Making dinner for myself often goes something like this:
Scout out the produce section of the grocery store, throw at least three impulse buys into my cart, and arrive home with absolutely no clue how to use it all. So I randomly add things together and hope for the best! Even on the rare occasion I actually do have a recipe to follow, I pretty much ignore the recipe anyway. With today’s green noodles, I’d initially planned to follow a recipe from Vegetarian Times. However, by the time I’d finished substituting and adding ingredients, the results were something completely new… and really delicious!
Green Noodles
- 1/4 cup minced garlic
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 cup fresh cilantro, loosely packed
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vegetable or coconut oil
- 15oz canned coconut milk, lite or regular (If allergic, you can use cashew cream)
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp sweetener of choice, or 20 NuNaturals stevia drops
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 5oz raw baby kale or spinach (or 1 box)
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 3 tbsp soy sauce (or gluten-free)
- 2 tbsp water
- 6 cups broccoli, cut small (480g)
- 2 servings soba noodles (80g uncooked)
- avocado, optional for garnish
In a blender, puree the first 10 ingredients until completely smooth, then transfer to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower and simmer 15 minutes. In a sauté pan, sauté the kale and 2 tbsp garlic in a little oil or oil spray until kale begins to wilt. Add the soy sauce, 2 tbsp water, and the broccoli. Cover and cook on medium 3 minutes. Meanwhile, put a pot of salted water on to boil for the noodles. When the three minutes are up, turn off the heat on the kale/broccoli but keep covered until the noodles are ready. Cook noodles according to package directions, drain fully, and pat dry. Now combine everything together. Stir well. Serve with sliced avocado if you want even more green! (Technically you can leave the 1 tsp oil out, but it helps to coat the pasta with sauce so I recommend leaving it in.) I cannot vouch for the recipe with carton coconut milk or any other type of milk, so try that substitution at your own risk. Makes 3 large servings, each the size of the servings in the photos.
Question of the Day:
When making dinner for yourself, do you more often follow a recipe or just make something up?
Link of the Day: No Bake Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
Ha, I love this! The greener the better. I’m experienced enough that I’m quite confident in my ability to follow even slightly difficult recipes, but I usually follow them to a T once before I start experimenting. Sometimes I come up with new stuff by necessity, like that time I was halfway into a brownie recipe before I realized I was out of cocoa powder! Whoops… wound up with some really tasty blondies instead!
The deep dish cookie pie, for example, is one I tweak regularly based on what I have around. I bring it and the cookie dough/brownie batter dips to parties and potlucks and bible study so often that I once turned up with a regular cake and my friend Katie, by default, asked, “Maggie, are there beans in this cake? Be honest.” 😀
To the QOTD, it depends on how motivated I am. Generally I do have some ready made things that I can combine in less than 5 minutes, but I do make things as well.
That said, the recipe looks fabulous and fascinating.
This looks unbelievably good. You keep outdoing yourself with delicious recipes, both sweet and savory! Can’t go wrong with this combo, this is another one of your recipes I must try soon.
Love the recipe but 1/4 cup of garlic? Is that a misprint?
Nope…I love garlic 🙂
Yeah – that’s way too much garlic. I know for a fact that all you would be tasting is garlic because it will overpower every other flavor in this recipe. One large clove is good enough.
Yowsa! I love every ingredient listed! I love greens. I cannot wait to have this in my thermos at lunch next week. Thanks for the occasional non-dessert recipe. I’m also going to try the pumpkin no-bakes as well. Good stuff.
Looks great…however…any subsitutions for the cilantro?
Sorry I haven’t tried any. I know where you’re coming from though…I hated cilantro all my life until a few months ago. Not sure what happened, but suddenly I don’t mind it anymore!
The problem with cilantro is that if you are introduced to it raw, it can be overwhelming. It is much less so when it is cooked. Perhaps a combination of cilantro and parsley would work?
I used to be repulsed by cilantro, then about 8 years ago I started to change little by little (less and less repulsed.) This year I find I love it. Same here, I don’t know what happened — but I love having this kind of special flavor in my life now. I buy it a bunch at a time at the farmer’s market. If you don’t like it, just leave it out. Maybe a little fresh peppermint would be nice instead. Lots of Thai foods use fresh peppermint and it’s quite wonderful. If that’s too weird for you, how about fresh basil?
Maybe parsley?
Parsley could work…hmmm…maybe basil? That may be a little strong though…
Yum! This looks great! I have some broccoli and kale in the fridge that would love to be used up in this recipe. Not to mention a spaghetti squash that’s just sitting there waiting to be eaten. 😉 I’ll definitely have to work this into my meal plan this coming week!
I am someone who LOVES my foods to touch, and my favorite meals or snacks are mushes of everything! When I only cook for myself, I either stirfry everything together, dump a crapload of spices (no salt cuz I hate salty foods) or I throw everything in the fridge and blend! When none is available, I get a bowl and mush everything
I usually somewhat follow a recipe when making dinner for myself…then I end up just doing my own thing with it. This looks good!
Could you put a little grilled chicken in with this for those who like to eat meat with each meal? I have a meat loving family who I think would stroke out if they were told nope, no meat tonight! No “pushing boundaries” for them haha. It’s a good thing they don’t know what I sneak into some of their other meals 😀
I put some chicken with the leftovers I ate of this today – it worked really well in my opinion.