Recipe: New Year’s Resolution Stew

In an effort to eat healthy in 2011, we made this delicious recipe from Epicurious.  There are a lot of pieces to put together, but in the end, it’s a simple, delicious, healthful soup.

Udon  with Mushroom Broth, Cabbage and Yams

Broth:

• 10 cups vegetable broth ( I combined veggie stock I made a few months ago and some organic boxed veggie broth)
• 3 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 1/2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms, rinsed
• 3/4 cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger
• 2 lemongrass stalks, outer dark layers removed, all but bottom 4 inches cut off and discarded (we have some growing in our yard that we used)
• 2 6-inch strips dried kombu (we didn’t use this and didn’t miss it)
• 2 teaspoons tamari soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon unseasoned rice vinegar

Garnishes:

• 2 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled yams (red-skinned sweet potatoes)
• 5 ounces snow peas, trimmed
• 4 cups 1/2-inch-wide crosswise slices cored Napa cabbage
• 5 ounces slender carrots (preferably assorted colors), peeled, thinly sliced on diagonal
• 10 ounces Japanese-style udon noodles or soba noodles (I used green tea soba noodles)
• 1 cup sliced green onions
• 1/4 cup matchstick-size strips peeled fresh ginger
• 4 to 6 ounces semi-firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (optional)
• Sambal oelek (we used sriracha)
• Tamari soy sauce

For broth:
Bring broth and 3 cups water to simmer in large pot over medium heat. Add cilantro, mushrooms, sliced ginger, and lemongrass. Cover; simmer until mushrooms are tender, about 30 minutes. Rinse kombu; add to broth. Simmer 1 minute. Using tongs, remove kombu and mushrooms; discard kombu. Transfer mushrooms to work surface; cut off stems and discard. Cut each mushroom into 3 to 4 strips. Strain broth through fine-mesh strainer into another large pot; discard solids in strainer. Add tamari and rice vinegar to broth. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill mushrooms. Cool, cover, and chill broth.

For garnishes:
Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Cook yams until just tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Using skimmer, transfer to medium bowl. Cook snow peas, cabbage, and carrots separately until crisp-tender (snow peas, 30 seconds; cabbage, 1 1/2 minutes; carrots, 2 minutes). Using skimmer, transfer vegetables to separate bowls. Reserve cooking liquid. DO AHEAD: Vegetables can be cooked 2 hours ahead. Let vegetables and liquid stand at room temperature.

Bring cooking liquid to boil. Sprinkle with salt. Add noodles; cook until tender but still firm to bite, stirring often. Drain; rinse.

Meanwhile, bring vegetable broth to simmer. Add green onions and ginger strips. Season with salt and pepper.

Using tongs, divide noodles among bowls. Divide mushrooms, yams, snow peas, cabbage, and carrots among bowls, each in separate mound. Divide tofu, if using, among bowls. Ladle broth over and serve, passing sambal oelek and tamari separately.

Recipe: Giant Kitchen Sink Salad

It’s Thursday and we’re picking up more veggies tomorrow, but have too many that we haven’t been able to eat yet.  So tonight we combined as many of them as we could into a giant kitchen sink salad.

Ingredients

• A few leaves red oak leaf lettuce
• A few leaves green oak leaf lettuce
• A few leaves wildfire lettuce
• A few leaves dandelion greens
• Small bunch of radishes, sliced
• 1 avocado, chunked
• Bunch of sugar snap peas, from our garden (!)
• Half red onion, thinly sliced
• Baked tofu (five spice flavor), cubed
• 2 cuties (tangerines), separated

Wash lettuce and tear into bite sized pieces.  Combine with the rest of the ingredients in a giant bowl and toss with salt & pepper.

Ingredients for dressing

• 1 T dijon mustard
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 5 T olive oil
• 2 green garlic, sliced

Whisk together mustard and vinegar, add salt and pepper.  Slowly whisk in olive oil until emulsified.  Throw in garlic and let sit to marry the flavors.

Toss everything together in the giant bowl and serve on giant plates.  Try to figure out how to use the rest of the lettuce asap.