Coconut turmeric noodles
Need a gluten-free, dairy-free, one pan, 20-minute dinner that is full of flavor and will keep you full and satisfied? Well, here you go: Coconut turmeric noodles!
This dish is on our weeknight rotation primarily because it’s really delicious and crazy fast to put together. It’s a filling meatless meal (aside from the fish sauce), but is also a great base for fish, shellfish, chicken, or pork, either leftover or fresh.
I lightly adapted this one from a Bon Appetite recipe that I found when I decided that we should eat more turmeric.
I included a range for the honey and fish sauce so that you can suit this dish to your tastes. I like it with the larger amounts because the combination of sweet and savory is my jam. But some people prefer a sweeter or more savory dish, so edit as you will.
Coconut turmeric noodles
Lightly adapted from Bon Appetite
Time: about 20-25 minutes, all active
Yield: about 3 adult servings, or 2 adult and 2 kid servings
8 oz rice noodles (measure dry)
1 Tbsp coconut oil
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
4 large garlic cloves, minced
½ inch piece of fresh ginger, finely grated (about 1 tsp)
1 tsp turmeric
¼ tsp black pepper
½ tsp kosher salt
1 can coconut milk
1½ -2 Tbsp honey
1-2½ Tbsp fish sauce (to taste)
1-2 cups shredded kale/bok choi/greens of any kind
Cook your noodles according to the package directions. If your package gives a range of cooking times, choose the lowest time. If it doesn’t give a range, subtract 1-2 minutes from the total. You’ll continue to cook the noodles in the sauce, so you want them al dente.
While the water is boiling and the noodles are cooking, get your other ingredients together.
Melt the coconut oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook for 2-3 minutes until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the garlic and the ginger and cook for another 1 minute, until fragrant.
Add the turmeric, pepper, and salt and stir well to coat the onion and garlic mixture. Let cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
Add the coconut milk and stir to melt any solids. Add 1½ Tbsp of honey and 1 Tbsp of fish sauce and stir well. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Taste the sauce for seasonings and add more honey and fish sauce to taste.
Add the noodles and shredded greens to the sauce and stir well. Let cook, bubbling slightly, until the sauce has thickened to your liking, the noodles are fully cooked, and the greens are wilted, about 4-5 minutes.
Grilled lamb kebabs with haloumi and apricots
Shake up your grilling routines with these savory, herby, sweet, and fatty lamb, haloumi, and apricot kebabs that hit all the right notes— fast.
What is a kebab? Sometimes it’s cubes of meat and/or vegetables on a stick (think shish kebab). Other times, a kebab is a mountain of meat cooked on a rotating stick and then shaved off and served (think doner kebab, shawarma, or al pastor). And, confusingly, sometimes what is considered “kebab” is meat cooked and served nowhere near a stick.
For our purposes, we’re sticking close to a shish kebab.
But here’s what I don’t like about this method: Not all ingredients cook at the same rate. Why should I have to choose between undercooked meat/crispy vegetables and cooked meat/disintegrating vegetables? I say, we don’t have to.
My solution is to cook the meat on a skewer, cook the cheese and apricots directly on the grill, and then skewer them all for serving. Good, right? RIGHT! I mean, it’s not perfect. Some of the meat cooks faster because the cubes aren’t exactly the same size. And it’s important to leave a little bit of space between the cubes so that the heat gets all around. But you control the doneness far more when the kebab elements are cooked individually.
A note about halloumi: If you’ve never had this squeeky, salty cheese, please change that immediately. This cheese adds so much flavor and seasoning to any dish. But when it’s cold, it makes a squeaking noise when it’s chewed, which can throw off anyone with any sort of sensory sensitivity around food. Eating it hot off of the grill or pan makes it more gooey than squeeky, which is why the cheese cooks longer than the meat in this dish.
A note on the kid-appeal of these kebabs: It’s fun to eat things off of a skewer! This dish also has plenty of salty and sweet elements with the grilled cheese and fruit, which can also be appealing to kids. But mine wouldn’t touch this. I found it too delicious not to post, so this may be one for the grownups and not the kids. But who knows? Next month, they might gobble these up. Who can say?
Grilled lamb, haloumi, and apricot skewers
Total time ime: 30 minutes (all active- 15 minutes of prep and 15 of cooking)
Yield: 4-5 skewers
1 lb boneness leg of lamb (if you can only find bone-in, that’s fine! You’ll just need to buy more and cut away the bones. Save them for a stock or soup.)
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 large garlic cloves, minced
4-5 medium apricots, ripe, but not falling apart, quartered
8 oz haloumi cheese, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
Heat your grill to low.
