Meatless Monday: Cauliflower Marranca

It's not particularly photogenic, but it tastes really good!

A recipe from the original Moosewood Cookbook. Made a few changes - added tomatoes, used quinoa, measured the added fat, and added the crunchy topping. I'm not against fat but it does carry a heavy caloric punch. You need some to carry flavor and give richness but I see no point in gilding the lily, as my mom would say. The original gave no amounts for the fat (butter in the original) at all.

This is a good recipe to use up bits of cheese. Two cups is enough, but you can add a bit more, if you want to use up what you've got.

Cauliflower Marranca
(serves 6-8)

non-stick cooking spray
1 pound mushrooms, chopped or sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 ½ Tablespoons oil, divided
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
½ teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets and core cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt
black pepper
1 Tablespoon fresh or frozen chopped basil
3 cups cooked quinoa or brown rice
2 - 2 ¾ cups grated cheese (jack, mozzarella, cheddar, manchego)
¼ cup dry bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a large casserole dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Heat 1 ½ Tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and onion. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and their juice, and the oregano. Cook until most of the liquid evaporates. Add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Pour all this into a large bowl.

Wipe out the pan, add 1 ½ Tablespoon oil, and heat over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, cook for 30 seconds, then add the cauliflower and 2 Tablespoons water. Cover tightly and reduce the heat to medium. Steam cauliflower until tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into bowl with mushrooms. Add chopped basil, cooked quinoa/rice, and cheese. Taste and add additional salt and pepper, if needed.

Pour into the prepared dish, cover, and bake for 25 minutes (35 minutes if the grain is cold). Combine the bread crumbs with ½ Tablespoon oil and mix until all the crumbs are moistened. Raise the temperature of the oven to 425°F. Sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly over the top of the casserole. Return to the oven, uncovered, to bake until top is browned and crunchy, about 10 minutes.

Let sit for 5-10 minutes. It is very hot right out of the oven and it's easier to serve if allowed to set up.

Best if reheated in the oven to keep the topping crunchy but it reheats OK in the microwave too.

Adapted from Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, Ten Speed Press, 1977.

Pasta with Spinach, Chickpeas, and Sausage

This is a not-quite-meatless dish. A little bit of meat, in this case some sausage, can add a big dose of flavor. The dish is hearty because of the pasta and the chickpeas, not because of a large portion of meat. Many of us don't want to give up the flavor of meat. Using just a little bit gives the flavor satisfaction at a lower cost and higher sustainability. You win and the planet wins.

Pasta with Spinach, Chickpeas, and Sausage
(serves 4)

2 Tablespoons olive oil + more for garnish
2 cloves garlic, minced
about ⅓ pound flavorful sausage, such as basil or Italian
5 oz. fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped
2 15 oz. cans of chickpeas
2 Tablespoons minced fresh sage
salt
10 oz. dried orecchiette pasta or some similar frilly shape
black pepper
grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a pot of salted water to boil.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook until no longer pink and starting to brown. While the sausage is cooking, drain the chickpeas, reserving 1 cup of the liquid.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the chickpeas, sage, reserved liquid, and ½ teaspoon salt. Cook this while you cook the pasta, which will take about 10-12 minutes. When the pasta is done, drain, and add to the chickpeas. Stir in more salt if needed and cook for another minute. To serve, garnish with a drizzle of olive oil, black pepper, and some grated Parmesan cheese.

Adapted from Fagioli: The Bean Cuisine of Italy by Judith Barrett, Rodale, 2004.

Spring Greens season is here - make some Saag

Spinach is one of the first greens to pop up in the garden in the spring. Amazingly, spinach can germinate in cold soils, as cold as 33 °F! I usually plant spinach in the fall, when it germinates easily in the warm soil. When the cold weather comes, it hibernates for the winter. As soon as the soil warms up again in the spring, it's off and running. That makes spinach the very first green to make it to my table.

I posted this recipe for Saag Paneer, which is Indian Greens with Cheese (or tofu if you prefer - it's easier to find than the fresh cheese and much cheaper). The original recipe called for frozen spinach, which is inexpensive and available year-round. But, this being the start of spring greens, you can make it with fresh spinach. Substitute 2 bunches of coarsely chopped fresh spinach for the frozen spinach and make the original recipe as written.

