Spicy Peanut Noodles

Welcome to a KA quickie. This means that I forgot to measure anything, and only have very general guidelines for this dish—luckily, this also means that the recipe is VERY forgiving. This is one of my favorites if I am craving a noodle dish and didn’t plan ahead, since the base ingredients are always in my kitchen. The combination of creamy, rich peanut butter and spicy sriracha make a unique and tasty coating for pretty much any kind of noodle you happen to have. If you have vegetables or meat you want to mix in, go right ahead. Tofu, broccoli, and zucchini are some of my favorite mix-ins. But the bare-bones version is just fantastic on its own!

You need:

Peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)

Soy sauce

Sriracha

Onion, diced

Garlic, minced

Ginger, minced

Udon noodles (or whatever you want)

1. Boil the noodles.

2. As noodles are boiling, sauté the onion, garlic, and ginger until fragrant (aka you just don’t want raw garlic in here).

3. Get two of your biggest normal eating spoons and scrape two ridiculously large scoops of peanut butter into a bowl or a large high-sided measuring cup (I have a 4 cup measure that works very well for this—stirring is messy). Splash in some soy sauce—about a quarter of the volume of the PB. Now the messy part. Stir the peanut butter until it combines with the soy sauce. It doesn’t seem like this is possible at first, but keep going! It takes less than a minute until you can tell it’s combining. The finished texture will be creamier than the original PB, but still pretty thick.

4. Add sriracha to taste (start with less if you’re not sure…trust me) and sautéed veggies to the PB mixture.

5. Mix the sauce with hot noodles (this also takes a bit of doing, but the hotter the noodles, the quicker the sauce mixes in).

6. If you want to top with chopped peanuts, go ahead. Enjoy!

Double-Fart Chili

This recipe isn’t for the light of fart. Sauerkraut plus beans? Truly a recipe for those cold days that require ancillary heating sources—you know, like your butt. It’s easy to make with our friends Canned Vegetables and Mister Crockpot. The surprise ingredient—sauerkraut—may, err, surprise you, but trust me when I say it is worth a try. You won’t even need to add any extra spices or salt to this flavorful bowl of gas-inducing goodness. You can thank me for lowering your energy bill later.

Ingredients

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound ground beef

15 oz can of butter beans

15 oz can of red kidney beans

27 oz can of sauerkraut

15 oz can of corn

15 oz can of diced tomatoes

15 oz can of tomato sauce

1. Open all the cans and dump everything into the crockpot. Add the liquids too—you don’t even need to crack open any broth.

2. Add the meat and prepped onion and garlic. Stir to mix.

3. Set crockpot (high for cooking in about 4 hours, low for about 6) and go about your business. I suggest purchasing nose plugs.

Enjoy!

Easy Creamy Potato and Pea Soup

When the cold weather finally hits, and going to get your mail chills you to the bone, guess what’s for dinner? Soup. You can make this one with such little prep and thinking ahead, it’s pretty much brainless. Additionally, it accomplishes a rich and creamy taste and texture without the addition of any heavy cream or cheese—evaporated milk and roux to the rescue! OK…I did put in a whole stick of butter…but scale it back if you want to. I didn't label it "healthy," for pete's sake... This recipe was my test-drive for canned potatoes—never had ‘em growing up, but since I’ve been into stocking up the pantry lately, thought I’d give them a try. They are already cooked, so all they need is to be warmed through—yeah, there’s a bit of an off-flavor, but that’s what spices are for. The speed is worth it when you want to whip up a quick soup! The texture is a bit thicker than water, but if you want to make it thicker, double the flour to 4 tablespoons.
 

Yields about 1 gallon

1 stick butter

2 large onions, diced

3 large cloves of garlic, minced

½ c sake

32oz container chicken broth

2 14.5oz cans potatoes

1 15oz can peas

2T flour

1 12oz can evaporated milk

Salt and red pepper flakes to taste

1. Melt ½ stick of butter in a decent-size saucepan (mine was 4.5 quarts). Sauté diced onions and minced garlic until at least soft and translucent, about 8–10 minutes. You could go longer and get a darker color to them—this would bring more of a caramelized flavor to the soup. I like them light, because they become a great sweet background that way with just a little bit of soft toothiness. However, if you want these guys to be more prominent, cook ‘em longer.

2. Add the sake and the chicken broth to the pot.

3. Chop up the potatoes (I sliced them into bite-size chunks) and add to the soup. Add the peas. 

4. Simmer until warmed through. 

5. While the soup is simmering, prepare the roux. In a small pot, melt the other ½ stick of butter over low heat. Stir in the flour. Add the evaporated milk slowly, stirring to incorporate. Continue stirring over low heat until the mixture is steaming and has thickened to a velvety texture.

6. Add the milk mixture to the soup; stir to combine. Serve with salt and red pepper flakes to taste. Enjoy!