Lettuce Wraps

I purchased a HUGE bag of lettuce from Sam's Club and then realized that I should try something new, besides our standard salad.  When I found lettuce wraps, it sounded like the perfect idea! (These are courtesy of thaifood.about.com)

This Thai lettuce wraps recipe is quick and easy to make. Lettuce wraps are also a fun dish to eat, either as an appetizer or main course. Serve the filling on a platter with whole lettuce leaves on the side, and let your friends and family wrap their own. They'll love the combination of crisp, cold lettuce with the warm, flavorful filling. This easy lettuce wrap recipes makes a low-calorie, low-fat treat that's also very nutritious. Lettuce wraps make a great party food too!

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Yield: SERVES 4(starter)/2-3(main)

Ingredients:

• 1 head fresh iceberg lettuce OR prepackaged lettuce for wraps
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 thumb-size piece galangal OR ginger, grated
• 1 red chili, minced, OR 1/4 to 1/3 tsp. chili flakes
• 2 shallots, sliced finely
• 1/2 cup firm tofu, cut into "matchsticks"; OR 1/2 cup cooked chicken or pork, shredded, OR 1/2 cup cooked baby shrimp
• 1 carrot, grated or cut into thin strips
• 5-6 mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 egg (omit if vegan)
• 1/2 cup shredded cabbage (any type will work)
• 3 spring onions, sliced
• approx. 2 cups bean sprouts
• 2 Tbsp. lime juice
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1+1/2 Tbsp. fish sauce OR 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce; Vegetarians: use vegetarian oyster sauce OR vegetarian stir-fry sauce
• 1/4 tsp. sugar
• TOPPINGS:
• 1/3 cup fresh basil OR mint, chopped if leaves are large
• 1/3 cup fresh dry roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
• fresh bean sprouts
• OTHER: 2 Tbsp. oil for stir-frying

Preparation:

1. Drizzle oil into a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic, galangal (or ginger), chili, and shallots. Stir-fry one minute, or until fragrant. Stir-frying tip: add a little water or white wine if the wok/pan gets too dry instead of more oil.
2. Add tofu (OR shrimp/chicken/pork), carrot, shiitake mushrooms, cabbage, and spring onions. As you stir-fry, add the lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce (or vegetarian substitutes) and sprinkle over the sugar. Stir-fry about 1 minute.
3. Push ingredients to the side of the wok or pan, and crack in the egg. Stir-fry quickly to break the yolk. Mix in with the other ingredients.
4. Add the bean sprouts and stir-fry briefly to mix (avoid over-looking or it will go limp). Remove from heat and do a taste test for salt, adding more fish sauce if not salty enough.
5. Cut off the stem part of the iceburg lettuce so it's easier to separate the leaves. Now place the lettuce, sir-fried filling, and the toppings on your table in separate bowls/plates, allowing family or guests to make their own wraps.
6. To assemble, take a whole lettuce leaf and place 1-2 heaping tablespoons of filling in the center. Top with a sprinkling of fresh basil and peanuts plus fresh bean sprouts if desired. Then wrap up and eat! (For those who like it extra spicy, fresh-cut chili can be added as another topping.) ENJOY!

Butternut Squash Chili

Our family LOVES butternut squash!  We enjoy it in soups, salads, and pasta dishes.  So I was thrilled to find this new recipe for Butternut Squash Chili (courtesy of citronlimette.com):

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• 1½ pound ground turkey
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped onion
• ½ cup chopped green pepper
• ½ cup chopped red pepper
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon diced jalapeno pepper
• ¼ cup white wine
• 1 teaspoon ground ancho chile pepper
• 2 teaspoon oregano
• ½ teaspoon ground red pepper
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 2½ cups cubed peeled butternut squash

See more spicy recipes!

