Easy as Pie Test Kitchen

Warm tummy

It's been unusually rainy and could here in southern California, and I'm trying to be thorough about using the food I have before I make another big trip to the store. So, we've been eating a lot of soup. Nothing else can quite give you that same toasty-from-the inside feeling, can it?

One of my favorite restaurants is a Lebanese place. We go there so often we are now good friends with the owner, and he was kind enough to share his secret to their delicious lentil soup. Well, okay, he didn't so much share the recipe as he said it's a matter of putting some onions and lentils in a pot, boiling them, and adding lemon juice. Turns out that's actually about all there is to it. If only the garlic sauce he serves was so easy to reproduce!

Mediterranean Lentil Soup ($5.20)

3 tablespoons oil
1/2 yellow onion ($.50)
1 tablespoon minced garlic ($.10)
1 lb red lentils ($1)
3 cups chicken broth ($3, or free if you make your own)
3 cups water
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup lemon juice ($.50)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley ($.10)

Saute the garlic and onion in oil over medium high heat until onions are getting tender. Add the lentils, chicken broth, water, cumin, lemon juice, and salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until lentils soften and come apart. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle parsley on the top.

Extreme leftovers

I sometimes write about meals I've made with week-old vegetables. It's time for me to come clean. Sometimes they're even older than that. I have a personal rule that I think of as the "Little House on the Prairie Rule." If I can remember (or imagine) Laura Ingalls Wilder or her sister Mary fetching a piece of food from the root cellar in the winter, I figure it's probably okay to let it age awhile before I cook it.

Earlier this week, it was time to break out the butternut squash I bought in early September. (I won't say how early in September. I have to preserve SOME dignity, folks!) I bought it to make soup, but I made a lot of soup in September. In October, I've just been tired, and I've been nuking spaghetti squash and eating Jack-in-the-Box salad instead. (More on nuking spaghetti squash later. It's great.) I was finally feeling better, and up to the challenge of cutting up squash. Maybe aging helps, because it actually wasn't all that hard to cut. Here's the squash before I prepared it. It has a little character from being on my counter for, um, awhile:

I cut it open, and it seemed a little dry but mostly okay.

To roast:

I cut it in 1" cubes, put them on foil on a baking sheet, sprayed with cooking spray, and roasted at 450 for 25 minutes.

Then I whisked up a quick mustard sauce:

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

And drizzled it over the top. I love mustard with anything sweet.

It was not dry or tough or rotten tasting. In fact, it was very good. So eat old squash without (too much) fear, faithful readers!

Yam Shepherd's Pie

I was going to use these yams to make soup, but I've been making a lot of soup lately and I'm a little tired of it. This is easier and sticks to your ribs a little more. :)

Yam Shepherd's Pie--$7.13

2 lbs. yams, cooked and mashed ($2.40) or 1 can ($3.55)

1 lb. ground beef ($2.99)

1 onion ($.74)

1 lb. frozen mixed vegetables ($1)

Brown the ground beef in a large skillet. Once it's browned, remove to a small casserole dish, leaving some of the grease in the pan. Add the onions and vegetables to the skillet and heat, stirring periodically, until the vegetables are heated through and the onions start to brown. Add to the casserole and mix with the meat. Spoon the potatoes evenly over the top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat the pie under a broiler until it is a little crisp and browned on the top.

Rouladen, part 2

A few weeks ago, I posted a recipe for my friend Melany to cook--a version of Rouladen using the ingredients she had on hand. She made a couple changes for the sake of time, and got what you see below. Yummy!

 


 

I'm not obsessed with pumpkin, really...

...okay, maybe just a little. I used to love pumpkin flavored chai lattes and pumpkin beer around this time of year. Just because those days are over, though, does not mean I can't enjoy pumpkin-flavored goodness. This risotto is actually healthier than the kind with cheese, and it has a great fall kick! And, incidentally, it is easy and inexpensive (even with the organic pumpkin!) I made it for about $7.61, not counting pantry items. I'm sure someone who is better at clipping coupons and looking for sales than I am could probably even make this for a lot less than that.

Pumpkin Risotto

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 white or yellow onion, chopped ($.75)
2 cups rice ($1.50)
1 cup wine (I use $2 wine from Trader Joe's, so about $.50)
1 can (15-ounce)  pumpkin purée ($2.36)
5 cups stock/broth ($2.50)
1 teaspoon nutmeg
6 pistachios, (optional)
3 cloves, (optional)

Heat the oil in a wide, large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Saute onions for 2 minutes. Add rice. Cook and stir for about a minute. Add wine. Cook and stir until wine is absorbed. Add 2 cups stock. Cover and allow to simmer until liquid is absorbed. Continue adding stock 1/2 cup at a time, allowing the rice to absorb the liquid before adding more. Pumpkin with final 1/2 cup of stock. Stir and cook until liquid is absorbed. Add nutmeg.

