Dairy Free | I Can Cook That

Shredded Chicken Tacos with Tomatoes and Grilled Corn

Tacos are one of my favorite “quick dinners.” For the most part, it all comes down to assembly. I tend to make tacos more as a way to clean my fridge of various vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, corn, avocados, etc.) but this recipe from the August issue of Cooking Light sounded so tasty I couldn’t wait for a fridge-cleaning day, went out, and bought these ingredients.

Ingredients:

2 ears shucked corn (or 1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed)

1 package baby heirloom tomatoes

Salt and pepper, to taste

8 (6-inch) corn tortillas

1/4 rotisserie chicken

1 peeled avocado, cut into 16 slices

8 lime wedges

Preheat your broiler. Place the corn on a pan and broil the corn for 18 minutes, rotating every 6 minutes to allow for an even char. If you are using frozen corn kernels, allow them to thaw. No cooking/broiling needed — you can skip down to combining the kernels with the tomatoes.

While the corn is cooking, quarter the tomatoes. Shred your chicken.

Cut the kernels from the corn.

Place the kernels in a bowl and mix in the tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Heat the tortillas. Divide the chicken evenly among the tortillas.

Top each with 1/4 cup of the corn mixture and 2 avocado slices. Serve with lime wedges.

I loved the flavors in this dish. However, I don’t feel like the flavor of the corn had the chance to shine through, so I’d suggest using defrosted corn kernels to speed up the process. The colors of this are so pretty too! Heirloom tomatoes add extra pizazz, but using plain old cherry or grape tomatoes would get the job done.

Mango Shrimp Kebabs

Earlier this week, I wrote a post reviewing Cooking Light’s new App. I have been playing around with the app for about a week and kept coming back to this Mango Shrimp Kebab recipe. The colors are amazing, and it sounded so delicious! I cut the recipe in half (makes 2 servings) but kept the original recipe mostly intact.

Ingredients:

3/4 pounds large peeled and deveined shrimp

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 mango, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

1/2 small red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces

Juice and zest of 1 lime, cut into wedges

Cooking spray

Preheat your grill to medium-high heat. Prepare your mango, pepper, and onion.

Thread shrimp, bell pepper, mango, and onion alternately onto 4 skewers. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and lime zest. Note: the original recipe did not include zest. But I thought it might be an easy addition to the flavors, you’re using a lime anyways!

Coat the grill with cooking spray. Place the skewers on the grill rack and cook for 2 minutes on each side, or until shrimp are cooked (Mine took closer to 3-4 minutes per side, I blame my little indoor grill. If using a normal grill, 2 minutes on each side should be plenty.)

Serve with lime wedges. Squeeze the wedges over kebabs before eating.

Before I go on, I want to give special thanks to my “Sous Chef” and friend Ericka for helping me out. I am pretty darn scared of knives and cutting slippery fruit stresses me out quite a bit, so I am forever grateful to Ericka for her amazing mango-chopping skills.

We made this along with the Corn with Lime and Chipotle, also suggested by the app. And I couldn’t be happier with the results. The pairing was perfect! We actually ended up using some of the leftover chipotle butter mix on some of the shrimp, just to try it out.

shrimp with chipotle butter

Ericka thought maybe marinating the shrimp in a jerk marinade before adding to the skewers would really bump this recipe up a notch and I agree. However, the original recipe is delicious on its own, and quite simple and fast to make. Look out for my post on the Corn, these two really should be eaten together!

The ingredients were wonderful together, sweet, tangy and fresh. Ericka kept referring to getting a piece of each ingredient in one bite “the perfect bite” and I have to agree with her.

Do not forget to squeeze the lime over the skewers before enjoying. The citrus adds a whole new dimension to this already delicious dish.

Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Fennel and Rosemary

Wow. I haven’t used chicken in a recipe in over a month. I think it is time to finally give poultry it’s time in the limelight. I received fennel in my CSA share and thought this recipe for Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Fennel and Rosemary from Food & Wine sounded like a perfect use of the ingredient.

As a plus, I had all of the ingredients already in my kitchen, with the exception of the chicken.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large fennel bulbs, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, plus more for garnish
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock. divided
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced

Continue reading Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Fennel and Rosemary

Sausage, Pepper & Onion Sandwiches

I love making sausage and peppers. It is such a simple meal to make and is always well received. Sausage and peppers are a hearty meal and work well in both hot summer months as a sandwich, and also during the fall and winter as a chunky stew or over pasta. I purchased sweet Italian sausage to make a soup (which I have yet to actually make) that only required one sausage. I also had some peppers from my CSA share this week so this was a great option for dinner without having to purchase a bunch of new ingredients.

