Sweet Chili Chicken

I love Thai dishes, so I was so happy when I stumbled across this simple recipe. It's slightly spicy and sweet and all around yummy. And, guess what? It uses more Tinkerbell peppers. I'm telling you, I'm gonna have to grow them myself next year with how much I'm going to use them.

Sweet Chili Chicken
Originally found at Blue Apron

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
Olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
6 ounces Tinkerbell peppers, diced
2 scallions, sliced and separated into white and green parts
2 Tbsp Ponzu sauce
1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
2 Tbsp water
1/2 cup jasmine rice, cooked

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in pan over medium-high until hot. Add chicken and cook 4-6 minutes until lightly browned and cooked through. Add garlic, ginger, peppers, and white bottoms of scallions. Cook until vegetables are softened and fragrant. Add sweet chili sauce, ponzu sauce, and water. Cook until liquid is slightly reduced in volume, approximately 1-2 minutes. Serve over rice.

My Notes:
The original recipe called for green beans, but mine went bad before I could use them, so I just left them out. Feel free to add other veggies. Broccoli would work well, as would zucchini, squash, asparagus, etc. Have fun with it!

Brown Butter Gnocchi

Gnocchi is one of my guilty pleasures--it features in far too many of my recipes. I need to go ahead and get some more from the store. I love it in soups, tossed with a nice and flavorful sauce, or as a quick snack with pesto. I'm not a huge fan of it in tomato sauce, since I was first introduced to it with pesto, and it seemed wrong, somehow, to switch to a tomato based sauce. So, I was quite excited when this recipe floated around.

Brown Butter Gnocchi
Originally found at Blue Apron

2 Tbsp butter
1 yellow summer squash, medium diced
1/4 cup almonds, finely chopped
1 lemon
10 ounces gnocchi
2 Tbsp creme fraiche
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a medium pan, heat the butter over medium-high heat until melted. Cook, stirring occasionally, 15-30 seconds, until the button foams, then continue cooking, swirling the pan consistently, 2-3 minutes, until the butter is deep golden brown and nutty. Add squash and cook until softened. Add almonds and cook until fragrant. Add juice of 1/2 lemon and stir to combine.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to boil and add the gnocchi. Cook untlt he gnocchi float, then drain thoroughly. Add gnocchi and creme fraiche to the pain of squash. Cook and stir until combined and slightly thickened. Garnish with cheese.

My Notes:
Browned butter is not something terribly easy to do, so be careful. It can burn easily. It's really the milk solids in the butter that you are browning. It's worth it, I promise. This comes out very nutty and sharp tasting. It's delightful and a nice way to add some veggies to my typical pasta dishes. I'm working on it.

Sweet Corn and Tinkerbell Pepper Pizza

I've been using Tinkerbell peppers for a while without knowing it. I just found them a cheaper substitute for red and orange bell peppers, since those are so. expensive. Unless I happen to catch them on sale. Which I usually don't. They seem to be a going theme with Blue Apron recently, as they are featured in several recipes across several weeks. Not that I'm complaining... it's nice to have something that can legitimately be used as a staple. Maybe next year I'll grow my own :)

Sweet Corn and Tinkerbell Pepper Pizza
Originally found at Blue Apron

Olive oil
3-5 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 lb plain pizza dough
3 ounces fontina cheese, small diced
3 ounces tinkerbell peppers, top and rind removed and sliced
1 ear corn, kernnels removed from cob
1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oven to 475 degrees. In a small pot, heat olive oil (2-3 tsp) on medium high heat until hot. Add garlic. Cook 1-2 minutes until golden brown and fragrant. Add tomato sauce. Cook 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Add red pepper flakes to taste. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lightly oil sheet pain or pizza stone. Gently stretch and roll dough into 1/4 inch thickeness. Rub the dough into the pan to coat in oil. Evenly spread sauce onto the pizza. Top with cheese, peppers, and corn. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until crust is light brown and cheese is melted. Allow to rest for 2 minutes, then serve.

My Notes:
You can buy premade pizza dough at your favorite pizza shop, or you can make your own, whatever suits your fancy the best. I fell in love with this recipe. Seriously. I'm pretty sure I ate the whole pizza, by myself, in a 24 hour pizza. One of the best pizzas I've ever had, and slightly creative in the ingredients for the toppings. Plus, you know, vegetarian.

