Cilantro Chile Lime Rice is a tangy, a bit spicy, really flavorful rice dish great on the side or ideal in a burrito or taco – simple to make
Cilantro Chile Lime Rice is a super simple dish that is ideal on its own or as an ingredient in burritos, tacos, or casseroles. It’s tangy and a bit spicy, adding a nice little flavor boost to other dishes, very versatile. I took this to a holiday party 2 weeks ago where we had a taco/burrito bar laid out. That taco/burrito bar makes an ideal spread – you can assemble something really decadent or you can build yourself a low-cal, paleo or keto meal … whatever.
In this case I made the dish from scratch, but it is also ideal as a use for leftover rice. Essentially, you’re blending the lime juice, chiles, and cilantro into cooked rice. Super simple. And it definitely is more elegant and interesting than plain old rice or Southwestern rice.
When I make plain old rice, I often make it with chicken bouillon rather than salt, using about 1 1/2 times as much. That’s what I did with this dish. It was really tasty and turned out to be a great addition to the burrito bar. Hope you like it!
Roasted Chipotle Cauliflower is a super simple, bursting with flavor and nutritious dish. Just a bit spicy.
Roasted Chipotle Cauliflower is a simple, obvious variation on classic roasted cauliflower. Before I tried this, I knew it would work really well, and sure enough it did. It’s just a simple dish with just a few spices. It only takes about 5 minutes to prepare and turns out great. You might want to decrease or increase the chipotle powder to adjust the heat to your liking, but that’s all that I can see varying.
Note in the photo above, I used orange cauliflower – so with white cauliflower, it will come out lighter in color. Also, when I roast vegetables, I always use the same method. I save the plastic bags from the produce department and use those. Then I chop the vegetables, dump them in the bag, pour the olive oil in, shake the bag to coat the vegetables, add the seasonings, then shake and massage the bag some more to make sure the vegetables are pretty well coated and seasoned. This takes almost no time, works great, and even leaves a clean kitchen. How can you beat that?
When I was growing up, we never had roast vegetables (except potatoes). I didn’t know anybody roasted vegetables. Now I roast all kinds of vegetables – squash, brussels sprouts, green beans and lots more. I was surprised at how good they are. So this version is now a reliable member of my roasted vegetable repertoire.
Preheat oven to 375°. Slice cauliflower into ¼ inch slices or break into medium-small florets.
Mix the seasonings together in a small bowl and set aside.
Dump the cauliflower into a plastic bag and pour the olive oil in. Hold the bag closed with your hand and shake and rotate the bag to coat the cauliflower with the olive oil.
Add the seasonings, spreading them over the cauliflower (rather than dumping them in one pile). Close the bag and shake and massage the bag to evenly coat cauliflower with the spices.
Spread cauliflower evenly in a large baking dish. 9" x 11" is good, but a bit smaller will also do. Bake for 30 minutes or until tender and slightly browned.
Chile Cheese Puffs are tender, cheesy-stretchy, tasty little morsels incredibly easy to overdose on. Great instead of boring rolls.
Chile Cheese Puffs are a real treat for the taste buds! They are a form of popover based on Brazilian cheese popovers. This past week I had dinner a feast at Fogo de Chao and their little popovers were to die for. So I spent a couple days working on recreating them. This is close in taste and is tender and stretchy like theirs, but is crusty on the outside instead of soft. Still really, really good.
Of course, they don’t use chiles. I would make this for very special dinners (like Thanksgiving) and would generally make some plain and some with cheese and chile on top. Both are wonderful. I generally prefer the with chiles – just awesome! Be sure to use mild green chiles – nice balance. Hotter chiles would overpower the popover.
This is a bit more work than dinner rolls or muffins, but well worth it! Hope you enjoy these!
Place oven rack about ⅓ from top. Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Spray nonstick mini muffin cups (24 cup size is ideal) lightly with cooking spray and set aside. Alternatively, you can use parchment paper or a silicon mat on a cookie sheet.
Dump the milk, oil, and salt into a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Immediately remove from heat and let cool a few minutes or until very warm, not hot.
Stir in tapioca flour until completely mixed. Dough will be very heavy and sticky at this point.
