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I’m Ben, a home cook with a less-meat approach cross-cultural comfort food, sharing cooking tips and recipes in Astoria, Queens, NYC.

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Cocktails and Beverages (4)
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Easy Ideas (26)
Meatless (54)
Neo Soul (29)
Plant-Based (38)
Recipes (66)

Meatless Monday Ideas!

Air Fryer Potatoes with Thai Curry Paste

Cherry Tomato Bites

Thai Curry Eggplant with Lentils

Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers, Quick and Easy

Blackeyed Pea Salad, Tabouli Style

Lemon Garlic Vinaigrette with Honey and Mustard

Maple Cornbread with Berry Preserves

Sweet Potato Dip with Curry and Candied Ginger

Check out more Meatless Monday inspired posts!

Visit me on Instagram in between posts!

It's the @penzey_spices no-salt jerk seasoning on

It's the @penzey_spices no-salt jerk seasoning on roasted sweet potatoes 🍠 for me! Plus the air fried okra.

Oh .. and the raw beets which help lower blood pressure (according to WebMD) as does the potassium-rich sweet potatoes.

👇🏻For this simple 5-ingredient salad…
▪️air fried sweet potatoes
▪️air fried okra
▪️cucumber
▪️red onion
▪️green leaf lettuce
▪️chipotle ranch dressing

👉🏻 Stone bowl from @incasa_decor

#sweetpotatosalad #healthyrecipes #healthymeal #vegetariansalad #saladrecipe
#rawbeets #roastedsweetpotatoes #nosaltadded #nosaltseasoning #nosalt #sweetpotatolove #airfriedveggies

Here's the amount of Indian curry spices 🌶️

Here's the amount of Indian curry spices 🌶️ you need for a homemade Aloo Gobi Matar that will match any restaurant version. The truth is … many published recipes are way too shy with the spices.

👇🏻For spicy food lovers, try these amounts …

▪️3 heaping teaspoons (htsp) whole coriander, ground
▪️2 htsp whole cumin, ground
▪️2 htsp Garam Masala powder
▪️2 htsp turmeric powder
▪️2 htsp Kashmiri red chili powder
▪️1/3 amount of spices of kosher salt = 1 heaping tablespoon (3 teaspoons)

☝🏻This yields ⅓ cup Indian curry spice blend.

The cooking technique in my previous Reel worked well, but it needed more "umph". So I whipped up another batch to REALLY go in on the spice blend. It may seem to dry when you mix them into the oil. So to avoid burning these fantastic Indian spices, add just a tad bit of water.

👇🏻Below is my final recommendation to make a spicy tomato and onion gravy.

▪️⅓ cup Indian curry spice blend (above)
▪️3 large tomatoes, diced (just over 3 cups)
▪️½ large white onion, diced (half the amount of the tomatoes)
▪️1/4 cup garlic & ginger paste (a little more ginger than garlic)

As a beginner to Indian cooking, I think this is a good recipe to start with. And once the gravy is made you can add whatever you want to it … potato, cauliflower, okra, mushroom, sweet potato, chickpeas, fish, literally whatever you desire!

👉🏻 These amounts yield 4 to 6 servings.

#indianspices #curryspices #spicycooking #spicyrecipes #freshspices #currylovers #indiancurry
#indiancooking

To make Aloo Gobi Matar at home, it's really quiet

To make Aloo Gobi Matar at home, it's really quiet easy once the prep work is done. It's basically 🌶️ spicy potato and cauliflower simmered in a tomato and onion gravy, and a great beginner recipe to start learning Indian cooking.

And the best thing about making it at home is that you can make it as 🌶️ spicy as you want, instead of begging your local Indian restaurant to "please make it spicy".

👇🏻Here’s all you need…
▪️potatoes
▪️cauliflower
▪️green chili
▪️garlic
▪️ginger
▪️red onion
▪️tomatoes
▪️green peas
▪️cilantro
▪️cumin
▪️coriander
▪️Kashmiri red chili powder
▪️turmeric
▪️Garam Masala
▪️salt
▪️canola oil

I loosely follow a combination of recipes and here are some of my cooking notes after my millionth attempt…

👉🏻 You may need more tomatoes than what recipes call for. Here I used 4 large vine tomatoes when the instructions are to use only two. But adding more tomatoes means more seasoning.

👉🏻 If there's not enough gravy when you add the potatoes, add a little water but not too much! Just enough for it to meet the level of the potatoes. And if you add water, also add more spices and salt. Or if you have some canned crushed tomatoes, add those instead of water.

