Ginger Beat

Bulgur salad with pecans, orange, and mint

2011-07-30T19:36:00.004-06:00

Recipe

Place 1 cup bulgur in a medium bowl and cover with 2 inches of cold water. Soak for at least 30 minutes, while you chop the vegetables and prepare the dressing. (Alternatively, boil 1 cup water, add 1/2 cup bulgur, remove from heat and let sit about 20 minutes.)

In a large bowl, combine:

3 leaves lacinto kale, washed, greens removed from the center stem, and finely chopped

1/3 cup mint leaves, washed and finely chopped

2 carrots, washed and grated

rind of one organic orange, washed and grated

2.25 ounce package (1/2 cup?) pecans and/or walnuts, finely chopped

In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients:

juice of one orange

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 clove garlic, minced

3 tablespoons olive oil

Once the bulgur has soaked, drain and add to the large bowl of chopped vegetables. Pour dressing over the bulgur and toss to combine. Refrigerate about one hour before serving.

No-Cook Black Bean Pilaf

2011-07-02T12:55:00.007-06:00

Did you know that you can soak bulgur, rather than cooking it? Plus, it's a whole grain. With the recent heat wave in Denver, bulgur has become a favorite (along with chilled watermelon and ice cream).

Recipe

Place 1/2 cup bulgur in a medium bowl and cover with 2 inches of cold water. Soak for at least 30 minutes, while you chop the vegetables and prepare the dressing. (Alternatively, boil 1 cup water, add 1/2 cup bulgur, remove from heat and let sit about 20 minutes.)

In a large bowl, combine:

1/2 pint mini-peppers (or 1 large pepper), washed and chopped

2 roma tomatoes, washed, seeded, and chopped

1/2 a small red onion (washed), thinly sliced

1 bunch cilantro, washed and finely chopped

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (or 1 and 1/2 cups cooked black beans)

In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients:

1 small jalepeno pepper, washed and finely minced (seed first if you prefer less kick)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

3/4 teaspoon salt

Once the bulgur has soaked, drain and add to the large bowl of chopped vegetables. Pour dressing over the bulgur and toss to combine. Refrigerate about one hour before serving.

Whole Wheat Pasta With Chickpeas and Curry

2011-04-10T10:49:00.008-06:00

An interesting variation on pasta with chickpeas, with curry spices and chopped cilantro.

Adapted from Every Day with Rachel Ray (thanks, Karen!).

Ingredients

13 ounces whole wheat pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, washed and chopped

1 fresno chili pepper, washed, seeded, and chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon cumin seed

2 teaspoons curry powder

1/2 teaspoon tumeric

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup vegetable broth

24-ounce bottle strained tomatoes

2 cups cooked chickpeas (or one 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained)

cilantro for garnish

Prepare pasta per package instructions. Drain and set aside when done.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil and cumin seeds in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add the onion, chili pepper, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft.

Add the curry powder, tumeric, and salt and stir until the spices are heated.

Pour the stock into the pan and stir until blended with the onion mixture.

Add the tomatoes and chickpeas and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced.

Add the drained pasta to the skillet and stir until blended.

Top with chopped cilantro.

Cranberry Orange Muffins

2011-02-06T09:40:00.003-07:00

Adapted from my favorite blueberry muffin recipe. Chopped pecans are a good add-in, if you have them.

Original blueberry muffin recipe at Simply Recipes.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole grain spelt flour (substitute 1 additional cup all-purpose flour if you don't have spelt)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup sugar, divided

2 eggs

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1 and 1/2 cups plain yogurt (2 6-ounce containers)

1 cup cranberries, picked over, washed, and coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 375 F. Place muffin cups in muffin tin(s) (I usually get about 20 muffins).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt). Set aside.

In a large bowl, blend the butter and all but one tablespoon of the sugar. Stir in the eggs and grated orange peel.

In a small bowl, toss the cranberries with the remaining one tablespoon of sugar. Set aside.

Carefully stir in 1/2 of the dry ingredients into the large bowl. Then, stir in 1/3 of the yogurt. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients, followed by the remaining yogurt. Add the cranberries, stirring until just blended.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Bake until golden brown (about 25 t0 30 minutes). Insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin to be sure the center of the muffins are done (the toothpick should come out clean). Set on a wire rack to cool.

Cheese Importer (Longmont)

2010-12-28T11:07:00.013-07:00

I've been meaning to go to the Cheese Importer for a while now, but I never seemed to be in the area. Or, more accurately, I'd be near Longmont but zipping past it, on my way to a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park or a visit with family in Ft. Collins. Even growing up, I only stopped in Longmont if I hit a red light while driving between Ft. Collins and Boulder.

But, after a friend raved about the store's cheese selection, I decided that I needed to check it out. And so, rather than driving by, through, or around Longmont, I made my first ever trip to the town, and to the Cheese Importer.

And, it was worth it. Inside an industrial-looking building on a Longmont parkway is a trove of imported foods and kitchenware. Towards the back of the store is a large refrigerated room full of cheese. And cheese samples.

Cheese Importer carries a number of imported cheeses (organized by country of origin), as well as local varieties such as Haystack. This trip, I sampled bits of cheese with made with port and cheese dotted with with cranberries. After some deliberation, I bought a beautiful chunk of creamy mango-ginger stilton (pictured above, about $9 for 8 ounces) -- basically, like a fantastic mango-ginger-laced cheesecake. I also bought some gruyere (same price range) and a block of rBGH-free cheddar cheese ($3.99 for 8 ounces), which will make their way into beer cheese soup this weekend.

Cheese Importer
33 South Pratt Parkway (just north of the intersection of Ken Pratt Blvd and Pratt Parkway)
Longmont CO
303-772-9599

Roasted Beets with Parsley Pesto

2010-10-16T11:35:00.008-06:00

Lovely and delicious -- but more of a side dish or snack than a main course.

Ingredients
1 bunch beets (4-5 beets)
1 tablespoon salt

Preheat oven to 375F.

Wash beets. Trim leaves and base.

Tear one square of aluminum foil per beet.

Place salt in a small bowl. Lightly roll each beet in the salt, then wrap in aluminum foil. Repeat until all the beets are finished.

Place wrapped beets on baking sheet and cook for 30 to 45 minutes, or until beets are tender.

Remove beets from the oven. Carefully unwrap the foil on a beet, then hold the beet under cool running water and gently remove the skin. Repeat with remaining beets.

Cut beets in small pieces and serve with parsley pesto (recipe below).

Parsley Pesto Ingredients
1 bunch parsley, washed
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
dash salt
pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon water

Place parsley, garlic, walnuts, cheese, salt and pepper in a food processor, and process until finely blended.

Scrape down the food processor bowl, then, with food processor running, carefully pour oil and water down the feed tube and process until smooth.

Grated Radish Salad

2010-09-12T16:46:00.003-06:00

Am I the only person who didn't realize that you can grate radishes? I wish I'd thought of this earlier this summer: grated radishes + avocado + salt and pepper + rice or white wine vinegar. Yum.

Easy Lentil Salad With Tarragon-Mustard Dressing

2010-07-16T16:50:00.004-06:00

I love these little lentils. Don't the swirls of color remind you of a Van Gogh painting?

And, I love this lentil salad, with a tangy tarragon-mustard dressing. It makes a great addition to a summer salad, and most of the ingredients are probably already in your refrigerator or pantry.

Dressing adapted from this potato salad recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed (I used French lentils)
3 cups water
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 scant tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 and 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, washed and minced
3 teaspoons dried tarragon, crushed (or 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, washed and minced)
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste

Place the lentils and water in a small saucepan. Cover, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils are cooked but still firm (this will probably be between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on the type of lentils you are using).

While the lentils are cooking, whisk the remaining ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

Drain the cooked lentils and place them in a medium-sized bowl.

Pour the dressing over the warm lentils and toss to coat.

Serve warm or chilled.

Pasta With Chickpeas, Rosemary, and Garlic

2010-07-11T13:32:00.003-06:00

Yes, it is a lot of garlic. And rosemary. And red pepper flakes. But soooo darn addictive.

The first time I made this, I used my blender to puree the chickpeas. The second time, I just went at them with a potato masher. As might be expected, the sauce made with the blender was smoother -- but I kind of like the chunky mashed chickpea texture, too.

Ingredients
16 ounces campanelle or other small pasta, prepared per package instructions
5 cups drained cooked or canned chickpeas (rinse if using canned)
3 cups water, divided
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
8 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 ounce rosemary sprigs, washed, with the leaves removed and minced
1 teaspoon salt (I used 2 teaspoons with unsalted cooked chickpeas)

Place the chickpeas and 1 cup water in a blender and puree until smooth (or, alternatively, place the chickpeas and 1 cup water in a large bowl and mash until the chickpeas are smooth or you are tired).

Heat the olive oil and red pepper flakes in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add the garlic and minced rosemary and cook, stirring frequently, for about a minute, or until the garlic begins to brown.

Stir in the salt.

Carefully add the pureed/mashed chickpeas to the skillet, and stir to combine with the seasoned oil.

Add the remaining two cups of water to the skillet and stir until the chickpea mixture is smooth.

Allow the chickpea mixture to come to a boil, and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the cooked pasta and serve.

44 Hour Pizza Dough (30 Minutes From Fridge To Plate)

2010-05-24T19:44:00.001-06:00

I love homemade pizza (see exhibits A, B, C, and D), but it can be hard to find time to let the dough rise between assembly and baking. So, a recent New York Times article about allowing pizza dough to rest for 24 to 48 hours before baking appealed to me in terms of efficiency, rather than improved taste or texture.

I mixed up my dough on a Thursday evening (using my standard recipe from Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian), and then placed it in a covered bowl in the refrigerator. On Saturday afternoon, I came home, peeked into the fridge, and saw that the dough had risen nicely. The pizza was in the oven about 20 minutes later. Ten minutes after that, I was marveling at how much better a pizza crust that's rested for a couple of days really is. And not just because I was pleased to be eating a freshly-baked homemade pizza about a half-hour after I walked in the door (although that was nice, too).

The flavor and texture of the crust were lighter, even though it was the same recipe that I normally use. (The NYT used the word "nuanced" to describe the change in flavor, which sounds silly when applied to pizza crust but is, I think, accurate). The only downside is that I ate much more pizza than I normally would, because I kept wanting to "confirm" the difference.

Spicy Lentil Stew (Mesir Wat) Part II

2010-05-22T11:06:00.003-06:00

I am completely addicted to the spicy lentil stew I made a few weeks back. Turns out, it's even good for breakfast. And, it was one of the only things that made my head feel better during a recent cold/sinus infection.

The original recipe calls for four tablespoons of butter; two tablespoons of canola (or other vegetable) oil make a good substitute.

(Yes, the stew looks completely different in this photo than it did in the original post -- what can I say? -- the first photo was shabby.)

Green Pizza (Pizza With Spinach, Mushrooms, and Garlic)

2010-05-08T12:28:00.009-06:00

I've been experimenting with pizza toppings again. This combination includes a green sauce of pureed spinach, garlic, red pepper flakes, and olive oil, with mushrooms (and more garlic) and parmesan cheese on top.

Yes, I do like garlic. Why do you ask?

Ingredients
1 batch pizza dough
9-10 button mushrooms, washed and diced
16 ounces frozen spinach, thawed
5 cloves of garlic, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for brushing
dash red pepper flakes
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

In a medium bowl, toss the diced mushrooms with 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside.

In a food processor, puree the frozen spinach with 3 cloves garlic, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the red pepper flakes. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 500F.

Lightly brush a baking sheet with olive oil.

Roll out pizza dough on a lightly floured surface, and transfer to the baking sheet.

Carefully spread the pureed spinach mixture over the pizza dough. Top with the mushrooms and parmesan cheese.

Bake at 500F for 6-12 minutes, monitoring carefully after the 6 minute mark.

Ethiopian Split Pea Stew (Kik Alicha) and Spicy Lentil Stew (Mesir Wat)

2010-04-25T12:00:00.012-06:00

I haven't been eating many legumes lately. Perhaps I needed a break after a long winter of stews and soups? But, a recent meal at an Ethiopian restaurant made me realize that I'd actually missed lentils and split peas -- and left me craving more Ethiopian food. So, I sorted through different recipes on the internet, tracked down some spicy berbere seasoning, and made my very first attempt at mesir wat (spicy lentil stew, seasoned with berbere) and kik alicha (a mild but tasty yellow split pea stew, which provides a nice counterbalance to the wat). As you can see from the photo, I cheated a bit and made naan to eat with my stew, rather than injera.

The result? I can't vouch for authenticity, but they are both delicious. I think I would even be happy to eat them during a mid-winter slump.

Spicy lentil stew recipe here, yellow split pea stew recipe here. I found bebere seasoning ($7.99 for a 1-pound bag) at the World Food Bazaar, 242 N. Havana in Aurora.

Flourless Carrot Cake (Gajar Ka Halwa)

2010-03-19T13:18:00.001-06:00

I've had this flourless, no bake carrot cake before, in Nepalese restaurants, but never knew how to make it. Luckily, Donna (of Dine with Donna) asked a restaurant owner for the recipe. It turns out the cake is really easy to make. Basically, shredded carrots are cooked in a dry pan over medium heat until all the moisture evaporates -- then, milk, butter, and sugar are added in turn, and cooked until the liquid reduces -- and finally, cinnamon, coconut powder, and ground cardamom are stirred into the carrot mixture.

While the resulting cake is delicious, the recipe is worth making for the smell of freshly ground cardamom, alone.

Dine with Donna featured the cake more than a month ago, but it took me a while to make it because I didn't have the coconut powder called for in the recipe. I finally just decided to use coconut flour, which worked just fine (and maybe is the same thing?). You can find coconut flour at health food stores.

Recipe here.

Orzo and Vegetable Salad

2010-03-14T12:14:00.004-06:00

The warm temperatures and sunny skies last week started me thinking about lighter spring fare. After months of winter vegetables, an orzo and vegetable salad (from Jeanne Lemlin's Quick Vegetarian Pleasures cookbook) seemed like a great way to welcome spring.

Of course, by the time I got around to making the salad, the temperature had plummeted more than 20 degrees, the sunny sky had been replaced with clouds, and it was snowing. Also, I somehow lost an hour?

While the weather (and time) may have let me down, I don't believe this salad ever will: orzo and tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, celery, parsley, feta, and (of course) kalamata olives, in a light, creamy dressing. I threw in a little chopped spinach, this time, too... Here's to the longer days, sunnier skies, and warm-weather food to come.

Pizza With Broccoli, Feta, And Garlic

2010-03-07T12:29:00.004-07:00

Garlicky-feta goodness. Plus olives.

