Yam and Peanut Stew with Kale

Around our house we've been feeling pretty uninspired to cook lately.  And there's one big culprit - we bought a house! So that means finding time or energy to think about or do anything has pretty much gone out the window.  Honestly even I get bored of how much we talk about house stuff but still we're super excited that we finally made this dream a reality.

When we have busted out with some cooking it's been for simple and healthy things to make up for all of the eating out we've been doing lately.  Up here in the PacNW we are also in between seasons weather wise so it can change daily what we're in the mood for.  We hit a cold and rainy spot earlier this week and that sent us hankering for some soup.  But healthy soup...and cheap soup...and quick soup.  So I found this recipe and it called my name immediately.

I really liked this soup but next time I'd pureed the whole thing and then add in the kale.  The texture was a little weird to have it a little of both.  Flavor wise this soup was top notch.  You may think, peanut butter in soup?  Are you sure?  And yes, I am sure - it's delicious!  Another thought is serving it with a nice lemon yogurt sauce on top to brighten it all.  Enjoy any which way you serve it.

Yam and Peanut Stew with Kale
found here

1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons ginger, minced
1 cup dried red lentils
2 lbs of yams, peeled and cubed
3 ripe vine tomatoes, diced
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
dash of cayenne
5 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 head of curly kale
salt and pepper to taste
chopped green onions and peanuts for garnish, optional but highly recommended

1. Heat olive oil in large soup pot over medium heat.  Add onion and sautee until translucent, about 3 minutes.  Add garlic and ginger and sautee until fragrant.  Add the lentils, yams, tomatoes and spices and stir to combine.
2.  Add stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce soup to simmer and cook until yams are tender, about 35-40 minutes.
3.  Add peanut butter and stir well.  Puree soup with an immersion blender.  Add kale and cook until wilted.
4.  Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper.  Serve and garnish with peanuts and green onions, if using.

Chicken Avocado Green Curry

Whenever we order Thai food, which in Portland is one of the only abundant take out options, I often order this dish.  I love the warm but not mushy avocado and the spice level of the green curry is perfect for me.  And although it's not soup it sure is close enough and provides the same comforts.

I was brainstorming what to make for dinner a few nights ago and whenever I want tasty but healthy I usually veer towards a stir fry with lots of veggies and chicken or pork.   But then I saw that DP had stocked up on avocados over the weekend and those avocados were all perfectly ripe at the same time. So I immediately thought of one of my favorite Thai food take out dishes.  I went in search of a recipe and didn't come up with a whole lot for this dish.  So I found a green curry recipe and made up the rest on my own using my mad stir fry skills.  What I turned out was extremely good, and dare I say, better than the take out we usually get.  All the more reason to start making my own Thai food and probably spending a whole lot less.

I hope you enjoy this!  It would be a fun take on a St. Patrick's Day meal as it has loads and loads of green in it.

Chicken Avocado Green Curry
curry sauce adapted from here

• 4 tablespoons green curry paste
•  2 cans of coconut milk
•  1 tablespoon soy sauce (or I use Bragg's liquid aminos)
•  4 cloves of garlic, crushed
•  1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 4 oz of fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons Sriracha, give or take depending on your desired spice level
• 2 tablespoon canola or other light oil
• 1.5 lbs of skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into 1" pieces
• 1 yellow onion, medium dice
• 2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2" coins
• 1 bunch asparagus, fibrous ends discarded and cut into thirds
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1" pieces
• 1 bunch of kale, stems discarded and chopped thin slices
•  3 small avocados, cut into medium dice
• cooked jasmine rice, for serving

First make the green curry sauce.  In a blender add green curry paste, coconut milk, soy sauce, crushed garlic, brown sugar, basil, and 1 tablespoon of Sriracha.  Blend until smooth and the basil is thoroughly blended.  Set aside. At this point you can start your rice, if using.

In a wok or large skillet, heat oil to almost smoking and add the chicken.  Cook until pieces are lightly browned, about 5 minutes.  Remove chicken from pan and set aside to add back in later.  Add some more oil to coat the bottom of the pan, turn down heat to medium high and add onion to pan.  Allow to caramelize and then add carrots.  Cook for 3 minutes.  Add in asparagus and bell pepper, cook for another 3-5 minutes until they start to soften.  Add kale and cook for 2 minutes until it starts to wilt.  Then add the cooked chicken and the green curry sauce.  Allow the sauce to come up to temperature.  Taste the curry sauce for desired spiciness and salt level.  Add more soy sauce or Sriracha if you'd like.  Last but not least, add in the diced avocado and allow to warm up, about 1-2 minutes.

Serve with jasmine rice if you'd like.

Greens Galore Soup with Cayenne and Lemon

After a food-filled four days in California over the new year, I was ready for some greens. So I decided to make this soup I had recently saved which is basically just a ton of greens blended up with caramelized onions.  The result is a super fresh soup that I felt really good about eating!  

I liked this soup a lot more than I thought I would, and will probably end up freezing half of it because it made a lot of soup.  Another reminder to read a recipe carefully before you start to make it because I should have cut this in half based on the amount of liquids alone.  The small pinch of cayenne does not add a lot of heat, feel free to add more if you like spicy.

