Autumn Sweet Potato Salad with Maple Orange Vinaigrette

It's time again for The Salad Bar, hosted by Wendy of The Weekend Gourmet.  

This month's theme was sweet potatoes.  I knew that I didn't want to do a "potato salad" kind of salad, a picnic-y type salad with mayo.  I was thinking more of a tossed sweet potato salad with some kind of vinaigrette.  Something with a fall flair to it.  I found the perfect one at The Daily Meal.  I changed it up to make it a little more savory.  Here's my version.

Autumn Sweet Potato Salad with Maple Orange Vinaigrette

Ingredients:
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into ½” cubes 
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar 
2 tbsp orange juice 
2 tbsp maple syrup 
1 tsp Dijon mustard 
¾ tsp salt 
½ tsp cardamom
2 tbsp canola oil 
2 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
¼ cup chopped pecans, toasted 
1 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

Directions:
Place the sweet potatoes in small saucepan. Add enough water to cover. Cover the saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook at a low boil until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Spread them out on a clean dish towel to dry.

Meanwhile, whisk together the vinegar, orange juice, maple syrup, mustard, salt, and cardamom in a bowl. Slowly whisk in canola oil until well blended. Set aside.

Add the bacon, pecans, and goat cheese to the sweet potatoes. Toss gently with the dressing. Serve warm or chilled.

Makes 1 main dish serving.

I just love the flavors in this salad!  The sweet potatoes provide sweetness, of course, and beautiful color.  The bacon gives it a lovely salty savory-ness.  The pecans give it great crunch, which is always important in a salad, and the goat cheese gives it contrast of color and a lovely tangy creaminess.  And the vinaigrette is perfect for tying it all together.  The original recipe called for cinnamon, but the cardamom is so perfect in it.  Orange and cardamom is a great combo (in fact, those are the assigned ingredients for this month's Improv Challenge, so come back on Thursday to see another great recipe featuring orange and cardamom!).  You can't really see the dressing in the photo because it is thin and mostly sat at the bottom of the bowl, but if you look closely you can see some little brown flecks on the sweet potatoes; that's the cardamom in the dressing.

The original recipe called for raw apples and dried cranberries.  I thought that would just be too much sweet flavors all together.  It's much better balanced out by some savory flavors.

I ate this salad for lunch the other day.  It was the perfect amount.  It would probably serve two as a side dish.

Be sure to check out all the other great sweet potato salad recipes below and don't forget that I am posting a great Thanksgiving dish every day next week starting on Monday!

Read More

Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken

I just love Thanksgiving food.  Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce. Mmm.  I love it so much that I don't save it for only one day a year; I make Thanksgiving-type food all year round.  I call these meals "mock Thanksgiving" meals.  They contain the best flavors of Thanksgiving without the hassle of cooking a whole turkey and making all the sides.  

This is a Better Homes and Gardens recipe I discovered on Recipe.com and tried last month.  It's a winner!  Throw some chicken drumsticks in the slow cooker with cranberry sauce and when it's done, serve it with some StoveTop stuffing.  

Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken

Ingredients:

8 chicken drumsticks, skinned

1 (16 oz.) can whole berry cranberry sauce

2 tbsp dry onion soup mix

2 tbsp quick-cooking (instant) tapioca

Directions:

Place chicken in slow cooker.  In a small bowl, stir together the cranberry sauce, onion soup mix, and tapioca.  Pour over the chicken and turn the chicken pieces so they are evenly coated.

Cook on low for 6 hours.  Rearrange pieces halfway through cooking if you are able.

Serve chicken drumsticks with sauce.  Stuffing goes really well with this chicken.

Makes 4 servings.

Here's something shocking: I didn't change anything about this recipe!  That is pretty rare.  It's just perfect the way it is.  The onion soup mix gives the cranberry sauce just the perfect amount of savory-ness and cuts down on the sweetness.  The instant tapioca thickens the sauce beautifully so you can coat the tender chicken with it.  Have you ever used it before?  It's pretty great for slow cooker dishes.  Cornstarch doesn't work in the slow cooker because it has to come to a boil and slow cookers don't usually get that hot.  But the tapioca softens and thickens at a lower temperature so it's perfect.

Of course, you could serve this chicken with rice, but I think it's so great with the stuffing.  And using the boxed stuffing (I always get the reduced-sodium chicken variety), makes this meal perfect for busy weeknights.  My favorite veggie to go with this is green beans.