Lentil Bolognese

Still going through the archives and found this one hanging out on my bookcase in my room. This one I legimately made months ago (I think I got it almost a year ago, actually). I'm shocked that I haven't posted it before, honestly. It is a very hearty dish that is filled with flavor. I was a little bit suspicious with the lack of meat, but the lentils actually substitute very well.

As a plus, I got a bunch of extra rosemary, so I have a nice little jar of olive oil that is being infused with rosemary sitting on my countertop. I can't wait to use it again.

This dish uses the typical base for most common soups and dishes: carrots, celery, and onions. At one point, I was making so many of these dishes that I just bought a bunch of each, chopped them all up, and froze them in individual portion sizes. Unfortunately, my freezer door got left open when I went out of town a couple of weekends ago, so I lost most of the things in my freezer. So, I have to start from scratch again with my food stores. Sadness.

In other news, I'm in my last year of training (for now)! It's been a long road, with crazy long hours and lots of missed sleep and not nearly enough time for me to actually explore my interests. This year, I will be working much harder while I'm at work, but will overall be working less. I'm excited to have some of my weekends back.

Lentil Bolognese
Originally found at Blue Apron

1 bunch rosemary, leaves removed from stems and stems discarded
3/4 cup green lentils
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup verjus rouge*
1 cup water
6 ounces fresh pasta*
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

In a medium pot, bring salted water to a boil. Add the lentils and cook 16-18 minutes, until al dente (slightly firm to the bite). Drain and set aside. Refill the pot with salted water and bring the water to boiling.

Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large, high sided pan over medium-high heat until hot. Add the rosemary leaves, cook 30 seconds to 1 minute, until crispy and fragrant. Remove the rosemary using a slotted spoon or spatula to a paper-towel lined pan. Add garlic, carrots, celery and onion. Season with salt and pepper. Cook 4-6 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened and fragrant. Add tomato paste. Cook an additional 1-2 minutes, until dark red and fragrant. Add lentils, verjus, and water. Simmer 10-12 minutes, until thick and saucy.

While the sauce cooks, add pasta to the pot of boiling water, stirring to prevent the noodles from sticking together. Cook 9-11 minutes, until the pasta is al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water, and drain thoroughly. Add the pasta to the sauce, and add water as needed to thin the sauce enough to coat the pasta. Garnish with fried rosemary.

My Notes:
Verjus rouge is a juice made from unripe grapes. If you cannot easily find it, a good red wine or red wine vinegar can be substituted, but you'll need to adjust it to taste.

For the pasta, fettucini was the original recommendation for this recipe, but any long noodle should do fine. You could also use short noodles (macaroni, etc), as you would any meat sauce, but it will obviously not hold the sauce as well.

Quinoa and Black Bean Enchiladas

I am way behind on my recipes. I have a bunch of photos stored away and a bunch of recipe cards just waiting to be typed up. I'm working on it now that I have a little bit of time to breathe. This recipe I actually made months ago and enjoyed it, and I just found the recipe card while I was cleaning up my kitchen, so I figured it was time to type it up and post it. I'm sure I have a photo somewhere, but I'm not sure where at the moment, so you get a photoless entry for now.

I'm really fascinated with tomatillos now. Which is probably a good thing, since evidently, one of my co-workers has a giant tomatillo plant that is making so much fruit he isn't sure what to do with it all. This recipe calls for them to be roasted first. I had an interesting experience with trying to chop them afterwards, because they just burst apart. So while the recipe calls for them to be chopped, I more like mashed them. The end result was essentially the same, I think.

When I've made salsa verde in the past, it hasn't come out right, but I do think it complements this dish well and adds some to the flavor. I like a little extra spice (though nothing compared to my Asian and Indian friends), so I used a whole Poblano and didn't blink an eye about having some seeds in there. There was nice heat.

