A few greens for dinner

I have three large pots in my garden, each with five plants crammed in them. Here you see a ONE DAY harvest of buttercrunch lettuce, rainbow chard, and kale. The lettuce is especially bountiful and I've been making a huge salad every day. All those greens look like a lot when raw, but it took every bit of what you see here to fill my deep pie plate for a crustless quiche I made and forgot to photograph. I can't believe I never grew these before. It's the easiest thing ever. But you will have to wait until early April if you want your own. Greens growing season is drawing to a close.

Lentil Barley Stuffed Peppers

This is not rocket science, but tastes so good and hearty. This is the kind of thing I wish local restaurant chefs would dream up for vegetarians. It is a focal point that you can pair with vegetable sides! If all you can think of is pasta and stir-fry then you fail the assignment! Anyway, enough of my rant.....

Ingredients:

1 cup green lentils

1 cup purple barley (or regular barley)

1 red onion chopped

2 eggs

1 t chopped thyme

truffle oil to taste

As many peppers as you want

Equal # pieces of your favorite sliced cheese - I used provel because I am addicted to it.

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

Cook the lentils and barley separately. Fluff the barley and drain the lentils and transfer into large mixing bowl. Sautee onion until it begins to carmelize. Add the thyme and sautee for 1 more minute. Transfer onions to bowl with lentils and barley. Add eggs, salt, pepper and truffle oil and mix thoroughly.

Cut the tops off peppers and set aside. Using your hands, grab as much of the seed cluster as you can. If necessary, go in with a knife and clean out the rest of the seeds and white fibrous bits. Set pepper cups close together in either an oiled deep baking dish or loaf pan. Pack lentil mixture inside pepper cups until completely full. Put tops of peppers back on top and bake for 30 mins at 425. Remove pepper tops and replace with 1 slice of cheese per pepper. Broil until cheese is brown and/or bubbly. Serve with salad, asparagus, or anything you want!

Spinach and Bean Empanadas

Empanadas are delicious, but they are never vegetarian at restaurants for some reason. Why is that when these are so easy and obvious?

1 10oz pack of frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 large onion diced

5 cloves garlic

1 can beans rinsed and drained

1 egg, hard boiled and chopped

queso fresco (or any cheese) to taste

salt and pepper to taste

1 package GOYA "tapas para empanadas" - (lazy, i know)

Saute onion and garlic, then mix with remaining ingredients in large bowl.

Place one tablespoon of filling in center of each dough disc. Lightly wet the edges with water using finger tips. Fold in half and seal edges by pressing together with a fork. Bake for around 10 mins at 350 or until golden brown. You can also fry them if you're in that kind of mood.

Serve with your choice of yummy sauces. Tomatillo chipotle salsa and mexican crema shown here.

Vegetarian Passover Dishes

The Torah instructs a Jew not to eat chometz all seven
days of Passover. "Chometz" is defined as any of the five grains (wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye.) The way around that when you want something starchy? Quinoa! It seems like a grain, but it is actually a member of the beet family.

Enter Greens and Quinoa Pie!

1 c. Quinoa rinsed and drained

1 10 oz. pack of frozen spinach (thawed but not drained)

1 large onion chopped and sauteed.

1/2 c. fresh herbs chopped

1/4 c. goat cheese

1/2 c. plain greek yogurt

3 eggs beaten

salt and pepper to taste

Oil a deep pie plate with olive oil. Mix all ingredients in large mixing bowl and transfer to oiled pie plate and bake at 350 for 30-40 mins. Easy!

Serve with Tunisian Carrot Salad:

1 lb. baby carrots chopped

20 kalamata olives chopped

sunflower shoots

olive oil

roasted garlic

paprika

cayenne pepper

lemon juice

chopped parsley

Mix it all together and serve either chilled or at room temperature.

Oh, and since I'm not Jewish, I also had a big slice of whole wheat bread with white bean spread on it. Bean spread recipe to follow.

Whole Foods Rip-Off Dinner

Whole Foods sells all sorts of lovely expensive salads and pies in their prepared foods section. So sometimes I go and write down the ingredients and make them myself! That's what happened with these two items. I winged it on the recipes, so who knows if these tasted anything like the ones I was trying to recreate. All I know is that they tasted good! And a nice departure from what I usually think of as dinner fare.

Greens and Ricotta Pie:

For the crust:

(Cooks Illustrated says to use Vodka in place of half the water in your recipe for a flakier crust)
1 1/4cups all purpose flour
1/2 t. salt
1 T. sugar
6 T. cold unsalted butter, cut into slices
1/4 c. chilled solid vegetable shortening , cut into 2 pieces
2 tablespoons vodka , cold
2 tablespoons cold water

For the Filling:

All the greens in your fridge chopped (I had about a half bunch each of kale and collards, and half a bag of baby spinach.