Ingredients
1 batch pizza dough (I used Mark Bittman's recipe with a little spelt flour mixed in, but plan to try this one in the future)
flour as needed
1 head broccoli, washed, stems removed, and finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for brushing
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped

Preheat the oven to 500F.

Lightly brush a baking sheet with olive oil.

Roll out pizza dough on a lightly floured surface, and transfer to the baking sheet. Brush the dough with olive oil.

In a large bowl, combine chopped broccoli, red pepper flakes, garlic, and two teaspoons olive oil, and toss to combine.

Carefully pour the broccoli mixture onto the pizza. Top with the feta crumbles and chopped kalamata olives.

Bake at 500F for 6-12 minutes, monitoring carefully after the 6 minute mark.

Stuffed Cabbage (Not Exactly Like Grandma Made Them)

2010-03-01T18:48:00.002-07:00

I suppose we all have our contradictions. I generally don't miss meat at all -- but sometimes I crave my Grandma's stuffed cabbage. And, so, while I usually am not interested in re-creating traditional dishes without the meat, I have tried different meatless versions of stuffed cabbage over the years -- ranging from wonderful version at a Ukrainian restaurant in New York City to a best-forgotten attempt using mock meat "crumbles."

I recently noticed a recipe for "Cabbage Parcels" in the Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen cookbook. The parcels -- stuffed with a pureed blend of barley, pecans, cashews, mushrooms, onions, and cheddar cheese -- sounded interesting, even if a bit different from the stuffed cabbage that I grew up with. And so, I decided to give them a try.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, up until it came to stuffing the cabbage leaves. The recipe said to bind the cabbage parcels with kitchen string to hold them together. I skipped this part, and instead just stuffed the cabbage the way I remember seeing it done as a girl -- dab of stuffing in the center of a steamed cabbage leaf, fold the top and then the bottom of the leaf up over the middle, and then carefully tuck the two sides underneath. The stuffed leaves then went into a large skillet of tomato sauce to simmer for about 30 minutes.

I was really pleased with the outcome -- the cabbage rolls weren't exactly like Grandma made them, but were closer than I expected, and also just plain tasty. Folks who are looking for a good homemade veg burger should check out the filling recipe ("Brown Rice-Mushroom 'Burgers,'" from the same cookbook) -- the nut/grain/mushroom blend has a good flavor and even looks surprisingly meat-like (if that's what you're into).

Spicy Cauliflower Pasta Bake

2010-02-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

This pasta bake is quick and easy, and features two of my favorite ingredients -- cauliflower and kalamata olives. The basic recipe is from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook; after preparing the tomato sauce and cooking the pasta and cauliflower, I combined them in a lightly oiled 13 x 9 baking dish, baked them for 25 minutes at 375F, and then added panko bread crumbs and a little grated parmesan cheese and put the baking dish under the broiler for a couple minutes.

Blueberry Walnut Corn Muffins

2010-02-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

I've been on a muffin kick lately. My current favorites are blueberry walnut corn muffins, made with a blend of corn meal, almond flour, and all-purpose flour. The muffins are adapted from a recipe for almond cranberry cornbread that I posted about in December. (I've discovered that it's easier not to eat 1/4 batch in a single sitting if I divide the recipe between 12 muffin cups.)

The adaptation is really simple: I substituted 1 cup frozen blueberries (tossed with 1 tablespoon flour) and 1/2 cup walnuts for the almonds, canola oil, and cranberries called for in the original recipe. Blueberries are a nice addition to corn muffins, and blueberries and walnuts taste great together. Mix the blueberries and walnuts in after combining the wet and dry ingredients.

Original recipe here.

On Top Of Spaghetti (Sweet Potato Chard Rounds)

2010-02-19T17:15:00.002-07:00

When I first became vegetarian, I tried to make meatless versions of the dishes I was familiar with, like spaghetti and "meatballs." Over time, I became less interested in replicating traditional meat dishes, and more interested in creating tasty vegetable-based dishes. So, when I saw photo of sweet potato kale balls with pasta at Cupcake Punk recently, I was interested in the sweet potato kale rounds, but a little skeptical about serving the rounds on top of spaghetti.

The rounds are made from a mixture of mashed roasted sweet potatoes, caramelized onions, and sautéed garlic and kale (I used chard). While it takes about an hour to caramelize the onions (good instructions here), the caramelized onions really compliment the sweet potatoes. The sweet potato mixture is rolled into rounds, coated in cornmeal, and then baked at 400F for 30 minutes, turning once after 15 minutes.

My one stray from the original recipe was pour a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar into the pan that I used to caramelize the onions (after removing then onions and chard), and then add the vinegar and any scrapings from the pan to the sweet potato mixture. I really liked the tanginess of the balsamic vinegar with the sweet potatoes and caramelized onions.

I did decide to go ahead and serve the rounds on top of spaghetti. And, I have to admit, it worked. The rounds are really good with a marinara-type sauce. Also, since the rounds are not that big, the pasta helped make a filling (but not too filling) meal.

The recipe at Cupcake Punk was adapted from a recipe by Jess at Happy Vegan Face. Jess suggested mixing cooked quinoa into the rounds, to make more of a patty. While the rounds are really good with pasta, I also might try experimenting along these lines in the future.

Samosa Mash

2010-02-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

A mash of potatoes, baked tofu, and peas, seasoned with ginger, tumeric, cumin, coriander, and chilies.
Packs nicely for a winter snowshoe (or work).

Ingredients
2 pounds yukon gold potatoes, washed and chopped
1 batch baked tofu, cut in squares
1 cup frozen peas, thawed (my peas had grated carrots mixed in)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 onion, washed and chopped
1 teaspoon grated ginger
2 serrano chilies, washed, seeded, and minced
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 and 1/2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the potatoes for 20 minutes, or until tender. Drain, mash, and set aside.

Heat the oil and mustard seeds in a large covered skillet over medium heat, until the mustard seeds pop.

After the mustard seeds have popped, remove the lid, stir in the cumin seed and onion, and cook (stirring occasionally) until the onion is soft.

Add the ginger and chilies, and cook two minutes (stirring occasionally).

Add the tumeric, cayenne, coriander, and salt, and cook one more minute.

Add the mashed potatoes and stir until blended with the spices. Pour in 1/2 cup of water, and mix until the potatoes have a fluffy texture. (Add more water as needed.)

Mix in the baked tofu and peas, and cook over medium-low heat until heated through.

Serve.

Black Bean Rice Bowl

2010-02-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

A satisfying rice bowl that combines spicy chipotle black beans and rice with a cilantro lime slaw. If you like, add some sliced avocado, or a little queso fresco or grated monterey jack cheese.

Ingredients
One batch cilantro lime slaw
1 cup uncooked brown rice (or two cups cooked)
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 bell pepper, washed, seeded, and chopped (I used about 3/4 pint red and yellow mini-peppers)
1 small onion, washed and chopped
1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 and 1/2 to 3 cups cooked black beans (1 cup dried beans, soaked and cooked; or 2 15-ounce cans, drained)
1 teaspoon salt (optional -- you may want to reduce the salt if using canned beans)
3 cups lettuce, washed and chopped

To cook the brown rice:
Bring 2 and 1/2 cups of water to boil in a small saucepan.

Add the brown rice and simmer, covered, over medium-low heat for 45 to 50 minutes.

Remove from heat and let sit covered for about 5 minutes.

To prepare the black beans and rice:
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook for 10 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.

Add the chile powder, cumin, and salt, and cook another 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the black beans and brown rice to the skillet and cook until heated through.

To assemble the rice bowl:
Place about 3/4 cup chopped lettuce in a large bowl.

Top with 1 cup cilantro lime slaw, and 1 cup rice and beans.

Toss and serve.

Makes at least 4 generous servings.

Cilantro Lime Slaw

2010-02-09T19:00:00.010-07:00

This coleslaw makes a really good accompaniment for black beans and rice (check back Saturday for an example). I could also see it going well with enchiladas, quesadillas, or tofu-tillas. You can eat it right away, but it gets better after sitting for a bit -- if possible, at least 30 minutes before serving.

Ingredients
juice from 1 lime
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
scant 1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1 small cabbage, washed and finely chopped

Combine the lime juice, garlic, cumin, salt, and olive oil in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, mix together the cilantro, green onion, and cabbage. Add the dressing and toss to coat.

(If time permits, let the slaw sit for at least 30 minutes.)

Serve.

Green Chili Mac And Cheese

2010-02-07T09:00:00.003-07:00

I love trying new variations on macaroni and cheese. This green chili mac and cheese is a current favorite of mine. It features two different types of green chilies -- chopped roasted poblano peppers are nestled among the noodles, and puréed roasted serrano chilies are blended into a sour cream-cheddar sauce.

I think it's fun to roast poblano peppers, but you could save time by buying frozen roasted peppers. You'll need about 2 cups of chopped roasted poblanos.

Adapted from this recipe for a lower-fat mac and cheese at The Chef and the Photographer. I get at least nine servings -- any leftovers freeze nicely.

Ingredients
5 poblano peppers
canola oil for brushing
2 serrano chilies, washed, stems removed, sliced in quaters lengthwise, and seeded
1 3/4-inch thick slice onion
1 clove garlic
1 egg
15 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup low fat sour cream
1/2 cup skim milk
black pepper to taste
3/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
13 ounces whole wheat pasta, prepared per package instructions
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

Roasting the poblano peppers (skip this step if using pre-roasted peppers): Place the poblano peppers on a broiler-safe baking tray. Broil (monitoring carefully) until the peppers' skin bubbles and begins to turn black. Remove the peppers from the broiler and use tongs or a spatula to place them in a large paper bag. Roll the bag shut and allow the peppers to sit for 15 minutes. Take the peppers out of the bag, and carefully remove the stems, peel off the skin, and remove the seeds. (It's OK if not all of the skin will peel off, just be sure to get the bubbly/loose parts.) Coarsely chop the peeled peppers and set aside.

Place the serrano chilies, onion slice, and garlic on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Roast at 400F for about 10 minutes, or until the chilies' skin starts to bubble and the onion begins to brown. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Lightly brush a 13x9 baking dish with canola oil.

In a food processor, process the roasted serrano chilies, onion, and garlic with the ricotta cheese, sour cream, and egg until smoothly blended. With the food processor running, slowly pour in the milk.

Transfer the sour cream mixture into a large mixing bowl and add the black pepper, salt, chopped poblano peppers, and grated cheddar.

Place the cooked, drained pasta into the lightly-oiled baking dish. Pour the sour cream mixture over it, and gently stir to combine. Top with panko bread crumbs.

Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the foil and broil for two to three minutes, until the panko topping is golden brown.

Let sit 5 minutes, then serve.

Sesame Almond Cookies

2010-02-01T18:25:00.003-07:00

Sesame orange almond cookies, adapted from a recipe at Don't Burn the Garlic. Crispy on the outside, sesame goodness on the inside.

I substituted almond flour for 1/3 of the all-purpose flour in the original recipe. If you don't have almond flour, just go ahead and use three cups of all-purpose flour, as suggested by the original recipe.

Don't Burn the Garlic suggested adding a little orange zest -- it sounded like a great idea, and so I did, along with a little orange blossom water. However, while the resulting cookies were very good, they didn't have much of a citrus kick -- I'm not sure what more I could do to boost the orange flavor. Suggestions?

Ingredients
1 cup sesame seeds, lightly toasted (I used the lowest possible setting on my toaster oven)
2 sticks butter, softened
zest of one orange (optional)
1/2 teaspoon orange blossom water (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup almond flour
2 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, mix the toasted sesame seeds into the softened butter (it's OK if the butter melts).

Mix in the orange zest, orange blossom water, and vanilla extract.

Add the sugars and blend thoroughly.

Stir in the eggs.

Add the salt and baking powder.

Slowly stir in the almond and all-purpose flours, about 1 cup at a time.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and pre-heat the oven to 375 F.

Scoop up dough one teaspoon at a time, and roll into a ball with your hands. Place the rounded ball of dough on a non-stick cookie sheet.

Repeat until you filled the cookie sheet (12 cookies).

Bake for 11 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove from oven, and place on a rack to cool.

I got almost 4 dozen cookies.

Red Beans And Sticky Rice, With Gomashio

2010-01-30T11:59:00.004-07:00

Like any good vegetarian, I'm always on the lookout for a new beans and rice dish. So, naturally, I was interested in a recipe for red beans and sticky rice, seasoned with black sesame seeds and salt, from Tea and Cookies. While the recipe was simple -- requiring only adzuki beans, sticky rice (aka mochi rice or sweet rice), black sesame seeds and salt -- it incorporated different flavors and textures than my usual beans and rice dish. And so, I decided to give it a try.

The beans and rice were easy to prepare. I soaked 1 cup of adzuki beans (twice what the original recipe called for) and 1 and 1/2 cups of sticky rice overnight, in separate bowls. The next day, I drained and rinsed the beans, then cooked them for about 20 minutes while I rinsed and washed the rice. When the beans had finished cooking, I drained them but reserved the cooking water. The rice and partially cooked beans then went into a larger pot, with about 2 cups of the reserved bean cooking water, and a dash of salt. Less than 20 minutes later, the rice and beans were done.

The gomashio (black sesame seeds with salt) is also easy to make, although I had to work through a couple kinks. I used a recipe for stovetop gomashio at Just Bento, which was written for people who have a kitchen scale. Since I don't have a kitchen scale, I spent a little time with on-line measurement equivalent tables and a calculator, and ultimately figured that the recipe called for about 7 tablespoons of black sesame seeds, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1/2 cup of water. I decided to make a half batch, using 3.5 tablespoons of black sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 cup of water.

The recipe said to toast the black sesame seeds in a pan over medium-low heat until they popped, and then add in salt water and stir until the water evaporated. I was worried about burning the sesame seeds (since I couldn't tell by color whether they were toasting), and so I may have started out with too low a heat setting. However, after about 25 minutes and several increases in temperature -- to almost medium heat -- my sesame seeds still weren't popping. Out of frustration, I tasted a seed and found that it was nice and toasty. So, perhaps the seeds don't really have to pop? I added the salt water to the pan and was rewarded with a wonderful salty sesame smell. The water evaporated in just a couple of minutes, leaving me with tasty gomashio to sprinkle over my beans and rice.

Since the gomashio can take some time to prepare, I would definitely recommend making it in advance.

Cream of Barley Soup (With Mushrooms)

2010-01-25T17:19:00.001-07:00

I'm still on a Deborah Madison kick -- this time, her Cream of Barley Soup, from Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen. It's a smooth, creamy soup (thanks to puréed barley and vegetables, and reduced-fat sour cream) which delivers a nice dose of whole grains.

The recipe suggested garnishing the soup with cooked barley and thin slices of sautéed leek and shitake mushroom. I did stir some additional cooked barley into the puréed soup. However, instead of using a leek/shitake mushroom garnish, I sautéed about a pound of chopped baby portobello mushrooms in one tablespoon of melted butter. I really liked the texture of the barley and mushroom chunks in the otherwise smooth soup.

