♡ Kimmie Bites | Food blog, Sydney Australia ♡: vegan

, by Kim

Blooming Lotus, Newtown

, by Kim

Continental Superb Stocks - Review & Recipes

I've been thinking a lot about soup these days. Especially the ones my high school hospitality class would make and sell every time winter would come around. Freshly made out of wholesome ingredients, carried out in large metal pots, spooned into serving cups and accompanied with hot toasty ciabatta rolls. So warm and comforting. And so perfect for the season.

In my household when we eat soup, it's usually the instant or canned kind. So with this in mind I was determined to give making my own soups a go. Just as if my prayers were being answered, I was sent three of Continental's new Superb Stocks. Beef, Vegetable, and the reduced salt Chicken stock.

I'm a huge fan of Continental's soups so I was more than happy to give their new liquid stock range a try. Their stocks are made using real meat, herbs and spices. And notably the chicken stock has 40% less salt than the market leading liquid chicken stock.

Glad to report that they are all VERY delicious and did not disappoint. There is so much flavour and I can really taste the difference compared to other liquid stocks on the market or when I'm just using a stock cube. My favourite is the vegetable stock which I feel like could stand alone as a plain and simple broth. But the next best thing about these stocks is the convenience! The time it takes out of creating your own stock from bones and vegetables (although that is too a very rewarding experience), and the lesser amount of seasoning you have to taste and add.

Below I'll be sharing my recipes and tips for some soups and stews I made using each stock flavour! I hope you give these recipes a go and enjoy them just as much as my family and I have. Additionally the Continental Superb Stocks can be used in a bunch of other recipes with ideas on the packaging, or it can be used in anything that requires stock. 110% recommend this!

BEEF STOCK

Goulash

The beef stock has an intense, deep and rich beefy flavour. Slightly smokey too. It is not sweet or too salty which leaves a lot of room left for this stock to mesh in well with the other flavours of your dish. I found this perfect for my goulash which was already flavoured by lots of paprika, capiscum and tomatoes.

Goulash is a Hungarian beef stew. It is hearty, warming and extremely comforting. Featuring tender chunks of beef in a thick and spiced tomato stew, it's no wonder I miss it.

There's a lot of debate and/or discussion on the internet about the differences between the Hungarian version and the American version. I wasn't sure which one I was going for in trying to recreate goulash as I had it during high school so I put a bunch of different recipes together. So in the end this is no way 100% authentic or traditional goulash. I personally think it turned out great but also good to be aware that you can tweak this dish according to your preferences! It is a very forgiving dish.

Also I used a cast iron pot over the stove for this entire recipe. You can use the oven method, casserole dish, pressure cooker or a slow cooker. Anything that makes sense and works for you.

Ingredients:

750g gravy beef, cut into 2-3cm cubes
1 large brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
200g mushrooms, sliced
2 large red capsicum, cut into 2cm pieces
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 tablespoons sweet paprika
2 tablespoons smokey/hot paprika
1 tablespoon honey
2 dried bay leaves
2 cups of Continental Superb Stock - Beef
1 can of diced tomatoes
Olive oil
Sour cream and parsley to garnish

Optional, to serve with: Cooked egg fettuccine/Pasta/Rice/Toasted sourdough bread/Bread/Potato mash

Method:

Heat some olive oil in your pot over medium heat. Cook the beef cubes until browned, approximately 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
Heat some more olive oil in the pot and add chopped onions, garlics, mushroom and capsicum. Stir until onion is soft and translucent.
Put beef back in the pot. Mix in flour and paprika for 1 minute. Add honey and bay leaves.
Stir in Continental Beef Stock and diced tomatoes. Bring to boil. Then cover with lid and simmer on low heat for 2 hours.
Spoon goulash into bowls. Mix in sour cream if desired. Garnish with sour cream and parsley to serve.

Recipe inspired by: taste.com.au

VEGETABLE STOCK

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Soup

Continental's Vegetable Stock as mentioned above is my favourite of the lot. It has such a simple, sweet and nourishing taste. In fact it is also probably the most versatile of the lot and I am very excited to create more winter inspired recipes using it. But moving on to the one I've chosen for this post... a vegan Sweet Potato and Cauliflower soup.

Such beautiful soup that I guarantee you will fall in love with. Sweet, creamy and earthy!