1 large onion chopped

5 cloves garlic chopped

1 1/2 c. ricotta

nutmeg, salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Crust recipe should yield 2 large crusts, one for the top and one for the bottom. I made four small crusts so I could make individual sized pies. Roll them out on wax paper and refrigerate immediately. Saute the greens, onion and garlic until greens are compacted substantially and most of the moisture has evaporated. Transfer them to blender and add ricotta and spices to taste. Process until greens are well chopped and ricotta is fully incorporated. Press one crust into pie plate, making sure to leave 1/2 inch of overhang beyond lip of pie plate. Fill crust tightly with greens mixture and top with second crust, pressing the edges of the two crusts together to form a seal. Bake until crust is golden brown.

Quinoa Lentil Rutabega Salad:

1 medium rutabega cubed and steamed until tender

1 cup (raw) green lentils cooked until tender

1 cup (raw) quinoa cooked

1 shallot very thinly sliced

1 red or yellow bell pepper thinly julienned

vinagrette - olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper

Arugula (optional)

Seedy Wheat and Molasses Bread

Garlic and Kale Soup

Ingredients:

1 c. cooked barley

5-6 shitake mushrooms - sliced

8-10 cloves garlic - thinly sliced

brown rice vinegar

at least 4 c. vegetable stock

1 bunch kale - stemmed and chopped

olive oil

Heat oil in large pot. Saute mushrooms (salt optional) for about 8 minutes or until they are slightly browned. Add garlic and saute 2 minutes. Add vinegar and saute until evaporated. Add barley, stock, and kale and cook 10-20 minutes until kale is tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. This soup will warm your bones in the winter time. This soup is the soup most likely to send your cold or flu packing.

Parsnip, Chard and Collard Bake

I got this recipe from a fellow blogger, and changed a few things due to lack of ingredients on hand. I used parsnips instead of sweet potatoes, and collards in place of half the chard. And I didn't have gruyere, so I used fontina. Substitution is my middle name. Here is a link to the original recipe. I didn't use quite as much bechamel as she uses, because I wanted to be sure I could cut it into squares easily. It was delicious and very time consuming. I served it with braised seitan in red wine sauce.

Salade Niçoise

Ingredients for Dressing: Balsamic Vinegar, Olive Oil, Dijon Mustard, Salt and Pepper.

2 parts oil, 1 part vinegar, 1/2 part mustard, salt and pepper to taste - whisk together.

Ingredients: Butter lettuce (not shown,) fresh tofu (cubed,) avocado (sliced,) grape or cherry tomatoes (halved,) hard boiled egg (peeled and halved,) green beans (blanched,) red onion (thinly sliced,) new potatoes (boiled and cut into wedges,) green and black olives (sliced,) capers.

Choose an attractive platter and create a bed of salad leaves. Carefully arrange ingredients symmetrically on top of leaves. I tried to keep the colors balanced on each side. How much of each is up to you. Sparingly drizzle a small amount of dressing over top. Other ingredients could include bell peppers and artichokes. Traditionally this salad contains tuna, but that's just gross.

Roasted Stuffed Pumpkin

recipe somewhat stolen from gourmet.com

I've made this 5 times for various fall parties this month. It's been a hit at every one of them. I didn't have Gruyere or Emmental cheese, so I used Parmesan and fontina. And a couple of times I didn't have cream, so I used milk and it was fine. I left out the nutmeg and added parsley for a more savoury flavour. The only problem is how to serve it. It's an appetizer, but it's not really finger food. You need a plate and a fork to eat it. And a big spoon to serve it.

Butternut Squash Frittata

Then I made the same thing with leftover butternut squash. I really like making these because I am so bad at making omelettes. I don't know how short order cooks make them so thin and perfectly folded. Anyhow, If it's closer to lunchtime when I have breakfast on a Sunday, I usually serve it with salad instead of more traditional breakfast accompaniments.

Corn Mash Frittata

The hot sauce is from my friend Bridget. It's yummy, hot, flavorful, and goes well with eggs.

I had leftover corn mush from when I strained the bisque. It was pretty tasty, so I made up a use for it. Whisk 3 eggs, 1 cup corn mush, 1/2 cup natural yogurt, a little cream, salt, pepper. Saute 1 small diced onion with 1/2 of one diced jalepeno in a cast-iron skillet with a generous amount of olive oil. Once onions are soft, pour in egg mixture and bake at 350 until set. Top with cheese and hot sauce if desired.

