Recipe: Dragon Noodles

My second favorite food in the world happens to be Thai food. Specifically, anything made with rice noodles. So when I found a recipe for spicy noodles made with the oh-so-delicious sriracha sauce, well, I knew I'd found a great Thai potential!

 

I found this recipe on Beth M's amazing site called Budget Bytes. She makes some great food, and she also breaks down how much each recipe costs. Her ingredients are all simple and cost-effective, making her recipes things I really like.

Her recipe for Dragon Noodles, as she calls them, caught my eye, what with the noodles and the reddish sauce and all. YUM. I decided to make my own!

What follows is my take on the recipe with a few notes and "oops" moments as well. If you want to see her original recipe, check it out right here. Or, just check out her entire site!


Dragons Noodles

Ingredients
8 oz. rice noodles
2 tbs. oil
1/2 tbs. red pepper flakes
1/4 c. diced onion
2 eggs
1/3 c. bean sprouts
2 green onions, sliced
2 tbs. brown sugar
2 tbs. soy sauce
2 tbs. sriracha

Directions

1. Cook the rice noodles according to the package directions. Set aside for later. As the noodles are cooking, mix up your sauce. Beat the eggs in a bowl and have them ready to cook.

2. Heat up the oil in large saute pan. Add the red pepper flakes as the oil heats up.

3. Once the oil is hot, add the onion. After the onion has sauteed for about 2 minutes, add in the beaten eggs. Gently stir the eggs. When the eggs are halfway done, add in the bean sprouts. Cook until the eggs are done, continuing to stir gently.

4. Add the noodles and green onions, and then add the sauce. Mix the sauce and the noodles into the eggs gently. Press the noodles down into the pan for 1 minute, allowing a gentle brown to collect on the underside. Flip the noodles and press again. Remove from heat. Garnish with sprouts and crushed peanuts if you choose.

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Now for some pictures and thoughts from my process!

Boil the water.

Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package. Set aside once cooked.

Put the sauce together while the noodles are cooking. The sriracha sauce is super hot, so add a little less if you don't want it to burn your mouth off! We found the hotness to be pleasant, however.

Heat up the oil with the red pepper flakes. Use some peanut oil for some great Thai flavor if you want!

Add the onions to the hot oil and saute for about 2 minutes.

Add the beaten eggs to the onion and stir gently.

Add the sprouts to the half-cooked eggs. We used lentil sprout, which we made ourselves. Super easy, super nutritious, and great as an addition to foods that you want to have a "green" flavor.

Add the noodles to the cooked eggs. This is the point where you would also add the green onion, but unfortunately I began making this before I realized we were out! Don't forget yours because green onions? Yum.

Add the sauce to the noodles and stir it in thoroughly.

Press the noodles into the pan to allow a light brown to collect on the underside. This is my favorite part of most dishes. Remember, it's hard to leave it alone while you hear that sizzling sound. Don't touch them!

Plate up your dish! I added some more lentil sprouts to the top. Next time, I'll add some crushed peanutes for an extra Thai feel.

How pretty does that look?! It was also pretty delicious in our mouths. Yum. Definitely making this again.

Recipe: Peppers and Onions with Chickpeas

This last weekend Levi and I took an impromptu trip to the big city for some fun, relaxation, and entertainment. We had a great time and we ate some great food (including my favorite: sushi!), but at the same time, that great food we ate counted as eating out. And as anyone who cooks at home every night knows, eating out for a few days leaves a stomach feeling overly full, clogged, and a bit icky.

So when we got home on Sunday evening we really wanted something light that used only whole foods. We had some chickpeas left over from a curry dish I'd prepared the previous week, so we started with that. After rummaging around in our fridge and using some fresh produce a coworker gave us (always take advantage of those!), this is what we came up with:

Peppers and Onions with Chickpeas

Ingredients
2 c. cooked chickpeas
1 green pepper, roughly chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
1 tbs. oil
1/2 tbs. basil

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, toss in the onions. Saute for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and peppers and saute for about 5 minutes, or until pepper begin to soften.

2. Add the chickpeas and saute, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is as browned as you'd like. The more you let the mixture brown, the crispier and warmer it will taste.

