Look To the Pantry For Easy Spicy Salad Dressing

Salad is never boring when it’s tossed with a great dressing. Try a spicy salad dressing with your favorite veggies.

In the mood for a spicy salad dressing? It’s easy to make one at home if you keep a few basic ingredients on hand. An oil, an acid and maybe a savory or sweet component are all you need to make a delicious dressing. Look at your available ingredients and decide in which direction to take your flavor profile.

Inspired by the last of the season’s sweet, colorful peppers, I decided to toss them together with some mixed greens, chopped red onion and browned ground turkey because that’s what was in my refrigerator. Another protein such as fish or some nuts would have worked just as well. How about some edamame? Hey, that sounds good, especially because this spicy salad dressing had an Asian influence. Get out your food processor, blender or mortar and pestle. Whichever is your favorite tool to smash some garlic and whisk some liquids together works for me.

Ingredients for Asian Influenced Spicy Salad Dressing:

  • one clove garlic, minced
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
  • juice of one lime
  • 1 teaspoon sriracha sauce
  • 1 teaspoon mirin
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 drops sesame oil

What do we have here? An umami ingredient meets tangy, sweet and spicy. That’s the principle. Measurements are only a baseline to get you started because I want you to taste and adjust proportions according to what your palate prefers. I am not kidding about restraining yourself with the sesame oil though. It has a strong flavor and can quickly become overpowering. So start with a drop or two. You can always add more if you want to. That is why I keep this oil in the refrigerator. It takes me a while to go through it and I don’t want it going rancid. I blast through olive oil and grapeseed oil, so it can stay in the cupboard or on the countertop.

More on Substitutions

Basically, the above items are things I will always have on hand. If I didn’t have a fresh lime, I might have used a lemon or a vinegar of some kind instead. If I didn’t have mirin, I might have used some honey instead. Do these substitutions taste exactly the same? No, but that doesn’t really matter, as far as I’m concerned. What matters is that you learn to develop your intuition in the kitchen and cook with greater confidence using ingredients available to you. Learn to trust your palate as you experiment combining sweet, savory and spicy ingredients. Salad dressing can be made with an endless variety of items so long as it’s a pleasing consistency and complements the salad itself.

Instead of tender leafy greens, you could try a similar dressing with chopped or shredded cabbage. Keeping a head of cabbage in your refrigerator means you can shop less often and still eat fresh vegetables anytime. It’s delicious and nutritious cooked or raw and will keep much longer than other more perishable vegetables. Try this Amazing Zingy Unstuffed Cabbage Anytime.

This Black Lentils Recipe Will Spice Up Your Life

Try this black lentils recipe on meatless Monday or any time you want to spice up your life.

Are you looking for a black lentils recipe? You know, the ones that look like caviar…that’s why they’re also called beluga…I can tell you how to make an awesome batch, but I encourage you to develop your own intuition in the kitchen to make every dish uniquely your own. After rediscovering the packaged foil pouches of Indian food at my local market, I was inspired to try making my own black lentils with red beans. You can’t beat the convenience of something premade, but maybe I wanted a big batch of something like their Madras Lentils?

So I googled and stumbled across The Wanderlust Kitchen for suggestions on the spices, which is what good Indian food is all about. Well, it’s not the only thing, but if I were to ever become vegan, I would definitely master some Indian dishes. Vegan just doesn’t get any better than that, in my opinion. The texture of the black lentils will satisfy any carnivore, so this is a great way to introduce them. Remember that it’s small changes repeated over time that make a difference.

After finding some black lentils at my local farmers market, I decided to try my hand at combining them with some small red beans. After soaking the red beans overnight and defrosting some stock I had put away in the freezer, I was ready to go. Of course you can use prepackaged stock, but the last time my freezer bag was full of veggie scraps, I cooked them overnight in my slow cooker with a chicken carcass and water. That, my friends, is some amazing stock and a perfect base for all kinds of things you might want to cook. Free flavor and zero waste cooking!

Getting Started

In a big pot, I heated some olive oil and sautéed some chopped onion, jalapeno, hatch chile and ginger root until the onions started to get golden. Minced garlic joined the party and then the stock and a handful of spices. Added the red beans and simmered for 2 hours, uncovered, stirring occasionally.

As you may know, my husband loves Southern style red beans and rice. So he got very excited when he saw me soaking them overnight. Quick to tell him that I was preparing them differently this time, the next day while cooking, he kept asking, “What smells so good?” Ah, he was hooked on the aroma. That’s a good start, but of course he wanted to mash some of the beans against the side of the pot like the Southern ones I make. So I agreed that would add a nice creaminess.

