NEW RECIPE: One Pot Coconut Curry Pasta (Vegan and Gluten-Free!)

When I started my undergraduate career at UC Davis, I wasn't a food scientist, food blogger, or food anything. I was a pre-med student who enjoyed cooking. After a culinary competition vaulted me onto the food science track, I've met so many people who love food just as much or more than I do and learned many ways that food is heading towards the future.

Everything that I've learned about food came to a fitting conclusion for my UC Davis tenure last week. (For those of you that don't know, I'll be heading to Southern California for school in the fall, so my time at Davis will be coming to an end.) This past weekend, I competed in the UC Davis Food Science Graduate Student Association's Food Championship with people from many backgrounds of my life who love food just as much as I do: A nutrition student with a killer Instagram on cleaned-up food recipes (@fooddhism, give her a follow!), a friend of mine from church group with a strong passion for food, and a fellow food science student. Together, we bonded through the intense culinary competitions, field games, and trivia. We ultimately won the competition, which made a full circle for me since it was winning a food competition that inspired me onto the food science track in the first place. 

This recipe ties into all of that because this was the last recipe our group came up with - with a few twists that extend outside of the competition rules. The goal of the recipe was to make a fast, hearty meal for the end of the day. This meal is quick, delicious, and very healthy. By being very simple to make, it makes for a perfect lazy night meal! 

Recipe serves 6-8 people.

Ingredients:

1 package Thai red rice pasta (any short pasta also works, but this one is gluten-free and plays into the Thai coconut curry flavors)
6 Cromini mushrooms, sliced thinly
1 large yellow zucchini/summer squash, diced
2 cups kale
8 oz tofu, sliced
3 cups coconut milk
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 cup water (or vegetable stock)

Cooking/Assembling:

1) Stir together the coconut milk, curry powder, and soy sauce in a mixing bowl.

2) In a large pot, pour in your uncooked pasta. Arrange the vegetables and tofu in the way you want to serve your pasta.

3) Add in your liquids, and bring up to a boil while the pot is covered.

4) When the pot is boiling, cook the pasta according to package instructions uncovered.

This meal is quick to make, and packs a ton of nutrients in a healthy but hearty way. It's a great last minute meal with the wonderful flavors of curry and a variety of vegetables and proteins! This meal can be customized however you like - orzo pasta, chicken, tomatoes, and whatever other vegetables, grains, and proteins you want! The point is that it's a quick meal that is easy to make and clean! 

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Let me know what you think and what you would change. If you make it at home, let me know how it turns out! Enjoy! =) 

NEW RECIPE: Fruity Baked Oatmeal with Sugar-free Blueberry Compote

This recipe has a couple of interesting inspirations to it. The first is the actual baked oatmeal component. I got the idea from Gordon Ramsay, who made a baked oatmeal as part of his "Home Cooking" TV series. It's a quick, delicious, and healthy way to use up fresh oats without stressing over a pot of oatmeal. It was also incredibly simple, with just oatmeal and liquid absolutely necessary to make it. 

The second part of my inspiration for this recipe actually came from a Netflix documentary I watched as part of one of my food science classes (shoutout/thanks to Professor Matthew Lange for making us watch it, it was eye-opening!) This documentary, titled "Forks Over Knives", describes the benefits of switching to a diet focused on whole foods and plants. Cutting animal products completely out of a diet, the documentary claims, extremely reduces risks of cancer, hypertension, heart disease, and many other factors. As a food scientist, I could agree fully with this documentary. It actually inspired me to do my own trial period of whole foods, plant-based dieting. This is my first recipe based off of that. 

I'm using a pure unsweetened cashew milk as the liquid to add protein and flavor to the oatmeal. Vanilla and cinnamon are the two sole flavors, with the only sugar in this recipe coming from the natural fruit (even for the compote!) This makes the recipe sweet and flavorful, but healthy at the same time! 

Recipe serves 10-12 people.

For the Oatmeal:

2 Pink Lady Apples, cored and diced
2 Bosc Pears, cored and diced
1 stick cinnamon
1/2 tbsp lemon juice (squirt over the apples and pears to keep from oxidizing)
5 cups dried quick oats
5 cups unsweetened cashew milk
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla pod, seeds removed and added)

For the Blueberry Compote:

8 oz whole blueberries, washed
1/2 cup water
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Sprigs of mint for garnish

Cooking/Assembling:

1) Preheat your oven to 380 degrees F.

2) Combine the oats, apples, pears, and cinnamon stick in a baking dish. Pour over the cashew milk and vanilla extract/seeds, then mix to combine as well. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

3) Add the blueberries and water to a saucepan, and bring up to a boil, swirling occasionally. When the blueberries have all popped and burst, add in your lemon juice and reduce the liquid until it sticks to a spoon, about 8-10 minutes. Let cool in the fridge until ready to serve your oatmeal.

4) Top portions of oatmeal with your blueberry compote and a sprig of mint, then serve!

This recipe is all about convenience, as the time involved with this recipe is absolutely minimal but packs amazing flavor and health! With no extra sugar, this still manages to be a relatively sweet dessert. The lemon juice brings out the natural sweetness of the blueberries in the compote, while the cashew milk and vanilla do the same as the fruit bakes into the liquid. It's definitely an amazing and healthy alternative for dessert or breakfast that you should give a go!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Let me know what you think or what I should change. If you make it at home, let me know how it turns out! Enjoy! =) 

NEW RECIPE: Hot and Cold Seafood Ceviche

Food that is the most delicious to me isn't the food that is heavy or rich. Rather, it is the food that wakes up the palate with exciting flavors and freshness. That freshness is something I crave and love to get in food, especially when it comes to seafood. As such, when I make a seafood dish, I prefer to keep the flavors fresh and lively.

This ceviche is just that. A ceviche is a South American dish comparable to a seafood salsa. Loads of fresh ingredients and produce go into it, with the seafood done raw or partially cooked usually (with the exception of shrimp, which is a common ceviche ingredient). For my ceviche, I've gone with a mix of colder seafoods (or raw) as well as cooked or hot seafoods. Scallops, tuna, and shrimp all go into this dish, and they combine with the fresh produce to make an amazing appetizer - or entree if you eat enough! 

Recipe Serves 2 people.

Ingredients:

1 oz ahi tuna, finely diced
5 shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 scallops
Salt and pepper to season
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 avocado, diced (save the skins to serve in, if you wish)
1/4 red onion, diced
3 roma tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp lime juice
1 clove minced garlic
2 tsp toasted cumin seeds
Fresh cilantro to garnish

Cooking/Assembling:

1) Stir together the avocado, red onion, tomato, tuna, garlic, cumin seeds, and some salt and pepper to lightly season. Squeeze over the lime juice before stirring to keep the avocado from going brown.

2) Season the shrimp and scallops lightly before cooking in a pan on high heat. The scallops need a minute to a minute and half on each side. The shrimp just need a minute before being finished cooking.

3) Chop up the shrimp and scallops into bite-sized pieces before mixing into the ceviche along with the fresh cilantro and serving.

Ceviches are amazing because of how incredibly fresh they taste and how easy they are to prepare. The above steps take no more than 20 minutes to complete, and make for a great, refreshing low-carb meal! 

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Let me know what you think and what you would change. If you make it at home, let me know how it turns out! Enjoy! =)