Filed under: Veggie Sides
This recipe for Farro and Roasted Butternut Squash is from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks. I had it on my menu plan for several weeks, but kept putting it off — my loss, because it is wonderful.
I made this dish on Tuesday night, when I knew my parents and sister would be joining us for dinner. My sister is vegetarian, so I always enjoying finding new meatless recipes to try on her. All the adults agreed this is a winner. Farro has a flavor and texture that is similar to barley, though the shape is more rice-like and it is a little heartier. I could only find organic farro around here, and it was expensive — about $7 a bag. I can get barley for around a dollar for the same amount. While it was fun to experiment with this new-to-me grain, I would probably sub barley in the future.
I would recommend reducing the oil by half. I found the olive oil used to roast the squash, and the nut oil (I used hazelnut instead of walnut) the dish is tossed with later, were too much for our taste and made the dish feel a little greasy. And while the toasted walnuts are an integral part of the original recipe, I omitted them — my sister is not a fan of nuts in her food and I wanted to cater to her! While I think they would have been delicious, it is just a different but still wonderful complete meal without them.
March 14, 2010
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 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
Thursday night I made Chicken with Mushrooms & Peas. I got the seasoning right this time, but I used too small of a pan to cook it all and so the veggies were a little wet. Still, the mushrooms and peas could stand up to the slight sogginess, and it was a very welcome dinner on a chilly, rainy day. I served it with carnival squash from my CSA (similar to acorn squash) — halved and roasted cut-side down at the same time as the chicken.
I sliced up some of the chicken breast in the kitchen so that the boys could have it plain — I thought if they saw the chicken covered in the vegetables they’d immediately get turned off. After some initial complaint, A. tasted a piece and then couldn’t stop exclaiming how delicious it was. He also threw in a few “I love you, Mom”s for good measure. (Heaven!) G. was more reluctant to taste it, but J. surprised us all by arriving home early, and was able to gently coax him into eating a few bites along with some challah.
October 18, 2009
Is it possible to talk about green tomatoes and not immediately think of frying them? I knew I’d be the only one to eat a fried green tomato in my house, so it hardly seemed worth the effort. I needed a different way to use up those unripe veggies, and settled on a big batch of salsa.
I diced a red pepper, two big jalapeño peppers, a small red onion, and a quart of cored green plum tomatoes, then mixed in a large handful of chopped cilantro, and added the juice of a lime plus kosher salt. Some of my green tomatoes had actually started to turn orange as they sat on my counter for a week, which added some nice color variation! J. topped some nachos with the salsa and thought it was pretty good. I liked the firm, almost crunchy texture and more herbal flavor of the green tomatoes — it made the salsa taste even fresher than one made with ripe tomatoes.
I’ve still got plenty of salsa left, and received another quart of green tomatoes from my farm share this week too. After seeing how the first batch started to ripen on their own, I’m going to try to help them along by sticking them in a brown paper bag. When J. and I have tried this in the past with tomatoes from our garden, we’ve pretty much only had success at making moldy tomatoes. I’ll try to remember to check on them more frequently this time.
October 9, 2009
It was in the mid-50s today, but overcast, so it felt much chillier than it should have. These first cool days of fall have everyone running to their closets for jackets and extra blankets (I needed to put on socks — my tile floors are freezing). What I like best about this weather is I don’t hesitate to turn on my oven, because I welcome it heating up the house a little bit.
The cauliflower is from the supermarket, but the broccoli comes from this week’s farm share. Jodi had recently mentioned to me that she’d been roasting cauliflower, and that reminded me of how much I love this preparation: a sprinkle of olive oil, salt, and garlic powder, then roasted at 400° F until the florets are as brown as you want them to be. Roasting remains my favorite way to cook a vegetable.
October 1, 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
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
My family is spoiled. J.’s grandma, GG, makes her own gefilte fish from scratch. It is delicious, and even though I rarely like fish I look forward to her gefilte on the holidays. It is truly a labor of love, both because it is time consuming and because she has to make a lot to feed us all! Because of that effort, it just seems wrong to put jarred horseradish on top of something so lovingly homemade. So although J.’s grandpa Poppy, the originator of the family horseradish recipe, is no longer with us to celebrate and make his horseradish himself, his recipe lives on. Lauren has made it for Rosh Hashanah and Passover for several years, and I was lucky enough to have her teach me the method this time around. Even if your family doesn’t eat gefilte fish, prepared horseradish is great with roast beef, in dips, and more.
I was warned that the fumes coming off the grated horseradish root are even more potent than a strong onion, but I felt it was just barely more manageable than that. Still, I had to walk away from the recipe more than a few times, just to clear my eyes and be able to see what I was doing! (Every time I opened the food processor, a fresh wave of blinding fumes hit me.) Lauren’s expression cracked me up when I did this — she smiled a little knowingly, indulgently, and then moved to take over whatever step we were in the middle of while I lunged for fresh air. Clearly, she is a seasoned pro! You’ll want to heed the instructions she included on the recipe: “Windows open and door open — you’ll appreciate it!” A fan might be nice, too.
Poppy’s Horseradish
Makes 4-5 cups of prepared horseradish, which in our family is enough for two nights of about 12+ adults each night eating liberal amounts with their gefilte fish, plus a little left over
2 large horseradish roots (about 1.5 lbs.)
1 15-oz. can sliced beets, drained + reserve liquid
3/4 – 1 c. red wine vinegar (other vinegar is fine)
3/4 – 1 c. granulated sugar
2 – 4 tsp. salt (to taste)
Trim and peel the horseradish root, then cut into large chunks that will fit into your food processor. Using the shredder/grating blade, process all of the horseradish root and the drained beets, then remove to a large bowl. (Poppy’s original recipe has you put the shredded horseradish through the food processor again so it is double-shredded, but I don’t think this is necessary.)
Starting with the smaller quantities suggested, add vinegar, sugar, and salt to the horseradish and beets. Mix well. Change out the shredder in your food processor for the chopping blade. Add the contents of the bowl back into the food processor, and pulse until pureed. If needed, add some of the reserved beet juice back into the mix if it is too thick — this will also make it a deeper purple color.
Once horseradish has reached the consistency you want, taste it and adjust the vinegar, sugar, and salt — just a tiny taste does the trick. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container (Horseradish.org says for up to 4-6 months!). The strength of the horseradish will diminish as it ages.
(more…)
September 20, 2009
Next page
Previous page
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 