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By graham, on January 12th, 2014  Hello there, and Happy New Year! One resolution I have for 2014 is to cook and post more recipes as Sally finishes up her PhD coursework and prepares for her dissertation research. While she is enjoying her program, she has been swamped with classes and has been unable to post much recently. Sally is definitely the chef of the house, but occasionally I can depart from my dishwashing and blog-editing duties and come up with a good dish for us to enjoy. So here is my first kitchen effort of 2014!
 Recently I have been craving some good Cajun food, but vegetarian Cajun options can be hard to find. So I went online and found a recipe from Emeril for a Cajun vegetarian jambalaya, and made a few of my own adjustments to it. I substituted two vegetarian sausages and a package of meatless chicken from Trader Joe’s for the squash and eggplant, and used a tablespoon each of Cajun spice mix, a red and black pepper mix, and red hot pepper flakes instead of cayenne peppers. I also used brown rice instead of white rice, which took about 15 minutes longer to cook than Emeril’s instructions indicated. The result was surprisingly delicious – try it for yourself and see what you think!
Vegetarian Cajun Jambalaya
Adapted from Emeril Lagasse
This recipe cooks up a LOT of jambalaya that you can eat all week – or even freeze some of it for re-discovery sometime in the future…
You can find the original recipe here.
Tasty Easy Healthy Green Recipe Ratings:
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Tasty Rating
Five Chefs (Gourmet Fare!)
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Sally was really surprised at how good this actually was, and that I didn’t screw it up.  A little spicy, but not overwhelmingly so, and the meatless sausage and chicken added some great texture. |
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Easy Rating
Four Easy Chairs (“ABC, Easy as 123…”)
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Chopping everything up takes some time, but in general it is a pretty straightforward dish. |
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Healthy Rating
Four Apples (Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise)
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Brown rice and lots of vegetables makes this pretty healthy, although the salt and oil bring it down a notch. |
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Green Rating
Three Leaves (Average Environmental Friendliness)
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All of the vegetables and rice were organic, but not the protein or oil. Unfortunately nothing was really local. |
By sally, on September 22nd, 2013 
As you can probably tell from the lack of activity on this website lately, school has started again and it is turning out to be a very busy semester! I am of course still trying to cook as much as possible, and with the cooler temperatures we’ve been having am looking forward to doing some baking soon!
Today’s recipe is one that I made a few weeks ago that I thought would be fun to share. It came from the cookbook, Jerusalem, by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. I’ve been a fan of Yotam Ottolenghi for a while, and have made several of the recipes in one of his other cookbooks, Plenty. Although I received Jerusalem a while ago as a gift, I hadn’t yet had a chance to make anything from it. This was my attempt to remedy that situation, and if the other recipes in Jerusalem are anything like this one, I’ll be making a lot more of them!
I followed the recipe pretty closely (which has been reprinted here), except I omitted the chili (because I didn’t have one on hand) and replaced the soft goat cheese with crumbled ricotta salata, which might be a new favorite around here. If fresh figs are still available where you live, snatch them up and give this dish a try!
Tasty Easy Healthy Green Recipe Ratings:
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Notes About Recipe Ratings |
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Tasty Rating
Four Chefs (Delicious!)
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This surprisingly hearty dish has a great balance of sweet and savory flavors. |
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Easy Rating
Four Easy Chairs (“ABC, Easy as 123…”)
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There are a few different steps involved in making this dish, but none of them are particularly challenging. |
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Healthy Rating
Five Apples (My Body is My Temple!)
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If you go easy on the cheese and oil, you’ll have one healthy side dish. |
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Green Rating
Four Leaves (Mother Earth Approved)
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The sweet potatoes were local and organic and many of the rest of the ingredients were organic. |
By sally, on August 25th, 2013
When we used to live in Berkeley one of our favorite dishes at our neighborhood Chinese restaurant was called “Fire Glazed Tofu.” The tofu in this dish was delightfully crispy and coated in a sweet sauce that had a fiery kick. It was served simply on a bed of fresh spinach and was delicious when paired with some nutty brown rice.
I have not seen anything similar to our old favorite around here, so I recently set out to try and recreate it at home. I was inspired by this recipe, but made some modifications to the sauce to make it more like the dish I remember. While I still have not been able to make an exact replica, we are both big fans of what I was able to come up with. I really love how quick it is to make too!
