White Cheddar and Broccoli Soup in Popover Bowls

Edited: March 2, 2018
Wow, I was really "cheesy" in high school, huh? ;)
Also, can you believe I've been inconsistently updating this blog since high school? I think I chose the right career, and I think it's time for a blog makeover.

Because this weekend was so strangely chilly, instead of making the Mango Pineapple Sorbet I was planning on (look for it next weekend!), I decided to showcase a nice, warm, homey meal.
This week, I did a lot of cooking, including some Teriyaki Chicken Skewers with Rainbow Stir Fry. Since broccoli was on sale this week for 99 cents a pound, I took advantage and stalked up. I saved the broccoli stalks I had leftover from the florets I used in my stir fry. With the economy and food prices these days, it's really great to use as much of a product as you possibly can. And with fresh produce, you can use very close to everything!

I also made several tasty little quick breads known as popovers. Popovers are extremely easy, cheap, and quick to make, and they are excellent vessels for all sorts of fillings, including chicken or tuna salad, fruit salad, jam, desserts, purees, and even soups! So you must know where I'm going with this...

Pop-On-Over Broccoli and White Cheddar Soup

Clever name, right?
On with the recipes!

Popovers
 Preheat oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit. While it's preheating, stick a muffin pan in there to heat up as well. This is an important step to remember! 
While your oven is preheating, mix together the following:

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted 
1/4 t. salt

Also beat together:
2 eggs
1/2 t. olive oil

Begin combination by gradually (little by little) adding 3/4 c + 2 tablespoons of milk. Add the egg-oil mixture to this batter and beat for 2 minutes. Remove your hot pan from the oven, quickly oil each muffin hole, and immediately pour the batter into your muffin pan. Bake the popovers at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 and finish them for another 10 minutes. If you don't plan on serving your popovers immediately, stab them in the top so that the steam inside doesn't make them all soggy and gross.

Now for the star of the show...

Broccoli White Cheddar Soup

3 broccoli stalks, roughly diced.
1 head broccoli florets, coarsely chopped.
1 block of silken tofu
2 oz. white cheddar cheese (I used sliced, and used about 3 and one more for garnish), cut into thin shreds.
Salt and pepper.

Begin by chopping up your broccoli stalks. Add them to a pot of salt water (add to taste because your broccoli stalks will become broccoli stock) with some whole black peppercorns and bring to a boil. Boil the stalks until they are fork tender, and your water has turned a delicate shade of green.

While your stalks are having a spa day, begin chopping up the florets.
After about 10-12 minutes of boiling, your stalks should be nice and tender and ready to be pureed!

Process the stalks until they become smooth in texture. Add ladles of the stock to help smooth and thin it out. And now, in true contradictory style, it is time for a thickener...

Hey dudes what is up?

That's correct: TOFU! Oh, you thought it was cream cheese? Well think again, because that is not where the "cheese" in this recipe comes from!

Anyways, add your 3 oz. of tofu, and blend it into brocolli puree until it's all smooth and creamy. While it's blending, you can either julienne your cheese slices (make sure it's all-natural white cheddar, not like, Kraft American Cheese or something...), shred a block, or, if you bought it pre-shredded...measure it out and add it to the food processor. Continue to add stock until you reach your desired consistency.
Once you have your soup blended to your liking, you can discard or save your remaining broccoli stock. Re-heat the pot while the soup is blending away, and add your broccoli florets, gently sauteeing them until they're just barely cooked. You can also add onions and garlic at this point for a little extra flavor. Next, pour  the smooth, creamy, super-broccoli soup back into the pot all over those broccoli florets, and stir it all together.













Pop the top off of one of your popovers (just check to make sure there are no holes in the bottom) and pour your creamy, dreamy, green(y) creation right on in there. Top with more shredded cheese for an extra kick.

Now, I'm sure once you taste this soup, you'll want more than the little popover can hold. So feel free just to eat your popover on the side with your soup in a bowl. But either way, they pair together wonderfully.

Strawberry Fudge Love Cake (RAW!)

I've been looking at some different kinds of recipes lately, and my younger brothers always try to guess what's in the stuff I cook them anyways, so I decided to let other people try to do the same.
Today, I made a deliciously decadent Strawberry Fudge Love Cake.

I'm very surprised I managed to get a post up two weeks in a row, but here I am! Eating turkey soup and homemade strawberry muffins, and about to shock the (not very massive) masses with a recipe I jacked from a cook book called Ani Phyo's Raw Food Desserts. Lately, I've been trolling around the Barnes and Noble in search of boredom-destruction while waiting to pick my brothers up from school. I was happy to discover this book, and set to taking phone pics of different recipes.
Remember this mouth-watering paramount of chocolate?

