New Year's Resolution: Celebrate Veggies!

Happy New Year!

In 2015, School of Eating Good is going to celebrate veggies. There will be more veggie based recipes posted here. There are plenty of veggie recipes already but even more are coming. They won't be vegetarian, though there will be plenty of those too. A little bit of meat, if you don't object to meat for ethical reasons, is a great way to get most folks more excited about vegetables. As eaters, we need to tilt things a bit more to the veggies, beans, and whole grains and a bit less to animal products (and here's why).

This recipe for roasted broccoli uses cheese, olive oil, and some nuts to make things more interesting. Not that plain roasted broccoli is bad. It's wonderful. But, we all like variety, don't we?

Roasted Broccoli with Cheese & Nuts
(serves 5-6)

1 ½ pounds broccoli
2 Tablespoons olive oil
a few sprinkles of kosher salt
a few light sprinkles of black pepper
2 Tablespoons nuts (see Note)
¼ cup shredded Parmesan or Manchego cheese

Preheat the oven to 425°F. If you are using broccoli florets, pour them onto a large rimmed baking sheet. If you are using broccoli heads, trim off the end of the stem end. The stems can sometimes be tough, so you may have to peel thick stalks. Cut the broccoli however you like but keep the pieces in large-ish pieces (see photo above). Drizzle with the olive oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 12 minutes. Turn the pieces with a spatula. Sprinkle on the nuts and the cheese and continue roasting until nuts are toasted, cheese is melted and broccoli is tender, about another 5 minutes.

Note: you can use whatever nuts you like. Chopped walnuts, pistachios, cashews, or silvered almonds are all good choices.

The Inner Life of Broccoli

Last summer, I read this article about a Cornell plant scientist who is trying to breed a better broccoli. Most broccoli is grown in moist, cool, foggy places, like coastal California, and doesn't tolerate warm temperatures, particularly at night. As broccoli is near the top of my favorite veggie list, I was keenly interested in his quest to breed a better broccoli, one that reaches the market sweet and crisp. Though he has successfully bred an improved broccoli, it may be a while before it reaches a market near you. Until then, is there a take-away from this work? Sure is - cook your broccoli soon after you buy it! Like that same day. No, it will not taste like fresh picked but every day it sits in your crisper is another day towards increased funkiness, something most people find off-putting about broccoli. You can steam it, chill it down quickly in ice water, drain, and refrigerate it until you need it. Heat it up in the microwave or quickly sauté it. Steaming is better at preserving nutrients than boiling, so I don't usually boil green vegetables.

Remember the stems are tasty too (in fact, they are often sweeter than the florets), but the lower stem has a thick fibrous layer that should be peeled off. Start from the bottom and pull upwards towards the florets on the thick outer layer. It will peel off in pieces. You don't need to peel all the way up; just the lower part is fibrous.

Also, learn to pick the freshest bunches: not limp and rubbery, and with tight green heads and no yellowing.

Here's a recipe, originally for asparagus, that works just as well on broccoli:

Broccoli with Goat Cheese Sauce
(serves 4, costs $2.75)

1 pound broccoli, trimmed, and cut into florets and stem pieces sliced ¼" thick
1 oz. creamy goat cheese with herbs
1 Tablespoon mayonnaise
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 ½ Tablespoon hot water
salt

Combine goat cheese, mayonnaise, lemon juice, black pepper, and hot water in a medium bowl. Whisk until the sauce is smooth.

Steam the broccoli for about 5 minutes until just tender. Dress with sauce and sprinkle lightly with salt. Serve immediately.

Adapted from Nutrition Action.com, Asparagus with Goat Cheese and Dill Sauce

Simple Steamed Broccoli with Lemon

It's common to dress cooked green vegetables with lemon juice. I have a real problem with this. First, lemon juice is powerful stuff and can overpower everything and make the flavor too tart. That probably explains the generous dousing with butter or oil that follows the lemon juice. Another problem with lemon juice is its acidity. You know that dull green color that comes from overcooking green vegetables? That happens when you put an acid on green vegetables too. Ick. If you dress a big bunch of broccoli with lemon juice and don't finish it, next time you look at it, it's going to be dull green. And mushy too because the acid softens up the fiber. Double ick.

I do like the bright lemon flavor on green vegetables, however. Here's my solution: use lemon zest. You can use just lemon zest and oil. Or you can mix the lemon zest with some fresh herbs like parsley or thyme. Both of those herbs are bright, enhancing the lemon even more. If you can find lemon thyme, even more lemon! It's super easy. You can use frozen herbs instead of fresh. A light squeeze of lemon juice is nice but only for broccoli you will eat right away.