When I was thinking back to the vegetable soup from high school I was trying to recreate, I'm pretty sure they must've used carrots or pumpkin. Neither which I have in my pantry. I am much more fond of sweet potato and cauliflower and super excited to see recipes available combining the two. This one is very healthy, wholesome and nutritious. You can read more about the health benefits here as I love how Jenn at Veggie Inspired has written. This recipe is mostly hers with a few minor tweaks to the ingredients. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 brown onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small twig of rosemary
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/3 teaspoon turmeric
2 average sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cauliflower, chopped into florets
1L of Continental Superb Stocks - Vegetable
1 can of light coconut milk
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Spread cauliflower around on baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle of salt. Bake for 15 minutes. Shake the pan around to toss the cauliflower and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the edges start to turn brown.
Saute diced onion until translucent in 1/4 cup of Continental Vegetable Stock in large pot.
Add garlic, rosemary, paprika and turmeric and stir for 1 minute.
Add chopped sweet potato, roasted cauliflower and remaining vegetable stock to the pot. Bring to boil, then turn down heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Puree the soup using an immersion blender, or transfer to a regular blender/food processor.
Add the coconut milk and stir well. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve.

Recipe inspired by: Veggie Inspired

CHICKEN STOCK

Pea and Fennel Soup

I love chicken stock. It goes with just about everything. This reduced salt stock really comes through as while you can taste the lighter difference, the delicious herby flavour we associate with chicken stock is still going well and strong.

Why pea and fennel soup you ask? Such an unlikely choice and combination. My boyfriend's mum gave me a large bulb of fennel last week. I was really excited to use it but I had no idea how. Prior to this I've only had it lightly shredded in a salad. Yet with this soup project in front of me I thought why not. Lets combine the beautiful liquorice and aniseed flavour of fennel with something easy and just as easily fitted into the winter warmers theme.

I settled on peas as they are one of my favourite green vegetables which I think are largely over looked. They are insanely convenient and packed full of good fibres and iron. I found this recipe on SBS which tags it as an Italian staple which can be served all year around. Couldn't agree more! The peas give the soup a sweet, thick and humble base, as the fennel uplifts everything to create a refreshing and nourishing flavour. Try it, you'll like it!

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon butter
2 cups of chopped fennel bulb
1 brown onion, diced
1L of Continental Superb Stocks - Chicken
500g of frozen peas
Thickened cream
Salt and pepper
Croutons

Method:

Heat butter in a large pot. Add fennel and onion and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Add Continental Chicken stock and bring the pot to a boil. Add peas and cook for 3-5 minutes until the peas are tender.
Remove the pot from heat and season with salt and pepper.
Puree the soup according to your preference using a stick blender/regular blender/food processor. I blended my soup only to a coarse puree.
Place soup in pot and whisk in thickened cream. Reheat over low heat until hot, then serve with extra cream, croutons and/or olive oil.

Recipe inspired by: SBS Food

Kimmiebites was invited to be apart of this project by Social Soup and Continental. All opinions and recipes in this post are genuine, honest and highly recommended. I wouldn't post about it if I didn't like it or thought it was bad :)

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, by Kim

collaboration

Chobani Mezé Dips Review & Recipes!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I hope you are all had an amazing and beautiful day wherever you are and that you are feeling the love! In my household Christmas isn't as big as a deal as say, Vietnamese New Year but we do try to put in the effort to make new, exciting and delicious dishes and gift each other great presents.

I've been quite MIA lately as things have been super busy but after today I will have a lot more exciting content to show you all from brunch posts, fine dining and #kimmiebitesinvited adventures and vlogs! There is one post (this one) which I have been working on over the past week and this is my Chobani collaboration! Thanks to Social Soup who connect influencers with brands, I have had the amazing opportunity to become an ambassador for Chobani. As those who follow me on Instagram may have seen, I have posted 6 different recipes/ways to pair and eat the new Chobani mezé dips. This is the first time Chobani have stepped out of the yogurt game and I'm so happy that I got to be one of the lucky chosen people to try their new dips and try to come up with different recipes.

The dips come in exciting flavours: caramelised onion, beetroot dill, herbed tzatziki, roasted red pepper, chilli lime ranch, and salsa rojo. They are made using yogurt so each tub is LOW in fat standing at around 135 calories, and high in protein with more than 14g. This is the perfect 'no regrets' and 'guilt free' dip you'll ever try!

It was earlier this month that representatives from the CHOteam knocked on my door with a special delivery....

New @chobaniau meze dips just in time for Christmas! 🎄 Stay tuned to my blog & Insta for lots of Chobani fun and recipes 💖🍴 #chobaniambassador #dipjustgotreal

A photo posted by Kim Nguyen (@kimmiebites) on Dec 10, 2016 at 11:01pm PST

Needless to say I was so stunned at how beautifully presented and generous the package was. Also embarrassed because my mom thought they were my friends and tried to invite them inside 😂 Anyway in this Chobani tray I received one of each dip, two zucchinis, sweet potato, garlic, brown onion, pomegranate, penne pasta, oregano, pine nuts and olive oil! Much of the extra components go towards the suggested recipes they have provided on the recipe cards yet we were also encouraged to come up with our own recipes. Also noticed other people on Instagram received slightly different packages, e.g. some got more dips, a special Chobani wooden board, more veggies, etc but I did my best to use easily accessible and affordable ingredients to make these healthy recipes.

