Vegetarian entree : Weeknight Gourmet

Category : Vegetarian entree

What's been cookin' in the Weeknight Gourmet's kitchen?

July 22 2010 | Leave a Comment

I haven’t gotten into the rhythm of posting since Charlotte was born but don’t think that means I haven’t been in the kitchen! I have been cooking. Weekly Fresh Direct deliveries, augmented by the occasional trip to Chelsea Market, have allowed me to have food on hand to prepare simple meals during the week.

I haven’t tried a ton of new recipes recently. Instead I have been going back to recipes that I have made in the past that I can either prepare ahead of time or are very quick and easy to make.

Here are a few examples of meals I have made recently:

Lemon Spaghetti: I could eat this dish everyday! So delicious — fresh and flavorful. And, it only requires a few ingredients and virtually no chopping.

Chinese Chicken Salad with Asian Coleslaw: I prepped this ahead of time. I was hoping there would be leftovers for lunch but it was all gone. The coleslaw was a new recipe. But, again, super simple and I was able to use the leftover soy glaze for another meal.

RIBS: This weekend we had Tim’s brother and his family up to the Berkshires. I made my famous ribs, grilled corn, tomato and mozzarella, and shaved zucchini salad. Instead of making the rub and sauce, I bought a store-made rub at Guido’s and used Bone Suckin’ Sauce. The only side that really required any prep was the zucchini salad but it only took about 10 minutes.

Key Lime Pie: I made the easiest Key Lime Pie ever this weekend. Judging by the fact four people finished it in two sittings, I think it was a hit!

Whole Wheat Penne with Eggplant and Mozzarella: I made myself some comfort food while Tim was traveling this week. I bought some of my favorite eggplant cutlets from Trader Joe’s and cut them into bite-sized pieces. I mixed the eggplant with whole wheat pasta, jarred tomato sauce, and diced fresh mozzarella. Delish!

While I have been able to cook, our time around the dinner table has certainly changed since Charlotte was born. She has uncanny timing — quiet as a mouse as I prepare dinner but then as soon as the meal hits the table the crying starts. Tim and I sit together at the table and take turn eating and passing our gorgeous little girl back and forth. I guess Charlotte already knows how important family dinners are and she doesn’t want to be left out.

And don’t worry — Angus has not allowed all the changes to affect his dinnertime behavior. Our loving pooch sits at our feet desperately hoping for a scrap and being on the lookout for some dropped food.

Our little round kitchen table is getting more crowded and I couldn’t be happier.

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Categories : Barbecue, Dessert, Pie, Poultry, Salads, Vegetarian entree

Meatless Monday: Tomato & Mozzarella Quesadillas with Basil

July 20 2010 | Leave a Comment

Here is a super quick and easy Meatless Monday recipe perfect for the summer when tomatoes and basil are in season. I didn’t make any changes other than drizzling some balsamic vinegar on the basil salad.

Tim and I both enjoyed our “Caprese” quesadillas! And, I loved getting dinner on the table in 10 minutes and the very limited clean up work!

Tomato & Mozzarella Quesadillas with Basil
Real Simple

8 8-inch flour tortillas
12 ounces grated or sliced mozzarella
2 tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1/2 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch fresh basil, leaves picked
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

Heat grill to medium. Arrange 4 of the tortillas on a cutting board. Arrange the mozzarella and tomatoes on the tortillas, leaving a 1-inch border empty. Season with ½ teaspoon of the salt and the pepper and top with the remaining tortillas.
In a medium bowl, combine the basil, pine nuts, oil, and the remaining salt; set aside.
Cook the quesadillas around the perimeter of the grill until the cheese melts and the tortillas are crisp and golden, about 2 minutes per side.
Immediately cut the quesadillas into wedges and serve with the basil salad.

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Categories : Vegetarian entree

Meatless Monday: Fresh Vegetable Quesadillas with Corn Relish

July 6 2010 | Leave a Comment

Here is a great summer meatless Monday recipe. The recipe is super quick because you do not cook the veggies before grilling the quesadillas.

I love using my grill pan to make quesadillas. I usually just lightly brush the pan with olive oil or spray with non-stick cooking spray so the quesadillas are much healthier than frying them in some oil.

Use summer squash and zucchini for some additional color. For the relish, I used frozen corn and added some feta cheese. So simple but delicious!

Enjoy!

Fresh Vegetable Quesadillas with Corn Relish
Everyday Food

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for grates
4 ears corn (husks and silks removed), or 1 package (10 ounces) frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 bunch scallions, half of bunch thinly sliced, other half cut into 2-inch lengths
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Coarse salt and ground pepper
4 flour tortillas (10-inch)
1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (6 ounces)
1 yellow squash, halved crosswise and thinly sliced lengthwise
1 orange bell pepper (ribs and seeds removed), thinly sliced

Heat grill to low; lightly oil grates. Cut off tip of each cob. One at a time, stand each ear in a large wide bowl; with a sharp knife, carefully slice downward to release the kernels (you should have about 2 cups). Discard cobs.

Add sliced scallions, lime juice, and oil to bowl. Season with salt and pepper, and toss to combine. Set corn relish aside.

Place tortillas on a work surface. Dividing evenly, sprinkle half the cheese on bottom half of each tortilla. Top with squash, bell pepper, scallion pieces, and remaining cheese; season with salt and pepper. Fold top half of tortillas over filling to close.

Grill quesadillas, turning once, until browned in spots and cheese has melted, 6 to 8 minutes. Cut into wedges; serve immediately with corn relish.

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Categories : Vegetarian entree

Beat the heat with gazpacho!

June 21 2010 | Leave a Comment

I am a soup lover and a tomato lover so there is nothing I like more on a hot day than a cold bowl of gazpacho! I just recently came across the Barefoot Contessa’s gazpacho recipe. It is simple and quick and relies only on tomatoes and veggies (some recipes have you add bread to them to create a thicker consistency).

To make a meal out of the gazpacho, I sauteed some shrimp in olive oil and garlic and served them on top of our cool bowls of soup. You could also serve with some crusty bread or a salad

The recipe made enough that I had the leftover gazpacho as an appetizer the next night and lunch two days later. It tastes even better the next day!

Gazpacho
Barefoot Contessa

1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
4 plum tomatoes
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
23 ounces tomato juice (3 cups)
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess!

After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.

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Categories : Soups, Stews, Chilis, Vegetarian entree

Hail the Kale! Linguini with Breadcrumbs and Kale

June 14 2010 | Leave a Comment

I’ve belonged to a CSA for a few years now – CSA stands for “community supported agriculture” – basically you “invest” in a farmer and in return you get some of the farmer’s fresh produce each week. CSAs are great because they can expose you to vegetables that are not regularly on your shopping list. One of my favorite CSA discoveries is how much I LOVE kale. The kind I like goes by several names – black kale, Tuscan kale, cavalo nero, lacinato kale, dino kale. I think that last name refers to the fact that the leaves are dark green and bumpy and look like a dinosaur’s skin, or what I guess a dinosaur’s skin would have looked like. Lacinato Kale has this deep, mineral, healthy taste that I think I’m slightly addicted to now. Sauteed kale is really good atop rice or polenta or mixed into mashed potatoes. Anyway, yesterday I had some in my fridge, thanks to the good folks at Bending Bridge Farm in Pennsylvania.

I used it up in a recipe I recently found on Food52.com, a relatively new recipe site founded by Amanda Hesser (of “Cooking for Mr. Latte” fame) and her friend Merrill Stubbs. Each week Amanda and Merrill choose two themes, say “muffins” and “lamb chops,” then readers send in recipes for one of those themes, Amanda and Merrill choose two finalists in each category, and then readers vote for which they like better. A cookbook will be published of all the winning recipes.

