Did You Know You Can Make Chocolate Cake With Mayo?

And, January is National Soup Month

Greetings Foodies Who Don’t Like to Cook, but Do Love to Eat,

Welcome to the Ides of January. I’m going to be honest with you — I haven’t felt very inspired about cooking lately. Maybe it’s the Winter Doldrums setting in. I’m not really sure. David made a fabulous Coq Au Vin recipe a few days ago. My eating game is still on, thankfully. I stumbled on a couple interesting food facts in the past couple of weeks.

1. You can make chocolate cake with mayo and it tastes pretty darn good, according to word of mouth.
2. January is National Soup Month

I realize many are focused on healthy eating in the new year, but I’m not down with resolutions and the trend of striving for unrealistic goals.

Instead, I’m sharing my favorite potato soup recipe with you, a couple of mayo-chocolate cakes recipes, and a link to a fantastic, information-packed article on making the switch to dairy-free living, written by Shanna Loga and published in Better Humans.

It’s ten months into the pandemic. Let’s be kind and gentle with ourselves. I like comfort food. I consider cake and soup complimentary comfort foods. Consider making these recipes together for a succulent meal.

❤ Aimée

Food Trends

National Soup Month

January is National Soup Month. Here are a few fun soup facts gathered from nationaltoday.com.

• “Andy Warhol painted the famous Campbell Soup cans. He confessed to drinking Campbell soup for lunch, for 20 years. For the love of soup!”
• In 1765, “The first Parisian shop opened selling soup as an antidote to physical exhaustion.”
• “Evidence suggests the existence of soup as far back as 20,000 B.C. Hot rocks and clay vessels were used to cook soup.”

Tomato soup with basil? Creamy risotto soup? Oh, I love a good soup. In fact, one of my favorite cookbooks is called Sunday Soup by Betty Rosbottom. If you wanna get your soup fix on, I highly recommend borrowing this from your local library or purchasing a copy.

Dairy-Free Living

A 2018 article from The Guardian predicted the uptick in people choosing to either go dairy and/or meat-free or reduce their consumption of one or both as a commitment to environmental sustainability:

The new analysis shows that while meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories and 37% of protein, it uses the vast majority — 83% — of farmland and produces 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. Other recent research shows 86% of all land mammals are now livestock or humans. The scientists also found that even the very lowest impact meat and dairy products still cause much more environmental harm than the least sustainable vegetable and cereal growing.

Healthcareers.co supports the market trend prediction, adding “As of 2018, the value of the global vegan food market was calculated to be $12.69 billion” and “there was a growth of 11% in the plant-based food sector as of April 2019 [as compared to 2% overall].”

As a lactoce-intolerant person, I’m really happy to be seeing more and more dairy-free alternatives and recipe ideas coming into the limelight. For further reading on switching to a dairy-free lifestyle, check out Shanna Loga’s article below. If you’re already dairy-free, it’s still a super reference. As soon as I buy printer ink, I’m printing this article out for easy access, especially for nutrition facts and substitutes.

Recipe Roundup

Delicious Ham and Potato Soup by Ellie11

This has been my favorite winter soup for over ten years.

Ingredients

• 3 and 1/2 cups potatoes, peeled — or leave peel on if you like
• 1/3 cup diced celery
• 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
• 3/4 cup 3/4–1" thick ham
• 32 oz broth of your preference — I prefer chicken broth for this recipe
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper to taste (white pepper is zingy!)
• 5 Tablespoons butter or butter alternative
• 5 Tablespoons all-purpose flour or gluten free 1-to-1 flour
• 2 cups milk or oat milk
• Bacon or meat-free substitute, optional
• Cheese or cheese alternative, optional
• Green onions, optional

Directions

1. Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham and broth in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Stir.
2. Brown diced ham in a pan and either pan fry or bake bacon. Add the diced ham to the stockpot. Set bacon aside to crumble when cooled.
3. Make the roux: In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Pro Tip: Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes. This step requires patience. You want the butter flour mixture to be thick and to slowly stir in milk and let roux thicken gradually.
4. Slowly combine the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through.
5. Serve with optional garnish of cheese, bacon, and green onion.

Pairs well with side salad and crusty bread. Sourdough is the one gluten bread I tolerate and would definitely pair with this soup.

Recipe modified from allrecipes.com

Cassava Flour Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake by Back Porch Paleo

Since I eat gluten free and dairy free, I thought I’d share an alternate version to the two recipes shared below, which include dairy and flour.

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons coconut oil
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup full fat coconut milk
• 1 cup paleo mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons coconut sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cups cassava flour
• 6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and line a cake pan of your choice in the 7 x 11" range with parchment paper.
2. Mix maple syrup, coconut milk, mayonnaise, coconut sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl until well blended.
3. Mix cassava flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir until blended into a batter. Pour cake mixture into prepared cake dish.
4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before sampling.

Recipe from allrecipes.com. Protip — whatever you do, do not substitute anything for the cocoa powder.

Food Stories

Kelly Eden introduces us to the old-fashioned PB&M sandwich. Wait, what?

My inspiration for starting this food column was Lucy The Eggcademic (she/her)’s food science experiment, for which I am grateful. Read about her mad science lab (her kitchen) and resulting experiment here:

And, thank you to Caroline de Braganza for sharing her tried-and-true Mayo-Chocolate cake recipe. If you want to bake a dairyfull and floury version, here’s your go-to recipe: