I've also seen it spelled "hummous". This is an easy, tasty, and relatively healthy snack/condiment, as long as you have a food processor. Seriously, blenders do not work. Hummus is what I bring to parties nowadays, and everyone likes it. Here's the simple version:
2 drained cans of chick peas, aka Garbanzo beans (or 1 big can).
3 Tbsp peanut butter, all natural
1 or 1.5 Tbsp lemon juice (out of a bottle, from concentrate, no problem)
1 or 2 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 fresh garlic cloves
Throw everything in the food processor and blend the heck out of it. You'll probably need to add a little water to get a good texture. I can't say how much water you'll need because it varies by the other ingredients and how the beans drained, and what texture you like. Some people used reserved liquid from the beans. Do not use all the liquid from the beans, or you will get a soup.
After everything is blended, put the hummus in a container, sprinkle some paprika and olive oil on top, cover and refrigerate for a few hours.
A traditional hummus uses tahini, pureed sesame seeds, but this is often expensive or hard to find. Peanut butter works just as well, and your friends probably won't notice at all. The cumin is vital! Also, it is important to use garlic cloves instead of crushed garlic from a jar. I don't add salt, but most people would probably like some salt in it. It's already cheap to make, but you can save a buck by soaking dry chick peas overnight instead of buying them canned.
That's the base recipe that I use for folks who like things bland. For myself, I kick up the garlic and throw in some jalapenos and cayenne pepper!
This is a great condiment for pita, chips, crackers, and veggies.
Showing posts with label Easy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easy. Show all posts
2011-06-10
2011-05-25
A Healthy Soup
As I have been learning more about nutrition, I have been making an effort to eat more beans. As I have been very busy lately, I've relied more heavily on my slow-cooker. The result is that about half of my dinners over the last two months have been bean and vegetable soups. They have been great! They taste good, I can fiddle with the spices and veggies for variety, I've been losing weight, and I've been sleeping and feeling better.
2 cups of dry beans (I use a half cup of each of four kinds that cost $0.80-1.60/lb)
soaked overnight, then brought to a boil for a few minutes. Black, kidney, navy, pinto, red, whatever.
stock - whatever bones or stock I've got, sieved. I don't measure it.
1 lb carrots, sliced
1/2 head green cabbage
some sauteed/caramelized onions
some sliced celery
peppers, scallions, or whatever else was cheap that week
Sometimes I add some barley or rice to thicken the soup.
hot peppers to kick it up, the standard Italian herbs
A crock of this lasts 10-15 meals for $5-10, depending on what veggies are put in. I tend to eat it with corn chips (organic unsalted from Trader Joe's, $2.50/lb) and some cheese. It's easy, it's cheap, and it's good for you.
2 cups of dry beans (I use a half cup of each of four kinds that cost $0.80-1.60/lb)
soaked overnight, then brought to a boil for a few minutes. Black, kidney, navy, pinto, red, whatever.
stock - whatever bones or stock I've got, sieved. I don't measure it.
1 lb carrots, sliced
1/2 head green cabbage
some sauteed/caramelized onions
some sliced celery
peppers, scallions, or whatever else was cheap that week
Sometimes I add some barley or rice to thicken the soup.
hot peppers to kick it up, the standard Italian herbs
A crock of this lasts 10-15 meals for $5-10, depending on what veggies are put in. I tend to eat it with corn chips (organic unsalted from Trader Joe's, $2.50/lb) and some cheese. It's easy, it's cheap, and it's good for you.
2010-09-09
Homemade Yogurt
I've mentioned that I eat Dannon Light & Fit yogurt pretty often, and I buy it only when it's on sale at $0.50/6oz. I came across instructions for making yogurt in a slow-cooker (one of my favorite appliances) and figured I'd try my hand at it. It was remarkably easy. I used a three-ply aluminum core stainless steel pot to speed things up, but you'll want something that holds on to heat well, not a cheap thin pot. I found other information online (Wikipedia) to corroborate and refine the technique. You will need a decent thermometer.
