Veggie "Sushi" Rolls

Hopefully everyone is ready for a string of light and healthy recipes to usher in the new year. I'm already excited for January and really getting back in the gym, and my food cravings are already starting to match. My mom and I had some of these little veggie “sushi” rolls at Whole Foods a few weeks ago and I've been plotting my own recipe ever since.

These veggie rolls made a great light lunch for me today, and would also be a great appetizer. The fillings have a great variety in texture- creamy avocado, crunchy carrots and cucumber, and slightly leafy sprouts. You could try just about anything in these though, and you should! Red cabbage would add some lovely color, and adding shrimp would be delicious too. 

I also have two sauce recipes. Today I made a Spicy Sesame Hoisin Sauce and it was amazing. The other sauce is the Lemon Tahini sauce I frequently use as a salad dressing. It would be so good with these veggies though so I included that recipe too.

VEGGIE “SUSHI” ROLLS

4 sheets Vietnamese Rice Paper

1 large Carrot, Julienned

1 small Cucumber, Julienned

1/2 an Avocado, cut into slices

1/2 cup sprouts

Salt

To soften rice paper, prepare a large bowl of hot water and submerge them, one at a time, for about 10 seconds, then lay on a flat surface. The paper should just be starting to soften; don’t leave it for too long or the rice paper will tear as you try to lay it out.

Place the carrot, cucumber, and avocado slices in a line down the center of the softened rice paper wrap. Sprinkle with salt. Top with sprouts. 

To roll the rice paper, fold one side over the fillings, then fold in the side edges, then roll it up. Slice into 1-2 inch pieces with a very sharp knife. 

Serves 2

SESAME HOISIN SAUCE

1 tablespoon Tahini

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

1 clove, finely minced garlic 

1 teaspoon siracha hot sauce

Red Pepper Flakes, for an even spicier sauce

Combine all ingredients and whisk thoroughly. 

LEMON TAHINI SAUCE

2 tablespoons Tahini

Juice of 1/2 of a lemon

Salt and pepper

Warm water

Combine Tahini and lemon juice until it thickens, then add warm water until desired consistency is reached. Salt and pepper to taste.

Peppered Salmon with Mango Salsa

This is an old favorite that I had kind of just forgotten about until recently. I haven't made it in ages and suddenly we've had it twice in the last few weeks. I've never claimed to be great at organization or consistency.  

Salmon is one of the healthiest meat options out there, and I should really try to make it more often. This salmon is covered in coarsely ground black pepper and baked for 15 minutes or less, depending on how many servings. It's one of those rare 30 minute, weeknight dinners that also happens to be super healthy and super delicious... the trifecta! 

PEPPERED SALMON

Fresh salmon steak, 3oz per person

Butter, salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 450F. Grease a glass or metal dish with coconut or olive oil. 

Rinse salmon and pat dry. Slice into 3oz servings. Place several small pats of butter on the salmon then season generously with freshly ground black pepper, and a little bit of salt. 

Bake until salmon is cooked through, about 12-15 mins. Prepare mango salsa while salmon is baking.

MANGO SALSA

2 mangos

1/3 cup red bell pepper

1/3 cup purple onion

Handful of cilantro

Fresh jalapeño pepper, added to taste

Juice from half of a lime 

Salt and pepper, to taste

Finely chop first 5 ingredients and stir to combine. Glaze with lime juice, season with salt and pepper, stir and serve over salmon. Serves 4-6.

Kale Citrus Salad with Goat Cheese

Sweet, spicy, creamy, tangy..... this salad has it all! Some friends of mine served this Pioneer Woman recipe when we had dinner at their house one night and I've made it several times since. It goes really well with seafood. We've had it as a side to with scallops, salmon, and chicken. I always go a little crazy with the jalapeños and burn my mouth off. Turns out a little goes a long way.

There are also some options when it comes to the kale. I often lightly blanche my kale to soften it for salads, and I've done this a few times with this one. Another option is to make the dressing ahead and let the kale sit in the dressing for a little while to soften it a bit. (This is what the Pioneer Woman does, but not what I did for this blog post). I know you're dying to try this amazing salad, so without further ado, here is the recipe.

