Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Happy Tuesday Ya'll! So I found myself fever ridden due to an infection today, and decided to leave work early. Whenever I am feeling under the weather, I crave the living daylights out of SOUP! Yummy, delicious, savory liquid goodness. Today in particular I was craving Tomato Basil Soup, hence todays blog post. Enjoy!



       Roasted Tomato Basil Soup


Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Recipe makes 2 servings, makes 4 cups of soup

Prep Time: 40 minutes * Cook Time: 2 Hours

Ingredients:

  • 6 rippend tomatoes
  • 2 yellow onions, diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 1/2 cup of basil, packed
  • 2 cups of chicken stock
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil, plus some to sauté vegetables
  • 1 slab of butter
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/4 cup of half and half
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • parmesan cheese & julienned basil for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

  • Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
  • Wash and cute tomatoes in halves, length wise. Coat tomatoes in 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • Bake tomatoes for 40 minutes
  • Once tomatoes are baked take out to cool
  • In a pot, add olive oil, butter and onions. Saute for 10 minutes and then add garlic
  • Sauteed until onions are caramelized (additional 5 minutes). Add chicken stock, basil, and oregano
  • Let mixture simmer for 45 minutes to an hour
  • Puree mixture, and add back to pot over simmering heat, slowly add half and half
  • Simmer for additional 10 minutes
  • Plate and eat! Garnish with fresh herbs and freshly grated cheese!

P.S. I totally paired mine with an ooey gooey grilled cheese :) 




Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Bim Bim Bap with Cauliflower Rice

I have great memories as a child sitting in a Korean BBQ house. The sizzling fresh meat, silky tofu soup, and crunchy assorted pickled vegetables. Can you stay nostalgia? In efforts to keep my childhood foods in my life, I have crafted a guilt free recipe for the infamous Bim Bim Bap! For those of you who are not familiar with this dish, its of Korean origin and is essentially a rice bowl. The trick it to cook the rice in a clay pot so the rice sticking to the clay turns into crispy rice (all of my asians know how coveted crunchy rice is). The rice bowl is then filled with pickled veggie like kimchi, cucumbers, bean sprouts etc. korean marinated beef, and topped with an ooey gooey sunny side up egg. Please check out my Bim Bim Bap made with cauliflower rice! :) 

Bim Bim Bap with Cauliflower Rice


Bim Bim Bap with Cauliflower Rice

Recipe makes 2 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes * Cook Time: 10-15

Ingredients:

  • Trader Joe's Marinated Kalbi Beef (I cheated here and went with store marinated beef since I was pretty busy this week)
  • 1/2 head of cauliflower
  • 1 cup crimini mushrooms
  • 1 stalk of green onion
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 carrot
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 1/8 cup of agave nectar
  • 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
  • Olive oil for cooking

Instructions:

  • Take cauliflower, and pulse in a food processor until it looks like little bits of rice. Once completely pulsed, set aside in a bowl
  • Julienne carrots and cucumbers (I got excited and used my vegetable spiralizer so make pretty veggie curls!!)
  • In a separate bowl, combine rice vinegar, agave, and sesame oil. Whisk until combined and then add julienned veggies to the bowl. Let the mixture sit in the fridge for 10 minutes. This is what we call a "quick pickle"
  • Slice up mushrooms and cook over medium heat until caramelized. Set aside
  • Unwrap and portion out two serving sizes of the Trader Joe's packaged beef. Julienne the beef.
  • In a pan, turn heat to medium-high and add olive oil. Once oil is hot add julienned beef to pan
  • Cook on high heat for about 5 minutes until beef is caramelized. Once beef is done, set pan away from heat
  • In a clean pan, turn to medium heat and add olive oil. Once oil is hot ad cauliflower rice and cook for about 4 minutes
  • Once cauliflower rice is cooked, put in a bowl
  • In the still warm pan, add more oil and crack the egg. You can cook the egg anyway you like, I prefer mine sunny side up so the yolk can get all in my food :)
  • Once all ingredients are cooked, assemble the pickled veggies, mushroom, and beef into the bowl filled with cauliflower rice. Add egg on top. Garnish with chopped green onion

Enjoy!