Thai

Yellow Curry Chicken Meatballs

February 20, 2017

Over the past year I have fallen head over heels in love with yellow curry. I really can’t explain it, but I love the stuff. Without fail, at every Thai restaurant we visit, I will try the yellow curry and compare it to the last yellow curry I had. Then I come home and tweak my yellow curry recipe or jut try something a little bit different.

Like these yellow curry chicken meatballs.

I started with some ground chicken and almond meal. These meatballs are unintentionally Paleo. I had every intention of making a typical meatball with breadcrumbs, but it turned out, we were out of breadcrumbs. Almond meal to the rescue!

To the chicken I added some of my curry seasoning and an egg, and I mixed it all together. Then I formed them into golf-ball sized meatballs. I placed them into a hot skillet to brown on all sides.

Once the meatballs had browned, I added in some sliced onion and let them sweat down until they were soft and slightly caramelized.

After about 7 minutes, I sprinkled in the rest of the curry seasoning. I like to sprinkle this in before I add the coconut milk so that the spices can get a little nice and toasty.

After that, I just added the meatballs back into the pan to cook the rest of the way through and to let them soak up all that nice curry flavor!

I served these up with some cauliflower rice, but jasmine rice would also be great if you aren’t Paleo.

We loved the different take on the classic yellow curry chicken! The meatballs were super flavorful and tender. I have a feeling these would be a really great appetizer or party snack. I would scrap the rice for toothpicks instead.

They would probably be a great introduction to the world of yellow curry! Then someone else could fall in love with it as much as I have!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:131]

Red Curry Carrot Soup

January 25, 2017

According to my mother, I was a very picky eater as a kid. But really, what kid wasn’t? I do remember the days when I wouldn’t eat pepperoni pizza or drink root beer. And now here I am making red curry carrot soup! My how things have changed!

I think the word curry scares off a lot of people. Heck, it scared me off for a long time. I assumed curry was a specific spice or spice mixture. But really curry is a dish that can be made of any number of various spices, meats, vegetables, etc. They can be spicy or mild. Really they can be made just about any way you like. The more curries I have tried, they more I realized I actually really like them!

Red curry is popular in Thailand and the sauce is made from a mixture of ginger, tomato paste, cumin, coriander, tumeric, chili powder and a number of other spices. It’s super savory and flavorful, which pairs perfectly with the sweet carrots in this soup.

I first sauteed the carrots, onion, and garlic until the carrots were slightly tender. Then I added in the curry paste and stirred the carrots around so that they were coated. To that, I poured in some vegetable broth and coconut milk, which is another key ingredient in red curry.

Once the carrots were nice and tender after simmering in the broth for a while, I blended everything together with an immersion blender until it was nice and smooth. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can blend in a regular blender, just make sure to vent the lid to let the steam out.

While I love all the flavors in this soup, I also really love that its pretty healthy! The coconut milk has some healthy fat, but the rest of the soup is pretty much just vegetables and some delicious spices. Not to mention those spices have their own health benefits, like turmeric, garlic, and ginger.

If you are a little apprehensive about trying curry, I highly recommend giving this soup a shot! It’s definitely a good entry point to the world of curries, and since it’s homemade, you can control the spices a little more to suit your own tastes.

If you make this recipe, I would love to know what you think! Especially if you are new to curry. I hope you enjoy!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:121]

Yellow Chicken Curry

August 15, 2016

I will admit that curry was one of those foods that always intimidated me. Without even trying it I had decided that it wasn’t for me. Well, not I can literally eat my words because boy was I wrong!

When I tried out the cook book One Pan Two Plates last month, one of the recipes that I decided to make (to push me out of my cooking comfort zone) was yellow chicken curry. I didn’t have high expectations. In fact, I was prepared with a back up meal in case my husband and I took one bit and it was terrible.

Well, we certainly didn’t need that back up…..it was amazing! Since then, I have been eating yellow curry every chance I get!

The other thing I wrongly assumed about curries is that they were too difficult for me to make at home. Sure, if I was trying to make my own curry paste, things might get a little complicated. But there are lots of good curry spice mixes out there to make life a little easier (my favorite). You could also make your own curry seasoning mix using dry spices you probably already have in your pantry.

And the rest of the dish is pretty simple, too. First, I saute the potatoes and onions in a large pan. While those are getting soft, I mix together my coconut milk and seasonings, which I then add to the potatoes. Once everything is mixed together, I add in the chicken and cook until the chicken is cooked through.

See how easy that was!? What the heck was I so afraid of?

What I didn’t understand about the deliciousness of yellow curry is that it’s sweet and creamy. The flavors are complex, but not overpowering. And to my surprise, when I started trying more and more yellow curries, I decided that I definitely like them on the spicier side. You can make curry as spicy as you want, but with yellow curry, since it is sweeter, the spiciness really balances it out.