KALE CITRUS SALAD WITH GOAT CHEESE

1 bunch of kale

1 jalapeño pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped

3 tangerines or clementines

4 oz goat cheese

1/4 orange juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic, pressed or grated

1 tablespoon of greek yogurt

salt and pepper to taste

Tear the kale leaves from the stems, then chop them as finely as you want.

To make the dressing, combine the orange juice, olive oil, garlic, chopped jalapeño, salt and pepper in a small mason jar. Shake vigorously until all combined, then add the sour cream or yogurt and shake again until it's smooth and creamy.

Peel the fruit with a knife (to minimize the amount of pith you get with the orange), then chop into bite sized chunks. 

If you want to blanche the kale, place it in a colander and pour hot water over it until has all changed to a bright green color.  Cool the kale quickly, either by pouring cold water over it or just tossing or spinning it (in a lettuce spinner) to cool it off. Dry it very, very well.

If you aren’t blanching the kale, pour the dressing over it and allow it to sit for a while. (Pioneer Woman recommends no more than 15 minutes, but I don’t have a problem with the constancy of the kale that has sat longer.)

At the last minute, break the goat cheese into chunks with a fork and toss it into the salad. 

Homemade Marshmallows

Sorry about all the unhealthy recipes. The holidays aren't my proudest season when it comes to my diet. But these marshmallows are so fluffy and powdery and are the perfect way to top off your holiday hot cocoa. The recipe is so simple and you can sprinkle with chocolate or peppermint to mix things up!

HOMEMADE MARSHMALLOWS

3 packages unflavored gelatin

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Combine the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and allow to sit while you make the syrup.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dissolved gelatin. Put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.

With a sieve, generously dust an 8 by 12-inch nonmetal baking dish with confectioners' sugar. Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan, smooth the top, and dust with more confectioners' sugar. Allow to stand uncovered overnight until it dries out.

Turn the marshmallows onto a board and cut them in squares. Dust them with more confectioners' sugar

Holiday Chocolate Cake

The holidays wouldn't be the same without at least one evenings spent indulging in coffee and cake, listening to Christmas music, and catching up with old friends. This is by no means a clean or healthy recipe today, but boy is it delicious, and what are the holidays for if not to indulge a little? Here are my favorite chocolate cake and my favorite chocolate frosting recipes combined for an amazing treat. 

DARK CHOCOLATE CAKE

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

½ cup coconut oil or butter, softened

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup very hot, freshly brewed coffee

Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by oiling them with either coconut oil or butter and then lightly flouring.

Add flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk through to combine or, using your paddle attachment, stir through flour mixture until combined well.

Add milk, butter or oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed and carefully add hot, freshly brewed coffee to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.

Pour cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

1 cup softened butter

1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted

5 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-6 tablespoons milk

Whip butter and cocoa together until smooth in large bowl. Stir in vanilla and powdered sugar. Add in milk by the tablespoon until frosting reaches desired consistency. Scrape sides and whip again until light, fluffy and smooth, 1-2 minutes. 

Thanksgiving Tablescape

Thanksgiving, I've come to realize, is my favorite holiday. It's similar to Christmas in that there is a spirit of celebration while we enjoy festive food and spend time with family. While I do enjoy exchanging gifts with loved ones, the shopping, excessive spending, and agonizing over token gifts can add enough pressure to the Christmas that I long for the simplicity of Thanksgiving, where we simply take a day to celebrate what we already have. 

This was the first holiday of any sort that Brad and I have celebrated in our own home, just the two of us. It was quiet and restful-- our "Old Fashioned Thanksgiving" we called it, invoking thoughts of a mid-century lifestyle where we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on television, enjoyed a constant flow of our favorite cocktails throughout the day, "dressed for dinner", and finally feasted on a traditional, home-cooked Thanksgiving meal.

I kept the table design simple but elegant by restricting the color palate to grey and frosty green. Our antique dining room table is too lovely to cover with a tablecloth, and I love how the wood gives a rustic feel to our tablescape.

Thanksgiving is still autumn, but adding some evergreen foliage and eucalyptus to the pumpkin hanging around from Halloween ended up being the perfect way to transition into the holiday season.