While I like to make this meal whenever I am craving Thanksgiving food outside of Thanksgiving season, it would also be great for those who aren't doing the whole big Thanksgiving celebration but still want something to make the day feel like Thanksgiving.  It would be perfect for a couple or a small family who is staying home that day and doesn't feel like going all out with the turkey and everything.

Here are some other "mock Thanksgiving" meals I have shared with you in the past:

Turkey Stuffing Meatloaf with Cranberry Glaze

Turkey and Sweet Potato Burritos

Spicy Cranberry Glazed Chicken

Speaking of Thanksgiving, next week will be this year's installment of my annual Thanksgiving Week here on my blog.  I have five great recipes that will liven up your Thanksgiving table.  Are you tired of the same old, same old?  I have three awesome side dishes, one turkey-alternative main dish (good if you are hosting guests who don't like turkey that much), and a super easy pumpkin dessert.  So be sure to check all of that out next week.

Read More

Fill The Cookie Jar: Fresh Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

It's time for another installment of my newest monthly challenge, Fill the Cookie Jar.

This month's theme was Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving cookies, hmm.  Nothing jumped out at me.  I did some searching online and found the perfect recipe.  I procrastinated, and made that recipe yesterday afternoon.  They were kind of a pain in the butt to make, but I was sure they were worth the effort.  Then I opened the oven.  Total flop!  They did not turn out right at all.  I'm not sure why; I only did one little thing differently.  It didn't seem like it would make that big of a difference, but then again, I am not a baker so who knows.  It was about 3:00 and I didn't think I had time to make something different.  What other Thanksgiving themed cookie could I make without going to the store?  Then I remembered that I had a bag of fresh cranberries stashed in the freezer from last winter.  Cranberries are very Thanksgiving-y!  Most cranberry cookie recipes call for dried cranberries, but I did some digging and found one at Food.com that uses fresh cranberries.  It was a mad dash to get them made and photographed before it got dark, but I made it just in time!  Here's the recipe.

Fresh Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh (or frozen and thawed) cranberries

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp orange extract

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

1½ cups oats

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°.

In a food processor or blender pulse cranberries until chopped. Set aside.

Cream butter and brown sugar together.  Add egg and orange extract and mix well.  Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and oats and mix well.  Gently stir in cranberries.  Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet.

Bake at 375° for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom. Remove from cookie sheet onto parchment paper to cool.

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

So these cookies turned out great.  It only took me like 10 minutes from the time I found the recipe until I threw them in the oven.  Not bad!  I did have to use white sugar instead of brown because I was out, but they were still fine.  I would definitely use brown next time though.  And next time will probably be tomorrow since I have the rest of the bag of cranberries to use up.

I love the oats in these cookies.  They give them great body and chewiness.  My favorite kind of cookie.  And the fresh cranberries are so hugely different than the dried.  Not chewy at all, and they have this bright, fresh taste that is just unbelievable.  They're not sour, but they have a great tang to them.  And don't you just love the beautiful red color?

Here are some fun Thanksgiving cookies I have posted in years past:

Groovy Gobblers

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

These cranberry cookies would be a great addition to your Thanksgiving buffet.  Check out all the other great Thanksgiving cookies below and come back next month to see what kind of Christmas cookie I come up with.

Read More

SRC: Maple Pecan Frappuccino

It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

This month I was assigned the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz.  It's written by Evelyne, a foodie from Montreal.  Evelyne describes her blog as "A journey into the many ethnic cuisines my city and the world has to offer."  She started it as a supper club and it grew into a blog, first more about her experiences dining out, but now morphing more into being more about her experiences in the kitchen.  Recipes of hers that made my short list were: Navajo Tacos, Pumpkin Pudding, and her East Meets West Arancini.  But I ended up going with one of her blended coffee drinks.  As soon as I saw her Maple Walnut Coffee, I knew that's what I wanted to make.

My family doesn't like walnuts that much, so I always substitute pecans instead.  So it turned into a Maple Pecan coffee smoothie.  Those of you who are paying attention might notice that this is now the third "maple pecan" recipe I have posted in a row.  (See Maple Pecan Salmon and Maple Pecan Scotch Eggs.)  I assure you that this was not intentional, and yes, I may be slightly obsessed with the combination of maple and pecan!

