Marvelous Spicy Bean and Veggie Soup

Ok, so, it turns out I am a horrendous blogger. That's not entirely true, I've certainly been cooking a lot, and I've certainly been thinking of blogging but due to an enormous amount of school work that suddenly piled up on my head and a mysteriously missing camera, I haven't actually gotten around to writing anything. While the camera is still missing my blog will be tragically devoid of pictures, but I hope you'll trust me when I assure you that the recipes are truly amazing.

First up is a soup recipe. It started out sanely enough, I decided I wanted soup and so I picked up Veganomicon, which has quickly become one of my favorite cookbooks, and decided on a black bean-vegetable soup. The only problem was, the more I looked at the recipe the more I wanted to change it. First I wanted pinto instead of black beans, then I wanted sweet potato instead of bell pepper, and how about some different spices too? Pretty soon my soup looked almost nothing like the original and the only thing left to do was try it. Luckily, the soup actually tasted amazing, slightly spicy with a bit of sweet from the sweet potato and carrot and just a tad creamy from the pinto beans. Overall, marvelous, this is definitely one that I'll be recreating. And now, without further ado, here is the recipe (needless to say, you can change it upto suit your tastes).

Melody's Anything Goes Soup

Olive oil for sautéing

4 cloves garlic minced

2 small onions chopped finely

1 carrot (Sliced 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick)

1 rib celery (Sliced 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick)

1 sweet potato (Cut into 1/2 inch cubes)

1 ½ tsp cumin

1 tsp thyme

2 tsp oregano

2 tsp salt

2 bay leaves

1 ½ tbsp hot sauce

4-5 cups veggie broth (four will give you more of a stew-like consistency)

1 14oz can tomatoes

1 14oz can pinto beans

1 ear corn

Sauté the garlic for approximately 30 seconds until it begins to sizzle. Add in the Onion and sauté until it becomes soft and almost translucent. Add in the celery, sweet potato, and carrot, sauté until the carrot begins to soften. Add in the spices and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add in the beans, tomatoes, broth, hot sauce, salt and corn. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until the veggies are soft and the flavors have blended.

Coconut Rum Cupcakes with Rummy Chocolate Ganache

Well, here it is, my very first blog post. Ta da. The past few days have been a hectic mess of broken computer cables and endless essays but last night I finally got the chance to get to work and concoct something marvelous. Rum-coconut cupcakes with a rum chocolate ganache and toasted coconut. Now I know that the tag-line under my blog title says "a semi-healthy cook" and this recipe is definitely semi-healthy (huge emphasis on the semi) . Actually, the only thing about this recipe that might be considered healthy is the incorporation of whole grains and the extremely sparing use of oil. That said, these cupcakes were truly marvelous. Without further ado, here is my recipe.

For the cupcakes:
1/2 C + 2 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
1/2 C + 2 Tbsp Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (can use all purpose instead)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 C plain yogurt (non-fat or low-fat is fine)
2/3 C soy milk
1/4 C + 2 Tbsp Applesauce
1 Tbsp Canola Oil
3/4 C Sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp Rum
2 1/2 tsp Coconut extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 C unsweetened shredded coconut

Preheat the Oven to 350 F. Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt together in a bowl. Set aside. Mix the yogurt, soy milk, Applesauce, oil sugar, rum, coconut extract, and vanilla together in another bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until fully incorporated. Fold the coconut into the batter. Spray the insides of twelve cupcake cups with nonstick cooking spray or line with cupcake liners. divide the batter evenly amongst the twelve cups. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until tops are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, while the cupcakes are baking, assemble the rum chocolate ganache.

Ganache
A scant 1/4 C milk (I used soy but any sort of milk is fine)
1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips
1 Tbsp Rum

Bring the milk to boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat a soon as it boils and whisk in chocolate and Rum. Stir until Chocolate is fully melted. Set aside to cool.

Toasted Coconut
Grab a handful of unsweetened shredded coconut. Place the coconut in a small frying pan over medium heat. Stir constantly until coconut begins to turn a golden brown color. Remove from heat and pour coconut out onto a plate to cool.

To Assemble Your Cupcakes

Spoon a small dollop of ganache into the center of the cupcake and spread around with the back of a spoon. Then sprinkle a few pinches of toasted coconut across the top. Place cupcakes in fridge and allow ganache to solidify somewhat (if you can wait) or enjoy immediately and prepare to have your face smeared in delicious drippy chocolate.