The Smiling Onion

Vegetarian and Gluten-free Cooking

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Archives for July 2017

Carrot Top Pesto

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Summer is in full swing and with it comes gorgeous Farmer’s Market veggies galore. This includes carrots that have not been rudely decapitated – or in other words, relieved of their feathery tops. And what a blessing that is!

Carrot tops join the ranks of underappreciated and often discarded veggie parts, along with beet greens, fennel fronds, and potato skins, among others. I’m still waiting for Chopped or some other Food Network show to do an episode that features these underutilized veggie components, all in the same round. Or maybe they have — I’m a bit behind on my Food Network binging! If they did, I hope someone made potato skin nachos with pickled beet greens, carrot top pesto, and fennel frond queso…

Anyway, back to carrot tops. Next time you find yourself with a cutting board full, please don’t throw them out. Instead, make this quick + delicious, flavor-packed pesto. You’ll be glad you did!

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Tofu Satay Bowl

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Do you ever spend forever trying to decide the simplest things? I know I do…when it comes to ordering food, that is. I’m sad to say that far too much of my brain power has gone to agonizing over questions like “Sweet potato fries or regular?” “For the soup, did you want the cup or the bowl?” and “Pesto or marinara?” If these questions seem trivial, they absolutely are. But for someone whose happiness level is very much tied to getting these questions right – and who suffers from a disproportionate amount of ordering regret when it’s a miss – the decision can take a little while.

I had a similar dilemma when crafting this recipe, which was born out of a delicious thrown-together dinner (bowls are fabulous for these situations) a couple weeks back. I wasn’t planning to make it a blog post, but I was really happy with the tamarind-peanut sauce I had spontaneously created and thought a warming tofu satay bowl worth sharing. Then I had the leftovers – cold – the next day and found myself with an intriguing idea: should I post a summer salad instead? Same sauce – maybe make it a tiny bit more dressingy with a little vinegar – sub papaya for the broccoli, keep the tofu, cilantro, and peanuts, and maybe throw in some fresh basil? It certainly was quite delicious cold and you can never go wrong with fresh papaya! But I really liked that warm dinner bowl,  too…

I was so torn that I ended up buying both broccoli and papaya at the store so I didn’t have to decide until later. And I ended up going with the satay bowl. I don’t have any regrets (because this bowl is really quite delicious) but if you feel like trying the salad variation I described, do go for it. I don’t think you’ll have regrets either way.

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Lapsang Souchong Carrots

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Lapsang Souchong is a deliciously rich and smoky Chinese black tea that is fantastic for both cooking and drinking. Since it’s a black tea, it also carries with it all those lovely black-tea health benefits – antioxidants, heart-healthy compounds, etc. – though, since the tea is smoked over pine leaves, I do find myself wondering whether the antioxidants survive. Tea experts, please chime in! My google searching has proved inconclusive (nobody is talking about this on the internet, apparently) and I’d love to know what affect the smoking process has on a tea’s health benefits.

In any case, I can say with certainty (albeit certainty subjective to my own taste preferences) that the smoking process has a beneficial affect on the taste of this tea. If you’ve never tried it, you really must – I playfully call it the Laphroaig of teas since its smoky, intense, complexity reminds me of a bacony scotch.

This makes it a perfect ingredient for sauces and marinades, as it lends this complexity of flavor to the simplest of dishes. Seriously – you’ll be amazed at how easy these carrots are to prepare. Simply mix a 5-ingredient marinade together, pour it over some carrots, and bake until tender. That’s it! Serve them over your favorite grain with a poached egg or some baked tofu for a simple, delicious meal or leave them as is for a lovely side dish. You really can’t go wrong.

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Bourbon-Sour Cream Ice Cream for the 4th of July!

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You may have noticed that I tend to put whiskey in my holiday blog posts – at least once a year.  There’s this year’s Irish Whiskey Banana Bread (St. Patty’s Day), last year’s Cinnamon-Sugar Sandwich Cookies with Chocolate-Whiskey Cream (Valentine’s Day), and my whiskey-glazed Apples & Honey Cake from Rosh Hashanah 2015…er…5776 (Jewish calendar). In any case, I’m beginning to realize I may have a whiskey dessert problem.

But what a wonderful problem it is! Bourbon lends itself perfectly to ice cream. In fact, no matter what flavor I decided to create, it probably would have included at least 1 tablespoon of the stuff since adding alcohol to homemade ice cream helps make it creamy and prevent iciness. (So does arrowroot starch, incidentally, which you’ll also find in this recipe!) And the caramel notes of the bourbon with the tanginess of the sour cream – it really can’t be described in words.

In addition to tasting divine, this ice cream recipe is also lactose-free, low fodmap, egg-free, coconut-free, soy-free, and nut-free! Interestingly, I haven’t been able to find a lactose-free ice cream recipe that doesn’t use coconut milk or nut milk, and really wanted one, since coconut can tend to taste quite coconuty and nut milk doesn’t quite have the proper texture to yield a creamy result. This probably has something to do with the fact that traditional ice cream is made from a blend of heavy cream and milk, and, while there is plenty of lactose-free milk on the market, I don’t think there is any heavy cream. There is, however, lactose-free half and half and lactose-free sour cream. I had a hunch that thickening the half and half slightly with some arrowroot starch (which also prevents an icy ice cream texture) and then blending it with the sour cream might be a winning combo –  and I’m happy to say I was right!

This ice cream is the perfect balance of creamy, rich, tangy, and sweet. Whether you’ve never had sour cream ice cream before, or you’re already a convert, you really must try it! So plug in that ice cream maker, grab yourself a bowl, and get ready for some fireworks.

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