If you do use fresh garden or farmers' market spinach, make sure you wash it well (the process is described in this recipe for sautéed kale) because it holds onto sand and gritty greens is way icky.

Nowadays, you can also get bags of triple-washed fresh spinach, which is a great leap forward for spinach. You'll need a big bag of spinach for this, 20-24 oz. worth.

Shells with Peppers

A super simple Italian dish for Meatless Monday: pasta shells in a hearty sauce of peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Flavored with some basil and Parmesan cheese. All that there is to it and chock full of delicious veggies.

Pasta Shells with Peppers
(serves 4-5)

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, peeled
1 pound bell peppers (whatever color you like), about 3 medium peppers
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
5 sprigs fresh basil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Core the peppers and then slice lengthwise. Cut the onion in half, then slice. Pick the leaves off the basil sprigs. Rip or chop the leaves coarsely. Start a large pot of boiling salted water for the pasta.

Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté onions until golden and no longer crunchy, but not browned. Add the peppers and raise the heat to high. Sauté until the peppers are limp. Turn down the heat to medium-low. Add the tomatoes, basil, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the cover, reduce to low, and continue cooking while you cook the pasta.

By now your pasta water should be boiling. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain the pasta and dump into the skillet. Stir to combine - a large spoon and tongs work better than just a spoon. Then stir in ½ cup of the cheese. Stir gently. Taste for salt; add more if needed. Serve immediately with remaining cheese as garnish.

Adapted from Food alla Florentine by Naomi Barry & Beppe Bellini, Doubleday & Company, 1972.

Waldorf Salad with Fennel

Waldorf salad, the old stand-by, an apple-celery-nut salad with a rich mayonnaise dressing. I can't tell you how much of this I ate during my college days. Could use with a little updating. I found a recipe from Whole Foods which was a good starting point. But, it's a side salad that contains 400(!) calories. That's rather excessive. Trimmed it down a bit by reducing the nuts and dried fruit, and cutting back on the amount of dressing.

This salad gives me a chance to introduce fennel. Fennel has a slight licorice flavor and great crunch. I'm not a huge licorice/anise fan but fennel has just the right amount. Celery is what usually gives Waldorf salad its vegetable crunch. No celery here, just fennel. Give it a try. Fennel is good raw in any salad. Slice it thin because big pieces can be fibrous. It is also good roasted. Simple and delicious.

Waldorf Salad with Fennel
(serves 4-5)

Dressing:
3 Tablespoons mayonnaise
5 Tablespoons lowfat Greek yogurt
1 Tablespoon lemon or lime juice
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons minced fresh mint
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon salt

Salad:
1 small bulb of fennel or ½ a large one
2 apples, cored and chopped (see Note)
⅓ cup chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews)
½ cup raisins or dried cranberries
salt

Combine all the dressing ingredients and set aside while you prepare the rest.

To prepare the fennel, cut the bulb in half from the top (the part with the leafy stalks) to the bottom. Cut out the hard core at the bottom of the bulb. Slice the remaining bulb as thinly as you can. Combine the fennel with the rest of the salad ingredients, add dressing, and toss to combine. Add more salt to taste.

Best if eaten immediately because the dressing thins out when it sits in the fridge. But, it's still good. For a more substantial variation, add in some cooked chicken or turkey.

Note: Braeburns or Cortlands are preferred because they don't brown quickly. See our post on apple varieties for more info on our one of our favorite fruits.

Fennel photo credit: By Jamain (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Meatless Monday: Spinach Lasagne

Previously, I posted a recipe for meatless Spinach Lasagne that is "baked" in the microwave. Here's a similar recipe that is cooked in the oven and it uses no-boil noodles. This makes the recipe easier, though the time is about the same. You have to give the noodles time to cook once it's assembled but you don't have to deal with cooking the noodles ahead.

Oven-Baked Spinach Lasagne
(serves 6-8)

9 no-boil lasagne noodles (2" wide by 10" long)
non-stick cooking spray
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 ½ cups water
1 Tablespoon vegetable stock concentrate or dry vegetable soup mix
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon black pepper
a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
12 ounces frozen spinach, thawed but not drained
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese, a 16 ounce container
2 eggs
8 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (2 cups)
½ cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a 9"x 11" baking dish with cooking spray.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Sauté onion for 4 minutes. Add garlic, cook for another minute. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, vegetable soup mix, salt, sugar, basil, oregano, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Keep warm while you mix up the filling.

