Stewed Lentils & Tomatoes

I made this virtuous-seeming vegetarian dish for dinner to atone for a day spent gorging on cake. It tasted anything but penance-y, though: this is really yummy, with a nice stick-to-your-ribs quality which often seems to be lacking in vegetarian dishes.

The recipe below is slightly adapted from the one I found at smittenkitchen.com, which adapted it from Barefoot Contessa at Home.

Ingredients

~2 tablespoons good olive oil


2 cups large-diced onions (~2 onions)


2 cups large-diced carrots (3 to 4 carrots)


4 cloves-worth minced garlic


1 (28-ounce) can whole plum tomatoes


1 cup French green lentils

2 cups water

1 vegetable boullion cube


2 teaspoons mild curry powder


2/3 teaspoon dried thyme


1.5 teaspoons salt


1/4 teaspoon pepper


1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

To make

Heat the oil in a large saucepan or medium stockpot. Add the onions and the carrots and cook over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until the onions start to brown. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Add the garlic and cook for one minute more.

Add the tomatoes, lentils, water, boullion cube, curry powder, thyme, salt and pepper to the pot. Break up the tomatoes as much as possible using the wooden spoon.

Raise the heat to bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer covered for about 40 minutes, until the lentils are tender. Check occasionally to be sure the liquid is still simmering. Remove from the heat and allow the lentils to sit covered for another 10 minutes. Add the vinegar, season to taste and serve hot.

Vegetable & Chickpea Ragout

This recipe is adapted from one at Self.com (the original is embedded in this story which involves prepping parts of 5 meals all at once, so the version below makes it stand-alone). This is a tasty dinner that will leave you feeling both satiated and healthy, because it's meat-free! (for an extra kick of self-satisfaction, toss the ragout with whole-wheat pasta, as I did)

Ingredients
olive oil
1 med onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 head broccoli, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup chickpeas
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried oregano

~ 1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts, drained & rinsed
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup sliced black olives

penne, cooked (whole-wheat for added smugness)
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

To make
1. Heat a pan over medium heat, add about a tablespoon of olive oil. Add onion, red pepper, broccoli, and garlic. Cook until veggies soften a bit.
2. Simmer tomatoes, chickpeas, cooked vegetables, salt, pepper, oregano, and 1/2 cup water in a medium pot until liquid is reduced by half, ~20 minutes.
3. Add artichokes, peas, and olives to pot. Cook 10 minutes more.
4. Toss ragout with cooked penne and chopped basil.

Egyptian Edamame Stew

This dish is described as "a riff on the Egyptian classic ful medames, a highly seasoned fave bean mash" in the planner/recipe-book where I found it. It's easy to make, and light but filling; I ate it first with quinoa for dinner, and later enjoyed the leftovers with some whole wheat pita bread.

Ingredients
About 3 cups shelled edamame (meaning, beans are out of the shell)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large zucchini, diced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped mint
3 tablespoons lemon juice
(optional: original recipe called for 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, which I did not add, but you may want to try)

To make
1. Cook the edamame according to package directions: bring a pot of water to a boil and toss in the beans, for about 5 minutes if the edamame has been thawed, longer if they are still frozen.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften (~3 minutes)
3. Add zucchini and cook, covered, until onions start to brown (~another 3 minutes)
4. Add garlic, cumin, and coriander (and cayenne pepper, if using) and cook, stirring, until fragrant (~30 seconds)
5. Stir in tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until slightly reduced (~5 minutes)
6. Stir in the edamame and cook until heated through (~2 minutes)
7. Remove from heat and stir in mint and lemon juice.

Fish tacos with corn salsa and jalapeno tartar sauce

It was really hot in Philadelphia today so I was looking for a dinner that didn't require a lot of heat in the kitchen. I first had fish tacos in Mexico back in college and I remember really liking them because they were light and full of flavor.

This was quick, cheap and pretty healthy meal for four people:

Ingredients:
12 small corn tortillas
18 frozen fish sticks
1 cup mayo
9 jalapeno slices (mine were in a jar)
2 dill pickles
about 1 cup frozen corn
about 1 cup medium salsa
2 cups farm-fresh spinach
parsley
lemon juice
salt
Tabasco sauce (a splash or two)

To make the corn salsa, simply mix the corn and the salsa (you could make your own salsa, but I had a jar in the fridge already). Easy.

To make the jalapeno tartar sauce chop the pickles and jalapeno into small relish-sized bits and mix into the mayo. I added parsley, lemon juice, Tabasco, and salt to taste. Note: in the end this was about twice as much tartar sauce as we ended up using.

Cook the fish sticks according to the box and heat the tortillas as you like (I do them in a skillet 2 at a time, you could also use the oven check the directions). I chopped the fishsticks in big chunks so they would sit in the tortillas better.

Then the tacos are a snap to assemble: a little tartar, a little salsa, some fish and some spinach. It was light, spicy (but not too spicy!) and delicious and I didn't have to spend a bunch of time in a hot kitchen! The only thing I would do differently next time is to put some fresh limes slices out for splashing on the tacos. There were always limes on the table in Mexico and it goes great with jalapeno and fish.