The menu itself was pretty simple, but these kinds of things make a lot of food for just two people. I cooked a couple of cornish game hens, along with a small turkey breast, covered in a cranberry, orange, and rosemary glaze.

The rest of the menu included a traditional southern favorites like dressing, and sweet potato casserole, as well as cranberry sauce (recipe here), mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls. 

It was all a wonderful, exhausting success and I can't wait to do it again!

Cranberry Sauce with Orange and Star Anise

No matter how much food is served on Thanksgiving I usually find myself with only four essentials on my plate (at least the first time around): Turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, and cranberry sauce. I couldn’t possibly enjoy my turkey without the additional tang of cranberries! I have to admit it felt risky, changing up a recipe for something this classic and essential, but I am so completely thrilled with the result that I might never make the old recipe again! The warm bite of allspice and star anise and the piquant kick of orange zest are a delicious compliment to the familiarly sweet and tangy cranberries. 

I can’t wait to try this on my turkey tomorrow, and if you’re looking for a delicious twist on a traditional Thanksgiving staple here’s a great recipe! 

CRANBERRY SAUCE WITH ORANGE AND STAR ANISE

4 whole allspice berries

2 whole star anise 

¾ c. sugar

¼ c. orange juice

12 oz. fresh cranberries

Zest strips from 1/2 orange

Gather allspice and star anise in a 4-inch square of cheesecloth and tie into a sachet. Combine sugar, orange juice, and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan. Add sachet and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar melts and liquid begins to bubble, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep for 10 minutes.Return pot to stove over medium-high heat and add cranberries and zest. Cook until cranberries just begin to pop, about 6 minutes. Discard sachet. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for up to three days before serving.

Hearty Chicken Soup with Dumplings

It's the week before Thanksgiving and the weather is finally catching up with the season, meaning it's finally time for those warm, delicious comfort foods we associate with autumn and winter. My favorite of these is definitely chicken and dumplings and I've had this meal in mind for a few weeks now, but wanted to refine the recipe a little bit before sharing it. When I made it last night it turned out perfectly, so I guess we're ready. Dumplings can be tricky and anytime I've tried other recipes the dumplings have disappointed me. The dumplings will rise quite a bit as they cook, so I roll the dough out and slice it into rectangles with a knife or pizza cutter, so that the dumplings will be thin and can cook all the way through.

When cooking a whole chicken, I always like to add the extra step of making a bone broth for those extra nutrients. (Then I can feel better about the less-nutritious dumplings part of the recipe.) I often do this ahead of time, cooking the chicken and then freezing the broth and the shredded meat separately. This allows me to simply combine all the soup ingredients and add the dumplings at the end. 

CHICKEN BONE BROTH SOUP

1 whole chicken

4 ribs celery chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 shallots, chopped

1 garlic clove

1 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 bay leaf

1 fresh thyme sprig

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

DUMPLINGS

2 cups all purpose flour, plus about 1/2 cup extra

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup milk

4 tablespoons melted butter

1 tsp salt

Rinse whole chicken in cold water, and pat dry. Place, breast down, in crockpot with 1 cup of water. Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours. Remove chicken and pick apart, placing the large bones back in the crockpot, setting aside the meat, and discarding the rest.

Add 6 cups of water to the crockpot, along with the carrots, celery, shallots, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme sprig. Cook on low 6-8hrs. Use a slotted spoon to sift through and remove all the bones, bay leaves, and thyme sprig.

Place broth in a large pan over medium high heat and add the chicken, shredding into small pieces as you go. Bring broth to a boil while you make the dough for dumplings. 

To make dumplings: Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Combine milk and melted butter. Add to the dry ingredients. Stir to combine, adding extra flour a little at a time until the dough starts to form a ball.  Roll the dough out to about 1/4" thickness and slice into strips.  Cut or break off dumplings in approx 3" pieces and drop directly into the boiling soup, trying to spread them out so they don't pile up and stick together.

Cover, and return to the boil. Then reduce heat and simmer about 15 minutes. (Pull out a dumpling to test, doneness. Once the dumplings are cooked through and not doughy, it's ready to serve.)

