Vegetarian

Cucumber and Nasturtium Salad

written by Ali

If you read my Pesto, Tomato, and Mozzarella Pasta Salad post, you may have noticed my beginnings of an inventory of my urban container garden. In addition to the tomatoes and basil, I’ve also planted a White Wonder cucumber. I was attracted to this one because it grows well in a pot. I’ve been very impressed by how abundant it’s produced cucumbers. The only casualty so far has been a very early stage cucumber that the dog ran over – the cucumber has climbed down the side of the pot and is sidling its way toward the grass, so this wasn’t much of a surprise, as it’s in the dog’s traffic pattern for playing fetch.

I also planted a zucchini and an eggplant, neither of which seem particularly enthusiastic about producing anything. I also planted some fennel, though they are taking their time to produce fennel bulbs as well. For now, my harvest has been cucumbers, three cherry tomatoes, basil, and some fennel fronds. I can live with that.

I also planted a few edible flowers this year – scented geraniums, marigolds, chives, and nasturtiums. The nasturtiums looked so pathetic for so long, I almost thought I was going to have to give up on them. Then, one day in late June, they started blooming and I now have a pot of riotous dark red nasturtiums that are overwhelming the lavender plant I shoved in for good measure. For some reason, our dog, Daisy, likes to nibble on the nasturtiums and the chives. I guess she knows her edible flowers.

I gathered a handful of cucumbers last night and a few nasturtiums. They blended together perfectly for this cucumber and nasturtium salad. I had fennel salt on hand from last weekend: my fennel is producing fronds, at the very least. The only part of this recipe that takes a little bit of time is the fennel salt – but most of that is very hands off.

Cucumber and Nasturtium Salad with Fennel Salt
Serves 4

5 or 6 small to medium cucumbers, peeled and sliced.
8-10 nasturtium flowers, gently washed and patted dry.
3 or 4 tablespoons pine nuts
Fennel salt (link to recipe here) to taste
Olive oil to taste

Place the cucumbers in a bowl. Separate the nasturtium petals and toss over the cucumbers. Add the pine nuts and gently combine. Sprinkle with fennel salt and drizzle with olive oil.

Enjoy!

July 15, 2016 0 comment

Farmer's Market Lunch Recipes Vegetarian

Pesto, Tomato, and Mozzarella Pasta Salad

written by Ali

I’m humming On the Road Again as I type. This week, I’ve only seen my desk for two days and next week will be the same. What I’ve seen instead are meeting rooms, the Capital Mall in Salem, and one of the most-overpriced hotel rooms I’ve stayed in in a long time. I’ve also seen a lot of my car, listened to four episodes of NPR’s Ask Me Another, one episode of This American Life, and one episode of Radio Lab. In short, I couldn’t wait to get home to see my husband, the dog, the cats, and my comfortable bed. I also couldn’t wait to get home to cook up some of the abundance that’s been developing in my little urban container garden.

I planted four tomato plants this year and three basil plants, two Sweet Basil plants (I’m guessing these are Genovese Basil plants – they are the ones that Trader Joe’s sells) and one Spicy Bush Basil plant. The basil took a while to warm up to the idea of growing, but now that it has, I have a plethora of basil on my hands. In past years, I’ve used my handy Cuisinart to create pesto cubes that I’ve frozen, but one of my Cuisinart parts didn’t survive the move to the new house, and I just haven’t gotten around to try to figure out if I can easily replace the part. So – lots of Basil, no food processor, and a serious longing for pesto. Fortunately, I ran across a recipe for How to Make Pesto Like an Italian Grandmother from 101 Cookbooks (one of my all-time favorite blogs – honestly, probably the first cooking blog I ever read regularly).

