Spring-Into-Summer Salad with Strawberries, Asparagus & Pickles

What do strawberries and pickles have in common? More than you’d think! In honor of spring shading (sunning?) into summer, I thought I’d try making a seasonal sweet-and-sour salad by tossing together strawberries and pickles. Roasted asparagus and Romaine lettuce provided the backdrop, and a creamy Dijon dressing tied it all together. It’s simple and quick … and a springtime embodiment of a beloved Chinese food principle.

A note on the dressing: the creaminess comes from hard-boiled egg yolks. If you don’t have eggs on hand or don’t want to hard-boil them, you can skip using the yolks. The eggs are a nice touch, though — both for the creaminess they add and the fact that they act as an emulsifier to help convince the oil and vinegar to stick together — so I think it’s worth hard-boiling them. Besides, hard-boiled eggs can hang out in your fridge for a solid week, just waiting for an opportune breakfast or snack moment.

Spring-Into-Summer Salad with Strawberries, Asparagus & Pickles
Serves 2. Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.

Asparagus stalks (anywhere from 1/2 lb. to 1 lb.), their tough ends snapped off
2 eggs, preferably from pastured hens
Romaine lettuce, chopped
Pickles, chopped (I vastly prefer dill to sweet, but either would work)
Strawberries, preferably organic (conventional strawberries are heavily sprayed), sliced
1 to 2 tsp. Dijon mustard, depending on how much you like mustard
1 T. balsamic vinegar
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Lay the asparagus out on the covered sheet and drizzle with a little extra-virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper and toss gently with your hands to season the stalks. Roast for 20 minutes or until stalks are turning golden brown and are shriveling. (Very thin stalks might only take 15 minutes; thick stalks could take up to 30.)

While the asparagus is roasting, slip the eggs into a medium-sized pot and fill with enough water to cover them. Cover the pot and place it on high heat. As soon as the water comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. Immediately pull eggs off the stove and top off the pot with cold water. Pour out all of the water and refill with cold water. Let the eggs sit for at least 5 minutes in the cold water to cool them. Prompt and thorough chilling is crucial to keep the yolk from blackening around the edges! (Still tastes fine, but blackened/grayish egg yolks don’t look particularly appealing.)

As soon as the eggs are cool to the touch, cut them in half so that you can scoop out the yolks. Slip the yolks into a bowl. Chop the whites and toss the whites with the roasted asparagus, the chopped Romaine, the chopped pickles, and the sliced strawberries.

To make the dressing, mash the yolks with a fork and stir in the mustard, vinegar, and oil. Toss well with salad before serving, or serve the dressing on the side in case you think you’ll have leftover salad that you’d like to keep for the next day.

Enjoy!

Roasted Cauliflower & Caramelized Onions with Balsamic Vinegar

Some recipes don’t take long to make; others will require a slot in your schedule. When it comes to the time-hungry recipes, though, there are those that require hands-on attention and those that can pretty much fend for themselves while you do something else nearby: relax with a book, check your email, get caught up on your phone calls. This savory and simple dish of long-cooked veggies (one roasted, the other caramelized) falls into the “not-much-tending” needed category.

Cauliflower is a great candidate for roasting: it’s easy to prep, it’s inexpensive to buy, and it takes on an entirely new nutty flavor when left in a 375F oven for about 30 minutes. I like to toss mine with unrefined peanut oil since peanut oil adds to the overall nuttiness and also handles up to 395F. You’ll get a more even browning effect with an oil that can handle the level of heat you’re subjecting it to. (Extra-virgin olive oil goes up to about 325F.) Other good candidates for roasting veggies at 375F would be coconut oil, melted butter, and/or melted ghee.

Roasted Cauliflower & Caramelized Onions with Balsamic Vinegar
Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a side, especially if you serve a wedge of cheese along with it. Aged, flavorful cheeses like Parmesan and Asiago would be perfect partners for the sweet/nutty flavor of this dish.

1 sweet onion, sliced thinly
1 T. butter, preferably from grass-fed cows
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 T. unrefined peanut oil
Salt & pepper
3-4 campari tomatoes, chopped, OR a handful of grape/cherry tomatoes, halved
Drizzle of balsamic vinegar & extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cook the onion in the butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. (It’s better to use a nonstick skillet for this since the onions will stick to the skillet’s surface as they brown, and it’s easier to scrape a nonstick skillet to bring up these concentrated flavors.)

