Greek Vegetables

This is a great recipe when you have bits of Mediterranean vegetables languishing in your fridge. I threw this together for Christmas Eve dinner with some fresh veggies and some garden veggies that I had stashed in the freezer. Consider this a template for getting more vegetables onto your plate. If you don't like eggplant, add more of the other things you do like.

The use of olive oil is generous, as is typical in Greece, though I've cut back from traditional Greek recipes that would call for even more. Olive oil makes vegetables delicious. Vegetables on their own are very low in calories but high in many other things that are good for you. If some olive oil gets you to eat more vegetables, I'm all for it.

Greek Vegetables
(serves 8)

4-6 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 cup chopped onion or leeks
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 bell peppers, whatever color you have, large dice
2 cups peeled eggplant, large dice
2-3 cups zucchini, large dice
1-2 cups frozen artichoke hearts
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 teaspoon oregano or summer savory
about 1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper

Heat up a dutch oven or large deep skillet over medium heat and add 2 Tablespoons olive oil. Add the onion/leek, garlic, and bell peppers, and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Cook for 10 minutes until onions are quite soft but not browned. Add the eggplant and cover. Cook for 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients along with another 2 Tablespoons of olive oil. Bring to a simmer. Then reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook gently for 30 minutes until all the vegetables melt together in olive oil goodness. Check for salt. Before serving, drizzle on remaining 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, if desired.

Recipe adapted from Ikaria by Diane Kochilas, Rodale, 2014.

Photo: By Dana Payne (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

School of Eating Good, Inc. officially a not-for-profit charity

Sorry about the lack of recipes here lately. It will be picking up shortly. The School is giving a class on Greek food tomorrow evening at CU and those recipes will be up this week. I've been traveling quite a bit, so no time for testing and posting. Don't worry - we haven't gone away.

In fact, great news came our way from the Internal Revenue Service - how often does that happen?! School of Eating Good, Inc. was granted tax exempt status under section 501(c)(3). Which means that we do not have to pay income tax and you can make donations to support our mission and your donations are tax-deductible (if you pay US income taxes). This is a big step because it makes our mission as an educational organization more legit. We can start planning some interesting new initiatives, raising money for these, and bringing food education to even more people.

To get you primed for the Greek recipes coming later this week, here's a recipe that jazzes up plain white rice in a Greek way: with the addition of dill and lemon. I am not a fan of dried dill. Like its cousin cilantro, it loses most of its flavor when it is dried. I recommend you buy a big bunch (it's in season right now), chop it, and freeze it. You'll have fresh dill all winter long.

Lemon-Dill Rice
(serves 4-6)

2 Tablespoons olive oil
½ medium onion, chopped
1 cup white rice
zest of ½ a lemon
juice of ½ a lemon, about 1 ½ Tablespoons
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 ¾ cups water

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent, a couple of minutes. Add the rice and sauté for another minute. Add the remaining ingredients, stir, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low to maintain a simmer and cover. Cook for 18-20 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Recipe adapted from Lemon-Dill Rice, #250959 at food.com

Illustration: "Illustration Anethum graveolens0". Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Roasted Eggplant Salad

Roasted eggplant is an easy base for salads. Its smoky flavor, even when roasted in the oven, adds something special. Baba Ghanoush is probably the best-known of these salads but eggplant melds nicely with many Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavors. In the summer, it is an inexpensive vegetable too. When selecting eggplants, look for heavy, firm fruit with a shiny deep purple-black skin. Though I prefer the smaller Asian eggplants for stir-fries, the large Italian eggplants are better for roasting.

Some beautiful eggplant at the market (photo by USDA)

This is lemony-garlicy salad. If you don't love garlic, you can cut down on the garlic.

To Roast Eggplants:

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. This makes clean-up easier.

Poke eggplants with a fork, 2-3 pokes front, back and sides.

Place eggplants on baking sheet and put under the broiler. The eggplants should be about 4-6" from the heating element. Too close and it will burn before the eggplant is fully cooked. Too far and you'll be waiting all day for it to cook.

Broil eggplant 10-15 minutes per side, for a total of 40-60 minutes. The skin with be well-charred and the flesh will be very soft when it's done.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Scoop out the flesh, scraping it off the charred skin.

If you have a grill, you can place the whole eggplants on the grill and roast them that way. They take about the same amount of time.

Roasted Eggplant Salad

(serves 8)

2 large eggplants, roasted and skin removed
3 cloves of garlic
½ teaspoon coarse salt
juice of ½ a lemon
3 Tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon black pepper
6 large sprigs parsley, minced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 plum tomatoes, diced
salt and pepper for final seasoning

Chop up the eggplant and place in a sieve. Mash it with a fork and let it sit in the sieve to drain while you mix up the dressing. Roughly chop the garlic, sprinkle on the ½ teaspoon salt and mash with the side of the knife to form a paste. Place in a bowl. Add lemon juice, olive oil, and black pepper. Whisk together with the fork. Smoosh the eggplant one more time to squeeze out the moisture. Spoon in the bowl with the dressing and mix to combine. Taste for salt and add more if it seems bland. Sprinkle on the parsley, scallions, and tomatoes. Season tomatoes with salt and pepper and serve as a salad or as a dip with crusty bread.

For a pretty presentation, spread the eggplant mixture on a platter, then sprinkle on the remaining ingredients, like in the photo.

Some optional additions: a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts or a generous handful of pomegranate seeds. Both add a nice crunch.

Tabbouleh: A Middle-Eastern Bulgur Salad

Tabbouleh, without the vegetables. Still plenty tasty.

Tabbouleh is one of my go-to summer salads. It's hearty because it's made with a whole grain: bulgur. Bulgur is wheat berries (whole wheat kernels) that have been steamed, dried, and ground. Bulgur is not cracked wheat, though the terms are often used interchangeably. Cracked wheat is raw ground wheat and it needs to be cooked before using (and cooked quite a long time).

Tabbouleh is bright and light because of lots of parsley and lemon. It usually contains fresh tomatoes and other crunchy vegetables. I find that the veggies get mushy and the dressing gets soupy if you keep the salad for very long, but the bulgur just gets better the longer it sits and absorbs more of the lemon and oil. So, if you are going to eat the salad within 24 hours, mix in the vegetables. Otherwise, add some salad veggies when you eat it. Besides tomatoes and cucumber, add chopped red onions, chopped scallions, diced bell peppers, olives, even avocado, though that one is definitely not traditional!

Tabbouleh is also delicious served with simply grilled fish or chicken, with or without the added veggies.

Tabbouleh
(serves 6-8, costs $3 without any added veggies)

1 cup bulgur, coarse to medium grind
1 cup chopped parsley, 15 to 20 large sprigs
2 Tablespoons chopped mint, the leaves from about 6 large sprigs (optional)
4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
¾ teaspoon salt + more when you add the veggies
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Soak bulgur in 6 cups cold water for 1 ½ hours. The bulgur will still be slightly chewy but not hard. Pour into a strainer to drain off water and set over a bowl to catch any drips. Let it drain for about 15 minutes so the bulgur dries out a little. Pour off any collected water in the bowl and put the bulgur in the bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir. Can be served immediately but it's better if it sits overnight in the dressing.

Feel free to improvise with the veggies. Traditionally, it's diced tomatoes and chopped onion. I like it with 2 medium tomatoes and a ¼ of a chopped medium red onion. Add another generous sprinkle of salt when you add the vegetables.