In Which I Make Vegetables Taste Less Terrible than Usual

There's nothing I love more than a big plate of beautiful, fresh-cut vegetables.  Hahaha, just kidding, I hate vegetables.  I mean, honestly, it's not the vegetables' fault.  Mother Nature made them very important nutritionally, but she also generally made them taste awful.  That's just rude.  So I'm always on the lookout for ways to actually enjoy eating vegetables since I would prefer to not be a fat slob.  One of my favorite ways to do that is with stir fry.  I make a darn good stir fry, but I was looking for a quick, hands-off, less oil-consuming way to enjoy some of the same flavors.  Less splatter on my stove would be appreciated, too.  Sounds like a job for Instant Pot!

In regards to not being a fat slob, I recently started following Weight Watchers.  I did it once before about 10 years ago, and I remember always being hungry and crabby.  But I heard they had made some big changes recently, and I was pretty desperate to not feel like a gross blob anymore, so I jumped in with both feet.  So far, I am liking it a lot.  I feel like it's teaching me to be more mindful about what I eat and drink.  And given how much I love to cook, I needed a plan that let me still have some freedom to cook with all the food groups and be as creative as possible.  Telling me I have to eliminate dairy, or gluten, or whatever is guaranteed to make me cry.  (Believe me.  It's happened.)  So, hey, if you're doing Weight Watchers, this makes 6 servings which are 5 SmartPoints each, according to their points calculator.  Let the good times roll.

I call this dish "teriyaki."  Is that really what it is?  I have no idea.  I think traditional teriyaki sauce has mirin in it, and not pineapple juice.  Probably no lemongrass either.  But the flavor profile is exactly what I was going for, and the little baby cans of pineapple juice in my pantry got a chance to do something other than make cocktails.

 Pressure Cooker Teriyaki Chicken & Rice with Non-Terrible Tasting Vegetables

I used my 6 quart Instant Pot.  You'll need a steamer basket that fits inside your pot.  I have the Oxo Good Grips stainless steel steamer and it's awesome.  Cut the chicken into very thin strips and this will be plenty of time for them to cook through.  I actually started with chicken cutlets, so they were really thin.  If you want bigger pieces of chicken, you should probably brown them on saute mode first to make sure they get cooked through in time.  I like to use the ginger and lemongrass paste that comes in a tube because it's so easy and ready to go.  They will probably be in a refrigerated area of your produce section.

2 tsp. canola oil
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. ginger paste
2 tsp. lemongrass paste
2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1 Tbs. packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups long grain white rice
1 1/2 lb. chicken cutlets (or breasts), cut into very thin strips
1 cup baby carrots, cut into thirds (about 1/2" long pieces)
2 cups small broccoli florets
1/2 cup sugar snap peas, cut in half
1/2 cup red bell pepper strips
chopped green onions for garnish (optional)

Turn the pressure cooker to saute mode and add the oil.  Once the oil is hot, add the onion and a pinch of salt.  Cook until the onions are softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic, ginger, and lemongrass and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  If any fond has developed on the bottom of the pot, add about 1/4 cup of the chicken broth and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits.  Then add the rest of the broth, soy sauce, pineapple juice, and brown sugar.  Add the rice and stir everything up.  Scatter the chicken strips over the rice.

Next, put your steamer basket in on top of the rice mixture.  Put all of the veggies except for the green onions in the steamer basket.  Secure the lid and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes, then do a quick pressure release.  Carefully dump the steamed vegetables from the steamer basket into the rice mixture and stir it all together.  Serve, garnishing with green onions.  I also added a small sprinkling of chow mein noodles because they look good in the picture.  They taste good on there, too, but if you're counting points like I was, you can't do very many because they add up fast.

Adrift in a Sea of Tomatoes

Garden season really got off to a bang here with a cucumber crop which was the stuff of legends.  Apparently cucumber plants like hot weather, because it had been hotter than the pits of Hades around here, and they were thriving.  I'm glad someone likes it.  I've made pickles and relish twice already, neither of which I eat, but there were just too many fresh cucumbers to keep up with.  Then came the squash bugs.  Those jerks have nearly killed my zucchini plant after only getting 3 zucchinis from it, and you know that's some quick devastation since a mature plant will grow 3 zucchinis in about 5 minutes.  (Or, at least it seems that way.)  Then they started going after the cucumbers.  We're fighting back as best we can, but those little bastards are pretty proficient, so our cucumber days may be winding down prematurely. 

Luckily the tomato harvest is really picking up steam.  I have MANY tomato plants this year, because a lot of little volunteer plants came up and I was too much of a softy to rip them all out.  Eating a fresh tomato plain, all by itself, does not interest me in the least.  (It's a texture thing.)  But cooking and preserving tomatoes is my jam.  Salsa, seasoned tomato sauce, roasted tomato slices, etc....the sky is the limit.  Today, tomatoes were taking over my kitchen counter.  I needed to take action, and I decided on tomato soup.

The way I've made cream of tomato soup for years (on my other blog here) is labor intensive.  It makes an amazing soup; a rich, complex, bisque-like bowl of hearty goodness.  But, as I've mentioned before, many things in my life have had to get quicker and easier as the chaos has increased with the addition of 2 young children who hate sleep.  And now I have a job, too.  I am much more enthusiastic about "chuck it in the pot and press start" recipes than I ever was before.  So that's what I really wanted to create here.  I used some proportions from my other recipe, but relied on the Instant Pot to do the work for me.  I took another 3 tomatoes or so and sliced them really thick, drizzled on olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt and Penzey's frozen pizza seasoning, and roasted them to put on grilled cheese and peppered bacon sandwiches.  So it was like a sophisticated, grown up (but still easy) version of tomato soup and grilled cheese, which is still one of my most favorite meals, hands down. 

