Spicy Baked Potato Wedges

Although I like potatoes, I don't tend to eat them very often, as I prefer to limit my consumption of carbohydrates. I recently had a craving for potatoes though and decided to make these baked potato wedges which also gave me an excuse to warm up the kitchen with the oven. This recipe turned out better than I imagined and I even went back for seconds. The addition of egg adds a bit of extra crunch to the wedges. A half cup or so of Parmesan cheese would also be a nice addition to this recipe. Dip the baked wedges in sour cream or salsa if desired.

Cracked Black Pepper Cheddar Muffins

The combination of black pepper and sharp extra-old Cheddar cheese make these savory muffin-type dinner rolls a particularly flavorful addition to any winter meal. I made a batch to go along with Christmas dinner. The vegetarians at the table enjoyed these alongside sour chickpeas, brown rice and millet and some vegetables. Though not a traditional Christmas meal, it was a very satisfying and warming vegetarian alternative.

Cracked Black Pepper Cheddar Muffins

Recipe by Lisa Turner Published on December 28, 2007 Easy, fluffy and delicious savory Cheddar cheese dinner muffins with fresh cracked black pepper seasoning Preparation: 10 minutes Cooking time: 25 to 30 minutes Print this recipe Ingredients: 2 cups unbleached white flour 1 tablespoon white sugar 3 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper 1 egg 1 1/4 cups whole milk 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 cup fresh grated sharp Cheddar cheese Instructions: Preheat an overn to 350°F and grease or butter 12 standard size muffin cups. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and black pepper. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and oil. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in the cheese. Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes and then remove from the pan and serve warm. Makes 12 muffins

Simple Chana Dal, Dill and Tomato Khichri

Indian khichris — also known as kidgerees or kitcherees — are simple rice and split bean pots flavored with herbs, spices or vegetables. They're a favorite of mine for very quick, easy and nourishing lunches or suppers. Not surprisingly, the full texture of cooked chana dal makes it a popular variety of split bean to use in khichris alongside the delicate texture of rice, and while I've already posted one chana dal and dill khichri, that particular combination of split beans and herbs is worth another recipe.

Best-Ever Rum Balls

I made these rum balls a few years back for a Christmas treat and have made them every Christmas since. They are somewhat like truffles, only stronger in taste because of the rum. Yum! I suggest you use a nice dark Jamaican rum for this recipe. If you want to include crushed nuts, substitute 1 cup of the wafers for 1 cup of nuts, such as hazelnuts. And use 4 1/2 tablespoons of chocolate chips to equal 1/2 cup of chocolate.

Vegetable and Paneer Hot and Sour Soup

If you are looking for a spicy and warming soup to ease the winter chills, I would highly recommend this hot and sour soup that I came across at Food and Fun. As usual, I've made a few modifications but I believe that I've captured the unique flavor of this vegetable soup that Mansi describes as "Chinese, Indian style". Unlike most soups, this one is best enjoyed shortly after its prepared.

Tropical Christmas Steamed Pudding

There's a popular school of thought out there that romanticizes a White Christmas as something very much to be wished for every year. Well, speaking as someone who lives in a part of the world where there is rarely any other alternative, I can say that all those people who spend their time listening to Irving Berlin songs can have my White Christmas … I'd much rather be spending my Christmas on a tropical island. So this tropical twist on the traditional steamed Christmas pudding can at least let me imagine a little bit sitting on a sandy island beach at Christmas-time surrounded by warm tropical breezes as I watch the snow drift outside my window.

Tarka Dal

If you've ever been to an Indian restaurant in North America, you've probably seen "tarka dal" on the menu. Almost always a bowl of yellow lentils cooked and mashed to a thick soup-like consistency, the name "tarka dal" is actually a generic term for any cooked dal tempered with a a final addition of seeds and spices fried in hot oil — the "tarka" — to give it a simple but elegant finish.

This version of tarka dal uses toor dal, otherwise known as toovar dal or split pigeon peas, which I find are a slightly sweeter and more full-textured dal than most. These and other ingredients in this recipe are easily available at any Indian or Asian grocer, but you can substitute yellow split peas for the toor dal. With very little preparation or cooking time, this tarka dal is an excellent addition to a full-course Indian meal, or makes a quick and simple but lovely Indian supper by itself with rice and a green salad. If you'd like to serve it in bowls almost as a soup, as I find most Indian restaurants do, add another 3/4 cup of water to the dal while cooking to thin the consistency.

Baked Mushroom Risotto

For all their lovely creamy textures and rich flavors, I suspect that risottos would be a far more popular part of everyday dinners if it weren't for all the fuss and stirring of their traditional reduction-based cooking methods. But as it turns out, slow baking controls the release of the starches on the outside of the risotto rice grains that give risottos their creaminess almost just as well as the typical slow and repetitive stop-pour-and-stir methods, and of course it makes cooking them so much easier that there should be almost nothing to deter you from trying it.