*Hint: If you want that crispy and warm flavor like we do, you have to do the hardest thing in cooking: leave the pan alone! The more you move the food around, the less it will brown. Trust the pan, and let it sit for at least 30 sec. between tosses. It's harder than it sounds!

3. Once you've achieved the browned quality you desire, add the tomato and the basil. Fresh basil would be best, but dried is also fine. Saute this for about 2 minutes, or just until the tomato is hot. Salt and pepper to taste, then serve with bread or rice or the grain of your choice.

*Hint: This dish works best without the juice from the tomato. Once you've quartered the tomato, run the pieces under cold water and scrape out the juice and the seeds. Then you're left with just the delicious flesh of the tomato.

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This dish was just thrown together, but it turned out to be a wonderful, spicy, and light meal for two. Also, I had it for lunch the next day and I added a fried egg to the top. So good!

Here are the pictures of our process!

Our chickpeas that we boiled ourselves days before. Canned chickpeas would work well, too.

Rough chop the onion.

Dice the garlic.

We used a green bell pepper, but if you want it to feel warmer, try a red bell pepper.

One jalapeno was enough for us! Add more if you dare...

Garden tomato from a coworker. Working with lots of gardeners has its perks!

Saute the onions, garlic, and peppers.

Add the chickpeas and let it start to brown. We seasoned ours with salt and pepper at this point.

It will be hard, but you have to leave it alone! Get that delicious browned flavor!

Once it's browned to your desired point, add the tomato chunks. Levi likes it like this, but I probably could have seared the mixture even more! Bring on the brown!

Get yourself some basil onto it! Right now we only have dried basil, but someday soon, by gollly, we'll have fresh basil...

Our finished dish. Doesn't that look healthy, fresh, and delish?!

We ate ours with some homemade naan bread. The recipe for that should be up here someday!

Our condiment of choice, and Levi's favorite dessert! Don't add this if you want a vegan meal, naturally.

Recipe: Lentil Loaf

Ok, show of hands. How many of you have heard of lentils? How many of you know what they are? How many of you have actually had lentils? And, finally, how many of you have had them and enjoyed them?

If there aren't that many people left raising their hands, I understand. I must admit, I would have been one of the ones whose hand would have gone down at the "enjoyed" question. But then a few weeks ago a friend posted a picture of her lentil loaf dinner, and my brain went "!!!".

Levi and I have really been working on making lentils a staple of our diet because of their crazy awesome benefits--and the list I'm about to post comes from the Holy Grail of information sites: Wikipedia, but never, ever, tell my former students that!

Lentils are:

1. Chock-full of protein (30% of their calories are from protein)

2. Inexpensive

3. High in iron

4. Low in sodium

5. High in dietary fiber

6. Listed as one of the five healthiest foods

7. Crazy tasty!

Now that I've convinced you about the Wonder Food, the Lentil, using my scholarly research, let's get to the recipe for lentil loaf, which is now our favorite dish.

Well, top three at least!

Lentil Loaf

Ingredients:

Loaf:

1 c. dry lentils

3 c. chicken or vegetable stock

1 tbs. rosemary

1 egg or 1 flax egg (3 tbs. ground flax seed mixed with 1/2 c. warm water)

1 tbs. olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 onions, diced

1/2 c. green onion, diced

2 carrots, finely grated

1 apple, peeled, cored, and diced

1/4 c. raisins

1 c. bread crumbs

Glaze:

2 tbs. ketchup

1 tbs. balsamic vinegar

1 tbs. maple syrup

*Don't skip the glaze! It's well worth it!

Directions:

1. Cook the lentils. Rinse the lentils under cold water thoroughly. Pick out any small pebbles or gritty items that might be in them. Add the chicken or vegetable stock to a medium pot and bring to a boil. Add the dry lentils and the rosemary. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring those to a boil and then simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender, stirring frequently. This takes about 40 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the burner and set aside to cool.

*Side note: These cooked lentils were so good that we'd eat them plain like this! So if you don't want to go all the way to lentil loaf, just cook these, scoop them on top of some brown rice, and you've got an incredibly healthy and savory (and cheap!) meal.