Much to my amazement, my almost-5 year old tried the homemade soup.  "Mommy, I do like it," she said.  "Wonderful, honey!  I'm so glad you tried it!" I answered.  "Can I have my regular tomato soup now?  The stuff in the can?" she asked.  So, yeah.  One bite.  I got her to take one bite of the good stuff.  Sigh.

Easy Pressure Cooker Tomato Soup

I used my 8 quart cooker and made a lot because I had tomatoes coming out of my ears.  I see no reason why you couldn't use a 6 quart cooker and cut the recipe in half.  As written, I fed 4 adults and had a decent amount of leftovers.

4 lbs. tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 large onion, rough chopped
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 bay leaf
1 Tbs. tomato paste
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 to 2 Tbs. fresh chopped basil
salt and pepper to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion, garlic, veggie broth, salt, bay leaf, tomato paste, and brown sugar in the pressure cooker.  Cook on manual, high pressure, for 15 minutes and then do a quick pressure release.  Blend the soup with an immersion blender until it's pretty smooth.  You could also stop at this point, chill the mixture and blend it in a blender once it's cooled.  Then heat it back up on the stove top to finish it.  Or, if you're doing the immersion blender method, blend until smooth and see how you feel about the consistency.  You may want to turn your pot to saute and cook off a little bit of the water if it looks too watery.  This will depend on your tastes and your tomatoes.  I let mine simmer another 5 minutes or so to thicken up a bit.  Turn off the heat and stir in the cream, and chopped basil.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

 

Winter Is Coming. No, really. It is.

When I say winter is coming, it's not a Game of Thrones reference.  I've never even seen that show because I suspect it has way too much gratuitous blood and boobs to interest me.  No, I mean winter really is just around the corner.  Are you prepared?  Are you stocked up on freeze-proof washer fluid and pet safe sidewalk salt?  Do you have Pinterest-worthy crafts on hand for the inevitable cabin fever that will overcome the kids when school gets called off for half an inch of snow for 3 days in a row?  Have you pulled all the tank tops and maxi dresses out of your closet, to be replaced by sweaters and wellies for sloshing around in half melted snow?  Ugh.  What a wretched, soul-sucking season.  Thank goodness for warm bowls of homemade soup.

But perhaps you never learned to make homemade soup.  Perhaps it all just seemed like too much work, what with the long simmering and occasional stirring and all.  Well, have I got great news for you!  Turns out your pressure cooker makes throwing together a pot of hearty, steaming hot broccoli cheese soup so easy, it's even less work than driving your ass to Panera to go through the drive-thru.  Especially those of you who, like me, have young children that you'd have to bring with you if you left the house in search of soup.  I mean, think about it.  Do you want to remind everyone to go potty and/or change diapers, ask them 800 times to please, for the love of all that is holy, just pick a flippin' pair of socks and shoes already and put them on, get screamed at when you turn off Bubble Guppies before the episode is over, and then finally wrestle everyone into their carseats?  Or do you want to cut up an onion and a few crowns of broccoli and then run your pressure cooker for 8 minutes?  Because that would literally be the choice I would be facing.

When I first started imagining how this soup would come together, it seemed pretty straightforward in my head.  I read a few recipes online to get some ideas and do you know one version called for 2 cups of half and half and 1 measly cup of broccoli?  No kidding.  I submit to that person that their recipe ought to be called cream of half and half soup with broccoli garnish.  But I digress.   I imagined my version to be thickened with a flour and butter roux.  But then I remembered all of the warnings I've read about how you never EVER thicken anything you make in the pressure cooker until after it's been cooked.  I'm not sure what happens if you thicken first, but, given the dire warnings I've seen, it apparently involves some sort of opening of the gates of hell from which chaos and evil rain down upon your children and your children's children.  Or maybe the pot never comes to pressure; I don't know.  At any rate, the advice was duly noted, and that's why I went for a non-traditional cornstarch thickener at the end.  I briefly considered still making a roux in a separate skillet like I do for my potato soup, but this was super easy and gave the desired endpoint with very little fuss.  "Very little fuss" is the key phrase for this recipe in general.  Just the way Instant Potheads like it.      

There now.  We're all one step closer to being ready for winter.

Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup

I used my 6 qt Instant Pot and this made a nice quantity for 4 people.  I used fresh broccoli, but I'm guessing frozen would work out fine with possibly a small sacrifice in flavor.  I also used homemade stock because I had homemade veggie stock in the freezer that I had made in the Instant Pot previously, but you can certainly use canned broth.  Thanks to my friend Sue, I've recently become a fan of Better than Bouillon instead of canned broth.  That would be a good choice, too.  Chicken broth is fine if you don't need your soup to be vegetarian.  For the milk, I used evaporated because I like that it doesn't break when you stir it into the hot soup.  You can use 2% or whole milk instead if you want, but you always run a little risk of it looking curdled.

2 Tbs. butter
1 small onion, diced
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 to 2 lbs. broccoli, cut into large florets and stems cut into 1/2" slices
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 cups water
8 oz. mild cheddar cheese, grated  (I prefer to buy a block and grate it myself for better melting)
8 oz. cream cheese, cubed  (that's 1 whole block)
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 tsp. cornstarch

Turn the pot to saute and add the butter.  When the butter is melted, add the onion and the 1/2 tsp. salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add the broccoli, stock, and water.  Put the lid on the pot and cook on manual for 8 minutes.  Do a quick pressure release and then turn the pot back to saute.  Stir in the cheeses a little at a time. Keep stirring until they are completely melted.  Whisk together the cornstarch and milk until smooth.  Slowly stir in the milk mixture and continue stirring until the soup thickens.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.