Quinoa and Black Bean Enchiladas
Originally found at Blue Apron

1/2 cup quinoa*
4 large tomatillos, husked
1 Poblano pepper
Olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 Tbsp water
2 limes
1 1/4 cup cooked black beans (or 1 can), rinsed
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chile powder*
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
4-6 tortillas
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

Preheat oven to 475F. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Rinse the quinoa under cold water, then add to boiling water. Cook 16-18 minutes, until tender. Drain and transfer to a medium bowl. Place tomatillos and Poblano pepper on sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and roat 10-12 minutes, until browned and softened. When cool enough to handle, finely chop both the pepper and the tomatillos.

To prepare the salsa verde, heat 2 tsp olive oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat until hot. Add the onion, and cook 2-3 minutes until softened. Add water, the chopped tomatillos, and the chopped pepper (to taste). Cook 2-3 minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the juice of 1/2 lime.

To the bowl of quinoa, add the beans, all spices, and the juice of 1 lime. Drizzle with olive oil and stir to combine. Spread about 1/2 cup of the filling into the bottom of a baking dish. Spoon 1/4-1/2 cup of filling into each tortilla, roll tightly, then place seam down into the baking dish in a single layer. Pour the salsa verde over the enchiladas and top with cheese. Bake 13-15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and lightly browned. Garnish with remaining lime.

My Notes:
*Red quinoa was initially used in this recipe, and it does add some nice color to the dish. But I imagine just about any quinoa would work in a pinch. For additional flavor, try Chipotle or Ancho chile powder.

This dish was a little on the dry side, but I'm not entirely sure what I can add to the filling to make it more moist. Maybe more cheese? I also had way too much filling for the 4 tortillas that were originally part of this recipe, which is why I increased the number of tortillas compared to the original recipe.

Green Shakshuka

Green Shakshuka
Originally found at Blue Apron

1/2 pound tomatillos, husked and chopped
1/2 poblano pepper, seeds removed
1 yukon gold potato, chopped
1 eight ball squash, chopped into bite sized pieces
4 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp Za'atar
1 cup water
1 lemon
4 eggs
Feta cheese
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a sheet pan covered in foil, lay out chopped tomatillos in a single layer and drizzle with a small amount of olive oil. Place the poblano pepper skin side up on the pan and drizzle with olive oil. Roast in oven for 10-12 minutes, until tender. Once cool enough to handle, chop pepper into small pieces.

Meanwhile, in a medium pan (oven-proof, if you have one), heat small amount of oil over medium-high heat. Add potatoes and cook until light brown and tender. Add chopped squash and cook until tender. Add garlic and Za'atar seasoning. Stir to coat potatoes and squash well, cook 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Add chopped tomatillos, chopped pepper, and water. Cook, stirring occasionally, 6-8 minutes until thickened and saucy. Add juice of 1/2 lemon.

Create four small wells in the sauce. Gently crack one egg into each well. Cover pan and either move to the oven, or cook over medium heat for 6-8 minutes, or until egg whites are set and the yolks are cooked to your desired degree of doneness.

Top with feta and serve, garnishing with remaining lemon.

My Notes:
The first time I made shakshuka, I transferred the sauce to an oven-proof dish and finished making it in the oven. It took forever and a day. The second time I made it, I decided to just keep cooking it on the stovetop. And it took while, but it worked, especially after I put the lid on the dish. Now, that's how I make it. If you have a cast iron skillet, it'd probably work best if you put in the oven, but otherwise, I just prefer to use a saucepan to do it.

The eggs you can keep cooking however well you like. I am not a huge fan of poached eggs with runny centers, so I opted to cook them to soft-boiled consistency. The yolk is nice and creamy and crumbles well to mix with the sauce.

I also added a poblano pepper to this dish because traditional shakshuka is made with red peppers, and I like a little heat to my dishes. I happened to have half of a roasted pepper leftover from a previous dish I made, and I chopped it up and added it to the dish. It added a small amount of heat to the dish, and added to the overall green color.

The dish is pareve if you don't add the feta cheese at the end, so that's the category I'm listing it under.

Brie and Strawberry Grilled Cheese

Grilled cheese is one of my favorite comfort foods, and I love trying new variations of it. We actually have a restaurant right around the corner from my apartment that specializes in grilled cheese, but they don't have much in the way of sweet and cheesy combinations. The classic grilled cheese with the American cheese is obviously great, and a variation with mozzarrella and pesto and tomato is also a good go-to, but when I saw this come up in my Blue Apron rotation, I had to try it.

