Spinach and Parmesan Souffles

After another absence I figured I needed a really good and healthy recipe, and I definitely think this one delivers! This one also comes to us from the "Great Weeknight Cookbook", and while slightly ambitious the effort does yield great results.

The nice thing about this recipe is that it doesn't require a ton of ingredients, although you will need a set of ramekins. This souffle consists of...
- butter/margerine
- spinach
- bread
- sour cream
- eggs
- grated parmesan cheese
- nutmeg

The original recipe was for 4 souffles, but I have modified it for 2.

How to make it:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cook about 250g of spinach in a large dry pot over low heat until spinach is wilted. Leave to drain until needed.
2. Tear half a slice of bread into small pieces and put in a food processor to make into fine crumbs.
3. Squeeze as much liquid as possible out of the spinach, and blend it with 1/3 cup of sour cream until just combined in a course puree.
4. Separate 2 eggs. Add the yolks and 3 tbsp of grated parmesan to the food processor. Season with plenty of nutmeg and blend into a smooth puree.
5. Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Pour the mixture into the bowl of egg whites and fold together with a large metal spoon.
6. Lightly butter (or margerine) the insides of your ramekins and sprinkle in some parmesan. Spoon the mixture into the ramekins, top with a sprinkling of more parmesan and bake in the oven until puffed and golden brown (approximately 15-20 mins).  DO NOT AT ANY POINT WHILE BAKING OPEN THE OVEN!

Tips for how to serve: The book recommended to "serve with new potatoes and steamed baby vegetables", but I served it with mashed sweet potatoes!

Easy Pad Thai

After what feels like forever I've finally tried another new recipe! This was yet another dual effort by Ellie and I, and comes from "The Great Weeknight Cookbook". The recipe actually called for chicken but we opted for a veggie version to make it even simpler. While I can't quite compare this Pad Thai recipe to any Thai restaurant, for a quick and easy at-home recipe it wasn't half bad. A+ for presentation tho!

This recipe consisted of...
- dried medium rice noodles
- canola oil
- garlic
- onion
- Thai chili pepper
- an egg
- bean sprouts
- yellow pepper (not in the original recipe but we added it instead of chicken)
- soy sauce
- fish sauce
- lime juice
- crushed chili flakes
- chives
- roasted peanuts

How to make this:
1. Soak noodles in a bowl of hot water for about 20 minutes (or according to time on the package), drain when finished.
2. While noodles are soaking, chop up your onion, garlic, chili pepper (be sure to remove the seeds- and DO NOT touch them and then touch your eyes, wash your hands immediately after!) and yellow pepper. Sautee in a wok or frying pan with canola oil.
3. Beat your egg, push veggies to one side of the pan and scramble the eggs.
4. Once noodles are ready, add to the pan with bean sprouts, soy sauce, fish sauce and lime juice to taste. Stir-fry everything together.
5. Remove from heat and finish off with chili flakes, chives and peanuts.

Chili Penne with Butternut Squash

This was my first attempt at a recipe from one of my cookbooks and I think it was pretty successful so I thought I'd share! This one comes from The Great Weeknight Cookbook and really was quite simple and required surprisingly few ingredients. "Spice up buttnernut squash with cumin and chili, then toss in crumbled goat cheese to create a creamy, flavourful sauce for pasta that takes moments to prepare," said the writers of the book. It was enough to make me want to try it!
 

Makes a lovely lunch or dinner! This recipe contains...
- penne pasta (once again I've used Catelli Bistro tri-colour vegetable pasta, healthy AND pretty!)
- butternut squash
- olive oil
- crushed chili flakes
- coriander (The recipe actually called for cumin but I didn't have any)
- goat cheese
- grated parmesan cheese
- pepper

How to make it:
1. If you didn't buy pre-peeled and cut butternut squash (like I did- great find!), peel and cut your squash into cubes.
2. Cook pasta and squash in a pot of boiling water until squash is soft and pasta is desired consistency.
3. Reserve 100 mL of cooking water before draining pasta and squash.
4. Over low heat, pour some olive oil into the pot, add crushed chili flakes and cumin/coriander (I used coriander since I had no cumin) and cook for 1 minute before removing from heat.
5. Return the pasta and squash to the pot, mix in the cooking the liquid, goat cheese, and season to taste (I added some pepper but it was not in the recipe).
6. Put in a bowl and top with parmesan cheese.

Inspiration

As if Indigo knew that I was in need of some inspiration, they had a whole table of some great cookbooks on sale and I just couldn't resist! Got these 2 bad boys and 755 new recipe ideas to try for under $16! Yay!