There are definitely many right ways to make stuffed mushrooms.  It’s an extremely easy dish to make and to improvise with whatever you have.  With the simple guideline of “top mushrooms with filling,” the possibilities are endless.

This dish makes a great appetizer, side, snack, or even a small meal. We made a similar version of these mushrooms for a dinner party a few weeks ago with the only real difference being the cheese we used.  They’re great for parties whether you are the host or you are bringing them with you.  Make ahead and pop them in to the oven 25 minutes before you’re ready to enjoy.

recipe:

about 2 8oz packages of baby bella mushrooms

2 cups frozen spinach
1 roasted pepper
4 cloves roasted garlic
1+ cups cheese (sharp cheddar, havarti, swiss all work well)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8- 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper powder or cayenne
handful of toasted pine nuts (optional)

1/4 cup bread crumbs toasted with butter

Prepare your roasted pepper and roasted garlic ahead of time.  Preheat oven to 425°. Lightly brush pepper with oil, wrap a head (or half) of garlic drizzled with a little olive oil in tinfoil and place both on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 – 45 minutes, flip pepper half way through. Allow to cool before handling.

Meanwhile prepare the filling. Thaw spinach and drain excess water- if you are using fresh spinach saute it for a moment to wilt.  Grate the cheese; we used cheddar for this recipe, but last time it was havarti. It’s ok to switch things up. Both were delicious. Toast a handful of pine nuts — dry toast them in a small pan with no oil, shake them around over the heat until they’re nice and toasty.  Dice the roasted pepper and peel the garlic.  Combine all of these ingredients along with spice and salt to taste. Set aside.

Clean mushrooms and pop off stems. Place mushrooms caps cup side up in a glass baking dish. We use a shallow 8 x 12 glass baking dish.  Use whatever you have — a couple of pie dishes or a lasagna dish would work well too. The filling should be enough to top 2 8 oz packs of mushrooms.  The size of the mushrooms and the amount of room on your baking dish may vary the proportions. Disperse filling into the caps.

Finish the stuffed mushrooms off with bread crumbs.  For this recipe we used panko bread crumbs and fried them up with a little butter, probably about a tablespoon or so.  You can add some parmesan to the mix if you want.  If you are interested in making your own bread crumbs from scratch, check here for some inspiration.

Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes.

Try out our recipe or make up your own! If you don’t have all of the ingredients we used consider what else might taste nice here…. artichoke hearts, olives, goat cheese, tomatoes, Parmesan, carrots, edamame, kale, walnuts… no onions… this list could go on for days- you get the point.

Over the past year or so crunchy chickpeas have been flooding the food blog world.  There’s a good reason for it too! They’re inexpensive, simple to make, delicious, and healthy.  You don’t really need a recipe to make them. I first made these crunchy chickpeas several months ago and I’ve been hooked ever since! I’m always on the lookout for tasty snacks especially ones that can be readily available at any given surge of hunger. A grab on the go or snag a few here and there snack. I keep these around the house and at work nearly always.

The crunchy chickpea snack concept is great because you can modify it to fit your taste and you can make as much or as little as you require.  The batch I make is plenty for the week with enough to share — spicy, and salty. The cooking process takes about an hour depending on your oven and the amount you are baking at once.  The entire process is simple and straight forward but it does require you to stand by in order to mix them up throughout baking.  A good timer is helpful.

Ingredients :

3 cups dried chickpeas
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1½ – 2 teaspoons hot chili powder or cayenne

I use dried chickpeas to start but you can use canned as well. When using dry chickpeas pre-soak over night or all day.  I’ll usually just set them out to soak in the morning if I want to bake them in the evening. Once soaked for several hours, drain the chickpeas and put them in a pot with new water to boil.  Simmer until cooked.

Strain the chickpeas and pour them onto a clean towel to completely dry and cool off. I believe this step is extremely important, allowing them to air off and cool off helps eliminate a lot of steam which is moisture.  I have noticed a huge difference when I have not allowed them to cool down — the chickpeas have a harder crunch to them which to me is less pleasant to eat.  By eliminating as much moisture before you bake them I believe you get nicer light and crispy texture.

Preheat oven to about 400°

Once the chickpeas are cooked and cooled, place them into a baking dish. I use a 9 x 13 Pyrex lasagna dish.  I would recommend using something with sides because throughout baking the chickpeas will need to be stirred around.  I’ve used a regular baking sheet before and found it pretty difficult to stir them up adequately (while in a hot oven — wear a mitt!) without knocking them off the sides. I also felt that the chickpeas were quicker to burn on a thinner baking sheet — the glass dish just makes more sense to me especially when you are preparing several cups worth of snacks ;)

Season the chickpea directly in the baking dish. Pour oil, sprinkle spices & kosher salt to taste, stir up to evenly coat the batch. Give it a taste before popping it in the oven.

