Category: lime juice

Shrimp with Lime and Cilantro over Thai Peanut Quinoa

A bag of frozen shrimp should be a household staple. You can defrost it in ten minutes, put together some of the quickest, tastiest meals ever, and you probably have everything you need in your kitchen right now to get dinner ready, stat.  This recipe is soooo simple and so summery and great – shrimp, cilantro, lime & a little cumin – and you can serve it over pasta, rice, in a tortilla, or over quinoa dressed with spicy Thai peanut sauce, like we did. Shrimpy shrimp shrimp, how I love you so.

SHRIMP WITH LIME AND CILANTRO (serves 3)
– 1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
– juice & zest of 2 limes
– handful of cilantro, chopped
– 1 tbsp. butter
– 2 garlic cloves, chopped
– 1 tsp. cumin

1. If the shrimp is frozen, thaw quickly by immersing shrimp in a bowl of super cold water, and changing the water approximately three times over 10-15 minutes. Rinse and pat dry.

2. Add shrimp to a bowl, then add the lime zest & cumin.


3. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the tbsp. butter.  Add garlic and stir until fragrant, approx. 90 seconds. 


4. Add shrimp to the pan and cook, approx. 2-3 minutes on each side. Don’t over cook!


5. Remove from heat, stir in lime juice and cilantro, mix well. 

6. Spoon shrimp over whatever you’re serving this with, add lime slices for garnish, enjoy.



  

Crunchy Chopped Salad with Feta, Mint and a Lime Vinaigrette

 

Oh, did you overdo it with all the food on Superbowl Sunday? Me too. I needed a serious detox meal the next day, and this salad was pretty perfect. It’s super easy, healthy, completely delicious and fun to eat. You can use whatever veggies you want, but try to get a couple different colored ones to make it look pretty. I also strongly recommend using sugar snap peas, because man, are they ever satisfying to eat. Crunch crunch crunch.

CRUNCHY CHOPPED SALAD WITH FETA, MINT AND LIME VINAIGRETTE (serves 4 – adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
– 1 cup each of 4-5 different kinds of veggies, chopped into pretty uniform pieces. I used an english cucumber, sugar snap peas, radishes and red onion.
– 2 scallions, chopped, white and green parts
– 1/3 C. crumbled feta
– approx. 6 large mint leaves, chiffonaded

LIME VINAIGRETTE
– juice of 1 lime (approx. 1 tbsp)
– 2 tbsp. EVOO
– 1 tsp. cumin
– kosher salt and pepper to taste


This is a really tough recipe. Ready?

1. Get all your veggies cleaned. Chop into similar size pieces and throw them into a bowl.

Sugar Snap Peas win the world
2. Add the feta, mint and the scallions, mix everything together. 

3. In a different container, combine the lime juice with the cumin, salt & pepper. Stir to combine. Add the olive oil and mix it all together. Just before serving, pour dressing over the salad and stir everything together gently but thoroughly.

4. Serve.  We had this with salmon burgers with avocado slices and a dill sauce on sourdough-rosemary bread, and oh, my god. This dinner almost cancelled out the over-indulgence of Super Bowl Sunday – I probably felt almost as bad as the Broncos did by the end of the night. You’ll get them next time, Colorado!

Roasted Cauliflower with Cumin and Lime


I love, love, love roasting just about anything. Roasted Lemon Cauliflower is one of my favorite snacks, and this version of it – lime instead of lemon, a little cumin – takes it to a whole other level. It’s a perfect, super healthy and delicious snack. Plus, the health benefits of cumin!!! Who knew.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER WITH CUMIN AND LIME (serves 4 as a side or snack)
– 1 large head cauliflower
– 4 limes, juiced, zest of 2
– 1 tbsp. EVOO
– 2 tbsp cumin (don’t let this scare you)

1. Preheat the oven to 450.

2. Chop up the washed cauliflower. The easiest way to do this is to cut the cauliflower in half, then into quarters. Then, cut away the middle part (the stem, I guess). The florets should fall away on their own, pretty much mess-free. Add them to a big bowl.


3. Juice and zest 2 of the limes, then add the cumin. Mix to combine. Add the olive oil. Mix it all together and toss it with the cauliflower until it’s well-coated.


4. Lay the cauliflower in one layer on a roasting sheet. Put into the oven and cook for approx. 30- 40 minutes, or until roasted golden brown. Flip it every ten minutes, squeezing the juice of 1/2 a lime over it each time.


5. Serve as a snack or an appetizer (we had this with Roasted Red Grapes with Thyme. I told you I liked roasting things).


Hostessing is my all-time fav.

— AND, just want to give a HUGE congrats to Mario & Katie and the rest of the crew from What The Fork food truck! They made the top 4 for LIVE with Kelly & Michael‘s “Truckin’ Amazing” nationwide Food Truck competition! It’s been so cool to watch their amazing progress over the last year. Vote for them here. Congratulations guys – you make Scranton proud!