👉🏻 To not burn your spices, briefly reduce the heat to medium and add a little more oil so the flavors can bloom for about 30 seconds.

#aloogobimatar #potatocurry #potatorecipes #indiancooking #indiancookingathome #spicycooking #spicyrecipe #cauliflowerrecipes #indianfood

Let's talk about the filling for ravioli. Because

Let's talk about the filling for ravioli. Because no matter what you fill it with, there's always a fine line between too much and not enough.

For this Spicy Four Cheese 🧀 filling, everything from @ctown.supermarkets...
▪️15 oz Ricotta cheese @krasdale
▪️5 oz Romano cheese @belgioisocheese
▪️5 oz Provolone cheese
▪️5 oz Smoked mozzarella cheese
▪️1 tablespoon red pepper flakes, ground
▪️¼ cup chopped parsley
▪️1 egg
▪️1 teaspoon kosher salt

👉🏻 One teaspoon is a good minimum for 4-inch wide pasta, and one tablespoon is usually the maximum for 5-inch wide pasta. Level it off with your finger so you have exactly the same amount in each one. The ones I'm filling in my first batch this post were a tablespoon for 4-inch pasta and it was too much, so had to make half circle ravioli. So the feature square ravioli is one teaspoon from the second attempt.

👉🏻 Ravioli filling is a fantastic way to use up any extra scraps of food in your fridge. So it's fun to get creative. Once moisture is removed from something, chop it real fine and incorporate it into a filling.

👉🏻 Make the filling the day before you make your ravioli, and store it in the fridge. It allows you to focus just on the pasta and ravioli construction.

👉🏻 Slightly over-salt the filling, so it adds flavor to the pasta. Pasta will also get salt from the boiling water, so ne need to salt the pasta.

👉🏻 And if Ravioli is too much work, use the filling to make stuffed shells.

For more about the actual pasta dough, check my feed 5 posts back.

#homemadepasta #cookingtips #pastamaking #homemaderavioli #freshpasta #cheeseravioli #raviolimaking #italianfood #freshpastamaking

My meatless 🍠 Sweet Potato Chili uses mashed sw

My meatless 🍠 Sweet Potato Chili uses mashed sweet potatoes as a thickener instead of tomato paste, and sweet potato skins are used to make a sweet potato infused veggies stock.

And instead of grabbing generic 🌶️ chili powder, grind some Mexican Chile peppers to create your own unique blend. Here I used ground Ancho, Pulla, and Chipotle Chile peppers.

👇🏻A few things to keep in mind...
▪️With plant based chili, to retain as many nutrients as possible it's important not to overboil it. Bring everything to a brief boil, then simmer from there. Everything I ad is either precooked or raw, so all your doing is infusing the flavors into the stock.

▪️For more freshness, reserve some fresh peppers and scallions to mix in at the end.

▪️Turn the heat down to medium before you add the spices to the sauté base of veggies, aromatics, and oil so you don't burn them. Otherwise the spices become bitter.

👇🏻Here's everything in this plant based chili…
▪️Sweet potatoes, cubed and air fried
▪️canned whole Roma tomatoes, diced
▪️pinto beans, cooked
▪️black beans, cooked
▪️Spanish onion, diced
▪️Poblano pepper, flame roasted
▪️red bell pepper, flame roasted
▪️Serrano pepper, diced
▪️scallion
▪️garlic
▪️corn cobs, sliced
▪️Mexican oregano
▪️canola oil
▪️cumin, ground
▪️Chile peppers, ground
▪️kosher salt
▪️avocado leaf

#sweetpotatochili #meatlesschili #plantbasedchili #vegetarianchili #vegetariancooking #chilirecipe #meatlesscooking

Brie cheese with fig jam was the star of this chee

Brie cheese with fig jam was the star of this cheese and crackers plate. If you never considered that pairing, I urge you to try it.

The exciting thing about shopping for soft ripened cheeses at @foodcellar is that you never know what you’re going to walk out with. The longer the wedges sit after they have been cut, the better they become with time.

👉🏻 So, the only rule to choosing a good brie is to choose whichever one is ripest. Which means … if it’s really soft and looks like it’s oozing out of the rind as if it’s trying to escape from the plastic wrap. It will be fantastic! If the brie is really firm and has lots of structure, leave it alone.

And about that rind … sure, you can eat it. But personally I’m not about it.

#cheeselover #briecheese #cheeseandcrackers #softcheese #figjam #fruitandcheese #snackfood

Next time you make pasta salad, add some carameliz

Next time you make pasta salad, add some caramelized onions. 🧅

There’s nothing else too fancy happening here. It's simply veggies with pasta, Parmesan cheese, and Italian dressing … something easy to whip up with ingredients from my local @ctown.supermarkets

It takes 45 minutes to caramelize the onions, so do everything else in the meantime.

🧅 For caramelized onions…
▪️Slice onions into ¼ inch thick strips

▪️Melt a little butter with some canola oil in a skillet.

▪️Toss the onions in the melted oil and butter, then arrange them in the skillet on one layer, season with salt and pepper.

▪️Cook them at extremely low temperature in a little canola oil and butter, They should be sizzling quietly and gently.

▪️Allow them to sweat and brown slowly. Resist the urge to increase the heat, or they will end up burnt.

👇🏻For this Parmesan Pasta Salad…
▪️orecchiette pasta
▪️flame roasted red pepper
▪️caramelized onions
▪️raw broccoli
▪️capers
▪️Italian dressing
▪️Parmesan cheese
▪️red pepper flakes

#pastasalad #pastasaladrecipe #pastarecipes #orechiette #italianfood #easyrecipes

When you come across cilantro with leaves so huge

When making fresh ravioli, achieving the right flo

When making fresh ravioli, achieving the right flour to egg ratio can be tricky. The ravioli clinic on Stefan's Gourmet Blog @stefangourmetblog sums up the process quite thoroughly, and here are my additional trial and error cooking tips.

👉🏻 Generally it's one egg for every ⅔ cup of "00" flour. But it can vary slightly each time.

👉🏻 When using a food processor to make pasta, add flour to the eggs, not adding the eggs to flour. It's just doesn't work as well.

👉🏻 Use large eggs. Don't think "bigger is better" and try using extra large or jumbo. Large eggs are actually the standard in published recipes. 🤓

👉🏻 Bring the eggs to room temperature before making your pasta. To do this quicker, crack the eggs into a small bowl, then put that bowl in a larger bowl with warm/hotter water.

👉🏻 The dough should be slightly sticky. To test this you can judge from the feeling you get when kneading the pasta dough. If you're fingers stick to the dough and/or if it feels wet when it's pressed to it's thinnest, then you need more flour.

👉🏻 For spinach and artichoke filling, roast artichoke hearts to remove it's moisture and bring out it's flavor. Flash cook the spinach and press the heck out of it to remove the moisture. Using Ricotta and parmesan cheese with an egg is a classic combo, but try swapping the parmesan with grated aged Asiago or Romano cheese.

#italiancooking #raviolipasta #homemaderavioli #spinachartichoke #pastamaking #freshpasta #pastatime #cookingfromscratch #pastafromscratch #freshravioli

Here’s to a fantastic year of my spicy cooking w

Here’s to a fantastic year of my spicy cooking with minimal meat. It’s been a blast cooking alongside all of my food-loving friends, learning from all of your posts, growing fresh veggies, and sharing my kitchen trials and tribulations.

#cookingblogger #homecooking #nycblogger #nycfoodblogger #nycfoodies

For all of my meat-eating friends … a quick and

For all of my meat-eating friends … a quick and easy one-and-done approach to wing nights, this @stubbsbbqsauce seasoning from @ctown.supermarkets has your back!

It’s mildly spicy and brings you that instant “back yard barbecue” flavor with a few generous shakes of this chicken seasoning.

Here's what to do 👇🏻
▪️Toss some cleaned chicken wings in a few splashes of apple cider vinegar, as the acid helps penetrate the meat. Let them rest briefly, then pour out the excess vinegar. For more tangy wings swap the vinegar for lime juice.

▪️Coat your wings with the seasoning and let them marinate overnight.

▪️Be sure to bring your wings to room temperature before cooking. Let them sit out on the counter for an hour or two.

▪️Here I used a combination of partially oven-baked at 375 degrees, then finished off in smaller batches for a final crisping in the air fryer at 390 degrees.

▪️ Flip the wings often.

There are plenty of chicken wing Reels in my feed to check out, showing different customized spice blends. But this time I kept it simple. And for a less-meat approach, they’re paired with a luscious salad.

#airfriedchickenwings #airfryerfood #airfryercooking #cookingchicken #chickenseasoning #bbqwings #spicywings #spicychicken #spicerub

Here’s the salad topper trio that can transform

Here’s the salad topper trio that can transform literally any salad or bowl … Kalamata olives, roasted Jalapeños, and golden raisins. Chop them up and you get a fantastic balance of salty, spicy, and sweet flavors to distribute among your salad.

Addend a Mexican-inspired spin on a classic Prasini Greek salad, using a Chipotle ranch dressing.