I decided last night to make two-days-worth of a simple pasta salad. After a long drive home from Bend, Oregon, I retreated to the garden, harvested several bunches of both the Spicy Bush Basil and the Genovese Basil and started chopping. Hand chopped pesto is a lot easier than I thought it would be. I don’t have a mezzaluna, so used our sharpest kitchen knife and just chopped, chopped, chopped. I skipped the garlic cloves (I had face-to-face meetings with people in the afternoon – didn’t want to offend anyone with raw garlic breath), used a little bit of parmesan cheese and a handful of pine nuts. I chopped and chopped some more. When I was finished, it wasn’t the prettiest pesto ever (basil oxidizes so quickly), but it was the best smelling and tasting basil I’ve ever made. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to creating a pesto that I ate on our honeymoon in Rome – and I have the fondest memories of that pesto: it came from a corner grocery store and we ate it with handmade ravioli in the kitchen of the weird little villa hotel room we were staying at in a tucked away corner of the city.

This is less recipe than more a few suggestions about how to make a very simple, but very delicious meal.

Pesto, Tomato, and Mozzarella Pasta Salad

Dried or fresh pasta
Several handfuls of basil
A handful of pine nuts
Several large pinches of freshly grated parmesan cheese
Tomatoes
Fresh mozzarella (in water, though you could also use regular mozzarella or even more parmesan or another cheese all together)
Olive oil

Boil a pasta of your choice using as much dried pasta as servings you are planning to prepare. I used bow tie pasta since it’s what I had on hand. Chop up a tomato or two. Make the pesto by chopping up basil leaves, adding pine nuts and chopping, adding parmesan and chopping (see Heidi Swanson’s lovely full recipe here). Add the pesto to your pasta. Add tomatoes and cheese. Drizzle with olive oil.

I heated this up for just a minute in the microwave at work, just to take the chill off the pasta and the pesto, but not so long to fully melt the mozzarella.

Enjoy!

July 14, 2016 2 comments

Lunch Recipes Vegetarian

Roasted Tomato and Burrata Pasta Salad

written by Ali

When life gives you half an hour to make your lunch for the week, along with the first of the summer tomatoes and an abundant crop of basil, make Roasted Tomato and Burrata Bow Tie Pasta Salad. So if you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed a number of beach-focused posts this past weekend. One of the greatest parts of living in this part of the PNW is that the beach is only two hours away, and I was fortunate to happen to have a meeting along the coast on Friday, which led to a night’s stay in Bandon, Oregon, a small tourist town along the southern Oregon coast. I ate seafood, picked up rocks and shells, and wandered along the beach. This meant, however, that Saturday was consumed with beach-time and driving, leaving just one day to run errands and cook on Sunday. I also realized, belatedly, that the Vancouver Marathon was happening on Sunday, which meant virtually no parking for the farmer’s market in Vancouver. This gave me a great excuse for going to a different market across the river in Portland – the Montavilla neighborhood market, where I found the first cherry tomatoes of the season. After having also crammed in shopping, a father’s day phone call, and a haircut, I was left with little time to be super kitchen creative.

Thus, bow tie pasta salad with roasted tomatoes, basil and Burrata cheese. Burrata cheese looks like a large round chunk of mozzarella. The difference is that the exterior is very mozzarella like, while the interior is filled with creamy curds that melt very nicely. It’s divine. Burrata was a rarity when we lived in rural Oregon, but here in the Portland area, it’s much easier to find. This recipe comes together very quickly and makes a great lunch dish. It would hold up well for a picnic, too.

Roasted Tomato and Burrata Bow Tie Pasta Salad
Serves 4

8 ounces dried bow tie pasta
15-20 cherry tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic chopped finely
2 balls of burrata
10-15 leaves of basil, torn into bite-size pieces
Salt to taste
Ground pepper to taste
Olive oil to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the whole cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet or pie pan and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the chopped garlic. Roast for 20 minutes or until the tomatoes are wrinkly and soft. Set aside and let cool.

Fill a saucepan about half way with water and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions. Drain the pasta.

Combine the drained pasta, the roasted tomatoes, and basil and toss. Tear the burrata into chunks and add to the pasta/tomato/basil combination. Add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of ground pepper and drizzle a little olive oil over the top.

