Kale Soup

My Inlaws gave me a recipe book for my birthday called Eat Beautiful. It is written by Wendy Rowe, a world renowned beauty expert, well known as the Artistic Director for Burberry makeup. I love everything about this book. Not only is it informative and have beautifully styled images that make your mouth water, but the chapters are very organized, by season. Each season lays out a glossary of the foods and ingredients used within the season's recipes and specifies the health benefits for your skin, inside and out. It is a clever and simple way of understanding what is good for you and how it is good for, whilst providing great tasty recipes using the foods that are best.

I picked five recipes from this book and bought all the ingredients to make five new recipes this week. I thought I would share with you the Kale soup which we tried out last night. I found it to be absolutely delicious. I have to admit, Zach was not a fan, but he is also not really a veggie fan in general. I did forget the leeks in this recipe, (whoops!) because I forgot them on my grocery list. The soup tasted just fine without them and the apartment still smelled deliciously green. I also added in some additional kale leaves (handful more than recipe notes below), as I tend to like a soup that is a little thicker. Recipe below and link to purchase book HERE, from Anthropologie. Enjoy! xo RCN

Ingredients, serves 2-3 people:

1 Large Fennel bulb, roughly chopped

1 Leek, roughly chopped

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp raw coconut oil

1 Onion, chopped

2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tbsp vegetable bouillon powder or 1 vegetable stock cube

10 Kale leaves, large stems removed, roughly chopped

Handful of spinach

Sea salt and black pepper

1 tsp ground nutmeg to serve

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Chop fennel and leeks and place onto foil lined baking sheet. Evenly drizzle olive oil onto fennel and leeks, mix all together and spread flat on tray. Bake for 15-20 minutes. While baking, chop onion and garlic. Then melt coconut oil in large saucepan on low heat. Add onions and garlic and cover pan with lid. Let sweat for five minutes or until onions are translucent and softened. Pour 5 cups of water into pan, add vegetable bullion, roasted fennel, leeks, and half of the chopped up kale leaves. Season with salt and pepper and stir. Bring to a boil and let bubble for 20 minutes. Add the remaining kale and spinach. Simmer on low/medium heat for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for a little while. Purée until smooth in a blender or using an immersion blender. Reheat before serving and sprinkle nutmeg on top. 

Corona Fried Jalapeño Rings with Chipotle Mayo Dipping Sauce

Super Bowl Weekend is here. Whether you will be parked on the couch enjoying the game, or gossiping in the kitchen, here is a fun appetizer perfect for snacking on. The recipe can be adjusted per desire, depending upon how spicy your fans at the party like it. The original recipe, here, is relatively mild, so great for the kiddos too! I like to add the spice into the Chipotle Mayo - also adjustable based on your liking. I wish I could tell you which team I want to win this Sunday, but two of my top fantasy players come from both the Patriots and the Falcons. That makes it tough for me. I'll come up with my decision before Sunday. Who are you rooting for? xo RCN

Jalapeños Ring Ingredients:

4 Jalapeños, sliced 1/8" thick and deveined, all seeds removed! (for mild version)

1/2 Cup Flour

1/3 -1/2 Bottle of Corona Lite

2 Eggs

1 1/2 Tbsp Honey

1 Tbsp Lime Juice

2 tsp Garlic Salt

1 tsp Chili Powder

1 tsp Fresh Cracked Pepper 

Vegetable Oil for frying (enough to fill at least half the fryer or pot)

Slice jalapeños in 1/8 (or slightly thicker) pieces. After slicing into rings, use knife to remove and cut out center of pepper and all seeds. 

Chipotle Mayo Ingredients:

1/2 cup Mayo

1/2 cup Sour Cream

1 1/2 tsp Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce (1 1/2 tsp of sauce +2 Chipotle peppers mashed up)

Mix all ingredients for fry batter together in large bowl. Begin heating oil in fryer or pot on stove to Medium Low heat (about 175 degrees F). Start covering all pepper slices with mixture in the bowl, coat well. Once oil begins to sizzle and has heated for about 5 minutes, start placing about 5 -10 pepper slices into the pot at a time, depending on size of pot. I used a small pot and only placed about 5 at a time. The peppers will fry quickly, only taking about ten seconds per side. Before removing from pot with tongs, flip jalapeños once to fry evenly. Once golden on second side, remove onto a paper towel lined plate, to drain. Be careful, oil is super hot! For thicker coating, repeat the same steps once more to double fry the peppers. Let cool and drain after second frying. Lastly, sprinkle with chili powder and bake in single layer on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees F for 5 minutes. Serve warm and crunchy!

For dip, mix all ingredients together and serve chilled. Be sure to mash up the peppers from the Chipotle can in order to blend in evenly to mayo and sour cream.

Open Face Prosciutto And Pear Sliders

Not only is this recipe delicious, but super simple. You can double or triple as needed if you have a large crowd, or do what I do and serve this as is for a dinner for two.  Works great if you are feeding only a few people as an appetizer, especially if you are serving other apps on the menu.

What you need:

1/4-1/2 lb of thinly sliced prosciutto from deli (I love Whole Foods Market options)

1 Bosc pear

1 tsp Olive Oil

1 small bag or box of baby arugula (this will be more than enough)

Balsamic glaze

8 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese (you will not use entire container)

1 French baguette

Ground pepper to taste

Cut bread into 1/2" slices.  Toast in toaster or conventional oven for a few minutes until the bread browns or feels crunchy to the touch.  While the bread toasts, cut the pair in thin slices from top to bottom and then halve them.  Place olive oil on medium heat in medium size saucepan.  As pan heats add pear slices until they cook and are softened.  Be sure to turn heat down to low as oil gets hot and be careful the pear edges do not burn too quickly- they do heat up fast! Remove pears from heat.  Spread a schmear of cream cheese on toasted baguette slices and then place 1-2 pear pieces on top.  Fold and fit a half slice of prosciutto.  You can always add a little more meat to each piece once you add the half slices to every piece of bread.  Top each slider with a few pieces of baby arugula and then drizzle the balsamic glaze on top.  I usually add the glaze in one direction and then add another drizzle on top in the other direction.  Lastly, add a crack of ground pepper to taste.  Yum! xo RCN