“Linguini with Breadcrumbs and Kale” was submitted last year by a Food52’er with the screen name Hotplate Gourmet. It’s an easy and delicious recipe. I was thinking about skipping the bread crumbs, but then remembered I had some stale baguette pieces in the freezer that were waiting for such an occasion. Don’t skip the breadcrumbs, they’re delicious. I did follow Amanda and Merrill’s advice to cook the breadcrumbs and kale separately, to ensure the crumbs stayed nice and crisp. I scaled down the portions somewhat as I was cooking for just myself.

Linguini with Breadcrumbs and Kale
Submitted by “Hotplate Gourmet” to Food52.com

1/2 pound linguini
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 slices, day old bread, cubed
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 bunch kale, chopped [ET note: Remove the tough center ribs from the leaves with a knife or your fingers, and cut the leaves into strips or roughly chop them.]
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper

Boil pasta according to the package in salted water.
Process bread in a food processor until it’s about the consistency of coarse cornmeal. [ET note: My pieces were not at all uniform and I liked having some that were bigger than others, like grain-of-rice sized.]
Heat ¼ c. oil in a frying pan and add the breadcrumbs. Once the breadcrumbs are slightly toasted and golden brown, add the garlic and continue to stir until well toasted. [ET note: As suggested by Food52’s editors, I took the breadcrumbs out of the pan at this point.]
Add the kale to the frying pan with a little bit of the pasta water and sauté quickly. [ET note: I cooked for about 7 min, sprinkling in spoonfuls of pasta water as needed.]
Toss the oil mixture with the drained pasta and add salt & pepper to taste. Add the rest of the oil as needed. Mix in parmesan and serve.

Serves 2-3

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Categories : Pasta, Vegetarian entree

Meatless Monday: Basil Pesto

June 7 2010 | Leave a Comment

On one of my excursions to Chelsea Market, I picked up a couple of bunches of gorgeous basil. I was buying something else but the fragrant basil leaves called to me and I couldn’t help but buy some!

I decided to make pesto because it is a great make-ahead item. I could make a batch and use some the same day and freeze the rest for a later date. We were having my brother and his family over and were planning on having a simple barbecue — hamburgers and hot dogs. I had bought a bunch of salads but wanted to make something. So I decided to toss some of the pesto with whole wheat penne for a simple pasta salad. I chilled the pasta salad and everyone loved it!

I followed the pesto recipe below which is a pretty typical basil pesto recipe but I doubled it so I would have some leftover for the freezer. I actually intend to defrost the pesto this week, marinade some chicken breasts in the pesto, and grill them up on my grill pan for a quick and easy dinner.

Pesto alla Genovese
Emeril Lagasse

1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves (packed)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 tablespoons pine nuts or walnuts, toasted
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound dried or fresh farfalle pasta

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the basil, salt, and pepper and process for a few seconds until the basil is chopped. Add the cheese, pine nuts, and garlic and, while the processor is running, add the oil in a thin, steady stream until a mostly smooth sauce is formed. Transfer pesto to a bowl and set aside. (Note: Pesto may be made 1 day in advance and kept, refrigerated, in an airtight container, until ready to use. If making in advance, be sure to cover the top of the pesto with a thin layer of olive oil to prevent the pesto from darkening. Pesto may also be frozen in the same manner in small quantities for use at a later date.)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook, according to package directions, until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. In a large bowl, toss pasta with pesto. Add a little of the reserved cooking liquid if pasta seems to dry. Serve immediately.

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Categories : Pasta, Vegetarian entree

It Feels Like Summer: Grilled Tomato Linguine

May 25 2010 | Leave a Comment

by Weeknight Gourmet Guest Blogger Happy Farrow

One of my favorite cookbooks is Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food: Great Food Fast. I love that the book is organized by season with subcategories (soups and salads, main courses, pastas, sides, and desserts), and all of the recipes have a very short list of ingredients. While this one is delicious with tomatoes and thyme, I often stray a bit (e.g., use colorful heirloom tomatoes instead of plum). A simple pasta dish with grilled vegetables, olive oil, fresh herbs and cheese tastes great on a warm, almost-Summer evening!

Recently, I added grilled zucchini (cut lengthwise, salted and brushed with olive oil before grilling) and steamed corn (cut off the cob after steaming for 3 minutes), substituting basil for thyme and penne for linguine.