Eggnog & Rum French Toast

Or, Booze for Breakfast!

Stopping at the local Portuguese bakery the other day to pick up a loaf of their wonderful Portuguese bread, I found that I had arrived too late and had to settle for their day-olds. That was no real loss, because the bread is still soft and delicious after a couple of days, but when the lady at the counter suggested that the day-olds are perfect for French Toast it got me thinking…

Earlier in the day I'd picked up some eggnog, and as I was driving home with my groceries thinking about the bakery lady's idea to use my loaf of Portuguese bread for French Toast, it occurred to me — why not use eggnog instead of milk to make French Toast? And as everyone knows that eggnog just isn't quite the real thing without a little tot of rum added, the idea of an eggnog & rum French Toast kept sounding better and better until I had to make it the next morning. I'm glad I did — the gentle hints of rum and winter spices made it about the best French Toast I'd ever tasted.

Chickpea and Cabbage Soup

This chickpea and cabbage soup has been a winter favorite of mine for years. Loaded with vitamins and minerals, the stewed flavors of chickpeas and vegetables combined with just a little spice makes for a very simple, nutritious and delicious cold weather beater.

Chickpea, Quinoa and Mushroom Croquettes

I'm always on the lookout for nutty flavor and crunchy texture and this recipe for chickpea, quinoa and mushroom croquettes from Pig in the Kitchen turned out to be as satisfying as it sounded and looked. Composed of a grain, legume and vegetables, theses croquettes are a meal onto themselves. Consider serving them with a chutney or tomato based sauce or as a vegetarian burger. I served them alongside butter paneer masala.

Mung Beans with Carrots and Cashews

Lucy from Nourish Me's re-working of a "revolting" cookbook recipe for mung beans to create what she calls an "inauthentic dal" looked to me so wholesome, attractive and tasty that I figured nothing could be wrong with adding my own little tweaks to make it even more inauthentic!

Vegetarian Stove-Top Calabacitas

Calabacitas is a traditional Pueblo Indian squash and chili pepper casserole that's become very popular in its many spicy American Southwest variations. Often baked and usually made with chicken or beef, this colorful vegetarian version uses pinto beans to add heartiness and protein, and cooks on top of the stove in just 20 minutes. While it makes a wonderful vegetable side dish for any Southwest or Mexican style dinner, I like to serve it up as a quick and filling breakfast wake-me-upper, although the beans should be cooked the night before if you're going to do this to speed up the morning preparation.

Spicy Indian Fried Rice

This is a very easy and tasty rice dish that would complement any Indian meal or any other meal that you would serve with rice. I suggest you serve it with chana masala or moong dal and a vegetable dish.

Hash-Browned Golden Beets and Yams

Hash browns are a favorite weekend breakfast staple for many people across North America, but there's no reason just to use potatoes — beets, sweet potatoes, yams and squash are delicious hashed and browned as well. Because of the high sugar content of sweet potatoes, yams or squash, they must be stirred constantly to avoid burning and and they don't crisp up as well as potatoes. But used side by side with potatoes or beets in a hash, they provide a wonderful contrast in not only flavor but texture as well.

Butter Paneer Masala

Fans of paneer cheese are sure to love this butter paneer masala. A vegetarian version of the classic butter chicken, this dish of tender pieces of fried paneer cheese simmered in a rich, thick, creamy and buttery spiced tomato, onion and cashew gravy is a tremendously popular item in Indian restaurants. If I don't order matar paneer — my absolute favorite — my next choice is always a paneer masala.

Jalapeño Cornbread Wedges

In the interest of variety and spiciness, I prepared a different cornbread recipe than the one I usually make. I certainly wasn't disappointed with the result and it was very easy to prepare besides. I used a large jalapeño for the extra kick, but if you can't take the heat, use a small one instead. This cornbread makes for a nice light lunch or snack but could also be served with dinner.

Azuki Beans Cooked with Garlic and Ginger

I was delighted to find a few Indian recipes calling for azuki beans in my newly acquired copy of Madhur Jaffrey's World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking, including this one. Azuki beans were cultivated in Asia where they continue to be very popular, usually served sweetened. Though I own a few shelves of cookbooks, I don't have many azuki bean recipes that are more suitable to serve as a dinner dish. I sometimes use them in recipes calling for mung beans, so if you don't have azuki beans on hand, whole mung beans would be a very good alternative.