Cooking Time

After cooking for two hours and smashing an eighth of the beans, I added the black lentils and cooked another 25 minutes until they were tender. After tasting, I added a touch of tomato paste and a little salt. I must say that given all of the flavors going on here, very little salt was needed. In fact you could even skip it if you’re trying to reduce your intake. Just be sure to get all the spices, chile peppers and a quality, flavorful stock in there.

Once again, I want you to experiment in the kitchen and enjoy creating a dish that you and your family will love. So, I am not about recipes per se. I suggest ingredients and proportions to get you started cooking without a recipe. You take it from there! Add more liquid to make it saucier or cook the red beans another half an hour if you prefer them softer. Reduce the amount of jalapeno if you don’t want it so spicy. Add tomato sauce and/or cream for more creamy sauciness. Be sure to let us know how you make this red beans with black lentils recipe your own.

Ingredients for Black Lentils Recipe With Red Beans:

  • 1 pound small red beans soaked overnight
  • 7 cups stock
  • 1 1/2 onions, chopped
  • 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
  • 1/2 hatch chile, chopped
  • 2 inches of ginger root, minced
  • 5 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 Tablespoon paprika
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 1 teaspoon fenugreek
  • 1 teaspoon coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 5 handfuls of black lentils (1/2 pound?)
  • 2 teaspoons tomato paste
  • salt to taste
  • tomato sauce and/or cream?

How do you like this approach to cooking? Learn principles and proportions that you can adapt to your own needs rather than being shackled to a recipe. Please share via your favorite social media using the buttons below.

How Do You Eat Greens? Swiss Chard is Easy and Delicious

Spice up greens according to your mood and the season. Create something wonderful with everyday ingredients combined in a new way.

Do you like to eat greens or want to know how to incorporate more into your diet? First, you have to make sure you buy a variety of them when you go grocery shopping. Swiss chard, kale, beet greens, collards, dandelion, radish, mustard etc. I love them all and make sure to stock up and use them in the appropriate order so that nothing goes to waste. Start with your tenderest greens and save the hardier ones for later in the week or next. I generally find swiss chard to be good for about a week in my fridge and I especially love to buy the red or rainbow chard because they’re so beautiful.

After defrosting some ground turkey for dinner, I realized I had some chard that needed to be used up. Time to eat greens. My anchor ingredients had been chosen. What should I do with those items? Michael requested pasta, so that defined the direction I would go with this meal. What else could round out this dish? I had part of a can of peeled tomatoes and the end of a carton of chicken broth left in the fridge, so I pulled those out. I was in the mood for some warming spices, so I took a few out of my cabinet. Cooking without a recipe is this simple. Experiment with combining different ingredients to find out how much you like to eat greens.

Putting It All Together

While I boiled the water for the linguine, I browned the ground turkey in a large skillet with grapeseed oil. Then I added some chopped onion and garlic to sauté. Seasoned with salt, cloves, allspice and nutmeg. Poured in some red wine, scraping up all the browned bits to let that simmer and reduce. I added a couple of those canned tomatoes and smashed them into the mixture. Then added the chicken broth. At this point, I decided to add a little more depth of flavor with part of a chicken liver from my treasure chest of freezer gems. So I chiseled out a couple of small chunks with a butter knife and tossed them into the sauce, smashing them to incorporate as they cooked. Just before the noodles were done, I added the chard and covered so it could wilt down.

Using tongs, I removed the pasta from the boiling pot and mixed them with the sauce in the skillet. This was a delicious meal, prompting my husband to ask what spices I used. I don’t use cloves often enough and they’re amazing with meat and greens like this. Allspice and nutmeg also. Let me know what you think and how you like to eat greens.

Ingredients:

  • pasta
  • grapeseed oil
  • ground turkey
  • swiss chard
  • onion
  • garlic
  • canned tomatoes
  • chicken broth
  • dry red wine
  • chicken liver
  • cloves
  • allspice
  • nutmeg
  • salt

Want to experiment with beet greens? Read this next for inspiration.

Be Confident Cooking Fish, Such As Cod, in the Oven

It’s simple to cook moist, flavorful fish that everyone will love.

Are you afraid of cooking fish? It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, I find fish one of the easiest things to prepare. The most common crime is overcooking it. No one wants to eat something dry and tasteless. Fish should be anything but that. Unfortunately, if you’ve ever been served overcooked fish, you probably didn’t want to eat it again any time soon.

