Thursday, April 17, 2008

A Creamy Curry and Kid Stuff!

I love broccoli. I know, it's weird, but I've always liked the little trees, whether they were crunchy and raw on a veggie platter at a party or steamed and tossed with lemon and some Parmesan cheese at the dinner table. It's particularly good roasted along with it's other (slightly maligned) cruciferous buddy, Brussels sprouts! But in soup? Not so much. The cans of "cream of broccoli" glop are nowhere near what the texture or taste of this vegetable should be, in my opinion. I'm not an insane soup fanatic, regardless, but I've only found one single kind with broccoli that I actually enjoy (Tim Hortons' Hearty Vegetable, which for some inexplicable reason has been missing from the menu for the past 2 years whenever I pay the chain a visit).

So why am I telling you this? Well, you see, I made a creamy broccoli soup today. Totally out of character, I know, but I was frozen solid after my Piloga class and a sandwich just wasn't going to cut it! Curry cravings kicked in too, and I had a half block of tofu in my fridge that would soon go to waste, so in those ingredients went along with a pop of garlic, onion, and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast. A tablespoon of rolled oats fleshed things out nicely, and a blend of spices that I learned from Andrew (who finally got his G2 and his passport today, so we can travel!! Yay!) and a trip through the (lidless, it fell behind our immovable pantry) blender made my lunch today anything but glop in a can.

Curried Broccoli Puree
Serves 1 Hungry Person
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup water
2 cups chopped broccoli (florets and stems)
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 tbsp rolled oats
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 block low-fat Mori-Nu silken firm tofu
1 tbsp yellow curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
  1. Bring broth and water to a simmer in a saucepan.
  2. Add broccoli, onions, and oats cover and cook until very tender - about 10 minutes.
  3. Transfer cooked mixture to a blender with garlic, nutritional yeast, tofu, curry powder, salt, black pepper and cinnamon.
  4. Puree until very smooth.
  5. Re-warm briefly before serving if desired.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 230.0
Total Fat: 3.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 2,101.3 mg
Total Carbs: 30.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 10.2 g
Protein: 25.2 g

I tell you, it was fantastic! And if you do make the soup and finish all your veggies, you can have a purple cookie! The story behind these was this: my sister (like all of us) goes through craving phases, and about 7 or 8 months ago one of those cravings was for grape Jell-O. It's the only flavour she likes and my mom jumped on it as soon as she noticed, buying 3 boxes of the stuff. Problem was, the yen for Jell-O disappeared after the first go-around and we were stuck with 2 extra boxes and no desires to eat them.

Enter the Jell - O cookie recipe. I had seen something like this floating around the Web when I Googled "Jell-O recipes" and was tired of seeing salads (ew!) and poke cakes pop up on the page. Base recipe in mind (the source of which is now long gone, sadly) and the ingredients at hand, I made up a good-sized batch of the little devils. They'll be off to my dad's place tomorrow (after I return from my favourite place in Toronto) so he can let me know if they taste as good as they smelled! The one thing I do recommend with these, though, is to let them sit out (uncovered) on a rack overnight. They're a bit too cakey-textured the first day.

Jell-O Cookie Gems
Makes 30
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 (3-oz) pkg Jell-O, any flavour
1 egg
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
  1. Preheat oven to 350F, lightly grease a cookie sheet.
  2. Cream shortening, sugar, Jell - O and egg together in a medium to large bowl.
  3. Beat in the rest of the ingredients.
  4. Roll dough into balls, and flatten each slightly.
  5. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool on sheets 10 minutes, remove to racks to cool completetely.
  6. Let sit out, uncovered, 1 day before enjoying.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 98.5
Total Fat: 3.8 g
Cholesterol: 9.0 mg
Sodium: 15.8 mg
Total Carbs: 14.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g
Protein: 1.8 g

3 comments :

  1. I have to admit to being a bit sceptical about how that Jello cookie will taste, it's purple for crying out load! But...I just cleaned out my pantry (the spring cleaning bug has bitten me) and I found six boxes of Jello shoved into various corners. Let me know what your dad thinks of them.

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  2. Um. I hate to rain on your parade, but you do realize Jello is NOT vegetarian? It's got gelatine in it, after all. Sorry!

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  3. Didn't know whether to reply to your reply here or on my post, so I'm replying both places.

    Sorry; I did not realize the soup wasn't a separate post; hence my confusion.

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Thanks for the feedback!