Transfer dough to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. If you don't have a paddle attachment, use a large tall bowl (to keep batter from flying out) and low speed. You can also stir manually, but it will take longer.
Beat dough for a few minutes until it is slick and cool to touch.
Beat eggs in one at a time - let the mixer blend in the eggs completely before adding in the next. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in the cheese until fully mixed through.
Dough will be soft, lumpy, sticky, and a consistency between cake and cookie dough.
Using a small scoop or spoon, scoop out small walnut-sized balls and place them in the muffin cups or on the cookie sheet. Poke a dent in the top of each and fill with about ¼ tsp green chile, then top with about a ½ tsp of the shredded pepper jack cheese.
Place the baking sheets in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 350°F. Bake for 15 minutes. They should be puffed up, bottoms golden brown, cheese on top will be golden brown. If you bake some without chile and cheese on top, they do not tend to brown on top.
Chile Cheese Cauliflower – a wonderful comfort food, yummy and very tasty. Health food? Not quite, a bit more decadent than that
Chile Cheese Cauliflower – often considered a healthier version of Chile Mac and Cheese, right? Well, it does taste awesome, but when I realized how much butter, flour, and cheese I was putting in for one head of cauliflower, I figured I better not be calling it health or diet food. On the other hand, if you directly compare it to Chile Mac and Cheese, there’s no doubt it’s better for you. And it really is very, very scrumptious and easy to make.
I had planned to put a topping of Ritz cracker crumbs mixed with melted butter on top – but you know what? It just didn’t need it.
This is pretty elegant for a dish that’s easy to put together. Maybe 15 minutes prep time and a half hour to cook. This would make a good Thanksgiving side dish, and the kids would like it. Just adjust the heat with how much chile you put in and how hot the chiles are. Easy peasy. Hope you enjoy this one!
1 medium to large head cauliflower, washed & broken into large florets
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1½ cups milk
1 tsp English mustard (Coleman's powdered)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
¼ cup diced green chiles (adjust for desired heat)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
⅛ tsp garlic powder
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°.
Place cauliflower in steamer and steam for 3-5 minutes or until just starting to get tender. Or you could boil it in about an inch of water in a covered pot for 3-5 minutes and drain it.
For the sauce, melt the butter in a medium pan and stir in the flour. Cook over a gentle heat for one minute, then gradually add the milk, a little at a time, stirring well between each addition to keep lumps from forming. Return the pan to a medium heat and bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly. Turn heat down to low and simmer while stirring for several minutes to thicken, then remove from the heat.
Add the cheese, mustard, salt, pepper and garlic powder and blend thoroughly. Stir in chiles, adjusting amount to desired heat.
Place the cauliflower in a glass baking dish and pour the sauce over, being sure to evenly cover the cauliflower. Bake for 30 minutes or until nicely browned on top.
Serve topped with green onions, parsley, or cilantro for garnish
There’s nothing like homemade pulled pork, and Pineapple Pulled Pork is an especially flavorful version. Pineapple is a wonderful flavor complement to pulled pork.
This week I was visiting our favorite cousins and I made this – we got 3 meals out of it. First we had classic pineapple pulled pork sandwiches in pita pockets with coleslaw. Awesome. In the photo above, I served it in a salad with tomatoes, lettuce, avocado, green onion – very satisfying. Pulled pork also freezes great, so I like to have ziploc bags of it in the freezer.
The big secret to the robust flavor of this dish is the cooking down and crisping of the shredded pork in the liquid. This is where the pork gets the distinctive pineapple pulled pork flavor. When you shred the pork right out of the crock pot, taste it and you’ll notice mainly the pork flavor without much spicy tangy pineapple. It can take 15 minutes or so to cook the liquid down, but the resulting shredded pork is tangy and full of flavor.
I made this batch with a modest amount of heat. If you are hard core into spicy hot pulled pork, you’ll want to at least double the jalapeno. Hope you enjoy this – it’s a keeper!