This can be eaten as is, or left overnight in the fridge and reheated the next day – no more than a minute or two in the microwave.

June 21, 2016 0 comment

Appetizers Farmer's Market Snacks Vegetarian

Steamed Artichokes with Garlic Aioli

written by Ali

Steamed artichokes are another spring favorite food. Along with asparagus and strawberries, this is one of the foods I recall being truly seasonal when I was a kid. If you didn’t get a feast of all during a short time period in the spring, it was a long time coming to taste these again. Now, of course, all are available year round, though as far as I can tell, they only truly taste good in season, in the spring and early summer. We’re lucky here in the PNW that all three grow easily and readily and are available in both the grocery stores and at the farmer’s market.

Artichokes are a wonderfully messy food – they require some sort of dipping sauce to complement their meaty goodness. I’m a fan of lemon juice, butter and garlic powder, as this is essentially the only dipping sauce I ever knew to accompany artichokes when I was younger. This week, though, I decided to branch out a bit. I’m a huge fan of the garlic aioli that comes with fried asparagus at Burgerville, the happy, local meat fast food place here in Oregon. I thought it might be good with artichokes, so made my own variation. This is a wonderful afternoon snack and I’m totally in favor of eating it at my desk, messy though it may be. My only advice about this is to bring an ample supply of napkins. The only thing that could make this better would be to be on a picnic, drinking white wine and lounging on the bank of a river. Either way, enjoy!

Steamed Artichokes with Garlic Aioli
Serves Four

4 artichokes, stems trimmed and tips of leaves trimmed

Garlic Aioli
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
Juice of half a lemon
Pinch of salt

Place a steamer basket at the bottom of a large saucepan. Fill the pan with water up to the base of the steamer basket and bring the water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, add the artichokes and cover, steaming for 30 to 45 minutes. You can check the artichokes for doneness by pulling on a leaf – if it comes off easily, the artichoke is done.

Garlic Aioli

Add all ingredients in a small bowl and stir until combined.

Serve the artichokes with garlic aioli on the side.

June 15, 2016 0 comment

Farmer's Market Lunch Recipes Vegetarian

Roasted Cauliflower Pasta

written by Ali

In my current job, I drive, a lot. In addition to about a ninety minute a day commute, I’m also often on the road to go to meeting in other towns. I find, however, that I actually enjoy the time in the car, as it allows me to listen to books I might not otherwise get around to reading and listen to podcasts I almost never had time to listen to before. One of my favorite podcasts is Spilled Milk. Molly Wizenberg and Matthew Amster-Burton do a weekly podcast, eating and talking about all types of food. Last week, as I made the trek from one town to another, I listened as Molly and Matthew talked about cauliflower. The takeaway for me was that cauliflower tastes best when it is sliced thin, drizzled with olive oil and salt and roasted. And that I rarely ever eat cauliflower. I decided I needed to immediately get ahold of some cauliflower and try to roast it, since I’ve yet to meet a vegetable I didn’t like drizzled with olive oil and salt and roasted.

I decided to keep this pasta dish simple. It consists of little more than pasta, cauliflower, some toasted pine nuts, red pepper flakes, a few capers, and some parmesan cheese, all drizzled with more olive oil. I would imagine it would also be good with a bit of finely chopped red onion or some crispy garlic, but since these are intended for my lunch, I thought I’d avoid anything too garlicky. I think it is essential to use real parmesan here – we’ve fallen into a habit of buying parmesan in a tub, which is a slight step up from parmesan in a can, but not quite the real thing. The hardest part of this recipe was resisting the urge to eat all the cauliflower right off the pan.

Roasted Cauliflower Pasta
Serves Four

1 head cauliflower, sliced in thin pieces
Olive oil for drizzling
Pinch salt
4 cup cooked pasta
4 teaspoons capers
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup pine nuts
Parmesan cheese to taste

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay the slices of cauliflower in a single layer. Drizzle olive oil over the sliced cauliflower and sprinkle with salt. Bake for fifteen minutes.