Ingredients:

4 sausages (I used sweet Italian. feel free to use hot sausages instead)

2 green peppers, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 rolls

1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

1 teaspoon grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a saute pan over medium-high heat. When heated, add the sausages and cook until browned, turning the sausages so they cook evenly.

While the sausages are cooking (about 10 minutes), chop your garlic, onion, and peppers.

Remove the sausages from the pan and set aside.

Using the same saute pan, lower the hear to medium. Add the garlic, onions, and peppers to the pan and cook until fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Add the 1.5 cups of crushed tomatoes. Feel free to add a bit more if you’d prefer yours a little more “saucy.” Add in the tomato paste, basil, dried parsley, and dried oregano.

Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and add in the sausages. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook for 3-5 more minutes or until the sausages are warm. Cut the rolls almost in half, but not fully. You want the sauce to be able to settle at the bottom of the bun.

To serve, add 1 sausage to each bun. Spoon the onions, peppers, and tomato mixture over the sausage. Add some Parmesan cheese and/or parsley if you prefer.

If you have an outdoor grill, you can alter this recipe to grill the sausages and add to the pan at the end. This recipe can also be used over pasta, just chop up the sausage into bit sized pieces. This is a pretty messy meal so be sure to have plenty of napkins on hand. Enjoy!

Roasted Beets with Tahini

There is a restaurant in Philadelphia called Zahav that serves modern Israeli food. I went there for my birthday last December, and am still thinking about their tasty hummus and absolutely fantastic salatim, a selection of 8 little salads that you scoop up with their house baked laffa. All of the salads were really delicious, but the pureed beet salad was by far the happiest surprise offered. So when my CSA share came with beets this time around, I knew exactly what I was going to make… or try to make at least. I basically made a hummus, substituting in roasted beets for the chickpeas. My version is probably not all that close, to the one served as Zahav but I’m still happy with the results.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of beets (mine came with 5)

2 tablespoons tahini

The juice and zest of 2 lemons

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Walnuts, for topping

To roast the beets, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Remove the tops, wash to remove all dirt, and arrange on a baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil and add a generous amount of salt.

Cook for 40 minutes or until you can easily stick them with a fork. My beets were on the smaller side, so you may need to up the time to 1 hour.

Allow to cool completely. Remove the skin of the beets by rubbing them with a paper towel. This is surprisingly easy, I promise.

Roughly chop the beets.

Add the beets, tahini, lemon juice, lemon zest, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper to a food processor.

Process until smooth.

Transfer to a serving dish and top with chopped walnuts. Serve with cucumbers, pita, broccoli, cauliflower, or anything else you’d like to dip in this lovely little dish.

If you’d prefer, you can add in a can of rinsed chickpeas to make a beet hummus. Another alternative would be to add some Green yogurt, to taste, to make a creamier version of this dish. Enjoy!

Sauteed Pea Tendrils

Pea tendrils (or pea shoots) are the leaves from a snow pea plant. They have a bit of a spinach-pea taste, delicate and very tasty. Before receiving them in my CSA share, I just thought they were used in a stir fry or as a topping. But these little guys are really delicious in a simple saute.

Ingredients:
Pea tendrils
1 teaspoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, smashed and cut in half
Salt, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic cloves and cook for 2 minutes, until sizzling but not browned.

You can either remove the garlic, or keep it in there to add more garlicky flavor. Add the pea tendrils and salt to taste.

Saute for 1-2 minutes until slightly wilted but still maintaining its shape. That’s it! So simple, so yummy.

Cilantro Lime Hummus

I can never have enough hummus, it is one of my favorite snacks (although I tend to eat so much of it, it’s not really a snack!) I’ve had hummus on the brain for a while now. Be Well Philly must have read my mind, because they posted this great Cilantro Lime hummus recipe that I just had to try. As a plus, cilantro came in my CSA share this week!

Ingredients:

1 garlic scape, roughly chopped (or 2 cloves garlic)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 14-oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro
Juice and zest of 2 limes

Continue reading Cilantro Lime Hummus

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

I think I’m on a hummus kick. Or maybe I’m feeling particularly lazy dinner-wise this week, and hummus is a quick and easy thing to make. Whatever the reason, it is hummus overload on this website. I have a good feeling no one is complaining though. One of the most appealing things about hummus is how versatile it is. Here is my version of roasted red pepper hummus.

