dairy-free coconut lime cilantro chicken salad

I recently posted shredded chicken with baked avocado and cilantro-lime cream.

Avocado is expensive in much of the country, and the coconut milk and avocado make the meal feel so heavy.

Good thing this recipe transforms into a chicken salad so good that a six-year old complimented it three times.

Who doesn’t love cold chicken salad sandwiches as the weather gets warm?

No mayo means no soybean oil! This recipe is simple, fast, and seriously good.

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pan-fry garlic cloves in olive oil.

add a pound of salted “chicken tenders” (boneless skinless chicken) to the pan.

sear on medium high for 1-2 mins. flip. sear another 1-2 mins.

cover chicken with broth (veg or chicken) and simmer (that means turn the heat to med-low) 18-20 mins.

shred with two forks, clamping hold of the chicken with one fork and shredding with the other. (it’s easy! i promise)

to shredded chicken, add 1/2 T cumin, 1/2 T chili powder, a t salt, and a t of black pepper.

add a can of coconut milk, the juice of two small limes, and a half-cup of fresh finely chopped cilantro.

i put it all in a mason jar, shook, refrigerated, and ate two days later after the flavors had mingled.

highly, highly recommended!

seared salmon with balsamic glaze

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 teaspoons packed light brown sugar
4 (6-ounce) center-cut salmon fillets
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Stir together vinegar, water, lemon juice, and brown sugar.

Pat salmon dry and season with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Increase heat to high and sear salmon, skin sides up, until well browned, about 4 minutes. Turn fish over and sear until just cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes more.

Transfer salmon to plates and carefully add vinegar mixture to skillet (liquid will bubble vigorously and steam). Simmer, stirring, until thickened and reduced to about 1/3 cup, about 2 minutes.

Spoon glaze over salmon.

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from epicurious

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fantastic glaze, great recipe, very simple. highly recommended.

greek rice-spinach

i really liked the greek soup i made a few days ago, which is good because i have leftover dill and lemons for more greek food.

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rice-spinach

1/2 lb spinach, torn
extra virgin olive oil
t or so of dried roasted onion powder
a bunch of spring onions, finely cut
1 leek, finely sliced
1 tomato, minced
3/4 cup of rice
1 bunch dill, finely chopped
juice of 1 lemon
salt
freshly ground pepper

Chop the spinach coarsely. In a shallow, wide casserole-type pan, warm the olive oil. Add the spring onions, and leek and stir fry them gently for 3-4 minutes, until they get translucent. Add the finely chopped tomato, onion powder, and rice. Then pour over 1 1/2c of water, season with salt and pepper and simmer for 20 minutes or until water is absorbed. Add spinach and toss until spinach is wilted. Remove from heat and sprinkle with dill and a good squeeze of lemon juice. Give everything another good toss and serve.

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adapted from this recipe

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FANTASTIC! Loved by everyone who tried it. Simple and delicious. Highly recommended!

avgolemono (lemon chicken soup)

fantastic winter soup!

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STOCK

1 cut-up chicken (free range and local if you can get it; this makes up a good part of the flavor of the soup)
a giant pot filled with water
2 bay leaves
whatever you like in your chicken stock, like fennel bulb, carrot, celery, bundles of whatever herbs you like, or anything you have in the house. (fresh dill is great with lemon!)

simmer this all together on low until chicken is cooked through. remove chicken meat, keep large bones in. continue simmering and add soup ingredients.

SOUP

in separate pan, saute onions, garlic, leeks, or whatever combination you like in olive oil. add whatever veggies you like in soup (potatoes, carrots, leeks, whatever) and simmer in the stock for an hour.

add a cup of rice (any kind) and continue simmering until done.

add the meat again.

in a medium bowl, whisk two eggs and a half-cup freshly squeezed lemon juice. pour two cups of hot stock into the bowl and continue whisking. add the mixture to the soup.

season with salt and pepper and serve hot.

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inspired by avgolemono (but from what i understand, traditional greek avgolemono has five ingredients! go purist if you prefer.)

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just a few ingredients, and it turned out delicious! a huge pot barely lasted two days. definitely a fantastic recipe. amazing how something as simple as lemon and fresh dill can add so much flavor.

healthier chocolate chip cookie dough bites

yes, this is a recipe for dough. just dough. no need to cook. did i mention it’s gluten-free, vegan, and free of refined sugar outside of the chocolate chips? also it’s ready in five minutes.

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6 T oat flour (or you can use 1.6 oz of oats and pulverize in your food processor)
6 Medjool dates, pitted
1-2 Tbsp unsalted pastured butter or coconut oil
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
a handful of chocolate chips
a pinch of powdered dessicated coconut (opt.)

If using oat flour, dump all of the ingredients except for the chocolate chips into a food processor and process until the mixture is smooth and forms a ball (this takes a while). Then add the chocolate.

