Goulash with Fresh Seasonal Veggies

Here's another mom-inspired meal i cooked up recently. I remember requesting "goulash with squeeky beans" pretty often as a kid. Mom always cooked hers with a bit of ground meat - adding frozen beans and tomato sauce was a great way to stretch a pound of meat to feed her little family. Instead of ground beef i used ground turkey (not the recalled type!), and instead of frozen, french cut beans i used fresh beans plus a bunch of other seasonal veggies. Add just a bit of tomato sauce and some curry powder, you've got the essence of my mama's goulash. Delicious! This made just the right amount for us to have 1 serving each for dinner and leftovers for each our lunches. Since i've been relying on the availability of seasonal veggies lately, use my recipes as a starting point or guideline and sub in whatever veggies are available to you. The only necessary items to make this dish feel like itself are tomato sauce, beans and curry powder.

Gosh, i need to work on my presentation. Would help if this apartment had any lights in it.

Not My Mama's Goulash Recipe

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 jar tomato/marinara sauce
• Generous portion of green beans, ends removed and chopped in half
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 3 smallish asian eggplants, sliced
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cayenne pepper, dried and crushed or fresh and diced
• 1 fresh tomato, diced
• Salt and Pepper
• Curry powder, generous pinch

Brown the turkey meat with the herbs then add the veggies and sauce, cover and simmer until veggies are cooked to your liking. Pretty simple! If you prefer al dente eggplant, add them after the beans are beginning to cook through. I like my goulash pretty 'mushy' so i threw everything in together to do their thing. You can serve goulash by itself or over noodles or rice.

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Dave's Gourmet Red Heirloom Pasta Sauce

We tried out our second jar of pasta sauce from Dave's Gourmet last night. I was not disappointed.  Again, I hate cooking dinner with sauce from a jar, but boy howdy it's darned good sauce! The ingredient list is short and almost entirely organic. The texture of this Red Heirloom Tomato sauce is just perfect: not too thick, not too thin, not too chunky. There are bits of onion and tomato, but no giant chunks. The flavor is that of a sun ripened tomato paired with garlic and a hint of seasoning. It's good. Really good.


I didn't feel like preparing any pasta, so instead of cooking up traditional spaghetti, i made up this "Italian Chilly."  Turkey meat, veggies from the garden and Dave's Gourmet sauce simmered to perfect amalgamation and served alongside a savory beer muffin and topped with shredded cheese. No noodles necessary! This was a filling meal!  I again felt the sauce was lacking only one thing: heat. I add hot peppers to everything and loaded this 'chilly' up with a half dozen serranos. So good. I wish i could eat it again tonight!

Soup Recipe, with a kick!

I looooove tortilla soup. Though, actually i've never actually HAD tortilla soup - i just make up soup recipes that i refer to as being tortilla soup. There are never tortillas involved.

Usually i throw together some hominy, Rotel, chicken or turkey meat (or no meat) and some stock and spices to make a yummy, brothy, spicy soup refreshing on hot or cold days. This evening i created a soup full of ingredients from the garden and homemade turkey stock. I formed ground turkey into balls for a little textural excitement, and served with a dollop of sour cream. This made the perfect amount for two hungry humans - could be spread out to 3 or even 4 servings as a side dish.

Zesty Summer Soup with Turkey Meatballs

• 1/2 pint condensed turkey stock
• 2 or so pints water
• Several small red onions (garden fresh onions really make me cry!)
• 2 cloves diced garlic
• 2 serrano peppers, red ripe and diced
• 3 kaffir lime leaves roughly torn
• Double handful Porter Improved (could use roma) tomatoes, quartered
• Salt, pepper, cumin, hot smoked paprika - season to taste
• Ground turkey
• 1 package ground turkey
• Splash Worchestershire sauce
• 1-2 T taco seasoning (i use Colorado Spice Company, no msg)
• Salt, pepper, cumin, chilly powder
• Handful of whole wheat orzo pasta

Place  all veggies and liquid into a medium pot and bring to a boil - simmer, covered until broth takes on some kaffir taste, about 15-20 minutes. Add meatballs and cook until they all float and are cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add orzo 10 minutes before serving. Be sure and dip that ladle all the way to the bottom to get even dispersal of goodies.

You could add many other veggie options, and sub the ground turkey for shredded rotisserie type chicken leftovers or even beef or pork meatballs. I just love making soup - it's really so much easier than you would think, and just about anything is possible. I really see no reason to buy canned or cartoned soups from the store - make your own! It'll taste even better!

