Minestrone Soup

A good soup for when the weather is just starting to get cold. Even better when reheated!

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 leeks, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 potato, diced
• 1 can of beans (I used kidney because it was all I could find)
• 1/2 a cup of parsley, chopped
• 1 bag of spinach, chopped
• marinara sauce
• water or vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup of cooked pasta

Directions:

1) Heat 4 TBSP oil in a pot.
2) Add the onions and let sweat until they become soft (you may need to add more oil to prevent burning).







3) Add the leeks, carrot, potato, salt and pepper and cook for a few mores minutes, until they begin to soften.








4) Add the beans, parsley and spinach until the spinach wilts.








5) Add the stock or water (to cover), and add half as much marinara sauce.
6) Simmer until the vegetables are soft.
7) Add the Parmesan cheese and pasta and cook until the cheese has mostly dissolved and the pasta is warmed.

 So much soup...

Creamed Spinach

Not the prettyist thing I've ever made, but delicious because it's cheese and spinach. Be great for Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:

• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• 1 bag of spinach, washed
• 1/4 stick of butter
• 2 TBSP flour
• 2 cups of milk
• 1 tube of Kraft Parmesan cheese (or the equivalent)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Heat the olive oil in a pot (not a pan).
2) Add the garlic, and let cook for about 30 seconds, before it browns.
3) Add the onion until it softens.






4) Add the spinach and put the cover on the pot for about 3 minutes.
5) Remove the contents of the pot and place into a strainer or colander.
6) Add the butter until it melts.





7) Add the flour to make a roux.









8) Add the spinach mixture so the roux covers it.









9) Add the milk, Parmesan, salt and pepper.

Noodles with Tofu and Greens

Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz noodles
• 1 block tofu, cut into slices
• salt and pepper
• 4 TBSP peanut oil OR 3 TBSP sesame oil mixed with 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 bag of greens (cabbage, spinach, mixture...) (I used spinach)
• bunch of green onions
• 1 TBSP red pepper flakes
• 3 TBSP soy sauce
• pinch of sugar

Directions:

1) Cook the pasta and reserve 1/3 of the water.
2) Pat the tofu dry and season the tofu with salt and pepper.







3) Heat 2 TBSP of the oil in a pan.
4) Cook the tofu for about 3 minutes on each side, until starting to brown.
5) Heat 1 TBSP of the oil.






6) Add the greens and let cook for 2-3 minutes.








7) Add the scallions, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, sugar and reserved water and let simmer for a few minutes.
8) Mix with the pasta and serve with the tofu on top.

Ramen Noodle Soup

I followed this recipe for the soup, and made a few changes due to liking green onions more than ginger. I thought it would be a bit difficult to find vegetable stock in Korea, so I made some following this recipe, loosely. It seems like you can throw any vegetables into water to make broth.

Ingredients:

• Stock
• water to cover
• vegetables
• carrot
• mushroom
• onion
• leeks
• pepper
• Noodle Soup
• stock
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP sesame oil
• 2 TBSP fresh ginger
• 4 green onions
• 3 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 block of tofu
• 1 package of Ramen noodles
• 2 cups of spinach

Directions:

1) Chop the vegetables for the stock and place them in a pot.
2) Cover with water.
3) Bring to a boil.






4) Add the pepper and stir. Cook for 1 hour.
5) Strain the vegetables out and put the liquid back into the pot.







6) Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and green onions and bring back to a boil.
7) While it is boiling, heat the oil in a pan.







8) Add the tofu and cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side, until it is brown.







9) Add the Ramen to the stock and cook for 8-10 minutes, until cooked through.








10) Add the spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes until wilted.









11) Add the tofu and cook for 2-3 minutes until heated.

Tofu Hot Pot

Recipe taken from here, after finding out that tofu hot pot existed though the International Korean Menu Guide app. It would be a lot better if the app had the recipes on it, but oh well....now I get to search and find a lot of options!

I found doing it this way to be a little bland, so in the future I would add more soy sauce, or make a larger portion of the sauce/broth.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 block of tofu, sliced
• 1 cup of mushrooms (or enough to cover the tofu in your pot), sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 red thin pepper, sliced
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP hot pepper powder
• 2 TBSP vegetable oil
• water
• 1 cup of spinach
• 4 green onions, chopped
• pepper

Directions:

1) Stack the tofu, mushrooms, onion, bell pepper in a pot in that order.








2)  Place the soy sauce, hot pepper powder, and vegetable oil in a pan and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the powder has thinned out.






3) Add the sauce to the pot and add enough water to cover the vegetables.
4) Bring to a boil.
5) Lower the temperature and cook for about 15 minutes.






6) Add the spinach and cook for another 5 minutes.
7) Add the green onions and pepper and bring to a boil.
8) Serve with rice.

Simple Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked rice
• 2 TBSP vegetable oil
• garlic
• green bell pepper
• red thin pepper
• cucumber
• mushroom
• tofu
• soy sauce
• onion
• spinach

Directions:
1) Marinate the tofu in the soy sauce.
2) Heat the oil in a pan.
3) Add the garlic and let cook for 2-3 minutes until you can smell it.
4) Add the peppers, cucumber and mushroom and sautee for 3-5 minutes.
5) Add the tofu, onion and spinach and sautee for 3-5 minutes.
6) Plate with the rice.

Greek Pasta Salad

From: BBC Good Food 101 Veggie Dishes


Ingredients:

• 300 g/10 oz pasta
• 225 g bag prepared fresh baby spinach leaves
• 250 g punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
• 100g/4 oz kalamata olives
• 225 g/8 oz feta, broken into rough chunks
• fresh black pepper
• 3 TBSP olive oil

Directions:

1) Boil a large pot of water.
2) Add the pasta and cook for 10 minutes.








3) Add the spinach and cook for another 2.










4) Drain into a colander and let drip dry/shake water out.








5) Add everything else into a large bowl.
6) Add the pasta and spinach and mix.