Here's a preview before we begin....

Ready? Okay lets go!

C A R A M E L I S E D O N I O N

The recipe cards suggested using this as a sauce for the penne pasta. However just as I was about to boil the pasta I had wonderful idea! Why not use the given zucchinis and make zucchini pasta/spaghetti/noodles/zoodles! It's both vegan and healthy. I've also never enjoyed eating zucchini any other way after all. So here is my recipe that makes 1 serving:

Ingredients:

1 medium zucchini, washed
Half a carrot, julienned
Handful of sliced mushrooms
1 tsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
1 Tbsp Chobani caramelised onion mezé dip
Rocket leaves, baby spinach and cherry tomatoes (optional)
Lemon zest for garnish
Salt and pepper

Method:

Cut off the ends of the zucchini, then begin to push it long-side down through the grater/mandolin slicer creating long and thin zucchini strips
Heat a frying pan with 1 tsp olive oil, then add garlic, carrots and zucchini. Gently stir around until zucchini is tender (won't take longer than 2 minutes in my experience)
Add a Tbsp of Chobani caramelised onion dip, and mushrooms. Stir until coated and then add salt and pepper to taste. Remove off heat
Plate zucchini onto a bed of rocket leaves and baby spinach. Top and garnish with cherry tomato halves and lemon zest. ENJOY 🍴 ✨

Some tips I learned from my mom while making this recipe were to be wary of how old the zucchini is because the older it is, the tougher the skin and more bitter it is. I left my zucchinis lying around for a few weeks so this is how I learnt to be careful next time. We remade the recipe using a different and fresher type of zucchini after - Magda, and found it to solve that bitterness problem I originally had. It also has a slightly more creamy but nuttier taste. So anyway definitely try to use fresh zucchini when making zucchini pasta!

The caramelised onion dip is sweet with a paprika kick. It pairs really well with this zucchini dish and even if I used the penne pasta, I'm sure it would be just as delicious!

B E E T R O O T D I L L

This comes in a beautiful magenta tub to match the beautiful beetroot dip on the inside! The recipe card suggested making a roasted sweet potato toast and I really loved the idea so I wasn't too original with this one. I did substitute walnuts for the given pine nuts though and it worked out beautifully. I think that any sort of crunchy nut would go great because of the flavour and texture!

So here is my "adapted" recipe:

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato, washed
Chobani beetroot dill mezé dip
Pomegranate, pine nuts and crumbly feta cheese to top
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method:

Slice the sweet potato length ways in 1cm thick slices. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees
Place sweet potato pieces into a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Roast in oven for 12 minutes
Remove from oven, leave to cool and then transfer sweet potato to a plate
Generously spread with Beetroot Dill Chobani Mezé Dip
Top with good sized sprinkle of pomegranate, ~~walnuts~~ pine nuts and feta. Enjoy!

H E R B E D T Z A T Z I K I

Mmmm tzatziki!!! This tzatziki is so refreshing, delicious, jam-packed full of herby flavour and oh so moreish. It is one of the dips that I believe would pair well with ANYTHING. It is such an essential. In the spirit of summer, I decided to create a summer staple: potato salad! Did you know 1 tub of Chobani herbed tzatziki dip contains only 122 calories while the same amount of mayonnaise you would use in making potato salad is estimated to be well over 1000 calories! So therefore SKIP THE MAYO and head for Chobani because you can spruce up the usual potato salad with the healthier and more delicious alternative.

Oh yes, and I used two types of potato: white & sweet potato! You can use the same as me, or only one type, or even three if you're adventurous! Additionally I got my potatoes from Woolworths where they came in a convenient bag that was ready to microwave. So that will be the method I'm using today. But if you don't have that I would still recommend using the microwave because it is so quick, water-saving and easy. Just place your potatoes in a microwave safe bowl with a cover and add a little bit of cold water.