I prefer to eat my curry over a big bowl of rice. Because the dish is relatively watery (which I actually prefer), it leaves this really flavorful sauce that I like to pour all over the top of the dish and have the rice just sop it right up!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:68]

Thai Salmon and Spiralized Vegetable Salad

April 22, 2016

I had something else planned to post today, but I couldn’t wait to share with you how I used my new spiralizer! As some of you may have seen on Snapchat, I picked up a spiralizer attachment for my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer this past weekend. I immediately came home and spiralized just about everything I could find…or everything in my fridge that could be spiralized (and a couple things that couldn’t). In the end I was left with a huge bowl of zucchini, cucumber, carrot, and bell peppers. What is a girl to do with all those veggie noodles.

It only seemed appropriate with the mix of vegetables that I do something Asian inspired. And since I had some salmon in the freezer, Thai Salmon it was! I knew it would go perfectly with the cashew dressing I had in mind for the veggie noodles!

For the salmon, I marinated it in a mixture of soy sauce and chili powder for about an hour, then broiled it for a few minutes until it was cooked through. It was so easy! Sometimes I forget how easy salmon is to cook at home.

The cashew dress was a little bit more complicated, but it was oh, so worth it! Normally I would make a peanut dressing using peanut butter, but I’m avoiding that right now (thanks, Whole 30) so I used cashews instead. If you don’t like cashews, you can easily replace the cashews with peanuts (or peanut butter). Since cashew butter is hard to find, I just ground up some cashews into basically a butter consistency, then mixed in some soy sauce, coconut milk, chili powder, and cilantro.

Once the salmon and dressing were done, all that was left was to load up a bowl with some spiralized noodles and top it with the Thai salmon and cashew dressing.

Not only did we have this for dinner, but I also had it for lunch the next two days. It was so good! And that’s saying a lot for a girl who doesn’t totally love fish. The cashew dressing is delicious and the marinade on the salmon is so flavorful and just a little bit spicy. Enough to hide the fishy taste, which is very important for me.

If you aren’t a salmon lover, you can make this same salad with with chicken. You don’t have to replace any of the ingredients! I can see myself making up a big batch of spiralized vegetables and chicken for my lunches during this round of Whole 30, and even afterwards. That’s what I love about this recipe, is that even though it is Paleo, it’s not rub-it-in-your-face Paleo. Which is the best kind of Paleo.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:22]

Lite and Healthy Pad Thai

September 23, 2014

At the end of a long week, there is nothing that I want more than some take-out food and a large glass of wine. But the last time my husband and I got take out from our local Chinese food place, we felt pretty disgusting afterwards. Everything was fried and greasy (albeit…delicious). So this past Friday I set out to make a more healthy version of one of out take-out favorites: pad thai!

I started by making some zucchini noodles with a mandolin to supplement the rice noodles that are traditional in pad thai.

I also added lots of julienned carrots and bell peppers to boost up the veggie factor. I tossed all the veggies and thinly sliced chicken breast in a hot pan and sauteed them in a bit of vegetable and sesame oil and seasoned with garlic, red pepper flakes, and ginger. In the meantime, I cooked about half the normal amount of rice noodles in a pot of boiling water.

Once the chicken was cooked, I added in the rice noodles and poured the sauce over the top and tossed it all together.

I served up a healthy portion of the noodles into bowls, and topped them with some bean sprouts, peanuts, and a squeeze of lime. Our craving for take-out was totally satisfied and we didn’t feel like we had just ingested a cup of grease. And just like your favorite take-out, this pad thai is almost better eaten cold the next day. Oh you don’t do that?? Well, try it…it’s awesome!

Whats your favorite take out food?

[Sorry – Yum Prints wasn’t working…will try adding the recipe again later. For now, it’s included below]

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast, thinly sliced
1 zucchini, julienned
1 bell pepper, julienned
2 carrots, julienned
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp garlic, minced or grated
1 tsp red pepper flakes
5 oz rice noodles
2 tbsp light soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp fish sauce
1/4 cup bean sprouts
2 tbsp peanuts, chopped

Directions:

Place a large skillet over medium high heat and coat with 1 tsp with vegetable oil. Toss in chicken and cook for about 2 minutes.
Add in vegetables, 1/2 tsp sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Stir every couple minutes to cook evenly. Cook another 5-7 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook rice noodles in boiling water according to package directions.
In a small bowl, mix together soy sauce, lime juice, fish sauce, and honey. Pour over vegetable and chicken mixture. Add in noodles and toss to coat.
Spoon pad thai into bowls, and top with bean sprouts and peanuts. Serve and enjoy.