Maple Pecan Frappuccino

Ingredients:

¼ cup chopped pecans

¼ cup oats (old-fashioned or quick-cooking)

1½ cups vanilla soymilk 

1 packet Via instant coffee

2 tbsp real maple syrup

Couple handfuls of ice cubes

Directions:

Put the pecans and oats into a blender and pulse until they form a powder.  Add all remaining ingredients except the ice into the blender and process until smooth.  Add the ice and pulse until pulverized.  Transfer to two serving glasses; serve immediately.

Makes 2 (10 oz.) smoothies.

I'm calling these frappuccinos because that's what they reminded me of.  Only you won't find a maple pecan flavor at Starbucks!  They are cool and creamy with the perfect amount of coffee flavor, which is greatly enhanced by the maple and pecan.  I never would have thought to combine coffee, pecans, oats, and maple in a smoothie, but it totally works!

I used real maple syrup instead of maple extract because that's what I had on hand.  It added the perfect amount of sweetness.  I used vanilla Silk because that's what my kids drink (and I'm lactose-intolerant so it worked for me too), but you can use regular milk if you like.  You might need to adjust the sweetness since the vanilla soy is sweetened.

I didn't intend to drink too much of this smoothie because all I had on hand was regular Via.  (The store was out of decaf, which I usually get.)  I am very sensitive to caffeine, and already had some that day, so I was just going to take a few sips to try it out before giving the rest to my husband.  I guess I didn't realize how much I liked it until I looked down at my cup and realized it was almost empty.  Oops!  

Thanks for a great recipe, Evelyne!

Read More

Maple Pecan Scotch Eggs

Another maple pecan recipe?  Yep! Tis the season!  Maple and pecans go so well together, especially in savory dishes.  I always make my husband a special breakfast for his birthday each year.  He had always wanted to try scotch eggs so I thought it was about time I made them for him.  Scotch eggs are hard-boiled eggs covered in sausage; traditionally coated in breadcrumbs.  I found a recipe for scotch eggs with a maple walnut coating instead of the breadcrumbs, and I knew my husband would absolutely love that.  He has quite the sweet tooth.  I got the recipe from Foodista and changed it just slightly.  Here's my version.

Maple Pecan Scotch Eggs

Plastic wrap is the key to making symmetrical, well-rounded scotch eggs. The sausage easily molds around the egg without sticking to your hands in the process.

Ingredients:

6 eggs

24 oz. ground pork sausage

¼ cup pure maple syrup, divided

¼ cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Turn off heat and set timer for 12 minutes.  When the timer goes off, remove eggs and run them under cold water for several minutes until they cool down.  Peel.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Using your hands, combine the pork and 2 tbsp maple syrup. Once brought together, divide into six even portions.  Lay a sheet of plastic wrap down on your work surface. Spread one portion of the sausage out into a circle in the center of the plastic wrap and place your hard-boiled egg on the sausage patty.  Lifting up from under the plastic wrap, gently mold the sausage around the egg and seal completely.  Place each egg onto a baking sheet.  Once they are all rolled up, brush with remaining maple syrup and sprinkle with the chopped pecans.  

Bake for 40-45 minutes. When done, the outside should be a deep brown and the sausage nicely cooked through without being overcooked.  Serve warm.

Makes 6 servings.

Aren't they gorgeous?  They turned out perfectly.  The eggs were perfectly cooked, the sausage was nicely browned, the maple syrup added just a touch of sweetness, and the pecans were wonderfully toasted.

The original recipe called for walnuts, but we like pecans better so I used those.  It also called for mixing some of the pecans in with the sausage, but I didn't do that.  I just put them on top.

 The plastic wrap method worked out perfectly.  Here are a few pics of the process.

 Place a blob of the sausage on the plastic wrap.  

 Nestle a hard-boiled egg onto it.

 Then use the plastic wrap to squish the sausage all around the egg.

 The plastic wrap makes it easy to make sure the sausage covers the egg evenly.

 Perfecto!

 I used a stoneware baking sheet.  (If you don't have one, get one!)

Aren't they just beautiful?  I was so impressed with how perfectly they turned out, considering how incredibly easy they were to make.  My husband absolutely loved them.  

So if you want to make a special breakfast treat for someone, try these out.  