The baking time may vary slightly but will end up to be just over an hour to an hour and a half. Set the timer for 15 minutes and then stir the chickpeas well, repeat an additional 3 times.  This will take about 45 minutes ;) taste test a few for crispiness and keep a closer watch as they finish baking.  I just keep lessening the interval between mixings until they are done to avoid burning them at the end! You’ll know when they’re done because they will be super crispy and delicious; because there are so many chickpeas baking at once, the textures will vary slightly, some may be a little darker (burnt), others a bit lighter (chewy), and the rest of them will be perfectly crispy.

Make these your new savory snack!

A quick entry with a recipe for fancy butter…

1 stick of salted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon honey
2 cloves of roasted garlic
1/8 heaping teaspoon hot pepper powder

Combine ingredients into a small storage container and enjoy all week while you use it to make all your breads and crackers taste more exciting ;)

Type is becoming blurry, street signs only exist the closer I get, and people with glasses can see better than I… time to get my eyes examined. Aye. In the meantime, I will be eating a lot of this soup, and maybe — just maybe — it will do my little eyes some good; at the very least it will be delicious, inexpensive, and simple to make.

Ingredients used : carrots, ginger, edamame, garlic, pepper powder/cayenne powder, lemon, sour cream, soup stock.

soup for 4

6 cups vegetable stock
4+ cups peeled & chopped carrots
3 cloves chopped garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
¼ teaspoon pepper powder or cayenne powder
½ lemon squeezed or juice
1 cup edamame
½ cup sour cream (optional)
olive oil

equipment used : immersion blender or blender & soup pot

Begin with preparing all of the ingredients, peel and mince the garlic & ginger, peel and chop the carrots in to small rounds. Over medium heat in your favorite soup pot splash a little olive oil and include the garlic and ginger.  Saute for a moment until garlic is cooked (don’t burn it), add the carrots and stir.  Pour in the vegetable stock. Turn the heat up and bring to a boil while you add the lemon and pepper/cayenne powder. Return to a simmer and cover until carrots are tender.

When the carrots are fully cooked puree the soup into a smooth consistency with your immersion blender right in the soup pot.  If you don’t have one a regular blender will work fine, however if you are a fan of convenience and/or blended soups & sauces an immersion blender is extremely affordable and totally worth the splurge. By using this tool you avoid having to pour hot liquid into the blender pitcher and back again which also means there is barely a chance for spilling. All good things!

Once your soup is nice and smooth blend in the sour cream, give it a taste and decide if anything needs to be added- for example you may want to add a dash of salt if your base stock wasn’t very salty or flavorful. Last pour in the whole edamame beans, heat soup to the perfect temperature.

Enjoy this soup — practically effortless and super delicous.

I’m continuously on a quest to find ways to prepare squash and pumpkin in a satisfying way. I mentioned in a previous post that I don’t care much for squash mostly because they are most often prepared in a sweet way. However, it is possible to successfully prepare the squash family in a savory way as well. This year we picked our pumpkins mostly for the seeds with no intention to carve.  Unfortunately when we opened our pumpkins we found the most pathetic dilapidated flat seeds I have ever seen ;( — they were completely unusable and severely disappointing to me.  In a moment of panic upon this discovery I feared that we bought and lugged these pumpkins home for no reason… I was peeved. Deep breath, we had to give them purpose — this meant making pumpkin puree!

And with that puree we made bread, muffins, cookies, lasagna, and even gave some away! I would have never had the desire to make my own pumpkin puree if those seeds were any good. I would have happily moved on to roast and devour the seeds without thinking twice about completely wasting the rest of the pumpkin! We made our puree from two pumpkins, which left us with about 16 cups! So of course we had to search for different ways to use it, what the heck could you do with so much puree!? I will forever look at a pumpkin as more than a carve-able surface filled with delicious seeds.

One of the most interesting dishes I discovered was pumpkin lasagna; I have never heard of or thought of it but I was sure ready to try it out.  I got the idea from Food Mayhem, they made it last year as well.  Of course I didn’t follow their exact recipe, I had to cut out anything sweet and add a little more savory to the mix.  It turned out nicely. Lasagna is one of those meals that really doesn’t need many rules. Noodles, sauce, cheese, and anything else baked in layers — that’s basically how it’s done. This is how we made our first pumpkin lasagna! If you’re a sweeter pumpkin eater you should have a look at Food Mayhem’s recipe as well and adjust to your preference.

Ingredients used: pumpkin puree, cayenne powder, cumin powder, ginger, kosher salt, lasagna noodles, fresh ricotta, fresh mozzarella, spinach, tofu, mushrooms.