For a classic Prasini salad…
▪️romaine lettuce
▪️feta cheese (I recommend sheep or goat milk)
▪️scallions
▪️dill
▪️kalamata olives
▪️vinaigrette dressing

#prasinisalad #greeksalad #fetasalad #mediterraneansalad #saladsofinstagram #saladgram

Try jerk roasted sweet potatoes 🍠 as a side dis

Try jerk roasted sweet potatoes 🍠 as a side dish, or as a featured ingredient in any salad or bowl.

Jerk seasoning from scratch is quite easy once you get the thyme prepared, as you don’t want to ingest the thick woody stems … softer stems are okay.

👇🏻 For the jerk ingredients …
▪️2 tablespoon ground black pepper
▪️4 teaspoons ground allspice
▪️2/3 cup loose thyme
▪️8 stalks scallions
▪️3 large clove garlic cloves
▪️3 tablespoons white vinegar
▪️1-2 scotch bonnet peppers (depending on your heat tolerance)
▪️1 teaspoon brown sugar
▪️4 teaspoons kosher salt
▪️1/3 cup canola oil
▪️1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

Puré all the ingredients in a blender, or use a food processor. Chop it finer by hand with a chef's knife if needed.

Roast them at 400 degrees until fork tender, then transfer them to the broiler for a final crisping.

👇🏻The Tahini dressing from Epicurious is so simple, delicious, and never disappoints.

▪️⅓ cup tahini
▪️⅓ cup water
▪️2 garlic cloves, mashed to a paste
▪️lemon juice to taste (usually half of one lemon)
▪️salt to taste (½ teaspoon usually works for me)

#roastedveggies #sweetpotatoes #jerkrecipe #roastedsweetpotatoes #jerkseasoning #jerkmarinade #spicycooking #sweetpotatolove

Chocolate chip cookies were the first thing I ever

Chocolate chip cookies were the first thing I ever learned how to make, beginning at a really young age. And there's a fantastic story behind it below.

But first … to make these cookies, the full recipe is on my blog via the search bar (link in my bio), but here are a few notes 👇🏻

▪️ Instead of semisweet chocolate chips, I buy a brick of bittersweet chocolate and make my own chocolate chunks.

▪️Reduced the amount of egg.

▪️Used half butter and half shortening.

▪️I roll up my sleeves and mix everything by hand.

Flashback to circa 1983, I had a chocolate chip cookie craving one day and I begged my oldest sister to make some. So she went to the store to get everything, made some cookies (doing several things wrong), and she burnt the heck out of them! I was so mad that I was crying. I then took take matters into my own hands.

So as I got older in high school it was time to make them my way. Starting from a Nestle Tollhouse recipe I adjusted the amounts and landed on a recipe that made several friends happy all throughout my college years.

I worked at a gourmet deli for a few years and my extremely hard-to-please boss from culinary school raved about theses cookies when I brought some to share with the staff. From that moment on, I was okay in her book.

#chocolatechunkcookie #chocolatechipcookie #cookierecipe #bittersweetchocolate #cookiestagram #dessertrecipes #holidaycookies #dessertideas

Here’s a heavenly Chipotle & Black Bean Soup rec

For a different approach to banana pudding, use cr

For a different approach to banana pudding, use crumbled gingerbread instead of vanilla wafers. Here’s a blast from the past gingerbread recipe from the cookbook I grew up with, printed in 1959.

The easy recipe uses mostly staple pantry ingredients from @ctown.supermarkets with added cinnamon from a Mexican market.

Get that handwoven Oaxacan placement from @incasa_decor

So, about that gingerbread ….

▪️There’s no eggs, so it's very much like a large cookie.

▪️Make the gingerbread ahead of time and literally leave it out for a couple days so it gets dried out. Then chop it up with a chef's knife to make crumbles.

▪️Cinnamon is either Ceylon (warm and sweet) or Cassia (bolder and spicer). Mexican cinnamon is the Ceylon type resembling tree bark, and the popular perfect-looking cinnamon sticks are Cassia. Both work just fine.

▪️Gotta love those old skool cooking instructions … it says to bake gingerbread in a “medium oven”, so I went with 325 degrees about 45 minutes.

#holidaybaking #gingerbreadrecipe #bananapudding #bananapuddingcups #holidayrecipes #puddingcups #gingerbreadcake #classicrecipe

A less-meat approach to wing night involves equal

A less-meat approach to wing night involves equal amounts of celery sticks and blue cheese dressing. Adding thyme and allspice (aka. Jamaican pimento) to any house standard chicken seasoning adds a slightly jerk flavored twist.

