My first shells!

Let’s talk about something quickly that has confused me over the years: the difference between yams and sweet potatoes.

Here’s the thing. It’s actually hard to find real yams in grocery stores. They aren’t popular in America. But, there are two kinds of sweet potatoes that are sold: ones with a lighter skin and light yellow flesh and ones with a more orange tint to it.

Unfortunately, a lot of grocery stores label the more orange sweet potatoes as yams even though they aren’t. They are still sweet potatoes but just a different variety.

My grocery store actually had these labeled as “Sweet Potatoes/Yams” as if they were the same thing!

Real yams have a dark skin and are even sweeter than sweet potatoes. They are popular in Caribbean cuisine, but are actually a bit hard to find in most grocery stores in the states.

So let the record show: These wonderfully delicious baked shells are stuffed with sweet potatoes and definitely not stuffed with yams.

Sweet Potato Stuffed Shells

Yield: Serves 5-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 large yams, boiled and mashed
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 fresh sage leaves, minced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 28 ounce can tomato sauce
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced
16 ounces pasta shells, cooked al dente
Salt and pepper
Fresh chives (garnish)

Directions:

1) Peel and cube yams and boil them in salted water until they are very tender, about 12-15 minutes. Drain yams and mash in a bowl.

2) You can cook shells in same water. Cook until al dente and then remove and drain shells.

3) Dice onions, sage, and garlic and saute in butter over medium heat until onions are soft, about 5-6 minutes. Don't brown the onions. Add red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt.

4) Add onion mixture to mashed yams with greek yogurt, cream, and walnuts. Stir together and season with salt and pepper.

5) Add half of the tomato sauce to the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Working with one shell at a time, fill shell with a few spoonfuls of filling. You can stuff them pretty full. It's also okay if they rip a bit.

6) Arrange stuffed shells in baking dish. Once the dish is full, top each shell with extra sauce and a slice of mozzarella.

7) Cover dish loosely with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Then uncover and bake dish for another 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

8) Serve shells garnished with fresh chopped chives.

Making the Filling

This is really a perfect winter filling. You could do a lot of things with it actually besides stuff it in shells. You could layer it in a lasagna or put it in manicotti. You could put it in ravioli or add some cheese and extra cream to it and make a kind of baked dip out of it.

It all starts with sweet potatoes though. Two large ones should do the trick. Just peel them and dice them into pretty large cubes.

Peeled and cubed

Boil these cubes in salted water until they are very tender (about 15 minutes) and then mash them up in a bowl. It’s okay if they aren’t completely smooth. Some lumps are just fine.

No need to be perfectly smooth.

Filling Flavors

Sweet potatoes are a good start but we want to add a lot more flavor to this filling. I really like the onion/sage flavor profile that the polenta I posted on Thursday had, so I decided to use similar stuff for this filling.

Good winter flavors.

Dice up the onion, mince the garlic and sage, and saute the veggies in butter over medium heat until the onions are soft. Be sure not to cook them on high heat or the veggies might brown which isn’t what you want.

You just want them to soften a bit so they turn slightly sweet. It should take about 5-6 minutes.

Then add in your red pepper flakes and add this mixture to the mashed sweet potatoes. You can add your yogurt and cream at the same time!

Yogurt... or sour cream.

I stirred this all together and tasted it.

Very Important: Any time you are coming up with a filling like this, it’s very important to taste it as you go.

When I tasted this, I liked the flavor, but I thought the texture was a bit mushy. So I went rummaging through my pantry and landed on some walnuts that I thought would give this filling some great texture.

Great add-in.

Just remember… if the filling tastes good on its own (which this did) then it’s going to be even better when it’s baked and covered with cheese.

The Pasta

Like I said, I wanted to use shells for this dish just because I don’t use them very often. You could use almost any baked pasta thing though for this filling, so go crazy!

Whatever pasta you choose, just make sure you don’t over cook the stuff. Pull it out while the pasta still has a very tiny bite to it. It will continue to cook in the oven later.

Be careful not to overcook these guys!

Prepping the Shells

These shells are actually really easy to stuff assuming that you don’t overcook them. Just add a few spoonfuls of filling to each shell! You can really stuff them pretty full.

Easy as that.

In a large baking dish, add about half of your tomato sauce to the bottom of the dish and then start stacking these shells in the dish.

You might have some leftover filling or shells depending on a few things, but it’s better to have leftover filling then not enough!

Might have some leftovers...

Add the rest of your tomato sauce to the top of the shells and top each shell with some mozzarella cheese.

I’m always inclined to add a large amount of cheese to dishes like this, but I would really recommend keeping the cheese light in this instance. The filling is really the star of the show and very delicious and rich on its own. So just a small amount of cheese should do the trick.

No need to go crazy with cheese.

Baking the Pasta

Cover this dish loosely with foil and bake it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Then crank up the heat to 400 and remove the foil. Bake it for another 15 minutes just so the tops of the pasta gets slightly browned.

Baked!

Serve these suckers with some fresh chopped chives!

Really great meal!

These were a delicious winter dinner and the leftovers were perfect also. Betsy and I ate these shells for a few days and I never got sick of them.

So remember: These are sweet potatoes, not yams.

And also remember to try this as soon as possible!

Good stuff.

After a long holiday week of binge eating turkey and cookies, Betsy and I got off the plane and the first thing she said was, “Can we just eat salad for a week?”

I was happy to oblige for at least one dinner. My body was sort of screaming at me to pack in some veggies.

A lot of times I hear people say that they can’t make a meal out of salad and my response normally is, “You’re not making the right kind of salad!”

