Innovative Leftovers Part 4–Summer Vegetable Stew

I absolutely love split pea soup, but you know how canned soups are, for the most part, disgusting?

Unfortunately, the same holds true for canned split pea soup. So I decided to jazz mine up a little when I was making dinner for myself. (My brothers weren't gonna feed me, that's for sure.)


Summer Vegetable Stew
Serves 1-2


Ingredients:

1 can split pea soup
1/2 zucchini, cut into quarter-rounds
1/2 carrot, cut into half-rounds
1/2 can black beans

1/4 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water (if soup is watery)
Salt and pepper
Spices (garlic powder, oregano, cayanne)
Olive oil


Instructions:

Drain black beans into a bowl, reserving some of the liquid. Rinse. Place zucchini, onion, carrot, and beans into a small pan over medium heat with some olive oil and stir.

Add spices, salt, and pepper to taste. Place pot lid over pan and allow to cook until zucchini is soft.

Pour split pea soup into a medium saucepan over medium heat.

If soup is watery, mix cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water to form a smooth slurry and add to soup.

Add vegetables and stir.

Stir in reserved bean liquid.

Allow to come to a gentle boil and thicken if needed, then remove from heat. Adjust seasonings if necessary.

Serve.

Well, it's not perfect, but it's definitely better than the soup alone. It's also better than whatever my brothers would have made. Just kidding. Maybe. The vegetables give it a nice fresh feeling and the spices make it taste a lot better than the soup normally does. I recommend serving with naan or flatbread. (Trader Joe's makes a great tandoori naan.) Or you can make toast. That works too.
So even though this improved the soup quite a bit, homemade soup trumps canned any day.

Coconut-Chocolate Haystacks

It's been so hot this summer. And as if that isn't bad enough, we're out of chocolate-chip cookies. Oh, the horror! I started browsing Martha Stewart's website for no-bake recipes and found these. Strictly speaking, they aren't no-bake, since you have to toast the coconut, but I got around that by using the toaster oven. You can also use a skillet; just watch the coconut very closely.


Chocolate-Coconut Haystacks (from marthastewart.com):
Makes 18-20, depending on how much of the coconut you eat

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

3-3/4 ounces (106.310712 grams) semi-sweet chocolate
5 drops almond or vanilla extract


Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If using small baking pan, use convection oven. (The coconut won't be in a single layer, so it would take longer to toast in a normal oven.)
Place coconut onto baking sheet in a single layer (unless using small pan) and put into oven.

Toast for about 10 minutes until golden, stirring occasionally.

Allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate in double boiler or microwave. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Combine chocolate, coconut, and almond extract in medium bowl; stir until well-combined.

Place mixture by tablespoons onto parchment-covered baking sheet.

Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Store in fridge.

These are absolutely delicious. Crisp and crunchy, the coconut isn't overwhelmed by the chocolate. It still shines out. They'll keep for quite a while in the fridge, but I never found out exactly how long they'll stay fresh. They got eaten too fast. No one seemed to miss the almond extract that the original recipe called for. (We didn't have it, so I used vanilla instead.) Though the original recipe claimed to make 20, I wound up with 18 because... Well, you know how much I like cookie batter. The same principle applied here.
Oh well.

Sweet and Sour Coleslaw

I don't like coleslaw. I apologize if I have offended anyone who does, but I find myself incapable of eating more than a tiny portion of shredded vegetables slathered in mayonnaise. This coleslaw, however, uses a vinegar-based dressing, so you can serve it as a vegetable instead of an absolutely disgusting side.

Sweet and Sour Coleslaw (from makeitbetter.net)
Serves 12 (it keeps for a week and is delicious on anything, so make the whole recipe)

Ingredients:


Dressing:

3/4 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon mustard

Coleslaw:

1 large cabbage head (green or red)
1 carrot

1 bell pepper (red or orange) or 5-6 small sweet peppers


Instructions:


Combine dressing ingredients in a medium saucepan.

Heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves–about 2-3 minutes.

Set aside to cool. Peel carrot and roughly chop all the vegetables.

Place vegetables into food processor and pulse until finely chopped.

Place in large bowl and pour dressing over it.

Cover and set in fridge for at least 8 hours, up to 24. Serve.

This coleslaw is wonderful. It is tangy from the vinegar, but the vinegar doesn't overwhelm it. The vegetables provide a nice crunch. The food processor shreds them all to the perfect size. Yes, this recipe does make a lot of coleslaw, but it keeps in the fridge for a week, so don't halve it. (Also, if you halve it, you wind up with a bunch of half-veggies laying around.) I've put the slaw on sandwiches and it's delicious. Thankfully, I haven't seen my brothers putting it in their cereal, although I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

Poppy Bars

I apologize for my absence the past few days. My grandfather passed away and I haven't been able to concentrate on my blog. This post is dedicated to him.

These are named in honor of my grandfather. We were at my other grandparent's house and needed an easy, preferably no-bake recipe to send to him in a care package. I consulted my email folder full of Martha Stewart's Cookie of the Day newsletters. When I found these, I knew they would be perfect. They only have a few ingredients, and really, you can't go wrong with caramel and peanuts.


Caramel Peanut Bars (from marthastewart.com):
Makes about 16; possibly more or less depending on what size you cut them


Ingredients:


2-1/4 cup salted roasted peanuts
1 14oz bag chewy caramels (about 50 caramels)

1 cup mini marshmallows
1 tablespoon water
Butter or cooking spray for pan


Instructions:


Butter or spray an 8x8 inch pan and lay parchment paper inside, leaving overhang on two sides. Spray paper and place second sheet on top crosswise, creating overhang on all four sides. Combine caramels, marshmallows, and water in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Allow to melt, stirring to ensure it doesn't burn.

While caramels are melting, coarsely chop 1-1/4 cups of peanuts. Spread evenly over bottom of pan. Chop remaining 1 cup of peanuts; set aside.

When caramels and marshmallows are completely melted, pour mixture over peanuts in pan.

Sprinkle remaining 1 cup peanuts over top and pat down.

Allow to cool at room temperature for 2 hours or in a refrigerator for 45 minutes. Cut into bars. Or squares. Or trapezoids.

Of course, I had to try these to make sure they were deserving of being sent to my grandfather. And they were. Chewy, delicious, and peanuty, these no-bake treats are addicting. Seriously. After we sent off the majority in the care package, my mom and I kept cutting of bits of the leftover bars "just for a taste". I dread to think what would have happened had my brothers gotten their hands on these... Would they have found their way into their cereal?