Homemade Elderberry Syrup

Seeing as we’re in the midst of cold and flu season, I figured it was perfect time to break out the pound of frozen elderberries I had stashed in the freezer (leftover from my foraging and jelly-making adventure back in August) and turn it into a delicious, immune-boosting syrup.

While this syrup is intended as a health tonic of sorts, if you wanted to stir it into soda or use as a flavor mixer in your favorite cocktail, I wouldn’t blame you (I mean, a splash of this in a gin and tonic would be superb!)

Also? Try drizzling it over pancakes. It’s much more tart than your standard maple, but it’s downright delicious!

Immune-boosting pancakes. I like the sound of that!

According to various internet sources (and I’m no doctor nor are these claims verified by the FDA, yada yada and so forth) elderberries are packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that can help strengthen your immune system, lower blood sugar, moderate digestion, reduce wrinkles, and even slow down the spread of cancer. Those are some big benefits from a little berry. (Read more about the health benefits of elderberries here from a legitimate medical source).

Of course, elderberry jelly has the same healthful properties as this syrup, although it does have more sugar overall. This syrup is just another way to prepare elderberries, since snacking on raw elderberries is not an option (the stems, leaves, and uncooked seeds are toxic and should not be eaten. Cooking the berries makes the seeds safe for consumption).

(Don’t forget to click through to download the free printable labels too!)

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Tomato Sage Chickpea Soup

The other day when scrolling my Instagram feed, I came across a food blogger who had done a survey of her readers. She mentioned that some of the feedback she got was, “I hate scrolling through a long post just to get to the recipe.”

OK, I totally get that. Sometimes, I just want a recipe fast. But, it also made me a little sad. Because, the blog post is the place where you get to be a person. A writer with something to say. You express your humanity in the blog post — your beliefs, passions, rants, perspectives, dreams. What if all I posted here were the photographs above and the recipe below? How silent it would feel! Photos, recipe, done. Here’s a transaction: you get your information, now everyone’s happy.

I got an email from someone once that said, “Sorry I left that comment on your blog, I didn’t realize you were a real person.” It was an incredible email to receive, because it’s true: with the veil of technology, it’s harder to believe there’s really a human at the other end. The emailer was the most kind and gracious person, and we left that email exchange with an endearing, authentic human connection.

So yes, I get it. You don’t want to scroll for two seconds to get a recipe. But what about all that humanity that’s in between?

I’ll use the remainder of this easily scroll-able space to talk this tomato chickpea soup. It’s one of Alex and my recent favorites, and I don’t say favorite lightly. While I love pureed soups like our Moroccan cauliflower, my favorite are chunky soups that are tasty and offer tons of nutrients. This one is gluten-free and vegan, Whole 30 approved if you remove the chickpeas (and eat with some additional filling protein). A few items to note about this tomato chickpea soup:

• It uses sliced onions instead of the typical diced, to add extra texture to the dish (it’s not a typo).
• It features dried porcini mushrooms, which add a savory flavor and interesting texture. If you’re not a huge mushroom fan, we’d still recommend giving it a try: they add a lot of umami to the dish and they’re not offensively slimy. The dried mushrooms are soaked in water before using, then chopped into small pieces.
• It really is delicious: savory, cozy and comforting…perfect for a gray day like the one we captured above. Alex’s opinion: “It tastes like canned soup, but way better and healthier.”

Now scroll down for the recipe (ha!).

 

Looking for more soup recipes?

• Moroccan Spiced Cauliflower Soup
• Za’atar-Spiced Butternut Squash Soup
• Hearty Sweet Potato and Kale Soup
• Creamy Coconut Curry Pantry Soup
• Italian Vegetable & Gnocchi Soup
• Quinoa Black Bean Vegan Chili

Did you make this recipe?

If you make this tomato sage chickpea soup, we’d love to hear how it turned out. Leave a comment below or share a picture on Instagram and mention @acouplecooks.

This recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free, sugar-free. For Whole 30 friendly, omit the chickpeas.

