Salmon with Asparagus and Shiitakes

Salmon with Asparagus and Shiitakes

I love pouch cooking. Why? Because it’s easily prep-able in the morning, and you can just pop it in the fridge till you get home after a long day of school/work/errands and put it in the oven right before dinner. It makes cooking dinner a breeze! Also, it’s a everything you need for dinner…protein from the fish, veggies mixed in, and usually I add some kind of carb or grain. This time I didn’t, but served it with couscous (takes only 5 minutes to cook), so dinner was ready in no time. Also, individual portions make it harder to eat too much for all those people on diets or doing P90X.  Continue reading

Hamud

Hamud by the Kosher Foodies

Hamud is a delicious lemony vegetable broth or sour sauce flavored with mint and filled with kibbe (haven’t heard of kibbe yet? Look at all the things you can do with it!). It’s a traditional Shabbat dish that we love eating on Friday night over rice. You see different families make it with different twists. Some people use citric acid, or sour salt to make theirs tart. I use fresh lemon juice. Continue reading

Braised Leeks

I bet you’re all in the kitchen, getting ready for Shavuot? Well, my favorite part about this Shavuot is the dairy desserts, since it’s our minhag to eat dairy during this chag, instead of the traditional meat holiday meals. But I’m not sharing a dessert with you now, we have plenty of those. I’m going to share a simple side dish instead. (Note: you can never have too many recipes for desserts! Especially ones loaded with cream and butter. But alas, we’ll share those with you some other time.)

I’d like to introduce to you my new obsession: braised leeks!buttery braised leeks, from the kosher foodies

We already know that I love leeks. Like in this lamb and leek hotpot, or this leek-fried rice. But those have other ingredients, in this recipe, the leek really is the star of the show! Continue reading

Couscous with Sauteed Greens and Tomatoes

Couscous with Greens and Tomatoes

I really like couscous, but it can get very boring. So I decided to layer it with some healthy stuff and make it sorta like a lasagna. I thought it was a hit! And so did Richie, who ate two bowls of it for dinner.

I was inspired to make this dish when my friend Danielle told me about a great couscous dish her mother made. Her ingredients were pretty much the same, but she used canned tomatoes and mixed everything together, more like a traditional couscous. When Danielle called it a couscous lasagna, I knew I had to try it. Plus, I’m on a healthy greens kick, so I was excited to use kale and spinach in the same dish. Continue reading

Asparagus Custard Tart

asparagus tart, by the kosher foodies

Spring is here! And spring means asparagus is in season. No more boring roasted or grilled asparagus, we’re going gourmet here. Now, gourmet doesn’t mean hard. Actually, while there are a few steps in this recipe (you should read it over once before actually attempting it – you’ll need to do a bit of juggling), it’s quite easy! and impressive looking. Feel free to use store-bought pie crust or even puff pastry, as in the original recipe.  Continue reading

Guest Post: Ourt-Braised Carrots

Remember Adele? She made something to serve on the side of the ginger chicken. Check it out:

I thought I was making mechshi cusa (stuffed zucchini), but when I went to get it from my freezer, I realized that I had only had dairy meschi, not meat.  I decided to braise baby carrots in the mechshi sauce I already made. They turned out so good!

ourt-braised carrots from the kosher foodies.

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Mushroom and Spinach Rice

Rice with an egg on top

Richie loves rice. So I try to make him rice in lots of healthy ways. I like adding veggies, cooking it in vegetable broth, adding an egg at the end for some protein. And of course I use brown rice. Rice is such an easy side dish, so I started trying to make it more often. It’s pretty cheap, can be brightened up in quite a few ways, and again, Richie really really likes to eat it. Eating it with a fried on top just means it’s a full meal for one of those really lazy weeknights. You have all your food groups right there! Vegetables, carbs, and protein. Plus the added deliciousness of the runny egg yolk mixed in makes it exciting enough to call dinner.  Continue reading

Portobello Mushroom “Pizzas”

mushroom pizza

Pizza is probably my all-time favorite food. I mean, what’s not to like? But sometimes I like to get creative with my pizzas. And maybe a little bit healthier. So this time, I wanted to make pizza that was made out of only vegetables. And it really worked, except that I had to add a little sprinkle of cheese on top, because cheeseless pizza is really not pizza at all.

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Veggie Muffins

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(Also called Toddler Muffins or Triple-Hitter Muffins)

I’m really not a fan of hiding vegetables in food. I mean, it’s just sneaky. But, there’s nothing wrong with making muffins out of a bunch of fruits and vegetables and them tasting good! who says it’s hiding? Richie loves watching me cook and bake, and it’s no different when I make these muffins. He sees the food processor shredding veggies and the Kitchen Aid mixing and it’s entertainment for an entire evening. Continue reading

Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli

Happy 2013!

I finally got Ina Garten’s new cookbook! It took a while, especially because I pre-ordered it on Amazon. Turns out, shipping during Hurricane Sandy got kinda iffy, and it just never showed up. Thanks to Amazon’s amazing customer service (once I figured out where to find it), they overnighted me a new copy! Yay! After looking through the recipes, and weeding out the very unkosher ones, I decided that a one-pot pasta dish was the perfect first recipe to try. Why? Because we love pasta! Because Richie loves pasta. Because It reheats easily on a weeknight. And because sausage is something I don’t cook much, so I thought I’d give it a try.

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