This recipe is a variation on our Simple Steamed Broccoli. At the very end, it's tossed with a bit of lemon zest. Instant lemony flavor without the overwhelming tart taste and it holds up in the fridge great.

Simple Steamed Broccoli with Lemon Zest
(serves 4-6, costs $3.13)

2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
1 lb. broccoli, broken into small florets and stems peeled and cut into 1/4" slices
zest of 1 lemon
1 Tablespoon fresh minced parsley or 1 teaspoon thyme leaves (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ tsp salt, or more to taste
lemon wedges, optional

Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a medium saucepan or skillet with a cover over medium heat.

Add garlic and saute until fragrant but not browned. Don't burn it - it turns bitter.

Add broccoli and toss to cover with oil. Add 1 Tablespoon water,  which should immediately create a lot of steam. Cover and steam broccoli for 5-6 minutes, until crisp-tender. Try a piece after 4 minutes if you like your broccoli crisp. If it's not cooked enough, cook for another minute or two.

Sprinkle with lemon zest, remaining oil, salt, and herbs, if using. Mix to combine and serve with lemon wedges, if desired. Can be refrigerated. Excellent served cold but you may need more salt. Cold temperatures dull flavors.

Meatless Monday: Pasta with Cottage Cheese, Basil and Feta

This is a simple uncooked sauce - great for summer. It has basil and garlic, like pesto, but the cheeses are totally different. Cottage cheese gives it volume and feta gives it tang and saltiness. You don't need a food processor to puree it. It's not smooth like pesto. If you want a smoother sauce, you can puree it in the food processor.

In order to eliminate the chunks in the garlic, it's smooshed with the flat side of a knife with salt. The salt acts as an abrasive, grinding up the garlic into a paste. At first, the garlic and the salt don't want to combine, but with a little elbow grease, the garlic and the salt come together.

Pasta with Cottage Cheese, Basil, and Feta Sauce
(serves 4-6, costs $8.60)

3 large cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
2 large pinches salt
½ cup fresh basil, chopped
1 cup lowfat (2%) cottage cheese
½ cup finely crumbled feta cheese, 4 to 5 ounces plus a bit more for garnish
2 Tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 ½ pounds broccoli florets
16 ounces fusilli or rotini

Place a large pot of water over high heat.

Sprinkle the salt over the garlic on a cutting board. With the flat side of a knife, press down and smoosh the garlic and salt together. Keep doing this until the garlic and salt form a smooth paste, using the knife to bring the garlic back into a tight pile periodically. Pile on the chopped basil and chop until the basil is finely chopped and well combined with the garlic paste. Place in a medium bowl. Add the cottage cheese, feta cheese, olive oil, and black pepper. Mix to combine and set aside.

When the water comes to a boil, add the pasta, stir, and set the timer for 5 minutes. When the timer goes off, add the broccoli and set the time for another 5 minutes. Check the pasta when the timer goes off. Cook for 1 more minute if still chewy. Reserve ¼ cup cooking liquid and drain the broccoli and pasta. Place in a large bowl. Pour on the cottage cheese sauce and add the reserved cooking liquid. Toss together to coat the pasta and broccoli. Serve, sprinkling with a little bit more feta cheese, if desired.

Baked Meaty Pasta

Don't you love recipes where you dump the pasta in with everything else, and it magically cooks just right? I do! I used ground bison, you could use any ground meat: beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, even vegetarian "meat." This is extremely simple and extremely satisfying, with a layer of gooey cheese on top. Gets even better on reheating.

This recipe uses homemade creamed spinach, which is easy to make. You make a Bechamel sauce (a milk sauce thickened with butter and flour, one of the classic French sauces) and mix in chopped spinach. You could use a package of frozen creamed spinach, but it's so easy to make your own, why not make it from scratch? Tastes a lot fresher too.

Baked Meaty Pasta
(serves 6-8, costs $9.50, though the cost will vary depending on meat used)

non-stick cooking spray
1 pound ground meat
about 1 teaspoon salt
about ½ teaspoon black pepper
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
½ teaspoon garlic powder
2 Tablespoons dried minced onion
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 cups water
8 ounces dry penne, regular or whole-wheat
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon flour
1 cup milk (skim, low-fat or whole)
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (see Note)
4 ounces grated mozzarella cheese, about 1 cup

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a 3 quart baking casserole dish with non-stick baking spray and set aside.

Spray non-stick cooking spray on a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Add the ground meat and brown. Break up the big chunks into small pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Add in the tomatoes, garlic powder, dried onion, oregano, basil, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper and water. Stir to combine and simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Spoon enough sauce into the baking dish to cover the bottom. Add the penne. Spoon the rest of the sauce over the penne.