Mark Bittman's Curried Cauliflower Flatbread

All this talk about cauliflower made me crave it. Then I saw this recipe in the nytimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/dining/221mrex.html for Curried Cauliflower Flatbread by Mark Bittman. I love Bittman's recipes because they are simple and always include veggies and flavors that I don't eat very often. Like this one: curried cauliflower? in bread? with coconut milk? It sounded kind of weird, but it was delicious!

The only thing I did wrong was use my stainless steel skillet (my non-stick skillet is not oven safe); I greased it up good, but the bread did not part from the pan easily. In retrospect I should have used one of my non-stick round cake pans.

Bittman called it an appetizer, but we had it for dinner. I served it with a salad of fresh spinach (chopped), shitake mushrooms (sliced) and tomatoes (diced) with a light orange juice and dijon dressing. (1/4 cup OJ, a little less olive oil, squirt of dijon mustard, splash of white balsamic, salt and pepper).

It was a perfect dinner: light, novel and full of healthy veggies.

Vegetarian Chili with Chocolate

A hearty, tasty vegetarian dinner! The basic idea: make chili, stir in chocolate at the end. If you have your own favorite chili recipe (and if you do, I'd like to hear about it!), you could try making it and then adding the chocolate for some extra depth.

This particular chili is not at all hot, so if you're one of those masochistic types who likes your food to hurt you, you might want to add some hot peppers or Tabasco or something.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small clove garlic, minced
half an onion, chopped
1 small red pepper, cut into ~1-inch pieces (I used a red pepper because that's what I had, you could use green)
1 16 oz. can whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 oz dark chocolate (72% cocoa)

To Make
1. Use a large saucepan. Heat the oil over medium heat, then cook the garlic, onion and green pepper until slightly soft, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, kidney beans, broth, cumin, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat.
3. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes.
4. Break up chocolate into small pieces, then stir into chili until melted.

Enjoy with crusty bread!

Slow-cooked Leg of Lamb with Prunes

I'm back to the blog after an international-move-induced hiatus (many thanks to Dr. Darkness and Audrey for posting recipes in the meantime!). Of course, a Crockpot was one of the first things I acquired after moving into my new flat this month. An inaugural batch of slow-cooked porkchops came out underwhelming (totally fine, just not blogworthy really), but this leg of lamb recipe (adapted from one at old standby A Year of Crockpotting) really worked. I used lamb purchased at a local foods "fayre" in town.

Ingredients
4 lb. boneless leg of lamb
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups prunes
~3/4 cup white wine (I used a chardonnay)
1 cinnamon stick

To Make
1. Place lamb in crockpot (note: I have a 6.5 liter cooker, though original recipe called for a 4-5 quart cooker, so if you have a smaller one it should still fit).
2. Mix salt, pepper, and rosemary together, rub all sides of lamb with mixture.
3. Sprinkle chopped garlic on and around lamb.
4. Add prunes around lamb.
5. Pour in wine, about 1/4 cup water (the water I added because I was afraid the lamb would dry out, being not as submerged in a larger cooker, but it's probably not necessary). Toss in a cinnamon stick.
6. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Warning: your home will smell almost oppressively amazing for about 7 hours while this thing cooks. But the result is a moist, delicious leg of lamb. I served it with quinoa and roasted carrots.

Salmon Fillet with Citrus and Thyme

Another citrusy-thymey dinner (so that I could use up more of this fresh thyme I have from previous dinner). This is also adapted from a Real Simple recipe, and makes enough for 2.

Ingredients
~1 lb salmon fillet
1 tablespoon olive oil
~ 1/2 lemon, thinly sliced
~ 1/2 orange, thinly sliced
6 sprigs fresh thyme
salt and peper

To make
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Place salmon on foil-lined backing sheet (or in a dish), and season with salt and pepper.
3. Scatter orange, lemon, and thyme on and around the salmon.
4. Roast until the salmon is opaque throughout, about 20-25 minutes.

I served this with some sauteed swiss chard and baked sweet potatoes - tasty and nutritious!

Slow cooker Orange Chicken with Butternut Squash and Potatoes

This is adapted from an old Real Simple recipe. Requires some veggie prep (especially with the butternut squash), but is otherwise not very labor-intensive, and smells lovely as it cooks. Makes ~4 servings

Ingredients
8 skinless chicken thighs
salt and pepper
1 medium onion, cut into quarters and layers separated
~ 1 lb small red potatoes
1 small butternut squash*, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 inch pieces
10 cloves garlic, peeled
1 orange, cut into 1/4 inch rings
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
8 sprigs fresh thyme

To make
1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
2. Put everything into the slow cooker. I put the potatoes and squash in first, then the onion, then the chicken, then the broth (poured over chicken), then scattered the garlic, oranges, and thyme over the chicken.

