Vegetable Bean Soup

It was pretty chilly in NY this morning, and walking home from church with a wind chill of 26, my husband remarked how nice it would be to have chili for lunch on a day like today. Hmm, I thought, when should I tell him that I had planned to have a pear and goat cheese salad for lunch?? I decided to bag it and try my best to come up with a chili'esque dish, despite the fact that I do not have near the ingredients for chili (mainly the meat!).

As I surveyed my pantry, I discovered that I am low on a lot of the staples, like black beans and corn and crushed tomatoes. I fished out some pinto beans, and diced tomatoes and decided to give a bean and vegetable soup a whirl on the fly. What I ended up with was quite tasty and is totally adaptable to whatever you may have laying around in your pantry.

Vegetable Bean Soup

1 large onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 T canola oil

1 cup frozen "stop light" peppers (or 1 fresh red pepper diced, if you have one)

1 can pinto beans (black beans would have been fabulous for this too)

2 T ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 can diced tomatoes (petite diced would have been even better)

2 cups chicken broth (I used 1 cup chicken stock, from the rotisserie chicken carcass earlier this week, and diluted it with 1 cup water; you could also use vegetable stock)

2-3 T sour cream + 2-3 tsp skim milk, for drizzling over soup 

Heat a large dutch oven over medium-high heat; add oil. Toss in onion and garlic and sautee until onions start to become tender (about 3 minutes). Add in peppers and continue to sautee until tender. Reduce heat to medium. 

Rinse and drain the beans and add to the pot. Add cumin and coriander and stir well until the scent of the spices releases, about 1 minute. Add the diced tomatoes, with juice, and incorporate. Slowly pour in the chicken broth and stir well. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 10-15 minutes. 

Turn off the heat and puree a portion or all of the soup with an immersion blender, depending on how chunky you like it. I ran the immersion blender around the pot a few times to get some of the chunks out, but still had a good hearty mix.

Whisk together the sour cream and skim milk until it is almost runny, then drizzle mixture over each individual bowl of soup. Although I did not have any on hand, crushed up tortilla or corn ships would be great with this! 

Caramelized Onion & Pulled Pork Pizza

Remember the Root Beer Pork Tenderloin from earlier this week? It makes its second appearance tonight as a topping for this pizza. Whenever I have any leftover meat, such as a slow cooker meat or a rotisserie chicken, I always use the leftovers to create another dinner. This not only ensures that the leftovers do not go to waste, often times being relegated to the back of the refrigerator with the other "unidentifiables" that get tossed on 'fridge clean out day, but also stretches your weekly grocery bucks. I ended up getting 2 dinners and 2 lunches, for example, out of this pork tenderloin (the lunches were pork tenderloin hot brown sandwiches; I just topped a piece of multi-grain bread with the shredded pork, and a piece of the provolone cheese from the pear-stuffed chicken dish earlier in the week, browned it in the toaster oven and served with kale chips!)

Caramelized Onion & Pulled Pork Pizza

1 piece whole pizza dough (I buy this frozen at Whole Foods, you can also purchase from your local pizzeria and freeze)

Homemade Marinara (see my recipe here; or you can use store bought, but it is no where near as good)

1-2 cups shredded pork (depending on how meaty you like your pizza)

1 large onion, sliced + 1 T canola oil

8 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded

olive oil and oregano for dough seasoning

If you have made marinara previously and freeze it, as I do, heat up the marinara and set aside. If you are making it fresh for this pizza, try to leave yourself at least an hour before you want to assemble the pizza to make and simmer the marinara, as described here. I always make enough marinara for at least 2 pizzas if I am going to go through the trouble of making it, that way I can freeze some and easily thaw it on a night like tonight where basically I just have to assemble the pizza. 

Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat and add oil. Toss onion slices and a few pinches of kosher salt into the pan and stir occasionally. Once the onions become translucent, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the onions become soft and light brown in color (caramelized).  Remove from heat and set aside.  

Preheat oven to 375 deg F. Make sure the dough is completely thawed; roll out and form into a 12" pizza. Drizzle with olive oil and spread around, a little heavier on the edges. Sprinkle crust with dried oregano, a little heavier on the edges. Evenly spread marinara over the dough (depending on your dough, you may want to prick it with a fork all over first to keep large air bubbles from forming). Top with shredded pork, caramelized onions and cheese. Bake 20-25 minutes or until cheese is just bubbling. Let the pizza rest for about 5 minutes before cutting and serving.    

Cilantro Salad

Let me preface this by saying there is no cilantro in this salad, although I'm sure it would be a delicious addition (I do like cilantro, but the problem is it comes in such a large bunch that I'd have to incorporate it in every meal for a week to keep from letting it go to waste, and cilantro, I just don't love you that much). Anyway. I once ordered a delicious salad from a restaurant here in the City called Cilantro, so this is my version of that salad. 