1 qt of milk at ~$4/gal = ~$1
1 Tbsp yogurt
Heat the milk to 180 F and maintain that temperature for 10-30 minutes. A longer time should result in a thicker yogurt as the heating process makes the proteins play nicely with each other. Let the milk cool to about 115 F, then whisk in 1 Tbsp of yogurt. The goal is to integrate the yogurt "starter" at 113 F, but adding it in will reduce the overall temperature of the mixture. So, if you're adding cold yogurt, maybe do it when the milk is at 117 F, but room-temperature yogurt can be added at 115 F. I don't remember enough from physics to figure it out exactly. There are 64 Tbsps in a qt. Ideally, you will hold the temperature at 100-110 F for the next four hours. I just put the lid on my pot, wrapped it in a towel and put it in my oven. Every couple hours I turned the oven on low (170 F) for twenty seconds. Since I wasn't maintaining the right temperature, I left the pot in for six hours, and some people leave it for 8-10 hours. Then I moved the pot to the fridge.
The yogurt was quite tasty. I had a bowl for breakfast with Grape Nuts cereal and honey. The yogurt will be thicker at the top, and will be much thinner and less sweet than grocery store yogurt overall because most American commercial yogurts add starches, sugars, and gelatin that thicken, preserve and sweeten it. This picture was taken after half the yogurt was eaten. You may see the difference in thickness between the glob of top-yogurt and the surrounding bottom-yogurt.
There are many things you can do with yogurt besides stirring in some honey or fruit jam. It can be used in dips, sauces, and in some drinks and entrees. I will try to find some good dishes to make.
Save a bit of the yogurt you make to be the starter for your next batch. You can make as much as you want in a batch, but keep the 1:64 ratio of starter to milk. The milk turns to yogurt as the bacteria from the starter eat lactose and poop lactic acid, which brings the milk proteins together. The acidity helps protect the yogurt from unwanted bacteria. The yogurt should keep well in your fridge for about 10 days.
Depending on what yogurt and milk you buy and what your price thresholds are, making your own could cut your yogurt expenditures to 1/2-1/6.
1 qt of milk at ~$4/gal = ~$1
1 Tbsp yogurt
Heat the milk to 180 F and maintain that temperature for 10-30 minutes. A longer time should result in a thicker yogurt as the heating process makes the proteins play nicely with each other. Let the milk cool to about 115 F, then whisk in 1 Tbsp of yogurt. The goal is to integrate the yogurt "starter" at 113 F, but adding it in will reduce the overall temperature of the mixture. So, if you're adding cold yogurt, maybe do it when the milk is at 117 F, but room-temperature yogurt can be added at 115 F. I don't remember enough from physics to figure it out exactly. There are 64 Tbsps in a qt. Ideally, you will hold the temperature at 100-110 F for the next four hours. I just put the lid on my pot, wrapped it in a towel and put it in my oven. Every couple hours I turned the oven on low (170 F) for twenty seconds. Since I wasn't maintaining the right temperature, I left the pot in for six hours, and some people leave it for 8-10 hours. Then I moved the pot to the fridge.
The yogurt was quite tasty. I had a bowl for breakfast with Grape Nuts cereal and honey. The yogurt will be thicker at the top, and will be much thinner and less sweet than grocery store yogurt overall because most American commercial yogurts add starches, sugars, and gelatin that thicken, preserve and sweeten it. This picture was taken after half the yogurt was eaten. You may see the difference in thickness between the glob of top-yogurt and the surrounding bottom-yogurt.
There are many things you can do with yogurt besides stirring in some honey or fruit jam. It can be used in dips, sauces, and in some drinks and entrees. I will try to find some good dishes to make.
Save a bit of the yogurt you make to be the starter for your next batch. You can make as much as you want in a batch, but keep the 1:64 ratio of starter to milk. The milk turns to yogurt as the bacteria from the starter eat lactose and poop lactic acid, which brings the milk proteins together. The acidity helps protect the yogurt from unwanted bacteria. The yogurt should keep well in your fridge for about 10 days.
Depending on what yogurt and milk you buy and what your price thresholds are, making your own could cut your yogurt expenditures to 1/2-1/6.
2010-04-06
Sourdough
Sourdough is a tasty, interesting, and fun food. It's a great project for kids, like a Tomagochi, except cheaper and edible. All purpose flour is $1.59 for a 5lb bag right now, and whole wheat flour is maybe $4 for 5 lbs. There are many resources online for learning about and how to make sourdough. I've tried a few, and I'm writing about what has worked well for me. I encourage you to delve deeper.