Toast the pine nuts in a small, dry skillet over low heat. Stir several times. Take off the heat when the pine nuts are aromatic and light golden brown.

Combine the pasta, capers, red pepper flakes, toasted pine nuts, and cauliflower. Drizzle with a splash more olive oil and grate parmesan over the top.

May 23, 2016 0 comment

Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Lunch Recipes Vegetarian

Spring Saag Paneer

written by Ali

One of my favorite freezer lunch meals is saag paneer. Saag is typically made with some kind of green – in most Indian restaurants, you’ll find it with spinach. However, a few years ago, I came across a recipe for saag paneer that was made out of chard, and since then, I’ve been experimenting with various kinds of greens, particularly this time of year when spinach, chard, and other greens are in abundance at the farmer’s market.

As I mentioned in a previous post, there is another vegetable that is abundant this time of year – the hakurei turnip. I first encountered these in a CSA basket and fell in love with their radish size white globes and sharp turnip taste. My favorite preparation of these is a refrigerator pickle, but then I’m always left with the dilemma of what to do with the greens. Most root vegetable greens are edible, and I’ve experimented widely with radish greens, carrot greens, and beet greens. I have one go-to recipe for the hakureis that uses the entire vegetable, but didn’t want to go to that effort this week. Instead, I decided to use the hakurei greens, in combination with some chard, to make saag paneer. Given that I was missing some of the spices I might usually use making saag paneer, I was pleasantly surprised by how spicy the turnip greens make this dish. This is a lunch that freezes exceptionally well.

Spring Saag Paneer
Serves 3 or 4

1 package paneer
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch Hakurei turnip greens or other similar greens (radish greens would also work well)
½ bunch chard or kale
1 teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup heavy cream
3 or 4 cups cooked rice

Cube the paneer. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a cast iron or non-stick skillet. When the oil is hot, put in the paneer and brown on both sides (about five minutes per side on medium heat). Meanwhile, chop the garlic finely and sauté in a medium saucepan in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Chop the chard/kale and turnip greens coarsely.

When paneer is browned, turn off the skillet and set aside. Add the greens to the garlic in the saucepan and cook until they are wilted. Add the spices and salt and combine. Add the paneer and cook for a few minutes to combine flavors. Add the heavy cream and cook for another minute over low heat.

Serve over cooked rice.

This post is linked to the No Waste Food Challenge at Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary.

May 17, 2016 1 comment

Farmer's Market Lunch Recipes Vegetarian

Spring Green Buddha Bowl

written by Ali

I’ve been keeping a running list for a while now of lunches I really want to make (and eat). Featured prominently on that list for some time now is the whole grain, healthy and happy Buddha Bowl. The components of a Buddha Bowl can vary, but the basic foundation includes some sort of grain, vegetables, beans or nuts, and a sauce.

Spring time is such a great time for the vegetables for this lunch: at the farmer’s market on Saturday, I snagged broccolini (which, if you were wondering, is not baby broccoli, but a hybrid vegetable of broccoli and gai-lan), rapini (or broccoli raab), more asparagus, and more pea shoots.

Then came the challenging part. We now live in a metropolitan area that has a Trader Joe’s, a Whole Foods, and a New Season Market, in addition to three or four Fred Meyer’s, a Safeway, and a Win Co. Not a single one ever has every ingredient we need (at a price that’s reasonable). In an effort to avoid spending all weekend shopping, we tried to buy everything we needed at Trader Joe’s, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find the one ingredient I wanted to make a tahini-based dressing for my Buddha bowl – the tahini. Knowing that the week ahead was going to be busy, I went with the path of least resistance and bought Trader Joe’s peanut satay sauce. I’m not always a fan of pre-made sauces like this, but this one is good with the flavors in the bowl.

I also bought an interesting grain mix: it’s got Israeli couscous, orzo (so technically a grain and pasta mix), quinoa, and lentils. I threw in some avocado, chickpeas, and some cashews, and sprinkled the whole thing with a little bit of pink Himalayan salt.