The cake I made is actually called Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake. However, I tweaked some ingredients by using strawberries because they were on sale, and I used California dates because they were the only ones that Sprouts had available pitted.

Ingredients:
Fudge Cake
3 cups dry walnuts
2⁄3 cup unsweetened cacao powder or carob powder
1⁄4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup pitted Medjool dates

Frosting
1⁄3 cup semi-soft pitted Medjool dates
1⁄4 cup agave syrup
1⁄2 cup ripe avocado flesh (from about 1 medium avocado)
1⁄3 cup cacao powder

Filling
1⁄2 cup fresh raspberries or strawberries

Simply puree the cake ingredients together in food processor. Then remove the contents and mold into two  6 to 9 inch round cakes. No need to clean the processor for the frosting, because the ingredients are pretty much identical. Go through the same process as for the cake: puree all ingredients until smooth and creamy. Next, frost your cakes, placing sliced strawberries on top of one before layering. Finish frosting, and decorate with fresh fruit as you like. Enjoy :)


That's right. There's an AVOCADO in the frosting. Surprisingly, it works perfectly in place of butter or shortening and cream as a fat. Because of their mild flavor, creamy texture, and inconspicuous color (when mixed with chocolate, anyways), the texture and flavor of the frosting is deceptive. I didn't tell my brothers, because I knew they wouldn't eat it. Although I enjoyed their reactions when I told them afterward.

Grilled/Baked Salmon with Tuscany Beans & Heirloom Tomatoes

Today's recipe comes from my favorite cooking magazine, Clean Eating. We had a big Coho salmon filet sitting in our freezer, so I decided I'd try this recipe out and defrost it. Also, Sprouts - probably my favorite store of all time - had some lovely, sweet little baby heirloom tomatoes on sale 2 for $5, which was quite a deal considering their regular-sized heirlooms were $3.99 per pound, each of them weighing about a pound! The babies were also a little less ripe than their big mommas and also offered quite a nice variety of colors. :)


Baked Salmon
Although the original recipe calls for grilling the salmon, which I'm sure would be absolutely delicious, I baked mine because our grill is just so sticky.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

4 4 to 6 oz. salmon filets
1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 shallots, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 oz. capers, drained and rinsed well.

In a bowl, blend oil, vinegar, shallots, garlic, and capers with a whisk. Now it is time to prepare the fish...
My fish had a wonderfundle surprise: bones! If you have ever gone fishing and eaten whatever you managed to catch, you will most likely be familiar with fish and their bones. They are not like human bones, which you can pretty obviously see. No, they are sneaky, and hide deep within the flesh of your dinner! These tiny bones, which are sometimes left in fresh fish filets (say that five times fast) when sold, are called pin bones, and if you don't remove them, they will prick you in the mouth...like a pin. Lucky for my family, I decided to molest my fish a little before marinating it. And found the bones. Because honestly if I had not poked my filets a little, I would have had no idea there were bones left in!

Those tiny white vein-looking things are really bones.

You can see this bone poking out a little.

One bone. There are many of these little guys in there, so search thoroughly.

Removing the pin bones is easy: gently press your salmon filets where you see the vein-like things above. You should feel something that feels a little poky. Just grab it and yank that sucker out, and discard it into your trash bowl.

It already looks good, and it's not even cooked yet!

Once you have successfully boned your fish like a true pro (you may have not even needed to bone it in the first place), go ahead and lather on half of your marinade. Sprinkle the fish with fresh or dried dill (I used fresh, because fresh herbs look pretty and smell and taste great). Cover your container and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so that all those nice juices can seep into the salmon. Then, place it on a broiler pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15-20 minutes, until the fish flakes with a fork. Reserve the remaining marinade, because it will go into the...

Tuscany Bean Salad

Half recipe of salmon marinade (above)
1/2 onion, THINLY sliced
1 large red or orange bell pepper
1 1/2 packages of baby heirloom tomatoes, or two large regular heirlooms
1 can (15-16oz.) great northern, white kidney, or cannelini beans, drained and rinsed.

How could you say no to these little cuties?

In a large mixing bowl, combine the beans, onions, and bell pepper. I may have used less than half an onion, because really, who likes raw onions besides my grandpa's childhood dog and my older brother? Not a lot of people.
Dress the salad with the remaining salmon marinade.
Some of your little babies (tomatoes) will be very small and not require any slicing, while others will be a bit large and require quartering. Just do what you think will work. Once diced, add them to your salad and gently toss them.

I served my fish and bean salad with some baked baby red potatoes. I stabbed them a little with a fork, then microwaved them until they were fork-tender. We then rolled them in some olive oil, salt, fresh ground pepper, and some fresh dill left over from the salmon recipe. Yum!