laur kam's kitchen

Another day, another way to use up my miso paste! Since I’ve just moved into my new house, it was time to make a batch of salad dressing; you guys know tahini is my favorite, and this combined all sorts of other delicious ingredients that I find make for a yummy version to have on hand.

I halved this and used my immersion blender in an old jam jar to make it. In total I think I ended up using 4 or 5 tablespoons of water, which is about twice the amount the recipe calls for, although this may have been because I’d gotten to the clumpy bits at the bottom of the jar of tahini I had on hand. I know it’s gonna thicken a lot in the fridge, so I’ll probably add even more when it comes to future use.

What a mouthful of a title, but what a yummy salad! I made this for myself for dinner the other night before Remus and I went to the pub, and I have to say that it satisfied me in every way. It’s simple, quick, and super delicious, with a winning peanut sauce — but I wouldn’t have expected anything less from Minimalist Baker.

I halved this to make one salad using maple syrup, snap peas, and sesame seeds, and skipping the mango and optional ingredients. I suppose I could have gotten out my mini food processor to make the dressing, but it was honestly far easier skipped; I simply whisked everything together in a small bowl. I did my best to get everything into noodle-like shapes but for the most part ended up just chopping everything into bite-sized pieces, either on the cutting board or later in my salad bowl; sometimes there’s really only so much you can do.

I think it’s only fitting that my first ever post on this blog, and the first recipe I’ve made this year, is this chia pudding. I have made this so many times now that it’s probably the only recipe I no longer need the instructions for (although it does help that they’re pretty straightforward).

I usually end up making a half batch of this, although I do keep the cinnamon and vanilla amounts the same as the full because, well, I love cinnamon and vanilla and they give this such great flavor.

The original recipe calls for fresh blueberries as a topping, but I’ll typically only add them if they’re in season, leaving them out and opting for other fruit that is, either as a topping or on the side depending on what it is.

The original instructions call for you to blend the initial ingredients, but I’ve found that if your almond butter is runny enough, a little whisking will still do the trick.

I absolutely loved the pumpkin chipotle hummus that I made back in November, so with another can of chipotle peppers to use up and a new batch of hummus needed, I set out to try and find a non-pumpkin version. Minimalist Baker rarely steers me wrong, so this seemed perfect.

I made this in full using three of the peppers. I started off with two as I didn't want this to be too spicy, but, honestly, I think I could have gone up to four just fine. Admittedly, I didn't really read the instructions, so I did not actually reserve any of the aquafaba. Thus, mainly due to the sheer amount of tahini involved, this was a very thick batch of hummus. Next time, I need to remember to reserve.

Normal gnocchi doesn't really do a lot for me, but my mom made a dish very similar to this a while back, and I simply loved the idea of sweet potato gnocchi! This recipe seemed like a perfect family dinner pick.

I made this in full. Be warned that it is a little time-consuming, but I think it was totally worth it. The gnocchi-making process was so satisfying, especially when they all started floating to the top! (Though this took quite a bit longer than 2 minutes for me.)

Remus and I were having venison burgers and roasted potatoes as our farmers’ market dinner this month, which I thought we needed a vegetable side to accompany it. Rather than opting for my usual roasted purple cabbage, I dug through my Pinterest archive and resurfaced with this recipe, which combined plenty of in-season veggies, including cauliflower, and promised to be super flavorful.

I halved this using plenty of fresh dill. It does take quite some time, purely because of how much chopping there is to do, so not the quickest side you could conjure.

I had originally planned to quarter the dressing, as I find these kinds of recipes tend to call for it in excess, but I am so glad I did not. Even with the full amount, this really did not have the kind of creamy egg/potato/chicken salad texture I was hoping for; you’d definitely need to at least double it to get that. This contains a lot of rather unforgiving veggies in terms of flavor and texture, so you’re really counting on the dressing to give you a little more here than it does as written.

In future, I’d also definitely use either fresh or panko breadcrumbs, rather than the golden ones I opted for, as they didn’t give this quite the right kind of texture.

I absolutely loved the pumpkin chipotle hummus that I made back in November, so with another can of chipotle peppers to use up and a new batch of hummus needed, I set out to try and find a non-pumpkin version. Minimalist Baker rarely steers me wrong, so this seemed perfect.

I made this in full using three of the peppers. I started off with two as I didn't want this to be too spicy, but, honestly, I think I could have gone up to four just fine. Admittedly, I didn't really read the instructions, so I did not actually reserve any of the aquafaba. Thus, mainly due to the sheer amount of tahini involved, this was a very thick batch of hummus. Next time, I need to remember to reserve.

A super simple lemon tahini dressing!

I think it’s only fitting that my first ever post on this blog, and the first recipe I’ve made this year, is this chia pudding. I have made this so many times now that it’s probably the only recipe I no longer need the instructions for (although it does help that they’re pretty straightforward).

I usually end up making a half batch of this, although I do keep the cinnamon and vanilla amounts the same as the full because, well, I love cinnamon and vanilla and they give this such great flavor.

The original recipe calls for fresh blueberries as a topping, but I’ll typically only add them if they’re in season, leaving them out and opting for other fruit that is, either as a topping or on the side depending on what it is.

The original instructions call for you to blend the initial ingredients, but I’ve found that if your almond butter is runny enough, a little whisking will still do the trick.