I am so glad that it finally cooled off and we are able to make more Fall-like dinner dishes. Chickpeas with ditalini and greens is an easy and versatile entree. We always make extra because it is so good for lunches afterwards. You can use this combination of vegetables or something else you prefer. The recipe calls for thyme but we had basil on hand so we put that in instead. We used kale for our greens since that is what we had but mustard greens or spinach would work equally as well.
I have really been loving these Sunday salads. Since I wanted a lot of different components every time there was a commercial during the US Open I would get up and chop something up or blanch the broccoli etc. I ended up with salad greens of mixed kale, Romaine, and cabbage. On top I added olives, edamame, tomatoes, blanched broccoli, boiled potatoes, hard boiled eggs, mushrooms, and cabbage. So many vegetables that there was no room for tuna! The salad was dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar and seasoned with salt and pepper.
It looks pretty in its composed state but to be honest I mixed it all together before I ate it! I liked getting a different bite each time.
It’s John’s birthday week! This means starting on Wednesday he will be the same age as me for the next three months! We are celebrating with a nice meal at home and then a trip up to Wine Country with an overnight on Thursday. Yay! I am really looking forward to it. Here’s the menu for the week coming up. We are supposed to be enjoying more seasonal temperatures over the next seven days.
This is our favorite dish to order at Thai restaurants. Our efforts have not resulted in a comparable dish thus far. I think that since we only use two teaspoons of oil has a lot to do with it. We marinated the tofu in nuoc cham, a lime/fish sauce vinaigrette, and reserved some for steaming at the end of stir-frying. Since we used fish sauce I cannot call this vegan/vegetarian but I think if we switched to a lime/soy vinaigrette the dish would still be good. I used a spicy Thai chile in the marinade and also a fairly spicy pepper in the stir-fry as well as a red bell pepper. The tofu gets browned first followed by the eggplant, onion, and peppers. Then they were steamed briefly in the residual marinade and served over rice. Some of the basil was stirred in at the end and the rest was used as garnish.
We made this Chana dal early Friday morning and released the steam outside again because it is still really hot. As it turns out it was 107F during the hottest part of the day so we were glad we did our cooking before the extreme heat alert for conserving energy between 4 PM and 9 PM kicked in. Tomorrow things are supposed to be more normal-ish weather-wise and we can go back to our regular cooking regime.
Chana dal is an Indian dish using dried split chickpeas, tomatoes, ginger, onions, and garlic. You can stir some greens in at the end but I usually layer mine with raw kale on the bottom followed by cauliflower or regular rice, then the Chana dal, and cilantro on top. Depending on how spicy I want it, I put a few squirts of sriracha on as well. Here is the recipe I use.
Thursday night’s dinner was another extreme hot weather enterprise. This no-cook dinner featured hummus bought from the local grocery store, whole grain pita, radishes, feta, pepperoncini, and tabbouleh which I made myself. My recipe is one that I adapted from a NYT recipe.
I admit that making the tabbouleh is quite a chore. As the family gave the dinner great accolades and asked that I make it again, I am thinking of trying the tabbouleh from a deli or restaurant that sells it and then merely doctoring it up. I see nothing wrong with taking a shortcut.
The weather people are saying today might only get to the upper 90s and should be the last day of the extreme heat. I certainly hope so! Our high temperatures typically only last for three days before the cooler Pacific air makes it way to the East Bay. Ten days of heat is unprecedented. I am hoping that we will be spared any more high temps this year but I have lived here long enough to not start hoping for the end of summer until October 1!
Vichyssoise with chives and chive flowerAvocado toast
I have to admit I much prefer making gazpacho on these seemingly endless days of temperatures well over 100F. With gazpacho I just drop a bunch of raw vegetables in a blender, whiz them up, adjust for salt and acid, and I am done. With Vichyssoise I needed to peel and chop onions, clean (ugh) and chop 3 leeks, and peel and chop 2 lbs. of potatoes!
To try to keep the kitchen cool, I used my Instant Pot. When it was time to vent the steam John carried the pot outside! Except for the peeling and chopping the soup was actually very easy to make. Here’s how I did it.
Into the Instant Pot put one roughly chopped onion, 3 leeks (white parts only), cleaned and cut into half moons, one clove chopped garlic, two pounds of russet potatoes, 32 oz. of chicken or vegetable stock, and 1 teaspoon of table salt. Set the Instant Pot on Soup for 10 minutes. When the cooking is complete vent the steam. Using a stick blender, purée the soup. Add 1/4 cup (or more) of heavy cream. Taste for salt level. Chill. In order to get my soup chilled in time for dinner I put the entire metal bowl from the instant Pot in a larger bowl of ice water. That cooled it down somewhat. To get it chilled the rest of the way, I put containers of soup in the freezer for 40 minutes. When serving I garnished the bowls with chives and chive flowers plus extra virgin olive oil.
We really enjoyed the cool silky soup. The mashed up avocado spread on toast was good too!
We have been eating a lot of these bowls lately. Given the fact that we are under this unrelenting heat dome (113F again, yikes!), this vegetable salad with tofu seemed like the best choice. I had planned on Thai basil eggplant today but the idea of cooking when we are trying to keep the house cool made the dish a non-starter. I just hope the eggplant keeps until Friday when it should merely be in the 90s.
The vegetables I used for the salad were shredded cabbage, soy-marinated extra firm tofu, edamame, cucumber, avocado, green onions, and spicy chiles. No rice this time but you could definitely include it. I gave it a drizzle of olive oil and then poured over a dressing composed of 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup vinegar, a dash of water, 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil, and some whizzed up garlic, green onions, and ginger. (Too much trouble? You could probably substitute garlic, onion, and ginger powders.) After I combine those dressing ingredients I sweeten it with a half packet of Splenda but you could use a teaspoon or so of sugar or whatever sweetener you like. Garnish is a shake or two of furikake.
So much for an outside event today. Happy “All-time record heat” Labor Day. We topped off at about 113F. It’s supposed to be hotter tomorrow. Ugh. Anyway, we made a little picnic in the family room where it was only about 80F. Between 4PM and 9PM we had to turn the air conditioning to a higher setting and not run any big appliances so that the electrical grid could cope.
Our no-cook picnic consisted of cheesea, salami and crackers, crusty bread and pesto, vegetables and dip, and microwaved pre-made meatballs in marinara sauce. We watched the U.S. Open and some cooking shows and ate our picnic. I am so glad I did not suggest having the whole family over for the holiday!
Mixed vegetable salad with tuna and hard-boiled egg
My recent Sunday suppers have been more salad-like and less egg-like. Since it was VERY HOT yesterday, I cooked the egg in the morning and blanched the broccoli in the microwave. Along with the egg and the broccoli I had tomatoes, olives, edamame, red onion, mushrooms, tuna, and three sorts of greens underneath, Romaine, kale, and basil. I dressed my salad with one part olive oil to two parts red wine vinegar. And, of course, plenty of salt and pepper.
I have been on record as saying I do not really like salads. They always seem like so much trouble for so little payback. But my Sunday supper salad was surprisingly good and I might make it again!
Omnivore 