Need vegan queso and need it fast? Look no further! This recipe requires just 7 ingredients, 5 minutes, and 1 blender. Let’s do this!
This recipe was born out of pure necessity. Some friends were over one night and we ordered Mexican food and I needed some queso STAT. So, I figured blending up some cashews with hot water would work.
5-Minute Vegan Cashew Queso from Minimalist Baker →
Any roasted broccoli fans out there? If you’ve tried it before, I’m sure you count yourself as a fan. Roasted broccoli is tender in the middle, with delicious golden edges and irresistibly crispy tips. In short, it’s more tasty than you thought broccoli could be!
I’ve shared roasted broccoli as a component in other recipes before, but I wanted to share my basic roasted broccoli recipe with you today. It’s a great side dish recipe to keep in your back pocket, and goes with just about anything.
Roasted broccoli is a healthy side dish with major crowd appeal. Broccoli contains a lot of good-for-you fiber, vitamin C, and a surprising amount of protein, too. Who knew? If you’ve been in a rut with side dishes lately, or you’re tired of steamed broccoli, you’re going to love this simple side.
Below, you’ll find my best tips and variations on roasted broccoli. I’ll be sharing a few more recipes for simple roasted vegetables soon, so I’m excited to kick off with one of my favorites. Here we go!
The post Perfect Roasted Broccoli appeared first on Cookie and Kate.
Instant Pot is my partner in the kitchen for cooking authentic Japanese dishes like chawanmushi, Japanese curry, Japanese-style potato salad, and many others.s It speeds up the cooking time without sacrificing the quality and authenticity of the dishes. That’s why I love my Instant Pot and want to show you today how I use it in my daily Japanese cooking.
Chawanmushi (Savory Egg Custard)
If you looked up Instant Pot recipes on the web, you’re most likely get an infinite result. Undoubtedly the multicooker has been a life-changing kitchen appliance to legions of people out there. From the universally loved spaghetti bolognese to the classic Indian butter chicken, there seem to be the Instant Pot versions for us who want to save time.
The truth is there are yet too many Japanese Instant Pot recipes out there, and I know you’re probably curious how I use the gadget for my daily cooking. For the latest & final installment on my 3-part Instant Pot series, I will talk about how I use my Instant Pot in my daily Japanese cooking and what I cook with it.
In case you missed, here are the first two parts:
As I get older, I crave more and more for washoku dishes that I grew up eating – rice and a wholesome range of seasonal ingredients. These classic Japanese dishes are my kind of comfort food. Many of them are simmered dishes or nimono (煮物), which include beans, dried foods, and root vegetables.
To prepare these dishes on the stovetop, it can be rather time-consuming and labor intensive. I sometimes wish they are much easier to cook! However, with the help from the Instant Pot, cooking homestyle Japanese food have gotten a whole lot easier and so much FASTER. And my stress level for feeding a family of four has gone down significantly.
If you’re not familiar, a typical Japanese style meal includes rice as a main dish, one soup, and 3 side dishes (it’s called Ichiju Sansai 一汁三菜), usually with 1-2 simmered dishes. Yeah, talk about elaborate. It’s no simple feat to rustle up Japnese dinner every day, especially if you’re a working parent.
With the Instant Pot, I plan out my preparation in a way that I can work on the main dish or other dishes while the Instant Pot handles the cooking of a laborious dish. I make sure to cook many large portions (see more Japanese-style meal prep dishes) so I can store whatever leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer and serve the different dishes throughout the week. Home cooked Japanese food accomplished with minimal effort and smart planning!
Before we move on to what I cook with the Instant Pot, I think it’s also important to know the Pros and Cons of the Instant Pot cooking.
Pros
To cook simmered dishes with the traditional stovetop method, you have to stand in the kitchen for a long time to keep checking on the food. I can never leave the kitchen! Now I can just walk away once I turn on the instant pot, and leave my kitchen to do other stuff. I love that I can start cooking dinner as late as 5 pm instead of 4 pm.
You may need some initial testing but once you get the idea of the timing, you are good to go. Take your kids to karate practice or clean the house with the extra free time; Instant Pot got you covered.
Cons
Now, this seems like a long list of cons, but they have not stopped me from cooking my dinners in the Instant Pot. I learned to work around the problem by cutting vegetables in bigger chunks and by choosing the right type of ingredients for pressure cooking. In fact, it has empowered me to cook more at home instead of resorting to takeout or eating out.
So what type of Japanese dishes do I make with my Instant Pot? Here are some of our favorites on Just One Cookbook:
One of the key strengths of the Instant Pot is cooking meats to tender perfection in record time. Before owning the Instant Pot, I rarely cook Japanese dishes that call for big chunks of meats, but now I enjoy making a variety of recipes by leveraging on the pressure cooking feature of the multicooker.
Seriously, if you love soups and stews like I do, it’s a strong enough reason to get an Instant Pot. When you can cut down cooking time at least in half, it means you get to make and enjoy your favorite dishes regularly.
