Authors: Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Appetite for Reduction (38 page)

BOOK: Appetite for Reduction

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Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions and celery in the oil until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Use a little nonstick cooking spray or broth if needed. Add the garlic, pepper, and salt, and sauté for another minute.

Mix in the mushrooms, bay leaves, and thyme. Use your fingers to crush the nori sheets right into the soup. It should be in small confetti pieces and rain down into the potas if it’s New Year’s Eve (see tip). Sauté for about 3 minutes to get the mushrooms tender and to toast the nori just a bit.

Add the potatoes, tomatoes, and vegetable broth. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.

Add the agave and taste for salt and seasoning. Ladle into bowls and garnish each with a cracker, if desired.

INGREDIENT SCAVENGER HUNT

You’re probably already familiar with nori; it’s the type of seaweed wrapper used for rolling sushi. It feels a bit like paper, which isn’t surprising because it goes through a similar compression process. In this soup, the nori is used more as an herb would be. Not all noris are created equal—the texture of the different brands may vary, so if you’re not able to shred the nori with your hands, then just roll it up and chop it on the cutting board, then add to the soup. Nori is fairly easy to find these days, as most supermarkets have a Japanese section, or at least an Asian section. Once the package is opened, store the remainder in a sealed plastic bag in your pantry to keep fresh.

Yam & Black Bean Soup with Orange & Cilantro

SERVES 8 • ACTIVE TIME: 20 MINUTES • TOTALTIME: 45 MINUTES

PER SERVING

(⅛ RECIPE):
Calories: 240
Calories from fat: 15
Total fat: 2 g
Saturated fat: 0 g
Trans fat: 0 g
Total carb: 50 g
Fiber: 9 g
Sugars: 11 g
Protein: 7 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 560 mg
Vitamin A: 490%
Vitamin C: 50%
Calcium: 8%
Iron: 15%

A
little orange juice elevates the flavor of the yams in this flirty soup (can soup be flirty?) studded with black beans and spiked with a little heat from serrano peppers. Fresh squeezed orange juice is preferred, but you can use the not-from-concentrate kind, too.

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 red onion, sliced thinly
2 serrano peppers, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 plum tomatoes, chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1½ teaspoons salt
3 pounds yams, peeled and cut into roughly ¾-inch chunks
3 cups water
1 cup orange juice
1½ cups cooked black beans, or 1 (16-ounce) can, drained and
rinsed
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves and stems, chopped
Extra cilantro, for garnish

Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium heat. Sauté the onions in the olive oil for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add the serrano pepper and garlic, and sauté for another minute. Add the tomatoes, cumin, and salt. Turn up the heat a bit and cook the tomatoes down for about 5 minutes. Add the yams and water. Cover and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, turn down the heat to simmer and leave the cover slightly ajar so that steam can escape. Simmer for about 15 minutes; the yams should be pierced easily with a fork.

Turn off the heat. Use a potato masher to mash the yams five or six times, leaving some whole. Add the orange juice, beans, and cilantro. Let sit for about 10 minutes; the beans should be heated through. Stir well and serve garnished with cilantro.

Summer Lovin’ Curried Corn & Veggie Chowder

SERVES 4 • ACTIVE TIME: 20 MINUTES • TOTAL TIME: 45 MINUTES

PER SERVING

(¼ RECIPE):
Calories: 180
Calories from fat: 50
Total fat: 5 g
Saturated fat: 2.5 g
Trans fat: 0 g
Total carb: 30 g
Fiber: 4 g
Sugars: 8 g
Protein: 7 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 760 mg
Vitamin A: 80%
Vitamin C: 100%
Calcium: 6%
Iron: 15%

T
his is a fabulous way to spend a summer night when corn and zucchini are plentiful and the kitchen has cooled down enough to turn on the stove. But you know, if the mood strikes in winter, don’t let the title dissuade you. You’d think that this chowder was just swimming in oil and fat, but it’s actually really nice and light. A little coconut milk and arrowroot help out with the thickening, and pureeing the corn helps out with the creaminess. I like it hot, so I use a ½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes. If you prefer a mild curry, just leave it out or use ¼ teaspoon instead. And if you’d like to serve it with something, I think a cup of simple brown basmati rice would be just loverly.

