soups & salads

mung bean dal soup

September 1, 2010

I think I mentioned this before: in the Indian culinary world, dal is used to describe any legume that has been split and had its outer skin removed. That’s why when you go to Indian shops the legume section is full of a dizzying array of dals. Red dal comes from red lentils; toor dal, [...]

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vegetarian sweet bell pepper pinto bean soup

July 14, 2010

I made this soup after accidentally over cooking my beans in the pressure cooker. Those things are fast! I only let it whistle for fifteen minutes but that was too long. By the time that I opened it, the beans had become a little too soft for rice and beans, my original plan. Next time, [...]

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roasted purple asparagus with semi-dried Roma tomatoes

May 26, 2010

I saw this purple asparagus at TJ’s the other day and I couldn’t resist. It’s so beautiful and fresh, and, well, so purple! I just baked them in the oven with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and tossed a few quartered semi-dried Roma tomatoes I had made earlier. The flavors were amazing! [...]

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warm white bean frisée salad with grilled calamari

May 24, 2010

Delfina is my favorite restaurant in San Francisco. I really love other places, like The Slanted Door and Gary Danko, but to me Delfina reigns supreme. They make Italian food with a California influence, or perhaps it’s vice-versa? We’ve been going there for years now to celebrate special occasions. The reason we enjoy Delfina sparingly [...]

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Japanese inspired “sea vegetable” salad

May 21, 2010

I prepared this Japanese inspired salad with home-cured gravlax and white rice. The gravlax had dill and was Swedish inspired. The “sea vegetable” salad was Japanese inspired. Despite being from two far distant culinary traditions, they seemed to match well together. Perhaps because they’re both “ocean foods?” This salad is easy to make and would [...]

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carrot, green almond salad à la Joumana

May 5, 2010

The other day I saw an intriguing salad recipe on Taste of Beirut. Joumana uses an ingredient I’m not at all used to: fresh almonds in their pods. The novelty of the thing got me excited. I wanted to taste it right away! Luckily for me, an almond tree grows right in front of my [...]

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pressure steamed yellow beet salad

April 21, 2010

Let me start today by thanking both my sisters, Ana and Tinha, for these two wonderful pressure cookers, in different sizes, that they got for us as gifts when we were in Brazil in January. They work perfectly! And they’re a lot easier to operate than our last one. Thus far, I’ve used them to [...]

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sassy smoky spicy chipotle black bean soup

April 16, 2010

Last Saturday we both were too tired to prepare dinner but did not feel like going out or ordering in either. Plus we wanted to stay home to watch the classic Oscar-winning blockbuster, ‘From Here to Eternity.’ Neither of us had seen it before. Can you imagine?!? I particularly wanted to see that famous shot [...]

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fresh asparagus with kalamata olives and Meyer lemon zest

April 8, 2010

Spring is the time to eat fresh asparagus. We’ve been seeing this delicate and often misunderstood vegetable everywhere lately: at the supermarket and specialty food shops, in farmers’ markets and discount grocers; even at Costco. This is one of those foods that children turn their noses up at (at least that’s what I used to [...]

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baby fingerling potato lima sprout salad

March 31, 2010

When I was a kid I remember going to wedding parties with my mom and they always served small potatoes as an appetizer you could spear with small toothpicks. I never cared for the candies and cakes (weird kid!), but I stuffed myself with those potatoes: they were my favorite! I need to find out [...]

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