1-2-3-4 Soup

I stumbled across this recipe recently through a link to Ciao from Debbie and loved the simplicity of it. When I first moved here, someone shared a similar recipe with me—more of a rough guide—that you could adapt for most kinds of vegetables. This one is incredibly versatile, and the original posting has some interesting flavor suggestions. So far we have made cream of broccoli-potato, zucchini, and spinach-potato varieties. If you start with uncooked starch, reduce the amount to ¾ cup and add some additional liquid to keep the soup from becoming stew.

1-2-3-4 Soup

1 cup onions, diced

2 cups cooked starch (potatoes, rice, beans, etc.)

3 cups vegetables, diced (broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini)

4 cups liquid (4 cups water + 2 stock cubes)

Oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Milk or Cream, to taste

Cheese, grated (optional)

Heat a small amount of oil over medium heat. Sauté onions in oil until translucent. Add in the cooked starch, vegetables, and liquid. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low until vegetables are tender. At this point you can either leave the soup chunky, puree the whole thing, or puree part of the soup. Stir in some cream or milk and heat through. Cream will thicken the soup so it may need to be thinned to your liking.

Super simple! If you can count to 4, you can probably make this soup work for you. It’s a great way to use up leftover potatoes or rice hanging out in the fridge—just make sure they're not growing anything first.

Roasted Winter Vegetables

Yes, I've been intending to post this one for a while, and I am getting to it now that winter is drawing to a close. Ahhh...these vegetable are still around though so go ahead and give it a try. The original inspiration came from Simply in Season, one of my favorite seasonal cooking cookbooks. It's such a valuable book to have living in a place where most foods are just seasonally available. Be sure to include at least one "sweet" vegetable in your mix for that rich, caramel flavor. I used beets and carrots, and they pair beautifully! Kohlrabi and turnips also work well in this one. Omit the vinegar if you want to be sure it's truly gluten-free.

Not the best photo, but you get the idea, right?

Roasted Winter Vegetables
4 cups mixed winter vegetables, cut into 1 inch pieces
3-4 small onions, peeled, root and stem ends removed
1 bulb garlic, top sliced off but otherwise intact
1 Tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons dried herbs of choice (rosemary, oregano, thyme, parsley)
1-2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar (optional)

Lay the vegetables out on a baking tray and sprinkle with oil and other seasonings. Place onions together in a piece of foil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss with some oil. Wrap the foil up. Place the garlic bulb in another piece of foil with a light sprinkling of oil. Wrap that up. Place both foil packets on the pan with the vegetables. Roast in a 220C/425F oven for 30-45 minutes until vegetables are tender and golden. 20 minutes into cooking, remove the foil from the onions to permit browning. After the vegetables are cooked, squeeze the contents of the garlic bulb into a bowl. Toss in the vegetables and a splash of balsamic vinegar. The vegetables should have a shiny glaze once mixed. Enjoy warm or chilled.

Chickpea Salad

Salads....I love that a salad can really be just about anything you want it to be. I especially appreciate salads that you can make when good lettuce is either not available or not in your house that day. This chickpea salad is really not much of a recipe, but hopefully it will be an inspiration to you. This salad works well as the protein for a vegetarian meal. You can make it as simple or deluxe as you like, but here are the basics of what I do. You can use dried chickpeas or canned ones that you've rinsed and drained. You just need to add more salt if you've started from dried chickpeas.

Chickpea Salad
2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
1 cup tomatoes, diced or chopped
1 cup red onion, sliced thinly
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1-2 Tablespoons vinegar (cider, red wine, or balsamic)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Optional add-ons:
1-2 cups fresh rocket/arugula
1 teaspoon dried herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary)
Crumbled cheese (feta, paneer, or even parmesan)
Fresh herbs (mint or basil)
Cucumber, chopped

Toss everything into a bowl. Adjust seasonings, vinegar, and oil to taste. Allow to chill and marinate at least 30 minutes before serving. 

Pumpkin Pie Granola

I recently had a very sweet new friend haul a big can (2 actually!) of pumpkin over in her luggage to give to me.  After 2 recipes I was dying to make, I still had just a little bit of the pumpkin left, and I wanted to use it nobly! 
The recipe that Lizzy had posted awhile back for Banana Bread Granola (which I have had lots of compliments on when given to people) came to mind, and I thought, mashed bananas and pumpkin puree are probably around the same consistency.  What if I just subbed pumpkin for the banana and tweaked the spices?!  (You can tell by my enthusiasm over this minor notion that I am not the creative genius in the mix here!)

Anyway, I basically did just that.  I considered also using maple syrup instead of the honey because I actually had some (people are good to me in their gifts!), and doesn't that sound yummy?  But, given that I was aiming to see whether it was worth reproducing HERE (where maple syrup isn't available), I decided to stick with the honey.

My tweaks are VERY minor, but to save you a smidge of effort, I've copied and pasted the recipe from Lizzy with the few adjustments I made.

