Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup

Roasted bell pepper soup needless to say is very tasty. One sip and you will be a fan of this delicious sweet, sour and peppery soup. It takes few ingredients and is also very easy to make. You can either roast all of your vegetables and make a smooth puree of them or just roast the bell peppers and saute the rest of the ingredients. Either way, this soup will taste good. If roasting all the vegetables, you will reduce cook time to a large extent. 

This soup can make a good starter, it is not too heavy. To make it more tasty, use a little sour cream or cream. 

So, let us see what it takes to make this soup.

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 10 to 40 mins depending on the method you choose.

Servings: about 4

Ingredients:

1. Red bell pepper - 2 big ones
2. Tomato - 4 medium
3. Onion - 1 small
4. Celery - 1 stalk
5. Garlic - 2 pods or 2 tsp paste
6. Salt - to taste
7. Parsley - 1 tsp dry or finely chopped fresh leaves
8. Basil - 1 tsp dry or finely chopped fresh leaves
9. Black pepper powder - to taste
10. Sour cream or cream - upto 2 tsp per cup (optional)
11. Oil - 3 tsp

Method:

• You can roast bell peppers or all the vegetables 4 ways, 1. on the stove top, 2. In the oven, 3. Grill and 4. In the broiler. Whatever method be, you have to put the roasted bell peppers and vegetables in a container after roasting and cover the lid, let it cool and then peel off the skin from bell peppers and tomatoes.
• If you choose 1., then just roast pepper on the flame. If you choose to do it in the oven, rub oil on the bell peppers, wrap them in an aluminium foil, place them on a cookie sheet or a oven safe container and roast them at 450F for about 30 minutes in the mid rack of the oven. If you grill them, make sure to drizzle a little oil over them to retain moisture. If you choose to broil them, rub them with oil, line a broiler safe sheet with foil and broil for 10 to 12 minutes.
• For roasting vegetables in oven or broiler, chop them into rough chunks, apply oil, put them on a sheet lined with foil and roast in the oven for 25 mins at the same temperature as bell peppers. To Broil them, do it all just the same except you will be roasting all the vegetables including bell peppers all at once for 10 - 12 minutes. For garlic in both the cases, do not peel the skin off, just rub some oil and put them with the rest of the ingredients to roast. After it is done, garlic will slide out when you gently squeeze it.
• After peeling tomatoes and bell peppers, blend them all in the blender and follow the rest of the instruction after blending from below.
• If you do not roast all the vegetables, then saute all the rest of the vegetables one after the other in the following order. Heat oil in a pot which will hold all of the ingredients plus some more water. Now saute, grated/paste garlic, coarsely chopped onion, coarsely chopped celery and coarsely chopped tomatoes. 
• To the above ingredients, add peeled roasted bell peppers, salt, black pepper and saute for  2 minutes, turn the stove off and let it cool for a 10 minutes.
• Blend all the ingredients in a blender and transfer it to the pot in which you have cooked them. add a little water to thin the soup if it is too thick. Turn the stove back on. Add parsley and basil, cook for 5 more minutes.
• Garnish with croutons or parsely and basil or cream or all of them and serve hot to enjoy.

Tip:

• While using broiler in apartments, please open the oven door and turn the exhaust fan on at full speed. Otherwise, it will get too hot to stand anywhere in the kitchen.
• Fire roasting vegetables gives a smoky flavour, so try roasting them for this soup and see if you like the flavour.

Penne with Butternut Squash, Asparagus and Portobello Mushrooms with dill pesto on side

Hmm.... the title pretty much sums up whatever this dish packs. A very good one to make on special occasions, I would say a romantic occasion. This recipe won't have too much salt or pepper in it. Just enough to enhance the flavours of the contents in the dish. It is very delicate on the pallet, so if you are a person who likes some taste buds kickn' action, this wont do any magic for you. However, if you can appreciate the subtle flavours of vegetables and pasta, this will be a hit with you. If you want to make something different and rocking, go ahead and try it out. 