Corn Bisque

Ingredients: 4 ears corn, kernels cut off with knife

3 T butter

1 Sweet onion, diced

4-6 cups vegetable stock

2 T honey

Heavy cream (optional)

Paprika

salt and pepper

Saute onion in butter 2mins. Add honey, salt and pepper to taste, and corn and saute until soft. Add 4 cups stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook for 20 mins. Allow to cool. Blend in batches in food processor. Strain through a mesh sieve. Add a teaspoon of paprika. Add 1/2 cup or more cream if desired. Serve hot or cold!

Tofu Bánh Mì

The sandwich is a product of French colonialism in Vietnam, and combines both French and Vietnamese ingredients.

Bánh mì is a Vietnamese baguette (I buy mine at Jay International) made with both wheat and rice flour, but more popularly known as a type of sandwich traditionally made with this type of bread.

If tofu isn't your thing, fried eggs also make a delicious banh mi. I get weird looks from most local banh mi joints when I ask for one made with tofu, so I make my own most of the time. This place makes the tastiest tofu banh mi, and the most delicious fried mung bean spring rolls.

Ingredients: Clockwise from upper left: Cilantro, soy sauce, mayonnaise, pickled turnips (any kind of pickle will do,) tofu, diced carrot and onion, daikon, jalapeno, baguette

Cut baguette in half lengthwise. Mix together one part soy sauce with two parts mayo. Spread that on both sides of baguette. Sprinkle on the diced carrots and onions. Add a layer of thinly sliced jalapenos. Add a layer of thinly sliced tofu, followed by a generous bunch of cilantro, and finally with daikon and pickled turnips.

Bourbon Pumpkin Ice Cream

I'm no expert on sweet foods. And experimenting with ice cream can be dodgey. So I used this recipe, and pumped up the cinnamon a little bit. I also served some bissinger dark chocolate almonds, which were amazing.

Cannelloni Duo

Ingredients for the red one: 1 cup French green lentils, 1 big onion, thyme, cannelloni shells, watery tomato sauce

Ingredients for the white one: Butternut squash, 1 onion, goat cheese, sage, cannelloni shells and Béchamel sauce

Soak lentils and then cook them for 30 mins. Saute onion until soft, add thyme and saute one more minute. Transfer the onion thyme mix and half the lentils and puree until smooth. Mix remaining whole lentils with puree mixture and stuff into shells.

Finely dice one half of one butternut squash. Saute squash with diced onion and sage for 5 mins. Remove from heat and mix with 4oz. goat cheese. Stuff into shells.

In two separate lasagna pans, cover bottoms with one sauce each. Lay the lentil stuffed shells about an inch apart in the red sauce pan and cover with more red sauce. Lay the squash stuffed shells in the white sauce pan and cover with more sauce. Cover both pans tightly with aluminum foil and bake 30-45mins until shells are fully cooked. Serve side by side adding extra sauce on top just prior to serving. Garnish white one with a fried sage leaf and red one with parmesan sprinkle.

Check out how pretty this kale is!

My friend Brian's dad has a farm. He grew it and Brian gave me some. Gorgeous.

Stuffed Delicata Squash

Ingredients: Delicata squash (1 squash serves 2)

Olive and truffle oil

Garlic

Onion

Kale

Canned white beans

Panko breadcrumbs

Parmesan

Carefully cut squash in half lengthwise. Bake at 350 cut-side up for 30 mins. Scoop out seeds etc and set aside. Sautee 1-2 cups finely chopped kale with 2 minced cloves garlic and 1/2 a minced onion. Mix in 3/4 can drained and rinsed white beans and mush them just a little bit. Mix in some grated parmesan and maybe 1 tsp. of truffle oil. Top with panko bread crumbs and drizzle a little olive oil on top. Bake at 425 for 30 mins and serve with a complimentary salad. Beets, sungolds and arugula shown here. Thanks to Lisa for the inspiration for this one.

Random Fall Dinner

pretty simple dinner, but delicious variety of flavours and textures. in one big pan roast discs of polenta, halved red bell pepper, and halved delicata squash maybe 450 or so. sautee garlic and shitake mushrooms and sprinkle with a little thyme. then add enough cream to make a very thick "mushroom sauce." finally, roughly chop one whole head of russian kale and sautee until slightly soft with a little bit of olive oil.

Pumpkin Mulligatawny

Translated, mulligatawny means "pepper water," which is a pretty accurate description of this soup. But this time I wanted more body, so I threw in a can of pumpkin. The base recipe is: 1 yellow onion finely minced, 1 tsp each of ginger and galangal, 4 minced cloves garlic sauteed until soft in some olive oil and some butter. Add 1/4 cup of flour and continue cooking for a minute. Then add 1 tsp each of cumin, cayenne, and tumeric and sautee another minute. Add at least 4 cups of vegetable stock or water to desired thickness. Add 1 can of pumpkin puree and stir over medium heat until homogeneous.