Red Chilli Chicken with Black Beans and Rice

When I saw this recipe on Annie's Eats I knew I had to make it.  We love black beans.  This was so simple and easy to make.  I added some cayenne pepper to increase the spiciness and as usual increased the garlic.  The original recipe uses 15 oz can of black beans.  In Canada we only get 19 oz so that is what I used. I used basmati rice because that is what we always have on hand.  Make sure to soak it so it cooks well.  The original recipe serves it with just some salsa but I thought sour cream would go great with it too.  Without the salsa and sour cream this is a bit dry.  As usual it wasn't spicy enough for my husband but for me it was just right!

Mushroom Risotto

We really enjoyed the Spring Green Risotto I made a little while ago.  I had some arborio rice left and thought I would try to make a mushroom risotto.  I used the Porcini and Cremini Mushroom Orzo "Risotto" as a guideline.  It turned out really well and my 1 year old son loved it!  The next day it held up much better than the Spring Green Risotto.  I didn't put any cream cheese in it which helped it to not turn into a big pile of mush the next day.  I'm looking forward to trying more risotto recipes but it is something I wouldn't make regularly since it has a lot of starch.

Spring Green Risotto

I have eaten Risotto twice.  Once it was so delicious.  The other time it was extremely bland.  I have always been daunted with the idea of making Risotto.  I've  heard it is very time consuming.  Lately I've been looking at a few Risotto recipes and decided I would like to give it a try.  After reading a few recipes I realized compared to Indian cooking it really wasn't that time consuming.  The other thing I discovered was dry white wine is always added to Risotto.  So if you ever eat Risotto outside check if there is any alcohol in it.  Instead of wine I just used water.  I settled on this Risotto recipe because I had some asparagus in the fridge and needed to cook it before it went bad.  My changes to this recipe was mainly to reduce the fat but replacing the butter with olive oil.  I also used light cream cheese instead of mascarpone and significantly reduced the Parmesan cheese.  Even before adding all the cheese this was very tasty.  I also added garlic.  I don't think I cook anything without garlic.  I also used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.  I reduced the lemon zest and lemon juice as well.

Porcini and Cremini Mushroom Orzo "Risotto"

I have always wanted to try to make risotto but have always been so scared too.  It seemed like way too much work.  The first time I had it was at 3 Guys and a Stove in Collingwood, ON.  I had the mushroom risotto and it was amazing.  I loved that restaurant.  Everything I had there was so good and can't wait to go there again.  The second time I had risotto was at a big fancy restaurant and it was horrible.  So bland...it reminded me of gulati and it made gulati taste amazing.  (Gulati is something my mom would make if someone had diarrhea.  You cook basmati rice in a bunch of water and keep cooking until it's mush and then add some butter, salt and pepper).  After having that bland risotto I thought  I could cook better than this.  I found this recipe at Cookin' Canuck.  It looked so simple.  It wasn't traditional risotto but I wanted to give it a try.  The first time I made it it was a little bland for us so the next time I increased the onions, garlic and porcini mushrooms.  I only like to use whole wheat pasta so it took some searching to find whole wheat orzo and luckily at the same store I found porcini mushrooms.  Next time I would like to try it with arborio rice.  My four year old made a face as soon as he tried it since he doesn't like mushrooms but my 1 year old gobbled it up!

Simple Fresh Green Beans

I'm always looking for ways to add vegetables to dinner.  I found this really simple bean recipe at The Pioneer Woman.  With Indian cooking we have so many spices that it seems like it's not possible to make something taste good without a page long list of spices.  So it's so nice to find a recipe that tastes good and is so simple.  I used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. 

 

Red Pepper Soup

The first time I made this soup it turned out really good.  But I've never been able to re-create it until now.  Ever since I started doing this blog I've had to pay more attention to how much of each ingredient I'm putting it and it's helped my cooking.  Now I can re-create things I've made.  I usually make this with water but I had vegetable broth in the fridge so I used that.  Most of the red pepper soups I've had in restaurants have a strong tomato taste in them which I don't like. It feels like I'm have a tomato soup.  This soup isn't like that.

I adapted it from a recipe I found at AllRecipes.com.  My main change was to replace the heavy cream with evaporated milk.  I never have heavy cream at home.  I also added some sun dried tomatoes.  If you don't have any sun dried tomatoes, feel free to leave them out. 

Black Bean Soup

I found the original recipe for this on AllRecipes.com.  I made some changes to it to work with what I had in my fridge.  After looking at the original recipe I think I may try it now that I have most of the ingredients at home.  I usually make this with water but I had vegetable broth so I used that.

Lentil Soup

I got this recipe from a friend.  It is very easy to make and is very filling.  The changes I made was to increase the garlic and baby carrots.  Also, I use water.  I never have 6 cups of chicken broth lying around.  This soup is made in a pressure cooker but you could just as easily make it in a pot.  Serve with chilli oil (recipe follows) and slices of toasted baguette.  Now you can buy frozen loaves at the grocery store and just reheat in the oven for fresh bread.