Hot and sour soup

This soup is very low-calorie, low fat, high in protein, and packed with vegetables.

Another perk? The ginger and the shiitake are said to be a boost to the immune system.

Hot and sour soup (makes 4-6 servings)

1/2 cup dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked for 20 minutes in hot water and drained

4 ounces seitan, cut into thin strips

a 6-ounce can of bamboo shoots, drained, rinsed, and cut into thin strips

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon peeled and minced ginger

4 cups vegetable stock

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon hot chili paste

salt and pepper, to taste

2 eggs, beaten (vegans can just leave these out; they are not even in the original recipe)

1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed

2 tablespoons chopped scallions

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1.) Place all ingredients except the eggs (if using), peas, scallions, and sesame oil into a slow cooker.

2.) Cook on low for 6 hours. At the end of that, stir in the remaining ingredients.

Note: The original recipe for this comes from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker.

Southwestern black bean chili

I mentioned back in an August post about chili that I would post my favorite black bean chili recipe. What better time than just after Thanksgiving, when we could all use a healthy crock pot dish requiring very little time in the kitchen?

This recipe can be altered to suit your tastes; you can use one chopped zucchini or yellow squash instead of (or in addition to) carrots, 1-1/2 cups of diced pumpkin instead of the sweet potato, and a mixture of legumes instead of just black beans.

Southwestern black bean chili (makes 8 servings)

1-1/2 cans of black beans (15-ouncers), drained and rinsed

1 large can of crushed or diced tomatoes (28 ounces)

2 cups water

2 smoked, dried chile peppers, ground -- I use a coffee grinder I've designated just for spices -- OR 2 chipotles in adobo sauce, minced

3/4 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 yellow onion, diced

2 carrots, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

2-1/2 cups frozen corn

3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 sweet potato, diced

salt and pepper, to taste

chopped fresh cilantro, to garnish servings

yogurt or soy yogurt, for toppings in bowls

optional: chopped avocado, also for a topping

Combine all ingredients except cilantro and yogurt in a crock pot, stir, and cook on low 7-8 hours. You can also combine those ingredients in a soup pot, bring to a boil, then simmer for about two hours, or until carrots are soft. Serve with a dollop of yogurt and some chopped cilantro. Pass the corny cornbread on the side.

Today's question: Where did you have Thanksgiving dinner, and what was your favorite part of the meal?

Coming up this week: Using leftover Memphis pork supper that I've had in the freezer, I am going to try to make tamales for the first time. I think the sweet potato and apple in the pork dish will lend themselves well to that. I'm not sure about the sauce yet, but I'm sure I'll find something fun to whip up.

I also plan to copy my mother-in-law Jeanie's chicken-broccoli casserole soon. It's yummy, but I never have had much luck with casseroles, so we'll see!

Memphis pork supper

I've never made a meal in the crock pot that was almost too big to fit inside, but that was the case with this interesting dish I decide to make. "Too much pork for just one fork," Dan says.

I found this little cookbook in the mall -- at one of those vintage poster shops that pop up around the holidays -- and it's a Family Circle slow cooker cook book, called "Family Circle's Carefree Crockery Cookbook." It's very '70s, not just in how it looks, but in recipes, too, which makes sense because it was published in 1976.

Now, while this recipe is called "Memphis pork supper," there's no fried peanut butter-bacon-banana concoction, or whatever it was that Elvis devoured! It's really an apple-onion-sweet potato-pork mixture, and it's quite good. There was quite a bit of liquid in the crock pot, so I served the pork with a slotted spoon and bread on the side.

Memphis pork supper (serves 8)

3 pounds boneless pork loin, trimmed of fat, cubed

3 pounds of medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered

3 medium onions, sliced

4 medium-sized tart red apples, cored and sliced into rings

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 cups apple juice

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon leaf marjoram, crushed

1/4 teaspoon pepper

chopped fresh parsley (I used the Italian parsley left over from the Sicilian-style grouper)

1.) Trim the fat from the pork and brown it, in a little of that fat a few pieces at a time, in a skillet very quickly. Remove with a slotted spoon and put aside.

2.) Arrange the potatoes around the slow cooker; place the meat in the middle. Top with half of the onion slices and half the apple rings. Sprinkle with sugar. Repeat with a second layer.

3.) Combine apple juice, salt, marjoram, and pepper in a glass measuring cup or bowl. Pour over apple rings.

4.) Cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4 hours. Sprinkle with parsley before serving.

Need an idea for leftovers? Try this pork casserole with cornbread crust & mole sauce.

Beef stew

Sometimes the most basic recipes are the best, especially if you're making something for the first time.

I bought about 1 and a quarter pounds of beef stew meat from Fischer Farms, after accepting a stew sample at a stand this weekend, out in the crisp autumn air. It hit the spot. The woman at the stand said all she did was throw the meat into the crock pot with a little salt and pepper and let it cook.

So I bought some meat and threw it in the crock pot with some other ingredients this morning.

