Can we talk about Isa's bowls? You might've noticed that they're this thing she does - in fact, there's a whole chapter of them in her latest book. Isa's bowls always look cosy and nourishing. They typically include a grain, a protein, a vegetable or two and a sauce. They look like something good to eat on the couch with a movie.
But Isa's bowls have a dirty little secret. They dirty an assortment of bowls, blenders, pots and pans in the making. They can have you cooking up to four different things simultaneously. Lucky for this one, it was darn tasty and stretched to several lunches. I couldn't stay mad at it for long.
Isa's queso blanco bowl involves brown rice, canned beans, fresh avocado and tomato, a thick cheesy sauce and crispy kale. This is our first time making kale chips (I know, shut up!) and we were mighty impressed by them. A little spray oil and salt yields light and lacy crispy leaves without any bitterness. We further learned that bitterness and chewiness can creep in if you (1) leave the central leaf stem intact, or (2) continue to eat the 'chips' as leftovers the next day. Treat kale chips as a high-maintenance, bake-to-order kinda thing.
Here's the very-good sauce recipe; I imagine you can patch together the rest yourself. If not, try pouring this sauce on nachos and you'll be in couch-and-a-movie territory for sure.
Isa's Queso Blanco
(a recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Isa Does It)
3/4 cup cashews
1 tablespoon white miso
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/4 cups vegetable stock
2 teaspoons oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 jalapenos, seeds removed and finely chopped
Cover the cashews in water and soak them for at least 2 hours.
Drain the water off the cashew and blend them together with the miso, nooch, garlic, cumin, salt, lemon juice and as much of the stock as you can safely fit, until you have a very smooth, thick paste.
In a medium saucepan, heat up the oil. Add the onion and jalapenos and cook them, stirring, until soft (Isa says 3 minutes, but mine took much longer). Pour in the cashew sauce and any remaining stock and simmer the sauce for 10 minutes, stirring often. The sauce will be very thick, ready to pour into your bowl.
If you pop your excess kale chips away in a container with some paper towel lining the bottom they'll keep lovely and crispy! They just tend to go funny and uncrispified if they're kept in containers with other foods, particularly food with any moisture will make them sad. Don't fridge them either. Otherwise they last just fine (if you can stop yourself from eating them all at once, which most of the time I cannot).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips, Hayley! I put 'em in an airtight container on the bench, but I'll be sure to add a paper towel for extra moisture absorption next time. Or, ya know, just eat 'em.
DeleteI love those sorts of bowls and every now and again I get it right but mostly it seems like too much faffing about so glad to hear about the dirty secret - and pleased that this sounds worth it - looks great
ReplyDeleteHi Johanna! When we can find the patience to do them, the mix'n'match leftovers are actually pretty good. :-)
DeleteI always feel a bit cheated when something promises to be easy and turns out to be quite labor intensive. The whole concept of a bowl meal is that they should be relatively easy to assemble for one or two people and should be like one pot meals with the addition of a rice or other grain at most. Isa's bowls always look gorgeous but are way too intricate and involved to be something I'd make as a simple weeknight bowl meal.
ReplyDeleteHi Elizabeth! They'd certainly have the weeknight comfort factor if only someone else was making it for you. ;-)
DeleteI also imagine that Isa might have one of those kitchens where there's always some nuts soaking and pre-cooked grains and veg in the fridge, in which case these bowls would come together with much less effort.
We do bowls for lunches, cook up the grain and the beans and make sauce over the weekend then top with whatever veggies take our fancy over the week. Isa also has another dirty little secret she says you can just microwave your cashews instead of soaking for hours (a good shortcut sometimes for the less prepared of us *ahem*). Looks SO YUM!
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Madkap! Yes, I think preparing bits throughout the week must be the way to go (we finished the kale and added some spinach and marinated tofu to the later leftovers).
DeleteThat's a great microwave trick! Sadly that's one appliance we live without, so we'll keep on soakin'.
very true, you can also boil them briefly in hot water (obviously not for raw foodies)
DeleteThanks, Cate! I do have saucepans and water, so I might give this a try. :-)
DeleteYou're absolutely right about the mess and effort. They always seem like such a simple meal, but they really aren't! The best time I've had with them when I give each member of the family a job to do. We all cook a bit and then put it all together (sadly, that doesn't happen very often). Having said that, all the bowls I've tried have been bloody beautiful and worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda! I love your delegation strategy - maybe we can get the cat involved...?
DeleteThat sauce sounds delicious! I'm very much a prepare-things-on-a-Sunday kinda girl to make things easier post-work so I may have to whip up some of that sauce to have on standby!
ReplyDeleteHey Liz, I'm sure this would fit well into your Sunday cooking and weeknight eating. :-)
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