Spring Green Buddha Bowl
Serves 4

4 – 5 cups of a grain or grain mix (Israeli couscous works well, as does quinoa, brown rice, or other similar grain or grain mix)
4 cups mixed greens chopped in small pieces (broccolini, broccoli, rapini, asparagus, chard, etc.)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 avocado, diced
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ cup cashews
4 – 8 tablespoons of peanut satay or similar pre-made sauce
Pinch salt

Follow the directions on the package to cook the grains. Divide cooled grains between four bowls.

In a non-stick or cast iron pan, heat the olive oil. Sauté the greens until they are cooked to your liking. Divide the greens between the four bowls.

Divide the avocado, chickpeas and cashews and distribute between the bowls. Add the sauce and combine. Sprinkle with salt.

These hold up well in the refrigerator so can be made early on in the week for lunch all week long.

May 4, 2016 0 comment

Appetizers Farmer's Market Lunch Recipes Snacks Vegetarian

Roasted Artichokes

written by Ali

This week has been all about the easiest route to fresh, good food. I believe in elaborate snacks at my lunch – the best way for me to get through the day is to have good food to look forward to. Given the time constraints this week, I didn’t have hours to prep this weekend. I had a few vegetables languishing in the vegetable tray and I wanted to make sure I used them before they became compost. One of those vegetables was a pair of sangria artichokes we’d picked up last week at Trader Joe’s. I love artichokes – whether they are designer or not. I’ll eat them, I’ll grow them and I’ll even let them go to full flower, because they are so lovely (in addition to being tasty).

But back to the sangria artichokes. In addition to being a beautiful deep purple hew, these are named after sangria – and since I also love sangria, I figured the artichokes must be good. I did a bit of research to find that these are a new kind of artichoke, coming exclusively out of California. I didn’t notice a particularly significant different taste, though they did roast up perfectly with all leaves being very tender. I think they are just pretty – and what’s the harm in enjoying a pretty, in addition to tasty, snack at work?

Roasted artichokes take about an hour, but the prep time itself is minimal. I didn’t do anything to these to eat them other than toss on a bit of salt. If you are going to eat these at work, be sure to have a spoon or knife with you to remove the fuzzy parts from the heart.

Roasted Artichokes
Serves 2

2 large artichokes, stem trimmed and leaves gently spread out
1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place each artichoke in a large piece of aluminum foil (large enough to fully wrap the artichoke). Before you wrap it up, drizzle the artichokes with lemon juice and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt. Wrap up the artichokes in the foil and put in a pie pan or on a baking sheet. Bake for 75 minutes or until a knife can easily pierce the base of the artichoke. Serve as is or with melted butter with garlic salt.

April 28, 2016 0 comment

Breakfast Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Lunch Recipes Vegetarian

Morel and Asparagus Quiche

written by Ali

Morels are one of those ingredients that are a harbinger of spring for me. I first found morels at the farmer’s market three years ago. I’d heard about them, certainly, prior to that – morel recipes would often pop up in my Pinterest feed. But morels are not something the grocery stores in the areas I’ve lived carry and the first several years I went to the farmer’s market and encountered morels, I wasn’t quite brave enough to figure out what to do with them.

My first morel experience was daunting. There’s much conflicting information regarding how, exactly, to treat morels – to soak or not to soak, to wash or not to wash, and so on. What’s consistent is that morels need to be well cooked, otherwise they can be toxic. What’s also consistent is that morels are products of the wild – and such, they often come with bits of forest still attached to them: a pine needle here and there, an itty bitty white worm or two. What I’ve landed on is this: a few hours in salty water doesn’t seem to hurt them and seems to reduce the number of itty bitty white worms that wriggle their way out in the frying pan. Also, white worms are just protein – and morels are tasty enough not to worry about it too much. My favorite preparation of morels is sautéed in a lot of butter and served on a burger with bacon. Since I didn’t have time for burger or bacon this weekend, I think that a quiche with morels and asparagus will do.

