Ingredients:

3 lbs of potatoes
1 tbsp of adobo seasoning
1 tbsp of garlic powder
2-3 tbsp of unsalted butter
2-3 tbsp of sour cream
2-3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Peel, wash and chop the potatoes in half and then quarters. Boil or steam them adding the adobo to the water. Cook for 20 minutes or until they’re soft and tender. Drain them and let them rest for 5-10 minutes and then add them to a large bowl. Add the olive oil and start mashing. Once they start gaining some color from the oil add the butter and continue mashing, slowly add in the garlic powder while mixing the ingredients and last but not least, add the sour cream. Taste the potatoes and add more butter or sour cream to reach the right taste and creamy consistency. If you don’t want them to be so thick and creamy, add a splash of milk. Sprinkle some parsley flakes or fresh cilantro for some color. And there you go, delicious creamy home style mashed potatoes, goes great with barbecue, pork chops, steak, steamed vegetables, etc.

Sure, it’s easy to buy a can of soup, add water, heat it up, and presto! But there a few things you should know about canned soup; first of all they usually contain a high amount of sodium, a moderate amount of preservatives, and anything that’s been canned long enough starts to absorb the coating and metals inside the can. The few times I buy ready made soups I at least make sure they are low in sodium but once you learn how to make a simple stew, you’ll find that it’s better to make your own.

Ingredients

potatoes or yams, peeled or unpeeled, chopped
carrots, chopped
pumpkin, chopped
mushrooms, sliced
spinach leaves, chopped
1 large onion of any color, chopped
1 can of tomato sauce
2-4 tablespoons of sofrito
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
garlic powder
onion powder
curry powder
adobo

You can make a soup out of anything you have, in this recipe we’ll be using the tomato sauce to create the base for your soup.

In a large pot, boil some water, about 2-4 cups depending on how much of your vegetables you’re adding. Add the potatoes and let them cook for 10 minutes, then add the carrots and pumpkin, continue to cook for 2-3 minutes, and then add the tomato sauce and seasons, taste test until you’re satisfied with the flavor. Cover it with the lid. I sometimes use soy sauce instead of adobo.

Sautée the onions in a skillet with the butter and sofrito, once they start caramelizing, add the mushrooms and spinach. When they’re fully cooked, add them to the pot where the soup is cooking.

If you feel you need to add more water to make it more soupy try using canned vegetables and pour it with the water, add 2 tablespoons of butter, and season to your taste. I like to use small amounts of white vinegar, Dijon mustard to add flavour and thicken the soup, and vegetable or tomato juice if I have any. Keep the pot uncovered if you think you added too much liquid.

The soup will be ready when the potatoes and vegetables are tender and all the ingredients are well blended. Taste test and if you’re satisfied with the texture and flavour, you’re done.

The key to making good food is using quality ingredients. Here’s a great example, when you make a simple salad, instead of using iceberg lettuce try using romaine instead. The greener the leaf the better, if you can use baby spinach that’s even more nutritious. Organic tomatoes are tastier than regular tomatoes, if you really want to be gourmet try Campari tomatoes, those are the best for salads, they have great taste. If you want something cheap and simple cherry tomatoes and regular tomatoes sprinkled with white vinegar and extra virgin olive oil are a good combination.

My simple salad:

tomatoes
lettuce or fresh spinach
parmesan cheese
white distilled vinegar (or any vinegar, balsamic is a good choice)
extra virgin olive oil
garlic powder

Wash the leaves and tomatoes, depending on the size of the tomato, cut them in quarters or halves. Sprinkle vinegar and olive oil, toss the salad, garnish with parmesan cheese and garlic powder, plate in a small bowl. And there you have a simple and yummy salad that’s great before dinner.

One of the easiest things to make is pasta. There are so many ways to make a delicious pasta dish. I always like to have some sort of pasta available when I don’t know what to make for dinner. My favourites are rottini, farfalle, and angel hair.

Garlic Alfredo Angel Hair with breaded chicken breast

Doesn’t that recipe title sound fancy? But it’s so easy to make!