Tomato, Chickpea & Sage Soup

 

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by: a Couple Cooks

Serves: 4

What You Need

• 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 large yellow onion (or 2 small)
• 2 carrots
• 1 stalk celery
• 4 large garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon minced sage leaves
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 28 ounces San Marzano whole tomatoes (with basil, or without)
• 1 quart veg broth
• 1½ cups canned chickpeas
• ½ teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 to 3 cups baby spinach leaves (or chopped standard spinach)

What To Do

1. Place the mushrooms in a bowl with 2 cups water; let them stand for about 15 minutes until tender. (Note that the soaking liquid will be used in the soup as well.)
2. Meanwhile, thinly slice the onions into half-circles (this adds texture to the soup versus the traditional diced onion). Peel the carrots; chop the carrots and celery into bite-sized pieces. Mince the garlic and sage.
3. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and saute 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the porcini mushrooms from the water and roughly chop them; save the water for adding to the soup. Add the mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes until onions are tender, making sure to stir often so they don't become too stuck to the bottom of the pan.
4. Add the celery and carrots and saute for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sage and saute for 2 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the apple cider vinegar and stir for a few seconds until evaporated.
5. In a bowl, crush the whole tomatoes with your hands. Gently add the tomatoes and cook 2 for more minutes. Then add the broth, mushroom liquid, drained chickpeas and salt. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the spinach and stir for a few seconds until wilted.
6. Taste and adjust kosher salt as necessary (salt depends on the salt content of the broth and tomatoes). Serve immediately.

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Vegetarian Black Bean Tacos

I love a good ground beef taco, but sometimes, you just don’t want something quite so greasy.

We set out to create a vegetarian black bean taco that was light on fat but heavy on flavor.

By cooking dried beans ourselves we were able to leave them more aldente, so they hold their shape and carry a pleasant bite to them in the final tacos (canned beans, I’ve found to be much more mushy).

With three kinds of peppers (poblano, jalapeno, and chipotle in adobe) plus cumin and a touch of lime, this taco is light and fresh and ultra flavorful.

In terms of toppings, we opted for simple: with diced avocado, fresh cilantro, crumbled cheese (queso fresco or cotija) and a drizzle of sour cream. I like to mix my sour cream with a bit of lime juice and a splash of milk to thin it out, so it’s more akin to a tangy Mexican crema than thick sour cream, which allows me to drizzle rather than dollop. Mix it up and transfer it to a squeeze bottle for even easier drizzling.

I also think these tacos would be great with the same pickled red onions that we used on our pulled pork tacos, or even this cilantro chimichurri. You can really mix and match the toppings to your heart’s desire.

I’m happy to say that we’ve finally, after years and years of dealing with mushy, crispy, or broken corn tortillas, figured out how to properly warm a store-bought corn tortilla, leaving it soft and pliable and perfect. Of course, ideally you’d be making your own corn tortillas, but that’s not always an option.

How to properly warm corn tortillas:

Preheat a nonstick skillet or griddle pan over medium heat. It should be nice and hot (a drop of water should sizzle when it hits).

Take a tortilla and quickly dip it in a bowl of water. You don’t want to soak it, but dip and remove it so it’s evenly moistened.

Brush your skillet with a light layer of vegetable oil, then add the moist tortilla to the pan. After a few seconds shake the pan a bit so the tortilla doesn’t stick.

Cook for 30 to 60 seconds until moisture has mostly evaporated, then carefully flip and cook for another 30 seconds more. Transfer to a plate and cover with plastic wrap, foil, or a clean kitchen towel while you heat the rest of the tortillas (this covering serves two purposes, to keep the tortillas warm and also to ‘steam’ them which makes them soft and flexible).

Ta-da! Perfectly warmed tortillas that WON’T BREAK when you’re eating your tacos!

And if you want that perfect bit of char around the edges, just run the tortilla over a gas burner or take a kitchen torch to it. It doesn’t add much in the way of flavor but sure does make for a pretty picture. :)

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Veggie Packed Quinoa Fried Rice

Pomegranate Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad

How have we been able to keep eating healthy, vegetable-centric food for the past 10 years?

Gulp. Realizing Alex and I have been married for 10 years. That makes me sound older than I feel.

Our secret: the non-diet diet. CNN just published an article on the non-diet diet approach, and it made me do a little happy dance inside. Finally, our “non-sexy” approach to lifestyle change and making healthy eating fun is becoming newsworthy!

As you’ll read in our Pretty Simple Cooking cookbook (we’re anxiously awaiting the launch date on February 6), our approach isn’t about restricting foods, or doing 30 day challenges, or making 5-ingredient recipes. It’s all about setting up habits for sustainable lifestyle change.

Our guiding mantra is from our onscreen cooking mentor, Julia Child:

Try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all, have fun.

It gives me chills every time I type it, because it is so, so true. Our entire experience in the kitchen, starting from Day 1, has been guided by those mantras. You’ll see many of those come through in our 10 life lessons in the book. (PS want to see Julia in a tube top? This Bon Appetit article has photos like you’ve never seen!)