It was so worth it.

Brie and Strawberry Grilled Cheese
Originally found at Blue Apron

4 slices bread
4 ounces brie cheese, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp butter
6 ounces strawberries, medium chopped
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 Tbsp light brown sugar

In a small pot, combine strawberries, lemon zest, lemon juice, and brown sugar. Heat until boiling, then reduce and allow to simmer 10-12 minutes, until thickened and strawberries have softened. Remove from heat and allow to cool 2 minutes.

Butter one side of each slice of bread. On the non-buttered side of two slices, lay sliced brie. Top with cooled jam, followed by slice of bread with the buttered side up. In a pan over medium-high heat, cook one side of the grilled cheese until light brown and crispy. Flip and cook until other side is light brown and crispy and cheese has melted well.

My Notes:
I left the rind on my brie. You can take it off if you desire, it just gets harder to get the cheese out. This was a nice mix of salty and sweet, and the bread I used was nice and thick and chewy. I imagine this would be good with store-bought preserves as well, and I've definitely seen variations with pears instead of strawberries, but strawberries are in season right now.

General Tso's Chicken

Chinese food is one of my go-tos. Along with Mexican. I know it's bastardized by American culture, but it's just such a comfort food for me. I enjoy trying out new dishes at home, and saw this one in my rotation and was intrigued. Ketchup in a Chinese dish? Clearly, not very authentic, but it somehow works. And this is such a simple dish to throw together that it's definitely worth trying again.

General Tso's Chicken
Originally found at Blue Apron

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup cornstarch
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp soy glaze*
1 Tbsp Sambal Oelek, to taste
1 Tbsp Sesame oil
1/4 cup ketchup
2 scallions, chopped with green and white ends separated
Oil

Toss the chicken in cornstarch, shaking off excess. In a frying pan or wok, heat 2 Tbsp oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add chicken to the pan and cook until golden brown. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate and set aside.

Heats sesame oil over medium high heat in same pan. Add garlic and white bottoms of scallions and cook until fragrant. Season with salt and pepper. Add soy glaze, sambal oelek, and ketchup. Stir to combine. Add chicken back to the pan and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over rice and garnish with green tops of scallions.


My Notes:
*Soy glaze is a thicker, sweeter version of soy sauce. You can buy it directly, or make your own.

The original Blue Apron meal came with snow peas, which were much better than I expected them to be. Nice and crisp, and fresh tasting. Simple to make, simply cut off the ends, remove the fibrous strand that runs along the length of the pod, then cook in a small amount of oil until bright green.

See, I'm being good and adding veggies to my diet :)

Trinidadian Chicken Curry

This is a spin on a traditional southern dish of shrimp and grits. If you haven't tried grits before, give it a try with this recipe. They are nice and creamy thanks to the coconut milk, and the seasoning on the chicken is a nice accent to the overall dish.

I've never been a big collards person. I'm not from the south, was not raised eating collards. But, as with sauteed spinach, I really do think it depends on how it is cooked. Most southern collards are drained of most of their color (they take on an ugly grayish green color), texture (they are basically mush)... not to mention they are made with ham hock, which precludes me from eating them anyway. But these still have a bit of a bite, have a beautiful emerald green color, and are simply seasoned with garlic. They serve as a nice accent to the overall dish and get some vegetables into the otherwise grain and protein dish.

The chicken thighs are nice and tender, and are kept tender with the lime juice. I almost wish I had put the lime juice into the dish before I cooked the chicken, as I imagine this would have made the chicken super juicy as well. But it was good enough as is. I can't wait to experiment with this dish a little more (particularly the spices).

