Mushroom & Tomato Tapenade

Traditional tapenade includes the holy trinity of salty garnishing ingredients: olives, anchovies, and capers. It’s an intense blend of flavors and a perfect example of the “a little goes a long way” school of thought. For this batch, though, I’ve decided to go alter the main ingredients and go with the holy trinity of umami, or savoriness: olives, mushrooms, and tomatoes. While both the olives and canned tomatoes are salty, the mushrooms gentle their saltiness and provide a smooth, rich base.

Throw in the herbs and aromatics, and you’ve got yourself a versatile purée that you can use alone as a dip, thinned with more tomatoes as a sauce, or as a flavoring to add to other dips and sauces. If you blended it with a dash of extra-virgin olive oil, you’d have a great dressing for a bean- or lettuce-based salad. I opted to enjoy my tapenade as a spread for an impromptu giant cracker — namely, a corn tortilla I pulled out of the freezer and pan-toasted for a few minutes over medium heat.

Mushroom & Tomato Tapenade

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 small onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
At least 20 pitted black olives (or green, if you prefer)
15 oz. canned diced tomatoes
1 T. Italian herbs

In a large skillet, sautée mushrooms and onions with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat for 8 minutes. Stir in garlic and olives and continue to cook for another 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and herbs and let simmer for at least 10 minutes, reducing heat to medium-low if the tapenade is bubbling too furiously. You want to reduce the mixture slightly, but not to the point of cooking away the tomatoes.

Purée the finished tapenade in a food processor until mostly smooth. (You can leave it chunkier if you’d prefer.) Not only is the tapenade ideal for dips, sauces, dressings, etc. — see intro paragraphs for more ideas — you can freeze it in ice cube trays for easy access in case you’d like to have it on hand as instant soup seasoning.

Enjoy!

Lentil & Mushroom Soup with Roasted Potatoes

What do Brussels sprouts, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms have in common? They were all in my pantry begging to be made into soup. The lentils looked lonely, too, so I threw them into the mix. Hearty soups are best made in the winter, after all, even if the term “winter” doesn’t seem to currently imply snow. (Glad I’m no longer a little kid in snow pants raring to go with my toboggan!)

It’s worth keeping a few soup essentials on hand in the chilly months: good-quality broth (my favorite is Pacific’s organic free-range chicken), onions, garlic, dried spices, maybe a few root vegetables like carrots and turnips. All of those make great backdrops for heartier elements like beans, lentils, whole grains, and meats. Stirring in some cream and cheese at the last minute is another simple way to transform a thin broth into a thick, rich soup.

For this batch, I opted to roast a few of the veggies and sautée the rest to create a variety of textures in the finished soup. You can go the roasting route, too, or you can stir in the potatoes and Brussels sprouts with the lentils and let them simmer to tenderness.

Lentil & Mushroom Soup with Roasted Potatoes
Makes 6 ample servings.

1 baking potato (Idaho), cut into 1″ cubes
About 10 Brussels sprouts, halved
2 small onions OR 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped or slivered
4 cups/32 oz. chicken OR vegetable broth (if you go with chicken, opt for free-range)
1 T. dried Italian seasoning OR a total of 1 T. of rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, and sage
1/2 cup brown lentils
1 carrot, diced

Preheat oven to 350F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Put the cubed potato in a large bowl, drizzle in a little extra-virgin olive oil, shake on a little salt and pepper, and toss well with your hands. Spread out onto one of the baking sheets. Put the Brussels sprouts in the bowl and repeat the same process (oil, salt, pepper, toss). Place cut side down on the other sheet.*

Roast for 20 minutes, then pull out the sprouts. Let the potatoes bake for another 15 minutes or until they’re golden brown and very dry to the touch. (That crispy dryness means they won’t get soggy in the soup!)*

While your veggies are roasting, make the soup. Begin by sautéeing onions in a dab of ghee/butter or a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat for 5 minutes or until soft and translucent. Add mushrooms, reduce heat to medium-low, and continue to sautée for another 5 minutes or until mushrooms are shrunken and soft. Stir in garlic and continue to cook for another 3 minutes.

