Vegetarian Palak Paneer Lasagna

Palak paneer lasagna is the result of my desire to not waste food. We had some leftover palak paneer from our dinner party, and I thought it would be fun to experiment. I made an Indian-spiced béchamel sauce and combined it with the spinach. The mixture was then sandwiched between layers of pasta sheets. I decided not to add additional cheese since there was already cubes of paneer in the dish. Instead, I crushed herb crackers on top to create a crust.

I’ve found that the most unusual dishes are created when your desire to create something new is constrained by the realities of what you have in your pantry or fridge. This dish is a great example. The marriage of Indian ingredients with the pasta really worked well.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream Recipe with Chestnut Swirl

This recipe proves that vegan doesn't always mean healthy. Coconut cream, coconut milk, sugar, pure vanilla extract, chestnut purée and stabilizers combine to make a vegan ice cream recipe that tips the scales at about 3000 calories per quart (that's 375 calories per serving). But there aren’t any eggs or dairy products!

I recently received a request for a vegan ice cream recipe from Leslie. It was the first time I tried making a vegan dessert. I made use of the same combination of stabilizers I use in other egg-free recipes, namely soy lecithin and xanthan gum. I increased the quantity to improve mouth-feel though. Xanthan gum in particular inhibits the formation of ice crystals, which create a more pleasing texture.

After tasting the final product, everyone in the house agreed that the ice cream strongly resembled chè, a very popular Vietnamese dessert. I hadn't anticipated that at all. Since I swirled the ice cream with chestnut purée, I thought it would have a more French flavor to it, but that was not the case. That's one of the things I love about cooking. I really enjoy experimenting, and the results of these culinary adventures can add completely new recipes to my repertoire.

My husband Lulu has decided to leave the ice cream maker on the kitchen counter until the end of summer to encourage us to make ice cream more often this year. I’ll post our concoctions on here all summer, so at least some good can come out of my impending weight gain. Stay tuned!

Summer Orzo Pasta Salad

Orzo pasta salad is a very quick and easy dish to prepare. You can vary the ingredients in the sauce, but the basics are the same: you need the orzo pasta, some vegetables and a sauce. I made a roasted red bell pepper paste, added some green beans for color, lentils for protein and finished the dish with enoki mushrooms and cashew nuts for texture.

If you're looking for a quick and easy recipe for a picnic, this dish is an excellent choice. It's a light dish that pairs well with almost any kind of protein (hamburgers, fish, etc.). It's also very flexible; as spring turns into summer, you can incorporate many different seasonal vegetables into the recipe. Our extended family has a lot of picnics and potlucks this time of year, and I often prepare some variation of an orzo pasta salad. It's great for both the vegetarians and non-vegetarians in our house.

Kale with Homemade Pickled Ginger

Kale with pickled ginger is one of the healthiest and tastiest ways to get a meal packed with iron. I made my own pickled ginger and an Asian-inspired salad dressing with lemongrass, miso and sesame oil. The result is the perfect condiment for boiled kale.

The reason I've been trying to make iron-rich meals lately is that my sister-in-law, Sunny, was diagnosed with iron deficiency. It's a fairly common problem that primarily affects women. She had trouble with the iron pills, so it was suggested to us that we make her foods that are rich in iron. Because of this, I've been trying to cook more with kale.

If you have any suggestions, please do share! Sunny will thank you.

Ricotta Pasta with Chimichurri

I love chimichurri sauce. The bright green color and subtle spiciness are perfect with steamed fish or grilled skirt steak. I've wanted to incorporate this delicious green sauce into a vegetarian dish for some time now to share with my husband Lulu.

So, I made a dish of fettuccine pasta with a creamy white sauce and served it with a little chimichurri sauce. The creaminess of the white sauce is made with ricotta cheese and it matches wonderfully with the garlic and herb flavor of the chimicurri. It's a healthy alternative to fettuccine alfredo that doesn't skimp on flavor.