It was the first time I had made a beef stew, so I stuck to carrot, onion, garlic, and potato. It was perfect on a chilly day like today. Plus, I love it when the house smells yummy!

By the way, the Fischer Farms name may be familiar to you from this Vietnamese lemongrass beef recipe.

Beef stew (serves 5-6)

2 carrots, sliced

2 medium yellow potatoes, chopped, skins on

2 onions, quartered or in eighths

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1.5 cups or so of water (don't add all at once; add about half to start, then add the rest as you see fit during cooking time)

1.25 pounds of beef stew meat

salt and pepper, to taste

2 teaspoons cornstarch

optional: sprig of dried rosemary, 2 teaspoons herbes de Provence, or 2 teaspoons Simon and Garfunkel

optional: about a quarter pound of button mushrooms, sliced -- I'll be including those next time

1.) Put all ingredients in crock pot, stir, and cover.

2.) Cook for about 6 hours on low. Twenty minutes or so before the cooking time ends, stir the cornstarch into a tiny bit of water, and let it dissolve before adding it slowly into the crock pot. Stir, and allow the stew to finish cooking.

Today's food fact: When you think of Vitamin D, sunshine and milk generally come to mind, right? Well, other foods that contain Vitamin D, including salmon, mackerel, sardines, and eggs.

Stuffed tomatoes

You'd be hard-pressed to find a dish that's as healthy for you as this one, and it uses up tomatoes at a time of year when the last of the them need to be eaten.

We didn't have any luck with our tomatoes in the garden this year, but we've been buying them up at the local market. These were on their last legs, and this recipe works pretty well for such tomatoes.

Stuffed tomatoes (serves 2 as a main dish, 4 as a side)

4 medium tomatoes, tops sliced off and reserved, inside flesh chopped (liquid and seeds discarded) -- I like a mix of yellow and red

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tablespoons chopped, fresh parsley

6-8 tablespoons cooked wild rice

2 tablespoons shredded parmesan

1/2 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs, divided

1 teaspoon olive oil, plus enough to brush the bottom of a pan or crock pot

salt and pepper, to taste

1.) Mix the chopped tomato flesh with the garlic, parsley, rice, parmesan, salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup of the breadcrumbs.

2.) Fill the tomatoes with that mixture, and cook in a crock pot on low for 3 hours or so. If using the oven, bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. (Don't forget to lightly oil the crock pot or pan, so you can get the tomatoes out afterward.)

3.) In a separate bowl, mix the remaining breadcrumbs with the teaspoon of oil by hand.

4.) Take the tomatoes out of the oven or crock pot, top equally with the breadcrumb-oil mix and brown under a broiler. Replace the tops before serving, if you'd like.

Tilapia chowder with fresh tarragon

I used to buy those frozen packages that contained several fillets of tilapia; they were cheap, and what did I know? I've come to find it's worth spending an extra few bucks to get fresh fillets. Not only do they taste much more delicious, but they are much meatier than those flimsy frozen ones that have very little flavor until you add a bunch of stuff to them.

The idea for this recipe came from a recipe I saw a long time ago. It sounded so wonderful, but it had bacon and heavy cream. I think those ingredients are great for special occasions, but I wanted to make an everyday kind of soup that I wouldn't feel guilty about. I think part of what's so great about fish is that it's so healthy low-cal, and tilapia in particular is super lean. I also wanted a recipe I could throw in the crock pot and forget about for a while -- especially this week because I've got a lot on my plate (hee-hee).

Here's what I came up with. The fresh tarragon is very important, so don't consider leaving it out! It's a favorite herb of mine, and if you've never had it, take a taste to make sure you like it. It's got a hint of anise (slightly licorice-y).



Tilapia chowder with fresh tarragon (serves about 5)

1 pound tilapia fillets, cut into bite-sized chunks

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

3 celery stalks, chopped

2 potatoes, chopped (I left the skins on)

2 carrots, sliced

1.5 teaspoons chicken broth powder

1/2 cup frozen peas

1.5 cups frozen corn

2 cups water

coarsely ground salt and black pepper, to taste

1.5 cups soy milk

about 4 tablespoons fresh tarragon, torn

1.) Put all ingredients except 3 tablespoons tarragon and the soy milk in a crock pot. Stir gently to blend, and cook on low for about 3.5 hours.

2.) Sprinkle the leftover tablespoons of tarragon on top of the chowder just before serving. I sprinkled a little on each individual bowl.



"I believe that if I ever had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around." (James Beard, as quoted at Timeless Quotes)

Spicy white bean & sweet potato stew with collards

I grew up in a meat and potatoes kind of family. It wasn't until I met Dan that I realized I could eat meatless meals.

When I first got to know him, I went to his house for breakfast with some fellow workers from our local watering hole, Bear's Place. He had made delicious biscuits and gravy, an Indiana breakfast staple packed with sausage. It was only much later that I learned the whole purpose of the breakfast was to prove to our mutual friend Forest that he could make good biscuits and gravy with vegetarian sausage. (He used Gimme Lean, by the way.)