Sweet and Spicy Orange Tofu
To prepare and pan fry the tofu, I highly recommend following the Tofu 101 instructions laid out so well on the Herbivoracious blog .
- 1 15oz package of extra firm tofu, cut into triangles
- 4 tablespoons orange marmalade
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 heaping tablespoon of chili garlic sauce or sriracha
Cut and drain the tofu, and in a large skillet or wok, pan fry the tofu until golden (click here for detailed directions).
While the tofu is cooking, stir together the marmalade, soy sauce, orange juice, vinegar and chili garlic sauce in a medium-sized bowl.
Once the tofu is golden on both sides, pour the sauce over the tofu in the skillet and cook over medium heat until sauce has thickened and fully coats the tofu. Serve over a bed of brown rice and fresh spinach.
Tasty Easy Healthy Green Recipe Ratings:
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Notes About Recipe Ratings |
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Tasty Rating
Four Chefs (Delicious!)
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Not quite our old favorite, but we love the flavors and textures of this dish! |
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Easy Rating
Four Easy Chairs (“ABC, Easy as 123…”!)
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The process for preparing and pan-frying the tofu may seem a little bit involved, but it doesn’t take too long and it is definitely worth it. The rest is really easy! |
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Healthy Rating
Four Apples (Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise)
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When served with brown rice and fresh spinach this dish can be a really quick and healthy meal. |
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Green Rating
Four Leaves (Mother Earth Approved)
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Mostly organic ingredients. |
By sally, on August 18th, 2013 
Are you looking for a rich and tasty dip that is impressive to guests, but easy to make? Well, I have the dip for you! Yes, making homemade ricotta may seem like a pretty involved process, but it is really just a matter of heating up some milk, buttermilk, and cream and then straining the liquid from the resulting curds. Easy!
To make the dip, I followed this recipe from Southern Living pretty closely, but topped the finished ricotta with a sprinkling of flakey sea salt, fresh thyme, dried oregano, ground pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. I served it at a party with an assortment of crackers and fresh veggies, and the bowl of dip was scraped clean before the evening was over. Luckily, I had stashed some extra in the fridge and had enough to photograph and have for a snack. Enjoy!
Tasty Easy Healthy Green Recipe Ratings:
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Tasty Rating
Four Chefs (Delicious!)
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Creamy and smooth and so much better than store-bought ricotta. The flakey sea salt, herbs and olive oil toppings really kick it up a notch too. |
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Easy Rating
Four Easy Chairs (“ABC, Easy as 123…”)
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Straining the liquid from the curds does require some cheese cloth, but I’ve seen it sold at many grocery stores—so it is not that difficult to come by. |
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Healthy Rating
One Apples (This Might Take A Year Off Your Life)
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It is probably best to eat this creamy dip in small quantities and with lots of fresh vegetables |
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Green Rating
Four Leaves (Mother Earth Approved)
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Most of the ingredients were organic, but not local. |
By sally, on August 11th, 2013 
Graham and I went blueberry picking a few weeks ago and came home with buckets full of berries. After sorting through them, I ended up putting about half into the freezer to save for later, and the rest we proceeded to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and dessert over the next several days. Suffice it to say I was in blueberry heaven!
Blueberries have always been one of my favorite fruits, and picking them fresh from blueberry bushes is always a fun experience. I tend to sample as I pick and may end up putting more into my mouth then into my bucket—well probably not, but our mouths were pretty purple by the time we were done picking!
We mostly ate our blueberry haul fresh—over yogurt or cereal, in salads, and by the handful—but I also did make a few blueberry recipes. I made blueberry jam (I used this recipe, but cut the sugar in half and left out the ginger) that we enjoyed on a baguette with some brie cheese, on these biscuits, and in PB&J sandwiches. For a real treat, I also used the jam to make this homemade blueberry cheesecake ice cream. Finally, I made some light and fluffy blueberry buttermilk pancakes.
Sadly, we’ve eaten our way through all of our fresh berries, but I’ve starting thinking up ways to use the ones we still have in the freezer. I think perhaps we will be enjoying a blueberry lassi in the near future…
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