Cooking Through “The Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook” – Picadilly Bowl

Picadilly Bowl from page 243

I had some ingredients in the fridge that I needed to use up, like a half bag of broccoli flowerets, some kale and a bell pepper. The recipe with the funny name, Picadilly Bowl, fit the bill perfectly.

I found the recipe online here.

It took me about 20 minutes to chop and slice all the veggies. I didn’t do this prior to starting the recipe, so I felt a bit rushed in my prep work. It would have been much better to do the prep work first, and then start cooking…but I was hungry.  LOL!

I toasted the oats as the recipe says, but I’m not sure what that actually accomplishes and if that changed the taste at all. I probably would skip that step next time. I chopped the onion…and cried. Boy, was that a strong onion! While the onion was sautéing in a bit of veggie broth, I cleaned and sliced the mushrooms. The recipe doesn’t state which type of mushrooms, so I chose Cremini mushrooms. I usually save time by purchasing my ‘shrooms already sliced, but I wanted to use Cremini and they didn’t have them already sliced.

The recipe says to sauté the ‘shrooms and garlic for 1-2 minutes, but I like mine a bit more cooked, so I let them go for about 10 minutes. Once they got going, I did not need to add more veggie broth.

Once I added the rest of the ingredients and brought it up to the boil, the recipe stated to cover and simmer for 25 minutes. I had to add another 5 minutes to the cooking time since there was still too much liquid that was not absorbed. Once that was done, I added the corn, covered, and let sit for a few minutes to heat the corn through.

Wow! I was really surprised with how delicious this dish was. The sweetness from the corn, the earthiness from the mushrooms, the creaminess from the oats, the cheesiness from the nooch….oh my…like heaven in a bowl.

This held up really well for leftovers. The first time we didn’t add any hot sauce, but the second time we did add our favorite Sriracha. I liked it both ways.  Chris preferred it with the hot sauce.

Prep work 20 minutes, sautéing 15 minutes, cooking 35. Total from start to finish 70 minutes. I’m sure I could cut this time down if I do all prep ahead of time. The recipe states 4 servings, but we got 5. I probably added more broccoli and corn, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

I will definitely make this again.

NOTES:

• Have everything chopped up before you begin. Makes pulling this dish together that much easier.
• We don’t like mushy broccoli, so I didn’t chop the flowers. This allowed them to stay firm even through reheating the leftovers.
• Leftovers hold up really well. Good dish for batch cooking.
• Satisfying meal that stayed with us for hours.
• You won’t even know you are eating oats. They disappear and make the dish creamy and delicious.

Cooking Through “The Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook” – Oberlin Corn and Shallot Chowder

Oberlin Corn and Shallot Chowder from page 89

I decided to try this recipe just because I had all the ingredients on hand and I figured, hey, it’s simple enough. If it’s good, I have a quick soup up my sleeve for those times that there is not much in the fridge and I need to pull a quick lunch or dinner together.

You can find the recipe here.

The recipe says that it serves 4. I guess it could be 4 if you were serving a little cup of soup as part of a meal, but we wanted a real bowl of soup. I got about 2 decent servings.

Prep time was about literally 2 minutes since all I had to do was chop the shallot and the celery and toss everything else in a pot. Total cooking time was about 10 minutes. 5 minutes to process to a smooth consistency.

I have to say, I had high hopes for this soup that it did not live up to. I really did want to love this soup.  I did use organic frozen sweet corn, but I use that all the time in dished and we really like it. Maybe it would have turned out better with fresh corn, but I won’t be the one to try it. Definitely not a keeper in my book.

I was so underwhelmed with this one, I didn’t even take a picture.  Sorry about that.

NOTES:

• I used an immersion blender. I should have used the Vitamix to make the soup smoother.
• I had to add quite a bit of salt to make this taste decent.
• I did not use the wine. I used veggie broth.

Cooking Through “The Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook” – Georgie’s Soup

Georgie’s Soup from page 87

I have to say, this soup has quickly become a favorite in our house. I have made it three times already and I’m about to make it again.

Anytime a recipe calls for red lentils, I get excited. Although, this soup does not have a lot of red lentils, it’s still really tasty. Unlike brown or green lentils, the red ones fall apart when cooked well. In this soup, they are pretty much undetectable. The just seem to thicken the soup while adding a nice protein hit.

Sorry guys…I couldn’t find the recipe online anywhere.

This soup calls for ingredients that you may not always have on hand, but I promise, it is worth a trip to the market. It’s not often I make a dish calling for sweet potato, leek, fennel and mushrooms all at once, but my, oh my, this is just too good not to try.  Look at this deliciousness.  Can’t you just taste it?

Don’t let the fennel make you nervous. While raw fennel does have that beautiful anise taste that I love, it mellows out considerably in the soup and adds a depth of flavor to the soup that is just remarkable. While I often do sub out ingredients in a recipe based on what I have on hand, I don’t think it would be wise to skip the fennel in this dish.

The recipe calls for a pound of mushrooms, but does not specify which type. I take this to mean that you can use what you like. I am sure you could even leave them out if you didn’t like them. One time I used all cremini, another time I used a mixture of cremini and shitake, and the last time was all shitake.  I like to use shitake mushrooms when I can since they are a medicinal mushroom and are used in Chinese medicine to support the immune system.

The recipe also calls sweet potatoes, but you could use what you have. Sweet potatoes obviously make the soup sweet, but I’ve also used a mixture of sweet and red potatoes because, well, you guessed it, that’s what I had on hand.

As in many of the PRHD recipes, it calls for cilantro. I have just used a bunch of spinach and it was lovely. I just added the spinach to the pot after the soup was done cooking and voila.

There is a little bit of prep work here. Cube the potatoes, chop the veggies. It’s all so therapeutic to me, all that chopping. I don’t mind. The one veggie I don’t like chopping is mushrooms, so I splurge here and buy the already sliced mushrooms.

The recipe says that it serves 6 to 8. We got about 6 large servings.

Prep time was about 20 minutes. Total cooking time was about 30 minutes – 10 minutes sautéing and 30 minutes simmering.

NOTES:

• Instead of cilantro you can use parsley, spinach, collards, chard, etc.
• Fresh or dry thyme works here. I’ll use fresh when I can grow it.
• Add more red lentils for a heartier soup.
• You can peel the potatoes…I do not.
• The recipe calls for 1 TBSP of balsamic. I do not use my Grand Reserve for this. I just use the regular balsamic from the grocery store.
• The recipe calls for shredded carrots. I used them the first time and forgot the second time. We didn’t miss them. They didn’t seem to add anything special to the soup.
• The soup was even better the next day.
• This can easily be served with rice or quinoa to stretch it out if need be.
• This was so flavorful that I did not add any salt at all.
• I made this on top of the stove, but this can easily be made it the Instant Pot.