Cooking dried beans used to seem like an extravagant use of my time, but now it’s something I can tackle with ease. The Instant Pot has the ability in cooking beans from dry in a short time and the result is always so tender and flavorful. Instead of buying the canned stuff, I have started to cook more homemade red bean paste to make delicious sweets and snacks for the kids.
From daikon, gobo (burdock root), renkon (lotus root) to carrot, Japanese cuisine features a lot of root vegetables in our daily meals. Instant Pot is particularly suited to cook these root vegetables, making healthy home cooking a possible task to conquer.
Beef Tendon Stew (Gyusuji Nikomi)
It usually takes a painfully long time (3 hours!) to tenderize tendons. With the Instant Pot, it can be cooked perfectly within 30 minutes.
Flounder (Karei カレイ), mackerel (Saba 鯖), horse mackerel (Aji アジ), red snapper (鯛), sardine (Iwashi イワシ ), and Pacific saurey (Sanma 秋刀魚) are great to cook in the instant pot. Just within 15 minutes, the whole fish including bones are nice and tender. Fish bones cooked in a pressure cooker are soft and edible, great for extra calcium! I’ll share the recipe when I get some good fish.
It usually takes 90 minutes to cook short-grain brown rice in a rice cooker and 30 minutes on the stovetop. Instant Pot makes it the fastest with 20 minutes. Compared to short grain white rice, the cooking time for brown rice is significantly longer, therefore I like cooking brown rice in the Instant Pot. I love the Mocchiri (モッチリ) texture, or mochi-like texture, of brown rice cooked both in the Instant Pot and donabe (Japanese earthenware pot). I’ll share the recipe soon!
It had been cold and rainy in the past 3 months, so I made these dishes with my Instant Pot most frequently for my family.
Another favorite of ours is Pulled Pork, which I make a big batch and used in tacos, donburi (rice bowl), and sandwich!
Have you tried cooking Japanese recipes with Instant Pot before? Do you have a favorite? Are there any specific recipes you’d like me to share? I’d love to hear from you!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Instant Pot. All opinions expressed are my own, and I only work with brands and products that I personally use and thoroughly enjoy. Thank you so much for supporting the companies that keep Just One Cookbook going.
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Gorgeous pistachio poppyseed orange yogurt bread naturally sweetened with honey, fresh orange juice, and topped with a perfectly sweet orange glaze. A delicious, healthy yogurt bread for spring! Most of you know that my 84 year old Grandma Gloria loves to bake. She’s inspired several recipes on the blog including these buttermilk waffles, sunflower honey [...]
The post Pistachio Poppyseed Orange Yogurt Bread appeared first on Ambitious Kitchen.
Delicious low carb mushroom spinach bacon egg cups with crumbles of feta in every bite. You’ll love this healthy make-ahead breakfast that’s packed with protein and takes just 30 minutes to make. Easily made paleo, too! After a good sweaty session at the gym, there’s nothing I love more than coming home to a delicious, [...]
The post Mushroom Spinach Bacon Egg Cups (low carb!) appeared first on Ambitious Kitchen.
Win a set of premium Japanese green tea from the award-winning Japanese Green Tea Company today!
Springtime is officially here. Are you ready to bring out your picnic basket and fill it with rice balls and sakura mochi?
To usher in the season of cherry blossom, we’ve partnered with Japanese Green Tea Company to give away their best-selling authentic green tea to complement your spring-theme menu. Three (3) lucky winners will be selected to win their award-winning Issaku Sencha and Gyokuro Japanese premium green tea in this giveaway!
Issaku is the highest-grade tea available from Japanese Green Tea Company, and, due to the complex and long process of creating the tea, only a limited quantity is available to produce every year. This tea is rare, even in Japan to enjoy.
Gyokuro is a special type of green tea shaded from the sun for 20 days with specially made mats which allows the caffeine levels to increase in the leaves, in addition to allowing the amino acids to get stronger, producing a sweeter and stronger flavor. Because of the cultivation process, the leaves have a very particular odor that is impossible to confuse.
Japanese Green Tea Company sells authentic, healthy Japanese Matcha & Green Tea harvested from sugarcane soil. In addition to the Global Tea Championship, their tea won the Japanese National Tea Award in 1974, 1975, 1979 and 2010.
Japanese Green Tea Company is the only US-based company to source tea directly from Arahataen Green Tea Farms in the Shizuoka prefecture in Japan. Shizuoka has been the center of green tea cultivation in Japan for centuries, and the region’s intense sunlight and intermittent fog gives each batch of tea its distinctive flavor. You can learn more here.
Japanese Green Tea Company is also offering Just One Cookbook readers a 10% discount on your first order.
Discount Code: JOC
You can use the code at the checkout. The code expires on April 17th (one week after the giveaway ends) and is limited to one use per customer.
Please Note: Your email for the comment entry has to match with your email address in my Email Newsletter Subscription mailing list.
This giveaway contest closes on Wednesday, April 10, at 12 p.m. PST and is open to the US only.
