Chile Rubbed Tilapia

This is my own version of a spice rub for fish. Those of you stuck inside from this colossal winter storm would enjoy this recipe because it'll certainly warm you up from the biting cold outside. Keep in mind though that there is no salt in this recipe because I'm on a very low salt diet but if you are not, you can add 1 teaspoon of salt to this recipe.

This mixture will make a lot but it keeps well so store it in an airtight container at room temperature. When you're ready to cook the fish, liberally coat both sides and cook like normal.

3 tablespoons ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspon ground ginger
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For my meal, I paired this with the sweet and sour rice with green apple. It's a nice culinary vacation when you're getting especially tired of baked chicken and rice.

Quinoa Salad

Serves 6-10

1 1/2 cups red quinoa
1 sweet onion
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 medium apple, diced into 1/2"
1 medium pear, diced into 1/2"
3 celery stalks, diced
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup diced strawberries (about 5 medium)
4 ounces spinach

Dice the onion. Heat a saute pan over medium-high heat with a little bit of olive oil. Once the pan is hot, stir in the onion and cook until lightly brown for 5-7 minutes. Then pour in the balsamic vinegar and cook until most of the liquid evaporates (no more than a minute or so). Remove from the heat and let cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the white wine vinegar and the dijon mustard. Stir in the diced apple, bear, celery, cranberries, and strawberries. Stir in the cooked onions as well.

Now it's quinoa time. Rinse the quinoa with water, running your fingers through it for a few seconds. Strain out the water and put the quinoa in a large pot. Pour in 2 1/2 cups water and to a boil over medium-high heat. Then reduce the heat to medium low and let simmer, covered, until the quinoa is tender but still has a little bite to it, should take between 10-15 minutes.

Take the quinoa off the heat, pour the spinach in the bowl with the vinaigrette and then pour in the still warm quinoa and stir to incorporate everything. The heat from the quinoa will make the spinach soft and make the other flavors come together. You can eat this salad warm or cold because it's great both ways.

If you're a fan of a little extra heat, I like to put some thai chile sauce around the plate and then mound the salad in the middle of the plate so when you start eating, you get a little chile sauce in every bite.

Crêpes

This is a basic sweet crêpe recipe. However, crepes can also be used in savory dishes such as manicotti (fill with ragu and cover with tomato sauce). If you are making a savory dish leave out the sugar when preparing the crêpe.

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dairy free milk
1/4 lukewarm water
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter replacement, melted and cooled
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 pinch salt

The best way to prepare this batter is either with a blender or a stick blender. Simply place all the ingredients in a bowl or blender and blend until the mixture is smooth. When the batter is done it should lightly coat the back of the spoon.

Now, take your batter and either leave at room temperature for 30 minutes or cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

When you're ready to make the crêpes, spray a non-stick pan and heat on medium. Ladle the batter in the pan and quickly swirl the pan to make sure the pan is evenly coated. Cook for about 30 seconds and carefully flip and cook for an additional 30 seconds. Remove onto a plate and continue with the remaining batter. You will probably end up throwing away the first one or two while you get your pan to the perfect heat. This is absolutely not something you want to try for the first time when you're having guests over.

Sweet Potato Soup

This is a spectacular cold-weather meal that is both healthy and satiating. It's also great to prepare for dinner parties because it can easily be made ahead of time and then simply reheated prior to serving.

5-6 medium sweet potatoes (enough for 3 cups purée)
3 chipotle chiles packed in adobo sauce + 1 teaspoon of adobo sauce
2 cups soy or almond milk, divided
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter replacement
3 cups low sodium chicken broth
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 fresh ground nutmeg
apple slices for garnish and several sprigs of fresh rosemary


Start off by cooking your sweet potatoes whichever way you're most comfortable doing so. Once they're cooked, wait until they cool slightly and then scoop out the flesh of the sweet potato into a food processor. With it, also put in your chipotles, adobo sauce, and 1 cup of the soy or almond milk. Purée until smooth and set aside.

In a large stock pot, heat the butter replacement until melted on medium heat and then whisk in the flour. Continue to whisk and cook until the roux becomes fragrant and light brown (about 5-10 minutes depending on whether you have a gas or electric range). Once the roux is ready, slowly pour in the chicken and broth and vigorously whisk to make sure the roux is incorporated. Then, you want to bring this to a boil over medium-high heat. Once it's boiling, add the sweet potato mixture that you set aside, the spices, and remaining milk and bring back to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce to a simmer and simmer for 8-10 minutes to let those flavors come together and become friendly.

When you're ready to serve, take an apple and thinly slice and immediately place the apple slices in acidulated water (cold water with a few teaspoons of lemon juice). Ladle the soup into the bowls and place a few apple slices with a sprig of fresh rosemary and serve.

Chocolate Surprise Desserts

This is a simple and playful dessert inspired by the buttercream filled marzipan frog at the Swedish Bakery in Chicago. They're great for a dinner party because everyone likes chocolate (for the most part), they're small therefore promoting the portion control idea, and they're just the cutest.

