I love love love ordering from Pagliacci's in Seattle. Partially because their pizza is delicious, but more because it means I can order their amazing Pagliacci salad. I love everything about this salad - the garbanzo beans give me texture, the red onions some flavor, pancetta... all of it.
So of course, I decided it was about time to try and figure out my own version at home. Here's what I came up with for a single "meal" serving:
Ingredients:
1 "head" of romaine hearts (I buy the organic 3-packs)
1/4 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/4-1/2 of a red onion, chopped
1/2 a red pepper, chopped
1/4 cup of grated parmesan (could use mozarella if you have it)
Dressing
1 tablespoon caesar dressing
1/4 tsp of dijon mustard
1 teaspon red vine vinegar
salt + pepper to taste
Mix all of the ingredients + dressing in a large bowl, then dish out.
The great thing about this recipe is it's made me realize how easy it is to make a delicious salad if I can get my hands on a dressing I enjoy. I almost never like dressings out of a bottle, but by fiddling around with it and adding my own flavors - BAM, I have something I enjoy.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Monday, May 12, 2014
Eggless Chocolate-Coffee Cupcakes
Cupcake batter:
1 and ½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup strong black coffee (or you can use 1 tablespoon instant in hot water)
1 tbsp white vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil
Frosting*:
2 and ½ cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 tbsp butter, at room temperature
6-10 tbsp heavy cream
Heart shaped chocolate chips for decoration
Instructions
*As a warning - the frosting recipe makes about 2-3x more frosting than you need for the cupcakes. It's also super thick so expect to add more cream to thin it out than what I have listed. I've used a different amount each time aiming for a texture that's spreadable
1 and ½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup strong black coffee (or you can use 1 tablespoon instant in hot water)
1 tbsp white vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil
Frosting*:
2 and ½ cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 tbsp butter, at room temperature
6-10 tbsp heavy cream
Heart shaped chocolate chips for decoration
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350 degrees
- Mix flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, salt and vanilla in a bowl.
- In a separate bowl mix coffee, vinegar and olive oil.
- Combine wet ingredients with dry ones mixing with a spatula. The batter will not be very thick. Do not overmix.
- Share into 12 cupcake liners and bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Let them cool down before frosting.
- For the frosting; sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl.
- Beat the butter about a minute and gradualy add sugar and cocoa powder.
- Pour heavy cream and continue mixing.
- Top the cupcakes with the frosting and decorate with heart shaped white chocolate chips.
*As a warning - the frosting recipe makes about 2-3x more frosting than you need for the cupcakes. It's also super thick so expect to add more cream to thin it out than what I have listed. I've used a different amount each time aiming for a texture that's spreadable
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Garlic & Almond Green Beans
I have a thing for green beans. I know I do. You know how I know? Because I love eating them! So much that I'm making another post about... GREEN BEANS!
I know, crazy.
These ones are made different than my last recipe (which was all about sauteing). These...are blanched. Depending on who you talk to - they may be over or under blanched at that. But who cares, make them however makes you happy.
Ingredients
2-3 pds of Green Beans, ends trimmed
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
1 tablespoon salt
6 quarts of water
1
Instructions
1. Bring the water to a boil and stir in the green beans and 1 tablespoon of salt. Cook the green beans 2-5 minutes until slightly tender (but still with a bit of crispness left). Basically - don't boil them so long they go utterly limp, no one likes limp green beans.
2. While the water coming to a boil, melt the butter in a saute pan and add the garlic. Saute garlic for about a minute then add the almonds.
3. Drain the green beans and rinse under cold water to halt the cooking process. Then throw them back in the pot. Pour all that delicious garlic-almond butter all over your cooked green beans and toss to coat evenly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Congratulations, you have just made yourself delicious garlic-almond green beans. If you want to play around the recipe consider adding fresh rosemary or thyme. Maybe some red pepper flakes if you like spice. Or if you're me, just keep increasing the garlic until you reach your limit...whatever that is.
I know, crazy.
These ones are made different than my last recipe (which was all about sauteing). These...are blanched. Depending on who you talk to - they may be over or under blanched at that. But who cares, make them however makes you happy.
Ingredients
2-3 pds of Green Beans, ends trimmed
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
1 tablespoon salt
6 quarts of water
1
Instructions
1. Bring the water to a boil and stir in the green beans and 1 tablespoon of salt. Cook the green beans 2-5 minutes until slightly tender (but still with a bit of crispness left). Basically - don't boil them so long they go utterly limp, no one likes limp green beans.
2. While the water coming to a boil, melt the butter in a saute pan and add the garlic. Saute garlic for about a minute then add the almonds.
3. Drain the green beans and rinse under cold water to halt the cooking process. Then throw them back in the pot. Pour all that delicious garlic-almond butter all over your cooked green beans and toss to coat evenly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Congratulations, you have just made yourself delicious garlic-almond green beans. If you want to play around the recipe consider adding fresh rosemary or thyme. Maybe some red pepper flakes if you like spice. Or if you're me, just keep increasing the garlic until you reach your limit...whatever that is.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce
I was getting the itch for fettucini alfredo, but my roommate and I are both trying to eat healthier. Cooking with a ton of cream and a ton of cheese kind of felt like the opposite of what I should do. Luckily, Pinterest started showing me photos of everyone's version of Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce just about the same time I was getting my craving.
I ended up modifying a recipe cobbled together from these 2 recipes
http://pinchofyum.com/creamy-cauliflower-sauce
http://americanfood.about.com/od/riceandgrains/r/Cauliflower_Alf.htm
What I made ended up being super easy. And Tasty. Soooo tasty.