For me, a salad can definitely be a meal if it has a lot of different vegetables, textures, and flavors. One key element of the salad, for me, is always a delicious dressing.

While ranch dressing can be heavy, a little goes a long way and the subtle spice and herb flavors of this version can really round out a salad and make it a full meal.

Jalapeno Ranch Dressing

Yield: Makes about 3 cups.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup buttermilk (if you want a dip, use 1/4 cup)
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup fresh chives
1 tablespoon fresh dill
1 jalapeno, minced
2 tablespoons lime juice
Pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Dice garlic clove and add it to a bowl with a pinch of salt. Using a fork, mash the garlic and salt together to form a garlic paste.

2) Mince all the fresh herbs and add them the garlic paste. Mash them all together a bit and combine them well.

3) Mince jalapeno finely and add to the bowl. If you want the dressing to be really spicy, leave in seeds and pith of the pepper.

4) Add mayonnaise and greek yogurt to the bowl and stir well. Add in lime juice as well.

5) Thin the dressing out with buttermilk until it's the desired consistency. For a dip I would use 1/4 cup, for a dressing, use 1/2 cup.

6) Stir or shake dressing together well and use immediately or store for a week or two in the fridge.

Dressing Ingredients

Ranch dressing normally has sour cream in it, but I subbed Greek yogurt to make it somewhat healthier. Of course, it still has mayonnaise and buttermilk.

You can’t win them all.

The good news is that because of all the delicious herbs and stuff, just a few tablespoons of this dressing will add a lot of flavor to any salad. You don’t need to drown your salad to add a lot of flavor to it.

Lots of good fresh herbs.

Mincing and Mashing

When I’m making a dressing or sauce with garlic in it, I like to mince my clove of garlic and then add it to a bowl with a pinch of kosher salt. Then I grab a fork and just kind of mash the garlic and salt together.

This releases a lot of the juices in the garlic and makes a salty garlic paste. It’s why you definitely only need one clove of garlic for this recipe. Two would be over-powering.

One clove is all ya need.

Besides the garlic, take the time to really mince up the ingredients finely. It’s a dressing after all and you don’t want any huge pieces of any one thing.

For the jalapeno, I decided to take out the seeds and just mince the pepper. I think if I made this again, I would actually leave the seeds and pith of the pepper in to make it even a bit more spicy.

It’s just personal preference though. If you want it spicier, leave in the seeds and pith. If you want it more mild, take them out!

You could leave the seeds in if you wanted it real spicy.

All the herbs should be diced pretty finely. While you could leave out the dill in this recipe, I think the parsley and chives are pretty mandatory.

Gotta have chives in ranch.

Once all your herbs are chopped, add them to the bowl with the garlic paste. Squeeze in some fresh lime juice and mash everything together a bit to combine the flavors.

Good green stuff.

A Dip or a Dressing?

After your herbs are chopped and mixed, stir in the mayo and greek yogurt.

Then comes the decision part. Do you want a dip or a dressing? If you want a dip, add in just a tiny bit of buttermilk to give it some tang but leave it thick. If you’re shooting for a dressing, thin it out more with the buttermilk.

I used about 1/2 cup of buttermilk for my dressing version. At the end of the day though, you could thin it out more or less. Again, it’s personal preference on this.

Buttermilk is very important.

The Salad

When I’m making a salad as a meal, I like to pile on lots of interesting flavors and textures. Sometimes this can mean a protein like grilled chicken, but it doesn’t have to. In this case, I didn’t add any meat.

I did add some homemade croutons though that I tossed with some olive oil and garlic.

I also roasted some small beets which are the last thing I harvested from my summer garden! These were really sweet and delicious in the salad.

Yum.

Besides those things, my salad was basically a large chunk of the produce section.

Green lettuce, shredded carrots, cucumbers, red peppers, scallions, radishes, avocado, cheddar cheese…

A salad can be a meal.

As you can see, I just added a few drizzles of dressing and it was more than enough to flavor the salad.

This was a delicious meal and left me FULL.

The dressing will obviously not last as long as store-bought ranch dressing because it doesn’t have any preservatives or anything in it. The tradeoff is that it has a lot more flavor, so you need to use less of it.

I think it will easily last 2 weeks in the fridge though.

Give this dressing a shot if you’re in a salad rut!

Awesome lunch.

If you’ve been a long time Macheesmo reader you’ll know that Betsy and I are on a crazy hunt to find original and fun lunches to eat during the week. There’s always a few qualifications for these lunches.

1) You need to be able to make them in bulk.

2) They need to be fairly economical and also keep really well for at least five days.

3) They need to be somewhat healthy.

This hunt has led us to some awesome lunches like this pesto quinoa salad. In general though, it keeps us both out of the fast food lines and generally saves us a few bucks a week also.

I do think I’m starting to get fairly good at the weekday lunch because Betsy’s co-workers have actually offered to pay me to bring them lunch during the week. I haven’t actually taken them up on it, but I happily direct them to this here website where they can find almost every lunch I’ve made for us.

The latest iteration of this hunt took the form of a classic Middle Eastern meal: Falafel and Tabbouleh.

A Middle Eastern Lunch

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Tabbouleh:
1 cup quick cooking bulgar
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/3 cup fresh mint, chopped
3 scallions, minced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes (drained)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of salt

Falafel:
2 16 ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 large egg
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup fresh parsley, minced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, minced
1/2 white onion, diced
2 Teaspoons baking soda
1 Teaspoon cumin seeds
1 Teaspoon paprika
1/4 Cup Sesame seeds
Pinch of salt and pepper

Mini Pitas
1 quart oil for frying
Greek Yogurt

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor
Deep Fry Thermometer

Directions:

For Tabbouleh:
1) Cook bulgar according to package. This will most likely mean letting it steep in hot water for about 20 minutes.
2) Chop other ingredients.
3) Once bulgar is soaked, mix with veggies and add in olive oil and lemon juice.
4) Season with salt and store for up to a week.

