1 small butternut squash peeled and seeded and cut into 2 inch cubes

1/2 an onion

1 T cumin seeds **** see my senior moment note below

1 T corriander

1/2 cup cilantro

1 cup dry cranberries

1 cup crushed walnuts

salt

So I mixed up this wonderful mixture and ate it. And it was really good. BUT because I just copied the ingredients from the Crunchy Bits (Fall Harvest Squash Rice) post and didn’t pay attention to the fact that it called for cumin seeds –mine did taste a bit dusty! -and that she also put her squash in the food processor! As you can see-I did not. But still it was good. I did think it needed something wet with it or on it. I bet processing the squash made it more moist. Today I may add some cut up apple or an orange to my bowl full. Mmmmm (also I skipped the walnuts because we are sensitive to them)

Either way–a beautiful dish to eat!

Thursday’s Recipe ….. Raw Pad Thai With Kelp Noodles

Kelp noodles=heaven! Oh my, I can’t believe how good these are. Excellent texture! If you are local you can buy them at the Clintonville Community Market on Crestview.

I know every week I rave about how good my recipes are—and I am biased because I really do like to eat—but this Pad Thai is awesome!!!

For 1 package of kelp noodles

4 to 5 Tablespoons  nut butter

1 Tablespoon hot sauce

1 Tablespoon honey

1 Tablespoon tamari1 teaspoon vinegar

2 teaspoons seseme oil

1/4 cup of water

juice of 1 lime

I rinsed my kelp noodles and put them in a bowl then I  put all the above  ingredients in my vita-mix and poured it over my noodles.

Next I cut up lots of veggies and tons of cilantro. You can use any veggies you choose-I used red cabbage, scallions, pea pods, chard, shiitake mushrooms. Sprinkle a few cashews on top. Let the pad thai sit for ten or so  minutes to soften the noodles.

I have been participating in the green smoothie challenge this week.  I often drink green smoothies but not daily. I must admit I don’t really love green smoothies. But I wanted to see if I would see any benefits to drinking them daily for 2 weeks. I will let you know!

Thursday’s Recipe……Kale and Sweet Potatoe Soup with Cumin and Lemon

I am on a soup kick lately. I love soup and found a cook book of the same name, LOVE SOUP. I can’t say my family loves all this crazy soup making as much as I do. They are a chicken noodle bunch-but not me. Not this winter. This winter I am branching out!!

KALE AND SWEET POTATO SOUP WITH CUMIN AND LEMON

serves 6 generously (again thinking I have different serving size standards)

2 large leeks-white and light green part

1 large yellow onion

2 T olive oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

12 oz sweet potatoes

1-2 small white or yellow potatoes

12 oz kale

4 green onions

1 bunch cilantro

freshly ground pepper

2 or more cups of veg broth

1 T cumin seeds

cayenne

Coarsely chop leeks and onion.  Saute onion  in olive oil with a dash of salt, when soft add leeks cook stirring often for about 20 mins or until soft.

Meanwhile, peel sweet potato and chop both types potatoes into 1/2 inch dice. Chop kale and combine with potatoes in pot with about 5 cups of water and teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil then simmer 15 mins (or less)

Add the leeks and onions along with sliced green onions, cilantro and lots of freshly ground pepper. Add as much veg broth as you need to give soup a nice consistency.  Simmer about 10 minutes

Lightly toast cumin seeds in dry pan just until fragrant and then grind with mortar or spice grinder. Stir in cumin and a spoonful of lemon juice.  Add more salt, red pepper and lemon juice to taste

ladle into bowls-add a heaping spoonful of tangy cheese-I used goat  chevre and a heavy sprinkle of red pepper flakes

Excellent!!!

Thursday’s Quarter Recipes

This is the best “salad” I have ever had!! It is from The Pioneer Woman’s recipes. I changed it up a little bit to fit my taste-I’ll add in on the original recipe where I added or deleted ingredients.

Warning—-this makes 2 tons so you can feed an army or half the recipe!

Asian Noodle Salad

1lb linguine cooked, rinsed and cooled—-The first time I made this I used 1 lb of rice noodles but found that to be way too much noodle for me so the second time I used a smaller 1/2 lb package of rice sticks and it was much better. It was more like salad with a few noodles instead of noddles with some veggies! Some day I will get around to ordering kelp noodles and substitute these in this recipe!

1/2 to 1 head sliced napa cabbage

1/2- to 1 head purple cabbage

1/2 to 1 bag baby spinich

1 red, 1 yellow and 1 orange pepper sliced thin

1 small bag of mung bean prouts

3 (or more!!) sliced scallions

3 peeled and sliced cucumbers

lots (2 bunches for me) of chopped up cilantro

cashews

Dressing:

juice of 1 lime

8 T olive oil

2-3 T seseme oil

8 T soy sauce

1/3 c brown sugar –I used a large spoonful of honey

3 T fresh ginger chopped (I used more)

2 cloves garlic–again more

2 jalapenos (be careful when chopping!!)

Mix together salad ingredients. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Mix with tongs Top with cashews

Hint if using rice noodles-cook them for only a few minutes and taste DO NOT OVER COOK-rinse them repeatedly in cold water so they don’t become a sticky mess.

Also I added some Chinese hot garlic oil to my bowlful to make it super spicy!! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

If you have a recipe to add to this weeks quarter recipes be sure to leave a link in the comments to your recipe post.