Peanut Hoisin Stir Fry

I have a few recipes that I go to again and again.  This stir-fry is one of them.  I can't get enough of this peanut sauce, I always have the ingredients on hand, and it is chock full of veggies.

It is also a very versatile recipe and can be made with many different veggies.  I will give you some vegetable ideas below, but feel free to include other veggies if you like.  Also, I sometimes use quinoa with this, and sometimes I use rice; both taste good.

I do think a really good hoisin sauce is key.  This hoisin sauce is the kind I always use, and I love it. It is not as bitter as some hoisin sauce, and is a perfect compliment to the salty peanut butter.

If you make it, let me know on instagram (@measureandwhisk), or email me!  I love hearing your feedback on recipes!

Peanut Hoisin Stir Fry

adapted from Budget Bytes

Serves 3-4

Sauce: 

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1/6-1/4 cup hot water (depending on how thick you want it)

1 Tbs olive oil

1/2 tsp garlic powder (or 1 garlic clove, minced)

1 large head broccoli, cut into small florets

1/2 onion, diced 

1 large carrot, diced

1/2 cup red cabbage (optional)

1/2 bell pepper, diced

2-3 cups cooked quinoa, rice or noodles

In a jar, combine the ginger, peanut butter, and hoisin sauce.  Stir and then add the hot water, a little at a time, until it reaches the desired consistency. 

In a large frying pan, heat the oil, and add the garlic powder.  Add the vegetables (except the broccoli... throw that in the last 2 minutes of cook time), and stir fry for 8-10 minutes until the vegetables are soft.  

Serve immediately.  Enjoy!  

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The Ultimate Guide Cooking with Dried Beans

This is the world's driest blog post title (pun intended).  But really, what a boring topic.  However, I have a feeling this type of post will be useful to some of you, so I wanted to write it anyway.

My church has a big focus on preparing for the future and being self reliant.  Part of that focus is putting some food away for an emergency.  Typically it is a actually a lot of food (a three month to one year supply for each person in your family).

As a kid, I always thought this was some zombie apocalypse-type preparation, but really, it is more about being prepared for loss of a job, a natural disaster, or something other situation where getting food might be difficult.  Basically just being smart and having extra on hand.

The issue is that in our age of pre-prepared everything, a lot of people don't know how to cook with the kinds of items that can be stored long-term (think beans, lentils, oats, flour, etc), because lots of people rarely make food from scratch.

Last week, I gave a little presentation to the ladies from church about using up beans from food storage.  I made two different recipes, and talked about how easy beans are to make.  I

I thought it might be helpful for more than just those ladies, so here we go!

For starters, dried beans are much cheaper than canned beans.  I looked on Sam's club's website (because it was easier than trying to figure out what was the best deal on amazon), and these were the price differences, and the amount in cups that each would give you.

$7.73 for a six pack of 29 oz cans (these are really big cans, not your standard 15 oz cans) = approximately 21.6 cups of beans in a six pack.

$8.29 for a 12 pound bag of dried beans  = 72 cups of cooked beans

It is pretty complicated to figure out exactly how much less it is for dried vs canned, but this gives you a general idea of how much less it will cost you (I think I overestimated how much you would save in my class... sorry ladies!).

Now onto cooking dried beans a few different ways:  

Cooking Directions in a Crockpot (if you want a swinging flavor on these, try this crockpot method):

2 cups of dry beans

4-6 cups water (enough to cover the black beans by two or three inches)

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 bay leaf

Rinse the dry beans, put them in the crockpot, and cover with water.  Sprinkle garlic powder, and add bay leaf.  Let cook on high for 3-4 hours, until they are soft.  Let them cool and freeze or refrigerate and use within 5 days.

Stove Top Directions:

2 cups of dried beans

4-6 cups of water (enough to cover the beans by two or three inches)

¼ tsp garlic powder

1 bay leaf

Rinse beans, put them in the pot, cover the pot, and bring the pot to a boil.  Turn down the heat, once you have reached a boil, and let it simmer for a looooong time, with the lid on.  Probably about 1-3 hours, checking on them occasionally.  Once they are soft, remove from heat, drain and refrigerate or freeze them.

