FitFool

I'm always looking for more ways to add vegetables to our diet. Here's an easy dish to cook up several helpings of veggies at once.

Trying to catch up on posting recipes. I'm posting this one since it was easy to make, healthy and low-fat, and made for a colorful photo. I didn't have any chutney so I had found it a little on the bland side. Maybe I needed to add some salt? Not sure. But if any of you doctor it up so it becomes one of your favorite recipes, do let me know. I've loved Major Grey's chutney in the past so maybe I just need to get a bottle of that and then this recipe could be a new favorite.

Looking for new ideas for cooking pumpkin? I first made this soup in 2007. My boyfriend, Brian, liked this so much he ate three bowls of it while standing in front of the stove. Why would I then wait so long before posting? Because my photos made it look like unappetizing baby food with the consistency of applesauce. But! It tasted great. And now I have a better photo so I can share this recipe with you.

Several years ago, on one of her visits, my mom left me with a bag of fresh pea pod stems. "What am I supposed to do with this?" I wondered. She said it was very simple (everything in the kitchen is very simple to her it seems). "Just stir-fry some garlic, then the leaves and some salt. That's it!" I was doubtful since really I thought the joy is in the pea pods, not the stems. But I hate wasting food so I cooked it up and was surprised to find that it tasted really good. I forgot about it after that. The leaves had come from my mom's garden and I had assumed it was a dish that she came up with to make use of as much of the plant as possible. It didn't occur to me that I could get this at a restaurant.

Fast-forward several years and I'm browsing chowhound.com and noticing lots of posts extolling the tastiness of pea pod stems. So I went to a Chinese restaurant, saw it on the menu and was happy to find that yes, it was the same thing and they cooked it even better than my first attempt. More good news is on the way. It turns out that you can buy fresh pea pod stems in Asian grocery stores. Good thing...in the restaurant, the dish seems to range from $10-12. At the grocery store, the leaves were $5 per pound so a medium to big bag of it was about $3.50. Simple and quick to prepare. The tender leaves shrink down pretty quickly so be careful not to overcook them. After several attempts, I think I've finally got it down. The trickiest part for me was salting...I kept under-salting.

If you order it at a restaurant, ask for chao3 dou4 miao2 (I think that's how you write it in pinyin). It's pronounced kinda like 'chow dough meow'. Really yummy and good for you too!


( Click for recipe and bigger photos )

I didn't have any fresh cranberries for the relish so I just sprinkled some dried cranberries on top. The soup itself came out kind of bland. But when eaten with the cranberries, it was a nice taste blend. The combination tasted better than the soup alone and better than the dried cranberries alone. It's healthy. I told one dieting friend that it didn't even have any butter in it and my boyfriend retorted, "Oh! THAT'S what's wrong with it. It needs a stick of butter."

hanseth posted this recipe for Stuffed Spaghetti Squash. So I cobbled together this recipe after reading her post and the original post from Straight From the Farm based on what food I had on hand.

I had never cooked or eaten a spaghetti squash before. I was thrilled to scrape it out with a fork and see it separate out into strands and think to myself, "Oh! So that's why it's called spaghetti squash!" However, I was surprised that the texture was slightly crunchy. Is that how it's supposed to be? Or did I need to roast it longer? Cranberries were decidedly tart. Brian saw the bright red and kept expecting it to be sweet before he realized they were cranberries. Next time I think I'll reduce the cranberries to 1/2 cup and add 1/2 cup of golden raisins to add some sweetness.

Afterwards, we salted the squash seeds and fried/toasted them in some vegetable oil. Yum. Not as wonderful as the pumpkin seeds but still very tasty. I'm bummed that the grocery store doesn't seem to sell pumpkins anymore. Is it just a Halloween thing? In any case, I may be cooking squashes more often just to get at their seeds.

I was pleased with this dish since it made sure I ate my veggies. I served it up with a Sausage Pasta Bake. And if you're counting (and I certainly am), this makes #47 in my quest for 50 new recipes tried in 2007.