Queezle_Sister's Reviews
23 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 23Sort by: Title 
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Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen
By Heidi Swanson
Ten Speed Press - 2011
Black Sesame Otsu : page 156
Amazing complex sauce on a bed of soba noodles - what could be better?
The sauce included toasted pine nuts, sunflower seeds, and black sesame seeds, sesame oil, soy sauce, mirim etc. This sauce had just the right amount of heat (for me), and was very complex. Tofu and scallions accompanied the noodles.
The family response to this dish was varied - from my enthusiasm to 'OK'. If I prepare this again (and its likely), I would add more vegetables and I'd double the amount of tofu.
This somewhat complicated dish was prepared by my 16 yr old son, and he did a great job. It took him about an hour.
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Buttermilk Cake : page 194
A lovely simple cake with crunchy sugar on top, and sliced plums. It tasted very nice, had a lovely texture, without being too heavy.
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Cucumber Cooler : page 166
Refreshing but weird - and we probably won't make it again. Here, cucumber, lime, ice, salt, and honey are blended to form a non-alcoholic drink. There is a technical problem - adding honey to ice creates a sticky rock-like substance that i was unable to dislodge from the side of my blender. We ended up adding about 1 T sugar.
I think that a bit of gin might have helped this recipe.
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Harissa Ravioli : page 131
Delicious - this recipe is an easy way to fancy-up store bought ravioli. A broccoli-garlic-feta-nut-olive mix is prepared to put on the ravioli, along with some harissa.
This recipe was prepared by one of my friends for our cookbook club. Somehow I never really looked at this recipe because I thought it had you preparing the ravioli itself, and making pasta scares me. It was prepared with pine nuts and all can say is - WOW. We occasionally serve ravioli at home, and after trying this, I realize I've been very unimaginative about how to dress it.
If you participated in the Paula Wolfert Food of Morocco challenge, you probably still have harissa in your refrigerator. This recipe is a great place to use it.
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Honey & Rose Water Tapioca : page 201
Amazing flavor with great tapioca mouth feel. This recipe uses small pearl tapioca, and has you simmer it in milk and egg yolks until thickened. Heidi notes that the amount of time required will depend on your tapioca. I was discouraged that mine took 90 minutes. Even still, it was somewhat soupy, yet very rich.
But nobody minded the texture once this mixture hit their mouth. A distinct lemon flavor (from zest), a very subtle flavor from rose water (I used 1/4 tsp rather than 1 tsp, as we didn't so much like the Mark Bittman rosewater tapioa), and sweetness from honey. We also used a local milk, and all these factors combined to give an outstanding pudding.
The recipe also suggests serving this with pistachios on top. We skipped the nuts, and didn't miss 'em.
Although this recipe took a long time, it was so good, I will certainly make it again. If you like puddings, do try this one.
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Kale Salad : page 80
Unusual, salty and crunchy, and hearty main-meal salad.
I prepared this using home-grown kale (yay!), and served it over cooked barley.
The kale is chopped up, mixed with unsweetened coconut (large flake), and dressed with EVOO, tamari, and sesame oil. Then the dressed kale/coconut mix is roasted.
The kale turns crunchy, and the coconut becomes toasted. Tamari gives it just the right amount of saltiness.
My only disappointment with this recipe is that its hard to think of it as a salad. It is more of a cooked warm dish, and a great main dish if served with --- a salad!
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Little Quinoa Patties : page 121
Nice texture with a mild flavor. These patties were prepared for our cookbook club. I liked the crunchiness of the these, and their free-form shape.
My friend who prepared these said that they were very difficult to cook. Even in her non-stick pan, they stuck and were extremely difficult to keep from falling apart.
I really like the idea of quinoa patties, and would love to hear how to tweak this recipe so it works a bit better.
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Millet Muffins : page 41
Remarkably forgiving - 3+ errors on my part and still edible.
Unfortunately, I discovered after starting that I had only half the amount of millet, and no lemon. I proceeded anyway, using lime zest and bottled lemon juice. But it wasn't until we were tasting these that I realized I had forgotten the 1/2 C melted butter. And I didn't have WW pastry flour, so substituted 1/2 WW and 1/2 unbleached regular flour.