In any case, this soup is a wonderful kickstart to the new year and I hope you like it as much as we did!

Greens Galore Soup
Adapted slightly from Cookie and Kate
Serves at least 6

• 2 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for garnish
• 2 large yellow onions, chopped
• 1 tsp salt, divided
• 2 Tbsp plus 3 cups water, divided
• 1/4 cup arborio rice, rinsed
• 1 large bunch Italian kale (about 1 pound), thick ribs removed, leaves chopped coarsely.
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 10 ounces of gently packed spinach or baby cooking greens, such as chard (I used two 5 oz tubs of OrganicGirl's Super Greens which is a mix of spinach, chard, and other baby greens)
• 4 cups broth (I used chicken, but veggie would make this dish vegan!)
• 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice (or more to taste)
• Serve with (optional): Cooked rice and a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas

First, start the onions caramelizing. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet.  Add the chopped onions and 1/4 tsp salt.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are starting to brown, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Reduce the heat to low, add 2 Tbsp water, and cover. Cook until the liquid is greatly reduced and the onions are a rich caramel color, this should take about 20 to 30 minutes. Stir occasionally, and each time replace the cover on the pan.

While the onions are cooking, combine 3 cups water, 3/4 tsp salt, and the arborio rice in a large soup pot or dutch oven.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover.  Cook for 15 minutes. 

(If you want to have this over Jasmine rice and with chickpeas like we did, start the rice now. 1 1/2 cup water and 1 cup jasmine rice with a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 18 minutes.  If you have a small strainer that fits inside your pan that you used to rinse the chickpeas, when the 18 minutes are up set that strainer on top of the hot rice pot and put the lid over it to warm up the chickpeas!)

Add to the soup pot the chopped kale and the minced garlic.  When the onions are caramelized, stir them into the soup pot along with the baby greens, broth, and cayenne pepper. 

Return the pot to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes until the greens are slightly wilted but still bright green.

Puree the soup with an immersion blender or in batches in a regular blender until smooth. Stir in the lemon juice.  Taste and add more salt, lemon, or pepper to taste. 

You can eat this as is for a super healthy green soup, or on top of rice and chickpeas for a heartier dinner.  Drizzle with olive oil and enjoy! This looks swampy, but me and my love agree, this soup tastes much better than it looks!

Black Bean Stew

This is no groundbreaking feat of a stew, but it was easy, quick, cheap, just a tad spicy (my mister did not even kick up a fuss), and super comforting on a freezing cold November night.  I tend to think of black bean soups as either too boring-just a cup full of beans, or super Mexican flavored.  This was somewhere else on the spectrum.  Not too spicy, not too much of my beloved Cumin, no chili powder to be found, no cilantro or lime either. What really grabbed my interest was the addition of orange zest right at the end, it just sounded so good and different and I just had to make it right away.

I found this recipe on a random round-up of one pot meals, and the original source was Runner's World, which I am not an avid reader of, or practiced runner.  In any case, I always love the idea of one pot meals, and saved a bunch of soups from this page to make later.

This Black Bean Stew in particular, was noted as a quick stew to help you shed pounds, as this stew is packed full of protein and fiber from the beans and then the spiciness from the chipotle is supposed to be good at curbing appetite and boosting calorie-burning.  Who can say no to that? Add in some other fresh veggies and you are golden.

I made a few changes and additions, but nothing too crazy. Instead of roasting the pepper and slicing it up, I diced it up and cooked it in the pot. I liked this change because the peppers kept up a bit of their crunch.  I also threw in a diced sweet potato that I had laying around and it also was a great addition, due to the texture and slight sweetness, but I would not have missed it much if I had left it out (and if I did leave it out, I would have used two bell peppers, one each of orange and red). This is a great base soup that could easily be modified in tons of ways.  The absolute best part is the orange zest, it really livens up the dish, adding a hint of summer to this cold weather staple.

Black Bean Stew
Serves 6

2 tsp Canola oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, sliced thin
1 small sweet potato, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1-2 garlic cloves, diced
2 15 oz cans drained and rinsed black beans
2 15 oz cans diced tomatoes
3 cups chicken stock (or veggie broth)
1 Tbls minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1 Tbls cumin
1 Tbls fresh thyme
Zest from one orange
1/2 bunch of shredded dino kale
salt & pepper to taste
Diced avocado (optional)

Heat Canola oil in a Dutch oven or other soup pot over medium heat.

Add the onion and carrot, sauteeing for 5 minutes. Add the sweet potato and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Add the diced red pepper and let all of this cook about 10 minutes until the sweet potatoes are just barely tender.

Add to the pot the black beans, tomatos, broth, minced chipotle, and cumin.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Taste broth and add salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer 20 minutes until the sweet potatoes are tender.  Toss in the shredded kale, fresh thyme, and orange zest.  Ladel into bowls and top with diced avocado.  Enjoy!



p.s. This photo looks terrible. I think I must have accidentally changed some setting without noticing, but I was so anxious to eat that I didn't bother messing with it. Forgive me?