For Falafels:
1) Pulse onion, garlic, and sesame seeds in food processor.
2) Add chickpeas and pulse until combined.
3) Remove from processor and stir in breadcrumbs, egg, herbs and spices.
4) Heat frying station up to 350 degrees.
5) Make about Tablespoon-sized balls from the chickpea mixture.
6) Fry balls in oil for about 3-4 minutes until they are a deep golden brown.
7) Let drain and serve with pita and greek yogurt.

Getting Bulgar

Tabbouleh, if you aren’t familiar with it, is an awesome side dish that just a mixture of bulgar wheat and lots of fresh vegetables and herbs.

You can find bulgar in most supermarkets and grocery stores these days. Look out for the quick cooking variety. It works great.

Love this stuff.

Besides the bulgar, you just need a lot of veggies. I like crunchy stuff like scallions and cucumbers in mine along with lots of fresh herbs like parsley and mint. I also drained a small can of diced tomatoes and added those to the mix just for good measure!

Lots of good flavors here.

Preparing the bulgar is really straightforward. You should read the instructions that come with your bulgar but basically it will involve soaking the bulgar in hot water for about 20 minutes.

Then it will turn nice and fluffy!

After a soak.

Mix all this stuff together and season it with some lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and you’ll be all set.

As with most stuff like this, tabbouleh gets even better if you let it sit in the fridge for a day or two. All the flavors start to mingle and it’s really very delicious, not to mention healthy.

It gets better on day two.

The Falafels

It’s pretty hard to make a meal out of just tabbouleh so I decided to make a big batch of falafels that would go well with it.

Honestly, this was my first time ever making falafels and I was pretty impressed at how easy they were to make.

I started out by pulsing my onions, garlic, and spices in my food processor until they were minced finely. Just a few pulses will do the trick.

A food processor is your friend.

Then add your drained chickpeas to the food processor and pulse them a few more times. You should end up with a rough paste. Remove that from your food processor and add in all your other ingredients!

My mixture was already smelling really good so I knew I was onto something here!

It's like a batter-dough thing.

Frying the Falafels

Once you have your falafel batter ready, just set up your fry station as you normally would. As always, I highly recommend using a deep-fry thermometer to make sure you don’t overheat your oil.

Once your oil is at 350 degrees, just start adding your falafel batter in large tablespoon sized balls. They should only take 3-4 minutes to fry up and turn really nice and brown.

Nice color on these guys.

These were really flavorful. Perfectly crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside.

Chomp!

I was worried about the falafels keeping okay. After all, fried food tends to be best right out of the fryer.

It’s true that the falafels were best right away, but they kept fine also. You could microwave them or I thought they were fine cold.

A few falafel balls plus a cup or so of tabbouleh and some greek yogurt and pita made for a great lunch.

All packed up!

If you can find a way to cycle in some semi-healthy foods for lunch during the week, I think you’ll be shocked at how much more energy you have in the afternoon. If I eat something like this, I find I have way more juice than if I chow down on a huge cheeseburger or something.

While it is a bit of work to make these two things, if you can find time to do it on a lazy sunday, you’ll be all set for lunches for the entire week!

Come on...

If I told you that I once ate an entire red onion in one sitting you would probably feel very bad for my loving wife, Betsy.

But you know what? I did it and I can’t take it back now. Nor do I want to frankly because when you slice red onions really thinly and fry them they just turn out to be these crispy little delicious strings. They have a slight spice to them that you wouldn’t get with normal onions.

And that made it impossible for me to stop eating them.

Red Onion Strings

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 large red onions, sliced thin
3 Cups buttermilk
3 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon black pepper
2 quarts oil, for frying

Homemade Buttermilk Ranch:

1 Cup buttermilk
1 Cup Greek Yogurt
1/8 Teaspoon paprika
1/8 Teaspoon dried mustard
1/4 Teaspoon fresh dill (don't over-do it)
1 Teaspoon fresh parsley
1 Teaspoon fresh chives
1 Teaspoon lime (or lemon) juice
1 pinch of salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Deep Fry Thermometer

Directions:

1) Slice onions thinly and soak in buttermilk for at least 30 minutes.

2) For ranch, dice fresh herbs finely and mix together with other ingredients in a mason jar. Shake for 10 seconds to combine well. You can also whisk everything together in a bowl.

3) Set up a fry station with a thermometer. Heat oil to 350 degrees.

4) Mix flour with spices (paprika, salt, pepper).

5) Drain onions and let sit for a few seconds.

6) Dip onions in flour and coat lightly. Then transfer straight to the fryer.

7) Fry for about 5 minutes until they are golden brown. Work in batches and make sure your oil stays hot.

8) Let drain on a paper towel for a minute and serve immediately!

Prepping the Onions

These aren’t rocket science to make. You need some onions obviously. Might as well get the biggest ones you can find!

Pretty basic...

The key to these suckers is to slice them as thin as possible. If you wanted to be exact about it you could use a mandoline slicer. If I were making a bunch of them, I would. But for just a few, I think it’s easier and good practice just to slice them up with a sharp knife.

And frankly, I kind of like it when the strings are a bit irregular.