Quick Explanation: Naturally occurring yeast and other wee beasties are in the air around us all the time. If you create the right environment, the ones you want will thrive and the ones you don't want will die. The process takes a while, but a good strain can be maintained indefinitely. Some bakeries have strains over a century old. Use this instead of store-bought baker's yeast for your baking, and enjoy a slightly sour flavor unique to your location and technique.
Finicky Stuff: Sourdough has some weird rules to follow to foster your organisms without screwing anything up. I don't know which are strict and which are lenient, and I'm really just repeating what seemed to have convergent validity from what I've seen.
* Use a glass bowl or jar for your starter.
* Keep the lid loose (or else gas will build up and pop the lid off for you).
* Avoid metal utensils (lenient, but avoid extended exposure to metal).
* Keep the temperature generally between 70 and 80 F.
* Throw it out and start over if you see mold.
* A mix of rye or whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour may result in better flavor or development due to organisms that come in the flour.
* Sourdough starters tend to produce hooch, which is a slightly alcoholic brown liquid. It is totally harmless; you can stir it back in or throw it out depending on how you feel. I wouldn't drink it.
* Spring might be the best time to make a starter because there's so much stuff in the air.
* Different factors will affect the consistency of your starter. Typically, it should be slightly thinner than pancake batter, but at different stages as it fills with bubbles it can resemble a fluffy sponge.
Making the Starter:
Day 1: Mix 3 Tbsp water with 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp) flour in your glass container. Keep a loose lid on.
Day 2: You probably won't notice anything neat yet. Throw out half. Mix in 3 Tbsp water. Mix in 1/4 cup flour.
Day 3: It may start to smell bad. That's okay. It will eventually smell like vomit, but only for a few days. That is a normal part of the process. Throw out half. Mix in 3 Tbsp water. Mix in 1/4 cup flour (see a pattern?).
Day 4-6: You should see bubbles a few hours after each feeding. Ignore bad smells. Each day, throw out half, mix in 3 Tbsp water and 1/4 cup flour.
Day 7 and beyond: Your starter should be good by now. It should have a slight sour smell, and not smell like vomit. Now, instead of throwing out half, you can store that half in another container and keep it in the fridge. This will add up over the days and let you make some good stuff later.
Sourdough Bread:
I love that the ingredients are just flour, water, and a pinch of salt. I've had great success with the 1-2-3 recipe for sourdough bread. The trick is that those are the ingredient ratios by mass, not volume. Use 1 part starter, 2 parts water, and 3 parts flour. I have a small scale, and I make small loaves using 2 oz starter, 4 oz water, and 6 oz flour (2/3 whole wheat). What the volumes look like are 1/3 cup starter, 2/3 cup water, and 3/2 cups flour. That is 1/3 of a recipe I found for a 2lb loaf. Below is the full recipe:
* Make a "sponge", which is just starter you're going to use for your bread. The night before the day you'll bake, mix 1/3 cup starter, 1/3 cup water, and 1/2 cup flour. Those are approximate volume measurements. You will find what works best with experience and experimentation.
* In the morning, use the 1-2-3 ratio (starter-water-flour by mass) and a bit of salt to make your dough. Mix the ingredients in a bowl, then leave the dough to sit for half an hour. If I had to guess on volumes, I would say 1 cup starter, 2 cups water, 4.5 cups flour.
* Kneed the dough for five minutes or so. Maybe you have a stand mixer. I use a wooden spoon and keep the dough in the bowl. I don't kneed by hand because it takes extra flour, makes a mess and throws off the ingredient ratio.
* Let the dough sit in a loosely covered bowl for about 8 hours (like while you're at work). If you're around, use a silicone spatula to gently fold the sides of the dough onto the top after a few hours.
* When you're done letting the dough rise (it should have at least doubled in size), gently fold the sides up, shape into a loaf, and put it with the "seam" side down on a baking stone or sheet. There are videos online showing how to do this far better than I will describe here.
* Put your loaf in the oven. Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes. I spray a little oil on the loaf to brown the crust. When it's done, it should sound hollow when you tap it, and crackle a little when you take it out of the oven.
