1796 Foods

737. Black Bean Soup

Second soup post in a row. I love soup; I would happily eat soup every single day, and homemade is always the best whenever I have time to do it. This black bean soup was a really simple, healthy recipe made with canned black beans, onions, stock, and spices, and I topped it off with some chopped coriander and a dollop of sour cream. I love bean soups if I’m trying to eat healthily as they create a lovely creamy consistency without having to add any high-fat ingredients.

737 down, 1059 to go

605. Migas

I had never even heard of migas until a little while back. Then one day I was browsing my Pioneer Woman cookbook and there it was, a migas recipe, and in seconds I immediately went from having no clue what it was to wanting to eat it immediately. Basically, it’s like a Tex-Mex scrambled eggs - eggs scrambled with tomatoes, bell peppers, cheese and crunchy pieces of fried corn tortilla. You were also supposed to add coriander but I forgot to buy any so I just topped it with a few chives instead. Mexican-style egg dishes are always awesome and this was no exception, it was really yummy and made a great Sunday brunch.

605 down, 1191 to go

552. Black-Eyed Peas and 553. Annatto Seed

This is exactly the kind of healthy meal that I love to make at home. I coated some turkey breast steaks in cajun seasoning, made a spicy rice dish to go on the side, then drizzled (ok, poured) yogurt all over the whole thing. I made the rice similarly to how you would make a risotto, by frying the onion first, adding in the rice, then adding the liquid bit by bit. I didn’t stir too much though as I wanted it to remain grainy rather than it getting that smooth, creamy risotto texture. I added chopped red peppers, sweetcorn and black-eyed peas, along with paprika and annatto to flavour. Black-eyed peas are a really nice bean to use as they’re small, and they have a nice nutty flavour. Annatto is also a great spice. I only just discovered it recently but it tastes like a peppery nutmeg with a hint of lemon.

553 down, 1243 to go

508. Tilapia

Tilapia has just recently started to become a more popular fish in Britain - mostly to do with the fact that it is sustainable I think - so you can now buy it at the fish counter in the supermarket. This is great for me as it’s one of the fish that I actually really like, plus it’s also inexpensive. I decided to make sort of fish tacos out of it, so I baked the fish in a foil parcel with some cajun seasoning on, shredded it up and then piled it into the tortillas with lettuce, salsa, sour cream and a whole bunch of chipotle tabasco. (My work loyalties in general have turned me against tabasco - Frank’s RedHot all the way people - but until Frank’s develop a chipotle variety the smoky allure is going to win out).

508 down, 1288 to go

466. Chicken Fajitas

Mexican food is one of my absolute favourites. I love it all - burritos and tacos and chilli and churros and margaritas and mole and tamales and… well, I could go on. I tend to make fajitas at home a lot as they are easy and healthy. I usually fry chicken breast in one pan with spices (chilli, cumin, paprika and oregano), and then fry up a load of onions and bell peppers in another. Then I load it all into tortillas with salsa, soured cream, guacamole and coriander. I’m making myself hungry now; will have to make some more this week I think.

466 down, 1330 to go

450. Huevos Rancheros

Back in January I had the day off work to go to my consultation for laser eye surgery, and once we were done with my meeting we thought we’d treat ourselves to brunch at Giraffe. I was super excited to see huevos rancheros on the menu as well, they are awesome. I made mine extra amazing by covering them in the chipotle tabasco (if you haven’t tried it go buy some right now, it’s freaking delicious). To go with it I had a smoothie made with 451. Papaya, banana and mint. It was totally refreshing and would pretty much be good at any time of day.

451 down, 1345 to go

364. Green Rice

This was lunch with my mum at Wahaca, which is a restaurant I have featured on here before. It serves Mexican street food in little dishes, so it’s basically like a Mexican tapas. My mum and I decided we would go for the set menu as it had everything we had already picked out that we wanted on it anyway, and that comes with green rice and black beans on the side. The green rice was really good. I have the Thomasina Myers (the chef who owns the restaurants) cookbook at home so I’m hoping it’s in there so I can give it a go.

365. Huitlacoche

One of the other dishes we had were mushroom and huitlacoche quesadillas. I had no idea what huitlacoche was until I got home and looked it up and found out it was some kind of corn fungus, which is kind of gross. Having eaten it with no idea what it was though it was very tasty, so I’m glad I did it that way around!

365 down, 1431 to go

260. Sunflower Seeds

I just had a few sunflower seeds sprinkled over my chicken tostadas. You could still taste their individual flavour though and they added a really lovely extra crunch to the dish. I think that adding seeds on top of something like a salad really brings the best out of them rather than just eating a big handful, where they end up seeming a little like bird food. I do like sunflower seeds one of the best as I find they have a nice nutty, buttery flavour to them. Plus I had no idea that the tostadas would have seeds on them when I ordered the dish so it was a nice surprise when I found that I had an item to tick off as well as enjoying what was a really delicious meal anyway.

260 down, 1536 to go

256. Broad (Fava) Beans

I had the broad beans here in a quesadilla with feta, which was a delicious combination. I wouldn’t have ever thought to have them in a quesadilla but it will definitely be something I’ll try to make myself. Though it will involve a whole lot of laborious shucking. Getting the beans out of the pods is fine, that’s the fun part. So fun in fact that I always used to do it myself when I was little, even though I wouldn’t have eaten the beans, I think I was probably excited by the furry insides. It’s the peeling of the individual beans afterwards that’s the boring bit. Probably worth it though I think.

257. Lager

I’m not a huge beer drinker, but I do like an occasional lager with spicy foods. I’m the complete opposite of a lot of British people who think that beer should only be real ale served room temperature from a pump into a glass. Give me a frosty bottled lager with a lime wedge in the top any day. I also think that it works much better as a with-food drink than having a few pints of it on a night out. I find it tastes bitter by itself, but with a curry or tacos it just becomes refreshing and a much better palate cleanser than water.

257 down, 1539 to go

255. Churros

I feel like I don’t need to say much here except that fried dough + sugar + dark chocolate sauce equals deliciousness. But I will. I also like the churros you get that have a hole through the centre and then get sauce squirted in to fill them up. I love them filled with custard, so good. Actually, thinking about it, if I could have a custard-filled one, and then also the dark chocolate to dunk it in, now that would be heavenly.

255 down, 1541 to go