Since my mom's family is Hungarian, I couldn't let a dish featuring both sour cream and mushrooms go without a little paprika.

Lentils and Shells

2010-01-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for a good lentil/pasta dish for a while now. This dish from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen really does the trick, thanks to an unlikely combination of ingredients: lime, cilantro, thyme, celery, onion, and spinach (plus pasta and lentils).

If you like Deborah Madison and live in Denver, you might want to know that she will be giving a talk at the Denver Botanical Gardens this coming October. Info here.

Winter Vegetable Tian

2010-01-18T14:35:00.001-07:00

A summer dish made with winter vegetables -- thin slices of sweet potato, parsnip, and fennel, layered over sautéed leek and garlic, sprinkled with thyme and ground fennel seed, and topped with gruyere cheese. Adapted from this recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.

I used one sweet potato, one parsnip, and one fennel bulb. In the future, I might try to wedge in another (sliced) fennel bulb -- who knew that fennel was so good with gruyere?

Shish Kabob Grill

2010-01-16T07:09:00.000-07:00

I really should make my own tabbouleh. But, I've got no incentive, because I live just a few blocks from the Shish Kabob Grill. Packed with parsley (as well as tomatoes, onion, bulgur wheat, lemon juice, olive oil, and, I think, mint?), the Shish Kabob Grill's tabbouleh salad is refreshing, pleasantly crunchy, and a complete impediment to the development of my own tabbouleh recipe.

I also really like the hummus -- a creamy, smooth blend of chickpeas, sesame paste, lemon juice, garlic, salt and olive oil, which is served with two warm pitas (or sold in small tubs). Yes, I can (and do) make my own, but...

Sometimes I get the falafel sandwich -- a large pita filled with falafel, hummus, sesame paste, tomatoes, and lettuce. At about $6, it's an inexpensive but filling meal.

The restaurant also has a vegetarian platter (with hummus, baba ghanoush, falafel, grape leaves, and spinach pie) but I haven't tried it because I'm the rare vegetarian who doesn't like eggplant.

Shish Kabob Grill
1503 Grant (corner of Grant and Colfax)
Denver, CO 80203
303-837-8800

Slow-Cooker Baked Beans

2010-01-12T17:38:00.001-07:00

These baked beans are made with smoked paprika, not pork or bacon. It takes several hours of cooking from start to finish, but for most of that time, the beans are simmering away in a slow-cooker (aka Crockpot).

The recipe starts out by cooking the (pre-soaked) beans in a slow-cooker for three hours. The beans are then drained and added back to the slow-cooker -- along with smoked paprika, dried mustard, grated onion, molasses, brown sugar, ketchup, and water -- to cook for another 10 to 14 hours. I let mine simmer overnight on low heat. While I was sleeping, the beans transformed from pale to tangy brown.

Recipe here. I used cannellini instead of navy beans, and added salt to the cooked beans.

Grapefruit Ginger Smoothie

2010-01-09T07:55:00.001-07:00

I'm please to report that I finally own a blender that doesn't leak. So pleased, in fact, that I've been making smoothies even though the temperature has been well below freezing, and the ground in Cheeseman Park hasn't been visible in weeks.

While winter might seem like a strange time for a frozen treat, smoothies made with winter fruits like grapefruit are really yummy. This smoothie combines grapefruit, ginger, vanilla yogurt, and a handful of strawberries.

Ingredients
sections and juice of 1 grapefruit (approx 1 and 1/4 cups)
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
4 strawberries (I used frozen)

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender, and purée until smooth.

Serve.

Island Oatmeal

2010-01-04T21:13:00.002-07:00

Oatmeal with coconut milk, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and mango -- adapted from a recipe for arroz con dulce (Puerto Rican rice pudding). Yes, it's based on a dessert, but the oatmeal is more subtle than sweet. It's also super easy to make.

Ingredients
3.5 cups water
14 ounce can lite coconut milk
4 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
3 cups quick oats*
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 generous teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup currants or raisins
1 mango, washed and cut (optional)

Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan, and cook over medium heat until boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Adjust seasonings and serve.

*If using a different type of oats, you might need to adjust the amount of liquid and the cooking time.

*****
Note: This post is linked to Healthy Green Kitchen’s breakfast recipe blog carnival for Haiti. -- B

Roasted Cauliflower

2010-01-01T09:16:00.003-07:00

Well, any good intentions regarding "moderation" went right out the window with these addictive little bits of roasted cauliflower. I ate half the batch in one sitting. Luckily, it was all more or less healthy stuff -- cauliflower, tumeric, garlic, red pepper flakes, olive oil, and a dash of salt.

It looks like there are lots of different roasted cauliflower recipes out there --I made this version working from a recipe at 101 Cookbooks. It's really simple, with 30 minutes of baking time, and maybe 5 minutes of hands-on time. These little guys will definitely be on the meal rotation for 2010 (perhaps with a dhal or chickpea curry?). I might try adding a little cumin seed, too.

Ingredients
1 cauliflower, washed
3 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
dash red pepper flakes
3/4 teaspoon ground tumeric
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Cut the "branches" of the cauliflower away from the main stem. Discard the stem. Cut up the "branches" until they are in bite-sized florets.

Place the cauliflower in a 13x9 baking dish (or a baking sheet with a rim), spreading them out into a single layer.

Drizzle the cauliflower with the olive oil, then add the garlic, tumeric, red pepper flakes, and salt. Stir until the cauliflower is more or less coated with the seasonings. (They will get even more coated when you stir the cauliflower during and after the baking process.)

Bake the cauliflower for 15 minutes. Then, carefully pull the baking dish out of the oven (with an oven mitt) and give the cauliflower a good stir. Let the cauliflower bake for another 15 minutes.

After the cauliflower has baked for a total of 30 minutes, remove it from the oven, and give it another good stir so that it's thoroughly covered with seasonings.

Serve immediately.

Soup with Red Lentils, Roasted Peppers, and Spinach

2009-12-29T06:48:00.002-07:00

This soup has golden cooked lentils, bright flecks of puréed roasted peppers, and green baby spinach. It also provides a healthy dose of garlic.

You might be wondering why the title says "red lentils" but the description says "golden cooked lentils." Red lentils lose their pinkish color during the cooking process. However, they cook more quickly than the green and yellow varieties, and have a smooth consistency that works well in soups.

Ingredients
1 generous cup red lentils, picked over and rinsed
5 cups water
2 and 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 yellow, orange, or red peppers (or 1-pint mini-peppers), washed, seeded, and cut in strips
dash red pepper flakes (optional)
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cipollini onion or shallot, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups baby spinach, washed

Place the lentils and water in a medium sauce pan, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the lentils 20 minutes, or until tender and falling apart.

While the lentils are cooking, toss the pepper strips in 1 tablespoon olive oil, then place on a baking sheet and roast at 400F for 15 minutes, or until tender and just starting to brown. Let the peppers cool.

Place the cooled peppers in a food processor and process until smooth. Set aside.

When the lentils are almost ready, heat the remaining 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil and the red pepper flakes in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add the garlic, then the onion, and sautée until the garlic turns golden-brown.

Stir in 1 teaspoon salt.

Carefully pour the cooked lentils and puréed peppers into the skillet, stir until thoroughly combined, and cook about 5 minutes.

Add the baby spinach to the skillet, and continue cooking until the spinach has wilted, stirring occasionally.

Serve.

Orange Swirls

2009-12-26T08:02:00.009-07:00

While I love to cook, there are times when it's nice to sit back and enjoy something prepared by someone else. My mom is a really good cook -- I was lucky to grow up eating homemade bread, pasta, and cookies. I do my own cooking now, but I ask my mom to make something for my birthday each year. This year, I asked for orange swirls.

The swirls have a yeasty, orange-flecked dough, and a simple honey-nutmeg-almond filling. (There's also a honey-lemon glaze, which we skipped.) We wound up with 14 good-sized swirls, rather than the 10 suggested by the recipe. The swirls take two to three hours from start to finish, so if you want to eat them for breakfast, you might consider making them the day before.

The recipe comes from the Holly B cookbook -- I ran across it at Dana Treat.

Almond-Cranberry Cornbread

2009-12-19T09:41:00.004-07:00

There were two things about this cornbread recipe that interested me. First, it adds almond flour to the standard blend of cornmeal and all-purpose flour. Second, it's dotted with dried cranberries and sliced almonds -- two of my favorite things.

The resulting cornbread is supposed to yield 12 servings, but I have to admit that I ate one fourth of the pan in a single sitting. Whoops.

If you don't have almond flour, you can finely grind blanched almonds in a food processor. The recipe contemplates that the bread will be baked in a cast-iron skillet; I don't have one, so I used a 9x9 baking dish.

Recipe here.

Blueberry Ginger Jam

2009-12-15T07:00:00.011-07:00

Each summer, when blueberries are in season, I wash and freeze a large baggie-full for use later in the year. Then, when I need a change from the usual winter produce, I head to the freezer for some berries. Last month, I used some of my stash to make blueberry chia muffins. This weekend, I went back to the freezer, and used some more berries to make blueberry ginger jam.

I'd never made jam before, but the recipe was simple: combine blueberries, grated ginger, port, sugar, and lemon zest in a saucepan; bring to a boil; and then simmer over medium-low heat for 30 minutes. That's it.

The original recipe called for four cups of blueberries. That would have finished off my stash, and so I made 1/4 batch. I omitted the port (although I think it would have been good) because I didn't have any on hand. Also, I used pineapple juice in place of the sugar. Towards the end of the cooking process, I deglazed the saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of hot water, so as not to miss out on any blueberry-ginger goodness.

Recipe here.

Black Ale Chocolate Pudding

2009-12-12T10:18:00.001-07:00

Beer in chocolate pudding seems weird. And whisking beer into half-and-half seems weirder still. At several points in the cooking process, I was convinced this was going to be a complete disaster, not to mention a waste of perfectly good chocolate and ale. Luckily, I was wrong. Black ale chocolate pudding is actually pretty darn good.

With the first spoonful, I can taste both chocolate and ale. After that, the flavors blend.

Loosely adapted from this recipe and this recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup skim milk, divided
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup black ale, or stout
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips
4 tablespoons cornstarch
dash salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a sauce pan, combine the half-and-half, ale, sugar, and 1/2 cup skim milk over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture begins to simmer. (Note: the foam from the ale makes it hard to tell when the mixture is simmering -- I waited until the foam was reduced and the simmer broke through the remaining layer of bubbles on top -- this took about 5 minutes.)

Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to slowly whisk for five minutes.

Remove from heat. Whisk in the cocoa powder, then add the chocolate chips and let the mixture sit five minutes. Stir until the chocolate chips are fairly well blended with the ale mixture.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup milk with the cornstarch, salt, and egg. Ladle a little of the chocolate/ale mixture in the bowl, and whisk until combined. Then, pour the entire cornstarch mixture back into the sauce pan and whisk until smooth.

Return the saucepan to medium heat. Whisk slowly until the mixture returns to a simmer (this took about 10 minutes for me). Simmer 2-3 minutes, whisking constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in the vanilla.

Serve warm (this is good!) or chilled (also good).

Walnut Bread

2009-12-09T07:00:00.002-07:00

I was so pleased with the olive bread that I made a couple of weeks ago that I decided to try the same recipe again -- but this time, with 1 and 1/2 cups of walnuts (and 2 teaspoons salt) in place of the kalamata olives called for in the original recipe.

Although I used the same flour, the inside of the walnut bread was a different color than the interior of the olive bread -- I think the substitution of walnuts for olives must somehow be responsible for this.

Delicious with a smear of butter and a drizzle of honey.

Yellow Split Pea Stew With Kale and Smoked Paprika

2009-12-06T09:00:00.005-07:00

It's been an unusually cold week in Colorado. So, it seemed like a good time to try a recipe for Yellow Split Pea Soup with Smoked Paprika posted at Elana's Pantry. I liked the idea of a steaming bowl of soup with split peas and kale. I was also intrigued by the recipe's use of smoked paprika; my mom's family is Hungarian, so I'm familiar with paprika, but I'd never heard of the smoked variety. Turns out it's a Spanish cousin of the paprika that I grew up with. And deeelicious.
While I used many of the same ingredients as Elana, I changed things up a bit. Rather than using vegetable broth, I cooked the peas and kale together, to create their own broth. Also, I added the smoked paprika at a different stage of the cooking process, and didn't puree the split peas.

Ingredients
1 cup yellow split peas, picked over and rinsed
1 bunch kale, washed
5 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 onion, washed and chopped
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 clove garlic, minced
8 ounces mushrooms, washed and chopped
1 teaspoon salt

Tear the green portion of the kale leaves from the center veins. Discard the veins and chop the greens.

Place the split peas and kale in a large pot with the water and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and cook, covered, for about an hour, until the peas are tender and starting to fall apart. Remove the bay leaves and set the split pea mixture aside.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion, garlic, and smoked paprika and cook over low medium low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the mushrooms and sautée until tender.

Stir in the salt, then add the split pea mixture.

Increase the heat to medium, and cook until the stew is warmed through.

Adjust seasonings to taste and serve.

Olive Bread

2009-12-01T07:00:00.004-07:00

I love olives. And bread. So, when I ran across a recipe for olive bread, it went right to the top of my "to bake" list.

The recipe takes more than 12 hours from start to finish, but the hands on time is minimal. The night before baking the bread, I combined bread flour, yeast, olives, and water. After covering the mixture and letting the yeast work its magic overnight, I worked the dough into two loaves, and placed them on a lightly oiled baking sheet to rise for a couple more hours.

Then it was time to bake the bread. While the recipe said to put the dough in a preheated pot to bake, I didn't want to bake any of my pots in the oven. So, instead, I preheated the oven to 400F, placed the loaves (still on the oiled baking sheet) inside, then reduced the heat to 375F and baked them until their crusts were golden and an inserted thermometer read 210F (a method I borrowed from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian).

The recipe yielded two good-sized loaves of olive bread. I used the first to make some toasted sandwiches with provolone and chopped peppers. (A similar sandwich, made with regular bread, can be found here.) Since I was about to leave town for Thanksgiving, I put the second loaf in the freezer -- I'm pleased to report that it emerged from the icebox with the same "fresh baked" texture it had when it went in, and that I'll be enjoying more olive bread sandwiches this week.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-11-29T15:26:00.003-07:00

When making chocolate chip cookies, I'll usually mix a handful of nuts into the batter along with the chocolate chips. Rather than adding nuts at the end, this recipe starts by toasting unsweetened coconut until golden, then blending the coconut with softened butter. The resulting cookies look like standard chocolate chippers, but are permeated with coconut flavor. While baking cookies always smell good, these cookies filled my apartment with the smell of coconut, which was an added treat on a cold November day.

