Cold Weather Special

It’s good to be back home and in the groove. My 10 days in Spain gave me many ideas for recipe development that I’ll work on in the weeks to come. One of my favorite dishes was the ever present breakfast and or tapas dish the “tortilla”. It’s a simple preparation of potatoes and eggs served at room temperature or warm. What I like about it is that you can add so many ingredients to this base recipe to come up with your own favorite way to eat it. At the resort where I was staying they served it with a side of a nice tomato garlic salsa that went great with it. I don’t plan on eating this sort of thing every day, but would like to incorporate it into a special weekend type of breakfast food in the near future.

With the holiday upon us I will mainly focus on healthy recipes to counterbalance the good stuff most of us will indulge in during this feast a plenty few weeks. I do believe in eating healthy most of the time and splurging during Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, etc. I tested a recipe from the Moosewood Restaurant Favorites cookbook I bought while visiting Ithaca, NY last September. For those of you not familiar with Moosewood they are a collective of owners running one of the best farm to table, mostly Vegan, and Vegetarian restaurants in the US. They have been around for forty years, a feat that is difficult to say the least, putting out inventive meals for those who love to eat healthy delicious food.

The recipe I tried out last night was the Navajo Stew, a lovely stew of sweet potatoes, onions, bell peppers, beans and tomato seasoned with ground cumin and coriander.

I don’t own many cookbooks or use them much, but this one is fast becoming one of my favorites.

I actually followed the recipe closely, and only deviated a bit when adding Korean sweet potatoes to come up with four cups total as I was a little short using just regular sweet potatoes.

The result was a wonderful tasting, quite filling stew that was served with a side of whole grain baguette that satisfied and warmed us on a chilly dark night. I suspect one could use delicata, or butternut squash in this stew in place of sweet potatoes with good results. For those of you that want meat in a stew like this I believe it would be easy to add chicken, beef or pork at the beginning while sauteing the onions.

Navajo Stew

2 T olive oil

2 cups chopped onion

3 garlic cloves minced

1 t salt

1 red or green pepper seeded and chopped

1 T ground cumin seeds

2 t ground coriander seeds

4 cups peeled and cubed sweet potatoes(1 inch cubes)

2 cups water

one 15 oz can diced tomatoes

2 T canned chipolte peppers in adobo sauce

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 1/2 cups black or red beans rinsed and drained

1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels(optional)

Warm the oil in a covered soup pot on low heat.

Add the onion, garlic, and salt, and cook about 10 minutes.

Stir in the bell peppers, cumin, and coriander and cook for a couple of minutes.  Add the sweet potatoes and water, cover, and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes covered or until the sweet potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, puree the tomatoes, chipoltes, and cilantro in a blender.

When the vegetables are tender, stir in the tomato puree and the beans. Add corn, if you like.

Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.

A hot bowl of love.

Serving and menu ideas.

Top each serving with Cilantro-Yogurt Sauce(page 310), plain yogurt, or sour cream, or shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese. Serve this stew with cornbread(see pages 283 and 284), flatbread, or tortilla chips. Also nice on rice.

Thanks to Moosewood for letting me share this great stew recipe.

Moosewood Inc copyright 2005 from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers, published by Clarkson Potter.