In the same skillet that you cooked the sauce in (no need to clean it out), melt the butter. Add the flour and stir to combine. Add the milk, stirring to smooth out the lumps. Cook until the milk thickens. Add the spinach, stirring to combine. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour spinach over sauce. Cover with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes until the casserole is hot and bubbly. Sprinkle on the cheese and return to the oven, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.

Note: Instead of frozen spinach, you can use a 10 ounce package of fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped, or 2 cups cooked broccoli. You can even use a combination, which is what I used.

We're breaking some eggs! For a broccoli frittata...

Next week, we're holding our first class of the academic year. We are featuring eggs, because eggs are delicious, inexpensive, and nutritious. Hard to top that!

We'll be posting all the recipes from the class over the next few days. The first recipe is for broccoli frittata. Frittatas are sort of Italian omelets. They are nothing like French omelets which are light and fluffy when made correctly (and they are not all that easy to make). Sure, they are both made from eggs, but that's where the similarity ends. Frittatas are very easy to make. If you can beat an egg and turn on your oven, you are most of the way there. They suck up all manner of leftovers - cooked vegetables, meat, cheese, herbs, even pasta! And, because they are made of eggs, they are cheap. Frittatas are a great go-to meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They also reheat nicely so if you make a big one, you can reheat leftovers the next day and it's still wonderful. Don't try that with a French omelet.

Broccoli Frittata
(serves 4-6, costs $4.75)

1 pound Broccoli, cleaned (see Note)
¼ cup Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic, minced
½ teaspoon Salt
¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
8 large Eggs, beaten
½ cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cook broccoli in boiling salted water for 2 minutes until crisp-tender. Cool off quickly with cold water to stop the cooking and drain well. Chop broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Add salt and pepper to eggs and beat well. Heat oil in a 10" oven-proof skillet over medium heat, then add the garlic. When it starts to sizzle, add the broccoli. Stir and cook for a few minutes. Pour eggs over broccoli. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes until eggs are set and the edges are golden-brown.

Note: Frozen chopped broccoli works just as a well here. Thaw the broccoli and use it instead of the cooked fresh broccoli. And it's even cheaper than fresh broccoli sometimes. At my local supermarket, it's $1.33/pound, which is a good bit cheaper than the fresh broccoli at $1.59/pound last week. Though, it's good to check the sales. Broccoli is on sale this week for 88¢/pound.

Roasted Vegetables - all sorts

Roasted Veggies are a quick, easy and a very tasty alternative to steamed vegetables. Roasting concentrates flavors by evaporating some of the moisture and ups the ante by browning. Browning means flavor. I'm sure someone is looking at the above picture of roasted carrots thinking "Those are burned!" but they are not. As we say in the restaurant kitchen, they are well-caramelized. :-) Trust me. I ate them and they aren't burned.

Roasted veggies are great right out of the oven (careful! they are mighty hot) and they are great as a leftover. They can be added to soups, salads, omelets. Even a delicious snack, hot or cold.

The procedure for roasting is the same: grease up the veg, give a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper, and stick in a hot oven until just tender. Give them a stir halfway cooking to even up the browning. How long it takes depends on how big you cut the chunks of vegetable and how dense the vegetable is (carrots and Brussels sprouts are dense, broccoli and asparagus are not).

A hot oven and oil are key ingredients. No oil and the vegetables will steam. Not hot enough, the vegetables will overcook before they brown. But, once you figure it out, it's really easy.

Be careful when mixing different vegetables. It works if they will all cook in a similar amount of time. So, carrots and Brussels sprouts will work but carrots and green beans will not. When the green beans are done, the carrots will still be raw and by the time the carrots are done, the green beans will be sad, wilted and overcooked. Or plan to throw the green beans in after the carrots have had some alone time in the oven.

Here's some good vegetable choices for roasted vegetables. Roasting temperature is 400° F.

• Asparagus: 10 minutes for medium stalks, 5-7 for skinny stalks
• Beets: 30 minutes for baby beets, an hour for bigger beets. I like to leave them whole because they are easier to peel that way.
• Broccoli: 10 minutes
• Brussels sprouts: 30 minutes
• Carrots: 25-30 minutes
• Cauliflower: 25 minutes
• Green beans: 10 minutes
• Mushrooms: 10-20 minutes, whole. I don't like them raw in the middle so I cook them 20 minutes.
• Potatoes: 25-45 minutes, cut into chunks. Fingerlings can be roasted whole.
• Sweet Potatoes: 30 minutes cut in chunks
• Winter squash: 30 minutes, cut into chunks