Place the lamb cubes in a large bowl. Top with the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic and mix up. Let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Cut the haloumi into 6-8, 1/4-inch slices. Halve the apricots.
Make the sauce. (See directions below.)
Skewer 5-6 lamb cubes onto sticks. Try to keep like-sized pieces together and don’t crowd the pieces together.
Bring all of your ingredients out to the grill and cook with the following timing:
Cook the haloumi for 2 minutes.
Add the lamb skewers and cook everything for 3-4 minutes.
Flip both the haloumi and the lamb.
Add the apricots, cut side down and cook everything (fruit, cheese, and meat) for 3-4 minutes.
Check the lamb. If it has reached an internal temperature of 145 and you don’t see any obvious rare spots, take the skewers off of the grill. If they need more time, keep them on the grill while you continue cooking the fruit and cheese.
Flip the apricots. Continue cooking the fruit and cheese for 2-3 more minutes.
Your aim is for medium-rare meat; cheese that’s a little gooey and has dark brown grill marks, but that’s staying together in one piece; and apricots that are deep orange and soft-er, but not falling apart. If any of the elements seem to be cooking too fast, take them off!
Serve immediately.
Herby sauce
1/4 cup toasted cashews/walnuts/pistachios
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil
10 fresh mint leaves (fairly large)
2-3 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves
5 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
Toast the cashews in a large skillet over a medium flame, OR in a 350 degree oven, for about 5 minutes until the nuts are lightly brown and smell aromatic.
Add the nuts and the rest of the ingredients to a food processor or blender and blend until well mixed.
Taste for seasoning and add more salt if needed.
Kale mac and cheese
Mac and cheese is a perennial favorite for a reason. You can quickly make a huge batch and reheat it as needed. It’s perfect filler for lunchboxes or to whip up for dinner. And you can throw in any old proteins or veggies you have lying around. And it gets eaten. Huzzah!
So! Easter and Passover just happened/are happening. My kiddo is at the age where he asks a lot of questions about everything, the deeper the subject, the better. The other day he hit me with, “Before I was born, where was I?”
Let me be clear: He was NOT asking where babies come from. He was asking a philosophical question about personhood. He wanted to know where his “self” resided before he had a body. He didn’t put it in those words, but that was the gist.
WHAT? WHY?
As you can imagine, religious holidays are tricky for us because this kid is constantly asking questions and we don’t always have great answers. “Why didn’t the Easter Bunny come to our house” was a little easier to handle than “Am I going to die?” but it was still tough! I stayed away from talking about religion and talked more about traditions, but I know that the questions are going to keep coming and get EVEN MORE complicated as his awareness grows.
Since parenting has required so much mental gymnastics for us lately, I want to keep dinner as simple as possible. So, Mac and Cheese!
As you may or may not know, I prefer a stovetop mac and cheese to the baked kind. I feel like the baking process can dry out the sauce, which is not tasty, IMO.
A couple of notes:
Do cook the kale a bit before pureeing. The more you cook the greens, the smoother the sauce will be. I only cook it for a few minutes though because I don’t want to lose too many of the nutrients.
Turn down the heat when making the sauce. It takes a bit longer, but will hopefully keep the milk solids from separating, which can make dairy-based sauces look curdled.
Kale mac and cheese
Time: About 25 minutes, mostly active
Yield: About 4 cups or 30 oz
1 lb small, dry pasta
1 bunch Lacinto kale, leaves stripped off of the tough center ribs
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
2 cups milk, divided (I used whole, but you can certainly use a lower fat variety if you like)
½ cup reserved pasta/kale cooking water
6-7 cups shredded cheese (combination of any nutty cheese like cheddar, gruyere, gouda, and Parmesan)
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp sea salt
Several cracks of black pepper
Cook pasta according to package directions.
While the pasta cooks, melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large sauce pan. Add the flour, stir well, and let bubble for 1 minute.
Turn the heat down to medium-low, add 1 and 1/2 cups of milk, and whisk to combine.
Add garlic, salt, and pepper to the milk and stir to combine. Let the milk heat up until there are small bubbles forming along the sides of the pan, about 3-4 minutes. Add the cheese and stir until melted, allowing the cheese sauce to bubble slowly, but try not to get the sauce too hot, about 4-5 more minutes.
Remove pasta from boiling water and add kale to that same water. Blanch for 2 minutes and remove greens to a blender. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
Add the remaining ½ cup of milk to the green in the blender and puree until smooth, adding the reserved cooking water as necessary to puree the kale.
Add the greens to the cheese sauce and stir well. Allow the mixture to come up to a simmer again.
When both are cooked, combine 2 cups of the sauce with the cooked pasta and stir well. Add any additional toppings you might like.
