Recipe Round-Up: Isa Does it

Isa Does It ties with Appetite For Reduction as my favourite book by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I just love it, and I have cooked from it extensively. Recently, I joined Jenny-Marie in her cookbook challenge, and dipped back into a month of making as much as I could! Some of the recipes you see today will be from that, and some will be from the large backlog of things I have made that I am yet to blog! I highly recommend this book. You can see other recipes that I have already blogged from this book here.

Farmer's Salad with Chive Vinaigrette and Garlicky Thyme Tempeh: This green salad, which is full of soft potatoes, crunchy snap peas, and juicy sauteed king oyster mushrooms, would be lovely on its own. But to take it up to dinner status, I added the suggested tempeh. For the salad, instead of using baby rocket (we are not rocket/arugula fans in our house), I used a mix of baby spinach and soft salad leaves. I only made a half batch of the beautiful green dressing, which was more than enough. For the tempeh, I only had 150g (rather than 350g), so I just made a half recipe of the marinade (I marinated it for 24 hours). It was a great savoury and juicy grilled tempeh wedge.
Rating: Salad :), Tempeh :)



Meaty Beany Chili and Cornbread Muffins: This is a large recipe, so I halved it and got 2 dinners and one lunch, served with the muffins and some spinach. The full recipe uses a mix of kidney beans and black beans, but as I halved it I just used the kidney beans. I let out the capsicum and jalapeno, added just the slightest sprinkle of chili powder, and used regular oregano (I have never seen the Mexican one here). I did need to add some extra water, about 1 1/2 cups, during the simmering process. The cornbread muffins were super easy, and were a nice addition. I made a half batch of 6, and made 4 in the regular fashion. For the remaining two, I took the suggestion to add some blueberries and lemon to make them into a sweet treat - which was lovely!
Rating: Chili :), Cornbread Muffins :), Blueberry Cornbread Muffins :)



Chicky Tuna Salad Sandwiches: I love chickpea tuna salads, this one was OK. Not bad, but not one of my favourites. It has sunflower seeds in it, which was an new addition for me! Tragically, I discovered that my celery was off. I love celery in tuna salad, and I definitely missed its crunch. I also added some grated carrot, and left out the raw onion. I used the hand chopped method rather than the food processor, which was a bit more effort, but not too hard. The recipe says it makes 6 sandwiches, but I only got 3!
Rating: :|



Ancho-Lentil Tacos: These were SO GOOD! I love Isa's way of making the meaty lentils, it is so easy and they are so delicious. I haven't ever seen ancho chili powder here, and to be honest I wouldn't be using 2 teaspoons worth if I did. Instead I used some regular paprika with pinch of chili powder to add into the spice mix. I also left out the hot sauce! I served mine in crunchy taco shells, and they took me back to the taco nights of my youth. I also stuffed mine with some shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, avocado, coriander, and salsa.
Rating: :D



Pesto Risotto with Roasted Zucchini: This is a lovely green risotto, very savoury and satisfying. Isa's Bestest Pesto recipe includes walnuts, pine nuts, basil, coriander, and thyme, among other ingredients, which was really nice. The full pesto recipe said it makes 2 cups, and I only needed 3/4 cup for the risotto. I halved the recipe, but ended up with only 1/2 cup! It still worked. I had to add extra stock to my risotto to get it to cook up creamy, but my aborio rice was admittedly pretty old. My zucchini took forever to brown in the oven, but eventually they came to the party. This says it serves 6, but I got 4 servings over some baby spinach.
Rating: Risotto :), Pesto :)



Acorn Squash Risotto: Acorn Squash is not something I have found here, so I used some butternut instead. One of them had some slimy seeds, so I ended up with a bit less butternut than called for. Whichever squash you use, it is roasted first for extra flavour. This risotto is made creamy by the addition of some coconut milk, and I found it made it pretty soup. I followed the option to add a touch of maple syrup, though I found this made it quite sweet, so I added a fair bit of salt. On its own I found it a little too sweet, even served over spinach, but I think some nice marinated tofu would round it out nicely. I must also admit to sprinkling a fair bit of nooch on, which was great.
Rating: :)



Seitan & Wild Mushroom Stew: This is thick, satisfying, and savoury - perfect for a wintery day. Though living in Brisbane, I just have to imagine a wintery day! This says it serves 6-8, but I got 4 decent serves. Do I have an unusually large appetite? I used dried chanterelle mushrooms, but I also had a few swiss browns kicking around. I chopped and added them after the onions, for an extra mushroom boost. Can't have too many mushrooms. I enjoyed that the vegetables didn't get too mushy, they were perfectly cooked.
Rating: :)



Lentil-Quinoa Stew: Lentils, quinoa, and kale... almost as vegan as you can get! This stew is absolutely delicious! Though after cooking down all the kale (which took quite a while, the chopped leaves of two bunches to get 1lb), the stew became pretty thick, with not much liquid. Again, this said it serves 6, but I got 4 serves... granted I loved it so much that I wanted to eat as much as I could in a sitting!
Rating: :D



Dilly Stew with Rosemary Dumplings: I have never heard anything other than rave reviews about this stew, and with good reason - it is amazing! The stew is thick with vegetables, navy beans, and lots of dill (it calls for 2T, but I am a dill fiend so I always add more). I found the dumpling dough to be quite sticky, not really wet as the recipe describes. You are meant to get 14 dumplings, I accidentally made them a bit small and got 18. Serves 6-8? More like 4!
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I am quite taken with this gorgeous photo I took of Dim Sim and her reflection, enjoying some sunshine. How perfect is she?