If you sliced them too thick though they would be over-powering. So keep them on the thin side. And I wasn’t going for onion RINGS really so it doesn’t matter if they are whole rings.

Nice and thin...

Let these guys soak for at least 30 minutes in some buttermilk. The buttermilk will actually pull out some of the strong onion flavor and mellow them out a bit. This is a good thing considering how strong red onions can be.

A nice soak.

The Dipping Sauce

Honestly, these are good enough to be eaten on their own. But I was in the mood to make some salad dressing and a good ranch dressing happens to be a good dipping sauce also.

If you’ve never had real buttermilk dressing before, I highly recommend it. It’s a lot different than the stuff in the store. It requires some fresh herbs and stuff, but it’s really simple to mix up assuming you have most of the ingredients.

Looks like a lot, but not bad.

Make sure to mince all your fresh herbs really finely so they mix well.

You could whisk everything together in a bowl, but I prefer the mason jar method. Just stick everything in a jar and give it a good shake!

Mason jar WIN.

After about 10 seconds of shaking you should have a really nice dressing.

This will keep in the fridge for one or two weeks without a problem and it’ll get stronger as it sits in the fridge.

Be especially careful of the dill. It can completely over-power the other flavors if you over-dill it.

REAL ranch dressing

Frying the Strings

When you’re ready to make the strings, set up your fry station. As always, I recommend using a good deep fry thermometer to make sure your temperature is correct. You’re shooting for 350 degrees.

When you’re ready to go, drain the buttermilk off the onions. I just throw mine in a colander and let them sit for a few seconds to make sure most of the buttermilk has drained off.

Then give them a quick toss in your flour and seasoning. Obviously, make sure to stir the flour and seasoning so it’s mixed well.

A light coating is all you need.

Seasoned and floured.

Then straight into the fryer!

You’ll want to work in batches to make sure the temperature of your oil doesn’t drop too much. Depending on the size of your pot, two onions will take three or four batches probably.

These are looking great though.

Perfect.

These guys will need 5 minutes to fry nicely and turn golden brown. Don’t rush them.

Use a slotted spoon or tongs to get these guys out of the hot oil and let them drain for a few seconds on a paper towel.

Eat NOW.

This probably isn’t a surprise to you, but these are best if you eat them right away!

The dipping sauce is good, but completely optional. These are delicious as-is.

Not much beats these guys with a good burger so the next time you’re grilling out, give them a shot!

CHOMP!

The idea of a healthy burger might be a bit strange to some people, but that’s what Jamie Oliver tried to do in his recent season of Food Revolution: LA.

He worked with a local LA fast food joint to replace some of their unhealthy (but delicious looking) burgers on the menu with burgers that will hopefully be equally delicious but also healthier.

There were four burgers that he made on the show, but you guys voted for the Green Goddess burger so I did my best to recreate it!

It turned out really awesome although I’m not sure I mastered the health parts.

Green Goddess Burgers

Yield: 9 Burgers

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

3 pounds ground beef. I recommend getting a chuck roast and grinding it yourself!
Buns

Green Goddess Sauce:
2 Cups Greek yogurt
1/2 lemon, juice only
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 Cup fresh parsley, minced
Pinch of salt and pepper

Basic Guacamole:
4 avocados
1-2 shallots, minced
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
Handful fresh cilantro, minced
2 limes, juice only
Pinch of salt

Other burger toppings:
Grilled onions
Sprouts
Roasted red peppers

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor or Meat Grinder

Directions:

1) For green goddess sauce, mix ingredients in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Can be made in advance.

2) For guacamole, dice ingredients finely and mix.

3) For burgers, separate meat and fat on chuck roast. Grind or process fat until it's finely ground into a paste.

4) Remove fat and grind/process meat. Don't overprocess meat.

5) Stir meat and fat together or send them through the grinder together.

6) Make 9 1/3 pound burgers. Season well with salt and pepper.

7) Grill burgers over high heat for 4-5 minutes per side.

Making the Burgers

Now you could definitely just use normal hamburger meat for these guys, but in the Food Revolution spirit, I thought it would be good to grind my own meat.

Also, I think you can get a lot better flavor by grinding your own. Remember that most ground beef you buy at the store is just scraps.

So you can do a lot better for not a lot of money by getting a nice chuck roast and doing it yourself.

There are burgers in there...

To do this right, step one is cutting out most of the fat from the roast. This takes some patience, but you should be able to cut off the large pieces of meat and then slice off the layers of fat.

It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Once you have most of your fat cut off, send it through your grinder or pulse it in a food processor until it’s basically a paste.

The reason you want to do the fat separately is because you want the fat to have a finer texture than the meat.

The fat stuff.

Then take out the fat and grind the meat. If you’re using a food processor, be careful not to over-process the meat or you’ll have a paste instead of ground beef.

Then you can mix the fat and meat together! If you’re a perfectionist, you could weigh the fat and meat and make sure that you are getting about 20% fat which is what I like to use in my burgers.

I think I over-shot the fat content a bit in this round (so much for healthy). I probably had closer to 30% fat. Oh well!

Maybe a bit too much fat!

Three pounds of chuck roast should make about nine burgers. I like to make mine about 1/3 of a pound. Just shape them lightly with your hands and try not to press down on the burgers too much.

Season them all really well with salt and pepper.

Looking good!

The Green Goddess Sauce

In the show, Jamie slathers his burger with some sort of yogurt-based sauce. It’s kind of hard to see what’s going on there, but I had to guess, so I went with these things:

Making a green goddess.