The recipe uses a decent amount of butter and sugar, but yields a lot of cookies (I got 5 dozen). I adjusted things a bit by substituting spelt for one third of the all-purpose flour, and adding a handful of oats to the batter (at the same time I mixed in the chocolate chips), for added texture.

Sweet Potato Salad

2009-11-21T12:31:00.006-07:00

Via the Bitten Word: a salad with roasted red onions, sweet potatoes, walnuts, and green beans, topped with a tangy yogurt sauce.

It's a super simple recipe: toss chopped sweet potato and red onion with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast them. When the sweet potatoes are tender, add green beans and walnuts to the baking sheet, and cook another 5 minutes. Serve the roast vegetable mixture on a bed of lettuce, topped with dressing made from plain yogurt, garlic, and white wine vinegar.

The one part of the recipe I wasn't sure about was the frozen green beans. They were alright, but I think I'll use fresh green beans the next time I make this.

The recipe says it serves four, but I would say its more like three servings.

If you're looking for other winter salad ideas, you might like gado gado.

For Your Consideration: Last Minute Thanksgiving Dinner Ideas

2009-11-17T08:02:00.001-07:00

This year, I'll be traveling down to Arizona for Thanksgiving, where I'll have a holiday dinner of side dish + pie. While it might not be the ideal Thanksgiving meal for a vegetarian, my sister-in-law bakes an awesome pie, and my niece does an adorable dance in honor of the holiday.

As you can see, she has a real interest in the culinary arts.

If I had access to my own kitchen this Thanksgiving, I might make one of these vegetarian main dishes:

•Stuffed portobello mushrooms with balsamic glaze, from Love and Olive Oil: I made this a few weeks ago. Or, I made something like this, except instead of stuffing large portobello mushrooms, I chopped up some baby bellas and roasted them along with the stuffing ingredients (which include artichoke hearts, parmesan, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and goat cheese). The result was tasty -- especially with the balsamic reduction -- but not especially photogenic. I think a stuffed mushroom would make a better presentation.

•Veg lasagna: Easy but good. The lasagna can be assembled in advance, so you can spend Thanksgiving day doing other things.

•Roasted butternut squash, rosemary, and garlic lasagna: This lasagna recipe is a little more involved, but the results are delicious: roasted butternut squash is layered with a rosemary-infused cheese mixture and lasagna noodles, then topped with (unsweetened) whipped cream and parmesan cheese. While it sounds (and tastes) decadent, the recipe comes from the archives of Cooking Light magazine, so it might even be reasonably good for you. The butternut squash and white sauce can be prepared the night before.

•Pearl couscous with fall vegetables and carmelized onions: This is what I made last Thanksgiving -- butternut squash, turnips, and other veggies are simmered in a saffron-spiced broth, then served over pearl couscous with carmelized onions. Again, somewhat time-intensive, but it made for a nice holiday meal.

Vegan Chiles Rellenos

2009-11-14T07:00:00.003-07:00

Kind of a chile relleno, kind of a (cumin-spiked) twice-baked potato.

There are a few different steps involved but none of them are complicated. You can break up the cooking time by preparing the poblano peppers and/or the potato-bean filling in advance.

Ingredients
6 cups yukon gold potatoes, washed and chopped
6 poblano peppers, washed
1 tablespoon canola oil, plus additional oil for brushing
1 onion, washed and chopped
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1 15- ounce can (1 and 1/2 cups) black beans

Poblano peppers

Slice each poblano pepper in half length-wise, and gently remove the seeds and membranes, being careful not to cut through the pepper's outer wall.

Place the poblano pepper halves face down on a broiler-safe baking tray. Broil (monitoring carefully) until the peppers' skin bubbles and begins to turn black.

Remove the peppers from the broiler and use tongs or a spatula to place them in a large paper bag. Roll the bag shut and allow the peppers to sit for 15 minutes.

Take one pepper out of the bag, and carefully peel off the skin. (It's OK if not all of the skin will peel off, just be sure to get the bubbly/loose parts.) Repeat with the remaining peppers. Set the peeled peppers aside.

Potato-bean filling

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil, add the potatoes, and cook 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat one tablespoon of oil over medium-low heat. Add the cumin seed and onion and cook for about 10 minutes (until the onion is soft), stirring occasionally.

While the onion is cooking, pour the cooked potatoes into a large bowl and mash.

Once the onions are soft, stir in 1 teaspoon salt, then mix in the mashed potatoes.

Remove the skillet from the heat. Stir in 1/2 cup water and the beans.

Assembling and baking the chiles rellenos

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Lightly brush a baking sheet (or two) with canola oil.

Pick up one of the poblano pepper halves. Use your other hand to scoop up about 3/4 cup of the potato-bean mixture, and gently pat it into the pepper. Place the stuffed pepper onto the baking sheet. Repeat until all of the pepper halves have been filled.

Bake the chili rellenos for 25-30 minutes, or until the potato-bean filling begins to brown on top.

Serve immediately.

Blueberry Chia Muffins

2009-11-10T07:08:00.005-07:00

A vegan-friendly muffin recipe (no eggs or butter) with blueberries, chia seed, and a hint of citrus.

Chia seeds contain more omega-three fatty acids than flax seed. You can read more about chia seeds here and here, and find them in many health food stores. This was my first attempt at baking with chia seeds -- usually, I stir them into my yogurt.

Loosely adapted from this recipe at Eat Me, Delicious.

Ingredients
1 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (plus 1 additional tablespoon flour if using frozen blueberries)
3/4 cup spelt flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup soy milk
3/4 cup (6 ounces) plain or vanilla yogurt (use soy yogurt for vegan muffins)
2 teaspoons vanilla
juice of 1/2 orange and 1/2 lemon (1/3 cup juice total)
1 teaspoon grated orange or lemon peel
1 and 1/2 cups blueberries
1/4 cup chia seeds

Preheat oven to 400F.

Place muffin cups in a muffin tin (or lightly brush the muffin tin with oil).

If using frozen blueberries, gently toss them with 1 tablespoon flour and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose and spelt flours, baking powder, salt, and chia; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, soy milk, yogurt, vanilla, grated rind, and juice.

Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture, and stir until just blended.

Gently stir in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, dividing it evenly between the 12 muffin cups.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool before serving.

Veg Lasagna

2009-11-07T07:00:00.009-07:00

I suppose everyone has their preferences when it comes to lasagna. I like mine packed with veggies, but I don't want the vegetables to distract from the cheese. Which is how I wound up with a veg-cheese filling that blends puréed spinach, grated carrot, and chopped onion with mozzarella, parmesan, and ricotta.

I originally made this lasagna with hand-chopped fresh spinach, but when I got a food processor, I found that it was faster (and cheaper) to use frozen spinach -- there's no change in flavor, and a slight improvement in texture. I also use store-bought tomato sauce in this lasagna, although you can make your own if you want. It's a pretty simple, no-fuss recipe, but the result is respectable enough to serve guests.

Ingredients
9 lasagna noodles, cooked per package instructions
10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed
1 carrot, washed and grated
1 onion, washed and finely chopped (or grated)
dash nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste
1 egg
15 ounces (approx. 1 and 3/4 cup) part-skim ricotta
8 ounces grated mozzarella cheese, divided
About 3 ounces grated parmesan cheese, divided
26 ounces store-bought tomato sauce (about 3 cups)

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Purée the spinach in a food processor.

Transfer the spinach into a large bowl, and slowly blend in the carrot, onion, egg, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and ricotta, along with 2/3 of the mozzarella and 1/2 of the parmesan. Set the veg-cheese mixture aside.

Pour about 1/3 of the tomato sauce into a 9 x 13 baking dish, so that the bottom of the dish is covered.

Top the tomato sauce with three of the lasagna noodles.

Cover the lasagna noodles with 1/2 of the veg-cheese mixture (spreading the mixture so that the noodles are evenly covered).

Top the veg-cheese mixture with three more of the lasagna noodles.

Pour another third of the tomato sauce over the lasagna noodles.

Use the rest of the veg-cheese mixture to cover the tomato sauce.

Top the veg-cheese mixture with the last three lasagna noodles.

Pour the last of the tomato sauce over the lasagna noodles.

Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes.

Remove the foil and add the remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Bake (uncovered) for another 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

Remove the lasagna from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes.

Serve.

(I get 9 generous servings -- any leftovers freeze nicely.)

Sweet Potato Truffles With Pecans, Coconut, And Chocolate

2009-11-02T20:45:00.003-07:00

I know that, from my recent posts, it must look like I eat nothing but sweets and soup. That's not exactly true, but I do have another sweets recipe to share -- this time, homemade truffles, made with mashed sweet potato, pecans, coconut, and two types of chocolate.

They're tiny, so you might need to eat a few of them.

Ingredients
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
1/4 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
3/4 cup pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dash salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Place the chocolate chips, sweet potato, pecans, coconut, vanilla, and salt in a food processor and process until the mixture becomes relatively smooth and forms a ball.

Scrape the truffle mixture out of the food processor and into a bowl; cover and refrigerate for one hour.

After about an hour...

Set out a piece of wax paper or parchment paper (to place the finished truffles on).

Remove the truffle mixture from the refrigerator.

Place the cocoa powder on a dinner plate.

Roll 1 teaspoon of the truffle mixture between your hands to create a ball.

Roll the truffle ball in the cocoa powder until coated, and place on the parchment or wax paper.

Repeat until all of the truffle mixture has been used.

Refrigerate until serving (or enjoy immediately).

Ginger Beet Soup

2009-10-31T17:12:00.004-06:00

I'm don't know about you, but beets were not my favorite food growing up. In fact, I thought they were gross. Then, on a whim, I tried a bowl of ginger beet soup at a restaurant -- and discovered that beets weren't so bad after all. In fact, ginger beet soup was really really good.

This recipe from Maya at My Feasts creates a pretty close approximation of the soup I had that day. First, sautée leeks, ginger, and garlic over medium-low heat, and then add roasted beets, salt, pepper, and broth to the pot. After allowing the ingredients to simmer for a bit, purée, then finish with fresh lemon juice. It's a simple recipe, with great results. Not only does the soup have a nice ginger-beet flavor, but it will make your kitchen smell wonderful.

My only stray from the recipe was using water in place of broth -- happily, the leeks, garlic, ginger, and beets created their own.

Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-10-24T12:00:00.001-06:00

I had a craving for ginger + chocolate, so I decided to try this recipe for ginger chocolate chip cookies. I more or less followed the recipe exactly, except I used diced crystallized ginger instead of ginger chips, and I substituted 1/3 cup spelt flour for 1/3 cup of the all-purpose flour. Also, I decided to live dangerously and not grease the (nonstick) baking sheet, and it turned out fine.

When I read the recipe, I wondered whether little bits of ginger would give the entire cookie a ginger flavor, or whether it would only be noticeable when I bit into a piece of ginger (sort of like biting into a raisin in an oatmeal raisin cookie). Happily, the ginger flavor does permeate the entire cookie, and is punctuated when biting into an actual piece of ginger.

The only thing I would do differently when making these cookies in the future is doubling the recipe. I made my cookies a little bit bigger than the ones contemplated in the recipe, so I wound up with about 28 cookies instead of 36.

Beer Cheese Soup

2009-10-17T07:00:00.021-06:00

Again with the cauliflower. This time, in soup. With beer.

Ingredients
1 head cauliflower, washed and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup skim milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, washed and diced
1 stalk celery, washed and diced
1 clove garlic
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon ground mustard
black pepper to taste
8 ounces (1 cup) beer (I used a black ale)
4 cups veg broth (I used un-chicken broth*)
1 cup water
2 carrots, washed and diced
2 cups potatoes, washed and diced
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
About 2.5 ounces gruyére, grated

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

When the water is boiling, add the cauliflower and cook until tender (10-15 minutes).

Strain the cauliflower and let cool.

Place the cooled cauliflower in a food processor along with the milk, and process until smooth. Set aside.

Return the pot to the burner, and melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the onion, garlic, celery, and bay leaf and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft (about 10 minutes).

Sprinkle the flour, dry mustard, and black pepper over the onion and celery and cook three more minutes, stirring constantly.

Slowly pour the beer into the pot, whisking constantly.

Slowly add the broth and water to the pot, whisking constantly (this will take several minutes).

Carefully add the puréed cauliflower, stirring until smooth. Then, add the carrots and potatoes. Cover, bring to a boil, then turn down to medium-low heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Remove the pot from the burner, take out the bay leaf, and add the grated cheese, stirring until the cheese has melted smoothly into the soup.

Serve immediately.

*I didn't add salt because my broth contained a decent amount of sodium.

Apple Yam Soup

2009-10-13T07:00:00.002-06:00

From Paulette Mitchell's cookbook A Beautiful Bowl of Soup: a steaming bowl of apple yam soup, flavored with white wine, ginger, and curry powder, and topped with chopped pecans. A copy of the recipe can be found here.

Although the recipe calls for seasoned pecans, I just used plain chopped pecans (which are pretty amazing on their own), and saved the butter for the bread I ate along with the soup.

Pasta With Walnut Sauce

2009-10-10T11:29:00.003-06:00

I love walnuts, so I was intrigued by a recipe for pasta with walnut sauce in the New York Times last week. However, I didn't want to take the time to track down "fresh ricotta" or walnut oil, so I did a little googling and came up with another recipe, one that used basic ingredients I keep around the house (walnuts, bread, milk, parmesan cheese, garlic, dried marjoram, olive oil). Not only are the ingredients easy to find, but the recipe is super-simple: soak a slice of bread in milk, then purée the walnuts, cheese, garlic, and marjoram. The olive oil, soaked bread, and milk are then processed into the sauce. The result is rich, pleasantly creamy, and great tossed with pasta and broccoli.

The recipe was vague about the amount of salt; I would recommend at least 3/4 teaspoon. I also used a little extra milk to thin the sauce, which was quite thick.

The Best Homemade Mac And Cheese EVER (Recipe Included)

2009-09-27T08:17:00.018-06:00

As much as I love macaroni and cheese, it's not the best summer dish. Who wants to fire up the oven when there are so many fresh fruits and vegetables around?

But now that autumn is officially here, mac and cheese started to sound good again. Unfortunately, when I pulled up an old post about The Best Homemade Mac And Cheese EVER, I realized that I never actually published the recipe, instead noting modifications upon modifications to a recipe for kid-friendly mac and cheese from Food Blogga. D'oh.

So, here, in one place, is the recipe for The Best Homemade Mac And Cheese EVER. Since the sauce contains cauliflower, there is no need for a side vegetable. However, this version of macaroni and cheese is especially good with (or followed by) fresh apple slices.