Prep time: 20 mins [includes chop time]

Cook time:  45 mins

Ingredients:

1. Penne Pasta - 1/2 the box [use the whole grain one if possible]
2. Butternut Squash -  3/4 cup, cubed in to bite size pieces
3. Asparagus -  1/2 cup, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4. Baby Portobello Mushrooms -  1/2 cup cut into quarters [slice each mushroom into 4 pieces]
5. Garlic - 3 pods grated/minced or 1 tsp paste
6. Dry Basil - 1/2 tsp [if you get fresh, use 1 tsp finely chopped]
7. Salt - 1 tsp for cooking pasta + a pinch or two for baking and 3/4 to 1 tsp for the recipe.
8. Ground black pepper - a pinch or two for baking tsp for baking + 1/2 tsp for recipe
9. Parmesan Cheese - 1/4 cup
10. Water - Enough to boil pasta, follow instructions on the box
11. Olive Oil - 2 - 3 tsp

Method: 

• Preheat the oven to 475F or 245C. In a bowl, mix cubed butternut squash, salt pepper and 1 tsp of olive oil till they coat the pieces well.
• Now lay these pieces on a baking tray and bake it for 15 to 20 minutes or till the squash softens enough to let a fork through without much resistance. Remove from oven and keep aside.
• In the mean while cook penne pasta according to instructions on the box.
• Heat oil in a big pot which can hold all the above ingredients on medium flame.
• Add garlic and dry basil and saute for a few seconds.
• Add Mushrooms, saute for a few seconds, add a pinch of salt mix in well, close the lid and let it sweat for a minute.
• Add Asparagus now and saute for a few seconds.
• Add the roasted butternut squash, mix in well and add cooked pasta to this.
• Now Add enough slat and pepper to enhance the flavours  and mix all the ingredients to get them well coated wit salt and pepper.
• Pasta is ready to be served 

Dill Pesto: A pesto is more like an Italian chutney... easy to make a yummy to eat. You can simply make a pesto and mix it to cooked hot pasta, it is a recipe by itself. Pesto is generally made with pine nuts, they are not available everywhere, even if they are, they come very expensive. if you want to use pine nuts, go ahead and use them instead of cashew. Make sure you dry roast them before you make pesto. .  The pesto I made was with dill and capers. Capers in Hindi is kabra, you can see them in Punjabi pickles and I have heard they are used in Tamilnadu pickles as well. Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Dill -  a handful

Capers - 1/2 tsp(optional)

Cashew nuts - 1/2cup

Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1/4 cup

Lemon Juice - 1 tsp

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Method:

In a food processor, make a powder of cashew nuts. then add Dill, capers salt and pepper, run them all for 30 seconds. Now slowly keep adding the oil till you get a nice silky paste. You may not use up all the oil you take.

Serving Suggestions:

This is a good entree, you can serve a salad with sun-dried tomato dressing. This will compliment the flavours of the pasta.

Sprinkle some more Parmesan cheese on top to make it more enticing.

To make a complete Menu, you can make a soup or salad for starters. Soup suggestion would be Spinach, Zucchini and Lemon with Roasted Chiabatta Bread and herbed Extra Virgin Olive oil. To end it with a sweet, you may bake a cannoli cake to make the whole theme Itlaian.

Tips:

Change the ingredients from, butternut squash, asparagus and mushroom to grape tomatoes or regular tomatoes chopped into bite size, chopped green bell peppers and chopped red onion. Saute all these one after the other and instead of Black pepper add a little red chilly powder. This will make the dish more easy and faster to cook and is an entirely new recipe... Don't have to bake a thing here... but the taste is great. [use the rest of the ingredients and follow the method except baking]

Penne Marinara, with vegan balls.