As usual, I did not know ahead of time what I would do with the cod that I had defrosted. That’s the fun of cooking: creating something delicious and new with ingredients on hand. I don’t often repeat exactly the same dish because ingredients available vary and I can’t be bothered with shopping lists and recipes. Buying lots of fresh vegetables, whole grains and proteins makes that possible.

Once I was ready to think about dinner, I looked at my produce and realized I had some tomatoes that I needed to use. What else would pair well with my anchor ingredient, the cod? Looking into my refrigerator, I remembered I had some feta. Hey, I don’t often use cheese with seafood, but I remembered a shrimp dish from a Greek restaurant that contained tomatoes and feta. It had been delicious, so I began to get inspired with a Mediterranean theme. Fresh fennel and some rice could round out this meal.

Here’s how I went about cooking this fish dinner:

Sliced fennel bulb and tossed with olive oil to put on the bottom of a casserole dish. Sprinkled with a tiny bit of salt. Spread a layer of leftover cooked brown turmeric rice on top of that. (Always cook extra rice because it comes in so handy for easily pulling together a future meal like this one.) Seasoned cod with garlic powder, dried oregano and salt. Topped each piece of cod with sliced tomatoes. Crumbled a couple of dice sized chunks of feta all around it and sprinkled some chopped parsley on top. Drizzled a touch of olive oil over the fish and covered casserole dish so everything would stay moist while baking at 350 for about 40 minutes.

Now, 40 minutes sounds like an awfully long time for fish. Here’s why it worked in this case: multiple layers of ingredients filling up a casserole dish take longer to cook. The cod I used were really thick chunks. The sliced tomatoes and casserole lid kept everything super moist. You want the fennel to get tender and the fish should just be cooked through until opaque and flaky. So start looking at it sooner rather than later. I checked on things after 20 minutes and then at ten minute intervals based on how it looked.

How Will You Know When It’s Done?

Fish was moist and juicy and the tomato had just begun to slump down. Test the middle with a fork to see if it flakes and is opaque. It looked beautiful in the baking dish and on the plate, but at the end of a very long day, I was more interested in eating than in taking pictures for your benefit. So, today’s picture is of a leftover bite just so you can see the way the inside of properly cooked cod should look. Never dry. Always flavorful and juicy.

So there you go. Cooking a fish dinner is so simple that it could become your favorite go-to meal. Develop your intuition in the kitchen and start cooking without a recipe. Here’s more on how to successfully bake fish fillets.

Ingredients I Used:

  • sliced fresh fennel bulb
  • cooked brown rice with turmeric
  • cod fillets
  • dried oregano
  • garlic powder
  • salt
  • olive oil
  • feta cheese
  • chopped parsley

Easy, Luscious Leg of Lamb With Shawarma Spices

Marinating leg of lamb in shawarma spices is an easy way to give it an extra flavor boost.

How many ways can you prepare a leg of lamb? I love it barbecued after marinating with fresh herbs and garlic. However, the oven works as well and for a change of pace, I decided to marinate this leg of lamb in shawarma spices for a few hours before cooking in a 325 degree oven for 40 minutes. I was aiming for medium doneness and this boneless half leg was 1.85 pounds before trimming fat and connective tissue away with a sharp knife. Here’s a great guide to help you adjust timing according to your desired doneness.

What are shawarma spices, you ask? A blend common in the Middle East, you can buy it premixed for seasoning chicken or beef. But isn’t it more fun to create your own and customize it to your taste?

Here’s what Diana from https://littlesunnykitchen.com/ recommends:

  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon ground coriander
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon dried ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground paprika
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried ground turmeric

Salt to taste. With the above mixture, I used 1/2 teaspoon. As usual, I substituted grains of paradise for pepper and used fresh garlic. It seemed like a lot of ginger to me, so I used a touch less.

Preparing the Leg of Lamb

First, using a sharp knife, cut off excess fat and connective tissue from the lamb. Make a paste from the combined shawarma spices listed above and olive oil. Coat the meat liberally with it. Cover and refrigerate until ready to cook uncovered in a roasting pan.

We enjoyed this boneless half leg roasted in the oven, but you can apply the same principles no matter the size of your roast. Using a gas grill, we used to cook a couple of 4 pound butterflied legs of lamb over indirect medium heat for about an hour. Be sure to let the cooked lamb rest for 20 minutes covered on a platter before cutting into it. Serve it with tabbouleh, hummus and flatbread. How about with roasted potatoes and a salad? The possibilities are endless!

A Pantry Meal In Minutes is Amazing

An impromptu meal is always attainable with a well stocked pantry and freezer.