Grilled Tomato Linguine
Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

3 pounds plum tomatoes, cored and halved lengthwise
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
1 pound of linguine
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for topping if desired

Heat grill to high. In a bowl, toss tomatoes, 3 tablespoons olive oil and thyme. Season generously with salt and pepper. Starting with cut sides down, grill tomatoes until soft and charred, 8 to 12 minutes per side. Return tomatoes to bowl; cut into rough pieces with kitchen shears.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 pound linguine. Cook according to package instructions. Drain; return to pot.

Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil, Parmesan, and grilled tomatoes. Divide among bowls, and serve immediately with more Parmesan, as desired.

Serves 4 to 6

Happy is freelance designer (http://www.happyfarrow.com/index.html) and lives in Boston with her husband James and daughter Cecily.

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Categories : Pasta, Vegetarian entree

Cooking for One: Sort-of Bibimbap

May 14 2010 | Leave a Comment

by Weeknight Gourmet Guest Blogger Elizabeth Terry

I live alone, but love to cook, which can be a tricky combination. I’m sharing with you one of my go-to dinners. It’s ready in a snap, and uses ingredients that for the most part keep for a long time, so it’s perfect for when you get home late or exhausted and don’t want to go to the market. More than once, I have found myself lying in savasana at the end of a yoga class, projecting myself half an hour into the future, when I’ll be cracking open a beer and digging in to a bowlful of this. Ommm… yummm…

I’ve never come up with a name for “this,” but it’s sort of a bibimbap, or Korean mixed rice bowl. If you order it in a Korean restaurant, it will likely come in a hot stone bowl that creates a toasty rice crust on the bottom, and it will be topped with half-a-dozen kinds of vegetables and some seasoned meat. My version simplifies things greatly. The only exotic ingredient required is gochujang (aka kochujang), a brick-red, sticky, Korean hot pepper paste. It’s probably available in some regular supermarkets, alas, not in my neighborhood, which our local alt-weekly refers to as “Episcopalia”. So find an Asian market and get some gochujang – look for a shelf of bright red boxes. I don’t know if different brands are different, I just get a small box with a nice photo. It’s cheap and lasts ages in the fridge.

I know rice can be intimidating for some people. Frozen cooked rice is widely available these days, and is OK. But if you have a cute little saucepan, try making it yourself. I usually use between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of raw jasmine rice, swirl it around in some water to rinse it, drain it, put in a little more water than rice, cover, heat on high until boiling then turn all the way down and let simmer until done. You can lift the lid to check on it. If all the water’s gone and the rice is still hard, sprinkle in a little more water. If the rice is cooked and there’s still water making it soupy, take off the cover and turn up the heat a little and let the extra water boil off. Takes 15 minutes. I use my great-aunt Mary’s ugly little pea-soup-green pot.

While your rice is cooking, put a few big handfuls of spinach in a microwave-safe bowl. About half of one of those salad bags full is a good amount. If it’s not triple-washed, or even if it is, rinse it off, top it with a paper towel, and cook it for about 2 minutes in the microwave, until it’s wilted. Squeeze out any excess liquid and set aside. Then, take out a little skillet, splash in some vegetable oil, heat it up, crack in an egg and fry it!

Assembly: Put the rice in whatever bowl you’re eating from. Pile the spinach on one side and drizzle it with about 1/2 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil. Put a heaping spoonful of the gochujang on the rice (taste it first, it’s not crazy hot, to decide how much you want to use). Place your fried egg on top of the gochujang. Take a moment to admire how nice it looks.

Then, take a fork and mix it all up until the rice is orange with pepper paste and egg yolk. Eat! Enjoy! Makes a great dinner-for-one, but if you have a dining partner, just scale up accordingly.

Elizabeth Terry is a freelance editor and writer based in Washington, DC. She used to be a picky eater but now is up for just about anything.

