Lemony Spinach Broccoli Soup #1

Late last week I found that I had a few things left in my fridge that needed to be used: broccoli, baby spinach, celery, scallions - the usual suspects that I inevitably throw together to make a soup. Soup to me is the easiest dinner to make - yes, it requires lots of chopping, but otherwise the prep work is pretty easy and it creates good leftovers to bring for lunch. The flavor of this soup was great - thanks to the fresh lemon juice I used, but the texture could use some improvements, so this is Lemony Spinach Broccoli Soup, round #1.

Lemony Spinach Broccoli Soup

1/2 cup orange pepper, chopped
1/4 cup carrot, chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 cups broccoli, chopped
2 cups baby spinach, packed
1 TB butter
2 cups chicken broth*
3 TB fresh lemon juice
2 TB light sour cream
1 cup milk
1 TB flour

*You could make this recipe vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

Preview of Things to Come

It's been a busy couple of weeks with lots of trips back and forth between my parents in NH and the city. I know it's a bit of a tease, but while I don't have access to my food pics now I wanted to give you a sneak preview of things to come because I have some great entries waiting on the sidelines:

1. Lemony Spinach Broccoli Soup
2. The Best Cookies I never meant to make (and they might even be sort of healthy!) - think banana, peanut butter, raisins, flax seed, wheat flour ... yes, all in the same cookie.
3. Who can say no to wedding cake?
4. Half of a review for Rudy's, in Portsmouth, thanks to some crabby dining neighbors - maybe they wouldn't have been so crabby if they knew I was The Academic Chef
5. Food and Science - the totally unexpected, yet impossibly difficult to get into, undergrad Harvard course that started last fall!

So stay tuned, and as always, thanks for reading!

'Forgot the Quinoa' Toasted Couscous Salad with Shrimp

It's true. My old roommate and I found this great recipe online that we planned on cooking this week after work one night. We went to the grocery store, where I insisted that I had a box of quinoa at home, only to find that, in fact, I did not have quinoa at home. We wouldn't let it ruin our dinner though - and quickly decided that a good substitute for the quinoa would be a whole wheat couscous, which I did have on hand in my kitchen. So, here is the recipe for what was originally supposed to be "Toasted Quinoa Salad with Scallops and Snow Peas." Oh yeah - we changed the scallops to shrimp and added more veggies too, so basically it's a new recipe but thanks to the Eating Well website for the original inspiration!

Toasted Couscous Salad with Shrimp and Vegetables
Easily serves 4

3 servings of frozen shrimp*
5 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
2 tsp orange juice
4 TB oil
1 cup whole wheat couscous
2 tsp minced garlic
About 3 cups Chopped Vegetables: snow peas, broccoli, red and/or green pepper, spinach
1 cup chopped scallion
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
Salt and Pepper

*I used a medium sized, already cooked shrimp (which = 9 shrimp per serving) which I defrosted and took the tails off. Feel free to use fresh and just add a bit more cooking time than we did during that step.

Foodie Finds in the City!

There is never a shortage of things to do or restaurants to try in the city. Within a mile of my apartment there are easily over a hundred restaurants I think. Venturing a bit further than a mile (okay, maybe 1.3 miles) - I had read about this wine and local food tasting at a local wine shop in Somerville, up by Ball Square. Ball Square Fine Wines is over by Tufts on Broadway Street (716 Broadway to be specific). I grabbed a new coworker friend of mine and we made the trip over to check the event out. They have a "tasting bar" every Friday night where they let shoppers sample different wines being highlighted each week. I'm not sure that this alone would've gotten me there, but they had this special tasting going on a couple weeks ago where they also had local restaurants coming in to let guests sample their along with the wine and beer they were sampling. Now that caught my eye! And I'll be honest - I remember the name of the restaurants, but could not tell you the name of the wines they were sampling for anything. They had a white and a red (in addition to 2 or 3 different organic beers), but neither my friend or I loved them. The white was too sweet and the red too dry, in my opinion.

When we got there we noticed a line out the door but it wasn't to get in, rather a line for one of the restaurants sampling their food. We skirted around this long line, made our way inside and found another restaurant sampling some of their foods instead. Everyone was very friendly and the first restaurant was called True Bistro (1153 Broadway St), known for their vegan menu (they also offer gluten free and nut free menus). I was pleasantly surprised - and they were sampling 4 or 5 different dishes from their menu: black bean and plantain torte, tempe and walnut pate, vegan brownies (yum!),  a homemade cheese that was made out of some sort of nut (I still don't really understand how that works) and maybe one other dish. The tasting definitely inspired me to try out the restaurant, though I don't think I'll be going vegan anytime soon - it would make my cooking much more challenging and I love my milk!!

Grilled Salmon with Fresh Tomatillo Salsa and Grilled Vegetables

It's summer time - and it's official because we've started grilling again! It's just not the same when you're using the grill and there's snow on the ground - so now it really feels like summer. The thing with cooking seafood is that whenever you plan ahead you get to the grocery store and the fish you'd planned on doesn't look good. Have a backup plan. In my case - I like going to the seafood department and seeing how the different options looked. Even though the swordfish was on sale it didn't look great so I opted for the salmon, which looked pretty good and was only $8.99/lb. For 3 people I got 1.23 lbs, which was a pretty good amount with just a little leftover.

Grilled Salmon
with Fresh Tomatillo Salsa and Grilled Vegetables
The actual salmon part of this recipe doesn't take a lot of preparation because you'll top it with the homemade salsa. I just rubbed about 1-2 TB olive oil over the salmon filet, as well as a little salt and pepper. You can make the salsa ahead of time if you'd like, but make sure it's done before you put the salmon and veggies on the grill because all of the chopping definitely takes longer than it will to cook your grilled foods.