 

So, this is how I made use of those vegan meatballs. I usually like spaghetti, my hubby likes penne, so, I cooked some whole wheat penne pasta and topped it with marinara sauce. Makes a very heavy lunch or dinner and it is tasty too. Marinara sauce is very simple to make and uses very less ingredients. If you are in a hurry and need to fix something fast and healthy, this recipe is the one you choose to do. Use vegan cheese to make the recipe vegan. The amount of oil and cheese are you to your choice.

Prep time: 10 Mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Servings: upto 6

Ingredients:

1. Whole grain\multi grain\regular pasta - 1 box (please cook the amount you would use)

2. Tomatoes [plum preferably] - 4 to 6, Finely chopped

3. Tomato paste - 1 6oz can,

4. Garlic - 3 to 4 pods grated\minced or paste of 2 tsp.

5. Basil dry - 3 tsp, or 1/4 cup fresh finely chopped.

6. Olive oil - 1/4 cup (you can use less)

7. Parmesan cheese - 1/4 cup (you can use less)

8. Salt - to taste

9. Ground Pepper - 1/2 tsp

10. Chilly flakes - 1/2 tsp [optional]

Method:

1. Cook the amount of pasta you need according to the instructions on the box. It would be good for your health if you used multi grain or whole wheat pasta.

2. Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. Add garlic and dry basil, saute for a few seconds. 

3. Add chopped tomatoes, place a lid on the pan and a little salt and let it sweat well.

4. Add the tomato paste and sufficient water, pepper and salt. Cook for 10 minutes. The consistency of the sauce must be slightly thinner than of ketchup after it cooks for 10 minutes.

5. If you are using fresh basil, add it and let it simmer for 2 minutes more. While this is going on, drop in the vegan meatballs and cover the lid on the pan. after 2 minutes, turn the stove off and let it stay for 5 to 10 minutes. If you are using frozen vegan balls as I did, drop them in before 5 minutes you turn the stove off. Pour over pasta and enjoy.

Tips:

If you want to, you can toss in pasta into the sauce and cook for 3 more minutes, it makes the pasta absorb the sauce more. If you have made a lot of sauce and won't be using it just then, ladle out some sauce into separate pan, add pasta and cook. Keep in mind, vegan balls get very delicate after soaking in the sauce.

Vegan Meatballs

The advertisements on TV of spaghetti and meat balls always made my mouth water. I really waned to eat those meat balls without the meat part. So i researched some and found out that we can make vegan meat balls. I do not know how the meat balls taste, however, can vouch for the fact that vegan meat balls are full of taste and amazing texture you wont forget. So without further delay I present the recipe for vegan meatballs.

Prep time - 20 minutes

Cook time - 15 minutes

Pieces - 16

 

Ingredients:

1. Gimme lean vegan meat substitute - 1 whole package. There are some flavours available, i used the sausage style one. If you can not get this where you live, please use the Soya Nuggets of any form.

2. Soya nuggets - [optional] soaked and squeezed dry, 1 cup (do not use if using only these nuggets). If you use only soya nuggets, use 3 cups dry.

3. Onion - 1 big, finely chopped

4. Red\green bell pepper - 1/2 cup finely chopped

5. Mint - a handful, finely chopped

6. Dry basil - 1/2 tsp

7. Dry parsley - 1 tsp

8. Garlic - 2 pods, minced or grated, or 1tsp paste

9. Salt - to taste

10. Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

11. Oil - 2tsp

Method:

1. If you are using soya nuggets, soak them in warm water till soft, squeeze and drain them. Put them in a chopper and shred it real fine. A few rough pieces do not matter.

2. Heat oil in a big wok on medium heat. saute onions, garlic, parsley, basil and mint, with sufficient salt for the whole dish and saute till onions get slightly golden brown.

3. Add the bell peppers and saute till they go soft.

4. Add the gimme lean\shredded soya nuggets and mix it in well with the pepper onion mixture. If you think it is burning, please turn the stove off or lower the flame and mix it in well.

5. Turn the heat back on, if had turned it off and add pepper powder and mix in well.

6. Let the whole mixture cool, it has to be warm to touch and make them into the key lime sized balls. vegan meat balls are ready to eat.