Instructions

1. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray and add 1 teaspoon oil. Season ground turkey with salt and pepper and add to pan; saute 7-8 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Add 2 teaspoon oil to pan and add onion, green pepper, red pepper and saute 2-3 minutes. Add tomato paste, garlic and jalapeno; saute 1-2 minutes. Add wine; bring to boil, scraping pan. Cook 2 minutes. Return ground turkey to pan.
3. Stir in ancho chili pepper, oregano, ground red pepper, ground cumin, ground coriander, diced tomatoes, kidney beans and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.
4. Add butternut squash and simmer 45 minutes or until squash is tender.

White Bean and tomatoes

White Beans and Sausage

courtesy of simplerecipes.com

Posted by Elise on Sep 10, 2007

Filed under Gluten-Free, Main Course, Pork

 

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Okay, so why didn't we think of this earlier? White beans, Italian sausage, tomato sauce. It's sort of like spaghetti but with white beans instead of pasta. Filling? Yes. Resistible? No.

White Beans and Sausage Recipe

Note, this recipe calls for preparing dried beans. You can substitute steps 1 and 2 in the recipe by using 4 15-ounce cans of beans, rinsed and drained.

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INGREDIENTS

Beans

• 1 lb dried cannellini beans
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 4-5 fresh sage leaves
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 black peppercorns
• Salt

Beans with sausage

• 5 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausage
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 3-4 canned plum tomatoes, chopped
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 cup tomato purée
• Salt (about 2 teaspoons) and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

1 Sort through the beans, removing any stones. Rinse the beans under cold running water. Place beans in a large pot and cover by at least a couple of inches with cold water. Let soak for at least 4 hours.

2 Drain the beans. Add 3 quarts of water back to the beans in the pot. Add 2 Tbsp olive oil, the sage leaves, 2 cloves crushed garlic, and the peppercorns. Cover, bring to a simmer on medium heat, and simmer beans for one hour. Season to taste with salt. Lower the heat so that the beans are barely simmering. Cook for an additional 1-2 hours, or until beans are just tender. Note that the fresher the beans the shorter the cooking time, the older the beans the longer. Remove from heat and let cool in cooking liquid. Set aside 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid, drain the rest from the beans.

3 Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Remove sausages from their casings (if the sausage has come in casings), and fry on the skillet until lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes. Do not stir that much and do not crowd the pan, or the sausage won't brown well. Add the reserved bean cooking liquid, 4 Tbsp olive oil, garlic, chopped tomatoes, and red pepper flakes, stirring occasionally until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

4 Add the reserved beans and tomato purée. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer a few minutes longer, stirring gently, until sausage is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. Be careful not to break up the beans.

Serves 4-8.

White Bean and Vegetable soup

White Bean and Vegetable Soup Recipe

courtesy of simplyrecipes.com

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INGREDIENTS

• 2 15-oz cans cannellini or white kidney beans (or 1/2 lb dried beans, soaked overnight in water), drained
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/8 head of green cabbage, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
• 2 celery stalks, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 1/2 carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 5 cups (or more) vegetable stock or canned vegetable broth
• 1 medium potato, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 head of red cabbage, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 zucchini or summer squash, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Tabasco sauce (optional)

METHOD

1 Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, thyme, and garlic. Sauté 5 minutes. Add green cabbage, tomatoes, celery, and carrots. Sauté 10 minutes.

2 Add beans, 5 cups of stock, potatoes, and basil. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for one hour.

3 Add red cabbage and zucchini. Add salt. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes longer. Stir in cheese. Sprinkle in a a dash of Tabasco hot sauce if you want to give the soup a little zip.

Serve with ground pepper and bread.

Yield: Serves 4-6.

White beans and Kale

This week I cooked up a large batch of white beans and have been looking for ways to use them all.  We've also recently become HUGE fans of kale at our house.....so naturally, this recipe is a new favorite!  I usually leave the sausage out but it does add a nice flavor.

Kale with Sausage and White Beans Recipe

courtesy of simplyrecipes.com

• Prep time: 10 minutes
• Cook time: 20 minutes

We used curly kale for this recipe, but you could use any kale, as well as chard, turnip greens, beet greens, or collards. A splash of vinegar (sherry, red wine, cider) is a nice touch right at the end of cooking.

