Zesty & Spicy

If you like food, we'll get along *^_^*

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Chicken macedoine in the Instant pot

March 25, 2020 by Ariel Leave a Comment

Hard to beat this dish in term of comfort food and so quick and easy when you’re using an Instant Pot.

This recipe could be easily converted in a stove top version if you don’t have an Instant Pot, it will only takes a little longer.

I own the 7in1 duo mini Instant pot and it’s what I used for this recipe.

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Filed Under: Chicken, Instant Pot, Proteins, Recipes, Stews & Curries Tagged With: carrots, chicken, chicken stock, corn bits, easy, green peas, Instant Pot, macedoine, main dish, recipe

Mung beans Coconut Cream with red oil & fried croutons

June 5, 2018 by Ariel 1 Comment

Creamy, filling, satisfying, goodness *^_^*

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Filed Under: Comfort Food, Legumes, Proteins, Recipes, Soup, Stews & Curries Tagged With: beef stock, bois d'inde, carrots, chayote, coconut milk, eddo, malaguette, mung beans, recipe, red oil, soup, stew

Vegetable soup with ginger & lemongrass

February 12, 2018 by Ariel 2 Comments

The inspiration comes from a vegetable soup my grand mother used to make.  She used to cut all the vegetables in super small pieces and I always enjoyed the aesthetic of her presentation.  You could probably chop everything finely by hand but, if you’re in the lazy club (like me), a hand blender or a food processor work wonders.

This recipe isn’t the soup she used to make but, I would like to think it is as good or at least pretty close.

 Delicate, slightly sweet and made with our homemade vegetable broth.  The fennel leaves used as garnish but also as a component in the soup really shine with the star anise in the broth.  The ginger giving it a nice kick and the lemongrass as the last taste hitting your palate.  When it comes time to buy fennel, I always try to get the complete plant with the long rods and a lot of bright green leaves.  Back home, I’ll cut it up in “parts” and keep the leaves in a separate container to use them like any other fresh herbs.  Next time, I’ll probably add a little extra lemongrass because the taste could have been more pungent and, I would encourage you to do the same if you’re a big fan of lemongrass.

Makes three big portions or four smaller ones. Bon appétit!

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Filed Under: Gluten Free, Popular Diets, Recipes, Soup, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian Tagged With: carrots, celery, fennel hair, ginger, green cabbage, healthy, lemongrass, olive oil, recipe, soup, vegan, vegetable, vegetarian

Vegetable Broth

February 10, 2018 by Ariel Leave a Comment

I keep a lot of food scraps in my freezer.

Most of them are vegetables, fresh herbs and egg shells because there’s so much you can do with those and it’s almost a blasphemy to throw them out when you spent your hard earned money buying them.  It also goes with my “no waste” and “everything should be make from scratch” mentality because it’s very rewarding to create basic staple foods instead of buying them at the grocery.  This vegetable broth is a great example of “food recycling” and I really hope you’ll get the chance to try it and make it your own.

Plus, who doesn’t like to know that every pennies spent on veggies will go that much further and you’ll end up having a delicious and personalized broth ready to use in your future creations.

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Filed Under: #FoodieLife, Gluten Free, Popular Diets, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian Tagged With: bay leaves, broth, carrots, celery, cloves, corn husk, corn silk, easy, food recycling, garlic, ginger, green beans, green cabbage, morel mushrooms, onions, scraps, sea salt, shallots, star anise, stock, vegetable, veggies scraps, zucchini

Unicorn Meat Stuffed Bell Peppers

February 14, 2016 by Ariel 2 Comments

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  This is a nice recipe for all your meat lovers, vegan and vegetarian hater friends out there.

We all know a few, those people who absolutely despise tofu and would never indulge in a nice tofu anything even if their lives depended on it.  It will be able to fool any of those harsh critics and amuse them by the thought of eating unicorn meat.

Make the test, challenge one of your buddies and let’s see if they are able to taste this awful tofu they are so scared of.

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Filed Under: Popular Diets, Proteins, Recipes, Soy Based, Tofu, Vegetables, Vegetarian Tagged With: avocado oil, bell peppers, carrots, cauliflower, cilantro, coriander, easy, garlic, paprika, recipe, strained tomatoes, stuffed peppers, tofu, turmeric, unicorn meat, yellow onion

Herbes Salées (Salt Herbs Preserve)

October 16, 2015 by Ariel 2 Comments

HerbesSalees01

What an original and cleaver way to keep your dearest summer herbs during the cold winter months while creating a one of a kind topping and seasoning.  I love making salted herbs because you can go pretty much in any direction you want without worrying about bad bacterias…. thank you excessive amount of salt! lol!

This recipe isn’t an official recipe, every year the mix is different and with each different mixture, different recipes are being created.  This year, I wanted something basic that could go well with almost everything and here’s the result.

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Filed Under: Gluten Free, Popular Diets, Preserving / Canning, Recipes, Spice Blend, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian Tagged With: basil leaves, carrots, celery leaves, easy, ginger, green onions, herbes salées, preserve, quick, recipe, salt herb preserve, sea salt, seasoning, solar salt, topping, versatile

Quick & Easy Kimchi Soup + Tempeh & Lentils Bowl

August 4, 2015 by Ariel 1 Comment

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Today’s post is a 2 in 1…

Just the kimchi soup on it’s own is already delicious but once it a while I use to it make something a little bit more filling like this grilled smokey tempeh with lentils and rice filling bowl.