Black Bean Soup with Lime & Cumin-Infused Sour Cream

There are a ton of recipes for making a black bean soup with dried beans that you soak overnight, turning an hour-long process into at least a 12-hour one.  I love black bean soup, but I really love the fact that you can throw this recipe together using canned black beans, and have a great, flavorful, one-pot meal in almost no time at all.  Red bell peppers, red onions, cilantro, lime & garlic combine with the canned black beans & chicken broth, then are finished by roughly blending it all together. A dollop of lime & cumin-infused sour cream adds the perfect amount of creaminess to this, too.  Don’t be scared by the 4 tablespoons (!!! I know) of cumin in this soup as a flavoring.  Cumin is great for you – tons of health benefits from liver detoxification to metabolism acceleration.  If you’re not a fan of the spice, though, I’d probably cut this back to 2 tablespoons for a less noticeable flavor.

Happy first day of Spring!

BLACK BEAN SOUP WITH LIME & CUMIN-INFUSED SOUR CREAM (makes approx. 10-12 bowls of soup)
– 1 tbsp. EVOO
– 1 red bell pepper, diced
– 2 red onions, diced
– 3 cans black beans (I can’t recommend buying Eden Organic products enough, if you can find them.  They’re truly organic, use BPA-free cans, etc.  Totally worth the relatively minimal extra cost.), rinsed and drained
– 4 tbsp. ground cumin
– 3 garlic cloves, minced
– 1/3 C. fresh cilantro, chopped
– juice of 1 lime
– 1.5 – 2 C. chicken broth (depending on how thick or thin you like your soup)
– 1.5 – 2 C. water (same note as above)
– Kosher salt & pepper

LIME & CUMIN-INFUSED SOUR CREAM
– zest of 1/2 a lime
– 1/3 C. sour cream
– juice of 1/2 a lime
– 1 tbsp. cumin

1. Dice your onions & your bell pepper.


2. Over medium high heat in a Le Creuset French Oven, heat 1 tbsp. EVOO.  Add diced bell pepper & onions, and sautee until they start to brown, approx. 10 minutes.


3. Add 4 tbsp cumin & 3 minced garlic cloves, stir until fragrant.


4. Add 3 cans rinsed and drained black beans, stir everything to combine.


5. Add water just to cover – either 1.5 – 2 C, depending on how thick or thin you like your soup.  Then add 1.5 – 2 C. chicken broth, too. Pacific makes a great 4-pack of 1-cup servings of chicken and vegetable broth, and they too are “truly” organic, as well as supporters of regulations for GMO labeling (hurraugh).


6. Bring soup just to a boil, then cover and simmer for approx. 30 minutes. Uncover, then add 1 tbsp. salt, 15 grinds of black pepper, juice of 1 lime (I used our new Rosle Citrus Reamer/Juicer again, which is the greatest thing ever), and the chopped cilantro.  Stir & let simmer for another 10 minutes.

 
 

7. At this point, blend it with an Immersion Hand Blender.  You can taste it before you do, but I wouldn’t recommend it, because it’ll just taste like bean water (“hot ham water” – Lindsey Bluth). I roughly blend this, because I like the end result to be a little chunkier, but blend it to whatever consistency you’d like.  Taste, then adjust seasonings.  Cover again, leave on low heat, and make your lime & cumin-infused sour cream.


8. Easy-peasy: combine sour cream, cumin, lime juice, lime zest.  Taste and adjust.  This will keep well in the refrigerator over the next couple of days to top off your bowls of soup.


9. Ladle a bowl of soup, top with a dollop of sour cream, mix & enjoy.  Overnight, this will get thicker & blend the flavors together – like so many soups, it’s good today, but will be great tomorrow. So will the sour cream.

Guacamole




So we’ve talked about my avocado obsession, right? I could eat them all day long. Not only are they delicious, but they’re so good for you, and there are a million articles about how they promote heart health, blood sugar regulation, even anti-cancer benefits! Also, according to this site,  the avocado is “colloquially known as the Alligator Pear, reflecting its shape and the leather-like appearance of its skin.”, which totally makes sense.  Ha. The Alligator Pear.

Anyway, this guacamole recipe is super easy and perfect with Pretzel Crisps, which we should basically buy stock in at this point, because we go through so many of them on a weekly basis.  It’s also a great topper for turkey tacos, which are up next.

GUACAMOLE
(serves 4 regular people, or 2 people who live in this house and really love guacamole)
Ingredients:
2 avocados
4-5 cherry tomatoes, seeded and diced 
1/4 of a large vidalia onion, diced
cilantro (approx. 2-3 tablespoons)
juice of 1 lime
kosher salt to taste

1. Peel and dice the avocados. I’ve found that an easy way to do this is right in the avocado half itself (see the dice in the avocado half in the picture above?).  Then just run a knife around the edge and the diced pieces should kind of just squeeze out into the bowl. Mash this gently with a fork.  As you add the other ingredients, the avocado will continue to get smoother, so it depends on how chunky you like your guac.


2. Add the lime juice (this will also prevent the avocado from browning) and the kosher salt, so the salt can kind of blend with the acid in the lime juice.

3. Add the diced tomato and onion (try to make these pieces the same size) and cilantro, mix everything together. Adjust seasonings and enjoy!