Read More

Maple Pecan Salmon

It's Monday, so I should be sharing a great meatless dish with you, but I'm not.  I just couldn't sit on this amazing salmon recipe any longer.  I have made it twice in the last month (which is a lot for me!), and I have decided that it's my absolute new favorite salmon recipe.  The salmon is marinated in maple syrup and baked with a maple and pecan glaze.  I saw a recipe for Honey and Pecan Glazed Salmon at The Girl Who Ate Everything, and thought it sounded great.  But since I was in a fall food state of mind, I decided to try it with maple syrup instead of honey.  Here's my version.

Maple Pecan Salmon

Ingredients:
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tbsp soy sauce
4 (4 oz.) salmon fillets
⅓ cup pecans, chopped


Directions:
Combine maple syrup and soy sauce in a small bowl and pour into a Ziploc bag.  Add salmon fillets and marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 425°.  

Remove salmon from the bag and place on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Pour half of the marinade over the salmon and top with pecans.  Drizzle the remaining marinade on top of the pecans.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until salmon flakes easily.  

Remove from oven and spoon some of the cooking liquid over the top of the salmon.  Serve warm.

Makes 4 servings.

Note: This recipe is gluten-free if you use gluten-free soy sauce.

Oh man, this salmon is amazing.  The sweetness of the maple syrup goes so well with the salmon, but the soy sauce keeps it a plenty savory too.  And I just love the crunch of the pecans on top.

I think I could eat this salmon everyday.  Which is saying a lot for me.  My husband feels the same way and my kids liked it too.  You really must try this recipe.  Usually I only make maple-y things in the fall, but I already know that I will be making this one year-round.

Read More

The Salad Bar: Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Salad

It's time again for The Salad Bar, hosted by Wendy of The Weekend Gourmet.  

This month's theme was Mexican salads.  I kind of struggled with this because the only Mexican salad I could think of was the usual taco salad.  But I wanted to do something more interesting than that.  I even searched Pinterest and wasn't finding anything inspiring.  Then one day I was cleaning out some of my paperwork and I found a list of recipes that I had wanted to pin from an old Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine.  One of them was Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Salad.  It was perfect!  Lettuce, onion, avocado, and cilantro topped with taco seasoned chicken, dressed with a spicy sweet chipotle dressing, and finished off with crunchy tortilla strips.  I made a few changes, of course, so here's my adaptation.

Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Salad

Ingredients:
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast cutlets
Taco seasoning
⅓ cup + 1 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 tbsp chipotle in adobo sauce, minced
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp brown sugar
Green leaf lettuce, chopped
3 green onions, sliced
1 avocado, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Crunchy tortilla strips

Directions:
Season the chicken with the taco seasoning. In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook through, about 5 minutes, flipping once. Remove from heat and slice into thin strips.  Set aside.

In a small container with a lid, combine the chipotle in adobo, vinegar, brown sugar, and remaining ⅓ cup olive oil. Put the lid on the container and shake to emulsify the dressing.

In a large bowl, place the lettuce and onion. Add the avocado and tomatoes, cilantro, and tortilla strips. Pour on the dressing and toss. To serve, top the salad with the chicken.

 Makes 4 servings.

This salad is so good!  Rachael used a combination of cumin, paprika, coriander, salt, and pepper on the chicken, but I simplified things by using my own taco seasoning.  I always have it ready to go in my spice cabinet, so it was just easier.  The other major thing I changed was that the dressing was supposed to be made in the skillet as a warm dressing.  I didn't feel that was necessary.  It was just great at room temperature.  

I cheated and didn't actually mince the chipotle for my dressing.  I just used about a tbsp of the adobo sauce.  The adobo sauce is super flavorful and has some heat to it and lots of the chipotle flavor.  I made this salad for my family, so I didn't want it to be too spicy for my little ones.  And my husband and I are kind of wimps when it comes to spice anyway.  The one tbsp of adobo sauce was perfect for us, but if you like things hot, then mince up some of the chipotle pepper.  It also called for 1 tbsp of brown sugar, but that was a little bit sweet for me.  So next time I will just do 2 tsp.

If you have never used tortilla strips before, they come in bags just like croutons, either in the produce section or the salad dressing aisle.  They have different flavors, but since there was already a lot of flavor going on here, I just got the plain ones.  I didn't want the flavors clashing.

This salad was a big hit with my family.  They all loved it.  It's a great healthier alternative to taco night.