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained

1/3 cup tahini

The juice and zest of 1 lemon juice

1 jar of roasted red peppers (about 3 peppers)

1 garlic scape, chopped (or 2 garlic cloves)

1/4 teaspoon cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

For dipping:

Grape tomatoes

Pita bread

Cucumber

First, prepare your red peppers. Remove the peppers from the jar. Take two of the peppers and roughly chop. You will use these in the actual hummus. Finely chop the remaining red pepper as a topping for the hummus. Set the finely chopped red pepper aside.

Combine everything (chickpeas to salt and pepper) in a food processor.

Blend until smooth.

Top with some of the remaining red pepper. Serve with pita, cucumber slices, or tomatoes.

Roasted red pepper hummus is one of my favorite. It always ends up tasting so smooth and creamy, it makes me so happy. The tiny addition of cumin gives a light heat to the hummus which I really enjoy. If you’re not a fan, feel free to omit the cumin. I loved the scapes in this hummus. Raw minced garlic can sometimes be overbearing in hummus, so the subtlety of the scapes was perfect.

Truffled Roasted Potatoes

I was so excited to receive red potatoes in my CSA share this week. I love roasted red potatoes with fresh herbs, but I had a little bit of white truffle oil left that I wanted to use. I found this recipe for Truffled Roasted Potatoes from Cooking Light which sounded delicious.

Ingredients:
1 small container of red potatoes, washed and quartered
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic scapes, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon white truffle oil
1 teaspoon each of chopped fresh thyme leaves, sage leaves, and rosemary

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Wash your red potatoes thoroughly, but gently. (The skin of red potatoes is fragile). I used a little brush to lightly buff off the dirt under warm running water.

before

after

Cut the potatoes into wedges: quarters for the larger potatoes, and halves for the smaller potatoes, and arrange on a cookie sheet.

Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes and sprinkle with garlic scapes, salt and pepper.

Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are brown and slightly wrinkled.

While the potatoes are cooking, chop your thyme, sage, and rosemary. Combine.

Remove the potatoes from the oven, drizzle with truffle oil, and sprinkle with the herb mixture.

This was fantastic. I honestly couldn’t stop eating the potatoes. Truffle oil is such a great ingredient, although it is a bit of a splurge. Truffle oil is usually added at the end of a dish, the oil is too delicate to be subjected to high heat. A little bit of truffle oil goes a long way though so do not overpour! When I make this recipe in the future, I plan on using normal minced garlic (2-3 cloves), the garlic scapes were quite burnt from the oven so I didn’t get any of the garlic taste from them. Boo.

Paella

I wanted to challenge myself this weekend, so I decided to try to make paella. I don’t own a paella pan, and I honestly have no idea how to cook paella, so this should be quite the experience. I used a mixture of a recipe from Tyler Florence and one from Cooking Light, keeping my personal taste in mind.

Ingredients:

2 Spanish chorizo sausages, thickly sliced

1 Spanish onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons parsley (fresh if you have it)

1 (15-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped

1/2 teaspoon paprika

2 cups rice, whatever you have (long, short, doesn’t matter)

2 quarts plus 2 cups water

1/3 cup flour

1 cup dry white wine

2 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon saffron threads

1 (8-ounce) bottles clam juice

1 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed

2 pounds mussels, debearded and scrubbed

Olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 cup sweet peas, frozen and thawed (optional)

Lemon wedges, for serving (optional)

Begin by cleaning and de-bearding the mussels. I couldn’t handle doing this, so thankfully my boyfriend was willing to help.

That wiry-looking thing on the right side of the mussel, that’s the beard. To remove, pull towards the hinge part of the mussel and tug.

yuck

The beards won’t hurt you if you eat them, but they don’t look particularly appetizing. Scrub the mussels to remove any gook that might be left on them. Discard any mussels that are open or cracked. Do the same with the clams. Put the clams and mussels in a mixture of 2 quarts water and 1/3 cup flour for 20 minutes. This helps to remove any sand that may still be in the mussels and clams.

Add the chicken broth, 2 cups water, 1 cup white wine, clam juice and saffron to a pot over medium heat. Simmer, without boiling, then reduce to low to keep warm.