After waiting on a business appointment that had gone very late, we decided to scrap our plans to go out for Chinese food. You gotta drive there, order, wait…I was too hungry to do all that, but my tastebuds were set for Chinese. What was the quickest pantry meal I could throw together that was the next best thing? Putting a pot of water on to boil, I imagined a chow mein-like dish with ingredients I had on hand. For me that meant spaghetti, pieces of leftover chicken, napa cabbage and julienned carrots in a great sauce.

I always have leftover pieces of chicken in the freezer and cabbage and carrots in the fridge, don’t you? Cabbage and carrots are superstars as far as I’m concerned. Good for you, colorful and with a long shelf life. Never be without them! Cooking without a recipe means intuitively using what you have to create something delicious. Don’t let the idea intimidate you. You can do it!

By the time the pasta had cooked, I had stir-fried the vegetables with:

  • minced garlic
  • minced ginger (kept in the freezer)
  • grapeseed oil
  • a touch of sesame oil

Heated the chicken through and seasoned everything with:

  • soy sauce
  • mirin (sweet cooking sake)
  • drizzle of oyster sauce
  • smidgeon of Sriracha sauce

After tossing the cooked noodles with the other ingredients, lunch was on the table. How’s that for a quick pantry meal?

Pantry Meal Basics

You will always find yourself prepared to create a great, impromptu meal if you stock a variety of proteins, veggies and starch/grains in various forms. Think fresh items with longer shelf life, dried goods and freezer gems. Sometimes I even open a can of something like cream of mushroom soup. It might be all you need to transform a couple of other ingredients into a satisfying dish on the fly.

Have you been benefiting from any of these ideas for stocking a pantry, keeping freezer flavor gems on hand and developing your intuition in the kitchen for cooking without a recipe? Please share via your favorite social media platform using the buttons below.

Delicious, Slow Cooked Lamb Shank is Easy to Prepare

For flavor and tenderness, you can’t beat a slow cooked lamb shank.

Lamb shank is one of the easiest cuts to prepare and it’s absolutely delicious. An economical choice, it responds well to low and slow cooking until it’s so tender it falls off the bone. Will you braise it in the oven for a couple hours or put it into the slow cooker for four? Either way works for me. The main thing is to find the way that works best for you so that everyone enjoys sitting down together to enjoy it.

braised lamb shanks on a white platter. red wine in the background

After trimming away the excess fat and connective tissue, I chose to sear the salted shanks quickly in a hot skillet before putting into a slow cooker. Then I sautéed some chopped onion in olive oil along with carrots, celery, garlic and canned tomatoes. There are so many herbs that would work well here. I added some of my all-time favorite, Herbs de Provence.

What would you like to accompany this dish? So many choices! How about making polenta in another slow cooker or on the stove top? That’s comfort food in a bowl right there.

During the winter time, braising in the oven heats up my home beautifully. In warmer weather, I prefer to put this in the slow cooker because it kicks out less heat. Plug it in outside to keep things cool inside. Which option suits you best today? Perhaps quick cooking chops are more your style? There’s lots to love about lamb rib chops.

Red Lentils and Veggie Scraps Were Made For Frugal Meals

Learn to create flavorful, frugal meals using basic pantry items and practicing no waste cooking.

Stocking a pantry with nutritional, dried foods and making sure to use everything you buy lead to frugal meals and zero waste cooking. Combining with fresh and frozen ingredients, using whatever is readily available will make you a better cook and save you money. What do you do with vegetable scraps like the ends of carrots, celery, onions and various stems? It might not seem like much to toss a few away each time you prepare a meal, but you would be surprised how useful they are if you collect them. Keep a big, zippered plastic bag in the freezer for this purpose. Toss all your scraps in there each day and before long, you will find that you have a bag full of free flavor waiting to happen.

Once your freezer bag is full, dump it in a stockpot and fill with water. Let it boil away until you have a rich, flavorful veggie stock. Cool and freeze for later or use in soup, rice or beans. The possibilities are endless. How about cooking a bag of red lentils with it? No waste cooking never tasted so good.

Your imagination is the only limit on how to season the lentils. In this case, I decided that my homemade veggie stock was so full of flavor that I simply added some turmeric and saffron and simmered for 20 minutes. Salt to taste before serving.

A Note on Frugal Meals

Pictured above, I plated the lentils with sautéed fresh spinach and sea scallops. I wouldn’t exactly call the scallops an inexpensive protein, but relying on pantry staples like legumes or rice to bulk up your meal means that you can serve fewer of them per person. Therefore you stretch your dollar on the more indulgent items. I finished these seared scallops with a drizzle of truffle oil, which is another splurge, but a little goes a long way. So I think it deserves an honored place in my pantry as well.