Morel and Asparagus Quiche
Serves 4-6

¼ pound morel mushrooms, soaked for 2 – 3 hours in salt water, then chopped
2 cups chopped (2 inch or so pieces) asparagus
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
5 eggs
½ cup shredded cheese (I used a combination of parmesan and mozzarella)
1 teaspoon salt
A few grinds of fresh pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Melt the butter in a non-stick pan. Add morels and sauté until they are soft. Add water as needed if they start to stick. When morels are soft, add the asparagus and sauté for another five minutes or until the asparagus has softened.

While the morels and asparagus cook, measure out the milk in a bowl or large measuring cup. Add the eggs and beat until smooth. Add the cheese, salt, and pepper and combine.

Put the morels and asparagus in a well-oiled baking pan (a glass 8×8 dish works well). Pour the egg, milk and cheese over the vegetables.

Bake the quiche for 35-40 minutes or until set. A knife inserted in the middle will come out clean when it is set.

This freezes well, so makes a good lunch meal.

April 19, 2016 0 comment

Farmer's Market Freezer Meals Lunch Recipes Vegetarian

Samosa Style Twice-Baked Potatoes

written by Ali

Sunday was one of those days. I overslept, turned over to look at the alarm clock when I heard the Daisy’s tags rattle and realized she was awake and on the move, and then wondered why the clock didn’t seem to be on. My initial impulse was to blame the dog – she still likes to shimmy under the bed and I thought she might have figured out how to unplug the alarm clock. But no such luck – the power was out. The power was out throughout the town: 2,000 some houses as it turned out. I’m not a functional human being without coffee, so we had to go out for breakfast and then we had to go without Internet and electricity for another three or so hours. It worked out fine, as it gave us plenty of time to take Daisy for a long walk and it gave me a good hour of time to do some

general cleaning. However, my well-laid cooking plans were significantly delayed so by the time the power came back on around 2:30 p.m., I was in no mood to actually cook.

My original intention was to make baked samosas. Samosas are a heavenly blend of potato, carrot, celery, onion, peas, and spices wrapped in dough and usually deep-fried. By the time the afternoon came around, I didn’t want to bother with making a dough, so decided to improvise, bake my potatoes instead, and make a riff on samosas with twice-baked potatoes. I have to say that I think I like this better than what I’d planned to make. I did throw a bit of parmesan cheese on the top of these and crisped it under the broiler. Cheese + potatoes are just a natural combination for me. I think they would have been just fine without this, but I’m going into a chaotic week and needed a little extra food love at lunch. I also am using a bit of cherry chutney to spice these up. It’s that time of the year when I’m in a scramble to use up as much of the canned goods that I put up the previous summer to make way for whatever I’ll be putting up starting in the spring. If you happen to have a good chutney on hand, the potatoes are lovely with them, but it’s not essential.

Samosa Style Twice-Baked Potatoes
Serves 4

2 baking potatoes, scrubbed
3 stalks celery, finely chopped
3 carrots, finely chopped
½ onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
½ cup frozen peas
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon whole mustard seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon cumin
½ cup parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Scrub the potatoes thoroughly. Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for an hour or until potatoes are soft. Once potatoes are cooked, set aside to cool.

In a cast iron or non-stick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft. Add the peas and cook until the peas are thawed. Add the mustard seeds, salt, ground ginger, curry powder and cumin and stir until all the vegetables are coated and put the spice and vegetable mix in a medium sized bowl.

Cut the potatoes in half and scoop out most of the potato. Leave a ¼ inch layer of potato in the skins to keep them stable for stuffing. Combine the potato with the vegetable mix in the bowl and combine. Stuff each potato skin with a portion of the vegetable and potato mix. Sprinkle the top of each stuffed potato with about an 1/8 cup of parmesan cheese. Put the potatoes back into the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Switch the oven to broil and broil the potatoes for 5 minutes, until the tops are browned. Serve with chutney on the side.

February 2, 2016 0 comment

Newer Posts

Older Posts