Corn Casserole and Chickpea Salad

I love corns. I can smell the sweetness of boiled crisp corn on the cob splashed generously with butter as I think about it *drool* I remember someone once regarded corn being a useless food - nothing but starch. He was an Atkin's. I wish I had known better then; I was totally ashamed to stand up for my love for corn. I wish I could have educated him about the high fiber content and B Vitamins (B1 and B5) of corn that could help lower blood sugar level in diabetics, prevent colon cancer and heart disease, as well as to improve memory! There, I said it.

Corn Casserole

This is hearty corn casserole comes with onions, celery, bell pepper and green beans mixed and baked with cream of celery soup and cheese. Good way to get rid of frozen celery soup sitting in the freezer. The sweetness of the corn would go well with something tart, such as the following Chickpea Salad. I was surprised that it gave no hint of celery at all! Did the cooking rid it of its taste?

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup shredded mild Cheddar cheese
1 (11 ounce) can white corn, drained (I used frozen)
1 (14.5 ounce) can French cut green beans, drained (Frozen bean for me)
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup (leftover homemade)
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream (1 cup cream + 1 tablespoon lemon juice)
1/4 (16 ounce) package buttery round crackers, crushed (digestive biscuits)
1/2 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
2. In a large bowl, combine onion, celery, green pepper, cheese, corn, green beans, soup and sour cream. Spoon into a 2-quart casserole dish.
3. Combine crushed crackers with melted butter and sprinkle on top of vegetables.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes.

Chickpea Salad
Serve 2

The sourness imparted by the lemon juice in this unassuming salad went extremely well with the sweetness in the corn casserole. Although dried chickpeas take more time to prepare than canned, they do taste different and dried chickpeas hold up very well after cooking.
PS: I thought the corn casserole looks rather like chicken chop on the plate.

Ingredients:
1 Roasted red bell pepper (go here if you are new to this, just don't puree), peeled and sliced
1/2 cup dried chickpeas, cooked per instructed and let drained. Or 1/2 canned.
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 Tablespoon chopped mint
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 Tablespoon extravirgin olive oil
2 Tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large bowl, toss together cooked chickpeas, roasted red pepper, chopped parsley and mint.
2. In another bowl, mix chopped garlic, lemon juice and olive oil together. Taste and adjust with seasoning.
3. Pour dressing over the chickpea mix. Either serve warm or let chill in refrigerator for the flavor to develop.
   

Cream of Celery Soup that makes me a convert

One thing about me is I like variety, especially food. In order to satisfy my own desire, I take the extra miles to cooking different things everytime. Remember the huge bunches of celery that I was ranting about? No doubt there's plenty of them left after the Butternut Squash Apple Soup. So what are you to do with those awful lot of celery? I decided to turn them all into soup. God forbidden, never in my life have I ever consider having celery soup. Until now.
I have to say I was absolutely surprised by how good the soup was. I stumbled upon the recipe while flipping through pages of outdated LA Times. One of the articles mentioned the hidden wonders of celery, and was nothing more than a pot of sauteed onion, chicken broth (of which I substituted with miso), cubed potato and a whole mess of diced celery. It doesn't sound like much, does it?

Cream of Celery Soup

When I strained the puree I was left with a pot of watery liquid and a strainer full of mush. What a waste, I thought. So I dumped the mush back to mix with the water liquid again - I always prefer thick soup anyway. I made the soup two days before and freeze it before adding cream. When I needed something little, I took it out and reheat, swirling a spoonful of cream in as it boiled. I added a swirl of cream to pretty-fie the soup. I found no need for salt and pepper - it was nicely seasoned from the miso broth already. If there's a celery dish that would change my taste, this is it. The result was a very light and delicately-flavored soup.

Ingredients:
(serve 4)
3 Tablespoons butter
1 medium onions, diced
1 potato , peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
10 stalks celery, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch slices
5 cups chicken broth (miso worked fine)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 Tablespoon heavy cream (optional)
Celery leaves for garnish, chiffoned

1. Melt butter in a soup pot. Add onions and cook until translucent.
   
2. Add potatoes, celery and chicken (miso) broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to let it simmer until the potatoes and celery are very tender (about 20 minutes)
3. Puree in a food processor or blender. Pass the soup through a medium sieve, pressing the solids with the back of a wooden spoon (I skipped the straining). Refrigerate or freeze if you are not serving it yet.
4. When ready for serving, defroze and reheat. Taste and adjust with salt and pepper (no need in my case).
5. Swirl in the cream if desired. Garnished with celery leaves.

Although I did enjoy the soup but it's till too much for two persons. No fret! I'm putting it in a Corn Casserole instead of using canned cream of celery soup. It got to be better with homemade, right?