While being very low in fat, a quarter cup of dry red lentils offers 4 grams of dietary fiber and 8 grams of protein. They’re quick cooking and require no soaking, which makes them a cinch to cook up anytime and serve throughout the week. Add them to a salad or turn them into burgers.

For a very frugal, vegan meal using red lentils, try this easy and filling stew.

Quickly Brighten Your Day With Zippy Ginger Chicken

Transport yourself to a sunnier place with this quick ginger chicken.

With all the extreme weather being experienced elsewhere, I don’t feel justified in complaining about the ever present gloomy skies we’ve had lately. Instead, I chose to cook something zippy to put a little spring in our step. What better to do that than ginger chicken topped with a tangy, savory sauce?

Turning to my treasure chest of freezer flavor gems, I pulled out some ginger root and broke off a couple of 1 inch chunks and peeled them. After mincing in the food processor along with a couple of cloves of garlic, I coated 5 chicken thighs with a touch of grapeseed oil and smeared them with the ginger and garlic. Covered and refrigerated for a few hours. I don’t suppose it’s necessary to start ahead this way, but it seemed the thing to do while waiting for laundry to finish the wash cycle. How did 24 pairs of my husband’s underwear pile up while I wasn’t looking? I’m sure it hasn’t been 3 weeks since I did laundry…

Anyway, now that I had started with my anchor ingredient, I was free to create using veggies on hand. I had purchased these darling pre-packaged snow peas on clearance, so I figured we couldn’t go wrong with an Asian theme here. After blanching and putting in an ice bath, they got tossed with a few drops of sesame oil, a sprinkle of salt and sesame seeds. I love them when they’re bright green and crisp.

Cooking the Ginger Chicken

While baking chicken in a preheated 425 degree oven for 35-40 minutes, I made a quick sauce of equal parts lime juice and soy sauce. I love the bold combination of umami and citrus, but you could absolutely cut it with a little water or chicken broth to mellow it a bit. Then you just need to thicken it up on the stovetop for a couple minutes. I used about half a teaspoon of rice flour because it was handy, but cornstarch would work just as well. Heat while whisking and take it off the heat once it has reached the desired consistency.

Given the combination of spicy, tangy and salty flavors going on here, I thought some fresh cilantro would top things off with a fresh herbal component. Is it Vietnamese inspired? I’m not going to claim to be an expert on that cuisine, but it did transport us to a sunnier place if only for a short time. Food has a way of doing that, don’t you agree?

Ingredients for This Ginger Chicken:

  • minced ginger
  • minced garlic
  • chicken thighs
  • grapeseed oil
  • soy sauce
  • lime juice
  • rice flour

Is it true that food can affect your mood for better or worse? If you’ve ever crashed after a sugar high, you can answer that. I was curious and decided to see what the internet had to say about ginger in this regard. I found this interesting article.

To be sure, ginger is an acquired taste. Perhaps it’s new to your palate. You could certainly cut down on the amount I used above. You might start by adding it in small amounts in combination with other spices. Fall is just around the corner. You may enjoy this sunny, squash stew with just a hint of ginger in the background.

Cold Soba Is the Perfect Picnic Food To Pack

Packing a picnic is simple with cold soba noodles and veggies.

Ready to pack a picnic? Try cold soba, Japanese buckwheat noodles. Preparing the noodles and sauce the day before makes for a deliciously simple picnic lunch. Remember to pack some wasabi, furikake (seasoning of sesame seeds and seaweed) and green onions for serving.

You can buy both dried soba and the appropriate tsuyu (soup base) at an Asian market or you can easily make your own sauce with a few basic ingredients. Find out how in this previous post. After rinsing cooked noodles in cold water and draining, I would toss the noodles in a little sauce and green onions before refrigerating for a picnic. Pack additional sauce on the side.

a table set for two with cold soba, panko crusted seafood and green beans

Blanched green beans, refrigerated after tossing with sesame oil and sesame seeds are a nice colorful veggie accompaniment. Panko crusted fried shrimp, scallops and squid rounded out the dish pictured here, but for a picnic I would be just as happy with cold citrus marinated seafood or even a can of sardines or smoked herring. Keep it as simple as possible when packing a picnic. That’s what makes it fun!

In case soba is new to you, here’s a picture of a package.

packaged soba noodles

Shopping List for Cold Soba Picnic:

  • soba noodles
  • tsuyu
  • green onions
  • wasabi
  • furikake
  • green beans
  • sesame oil
  • sesame seeds
  • cold or canned seafood of your choice

What’s your favorite cold picnic food to pack?

© 2020 – Karynskitchen.com

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy