Pesto Kale Soup

Saturday morning, I hopped on a bus home to surprise my mom. Five hours later, I got a text from her asking if I was on my way home. Due to some small communication issues, my grandfather ended up telling her that I was on my way and plan sneak-home-for-mother's-day was ruined.

Surprising her would have been fun, but the most important part was that I still got to spend Mother's Day with my amazing mother, who I am so grateful to for being the most wonderful mother I could ask for. Thank you for raising me and feeding me and hugging me and comforting me and making me go for walks as a child even when I practically refused to leave the house and trying to stop me from plucking out ALL of my eyebrow hair in middle school and dealing with all of my messes and editing my papers and supporting me in everything that I do and for cheering me on at regattas and taking horrible pictures because you were too excited and in tears watching my race. And thank you for always being there to comfort me when I call because I'm upset, or because I need daily advice on school/life/how to put detergent in a top-loader... and for worrying about me a little bit too much. I love you. :)

For dinner on Mother's Day, I made a vegan dinner of pesto soup with squash gnocchi and vegan cheese, followed by a raw cashew cheesecake topped with a not-raw strawberry ginger glaze.

Today I am going to share the soup recipe, taken from Isa Chandra at Post Punk Kitchen. This is definitely a very "green" soup, but tasty if you like your greens like I do... Hearty, healthy, and my whole family went back for seconds. If I were to make this again I would add a lot more garlic and a lot more basil, but I will post it the way that I made it in case any of you are not avid garlic-devourers. I made it with water, but would recommend using broth to add a little more depth.

Ingredients:

• 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
• 4 cups of broth or water
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tbsp rosemary
• Salt to taste
• 1 cup fresh basil (I used about 2 tbsp frozen + 1 tsp dry because that was what I had, but I think it needed a bit more)
• 4 cups frozen kale
• About 25 frozen gnocchi

Instructions:
1. Heat oil in a large pot, and chopped garlic and sauté for 5 minutes.
2. Add cauliflower and sauté for a few minutes before adding 3 cups of water/broth, balsamic vinegar, salt and rosemary. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes or until cauliflower is tender.
3. Mix cornstarch and remaining broth in a cup, and add to soup with the basil.
4. Cook, stirring, for a few minutes and then blend. Use an immersion blender if you have one, otherwise blend in batches. Don't add too much soup at once or the blender WILL explode, splattering soup all over the counter/window/nearby plants.
5. Bring soup back to a simmer, and add frozen kale and gnocchi. Continue cooking until gnocchi is cooked through - about 8 minutes. Be careful stirring in the first few minutes, since the gnocchi may break.
6. Top with cheese (I tried to make vegan cashew cheese), poached eggs, or serve alone. Enjoy!

There you have it, pesto soup! I made butternut squash gnocchi which I will post the recipe for on another day, but this can be made with any frozen gnocchi, store-bought or homemade, squash or regular. Making gnocchi is fun though, so stay tuned for that recipe - and for the delicious cashew cheesecake. :)

Read More

Blood Orange, Fennel and Avocado Salad

Exciting news: I have a job! Yesterday was my first day, though I was training and only there for a few hours. But so far, I'm pretty excited about it. I work in a little teahouse which has a huge assortment of looseleaf tea - and I LOVE tea. I have been stressing about not being able to get a job here for the summer, but I feel like I really lucked out with this place. So far, so good - I didn't break anything and didn't get fired, and people are quite friendly.

Though, now I might have too much to do - I am also taking two classes this summer and was offered a part-time job coaching. On top of that, I finally have my MRI appointment on Wednesday and am desperately hoping that I might be able to row, or at least train, this summer. If I had 36 hours in a day or never needed to sleep, that would be great. I have some figuring out to do, but this is vastly better than a week ago when I thought that I would be jobless and injured for the summer.

What's more, right now I have not only these two jobs, but also finals and an impending move hanging over my head. I am currently spending a lot of time in the library daydreaming about food while waiting for my GIS commands to execute (If you are curious, GIS = Geographic Information Science. If you aren't, I'm just waiting for my computer to do stuff). Last night I was here until the library closed, but my fantasies were finally rewarded when I came home to this truly dream-worthy salad.