2 tbsp minced seeded jalapeno (or serrano) chiles - about 1 medium chile
optional: Serve with buns & cole slaw
Instructions
Mix the dry rub ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle dry rub all over the pork roast, pressing into the pork. Cover with a plastic bag or wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Combine the pineapple juice, vinegar, crushed pineapple,Worcestershire, liquid smoke, garlic powder and jalapeno.
Place in a 5 quart or larger slow cooker. Pour the liquid mixture on top and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours until fork tender.
Remove the roast from the slow cooker and let stand until cool enough to handle. Shred the pork with a fork or tongs into bite sized pieces and place on a serving dish. Place the shredded pork in a large skillet, pour on the liquid, and cook on medium high to reduce the liquid, about 15 minutes or so. Note: you can freeze the pork and the liquid separately and then combine the two when you take it out to serve it later. This is my preference as it comes out closer to freshly prepared.
Optional: If you like the shredded pork crispy, brown it in a skillet and pour on a small amount of the liquid; then cook a bit more until liquid is absorbed.
Spinach Chile Soup – full of flavor, pretty, nutritious, and even easy. Great by itself or with shredded chicken or veggies cooked in.
Boy, is this one good! Spinach Chile Soup is bursting with flavor and a nice heat. Not too fattening either. Easy to make. Pretty, a gorgeous green – I’ve gotten so I appreciate it when a dish comes out looking pretty without extra work. And an extra bonus – this one is very nutritious. It’s not gluten free, but if you want it to be, just make it without out the flour (no roux) and you can cut the butter down. It will be a lot thinner in consistency, but still very good.
I might try experimenting with this one where I’ll use this soup as a base and add other ingredients, like veggies and meat. It’s got lots of potential. We’re hitting lots of snow the next few days – gotta have soup on the stove! Hope you all try this – you’ll love it!
In a large skillet or soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the spinach and garlic, cover, and cook about 10 minutes until spinach is wilted, stirring occasionally. Stir in the green chiles.
Put the mixture in a blender or food processor, pour in half the can of chicken broth, and blend until pureed. Set aside.
Melt the butter in the pot and add the onions. Cook over medium heat until onions are soft. Sprinkle the flour and seasonings over the top and stir to combine. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, then gradually add remaining chicken broth and milk, stirring the whole time. Pour in the pureed spinach, then cook until thickened, about 5 more minutes.
Add more salt, cumin, and cayenne to taste, if desired.
Chile Lime Street Corn is a robust, spicy, tangy corn dish that can either be a side dish or a soup – a family favorite
Chile Lime Street Corn turned out to be particularly tangy and tasty, full of flavor. When I started this recipe, it was going to be a soup, but it was so good before I added more chicken broth I just left it as a side dish. I would also make this as a soup by adding more chicken broth and it would also be very good. It’s definitely not low calorie. The lime and sour cream add a lot here.
If you want to make this into a soup, just set aside 2 cups of the seared corn, add 2 more cans of chicken broth, puree the mixture after adding all ingredients, then stir the corn kernels back in.
This is an exceptionally tasty recipe, so it’s worth the work. I’ll be making this again when I have company over.
6 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from 6-8 shucked cobs (save the stripped cobs)
1 cup chopped onion
½ tsp dark chili powder
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp black pepper
3 large garlic cloves
¼ cup diced green chiles
2 14.5 oz cans chicken broth
½ cup sour cream
½ cup Cotija cheese or Feta cheese
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp lime zest
chopped cilantro for garnish
Instructions
Heat oil in a large nonstick pot until shimmering, Add corn kernels, chopped onion, chili powder, salt and pepper. Cook over medium high heat, stirring often, until onions are soft and corn is partially charred, about 15 minutes.
Add garlic and cook about a minute or until soft. Put the stripped cobs into the pot and stir the broth in, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. The broth will cook down some.
Remove the cobs and set aside. When cool, if desired, scrape the cobs with a knife and you'll get more meat from the corn kernels; add this to the pot and discard the cobs.
Add the sour cream, green chile and Cotija cheese into the pot. Stir in the lime juice and lime zest. Blend well and serve topped with more chili powder and Cotija cheese.
Pork Chops with Apples and Chile is adapted from a recipe by Polina Antonova of Bay Area Personal Chefs. It’s pan seared pork chops with lots of onions, apples, cider, and a nice bit of heat from chiles.