Ingredients
1 bunch cauliflower (if you can find it, orange cauliflower boosts the color)
8 ounces pasta (I like spirals, twists, or campanelle)
2 1/2 cups skim milk, divided
1 tablespoon butter, plus butter to coat a 9 x 13 inch baking dish
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
About 2.5 ounces gruyére, grated
dash grated nutmeg (optional)
salt and pepper to taste (I add more pepper than salt, since the cheese already contains a decent amount of salt)
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish and set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

Wash the cauliflower and cut into small pieces.

When the water is boiling, add the cauliflower and cook until tender (10-15 minutes).

Strain the cauliflower from the hot water and set aside.

Add pasta to the pot of hot water and cook per package instructions.

When the cauliflower has cooled, place it in a food processor along with 1/2 cup milk, and process until smooth. Set aside.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it and set aside.

Return the pot to the burner, and melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir until the flour absorbs the butter and turns golden brown.

Create a white sauce by adding the remaining 2 cups of milk to the flour mixture, about 1/3 cup at a time. Each time milk is added, whisk until the mixture is smooth and begins to thicken and simmer, then add more milk.

When all the milk has been used, add a generous amount of black pepper and a dash of nutmeg to the sauce, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer about 5 minutes.

Remove the pot from heat and gently add the puréed cauliflower and grated cheese to the white sauce, stirring until smooth.

Add salt (and additional pepper) to taste.

Mix the pasta into the sauce and stir until coated.

Pour the pasta and sauce into the buttered baking dish, and sprinkle panko on top.

Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes.

Let the mac and cheese sit for about 5 minutes, then serve.

Buttermilk Waffles

2009-09-19T07:30:00.002-06:00

Topped with diced apples, walnuts, and maple syrup.

Ingredients
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup spelt flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons oil
1 egg

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, and egg.
Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir to combine thoroughly.
Allow the batter to set while heating a waffle iron (per waffle iron instructions).
When the waffle iron is hot, ladle batter on to the iron and cook per waffle iron instructions.
Serve immediately.

I get four to five waffles on my iron. Leftover batter can be refrigerated in a tightly covered container, and keeps about five days.

A Summer Version of a Winter Favorite

2009-08-30T09:17:00.006-06:00

Fresh figs in August -- dried figs (and dates) in December.

Spelt Salad With Mint, Parsley, Artichoke Hearts, And Cannellini Beans

2009-08-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

Salads make a great summer meal; I often eat them once or twice a day. However, as we headed into August, I began to want a change from my usual salads. So, I dug through a stack of recipe clippings and found an old Cooking Light recipe (from the days of their Inspired Vegetarian section) for a spelt salad with mint, parsley, artichoke hearts, and cannellini beans. It turned out to be a great pick: the spelt has a nice, nutty flavor; the mint and parsley blend smoothly to create a pleasant herb taste; and who can resist artichoke hearts? (I think they are a close runner-up for "vegetarian bacon.") Plus, the recipe uses canned beans and artichoke hearts; the only real cooking involved is simmering the spelt for 30 minutes. Which is perfect for a salad in August.

Cannellini Beans With Tomato And Basil

2009-08-01T08:00:00.002-06:00

From Jack Bishop's Italian Vegetarian Cookbook: a vegan caprese salad, with seasoned cannellini beans in place of mozzarella cheese. The beans require a little work (the recipe calls for dried cannellini beans to be soaked and then simmered with garlic and bay leaves) but can be prepared in advance. Once the beans have cooled, simply toss them with basil, diced tomatoes, olive oil, salt, and pepper -- very easy, and very refreshing.

Served with polenta and spinach.

Lavender Chocolate Bars

2009-07-25T06:45:00.005-06:00

Veggie Belly recently posted about several interesting things to do with lavender (both edible and not). It reminded me that I'd been meaning to write up the lavender chocolate bars that Rhubarb made. It's another recipe from Ani's Raw Food Desserts; the ingredients include lavender, almonds, raisins, and cacao powder. I'd never noticed it before, but raisins plus chocolate creates a wonderful caramel-like flavor. Lavender plus chocolate is simply divine. The bars need to be kept in the freezer, which makes for a cool, chocolatey summer treat.

Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-07-19T19:41:00.005-06:00

I like to start my work day with cookies. Not for breakfast, of course. Instead, I eat a bowl of cereal or some peanut butter toast at home, then head to the office and, within five or 10 minutes of arriving at my desk, break out the cookies. It's basically my treat for going in to work.

Since I eat cookies on a regular basis, I like to think about ways to make them slightly less bad for me, while not sacrificing taste or texture. One of my tricks is to make peanut butter cookies using whole wheat flour instead of white flour -- while I'm not always a fan of whole wheat cookies, I think that the nuttiness of whole wheat blends really well with peanut butter.

After some experimentation, I've adapted my usual chocolate chip cookie recipe to include spelt flour in place of some of the all-purpose flour. (I tried making chocolate chip cookies using only spelt flour, but they turned out thinner and less chewy than I like.) The revised recipe also uses a little less sugar than the original.

Ingredients
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup white spelt flour
1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 12-ounce package of chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (right now, I'm on a macadamia kick)

Preheat oven to 375.
Cream the butter, sugar, molasses, and vanilla extract.
Beat in the eggs.
Stir in the salt and baking soda.
Slowly stir in the spelt and all purpose flour until the mixture is thoroughly combined.
Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
Using a teaspoon, scoop up little bits of dough and drop them onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.

Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

Strawberry, Avocado, and Spinach Salad

2009-07-06T21:58:00.004-06:00

Rhubarb says that avocado is the vegetarian bacon. But would bacon taste this good with strawberries and a balsamic vinaigrette? I think not.

Chocolate Cups With Almond Cream And Berries

2009-05-28T08:00:00.005-06:00

I wanted to make a birthday dessert for someone who doesn't do wheat, rarely does dairy, and is cutting back on sugar. As someone whose dessert repertoire leans heavily on butter, sugar, and all-purpose flour, I was a little stumped. Then, wandering through the stacks at Powell's during a recent trip to Portland, I noticed Ani's Raw Food Desserts by Ani Phyo. The design was cute, the photos were pretty, and the recipes were not only simple, but also consistently wheat-, dairy-, and gluten-free. So, I decided to give it a shot.

The recipe I chose was "Almond Frangipane Kream," which I planned to serve as a pudding topped with fresh berries. How simple was it? Put some raw almonds in a blender along with agave nectar, vanilla, and water, and process for about 30 seconds (or until smooth). That's it.

The result was a pleasantly sweet, smooth blend that tasted of almond and vanilla. I really liked it, but I was worried that the dessert might need a contrasting flavor, and so I ran out at the last minute and bought some little chocolate bowls. (Yes, the bowls were a cheat, both in terms of being store-bought and in terms of containing some sugar and dairy...) In retrospect, my concerns were unfounded, as the berries themselves provided a good contrast to the cream.

This is the only recipe that I've tried from the book to date, but, so far, I'm pleased with my selection. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, and the book is accessible even to someone who isn't a raw foodie. Other recipes I'd like to try in the future include Pineapple With Ginger And Lime, Lavender Chocolate Bars, and Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake (!!!).

Socca (Chickpea Pancakes)

2009-05-03T08:00:00.001-06:00

I'm not very big on pancakes for breakfast, but I've discovered that I really like having pancakes for supper - or, at least, I like dining on socca (pancakes made with chickpea flour). The socca recipe is simple, requiring only chickpea flour, salt, pepper, olive oil, and water. After the batter rests briefly, the pancakes are poured into a skillet coated lightly with olive oil, then cooked for three minutes on one side and one minute on the other. One half-batch serves two people. Rhubarb and I ate them topped with zucchini and tomatoes, which were roasted with olive oil, garlic, and rosemary. Very simple, but also very satisfying.

How to Pack a Salad/Salad With Rice Noodles, Tofu, Cilantro, and Peanut Sauce

2009-04-27T18:15:00.008-06:00

Salad makes a great lunch, but I hate handing over $8 any time I want fresh greens on a work day. So, I saved one of those nifty plastic bowls from a local salad shop, and have been using it to carry my own homemade blends of veggies to work.

I've come up with the following method for layering a salad that will travel to work:

*Pour the dressing in the bottom of the bowl.
*Next, add ingredients that will not get soggy in dressing - for example, diced carrots, bell peppers, cucumber, apples, cabbage, red onion, olives, beans or walnuts.
*If you are using diced or crumbled cheese, add it next. Noodles work well at this stage, too.
*Finally, add the veggies that would get soggy if they sat in dressing (lettuce, spinach, herbs).
*Add-ins like baked tofu, falafel, or tortilla chips can be wrapped separately and mixed in at lunchtime.

This week's salad features rice noodles, tofu, cilantro, bell peppers, and red onion in a spicy peanut sauce (which can be more or less spicy depending on the amount of red pepper flakes used). It requires a little advance work (cooking the rice noodles, baking the tofu, and assembling the peanut sauce) but, once prepped, these ingredients can be used all week. I prefer to chop my veggies each night, but that could be done in advance, too.

I didn't have them this time, but chopped peanuts would make a great topping.

Ingredients
1 batch baked tofu, cooled
1 batch peanut sauce (see below), cooled
4 ounces rice noodles, prepared per package instructions, drained, rinsed in cold water, and set aside
2 red or orange bell peppers, washed and diced
2 cups cabbage, washed and thinly slivered
10 cups of greens (I used a lettuce/spinach blend), washed
1/4 red onion, washed and thinly slivered
1 bunch cilantro, washed

For each salad:

Pour 1/4 cup peanut sauce in the bottom of the bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon red onion, 1/3 cup bell peppers, and 1/3 cup cabbage.
Add about 1/2 cup chopped rice noodles.
Top with 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, and 2 cups chopped greens.
Close container.
Separately pack the tofu.

Peanut Sauce Ingredients
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I like the fresh ground peanuts from the health food store)
Dash red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 teaspoons ginger, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup water

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a sauce pan over medium heat until the sauce is smooth.
Bring the sauce to a light simmer.
Let the sauce simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat for about 10-15 minutes, whisking occasionally, until it thickens to the consistency of gravy.

Spelt Scones

2009-03-29T07:58:00.007-06:00

I've been wanting to try spelt flour in place of wheat flour. I'd read about its nutritional benefits, and I liked the fact that it's higher in protein than wheat flour. However, I wasn't sure that baked goods made with spelt would have the same texture and consistency as those made with wheat.

I chose cream scones for my first attempt at baking with spelt, using white spelt flour in this recipe, and adding a little grated orange rind and a handful of dried cranberries. Cream scones might seem like an odd choice in light of my interest in the nutritional aspect of spelt, but they were a great vehicle for the flour: the scones rose beautifully, and had a light, flaky texture. I say "had" because, although I made them just yesterday morning, they're already gone.

In Which We Confirm Our Suspicion That Beatrice Will Put Grated Carrots In Just About Anything

2009-03-21T08:00:00.003-06:00

By the book: Jeanne Lemlin's Crunchy Lentil Salad (parsley, red onion, celery, lentils, carrots, and dressing).

Something of an accident: pinto beans with cilantro, red onion, and grated carrots (I was out of tomatoes), topped with avocado.

Gone gone gone: oatmeal with coconut, grated carrots, raisins, and pecans.

Garlicky Kale Mashed Potatoes

2009-03-17T08:00:00.007-06:00

Lately, I've been thinking about kale mashed potatoes. I wanted them to be green! I wanted them to be vegan. And, I wanted them to be garlicky.

The result: not as green as I'd hoped, but creamy without milk or butter, garlicky, and good. Much better, unfortunately, than the veg sausages I bought to eat with them... I think that next time, I might try adding a can of cannellini beans to the mash for protein.

Ingredients
2 pounds potatoes, washed, trimmed, and chopped into 1 inch cubes (I used Yukon Gold potatoes and kept the skins on)
1 bunch kale
2 teaspoons salt, divided
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves minced garlic

Place the chopped potatoes in a large pot.
Rinse kale in repeated water baths, until the water is no longer sandy.
Tear the leafy green portion of the kale leaves from the center veins.
Chop the leafy green portion of the kale and place it in the pot with the potatoes.
Add just enough water to the pot to cover the kale and potatoes.
Stir in 1 teaspoon salt.
Cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer (still covered) for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
Drain the potatoes and kale.
Mash the potatoes and kale, and set aside.
Heat the olive oil and garlic in a large skillet, stirring occasionally.
Once the garlic starts to brown, stir in 1 teaspoon salt, then add the mashed potatoes and kale to the skillet and remove from heat.
Stir to thoroughly combine the mashed potatoes and kale with the garlic.

Makes about 4 generous servings.

Pizza With Olives, Peppers, and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

2009-03-14T08:00:00.012-06:00

I turned my favorite sandwich into a pizza -- and got a nice dose of late-winter color therapy in the process.

This was my first time using the pizza dough recipe from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." As with his bread recipe, I liked the convenience of throwing all of the ingredients in the food processor, rather than coaxing the yeast and kneading the dough. The resulting crust had a nice tenderness, but was a little bread-ier than I'd hoped. I guess I'm still searching for the perfect pizza dough recipe.

I found myself wanting more cheese, so I topped the leftover slices with a little feta before reheating them - yum. The recipe below reflects the increased amount of cheese.

Ingredients
One batch pizza dough (store bought is fine)
Olive oil for brushing
Flour as needed
2 tablespoons sesame seeds (optional)
One batch roasted red pepper sauce
12 to 15 pitted kalamata olives, drained and cut into eighths
1/4 yellow pepper, washed and diced
1/4 orange pepper, washed and diced
1 cup feta or grated/torn provolone cheese - or both

Preheat the oven to 500 F.
Lightly brush a non-stick cookie sheet with olive oil.
Lightly flour a baking mat or large cutting board.
Roll out the dough out on the mat or board (I use a rolling pin) until it reaches your desired level of thinness, turning the dough and adding flour as necessary.
Transfer the dough to the baking sheet.
Lightly sprinkle the dough with sesame seeds.
Spread roasted red pepper sauce evenly over the dough.
Top with diced peppers, olives, and cheese.
Bake for 6-10 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool for about 5 minutes before slicing.

Serves 4.

Dark Chocolate, Coconut, and Sweet Potato Cookies

2009-03-11T09:00:00.009-06:00

I generally prefer homemade treats. But lately, I can't seem to stay away from the dark chocolate/coconut/sweet potato cookies at Watercourse and City o City ($3.24).

What do they taste like? The cookies remind me of a giant, vegan, gluten-free Samoa. At room temperature, the consistency is nice and chewy; the texture becomes addictively-crisp after they've been refrigerated for a half-hour or so. The little bits of sweet potato make me feel virtuous, although if I gobble up an entire cookie in one sitting, I get the same sugar rush that I would get from traditional sweets. While slightly messy, the dark chocolate coating is a good compliment to the coconut (and nuts?) inside.