Mixed all together they make a great creamy sauce that takes the place of cheese on the burger. You can make this in advance if you want. It’s better on day two actually.

Tasty stuff.

Guacamole

The second topping for the burger is just my standard guacamole recipe. Guacamole on a burger is one of those fantastic combinations that once you have once, you’ll want it every time.

These days, I don’t really make a small amount of guacamole. Whatever doesn’t go on the burgers can go on chips!

Artsy avocado shot....

When making guacamole, just be sure to dice all your ingredients well. It’s never good to get a huge bite of jalapeno or something.

Other than that though, just mix everything together! The lime juice is really important as the acid will keep the guacamole nice and green.

You can never have too much.

Cooking the Burgers

Obviously, the best thing to do is grill the burgers. If you don’t have a grill though, you could definitely do these in a pan also.

Grill them over high heat for 4-5 minutes per side for a medium burger and be ready for some serious flare-ups, especially if you have 30% fat like mine were…

One of my favorite things.

Once the burgers are done, slather one side of the bun with the green goddess dressing and the other side with guacamole.

This one I kept pretty standard, but feel free to spruce it up with sprouts, grilled onions, or red peppers also.

Really good.

I’m not entirely sure that my version ended up being much healthier than a normal burger, but I did use a whole wheat bun. So I get some points, people!

In all seriousness though, it’s a delicious burger and very different than anything you’ll find at a fast food place which is the point!

Grillin' is good.

Ever since I discovered my deep love for homemade mayo, I’ve been on a mad hunt to shove it in as many dishes as possible.

Besides the quickest application (spoon –> mouth), I thought immediately of potato salad.

Potato salad can be a bit too creamy sometimes for me. I don’t like it gloopy. I like my potato salad to have tons of flavor and lots of good crunchy textures in it with just enough dressing to hold it all together. I figured it could only be improved with homemade mayo.

Oh. And grilling the potatoes to make them crispy. That kind of takes this salad to the next level.

Grilled Potato Salad

Yield: Serves 4 as a side.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and halved
2 stalks celery, diced
3 scallions, minced
1 dill pickle, minced
Handful of parsley, minced
1/2 Cup mayo, homemade is best
1/4 Cup Greek yogurt
2 Tablespoons olive oil (for potatoes)
Salt and pepper
Pinch of cayenne (optional)

Directions:

1) Peel potatoes and cut in half. Toss with olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.

2) Grill potatoes over medium heat for 25-30 minutes until they are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Turn them occasionally.

3) Chop other ingredients and add to a large bowl.

4) Let potatoes cool slightly and chop as well. Add to the bowl.

5) Stir in mayo and yogurt and taste for salt and pepper.

6) Serve immediately or chill. Will keep for up to a week in the fridge.

Cooking the Potatoes

I wasn’t entirely sure how this would work. I normally grill potatoes in foil with butter and garlic, but for this salad I wanted them to be really crispy.

I kind of just winged this, but it worked out great. I peeled my potatoes and cut them in half, then tossed them with some olive oil and salt and pepper.

Basic potatoes.

Next I heated my grill up to a medium heat and then added my potatoes straight to it!

Wasn't sure about this...

It’s important to keep the lid closed while these are cooking so they get some good general heat.

After about 7-8 minutes you can start turning the potatoes. I kind of just flipped them around every few minutes to make sure they weren’t burning on any one part.

Mine took about 25-30 minutes to get nice and crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside.

Lookin' good!

The Other Stuff

Have I mentioned how much I love homemade mayo?

I mixed up another batch for this salad. I did it by hand, but as a number of people pointed out in my post on Monday, you can do this in a blender also and save yourself the forearm workout.

Don't forget the mayo!

Next I added some pretty standard potato salad ingredients. Really fresh, crunchy veggies are very important in my opinion.

Good textures!

Dice up all this stuff pretty finely and add it to a large bowl.

Diced and minced.

When your potatoes come off the grill, let them cool a bit and then dice them up also.

These tasted awesome. I knew I was onto something when I tried these guys.

Perfect.

Add the potatoes to the veggies along with the homemade mayo (you won’t need all of it if you make a full batch) and some Greek yogurt or sour cream.

Taste it for salt and pepper and you’re all set!

Perfect summer side!

This has a way different texture than a standard potato salad. It’s not too creamy but the mayo that’s there is really flavorful.

The salad will easily keep for a week in the fridge and gets better on day two and three. Mine didn’t last longer than that though…

Frankly, it might be my new favorite potato salad recipe!

These weren't bad. Not at all.

Kabobs are a sneaky meal. They seem easy enough and people default to them a lot during the summer. After all, how hard is it to throw some stuff on some sticks and grill it? But there’s definitely some things that can wrong in Kabobland if you aren’t careful.

For starters, if you’re using wooden skewers, you run the risk of scorching them so badly that they fall apart. Meanwhile, it’s pretty easy to overcook or under-cook whatever it is your cooking: veggies or meat.

What this means is that while kabobs sound simple, a lot of times you’ll end up with dry pieces of chicken or soggy veggies falling off of skewers that are burnt to a crisp.

But it doesn’t have to be this way obviously. There’s a surefire way to make great kabobs that’s stress free and relatively quick. So let’s get to it!

Grilled Kabobs

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

Chicken Kabobs: (I used a method from last month's Cooks Illustrated)
4 small chicken breasts, cubed
2-3 slices of bacon, processed
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon chili powder
Pinch of salt and pepper

Veggie Kabobs:
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced thick
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
1/2 red onion, cut into chunks
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon herbs de Provence
Pinch of salt and pepper

Yogurt Sauce:
1 Cup Greek Yogurt
1/2 lemon, juice only
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons fresh dill, minced
Pinch of salt

Helpful Equipment:
Skewers
Food Processor

Directions:

1) To prep the yogurt sauce, just mince all the ingredients and combine them. The flavors will get more intense as it sits. Refrigerate until needed.