Pour in broth. Stir in spices, lentils, and carrot. Simmer over medium-low heat (reduce to low if the soup is bubble-boiling rather than ripple-simmering) for 20 minutes or until lentils have reached desired tenderness. By now, the potatoes should be done, so go ahead and stir in the roasted Brussels sprouts and potatoes. Season with a pinch or two of salt — taste as you go! — and serve. Leftover soup can be refrigerated for up to a week.

Note that soup will thicken upon standing. I like not-so-brothy soup, but if you’d rather have more broth, pour a little fresh broth into your next-day soup and mix well before reheating. Serve with grated or shaved Parmesan if you like.

Enjoy!

* If you’d rather skip the roasting, proceed directly to making the soup. When you add the lentils, set your timer for 10 minutes. Add the halved sprouts and the cubed potatoes at that point and simmer everything for a final 10 minutes.

A Dinner of Nibbles

Why taste one thing when you can taste three?  Or four or five?  Not only are nibbles — or “small plates,” if you want to get fancy about it — usually something quick and simple, if you have enough nibbles on a plate, you have a meal!  So the next time you’re in the mood for a speedy dinner, spend a few minutes rummaging around in your refrigerator and your pantry to see which nibbles might work together.  Don’t forget about the fruit basket, either, since mixing savory and sweet is always a culinary delight.

Most cultures have a well-established tradition of small-plate dining — tapas in Spain, mezze in the Middle East — and you’ll doubtless enjoy keeping that tradition going.  Plus, the bonus side to making meals out of nibbles: you’ll eat what’s on hand rather than letting it sit too long and having to throw it out later.  The average American household throws away $2,000 of food every year.  So if you want to save $$ AND enjoy a great meal, nibble!

For this dinner of nibbles, I included olives, a chilled beet salad, simple greens from my garden tossed with walnut oil,  baba gahanouj (Mediterranean roasted eggplant dip) dusted with sweet paprika, the last of my leftover mushroom-and-leek sautée I had made two nights ago, and Ossau Iraty sheep’s-milk cheese, one of my favorite cheeses in the entire world.  Prep time was about 2 minutes.  (Hot tip for cheese lovers in Detroit: check out R Hirt Jr. Company — on Market Street right by Eastern Market in Detroit — for great prices on a great selection of cheeses.  The list of cheeses they handed me to browse through was probably four pages long.  Single-spaced, small font four pages long.  Organized by country and then alphabetically by cheesemaker.  Highly affordable cheese heaven!)

Bet you have a delightful dinner of nibbles waiting for you in your fridge/pantry/fruit basket, too!

Portabella Mushroom & Leek Sautée

Portabella mushrooms, wiped clean with a damp paper towel and then cut into 1/2″-thick strips
Leeks, cleaned and chopped*
Butter OR ghee (extra-virgin olive oil works, too, but it won’t provide as rich of a flavor as butter/ghee will; ghee is clarified butter)
Balsamic vinegar OR pomegranate molasses OR red wine (you’re going for something tart, fruity, and richly flavored here)
Sea salt to taste

In a large pan over medium heat, sautée mushrooms and leeks with the butter for a good 20 minutes or until leeks are very soft. Reduce heat to medium-low if the sizzling seems a bit too aggressive — you don’t want to burn the leeks, but rather caramelize them a bit with long, slow heat. Stir in a dash of balsamic and cook for another 5 minutes. Salt to taste and serve immediately.

Tip: if you have something else to sautée — a vegetable, maybe a chicken breast or some pork medallions — by all means cook your next dish in the same pan so that you’ll soak up all those wonderful mushroomy/leeky flavors. If you don’t have anything else to sautée, you can add a splash of broth or wine or even water to the pan, scrape the bottom to deglaze it and bring up the cooked-on juices, simmer it on low for a minute or two to thicken your sauce, and then pour it on your Mushroom & Leek Sautée (or anything else you’d like to pour it on).

Enjoy!

* To clean a leek, first remove the outermost layer if it looks wilted or torn.  Cut off the bottom few inches from the multiple layers, starting with the exterior layer and trimming the ones underneath, revealing more and trimming more as you go.  (You’ll get jagged ends since the innermost layers are typically more tender and require less trimming than the exterior layers.)  Hold the trimmed leek up, fingers gripping the white head, and carefully poke the tip of a knife through the head an inch or two below your fingers. Pull the knife down through the leek, cutting it in half. Give the leek a quarter-turn and cut it again so that it’s in quarters but is still connected at the very top. Fan out the layers and rinse them well under cold running water, rubbing them with your fingers to get out any remaining grit. (The grit has a sneaky tendency to hide amidst the many layers.) Pat dry with a towel, then remove the still-whole very top of the leek and discard.

