Chickpea Noodle Soup from @MysteryMacRae

 

Even the meat eaters in the family slurp up this chicken-less soup. (I’ve asked them not to slurp, but do they listen? No. Too busy eating the soup so they’re first at getting seconds.) The combination of flavorful nutritional yeast and nutty, toothsome chickpeas makes the soup completely satisfying.  Flat egg noodles would work just as well as the small tubes of ditalini pasta. The next time I make it, I’ll leave out the noodles and make it with dumplings.

 

Chickpea Noodle Soup

Adapted from The Complete Plant-Based Cookbook, by America’s Test Kitchen

 

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped fine

3 carrots, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick

2 celery ribs, sliced ¼ inch thick

¼ teaspoon pepper

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme or ¾ teaspoon dried

2 bay leaves

 6 cups vegetable broth

2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, rinsed

2 ounces (½ cup) ditalini pasta

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced

 

Directions

Heat oil in soup kettle over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion, carrots, celery, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in nutritional yeast, thyme, and bay leaves and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in broth and chickpeas and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, about 10 minutes.

Stir in pasta, increase heat to medium-high, and boil until just tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, discard bay leaves, and stir in parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve. 

 

Argyles and Arsenic is an Amazon Editor's Pick for 

Top Ten Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense: Continuing Series!

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

Contact me through my website and let me know you'd like to be added to my mailing list. My newsletters are infrequent but frequently fun. 

 

Spaghetti Squash made easy by author @DarylWoodGerber

Spaghetti Squash with herbs and Parmesan cheese

From Daryl aka Avery: I still have herbs growing in my garden. I'm lucky. I live in Southern California. They won't last the whole season. They're on their last legs and I'll have to replant, but I have a few, so I avail myself of them. For those of you living under a blanket of snow - the rest of the country - I'm sorry and I wish you lots of warmth - you might have a kitchen garden or you have a grocery store that offers fresh herbs or you can use dried herbs for this recipe. This is an easy, forgiving recipe and one of my go-to recipes for a vegetarian meal. (Lucy, it's light on salt!)

What exactly is spaghetti squash? It's a cultivar. 

A what? 

FROM WIKIPEDIA -  Popular ornamental garden plants like roses, camellias, and daffodils are cultivars produced by careful breeding. Similarly, the world's agricultural food crops are almost exclusively cultivars that have been selected for characteristics such as improved yield, flavor, and resistance to disease.  

What I like to call it is a gourd. It's about 8-12 inches long, yellowy-orange in color. 

To cook it, you need to cut it in half. This is not an easy task, so be careful. Set the gourd on a cutting board and use a big firm knife. You need to hold the gourd steady as you cut. I have often used a kitchen gripper to give me some leverage. It cuts like a pumpkin!

After it is cooked, the flesh falls away from the fruit in ribbons or strands like spaghetti. What I did not know until I read the Wiki page is that you can cook the seeds like pumpkin seeds. I have never done that, but will try the next time I make this, which is about once a month.

Enjoy!

Spaghetti Squash

(serves 4, as side dish)

1 large cooked spaghetti squash, cut in half, seeds removed

2-4 tablespoons olive oil or butter

2-4 tablespoons fresh herbs (if dried herbs, use 1-2 tbsp. bouquet garni or basil)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, more if desired

Heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Cut the spaghetti squash carefully on a cutting board lengthwise.

Add one inch of water to a 13 x 9 baking pan. Set the spaghettti squash seed-side down in the water. Set in the oven and bake slowly for 35-40 minutes.

Remove the squash from the oven. It will be steaming hot. Let sit for ten minutes.

With potholders on your hands, scoop the seeds out of the squash and discard (or set aside and bake, as you would pumpkin seeds.)

Then scoop the flesh of the spaghetti squash into a large bowl.

Add the olive oil or butter, herbs, salt, and Parmesan cheese. Toss as you would spaghetti.

Serve and top with more Parmesan cheese, if desired.

This makes a great vegetarian entrée or a terrific side dish.

Savor the mystery!

Daryl Wood Gerber aka Avery Aames

Tasty ~ Zesty ~ Dangerous!

*

Friend Daryl and Avery on Facebook

Follow Daryl on Twitter

Follow Avery on Twitter

Follow both of us on Pinterest

Plus check out my website.

GRILLING THE SUBJECT, the 5th Cookbook Nook Mystery, is out!

The Wild West Extravaganza has come to Crystal Cove.

Click here to order.

FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE, the 7th Cheese Shop Mystery is out!

Finally there's going to be a cheese festival in Providence!

Click to order.

GIRL ON THE RUN, a stand-alone suspense is out!

When a fairytale fantasy night becomes a nightmare, 

Chessa Paxton must run for her life...but will the truth set her free? 

Click to order

Welcome guest author Paige Shelton! Veggie recipe + Book Giveaway

Please welcome delicious author, Paige Shelton! 

Paige recently moved to Arizona where she’s trying to balance all the cool stuff (the scenery, the people, the pools) with the not-so-cool stuff (the summer temperatures.) For more information, check out her website: www.paigeshelton.com

Take it away, Paige!

* * *

It’s great to be on one of favorite sites today. Thanks, Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen for letting me stop by. Hello, readers – always good to see you.

I’m here to talk about leeks. Other than potato leek soup, what in the world are you supposed to do with these onion-like flavored and uber-healthy vegetables?

That was my quandary when I titled my newest cooking school mystery “If Onions Could Spring Leeks.” Between you and me, I included other vegetables in the story so I wouldn’t have to come up with a bunch of leek recipes. The challenge of leek-only was too daunting, and, really, who wants a bunch of recipes highlighting leeks? Between you and me again – actually, now that I’ve become so well acquainted with them and really like them, I could use a bunch of leek recipes, but, alas, I only have one that I consider extra tasty.

In fact, it has turned out to be one of my favorite dishes and something I’ve already made for many dinners. It fills you up and is pretty healthy – a rare combination. It’s also super simple and my family likes it too.

I can’t take credit for the original recipe. I found it online and didn’t do much to it except add one thing from Costco.

It’s called: Sautéed Carrots and Leeks, and Costco Chicken 

Ingredients:
2 leeks, almost finely chopped (original recipe said ‘finely’ chopped, but I’m too impatient for ‘finely.’)
2 carrots, almost finely chopped
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter (I use salted)
1 tablespoon white sugar
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 Costco chicken (any baked chicken will do). Free it from its bones and tear it to pieces. 

Directions:

Combine everything except the chicken in a skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer and stir every now and then until liquid evaporates and leeks and carrots are lightly browned, about 15 minutes or so. Add the chicken and stir until chicken is warmed through – minute or so. Serve.


If you don’t add the chicken, it makes a great vegetable side dish. If you add the chicken, it’s a one-skillet, healthy, and filling meal.



Easy as that. Hope you enjoy it as much as I and my family do.

Thanks for letting me stop by today!

GIVEAWAY

Paige has generously offered to give away a copy of IF ONIONS COULD SPRING LEEKS to one lucky reader today. Leave a comment [by clicking the word comments, and include your email, cryptically if you need to!]

And tell Paige what your favorite veggie dish is!