Heat a tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Place the cut chorizo in the pan and cook until browned. Remove and set aside.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the chopped onions, garlic and parsley. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and paprika and cook for 5-10 minutes until fragrant.

Add the rice, stirring to coat the rice.

Pour in the saffron broth, simmering for 10 minutes.

Add chorizo, clams and mussels, tucking the clams and mussels into the rice.

Cook for 15 minutes without stirring, until the rice is fluffy and you can smell the rice at the bottom beginning to toast. (This is known as socarrat… paella is supposed to have a toasted bottom.)

Remove from heat and allow to rest for 5 minutes (it will be really, really hot). Serve with lemon wedges and peas if desired. Season with salt and pepper if needed.

I have to give myself a little pat on the back for this one (as well as my boyfriend for his wonderful de-bearding skills). Although I was craving a bit more saffron taste, this dish really turned out well overall. It is quite a bit of work, but it produces a whole lot of food, at least 8 servings. As always, don’t eat any clams or mussels that don’t open. A bunch of my clams didn’t open, kind of a bummer. I also think the next time I make this, I would reserve the liquid from the tomatoes and add that in as well for a little extra flavor.

All Gone.

Sangria

For Father’s Day, I wanted to make my dad a somewhat traditional sangria. He is a man who has nothing and wants nothing (which is probably a result of having two daughters and a wife who want everything), but he does love a good sangria. I hope he likes it!

Ingredients:

1 bottle of Rioja wine

1/2 cup brandy

1/4 cup triple sec

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup cranberry juice

3 table spoons simple syrup

1 apple, cored

1 orange, cut into thin slices

1 lemon, cut into thin slices

1 lime, cut into thin slices

1 peach/nectarine, pitted and cut into wedges

Ginger ale, to taste

Combine the wine, brandy, triple sec, orange juice, cranberry juice and simple syrup. Stir.

Prepare all of your fruit.

Add the fruit to the wine mixture and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

When ready to serve, pour sangria into a glass and top with the ginger ale to taste.

I took only one sip of this, so my dad will have to be the true judge of this recipe. It seemed to taste good to me: not too sweet and still a hint of actual wine. You can make a bunch of substitutes for this recipe. If you don’t have the time to make simple syrup, just use 3 tablespoons sugar and stir until it dissolves in the wine mixture. Feel free to substitute or eliminate some of the fruit choices: blackberries would also be a nice addition in the sangria.

Grilled Watermelon

We kind of went on a grilling spree this week. (And by “we” I mean my boyfriend and his roommate. I only did the prep work.)

We were throwing basically anything on there. Burgers, chicken, asparagus, salmon… and watermelon. So. Here’s a super simple recipe for grilled watermelon!

Ingredients:
Honey
Sliced watermelon

Spread a little bit of honey on each piece of watermelon.

Place on a grill for about 2 minutes on each side.

Or until grill marks appear on the watermelon.

It’s amazing that grilling watermelon for a few minutes completely changes the taste of the watermelon. It’s quite tasty! The sugars in the watermelon and honey caramelize, making a new taste to the fruit. Yum!

Grilled Marinated Asparagus

Tonight, I get a night off from cooking! Sort of. My boyfriend and his roommates are firing up the grill and doing the hard part, so all I have to do is make various marinades for the food. We had some asparagus lying around so I decided to just make a simple marinade to make this Grilled Marinated Asparagus.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of asparagus
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 2 large garlic cloves)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon chopped onion flakes
Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all the ingredients not including the asparagus. Mix well.

Prepare the asparagus. Remove the rough bottoms of the stems. Asparagus tends to snap where the tougher part ends, or you can just cut the asparagus where you think it needs to be trimmed.

asparagus ends

Place the asparagus on a large piece of tin foil. You will make a little packet out of the tin foil.

Fold up each side of the tin foil, twisting the ends so that they stay together.

Pour the marinade over the asparagus.

Close the foil and marinate for at least one hour. You can either remove the asparagus from the foil and place the asparagus right on the grill, cooking for 6-8 minutes, turning carefully half way through, or you can put the asparagus on the grill in the foil, cooking for about 10 minutes. Either way, grill until the asparagus is tender but still has a crunch to it.

there it is. in the tin foil

This turned out really well. The balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce add a bit of tangy-ness to the asparagus without overpowering the delicious natural flavor of asparagus. Many thanks to the grill masters:

Tim

Kevin

for not letting my asparagus get soggy. It was great to only have to do the prep work on a dish… a girl could get used to this!

