NOTE: As a member of The Kitchn Cabinet, I was given free products from Daiya Foods in exchange for a recipe post. All opinions and thoughts in this post/all related posts are my own, and were not influenced by the company and/or its affiliates.
Happy fall, y’all! The weather here in New York is cooling down, the trees have started to turn, and you’d better believe I have decorative gourds and cinnamon brooms ALL over the place. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t love this season, and even if I did, I wouldn’t believe them. We all know they secretly ask for pumpkin syrup at the Starbucks drive-thru. (Just own it.)
This year though, I will admit that the crisp air is bringing with it some conflicting feelings. The beautiful spring and summer weather really alleviated a lot of cabin fever during quarantine, and it’s going to be a different situation when the weather gets colder. The holidays will be different than usual too, but since food is exempt from social distancing protocol, I’m soothing my worries by developing ALL the holiday recipes and preparing my kitchen for the cold weather. (Just ask the 15 qts. of homemade stock I made yesterday.)
I try to live by the simple rules in life. You know, like, always treat others the way you would want to be treated. Always start the day with breakfast. And NEVER go into Trader Joe’s without a plan.
Raise your hand if this has ever been you at TJ’s:
“Well, my cart is at least 85% vegetables, so I guess one box of dark chocolate peanut butter cups won’t hurt. Or 4…”
“FALAFEL SPICED VEGAN CAULIFLOWER GNOCCHI DUMPLING NUGGETS?!? Where have these BEEN all my life?!”
“I don’t know what a ‘Quartet of Snacks’ is supposed to be, but it’s going in the cart.” *SIDENOTE: filing away under ‘genius string quartet names’*
But rules are made to be broken after all, which is why I have more hummuses in my fridge than I can possibly finish, and also why this recipe exists.
“I received free samples of Cabot Cheese mentioned in this post. By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe challenge sponsored by Cabot Creamery and am eligible to win prizes. I was not additionally compensated for my time.”
They say it’s football season, but I don’t watch football. I’d rather cook game-day food for you while YOU watch football.
I’ve been going to Superbowl parties for years, and have never been in the room where the game is on for any time period exceeding five minutes. I’d need three hands to count the number of times I’ve had football explained to me, and it’s just never going to happen. Thus, my job is to wander aimlessly between the dining room and the kitchen, sampling the waves of various bite-size things that come out of the oven. You know, for quality control.
Usually, the standard fare for football games or Superbowl parties are bite-sized treats: wings, mini hot dogs, mini meatballs, mini quiches, mini pizzas, etc. Another big thing is dips, and one of my all-time favorites is spinach artichoke. So, I combined all of these concepts into a super creamy mac and cheese, and then baked it in little paper baking cups I found at Michael’s. (*Note: to be more eco-friendly, bake these in a muffin tin.)
Did I mention that it also contains two kinds of cheddar cheese? Cabot Creamery was kind enough to send the Recipe Reduxers (count ’em) SEVEN different kinds of cheese this month. You can imagine my heaven. I am a huge Cabot fan, because not only is the cheese amazing, but they’re owned by family farmers and give all of their profits back to the 1200 farms that provide the dairy for their products. Just when I thought I couldn’t love cheese any more.
I used two cheddars for this recipe: Cabot’s Seriously Sharp and Alpine Cheddars. I’ve always loved the Seriously Sharp just for straight-up snacking. It is SO good that once, I bought the cracker cuts to try and control my portions. The opposite effect occurred, so I (begrudgingly) went back to buying the block. 😛
The Alpine, which I’d never had, was delicious and super nutty, kind of like a parmesan. It totally reminded me of the melty parm blanket that sits atop a big bowl of spinach artichoke dip (*le drool*), so I threw it in. I also included some Cabot greek yogurt in the mix, which upped the creaminess by about 200%. SO good.
I’ll just leave all of this here. Go forth and be cheesy.
4 oz. (1/2 block) Cabot Seriously Sharp cheddar, grated
1/2 cup Cabot Greek-style yogurt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
Topping
1/2 cup unseasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs
1 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. Cabot Alpine cheddar, grated
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350˚F.
Put pasta into a pot and cover with water. Add a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of olive oil to the water. Bring water to boil. Shortly after coming to a boil, the pasta should be cooked. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water and drain the rest.