While the onions are cooking, toss the cauliflower with the oil in a large bowl and season it with salt and pepper. Spread out the florets on two baking sheets that you either don’t mind cleaning thoroughly afterward or have covered with parchment paper. Roast for 30 minutes or until florets are browning.

In a large bowl, toss the caramelized onions and roasted cauliflower with the tomatoes. Season with a drizzle of vinegar and olive oil and toss again. I like to use a 2:1 ratio of vinegar to oil, but you may wish to use a 1:1 ratio. Leftovers will last for 4 days in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Roasted Delicata Squash & Purple Cauliflower

Trees aren’t the only plants that acquire jewel tones in fall — cauliflower does, too. And the thick-skinned winter squashes certainly have their own quirky multi-colored and multi-shaped  lumpy and bumpy appeal. In other words, this is prime time to find unusual produce at the farmer’s market! Especially since these cool-weather crops last longer than do the tomatoes and peaches and eggplants you find during the peak of summer.

This week, I found a gorgeously colorful collection of cauliflower at the market: white, purple, green, and orange. (Or, if you will, pearl, amethyst, emerald, and amber.) I chose the purple one, of course — purple-toned veggies are my favorites. I also picked up a small striped delicata squash to include in my autumn pantry. Squashes come in handy more often than you’d think! Delicatas are particularly nice since their diminutive size means they’re easier to cut and handle than the big pumpkins and butternuts.

There are plenty of ways to prepare both cauliflower and squash, but I went with the easiest and tastiest: roast ‘em. Cauliflower acquires a pleasing nutty flavor when you roast it, anyway, and when you toss the florets with a drizzle of unrefined peanut oil before roasting, cauliflower gets even more nutty. The same peanut flavor works well with the squash. If you don’t have unrefined peanut oil, extra-virgin olive oil is another good choice.

Roasted Delicata Squash & Purple Cauliflower
Serves 2 as a full meal, particularly if you add a wedge of cheese and/or a handful of nuts to the plates.

1 head purple (or any other color) cauliflower, base removed, florets cut into bite-sized pieces
2 delicata squashes, cut in half and seeds removed (if you like, rinse the seeds well, toss them with oil, and roast them, too)
Unrefined peanut oil OR extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt & freshly cracked pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375F. Cover three baking sheets/trays with parchment paper. Lay the cauliflower out on two of the sheets and the squashes on the third sheet. Lightly drizzle the cauliflower with oil, sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper, and use your hands to toss well. The squash is a little easier to prepare: just pour a little oil into the center of each half and sprinkle on some salt and pepper.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until cauliflower is just starting to turn golden brown. Remove cauliflower and bake squash another 5 to 10 minutes or until you can easily pierce the flesh with a fork.

Serve immediately. If you add a wedge of cheese and some fresh-cut fruit, this dish becomes a ridiculously delicious and simple fall meal. Leftover roasted veggies can be refrigerated for 4 days.

Enjoy!

Roasted Greens: Beans, Onions & Tomatoes

For sheer ease of elegance, you can’t beat roasted veggies. Grilling is another great way to concentrate their flavor, but now that we’re moving into a less-sun-and-more-chill time of year, roasting veggies in the oven (or anything else, for that matter) is more appealing than standing outside in the rain tending to a grill. Unless maybe you have a covered and heated outdoor grilling structure, in which case I am beyond envious. And if you live someplace where it’s warm year-round and grilling is always a pleasure, double that envy! At least, until I have my tiki hut in paradise…[sigh]…one of these days…

For this batch of oven-roasted veggies, I went with a green theme: beans, onions, and tomatoes. Leaving the seeds and skin in the tomatoes means they’ll deepen even more in flavor — that savory gotta-have-it umami flavor is concentrated in the thick juice encasing the seeds — and cutting the tomatoes into thin slices will give them a chance to become deliciously and lightly singed around the edges. Just be sure to use parchment paper to protect your baking sheets from any stubborn tomato seeds or skin that might get baked on and extra clingy.

Roasted Greens: Beans, Onions & Tomatoes

Preheat oven to 375F. While oven is heating, rinse and trim green beans and green onions. Cover three baking sheets with parchment paper and lay the onions on one and the beans on another. Cut green tomatoes (or red or yellow or whatever color you like) into 1/8″ thick slices and spread them out on the remaining baking sheet.

Drizzle a little extra-virgin olive oil on your veggies and sprinkle them with sea salt and some freshly ground pepper. Toss each individual sheet of veggies well with your fingertips to combine. It’s better to keep the veggies segregated so that you can pull them out of the oven as each one hits the sweet roasted spot — they’ll need different cooking times.

