I had a similar dish in a neighborhood restaurant a few weeks ago and in spite of being delicious, I just felt that it was loaded with butter sauce and a bit too salty. Therefore, I decided to make my own…the nice thing about cooking your own, is that you can really “control” the amount of the sauce and salt and finish with a dish that still delicious but somehow healthier.

As I keep trying different recipes for Brussels sprouts, slowly but surely the rank of “unlike” Brussels sprouts is decreasing, which makes me feel kind of “victorious”.

Ingredients:

Approximately ½ lb Brussels sprouts
1 small onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1½ tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 to 2 teaspoons of capers

Method:

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a medium bowl, place the Brussels sprouts, onion, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss gently and place in a oven safe tray. Roast for approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Just minutes before the Brussels sprouts are ready, prepare the lemon butter sauce.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter, add the lemon juice and the capers, stir in very little salt and pepper. Let it cook for about 1 minute over low heat. Remove from the heat and pour over the roasted sprouts. Serve immediately.

If you like this recipe, you might check on Roasted Brussels Sprouts or Brussels Sprouts with Chicken.

Did you know that Brussels sprouts were first mention in late 16th century? It is thought to be native to Belgium, near Brussels, therefore its name. Now Brussels sprouts are cultivated in Europe and US, specifically California.

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes [Dot] Me and have a great week!

Today I have a very especial post…and yes, it is unusual for me to post on Friday but I had to make an exception since my friend Faith Gorsky from An Edible Mosaic just had her first cookbook released: An Edible Mosaic: Middle Eastern Fare with Extraordinary Flair. I could not wait until Monday to share with you such exciting news and I am so happy to be able to participate in her virtual book launch party.

Faith’s book has over 100 Middle Eastern recipes, with a focus mainly on dishes from the Levant, but also a few recipes from other areas of the Middle East. She has a pretty unique story…after getting married Faith spent six months living in the Middle East, where she fell in love with the culture and cuisine. Subsequently, she returned four more times for visits, each time delving deeper into the cuisine and deepening her passion for and appreciation of the region. Recipes in her book are authentic Middle Eastern (taught to Faith mostly by her mother-in-law, Sahar), but streamlined just a bit for the way we cook today, with unique ingredients demystified and cooking techniques anyone can follow. If you didn’t grow up eating Middle Eastern food, it can be a difficult art to master; Faith understands that, and explains complicated dishes in an approachable, easy-to-follow way. The book is available to order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

The recipe from the book that I’m sharing with you today is for Saffron Rice with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts. The recipe is vegan therefore easily incorporated into a vegan or vegetarian meal, but it is just as delicious served with chicken, beef, lamb, or seafood, and it would be really fantastic with just about any curry dish. (In the cookbook, Faith recommends pairing Shrimp in Aromatic Tomato Sauce with this rice dish.)

Saffron Rice with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts.
(ROZ MLOW’WAN)
Recipe courtesy of An Edible Mosaic: Middle Eastern Fare with Extraordinary Flair by Faith Gorsky (Tuttle Publishing; Nov. 2012); reprinted with permission.

Serves 4 to 6
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes, plus 15 minutes to let the rice sit after cooking

Ingredients:

1½ cups (325 g) basmati rice, rinsed
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1 onion, finely diced
4 tablespoons sultanas (golden raisins)
1¾ cups (425 ml) boiling water
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon saffron threads (or ½ teaspoon turmeric)

Method:

1. Soak the rice in tepid water for 10 minutes; drain. While the rice is soaking, put half a kettle of water on to boil.
2. Add the oil to a medium, thick-bottomed lidded saucepan over medium heat. Add the pine nuts and cook until golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Transfer the pine nuts to a small bowl and set aside.
3. Add the onion to the saucepan you cooked the pine nuts in, and cook until softened and just starting to brown, about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the rice and cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the sultanas, boiling water, salt, and saffron (or turmeric), turn the heat up to high, and bring it to a rolling boil.
4. Give the rice a stir, then cover the saucepan, turn the heat down to very low, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes (do not open the lid during this time). Turn the heat off and let the rice sit (covered) 15 minutes, then fluff with a fork.
5. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle the toasted pine nuts on top; serve.

OPTIONAL Add two pods of cardamom, two whole cloves, and one 2-inch (5 cm) piece of cinnamon stick at the same time that you add the rice.

On Faith’s book you will find a variation of this rice recipe, Mixed White and Yellow Rice.

Please head over to Faith’s blog to check out her virtual book launch party to see the other bloggers who are participating. Also, as part of her virtual book launch, Faith is hosting a giveaway of a fabulous set of prizes. Be sure to head over and enter!

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes and have a great weekend!

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend…we had a wonderful family time at my mom’s home, where we did a lot of egg coloring and shared precious time together. Not to mention that there was a lot of food…

This week, I am so excited to share something that I learned from Norma at Garden to Wok…sprouting beans. So far I had sprouted chickpeas and lentils…and both of them turned out great. I made a stew with the chickpea sprouts using tomato and eggplant and with the lentil sprouts,  I made a soup.

I enjoyed watching the chickpeas and lentils sprout…it is so much fun seeing them first turning big and plump, then the little sprouts were coming out and getting longer and longer by the day, and finally,  from the pot to the table.

Briefly, wash the chickpeas or lentils and soak in water overnight. Remove them from the water and drain. Place them in a colander and cover with a wet paper towel. Place the colander in an airy area of the kitchen counter and rinse 3 times a day. Make sure to keep the paper towel moist. You will start to see the sprouts after 18 to 24 hours, depending on the room temperature. Since the weather hasn’t been too warm and I did not want other things to grow with the sprouts, I decided to cook them after 3 days.