Now, we rarely eat meat substitutes, except for breakfast "sausage" -- the Morningstar Farm patties are really good -- and of course veggie burgers and veggie hot dogs. But we eat vegetarian dinners about four times a week.

When my parents come to visit -- and they're here right now -- I try to make vegetarian meals that I think they will really enjoy. So last night I stuck to a favorite, from my book Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. It's a little bit spicy, and we all added extra hot sauce to it in our bowls. We also dunked warm sourdough bread into it.

Spicy white bean and sweet potato stew with collards (serves 4 to 6)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 red pepper, seeded and chopped

1 small hot red pepper, seeded and minced (I used a habanero)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

a 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes

two 15.5-ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 teaspoon light brown sugar or other natural sweetener (I used sucanat)

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

2 bay leaves

3 cups veggie stock

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 cups chopped collard greens, simmered in water until tender and drained

1.) Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion, bell pepper, and garlic, covered, until soft, about 5 minutes.

2.) Transfer that to the slow cooker. Add all the rest of the ingredients except the collards, and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

3.) Stir in the collards just before serving. Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Kara's green chile pork

Well, I learned a good lesson from this one. I will no longer think I'm so smart about recipes that I neglect to ask for details, including measurements, when I write someone's recipe down! Here's the recipe I scribbled in my recipe book. I've been assuming it's a crock pot dish, but now I'm not sure:

3/4 pound pork

cumin

green chiles

stewed Mexican tomatoes

oregano

chopped onion

2-3 cloves garlic

1 cup chicken stock

Hmmm... Whatever what I thinking? What are stewed Mexican tomatoes? What kind of pork should I use? Is that fresh oregano or dried? A lot or a little? You get the picture.

At any rate, it turned out pretty yummy, but I was kicking myself for having to do guess work. Yes, I could have picked up the phone and called Kara, but I wasn't about to go back out to the store for any ingredients, and time was of the essence as I stood in my kitchen with my apron on, all ready to go.

My only complaint is that the pork was a little dry. I seem to have face that sad reality a lot. Any readers have any tips on how to keep the pork juicy? We solved the problem post-cooking by passing lots of the leftover broth from the crock pot on the side.

Here's the recipe I wound up using for the dish, and my family liked it a lot. They even had seconds. (The real star of the meal, however, was the butternut squash-potato mash, which I'll post tomorrow!)

Green chile pork -- maybe Kara's, maybe not (serves 6)

2 pork tenderloins, about 3 pounds

2 teaspoons cumin

9 Anaheim peppers, seeded and chopped

1 serrano pepper, seeded and chopped

1 chopped yellow onion

6 cloves garlic, minced

about 20 ounces canned, diced tomatoes

2 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

salt and pepper, to taste

1.) Put all ingredients into the crock pot, and cook on low for 6-7 hours.

2.) Remove tenderloins, slice thickly on a cutting board, and place on a serving platter.

3.) Using a slotted spoon, remove as many green peppers and tomatoes as possible from the crock pot. Spoon them over the pork.

4.) Pass the remaining broth from the crock pot on the side, with a gravy spoon.

A white chili kind of day

Chili is one of my favorite things to make. It's so versatile and packed with healthy ingredients. It's great for lunch, great for dinner atop some rice. You can dress it up with sour cream and green onions, or just add a dollop of yogurt to tame the spice.

I don't usually make it with ground beef (although my friend Stefanie makes the best of that beef kind -- I'll see if she'll give me her recipe to post). I usually make veggie chili, something that seemed so unusual to me in the mid-1990s, when I began working at the now-defunct Bloomington spot, Encore Cafe, where they served a delicious veggie chili packed with chunks of colorful vegetables and loads of cumin.

Since then, I've experimented with all kinds of the hearty soup (or is it technically a stew?). They are so simple to make, really, and they can just sit in the crock pot all day, intensifying in flavor. My top two recipes are white chicken chili and southwestern black bean chili. Tonight, we'll be having the white kind. I'll post the other recipe sometime soon.

White chicken chili (8-10 servings)

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 2 Anaheim peppers
• 2 cups of frozen corn
• 2 15.5-ounce cans of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1-1/2 cups crushed tomatillos (If I can't find tomatillos, I use mild salsa verde.)
• about 1 cup of water
• 1 bay leaf
• salt, to taste
• green onions, to garnish
• optional: one diced zucchini or yellow squash
• optional: 1/2 teaspoon or more cayenne pepper, if you like it really hot
  

1.) In a small saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for five minutes. Stir in the chili powder and cook another minute or so.

2.) Put that mixture with the rest of the ingredients into the crock pot (or a large pot on the stove, in which case you can let the mixture simmer gently for about an hour). Stir to combine ingredients, and cook on high for 2.5 hours or on low for 5 hours.

The question of the day is: What's your least favorite part of working in the kitchen? I absolutely hate to empty the dishwasher of clean dishes. I have no idea why.