3 cups plain fresh plain pumpkin puree-
spiced with :
1 tsp pepper powder or cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon cumin powder
½+ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon fresh finely minced ginger.

lasagna noodles of choice
15 oz fresh ricotta cheese
8+ oz fresh mozzarella
3 cups sliced baby bella mushrooms
2 cups fresh or frozen spinach
½ block of tofu

Begin by spicing up the pumpkin puree; simmer puree in a sauce pot and add ginger, cumin, cayenne powder/pepper powder, and salt to taste.  Cook over lowest heat while you prepare the rest of the ingredients (cut mushrooms, tofu, and spinach).

Preheat oven to 350°

In a 9 x 13 glass baking dish spread a thin layer of pumpkin puree at the very bottom, place the first layer of lasagna noodles and cover with a thin layer of pumpkin puree. Having a bit of puree on the very bottom will help the noodles cook and avoid it from sticking to the bottom of the pan once cooked.

Add tofu; we sliced ours but crumbling it would also be nice. Add a layer of spinach — we used frozen spinach because that’s what we had, we always have frozen spinach on hand because it’s super cheap and a perfect ingredient to add to any sauce, beans, rice, casseroles, lasagna, etc…

Time for another layer of lasagna noodles & of course a layer of pumpkin puree.

Clump fresh ricotta onto the mix and spread it out into an even layer.

Place the sliced mushrooms in an nice even layer and place your last layer of lasagna noodles.

One last layer of pumpkin puree and top with mozzarella! We accidentally bought a fresh mozzarella filled with cream: Burrata — fresh mozzarella filled with cream. When we first chopped into the surprisingly soft and gooey cheese we worried that we made a mistake.  Of course we used it anyway and it didn’t seem to make a difference at all. Once Baked all of the cheese melted together and was delicious as expected.

Cover with tin foil and bake at 350° for 50 min.  Allow time to cool — cut and serve. Now tell me that doesn’t look delicious! Ha — ok, I know, it’s not exactly a beautiful looking dish. But it’s definitely a nice way to remake a traditional lasagna into a seasonal treat…

I have to admit, I don’t really like eating squash. I generally don’t even like squash soup. I like how squash looks, I like that it’s a very seasonal food, and I like to think that there will be more and more times that I actually enjoy eating squash in the future — there have been a few times in the past, and it’s almost always when prepared in a savory way.  Hold the  cinnamon and sweet spices on my squash — no thank you! We’ll make this soup savory.

As I was drawn to the squash section at the pumpkin patch, I knew that I would be purchasing a few. But I worried that they would sit on my counter for too long or that I would hesitate to try and figure out a satisfying way to prepare them out of fear that I might not be able to do it. I wanted to do it. I personally have never cooked with a butternut squash before but I wanted to try making my own style of the ever so popular soup so I picked up a couple of them first. There were several other piles of squash asking me to take them home but I had to limit myself. I didn’t know what I would do with most of them so I decided to pick up a few acorn squash and was on my way.

The butternut squash did not sit around for long, though it did take a full week of dragging my feet before I actually made it. I’m glad I did though; it was surprisingly easy to make and the soup turned out amazing — slightly sweet from the natural flavor of the butternut squash but prepared to be savory with a bit of spice, just the way I like it. I will definitely be making this again.

Ingredients: butternut squash with seeds, vegetable stock, ginger, chili garlic paste, cumin powder, chili powder, sour cream, olive oil, salt, pepper powder.

You can use your favorite vegetable stock for the base of the soup. I used a homemade stock.  Making a vegetable stock is not an exact science and I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but if you’re interested in how I made mine for this soup, you can find out how at the bottom of the post.

Measurements : serves 4
2 butternut squash
4-6 cups of vegetable stock
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne or pepper powder
1 cup sour cream
salt to taste
toasted squash seeds with oil, salt, and spice.

Preheat oven to 400°

Cut your butternut squash in half before roasting; I quartered mine. Scoop out seeds & guts, set aside for later. Place your squash pieces on a roasting pan flesh up and brush with butter. Roast until tender, about 20 minutes — just enough to be able to easily remove the meat from the skin, it will cook more in the soup. Once it’s roasted remove from the oven and allow it to cool enough to be handled before chopping it up. I used a pairing knife to remove the skin and chop it into pieces.  If you halve the squash and the flesh is soft enough you can scoop it out with a spoon or melonballer. I also have read that you can use a peeler to remove the skin.

