Filed under: Veggie Mains
Kalyn posted a recipe for Cauliflower Rice on her blog last week, and that inspired me to make this version, a riff on the fried rice you’d get from a Chinese restaurant. I used my food processor to finely chop a small onion, small head of cauliflower, and a handful of baby carrots. I also roughly chopped some leftover steamed green beans. All those veggies went into a big frying pan with a little olive oil to help with caramelization. I beat two eggs and added those to the pan after clearing some space for them to cook. I added some garlic paste, ground black pepper, lite soy sauce, and a little hoisin to season. It only cooked briefly, for about 10 minutes over medium heat. Very quick, very easy.
Here’s the problem: it looked so much like real fried rice that I was expecting it to taste that way too. But, it tastes like cauliflower. I like cauliflower, so no big deal. Like Baked Egg Rolls, this is really just a different way to prepare a vegetable, and not a good substitute for the real thing (if that’s what you’re craving). I will stick to roasting my cauliflower.
January 14, 2010
A couple of weeks ago I sent out a call for slow cooker recipes, and I got a terrific response. Thank you again! This recipe comes from reader Rebecca in DC, who adapted it from something she found on RecipeZaar. Rebecca calls it minestrone, and I would agree… except that there’s barley in it instead of pasta. To me, minestrone must have ditalini or similar, those small tube-shaped pasta pieces in it. So for my own reference, I have to call this a vegetable and barley soup. If you like minestrone, though, you will love this version. It is rich and velvety, even though it’s vegan. It is my favorite soup I’ve made in my slow cooker in recent memory. And, best of all, it uses up kale from my farm share. I thought it was delicious right out of the Crock-Pot, but Rebecca says it’s even better the next day, reheated.
Slow Cooker Vegetable Barley Soup
Adapted from Rebecca’s version
1 28 oz. can fire-roasted, crushed tomatoes
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 small zucchinis, skin on, diced
2 large carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 c. barley, rinsed
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 15 oz. can cannellini bean (or any white bean), rinsed
1 cup curly kale, roughly chopped
1 vegetable bouillon cube (I used Telma brand)
1 Tbsp. seasoning mix (I used Mrs. Dash)
6-8 cups of water
salt and pepper to taste
Add all ingredients up to and including 6 cups of water in a 6 quart or larger slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours. If needed, added additional water to thin, and season with salt and pepper.
November 19, 2009
I finally made the Baked Huevos Rancheros on Monday night — just as my cilantro was about to give up the ghost. I was sloppy with the prep, not taking the time to mince the onion finely enough or caramelize it for as long as I should have. I just wasn’t in to it, and the final product suffered as a result. Now I’ve got huge chunks of just-soft onions in the sauce of this dish, and I’m kind of mad at it. I also forgot to fish the whole cloves out of the sauce before I continued with the recipe, so… surprise! Someone will find them, and they will not be happy.
As for my experiment with cooking this dish in a muffin tin rather than as a casserole: it has potential. The corn tortillas are tricky — even when gently warmed they are brittle and unyielding. I was able to rip a straight line from the edge to the center of each tortilla, and the wrap it into a cone shape. That went into the muffin cup, and was then filled with beans, the sauce, an egg, and cheese. They are beautiful, like flowers, and came out of the pan with a silicone spatula easily enough if you were serving them right away. But, the bottom of the tortillas did turn into a sort of cornmeal mush that, while tasty, didn’t lend itself to the individually-wrapped single portions I was hoping for. A flour tortilla would probably be more pliable and work better for this treatment.
I’m not going to try again, though. I think that, while this is a solid recipe, it’s not right for a large enough section of my family to warrant another go. If I’m going to make an egg-based dish, I’d rather make Dimer Dalna.
October 28, 2009
I adore this dish, but for something so simple it sure uses a lot of pots and pans concurrently. Still, it is yummy enough that I don’t mind all the dish washing every once in a while. The caramelized onions are especially good.
I used a lot more arugula than the original recipes calls for, because I was trying to cram 2 weeks worth of it from my farm share into one dish. Arugula wilts into almost nothing even when only briefly cooked. So the 12-16 cups winds up as a very normal, not-overwhelming presence in this dish.
Pasta with Lentils, Tomatoes & Arugula
Adapted from Everyday Food
¾ c. lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 lb. pasta (bow ties, campanelle, or cavatappi work well)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 sweet yellow onions, quartered and thinly sliced
1 15-oz. can crushed tomatoes, drained with liquid reserved
¾ c. lentils, picked over and rinsed
12-16 c. arugula (2-3 large bunches), washed & spun dry
salt and pepper to taste
grated Parmesan (optional)
In a small saucepan, prepare lentils according to the package directions. Drain any excess liquid and set aside.
In a large pot, prepare pasta according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a large saute pan and add onions, cooking for about 15 minutes over a medium-low heat until they are soft and golden brown.
While the onions are cooking, remove any tough stems or roots from the arugula, and roughly chop it. Stir tomatoes, cooked lentils, and arugula into the onions, and make sure the ingredients are well-combined. Add the reserved tomato liquid if you would like more of a sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
Either combine vegetables with the pasta and serve as a single dish, or serve the vegetables as a topping for the pasta. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
This dish also works nicely as a cold or room temperature pasta salad.
October 22, 2009
I am backlogged on dinner posts this week! This was Monday night’s dinner. I did make pasta with the broccoli rabe and red pepper saute (the boys ate that), but since I had this half of a carnival squash leftover I ate that instead of the pasta. I just microwaved it for a few minutes to heat it, then put the veggies inside (I’d dressed the bunch of broccoli rabe and 2 red peppers with a tablespoon of Soy Vay). Although it was not the best squash I’d ever had, the slight sweetness of it was a good contrast to the salty-sweet and slightly bitter vegetables. Plus it makes a good bowl.
