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Home > posts > 2013 > 11 > 20131109_121243_african-peanut-soup-kale-salad-and-pumping-croquettes.html

African Peanut Soup, Kale Salad and Pumping Croquettes

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This was a big and complicated meal. I will try to remember all of the different things. We made food for us and Meredith's room mate. We wanted to make something fancy but we didn't want seafood and we were avoiding dairy. We also had a pumpkin with no plans. So, we made the following: Baby Kale Salad with Pomegranate, African Peanut Soup and Pumpkin Croquettes.

Salad:

The recipe it is based on is below. The salad was AMAZING. It was my favorite part of the meal. We used a "baby power green" mix that was baby kale, baby chard and baby spinach. It was well chopped. We used a full pomegranate's arils and finally, wild black rice. We also made the dressing. We sauted the shallots with a lot of added minced garlic in a good bit of olive oil (and then went much lighter on it in the mixing it all). I used the immersion blender to emulsify everything and that worked really well. The dressing had a huge amount of flavor and the garlic was prominent (which was a good thing). We used about the amount of walnuts that it called for but it needed more. Finally, the feta cheese was served on the side.

The texture of the salad along with the pomegranate was perfect. Everything melded nicely and all of the flavors really came together. We will certainly do this again!

Pumping Croquettes

We did something likethis before^[@rev] and we followed the general idea but totally different seasonings. Since we were trying to avoid cheese, we went heavy with fresh herbs (sage, rosemary and thyme). We again used bacon (6 thick slices, about 2/5 lbs, half Maple and half Dry rubbed. Cooked in the oven) and used some bacon grease in place of the olive oil. We used about 1/2 cup chickpea flour instead of what it called for since we made extra pumpkin.

To soften the pumpkin, we deseeded it and sliced it into 8 slices. We microwaved them for about 20-25 minutes instead of roasting since we didn't want to take too long. The slices were the right size that between a fork to hold and a spoon to scrape, it was pretty easy to get the meat off. It was a pie pumpkin so it wasn't huge but did have a lot more flavor.

We mixed everything together and formed croquettes. We pressed them into Panko and baked them around 425 for 45 minutes, flipped them and baked for 10 more.

Meredith and her room mate thought they were good. I thought they were a bit too rich and maybe even a bit smokey. They browned nicely enough. I would do them again but I'd first look into alternative flavors than we used.

African Peanut Soup:

This recipe is one of Meredith's favorites and she did most of the construction. The soup was very good. You could really taste the different flavors meld. I got hints of carrot soup and tomato soup with a bit of a peanutty flavor and a bit of spice.

Her recipe/instructions are as follows: Note that this is just a rough guide. It is pretty forgiving and you can adjust to taste

• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 jalapeno, cored and chopped
• 2-3 (or equivalent) medium carrots, copped
• 1 (or more) red pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne
• 1 tbsp tumeric
• 1 tbsp (or more) powdered ginger
• 1/4 cup peanuts
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 in.piece of ginger
• 8 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup tomato paste (a little bit less than a 6oz can)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• Tuscan kale (about 3 chopped leaves per bowl),
• chopped peanuts
• sriracha (to taste)

Sweat the onions with the jalapeno over low heat in a little olive oil until translucent. Add in the carrots and peppers and crank the heat up to medium. Stir in cumin, tumeric, cayenne and powdered ginger. Toss in peanuts and brown a little andadd the fresh grated ginger and garlic. Stir until frangrant. Add the broth and tomato paste

Bring to a simmer

Ladle out a cup or so of the warmed broth and stir it into the peanut butter/combine until smooth and creamy, then transfer this back into the soup.Add apple cider vinegar

Use immersion blender to thicken the soup, but you want to keep a chunky texture

To serve:

Place chopped kale in bowls for serving and ladle the hot soup on top to wilt slightly.

scatter some roughly chopped peanuts over the top and serve with sriracha

Pomegranate, Kale and Wild Rice Salad with Walnuts and Feta (from Pinch of Yum)

Local Copy^[@rev] -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case

Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6870, 2013-11-09_121243