creative cook
Didn’t you also looked forward for Spring to start? I know I can’t really complain about NorCal winters, but as a cook I love to celebrate every new season. This Happy Spring String Bean Soup is my newest celebration dish.
If I’ve learned a lesson this week, then it’s not to change your routine too much. Even with a good plan it turned out to be hard to change my cooking. Was it the plan that was to blame? Or me? Am I just not that good with sticking to dinner plans? I know I’m very comfortable in my freestyle ‘what shall we have for dinner tonight’-style.
But then, how to explain this? This [vegan] White bean soup with sauerkraut was planned and too good not to write about.
Our norms and values sometimes are so restricting, that it can be liberating to let them go every now and then. I do that when I fly solo, making dinner for one. I really cook different when I only need to feed myself. On those nights dishes like this Whole Wheat Pita Roll with Braised Greens, Butter beans and Miso come to live.
I don’t know if it was written in the stars, but last Saturday turned out to have Japanese ‘feel’ although I didn’t ate any Japanese food. I saved that for my first experiments with hot pot today. Playing with some leftovers, I invented a recipe for Japanese escarole and tofu hot pot with udon noodles.
Where I lived before I moved to California, I was devoid from exciting new vegetables. In the big Chinese supermarket on my block I found two and made this Lemongrass flavored rice with edamame and pea shoots & grilled king oyster mushrooms.
At the Farmers Market I got seduced! By bright yellow beans. I gave them the starring role in a refreshing Yellow bean salad with feta.