You guys, I am in love… with a recipe. A recipe for cauliflower that is pretending to be cous cous and filled with herbs, spices, buttery cashews, and plump golden raisins. It’s so good it’s stupid. And easy, did I mention easy? And low-carb and healthy and gluten-free and vegan and all the things.
I am desperately trying to move away from grains and starches, but it is so hard when my brain had been programmed to think that dinner is meat, starch, vegetable (in that order in terms of importance). So anything like this that I can find that satisfies my need to have a starch, without really being one, is awesome. Oh yeah, and my husband LOVED it.
I served it as a side to some store-bought kebabs because of the distinctly Middle Eastern flavors. But I’m wondering if I can use the same technique and change up the flavorings (a la this post) to do some different things. Speaking of flavorings, this recipe uses a spice blend called za’atar that is super yummy. You should be able to find some in the spice section of your store, but if not here aretwo recipes to make your own. (more…)
Happy Pi/Pie Day! I know that most people are probably celebrating with desserts, but what about a savory pie? Or rather a savory dish with pie in the name that isn’t actually a pie? Whatever, don’t judge me. It’s time for another vegetarian lunch with Melissa from Smells Like Brownies. Be sure to check out her delicious Pi Day Coconut Cream Pie, it is sooooooo good!
This vegetarian version shepard’s pie is packed with veggies, topped with creamy goat cheese, and perfect for St Paddy’s Day (which is never St Patty’s by the way). I mean, just look at that gorgeous green topping.
The base is made with roasted beets, eggplant, sundried tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes simmered in vegetable stock with thyme, caraway seeds, and fennel seeds. I was a little scared that the fennel and caraway would be really strong and take over, but they added just the right amount of depth and a real Irish flavor. (more…)
Chicken Parmesan without the guilt? I saw a really yummy looking recipe for Chicken Parmesan Meatballs that I wanted to try, but didn’t want to eat all the carbs involved in pasta. I had also been seeing cheesy spaghetti squash casseroles that looked really good, so I had the idea to combine them.
Ground chicken, onion, Parmesan, parsley, lemon zest, breadcrumbs, garlic, and egg are combined to make the meatballs, which are basted with tomato sauce and cooked in the oven.
Spaghetti squash goes into a casserole dish (I cook mine in the microwave). This is from two medium squashes.
Place the cooked meatballs on top, then the tomato sauce. I forgot to season the squash, oops! So I added more salt and pepper here. (more…)
The other day, I was perusing Red Apron Butchery and saw that they had marrow bones. I LOVE marrow, but I had never made it at home before. It was time to fix that! You might be interested to know that while marrow is made up of fat, it is largely unsaturated; plus it has lots of vitamins and minerals like iron and Vitamin A, and it has been shown to boost the immune system!
Now you actually want to soak these bad boys in salt water overnight to draw out the blood. It’s not going to kill you or anything if you don’t, but it won’t taste as good.
Then you just pop them into a hot oven and roast for 20 minutes. You could just sprinkle it with coarse salt and eat it with a spoon, I wouldn’t blame you. But if you want the full experience, spread it onto some toasted challah bread and top with a tangy parsley salad to balance out the rich fattiness. Prairie butter, poor man’s foie gras, pure heaven – whatever you want to call it, this stuff is delicious decadence.
Roasted Bone Marrow
serves 4
8 3′-4′-long pieces beef or veal marrow bones (cut lengthwise or crosswise, doesn’t matter)
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
2 small shallots, thinly sliced (about 1/3 cup)
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp drained capers
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 1/2-inch thick slices challah or rustic white bread, toasted
To remove the blood from the marrow, place the bones in a bowl of ice water with 1 tsp coarse sea salt per 1 cup water. Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours, changing the water every 4 hours and replacing the salt each time. Drain and refrigerate until you are ready to cook the marrow. Be sure to use it within 24 hours or freeze the drained bones for up to 3 months.
Preheat the oven to 450°. Place bones in an ovenproof skillet or roasting pan – wider cut side down for crosswise, cut side up for lengthwise. Roast bones until marrow is soft and begins to separate from bone but before it begins to melt, 15-20 minutes, depending on thickness of bones. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Meanwhile, toss parsley, shallots, oil, lemon juice, and capers in a medium bowl to coat. Season salad to taste with sea salt and pepper.
Serve bones with toast and parsley salad. Use a long, thin spoon or knife to scoop marrow onto toast and top with salad.
It’s time for another vegetarian lunch with Smells Like Brownies! I’ve never really liked tabbouleh. Maybe because it’s usually cold, or there’s too much parsley, or there’s raw red onion, or it just isn’t that filling – I don’t know why. As it turns out, Melissa doesn’t like it either! So when she suggested we try to conquer it, I was skeptical. But making something yourself means that you get to adjust it until it is the way you like it.
Upping the bulgur, balancing the parsley with mint, and using scallions instead of onion certainly helped this dish out. But what really sent it into yummy land was serving it warm, stuffed inside pitas, with a generous amount of feta. We managed to turn something we both disliked into something we both loved! It may not be traditional, but it sure is delicious.