Heat your soup pot with a splash of oil over medium heat, add the minced ginger and then the chili garlic sauce, saute for a moment. Add squash pieces and vegetable stock. We used 4 cups of stock, our soup was really thick but nice & smooth. You may want to add more stock if you have particularly large squash or if you prefer it to be a thinner soup. You can always add more once it’s pureed to change the consistency. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, bringing it back to a simmer. Add ground cumin and cayenne powder. We used our pepper powder because it was freshly made days before; I think any chili spice would work well — of course adjust the heat according to how spicy you like it. Add a small amount and adjust after the soup is blended if you’re not sure how hot the spice will be.

Allow soup to simmer with spices until everything is thoroughly cooked. Meanwhile, clean and strain your squash seeds.

Puree the soup until smooth. We used an immersion blender to puree it right in the soup pot. A regular blender would work as well. Allow it to simmer and blend it some more until it is completely smooth. Then stir or blend in the sour cream.  Taste and adjust flavor to your liking. You might want to make it a little spicier. We didn’t add any salt, but you might need to depending on the vegetable stock used. Keep soup on low heat before serving while you toast the seeds.

In a small pan heat a splash of olive oil, sprinkle cayenne pepper, salt, and add seeds.  Stir and flip until sufficiently toasted. Pour soup into bowls and top with toasted squash seeds. Keep extra on the table to reload this tasty garnish ;)

Delicious!

Making the vegetable stock::

I used about 12 cups of water to start which gave me about 8 cups of broth after it boiled down. I made more than we needed for this soup so I could freeze the other half for the next soup.

First chop and prepare your ingredients. Because this is a broth you won’t need to cut them very finely or make them look a certain way. You can use almost any vegetables you have but generally “onion,” carrot, and celery make a good broth base. Of course I don’t use onion in my stock however I did use garlic. This is what went into my stock: 2 cups celery chopped, 2 cups carrot chopped, 8 cloves garlic smashed with the back of the knife, 2 bay leaves, 2 teaspoons table salt, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 15 peppercorns, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and 1/2 inch galangal sliced. Galangal looks a lot like ginger but tastes very different — I added it to my stock pot because I enjoy the spice it gives and I had it. I wasn’t sure how powerful it would be in a stock so I used a small amount this time. You can use just about any vegetables you have on hand; it’s fun to experiment.

Bring the stock to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about an hour. Taste and adjust salt level; I add small amounts of soy sauce until it’s how I want it. Remove from heat and strain and squeeze all of the liquid from the vegetables. Your stock is made! Now make soup!

note: the buddha bowl in the first picture can be found here : Flavour Design

This year our porch garden had 5 pots of various peppers: jalapeño, red chili, habeñero, serrano, & ancho. We used about 40 of our red chilies to make chili garlic sauce and had well over 60 more peppers to use! Many peppers were used fresh throughout the summer but whatever was left at the end of the season we used to make a chili powder. Ingredients : about 50 peppers- we used jalapeños, red chilies, habeñeros, and serranos. We slow roasted the peppers until they were dry enough to grind into a powder. To do this, set your oven to the lowest temperature; our oven went down to about 200°F and seemed to work well. I was prepared for this dry roast to take a long time, possibly even overnight, so I started in the morning and planned to be home all day. Place all of the whole peppers onto a non-oiled sheet pan. Pop it in the oven and periodically flip & turn the peppers so all sides dry evenly. The peppers will shrivel up and become a little darker in color.  The habeñeros seemed to dry the fastest because their skin is so thin, next up were the chilies, then the serranos, and coming in last were the jalapeños. Because they were all different sizes and dried at different rates, I removed each pepper from the oven as it was ready to avoid any sort of burning. This took about 10 hours in the oven before they were all dry enough to grind; it could take longer though depending on the size of you peppers and your oven. We ground all of the peppers together with our magic bullet, but any spice grinder or clean coffee grinder should do the trick as well — if you use your coffee grinder I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a few spicy mornings to follow. This stuff is really powerful! Prep your dried peppers by getting rid of the stems; I found scissors to work the best. Chop the rest of the pepper into smaller pieces to maximize space in the grinder. It might not be a bad idea to wear gloves during this step, my hands felt the heat the following day. Grind until desired consistency. Half way to powder form you get a really nice crushed pepper flake.  We wanted ours to be a coarse powder, as we often use cayenne powder in our kitchen, but sometimes I think it’s ground up a too finely for what we need and it’s hard to sprinkle evenly as a topper. Leaving it as a more coarse texture will make it easier to spread evenly for a little extra spice and it won’t clump together as much as a finer powder would. Throughout this entire process your house will smell strongly of peppers, but once you open the grinder of the fresh pepper powder you’ll really understand how intense it is! Anyone in the house will be able to detect it. This fresh spice is very different from the rest of the powders in your cabinet. We have already used our new spice a few times to make lotus chips, curry, and chick pea snacks!