Strawberry Grapefruit Salad

2009-03-08T09:07:00.005-06:00

"Salad" might be a bit generous, as this is really just chunks of grapefruit and slivers of strawberry, dressed in grapefruit juice (blueberries or blackberries can be used as a garnish, if you want to add a third ingredient). Although simple, the combination is quite refreshing, and makes for a nice weekend treat.

Ingredients For One Serving
1 small pink grapefruit, washed and cut into halves, or 1/2 large pink grapefruit
4 strawberries, washed, trimmed, and cut into small bits
3 blackberries or blueberries (optional)

Scoop the individual sections of the grapefruit into a small bowl (this is easiest with a serrated spoon or knife).
Hold the scooped-out grapefruit over the bowl and squeeze, to get the remaining juice.
Add the strawberries and (optional) blackberries or blueberries.
Enjoy.

Greek Pizza and Spicy Chickpea Soup

2009-03-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

I love olives. Often, I eat them right out of the jar; occasionally I'll find the discipline to use them in a dish. Greek pizza is a great olive recipe because it takes less than 15 minutes to make -- meaning that I don't have to wait too long for my olive fix. (Even still, I tend to snack on a few olives while making the pizza...)

The soup came about because I wanted to work another protein into the meal. Pureed chickpeas are added to a blend of red pepper flakes, garlic, cumin, and coriander, to create a smooth, flavorful soup with a good kick. It's one of those dishes that's even better after it sits overnight; for a super-quick meal, prepare the soup ahead of time, and then reheat it while assembling the Greek pizza.

Greek Pizza Ingredients
4 pita
olive oil for brushing
2 thin cross-wise slices of red onion (or more to taste)
16 pitted kalamata olives, quartered
1/4 cup feta cheese crumbles

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Cut the pitas in half, and place the halves on a baking sheet.
Lightly brush the top of each pita half with olive oil.
Arrange the red onion, olives, and feta on the pita halves.
Bake at 350 F for 8 minutes, then broil for about 30 seconds.

Serves 4.
Chickpea Soup Ingredients
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cups un-chicken broth, divided*
1 tablespoon olive oil
dash red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

Puree chickpeas in a food processor.
Once the chickpeas have reached a sand-like consistency, slowly and steadily pour 1/4 cup of broth into the food processor, while processing, to create a smooth chickpea puree.
Transfer the chickpea puree to a small bowl.
Place the olive oil and red pepper flakes in a deep skillet, and warm over medium heat.
Add the garlic and stir fry for 1-2 minutes.
Add the cumin and coriander, and stir fry for another minute.
Pour the chickpeas into the skillet, and stir to combine with the garlic and spices.
Slowly pour the remaining 1 3/4 cups broth into the skillet while stirring constantly, to create a smooth soup.
Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer at least 10 minutes.

Makes 4 small bowls.

*Because the store-bought broth that I use contains an ample amount of sodium, I don't add any additional salt to the soup.

Oatmeal With Coconut, Vanilla, Apple, And Cranberries

2009-02-28T08:40:00.004-07:00

A warm bowl of oatmeal is a nice healthy treat on a cold winter morning -- but I always feel a little less healthy when I add sweetener to my bowl. Lately, I've been experimenting with other ways of flavoring my oatmeal that still meet my need for something sweet in the morning - the result is a cereal cooked with unsweetened shredded coconut, vanilla, and diced apple, and topped with dried cranberries.

I'm currently using a whole grain cereal blend that includes flax seeds; otherwise, I would also add 1/4 cup of walnuts or pecans to the pot.

Ingredients
Oats, per package instructions for four servings
Low fat milk, per package instructions for four servings, plus additional milk to top the cooked oatmeal
Salt, per package instructions for four servings
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 small apple, washed, cored, and diced
1/4 cup dried cranberries

Combine oats, milk, salt, coconut, vanilla, and diced apple in a medium saucepan.
Cook per package instructions (cooking time will vary depending on whether you're using quick oats).
Top with cranberries and additional milk to taste.

Carrot Thoren

2009-02-21T10:51:00.007-07:00

I was rustling through my freezer this week when I found some frozen curry leaves tucked against the back wall. Jackpot! After consulting a cookbook ("Savoring the Spice Coast of India" by Maya Kaimal), I decided to try a new dish: carrot thoren, or carrots with coconut and urad dahl (which I served with a seasoned dahl, shown in the back of the photo).

The dish starts by heating mustard seeds in oil. After the mustard seeds have popped, urad dahl, (freezer spotted) curry leaves, and a red chili are added, and cooked until the urad dahl begins to brown. Chopped onions then enter the pot, followed by grated carrots and salt.

After the carrots have cooked briefly, a paste made from grated coconut, ground cumin seed, tumeric, cayenne pepper, and water is stirred in, and the mixture cooks just a few minutes more.

The result is a nice blend of spicy and sweet, without being overly carrot-y. The dish had a good crunch thanks to the carrots, urad dahl, and coconut; I really liked the texture of the thoren in contrast with the soft, soupy seasoned dahl. I can see myself eating carrot thoren year-round, but it's an especially nice mid-winter change-up on a typical winter vegetable.

Brown Rice Pancakes

2009-02-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

I'm not much of a pancake person -- given a choice between pancakes and waffles, I will always go with the waffles -- but I love "pancakes" made from pre-cooked noodles or rice. These brown rice pancakes contain pre-cooked brown rice, eggs, and vegetables. It's a good way to use leftover rice, and makes for a colorful breakfast.

This is a fairly flexible dish in that you can change the spice blends to suit your tastes. I like to put a little ketchup on the pancakes seasoned with basil, oregano, parsley and thyme. Salsa might be a good topping for pancakes seasoned with cumin and oregano...

Ingredients
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 red onion, washed and minced
1/2 zucchini, washed and grated
1 carrot, washed and grated
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
about 1 teaspoon of your choice of spice blend*
Butter or oil for cookie sheet

*possible spice blends: dry basil, oregano, parsley and/or thyme; turmeric and garam masala; cumin, cayenne, and oregano...

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Lightly butter or oil a cookie sheet.
Combine rice, vegetables, eggs, and spices in a large bowl, and mix until thoroughly combined.
Using your hands, scoop up a handful of the rice mixture and pat it onto the baking sheet to create a pancake.
Repeat until all of the rice mixture has been used - I get 6 pancakes.
Bake 20-25 minutes, or until pancakes are golden brown and a little bit crispy.

3 servings as a side dish; 2 servings as a main dish.

Pintos with Cilantro Rice

2009-02-07T08:00:00.010-07:00

This recipe takes the basic ingredients of pico de gallo -- tomato, chilies, onion, and cilantro -- and remixes them with pinto beans, brown rice, and cumin seed. It's easy weeknight meal: start the rice, then chop the veggies and prepare the beans while the rice is cooking.

Serves 4.

Ingredients - Pinto Beans
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon cumin seed
1 onion, washed and chopped
3 serrano chilies, washed, seeded, and chopped
3 roma tomatoes, washed and chopped
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 15 ounce cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed, or one cup dry pinto beans, picked over, rinsed, soaked, and cooked

Heat the canola oil and cumin seeds in a large skillet over medium heat.
When the oil is hot, stir in the onion and chilies; cook until the onion is soft (about 5 minutes), stirring occasionally.
Stir in the salt.
Stir in the tomatoes and pinto beans and continue to cook until the beans are heated (1-2 minutes).
Remove from heat and serve with cilantro rice.

Ingredients - Cilantro Rice
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon peanut oil
1 cup long grain brown rice
1/2 cup cilantro, washed and chopped

Combine the water, salt, and peanut oil in a medium sauce pan.
Cover and bring to a boil.
Stir in the brown rice.
Cover, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer about 40-45 minutes.
Remove from heat, and let stand, covered, for about 5 more minutes.
Stir in the cilantro and serve.

Almond Butter and Tahini Cookies

2009-02-04T16:55:00.001-07:00

I like tahini (ground sesame seed paste) as much as the next vegetarian, but I've found that it can be a bit overpowering when used in cookies. This recipe uses an almond butter-tahini blend that gives the cookies a pleasantly sweet, nutty flavor, and a nice, peanut-butter-cookie-like crunch.

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup tahini
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond slivers
3/4 cup oats

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl, thoroughly cream the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla.
Stir in the almond butter and tahini.
Add the baking soda and salt.
Slowly stir in the flour, adding a little at a time until all 3 cups have been mixed in.
Blend in the oats and almonds.
Drop by rounded tablespoon (or teaspoon, if you're feeling virtuous...) onto a nonstick cookie sheet.
Bake about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Pizza With Cashew Cheese, Pear, and Arugula

2009-01-31T11:33:00.001-07:00

I've been wanting to try cashew cheese pizza ever since I noticed it on the menu at City o City. When I saw Clotilde's recipe for cashew cheese at Chocolate and Zucchini recently, I decided that the moment had come. Although I'd yet to taste cashew cheese, I picked a few ingredients that seemed cashew-friendly, and set about making my pizza.

For those who who have never had cashew cheese, it's actually not a cheese at all. Instead, it's a more of a nut paté that vegans use as an alternative to dairy. I've seen a few different versions of cashew cheese on the internet; I liked the simplicity of Clotide's recipe, which uses only puréed raw cashews, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. The result is reminiscent of a garlic-tinted, ricotta-textured cheese spread.

This pizza has elements of both sweet (pear) and savory (arugula, red onion, and cashew cheese). I did not use much red onion, as I find that the flavor can be overpowering; feel free to increase the amount of onion to your taste. One batch of cashew cheese yields more than enough for a single pizza; spread the remainder on crackers, use it in a sandwich, or make two pizzas!

Note: the cashew cheese is easy to assemble but requires a little advance work: the raw cashews need to be soaked for a few hours (I soaked them for 8 hours while I was at work) and the "cheese" needs to be prepared 24 hours before it is used.

Ingredients
One batch pizza dough (I use this recipe; store-bought dough is fine)
Olive oil (to brush on baking sheet)
1 tablespoon corn meal (to sprinkle on baking sheet)
Half a batch (about 3/4 cup) of cashew cheese
1 pear, washed and thinly sliced (I used a red pear, but any variety should work)
1 scant tablespoon thinly sliced red onion
3/4 cup arugula, washed, gently dried, and chopped

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
Roll out the dough, place it on a lightly oiled baking sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal, and shape the crust.
Spread a thin layer of cashew cheese on the pizza dough.
Top the cashew cheese with pear slices, red onion, and chopped arugula.
Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for about 10 minutes (keep an eye on your pizza as it may require a little less or a little more than 10 minutes - you'll know it's done when the crust begins to turn golden).
Remove from oven and serve.

Beatrice Goes Granola

2009-01-24T08:00:00.011-07:00

Granola with yogurt is one of my favorite breakfasts, so the recent granola recipe in the New York Times caught my eye. I wondered how homemade granola might compare to the stuff I buy in the store. And, as someone who grumbles about prices every time she walks down the cereal aisle, I wondered if homemade granola might be more affordable than store-bought.

The recipe provides a basic road map for homemade granola -- rolled oats, nuts and/or seeds, dried fruit, coconut, cinnamon, maple syrup or honey -- while leaving the reader leeway to choose the specific ingredients. I decided to try a basic granola involving walnuts and chopped dates.

I started by combining the oats, nuts, coconut, cinnamon, salt and dates in a large bowl (and when I say "large," I mean large -- a standard-sized mixing bowl will not cut it, because the recipe involves about 10 cups of dried ingredients).

If you've read the recipe, you'll notice that the dried fruit isn't supposed to be added until after the granola has been baked. Whoops. I hoped the dates might just wind up being a little chewier than normal, but they actually were crunchy (although still edible) after the granola cooled... Please learn from my mistake, and be sure to wait until after the granola is baked to add the fruit!

Next, I added about 1/2 cup maple syrup. The mixture became damp and a little clumpier, but was not completely drenched.

The recipe then directs that the granola be poured onto a baking sheet, and cooked at 350 F for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. My baking sheet doesn't have rims, and so I lined it with parchment paper and folded the edges of the paper up to help keep the granola from falling off. As you can see from the photo, the granola was really piled onto the sheet. It might be a good idea to bake the granola in two batches to help it cook more evenly and to make it easier to stir.

Baking granola smells fantastic...

After about 40 minutes of baking and stirring, the granola was a nice golden brown (the photos don't really capture the change in color).

How did it taste? Oatier (if that's a word) and fresher than store-bought granola. I was quite pleased with all the walnuts. My only criticism would be regarding the crunchy dates, and those were my own fault.

And how did the price compare? As I figure it, the granola cost about $9.36 to make, broken down as follows:

1 cup chopped dates: $1.60
2 cups walnuts: $2.69
a generous six cups bulk rolled oats: $1.83
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut: $.91
1/2 cup maple syrup: $2.33
salt and cinnamon: negligible

The recipe yielded about 10 cups of granola. Bulk granola starts at about $3 per pound at Whole Foods, and I sometimes buy about 8.5 cups (1 pound 19 ounces) of boxed granola for $4.39. The homemade granola cost about $.94 per cup to make (plus baking time), while the boxed store-bought granola costs about $.52 per cup. While the oats are relatively inexpensive, the add-ins and sweetener really add up.

Conclusion: homemade granola may have certain benefits, including freshness and the ability to choose your own ingredients, but price is not one of them.

Carrot and Chickpea Tagine with Homemade Bread

2009-01-17T12:47:00.006-07:00

This weekend, I decided to try recipes from my two new cookbooks: a carrot and chickpea tagine from the book "Tagine: Spicy Stews from Morocco" by Chillie Basan, and homemade bread from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian."

The two cookbooks are different in many ways -- "Tagine" is a slim volume with both veg and nonveg recipes which focuses specifically on the cuisine of Morocco, while "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" is really more of an encyclopedia of vegetarian cooking, outlining basic principles and then encouraging readers to experiment with different variations. Yet, both books have an emphasis on simplicity, which is something I really appreciate when I'm working my way through a new recipe.

The carrot and chickpea tagine begins by sautéeing onion and garlic, then adding carrots, honey, and spices and simmering them in a tagine (I used a chef's skillet with a lid) until the carrots are soft. Canned chickpeas are then added and, then, after the mixture has cooked a bit more, salt, rosewater and cilantro finish the dish. (I had rosewater on hand, but I think the recipe would still work without it.) The result is a spicy-sweet stew that was really good with a scoop of Greek yogurt and fresh lemon slices.

"Tagine" recommended serving the stew with bread, so I decided to attempt Bittman's Fast French Bread. While I watched my mom knead many a loaf while I was growing up, this was my first attempt at making my own bread. The recipe is very similar to the no-knead recipe that other bloggers have covered: flour, yeast and salt are combined in a food processor, and water is then added to create a ball of dough.