* Let it cool in the open for a couple hours. If you put it in a container right away, steam will condense inside and make the crust soggy and increase the risk of mold.
Sourdough Pancakes:
These are DELICIOUS! This will use up all the starter you have collected in the fridge over time. They are extremely light and fluffy, and will be thin like crepes. This makes about 15 pancakes; good for 2 people for about $1 total and 450 calories each.
* In a bowl, mix 2 Tbsp sugar, 4 Tbsp oil (or applesauce), 1 egg, 1/2 tsp salt
* Mix in 2 cups of starter
* Get your griddle up to 350 F
* In a cup, mix 1 tsp baking soda and 1 Tbsp warm water, then mix it into the rest and wait a minute
* Pour 1/4 scoops of batter onto the griddle. They will spread a lot because the batter is thinner than for regular pancakes. When bubbles stop rising, flip the pancakes. They'll take maybe 2 minutes on a side.
These are extra good with 1 mashed banana and 1/4 cup chocolate chips added to the batter.
Quick Explanation: Naturally occurring yeast and other wee beasties are in the air around us all the time. If you create the right environment, the ones you want will thrive and the ones you don't want will die. The process takes a while, but a good strain can be maintained indefinitely. Some bakeries have strains over a century old. Use this instead of store-bought baker's yeast for your baking, and enjoy a slightly sour flavor unique to your location and technique.
Finicky Stuff: Sourdough has some weird rules to follow to foster your organisms without screwing anything up. I don't know which are strict and which are lenient, and I'm really just repeating what seemed to have convergent validity from what I've seen.
* Use a glass bowl or jar for your starter.
* Keep the lid loose (or else gas will build up and pop the lid off for you).
* Avoid metal utensils (lenient, but avoid extended exposure to metal).
* Keep the temperature generally between 70 and 80 F.
* Throw it out and start over if you see mold.
* A mix of rye or whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour may result in better flavor or development due to organisms that come in the flour.
* Sourdough starters tend to produce hooch, which is a slightly alcoholic brown liquid. It is totally harmless; you can stir it back in or throw it out depending on how you feel. I wouldn't drink it.
* Spring might be the best time to make a starter because there's so much stuff in the air.
* Different factors will affect the consistency of your starter. Typically, it should be slightly thinner than pancake batter, but at different stages as it fills with bubbles it can resemble a fluffy sponge.
Making the Starter:
Day 1: Mix 3 Tbsp water with 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp) flour in your glass container. Keep a loose lid on.
Day 2: You probably won't notice anything neat yet. Throw out half. Mix in 3 Tbsp water. Mix in 1/4 cup flour.
Day 3: It may start to smell bad. That's okay. It will eventually smell like vomit, but only for a few days. That is a normal part of the process. Throw out half. Mix in 3 Tbsp water. Mix in 1/4 cup flour (see a pattern?).
Day 4-6: You should see bubbles a few hours after each feeding. Ignore bad smells. Each day, throw out half, mix in 3 Tbsp water and 1/4 cup flour.
Day 7 and beyond: Your starter should be good by now. It should have a slight sour smell, and not smell like vomit. Now, instead of throwing out half, you can store that half in another container and keep it in the fridge. This will add up over the days and let you make some good stuff later.
Sourdough Bread:
I love that the ingredients are just flour, water, and a pinch of salt. I've had great success with the 1-2-3 recipe for sourdough bread. The trick is that those are the ingredient ratios by mass, not volume. Use 1 part starter, 2 parts water, and 3 parts flour. I have a small scale, and I make small loaves using 2 oz starter, 4 oz water, and 6 oz flour (2/3 whole wheat). What the volumes look like are 1/3 cup starter, 2/3 cup water, and 3/2 cups flour. That is 1/3 of a recipe I found for a 2lb loaf. Below is the full recipe:
* Make a "sponge", which is just starter you're going to use for your bread. The night before the day you'll bake, mix 1/3 cup starter, 1/3 cup water, and 1/2 cup flour. Those are approximate volume measurements. You will find what works best with experience and experimentation.
* In the morning, use the 1-2-3 ratio (starter-water-flour by mass) and a bit of salt to make your dough. Mix the ingredients in a bowl, then leave the dough to sit for half an hour. If I had to guess on volumes, I would say 1 cup starter, 2 cups water, 4.5 cups flour.