Recipes like this shaved Brussels sprouts salad are what healthy eating and adventurous cooking should be about. It’s a study in texture contrasts: the feathery shaved Brussels, the pop of the Pomegranate seeds, and the bright crunch of the apple. It’s vibrant and colorful, covered in a lightly sweet vinaigrette. And the flavor: it’s like eating a bowl of confetti, but the healthy kind! After noshing on it, you’ll truly feel a vibrant glow: and that’s not just fad diet BS. In the winter I tend to gravitate towards comfort foods like breads and cheeses, so this has been a welcome antidote. It’s also vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free; it’s naturally sweet and you can remove the maple syrup for a sugar-free dressing. It does take a bit of time to put together, but it’s well worth it. As a time saver, you can purchase shaved Brussels sprouts and shelled pomegranate seeds: we’ve been tipped of that Brussels sprouts are sold shaved at Trader Joe’s.

Cheers to trying new recipes, being fearless, and having fun in 2018!

Looking for more Brussels sprouts recipes?

Brussels sprouts are the new best thing: they’re absolutely on trend, especially shredded and roasted. Here are some of our favorite Brussels sprouts recipes on the site:

• Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Goat Cheese & Harissa
• Heart-Shaped Caramelized Onion and Brussels Sprout Pizza
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pecorino and Pecans
• Shaved Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potato Salad
• Shaved Brussels Sprouts and Rice with Tahini Miso Dressing

Did you make this recipe?

If you make this pomegranate shaved Brussels sprouts salad, we’d love to hear how it turned out. Leave a comment below or share a picture on Instagram and mention @acouplecooks.

This recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free, and naturally sweet. For sugar free, omit the maple in the dressing.

Pomegranate Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad

 

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Buying shredded Brussels sprouts and shelled Pomegranate seeds can help cut down prep time. We've heard shredded Brussels sprouts are available at Trader Joe's!

by: a Couple Cooks

Serves: 4

What You Need

• 1 pound Brussels sprouts
• ½ cup pomegranate seeds
• 1 apple
• 1 shallot
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1⁄8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

What To Do

1. Shred the Brussels sprouts: Lay each sprout on its side, then thinly slice starting from the top and working towards the root. Then use your fingers to gently separate the shreds.
2. Seed the pomegranate: Cut the pomegranate into quarters and place them in a large bowl of water. Under the water, gently pull out the seeds with your fingers. Eventually, you’ll be able to turn the peel inside out to extract the seeds closest to the outer skin. As you work, the pomegranate seeds will sink to the bottom, while the white pith from the fruit will float to the top. When all of the seeds are extracted, skim off the white pith and strain out the water. Rinse the pomegranate seeds, then store the extra seeds in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
3. Cut the apple into bite-sized pieces. Thinly slice the shallot into rings.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, white wine vinegar, maple syrup, and kosher salt. Gradually whisk in the olive oil 1 tablespoon at a time until thick and emulsified.
5. In a large bowl, stir all ingredients together. Serve immediately.

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Wild Mushroom Ragout

What is the difference between ragu and ragout anyway?

Both are robust and flavorful and more than satisfying on a cold winter night. But the similarities end there.

Ragù is an Italian meat-based pasta sauce with a little bit of tomato/tomato paste (but not overwhelmingly tomato like a marinara would be). Think bolognese.

Ragout, on the other hand, is a thick and chunky French stew, meat or veg-based and cooked long and slow until the flavors are rich and robust. It’s not necessarily a sauce, but is often served over pasta.

This recipe falls is somewhere in between, and I’ve changed the title of this post more than a few times because I simply couldn’t decide what to call it.

The mushrooms make for an ultra-flavorful meat alternative that is in no way lacking in the flavor department; and there is a little bit of tomato paste in there for added depth and consistency (score one for ragu). That said, the French ragout is a bit more all-encompassing in terms of meat/no-meat flexibility, and the last thing I want to do is piss off the Italian-authenticity police (which pushes me more towards team ragout). And while I’d certainly consider it more of a pasta sauce than a standalone stew (advantage: ragu), there’s no denying it’d be a pretty darn good topping for risotti, potatoes, or even grilled chicken (ragout evens the score).

Whether you call it a mushroom ragout served over pasta, or a meatless ragu with wild mushrooms, what’s obvious here is that a lack of meat does not mean lack of flavor. In fact, I’d argue this ragout is nearly TOO flavorful (if there is such a thing?) Mushrooms, of course, being one of the greatest sources of natural umami this side of soy sauce… The way to bring out even more of that flavor? Cook them down until they surrender their succulent richness and devour.

Meat lovers and mushroom haters alike can even get behind this dish, it’s that good.