Put all three sheets in the oven and roast for 25 minutes. At that point, the tomatoes and onions will probably be looking browned and a tad crispy, so pull them out. Keep roasting the beans for another 10 minutes or until they’re also browned and a tad crispy. Note that while a bit of singeing is nice, you do not want outright burnt-and-blackened veggies. If in doubt, taste one and then decide if you want to keep roasting it or not.

Toss all veggies together and serve. The tomatoes will give off plenty of juice and flavor that will act as a dressing for the dish. You could also toss your veggies with whole-grain pasta if you like, or try serving them with free-range chicken, a light wild fish like trout or perch, or U.S.-caught wild shrimp.

Enjoy!

Roasted Potato & Eggplant with Bacon

Yesterday, I raided my garden and pantry for what turned out to be one of the tastiest and easiest dishes I’ve made in a while. It was all the more stunningly easy because of its main flavor: bacon. Yep. Completely non-messy, completely crispy, completely delicious. If you start with bacon from pastured hogs (which has a naturally lower fat content — and, by the way, that fat is mostly monoUNsaturated fat — and is not injected with spray-out-of-the-pan-inducing brine the way commercial bacon is), all you need is a wire rack, a baking sheet, and an oven to make perfectly crispy and light bacon. Hands-off bacon, that is! Couldn’t be simpler.

Besides, if you’re going to turn on the oven to roast some veggies, you might as well slip a tray of bacon onto the third rack. Then you can go outside and relax on the front porch while your meal makes itself. Just remember to bring a timer outside with you! Good-quality, lean bacon is too good to burn.

Roasted Potato & Eggplant with Bacon
Serves 2 for lunch

4 strips of bacon, preferably from Applegate Farms or another company selling bacon from pastured hogs
8 to 10 smallish finger-shape potatoes (I used purple fingerlings)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt & freshly cracked pepper
2 small eggplants (the fresher, the better; eggplants get bitter as they age), top stem removed
Chives, snipped with kitchen shears or minced

Preheat oven to 375F and make sure you have three racks ready to accommodate your baking sheets. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Line another sheet or tray with aluminum foil and set a wire rack on top of the foil.

Lay the bacon strips out over the wire rack, spacing them equally apart. Cut the potatoes into quarters or wedges and pile them onto a baking sheet. Drizzle them with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, then toss them well and spread them out on the sheet. Cut the eggplant in half and then into rounds (they’ll look like half moons). Drizzle them with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss and spread them out on the other baking sheet.

Bake bacon, potatoes, and eggplant for 15 minutes. Check to see if the eggplant is golden brown and shriveled — it probably will be. Pull out the eggplant and let the potatoes and bacon continue to bake for another 10 minutes. The potatoes will be golden brown and crispy on the edges when done; the bacon will be sizzling and dark brown (but not blackening!). Note: if you use conventional bacon, you’ll have to cover it with foil to prevent the fat from erupting in your oven and making a mess. Stick with pastured bacon, and you’ll have amazingly crisp and delicious bacon with nary a drop spilled.

Let potatoes and bacon cool for a few minutes, then toss potatoes with eggplant and chives. Crumble bacon and scatter it over the veggies. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Pizza with Roasted Vegetables & Feta

The best part about roasted vegetables isn’t the fact that they’re ridiculously easy to make.  It isn’t even the fact that they taste so good that avowed vegetable haters have just as much of a penchant for roasted vegetables as vegetarians do.  No, the best thing about roasted vegetables is that leftover roasted veggies can be used in a thousand different ways, from tossing them with cheese and pasta and serving them as a main-course dish to puréeing them and then using them as a basis for dips and sauces.  Roasted vegetables are the ultimate inexpensive savory staple.  I once had a gentleman friend scoff when he saw me slide a tray of cut-up veggies into the oven and call them dinner…and then an hour later, he abandoned his steak in favor of my veggies-and-Feta meal.  So much for having leftovers that time!

The next time you have a hankering for pizza, try making your own with whatever veggies you have on hand. (If you already have leftover roasted veggies waiting to be eaten, you’ll have a fresh, personalized pizza in 30 minutes.  Guarantee it’ll taste better than Domino’s!)  Most cheeses work on pizza, too — no need to confine yourself to mozzarella.  And while this dish includes a recipe for homemade gluten-free pizza dough, if you don’t have time to make your own, many markets now stock whole-wheat pizza dough that has a minimum of ingredients.  Trader Joe’s in particular has a few nice take-it-and-bake-it doughs.