Tips:

1. If you want, you can add upto 1/2 cup parmesan cheese or a vegan Parmesan cheese.

2. If the balls are breaking apart. Just sprinkle a teaspoon worth all purpose flour over the mixture, mix it in well and make them into balls.

3. You can make them and freeze them. they freeze beautifully. Just make some marinara sauce and some kind of pasta, add these balls in to the hot sauce, let them thaw and eat 'em up.

Eggplant Parma

Eggplant param takes me to a time 5 years ago. The first time I ever tasted Italian food. It was at a restaurant called Bertuccis in Pavonia Newport, Jersey City. Then I realized food can be very tasty without being filled with overwhelming masala and salt. Just flavours of veggies ,herbs and some good cheese can make a meal so fragrant and mouthwatering. I hope you find this recipe as tasty as it sounds. There are many ways to make this parma, i make it with less oil and cheese and have modified the way to cook eggplants. To make it vegan, use a vegan cheese substitute. 

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 45 mins to 1 hour

servings: 4

Ingredients:

1. Eggplant - The big variety, 1, cut into 1/2 thick inch rounds.

2. Plum tomato or any tomato - 3 to 4 medium, finely chopped

3. Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped

4. Garlic - 3 to 4 pods, grated or minced, or 1 to 2 tsp paste

5. Dry basil - 2 tsp, 4 tsp if using fresh, chop it fine.

6. Salt - to taste

7. Pepper Powder - 1/2 to 1 tsp

8. Chilly flakes - 1/2 tsp (optional)

9. Parmesan cheese (skim milk) - 1/4 cup, grated (add more if you want)

10. Mozzarella cheese (skim Milk) - 1/4 cup. grated (add more if you want)

11. Olive oil - 3 tbsp in total. (could take less, moderate while roasting eggplant)

12. Tomato paste - 1 6oz can

13. Water - enough to make the sauce to right consistency. Please eye ball it.

Method:

To prepare eggplant:

Method 1: Heat a tava\skillet and lay a few piece of eggplant pour a few drops of oil around and sprinkle some salt over them. Let them turn slightly brown on both the sides. Roast it on open flame, holding them with metal thongs. If you use a nonstick tava or skillet, You will use very less oil and brinjal\eggplant won't stick to the skillet.

Method 2: In a skillet with, heat 1/2 tbsp oil and shallow fry all the pieces on both the side by sprinkling some salt over it. This will be slightly fatty.

Method 3:  Deep fry in oil till eggplant turns golden brown.

Method 4: Preheat* oven to 350F. Sprinkle the cookie sheet with a tiny bit of slat, lay the pieces over on the sheet, sprinkle a tiny bit more salt on the top, drizzle about 1 tbsp oil all over the pieces. Put the sheet in the oven and let it roast for about 12 minutes. Keep in mind oven temperatures vary and it may get brown sooner or may take more time. This method also uses less oil.but eggplant wont be as moist as it would be with the first method.

The methods you choose to roast the eggplant is up to you. I use the first method.

To make the sauce:

1. Heat oil in a pot on medium heat. Add onions, dry basil and garlic and a pinch of slat and saute for a few seconds. Close the lid on the pot and let onions get transparent. If you are using fresh basil, hold on to it till the sauce is cooked.

2. Add tomatoes and sufficient salt for the dish, let it sweat by closing the lid on pot. It may take up to 2 minutes.

3. Add the tomato paste, water to make it slightly saucy and cook for 10 minutes. Add more water if it is thickening too much.The consistency after the sauce cooks must be slightly watery than ketchup, but not too watery.

4. Add pepper powder, chilly powder and Parmesan cheese and give it a good stir till the cheese melts and mixes well with the sauce.

5. Preheat* oven to 350F. In a baking dish, which can hold the eggplant and sauce, layer the eggplant in the bottom on the dish. Pour sauce all over the dish covering the eggplant. Deck the top with shredded mozzarella. Cover the dish with foil and put it inside the oven for 20 minutes.

