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A throwback Thursday plate of grilled farro salad with tomatoes and cucumbers.

Throwback Thursday #3: 2016 Recipes That Didn’t Make the Cut – Unveiling the Forgotten Delights

As much as I’d like to, I don’t end up posting all of the recipes and dishes I make.

Sometimes they aren’t that special or the flavor/texture was off.

These recipes below are the ones that disappointed me the most last year.

I was really looking forward to these, but they just didn’t meet my standards.

Now, don’t get me wrong, these dishes were definitely edible and you can see some have quite a lot of rave reviews.

But for me, they didn’t work. And I won’t be reattempting to make these again.

Farro and Tomato Salad with Fish-Sauce Vinaigrette

This sounded like an interesting combo and the photo looked gorgeous. BUT.

Big BUT there. Yes. Fish sauce and farro don’t go together.

I ended up throwing most of the fish sauce out because I couldn’t get myself to finish it with the farro salad.

The tarragon also was a bad addition to the fish sauce/farro mix and clashed like the sound of metal on metal.

This was no good.

I guess it’s the price you pay when you eat/cook adventurously! Had I not tried it, I’m sure I’d still be wondering how good the dish was.

So glad I gave it a shot.

Farro and Tomato Salad with Fish-Sauce Vinaigrette

Polenta with Spinach, Bacon, Egg Whites and Parmesan 

I thought this would be a good change to my daily breakfast routine and was excited to use spinach and egg whites. (I used the yolks for ice cream).

Unfortunately, the dish was a little bland. Even with the smoked bacon and parmesan, it didn’t have enough flavor for me.

I definitely spiced it up with Tabasco and Frank’s hot sauce, but then it just tasted like hot sauce.

So this was a bummer since I like polenta. The search continues…

Polenta with Spinach, Bacon, Egg Whites and Parmesan

Chocolate Quinoa Breakfast Bowl

This also seemed like a good alternative to my quinoa breakfast bowls.

I usually make them with some type of milk (cow, almond, soy), nuts and or fruit with a sweetener like maple syrup, honey or brown sugar.

But the chocolate flavor was way too rich for me. The fresh fruit cut it a little, but I felt like I was eating a bar of chocolate.

It was a little much for me early in the day.

Plus, I don’t think quinoa and chocolate go together. Do you?

Chocolate Quinoa Breakfast Bowl

Vegan Vanilla Cashew Ice Cream

I found this in one of my issues of Bon Appetit last year.

I actually made a special trip to the market just to get raw cashews for this since I didn’t have enough.

The end result was a hard block of tasteless artificial mystery mouthfuls of half frozen coconut oil/cashew milk.

You put in a ton of coconut oil.

It was kinda gross and that should have been a red flag. It calls for 1 cup of coconut oil. Really?! Yes!! 

I still have a pint left in the freezer and did not enjoy this at all.

I may just throw it out.

Vegan Vanilla Cashew Ice Cream

Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

There were mixed reviews on this recipe at Food52, some people liked it and some didn’t.

I made it without modification and thought it was quite unremarkable.

I think if you want something simple and bland, you might like this.

But for the most part, I like to cook something unique and complex.

Every now and then I do eat something simple, but even then, I don’t think this would be something I would try making again.

Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies seemed promising but were quite a disappointment.

I didn’t think they were anything special.

Just your average cookie really.

I think the recipe on the Nestle package tasted better, to be honest.

The salt flakes on top didn’t add much either.

But that could be because I don’t like salt/sweet combinations that much.

Despite that, though, I thought I would give these the benefit of the doubt.

Overall, not impressed. 🙁

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

For my most recent recipes, checkout my recipes page to see what I’ve found to be delicious successes!

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7 thoughts on “Throwback Thursday #3: 2016 Recipes That Didn’t Make the Cut – Unveiling the Forgotten Delights”

  1. I had to laugh when I saw the farro and fish sauce recipe. Being Vietnamese, I can just see my mom shudder at the recipe and shake her head saying “that’s not how we use fish sauce!” Fun post, enjoyed reading it.

  2. Tasty Eats Ronit Penso

    I agree that some of the combination here don’t sound like the could work (especially quinoa and chocolate…), but kudos for you for trying and reporting. 🙂

  3. Just from reading the ingredients most of them don’t sound all that wonderful to me excepting the polenta breakfast that sounded intriguing but I’ll take your word for it that it was too bland. Interesting reading though; reading because I don’t cook, I only eat. ~~dru~~

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Konnichiwa! (Hello!) I'm Pat Tokuyama, a Japanese tofu cookbook author, who travels for music, food, and adventure. If you like Japanese tea, checkout some of the newestorganic japanese tea, matcha bowls and noren and more!

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