Serve topped with fresh parsley.

Quiche with Mushrooms and Herbs

Like many French recipes, quiche is really a lot simpler than the fancy name implies. This quiche, full of mushrooms sautéed in butter and port, with fresh herbs, happens to the BEST one I've ever had. 

So here's the story with this recipe. Julia Child has a recipe for Quiche aux Champignons in Mastering the Art of French cooking. I found an adapted recipe on another blog, and then I adapted it a bit further. Turns out Julia Child adds, what I would consider, an unreasonable amount of butter to everything. I'm sure her recipes are delicious, but I didn't miss the extra butter and cream. This recipe is a little lighter and more fitting for an everyday meal. I served this for dinner with a spinach salad, but I'm definitely going to keep it in mind next time I'm making a brunch!

For the Quiche:

2 tablespoons butter

2 shallots, diced

1 lb mushrooms, sliced

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

 2 tablespoons port

5 eggs

1 cup milk or cream

1/2 cup grated swiss cheese

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Fresh thyme, torn or chopped

Frech chives, chopped

For the pastry crust:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chilled butter

1/4 cup ice water

Preheat oven to 375°F.

For the pastry- conbine flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter until it reaches a smooth, sandy consistency. Add water one tablespoon at a time until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Roll dough on to fit a 9inch pie plate and place pastry in pan. Press dough evenly into pan and trim the edges. Bake dough for 10-15 minutes, until firm but not browning.

For the quiche- Melt butter in pan and cook shallots, then add in the sliced mushrooms, salt, and port. Cover pan and cook over medium low heat for 8 minutes. Uncover. Raise heat and boil for several minutes until liquid is completely evaporated and mushrooms are beginning to sauté in their butter.

Beat the eggs, milk or cream, and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Pour into pastry shell. Spread cheese and mushrooms evenly into the quiche. Lastly sprinkle the chopped herbs, setting aside a few fresh chives for serving. 

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until puffed and browned.

Panna Cotta with Berry Compote

Panna cotta is about as simple and versatile as a dessert gets, basically consisting of just cream, sugar, and gelatin with a fruit on top. Originating in Northern Italy, the name just means "cooked cream". It's definitely my favorite to dessert to follow a light pizza and salad dinner on summer evenings. Of course, it isn't summer now, but berries were on sale and it doesn't take much to convince me to make some variation of this dessert. (Speaking of variations, pomegranates, strawberries, even earl grey tea are among my favorites on panna cotta.) 

This berry compote is really just a lightly cooked berry jam. And the best part is that this whole dessert barely takes 10 minutes to put together and then just goes in the refrigerator for a few hours. Perfect for dinner parties, when you can't imagine trying to get the timing right on a hot dessert after dinner. Which is all dinner parties, for me.

Ingredients

1 packet powdered gelatin (about 2 1/2 teaspoons)

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup fresh raspberries

1/2 cup fresh blackberries

2 tablespoons sugar

Warm water

Panna Cotta

Lightly coat pastry molds or ramekins with neutral-tasting oil. (I use coconut oil on a paper towel, but make sure to use very little so you don’t end up with flakes of hard coconut oil on your finished product.) 

Dissolve 2 teaspoons of the gelatin in a small dish with 2 tablespoon of warm water.

Heat the cream, confectioner's sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Heat until very warm, but do not allow it to boil. Stir in the gelatin until it dissolves. Set aside to cool completely.

Pour the cream into molds or ramekins, dividing evenly. Chill for at least 4 hours.

To serve, dip the molds in very hot water for about 30 seconds (careful not to submerge). Run a small offset spatula or blade of a small, sharp knife around the edges of the panna cotta, then invert onto plates.

Berry Compote

Gently mash fresh berries in a small saucepan and combine with 1/4 cup water. Add 2 tablespoons sugar. Heat on medium, while you dissolve remaining 1/2 teaspoon of gelatin in 1 tablespoon of warm water. Add gelatin to berries and stir well to combine. Cool, then refrigerate until a jelly consistency is reached.

Spoon berry compote onto panna cotta, and serve.

6 Servings