Two very simple, fully vegan recipes that can save you some precious time in the kitchen and keep you healthy and happy *^_^*

Bon Appétit!

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Filed Under: Legumes, Popular Diets, Proteins, Recipes, Soup, Tempeh, Vegetables, Vegetarian Tagged With: asian, bowl, carrots, chicken broth, dino kale, easy, kimchi, lentils, quick, recipe, reduced salt soy sauce, rice, smoked, soup, tempeh, vegan, yummy

Butternut Squash Curry

April 27, 2015 by Ariel 1 Comment

Butternut Squash Curry
This curry is perfect for dinner nights where you don’t feel like breaking your head too much and still look like you did.  I like the simplistic ingredients in this recipe, no complications, no pretension…. and no fuss!
A delicious and humble “stew” like dish that can conquer the pickiest palates.
…it looks pretty fancy too doesn’t it?  *^_^*
Bon Appétit!

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Filed Under: Gluten Free, Recipes, Stews & Curries, Vegetables, Vegetarian Tagged With: basil, butternut, carrots, coconut milk, comfort food, curry, easy, fresh, garlic, ginger, green onions, humble, leaves, recipe, squash, stew, winter

Easy & Humble Kale Soup

June 5, 2014 by Ariel 2 Comments

“Eat your greens or you wont have any desert!”

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…probably a sentence everybody heard a few times during their childhood.  I don’t remember being over difficult to feed as a child, beside the terrifying grilled white cod filet with tomatoes my mom used to make (I still have nightmares about it, true story), so I was happy (most of the time) to eat my greens.

Kale was introduce to my diet much later in life.  I do not recall my mom or dad buying any but, back then, the trend was more to eat spinach and I clearly remember the creamed spinach side dish my mom used to make.  Let me tell you… THAT was insanely delicious and now that I think about it, I’ll have to ask her for the recipe next time I see her.

You could probably make this soup with baby spinach as well.  Why do I say baby and no regular spinach?  Only because I’m thinking the bitterness of the fully grown spinach might be a little bit too overpowering for the humble and light taste of this soup.  While you can still try, I’m thinking that by trying to cover the bitterness, you might feel the push to add more salt and we all know by now that salt is a big no no for our dear arteries.

You can rock this soup in about 1:30 maximum and that’s with the prep included.  For those busy and lazy week nights, a comforting soup made with real and a small amount of ingredients is always welcome.

Bon Appetit!

Easy & Humble Kale Soup
 
Print
Prep time
20 mins
Cook time
1 hour
Total time
1 hour 20 mins
 
Author: ZestyandSpicy.com
Ingredients
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • ¾ to 1 cup of finely chopped (about 1 medium/big one)
  • 1½ cup of finely chopped carrot
  • 6 cup of chicken broth (no salt)
  • 4 cup of finely chopped kale leaves
  • ½ teaspoon of solar salt **
  • ¼ teaspoon of basil pepper ***
  • 1 tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce
  • ** Solar salt is something I discovered when I made my first batch of kimchi. It's basically aged sea salt and really has a nice and distinctive taste. You can obviously replace this salt by regular sea salt or table salt but I would much prefer sea salt just because of the yummy flavors.
  • *** Basil pepper is a spice blend of 3 types of peppercorns and basil leaves that I made last year and that will be on the blog this week but feel free to replace this with regular pepper. Like the salt measuring, feel free to tweak the quantity to your liking 🙂
Instructions
  1. - In a medium sauce pan, on the stove top at MEDIUM/HIGH heat. Start by gently grilling the freshly cut garlic and onion with the olive oil for 2-3 minutes.
  2. - Stir in the carrot, mix well and add the broth. Bring everything back to a gently broil, lower the heat and add the rest of the ingredients
  3. - Let simmer at low heat for 1 hour and serve!
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Filed Under: Gluten Free, Recipes, Soup, Vegetables Tagged With: carrots, easy, flavor, green, humble, kale, recipe, soup, spinach, yummy

BBQ Lamb Spring Rolls with Sweet Maple Sauce

March 30, 2013 by Ariel 4 Comments

BBQ_Lamb_Spring_Rolls01

It’s Easter tomorrow and since lamb is one of the preferred meat to eat on this day, I thought this recipe was perfect for the occasion.  I don’t think I need to explain again how I like to mix cultures because I have talked about it quit often in my previous posts.  Today I’m doing it all over again with these BBQ lamb Spring rolls with sweet maple sauce.  Yes maple again… lol  I think I’m seriously addicted and you can blame it on the fact that I’m Canadian 😉

They are fairly easy to do, you will only need a bit of patience.  The only “tricky” part would be if you never worked the rice paper but the only thing you need to make sure is you roll it tight.  My first goal was to make a step by step photo with this recipe to explain you how to roll the rice paper but I found this very useful and well explained link on VietWorldKitchen that I think will be perfect.

You can keep your spring rolls for one day in the fridge between layers of wax paper so they don’t stick together and what I like to do is to add a wet towel at the bottom of my container (under a wax paper) to keep some sort of moisture.

Bon appetit!

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Filed Under: Lamb, Maple Flavored, Recipes Tagged With: beef broth, black peppercorn, brown sugar, carrots, garlic, green peppercorns, lamb, lamg leg, maple, recipe, spring rolls, sriracha sauce, strained tomatoes, thyme, yellow onions

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Photography tale of an urban gardener…

Spring gardening in isolation

Winter gardening, years later.

Winter gardening…

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