Notes about Recipes in this book

• Black bean soup with roasted red pepper

  • Nancith on February 20, 2019

    Had good results with this, although I mainly used the recipe for inspiration & switched some things up. First, made the recipe for 2 instead of 8, used canned black beans & their liquid plus threw in a small bit of frozen black-eyed peas that needed a home, used ground cumin + dried oregano rather than cumin seeds, did not roast the red pepper but merely chopped it fine & sautéed with the onion, & used vegetable broth to fill out the liquid. In my portion, I wilted baby spinach. We really liked the citrus tones in this soup, lime & orange, which gave it a light & bright flavor.

• "Cream" of asparagus soup

  • Nancith on April 24, 2018

    For such a simple soup with few ingredients, this was surprisingly luscious & flavorful. I used dried thyme since fresh was not available. We ate this as a main course with bread & cheese, but it would make a lovely first course soup as well.

• Red potatoes with kale, avocado and feta

  • Nancith on February 24, 2019

    I was actually surprised by how tasty this dish was--my fear was that the kale would be overcooked (not so--it was very tender, but not mushy) & the avocado seemed like a weird addition, but added a really nice flavor note to the dish. The salty feta was the perfect piquant note. All diners (even a picky one) enjoyed this dish.

• Two-broccoli stir-fry on soba noodles

  • Nancith on October 31, 2020

    Beautiful looking recipe, although as my hubby said, it could use more pizzazz taste-wise. It's a bit bland--had no orange zest, but I can't believe that made a huge difference--adding dried red pepper flakes would help, maybe more garlic, and even though it used quite a bit of soy sauce, good old salt & pepper would have added an extra layer of flavor.