Garlicky Homemade Cream Cheese Dip with Balsamic Mushrooms

Greek yogurt is the latest craze in the dairy aisle, and rightfully so: it’s thicker, creamier, and tastier (in my opinion, at least) than standard yogurt.  In large part, that’s because it’s double-strained instead of single-strained, which means more of the whey drips out, leaving a more concentrated, full-bodied yogurt behind.  Another difference is that authentic Greek yogurt is made from sheep’s milk.  (Although sadly not the yogurt varieties that are exported to the U.S — those are all made from cow’s milk.)

My favorite brand and variety of Greek yogurt is Fage’s whole-milk yogurt.  No contest!  Sometimes I even strain it yet again to make what’s essentially homemade cream cheese.  It’s much fresher and tastier than the plasticized molded blocks you find on grocery store shelves.  Just fit a colander over a large bowl, scoop the yogurt into the colander, stick the whole assembly in the fridge, and let it drain overnight.  In the morning, you’ll have yogurt-turned-cream-cheese so thick that you can stand a spoon in it.

That ultra-creamy, ultra-luxurious texture allows you to mix just about anything into it to make whatever dip or sauce you can dream up.  In fall, for example, try mixing your homemade cream cheese half-and-half with cooked, mashed pumpkin (or canned pumpkin), a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a splash of maple syrup.  It’s just like the inside of a pumpkin pie!  It’s the perfect dip for fall fruits like apples and pears.  For this dinner dip, though, I went with savory seasonings like garlic and capers.  You know what it reminded me of?  A seriously tasty and fresh version of Doritos Cool Ranch Tortilla Chips.  (That used to be my favorite junk food when I was a kid.)  Just goes to show that you can re-fashion junk food into real food any time you like!

Garlicky Homemade Cream Cheese Dip

1 cup homemade cream cheese, a.k.a. strained whole-milk Greek yogurt (see above second paragraph for instructions on how to do this)
1 or 2 T. capers, depending on how much you like their briny flavor
About 1 tsp. caper brine
1 tsp. fish sauce OR 1 tsp. anchovy paste OR 1 tsp. of a Worcestershire-style sauce without high-fructose corn syrup (sadly, the Worcestershire sauce sold in the U.S. does contain HFCS; the version sold in England does not)
1 small clove garlic, pressed or minced

Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stir together. You can serve the dip immediately with whole-grain crackers or chips (pictured are Eden’s organic white corn chips), with freshly cut veggies, with toasted whole-grain pitas or thin slices of bread, or even with a savory main dish like chicken or lamb and/or noodles. This savory, garlicky dip would be a great stand-in for sour cream or alfredo sauce!

I enjoyed my leftover dip with button mushrooms that I had sautéed with extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, a splash of balsamic vinegar, and a pinch of thyme and rosemary.

Dip will keep in the refrigerator for up to four days.

Enjoy!

Marinated Mushroom Marinara

Marinated mushrooms: those tasty fungi at the end of grocery-store olive bars that pretty much everyone ignores.  I must have passed by the garlicky little suckers a dozen times before I even registered their presence.  Once I tried them, though, I knew they’d be delicious in a wide variety of dishes … not to mention served alongside olives.  (To me, the Holy Olive Bar Trinity consists of green Niçoise olives, marinated mushrooms, and marinated lupini beans.)  The mushrooms’ slightly tangy taste and soaked-in garlic flavor make them ideal ingredients for chilled salads, stir-fried chicken dishes, tomato-based sauces and marinades, and darned near anything that would benefit from garlic (which is nearly everything) and a rich earthiness (which is more than you’d think).

Adding marinated mushrooms — or marinated artichoke hearts, come to think of it — to pasta and marinara is an obvious culinary coup.  I suppose you could let the garlic in the mushrooms speak for itself, but I say, any excuse to add more garlic!  Toss in a few more aromatics and veggies, an herb or two, and you have a marvelous ten-minute meal.

Marinated Mushroom Marinara
This recipe serves two, but it can easily be doubled, or you may wish to serve it as a side dish.