2. Preheat the oil. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Prepare the veggie mix. While your lentils are cooking, dice and grate your vegetables and apple. Once these are ready, in a large skillet over medium heat, saute onion and minced garlic for about 5 minutes. Once the onions are tender, add the carrot and saute for 2-3 more minutes. Add the apple and raisins and saute for another 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, remove from the heat, and set aside.

4. Process 75% of lentils (optional). If you want a loaf with a smoother texture which holds its shape, you can do this step. Once the lentils are cooled, take 75% of the lentils and place in the food processor. Process them until they are mostly smooth and then add them back to the rest of the lentils. Personally, Levi and I like the chunky texture when we leave the lentils whole, and we don't mind if it crumbles a little bit!

5. Mix it up! To the lentils, add the egg, breadcrumbs, and veggie mixture. Stir well with a spoon. Mash it together with your fingers if you want! I, personally, love doing this. Taste and adjust the seasons as necessary, but I wouldn't recommend this if you're using a real egg!

6. Press into a loaf pan. Dump the mixture into a loaf pan (spray with cooking spray or coat with parchment paper) and press it firmly down. My tool of choice? A rinsed shopping bag! Using this, I can push as firmly as I want without any of the delicious mixture sticking to my hands, and I can smooth it down to remove fingerprints.

7. Prepare glaze. In a small bowl whisk together all glaze ingredients. Spread evenly over the top of the loaf.

8. Bake. Bake the loaf, uncovered, for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Cool for about 10 minutes, serve, and enjoy!

*Adapted from the recipe found at Oh, She Glows.

Recipe: Hummus

The first staple in the Gibson home is hummus. Now, here's the thing about hummus. It's always amazing at most Mediterranean restaurants, but then when you try to buy it at the grocery store it tastes oily, flat, and just a little, well, wrong.

We're here to tell you that it's because the less you put into it, the better, and the fewer preservatives that get added into it, well, that's good!

As long as you have some patience and a food processor, hummus is actually really easy and pretty cheap to make. So here's the recipe for you.


Hummus

Ingredients:

-- 1 lb. garbanzo beans
-- 2 tsp. baking soda
-- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
-- 1/2 c. tahini sauce
-- 1/3 tsp. salt
-- 2-3 lemons

Directions:

1. The night before you make the hummus, soak the garbanzo beans in 1 tsp. of baking soda. Levi and I learned through trial and error that adding baking soda is essential! It helps soften the beans significantly, which is crucial if you want that smooth, creamy texture that makes hummus so yummy.

2. When ready to prepare the hummus, drain the soaking water and rinse the beans thoroughly in cold water. Add the garbanzo beans to a stock pot with the other tsp. of baking soda add 6 c. of water (or until the beans are covered in half an inch of water). Bring the beans to a boil on high, then simmer on low for about an hour.

3. Skim off the white foam that appears in the surface of the water and dispose of it. Check the beans approximately 45 minutes into simmering to see if they are done. You can tell they are done when they mash easily between your fingers.

4. Once the beans are done, transfer them immediately to a food processor and save 1 1/2 c. of the cooking water. Add 1 c. of the water and begin grinding the beans. Add more water if needed and stop once the beans reach a creamy texture--not a thick paste, but also not like soup.

5. Add the salt and the garlic, then add the tahini sauce as the processor grinds away. After this your hummus will taste amazing, and it will be tempting to stop there!

6. Juice your lemons and add that to the hummus. Fresh lemon juice is, of course, better, and the amount of lemon juice is completely up to you. Levi and I like it to be more "lemony," so we use the juice from three, large lemons. Two lemons should be fine for most people!

7. Once the lemon juice is blended in, serve the hummus hot and fresh. We like to top ours with capers, paprika, and--occasionally--red onions, and we like to eat it with fresh veggies. You can also top yours with some nice olive oil if you'd like, and it's also delicious with pita bread and pita chips. It's also a pretty good (and healthy!) spread on sandwiches. And, as you can see, I like especially like using capers because it allows us to use our super cool tiny forks!

Note: This usually makes quite a bit of hummus, so we freeze half and slowly work through the other half. Depending on how often you'll eat it or how many people are eating it, the hummus could last through one huge get together or one month!