3 cups oats (GF if you need it)
3/4 cup walnuts
1/2 cup almonds
3 T mineral sugar (I don't even know what to generally call this stuff, but we can find it here at times, and it is basically an unrefined, darker sugar, giving it some decent nutrients.  If you don't know or have this stuff, I would suggest using brown sugar, as I think a darker sugar goes well with pumpkin.)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I used the Himalayan pink salt and put in a generous 1/2 t.)
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t allspice
1/8 t nutmeg
1/4 cup coconut oil 
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (I was just a bit short on this, but with increasing the honey a bit and being generous with the oil, the consistency still was great, and the pumpkin flavor was still good, though I look forward to making it again with the full dose!)

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir until they are uniformly combined. In a small sauce pan over low heat, combine the coconut oil, honey, and vanilla just until the coconut oil and honey have melted to a liquid. Turn off the heat and add the pumpkin puree. Slowly pour the liquid over the dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon until all the dry ingredients look moistened with the banana mixture. If it looks too dry, mix a little more or add a little more oil. Spread the granola over two baking sheets and place in an oven preheated to 170C/350F. Bake for 20 to 28 minutes, stirring once or twice halfway through baking to get even browning. In the last 10 minutes, watch carefully to ensure it doesn't burn. When it's done, allow to cool and then place in an airtight container. 

Master List for Meal Planning

Rachel here.  I am not as good as Lizzy at writing recipes!  But, I find that sometimes it can be helpful just to know some recipes that work here or that are easily adapted to life where the ingredients sets are a bit different than what you might be used to having in your home country.
So, I wrote up a post on my blog, sharing my "master list" for fall that helps form my base for meal planning.  Hope it might be useful to some, so feel free to pop over and read the original post to see the list with lots of links for recipes (many of them back here on this blog!).

Also, I have a pinterest board where I collect recipes that I know would work where we live here in Nepal (and probably much of Asia) and usually make some quick comments on my pins as to what I would need to change, if anything.

French Dip Subs

Only one meat dish in the past 12 posts! Can you see that I prefer the vegetarian diet? I think it's time for one though. I will apologize in advance for my hastily snapped photo. This is because I have made these twice and gobbled my food so quickly I forgot to take a picture. This time, mid-scarfing, I snapped a photo of my husband's plate. These are so good I have literally come home so excited to make dinner both times! The recipe is from a 2004 Country Woman magazine...is that really a real magazine?!

French Dip Subs
2 Tablespoons oil
1 large onion, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
500g tenderloin steaks or chuck roast, sliced thinly
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 chicken bouillon cube (or 1 1/2 cups stock)
Hoagie rolls, toasted

Begin by slicing the beef thinly. Partially frozen meat tends to slice thinly the easiest because it doesn't move around. Heat the oil in the bottom of an open pressure cooker over medium heat. Add the onions, sauteing until golden brown. Toss in the garlic and cook about 30 seconds until fragrant. Next, add the dried herbs, salt, and pepper, crushing them slightly in your hand. Add the sliced beef and brown in the bottom of the hot pressure cooker. Once browned, pour in the liquid and chicken bouillon. Stir, then clamp on the lid of the pressure cooker. Cook over high heat until it reaches pressure (first "whistle), turn the heat down to medium, and cook for about 30 minutes or 20 minutes more if you have a thick or tough cut of meet. Turn off the heat and allow the pressure to release naturally. Serve on toasted hoagie rolls with toppings of choice. Scoop the liquid from the pressure cooker into little dipping bowls to dip the subs as you eat.

Veggie Pancakes

I've been searching for more ways to incorporate vegetables in our diet. Sometimes I feel like I go through days where I hardly eat any vegetables other than tomatoes and legumes, which feels pretty ridiculous and bad for me. I had the thought, "I wonder if you could make a savory pancake out of vegetables?" Turns out that you can, and they taste pretty good. Since there is only a little flour in these, you could easily make them gluten free by substituting something like chickpea flour or another gluten free blend in place of the white flour. This recipe is a mishmash of a lot of ideas I find on the internet and can be customized with whatever vegetables you want. I used finely chopped cauliflower and leafy greens, but broccoli, cabbage, peppers, and even green beans would probably also work if you really chop them finely.

Sometimes white plates are good. Sometimes they're just not. Sorry!

Vegetable Pancakes
1/2 cup flour (white, wheat, chickpea, whatever)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup carrots, grated
1 cup mixed vegetables, finely

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients, including vegetables, in another bowl. Add the wet to the dry. Using a non-stick or well greased skillet, fry as you would normal pancakes, but using only a heaping tablespoons or so of batter at a time. Use the back of a spoon to flatten the batter some so the vegetables cook through. Cook over medium-low heat, flipping once the first side is browned and browning the other side.

You can eat these plain, with gravy, or with cheese sauce. We opted for a cheesy bechamel, and it was a fun savory twist on sweet pancakes.