2 servings of whole-grain pasta of your choice (my current favorite is Tinkyáda’s brown rice pasta)
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped, or a handful of halved cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup marinated mushrooms, chopped
A few leaves of fresh basil, sliced into thin strips*
A few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only*

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain, toss with a drizzle of oil, and set aside.

Drizzle about 1 T. of oil into a medium skillet and place over medium heat. Sautée onions for about 5 minutes or until translucent and turning golden brown. Add garlic and cook for another minute, stirring often. Stir in tomatoes and mushrooms, reduce heat to low, and let simmer, uncovered, for about 10-15 minutes. Stir in herbs, toss with pasta, and serve immediately. Sauce is best served warm, but leftover sauce will gain flavor as it overnights in the fridge, and it only takes a minute or two to reheat the sauce.

Enjoy!

* If you’re using dried herbs, add them with the tomatoes and mushrooms.

Baked Wild Rice with Roasted Eggplant & Toasted Walnuts

Toasting and roasting.  Both techniques are simple and add incredible depth to whatever ingredient you’re emphasizing or dish you’re serving.  Recently, it occurred to me that toasted nuts have such a deep flavor that they could probably stand in for cheese.  I’m a huge cheese fan, but for those who can’t have cheese, toasted nuts are a much better option, and besides, even if you share my cheese exultation, sometimes it’s just nice to try something different.  I’m happy to say that my idea was as good in practice as it was in theory: toasted nuts do indeed take on a decidedly rich, creamy, almost cheesy flavor when baked into casseroles!

This dish was inspired by the classic Greek moussakas, those lovely eggplant-and-tomato based dishes that are normally topped with an eggy smooth sauce and a briny salty cheese like Kasseri.  (Think the Greek version of Italian lasagna, minus the noodles.)  I’ve taken the liberty of including mushrooms and wild rice in my version…and toasted nuts, of course.

Baked Wild Rice with Roasted Eggplant & Toasted Walnuts

3/4 cup raw wild or brown rice
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2″-thick rounds
1 small eggplant, cut into 1/2″-thick rounds
1 small onion, cut into 1/2″-thick rounds
40 cherry tomatoes, halved
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup milk (dairy, grain, nut, coconut, whatever you like)
2 T. whole-grain flour (brown rice works beautifully and is gluten-free)
2 T. butter or ghee (the latter is lactose-free)

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease an 8×8 glass baking pan and set aside.

Prepare rice according to package instructions. (Wild rice takes 40-50 minutes to cook; brown rice takes more like 35-40.) Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper OR use ones you don’t mind staining. Place zucchini, eggplant, onion, and tomatoes on the baking sheets.  Drizzle them with oil and sprinkle them with salt — using your fingers to distribute the oil and salt evenly — and then roast the veggies for 20-30 minutes or until they’re crinkly and golden brown.

Sautée mushrooms and a drizzle of oil over medium heat for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms start to shrink and turn golden. Add garlic and cook for another minute or until garlic is fragrant. Tumble the mixture into a large mixing bowl. When vegetables are ready, add them to the bowl, too. Reduce oven temp to 350F.

Place walnuts in a dry nonstick skillet and toast them on the stovetop over medium-low heat for about 4 minutes or until the walnuts are browned and fragrant. They burn quickly, so shake the pan often and keep a close eye on them to make sure they aren’t turning brown. In my experience, they can go from perfectly fragrant to blackened and burnt in about 10 seconds. (Eek!) Add the nuts to the veggie mixture and stir in the cooked rice.

To make the sauce, melt the butter over low heat in a medium saucepan. Add the flour, whisking constantly, and let the mixture cook for about a minute. Slowly pour in milk, still whisking, and cook for another minute or so. The roux will bubble and thicken as it cooks.

Pour the sauce into the veggie-and-rice mixture and stir well, then scoop the entire thing into the glass pan. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes. Serve immediately…and note that you can also store the dish in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Talk about luscious leftovers!

Enjoy!

Sautéed Portabello Salad

Grill them, stuff them, use them as hamburger toppings … portabello mushrooms are a favorite summer treat.  But my favorite way to enjoy them is to slice them very thin and sautée them with extra-virgin olive oil and a pinch of sea salt so that you wind up with portabello crisps.  It’s the perfect base for a quick salad featuring whatever is plentiful in your garden or at the market.  You can also snip a few fresh herbs to go on the top of your crisp-yet-cool masterpiece.