1 teaspoon canola oil
1 cup shallots, chopped finely
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1 zucchini, sliced into small pieces (about ½ pound)
1¾ cups corn, from 3 ears corn (reserve cobs)
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups vegetable broth
2 teaspoons arrowroot powder
½ cup peeled, finely chopped carrots (I cheat and use baby
carrots, ’cause the work is half done for you)
1 heaping tablespoon mild curry powder
¾ cup light coconut milk
Juice of ½ lime, or to taste
Fresh cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Sauté the shallots and red bell pepper in the oil until translucent, about 4 minutes. Use a little non-stick cooking spray or broth if needed. Add the garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes, and saute for another minute. Add the zucchini and corn and sprinkle in the salt. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring once.

Measure 1 cup of the broth into a measuring cup. Mix in the arrowroot with a fork until dissolved. You do this because it’s just easier to get the arrowroot dissolved into smaller quantities of liquid. Add the arrowroot mixture to the pot, along with the rest of the broth. Mix in the carrots and curry powder. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, break the corn cobs in halfand add them to the pot. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Remove the corn cobs. Add the coconut milk and lime juice.

TIP

This recipe uses a method that really makes corn chowder shine: Let the corn cobs stew in the pot. They hold lots of maize-y flavor, so don’t let ’em go to waste. At the end, you remove the cobs and only your delicious soup knows they were ever there. I suppose you can use frozen corn instead, but only if you’re really crunched for time.

Use an immersion blender to blend about half of the soup. If you don’t have an immersion blender (get one!), then transfer about half of the soup to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth, then add back to the pot. If the soup is still steaming hot, make sure to either keep the opening on top of your food processor open, or lift the lid often for steam to escape. If steam builds up in a closed container it can explode the lid off. Ouch.

Taste for seasoning. Serve garnished with cilantro, if you like.

Red Lentil & Root Veggie Dal

SERVES 6 • ACTIVE TIME: 20 MINUTES • TOTAL TIME: 45 MINUTES

PER SERVING

(⅙ RECIPE):
Calories: 240
Calories from fat: 20
Total fat: 2.5 g
Saturated fat: 0 g
Trans fat: 0 g
Total carb: 44 g
Fiber: 16 g
Sugars: 12 g
Protein: 12 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 980 mg
Vitamin A: 100%
Vitamin C: 50%
Calcium: 10%
Iron: 20%

R
oot vegetables perk up this characteristically humble dish. Dal is a velvety, spicy stew served throughout India and some parts of the Middle East, made from any quick cooking “split” legume. Here, we use red lentils and simplify spices a bit to make for an easy and pantry-friendly soup. The root veggies add a creamy texture and an earthy peppery taste that is just slightly sweet. I use parsnip and rutabaga for this soup, but you can use which ever root veggies you like. Serve over brown basmati rice.

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium-size onion, diced finely
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed
2 to 3 teaspoons mild curry powder (start with 2 teaspoons
and add more at the end, if you like)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1¼ teaspoons salt
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dried red lentils
¾ pound parsnip, peeled and diced into ½-inch pieces
(about 2 cups)
¾ pound rutabaga or turnip, peeled and diced into ½-inch
pieces (about 2 cups)
1 cup baby carrots, cut into ½-inch pieces
Lime slices, for serving (optional)

Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions in the oil until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes, and sauté for another minute.

Add the remaining spices and salt, and saute for about 30 seconds, then add the broth, lentils, and the remaining vegetables. Cover the pot and bring to a boil, keeping a close eye on it. Once it’s boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, until the lentils are creamy and the vegetables are soft. If neccesary, thin the soup by adding up to a cup of water. Taste for salt and seasonings.

Let the soup sit for 10 minutes or so for maximum flavor. Serve garnished with lime slices.

TIP

To peel a rutabaga or turnip, hold it stem side up and use your 8-inch chef’s knife to thinly slice off the peel, running the knife down the side of the vegetable from top to bottom. The more practice you get, the easier it will be; you just have to know where the curve is to get it as thin as possible.

TIP

As the years go by, my coriander seed-crushing techniques get more and more refined. The easiest way to crush coriander is to place the seeds in a plastic sandwich bag and roll them with a rolling pin for about a minute. I keep a plastic bag in my spice cabinet for this very reason, and just reuse it as much as I can until it falls apart. It’s really a great method to coax the most flavor out of your coriander. If you really, really don’t feel like it, 1½ teaspoons of ground coriander can be used in its place.

Peruvian Purple Potato Soup

SERVES 6 • ACTIVE TIME: 15 MINUTES • TOTAL TIME: 45 MINUTES