Pasta e Ceci (Pasta with Chickpeas)

I’m not quite sure if this one’s a soup or a pasta dish. All I know is that it made for a very delicious and satisfying meal. It’s great on a cold (or any other) day and works for lunch or dinner.
I found the recipe here and came up with this after tweaking the original a bit.

Ingredients:
(For approximately 3 servings)
¾ cup of any kind of small pasta (I used pipette), cooked till almost al dente

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ can of stewed tomatoes (the one I used had small amounts of onion, celery & green pepper too)
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
½ onion, finely chopped
¾ tsp dried rosemary
Red pepper flakes
Pepper
Salt
Olive oil
1-2 cups water (I used the pasta water)

Method:
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add chopped onion and crushed garlic followed by salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and crushed rosemary. Cook until the onions turn soft and translucent.

Add the canned tomatoes, breaking up the large pieces with the back of a big spoon.

Add half the chickpeas. Cook for a few minutes. Blend everything in the saucepan together. Add some water if it's too thick. I used my handheld immersion blender here but a regular blender is fine too- it's just that it's a pain to have to wait for the whole thing to cool a bit, then transfer to the blender and then back again to the saucepan.

Simmer, stirring occasionally. The pureed chickpeas give the soup a very thick and creamy texture. Add the remaining chickpeas. Cook for a few minutes. Adjust salt and pepper as required.

Add the cooked pasta and cook for a minute or two for all the flavors to come together. The longer the soup sits, the thicker it gets. Serve hot.

I’m sending this across to Vaishali for It’s A Vegan World: Italian.

This also goes to Susan for the eighth edition of My Legume Love Affair.

Buon appetito!

Roasted Carrot And Tomato Soup

A bowl (or two) of this steaming hot soup is the perfect meal on a crisp, cold day.



This soup may have been inspired by the one mentioned in the previous post. Sadly though, it tasted nothing like it (the one that we had at The Morningstar Bistro). It was not bad, just a little different and that's not always a bad thing!

I had a lot of baby carrots and cherry tomatoes that I had purchased with nothing particular to make in mind. Though I'm a very organized person, I’m not one to plan meals ahead of time for each day of the week, although grocery shopping and cooking would probably be a lot easier if I did! A roasted vegetable soup seemed like a good way to put these vegetables to use, I thought. So here's what I did.

Ingredients:
30-35 baby carrots, chopped
25-30 cherry tomatoes, halved
½ onion, chopped into small chunks
5 cloves garlic, peeled
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Red chilli flakes
¾ tsp grated ginger
1 cup milk (I use 2 %)
Toasted sesame seeds

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Place the chopped vegetables in a baking dish lined with foil. Add olive oil, salt, pepper and red chilli flakes. Toss well so that the vegetables are coated with the oil and spices.

Roast in preheated oven at 375 degrees F for about 50- 60 minutes, turning the vegetables occasionally, till tender.

Cool and blend/puree the roasted vegetables. I like my soup a little thick and chunky with some texture to it, so I don’t puree until smooth. Return the pureed vegetables to a large saucepan and simmer on medium heat.

Add grated ginger, milk and water and thin out the soup to the desired consistency. I’d have used vegetable broth/stock if I’d had it. Work with whatever you have.

Simmer on medium heat for a few minutes before bringing to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle some lightly toasted sesame seeds on top. Serve hot.



This seems like a good enough entry for FIC: Orange and SWC: Soups.

Lemon-Butter Crepes

Recently, on our way back from a wonderful trip to Montreal, we stopped in the Schroon Lake region of the Adirondacks of Upstate New York for a while. We love the Adirondacks. H has been there a couple of times now and the last time we were there (which happened to be my very first time), was two years back, and we’d spent almost four days then exploring the region. This time around though, we were just passing through and did not have a lot of time, but we just had to make a quick stop to take in the jaw-dropping scenery and the stunning landscapes. Nature’s breathtaking beauty had me speechless!
Here are a couple of pictures of the ice-covered Schroon lake.










Walking along Schroon Lake's Main Street, we came across this quaint and charming eatery called The Morningstar Bistro. This is what this delightful little place looked like...


We decided to stop in for a quick meal before heading back home. After studying the menu for what seemed like an eternity, I finally settled for a lemon-butter crepe. H decided to go for a sandwich and the soup of the day- a gingered carrot soup. The meal ended with an espresso for H and a hot cocoa for myself.

Here's a picture of what I had...

This is what H had...


This weekend, I tried to recreate the fabulous crepes of the Morningstar Bistro. With the help of Food Blog Search, I came pretty close to doing just that. I followed Marc’s recipe (he also has some great tips for making the perfect crepe) and was very happy with the way my crepes (my first ever, BTW) turned out.

Here' s the recipe.
Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 ½ cups milk
2 eggs
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
Butter
Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Powdered sugar

Method:
Put all the ingredients (except the butter, lemon juice and powdered sugar) in a blender and process to get a smooth batter.

Melt a teaspoon (or more) of butter over medium heat in a stainless steel pan and using a ladle, pour the batter onto the pan. Take the pan off the heat and tilt in a circular motion so that the batter thinly coats the bottom of the pan.

When the edges start to brown, carefully flip the crepe and cook the other side for another 30 seconds or until you see a couple of brown spots when you peek under the crepe.

Transfer to a plate, apply a smidgen of butter all over the crepe while it is still hot, squeeze some lemon juice (be very generous here), and serve with a dusting of powdered sugar.Repeat the process with the rest of the batter. This recipe makes about 7 crepes.



These crepes make its way to AWED: France.

Radish And Spinach Sabji

I think I’ve fallen into a food rut lately. I find myself buying the same few vegetables week after week, and cooking them the same way, over and over again. Meals have become very boring and predictable.
I picked up a bag of radishes (again) this week and then proceeded to make this dish just like I had, last week too. I keep meaning to try out new dishes but always end up using it in a kootu or in a thoran or raita, or a simple stir-fry like this one.

This preparation is a simple and easy one and serves as a good accompaniment to rice and some plain yogurt. Also goes well with dal and rotis. I had the leftovers in a sandwich the next day.

Ingredients:
15-20 baby radishes, cubed
¼ cup frozen spinach
Salt to taste

To grind to a coarse paste:
4-5 red chillies
3 garlic cloves
½ medium onion, chopped into chunks (or 4-5 shallots)

For seasoning:
1 Tbsp oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp urad dal
A pinch of asafetida

Method:
Heat oil in a pan. Temper it with mustard seeds, urad dal and asafoetida.

Add the ground paste (chillies-garlic-onion). Cook till the raw onion-garlic smell disappears.

Add the radish cubes and cover and cook till they start to soften. (Don’t overcook or else they will lose their crunch and that lovely pink color.)

Add the frozen spinach. Mix well and allow the water (from the frozen spinach) to evaporate. Mix well. Serve hot.