6. Take the foil out and pop it back in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes more to get the cheese slightly brown. If you don't want to do that. You can skip this step. After you take the dish out of the oven, do not remove the foil, let it stand for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and eggplant parma is ready to be served with pasta like, spaghetti, penne, rotini and etc. 

Tips:

1. Use whole wheat pastas.

2. Can also be served with steamed green beans.

* Please look in glossary

Cannoli Cake

Cannoli is a sweet cheese filling usually filled in a deep fried tubes. Cannoli can be of different kinds and flavours. I baked a orange flavoured cake and layered this filling and frosted the cake with some whipped cream for my husbands birthday... He loved it. There are many ways to make this cake, my husband loves the citrus taste, so i used a lot of orange in the cake. So here goes the recipe, bake and enjoy.

Prep time: 45 mins

Bake time: 40 mins

Decoration time: 40 mins

Servings: 12 to 16

Ingredients:

1. Eggs - 4
2. Sugar - 3/4 Cup
3. All-purpose flour - 1 cup
4. Butter or margarine - 1/2 cup /(1 stick) melted and cooled

6. Orange juice - 2 tsp

7. Orange zest* - 2 tsp

8. Baking Powder - 2 tsp

9. Salt - 1 pinch

10. Orange\vanilla\Almond essence - 2 tsp

11. Orange chopped into little bits - 3 tsp (optional)
12.  Ricotta Filling - given below

13. Whipped Cream Frosting - given below


Read here on how to chop orange from.

Ricotta Filling:

1. Ricotta Cheese (Skim milk)- 2 cups (15 oz.)
2. Sugar - 3 Tbsp.
3. Vanilla essence - 1-1/2 tsp.
4. Heavy cream - 1 cup, whipped
5. Semi sweet mini chocolate chips - 1 cup

Whipped Cream Frosting:

1. Heavy cream - 2 cups
2. Powdered sugar - 2 Tbsp.
3. Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp.

Method:

To bake the cake:

1. Take flour, baking soda and salt, sieve them twice and keep aside. 

2. Break the eggs into a big container in which you can prepare the cake batter, beat them till they get very frothy. 

3. Add little sugar and beat till it's well incorporated, do it till all the sugar is mixed well. Now Add the essence and zest*, beat well. Add the butter in small portions and beat well till all of it gets well incorporated.

4. Now add the flour mixture in 4 batches. Every time you add, make sure you mix it well in the liquid mixture. Grease* and dust* a 8 inch round baking pan and pour the cake batter into it. Do not rub the mixture down in the pan to spread it evenly. Instead, hold the pan with both hands and pat it down on a flat surface so that the mixture spreads evenly. Preheat* the oven to 350F/ 180C, place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and let it bake for 40 minutes. You will know it is done when you insert a tooth pick or a thin stick into the middle of the cake and it comes out dry and clean.

5. Let the cake cool completely before you do any thing else with it.

To make Ricotta Filling: Beat Ricotta cheese, sugar and vanilla on medium speed in bowl with electric mixer 3 minutes. Fold in whipped cream and chocolate chips.

To make Whipped Cream Frosting: Beat cream on high speed in bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in sugar and vanilla.

To layer and frost: Cut cake in half horizontally using sharp serrated knife. Cut each layer in half again horizontally. Place 1 layer on serving platter; spread with one-third Ricotta filling. Repeat procedure, ending with cake layer. No sooner than 6 hours before serving, frost sides and top of cake with all but 1 cup frosting. Decorate with remaining frosting, chopped chocolate and fruit. Refrigerate until serving time. 

Tips:

1. You may add a few orange fruit bits to the cake. To do that, chop the orange into small bits, take a tsp of flour and lightly mix these bits into it. This will ensure all the bits are evenly spread in the mixture, or all of them will deposit in the bottom of the cake.
2. Do not use egg substitute for this cake, makes the cake slightly hard and it also has a funny chemical taste.