Portabello Summer Salad

This serves two for a side salad or one for a main, but you can vary the amount of veggies depending on what’s available and plentiful.  Just be sure to slice the portabellos very thinly before cooking them.

Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
2-3 portabello mushrooms, thinly sliced
2-3 medium tomatoes (Romas work well), chopped
Handfuls of fresh lettuce, roughly chopped if they’re big leaves
Fresh herbs (such as chives, basil, or dill), minced
Balsamic vinegar

In a medium- to large-sized saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat for 1 minute. Slide in the portabello slices, making sure each one is fully touching the pan, and let cook for about 3 minutes. Flip over slices, season with a pinch of sea salt, and continue to cook for another 2 minutes. The mushrooms should be shriveled around the edges and turning a vague golden brown through their mushroom/earthy color.

Lay the tomatoes and lettuce out in sections on a plate, leaving a section for the mushrooms. Add the cooked mushrooms to the plate and scatter the herbs over everything. Drizzle the remaining oil from the pan onto the plate — add some fresh oil to the tomatoes and lettuce if you like — then drizzle on a few threads of balsamic vinegar only onto the tomatoes and lettuce. (The mushrooms will be so richly flavored from having been sautéed in thin slices that they don’t need any additional seasoning.)  Serve promptly.

Enjoy!

Savory Pineapple Stir-Fry

As already mentioned in my previous post, I love pineapples.  (When I was attending a Spanish-language school in Costa Rica, our chosen names were a combination of our favorite fruit + our favorite color.  That made me Piña Violeta, or “purple pineapple.”)  Most of the time, I cut up a fresh pineapple and eat it; sometimes I throw it into the blender with some coconut milk and bananas.  This pineapple around, though, I decided to include it in a stir-fry loosely based on Vietnamese and Thai flavors.  While I enjoyed the resulting savory mélange with pasta, it would also pair beautifully with brown rice, chicken, or pork. The tamarind is optional, but lends the dish a tangy/sweet flavor reminiscent of lemongrass. (I find that it’s easier to get my hands on fresh and plump tamarinds than fresh and zingy lemongrass.)

Savory Pineapple Stir-Fry
Serves 2 as is, or 4 with the addition of pasta, rice, chicken, or pork.

1 T. unrefined coconut or peanut oil
2 carrots, slivered
1/2 a yellow squash OR 1/2 a zucchini, slivered
4 oz. button mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves garlic, cut into thin rounds
Flesh of 1 fresh tamarind OR 1 T. tamarind paste (optional)
1 head of broccoli, florets only, simmered for 5 minutes and drained
1/4 of a fresh pineapple, chopped
1-2 T. tamari or soy sauce (if you’d like to make this dish gluten-free, use wheat-free tamari)
1 tsp. fish sauce
4-6 leaves mint, cut into ribbons
Juice of 1 lime

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add carrot and yellow squash and cook for about 3 minutes to soften them, then add mushrooms and tamarind and stir. Let cook for another 5 minutes or until the mushrooms have shrunk to about half their original size. Stir in cooked broccoli, chopped pineapple, tamari sauce, and fish sauce. (If you like your dishes salty, use the 2 full T. of tamari.) Let cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently, to allow flavors to marry.

Remove from heat and stir in mint leaves and lime juice. Let sit for at least 5 minutes before serving. If desired, toss with pasta, rice, cooked chicken, or cooked pork. (This is a great way to use up leftover cooked meat!) An additional sprig of mint and a wedge of lime would be nice garnishes.

Enjoy!

Scottish Winter Stew

Americans eat oats for breakfast and in the occasional cookie.  Scots eat them for breakfast, too…and for lunch and dinner and everything in between.  They eat them in scones and stews and porridges and even with fish.  And why not?  Not only are oats one of the most nutrient-rich grains on the planet, they have a wonderful habit of transforming watery soups into thick, satisfying stews.  (Steel-cut oats or whole oats, that is — the rolled variety has usually had its outer bran removed, and much of that thickening power lies in the bran.)