100% all natural chicken breast patties or chicken nuggets, tenders
angel hair pasta (or any pasta)
quality garlic alfredo sauce (I use Bertolli’s ’cause Ragu’s is pretty tasteless)
dried parsley
garlic powder

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. I bought an organic garlic and parsley angel hair pasta made with Jerusalem artichoke flour the other day that was just delicious, I boiled it in water and some leftover asparagus water from a bottle I opened the day before.

Place the breaded chicken (patties, nuggets, tenders) in a toaster oven and cook until well done. Once pasta is cooked drain the water but not completely. Do not turn off the stove yet, add half of the alfredo sauce to the pasta and stir to warm it.

Plate the pasta, add some more sauce on top of it and garnish with the parsley and garlic powder. Cut the chicken into pieces and place them on top.

If you use this recipe, let me know how it turned out (twitter: @iniara).

Arroz congrí is rice with black beans. I use parboiled long grain rice, canned black beans, tomato sauce, sofrito, olive oil, and bell peppers (optional). See my sofrito recipe if needed. Remember that when cooking rice mixed with other ingredients, you lessen the amount of water usually used when cooking plain rice. See this post for regular parboiled rice/water proportions.

In a pot, add 1 tbsp. of oil and sofrito. Let the sofrito brown and add half a can (4 oz) of tomato sauce and half of a chopped red and/or green bell pepper. Season with salt if you want, I generally don’t since canned beans have enough sodium.

Depending on how much rice you’re cooking, you need to adjust the amount of water. Add the can of beans (water and all) and the rice (1-2 cups), stir and lower heat. Add water until it’s about 1 inch covering the rice (usually 1-2 cups of water). If more than 3 cups of rice (8-10 servings) use double the amount of the other ingredients (oil, sofrito, beans etc.) and roughly 1 cup of water per cup of rice.

Let cook for 20 minutes or until the water evaporates and taste, if undercooked add more water.

Arroz Congrí tastes really good with stewed beef or sunny side up eggs.

Pastelon de papa (Creole Shepard’s pie)

• 2 lbs. unpeeled red potatoes or peeled russet potatoes
• 2 cups shredded mozarella and cheddar cheese (1 cup each or mixed cheese blend)
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1/3 cup 1% milk
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 lb. ground beef or any meat (shrimp, canned tuna, textured soy, pork, etc.)
• 1 diced onion
• 2 tbsp. sofrito
• 3 tbsp. vinegar
• adobo, garlic powder, parsley (optional)

Wash potatoes thoroughly, chop them in quarters, and boil or steam cook them. Season water with adobo.

In a large pan add the vinegar and sofrito. Let it cook until sofrito starts to dry. Add ground beef and diced onion loosening the beef while cooking. If cooking other meat, add 1 tbsp. of olive oil first, then the sofrito, let it brown, add the vinegar, and diced onion, then the meat.

Add seasonings to the meat. I usually use adobo and garlic powder and maybe a bit of paprika. Continue cooking until meat is well done.

When the potatoes are nice and tender, remove them from pot and place in a bowl. Mash them with 2 tbsp. butter, 1/3 cup 1% milk or less, just enough to make the potatoes creamy, then 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, and season with garlic powder and parsley.

Once the potatoes are mashed and well blended. In a molding pan, make a layer of potatoes at the bottom, then half of the shredded cheese, then the meat, another layer of potatoes, and top with the remaining cheese. Place in microwave for 30-45 seconds to melt the top cheese layer (optional).

And that’s it! It’s a simple meal to cook. The only thing that takes time are the potatoes. I like using red potatoes because I don’t have to peel them and the skin is high in nutrients. Russet potatoes aren’t meant to be eaten unpeeled and are a bit more bland. Another great substitute for potatoes is breadfruit. They’re peeled and cooked the same way. Breadfruit is delicious and high in nutrients. Much like potatoes, they’re very versatile but have much more flavour.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. It’s one of my family’s favourites.