If using regular rolled oats, add these to a small food processor first, pulverize them so you get something resembling oat flour, and then add the dates, butter, and vanilla and process.
After you have a ball of smooth dough, fold in the chocolate chips.

If using a large food processor, you may have to double the recipe in order to get the blades to reach it.

Don’t cook them! Just roll into balls and enjoy.

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adapted from a recipe from feastie

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edit jan 19

Incredibly rich. Incredibly sweet from the chocolate chips and dates. Does not taste gluten-free at all – just tastes like oatmeal chocolate-chip cookie dough. Couldn’t be easier. Highly recommended.

10-minute gluten-free broccoli quinoa-and-cheese

it doesn’t get simpler than this.

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throw quinoa, a little butter or oil, and small pieces of broccoli into veggie broth

when done, mix with cheddar cheese, salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper

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THAT’S IT.

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here’s what i did:

3 cups water
1 cup quinoa
two broccoli crowns, cut into small pieces
1 veggie bouillon cube
about t 2 chili garlic sauce
about 5 cloves roasted garlic
about a teaspoonful of old bacon grease (just a dash of oil would be fine.)
a pinch of assorted herbs
a few shakes of peppery seasoned salt

cover it with a lid. no need to stir or pay any attention at all.

just walk away and come back fifteen minutes later to dinner

if you want to serve it comfort food style, top each bowl with butter and cheese.
cooking the quinoa with broth gives it enough flavor that it really doesn’t need it! it’s good whatever you do to it!

i love it!

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adapted from closet cooking

easy grilled banana boats

balance some bananas.

slice a small pocket in the middle of the peel and maybe a quarter through the banana, being careful to leave much of the peel attached at either end and not slicing all the way through the banana itself.

stuff the pocket with peanut butter or almond butter, chocolate chips, and marshmallows.

if you don’t eat refined sugar, how about a little maple syrup, honey, or date syrup? fresh or frozen berries? pecans and cinnamon? lime juice and raisins (plump them by soaking them in water before adding)? figs?

grill, or wrap in tinfoil and throw in the bonfire. cook until bananas soften.

eat with a spoon.

idea from serious eats

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HIGHLY recommended! a toaster oven works, too.

spanakopita (veg version AND vegan version!)

VEGETARIAN VERSION

1 onion chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup green onion chopped
250 gr chopped dark greens (like spinach, lamb’s quarter, etc.)
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 1/2 cup grated feta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 stick butter
1 package phyllo pastry sheets
a few t dried oregano
a few T minced parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Defrost phyllo. Assemble the filling. In a large skillet heat the olive oil on medium heat. Add the onions and saute until soft. Add the spinach and salt and pepper and saute until the spinach is limp. Add the lemon juice, and remove off the heat. Let cool.
If there is excess liquid, place the mixture in a colander and squeeze out the excess liquid. So make sure the mixture is completely cooled, otherwise it’s going to make the phyllo dough soggy, and you don’t want soggy spanakopita. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with feta and nutmeg then add this to the spinach mixture and mix until it’s all incorporated well together.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and brush 2 baking sheets with some melted butter. Now for handling the phyllo dough, unroll it and lay one sheet flat on your work surface. For the remaining phyllo dough, cover it with a damp towel, so it won’t dry out. Brush the sheet with melted butter, then sprinkle some oregano. Now here you can repeat with 2 more sheets or 1 more sheet. I have tried with both and find that if I use 3 sheets, it gets to be too much phyllo for me, so I only repeat with one more sheet, so I have two sheets one on top of the other with melted butter and oregano on both.

NOT LAZY WAY:
Using a pizza cutter, cut the sheets lengthwise into 4 long pieces, about 2 inch strips. Place a heaping tsp of the spinach and cheese filling near 1 corner of the phyllo strip. Fold the end at an angle over the filling to form a triangle. Continue to fold the triangle along the strip until you reach the end, like folding a flag. Repeat this with the remaining phyllo and filling. Like I said it’s pretty easy to make, just a bit time consuming.
Place your spanakopita triangles on your baking sheets and brush with butter. Bake them for 20 to 30 minutes until the triangles are golden brown and crisp.

LAZY WAY:
build like a lasagna. follow directions otherwise, alternating between butter-brushed pastry sheets and filling.

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adapted from from jocooks

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VEGAN VERSION

3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 lb fresh spinach, stemmed, washed, and coarsely chopped
a few T fresh parsley, minced
1 pkg silken tofu, firm
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
a few grinds of fresh pepper
pinch of nutmeg
A bunch of fillo dough, thawed
1/2 cup of margarine, melted

Thaw phyllo. Sautee onion over medium heat in olive oil. Add spinach by the handful. When spinach has released its liquid, switch to higher heat and add in parsley. Cook until most of the water is gone.

