Wednesday Food Blogging

Borlotti Bean and Spelt Soup

Soup, for those days when swine flu has you down.

It's still cold enough here that soup is a viable option, especially when your husband is sick with swine flu a cold. So with temperatures in the 50s, I took the opportunity to make soup from the borlotti beans I had soaked overnight.

This is sort of reminiscent of red beans and rice. Except it's Italian in origin and flavor. I really like the spelt, which is shaped like rice, but is chewier, grainier. Nice.

This made a lot. I'll have to make room in the freezer for a few bowls of leftovers, which will be perfect for lunch on a cool spring day.

Keep reading for instructions...

Spinach Stuffed Shells

Surprisingly simple Spinach Stuffed Shells

You probably wonder how people come up with new recipes. For me, it begins at the gym. I spend about 20-30 minutes on the rowing machine, a boring exercise that uses very few brain cells. (But is very good for your brain cells, as is any exercise.)

While I'm rowing, I'm usually planning my grocery list, which means I plan my menu for the evening as well. The other day I decided I absolutely had to use the pasta shells I'd had for a while, and the bag of spinach I'd only had one day. I'd stuff the shells with a spinach mixture, I decided, setting aside any thoughts of using the artichoke hearts from the jar in my fridge.

Within the space of a few hundred meters, I'd come up with the basic outlines of a recipe, which turns out to be quite simple. Although I'd never stuffed shells before, they turned out to be surprisingly easy to fill with the spinach-laced stuffing. You simply hold the shells in your palm, long ways, and squeeze them gently like a coin purse. They open up for stuffing, then snap back to close around the filling. Fun!

A food processor is a great tool to have, too, but you could probably use a blender. Or in a pinch, mash the ingredients with a fork. To save time, I used a jar of prepared pasta sauce, but you can use your own favorite recipe for pasta sauce if you wish. I came up with more shells than sauce, and ran out of room in the pan, so I used a second dish and opened another jar. This one will go into the freezer and be a perfect meal for a more harried day.

For instructions, keep reading.

Food News, Sunday Edition

Useful site: Stilltasty.com tells you how long you can keep anything in the fridge. Including the jar of chipotle peppers I opened four weeks ago.

Does "health aura" explain why the mere presence of salad on a menu prompts people to order French fries more often? (Be sure to read the amusing first comment from Sheila.)

Good news for chocoholics: Now you can breathe in chocolate to curb your chocolate cravings. I'd prefer the patch approach myself. 

And more reason to eat chocolate: It improves your maths.

My favorite way to prevent lung cancer: Peanut butter.

(Maybe this peanut butter and chocolate tartelette will cure your lung cancer AND make you soar at sums!)

"Yes We Can" Flan? Does that rhyme? Maybe if you speak British, where the letter A can do all sort of crazy things. There's also the Barack O'bhuna, a spicy curry dish, invented to pay homage to Obama's cultural heritage.

When the National Resources Defense Council met for a $2000 plate dinner recently, the menu was vegetarian. It's about time they walk the walk, err, eat the eat.

I'm sure this article in Grist is great, but I can't get beyond the beautiful photo. Yellow squash, how I love you. And miss you.

"Vegan pie", in Unnecessary Quotes. Well, is it? Or isn't it?

It's about time supermarkets in the UK recognize how unnecessary their excessive packaging is. But asking customers to tear it off and leave it at the till?

High fructose corn syrup examined: the conclusion isn't as clear as you'd think.

One last reminder: Fish suffer. Don't eat them. And vegetarians don't.

Stuffed Red Peppers with Curry Sauce

If you visit my home, you'll see a lot of red and yellow. That's because I love the color combination, even, it turns out, when it's on my plate.

These stuffed red peppers, wading in a delicate curry sauce, were not only lovely to look at but easy to make, too, and delicious to eat. I served them with a scoop of brown rice, which made them healthy as well.

Even if you don't have a yellow and red-themed home, you can still make Stuffed Red Peppers with Curry Sauce for dinner. Here's how:

Lima Beans with Lemon and Garlic

Beans: Good for your heart!

Beans as a side dish? Vegetarians are more used to featuring beans in the main dish, but since discovering how useful they can be as a complement to a meal, rather than the centerpiece, I keep several cans of beans on hand for those nights when pasta isn't quite enough.

Lima beans, often called butter beans when canned, are a great source of fiber and protein, and like other legumes, can decrease risk of heart disease. Plus they're low in fat and calories. When combined with garlic, they're not only tasty but offer even more heart protective benefits.

But forget all that. They taste great, and are a snap to prepare. To find out how, keep reading.

Nettle Gnocchi

Stinging nettles never tasted so good.

No, this isn't an April Fool's joke; you really can make gnocchi with stinging nettles. You can also make soup with them, but I thought the idea of gnocchi sounded much more exciting.

Although when you're dealing with stinging nettles, maybe exciting isn't the thing you want to add. Which is why I recommend rubber gloves, at least for the first part of this recipe.

Here's how this works: First, put on rubber gloves. If you have no rubber gloves, maybe you should substitute spinach.

Then go into the back garden. If you have no back yard, look for a pesticide-free public area where stinging nettles grow. At this time of year, they're still tender young shoots (tender being a relative term).

Pick a good bucket-full (I used an 8-cup plastic measuring bowl). Most of what you have will be stems, and they will cook down a considerable amount, so be generous.

Still wearing rubber gloves, pick the leaves off the stems and drop them in a sink full of water. Swish them around to loosen the dirt. Still wearing your gloves, place them back in your measuring bowl and rinse them with water another time or two to make sure the dirt is removed. Wring out the water. You should have 2-3 cups of loosely packed leaves.

Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to boil. Pour the leaves into the boiling water, and remove your gloves. Set the timer for 5 minutes, and when it rings, scoop the nettle leaves from the water into a food processor container.

For the rest, keep reading. At this point, you have nothing to fear from the nettles. Trust me. They taste a little bit like turnip greens, only wilder. Not bad at all.