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Categories : Vegetarian entree

Meatless Monday: Pasta with Sweet Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, and Ricotta

May 10 2010 | Leave a Comment

Here’s another super easy meatless Monday recipe — courtesy of the new Everyday Food cookbook — that relies on spring produce. The thing I love about this recipe is that other than chopping a tablespoon of fresh tarragon there is absolutely no chopping involved! Perfect for a hectic weeknight (or for a gal who is nearly 41 weeks pregnant)!

A couple of very minor notes…I used penne because I had half a box in the pantry. And, I also added 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese to the dish. Because of the naturally salty flavor of the parmesan I didn’t really add any extra salt to the dish (other than salting the boiling water).

Our dinner was fresh, fast, and flavorful just like the cookbook title!

Pasta with Peas & Ricotta
Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
12 ounces gemelli or other short pasta (e.g., penne)
12 ounces sugar snap peas, stem ends and any strings removed
1 package (10 ounces) frozen peas
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh tarragon, plus sprigs for garnish
1 cup ricotta cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil; add a generous amount of salt. Cook pasta until al dente according to package instructions, adding snap peas 3 minutes before the end and frozen peas in the last minute of cooking. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water; drain pasta and vegetables, and return them to pot.

Toss pasta and vegetables with butter, tarragon, and ricotta, adding enough reserved pasta water to create a thin sauce that coats the pasta. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, divide pasta among shallow bowls, and garnish with tarragon sprigs.

Serves 4.

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Categories : One-pot meal, Pasta, Vegetarian entree

Prepping for Baby: Vegetable Lasagna

April 26 2010 | Leave a Comment

My friend Suzanne had an adorable baby girl in February. She mentioned to me several weeks ago that she had made my favorite lasagna recipe before the baby was born and froze it. I decided that “make-ahead meals” would be a great blog series and way to prep for the baby. Unfortunately, the realities of running a start-up and the fatigue that accompanies the final weeks of pregnancy rendered this plan a bit ambitious.

But it was a rainy Sunday today and I rested all day so I decided that I would make a spinach lasagna. We ate some tonight for dinner and froze the leftover so that we now have a couple of meals waiting for us in our freezer post arrival of “Baby O”.

This lasagna recipe from the new Everyday Food cookbook is very simple but is a touch different because it uses fontina instead of mozzarella. The only change I made was to also add about 1/4 cup of grated parmesan to the ricotta mixture.

I made the sauce following the Basic Tomato Sauce recipe in the cookbook as well. All you need is an onion, some garlic, oregano, and canned whole tomatoes. I added a touch of tomato paste to thicken the sauce a little. I don’t think the homemade sauce added that much to the dish so if you have a favorite jarred sauce, use it to save some time.

In terms of the lasagna noodles, I love no-boil noodles. What a time saver! I have had good success with both Barilla and Ronzoni.

We loved the lasagna and I am sure it will taste even better to us, as two exhausted new parents.

Vegetable Lasagna
Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast

32 ounces ricotta cheese (4 cups)
2 large eggs
2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed
6 cups tomato sauce (store-bought or homemade)
12 no-boil lasagna noodles (1-8 ounce package)
4 cups shredded fontina cheese (1 pound)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Whisk together eggs, ricotta, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Squeeze as much of the liquid out of the spinach as possible and add to ricotta mixture. Stir well to combine.

Spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce in 13″ x 9″ glass baking dish. Arrange 4 noodles on top. Spread one-third of ricotta mixture over the noodles, followed by one-third of the remaining sauce, and one-third of the fontina. Repeat to make two more layers, ending with fontina.

(At this point, the lasagna can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before baking.)

Cover with aluminum foil and bake 30 minutes (40 minutes if previously frozen). Remove foil and continue baking until golden brown on top and sauce is bubbling, about 15 minutes. Let cool slightly before cutting and serving.

Serves 8.

Basic Tomato Sauce
Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cans (28 ounces each) whole tomatoes in juice
1/4 teaspoon oregano
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

In a saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic, stirring frequently, until translucent, 2 to 4 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juices and oregano. Season with salt and pepper.

Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 4 days or frozen for 3 months. Let cool completely before storing in airtight containers.

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Categories : Pasta, Vegetarian entree