"Canada Goose" Loaf

No, we're not actually eating a "honker" as i grew up calling them. My husband wanted to eat something themed with the hosting country of the Olympics, this year that's Canada. I couldn't think of anything we had on hand or could get cheaply or easily that would fill that roll (elk, caribou, moose?), so i'm making a turkey meatloaf with ground turkey meat i had in the freezer.
I'm making this up as i go along, but my mom says that's the best way to do it. Here's what i ended up with:

• 1 finely chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves + some jarred diced garlic
• 1/2 12.oz can of tomato paste
• assorted herbs and spices to taste + salt and pepper
• splash Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 cup(ish) chicken stock
• 2 eggs
• 1 package lean ground turkey
• ~1 cup oats

Saute the first 6 ingredients until onions are soft. Add more chicken stock if the pan is simmering dry. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a loaf pan with nonstick.

In a bowl, mix together turkey and oatmeal. Add the sauteed onion mixture (let it cool first!) and mix thoroughly, add the 2 eggs, scrambled first and mix it all up until it's well blended. I could have added more oats and have the loaf be oatier, but this turned out moist and meaty. Spoon the meat mixture into the loaf pan and top with remainder of tomato paste. Cook for about 1 hour, or until toothpick (or chopstick in my case) comes out clean.
Next time i think i'll use two packages turkey with a bit more oats and see how it turns out.

 

Served with freshly picked and steamed broccoli from the garden.

This was SUPER delicious, and happened to time out perfectly (between mixing and rising bagel dough and simmering herbal hair rinse) to eat during the opening ceremonies. The husband reviews: "some of the best meatloaf i've ever had. It's true." That's a good review, if you ask me!
Don't feel limited to the ingredients i listed. This would be great with mushrooms, hot peppers, sweet peppers, corn, you name it. This mixture turned out smooth, moist, and evenly textured. I look forward to sandwiches with the last little bit left (we had a hard time not eating the whole loaf!)

Did you make anything special for the Olympic opening cermonies?

Dinner last night.

I bought some ground turkey last week and it was time to use it. I decided to try something similar to what i call my 'tortilla soup' but less soupy. I'd planned on using hominy but found no hominy in the cupboard and used orzo instead. I think that was an excellent choice. All told this took about 30-40 minutes to prepare.

Zesty Turkey/Poblano Stew (names are a work in progress)

Ingredients:
1 package extra lean ground turkey
2 BIG green poblanos (if i was using garden poblanos i'd have to use about 5 or 6)
1 big onion
3+ cloves garlic
hot peppers to taste, i used 3 dried thai peppers
3 tablespoons cilantro
1 can regular rotel (or generic brand tomatoes and green chillies)
Veg stock
1/2 cup frozen corn
Chile powder
cumin
salt & pepper
orzo
kaffir lime leaf
dash lime juice
seasoning salt
white wine

Chop the veg, place onions, lime leaf, and garlic directly in a lubricated pan - a big pan.
Heat the onions and garlic on med/high until they're sizzling and softening. Add the package of turkey, seasoning with chile powder, cumin, salt etc to taste. It is important to monitor the turkey at this stage, breaking it up and turning it often to create a nice sized crumble. Once the turkey is almost cooked, add the Rotel, dash of lime, and hot peppers. Keep turning and breaking turkey until it is cooked through.
Layer poblanos on top of juicy turkey mixture, followed by the orzo - enough to lightly cover, about 2 handfuls, followed by veg stock to cover peppers and pasta with liquid, about 1-2 cups.
Cover and simmer on medium until orzo is about cooked to a firm aldente. Stir and add in frozen corn and about 1/2 to 3/4 cup white wine. Cover and simmer until corn is warmed and orzo is cooked to your preference - not mushy but not crunchy.

Serve in bowls topped with shredded cheddar. Deliciouso! And again I ate too much. but at least i saved a LITTLE for lunch today :)

Ground turkey is such a versatile ingredient, I find it is always good to have around.

This picture is when i layered in the poblanos topped with the orzo.
You can see it isn't a ton of pasta, just enough to give the stew
a little body and interest. The pasta absorbs the yummy flavors
so nicely. The lime leaf added such a nice, fresh, light zest, and
the peppers a good amount of kick, but not overpowering.