* Kneed the dough for five minutes or so. Maybe you have a stand mixer. I use a wooden spoon and keep the dough in the bowl. I don't kneed by hand because it takes extra flour, makes a mess and throws off the ingredient ratio.
* Let the dough sit in a loosely covered bowl for about 8 hours (like while you're at work). If you're around, use a silicone spatula to gently fold the sides of the dough onto the top after a few hours.
* When you're done letting the dough rise (it should have at least doubled in size), gently fold the sides up, shape into a loaf, and put it with the "seam" side down on a baking stone or sheet. There are videos online showing how to do this far better than I will describe here.
* Put your loaf in the oven. Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes. I spray a little oil on the loaf to brown the crust. When it's done, it should sound hollow when you tap it, and crackle a little when you take it out of the oven.
* Let it cool in the open for a couple hours. If you put it in a container right away, steam will condense inside and make the crust soggy and increase the risk of mold.
Sourdough Pancakes:
These are DELICIOUS! This will use up all the starter you have collected in the fridge over time. They are extremely light and fluffy, and will be thin like crepes. This makes about 15 pancakes; good for 2 people for about $1 total and 450 calories each.
* In a bowl, mix 2 Tbsp sugar, 4 Tbsp oil (or applesauce), 1 egg, 1/2 tsp salt
* Mix in 2 cups of starter
* Get your griddle up to 350 F
* In a cup, mix 1 tsp baking soda and 1 Tbsp warm water, then mix it into the rest and wait a minute
* Pour 1/4 scoops of batter onto the griddle. They will spread a lot because the batter is thinner than for regular pancakes. When bubbles stop rising, flip the pancakes. They'll take maybe 2 minutes on a side.
These are extra good with 1 mashed banana and 1/4 cup chocolate chips added to the batter.
2010-02-13
Chicken Soup for the GI
When the big roasting chickens are buy-one-get-one-free, I grab two. A 6-7lb chicken fits right in my slow cooker. I throw in some rosemary, a couple carrots, onions and celery ribs, then cook on low for 6-7 hours, until the little plastic gauge pops up. The chicken meat easily serves 8. But this is a post about soup.
Slow cooking or roasting a chicken results in three usable byproducts. After the chicken is removed from the pot or pan, you will have chicken drippings and various debris at the bottom. I scoop out the big chunks (eat the veggies), and pour the drippings through an old threadbare hand towel (I don't have cheesecloth) into a bowl. That bowl goes into the fridge where the fat will rise to the top and solidify. The drippings, full of gelatin, will gel. I call the fat "chicken butter" and sometimes use it sparingly to add flavor to noodles. I am sure it is not healthy. I call the supercooled liquid drippings "chicken jelly" and use it in soups and stews.
When the chicken has cooled for maybe 20 minutes, I cut all the meat off the bones. There are good small pieces of meat between the ribs and along the back that are easy to get with your fingers. The legs, breasts, and wings are usually served for dinners with sides of vegetables and rice or noodles for about $1.75 per person. All the bones, skin, giblets, neck and wingtips go back in a big pot with carrot, celery, onion, rosemary, and garlic. I use the celery heads and roots that were cut off earlier, and any carrots or onions that are getting on towards bad shape. You probably won't eat these vegetables after using them for stock. Bring that pot up to a simmer for a long time. Since I tend to cook the chicken for dinner, I end up at this step in the evening, and just put everything in the slow cooker on low over night, then deal with it in the morning. Again, scoop out the chunks and toss them. Pour the remainder through a threadbare towel into bowls. From one chicken I can get a good 5 pints of stock. It can be safely refrigerated for a few days, or frozen for weeks.
This stock will be a little cloudy. I don't mind. This isn't fancy cuisine. There may be a way to clarify it by slowly and carefully whisking egg whites into warm stock, then filtering through the cloth again, but that's more work and wasted eggs to me.
I had never made a chicken soup before yesterday, and it turned out to be the best chicken soup I've ever had in my life. I have no idea how many calories are in the homemade chicken jelly or stock. This ends up being a thick and rich soup. This made 6 quarts for around $6. This is a delicious meal for no more than $1 per hungry person. Total time was three hours, but only half an hour or so of it is work, and it can cook in two hours easily. This is something a 10-year old could make.