Trinidadian Chicken Curry
Originally found at Blue Apron

4 boneless, skinless, chicken thighs, chopped into bite sized pieces
2 tsp Trinidadian Curry Spice Blend
3/4 cup yellow grits
1 can (14 ounces) coconut milk
1 lime, juiced and zested
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch collard greens, stems removed and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp dried coconut flakes
Olive oil
Water
Salt and pepper

Combine chopped chicken and spice blend; set aside. In a medium pot, combine coconut milk and 1 1/2 cups water. Season with salt. Heat to boiling on high, then slowly add the grits. Whisk to break up any clumps. Reduce heat to low and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened and tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Heat a medium, dry pan on medium high heat. Add coconut flakes and heat until toasted and fragrant. Transfer to plate/bowl and set aside. Heat 2 tsp olive oil in medium pan over medium-high heat until hot. Add half the garlic and the collard greens. Cook, stirring occasionally, 2-4 minutes until the garlic is fragrant and collards have wilted. Transfer to plate and set aside.

Heat 2 tsp of olive oil over medium high heat in pan used to cook collard greens. Add seasoned chicken and remaining garlic and cook 5-7 minutes, until browned and cooked through. Add lime juice and 1 Tbsp water. Stir to combine, scraping up browned bits in the pan.

Serve grits, topped with collard greens, and topped with chicken. Garnish with toasted coconut flakes.

My Notes:
Be sure to avoid the fibrous stems of the collards; they take away from the dish. Chop them however you want; I left them as little ribbons, but chunks would've worked just fine as well.

Be careful with the grits. They can lose moisture and get really thick really quickly. If they are too thick for your taste, slowly work in 1/4 cup of water to your desired consistency.

I decided to give all these recipes at the same time instead of breaking them up as I have in the past because I really don't think these would work very well as individual dishes. There's something about combining all of them.

Maple Glazed Carrots

I've never really been a fan of cooked carrots. Something about the texture. If you haven't gathered yet, I'm rather big on texture. But I had these carrots with one of my meals, and I enjoyed it. The carrots were not cooked excessively, so there was still some crunch, and they had a delightful glaze on them. The original recipe is dairy; however, I'm sure it can be adapted to be pareve to serve with chicken or beef.

The recipe this came with (linked below) was okay, but the overall flavor left something to be desired. And of course, it's not kosher given the butter and chicken. But, this dish was good and I'd probably make it again.

Maple Glazed Carrots
Adapted from Blue Apron

1/2 pound carrots, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces*
2 Tbsp maple syrup
Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp butter
Olive oil
Water

Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat until hot. Add carrots and season with salt and pepper. Cook 4-6 minutes, until slightly softened. Stir in syrup, lemon juice, and 1/2 cup water. Cook 3-5 minutes, until liquid is almost completely reduced in volume. Remove from heat and ad butter, stirring until melted and well combined. Serve warm.

My Notes:
*If you are using large carrots, I recommend halving or quartering lengthwise, then cutting into 2-inch pieces or so. If you are using baby carrots, then I recommend cutting in half lengthwise and using as is.

Butter Lettuce and Chive Salad

This salad was initially pictured with the quiche recipe from last week, but it's such a light and refreshing recipe that I wanted to include it separately. Butter lettuce has a different texture than my typical romaine lettuce--it's much more soft and, well, buttery, than the crunch of romaine or even iceberg. It peels apart very easily and is soft and almost velvety on the tongue, but still with some crunch in the background.

The lemon and chives add a nice accent to this dish. This is actually the first time I tasted raw shallots, and I'm sufficiently impressed that I might actually use them in some of my other recipes. It's not an overwhelming onion taste, but a nice tang in the background.

Butter Lettuce and Chive Salad
Originally found at Blue Apron

1 head butter lettuce
Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp minced shallot (about half a small shallot)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 bunch chives, minced

Trim off and discard the root end of the lettuce. Separate and rinse the leaves. Tear or roughly chop into bite sized pieces. Combine the lemon juice and shallot, then slowly whisk in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Combine the lettuce and chives, and top with vinaigrette to taste.

Vinaigrette keeps in the fridge for 2-3 days, so it can be made ahead.

My Notes:
Light and refreshing, just like I said. Squeeze the lemons with a juicer or over your hand to prevent seeds from going into the vinaigrette.

Goat Cheese and Kale Quiches

This was an interesting dish, and I'm still working on the tweaks to it. I'm not a huge fan of the texture of the recipe as written. I think there was far too much kale and onion, and not nearly enough egg, so my recommended changes are as below. But feel free to adjust the proportions to your taste.