October 22, 2009
These are baby turnips, also called salad turnips, and are different from the purple and white, large storage turnips you might be used to seeing in the store. They’re more like radishes. You can eat them raw, as they’re tender even without being cooked, and have a pretty neutral flavor with a little bit of a radish-like bitter bite.
I still had a bunch of turnips from last week’s CSA, as well as a bunch from this week. I’ve tried mashing, roasting, and pan-frying turnips before, and I just don’t love them. They always seemed a little watery and tasteless. I figured I hadn’t tried throwing a bunch of cheese on top yet, so that was the treatment they got tonight!
I originally thought I’d try Ree’s Turnip Gratin, but I couldn’t visualize how all that liquid was going to come together in the baked dish. So instead I turned to my own Cauliflower Gratin, halving the white sauce (1 Tbsp. butter, 1½ Tbsp. flour, 1 cup of hot 1% milk, seasoned with about a 1/4 tsp. each of nutmeg and garlic powder, plus black pepper) but using a little more cheese (about 6 oz. of Gruyere). In retrospect, I should have included the turnip greens with the gratin — I think it would have been tasty and would have better balanced the amount of cheese I used. Truthfully I was a little irritated with the darn turnips and just threw the greens away.
The gratin baked for about 40 minutes at 375°, until it was bubbly and golden brown. It was surprisingly delicious! My mom thought the dish was made with potatoes, and aside from being a little runny it definitely tasted like a completed dish, not just some turnips with cheese baked on top.
I served the turnips with challah, hard-boiled eggs, and steamed green beans (yes, there are yellow green beans too): (more…)
September 29, 2009
I skipped grocery shopping on Tuesday so that I could pick up my new tennis racquet instead (yay!). So last night I made the Boboli pizzas I’d planned for Wednesday, since I had all the ingredients in the house. I made the boys’ with a light amount of marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella. A. ate ravenously — it was a pleasure to see! But my little guy, in keeping with the previous night’s declaration that he no longer likes plain pasta, told me he didn’t like pizza anymore, either. OK, that’s 1 out of 4 mini pizzas that failed. He skipped dinner, even when his brother tried to guide him as to which of his slices would taste the best.
The other two pizzas were for me and J. I made one with some slices of Gouda, with thinly sliced onions and red pepper, and black olives on top. It would have been yummy had I not put it back under the broiler a second time and accidentally burned it. Then there was the fig jam and blue cheese combo, which was close to being interesting but was runny, sticky, and a little too much like dessert.
Sometimes dinner is like that. I’m glad I only had 10 minutes invested in prep.
September 23, 2009
By dinnertime on Monday I had had it with leftover Rosh Hashanah brisket, and so had J. We had about 6 slices left, which went into the freezer for sandwiches in a few weeks, when we’ll be excited about it again.
Instead of leftovers, I washed and roughly chopped a gallon-size bag of broccoli rabe and Red Russian kale from my farm share (make sure to chop up the stems, which are a lot more tough than the leaves). After caramelizing a thinly-sliced onion in a little olive oil, I dumped the greens on top and cooked them over high heat for about 5 minutes, until they were tender but not soggy. A little kosher salt on top finished them off. After a couple of days of heavy holiday eating, the greens were a welcome respite.
I served the greens separately from some whole wheat penne, hoping the boys would try some but knowing that if they didn’t, at least there was their favorite, pasta and shredded mozzarella for dinner. Sometimes A. will try the vegetables, especially green ones. No dice on the greens that night, and just for fun G. decided he no longer likes plain pasta. He actually pitched a fit about the penne, demanding something else instead. Sorry, buddy. That’s dinner. Eat it, or don’t — it’s your choice. He chose not to eat, and then surprised me by sitting nicely with us for the rest of the meal once he realized there was no alternative forthcoming.
If I can’t count on plain pasta, what can I count on?
September 23, 2009
I’m in the middle of a busier week than usual, but when my parents asked last night if I’d like to just order take out instead of cooking, I was happy to be able to say no (that’s the plan for Thursday night, anyway). This is why I meal plan: when the day seems crazy, there is peace in knowing that at least dinner is taken care of. I had a simple meal planned that took our schedule into account, and we stuck to it. Even if the plan is yogurt, fruit, and crackers, I really like not having to think too hard about dinner at the end of a day.
We had whole wheat spaghetti, some komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach) quickly sauteed in olive oil and a sliced clove of garlic, and Parmesan cheese grated over the top. Raw celery, carrots, and red pepper on the side. The greens were very good — pleasantly bitter, tender, yet still with a fresh crunch.
This dinner is exactly why I love my farm share. I would probably not have bought this bunch of greens on my own, even though we do eat a lot more vegetables in our CSA off-season than we did before we were members. Lately I’ve been focusing on talking to the boys about trying vegetables because they’re delicious, rather than because they’re healthy, and with a meal like this that’s easy for me to do. They did not try the komatsuna, but A. did like the smell of the garlic cooking, which I’ll take as a small, but open-minded, step in the right direction.
September 16, 2009
This is a quickie dip, all whirred up in a food processor. Combine a 15.5-oz. can of white beans (rinsed and drained), a large clove of garlic, the juice and zest of a lemon (reserve a little zest for garnish), salt, pepper, and enough olive oil to bring the dip to the consistency you want — just a a tablespoon or so. Puree until smooth. Serve with pita, pretzels, crudite, or just use your finger (I won’t tell).
September 13, 2009
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I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two boys, ages 4 and 6, and husband. Trying to feed my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 