Greenest pasta ever: Kale orecchiette alla primavera

Not much intro needed: let's all celebrate spring by making pasta alla primavera!



INGREDIENTS (2 people for a main dish, 4 people as a side):
- any pasta you like! (I used my homemade kale orecchiette, click here for a recipe)
- a bunch of green asparagus, rinsed and trimmed
- 1 small container of snow peas, rinsed
- 1 cup of frozen peas
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled and bruised
- a few sprigs of fresh tarragon, leaves picked
- Parmesan, shaved
- a splash of olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Note: this recipe can be adapted to a vegan diet by using egg-free pasta


RECIPE:
- bring a pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the asparagus, snow peas and green peas for 2-3 minutes, then transfer into iced water to stop the cooking process. Keep the boiled water hot for cooking the pasta later.

- in a large skillet, add the bruised garlic clove into a splash of cold olive oil and cook over very low heat for a few minutes until the garlic becomes fragrant

Note: you do not want to fry the garlic golden here, you just want to infuse the oil and low heat is perfect for that
- after a few minutes, remove the garlic clove (it has served its purpose), add the cooled and drained blanched veggies to the skillet and cook for 5-7 minutes over medium heat

- meanwhile, bring the water back to a boil (it's ok if it has a green tinge from the blanching step) and cook the pasta until almost done.

Note: I like to under-cook my pasta at this stage, because I like them VERY al dente
Note 2: always reserve a little bit of your pasta water, it usually comes in very handy when making the sauce because it contains all the starch from the pasta and thickens beautifully
- when the pasta is almost cooked through, drain well and transfer into the skillet containing the vegetables. Toss well and add the chopped tarragon, half of the Parmesan and about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of pasta cooking liquid. Cook for another 1 minute over medium-high heat, or until the Parmesan has melted into the sauce and coats the pasta

- serve hot, sprinkled with fresh tarragon and a few shavings of Parmesan cheese
- Buon Appetito!

Tamarind, basil and snow peas chicken stir-fry

No story behind this recipe. Just that I went to an Asian supermarket over the weekend and stocked up on tamarind paste and snow peas and wanted to play with them :)



INGREDIENTS (for 4 people, or 2 people with leftovers)
- 2 large chicken breasts, sliced finely and dredged in cornstarch
- 1 medium onion, diced finely
- 4 cloves of garlic, grated
- 1 inch fresh ginger, in fine sticks
- 1 tbsp fresh chili paste (I used Sambal Oelek, but you can also use a fresh red chili of your choice and grate it into a paste)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/4 cup tamarind paste (you can make your own out of the dried fruit: click here for a recipe, or rehydrate commercially available tamarind concentrate)
- 2 1/2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
- 3 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
- about 1 cup chicken broth
- snow peas, rinsed (I think I had about 1.5 lbs here, but you can use as much as you want, really!)
- a big handful of fresh Thai basil
- a splash of coconut oil


RECIPE:
- in a very (VERY) hot wok, fry the onion, garlic and ginger in coconut oil for a few minutes, stirring almost constantly

- add the chili paste, the chicken and stir again until the chicken is almost cooked through (opaque), then add the soy sauce and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes

- while it is cooking, dissolve the brown sugar in the fish sauce

- after 3 minutes, add the snow peas and stir until well mixed, then add about 3/4 cup chicken broth and stir until the sauce coats the snow peas and chicken

- after 3 minutes, add the tamarind and sugar dissolved in fish sauce, and cook for another 3-4 minutes, or until the snow peas are cooked to your liking, then turn off the heat, sprinkle fresh basil on top and mix well

Note: if the stir fry is getting a bit dry, add more chicken broth
- serve piping hot over steamed jasmine rice and decorate with a few leaves of fresh basil

- Enjoy!

Thai-style lemongrass shrimp soup

Are you tired of the heavy hearty winter stews, but you feel it is still too cold to enjoy a crisp, healthy salad?

How about a (very) low-cal hot soup option?

A while back, I made myself this Thai style lemongrass and shrimp soup taken from Sunday Soup by Betty Rosbottom, and let me tell you, I was very impressed and will be going back to this recipe this spring!

Try it, you won't be disappointed :) It has just the right amount of heat and tang, it really warms you up, but it absolutely figure-friendly :D


INGREDIENTS (for 2)
- 3 cups of chicken broth (or fish/veggie broth for vegetarian options)
- 1lb deveined raw shrimp (peel the shrimp and reserve the shells in a separate bowl)
- 3 tbsp pureed lemongrass (I only had pureed lemongrass in a tube, but if you have fresh stalks on hand, use three sliced very finely)
- 1 pack of frozen snow peas, in chunks (preferable to use fresh snow peas, but I only had frozen on hand)
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 lime, finely sliced
- juice of 1/2 lime (or to taste)
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 8oz fresh cremini mushrooms, finely sliced
- a sprinkle of red pepper flakes (not in the ingredients pictures, but I added them as I went along)


RECIPE:
- prepare the broth: in a deep pot, bring the chicken broth, shrimp shells, lemongrass and half of the lime slices to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and let infuse for at least 15 minutes.

- Strain the shells and lime slices, and reserve the boiling liquid. You can try to extract as much flavor as possible from the shells by crushing them into a sieve.

- Bring the shrimp-lemongrass broth back to a boil and add the pepper, shrimp, snow peas, pepper flakes and mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes on high heat.
Note: be careful not to overcook: you don't want the mushrooms to get mushy!

- Turn off the heat, and add the cilantro and lime juice.

- Serve piping hot, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and squeeze fresh lime juice on top. Decorate with sliced limes.

- Enjoy!