2) Be sure to soak your skewers for at least 30 minutes before using them.

3) To prep veggie kabobs, cut veggies into chunks and marinate with olive oil and spices.

4) To prep chicken kabobs, mince bacon slices in a food processor until they form a rough paste.

5) Combine bacon with spices and chicken pieces and stir to combine well.

6) Skewer veggies and chicken separate.

7) Grill on high heat. Chicken kababs will probably take 15 minutes. Veggies will take more like 10.

8) Serve with yogurt sauce and rice!

Prepping The Kabobs

If you’re using wooden skewers, the first thing you need to do is make sure you soak them really well. Honestly, if I can I try to soak mine overnight or early in the day just so they have plenty of time to get really wet. If you soak them for 10 minutes, you’re not going to really accomplish much because all of that water will evaporate immediately once they are on the grill.

Meanwhile, the veggie kabobs are pretty easy to prepare. Just cut them all into pretty large pieces and then give them a good drizzle of olive oil.

Get it?

I added a good amount of Herbs de Provence to my veggies which works well on the grill I think. You could use any seasonings that you want or just keep it simple with salt and pepper. The key is to keep the pieces pretty large so the veggies don’t get soggy or overcooked.

For the chicken kabobs, I read a fascinating prep method in last month’s Cooks Illustrated that I decided to try out. To beat the issue of having dried out chicken, they suggested coating all the chicken pieces in processed bacon!

It’s kind of weird, but it totally works. Just take a few slices of bacon and buzz it up in your food processor!

Kinda weird...

Mix the bacon in with your cubed chicken and some paprika and chili powder for a little kick!

All mixed up!

When you’re ready to skewer your kabobs, I highly recommend doing all chicken ones and all veggie ones. Some people might disagree, but I find that if I mix the chicken and veggies together then it’s hard to cook them both to the right doneness. Either the chicken is undercooked or the veggies are soggy. So I just split mine up and it solves the problem.

Good lookin things.

The Sauce

You could just serve these over rice, but I decided to make a quick (and I do mean quick) yogurt sauce for the kabobs. It just greek yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, and some fresh dill all mixed up. It’s very quick to make and tastes great on everything.

Kinda greek.

Grillin’

Once you’re ready to grill, crank up the heat to high. When the grill is hot add the the kabobs! The chicken ones will need probably 15 minutes, turning every five minutes or so. As they cook the bacon keeps them really moist. It’s genius really.

Perfect grillin.

Meanwhile, the veggies will probably only need 10 minutes, but that depends on what you use and how big your pieces are. I like mine to be a tiny bit crispy still.

Veggies were equally good!

A skewer of chicken and a skewer of veggies with some rice and yogurt sauce is a really solid meal!

Hard to go wrong!

Great meal!

Kabobs can be easy, but they can be hard to perfect. The bacon tip is a great one and I highly recommend cooking the veggies and meat separately as well.

If you have any kabob tips, leave a comment!

I made this.

I’ll be honest. I’ve been trying to make yogurt for over a year. I think I’ve tried it three or four times and it just never worked out for me.

After a weekend of trying, you could walk through my kitchen and think that someone was trying The Gallon Challenge. Milk jugs. Everywhere.

And I could just never get it right.

My problems were twofold. The problem I knew I was having was temperature issues. I tried keeping the yogurt in a warm oven or in an insulated bowl and it just never kept in the right range for long enough. What I didn’t know is that I was also having milk problems. Using the right milk is really important.

Last week though, I nailed it. I was able to produce really good yogurt with the one piece of kitchen equipment that most people have that’s really good at keeping things at a steady temp: A crockpot!

Crockpot Yogurt

Yield: 1 Quart

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 8 hours

Ingredients:

1/2 Gallon of pasteurized, non-homogenized milk. Whole milk works best, but you can use any milk.
1/2 Cup yogurt with live cultures.
Optionally: You can stir in a bit of vanilla or fruit after the yogurt is made.

Helpful Equipment:
Crockpot (A good one that's well insulated and has a "warm" setting is ideal)
A Thermometer (very important)
Cheesecloth if you want it thicker

Directions:

1) Clean your crockpot well and add the milk. Heat it on low until it registered 175-185 degrees Fahrenheit.

2) Once it's that temperature, turn off the crockpot and let the milk slowly cool until it registers 110-120 degrees. This will take at least an hour. No need to rush it.

3) Once it's at that temperature, take out 1 Cup of warm milk and add 1/2 Cup of yogurt. Stir it well to make sure the yogurt is dissolved. Pour this mixture back into the warm milk and stir to combine.

4) Cover crockpot and place a large towel on top to insulate the crockpot. Keep the crockpot off but make sure the milk is staying in the 110-120 degree range. Maintain this temperature for 6-8 hours.

5) You might need to turn on the crockpot briefly on it's lowest setting for 10 minute bursts to keep the milk in the right range.

6) Once the time is up, you can scoop out any extra liquid and stir the yogurt together or pour it onto some cheesecloth and strain it for an hour to make a thicker yogurt (Greek yogurt).

7) Feel free to add fruit or flavorings to the yogurt once it's done!

The Ingredients

There’s really only two ingredients to yogurt: Milk and bacteria. The best way to get the bacteria is just to “borrow” it from a yogurt that you like.