Grind the pistachios and cloves in a food processor. Stir into risotto. Allow to cool a few minutes before serving.

Great pumpkin shortage of '09

When I couldn't find pumpkin in the store two weeks ago, I just thought I was shopping too early. I had trouble finding it last year, too, but this year it's NOWHERE. Well, according to $5 Dinners, there's actually a shortage of canned pumpkin because crops were bad last year. Who knew?

I wound up buying a whole bunch fromAmazon because you can only get a dozen cans at a time. Then my first shipment was stolen from my porch! (We have healthy thieves around here. Last year, they stole our bikes. This year, organic pumpkin...) I guess there is a pumpkin shortage if people are stealing it! I have plans for all that pumpkin, plans to make tasty goodies to share with you, my faithful readers. Right now, I'm trying out some pumpkin risotto. Up next, dairy-free, sugar-free pumpkin truffles. I'm a little more optomistic about the risotto.

Easy dairy-free, egg-free potato salad

This is a really versatile recipe that you can make with leftover green beans and/or potatoes. It's also healthier than regular potato salad because it has green vegetables and no mayonnaise. I cooked up some chicken sausage to go along with it and we had a filling meal.

Potato Salad with Green Beans

1 1/2 lbs. fingerling potatoes, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
3 cups green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch segments
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon coarse salt

One or more of the following (I used the first two, but there are a variety of combinations)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon capers
1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary
4 slices cooked bacon (of course!!), crumbled

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add potatoes, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer potatoes to a colander to drain and cool. Set aside.

While the potatoes are cooking, spread the walnuts on a plate or paper towel.  Toast them in the microwave on high for about one minute.

Steam the green beans in the microwave. Using a steamer bag, microwave on high for about 6 minutes. Allow the bag to sit for a minute before opening it to avoid being burned by the steam.

Whisk together vinegar, oil, mustard and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl; season with pepper.

Toss all ingredients together until everything is well coated with dressing.

Sausage Minestrone with Kale

I have set out to recipe my way through 365 veggies. This hearty soup has not one, not two, but 5 different vegetables. The most interesting one is kale, though, which provides a nice little peppery punch to this recipe without being overpowering. This takes about as long to make as spaghetti, so why not mix things up a little and serve pasta a different way?

 

 

Sausage Minestrone with Kale

1/2 pound sausage, sliced
2 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced 1/4-inch thick
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 medium white onion, chopped
2 cups kale, coarsely chopped
1 can diced tomatoes (28 ounces)
4 cup stock or broth
15 ounces canned great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup rice pasta or quinoa

Heat a soup pot to medium high. Add sausage and cook for about two minutes, stirring from time to time so the sausage cooks on all sides. Add zucchini, carrots and onion; sauté over high heat until onion is transparent, about 7 minutes. Add kale; sauté until wilted, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Add diced tomatoes, broth, and pasta or quinoa. Simmer until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in cooked the beans, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Beets, again! (and that's not a complaint)

I am really learning to love beets, and my husband is too. I guess it's going to take me awhile to blog about 365 different vegetables to eat when I'm still stuck on the first one.

I ran across a recipe in Deborah Madison's vegetarian cookbook (the best cookbook ever, IMHO) for baked beets with horseradish sauce and decided I'd try it. Of course, I followed her recipe more in spirit than actuality (I did not use fresh horseradish, I baked the beets completely different, and I did my usual thing to vegetarian recipes, adding some kind of pork.) But I've gotta giver her props because I never would have thought of horseradish on beets. It was so good, I decided I had to take a photo of it on my good china.

Incidentally, Deborah Madison has joined the blogosphere. She has some delicious whole foods types of recipes posted already. Check out her blog at www.deborahmadison.com/blog

1 of 365 Veggies to Choose from

Did you know that Indians recognize 365 different types of vegetables? I think I'd be lucky to name 100 off the top of my head. Anyone trying to stick to a healthy diet would be happy with a wider variety of vegetables to choose from, but our nutrient-rich vegetable friends are especially helpful to people with food allergies, since there are fewer potential allergens in this food group than some others.

So, I've been exploring vegetables outside of my usual cooking routine to try to give my recipes a little extra variety. A few weeks back, I blogged about buying really great beet greens at the farmers market. I did cook them, and they were great. They had more beet flavor than I was expecting, but still not as much as the root has. I loved the purple color of the dish when it was done! Here's how I cooked them:

Sauteed Beet Greens
greens from 6-8 beets, (about 4 cups)
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
8-10 green olives, sliced

Directions:
Prepare greens by removing the stems, rinsing them thoroughly, and cutting or tearing them into pieces (about 3" X 3" max).

Heat oil in the wok over medium high heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the beet greens and cook for a few more minutes, until they start to wilt. Add green olives and cook one minute more. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.