The actual ingredients were interesting. I liked the caramelized onion, and the ricotta added a nice creaminess to the quiche itself, while the goat cheese added that final hit of tang. And of course, any way I can get my greens in, I'll take. I'm actually finding that many dishes that I previously shied away from are much better if you make them yourself and by hand. More on that to come.

This is served with a simple salad that I will include in a separate (future) post.

Goat Cheese and Kale Quiches
Originally found at Blue Apron

3 eggs
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
Olive oil
1 small sweet onion, sliced thinly
1 small bunch kale, stems removed and roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
1 large pie crust (for a regular sized pie)
Water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Scramble the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Add the ricotta cheese and 2 Tbsp water. Set aside.

In a large pan, heat 2 tsp olive oil on medium-high heat until hot. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally until lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes. Add 1 Tbsp water and continue to cook 2-4 additional minutes, until onion is soft and tender. Add garlic, kale, and additional 2 tbsp of water, scraping the bottom of the pan frequently. Cook 2-3 minutes, until kale is wilted and garlic is fragrant.

Allow vegetable mixture to cool slightly, then stir small portion of vegetables into egg mixture. Stir well, then add the rest of the vegetables.

Place pie crust into pie pan and place on a sheet pan. Pour in the egg mixture. Top with crumbled goat cheese. Bake 18-20 minutes, or until the crusts have browned and the filling is cooked through and lightly browned on top. Remove from oven and allow to rest at least 5 minutes before serving.

My Notes:
From personal experience, the smaller you can chop the kale the better. It's rather annoying to try to cut or bit into a piece of the quiche and have it completely fall apart because your kale is particularly large and going through multiple parts of the quiche.

You want to add a bit of the vegetables to the egg mixture to prevent the eggs from cooking as soon as you add your vegetables. This should be pretty minimal given the ricotta cheese, but better safe than have a weird texture in your quiche.

I also get a lot of garlic with these recipes, so always end up using way more than they tell me to in the recipe, but I'm a huge fan of garlic, so you can increase or decrease to your liking.

Orange, Green, and Black Salad

Salad shown with seared salmon

This Blue Apron meal was interesting. The salmon wasn't very flavorful and I was not impressed with the overall flavor profile, but I fell in love with this salad. I was first introduced to black rice (also known as purple rice due to the color the water turns when you make it, or forbidden rice) several years ago. It has a wonderful nutty taste and naturally has a little crunch (even if you boil the heck out of it). I don't have much opportunity to actually eat it, but it's always a nice treat when I do.

This salad has a wonderful mix of crunch, creaminess, and tang. And it's hardy enough to be a meal on its own. Feel free to add some protein source to it if you so desire, though.

Orange, Green, and Black Salad
Originally found at Blue Apron

2/3 cup black rice
2 Tbsp pepitas
3 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and medium diced
1 navel orange, peeled and medium diced
Juice of one small lime
Zest from one small lime
1 shallot, finely diced
1 bunch cilantro

Heat a large pot of salted water to boiling on high. Add the rice and cook 27-29 minutes, until tender. Drain and rinse briefly under cold water. While the rice is cooking, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium high heat, then toast the pepitas until lightly browned and fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Combine the lime juice with the diced shallot. Slowly whisk in 2 Tbsp olive oil until well combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Combine rice, avocado, orange, lime zest, and toasted pepitas in a large bowl. Toss with vinaigrette just before serving and garnish with cilantro.

My Notes:
This dish actually keeps pretty well. If you don't make it all at once, dice and add the avocado last, just before serving, as the juice of the limes and oranges will keep it from browning. I'm perfectly content to keep this as a side dish, but again, feel free to add protein if you want to make it a full meal.

Guacamole

A few years ago, the thought of guacamole grossed me out to no end. I think a lot of it was the color--mashed green stuff--but I went to a party that had a very simple... I don't know if I'd actually call it a guacamole given that the avocados weren't mashed. It was more of an avocado salad with coarsely chopped avocados, cilantro and lime juice. I tried it to be polite to the host (who was one of the higher ups in my school at the time), and fell in love with it.

