Brisket Chili, Brats & Roasted Veggies, Steak & Mushroom Stir Fry, Sausage White Bean Soup & More!

My parents came back from Wisconsin with us for a visit, so here’s what I’ve been making for the four of us!

Brisket, Black Bean & Lentil Chili

My mom had one of our briskets at her house and was going to make a brisket chili while we were visiting, but we ended up making other meals there and bringing it back with us!

So then I grabbed another brisket to make a larger batch. Smoking it would have been extra amazing, but in lieu of that, I just seasoned and seared in the cast iron (cutting the bigger one into two pieces) and then cooked on high pressure in the Instant Pot for an hour, with a can of beer and a little broth as the liquid.

I had soaked some black beans and beluga lentils in water with a splash of vinegar for about a day prior to making the chili. So then I sautéed onions and garlic in some of the fat from the brisket, adding seasonings and my favorite salsa at the end. Then I transferred that, plus canned tomatoes and the soaked beans and lentils back to the Instant Pot. I chopped up the brisket and added that back on top along with two pints of broth and cooked it for another hour on high pressure.

It came out great! And we topped with avocado, sour cream, scallions and lime juice and ate it with a salad with mustards, romaine, radicchio, apples, feta, pistachios, crispy onions and a honey mustard vinaigrette. The leftovers are perfect for these cold days!

Brats, Roasted Veggies & Honey Mustard

One of my go to’s for quick and easy meal prep is roasting veggies and sausages and making honey mustard dressing to drizzle on them.

This time I did some squashes my mom brought down, along with a whole head of purple cabbage.

Brussels sprouts and cauliflower have definitely had their time in the spotlight on restaurant menus, but the humble cabbage is just as good, especially to make at home. It’s certainly easier to roughly chop up a whole cabbage than cut each Brussel sprout in half and/or trim the ends off. Plus, the cabbage seems to caramelize and get crispy in the oven without getting mushy more easily than Brussels sprouts do.

So for this purple cabbage, I just drizzled with olive oil and sea salt and roasted at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or so, stirring a few times. Then I finished it with a really nice strawberry rose vinegar.

For the honey mustard, I did a combination of dijon and yellow mustard, a little mayo, balsamic vinegar, some brine from some chow chow and nurtitional yeast to thicken and add some extra umami. It was so good! And it was the same dressing I used for the salad to go with the brisket chili.

Quick Steak, Mushroom & Broccoli Stir Fry

I got home later than expected on Friday and we didn’t have the rice or the proteins I wanted to use for this meal at the house already, so my family was waiting on me to get this on the table for dinner.

I defrosted some chuck eye, flat iron and tenderized round steaks at the shop. I used a mix because one was already put aside since the butcher had frozen it folded in half without the label visible by mistake. I would have preferred to use either all tenderized round or all chuck eyes if we had enough, but we didn’t!

So I quickly sliced up the steaks and tossed with black pepper and cornstarch. I toasted some Jasmine rice in coconut oil and then got it steaming as I did the rest.

I also brought home a pound of oyster mushrooms from Family Fungi, so my mom diced those up while I worked on sautéing the beef. Then we added those in with garlic and then eventually added pureed ginger and then deglazed the pan with soy sauce and rice vinegar.

Then I added in some frozen purple broccolini I had chopped up before we left for Wisconsin. Once that was cooked through I finished it with some Japanese barbecue sauce because my dad loves it.

We ate the stir fry and rice with chili crisp and homemade cucumber and sweet pepper kimchi. All told, it took my about 55 minutes from walking in the door to serving!

Sausage & White Bean Soup with Potatoes & Greens

This was a real winner, too, creamy and hearty and flavorful!

I started by taking some sausages out of their casings because I knew I wanted to add some additional seasonings — fennel and paprika, mainly. Then I took the sausage out of the pan and sautéed onions in the remaining fat, adding garlic after the onions had softened and begun to caramelize. I also added fresh carrots and celery from my freezer supply.

Then I transferred it to the Instant Pot with soaked white beans and diced potatoes and cooked on high pressure for an hour. Once it was done, I changed the setting to sauté and added in kale and escarole. We had it with a caesar-esque salad, all very delicious.

Apple Persimmon Walnut Crisp

I already did a take on this earlier this fall, but now the (very ripe) persimmons are even more abundant, so I didn’t have to fill out the fruit filling with frozen peaches!

For the topping, I pulsed walnuts in the food processor, then added All Purpose and rye flours, cinnamon, ground ginger and sea salt, then butter and coconut oil and pulsed together until crumbly. Finally I added oats and pulsed briefly so the topping came together but the oats were still somewhat in tact.

For the fruit, I did about half persimmons and half Pink Lady apples, along with Meyer Lemon vinegar, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract. I baked it for a little over an hour until the fruit was bubbling and jammy. We meant to get vanilla ice cream, but it was just as good with plain yogurt!