cooking

Recipe: Curried Split Pea Soup

by

This is a recipe I’m extremely proud of because I always wanted to make good vegetarian split pea soup.  Done right, it’s high in protein, nutritious, low in fat, and filling.  This is the 5th version of the recipe, and I’m quite happy with it – took nearly a year to perfect.

I think you’ll agree it’s worth it!

INGREDIENTS (Broken up in stages)

  • 3 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1 tbsp chopped garlic
  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 6 cups water
  • 2 cups dried split green peas (picked over and rinsed) – This will be about a pound, but measurements are a pain.
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • 1 Tbsp Soy sauce (was 1/2 tsp salt)
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp ground thyme.
  • 1 tsp smoked  paprika
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice.

 

  1. Saute onion in 1 tbsp olive oil until it softens and browns.
  2. Add garlic, curry.  Stir in oil until fragrant (really 20-30 seconds)
  3. Add water,peas, soy sauce, pepper, oregano, thyme.
  4. Bring to boil covered, then reduce heat as low as possible  simmer until peas are cooked (should be al dente) – maybe 20-30 minutes.  Careful, near the end they swell up FAST.
  5. Puree soup in blender or in immersion blender.
  6. Return soup to pot (if you used a blender).  Add lemon juice, Paprika, rest of olive oil.
  7. Reheat the pureed mixture.
  8. Serve.

Read more

An Interesting Little Experiment

by

So I’ve spent the last year trying to improve my cooking and eat more vegetarian and healthy. It’s been pretty successful, so I’m at the final stage – an inventory.

What I’m doing is trying to track my basic nutrition day by day for a week to see if everything paid off, if I have any gaps in my nutrition, etc. It’s already pretty interesting (for instance I’m eating more low sodium than I realized).

Just a day in already has me thinking and noticing things. Going to be interesting to see where this goes . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup: Curry Cheese Log

by

This is a great recipe for creating something different than your usual cheese log; a spicy, layered, deep taste that has a lot of facets.  It’d probably go well with the right wine – like a Syrah.

I’m also considering cutting it with a little butter/butter substitute, olive oil, or something else to make it into a spread.  Its also a bit hard to coat the roll in stage 9, so I wonder if there might be a better way to do it.

8 oz cream cheese
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (may need a bit more)
1 Tbsp dried Basil

  1. Put cream cheese in a microwaveable bowl.
  2. Sprinkle curry powder over cream cheese.
  3. Cover cream cheese and curry powder with blue cheese.
  4. Microwave the bowl with the cheese and curry in 15-second increments until soft enough to blend.
  5. Mix the cheese and curry thoroughly with a no-stick spoon or spatula until finely blended – it’ll take on a pale yellow or orange color.  You might need to microwave it occasionally.
  6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator.  Keep there for 2 hours at least in order to set.
  7. Mix pecans and basil, spread out on foil.
  8. Roll the cheese and curry mix into a log about an inch thick.
  9. Roll the cheese log in the mixture of pecans and basil until well coated.  You might need to do a bit of work to patch “holes”
  10. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.  Serve on top of crackers or toast.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.