Striped Pasta (Linguine & Ravioli)

These striped linguine and ravioli pasta from scratch were very good. It took a little bit of time to make them but worth it. They were fun to make too. 

Ingredients
Spinach Dough

1/2 cup semolina flour

1/3 cup quinoa flour plus additional for kneading

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/4 cup spinach juice, strained

Beets Dough

1/2 cup semolina flour

1/3 cup quinoa flour plus additional for kneading

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/4 cup blended steamed beets (1 steamed beet + 1/4 water)

Red Bell Pepper Dough

1/2 cup semolina flour

1/3 cup quinoa flour 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/4 cup red bell pepper juice, strained

Direction

1.  Place all ingredients except for additional flour in food processor. Process until mixture just forms a ball (do not over-process).

• By hand: Blend together all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make mound with the dry ingredients and scoop out a well in the middle. Beat together the wet ingredients and pour into the well. With a fork, whisk and incorporate the flour from the edges a little at a time. Try not to let the egg spill over the sides. Keep whisking and then mixing by hand until all the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough lightly for 7-8 minutes until dough is smooth, elastic and not sticky. 

2. Take out the ball from the food processor or bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead for about 7 or 8 minutes, incorporating a little extra flour from time to time so as to keep it from sticking. Knead it until it is smooth, elastic, and no longer sticks. Cover with a damp cloth and let stand for 1 hour. 

3. Adjust the pasta maker to #7, then roll each dough ball into a sheet. Work with the white dough first, then the green, and then the red to keep the colors from mixing. 

4. Cut the edges of the sheets to make a rectangular shape.

5. Using a knife or a pizza cutter, cut several 1/2 inch (2.5 cm) strips. 

6. Arrange the strips overlapping each other in the desired color sequence.

7. With a rolling pin, gently work on the overlapping strips to adhere together. This will keep the dough strips from falling apart when you pick them up to roll in the pasta machine.

8. Gently, take the pasta sheet off the counter. 

9. Roll the sheet to the desired thickness using the pasta machine. The pressure of the rolling action fuses the strips together into a single sheet which is ready for use. 

To make linguine pasta. Cut the pasta sheet to fit in the pasta machine. 

1. Roll the sheet to your desired thickness . I do #7 - #5 - #3 - #2 thickness adjustments on my pasta machine for linguine.

2. Roll the sheets out and let them rest for 2 minutes. Now you are ready to make linguine.

3. Using the linguine attachment, cut each sheet into linguine pasta.

To make ravioli. Do steps 3 to 9 above. For ravioli, I adjusted the thickness and started out with #7 - then #5 - then #3 for the sheet. 


1. Using the ravioli attachment, fold the pasta sheet in half, feed the middle fold in the ravioli maker; let the ends of the sheet hang on each side.

2. Put 2 tablespoons of filling(add a little at a time) in the center.

3. Gently, roll to make ravioli.

4. Let the ravioli rest for 10 minutes before you separate them.

Mushroom and Bean Thread Noodle Soup

This is a light vegetable and noodle soup with a "meaty" flavor that is perfect for both summer and winter. 

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 (3.5 oz) packages fresh shiitake mushroom, sliced

1 medium size carrot, julienned

3 ounces broccoli florets

1 small yellow bell pepper, sliced

1 medium tomato, diced

1 cube bouillon

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

8 cups boiling water + 6 cups

3 (4grams) packages bean thread noodles (usually they are sold in 12 (4grams) packages)

Direction

1. Soak the bean thread noodles in 6 cups boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold running water. 

2. Heat olive oil in a pot over a medium high heat. Saute garlic until pale brown.

3. Stir in carrots, zucchini, bell pepper, and mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes.

4. Add in 8 cups boiling water, tomato, bouillon, soy sauce, salt, bean thread noodles and broccoli and cook for another 3 minutes. Check the vegetables for doneness. Serve immediately.

Raspberry-Orange Sorbet

This is a quick and easy sorbet that you can make in minutes. Enjoy!


Ingredients

1 package (13 oz) frozen raspberries

3 trays frozen orange juice (juice of about 7 fresh oranges )  or 1 can frozen orange juice concentrate 

3 tablespoons sweetener (adjust to taste)

Blueberry sauce

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

4 tablespoons agave nectar

1 tablespoon water

1/8 teaspoon guar gum powder
mint for garnish

Direction

1. Blueberry Sauce. Place all the ingredients, except guar gum powder, in the blender and blend until smooth. Add in the guar gum powder and pulse until everything is well blended.