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INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 pound bulk sweet Italian sausage, or other sausage (use gluten-free sausage if cooking gluten-free)
• 1 onion, sliced thin (about 1 1/2 cup's worth of sliced onions)
• 2 large garlic cloves, sliced thin
• 1 pound kale (1 large bunch), center thick rib removed, leaves roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 15-ounce can of white beans, rinsed and drained
• Salt and pepper

METHOD

1 Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and add the bulk sausage; if you can't find bulk sausage, remove the casings on the links. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then add the onion slices and turn the heat to high. Cook until the edges of the onions brown, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

2 Add the kale, sprinkle salt over everything, then add the chicken stock. Cover the pan, lower the heat to medium and cook for 2 minutes.

3 Uncover, mix everything well (the kale will have cooked down by now) and add the beans. Cover the pot again and lower the heat to low. Cook another 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. Let stand 5 minutes, then serve.

Yield: Serves 4-6 as a side dish.

Purple Cauliflower Soup (Vegan)

This is taken from "Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking".  To see more of her great Vegan recipes (some of which I definitely plan to try out soon!), look here.













Fall weather always makes me crave creamy soups. Maybe it's because they're so comforting and I need reassurance to face the long winter ahead. Whatever the reason, my youngest son and I decided to cook together, and the menu was to be soup and sweet potato fries. Because we are eating from our CSA box, and because our farmer loves to grow purple cauliflower, that's what I used for the soup. I was more than a little skeptical about what it would look like—I'm used to creamy white cauliflower soup—but game. I cooked it in my pressure cooker, and even though I knew I was cooking a purple cauliflower, when I opened the pot I was still surprised to see deep purple liquid and lavender cauliflower pieces. I went at it with the immersion blender, and it blended into a nice shade of purple.



The next surprise came when I added fresh squeezed lime juice (we have a lot of limes from our CSA fruit share) and as the juice hit the purple, it turned a bright magenta. This was getting interesting. I tasted and seasoned and wrote down approximately what I did. We ended up with a great tasting pot of weird looking soup.

Jordan made our usual oven sweet potato fries, with the addition of spicy chipotlépowder, and they were superb. In fact, we ate them before I remembered the camera!

Creamy cauliflower soup (in the pressure cooker)

• large head of cauliflower (white or purple), separated into medium chunks
• medium onion, sliced
• one stalk celery, sliced
• 2 to 3 small white potatoes, peeled and cut up (for body)
• water
• one clove garlic, minced fine
• 1/2 teaspoon of either truffle oil, olive oil, chili oil or no oil
• one lime, juiced
• sweet white miso, to taste
• salt and pepper to taste
• thinly sliced green onion, parsley or other green for garnish

1. Sauté the onion and celery in a small amount of olive oil in the pressure cooker until the onion is translucent.
2. Add the cauliflower and potato and enough water to come about 3/4 up the cauliflower.
3. Bring up to pressure, turn the heat down and cook at pressure for 4 minutes.
4. Run cool water over the lid to bring the pressure down. Open the pot and add the miso, lime juice and oil. Blend in the pot with an immersion blender, or in batches in a conventional blender. Stir in the garlic. Adjust seasonings. Garnish. I used baby arugula because that's what I had on hand.

Cranberry Salsa

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  Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip
  
  
  (Recipe taken from Jamie Cooks It Up - and you should go there to read the whole story - she is a hilarious writer and has quite the story about making this dip....)
  
  
  1  12 oz package fresh cranberries
  1/4 C green onion, chopped
  1/4 C cilantro, chopped
  1 small jalapeno pepper
  1 1/4 C sugar
  1/4 t cumin
  2 T lemon juice
  dash salt
  2  8 oz packages cream cheese
  
  
  
    
  1. Put your cranberries, green onions, cilantro and jalapeno in a food processor and coarsely chop together.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  2. When you are ready to serve, place your cream cheese bricks on a plate.
  
  
  
  3. Spread the cream cheese out as evenly as you can.
  
  
  
  4. Pour your cranberry mixture over the cream cheese.
  
  
  
  5. Spread it all around.
  6. Serve immediately with Wheat Thins, Ritz Crackers or Tortilla Chips.