I've been toying with various recipes since then. I don't use the prepackaged spice mixes ever. I think it takes away from the variety of flavors that you can introduce. I mix up the recipe literally every time I make this recipe, but that's how all good cooks operate, right? This is more of a baseline recipe for someone starting out. If you don't like a particular flavor, swap it out.

Guacamole
Original recipe

3 ripe avocados
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Roma tomato, chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
small bunch of cilantro, chopped roughly

Cut the avocados in half, remove the pit, and spoon the flesh into a bowl. Mash to desired consistency (or use a food processor). Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Season to taste. Serve cool with tortilla chips.

My Notes:
I like the addition of Greek yogurt to the recipe, because it adds some additional protein and creaminess to the dish without detracting from the flavor. It works best if your guac is very creamy, but some chunkiness will also blend with the yogurt. I've seen some people just add a pico de gallo to the mashed avocados in lieu of adding tomatoes and garlic. This whole dish takes about 15 minutes to prep, so it's a relatively quick thing to do while you're waiting for something else to cook.

Steak Tacos with Mole Verde

The one downside I've found to Blue Apron recipes is that they don't include spice ratios. They just mix the spices themselves and say in the recipe 'spice blend' that includes x, y, and z. Which doesn't really help when I'm trying to recreate the dish. But, nevertheless, I try.

This recipe calls for making a mole verde from tomatillos, a tart cousin to the tomato. They come with dry husks, and leave a sticky fruit when the husk is removed. Make sure to rinse them off well after removing the husk. The tacos are topped off with radishes, which is something I would not have tried on my own, but adds a nice crunch to the end of the taco.

Steak Tacos with Mole Verde
Adapted from Blue Apron

1 6-8 ounce steak
2 tsp spice blend*
2 Tbsp pepitas
4 ounces tomatillos, husked and medium diced
1/2 cup water
1 lime, quartered
1 avocado
1 small bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp cumin (more or less as desired)
6 corn tortillas
2 radishes, sliced thinly
Olive oil

Heat one tsp olive oil in a medium pan over medium high heat until hot. Add the pepitas and cook, stirring occasionally, 2-4 minutes until lightly browned. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate and season with salt. Set aside. Pat the steak dry with paper towels and rub one quarter of the spice blend into each side of the steak. Heat 2 tsp of olive oil in same pan used to toast the pepitas over medium-high heat until hot.

Add seasoned steak to pan and cook 4-5 minutes per side for medium well, or until cooked to your desired doneness. Transfer to a plate and top with the juice of one lime wedge. Allow to rest 5-10 minutes before slicing thinly against the grain of the meat.

Add tomatillos and remaining spice blend to the pan used to prepare the steak; cook 1-2 minutes, until fragrant, then add water to the pan. Scrape up the brown bits from the steak to incorporate into the sauce. Cook, stirring occasionally, 5-7 minutes, until sauce becomes thickened. Remove from heat and add pepitas, juice from 1-2 of the lime wedges, and 1/2 of the chopped cilantro. Mash the tomatillos with a fork to desired consistency.

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Scoop out the fruit into a bowl. Mash to desired consistency and add the juice of the remaining lime wedges. Add 1/2 of the chopped cilantro and the cumin to taste.

To assemble the tacos, warm the tortillas slightly. Spread a thin layer of the guacamole onto the tortilla. Top with a couple strips of steak, then a spoonful of mole verde, and finally the sliced radishes.

My Notes:
Overall, a very flavorful dish, but it is not for everyone. Mole in general (the sauce made from tomatillos) is very strong, and this one is no exception. I happened to enjoy the wonderful kick of it. I will have to play with spices a little next time I make the dish, as I'm not sure I got the proportions correct, but it was my best effort.

The original recipe called for simply slicing the avocado and putting it on top of the tacos, which I suppose is a fine way to use avocados. I find the texture of sliced avocados weird for how it looks, so I prefer to just make a quick guacamole from it (which I expect to be mushy and thus don't have an issue with the texture. I know, I'm weird). I think the simplicity of the guacamole does well in this dish, without my typical additions.

*My best guestimate for the spice blend: 2 parts chile powder (mix different chile powders in equal parts for some added flavor), 1 part ground cumin, 1 part garlic powder, and a dash of oregano).