Return the reserved pasta water to the macaroni. Add cheese and mix until melted.
Add yogurt and garlic powder, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Fill each baking cup with a generous portion of macaroni.
Combine topping ingredients and mix until oil is evenly distributed.
Sprinkle topping evenly over the individual mac and cheeses.
Bake until topping is golden, about 10 minutes.
Notes
Depending on the size of your baking cups, this recipe may yield up to 16 servings.
For an eco-friendly/less-waste approach, use a muffin or mini-muffin tin!
“By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by the National Pasta Association and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time.”
As a born-and-raised member of a Reform Jewish family, I know how and what it’s like to consistently leave family events in pants that are suddenly 3 sizes smaller. Especially after Yom Kippur, which was last weekend.
For those unfamiliar with this Jewish holiday, it’s the “Day of Atonement.” We fast for 24 hours to repent, and then consume two days’ worth of calories once the sun sets and the day is officially over. I never QUITE understood that. I mean, doesn’t it kind of defeat the logic of having just said you’re sorry for every bad thing you did during the year, to then go and eat ALL the things? Also, nowhere in the Torah is it written that “you shall each consume one too many sesame bagels with whitefish salad, and half of a brisket.” But, overeating tends to be one of our greatest (?) talents, and this tradition is certainly no exception! And of course, any occasion to eat all together as a family is also one to celebrate (translation: …overeat).
When I heard that this month’s sponsored contest for the Recipe Redux was being hosted by The National Pasta Association, I think “excited” was an understatement. Everyone loves pasta – literally. I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t. I personally love pasta, because you can do SO much with it. It’s quick, easy, versatile, and helps you get in your carbs! I like carbs.
It’s apparently National Pasta Month this month, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than by eating a ton of pasta. So, when my mom called to tell me we would be hosting this year’s break-fast and she wanted me to cook, I knew exactly what to do.
Noodle kugel is one of my favorite Jewish cultural dishes of all time. It’s a casserole type of thing made with egg noodles, eggs, and usually cream or cheese with a buttery streuselesque topping. Basically, a custardy, egg noodle crumble, which can be sweet OR savory. Awesome, right? Now, we’re trying to thin things out a little bit, so some exchanges had to be made, but the recipe still kept ALL of its flavor. It was indeed quite awesome.
For this dish, I decided to go into FULL ON yoga-pants-and-Uggs-wearing, top-knot-sporting Autumnophile mode. You guessed it: Pumpkin Spice. It’s like, so Fall, I legit can’t even. What’s better than pumpkin, spices, pasta, and a flaky, nutty, golden crust? WITH RAISINS THAT HAVE BEEN COOKED IN BOOZE SPRINKLED ALL THROUGHOUT? …How about all of those things in a dish that you can feel good about?
If it were acceptable to hug a kugel, I would hug this one. If it were acceptable to marry a kugel, I would marry this one. (Take note scruffy Jewish doctors, circa 6’0″ – you have some competition.)
Cook egg noodles according to package directions. Drain completely and let dry.
While noodles are cooking, bring wine, raisins, and spices to a simmer in a large saucepan. Lower heat, and stir occasionally until wine is thick, syrupy, and completely reduced. Remove from heat.
Combine pumpkin and coconut oil and whisk to combine.**
Stir coconut cream, honey, eggs, and spices into pumpkin mixture.
Add raisins and noodles to pumpkin mixture and toss to coat.
In a separate bowl, combine the corn flakes, walnuts, honey, and coconut oil.
Grease a large, shallow casserole dish with coconut oil or nonstick spray. Add pumpkin noodle mixture to the dish, and sprinkle the corn flake topping evenly over the noodles. Bake for about 35-45 minutes, or until the mixture is totally set and the topping is golden brown.
Notes
*To get coconut cream, leave a can of full fat coconut milk in the fridge overnight to separate. The cream is the solid part.
**Make sure your pumpkin puree is at room temperature before adding the coconut oil, or else the melted oil may solidify!
Happy Hump-Day everyone! As I write, I am back home on my sunny porch in New York enjoying a relaxing few days with my family. It has been quite the whirlwind GRADUATING and saying goodbye to my close friends as I prepare to start my transition from Philly to NYC, and next Friday, I head to Houston to participate in an month-long orchestra festival. And in a sort of related incident, I finally put a Manhattan School of Music sticker on my instrument case, so things are getting kind of real. It is beyond immensely exciting, but also a leeeeeetle bit terrifying. It’s all part of the bigger picture as this new chapter begins, so I’m trying to get in as much time as I can with all the people I will miss over the next month!