Mash tofu and flavorings together with a fork until pebbly and mix in spinach.

Unroll fillo. The trick with fillo is don’t panic. It never unrolls right and it’s always stuck together. Trim off about an inch all the way around. Use scissors or something. Cover it up with a dry dishtowel to keep it from drying out. Putting a slightly damp dishtowel over that is even better.

Now here’s the frustrating part: take a sheet of fillo and lay it in a lightly oiled 9×13 pan. Yes, I know it’s like all sticking together and stuff, just slowly peel it apart. Ok, now brush it lightly all over with margarine. Look, it’s gonna tear, ok? You just have to deal with it. Just take a deep breath and put in seven more layers, brushing each. Was that so hard? Now put in the filling, spreading it all the way to the edges. You’re half-way done! Eight more layers, margarine on the top, roll the edges down, you are now a fillo dough pro. Take a sharp knife and cut into squares. Don’t cut all the way through the bottom layer though.

Now you gotta put it in the fridge for like half an hour. Good time to clean up the huge mess you made. 375F.

Bake for about 45 minutes until golden.

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from waste.org

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10/30
made both the veg and vegan version. added two eggs to the vegan version, since my mostly vegan housemates eat eggs. both versions were absolutely incredible. i was surprised how long it took to assemble – and how expensive the dish is to make! $5 for phyllo, $8 for greens out of season, $5 for feta? then you have to wait hours for the phyllo to defrost. then brush each sheet with butter – irritating, time-consuming, and too inviting for the kitten to resist nibbling the ends of the pastry sheets. by the end of the preparation, i had decided never to make it again.

i reversed my decision immediately upon tasting it. crunchy on top, creamy and flavorful inside, hearty and salty, major comfort food. i thought the vegan version was just ok, but my housemates raved about it. i much preferred the vegetarian version – feta and butter make up most of the flavor. if you don’t care for the taste of margarine, stick with real butter.

highly, highly recommended for anyone who likes very buttery, impressive-looking vegetarian food and has the time to spare. i will absolutely definitely make this again – for the holidays or another special occasion.

brown butter snickerdoodle cookies

using every ounce of self-control to not make these cookies for dinner

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 c buckwheat flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar (don’t skip this! see below)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter 1 stick butter
1¼ cup 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt
For rolling mixture:
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Instructions

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat just until combined.
Chill your dough for 30 minutes in the refrigerator (important!), or place in freezer for 10 minutes if you are super eager, although I cannot promise the same results if you do this. Fridge is always best!
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F 325. Once dough is chilled measure about 1½ tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Meanwhile mix ¼ cup sugar and the 2 teaspoons cinnamon in a bowl. Roll balls in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and flatten with your hand. (Really only the tops need to be flattened a bit!)
Bake the cookies 8-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Bake longer if you like crispier cookies. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

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adapted from ambitious kitchen

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they did not shrink very much. tamp them down if you like ‘em flat. if you make giant puffy cookies, they will bake up raw and doughy in the middle and crunchy on the bottom. i changed the temp to 325 to reflect this. 350 would work for those of you who prefer small cookies.

the yogurt added a nice sourness that the cream of tartar (which i didn’t add) would have also added. with the butter cut down by a half, they don’t have that shortbready sugar cookie texture. it’s hard to explain. the ousides are biscuit-y crunchy, but a little more caramelized. the insides are raw cookie dough.

next day texture:
sort of strange. crumbly. not the best. wonder if it was the lack of cream of tartar that did it? the flavor is so good that i don’t mind about the strange texture. i’ll definitely be making these again – maybe i’ll actually get some cream of tartar for next time.

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update several months later:

turns out the cream of tartar is completely necessary. i made them today exactly as specified, cream of tartar included. they came out completely differently than the crumbly-cake biscuits they become without it. this time, they were picture-perfect, crackly-centered, crispy-edged, squishy-centered sour cinnamon snickerdoodles! these cookies are highly, highly, highly, highly recommended.

crunchy-top bleu cheese mashed potatoes

boil potatoes

make a bechamel (equal parts flour and butter to make a roux, then slowly stir in milk, cream, or even nut milk and coconut milk)
simmer about 20 minutes or until saucy. turn off the heat.
stir in a fistful of bleu cheese

mash potatoes and stick them into a buttered oven-safe dish
pour sauce over top of mashed potatoes
top with crunched-up lightly roasted almonds or walnuts or hazelnuts and breadcrumbs (roast in a dry frying pan)
bake at 375 for about 15 minutes

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i don’t know where the inspiration came from for this – just a serious craving for something crunchy, creamy, and bleu cheese-y. this fulfilled that in a big way. highly recommended. simple and comforting. one of my new favorites!