Ingredients:

1kg white baby potatoes, washed
1 large sweet potato, cubed
1 tub of Chobani herbed tzatziki mezé dip
Diced ham and hard boiled egg (optional)
Parsley/dill for garnish

Method:

Cook the potatoes in the microwave for 4-6 minutes. Use a microwave safe bowl with a cover and a little bit of cold water if no bag given (see above note). Because they are small there is no need to flip them.
Allow the potatoes to throughly cool before cutting them up into pieces
Add desired amount of Chobani herbed tzatziki, ham and boiled egg to the potatoes
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving

R O A S T E D R E D P E P P E R

The first thing that really surprised me about this dip was that it actually had quite some spicy heat to it! I really enjoy it for that reason and even though its quite a classic Mediterranean flavour it truly stands out. My choice of recipe for this dip was pan fried gnocchi. Of course you don't need to pan fry the gnocchi but I love the slight crisp it gives to the gnocchi pieces in the final result hehe

You can use store-bought gnocchi or be like me and make batches of home-made gnocchi to have on hand! There's lots of amazing and easy recipes on the internet but my all-time favourite is this one by Ceara's Kitchen. It's made out of instant mashed potato which may irk some but I find that the recipe is so easy, quick, convenient and tasty when you don't have the time to spend peeling, boiling and ricing potatoes :) They are also great to freeze but quick enough to make under 30 minutes every time.

Ingredients:

1 cup of fresh/frozen gnocchi per person
Handful of chopped chorizo
Handful of baby spinach
1 Tbsp of Chobani roasted red pepper mezé dip
Butter
Salt and pepper

Method:

Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Cook the gnocchi for 3 to 5 minutes until they float, and then an additional minute after if using frozen gnocchi
Drain the gnocchi and heat up a frying pan with butter
Fry the gnocchi until slightly golden brown on each side. Add chorizo and baby spinach
Turn down the heat to low and add the Chobani roasted red pepper dip, gently stir until baby spinach is softened
Remove from heat, add salt and pepper to taste
Serve immediately and enjoy! 😘

C H I L L I L I M E R A N C H

Yay announcement time; this recipe and dip is my favourite of the lot! And what really elevates this simple dish is of course the Chobani chilli lime ranch dip! It is so unique and I love it so much. Chilli lime is a great combination and there are so many delicious suggestions on the internet. In the end I went with something that was simple and could be both quickly and cheaply prepared. You're welcome hehehe. This is my grilled chicken breast on pita tostada.

Apologies for the vague measurements! Just use/make as much as you like. It's so easy that it'll work out!

Ingredients:

Skinless chicken breast fillets, pounded to 1cm thickness
Marinade: olive oil, lime juice, salt, crushed garlic cloves
Salad: rocket leaves, shredded red cabbage, thinly sliced carrots, sweet corn kernels
Pickled red onions
Chobani chilli lime ranch mezé dip
Pita bread/tortillas/Lebanese bread
Salt and pepper

Method:

Place chicken in marinade for 15 minutes before grilling on each side for 3-4 minutes
Slightly toast pita bread in oven or sandwich press until crispy on the edges
Assemble tostada with pita as base, generous spread of Chobani chilli lime ranch dip, salad ingredients above, pickled red onions and sliced grilled chicken breast. Enjoy!

Pickled red onions is something I identified might be a unique item on this ingredients list! But it's something that is always in my household fridge. We love red onion in our salads and sandwiches yet being Asian, we use brown onions much more often and the leftover red onion usually goes bad before we have the chance to make another salad/sandwich. What we do with these leftovers is pickle them in a mixture of rice wine vinegar (white vinegar works great too), raw sugar and salt. It's super delicious and also goes great into salads and sandwiches 😚

S A L S A R O J O

I don't know why I didn't just go ahead and fill the top taco because right after this picture I did just that and ate it 😂 Sorry for my awkward food styling skills, guys. Anyway thank GOODNESS for salsa rojo because on this day of shooting we were due to have a taco and nacho Mexican food night and we just did not have any salsa or sour cream which makes things feel really incomplete. Salsa rojo is the perfect substitute and save for such an occasion because it tastes just like a hot salsa with the creaminess of sour cream. We really enjoyed these in our tacos and layered in our nachos!

This isn't really a recipe but just a serving suggestion from me to you hehe.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post and will give the new Chobani mezé dips a chance because they are all so delicious. These dips are all low in fat, high in protein and so full of flavour. Much of the flavour you will be able to see since I noticed the dips had chunks of the ingredients through out them, e.g. red pepper in the roasted red pepper dip. And because of this you can tell they are so much more versatile than JUST a dip!

Last suggestion is as a spread on rice cakes! They are colourful, yummy and oh so perfect for those Instagram worthy shots 😍

Let me know if you've tried out these dips and which one is your favourite! If you haven't... do you even dip?! 😂

Merry Christmas!

Love always, Kim xx

Kimmiebites was invited to be apart of this project by Social Soup and Chobani. All opinions and recipes in this post are genuine, honest and highly recommended. I wouldn't post about it if I didn't like it or thought it was gross :)

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, by Kim

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