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Moroccan Spiced Cauliflower Soup

  

It’s the start of a new year. The possibility of 365 new days is like waking up with the morning sun, where the slanted golden rays just start to pour in and the entire day is ahead of you for the taking. Coffee in hand and To Do list at your side, you’re up before the world is awake and you feel like you can do anything.

Good morning, 2018. A whole new year to unfold. It’s no wonder people make resolutions at the top of the year; it’s a clean slate. And come January, all eyes are on healthy eating. It’s the thing of the moment, along with gym memberships of course. More people search the internet for healthy recipes. Cleanses and 30-day stints are all the rage. People buy spiralizers and Instant Pots in droves. Which is great: a giant Y-E-S to healthy eating and cooking! But as always, as A Couple Cooks our message is about more than that. It’s unsexy, really, because it’s all about hard work and forming new habits.

Let’s make it a sustainable lifestyle change.

Because then we don’t have to do this all over again next year, am I right? Creating a sustainable practice of healthy cooking might sound aspirational, but we can assure you: it’s very possible, with a bit of grit and creativity. Learning to cook changed our lives, and changing our habits turned out to be both easier and more difficult than we thought. In the end, we decided it was pretty simple, really–once you put a few lifestyle changes into place. Which is why we wrote a book about it called Pretty Simple Cooking (which we can’t wait to share it with you come February 6!).

That said, let’s talk about souping. It’s trendy and might be more meant for health cleanses, but let’s use it as a verb meaning to eat soup. Souping is our tried and true method for how to eat healthy in the winter. Why?

1. Soups make it easy to eat a load of vegetables. I’m a self-proclaimed veggie lover. If I look in the refrigerator and see a bunch of raw veggies, I’m more likely to make myself a quesadilla than fix myself a salad. However, if I see a Moroccan cauliflower soup, I’ll go for that every time. Soups make eating vegetables easy and delicious.
2. Soups are cozy and comforting. No explanation needed here: there’s nothing more hygge than a steaming bowl of soup. Just add a fuzzy blanket and a candle.
3. Soups make for easy meal planning. In the winter months, my meal plans look like this: Soup and bread. Soup and salad. Soup and corn muffins. It works for a weeknight, or for company. It’s also perfect for lunches.

This cauliflower soup is our first soup of 2018 and we’ve designed it to be both tasty and nourishing. The cauliflower is roasted until lightly charred, then pureed with onion, carrot and Moroccan spices into a silky puree. For the garnish, a bit of the roasted cauliflower, green onion tips and a bit of olive oil. This vegan soup is pretty simple to put together, full of nutrients, and gluten-free to boot.

Early 2018 calls for cauliflower soup. Future you will thank you.

Looking for more soup?

• Here’s a list of all our soup recipes.
• Like this cauliflower soup but want one in half the prep time? Try this coconut curry pantry soup.

Did you make this recipe?

If you make this Moroccan spiced cauliflower soup, we’d love to hear how it turned out. Leave a comment below or share a picture on Instagram and mention @acouplecooks.

This recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free, sugar-free.

Moroccan Spiced Cauliflower Soup

 

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by: a Couple Cooks

Serves: 4

What You Need

• 3 pounds whole cauliflower (about 1½ medium heads or 8 cups of florets)
• 6 medium garlic cloves
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus additional for garnish
• 1¾ teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 carrot
• 6 to 7 cups vegetable broth
• 1½ teaspoons cumin
• 1½ teaspoons coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• Sliced green onion tops, for garnish
• Paprika, for garnish

What To Do

1. Preheat the oven to 450F.
2. Chop the cauliflower into florets. Peel the garlic, keeping the cloves whole. Place the cauliflower and garlic in a large bowl and stir together with 3 tablespoons olive oil and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat, and place the cauliflower in an even layer on top. Roast for 30 to 35 minutes until lightly blackened and very tender, stirring once.
3. Meanwhile, dice the onion. Peel and dice carrot.
4. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium high heat. Saute the onion and carrot until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add 6 cups vegetable both and the cumin, coriander, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and black pepper, and bring it to a boil. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes while the cauliflower roasts.
5. When the cauliflower is done, use a spoon to remove about ¾ cup of the smallest florets for the garnish. Then pour the remaining cauliflower into the broth mixture. Add 1 cup broth, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and ¾ teaspoon kosher salt. Puree with an immersion blender until smooth (or pour into a blender and blend until smooth, taking care that the liquid is very hot).
6. Serve immediately, topped with the reserved cauliflower, sliced green onions, additional olive oil (if desired), and a sprinkle of paprika.

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