Homemade Pizza with Roasted Vegetables & Feta (gluten-free)

This makes enough for an 8″ pizza.

For the vegetables:
Any vegetable you like, particularly bell peppers, onions, cherry/grape tomatoes, eggplants, green beans, squash, beets, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, corn kernels, etc.
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

For the crust:
2/3 cup hot tap water
1 heaping teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup potato flour (NOT potato starch!)
1/2 cup corn flour (NOT corn starch!)
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
About 1/2 cup milk (dairy, grain, coconut, whichever you prefer)

For the remainder of the toppings:
Spaghetti/pizza sauce such as marinara
A full-flavored cheese like Feta or goat cheese

To make the roasted vegetables, first preheat oven to 375F.

Prep the veggies by rinsing them and peeling them if necessary. (Peel the beets and onions, but don’t peel the beans or tomatoes…) Cut veggies into uniform sizes: the potato slices should be fairly even, for example, as should the eggplant and onion slices. Smaller veggies like green beans and corn kernels are fine just the way they are. Cover one or two large baking trays with parchment paper and place the veggies on the trays. Drizzle lightly with the oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and use your fingers to flip and push the veggies around a bit to make sure they’re evenly coated.

Baking time will depend greatly on which veggies you use — green beans roast more quickly than beets — but start checking the oven at about 25 minutes and pull out the veggies as needed, leaving the thicker/larger ones in the oven until they’re also turning brown around the edges.

To make the crust, increase oven heat to 425.

Combine the water and yeast and let sit for 5 minutes. You’ll know the yeast is active if you see little bubbles gathering on the water’s surface. While the yeast is bubbling away, rub butter or oil across an 8″ aerated pizza pan (the round kind with holes in it) and set it aside.

Stir flours, salt, and milk into the yeast, kneading with your hands if necessary. Mixture should be fairly dry, but it should be capable of sticking together — if it isn’t, add another tablespoon of milk and work it in. Press the dough into the pan, starting in the center and gently press-rolling it out to the sides. Try to keep the dough level fairly even.

Bake untopped crust at 425F for 15 minutes. Remove crust from oven and top with tomato sauce (optional), cheese of your choice, and the roasted veggies. Return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melting.

Enjoy!

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!

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!)

Roasted Vegetable Salad with Corn, Snap Peas, Red Pepper & Sweet Potatoes

As much as I adore fresh, raw ingredients in my salads, sometimes I think roasting veggies makes them taste even better.  There’s something about that slow-cooked, vaguely-carmelized flavor that makes a roasted salad explode on my tongue in an ever-so-smooth kind of way.  And such salads are ridiculously easy to make — the veggies themselves are so pronounced and satisfying that you don’t even need to add dressing.  Just remove them from the oven, let cool slightly, and toss together.  The only thing you might want to add is a sharp, piquant cheese like sheep’s-milk Feta or a soft goat cheese.  Trust me, your dinner guests will think this is the best salad they’ve ever had!

Roasted Vegetable Salad

You can use any kind of vegetable you’d like — with the glaring exception of delicate greens, vegetables roast well.  Just be sure to put them in separate pans so that you can remove them as they’re done (different vegetables and different shapes have different cooking times).  I often use several pie pans since I can fit five or six 9″ ones into the oven at once.  Something long and slender, for example (green beans, green onions, or asparagus) is going to cook more quickly than something more dense and starchy (potatoes, turnips, or parsnips).  Separating veggies individually or by type will make it much easier for you to cook them to the doneness that you like best.

Get the oven heating to about 350 degrees F, then clean and slice veggies in whatever way you’d like.  Some — like cherry tomatoes or small- to medium-sized Brussels sprouts — you may wish to leave whole.  Kernels of corn roast beautifully (fresh or frozen); so do peas and carrots and onions and almost anything else you can think of.

Place your veggies into their separate pans or trays.  Toss with  melted butter (or coconut oil), sea salt, and freshly-cracked pepper.  Turn each piece to make sure it’s coated in oil and spices.

Bake for about 30 minutes before checking in on your veggies.  At this point, very slender cuts may be done; starchier or thicker-cut veggies may only be halfway there (or less).  It’s best to open the oven, pull out a rack, and stir the veggies with a wooden spoon so that you can get a really good look at them and determine how done they are.  In my experience, corn, snap peas, peppers, and onions take about the same amount of time, but again, that depends on how you cut the latter two.  After that 30-minute mark, keep checking your veggies every 15 minutes to gauge their progress.  Note that after you’ve done this once or twice, you’ll have a much better idea of how long things will take.