The good news about having all this time to myself (and a nice, homey kitchen with natural light AND OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY SPACE!) is that I can concoct enough recipe posts to hold you all over while I’m in Texas without a kitchen. This recipe is just one of several I’ve been developing, and I’m kind of stoked, because today’s post also has a big “first” attached to it: This is my first contribution to The Recipe Re-Dux, a wonderful healthy food blogging network and monthly challenge that was brought to my attention a few months ago. I applied to be a part of it, and was offered membership starting this month. YAY! I was also excited when I heard that this month’s theme (there is a special theme or ingredient for each month’s challenge) was cooking with tea. And I LOVE TEA.
I have cooked with tea before, and in fact I have a post on the blog already with a tasty recipe for Chocolate Chai Mousse Cake, in which I also discuss my love affair with tea. But aside from that, my experience with using tea outside of my addiction to drinking it is minimal. At first, I thought maybe I’d create some kind of popsicle, or that a mixed beverage of sorts might be a good idea for the challenge. But, they don’t call this a “challenge” for nothing, so I wanted to explore and venture into the unknown world of savory tea dishes. One of the first ideas that came to me was a green tea pesto. I had never heard of or tasted such a thing, although upon Googling, I found that it had been done before (someday, I’ll get to be a bit more original). I was a little skimpy on the amount of tea I put into the pesto, but for a reason – because I also cooked the homemade gnocchi in green tea. Be. Still. My. Heart.
I was admittedly really nervous being so adventurous in the kitchen for this recipe – gnocchi can be a temperamental dish that requires both patience and lots of manual labor, and since I swapped out all-purpose flour in favor of whole wheat pastry flour, I was really unsure of how the texture would come out. I was half expecting the gnocchi to fall apart in the water, and that I would end up wasting pounds of unusable gnocchi dough. But miraculously, they came out deliciously delicate and fluffy. They could have had a bit more bite, but I personally really liked the lightness. Plus, boiling the dumplings in green tea gave them even more of an herbal punch.
1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour, plus some for handling the dough (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
1–2 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
1 egg
1.5 tsp. salt
7–10 sachets of green tea, paper tabs cut off + water for boiling
Pesto
2 cups fresh basil
1/4 cup raw pine nuts
3 tbs. hemp hearts
1–2 tablespoons green tea leaves, ground with a mortal and pestle or spice grinder
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbs. freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
1–2 tsp. lemon juice
salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Gnocchi
Prepare potatoes by washing, peeling thoroughly, cutting into chunks, and making sure to remove any eyes.
Place potatoes into a large pot, and add water to cover. Bring water and potatoes to a boil, then reduce heat slightly just to keep the water rolling. Boil potatoes until very soft, about 20 minutes. Drain, and run through a food processor or mash thoroughly until smooth while still warm. Be sure that there are little to no chunks of potato remaining. Let cool – I stuck the bowl of mashed potatoes in the fridge and prepared the pesto while waiting.
Add the cheese, flour, egg, thyme, and salt to the potatoes. Mix with your hands until the batter forms a sticky, pliable dough.
Roll out dough into balls about the size of your palm.
On a floured surface, roll out dough into snakes about 1/2 inch wide.
Cut dough into small rectangles, and roll each dumpling onto the back of a fork (or a gnocchi board, if you have one) to create ridges.
Bring about 5 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Once boiling, add 6 sachets of green tea. Let steep for 2-3 minutes and remove.
Add the gnocchi in small batches to ensure that they do not stick together, and remove the dumplings as they begin to float. (Tips: Test the cooking time out on two or three of your gnocchi dumplings first until you get a consistency that you like. Generally, they should be ready when or soon after they float to the top of the water. A handy tool for this is a frying strainer!) If the boiling water starts to run low, add in a cup at a time to replenish, but be sure to also steep an extra bag of green tea for 2-3 minutes for each cup of water you add.
Pesto
Combine ingredients (except oil and lemon juice) in a food processor and pulse until blended thoroughly, scraping down the sides of the food processor as needed. Blend with the oil and lemon juice, and serve.