Three (3) winners will be selected via Pick Giveaway Winner Plugin and contacted via email, so please include a valid email address in the email address entry box (please double check your spelling!).
The winners are required to respond within 36 hours to claim the prize.
The more tickets/comments left on this blog post will increase your odds of winning. Good luck!
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Where are my fellow muffin fans? I have yummy and healthy blueberry muffins for you! Healthy, unrefined, orange-scented blueberry muffins for the win!
Blueberry muffins are so my fave kind of muffins.
And, you know me: I like muffins!
No matter where I am or what mood I’m in, sitting down and enjoying a blueberry muffin instantly takes me back to being a kid again.
Problem with your typical blueberry muffin, though, is that it’s just filled with refined sugars and flours and likely lots of unnecessary fats and other unhealthy oils.
I know, right… but… blueberry muffins??
What are we ever to do?
Well, I decided I needed more blueberry muffins in my life.
I needed them on a regular basis.
I needed them as a snack or a breakfast or a sweet treat.
I needed them… to be HEALTHY and good for me.
Which means I made healthy muffins. Healthy blueberry muffins. Actually, I combined the flavors of orange muffins and the flavors of blueberry muffins and I made orange blueberry muffins.
And, I know, it’s different.
But, stay with me, peeps… because it’s also glorious…
I’m tellin’ ya – it’s super tasty and a great way to enjoy your blueberry muffins again.
Making healthy blueberry muffins was not enough, I wanted to add in a lil’ something special to brighten up the blueberry muffins and I found the best way to do this was with some fresh orange zest.
I know – you’re totally thinking, “Lacey, why on earth would you add orange zest to a perfectly good blueberry muffin? They’re great the way they are!” “You can make healthy orange muffins instead of messing with the old fashioned blueberry muffins.”
Truth to be told, I could’ve followed a classic recipe for orange muffins and make orange muffins. But I really wanted orange blueberry muffins. And I wasn’t disappointed.
I mean, even Dustin, who practically cried when I told him I added orange zest into the blueberry muffins he was craving for so long, took one bite and then happily declared them to be the best blueberry muffins he’d ever had.
So more blueberry orange muffin for us! All day, any day!
To make the yummy blueberry orange muffin healthy, you have to do just a few easy steps:
See? Super easy to replace those unhealthy ingredients with natural, unrefined ingredients!
I make these tasty orange scented blueberry muffins with coconut flour and spelt flour for a delicious combination of flavors and health benefits – so good for your taste buds and your body!
In case you don’t know what is spelt flour, well, spelt flour is a healthy and more nutritious alternative to all-purpose flour. Spelt is a whole grain that contains calcium, selenium, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, and vitamin E.
Bananas are one of the best sugar alternatives. I use them ALL the time to naturally sweetness my shakes and baked goods.
They’ll add a sweet taste to your blueberry muffins, but the muffins will stay healthy and you don’t even taste the bananas. Also, using bananas as sugar alternatives in homemade baked treats is a great way to use up overripe bananas. Plus, bananas are loaded with fiber, contain magnesium, vitamin C and vitamin A. Healthy sugar alternatives are definitely better than processed sugar, peeps!
If you don’t have bananas, you could also use unsweetened applesauce.
After you prepped the batter for the blueberry orange muffin…
Nothing beats the taste, flavor, and deliciousness of blueberry muffins. Except maybe… blueberry muffins with crumb topping. The additional awesomeness of blueberry crumb muffins is brought to you today by a few simple and healthy ingredients. To make the crumb topping for muffins:
It’s so easy to make the crumb topping for muffins, don’t you think?
After learning how to make blueberry muffins, we have to move to the next steps – how to store muffins and how to freeze muffins. However, if you want to reach this point, I highly recommend making a double batch because the first one will disappear immediately.
How to store muffins:
How to freeze muffins:
One muffin recipe is never enough. Especially when we’re talking about healthy muffins. So I have more. Not another muffin recipe but 3 more muffin recipes that will make delicious and healthy muffins.
Healthy, full of flavor, and totes delicious, these Paleo Apple Muffins with Crunchy Crumb Topping will fill your home with a wonderful smell while baking them. Oh, the smell of freshly baked muffins. It’s so good.
For extra taste and flavor, these Paleo Apple Muffins are topped with a delicious and crunchy crumb topping that is so, so good. Get the recipe.
These healthy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins are the PERFECT way to use ripe bananas and don’t use any refined flour, refined sugar or oil!
These healthy muffins are soft, dense, filled with amazing banana flavor and chocolate goodness. Get the recipe.
Light and sweet, these 30-Minute Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are packed with pumpkin flavor.
This is my go-to muffin recipe during Fall. But I wouldn’t say no to this muffins the rest of the year. Get the recipe.
Healthy, unrefined orange-scented blueberry muffins for the win!
This post contains affiliate links for products I use often and highly recommend.
The post The Best Healthy Blueberry Muffins appeared first on A Sweet Pea Chef.
