Tag Archives: pepper

Homemade salsa

Posted on by
Reply

I love a good pico de gallo, and I’m often tempted to buy them in the store. But delicious homemade salsa is so easy to make fresh!

salsa

As the last of the summer tomatoes appeared at the farmer’s market, I chopped those up for salsas, but cherry and grape tomatoes also work really well here. You can vary the ingredients as you please, but possibilities are green and red peppers, red or white onion, fresh corn kernels (I usually sauté them a bit), hot pepper, garlic, avocado and cilantro. You could also add in some seasonal fruits if available; pineapple, mango and peaches all work well.

Chop everything up into small pieces (or pulse in a food processor) and stir to combine, then just add olive oil and lemon juice, lime juice or vinegar, plus fresh ground black pepper and plenty of salt. The best part is taste testing and adjusting everything as needed.

What’s your favorite salsa ingredient?

Colorful fiesta salsa

Posted on by
4

I just had to post a quick note about the salsa I enjoyed tonight. I had some very colorful veggies and threw them all together — an orange tomato, a red tomato, about a third of a red onion, corn, and a few slices of a gorgeous purple pepper I found at Eastern Market this morning. (It’s light green on the inside, almost like an eggplant.) Squirt in a bit of lime juice, press a garlic clove in there, sprinkle on some cilantro with salt and pepper and a few red pepper flakes, and voila!

We noshed on this tonight with chips for an appetizer and then used the rest on shrimp and black bean tacos with avocado.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, margaritas were also involved.

Fish tacos

Posted on by
Reply

I just got back from a week in Hawaii, which was preceded by a longer trip for work and to visit family a couple weeks earlier. I went to the store when I got back on Thursday and stocked up my apartment with pretty much every kind of fresh food imaginable, since I haven’t been home cooking a whole lot and haven’t felt free to just buy whatever I wanted because it would go to waste. So Thursday night, I roasted a couple of salmon fillets with garlic and cilantro, then made a cilantro yogurt sauce to top it off.

Today, I took some of the leftover salmon and made a fish taco. Please excuse the awful photo; my camera battery died this afternoon and I couldn’t find my charger, so I used the camera on my laptop. (Of course, my charger turned up right after I finished lunch. Go figure.)

Fish taco ingredients:

1 soft whole wheat taco
1 large spoonful canned corn
1 large spoonful canned black beans
a piece of salmon a little smaller than the palm of your hand, cooked
a few slices of bell pepper (I used frozen, pre-sliced)
3 heaping spoonfuls of salsa
a few slices of avocado
a few cilantro leaves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons cilantro yogurt dressing (see recipe below)

1. Heat up the salmon in the microwave if it just came out of the fridge.

2. Spray a cooking pan and warm it over medium heat. Cook the peppers.

3. Add the beans and corn and stir until they are warmed through.

4. Add salsa and stir until some of the liquid evaporates.

5. Meanwhile, toast the tortilla in a toaster oven until it’s a bit crispy.

6. Layer the bean mixture over half the tortilla.

7. Flake the salmon with a fork and layer it over the bean mixture.

8. Drizzle cilantro yogurt over the top, then layer on chopped cilantro and avocado.

9. Fold over the other half of the taco.

Serves one.

Cilantro yogurt sauce ingredients:

1/4 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
a fistful of cilantro leaves
salt and pepper

(This can be made to taste. For example, since I only had nonfat yogurt and it was kind of thin, I added a bit of cottage cheese as well to thicken it up. I bet it would be good with lime, too, had I had one lying around. Use your instincts.)

1. Blend all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.

One thing to note, if I haven’t before. When I buy canned corn for things like this (burritos, taco salad, etc), I buy the plain sweet canned corn, not the creamed or the no-salt-added versions. I tried the no-salt-added once because I noticed that the regular kind has sugar added, too, and I figured I’d be healthy. It’s a million times better when you use the sweet corn, though. I allow myself that small indulgence.

Spicy weeknight turkey chili

Posted on by
Reply

I made this quick and easy chili tonight. The thing I love about chili is that you can kinda throw in whatever you feel like and make it to taste. The measurements are a bit rough, but make it to suit your fancy.

Ingredients:

splash of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
hunk of ground turkey, about the size of your fist
a few slices of onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed
1/3 cup frozen sweet corn
1/3 cup frozen sliced peppers
a splash of red wine
chili powder (I probably used about a teaspoon total, but I have the cheap store brand version that isn’t very strong, so it took a lot. Add it to your taste.)
sprinkle of dried basil flakes
sprinkle of red pepper flakes
liberal shakes of salt and pepper
Optional: shredded Mexican cheese, avocado, chopped scallions, sour cream or plain yogurt, salsa, etc

1. Heat the olive oil in a smallish pot.

2. Add the minced garlic and stir until fragrant.

3. Add the onions and ground turkey and stir until the meat is cooked through and browned.

4. Add the tomatoes, beans, corn, peppers and wine. Stir until it’s all combined.

5. Stir in the spices. Taste it as you go to determine if you need more of anything. This is a pretty flexible dish — for example, I added the wine as an afterthought because I had gone a little heavy on the red pepper flakes and my eyes started to water when I tasted it.

6. Let the pot simmer on medium-low heat, with the cover on, until it has thickened. This will probably take around 45 minutes, but keep checking on it and stirring it every 10 minutes or so.

7. Top with shredded Mexican cheese, avocado, chopped scallions, sour cream (or plain yogurt, to cut calories), salsa, or whatever tickles your fancy.

Spicy chili and cornbread

Making this dish made me really crave cornbread, and I was busy lamenting the fact that I didn’t have a mix handy when I realized that I probably had all of the ingredients for cornbread anyway — cornmeal, flour, etc. I did a quick search and found this recipe, which I chose because all the other ones had a ton of lard or butter and I didn’t have either on hand, plus yogurt was a much, much healthier alternative. They turned out a bit dry, but good with some butter melted on top and dipped in hot chili, and they certainly satisfied the craving.

Leftovers for lunch! Everyone knows chili tastes even better the day after.

(Note: In an earlier version of this post, I forgot to include #6 in the instructions.)

Another variation on the stuffed pepper

Posted on by
1

P9020009

Here’s yet another variation on the stuffed pepper, born out of my lack of groceries in the house today. It literally took about 10 minutes to prepare, which was perfect given the degree of hunger I was experiencing on the bus home tonight.

I used some of the leftover chicken I cooked over the weekend, so that definitely contributed to the quick meal factor.

Ingredients:

1 green pepper
1 thick slice white onion, chopped
1/3 cup cooked chicken, shredded
1/4 cup frozen corn
Hot sauce
Chili powder
Red pepper flakes

1. Cut the top off the pepper, then cut it in half. Roast the pepper in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes to soften it.

2. Chop up the top of the pepper (minus the stem) and cook it in a skillet coated with spray for a few minutes, until softened a bit.

3. Add the chicken and corn and stir until warmed through. In the meantime, sprinkle some hot sauce, chili powder and red pepper flakes on top to taste and mix in.

4. Put the filling on top of the pepper once it’s done. Top with salsa and Mexican cheese.

Serves one.