Mushroom and Jalapeño Breakfast Hash

This is my favorite fast-and-easy breakfast hash for weekend mornings when I'm getting up later than I had meant to. Flash-fried mushrooms and jalapeño peppers complement the traditional potato-and-onion hash beautifully and add very little extra time to the preparation and cooking, especially if the potato has been cooked and cooled the night before. The secret to good browned hash is to maximize the vegetables' contact with very hot olive oil — and it's important to use olive oil instead of other vegetable oils because, when hot enough, the vegetables will absorb very little of it.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

One of my favorite treats is homemade roasted pumpkin seeds. The store-bought variety simply do not compare, so I took the time to separate the seeds from the pumpkin I bought to make pumpkin pie. This recipe can easily be increased if you have more seeds on hand.

Beet and Tomato Soup

My photograph doesn't begin to capture the unique elegance of this beet and tomato soup, adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking. Combining the typically strong flavors of beet and tomato results in a perfect balance of flavors and a surprisingly subtle soup that can only be tasted to be appreciated. This is an ideal soup to be served as a first course.

Rice with Paneer and Peas

I've been terribly busy of late meaning I currently have less time to experiment in the kitchen, but today I worked a shorter shift and took advantage of the extra time to make a rice dish with two of my favorite ingredients — paneer cheese and fresh garden peas. This easy-to-prepare dish would serve as a fine compliment to any Indian meal.

Indian Mushroom and Scallion Scrambled Eggs

Here is another Indian scrambled egg breakfast that is much less piquant than the Punjabi-style scrambled eggs that I made last week, but has the warm, earthy fragrance of fried mushrooms and scallions that makes it a nourishing, delicious and colorful plate on a cold autumn morning, wonderful with buttered toast and some fresh fruit.

Five-Dal Spinach Soup

It was a gift of Yamuna Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine years ago that got me started on Indian cuisine, and it's still by far the finest Indian vegetarian cookbook I've ever come across. One of my favorite sections is her dal soups, which are always so simple to prepare, easily digestible, and exotically fragrant and delicious. This "panch dal shorba" made with spinach and five different split dals is an especially lovely and nutritious soup for a light lunch or dinner served with rice and a green salad with a mango dressing. And despite the quantity of spices, this soup is more aromatic than hot — the piquancy of the cumin, chilies and cayenne linger pleasantly rather than painfully on the tongue, although the chilies and cayenne can be reduced slightly for sensitive palettes.

Chickpeas and Béchamel Sauce

This is an especially good recipe to make if you are rushed for time. There is very little preparation to do, all of which can be done while the chickpeas are cooking. For a satisfying and balanced meal, serve over a bed of basmati rice. If you prefer, substitute mint for the dill.

The Power of Food

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first written review of Lisa's Kitchen since I went live back in March. My efforts are truly rewarded when I find out that fellow cooks are inspired by my food offerings.

I'm too lazy to write a review, but I recommend Whirled Soup for some nourishing and tasty soup recipes.

Simple Chana Dal and Dill Khichri

I've made such good use over the years of recipes from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian Cookbook that I was delighted to finally obtain a copy of her older book, World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking. Both are filled with astonishingly fast and simple recipes for delicious and exotic dishes of all varieties.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Despite my general aversion to autumn — chiefly as a precursor to winter — I am an enormous fan of the many vegetables and fruits that come in season right now. This includes pumpkins, of course. One of the favorite fall treats for many North Americans is sweet pumpkin pie, served at many a family get-together and especially at Thanksgiving. Store-bought pumpkin pies and pumpkin pie fillings are always easy to find, but these really can't compare to the extraordinary flavor of pie filling made from fresh cooked pumpkin. Besides, the huge bins and shelves of large bright orange pumpkins are hard to resist, and cooking your own pie filling from a fresh pumpkin gives you the opportunity to roast the seeds later for an extra yummy treat.

Staple Corner: Quinoa-Oat Croquettes

Cooking quinoa and oats together combines the best of both of these astonishingly healthy foods for a high-protein, high-fat meal rich in calcium, iron, B-vitamins, vitamin E, phosphorus for nerve tissues, and silicon for bones and connective tissues. And frying the cooled porridge really brings out the unbeatable nutty flavor and crunchy texture of quinoa in little croquettes that are deliciously satisfying and wholesome just on their own or with a dash of tamari sauce added. But they're also so simple to make that you'll have time to cook up some best-ever mushroom sauce to pour over them for one of my all-time favorite combinations of tastes.

Pasta with Goat Cheese and Mixed Mushrooms

If you are looking for an vegetarian entrée perfect for esteemed dinner guests, I would highly recommend this easy-to-prepare pasta dish loaded with fresh and dried mushrooms baked in a creamy goat cheese sauce. It's quite similar to and equally delightful as my famous pasta and Feta cheese casserole, only creamier and earthier and also very rich and filling.