I have to be honest, I only made this salad because of the breathtaking assortment of blood orange and fennel salads I have been seeing on the internet. I have never used fennel before in my life, and really had no idea what to do with the strange mandrake-like bulb which I picked up at the market. I looked at it in confusion for a few minutes, wondering why I had bought such a strange thing. Then I nibbled one end to see what it tasted like. And then I tried to figure out how to cut it. Did I cut it properly? Is there a proper way to cut fennel? I really couldn't tell you, but I can tell you that this salad is amazing. Seriously. It's kind of like a dessert. But it's a salad. Magic!

I don't know what it is about this salad - the combination of creamy avocado, crunchy fennel with its tantalizing hint of licorice, and sweet orange slices and dressing somehow creates the most amazing mix of flavours. I seriously want to eat this salad every single day. Which is good, because I don't really know what else to do with the rest of my fennel.

Ingredients:

• Slices of fennel
• Blood orange, peeled and sliced
• Sunflower sprouts
• Baby kale (arugula would work as well)
• Thinly sliced avocado
• Dressing (see below)

Really, that's all there is to it. Chop up a few things, put them in a bowl, and pour some dressing overtop.

Dressing:

• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp agave nectar
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp mustard

Shake it all up in a jar, and pour however much you want over your salad! You can omit the agave nectar if you want your dressing less sweet, since there is already plenty of sweetness from the orange juice. This is a pretty low-oil dressing, so you may want to play with the amount of olive oil if you want a more traditional consistency.

The Mermaid Cafe is now on twitter! Follow me @themermaidcafe_ for recipes and random thoughts.

If you want to check out another blood orange and fennel salad, Kiran Tarun has an absolutely gorgeous one here.

I am submitting this to Deb's Souper Sundays roundup... yes, it is a salad, but I'm sure it will make some friends there. :)

Read More

Orange Beet Quinoa Salad

This weekend, a friend from high school was in town and came by for lunch. I rarely see her, but always really enjoy catching up with her. She is such a sunny and energetic person, and the day was bright and sunny. This punchy and flavourful quinoa salad was the perfect thing for the spring-like day, before being walloped by this week's snow storm.

The sweet orange, salty feta, and vinegary beets complemented each other nicely, and were rounded off by the more hearty and subtle red quinoa on a bed of baby kale. This dish was full of bright and distinctive flavours, which accentuated each other without being overwhelming and brought us both back for seconds. Oh, and my favourite part? My aunt gave me the beets, which she had grown and pickled herself. How lucky am I?

Read More

Crunchy Kale Tahini Pita

As the sun starts to rise earlier, I love the feeling of waking up with the sun and taking advantage of the morning to do some laundry and hit the gym before heading to the library to get some work done. I also love heading out on Friday evenings and spending the night dancing my face off. Unfortunately, these two interests never mix well for me. By the time I dragged myself out of bed and to the gym at noon on Saturday, I was craving something to make myself feel refreshed and healthy again. I was also craving bread. This simple mixture of crunchy deep green kale, smooth tahini and sweet, tangy orange juice in a pita with a glass of cold milk really hit the spot. The kick of protein from the chickpeas also made it a good post-workout meal.

I'm embarrassed to post this in such poor quality. Unfortunately I don't own a camera, so supbar phone photos will have to do.

Read More

Comfort and Spice and Everything Nice: Peanut Tomato Soup

Fact: I love potlucks. I am slightly addicted to potlucks. In my ideal world, every day would be a potluck.

Fact: I love peanut butter. I love cooking with peanut butter, and sometimes (read: way too frequently) just eat it straight out of the jar by the spoonful. In my ideal world, every meal would involve peanut butter.

Fact: I love soup. I usually have at least three varieties of soup in my freezer. In my ideal world, I would make soup every single day.

Can you see where this is heading?

Read More