All posts filed under: vegetarian

What to do with all those squash blossoms!

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I’ve told you a little about my adventures with growing squash in my garden.  The first and last legitimate zucchini was grown and eaten two weeks ago and there hasn’t been another one since.  Yes, it does bother me a bit that a vegetable that is purportedly so easy to grow that a toddler could grow it has eluded me, but no matter; because this girl learns to make lemonade out of lemons! Even though I have no more mature squash to eat, I happen to have a good amount of squash blossoms on the plants that I’ve been harvesting early in the mornings and finding things to make with them.  The blossoms themselves taste like a mild version of the squash.  I stuffed these blossoms with a ricotta cheese and herb mixture and pan fried them.  They make a delicious and delicate appetizer and they are very simple to make! As I mentioned, the squash blossoms should be harvested first thing in the morning when they open.  The male blossom is on a long, …

Kale and Mint Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing and Spatchcocked Chicken

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Many times I’ve had kale salads that just weren’t up to snuff.  They were very pretty, but the texture and flavor was somehow lacking, and eating it made me feel as if I were doing some sort of penance for a wrongdoing in a former life.  Don’t get me wrong, I love kale! I saute it; I put it in quiche; but sometimes a raw kale salad can be a little challenging–oh, the constant chewing!  Last week I received this recipe via email and had to try it that day! I was initially drawn to it because I already had almost all of the ingredients in the pantry, except for one: pomegranate molasses, and had to substitute regular molasses for it.  It wasn’t quite a substitution, because pomegranate molasses has a unique sour/sweet flavor that I really couldn’t replicate using ingredients I had on-hand.  That’s not to say it wasn’t delicious, because it was, but I was anxious to know what it would taste like with the original ingredient.  So, on a tip from a friend, …

Epic Lentil Salad

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Memorial Day Weekend is over and we are back on the healthy eating train.  We kind of pigged out this weekend.  We ate red meat; deep-fried things; things made with boatloads of butter.  We ate All The Things.  So, I took an extra day off and with the goal of setting things to rights, I made this salad.  I was inspired by a photo I saw posted on the internet of someone’s lunch at Los Angeles restaurant.  I thought to myself: This salad is perfect.  This salad is epic.  It is so epic that it might just be The One Salad.  The salad that would undo the nutritional damage of a holiday weekend in one meal.  Ok, maybe it didn’t do all that, but it certainly made us feel way more virtuous than where we were late Monday night.  My salad contained lentils, chickpeas, asparagus, orange and yellow bell pepper, jicama, carrots and tomatoes, but the beauty of it is that you can use whatever vegetables you want! A few months ago I happened to …

My New Favorite Way to Eat Eggs: Perfect, Creamy Scrambled Eggs

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I never skip breakfast–it’s the most important meal of the day, right?  During the week, we eat a very consistent breakfast of either oatmeal with cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, walnut and blueberries, or as it’s starting to get warmer, a cold cereal medley of grape nuts, whole oats, shredded wheat, blueberries and walnuts.  I don’t think we are deficient at all in whole grains and fiber! But, on the weekends, when I have more time, I like to have an egg breakfast.  It used to be that my favorite way to eat an egg was over medium or poached, but a few months ago the Man of the House learned a scrambled egg technique that elevated the lowly scrambled egg to the top of my list of favorites.  I’d been eating scrambled eggs the same way my entire life, but this technique resulted in an egg that is so creamy and decadent, I can’t go back to the way I used to make them. The secret is cooking them gently over medium low heat while you …

Farro Tabbouleh Salad with a side of Margarita!

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Parsley and mint are growing exceptionally well in the garden right now and the parsley was starting to get overgrown; so, I wanted to make a dish that allowed me to use it before it flowered.  I find that once it gets to that stage, the flavor is very pungent and I like it a little on the milder side.  Tabbouleh is a classic Middle Eastern salad that is traditionally made with bulgur wheat, chopped parsley and mint, but I wanted to try it using farro, which I have dubbed my Favorite Whole Grain of 2013. The cooked texture of farro reminds me of barley–it’s a little chewy and nutty, and it’s great in salads or cooked into soups.  I’ve even seen it made into a risotto, or, “farrotto”, more accurately.  I usually cook it in chicken or vegetable stock, which gives it even more flavor.  This was a very simple, healthy salad and can be made vegan by simply using vegetable stock or water to cook the grains in.  Let me just say that …

Asparagus and Lemon Risotto/Cedar Plank Salmon

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As you can probably tell, I’m more than a little enamored with asparagus right now.  We didn’t have a traditional Easter dinner this year, but I wanted to make this risotto recipe that I hadn’t made in years.  I love using the fresh asparagus because right now it’s in peak season, which means not only does it taste best right now, it’s very economical, as well. It was also great to be able to use one of +Cher Chang‘s Meyer lemons that came fresh from her lemon tree!  Delicious!  I cannot wait for our baby lemon tree to bear fruit!  I was able to use all fresh herbs from the garden and that makes me very happy! It is important that you have all of your ingredients prepped before you start making the risotto.  Unlike a lot of dishes, risotto requires near-constant stirring, so you won’t have time to stop and chop something in the meantime. 4 cups vegetable (or chicken) stock 1 and 1/4 cup arborio rice 1 pound asparagus, chopped into 1″ pieces 6 …

Spring has Sprung! Polenta with Asparagus and Greens

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This week we said an official good-bye to Winter and hello to my favorite season, SPRING!  Now, I understand that half of the country is still feeling the death throes of Old Man Winter, but we in Southern Nevada have had temperatures hovering in the 80s and 90s.  This is crazy weather and it’s not normal to be this hot so soon, but after an unusually chilly winter, I’ll take it.  Of course, heat this early in March does not bode well for us when July rears its head… So, back to Spring!  I was browsing the internet looking for some cooking inspiration and came across a photograph of a beautiful polenta and asparagus dish served at AOC restaurant in Los Angeles.  I’ve never eaten at this restaurant, but the photograph intrigued me so much that I had to recreate it at home.  You see, it combined two ingredients that just scream Spring for me:  asparagus and six-minute eggs.  Now, six-minute eggs have flummoxed me in the past because I’ve never been able to peel …