Monday, November 21, 2011

What's Cooking

black bean soup with cilantro lime sour cream

I haven't posted a ton of recipes lately but I have been cooking away when I find time and making some good things.  So I thought that I would pop in with a few tips if not full recipes.

The soup above is a Cuban black bean soup from Deborah Madison's awesome Vegetable Soups cookbook (previously mentioned here) - the soup is good, although I tweaked the recipe a bit this past time and it wasn't quite as good as I remembered it.  I'll probably post a recipe here at some point in the future, once I have played around with it a bit more and gotten it just right (or, stopped trying to take shortcuts in what is a good recipe that just takes a while).  In the meantime, I wanted to share what I think is the best part of this soup - you top it off with a delicious lime cilantro sour cream.  This is literally just 1/2 cup sour cream with 3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro and 2-3 tablespoons of lime juice.  I love it with this soup, but I have also served it with other black bean soups and dishes and it really just hits the spot!

The other night I made a veggie lasagne which turned out pretty well;  I tested the theory that you can pretty much always use uncooked lasagna noodles whether or not they are actually labelled as no boil, and they were fully cooked by the time it was done.  I actually think doing it that way is a good idea in general with veggie lasagna since it can tend to be a bit watery, and that helps to absorb some of the extra liquid.  I also sauteed mushrooms and kale and layered that in with layers of ricotta/egg/parmesan mixture, low-fat mozzarella, and tomato sauce.  Overall turned out quite good, which is a good thing since we have a lot left over. 

I loved the vanilla caramels that I made from Sweet Confections so much, I couldn't wait to try the pumpkin caramels recipe from the book.  I picked up a can of pumpkin at the store the other day, and made them up the other night, so they are all ready for thanksgiving (and super yummy)!  Then I remembered that I had said I would bring muffins to work, and I found a recipe for pumpkin muffins that used up just the amount of pumpkin puree that I had left over - perfect!  They were really yummy, so I'm planning to post the recipe tomorrow - just in case any one else has half a can of pumpkin puree to use up in the coming week :).

How about you - what have you been cooking up lately?  Any tips to share?

3 comments:

  1. Pretty darn sure I'll have some pumpkin left when I make pies Wednesday - will be nice to have your muffin recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love black bean soup. So much. I make a version regularly. I'll have to try your doctored sour cream next time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love any and all bean soups and this one sounds particularly intriguing. Cuban? I can't even think what Cuban flavoring would be. Waiting on tenderhooks for the recipe!
    I can't get sour cream here in Japan and find that plain yogurt substitutes beautifully and it's zero fat. Will give that topping a try soon!

    ReplyDelete

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