Instapot Directions: 

1 pound dried beans

8 cups water (don’t fill your instapot more than halfway full)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 to 2 teaspoons salt

2 or 3 cloves peeled garlic, optional

1 bay leaf, optional

Combine ingredients (make sure your pressure cooker is not more than halfway full).  Seal the lid. Cook the beans (check your instapot manual for exact cook times per type of bean you are using).  Let the pressure release naturally.

Conversions for dried to cooked beans:

1 pound dried beans = Up to 6 cups of cooked beans

1 cup dried beans = 3 cups of cooked beans

⅓ cup dried beans = 1 cup cooked beans

⅔ cup dried beans = 2 cups cooked beans

A few random notes: 

- Old beans will take longer to cook.  I have only used 2-3 year old beans, so I have never had that issue, but if you beans are really old, they could take many more hours to cook, so plan ahead.

- Don't cook Red Kidney Beans in the CrockPot, unless you have boiled them for 10 minutes on the stove first, because they contain a toxic element that has to be cooked out.  See this article for more info.

- Pretty much any type of bean (White, pinto, black-eyed pea, garbanzo, and black beans) will work cooking in any of these methods. I cook the most with black beans, garbanzo beans and white beans.  I rarely cook with pinto or black-eyed peas.  

Now onto the most interesting part of this whole post.  Recipes for using beans!  I use them in everything, so here are a few great ways to use them up!

Recipes

Tacos and Wraps:

Chickpea, Apple and Arugula Wraps

Black Bean and Feta Tacos

Sweet Potato Tacos

Soup:

Black Bean Stew with Cilantro Pesto

Carrot soup with Chickpea Croutons

Pasta:

Chickpea and Basil Pasta

Frittata:

Chipotle and Black Bean Frittata

Salads and Bowls:

Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Rice Bowl

Mexican Veggie Bowl

Veggie and Rice Bowl with Cilantro Dressing

Roasted Carrot and Chickpea Salad

Carrot, Dill and White Bean Salad

Chipotle Chicken Tacos

Happy Cooking!  Let me know if you have other questions!

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Roasted Carrot and Parmesan Quiche

As a food blogger, I try a lot of new ideas for dinner.  Some of them work, and some of them don't.  It is always depressing when we have to spend the next 3 days eating something semi-lousy that I made as an experiment.  Thankfully, I am getting better at making my experimentations turn into something delicious.  This quiche, for example, was an absolute winner.  If I owned a restaurant, this would be on the menu.  

I had been googling carrot quiche, because I needed to use up some carrots and had almost nothing else in the fridge.  Thankfully, I had some eggs, milk, and ingredients for a crust, so I whipped this baby together, and it has become a regular on the dinner table.  It is light, fluffy and absolutely delicious! 

Roasted Carrot and Parmesan Quiche:

serves 4-6

2 large carrots, tops and bottoms chopped off, and quartered lengthwise

1 Tbs olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

a pinch of pepper

1/4 tsp thyme

1 butter crust

1 cup whole milk

3 medium eggs

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup freshly shredded parmesan

1/16 tsp pepper

Spread your carrots out on a silicone lined, rimmed cookie sheet.  Pour olive oil over the top, and toss the carrots a bit, until they are covered with oil.  Sprinkle the carrots evenly with salt, pepper and thyme, and mix with your hands to coat them evenly in spices.  Cook the carrots in an oven preheated to 400°F for 20 minutes, until they are soft.  

Meanwhile, make your crust (or roll it out and put it in a pie pan). Line it with foil, and pour raw rice into it, to keep the center from puffing up while you cook it (you will cook it first, without the filling, then bake it again, with the filling, to ensure the bottom and sides get cooked all the way.  When your carrots come out of the oven, bake the rice-filled crust for 25 minutes at 400°F.  

While either the carrots or crust are in the oven, prepare your filling.  In a medium-sized bowl, combine, milk, eggs, thyme, salt, paremsan and pepper.  

Once the crust comes out of the oven, very carefully remove the rice-filled foil, and save for next time.  If there are any stray pieces of rice left in the crust, make sure you use your fingers, or a small set of tongs to remove the pieces, don't try tapping the rice out over the sink (I dumped an entire crust into the sink that way, once...).  

Fill the now-empty crust with the milk/egg filling, then gently set the cooked carrots on the top in a star shape, with one end in the center, and the other ends of the carrots fanning out into a wheel.  

Cook in the the oven, preheated to 400 °F for 45 minutes.  Remove and let cool for 5 minutes.  Then eat immediately.  

Enjoy!

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