Be sure to check out all the other great Mexican salads below!

Read More

Improv: Toffee Poke Cake

It's reveal day for this month's Improv Challenge.  The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.

This month's ingredients were cake and frosting.  Hard to go wrong there!  I didn't have to give it too much thought this month, because I had already made and photographed a recipe with cake and frosting, but hadn't shared it yet.  Well, today is the perfect day to share it!

Anyone who reads this blog knows I'm a fan of poke cakes.  There's the original Jell-O poke cake that is a classic, and I have also posted recipes for Patriotic Poke Cake, Orange Creamsicle Poke Cake, Boston Cream Pie Poke Cake, and just last week Caramel Apple Poke Cake.  And today I've got another one for you!  (I may be slightly obsessed.)  I just love poke cakes because cake can be so boring.  With a poke cake, you get the convenience of cake, but with some super yummy twists to it.  This one is definitely my favorite out of all the poke cakes I've made so far.  It's a Taste of Home recipe that I modified slightly to make even better.  Here's my version.

Toffee Poke Cake

Ingredients:

1 (18 oz.) box chocolate cake mix 

Eggs, oil, and water called for on cake mix box

1 jar or bottle (12-17 oz.) butterscotch ice cream topping

½ tub (12 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed

½ cup cream cheese frosting

½ cup Heath Bit O Brickle toffee chips

Directions:

Prepare and bake cake according to package directions, using a greased 13x9” baking pan. Remove from oven.  

Using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes in cake. Pour the butterscotch topping into holes and all over the top of the cake.  Refrigerate cake.  

Combine Cool Whip and cream cheese frosting in a medium bowl.  Spread over top of cake and sprinkle with toffee bits.  Refrigerate until serving.

Makes 15-18 servings.

So here's what's going on with this cake.  It's a chocolate cake (I use a boxed mix but you could make your own from scratch), poke holes in it and fill those holes with butterscotch syrup.  I don't know about you, but I'm already hooked!  Then you mix together some Cool Whip and cream cheese frosting.  Spread it over the top and sprinkle with toffee bits.  Mmm!

It looks like it's topped with chopped peanuts, but those are toffee bits.

The frosting was my addition.  I thought the topping needed a little something.  The cream cheese frosting adds a lovely richness to it that makes it just divine.  The original recipe called for chopped Heath bars on top, but the prepackaged toffee bits are not only so much easier (no chopping), but I like how it's just the toffee, not the chocolate.  There's plenty of chocolate in the cake.  It provides a nice contrast of flavors.

I have made this cake probably three times in the last six months or so and it's always a hit.  This is definitely one of my go-to desserts for any occasion.

Be sure to check out all the other great cake and frosting recipes below and come back next month to see what I make with orange and cardamom. Yum!

Read More

Caramel Apple Poke Cake

Like it or not, we are firmly in fall now.  Even though it has been a warm fall here in Wisconsin so far, I am enjoying my favorite part of fall: fall foods.  I'm all about the apples, maple, pecans, squash, pumpkin, etc. lately.  Today I am sharing with you a great fall dessert.  This is another awesome poke cake recipe.  I love poke cakes!  Let's be honest, cake can be pretty boring.  But poke some holes in it and fill it with yummy stuff, and it's a whole different story!  I saw this at What's Cooking, Love? and just had to try it.  I made a few modifications; here's my version.

Caramel Apple Poke Cake

Ingredients:

1 (18 oz.) box spice cake mix

Eggs, oil, and water called for on cake mix box

1½ cups apple pie filling

¾ cup caramel ice cream topping, divided

1 (8 oz.) tub Cool Whip

½ tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Prepare the cake according to the directions on the box.  Remove from oven and use a wooden spoon to poke holes evenly throughout the cake.

Chop up the apples contained in the apple pie filling into smaller pieces. Then combine the apple pie filling and ½ cup of the caramel ice cream topping in a medium sized bowl. Spread the caramel apple topping evenly on top of the cake, trying to get some in the holes.  Let cake cool.

For the topping, mix the remaining ¼ cup caramel ice cream topping into the Cool Whip container. Mix together until combined then spread it on top of the cake. Then sprinkle cinnamon on top.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Refrigerate any leftovers.

Makes 24 servings.

