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Red Potatoes With Lentils and Avocado Sauce

Red Potatoes With Lentils and Avocado Sauce

  Interesting salads. I love interesting salads! Clearly, I’m not alone.  Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a “funeral garden”  outside a rock-cut tomb on Dra Abu el-Naga hill in Luxor. Apparently, they have found four thousand year-old evidence of lettuce! There also are ancient…

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Best cookies in Los Angeles! Three years in a row! That’s what the cookbook author says about these cookies and we can’t disagree. This recipe is from Rose Wilde’s cookbook Bread and Roses. The cookbook is available through your local bookstore and from Amazon here. Here…

Oldies But Goodies: Spinach and Potato Soup

Oldies But Goodies: Spinach and Potato Soup

 

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for a warm and comforting Spinach and Potato Soup. It’s just the thing to warm up those cold winterish days. 

You don’t want to miss this great recipe…again.

Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page: Blue Cayenne.If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.


For Whenever: Double  Chocolate Banana Muffins

For Whenever: Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

Got ripe bananas? Got a chocolate craving? Can’t face one more banana bread? These muffins are for you. Eat them for breakfast, dessert, midnight snack, mid-morning snack, midnight and mid-morning snack, afternoon tea, party treat. Heck, slip one in your purse.  They’re a compact, very…

A Galentine Celebration and Michelle’s Greek Salad

A Galentine Celebration and Michelle’s Greek Salad

“The Greeks invented that.” That is my good friend Michelle’s answer to most “who invented?”  questions. It’s become a gentle joke among good friends. Michelle is my Greek friend. She is in my Zoom group. We call ourselves The Seesters. We’re eight mostly retired teachers…

“Flourless”  Pistachio Cake

“Flourless” Pistachio Cake

Do you love pistachios?

Do you love a decadent cake?

If you’ve answered “yes” to both of these questions, this is the cake for you. 

Plus, if you love food trivia, here is a bit of pistachio trivia to regale your friends when you serve them a slice of this delicious cake. Pistachios are fruits. (Who knew?) They are a “drupe”–a member of the same fruit family as raspberries, peaches and olives.

 

 

This recipe is from the cookbook Skinny Taste Simple and is available online on The Splendid Table site (Flourless Pistachio Cake). You can buy the cookbook through your local bookstore or online from Amazon here.

Here is the recipe for the cake as I prepared it in my kitchen. It is special enough to be served to guests. (It would be great served with a scoop of quality French vanilla ice cream!) At the same time, it is simple enough to serve as a snack or even a breakfast pastry. Personally,  I can attest to this after numerous taste testings of this cake! It just keeps drawing you back to the kitchen for one (or two or three) more bite.

Flourless Pistachio Cake

February 20, 2024
Ingredients
  • 2 C. raw shelled pistachios
  • 6 large eggs (separated and at room temperature)
  • 2/3 C. raw sugar
  • 1 1/4 t. almond extract
  • Powdered sugar
Directions
  • Step 1 Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  • Step 2 Grease and line a springform pan with either parchment or a Silpat. I just purchased a Silpat (8 inch round) and it worked beautifully for this cake.
  • Step 3 Spread raw pistachios on a sheetpan and roast in a 325 degree F. oven for about 8 minutes. Remove and cool. Once cool, process the pistachios in a food processor until they are a fine-ground flour. (Be careful not to overprocess or you will have pistachio butter!)
  • Step 4 Turn oven temperature up to 350 degrees F.
  • Step 5 Put egg yolks into a large bowl along with all but 2 T. of the 3/4 C. of raw sugar. Whisk until the yolks turn a light yellow color and the mixture thickens. Whisk in the almond extract and a pinch of kosher salt. Set this mixture aside while you beat the egg whites.
  • Step 6 Put egg whites into the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until they are combined. Sprinkle in the 2 T. of raw sugar that you have remaining and whisk the mixture until it forms medium peaks.
  • Step 7 Go back to your bowl of egg yolks. Stir the mixture briefly to reincorporate the sugar crystals from the raw sugar into the frothy egg yolks. Mix about 1/4 of the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Add the remainder of the beaten egg whites and fold gently to combine being careful not to fold the second portion of  beaten egg whites too vigorously or you will lose some of the rise they give to your cake.Add half the pistachio flour to this mixture and, using a spatula, fold to combine. Then, fold in the other half of the pistachio flour.
  • Step 8 Spoon the batter into your prepared springform pan. Smooth the top of the batter.
  • Step 9 Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. Your cake is done when the top of the pistachio cake is golden and is firm when lightly pressed. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for about 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edges  of the cake to release it from the sides of the springform pan. Once you have removed the sides of the springform pan, run a knife under the bottom of the cake to loosen it a bit. Invert the cake onto a rack and remove the Silpat liner (or parchment) from the bottom of the cake. Re-invert the cake back onto a serving plate. Dust with powdered sugar after the cake is totally cooled.
  • Step 10 Cook’s Note: This recipe makes generous use of almond extract. I love almond flavor, but if you don’t, you may want to cut the quantity used in this recipe.
It’s a Hit on my Table!  Cauliflower Bisque

It’s a Hit on my Table! Cauliflower Bisque

Put down what you are doing and make a pot of this soup! It’s absolutely delicious and, you know, it’s a superfood. Who doesn’t need to pack more superfoods into their diet? If you cook for yourself or for a small family, you might be…

Oldies But Goodies: Spicy Corn and Chile Salad

Oldies But Goodies: Spicy Corn and Chile Salad

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for Spicy Corn and Chile Salad. It’s just the thing to warm up those cold winter days.  You…

To Your Health: Butternut Squash and Red Lentil Soup With Coconut Milk

To Your Health: Butternut Squash and Red Lentil Soup With Coconut Milk

I pretty much adore lentils–especially the delicate earthy-flavored red/orange ones. 