To assemble, make a half recipe of the vanilla cake and a half recipe of the buttercream from the strawberries and creme cake (which can be elevated a little more with some fresh vanilla bean), and 12 ounces of good dark chocolate.

Prepare the cake and let cool and prepare the buttercream. To assemble, use a small biscuit cutter (1.5") about the same size of a shot glass and cut out circles of the cake. Cut these in half horizontally so they're not too tall. Top with a cookie scoop of frosting or a large rounded tablespoon. Now you want to temper the chocolate and the trick here is to melt it very slowly. Remove from heat before the chocolate is completely melted and stir until smooth. Now pour over your assembled cakes and make sure they're completely covered. Let these sit at room temperature for a half hour or so until it's hardened.

Now it's time for creativity. Decorate these however you want. If you want to be more classy, steer away from the faces and use the buttercream to pipe an elegant pattern. However, if you're going for the whimsical presentation, have a great time.

These taste wonderful with the sweet and dense cake, light airy buttercream, and the intense bitter chocolate. Everyone will be impressed and satisfied.

Lemon

I'm a HUGE fan of lemon meringue pie but quite honestly, any store bought versions are impressively bad. They either have heavy and dense crusts, overly sweet lemon curd, over or under cooked meringue, or a lovely combination of these unfortunate problems. This dairy free beauty has a light and flaky crust, tart lemon curd, and perfectly cooked meringue topping. This is an overall great adaption of the Cook's Illustrated recipe.

Use the pie crust recipe from the quiche. Once it's chilled, roll out and form into the pie shell. Refrigerate the rolled out dough. Then after a half hour, crimp the edges and refrigerate for another hour or so until perfectly firm. Once that's all done, preheat the oven to 400. Cover the pie crust with tin foil and fill with pie weights or beans. Bake for about 15 minutes and then remove the tin foil and, reduce the temperature to 350, and bake for another 10 minutes to achieve the slightly browned crust.

Lemon Curd:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cold water
6 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons earth balance butter replacement

Meringue:
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

Now that your pie crust is cooling and looking wonderful, it's time to prepare the filling. In a large sauce pan that is a non-reactive surface (none of that nonstick stuff), mix the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and water and bring to a simmer over medium heat whisking occasionally until it begins to thicken and then stir more frequently. The mixture will start to become translucent after several minutes at which point you need to add in the egg yolks two at a time. Then, whisk in the zest, then lemon juice, then the butter. Bring this whole thing to a simmer vigorously whisking. Remove from heat and cover with plastic wrap making sure to have the plastic touching the surface of the lemon curd to prevent the development of a film.

Meringue time! In a small saucepan, bring the cornstarch to a simmer with 1/3 cup water whisking frequently until the mixture thickens and starts to become translucent. Then let it cool while you go to whipping those whites.

Heat your oven to 325 and mix together the sugar and cream of tartar in a small bowl. Then put the egg whites and vanilla in your stand mixer and mix on medium high with the whisk attachment until frothy (about 30 seconds or so). With the motor running on high, slowly pour in the sugar/cream of tartar mixture and whip to soft peaks. Finally, pour in the cooled cornstarch mixture in and continue to whip until you have stiff peaks.

Pour in the slightly cooled lemon curd into the pie crust and then pour on the meringue smoothing out with a rubber spatula and swirling to make those little peaks throughout. The trick here is to spread the meringue all the way to the crust and make sure it's touching the crust that way it'll attach and not shrink while baking.

Bake the pie for 20 minutes until the top is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.

ENJOY!

Pumpkin Pie

This is always a crowd favorite and no one will ever know that it's dairy free. The addition of dairy free cream cheese gives these pies a velvety texture and if you use actual pumpkin puree verses the canned stuff, it will be lighter and even more spectacular.

Graham Cracker Crust
5 graham crackers
3 tablespoons sugar
2 ounces chopped pecans (1/2 cup or so)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 tablespoons earth balance butter replacement, melted

Pumpkin Pie:
1 8 ounce package of tofutti cream cheese, softened
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg plus 2 egg yolks
1 cup light soy milk
1/4 cup earth balance butter replacement, melted
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 whole vanilla bean, seeded (or you can just use an additional 3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat the oven to 325. Place the graham crackers, sugar, chopped pecans, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a food processor and pulse until completely combined (about 15- 2 second pulses).

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and add the melted butter. Stir with a rubber spatula to combine and then firmly press into a 9" spring form pan or a 9" pie dish. Bake for 15 minutes until the edges are slightly browned and then let cool.

Increase the oven temperature to 350 and then start working on the filling. Beat the cream cheese in a mixer on medium high for a few seconds. Add in the pumpkin puree and beat until combined. Then add the salt and sugar and beat until combined. Beat in the eggs, soy milk and melted butter until combined. Finally, beat in the vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger (yeah you probably guessed it...) until combined.

Pour the mixture into the cooled pie crust and then bake 50 minutes until the filling is set. Remove from the oven and allow to come to room temperature before diving into this heavenly pie.