I was convinced that the salt was going to kill the yeast before it had a chance to work its magic, but, after letting the dough sit for two hours, I was pleased to see that it had nicely doubled. I kneaded a little additional flour into the dough and formed a round loaf, which I placed on a lightly greased pizza pan that had been sprinkled with cornmeal. After allowing the dough to rise for another hour, I topped it with sesame seeds and placed it into the oven for about 40 minutes. Per Bittman, I slid a cooking thermometer into the center of the bread to be sure it had reached 210 F before turning off the oven.

The result was a nice crusty loaf with good flavor, and an apartment full of fresh-baked-bread smell. While the recipe took several hours from start to finish, there was very little hands-on time. I suspect I'll be making homemade bread more often.

The Best Homemade Mac and Cheese EVER

2009-01-10T12:09:00.006-07:00

It's no secret that I like macaroni and cheese. I don't think I've ever encountered a version of the dish that I didn't like. At the same time, I've never had mac and cheese quite as good as this.

Golden color*? Check. Creamy smooth sauce beneath a crispy topping? Check. Rich, cheesy flavor? Check.

I'd like to take credit for this one, but really it's just a variation on a mac and cheese recipe that Food Blogga published last year. Yes, the recipe with pureéd cauliflower blended into the cheese sauce. This time, I omitted the southwestern seasoning and added 3/4 cup grated Gruyere to the cheddar cheese called for in the recipe. I wasn't sure how the two cheeses would do together, and, as I added the Gruyere to the sauce, I wondered if I was about the ruin a perfectly good batch of mac and cheese. I might have blown things nutritionally, but the flavors of the two cheeses blended wonderfully, to create the best-tasting mac and cheese sauce that I've ever had. And, this is coming from someone who eats a lot of mac and cheese.

*I managed to find an orange cauliflower at the grocery, which helped boost the color.

"Enjoy Every Sandwich" (Veggie Reuben)

2009-01-01T00:01:00.001-07:00

2008 brought a number of changes for me. One of those changes has been the way I feel about this blog, which began as a way of sharing my enjoyment of vegetarian food, but has recently come to feel like an obstacle to that enjoyment. I like taking pictures, but it can be tiresome to have to photograph everything before eating it. Finding the time to compose regular posts can be a challenge, and, while I have a pretty diverse eating pattern, sometimes I'd like to eat nothing but quesadillas for a week without worrying about what blog readers might think.

In short, I need to step back, heed the late, great Warren Zevon's advice, and enjoy every sandwich. This blog will continue, but posting will be less frequent: perhaps once a week, perhaps once a month.

Although Warren was not vegetarian, his song titles lend themselves quite naturally to conversations about vegetarian living. For example:

Q: Did your family agree to forgo turkey at Thanksgiving?
A: No, Momma Couldn't Be Persuaded.

Q: How did I goof up such a basic recipe for mac and cheese?
A: Accidentally Like a Martyr.

Q: I thought this green chili was vegetarian, but I just bit into a piece of pork!
A: Don't Let Us Get Sick/Poor Poor Pitiful Me.

Q: What if we add some red pepper flakes to that?
A: Genius.

Warren might have preferred something from the Pioneer Chicken Stand, but I'm starting 2009 with a veggie reuben. In this version, cabbage and onion are sautéed in a blend of canola oil and caraway seed, then stacked, with baked portobello, dressing and Gruyere cheese, between slices of rye bread. Somewhat messy, but worth it.

Best wishes for 2009, and enjoy every sandwich.

Ingredients (for 5 sandwiches)
10 slices rye bread
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon canola oil, divided
1 teaspoon caraway seed
1/2 head cabbage, washed and chopped
1 onion, washed and sliced into thin strips
5 portobello mushrooms, washed, gently dried and stems removed
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
black pepper to taste
5 ounces Gruyere cheese
"Russian" dressing (recipe below)

To Make the Cabbage Mixture:
Heat 1 tablespoon oil and caraway seeds in a large fry pan over medium heat.
Add the cabbage, onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Cook, stirring only occasionally, until the cabbage and onions are browned (see photo above).
Remove from heat.

To Make the Baked Portobellos:
Preheat oven to 375 F.
In a medium bowl, blend together 1/4 cup canola oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper to taste.
Cut each portobello cap into 5-6 thick strips.
Toss with the oil mixture.
Lay the portobello slices in single layer in a baking dish (the mushrooms will release moisture when cooked, so I recommend a baking dish over a cookie sheet).
Bake 15 minutes.
While the portobellos are baking, place a wire rack on a counter or table, with a cookie sheet underneath.
Remove from oven.
Use a spatula/turner or tongs to remove portobellos from the baking dish and place on the wire rack to drain.

"Russian" Dressing
In a small bowl, combine:

1/3 cup mayonnaise/canola mayo/soy mayo
1 roma tomato, washed and finely chopped
1 scallion, washed and chopped
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon honey
black pepper to taste

To Assemble the Sandwich:

Lay two slices of rye bread on a baking sheet.
Top the first slice of bread with 1/5 of the portobello slices, and the second with 1/5 of the cabbage mixture.
Place thin slices of Gruyere on top of the portobello and the cabbage mixture.
Broil until the cheese is soft and bubbly.
Remove from oven.
Place the portobello slice face up on a plate.
Top with "Russian" dressing.
Place the cabbage mixture slice face down on top of the portobello and dressing.
Enjoy.

2008 Holiday Picture Show

2008-12-26T10:15:00.001-07:00

Homemade currant cakes from a friend in Pennsylvania.

Kumquats.

"Bear claws" (no actual bears were harmed).

Salad with spinach, grapefruit, avocado and pomegranate seeds in a cranberry vinaigrette - served alongside tamales.

Birthday cupcakes.

Dutch apple pancakes.

Whoot!

Moroccan Green Bean Tagine from The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper, served over pearl couscous.

Not-So-Veg Saag Paneer at the British Bulldog

2008-12-23T09:02:00.013-07:00

On my first visit to the British Bulldog, I was pleased to find that their menu featured both traditional pub fare and Pakistani dishes. I tried and really liked the saag paneer ($9.50) -- chunks of cheese cooked in a spinach curry, served over seasoned basmati rice, with cilantro chutney and pita on the side. While some saags are too creamy for my taste, the emphasis in this saag was on the spinach and the spices.

Unfortunately, on my second visit, I found small but unmistakable chunks of lamb in my saag. The restaurant's menu states that lamb and chicken are available for an additional cost, but in this case, it appeared that the lamb and saag had been cooked together. It's a shame, because it was fun to eat saag in a pub atmosphere, and because the British Bulldog is close enough to downtown Denver to be a convenient workday lunch spot.

The British Bulldog does have some other vegetarian offerings -- including a veg burger ($6.50) and cheese quesadillas ($5.95) -- but none of the choices are as interesting as the saag.

The British Bulldog
2052 Stout Street (corner of Stout and Broadway)
Denver, CO 80202
303-295-7974

Sweet Potato Home Fries

2008-12-21T11:20:00.013-07:00

While I like sweet potatoes, a whole potato sometimes seems like too much to eat in a single meal. It's funny how quickly that same potato disappears once it's been turned into home fries...

I served my sweet potato home fries with creole-spiced black eyed peas and garlicky kale. Because the peas and kale had very distinctive seasonings, I decided to keep the fries simple, tossing them in blend of canola oil, salt, and pepper. If you are looking for seasoned fries, consider this recipe -- involving coriander, fennel, oregano and red pepper -- at Kalyn's Kitchen.

I left the potato skins on; of course you could peel your potatoes first if you prefer.

Ingredients
2 medium sweet potatoes, washed
2 teaspoons canola oil, plus a little additional oil to brush the baking sheet with
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 375 F.
Lightly brush a nonstick baking sheet with canola oil.
Trim the ends from the sweet potatoes.
Cut each potato in half length-wise.
Place one potato half cut-side down on cutting board, and carefully slice the potato into long thin strips.
Place the strips into a mixing bowl, and repeat with the three remaining halves.
Top potatoes with the canola oil, salt and black pepper.
Toss to coat, using your hands.
Place the potato strips in a single layer on the baking sheet.
Bake 20 minutes.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and carefully turn the potato strips over.
Bake another 10 minutes, or until potatoes are bubbly and the thinest strips are crisp (watch carefully at this stage, as the potatoes can very quickly go from bubbly/crisp to burnt!)
Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Creole-Spiced Black Eyed Peas

2008-12-20T10:00:00.010-07:00

This weekend, I'm falling back on a simple recipe for creole-spiced black eyed peas, which I served with kale and sweet potato home fries.

Ingredients
2 cups cooked black eyed peas
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 roma tomato, washed and diced
1 teaspoon creole seasoning (such as Lucille's), divided*

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon creole seasoning and cook until the onion is tender (about 5 minutes).
Add the tomato to the skillet and cook another minute.
Add the peas to the skillet, along with 1/2 teaspoon of creole seasoning.
Stir, adjust seasonings and serve.

Serves 4-5.

*my seasoning mix contains salt, so I don't use any additional salt in the recipe.

Azuki-Chocolate Brownie/Pudding

2008-12-15T07:45:00.005-07:00

I was intrigued by the black bean brownies that Heidi Swanson posted about on 101 Cookbooks. What would brownies made using puréed beans in place of of flour be like?

Before I tell you about the bean brownies that I made, I have to admit that, instead of following the original recipe exactly, I tweaked things to accommodate my appetite and the ingredients I had on hand. I knew that I would never manage to get 45 brownies out of an 8 x 11 pan -- if disciplined I might manage to eek out 9 servings -- and so I reduced the amount of butter and sweetener in the recipe. Since my version contained less melted butter, I used brewed hazelnut coffee instead of the dried instant coffee called for in the original recipe, to balance out the liquids. I also switched out the black beans for azuki beans, which are used to make the sweet red bean filling in my beloved daifuku manju, and which I happened to have in my pantry.
The result? Kind of a brownie, kind of a baked pudding. Surprisingly (and pleasantly) spongy. Does it taste like beans? Actually, no. The flavor is all chocolate.

While I previously refrigerated an "Indian" pudding before serving, I have to admit that I ate some of this brownie/pudding right out of the oven - delicious - and think it's best served warm. Good with ice cream, just like a traditional brownie.

Ingredients
2 cups cooked azuki beans
3/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces chocolate (I used about 7 tablespoons of dark chocolate chips)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brewed hazelnut coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 325 F.
Brush an 8 x 11 baking dish with canola oil.
In a food processor, blend the azuki beans with the agave nectar and salt until smooth.
Transfer the bean mixture to a large mixing bowl.
In a glass measuring cup or a small glass bowl, microwave the chocolate and butter for 1 minute 30 seconds.
Stir the chocolate and butter until smooth, and add the coffee and vanilla.
Blend the chocolate mixture into the bean mixture.
Add the eggs to the chocolate-bean mixture, and stir to combine thoroughly.
Pour the batter in the 8 x 11 pan and bake for about 45 minutes.
Increase the temperature to 350 F and bake an additional 10 minutes (the brownie/pudding should be well set).
Remove from oven and serve warm, or refrigerate to cool completely before serving.

Tea Embassy: Mexican Winter Rooibos and Almond Cookie Tea

2008-12-13T08:35:00.001-07:00

While I was picking out gifts for others this holiday season, I decided to get a treat for myself, too: two of my favorite teas, which happen to come from the Tea Embassy in Austin, Texas. I discovered the teas (and the Tea Embassy) while living in South Texas a few years back. While I'm glad to be back home in Colorado, I have missed the tea.

The first is Mexican Winter Rooibos: a rooibos herbal tisane (or "red tea") blended with orange, cinnamon, coconut, chili bits and red pepper. It smells fantastic and tastes delicious, especially with a little honey.

The second is Almond Cookies Green Tea: organic green tea flavored with almond and coconut. "But, doesn't it have that strong green tea taste?" No, it actually really does taste like almond cookies. Which is probably why, whenever I place an order, I get a call from the Tea Embassy telling me that they'll need a few extra days to fill it, because they're currently out of the Almond Cookies Tea. But, it's worth waiting for, and it never seems to take that much longer, anyway.

Tea Embassy (orders are taken through their Tea Treasures website, here)
900 Rio Grande Street
Austin, TX 78701
512.330.9991

Lentil Soup

2008-12-09T09:00:00.005-07:00

This lentil soup features tomatoes, spinach, and tomatoes, in addition to the usual carrots and onions. It has become my favorite way to make lentil soup. The recipe is a veg-ified version of a recipe for lentil stew, involving ham and chicken broth, that was published in Cooking Light in 2002.

Good with a crusty bread and some cheese, or on its own.

Ingredients
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
dash red pepper flakes (optional)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups veg broth, and one cup water
1 cup dried lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 carrot, washed and grated
2 bay leaves
1 to 3 cups chopped spinach (I vary this ingredient, based on the amount of spinach that I have on hand, and it always turns out well)
3 medium sized potatoes, washed and diced
14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Heat olive oil and red pepper flakes in a stockpot over medium heat.
Add onion and garlic, and cook about 5 minutes (until the onion is soft), stirring often.
Add water, broth, lentils, bay leaves and carrot to the pot.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, 20 minutes.
Add potatoes and spinach to the pot.
Bring to a boil again, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, 15 minutes.
Add tomatoes, basil, thyme and black pepper to the pot.
Simmer 10 minutes.
Discard bay leaves and serve.

Note: if using a low-sodium broth, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the soup at the same time as the tomatoes and seasonings.

Gado Gado

2008-12-07T09:03:00.008-07:00

We're only a couple of weeks into the holiday season, but I've already been feeling a bit overloaded in the decadent food department: pie, leftover pie for breakfast, corn fritters, chocolate bread pudding, and rich bread-pudding-like french toast. It's all been delicious, but I needed some veggies to balance things out.

Gado gado is an Indonesian salad. It really delivers in the veggie department, while also providing a wide array of textures and flavors, and a good amount of protein. I've gotten into the habit of eating the salad mid-winter, when I need a little color and diversity in my diet. Apart from the recipe for the peanut sauce, which I follow pretty closely, it's really more of a general guideline for assembly: vary the fruits and vegetables, and amounts of specific vegetables, to meet your tastes.

If serving to a group, set out bowls with each ingredient, and allow each person to assemble their own salad to meet their tastes. Because the salad is served at room temperature, the rice, tofu, eggs, and steamed veggies can be assembled in advance.

I get about 5 servings from the recipe below.

