The other nite, @HorriblePeanut sent me a photo of what he made for dinner. (only because I asked!!). He had prepared cod and kale. I asked him how he prepared the kale and he replied “with veggie stock – er, Knorr”. I then realized that this would be a good time to do a blog post called How to Make Your Own Vegetable Stock!! 

Here’s what you need:

Ingredients:
2 carrots, peeled and chopped*
2 onions, peeled and chopped*
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped*
1 apple, cut in half
1 whole head of garlic, peeled (no chopping necessary0
1 sweet potato peeled and chopped*
and bunch of parsley

*:no one is going to see the vegetables so it doesn’t have to be pretty looking!! BONUS

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Boil water in a saucepan (please forgive me, I did not measure the quantity)
2. Add all the ingredients listed above. Cover the pan with a lid.

3. Season with salt and pepper
4. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

5. Strain the vegetables

Voila…beautiful aromatic vegetable stock. By all means play around with this recipe: add celery, add bay leaves (which I did by the way) or  add zucchini. Just don’t add anything bitter like broccoli or green pepper.

I like to freeze this soup is small ziploc containers so I can use it whenever a recipe calls for vegetable stock. It will make a HUGE difference and you won’t be buying any powdered soup stock anymore.

Happy Cooking (even if its 30 degrees outside)!!

By the way: I grew up in a household with a product called Croyden House. (kosher fake chicken stock poweder)  My mom used it on EVERYTHING. (as still does). I promised myself when I moved out that I would never buy a jar of that stuff and guess what? I haven’t.

 

As always, I was on the internet browsing through tastespotting and came across a recipe for Sweet Potato Falafels.  The recipe appealed to me for the following reasons:

• It only required 5 ingredients: corriander, cumin, sweet potatoes, sesame seeds, chick pea flour
• It didn’t require a ton of work
• Sweet Potatoes are in season (I think – can anyone confirm this for me)
• It would appeal to vegans

The only downsize was the fact that chick pea flour is not something I have in my pantry and required a trip to the bulk store. Not the end of the world  – happy to support my local health food store.

Here’s what you need:

2 medium sized sweet potato

1 1/2 tsp ground corriander (I used a handful of fresh – well washed)

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 cup chick pea flour

1/2 a lemon

sesame seeds

Method:

1. Bake the entire sweet potato in the oven at 425 degress and bake till soft (app. 45 min). Let cool and then scoop out the insides of the sweet potato. (note: I peeled them, sliced them, and then baked them)

2. When they are soft, put the sweet potato in a Cuisinart and add the chickpea flour, corriander, cumin and the juice of the lemon.  Pulse till smooth. (note: this could be done with a fork)

3. Roll them in your hands and shape them into small, thick logs. (best way to describe it).

5. Once shaped, roll them in sesame seeds.

6. The original recipe says to bake them – but I felt like frying them (me. bad). So I fried them in a small amount of oil till lightly browned.

Final Product:

There was a suggestion to serve them with tzaziki but you could dip them into any of your fav condiments or even eat them plain.

Hope you like this recipe as much as I did.  Many thanks to the honeycomb blog for posting this on tastespotting and to 101cookbooks who originally posted this recipe in 2009.

Happy Cooking.