Cilantro Salad
4 whole wheat tortillas
Canola oil (for pan frying) + kosher salt to season
1 can red kidney beans (you can substitute pinto or the like, but kidney is the best) + 2 oz. water
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 head red leaf romaine lettuce (any spring mix greens would be good)
4 oz. plain goat cheese (I prefer the log form as it is easier to slice and serve)
1 - 1 1/2 cups shredded chicken (I use leftover rotisserie chicken, but pulled pork would be good too)
1 cup frozen "stop light" peppers (or if you have a fresh red bell pepper, even better)
1/2 cup pistachio meats, roughly chopped (toasted pumpkin seeds are also excellent as a substitute)
Citrus vinaigrette (recipe follows)


Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and just coat the bottom with canola oil. Pan fry each tortialla, only about 45 seconds on each side, until crisp (tip, the hotter the oil, the less time each will take to cook and the less oil the tortilla will absorb = more crunchy!).


Use the same skillet (if most of the oil has been used) to sautee the peppers until tender (if there is still considerable oil in the pan, drain a bit, then use for peppers). 


Meanwhile, in a mini food processor, combine the kidney beans, water, garlic and a pinch of kosher salt. Process until a smooth paste forms. Set aside. Wash, drain and chop the lettuce (smaller bits are good for this salad). Cut the goat cheese into thin rounds.


This recipe makes 4 salads, so each topping you've prepared will be evenly distributed for the 4 salads. To assemble, spread the bean paste evenly over each tortilla, nearly to the edge (like a pizza). Top with shredded lettuce, then pile on the shredded chicken, peppers, goat cheese rounds and chopped pistachios. Drizzle with citrus vinaigrette. 


Citrus Vinaigrette
2 T dijon mustard
2 T honey
2 tsp red wine vinegar
juice and zest of 1 lime (or 1 T lime juice if you don't have a lime)
1/4 olive oil


Combine all ingredients, except olive oil, in a small bowl and whisk well. Drizzle in the olive oil while continuing to whisk until the dressing is well incorporated. Taste the dressing at this point to tailor it to your preference (i.e. add more honey if it has too much of a punch for you, add more  red wine vinegar for more of a punch, more lime for more citrus, etc...just play around with the amounts until it tastes good to you....I usually eyeball the whole thing and keep dumping in ingredients until I like the way it tastes).


The pungent flavors of the goat cheese and citrus vinaigrette combined with the savory bean paste and crunch of the tortilla are a delicious combination. Play around with the toppings, or use what you have on hand (different variations for me have included feta cheese, olives, pumpkin seeds, or grape tomatoes)  


  

Start of Advent

Tonight we began the first night of the advent calendar. I actually had to make one this year because my husband and I have never had one, but I wanted my son to be exposed this year. We realize he is quite young to fully understand advent, but my hope is that he glean at least a little bit of the meaning. 

For dinner I tried a new recipe I found on allrecipes and tweaked it a bit (of course!). I love their ingredient search function. I had some pork tenderloin that I wanted to use, so I entered it in as an ingredient and got all of these great recipes...funny though the one I chose is actually meant for pork shoulder, but I used the tenderloin anyway. I made Root Beer Pork Tenderloin (I also had left over bottles of root beer from a fellowship group function, bonus on the use of ingredients around the kitchen!):

Root Beer Pork Tenderloin

2 (1.5 lb) pork tenderloin pieces

2 12 oz. bottles of root beer, divided

2 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar

2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/2 tsp ground paprika

1/2 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp celery salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 oz bourbon

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

Place the pork tenderloin into a large zip-top bag and pour 1 of the bottles of root beer over the meat. Squeeze out all the air from the bag, seal, and  refrigerate 5-6 hours.

Once the meat has finished marinating, mix together the light brown sugar, kosher salt, black pepper, paprika, dry mustard, onion powder, garlic salt, celery salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a bowl. Remove the meat from the marinade, shake off the excess and rub the meat all over with the spice mixture. Wrap each tenderloin in separate plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

Go ahead and turn your crock pot onto the 4 hour high setting. Mix together the balsamic vinegar, the second bottle of root beer, bourbon, and brown sugar in a bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, and sear each tenderloin on all sides until the meat develops a brown crust, about 3 minutes per side (you may need to sear each piece separately). 

Place the seared meat into the preheated crock pot. Pour the balsamic vinegar-root beer mixture over the meat, and cook for 4 hours.

Remove the tenderloins from the crock pot, and shred with 2 forks. 

I served the shredded pork with sweet potato fries and kale chips. Yum!