For more detail in how to sprout lentils and chickpeas, please visit Norma’s site at Garden to Wok.  You will be amazed at what Norma shares.

This is a very simple recipe for a delicious and nutritious lentil sprouts soup. Now that I know how to sprout, I will definitely try and share more recipes in the future.

This is what I did with my first lentil sprouts…You can substitute the chicken broth with vegetable broth if you want to have a vegetarian dish.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of dry lentils, sprouted
1 carrot cut in small pieces
1 small onion chopped
2-3 cups of chicken broth (water for vegetarian version)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon tarragon
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon marjoram
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Sauteé onion in the olive oil until slightly brown, then add the lentil sprouts, stir gently and add the carrots. Cook for a minute or two and add the chicken broth and the spices as well as salt and pepper. Lower the heat and cook until the lentil sprouts are soft. Serve hot.

I hope you enjoy this lentil sprouts soup. If you like soup, you might like the navy bean soup as well.

Did you know that unsprouted lentils lack 2 essential amino acids? Once the lentils are sprouted it contain all the 22 essential amino acids like the ones found in meat.
Now, what are essential amino acids? They are the ones that our body does not synthesize, therefore must be supplied in the diet.

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes and have a great week!

I hope you all had a great weekend…and I am sooooo glad to be back. We had a family (from my husband’s side) vacation which was a cruise from NY to a couple of cities in Canada. As you may know family vacation can be pretty difficult but somehow we all managed and survived…the nice thing about this kind of trip is that you get to really know them…good or bad depending of where you stand.
Before the “family cruise” we spent the weekend in NY, and it was great…we visited Times Square and surrounding area, Central Park, got to eat at various nice restaurants and saw the Book of Mormon on Broadway. Another fun thing was that I was able to meet up with one of my friend from Brazil that I have not seen for more than 25 years and just recently we found each other on Facebook…so there was a lot to catch up and share old memories.

Anyway, I am back to my routine and today I want to share some healthy stuff.

I have been wanted to make this kale chips for a while after seeing so many versions on TV and internet. There are no secrets, they are very easy and simple to make, you just have to be careful not to over roast since they can burn easily. I keep the chips in a jar for a handful of healthy snack.

Ingredients:

2 bunch of kale
Olive oil
Sea salt
Pepper

Method:

Wash the kale and let them dry. Break the leaves into approximately 1 ½ in size section. Place in a big bowl, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Gently toss them and spread to a silicone mate. Do not over layer the leaves. Roast in a pre-heated oven for 5 minutes at 350F, flip the kale and let if roast for another 2 minutes. Turn the oven to 325F for another 5 minutes. Turn the oven off and keep the trays in for another 10 minutes.
Remove the trays and let the chip cool completely before storing in an air tight container.

And now my new gadget…

For the longest time I was intending to get a juicer, but what really pushed me to move faster was after reading Belinda’s post at Zomppa and now I am practically addicted to it, cannot leave home before having a glass of fresh vegetable/fruit juice. It is so energizing!

Did you know that kale is one of the most nutritious vegetable known? In Brazil kale is finely chopped, stir-fried and paired with feijoada, which is the Brazil’s national dish.

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This recipe has a story…I used to buy this kind of almonds at Costco mainly during holiday time, and I’d go through many many jars. Initially my husband did not care for it, so I knew that the almonds were all for me and I had a sense of how long the almonds would last me. But one day he decided that he liked the almonds and I could see the almonds in the jars disappearing in front of my eyes very fast. That was not the issue…the issue was that Costco stopped carrying the product, and he even called the Costco buyer in Seattle. Well, that was the end of my cinnamon almonds until I searched the internet and saw many different versions of it. In the end, all worked for better. Not only I could manage the amount of sugar, the cost of these roasted cinnamon almonds came much cheaper than the Costco ones…so I am all happy again with my almonds. Be aware, these almonds are addictive! You cannot stop eating them once you start, so be careful…you have been alerted!

I took these almonds to work and a lot of people asked for the recipe, so here it is…

Ingredients:

4 ½ cups almonds
1 egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
3 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method:

Preheat the oven at 250F.

Add the vanilla extract to egg white and mix until slightly frothy. In another bowl mix the sugar, salt and the cinnamon, set aside.

Add the mix of egg white to the almonds and mix until all the almonds are covered with the egg white.

Add the sugar mix to the almonds covered with egg white and mix gently until all the almonds are covered with sugar.

Spread the almonds in prepared trays (I used 2 baking sheet) and bake for 1 hour at 250F, flipping the almonds every 20 minutes, so the almonds do not stick to the baking sheet.

Remove the almonds from the oven, let them cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Did you know that almond is not a nut but a drupe? A drupe is a fruit that has a fleshy part in the outside with a hard shell with a seed inside. So almond is mainly sold with shelled or unshelled.

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First of all…ALOHA! Today I want to share a very easy, simple and refreshing salad. You just need a few ingredients and you have a very light, tasty cucumber salad.

Ingredients:

2 English cucumbers or 3~4 Persian cucumbers
1 teaspoon salt

½ tablespoon sugar
½ tablespoon sesame oil
½ tablespoon thinly cut fresh ginger
1~2 tablespoons apple vinegar
Hot pepper flakes to taste

Method:

Wash and cut the cucumber (1/2 in), sprinkle with salt and let it sit for 5 minutes. Drain the water from the cucumber. In a small bowl mix the sugar, apple vinegar, ginger and hot pepper flakes. Pour on the drained cucumber, mix gently and serve.

And here are some pictures of our Spring Break…

Did you know cucumbers are flowers since they have enclosed seeds and were developed from flower?

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