Flavor was pretty good - I can imagine they'd be great with more crunch from the millet, etc.
I will try again soon, and try to actually follow the recipe!
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Mixed Green Salad : page 82
Don't let the simple name fool you. This is a fabulous salad, that includes greens, strawberries, and almonds, and enrobes them in a delightful vinaigrette.
You'd easily pay $10 for a salad like this in a restaurant. We had fresh lettuce from the garden, fresh strawberries - and toasted almonds.
Perfection!
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Multigrain Pancakes : page 31
Very good pancakes, indeed! I prepared these for my family and my brother and nephew - and most were eaten without additional sweetener. Very delicate texture, and a good flavor.
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Oatcakes : page 204
Moist, slightly sweet, and dense.
Like Peckish Sister, it was Andrew's review of this recipe that made me buy this cookbook. I'm so glad I did. These come together easily, and taste fantastic. My first time using coconut oil, and I love the slight coconut flavor that it imparts.
Toasting the walnuts also added an important dimension to the flavor of these cakes.
My only regret - they are likely very high calorie, and its hard to resist having another, and another, and another...
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Oatmeal : page 29
Delicious creamy oatmeal - this was made tangy with addition of yogurt. I also bought prunes to follow this recipe - they are so sweet here - almost too sweet. I substituted walnuts for the hazelnuts, used greek yogurt (fage) for the mix in, and skipped the brown butter.
Making oatmeal in my microwave is a morning ritual. This recipe is pretty different, and it will inform my future oatmeal making.
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Oven-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes : page 231
Concentrated tomato goodness, but some recipe problems.
I tried making these with 2 lbs of current tomatoes (tiny). When I saw that Heidi suggests cutting each one in half, I nearly quit. A quick google search found many similar recipes that do not require cutting in half, so I proceeded with most of the tomatoes whole.
Roasting took twice the amount of time as suggested (about 2 hrs). I think this was my fault - I used a single 9X11 inch pan, and the tine tomatoes were 2 deep. Even after 2 hours, there is a fair amount of juice, and not much of the caramelizing that Heidi mentions.
The recipe also calls for adding sugar. I don't think these tomatoes needed it - probably you should could cut back unless your tomatoes are not very sweet.
I will freeze up ziplock bags of these, and hope I can find them again in January and February.
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Pita Chips : page 108
Nice crunchy chips from whole wheat pita bread. This recipe was prepared by my 16 yr old son for our cookbook club. It was pretty easy to assemble. Do be sure to bake in a single layer so they crisp up similarly. For us, they were first baked - double batch - in a single rimmed baking sheet. This led to uneven cooking, and so we split into two sheets. It would have been better as four sheets. Because we fooled around with it so much, the baking time was off, and the resulting chips varied in their texture. These crisp up more after the oven, so don't over-cook.
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Roasted Strawberries : page 228
Roasted, strawberries? I've now made this twice, and all I can say is YES PLEASE!
Strawberries are tossed with maple syrup, olive oil, and a bit of salt. Roasting takes about 40 minutes. The cook is advised to roast them spread about in a single layer. At the end of roasting, you add a bit of port, and a splash of balsamic vinegar.
The first time I pepared this dish, my single layer fit in a 9X9 pan (snug, but a single layer). However my result was very different from Heidi's pictures. Hers look somewhat dry, whereas mine were floating in a thick layer of delicious thick juice. This was delicious in a grown up sort of way - amazing on greek yogurt or by the spoonful. It was just very different from the picture.
The second time I prepared this, I used a very large pan, where the strawberries could be separated by about an inch. This encouraged evaporation, and this time I obtained the drier berries and very thick juice. The addition of port and balsamic produces an other-worldly flavor.
Because this takes a while, you might consider doubling the recipe, as 8 oz of strawberries isn't very many. The second prep, I cut down the olive oil by about 1/2, and still loved it.
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Spinach Chop : page 116
I like hard-boiled eggs, the nuts gave this a good crunch, and the lemon zest offered some good acid balance. The cooking instructions for the spinach worked - even spinning out the excess water. But somehow the end product seemed not cohesive. It was fine, we ate it for dinner on bagels, but not fantastic. Possibly I didn't add enough harissa?