Combine the spinach, cottage cheese and eggs in a medium bowl.

To assemble, lay 3 noodles in dish  Ladle on ⅓ of the sauce, ½ the spinach mixture, then sprinkle on ¾ cup of mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers, finishing with another 3 noodles covered by the remainder of the sauce, making sure that the noodles are completely covered. Cover tightly with foil.

Bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle on the last ½ cup mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Bake for 10 more minutes. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before serving to allow cheese to set up which makes lasagne easier to cut.

Freezes well.

Day Before Lentil Soup

This is a stick to your ribs winter soup. I love lentil soup. I posted a vegetarian lentil soup previously. This one is not vegetarian, but it's still full of wonderful things. The addition of bacon gives it a smoky flavor, which is quite delicious, without adding too much richness.

You really should make this the day before because lentil soup, like many soups and stews, gets better after chilling in the fridge. All the flavors come together in a more cohesive whole. It also freezes well.

Day Before Lentil Soup
(serves 9 generously)

5 slices bacon, chopped
1 teaspoon oil
2 onions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 cups dried lentils, rinsed and checked for any pebbles
8 cups water
¼ cup balsamic or red wine vinegar
½ cup chopped fresh parsley

Garnish (optional)
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
lemon wedges
quartered hard boiled eggs

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until browned and the fat has rendered out. Remove the bacon pieces to a paper towel to drain. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, tomatoes, and thyme. Cook for another minute. Add the black pepper, bay leaf, salt, lentils, water, and reserved bacon. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook for 45 minutes (less time if lower than Boulder, CO altitude of 5300 ft) until lentils are tender but not mushy.

If you don't plan to eat the soup right away (good call!), chill in the fridge. Fish out the bay leaf and discard. Put about 3 cups of soup in the blender and puree. This makes the soup thicker and creamy. Or, you can use an immersion blender to puree it slightly, right in the pot. Reheat over medium-low heat until piping hot. Stir in vinegar and fresh parsley. Check for salt; add more if needed. Serve with garnishes of your choice. Add a salad and you've got yourself a hearty meal.

Adapted from Cooking with Cornelius: The Corning Cookbook by Cornelius O'Donnell, Random House, 1982.

Turkey Posole Soup

I have an old cookbook called Half a Can of Tomato Paste and Other Culinary Dilemmas. It's one of my favorites because it has recipes for using up little bits of this and that. Like a cup of milk or half a can of tomato paste (something I don't have to deal with much now since tomato paste started coming in squeeze tubes). It was published in 1980 and the culinary world has changed quite a bit since then. This recipe for turkey soup was inspired by that book - using up leftovers in an interesting way.

Back in the day, everyone had a bottle of ketchup in the fridge for who-knows-how-long. Now, it's a jar of salsa. This recipe is a good place to use up that old red or green salsa. Any brand you like will do but I like green salsa best.

Posole is dried corn, commonly used in the Southwest. The kernels are whole. It was a wonderful corn flavor and a chewy texture. You can find it dried or easier still, rehydrated in cans. The canned posole makes this soup soup-er fast.

Though this is a turkey soup - because I had leftover Thanksgiving turkey in the freezer along with homemade turkey stock - you could make this with cooked chicken and commercial chicken stock for an even easier version.

Turkey Posole Soup
(serves 6)

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced into thin half moons
3 stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed in your palm
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ to 1 cup green or red salsa
8 cups turkey or chicken stock
1 pound 9 oz can posole, drained
2 cups chopped turkey meat
salt (may not need any if using commercial stock)

Possible Garnish
chopped avocado
crushed tortilla chips
grated jack or cheddar cheese

Heat up the oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes, until translucent. Add carrots, celery, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Stir around and cook for a few more minutes. Add the salsa, turkey stock, posole, and turkey meat. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes, until carrots are tender. Taste for salt; add more if necessary. Serve with your choice of garnish on top.

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.