* Please refer glossary

Lasagna

I love Italian food. I love the way ingredients get enhanced in the dish. Full of flavour and aroma, this cuisine had my tongue at the first bite... ooo i feel like eating some lasagna now. There are a gazillion ways of making lasagna, this way is certainly low fat, high fiber, high on taste and vegetarian too. If you want, you can make it vegan by using vegan cheese, as simple as that.

Prep time: 30 minutes

cook time: 45 minutes

servings: upto 5

Ingredients:

1. Lasagna noodles - 6 (whole wheat/ multigrain/ whole grain pasta)

2. Plum tomatoes - 3 to 4 chopped

3. Tomato paste - 2 6oz cans

4. Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped

5. Garlic - 3 to 4 pods, grated or minced (approx 1 tbsp)

6. Basil dry - 2 to 3 tsp (use fresh if on hand, you will need more about 2 tbsp)

7. Black Olive slices - 2 to 3 tbsp, drained.

8. Green olive slices - 2 to 3 tbsp, drained.

9. Sundried tomatoes in oil - 5 to 6 finely chopped

10. Cayenne/chilli flakes - to taste

11. Ground black pepper - 1/4 tsp or more if you want.

12. Parsley dry - 3 tsp (use fresh if on hand, you will need more about 2 tbsp)

13. Parmesan cheese (skim)- 1/4 cup grated

14. Skim Mozzarella cheese - 1/2 cup grated

15. Skim Feta Cheese - 1/4 cup (optional)

16. Olive oil - 2 tbsp

17. Salt to taste.

16. Water as required to boil pasta and for sauce.

 Method:

1. Boil sufficient water to cook pasta noodles by adding adequate amount of salt and oil. Cook the noodles according to instructions on the box.

2. Heat oil in a pot on medium heat, add dry basil and parsley with garlic and saute for a few seconds.If using fresh, add them once the sauce is well done and stir them in well.

3. Add onions, a pinch of salt and saute till it turns slightly golden brown. close the lid on pot for faster cooking.

4. Add sundried tomatoes and olives and saute for a minute or two and add chilli/cayenne and black pepper at this point and stir it in well.

5. Add tomatoes, stir, close the lid on the pot and let it sweat well.

6. add the tomato paste and mix it well with the ingredients in the pot. 

7. add water little by little, till it gets saucy and let it boil for a few minutes, about 5 to 7 minutes till it gets slightly thick. the right consistency would be of the ketchup. 

8. In a oven safe tray layer the sauce first, drizzle feta cheese and layer noodles on top. Next layer some more sauce and drizzle Parmesan cheese, place the noodles on top and layer the remaining sauce and sprinkle all the mozzarella cheese evenly. Cover the tray with foil.

9. Preheat oven on 350F for 10 minutes, place the try in and let it cook for 15 minutes. Take out the tray and pull the foil off then again place it in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes so that the top gets slightly golden brown.

10. pull it out and cut same size pieces and dig in... enjoy your lasagna.

Tips:

1. You can reduce oil and amount of cheese if you want.

2. Use very little salt, just 1/2 tsp goes very far in the sauce.... salt is to enhance the flavours of the ingredients, not to mask them.

3. Use some oil from sundried tomatoes to make the sauce, it makes it so much better. 

Ciabatta bread and oil

Ciabatta bread goes well with most of the soups. To add some extra taste and aroma, you can infuse a 2 tbsp of  olive/virgin olive/extra virgin olive oil with rosemary,basil, parsley, grated or minced garlic about a pinch each. In order to do that, heat oil in a pan and all the ingredients and saute for a few seconds. Or, mix all the ingredients and microwave for 10 to 15 seconds depending on the microwave capacity. Dip the ciabatta bread in this and eat it all up. It simple tastes yummy!!
Make more if you need more, the above will be sufficient for 2 medium or 4 small pieces of bread.
If you like it slightly fruity and tangy, add a little lemon zest*, about a pinch.

* - look in glossary for explanation.