This is a very hearty soup, especially during the cold weather that we are experiencing. Yes, even here in Southern California, as a matter of fact, this week we are expecting cold weather with possibility of rain. This soup is a complete meal and it is very comforting. I use the pressure cooker to cook the beans and barley after soaking them overnight.  Therefore, the cooking time is very short, making it very simple and a great weekday dinner.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup navy bean
½ cup barley
1 bay leave
½ tablespoon olive oil

1 can low sodium, low fat chicken broth
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion chopped
3 stalks celery
3 medium carrots
2 large Kielbasa smoked sausage
Kale to taste

Sal and pepper to taste

Method:

Wash and soak the navy bean and barley in water overnight. Place the navy bean and barley in the pressure cooker with 3 to 4 cups of water, bay leave and ½ tablespoon olive oil. Cook in high heat until the pressure starts, then turn to low and let it cook for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, sauté the onion with ½ tablespoon olive oil, add the sausage, the carrot and then the celery.

Add the sausage with the celery and carrot to the cooked navy bean, add chicken broth, salt and pepper to taste, cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the kale and let it cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and serve hot.

Did you know that barley has high content of fiber? The soluble fiber from barley reduces coronary heart disease and the risk of type 2 diabetes as well as colon cancer.

Thank you for visiting Simple Recipes…have a colorful week!

This oxtail soup is very simple to make, it is very hearty and comforting, especially in this cold weather. You find a complete meal in a bowl of this soup. I call it soup, but somewhat comes in between soup and stew due to its thickness. Because oxtail has high fat and high gelatin content, I usually like to cook this soup only during cold weather months.
To speed up the cooking time I used the pressure cooker because oxtail is very muscular. I like to cook this soup in two steps because oxtail needs a longer time to cook and I like to visualize the pieces of potatoes, carrots and celery in my soup and not have them “pulverized”.

Ingredients:

1 ½ -2 lbs oxtail
1 medium onion cut
3-4 garlic cloves
1 can stew tomatoes
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon cooking wine
Salt and pepper to taste
4 medium potatoes cut in pieces
3 medium carrots cut in pieces
4 stalks of celery

Method:

In the pressure cooker, sauté the onion and garlic with the olive oil until slightly brown, add the oxtail and braise. Add the can of stewed tomatoes, the cooking wine and cover the oxtail with water. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook in high heat until the pressure has been built up. Once the pressure is on, turn the heat to low and let it cook for approximately 40 minutes or until the oxtail are tender.
Add the potato, carrot and celery to the soup and let it cook until the potato and carrot are soft, add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot.

I hope you enjoy this simple and hearty recipe for oxtail soup.

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

Another soup recipe…since it has been cold…yes even here in Southern California. I’ve been making soup very often. This one is very easy, simple and so tasty. It is hearty and sure makes a great one dish meal, especially for a cold evening dinner. I used the pressure cooker, therefore the soup is ready in no time.

Ingredients:

¾ cup pearl barley rinsed and soaked in water for 6~8 hours (or overnight)
1 small onion chopped
2~3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1~1 ½ lb beef for stew
1 can stew tomatoes
3 carrots, cut in cubes
3 stalks celery, cut
2 medium potatoes, cut in cubes
Salt and pepper to taste
1~2 dry bay leaves

Method:

In a bowl place the beef in cubes with the flour, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Set aside.

In the pressure cooker add the olive oil and sautee the onion and garlic, add the beef and let stir for a while, add the barley (drained) and the stew tomatoes.

Add 3 to 4 cups of water and the bay leaves.

Cook under pressure for 10 minutes. After the cooking time, remove from heat and let the pressure come down, once be able to open, add the potatoes, carrots and celery and cook for another minute under pressure.

Add salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

Did you know that in Japan, tea is made from roasted barley and is served cold as a summer beverage?

Thank you for visiting Simple Recipes!

This is a very simple recipe for stuffed bell peppers. It is healthier since I used ground turkey and bulgur, which is high in fiber. This stuffed pepper sure makes a great one dish meal since you have all the nutrition that you need in one meal.

Ingredients:

1 ¼ lb of ground turkey
2~3 green onion chopped
1 small onion chopped
1 carrot shredded
2/3 cup bulgur soaked in water and drained
½ teaspoon ground all spice
¼ bunch fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

5 bell peppers cut in half and seeds removed

1 tablespoon olive oil

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together except the bell pepper and olive oil. Stuff half bell pepper with the turkey mix.

In an deep fry pan, heat the olive oil and place the stuffed bell peppers with the ground turkey side facing the pan, let is brown.

Once the turkey side of the bell peppers are evenly brown turn the peppers and add 1 cup of water.

Place the lid and let it cook in low heat for approximately 20 minutes until most of the water has evaporated.

Serve hot.

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

This pasta is very easy and simple to make. The fun part is on the assembly of the dish. Prepare the pasta sauce (I made chicken meatballs with tomato sauce, the chicken meatballs were from Costco), the pasta (of course), and the baby spinach (wash and spin dry, again from Costco). I love rotelle or fusilli pasta due to its shape.