Steel-cut oats are pretty easy to find these days; you might even come across gluten-free oats, which have been grown and processed in their own fields and factories rather than being grown and processed alongside wheat.  Given the plenitude and reasonable cost of oats — not to mention their flavor and versatility — we could take some valuable lessons from the Scots!  Besides, cold winter days seem a lot less colder if you have a pot of hot stew simmering on the stove. Roasting the vegetables is optional, but again, why not drive off the chill of winter with some warm, aromatic roasting? Slow-roasted vegetables will also add a deeper, more umami-rich flavor to your stew.

Scottish Winter Stew

4 stalks celery, cut into 2″-long pieces (do not cut down the centers of the stalks as this would make the pieces too small for roasting)*
1 large onion, cut into thick rounds*
4 carrots, cut into 2″-long pieces (only split very wide chunks in half; leave the tips intact)*
1 knob celeriac/celery root, cut into 1″ cubes (optional)*

In a glass pan (or several pans), toss veggies with peanut oil, sea salt, and freshly-cracked pepper. Roast at 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until veggies are a golden brown, stirring at 15-minute intervals.

While veggies are roasting, get the soup going:

3 cloves garlic, sliced into thin rounds
8 oz. shiitake or button mushrooms, sliced
1 large tomato, chopped
4 c. chicken broth, preferably from free-range chickens
2 tsp. (combined) of any or all of these spices: thyme, winter savory, sage
Roasted vegetables (see above)
1/2 cup uncooked steel-cut oats

In a large soup pot, sautée garlic in butter or ghee on medium-low heat for about 2 minutes or until garlic is softened and fragrant. Add mushrooms and tomato and continue to cook, stirring often, for about 5 more minutes. Add chicken broth, spices, and roasted vegetables.** Increase heat to high and wait for the soup to barely come to a boil; when it does, notch the heat back down to medium-low and let it simmer for at least 10 minutes.  (This can be your holding point if you’re making the stew ahead of time — just let it quietly simmer for up to an hour.  You may need to add another cup of broth or water to the stew before adding the oats.)

When you’re about 20 minutes away from wanting to serve the stew, add the oats and let it simmer for another 15-20 minutes or until the oats are cooked through to your satisfaction. (I prefer mine to remain a bit toothsome.) Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

* If you’re sautéeing these veggies rather than roasting them, cut them into smaller pieces so that they will cook through when you pan-fry them.

** Also note that you can make use of any roasted veggie for this recipe: leeks, mushrooms, red peppers, corn, green beans…whatever you like and/or happen to have on hand. (A great way to use up leftover roasted veggies!)

Happy slicing!

Roasted Artichoke, Leek & Mushroom

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

1 16-oz can of artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
1 8-oz package of mushrooms (button, cremini, or baby portabello), brushed, stems trimmed, and quartered
2 leeks, cleaned and cut into rounds (white part only!)

Place all three ingredients in a mixing bowl and add:

2 T. olive oil
1-2 T. red wine vinegar (depending on how much you like vinegar)
Freshly-ground pepper
Freshly-ground sea salt

Mix dressing thoroughly with vegetables and then place in a glass baking dish large enough to hold them comfortably. Roast for twenty minutes, stirring at least once to make sure the vegetables are cooking evenly.

Before serving, top with dried or fresh basil and Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Note: to clean a leek, cut off the parts you aren’t using. Remove the outer layer and discard. Run a knife through the center of the leek (tip-down), beginning almost at the top and going all the way through to the bottom. Flip the leek a quarter-turn and repeat. You should be able to fan out the layers. Rinse the leek thoroughly under cold running water–since leeks grow underground, there will be a lot of dirt crammed into the layers.

1 zucchini, sliced into rounds
at least 1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 red bell pepper, sliced into long strips
1 medium onion, chopped
2 T. sesame oil (not the roasted variety–that has a VERY strong flavor and should only be added to dishes right before serving)
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. honey
2 T. soy sauce
1-2 T. rice wine vinegar, depending on your taste
1/2 tsp. ginger (or 1/2″ of minced, fresh gingerroot)
a pinch of crushed red pepper or cayenne

roasted sesame oil (optional)

Sauté first five ingredients for about five minutes (until onion is translucent), then add garlic. Add remaining ingredients and taste–depending on how sweet or sour you want it, you may want to increase the amount of honey or vinegar. Add a few drops of the roasted sesame oil right before serving if you want to enhance the flavor of the sesame (see note above).

Enjoy!