Lemon Garlic Lentil Soup

This is a flavorful alternative to the dreaded lentil soup. It is zesty and garlicky and legitimately delicious while being maximally healthy.

Estimated preparation time: 30 min
Snagged from delish.

Ingredients

• 1 cup lentils
• 3 celery
• 3 carrots
• 1 onion
• 1 head of garlic
• 5 cups broth of choice
• 1-2 lemons
• 1/3 cup parsley
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• Italian seasoning
• Salt and pepper
• Red chili flakes (for some spice)

Procedure

1. Sauté onion, carrots, celery, and garlic with thyme, red chili flakes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.

2. Add the lentils, broth and bay leaves.

3. Let simmer until lentils are cooked.

4. Add lemon zest and juice and let ruminate a young minute. 

5. Serve hot with parsley and perhaps more lemon juice. 

Brioche Hamburger Buns

These buns are buttery and soft but nice and lightly crusty. They might steal the show from your burgers fair warning. Also, the time demands might seem steep but these buns are surprisingly fast and easy, just require a bit of rising patience.

Makes 8
Estimated preparation time: 30 minutes
Estimated total time: 5 hours
Adapted from the clever carrot.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water
• 3 tablespoons warm milk
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2.5 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3.3 cups white flour (or bread flour)
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 2.5 tablespoons butter
• Sesame seeds (optional)

Procedure

1. Mix the warm water, milk, sugar and yeast. 

2. Beat one egg in a separate bowl.

3. In another bowl, mix flour, salt and butter until just mixed. 

4. Add the yeast mixture and the beaten egg and mix until just mixed.

5. Let rise until doubled in size, 1-2 hours depending on the temperature of the kitchen. 

6. Divide dough into 8 pieces. Form the ball by flattening the dough with the palm of your hand and bringing the edges together, pinching them to seal. Give it a quick, light roll and place on baking sheet with a couple inches between one another. 

7. Let sit, covered for 1-2 hours until lightly risen. 

8. Preheat oven to 400F. Apply egg wash to the rolls of dough and sesame seeds. 

9. Pop buns into the oven. (If you'd like some extra crustiness, add steam by tossing some ice cubes into a preheated skillet)

10. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Thai Chicken Soup

This soup is like chicken noodle soup on steroids. It is packed with flavor and can be made as spicy or mild as desired.

Estimated preparation time: 45 min

Ingredients

• 2 cans coconut milk
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 onion
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 ginger
• 4 cups chicken
• 3 cups mushrooms
• 2 teaspoons red curry paste
• 1 jalapeno
• Rice noodles
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 3 tablespoon fish sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cilantro, lime, garlic chili sauce to garnish

Procedure

1. Chop chicken, onion, ginger and garlic and sear with salt, pepper, and red chili flakes til chicken is just seared. Take chicken out and set aside. 

2. Add chicken broth, coconut milk, curry paste, fish sauce and juice of one lime to the aromatics and let simmer 20-30 minutes. 

3. Add jalapeño if more spice is desired. Put the chicken and mushrooms into the broth and let simmer until just underdone. 

4. Add rice noodles, being sure to stir. 

5. Serve with lime, cilantro, jalapeño, and the garlic chili sauce. 

Papa's Bulgarian Salad

This salad is crisp, refreshing and perfect for the summer. It will keep in the fridge for up to a week.

Estimated preparation time: 30 min

Ingredients

• 2 bunches of parsley
• 2 green bell peppers
• 1-2 cucumbers
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 bunch green onions
• 1 cup feta cheese
• Juice of one lemon
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Procedure

1. Chop vegetables to a small or medium dice. 

2. Add lemon juice and olive oil, adding more or less of either if desired. Season with salt and black pepper to taste and toss. 

3. Add feta cheese and serve chilled. 

Ratatouille

This ratatouille is wildly easy and delicious. The main issue is the patience it takes to let the vegetables really cook.

Estimated preparation time: 15 min
Estimated total time: 1.5 hr

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant
• 2 zucchini
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 red onion
• 1 head of garlic
• 1-2 tomatoes
• Italian seasoning
• Fresh basil (optional)
• Olive oil

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 400-450F.
2. Chop all the vegetables into healthy, similarly-sized slices. Crush the garlic and add to the vegetables.
3. Season with Italian seasoning, black pepper, salt, extra rosemary perhaps and drizzle with olive oil.
4. Toss the vegetables and spread them out in a greased baking pan, preferably only a couple of layers of vegetables so they can interact more directly with the heat in the oven.
5. Put the pan uncovered into the oven and let cook for 20-30 min. Flip the vegetables and let cook another 20-30 min until they are nicely browned.
6. Serve hot or cold with fresh basil.

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

Surprisingly good despite looking terrible.

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

2 c flour
1/4 t baking soda
1 T baking powder
pinch salt
6 T butter, cold
1 c buttermilk
1/2 c sugar

Preheat oven to 450F.  Butter baking sheet.  Cut butter into the flour, soda, powder, and salt. I left it in enormous chunks.  Add the buttermilk, barely mixing, and sugar.

Directions are to gently pat the dough on a floured surface into a 1/2" thick layer.  Then fold over itself several times, patting back down into a 1" thick layer.  Cut out with a round cutter.

Instead, due to lack of time and other pressures, I broke off sticky clumps and formed small mounds on the baking sheet, patting those down to about 1" thick.

Bake for about 20 min.  The result looked crusty and burnt, so probably a hair less time would be ideal, but the biscuits were crunchy outside and soft inside.  Perfect.

Next time, I would likely use less sugar - these were quite sweet in the Southern tradition.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Adapted from Epicurious.

Buttermilk Biscuits

3 cups flour
2 T sugar
2 tsp baking soda (roughly)
1 1/2 sticks butter, unsalted, chilled
1/3 cup plain yogurt
2/3 cup milk
(should have added some salt - 1 tsp)

Combine flour, sugar, and baking soda.  Cut in butter - I left it in huge chunks since Dmitri was throwing a fit about the butter messing up his easy-to-stir flour mix.  Add yogurt and milk, stirring until just combined.  Plop in globs on baking sheet.

Bake at 425F for 15 minutes.

Went very well with "jumbalaya" - made with Italian sausage, since that was in the fridge.