I can’t remember where I had my first taste of lentils. I’m sure it was after I was an adult. I’m thinking it was probably in India when our guide, Krishan, took us into his home to share a meal.  There, I remember marveling at his wife’s seemingly-never ending collection of jars filled with colorful pulses (lentils, beans and peas) displayed on her counter. Later, I remember seeing women sitting on the roadside in the Indian countryside deftly maneuvering  large round wicker baskets so as to  toss freshly-grown lentils into the air to winnow out the stones.   

Lentil dishes abound there and have for centuries. Food historians believe they were one of the world’s earliest domesticated crops.

The little disk-shaped legumes didn’t become popular here until World War II when they were an economic and high-protein meat substitute. Today, most American lentil production is centered in the Pacific Northwest. 

Lentils are very good for you, with some calling them “the world’s oldest health food.” A half cup of lentils packs 12 grams of protein and 9 grams of fiber into a scant 140 calories!

This Red Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup With Coconut Milk is a Melissa Clark recipe from her great cookbook, Dinner–Changing the Game. The cookbook is available through your local bookstore or on Amazon here.

This soup is delicious, non-dairy and full of heathy ingredients. In Clark’s version, you can add optional fresh baby spinach to ramp its healthy credentials. 

 

Here is the soup as I prepared (and enjoyed) it in my kitchen.  (You can find a number of other great lentil recipes on Blue Cayenne. Just type “lentils” into the search box on this page.)

 

Butternut Squash and Red Lentil Soup With Coconut Milk

February 11, 2024
Ingredients
  • 6 T. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 onions (diced)
  • 4 garlic cloves (diced)
  • 2 T. tomato paste
  • 2 t. ground cumin
  • Pinch of cayenne (generous if you enjoy a little heat)
  • 3/4 t. salt
  • Black pepper to taste
  • 12 oz. butternut squash (peeled and diced)
  • 1 C. red lentils
  • 6 C. vegetable stock
  • 1 13.5 oz. can coconut milk (unsweetened)
  • 1 t. lime zest (grated)
  • Fresh lime juice to taste
  • 5 oz. fresh baby spinach (optional)
Directions
  • Step 1 Saute onions and garlic in heated olive oil until they are softened. Add tomato paste, cumin, cayenne, salt and black pepper. Stir ingredients well and continue to cook for several more minutes.
  • Step 2 Add squash,rinsed lentils (no need to soak), and 6 cups of  vegetable broth to the onion mixture. Stir, bring to a boil. Once the broth boils, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes until the squash and lentils are soft.
  • Step 3 Add the coconut milk and stir well to mix. Adjust seasonings.
  • Step 4 Pour some of the soup into your blender or use an immersion blender to coarsely blend the soup to the texture you enjoy. Stir in lime zest and fresh spinach (optional).
  • Step 5 Serve hot with a little lime juice stirred in to your taste. Enjoy!
A Keeper: Buttermilk Banana Cake

A Keeper: Buttermilk Banana Cake

I had buttermilk I needed to use. I had over-ripe bananas. (I ALWAYS have over-ripe bananas.) And, after a stressful couple of weeks, I needed cake.  So, this Bon Appetit recipe for Buttermilk Banana Cake called my name and it is (was) excellent. The sweet…


All Time Favorites

Oldies  But Goodies: Blackeyed Peas With Coconut Milk and Ethiopian Spices

Oldies But Goodies: Blackeyed Peas With Coconut Milk and Ethiopian Spices

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for Blackeyed Peas With Coconut Milk and Ethiopian spices. It’s spicy and delicious! You don’t want to…

Charro-Ish Beans

Charro-Ish Beans

I’m always looking for bean recipes.  Always.  Recently, I saw recipes for Charro Beans (Mexican Cowboy Beans) posted on the Internet. They all had bacon as an ingredient. I decided to experiment with the recipe. I ended up with three variations on the original recipe.…

Oldies But Goodies: Confit Tandoori Chickpeas

Oldies But Goodies: Confit Tandoori Chickpeas

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for Confit Tandoori Chickpeas. You’ll find it here. You don’t want to miss this great recipe…again. Want to…

Beans on Toast With a Touch of Curry: It’s What’s For Breakfast!

Beans on Toast With a Touch of Curry: It’s What’s For Breakfast!

I grew up thinking beans belonged in a bowl. (The cuisine in my childhood home was pretty devoid of spice and imagination. Mine was a meat and potatoes kind of family.) Then I grew up and went to India.  There, in the Taj Mahal Hotel…

Spicy Black Bean Chili

Spicy Black Bean Chili

It’s the end of the month. It’s cold.  What better time for a hot spicy bowl of chili? If you’ve been curious about some of those meat substitutes that have come on the market, here is a chance to try them out. Or, not.  This…