Only two ingredients!

That said, there are some important notes to make when picking out a milk and a yogurt.

For the milk, it’s really important to find a milk that isn’t homogenized and isn’t ultra-pasteurized. Pasteurized is fine, but ultra-pasteurized doesn’t work for some reason (at least in my experience).

I was able to find a great brand of milk at my natural foods store that is non-homogenized and vat-pasteurized. The bacteria just ate this stuff up.

Important stuff.

As far as the yogurt goes, you can literally use any yogurt you want as long as it contains live active cultures in it. Most, but not all, brands do. Just be sure to check on the ingredients. You’re looking for the words “LIVE” and “ACTIVE”.

This should go without saying, but plain yogurt will make plain yogurt. Vanilla yogurt will make plain yogurt. Vanilla doesn’t reproduce people. So just use the plain flavor to keep it simple.

It's alive!

The Method

The reason why the crockpot is such a perfect tool for yogurt making is because it’s really important to keep the yogurt at a pretty narrow temperature range while it’s doing its thing. I’ve tried a few different ways, but this one definitely produced the best results.

They do make yogurt makers which are very good at temperature control, but unless you’re making it frequently, I’m not sure it’s worth it to invest.

So, to start, make sure your crockpot is really clean and then add all your milk. Set it to low, cover it, and let the milk come up to around 180 degrees F. Anything in the 175-185 range works, but try not to go out of the range. Definitely don’t boil the milk or it will mess up the structure of it.

Bringing up the temp slowly works great. It might take an hour or so, but don’t try to rush it or you’ll run the risk of scalding the milk.

If you boil it, start over.

More waiting

Once the milk reaches that temperature, you need to cool it down to about 115 degrees. Again, I think anything in the 110-120 range should work, but if it’s too hot, it’ll kill the bacteria and if it’s too cold they won’t get busy.

This is why a thermometer is almost essential for this process.

When your milk is the right temperature, take about about a cup of the warm milk and add 1/2 Cup of yogurt to it.

This is how you do it.

Stir this up really well and then add it back into the crockpot. Stir it all together.

Maintaining the Temperature

This is the tricky part for yogurt. You need to keep this batch of milk in that 110-120 temperature range for around 6 hours, but 8 would be ideal. This is no easy task.

My crockpot is really well insulated which definitely helped, but what I did was layer on a large beach towel, folded over a few times to the top of the crockpot. I figured that’s where most of the heat was escaping.

Once I added my yogurt, I turned off the crockpot and just covered it like this.

Temperature is really important.

This was shockingly effective. I was able to maintain that temperature range for about 7 hours just by this method. TWICE during that time, about every 3 hours, I turned on the crockpot, put it on its lowest setting, and let it heat up for just 10 minutes. Then I’d turn it off again.

Those two little bursts of low heat helped it stay in that perfect range. Honestly, I think my crockpot was so well insulated that I could have just left it overnight and woken up to perfect yogurt.

So the first time you try this, if you try it, I’d keep a close eye on it just to get a feel for how well your crockpot retains heat. If it’s doing a good job, then you can probably leave it unattended for the entire time assuming you do your best to keep the heat in.

The Finished Product

After 7 hours or so, I uncovered my yogurt to find this beautiful stuff.

Sweet!

Now, the fresh yogurt will have some liquid on top. That’s okay. You can try to scoop out any large liquid pools and then stir the yogurt to combine everything well. This is what I did for the yogurt in the first photo in this post.

My yogurt was really tangy which I liked and had great flavor. I had it warm on night one with some honey and almonds. It was an awesome dessert.

The Greek Method

I like my yogurt a bit thicker for everyday use. This is really easy to do once your yogurt is made. Just line a colander with some cheesecloth and pour your yogurt in!

Let this sit for about an hour or so and all that liquid will drain out. You’ll be left with a beautiful thick yogurt.

Going Greek...

Not only did my yogurt turn out to be better flavored than the original that I used, but I’m pretty sure it was cheaper also. I didn’t compute the financials exactly, but if you can get good milk for a reasonable price, than you can probably save a buck or two.

The more important thing though is that it was a lot of fun. I think this would be an awesome thing to do with kids to teach them about bacteria. I’m a kid at heart still and I loved checking on the yogurt and seeing how it was thickening up over time.

Once you get the hang of it, you can add all kinds of flavoring to it as well!

If you’ve ever tried to make your own yogurt, failed or succeeded, leave a comment!

Fluffy and flavorful!

Betsy and I went to a cute little coffee shop last weekend and they had these huge lemon yogurt muffins on display. I didn’t have one because I was in a bagel mood, but I did make a mental note to try out that combo as soon as possible.

Turns out that the combo is pretty genius. The yogurt makes the muffins really tender and soft and the lemon zest and juice just makes them really light and flavorful. I added a lemon glaze on top because it seemed like the right thing to do.

Lemon Yogurt Muffins

Yield: 12 muffins

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (plus some for muffin tins)
1/4 Cup sugar
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 Cups Greek Yogurt
1 lemon, zest and juice (1/2 juice for muffins and 1/2 for glaze)
1 Egg
1/4 Cup milk
Pinch of salt

Lemon Glaze:
2 Cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 lemon, juice only

Helpful Equipment:
- Zester

Directions:

1) Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk wet ingredients (including lemon juice and zest) into a separate bowl.

2) Stir wet ingredients into dry. If the batter is too dry, add a bit more milk until it's a thick batter.

3) Lightly butter a 12 muffin tin (or two 6).

4) Fill tins almost completely to the top.

5) Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean from the center of a muffin.

6) Let muffins cool.

7) For glaze, mix powdered sugar with lemon juice and maybe a few drops of water.

8) Drizzle glaze over cooled muffins.

Making the Batter

If there’s one thing that I really don’t get, it’s pre-packaged muffin mix. I just don’t get how it’s faster to use a mix since you still have to add in the liquids and stuff.

But, I guess if you make it, people will buy it right?! This batter couldn’t be simpler to pull together. The real flavor in it comes from these guys though.

The real ingredients.

Take a lemon and use a zester to get off as much zest (just the yellow part) as you can. The zest is very flavorful and just a Tablespoon or so will completely flavor the batter.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda). Then mix all the wet stuff together (yogurt, butter, lemon zest and juice, eggs, milk).

Then just stir the wet into the dry and your batter is ready to go. The whole thing takes maybe five minutes.

If you’re batter is too dry, feel free to add a bit more milk than I indicated in the recipe.

Really thick batter.

The Greek yogurt gives a really great texture to the muffins and the lemon is just such a fantastic flavor.

You could use muffin cups for these guys, but I just lightly buttered my muffin tins and then added the batter. You can almost fill up the tins with the batter. It won’t rise quite as much as some muffins do.

Fill'em up!

Baking the muffins

Bake these guys at 375 for about 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. I pulled mine after 25 minutes and they were pretty much perfect.

As these cook, they will make your whole neighborhood smell like lemon.

These will smell amazing. Just a warning.

Glazing the muffins

You could be done at this point if you wanted. They are very delicious just like this.

If you wanted to take them over the top though, wait for the muffins to cool completely and then add an nice lemon glaze to them.

Just mix a few cups of powdered sugar with the juice from 1/2 a lemon. Depending on how juicy your lemon is, you might need a few drops of water also.

Stir this together until it’s a smooth glaze and then drizzle it over the muffins.

The glaze is shockingly good.

Just really are some super-easy muffins to make, but they’re texture and flavor is pretty complex.

I loved the glaze on them because it just ramps up the lemon flavor even more.

If you’re looking for a quick muffin to try out, ditch the mix and make these guys!

Reflax and have a muffin!

Well, I don’t know about you guys but after cookie week, I needed something a bit on the healthier side.

So I decided to whip up some healthy muffins for breakfast. Well, as healthy as a muffin can be. I’m not really down with making a muffin so healthy that it turns into a tasteless brick.

To try to health these up a bit I mixed in some whole wheat flour and a good amount of flax meal (ground flax seeds) and cut back on some of the sugar and stuff.

Flax Muffins

Yield: 10 Muffins

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup all-purpose flour
1/2 Cup whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup flax meal
1/3 Cup brown sugar (or honey)
1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 Cup Greek yogurt
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 Cup skim milk

Directions:

1) Combine all the dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls.

2) Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Try not to overmix. If batter is really dry, add in a bit more milk.

3) Lightly grease a few muffin tins with nonstick spray, oil, or butter.

4) Spoon batter into muffin tins. They should be a bit above 3/4 full. Sprinkle on some flax if you want.

5) Bake at 375 degrees for 16-20 minutes.

6) Cool and serve with some butter or honey!

Get with the flax

Betsy and I are on a huge flax kick lately. We put it in our oatmeal everyday and are just generally in love with it. It has this kind of nutty flavor that’s really unique. Not to mention it’s really good for you. Here’s a good breakdown on some of the nutritional benefits of Flax.

If you just get the seeds though, you can’t digest them, so it’s important to grind them up or buy the flax meal if you’re interested in getting any nutrients out of the stuff.

I was able to find this big bag of it for just a few bucks.

Health in a bag.

The Muffin Mix

There are some things that I just don’t understand why they exist. One of them is pre-packaged muffin mix. It’s not like the mix removes any of the work. You still have to add the liquids and mix it and cook it.

So basically you are paying more to have someone else mix flour with baking soda, baking powder, and a few other very basic things and box it up for ya. Not to mention most mixes have a whole bunch of preservatives that you could probably do without.

Sorry. End rant.

My point is that muffins are really easy to make from scratch. I like to use some Greek yogurt in mine which keeps the muffins really moist.

Plus some milk...

To get your muffins together, just combine all your dry ingredients in one bowl and all your wet ingredients in a second bowl.

Not to hard right?

The wet and the dry.

Just stir in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients!

When I first mixed this up I tried it with just yogurt and no milk, but my batter came out looking really dry. This would create some brick muffins.

Oops.

So I added some milk to the batter and got a really good muffin batter.

Muffins are really flexible things so don’t worry too much about whether or not your batter is perfect. It’ll work out in the end.

Better batter.

Cooking the muffins

Spoon the batter into some prepared muffin tins. By prepared, I mean lightly greased. You can use nonstick spray for this, or if you’re me, butter.

Fill up the muffin tins somewhere between full and 3/4 full.

I sprinkled some flax meal on top of each muffin just for some flare.

Ready for the heat.

Bake these guys at 375 degrees for about 16-20 minutes. Test them by inserting a toothpick in the center of a muffin and if it comes out clean then your muffins are ready!

Dome muffins!

Let these cool for a few minutes and you’re ready to go.

I like mine with a dab of butter or maybe some honey.

Great with butter or honey.

These have a great texture and flavor with a hint of chocolate. They ended up being much lighter than I was expecting, which is a good thing. If you’re looking for a good wholesome muffin, give these guys a shot.

You could of course add in all kinds of things like dried fruit, oatmeal, or any number of other muffin standard ingredients!