Archive for Potatoes

Creamy Curried Sweet Potato Soup

1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
1 2/3 cups coarsely chopped onion
1 large clove garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon coarsely grated ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper flakes, optional
2 ½ pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
6 cups no-salt-added chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Fresh goat cheese

1. Heat oil in a nonstick pot large enough to hold all the ingredients. Sauté onion until it begins to brown (about 10 minutes). Add garlic and sauté, stirring, for 30 seconds.

2. To make the curry flavoring, add ginger, cumin, coriander, cardamom, turmeric and optional hot pepper flakes and stir well. Add sweet potatoes and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until potatoes are soft.

3. Remove the sweet potatoes from the soup and mash; return to pot (if you don’t mind washing more stuff, you can puree the soup in a blender or food processor). stir well, season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot in mugs with a spoon of cheese on top and stir a bit to melt the cheese.

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Pineapple Yam Bake

3 medium yams (about 1 1/2 lbs.) sliced 1 inch thick
3/4 cup crushed pineapple (packed in juice), drained
4 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 egg whites

Cook yams in boiling water for 25 – 35 minutes or until very soft and tender. Drain and mash thoroughly until consistency is smooth. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix pineapple and 3 Tablespoons maple syrup into yams. Spoon into a 9 inch round or 8 inch square non-stick baking pan. Beat egg whites to soft peaks; add remaining 1 Tablespoon syrup and beat until stiff; spread with a spatula, using a swirling motion, on top of yam mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, or until top is golden.
Yield: 6 servings
Calories: 176, Fat: 1%

From the Searchable Online Archive of Recipes (SOAR)
October, 1997

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Shari Lewis’s No-Fry Latkes

This low-fat version of traditional fried potato pancakes was created by the late Shari Lewis (mother to Lambchop), who starred in one of the best children’s TV programs ever.

2 cups russet potatoes, peeled and shredded (about 3 medium potatoes)
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 cup toasted wheat germ
2 egg whites
4 to 6 turns of the pepper mill
1/2 teaspoon salt
Oil spray

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix all ingredients into a batter.

Coat two baking sheets with oil spray. Drop 1/4-cup cupfuls of batter onto the prepared sheets; press the pancakes down with the back of your dampened hand.

Bake 15 minutes; then turn and bake 10 minutes longer, or until latkes are browned all over (but not blackened at edges). Serve with applesauce or sour cream (low-fat if you must). Makes approximately 14 latkes.

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Nigella Lawson’s Favorite Pastas #1: With Potatoes, Green Beans and Pesto

British food goddess Nigella Lawson calls this one of her two favorite pasta recipes. Nigella says that although “I have indicated that the serving is for one or two … I find it all too easy to polish off on my own.”

Pasta With Potatoes, Green Beans and Pesto
Time: 35 minutes

Salt
2 cups (8 ounces) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
8 ounces dried linguine
1 cup (2 ounces) green beans, trimmed and cut into short lengths
1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
1 clove garlic, minced
2/3 cup grated pecorino cheese
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil.

1. Fill a large pot with lightly salted water. Add potatoes, place over high heat, and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes until tender, about 20 minutes. Add linguine to pot and, a few minutes later, the beans. Cook pasta to taste.

2. While pasta cooks, prepare pesto: In a food processor, combine basil, garlic and cheese. Process until mixture is finely chopped. With motor running, pour oil down feed tube to make a coarse purée. (If you are pressed for time or ingredients — or lazy — you’ll still achieve good results by substituting a jar of pesto sauce.)

3. Remove about a cup of cooking water from pasta pot, then drain pasta, potatoes and beans. With food processor running, add 1/4 cup cooking water to pesto. Dry pasta pan, and return potatoes, beans and pasta to it. Add pesto to ingredients in pan. If desired, add enough reserved cooking water to thin sauce so that it coats strands of pasta as it is tossed with a fork. Serve immediately.

Yield: 2 servings.

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Lick-The-Bowl-Good Polish Potato Salad

This Polish potato salad is based on a recipe in Anna Thomas’s classic, “The Vegetarian Epicure,” and it is so good that you’ll want to lick the bowl. This is one dish that I do make exceedingly well, but I had to simplify her recipe, which requires two days of preparation.

1/2 lb. pickled mushrooms, sliced
6 to 8 waxy potatoes, boiled, peeled & diced
4 tart green apples, peeled, cored & diced
2 1/2 cups diced dill pickles
4 whole hardcooked eggs & 3 hardcooked egg whites, chopped (cook seven eggs)
1 1/2 cup peas, cooked but still firm
1 1/2 cup sliced carrots, cooked but but still firm
1/2 cup tiny pickled cocktail onions
1/2 onion, finely chopped

Put everything in a bowl, add salt, freshly ground black pepper, olive oil, wine vinegar & some marinade liquid from the mushrooms and toss. Next, make the mayonnaise-sour cream sauce:

3 hardcooked egg yolks
6 to 8 Tablespoons olive oil
3 to 4 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 cup or more sour cream (I use almost a cup of sour cream)
1- 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
salt & pepper

Put yolks, oil, lemon juice and sugar in blender, blend at high speed until smooth & emulsified. Add sour cream, mustard, salt & pepper & blend until thick and pale yellow. Combine the salad with enough mayonnaise-sour cream sauce to bind it together. Spread the remaining sauce on top of the salad and decorate with more vegetables. This makes a *huge* amount- great for a party. I like to add pickled capers (pickled caulifower would be good, too) and some freshly chopped dill to the salad, but they’re not essential and aren’t in the original recipe.

PS: You should read the original recipe – it requires you to pickle your own mushrooms! It is complex, but not difficult and it really is delicious. Great to bring to a party, people will oooh and aaah, especially if you decorate the top with an elaborate veggie design. I’ve never gotten more complements for any dish than I have for this. :-)

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