Recipe Round-Up: Appetite For Reduction

Appetite For Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is one of my favourite cookbooks, and one of my most used. I reject diet culture, but I don't think about this book like that. It is full of delicious recipes, in true Isa style. However, it does have a teeny bit of nutrition stuff and calorie information in it, so if that is a trigger for you maybe skip it (or message me if there is a recipe that catches your eye!). You can see my previous posts on this book here.

Chipotle Lentil Burgers with OMG Oven-Baked Onion Rings: I made a half recipe of these to get three burgers. They have onion (it calls for red onion, but I used the inner rings of my white onion that I used to make the onion rings), zucchini, cilantro, and lentils in there. I used a smidge of tomato paste in place of the chipotles in adobe. I found this burger mix to be very soft and wet, and needed to add some extra bread crumbs to firm it up (I added an exgtra 1/4 cup). The Onion Rings were the true revelation of this dinner. Deep frying is not something I want to do (it is scary) and I can't eat a lot of deep-fried food before feeling sick, so these oven baked onion rings were a lot of fun! I used one onion and got 8 rings, and a half amount of the mixture. You dip the onion rings in a wet mixture and then into crumbs. I found that even with trying to shake them off after the wet mixture, my dry mix ended up very gluggy by the end. They still went nice and crunchy in the oven, but I needed to bake them for a few extra minutes at the end. I'd also decrease the salt in it next time as they were a bit too salty.
Rating: Burgers :) , Onion Rings :)



Grilled Portobellos: This is a simple way to get some lovely juicy mushrooms on your table. They are marinated for at least half an hour (I did two hours) in a white wine-based marinade, and then grilled. I did mine in the George Foreman grill and it only took a few minutes. Let cool and slice for whatever you want! You could also leave them whole and put them in a burger as the patty.
Rating: :)



Butternut-Apple Soup: Not surprisingly, this is quite a sweet soup. I made a 1/3 recipe to get one lunch sized cup serve, and I also had some grilled cheese on the side. It was a very thick soup, so I added a smidge more stock. Like a fool, I realised afterwards that I had forgotten to add the ginger, which would have been wonderful. I topped it with some bacon bits.
Rating: :)



Smoky Split Pea Soup: This soup has a great smoky flavour, courtesy of smoked paprika. Yellow split peas and carrots give it a bright colour, though you could use green split peas if you wanted. I served this with some bread and salad.
Rating: :)



Curried Chickpeas and Greens: I scaled this recipe down roughly, using one tin of chickpeas, 300g of kale, and on 400g tin of tomatoes... so it wasn't an exact scaling down. This made about three serves. It is that comforting vegan combination of beans and greens and, served over some brown rice, grains.
Rating: :)



Thai Roasted Root Vegetable Curry: This has a combination of roasted swedes, parsnips, and brussels sprouts, as well as sweet potato and carrots. I had extra sweet potato, so I did increase the water added a little bit. I tried making this using a smidge of green curry paste, but honestly green curry paste is just far too hot for me in any amount (where as I can take a small amount of red curry paste), so I found it a bit of the spicy side.
Rating: :) (from people who could handle the spice)



Chipotle Chili with Sweet Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts: This photo has been languishing a long time waiting to be shared... nine years in fact. Eeep! I have such a huge backlog of things to share. So I did actuall ymake this with chipotles in adobo, and it was OK because this was back before I lost all my heat tolerance. This also has pinto beans in it, and was served over some rice with a salad on the side.
Rating: :)



Quinoa, White Bean, and Kale Stew: Greens! Beans! Grains! This is a filling soup! It says it makes 8 serves, I got five. It has a lovely and easy herb blend (made from dried herbs), and then is also full of veggies such as leek, potatoes, carrots, and parsnips. It is lovely with a bit of nutritional yeast or balsamic vinegar drizzed on top. (Another one from the 9 years ago file... good thing I always make notes!)(
Rating: :)



Smoky Tempeh & Greens Stew: This is a nice, satisfying stew. I recommend making sure the tempeh is really well browned, otherwise it is a bit watery. The greens in this are kale and peas (which I used instead of baby lima beans), but it also has carrots and onion. It is a lot of greens, which is lovely, plus a hefty amount of smoked paprika (which I love).
Rating: :)



Irish Stew with Potatoes & Seitan: This is definitely the sort of stew you want on a cold winters night. It has potatoes, seitan, carrots, and green beans in it, and the broth has beer as well. I use a pale ale because I don't like strong beer flavours. Served with some bread and salad for a satisfying meal.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Another day, another sitting on me. Yesterday I was doing some core exercises on the floor, and Dim Sim thought it would be a good time to come and sit on top of me. She sat on me while I did my last two exercises, and then proceded to keep me trapped up her (all 2.4kg of her) for the next 40 minutes!