Ingredients
Salad Ingredients
1 cup rice, cooked, along with 1/4 teaspoon tumeric, per package instructions
5 ounces spinach, washed and gently dried
2 cups cabbage (I like to use red cabbage for the color), washed and finely chopped
handful green beans, washed, ends trimmed and lightly steamed
1 cup steamed broccoli
2 carrots, washed and grated
1 red (or yellow, or orange) pepper, washed and diced
Diced fresh pineapple
3/4 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted (set your toaster oven on its lowest setting to avoid burnt coconut!)
8 ounces tofu, diced and baked
3 hard boiled eggs, shelled and chopped
Other options: steamed bean sprouts, steamed cauliflower, mushrooms, snow peas, diced apple, diced orange, substitute diced potatoes for the rice...

For each serving of salad:
Place a bed of spinach on the plate/bowl.
Top with the rice.
Top with veggies, tofu, eggs, pineapple and coconut.
Ladle peanut sauce over the salad to taste (recipe below).
Add the green onion and ginger toppings (recipes below) to taste.

Peanut Sauce Ingredients
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 generous teaspoon grated ginger
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
3/4 cup hot water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (cider vinegar will also work)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash red pepper flakes

Whisk together all ingredients but the hot water in a medium sized bowl.
Add hot water bit by bit, whisking to combine with the peanut mixture.
Add more water if the sauce is too thick, and adjust seasonings to taste.
Serve at room temperature (whisk one last time just before serving).

Green Onion and Ginger Toppings
3/4 cup scallions, washed and chopped
2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon canola oil

Saute ginger in oil, over medium heat 1-2 minutes.
Remove ginger from pan.
Saute green onion 3-4 minutes.
Place in small bowls to serve.

Homemade Hazelnut Chocolate Truffles

2008-12-01T20:32:00.013-07:00

After reading about Elena's homemade orange chocolate truffles, I thought that it would be fun to try making homemade truffles myself. I knew that I wanted to use hazelnuts, because they blend so nicely with chocolate, but I wasn't sure what to do about the unsweetened cocoa powder, which tends to be too bitter for my tastes. Rhubarb suggested using cacao nibs, and gave me some to try in the recipe. I think they lend a nice chocolately flavor to the truffles.

Rather than rolling the truffles in cocoa powder, I ground a few additional nuts in the food processor to create a hazelnut coating.

Vegans delight - these truffles are dairy-free!

Ingredients
1/2 cup cacao nibs*
a generous 1/2 cup raw hazelnuts, plus 1/4 cup for the coating (3/4 cup total, or about 1/3 pound)
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
dash salt

Place 1/4 cup hazelnuts in a food processor and blend until they have a sand-like quality.
Remove the ground hazelnuts from the food processor, cover and refrigerate until later use.
Place cacao nibs and 1/2 cup hazelnuts in a food processor, and again blend till they have a sand-like quality.
Add the almond butter, agave nectar, vanilla and salt to the food processor, and process until smooth.
Scrape the truffle mixture out of the food processor and into a bowl; cover and refrigerate two hours.
After about two hours...
Set out a piece of wax paper or parchment paper, to place the finished truffles on.
Remove the truffle mixture and ground hazelnuts from the refrigerator.
Roll 1 teaspoon of the truffle mixture between your hands to create a ball.
Roll the truffle ball in the ground hazelnuts to coat, and place on the parchment or wax paper.
Repeat until all of the truffle mixture has been used.
Refrigerate until serving.

I get 18 truffles, and have enough ground hazelnuts left to coat a whole 'nother batch. (I put the leftover ground hazelnuts in the freezer to save them for later.)

*If you can't find cacao nibs, substitute chocolate chips.

Pearl Couscous With Fall Vegetables And Carmelized Onions

2008-11-29T09:36:00.003-07:00

Even though we were only three for Thanksgiving this year (including 1 vegetarian), my Mom wanted to make a turkey. I wasn't wild about eating side dish for my Thanksgiving meal, and so, as a compromise, we also made pearl couscous with fall vegetables and carmelized onions, using this recipe (published in Sunset magazine) from chef Joanne Weir.

Couscous is one of my favorite grains because it cooks so quickly and can be eaten with so many different toppings. Cooking the couscous is probably the quickest part of this recipe, which involves several different stages and takes more than two hours to complete. (The cooking time and the price of some of the ingredients, such as saffron, make this a recipe I would reserve for special occasions.)

I started by making the carmelized onion topping. The sliced onions are steamed before being browned in olive oil, and combined with golden raisins, cinnamon, honey, salt and pepper.

Next, I peeled and chopped the vegetables. The recipe incorporates a nice variety of fall vegetables, including zucchini, butternut squash, turnips and carrots, as well as a jalepeño pepper.

Once the vegetables were chopped, it was time to make the seasoned broth that would be used to cook both the vegetables and the couscous. (Mom also poured some of the seasoned broth into her (meat-based) stuffing and gravy.) I heated olive oil in a stockpot and briefly fried saffron, cumin, cinnamon sticks, salt and pepper before stirring in the vegetable broth.

After the mixture came to a boil, I added the carrots, turnips and jalepeño, and let them simmer. The zucchini and butternut squash were then added to the pot, and the vegetables cooked a bit more.

Then it was time to prepare the couscous. I ladeled two cups of broth from the stockpot into a saucepan, and then heated them, along with some water, to a boil before adding the couscous. While the couscous was cooking, I removed two additional cups of broth from the stock pot, to combine with harissa. (Mom and I were unable to find harissa in stores, so we made our own using a recipe from Tagine: Spicy Stews of Morrocco. The harissa was very easy to make - it is basically a blend of red chilies, garlic, cumin, coriander and olive oil.)

According to the recipe, the cooked vegetables and carmelized onions are to be served over couscous, with a pitcher of broth mixed with harissa and a pitcher of "plain" broth. I strayed a bit here because I was planning to bring the leftovers back to Denver with me and wanted to minimize the number of containers I'd be carrying. Rather than straining the vegetables to create a pitcher of plain broth, I let the vegetables soften into the remaining liquid, creating a stew-like texture.

Although the recipe was a bit time intensive, the results were worth it. The vegetables - and in particular the butternut squash - blended wonderfully with the saffron and other seasonings, and the sweetness of the carmelized onions contrasted nicely with the heat from the harissa.

And, yes, Mom did add spices (using a Chinese five-spice blend) to the whipped cream on our pumpkin pie. Yum.

Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse

2008-11-25T21:00:00.001-07:00

My mom and I stopped by the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse recently, to celebrate her birthday. We had already eaten lunch, this trip was strictly for dessert!

The birthday girl got a slice of tangerine tea gingerbread cake, served with orange sauce and five-spice whipped cream ($5.25):

(The photo does not do the cake justice, sorry!)

My mom likes spice cakes, so I wanted her to have a chance to try the gingerbread at the Teahouse. I think it was a hit; she's now talking about adding spices to the whipped cream on our pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving...

I went for the flourless chocolate cake with Persian spiced dark chocolate ice cream, candied roses and rose syrup ($6):

Yum. The cake was wonderfully gooey inside, and I thought I tasted rose in the ice cream...

Both sweets were enjoyed, along with steaming cups of chai, in the wonderful atmosphere of the Teahouse.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse
1770 13th Street (between Arapaho and Canyon on 13th)
Boulder, CO 80302
303-442-4993

Spaghetti Squash With Cranberries And Pecans

2008-11-24T08:22:00.004-07:00

Makes a great main dish, side dish, or even a breakfast dish...

Ingredients
2 pounds spaghetti squash (I used 1/2 a 4 pound squash)
scant 1 teaspoon butter, thinly shaved
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons grated orange rind (optional)
approx. 1/3 to 1/2 cup pecans
approx. 1/3 to 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Cut the spaghetti squash in half and scrape out seeds.
Place the squash face down in a deep 13 by 9 inch (or larger) baking dish and add water to the pan until the edges of the squash are covered.
Bake 45 minutes.
Carefully remove the squash from the pan and place face-up on a cutting board or dish.
Scrape out the inside of the squash with a fork, to create the "spaghetti" strands.
Toss the warm squash with butter, salt and (optional) orange rind.
Add cranberries and pecans to taste.

Serves 2 as a main dish, four as a side dish.

Veg Winter Soup

2008-11-22T10:00:00.001-07:00

This hearty winter soup comes together in just over an hour, unless you're using dry beans. The vegetables create their own broth while simmering.

You might notice that I decided to add pre-cooked (or canned) beans at the end. I'm not sure if it's the salt or the acid from the tomatoes, but I've found that dry beans can take an incredibly long time to cook in this type of recipe, and I have more success if I cook the beans separately.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons canola oil
red pepper flakes
1 onion, washed and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 carrot, washed and grated
1/2 a head of cabbage, washed, cored and chopped
8 cups water
1 bay leaf
3 large red potatoes, washed, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes
1 14.5 ounce can chopped tomatoes (I used unsalted)
2 teaspoons salt
1 15 ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed, or 1/3 cup dry cannellini beans, cooked separately per package instructions
black pepper

Place oil and a dash of red pepper flakes in a large stock pot, and warm over medium heat.
Add onion, garlic and carrot, and cook about 5 minutes, until soft.
Add cabbage and cook, stirring constantly, until soft (3-5 minutes).
Add water, bay leaf, potatoes, tomatoes and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, for about 45 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
Add the beans to the pot, and cook another 5 minutes.
Add black pepper to taste.

Makes about 6 servings.

Baked "Indian" Pudding

2008-11-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

I dug out a recipe for baked "Indian" pudding last week because my usual evening snack - ice cream - was making me too cold at night.

The cornmeal-based pudding originated in New England. The pudding is somewhat similar to polenta, except that, rather than adding cornmeal to boiling water, the cornmeal is whisked into a mixture of milk and browned butter. Once the cornmeal has thickened, molasses, pumpkin pie spice and egg yolks are added. The pudding is then then baked for about one hour and chilled for two hours before being served.

The result is somewhat reminiscent of a pie without the pie crust. The molasses lends pudding a gingerbread-esque flavor, while the spices and texture invoke pumpkin pie. In short, it's a good dessert for this time of year.

Pomegranate Parfait

2008-11-18T09:00:00.001-07:00

Summer has ended, but that doesn't mean that we have to stop eating fresh fruit salads. In fact, one of my favorite fruits is just coming into season.

Pomegranate seeds have a lovely ruby color, a nice crunch and a great sweet-tart taste. The seeds are high in vitamin C, potassium and antioxidants. My fondness for pomegranates has only grown now that I've figured out how to seed them without creating a mess.

There's so much that you can do with pomegranate seeds! This is a super easy parfait, which is good as an afternoon snack, or good for breakfast along with peanut butter toast. Really, it's so simple that it's more of a serving suggestion than a recipe...

Ingredients For One Parfait
1 banana, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
seeds from 1/2 pomegranate

Place 1/2 the banana slices in the bowl.
Top with 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt.
Add half the pomegranate seeds
Repeat layering of banana slices, yogurt and pomegranate seeds.

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

2008-11-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

Another veg-based macaroni and cheese recipe! This time, I blended roast butternut squash into the cheese mixture. The result is decidedly squashy (it would be hard to say the butternut was a "secret" ingredient) and yet pleasantly reminiscent of mac and cheese.

To break up the cooking-time, I roasted my butternut squash a few days beforehand, and kept it in the refrigerator until I had time to assemble the rest of the dish.

Ingredients
2 1/2 pounds butternut squash (approx. 4 cups cooked)
8 oz pasta
1 cup nonfat milk
1 cup grated cheddar
1/4 cup grated parmesan, plus one tablespoon reserved
15 oz part-skim ricotta
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper
nutmeg
1/4 cup panko
canola oil and/or butter

Roasting the squash (can be done in advance):
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Wash the butternut squash, halve and remove seeds.
Place the squash halves face up in a baking dish that has been lightly brushed with canola oil.
Lightly brush the top of each squash with canola oil.
Bake 45 minutes, or until the a knife cuts cleanly through the center of the squash.
Cool.
If roasting the squash ahead of time, refrigerate until needed.

The day of:
Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Lightly grease a 13 by 9 inch baking dish with butter or canola oil.
Cook the noodles per the package instructions. Drain.
Remove the skin from the cooled butternut squash.
In a medium bowl, mash the butternut squash, adding milk until creamy and smooth. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the cheddar, ricotta and 1/4 cup parmesan.
Add the garlic, onion, salt, a dash of nutmeg and black pepper to taste to the cheese mixture.
Stir the mashed butternut squash into the cheese mixture.
Add the drained noodles to the butternut squash/cheese mixture.
Pour into the greased baking dish, and top with the reserved 1 tablespoon of parmesan and the panko.
Bake for 45 minutes, until the topping is golden-brown.

Mici

2008-11-13T10:00:00.001-07:00

I stopped into Mici's new Cherry Creek North location for lunch on a recent weekday. I had a hankering for one of their veg panini/salad combos, and I figured that the new location might have less of a lunch rush than the original location downtown. In fact, I was able to walk right to the counter to place my order, which would never happen during a weekday lunch downtown.

Unfortunately, the Cherry Creek North location doesn't yet offer the sandwich/salad combo available downtown. It's a pity, because a half-panini and a small house salad (mixed greens, walnuts, gorgonzola and grapes in a balsamic vinaigrette) makes a nice meal.

Since the combo wasn't available, I ordered a whole Verdura panini ($8.11 with tax). The sandwich is served on a ciabatta roll, with fresh mozzarella, provolone, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, spinach and pesto. The crisp crust of the ciabatta contrasted nicely with the soft ingredients inside. I didn't think I'd be able to eat the entire sandwich, but I soon found myself munching my way through the second half.

I did enjoy the panini, although I would have preferred the sandwich/salad combo.

Mici
Cherry Creek North
3030 E. 2nd Ave (2nd and Milwaukee)
303.322(mici)6424

Downtown Denver
1531 Stout Street
303.629 (mici)6424

Hello, Yellow

2008-11-11T09:00:00.005-07:00

I seem to have some unresolved issues involving food and color. For, just a couple of weeks after I accidentally created the whitest chili ever, I inadvertently assembled a meal in which every dish was the same shade of yellow.

The first dish on the menu was pineapple pachadi, or pineapple with crushed mustard seeds. While the combination of pineapple and coconut might suggest a sweet dessert, this dish has a nice kick thanks to the inclusion of cayenne pepper and red chilies.

The next dish on the menu was a seasoned dhal. This is one of my favorite ways to eat lentils, and when I decided to substitute yellow split peas, I didn't realize that the dhal would now be the same color as the pineapple.

It was only when I tossed the chopped zuchinni and squash with tumeric and watched it turn yellow, while preparing the squash with mustard seeds, that I realized what I had done. Yellow, yellow, yellow!

Interestingly, while every dish was the same color, and contained some of the same seasonings (mustard seeds, red chilies and curry leaves), each had its own unique flavor: the rich dhal, the spicy-sweet pineapple, and the seasoned squash. While I prefer that my food both look and taste interesting, the contrasting flavors made up for the monotony in the color department.

Recipes for each dish can be found in Maya Kaimal's "Savoring the Spice Coast of India."