Here's what to do...
👉🏻 Combine your desired amounts of these…
▪️garlic powder
▪️onion powder
▪️black pepper
▪️allspice
▪️smoked paprika
▪️thyme

👉🏻 Then Add ⅓ the amount of kosher salt.

👉🏻 Marinate your chicken wings in apple cider vinegar overnight

👉🏻 Let your chicken come to room temperature before cooking them.

👉🏻 Here I used a low and slow cooking, air fried at 300 degrees.

👇🏻Note ...
Deestemming thyme can seem tedious but the tough stems can really be problematic if they don't break down during cooking.

I like to coarsely grind the pepper and allspice in a mortar and pestle so when the thyme is grinding they're all the same size for an even texture. Plus, something about doing it by hand is oh so satisfying.

#chickenwingsrecipe #wingnight #chickenwangs #cookingchicken #hotwings #spicywings #airfriedfood #airfryercooking #spicyfoodlover

When the sumac I ordered from Amazon arrives I'm l

When the sumac I ordered from Amazon arrives I'm like a kid in a candy store, so I can finally make the Za'atar seasoning from @FeastingAtHome. It’s my most recent seasoning obsession. I was first turned on to sumac from @chef__abo and couldn’t find it anywhere.

👇🏻 And here's all the ingredients for her Za’atar seasoning…
▪️coriander
▪️cumin
▪️thyme
▪️kosher salt
▪️sesame seeds
▪️sumac

👇🏻 Here’s what to do…
Toast the cumin and coriander for a minute to bloom the spices.

▪️Separate the thyme leaves from the stems. Destemming thyme can seem tedious but the thicker and tougher stems can really be problematic if they don't break down during cooking.

▪️For a little optional heat add some red pepper flakes. I used some kind of red chiles from India.

▪️Grind everything in a coffee grinder reserved just for spices. To clean the grinder in between uses, grind some rice.

#zaatar #freshspices #herbsandspices #freshherbsandspices #sumac #zaatarseasoning #foodphotography #spicesandherbs

Look for Calabaza pumpkins for this simple 5-ingre

Look for Calabaza pumpkins for this simple 5-ingredient Pumpkin Soup with Red Lentils. Avocado leaf 🥑 adds an extra anise-like sweetness to compliment the pumpkin flavor … find it at any Mexican grocery store.

👇🏻All you need is…
▪️Calabaza pumpkin @ctown.supermarkets
▪️Red Lentils
▪️Shallots
▪️Veggie Stock
▪️Avocado Leaf
(salt and oil as needed)

If ya like heat, garnish with some dried pepper flakes @penzey_spices

🇲🇽 To get that #oaxacan handwoven placement, check out @incasa_decor … it's made in Oaxaca, Mexico using traditional techniques to set the stage for classic soup making techniques. And that bright blue color 💙 just makes ya happy, right?

And for a fantastic plant based soup, here's a few cooking tips 👇🏻
▪️A low and slow simmer is key, no vigorous boil needed.
▪️When you can, make your own veggies stock from leftover vegetables skins and shavings stored in the freezer.
▪️Add just enough liquid to cover the level of the star ingredient

#soupseason #pumpkinsoup #calabaza #soupseasonishere #easyrecipes #5ingredients #souprecipe #plantbasedrecipes #souplover

Here’s how you make 🌿 plant based Puerto Rica

Here’s how you make 🌿 plant based Puerto Rican 🇵🇷 rice with pigeon peas. Having learned this from @chefddaisymartinez circa 2005, here’s my tips to success based on my 17 years of trial and error.

Long story short … if you’re eliminating meat, you just need to increase the seasonings and aromatics, and use a good veggie stock. Smashed Castelvetrano olives from @eatdivina provide a fantastic meaty texture and briny salt flavor to sufficiently take the place of traditionally-used pork.

👇🏻 Tips for these rice and beans

▪️Pre-rinse your rice in a mesh strainer until the water runs clear.

▪️ You can buy Puerto Rican Sofritoin some stores, but it's better to make a huge batch ahead of time and store it in the freezer. You can find it in my feed from May 8th.

▪️Use one cup of rice to just under 2 cups of veggie stock.

▪️Cover and simmer the rice when the water level meets the rice and you start to see large bubble holes.

▪️Simmer the rice with the lid on for 20 minutes, and do not stir it until the end. And when you do, only stir it 2 or 3 times to distribute the heat in preparation for the resting process.

▪️Your rice might seem too gummy in the end, don’t worry. Rice needs to rest with the lid ajar for quite some time.

Find the full “with meat” recipe is on my blog via the search bar (link is in my bio above),

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