Best-Ever Mushroom Sauce

I've been making this best-ever mushroom sauce for years now and I'd never get sick of it even if I had to eat it everyday. It's an absolutely delicious dressing to put on mashed potatoes, lightly-steamed vegetables, or any grain, just as long as you can stop yourself from eating it right out of the pan, but my favorite way to eat it is as a topping for quinoa-oat croquettes.

Rosemary Parmesan Drop Biscuits

Visitors to my kitchen will know that I am a great fan of quick and easy savory biscuits. Not only do they fill out a meal, they are a tasty treat in their own right. Though I have no shortage of biscuit recipes on hand, I can never resist new ideas. I found this recipe in the latest issue of Cook's Illustrated.

Creamy Beet Borscht

Borscht is a vegetable soup from Eastern Europe that is now enjoyed throughout the world. Any variety of vegetables can be used, but beets are essential. My friend Mike has been requesting a homemade borscht soup for a long time now. It was an especially good time to fulfill his wish as beets are currently in season and also one of my current favorites. I've come across a few recipes that I've liked but this creamy beet borscht seems to have the perfect balance of flavors. It turned out to be a success. I served it hot, but it can also be chilled and served cold if desired.

Punjabi-Style Scrambled Eggs

There are countless ways of preparing fried or scrambled breakfast eggs in India, but one thing they almost all have in common is cooking the eggs well until they are almost hard. These eggs, scrambled with a Punjabi-style infusion of ginger, hot pepper and north Indian spice flavors, go deliciously with buttered toast and fruit for a fast and tasty breakfast. They also make for a delightful dinner.

Polenta with Mushroom Ragout

Two of my favorite foods are cornmeal and mushrooms, so I can't resist combining the two. This rich and savory mushroom ragout, which is essentially a thick sauce or gravy, would also go nicely with rice or any other grain of your choosing, including pasta.

Spicy Indian Cabbage and Green Peas

Cabbage is one of those vegetables I buy without knowing what I'm going to do with it and then look for a solution. Fortunately this vitamin C-rich vegetable is widely used around the world, so there's no shortage of ideas. And if you like Indian spicing and green peas as much as I do, then this "bandhgobhi hari matar tarkari" that I've adapted from Yamuna Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine is the cabbage idea for you.

Japanese-Style Quinoa Salad with a Tamari-Ginger Dressing

Judging by the number of requests I've received for quinoa recipes, it seems that this ancient staple food of the Andes, otherwise known as Inca rice, is enjoying a surge in popularity these days. And with its unique delicately sweet and nutty flavor as well as a nearly perfect amino acid balance rare to plant foods, it's a popularity that's well deserved. Toss in a good source of fiber, protein, iron, calcium, phosphorus and vitamins B and E, and it's a wonder that everyone's not eating quinoa.

Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

It's easy to buy a small tub of good quality roasted red pepper hummus in London, but it's much more satisfying to experiment in your own kitchen, especially if you are like me and want some hummus with a spicy kick. Originating in the Middle East and now popular throughout the world, hummus is a thick dip or spread consisting mainly of ground chickpeas, tahini, garlic and lemon juice. This versatile blend of flavors can be enhanced with an infinite combination of herbs, spices and vegetables.

Lentil Soup with Prunes and Apricots

With the autumn weather upon us here in southwestern Ontario, I've been inspired to make more warming soups of late. This sweet and sour soup is adapted from a unique little cookbook entitled Small Bites. Once the chopping is done, it simply simmers on the stove top, allowing you time to prepare the rest of your meal. I served it with polenta and mushroom ragout for a hearty, nourishing and warming delicious dinner. It's a fairly thick soup, especially if you serve it the next day, so feel free to add more stock to suit your tastes. If you are not using vegetable stock, increase the amount of salt and add a few teaspoons of celery seed. If desired, garnish with pomegranate seeds.

Baked Gingered Chickpea Stew with Eggplant and Spinach

A variation of this textured chickpea stew can be found in every kitchen in North India, where it is a favorite for Sunday dinners. Very much like a baked chana masala with eggplant and spinach, "kabli chana baigan tarkari" is almost always served with pooris, but it is also very delicious served on a bed of fresh cooked white rice with a green salad or a potato dish on the side.

Blueberry Ricotta Cheesecake

One of the items on my ongoing list of recipes to make has been a baked cheesecake. Until recently I had never made a cheesecake of any sort, although cheesecake is certainly one of my favorite desserts. I have very fond memories of the no-bake cherry cheesecake my Mom used to make for me.

I don't very often have dessert, as most of the meals I make I find quite satisfying in themselves, but when I found this recipe for blueberry ricotta cheesecake in my bulging binder of food ideas I simply could not resist. It's a fancy looking cake but actually pretty easy to make — and needless to say, it's rich, creamy and absolutely heavenly to taste.