INGREDIENTS
4-5 large cloves garlic, minced (I was lazy and used raw garlic from a jar)
2 tablespoons butter
5-6 cups cauliflower florets
1 cups cauliflower broth or water (or chicken broth if you're me)
1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
1 teaspoon pepper (more to taste)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more to taste)
1/2-1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1/2 cup heavy cream
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Bring the water/broth to a boil in a large pot. Add the cauliflower and cook covered, for 10 minutes or until the cauliflower is fork tender. Do not drain the liquid - you're going to want some later (unless you're me and forget that so you have to use plain water later)
2. While the cauliflower is boiling, brown the garlic in the butter to take off the bite.
3. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cauliflower pieces to a blender - add 1 cup of the stock water you used to boil the cauliflower. Also add the garlic butter, cream, thyme, pepper, salt and red pepper. Blend or puree for several minutes until the sauce is smooth. You can thin it out w
Next step is easy - serve over whatever you want to eat! In my case, I served it with red pepper fettucini with steamed broccoli and sauteed sausage. And garlic bread. Because... garlic bread is amazing.
As is this sauce. I have about 1 cup leftover and I'm thinking of making homemade pizza.
I ended up modifying a recipe cobbled together from these 2 recipes
http://pinchofyum.com/creamy-cauliflower-sauce
http://americanfood.about.com/od/riceandgrains/r/Cauliflower_Alf.htm
What I made ended up being super easy. And Tasty. Soooo tasty.
INGREDIENTS
4-5 large cloves garlic, minced (I was lazy and used raw garlic from a jar)
2 tablespoons butter
5-6 cups cauliflower florets
1 cups cauliflower broth or water (or chicken broth if you're me)
1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
1 teaspoon pepper (more to taste)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more to taste)
1/2-1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1/2 cup heavy cream
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Bring the water/broth to a boil in a large pot. Add the cauliflower and cook covered, for 10 minutes or until the cauliflower is fork tender. Do not drain the liquid - you're going to want some later (unless you're me and forget that so you have to use plain water later)
2. While the cauliflower is boiling, brown the garlic in the butter to take off the bite.
3. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cauliflower pieces to a blender - add 1 cup of the stock water you used to boil the cauliflower. Also add the garlic butter, cream, thyme, pepper, salt and red pepper. Blend or puree for several minutes until the sauce is smooth. You can thin it out w
Next step is easy - serve over whatever you want to eat! In my case, I served it with red pepper fettucini with steamed broccoli and sauteed sausage. And garlic bread. Because... garlic bread is amazing.
As is this sauce. I have about 1 cup leftover and I'm thinking of making homemade pizza.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Salted Spicy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
So I was playing around on Pinterest the other day and came across this recipe on the LocalMilk blog.
It looked... Amazing. Utterly amazing. I mean Spicy? Salty? Sweet sweet chocolate? Hell yes sign me up! So I made them, I think a few more tweaks are in order but I ate 6 within an hour of having baked them. So clearly they're not THAT far from perfection. Right?
Ingredients
1+ 1/2 cups flour
1 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1+ 1/2 tsp flaky sea salt or kosher
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1+ 1/2t sp cayenne powder (can increase to 2 tsp if you want spicier)
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
1.5 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet or dark)
Directions
1. Heat Oven to 375 Degrees
2. Combine the Flour, Cocoa, Salt, Baking Soda, Baking Powder and Cayenne in a bowl. Whisk until combined.
3. Cream the butter in your mixer until light and fluffy, then add sugars. Beat in Eggs and vanilla.
4. Add in half the flour mixture, then add the 2nd half until just incorporated. (Whatever you do, don't be like me have your mixer set on high. FLOUR WILL BE EVERYWHERE)
5. Add in the chocolate chips and chopped chocolate bits.
6. Drop by the spoonful onto your cookie sheet and bake 8-12 minutes (depends on your oven, mine were averaging 9-10 minutes to done).
The recipe called for rolling the dough into 1 inch balls, but I'm lazy and this was faster. The dough won't spread too much I found.
These were amazing, absolutely amazing. I will totally be making them again. Possibly tomorrow or next week or now. Once I eat one, I realize I seem to have actually eaten 5 more right after that. Kind of problematic actually. =)
Also works great using gluten-free flour blends.
It looked... Amazing. Utterly amazing. I mean Spicy? Salty? Sweet sweet chocolate? Hell yes sign me up! So I made them, I think a few more tweaks are in order but I ate 6 within an hour of having baked them. So clearly they're not THAT far from perfection. Right?
Ingredients
1+ 1/2 cups flour
1 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1+ 1/2 tsp flaky sea salt or kosher
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1+ 1/2t sp cayenne powder (can increase to 2 tsp if you want spicier)
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
1.5 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet or dark)
Directions
1. Heat Oven to 375 Degrees
2. Combine the Flour, Cocoa, Salt, Baking Soda, Baking Powder and Cayenne in a bowl. Whisk until combined.
3. Cream the butter in your mixer until light and fluffy, then add sugars. Beat in Eggs and vanilla.
4. Add in half the flour mixture, then add the 2nd half until just incorporated. (Whatever you do, don't be like me have your mixer set on high. FLOUR WILL BE EVERYWHERE)
5. Add in the chocolate chips and chopped chocolate bits.
6. Drop by the spoonful onto your cookie sheet and bake 8-12 minutes (depends on your oven, mine were averaging 9-10 minutes to done).
The recipe called for rolling the dough into 1 inch balls, but I'm lazy and this was faster. The dough won't spread too much I found.
These were amazing, absolutely amazing. I will totally be making them again. Possibly tomorrow or next week or now. Once I eat one, I realize I seem to have actually eaten 5 more right after that. Kind of problematic actually. =)
Also works great using gluten-free flour blends.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