2. Sorbet. Process all the ingredients in the food processor until smooth. 

Saffron Tofu

I adapted this recipe from the kitchen companion cookbook, it's a really good and flavorful side dish recipe. I did make a few modifications on the recipe to make it my own.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 block extra-firm tofu, cut into bite size

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

7 tomatoes, diced

2 cups Jasmin rice

1 3/4 cups boiling water

a large pinch of saffron or 1/4 tsp ground saffron

1 cup frozen peas

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 tsp salt

Tofu marinade

1/2 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup Bragg amino soy sauce

3 cloves garlic

3 bay leaves

Direction

1. Marinate the tofu in lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic, and bay leaves for 2 hours.

2. Heat the oil in a medium size pot and fry the marinated tofu until browned. Remove tofu from pot.

3. In the same pot, add the onions and garlic and cook for 5 minutes or until soft but not browned.

4. Stir in the paprika and tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes until slightly thickened.

5. Stir in the rice, water, saffron and tofu. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes.

6. Add the peas and parsley and simmer for another 5 minutes until rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed. Serve warm and garnish with chopped parsley.

Tofu

Spicy Stir-fry Ramen Noodles

I came up with this recipe when I was craving for some type of noodle dish but I didn't feel like going somewhere to get some. I checked what I had to cook with and found some ramen noodles in the cupboard and some vegetables and mushrooms in the refrigerator. I put it all together and made this spicy stir-fry ramen noodles recipe. I served this dish with lemon wedges.

Ingredients

2 packages fresh shiitake mushroom, sliced thinly

3 oz.  ramen noodles

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 carrot, julienned

8 oz broccoli florets

1 medium bell pepper, julienned

2 cloves garlic

2 green onions, chopped

2 tablespoons chili sauce

1 teaspoon chili flakes (adjust to taste)

4 tablespoons soy sauce

4 tablespoons sherry wine

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 cube vegetable bouillon

Direction

1. Cook noodles in a boiling water for 4-5 minutes. Drain, rinse under hot water and drain again.

2. Steam the carrots, bell pepper, and broccoli for 2 minutes. Rinse under cold water.

3. Heat the oil and saute the garlic for 30 seconds. Add the carrots, bell pepper, and broccoli and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and green onions and stir-fry for 2 minutes.

4. Mix together the chili sauce, soy sauce, sherry, bouillon and cornstarch. Pour over the vegetables and stir-fry until the sauce clears.

5. Add the noodles and toss together until heated through.

Sweet & Spicy Bean Curd

This dish is simple and delicious especially when serve over rice. You can substitute bean curd with tofu too.

Ingredients

1 (13 oz) package baked bean curd, cubed

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 red chilies, chopped

2 scallions, chopped

1 small ginger root, julienned

1/4 cup basil, chopped

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 cup chili sauce

a pinch of salt

1/4 cup water

Marinade

1/2 cup chili sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Direction

1. Marinate the bean curd in chili sauce and soy sauce mixture for 2 hours. 

2. Heat oil over a medium high heat; cook garlic until it turns pale brown.

2. Stir in ginger and red chilies for a minute.

3. Stir in bean curd, salt, soy sauce and cook for 2 minutes.

4. Add chili sauce, water, scallions, and basil. Cook for 3 minutes then reduce to simmer.for 10 minutes.

Tofu

Berry Filled Crepes

These crepes are a nice light treat for either breakfast or dessert. 

Ingredients

Crepes

2 tablespoons Xylitol or powdered sugar

1 3/4 cups canned milk

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3 tablespoons softened butter

2 eggs 

1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling

1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon stevia (add more if needed) or powdered sugar

Sauces

Raspberry

1/2 cup fresh raspberries

4 tablespoons agave nectar

1 tablespoon water

1/8 teaspoon guar gum powder

Blueberry 

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

4 tablespoons agave nectar

1 tablespoon water

1/8 teaspoon guar gum powder

Direction

1. Using a coffee grinder, grind xylitol until it becomes powder. Set aside. 

2. Raspberry sauce. Place raspberry, agave nectar and water in a blender and blend until smooth. Strain the seeds from the sauce by pressing through a wire-mesh sieve. Rinse the blender, put the sauce back in the blender and add guar gum to thicken the sauce. Do the same process to make the blueberry sauce. Set aside.

3. To make the crepes. Mix the flour ,salt, butter, eggs and milk together and beat until batter is smooth. Heat a nonstick pan and brush it with a little butter; pour in some batter, tilt the pan so that the batter spreads as thinly as possible. Cook until brown, then flip and cook the other side. 

4. To assemble. Layer the crepes with raspberries, blueberries, whipped cream, and blueberry sauce; roll the crepes into tube-shapes. 

5. To serve. Place crepes on a platter, top with whipped cream and fresh raspberries, then sprinkle with powdered xylitol or powdered sugar.

6. For the whipped cream. In a large mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream, vanilla and stevia until it forms soft peaks. Continue to beat until the cream hold stiff peaks.

Cottage Cheese Salad

I adapted this recipe from the kitchen companion. It's delicious and easy to make.

Ingredients
16 oz cottage cheese
1 carrot, coarsely grated
6 radishes, coarsely grated
2 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon fresh dill
2/3 cup sour cream
sprigs of fresh dill

Direction

1. Strain excess liquid from the  cottage cheese while you prepare the vegetables.

2. Mix all ingredients together except sprigs of fresh dill. Chill for 20 minutes. Serve and garnish with sprigs of fresh dill and lettuce.