I bought extra pita pockets and feta to go with my leftover tabbouleh, but ended up with too much! Melissa had given me some of her CSA cucumbers (since she was drowning in them), so I threw together a quick cucumber salad with feta, mint from my garden, olive oil, and champagne vinegar.
Because everything is more fun in a pita pocket! (Except for peanut butter and jelly – I just found out the hard way that that doesn’t work.)
Tabbouleh Pitas with Feta
adapted from Mad Hungry
serves 6
1 cup dry bulgur wheat
2 cups water
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, diced (about 1½ cups)
1 bunch scallions, sliced (about 1 cup)
1 1/2 cups minced fresh curly parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
1/2 tsp lemon zest
juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp coarse sea salt, or to taste
6 pita pocket rounds
8 oz feta, crumbled
Rinse the bulgur. Cook in the water over medium heat for 12–15 minutes, or until soft and chewy. Remove from the heat and stir in the garlic. Drain of any excess water and transfer to a large bowl.
Add the cucumbers, tomatoes, scallions, parsley, and mint. Toss together.
Whisk together the lemon zest, juice, olive oil, and salt in a small bowl. Stir the dressing into the salad to fully combine.
Serve stuffed inside pitas, layered with feta to taste.
Cucumber Pitas
serves 1
1 cucumber, chopped
4 oz feta, crumbled
1 tbsp chopped mint
salt and pepper to taste
splash of olive oil
splash of champagne or rice wine vinegar
pitas
Halloumi is a salty, dense Greek cheese that is super amazing when grilled. My friend Melissa, from Smells Like Brownies, is a big fan so she was pretty excited when I showed her this recipe. Hearty quinoa mixed with lettuce and veggies and topped with warm cheese – delish!
We didn’t end up having the cucumbers the original recipe called for, so we used tomatoes instead and they were great. I do really like cucumbers, though, so I would say to use both. The more veg, the better, right? The dressing includes red wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, mint, and scallion – yum!
We also discovered (by oiling one side and not the other of an electric grill) that the cheese gets better grill marks when the grill is not oiled. Don’t worry, though, it won’t stick!
This is a very satisfying (and light!) vegetarian lunch that is sure to make even meat eaters happy. (more…)
I don’t know about you, but I am not a huge fan of raw carrots. Warm spiced carrot soup with tahini on a cold day, though? Yeah, I’m a big fan of that.
This is another dish brought to you by my vegetarian lunches with Melissa at Smells Like Brownies. She pulled together a couple of recipes to come up with this one.
Carrots, onion, garlic, coriander, and cumin all go into the pot with vegetable stock. (more…)
It’s time for another vegetarian lunch dish with Melissa from Smells Like Brownies! Similar to our last lunch (post here) we went with quinoa and roasted butternut squash, but changed up the rest of the flavors. This time we added in broccolini, cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, and a delicious avocado cream.
We started out by cooking the quinoa and roasting the squash, which should take about the same time. We followed the directions and added the broccolini into the partially cooked quinoa to blanch, but it wasn’t really cooking, so we put the lid on to steam it which turned it brown. Next time, I think I would blanch the broccolini in a separate pot from the quinoa. (more…)
The Hunger Games is the first book of a trilogy about a dystopian alternate timeline where war has reduced America to 12 Districts ruled by a Capital. As punishment for a rebellion, all 12 Districts must offer up 1 boy and 1 girl between the ages of 12 and 18 as a tribute to compete in the Hunger Games each year. These children must then fight to the death in a televised spectacle with only 1 survivor. To make things even worse, all of the Districts are purposefully kept in a state of starvation except for the District of the winner – which is given ample food for a year until the next Hunger Games (hence the name). Food, therefore, is extremely important and a focus throughout the series.
The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is an extremely tough teen who would do anything to protect her family and especially her little sister, Primrose. When Prim is selected as Tribute (a death sentence for the timid 12 year-old), Katniss volunteers to take her place. Before being entered into the death-match proper, the Tributes are primped and pampered and paraded around the Capital. It is here that Katniss experiences luxury and an overabundance of food for the first time in her life.
Her favorite dish is a Lamb Stew with Dried Plums – it is mentioned frequently and even sent to her as a present when she is fighting for her life. I decided that the stew would be the perfect dish to make for this post, served on some wild rice that seemed fitting for the setting. I also served it with goat cheese rolled in herbs (inspired by the cheese that Primrose makes from her prized pet) and rustic seed bread (inspired by Peeta – Katniss’s love interest and fellow Tribute, whose family owns a bakery). (more…)
I wanted to do a big Christmas dinner, but I didn’t want to be in the kitchen all Christmas Day. I also wanted to try something different than the usual rib roast and Yorkshire pudding. So I decided to do dinner on Christmas Eve and to do some easy, low-prep dishes for Brunch on Christmas Day.
I ordered a half fresh ham through Whole Foods to try cooking a Christmas ham for the first time, but I made a few mistakes. I wanted to cook it in the slow cooker with brown sugar and cider to make a glaze, but I didn’t realize that “fresh ham” is not really what we consider ham – without the curing or smoke, it is more like a pork roast – so I didn’t really get the flavor that I wanted. I also couldn’t get the whole thing to fit in my (very large) slow cooker insert, so I had to chop a chunk off – which actually ended up being a good thing because I roasted that piece and it came out better. (more…)