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Spinach Strata : page 33
Delicious - and a great way to use 2C of greens and bread that might have seen better days.
I prepared this for dinner, instead of brunch. I used a whole wheat bread that wasn't terribly dried out, and 1C chopped fresh spinach and 1C chopped Mizuna (a Japanese green from my CSA box).
The bread is combined with the greens and feta, and a milk, mustard, egg mixture is poured over the top. The instructions say to let the milk/egg mixture soak into the bread overnight, but I just let it go for one hour.
In the 50 minute baking time, it was done to perfection.
The recipe calls for lemon zest at the bottom of the pan, which I included, but couldn't taste. You could probably skip it with no loss of flavor.
Happily, I had some fresh oregano, and sprinkled bits on top as suggested, and then poured a bit of olive oil over the top, as Heidi advises. I wish I could give it 4 1/2 stars!
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Stuffed Tomatoes : page 138
Really nice! This recipe lends itself to lots of types of tomatoes, I used several from my garden, including earliana, black krim, and a yellow heirloom.
The top of each tomato was cut off, and then you are instructed to scoop out the tomato guts, while not piercing the skin. I found a serrated grapefruit spoon to be the perfect tool. A portion of the tomato guts are used, and yogurt, harissa, basil, shallots, and cous cous are mixed together, and spooned into the tomatoes. This mixture is pretty soft.
After baking (50 minutes), the cous cous is all puffed up, and cooked nicely.
I used only half the harissa that was called for, and found this to be very flavorful. The boys thought some sausage would have been a good addition, but all agreed that it was a very tasty dish.
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SunToast : page 36
This was an amazing dish! i cant believe that it was so good. This is a great recipe to give kids if you cut the bread in cute shapes, but if you do this then make sure to use a smaller egg so that it does not over whelm the cute shape. Even if you think that it would be fine to forego the garlic that you rub on it, we personally believe that it adds a very good garlic taste to it without being too strong.
12 daughter
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Sweet Panzanella : page 189
Crunchy, sweet, and great berry flavor. This was a surprising dish -- I had never really noticed it, I think because I had never associated "panzanella" with dessert. This dish was prepared by one of my friends for our cookbook club. No yellow raspberries were available, and so blackberries were substituted. The bread was a hearty whole wheat, and it was so perfect in this dish. A somewhat stale loaf is cut into cubes, coated with melted butter mixed with sugar and salt, and then baked till crisp.
This really tasted great. I can imagine it with other fruit, too, like nice juicy peaches.
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Weeknight Curry : page 135
A nice bright dish, with zucchini, asparagus, and cauliflower cooked to crunchy perfection. The veggies are sautéed in coconut oil (which in our current heat wave is suddenly a liquid!), and then further cooked in coconut milk.
I agree with Andrew that the spicing is too mild. However, this was an easily prepared dish that my DH made for my return home (30 hrs transit). It was fresh and delicious.
The author does caution to be sure to add salt. My DH added about 1 tsp salt, and we still needed more at the table. Served with brown rice and a green salad.
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White Bean Spread : page 110
Very flavorful, and if prepared from canned beans, its also quick!
A flavored oil is prepared using garlic and fresh rosemary. It is mixed with the beans, mashed in a food processor, and almonds, salt, and lemon juice added. At the end, a bit of additional oil and some lemon zest is put on top, and some toasted almonds.
This paired really well the the pita chips, from the same cookbook (and pictured above with a pita chip).
This recipe was prepared by my 13 yr old daughter for our cookbook club. It was very popular, and was nice with beer, wine, and cocktails.
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Wild Rice Casserole : page 155
Delicious grain dish - with flavor zings from mushrooms - and topped with Gruyere cheese.
This dish had a wonderful flavor, and it looked beautiful. It was prepared by a member of my cookbook club for one of our meals. Great mouth feel - a bit creamy from the addition of cottage cheese and sour cream, but no sacrificing the grain texture. The recipe includes finely chopped onions and mushrooms, and they provided a very nice little burst of flavor.
This is a lovely dish. It appears to be fairly simple to prepare, and the instructions say it can be prepared in advance. This would be an excellent accompaniment for many sorts of meals, I can imagine it at the Thanksgiving table, or alongside a nice roast.
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