Ingredients:

1 can of Trader’s Joe Marinara Sauce (or any of your preference)
2 garlic clove, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb of chicken meatballs (or any of your preference)
Salt and pepper to taste

1 lb Rotelle or Fusilli pasta

Baby spinach

Pine nuts

Parmesan cheese

Method:

Sautee the onion and garlic with the olive oil. Add the tomato sauce and the chicken meatballs. Let it boil and add salt and pepper to taste.

In the meantime cook the pasta, wash and spin dry the spinach.

Once all the ingredients are ready do the following: place the pasta on the plate, follow by a layer of spinach, then the meatball sauce, the pine nuts and Parmesan cheese if you like. Mix gently and enjoy.

I really like spinach in my pasta, but dislike when is over cooked, therefore when you add to the hot meatballs sauce on top of the spinach you will have it right.

By the way, I am sending this pasta dish to “5 Star Makeover April’10 Past, it is my first entry to a challenge 

Did you know that there are various type of meatballs? The recipes of the meatballs are made depending on the cultural background. Most of the cultures have their version of meatballs and the ingredients used can be from ground meats, fish and even vegetarian. Moreover the meatballs have different names in different countries.

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

This is a chicken pie recipe that is very simple and yet savory, very popular is Brazil due to its simplicity and adaptability. By the way, I am bringing this pie to Louise’s picnic at Months of Edible Celebrations. July is picnic month!

A- Almond Joy Pie (Marjie) @ Modern Day Ozzie & Harriet

B- Baked Beans (Kasha) @ Grub and Stuff

C-Chocolate Picnic Cake Janet @ Dying for Chocolate

D-Dutch Funnel Cake (Julie) @ Sporadic Cook

And my letter is “E”…and I am bringing EASY BLENDER CHICKEN PIE!

The chicken filling can be substitute for only vegetables ( in case you are vegetarian), ground meat and so on. As a matter of fact a different version of this post was one of my very first post.
I like this dish because again it fits in a “One Dish Meal” category.
It is good when the pie is just out of the oven, or for the next day lunch by warming up slightly at the microwave or cold.

Ingredients:

Chicken Filling
2chicken breast, cooked and shredded
1 can of stewed tomatoes
¼ cup chopped black olives
2 cups frozen bell peppers (tri color)
1 medium onion, sliced
½ bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Batter
2½ cup milk
¾ cup canola oil
3 large eggs
4 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1½ cup all purpose flour
1 cup corn starch

Method:

Chicken Filling
Sautee the onion in the olive oil, add the shredded chicken, black olive, stewed tomato, and the bell peppers, let it cook until the bell peppers are cooked.

Add salt and pepper to taste and add the cilantro to the chicken. and remove from the heat.

Set the chicken filling aside, by letting it cool.

In the meantime prepare the dish by coating with oil and flour, use a oven safe dish (I used a pyrex, of approximately 71/2 x 11 1/2 in).

Batter
Mix all the ingredients in the blender. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Assembly
Pour half of the batter into the pyrex, then gently spread the chicken filling into the batter, make sure that is evenly spread. Cover the chicken with the remaining batter.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes at 350F, until a toothpick come out clean.

Serve warm.

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

This soup is a complete meal by itself, and more importantly it is easy and simple to make. You can always change the kind of vegetable, meat or even go meatless. I made sure that I had veggies, protein (shrimp) and carb (rice cake).

I love the texture of the rice ovaletts or rice cake which is chewy…I got this rice cake at the local Korean grocery, but you can find in almost every Asian grocery store. Rice cake is used in all kind of Asian cuisine

Ingredients:

1-2 cups of rice ovaletts
6~7 leaves of napa cabbage
2 medium carrots
½ bunch green onion, finely chopped
4~5 dry shiitake mushroom
Cilantro, finely chopped
1 can chicken broth
½ lb medium shrimp
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method:

First soak the shiitake mushroom in hot water until soft, slice them and set aside. Wash and chop the napa cabbage and carrot.

Soak the rice cake in cold water for 5 minutes and drain well.

In a deep pot, heat the olive oil and add half of the green onion, sautee slightly, add the chicken broth and 1 to 1 ½ cup of water, let it boil.

Add the carrots and let it boil again. Add the rice cake, let it boil then add the napa cabbage, the mushroom, stir gently, by now the rice cake will be soft.

Add the shrimps and mix gently, until the shrimp turn pink, do not over cook, otherwise the shrimps will be hard. Finally add the remaining green onion and cilantro, stir gently and remove the soup from the heat.

Serve hot.

Did you know that the rice ovaletts are called Niao gao in mandarin, and translate to “year cake” or “Chinese New Year’s cake”? In spite of the name it can be found not only during the celebration of Chinese New Year but through out the year in Asian grocery stores. Moreover, the rice cake is made from glutinous rice.

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