Yum

Grilled Marinated Asparagus

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 bunch of asparagus
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 2 large garlic cloves)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon chopped onion flakes
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients not including the asparagus. Mix well.
Prepare the asparagus. Remove the rough bottoms of the stems. Asparagus tends to snap where the tougher part ends, or you can just cut the asparagus where you think it needs to be trimmed.
Place the asparagus on a large piece of tin foil. You will make a little packet out of the tin foil.
Fold up each side of the tin foil, twisting the ends so that they stay together.
Pour the marinade over the asparagus.
Close the foil and marinate for at least one hour. You can either remove the asparagus from the foil and place the asparagus right on the grill, cooking for 6-8 minutes, turning carefully half way through, or you can put the asparagus on the grill in the foil, cooking for about 10 minutes. Either way, grill until the asparagus is tender but still has a crunch to it.

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Maple Soy Glazed Salmon

Are you ready for the easiest salmon recipe, perhaps ever? The name says it all: maple-soy glazed salmon. You just use equal parts maple syrup and reduced sodium soy sauce.

Ingredients:

2 pieces of 5 oz salmon fillets, skin on

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)

salt and pepper, to taste

Combine the maple syrup and soy sauce.

Top the salmon fillets with salt and pepper.

Drizzle the maple-soy mixture equally over the salmon.

I bought my salmon from a supermarket in Wilmington that inexplicably only had salmon without the skin. What the heck? Normally, I would just grill the salmon, skin side up for 2-3 minutes and then flip the salmon, skin side down and cook until done. Because we had to take into account the whole no-skin issue, we wrapped the salmon in tin foil and popped it on the grill for a good 10 to 15 minutes. (Special thanks to Kevin and Tim for doing the actual grilling part!)

It still turned out great! The sauce caramelizes a bit, adding some sweetness to the salmon. I really wish it could have been straight on the grill to add some charring but it was not to be. Sigh. If anyone gets the chance to actually try it this way, please let me know how it turns out!

Gazpacho

The warm days in Philadelphia keep on coming, so I think it’s time to attempt making the summer favorite: gazpacho. I wanted to do an heirloom gazpacho, but I am presently cooking out of Wilmington and the local store does not carry any. Sigh. I used this recipe from Cooking Light and just changed some of the ingredients to fit what I could find in the store.

Ingredients:

2 seeded peeled cucumbers, plus 1 for garnish

1 chopped Vidalia or other sweet onion

1 coarsely chopped red bell pepper

6 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 large tomatoes, chopped seeded & peeled

1 garlic clove, minced

1 finely chopped yellow pepper, for garnish

1 finely chopped orange pepper, for garnish

1 finely chopped tomatillo, for garnish

8 pieces of garlic bread (optional)

To begin, prepare all of your ingredients. Peel and seed 2 cucumbers. To learn how to seed a cucumber, check out my post here. Roughly chop the onion and red bell pepper. To peel a tomato, prepare a bowl with ice water and bring another pot of water to a boil.

On the bottom side of the tomatoes, cut an X into the skin.

When the water is boiling, place 2 tomatoes at a time into the water.

Keep in the water for 15 to 20 seconds, remove, and place in the ice water.

Once cooled, use a knife to peel away the skin from the X.

Repeat with remaining tomatoes.

To seed the tomato, cut the tomato in half and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Discard the seeds and roughly chop the tomatoes.

Prepped Veggies

To make the gazpacho, combine first 9 ingredients (up to the garlic).

Add 1/3 of the mixture to a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour into a large bowl and repeat with the remaining 2/3 vegetable mixture. Cover and chill.

When ready to serve, spoon gazpacho into bowls. Finely chop your yellow and orange peppers and tomatillo. Combine the peppers and tomatillo.

Add 2 tablespoons of the mixture to each bowl. If you’d like, you can also add a piece of garlic bread (or just a crusty piece of day old bread), 1 tablespoon goat cheese, or a teaspoon of sour cream.

This would also be a nice appetizer. Pour the gazpacho into shooter glasses and top with a teaspoon of the pepper tomatillo mixture.

You can also use the gazpacho as a pureed salsa. Prepare garlic bread. Put on a plate with a bowl of gazpacho in the center with a spoon. Guests can spoon gazpacho on top of the bread, or use the bread to dip into the gazpacho.