The original recipe called for a white cake mix, and you could certainly use that if you can't find the spice cake mix, but the spice cake adds a lot of character to this cake.  The brown color is prettier, I think, and of course the spices in it go really well with apples and caramel.  The other thing I changed was to omit a layer of sweetened condensed milk.  I'm sure that makes it even tastier, but it's really not necessary.

This cake is so yummy!  The spice cake, and the apples, and the caramel are all so tasty together.  The cake is very moist. I may or may not have eaten some of the leftover pieces with some additional caramel drizzle on top. ;)

So if you're looking for a great cake to take to a fall get-together, this is the one!  If you are a fan of poke cakes, lucky you because I have another one to share with you next week!  (I may be a little obsessed!)

Here are the other poke cakes I have shared with you in the past:

Boston Cream Pie Poke Cake
Orange Creamsicle Poke Cake
Patriotic Poke Cake

Read More

SRC and Meatless Monday: Mexican Sopes

It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

This month I was assigned the blog An Opera Singer in the Kitchen.  I was really happy to get this assignment as I have been reading Noelle's blog for a long time now.  She and I have a few things in common.  When I first discovered her blog, she and I both lived in Michigan, on the west side.  She lived in Holland, I believe, and I lived near Grand Rapids.  We have both since moved to different states.  Also, Noelle and I are both mommies to two little girls.  She often posts pics of their family activities and her little girls are just adorable.  

I knew without even looking at Noelle's blog that I wanted to a meatless dish.  Noelle has a great variety of recipes on her blog, but I knew she had a great collection of vegetarian dishes and while I am not vegetarian, I do observe a meatless day once a week or so.  I am always looking for new, creative meatless dishes that my family will love.  I decided to try her Mexican Sopes.  Even though I love cooking Mexican food and have eaten at many different Mexican restaurants, I have to admit that I had never even heard of sopes.  In case you haven't either, they are miniature fried corn-dough bowls filled with beans and sauce and topped with cheese. They are delightful. 

Mexican Sopes

Ingredients:

2 cups instant corn mix (Masa preparada)

1½ cups water

1 tsp salt

Canola oil

2 cups shredded cabbage 

½ cup red onion, diced

½ tsp salt

½ lime, juiced

2 tomatoes, diced 

¾ cup Queso Fresco

1 can refried beans

Salsa of your choice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

First prepare the masa by mixing the instant corn mix, salt, and water in a mixing bowl. Let the dough sit for 5 minutes. Grab some dough and roll it until golf ball size. Press the dough on a mat or on your hand until flattened.  They should be thicker than a tortilla.

Heat a pan on med-high with ¼” inch of oil. Fry each dough patty about 3-5 minutes until golden brown. Keep the corn patties warm by placing them on a baking sheet in the warm oven.

Warm the beans in the same pan after frying the patties and set aside.  In a small bowl, mix the cabbage, ½ tsp salt, red onion, and lime juice.

To assemble the sopes. Take one corn patty and spread it with 1 tbsp beans. Sprinkle on 1 tbsp queso fresco and then add the tomatoes. Then top with the cabbage salad.

Makes 4 servings.

I actually had everything I needed for this recipe except for the queso fresco.  I tried three grocery stores before I finally found it at the fourth. (Meijer, I miss you! Start work on that Kenosha store, stat!)  I had masa because I use it to make my Sweet Corn Tomalito.  And I'm glad to have another recipe to make with it because it always comes in a huge bag and I can never use it up fast enough.

Here is one of the little corn patties.  I don't ever fry things and it's because I'm really bad at it.  The first four of these turned out perfectly.  Then I got distracted with assembling those and let the other six burn.  Oops!  

I had to add a little more water than what Noelle's recipe called for to get the dough to the right consistency.  And I found them a little on the salty side, so next time I will cut back on that.  The only other thing I changed was due to my own inattentiveness.  When I was making my grocery list, my eyes skipped right over the word "refried" in the ingredients list and thought it called for regular whole beans.  It wasn't until I started assembling the sopes and the beans were rolling all over that I realized the recipe called for refried beans.  Duh!  That was the one thing my husband mentioned when trying them.  "Next time, I think refried beans would work better."  Yep!

This was my first time using queso fresco and we all loved it.

I served these with salsa and sour cream, but you could do guacamole or any other topping you like.

These were a big hit with my family.  Thanks so much for adding a great new meatless main to our rotation, Noelle!

Read More