When veggies are done to your satisfaction, simply remove from oven, toss together, and serve.  You may want to add some Feta or goat cheese directly to the mix or let each diner add her own.

Enjoy!

Beet Marmalade

I used to have beetaphobia:  the fear that working with beets would cause some sort of purple eruption in my kitchen that I’d never get clean.  (Or that whatever outfit I wore while making them would turn a permanent purple-pink.)  Ever since I lived in Costa Rica and saw people casually roast, chop, and serve beets, however, I realized that my phobia was unfounded.  The only tricky part for me now is deciding how to use them–in a salad? as chips? in a dressing? in cake?  (That sounds weird, I know, but you’d be surprised…)

Once you’ve roasted the beets–see “Roasting Beets” for how to do that–you have many options.  My most-recent favorite is making a marmalade out of them.  To do so, simply whirl the following ingredients in a food processor until they’re well-blended:  a coarsely-chopped roasted beet, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, another drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of sea salt, and about 1/2 tsp. dill.  (This can easily become salad dressing with the addition of more oil; if you want a creamy dressing, add Greek yogurt and blend.)

Beet Marmalade is delicious atop crackers with cheese or a dollop of Greek yogurt…or simply served as a side relish.  It will store in the refrigerator for about a week.

Enjoy!

Parsley Pesto with Roasted Vegetables

Not only does parsley contain impressive amounts of vitamin A, it also has the power to ease garlic-induced halitosis and brighten the flavor of almost any food.  It’s traditionally used as one of the herbs in the French bouquet garni or as a garnish–a sprinkling of its vivid green leaves could make even gruel look appealing. 

In this rendition, however, I’ve combined it with garlic, lemon and macadamia nuts to make pesto.  (As opposed to the Italian tradition of basil, garlic and pinenuts.)  You could use this formula to make a variety of pesto sauces:  leafy green herb + garlic + mild nut/seed + olive oil = pesto.  Chives would pair well with walnuts or sunflower seeds, for example; mint would be intriguing with pecans.  Basil and pumpkin seeds would add a whole new dimension to pasta or chicken.  (See The Classic Marriage of Basil and Pinenuts for a basic pesto recipe.)

For this dish, I enhanced the pasta with roasted red bell peppers, eggplant and Brussels sprouts, but again, you could use any combination:  green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.  In fact, now that summer is on its way, you can let your garden (or the market) make your dinner decisions for you–just pick out the most delectable vegetables, the freshest herbs, and your favorite nuts or seeds.

Enjoy!

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.

To roast beets:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Snip off tops of beets (looks like the top of an onion).  Leave skin on.
3. Place snipped-side-down in a glass loaf pan.  (Three large beets will normally fit in an 8×4 pan.)
4. Add about 1/2 cup of water, or enough to cover the bottom of the pan.
5. Cover the top of the pan in aluminum.
6. Bake for an hour.
7. Test for doneness by poking the beets with the tip of a sharp knife.  If the knife doesn’t go in easily, roast for another 15 minutes and test again.
8. After the beets are roasted and have cooled, peel the skin off with a carrot peeler.  Dice/chop beets as needed for your recipe.

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Wash the pepper(s), but leave the skin and stem on.  Do not cut or pierce the pepper–if you do, the juices will leak out during the roasting process and the pepper won’t be as flavorful.
3. Put the pepper directly on the oven rack.  You may want to put a piece of aluminum foil underneath it just in case there is drippage.
4. After 10 minutes, check on the pepper.  You may want to turn it over if it’s blackening unevenly.
5. After another 10 minutes, the pepper should be done.  If it hasn’t turned mostly black, leave it in the oven for another 5 minutes and check on it again.
6. Immediately after removing the pepper from the oven, put it in a ziploc bag and seal it.
7. Wait until the pepper has cooled enough to touch (about 10 minutes), then peel it and remove the stem and seeds.  The peel should come off very easily.  Do not rinse the pepper!  Doing so will take away some of the smoky/roasted flavor.

You can cut the pepper into strips for use in salads and side dishes, or you can purée it for use in soups and sauces.  Enjoy!

Oiled, Peppered, Salted, and Ready to Go--Yellow Bell Peppers, Zucchini, and Yukon Gold Potatoes