Apples, chiles and pork! They go together like a horse and carriage (that’s how it works, right?). This recipe is my own adaptation of a recipe by Polina Antonova, a personal chef in the San Francisco Bay Area whom I met through Bay Area Personal Chefs. She grew up in Moscow and specializes in Eastern European cooking. Well, I took a look at her original recipe, Pork Chops with Apples and Sage, and I knew it would be great with chiles. I only used 1/4 cup of hot green chiles, so the heat is clearly noticeable, but subtle. You might like it with more chiles in it. Some people might add brown sugar, but I like it the way it is. As a kid, pork chops grilled on the bbq and served with applesauce was my absolute favorite meal; I had no concept of pork chops served this way. Try it – you’ll like it!
I usually get out to the San Francisco Bay Area at least once a year – I used to live there and have family and friends there. Every time I visit, I come back with a new appreciation of our relatively modest traffic jams here in Denver. But I also get exposed to broader cultural stuff – like I’d never heard of a personal chef until this year. We do have them in Denver, but there are more of them in California (there’s more of everything in California … except skiing and snow). Using personal chefs for convenient, healthy meals seems to be a growing trend.
Cucumber Chile Salad is a cool-hot combination with a smooth sour cream dressing and onion accent – great as a side dish with just about anything
I first made this back in 2010 for the Green Chile Class I taught at Hilltop Gardens. We had about 35 students. I made three versions of this – one with mild chiles, one with medium (Big Jims) and one
with hot (Moscos). The group was split between preferring the medium versus the hot. They thought the mild was too mild to really taste the chiles.
When I teach chile classes, I often make 3 versions of each dish -mild, medium, and hot. The point here is that certain dishes are much better with mild, while others are better with hot. In this case, a reason the hot is better is that with cucumbers and sour cream, cucumber salad is cool. The hot chiles give it contrast and make Cucumber Chile Salad more interesting. This principle also tends to apply to sweet-hot. It’s fun to explore this stuff – and lots of sampling is mandatory!
It was a real hit – many asked for this recipe. It’s not only easy, but is just really yummy and is an example of cucumbers at their best. Ever think cucumbers are not exciting? In this dish, nothing could take the place of those cucumbers! I used the mini cucumbers, often called Persian cucumbers, and didn’t peel them. When I make this with regular cucumbers, I peel them as the skin is a bit thicker and tougher.
Mushroom Pepper Pita is a vegetarian comfort food simple meal of sauteed mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, green chiles, and wonderful seasonings in a pita
Comfort food – that’s what this Mushroom Pepper Pita is for me. I just sautee mushrooms, bell peppers, onions and green chiles in a bit of olive oil, add the vinaigrette, sour cream and cumin, stuff it in a pita and it makes a scrumptious lunch. I had one for breakfast and another for lunch today. I don’t think it’s low cal. I would also make this as a quesadilla. Just put a tortilla in a quesadilla maker, cover with shredded cheese then this mushroom filling, more cheese and another tortilla & cook till done. Really easy and good.
I happened to have a bottle of Carly’s Gold Garlic Mustard Vinaigrette – truly awesome! Great on salads or in dishes like this. You can get it at Whole Foods or Tony’s Market. But for this recipe, another mustard vinaigrette will do as it’s a small part of the recipe.
Note that there’s a lot of water in mushrooms, so you sautee them on a medium low heat, covered, and you’ll get a lot of liquid that then cooks down.
1 tbsp mustard vinaigrette dressing (I used Carly's Gold)
1 tbsp sour cream
⅛ tsp cumin
½ whole wheat pita
optional:grated cheddar cheese, avocado slices
Instructions
Pour the olive oil into a small or medium skillet. Add onions, mushrooms, and bell pepper, cover, and over medium low heat cook for about 15 minutes or until liquid from mushrooms cooks down.
Add the green chile, mustard vinaigrette, sour cream, and cumin.
Open up the half pita, and if desired put a layer of grated cheese then stuff with the mushroom filling. Along with the flavor, the cheese can help protect the pita from getting soggy and falling apart. .