All of the stock from one chicken.
All of the chicken jelly from one chicken, with the fat removed.
1 lb carrots, sliced
8 celery ribs, sliced
10 scallions, chopped
2 medium-big onions, largely diced
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 lb noodles, spiral, whole-grain, dry
1/2 lb diced chicken meat (I diced the pieces of rib and back meat and part of a leg)
rosemary, oregano, salt, pepper to taste
Note: I also added some navy beans because they are very nutritious. I made 1 cup of dry beans in a separate pot, then added them to the soup when they were soft. The beans were the only not-delicious part of the soup. They did not ruin the soup by any means. The soup was still incredible, but if I add beans in the future, I will add half as many and prepare them even further in advance.
Put all of the stock and chicken jelly (no fat) in a 6+ qt pot. Bring to a boil for a minute or two. Add the sliced carrots and celery and spices and garlic. Let rise to a boil again, then reduce to a simmer. After an hour, add the onions and scallions. 20 minutes before serving, add the dry noodles and diced chicken. That's it.
Slow cooking or roasting a chicken results in three usable byproducts. After the chicken is removed from the pot or pan, you will have chicken drippings and various debris at the bottom. I scoop out the big chunks (eat the veggies), and pour the drippings through an old threadbare hand towel (I don't have cheesecloth) into a bowl. That bowl goes into the fridge where the fat will rise to the top and solidify. The drippings, full of gelatin, will gel. I call the fat "chicken butter" and sometimes use it sparingly to add flavor to noodles. I am sure it is not healthy. I call the supercooled liquid drippings "chicken jelly" and use it in soups and stews.
When the chicken has cooled for maybe 20 minutes, I cut all the meat off the bones. There are good small pieces of meat between the ribs and along the back that are easy to get with your fingers. The legs, breasts, and wings are usually served for dinners with sides of vegetables and rice or noodles for about $1.75 per person. All the bones, skin, giblets, neck and wingtips go back in a big pot with carrot, celery, onion, rosemary, and garlic. I use the celery heads and roots that were cut off earlier, and any carrots or onions that are getting on towards bad shape. You probably won't eat these vegetables after using them for stock. Bring that pot up to a simmer for a long time. Since I tend to cook the chicken for dinner, I end up at this step in the evening, and just put everything in the slow cooker on low over night, then deal with it in the morning. Again, scoop out the chunks and toss them. Pour the remainder through a threadbare towel into bowls. From one chicken I can get a good 5 pints of stock. It can be safely refrigerated for a few days, or frozen for weeks.
This stock will be a little cloudy. I don't mind. This isn't fancy cuisine. There may be a way to clarify it by slowly and carefully whisking egg whites into warm stock, then filtering through the cloth again, but that's more work and wasted eggs to me.
I had never made a chicken soup before yesterday, and it turned out to be the best chicken soup I've ever had in my life. I have no idea how many calories are in the homemade chicken jelly or stock. This ends up being a thick and rich soup. This made 6 quarts for around $6. This is a delicious meal for no more than $1 per hungry person. Total time was three hours, but only half an hour or so of it is work, and it can cook in two hours easily. This is something a 10-year old could make.
All of the stock from one chicken.
All of the chicken jelly from one chicken, with the fat removed.
1 lb carrots, sliced
8 celery ribs, sliced
10 scallions, chopped
2 medium-big onions, largely diced
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 lb noodles, spiral, whole-grain, dry
1/2 lb diced chicken meat (I diced the pieces of rib and back meat and part of a leg)
rosemary, oregano, salt, pepper to taste
Note: I also added some navy beans because they are very nutritious. I made 1 cup of dry beans in a separate pot, then added them to the soup when they were soft. The beans were the only not-delicious part of the soup. They did not ruin the soup by any means. The soup was still incredible, but if I add beans in the future, I will add half as many and prepare them even further in advance.
Put all of the stock and chicken jelly (no fat) in a 6+ qt pot. Bring to a boil for a minute or two. Add the sliced carrots and celery and spices and garlic. Let rise to a boil again, then reduce to a simmer. After an hour, add the onions and scallions. 20 minutes before serving, add the dry noodles and diced chicken. That's it.
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