*My 4 qt slow cooker would not fit all the squash with everything else, so a handful of pieces got put away for another day

3. Cook on high for ~ 4 hours (this probably takes less time, I was just busy and so let it cook longer. Check the chicken after say 3 hours for doneness)

Mushroom Red Wine Sauce

This is a quick and easy sauce that goes well with steak or chicken. Directions below make enough for two, though you can easily double the recipe.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 pound mushrooms, thinly sliced (I use the generic white 'shrooms they sell at the supermarket)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup red wine
~ 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (or about 1/3 that amount of dried rosemary)

To make
1. Melt the butter in a large skillet/saucepan over medium-high heat
2. Add the mushroom slices and cook until they soften and release their juices, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the salt and pepper, and continue to cook until the juices evaporate.
4. Add the wine and rosemary. Bring to a simmer, and cook for 3 minutes.

Spoon over the meat of your choice.

Crockpot Roasted Winter Root Vegetables

Another good one from A Year of Crockpotting, found here, though I halved the recipe and used turnips and sweet potatoes instead of rutabagas. This one takes a little more prep, to wash/peel/cut up the veggies, but it's tasty. I ate this with quinoa for dinner (omg yet ANOTHER vegetarian meal! I'll need to get a pork recipe up here soon)

Ingredients:
~1 pound carrots
~1 pound turnips
~1 pound parsnips
a large sweet potato
-1/4 cup chopped parsley
-2 T olive oil
-1/2 tsp kosher salt
-1/2 tsp black pepper
-1/2 tsp basil

To make:
Peel and cut the veggies into 2 inch chunks.

Put all the vegetables into your crockpot, and add the olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper. Toss with your hands to coat fully coat the vegetables.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4-5. The vegetables are done when they have reached desired tenderness.

Mediterranean Chicken

Lately I am all about food that you can just throw in the crockpot and not think about. The A Year of Crockpotting blog - which is just what it sounds like - is a great source of these.

A few days ago I made the chicken recipe found here. I reproduce the nuts and bolts below:

Ingredients:
- 3-4 frozen chicken breast halves
- bag of frozen artichoke hearts
- half jar of green olives (no juice)
- large can of tomatoes (and juice)

To make:
Put everything in your crockpot.
Turn on. Cook on low for 8 hours, high for 4-6.

So simple, and delicious! The chicken came out very moist and shredded easily.

Butternut squash chillijack

My husband made this one night and it immediately became my favorite dinner.

2 Butternut squashes peeled, seeded and diced (good luck with that, my husband said peeling the things was the hardest part)
2 red onions, diced
1/4 cup sliced jalapeno
1 tbs chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tomatoes, diced
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese
a handful of cilantro

Put the squash, onions and chilis in a roasting pan and season with chili powder, cayenne, salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil and toss well. Roast until just soft at 375 deg (25-35 minutes).

Put them in a big serving bowl add tomatoes, corn, cheese and cilantro. Mix gently.

Drool.

Eat.

Baked Sweet Potato with Garlic Green Beans & Quinoa

A vegetarian dinner omg :-0

I had a large sweet potato and a bunch of green beans that really needed to be used soon, and no meat in the house :-0 But this nearly all-plant-based dinner (there was butter involved) was tasty, filling, and pretty as well.

Baked Sweet Potato
Here I followed the instructions in the Cook's Illustrated Best Recipes cookbook, modified here for a single potato:
Scrub the potato and lightly prick with a fork.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Rub the potato with olive oil (I used the lightly flavored kind, for sauteeing).
Put the potato on a foil-lined baking sheet.
Bake until a knife tip slips easily into the center of the potato, 40-50 minutes.
Dot with butter and season with a little pepper.

During the last ten minutes or so of the potato's baking time, I prepared the quinoa and garlic green beans:

To make the quinoa: Rinse 1/3 cup of quinoa in a strainer. Put quinoa and 2/3 cup water into a saucepan, bring to boil over medium heat. Lower heat a bit and simmer until water is gone (but no longer!)

To make the beans: heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a skillet/saucepan. Add about a clove's worth of minced garlic and cook for a minute or two. Add green beans and a handful of edamame (more green, and protein!), and about a tablespoon of butter. Cook and push around till the baked potato comes out.

Probably you could skip the olive oil with the beans, and just cook the garlic in butter (I just didn't think of adding butter till after I used oil)

Slow cooker lamb with vegetables

Dinner tonight. This ended up being really delicious, and was so simple! Next time I make lamb, I'll probably add some herbs for pizzazz (I couldn't find decent fresh rosemary at the store today, otherwise that would have gone in), but this minimalist version was tasty enough for me. If you're into salt and pepper, you might want to add more of those.

Ingredients:
Boneless leg of lamb (~2 lbs)
4 carrots, cut into ~2 inch chunks
the rest of the celery in my fridge (~5 stalks), also cut into chunks
4 medium red potatoes, quartered
salt and pepper

To make:
1. Sprinkle/rub the lamb with salt and pepper. Place in slow cooker.
2. Add 1/2 cup of water to cooker.
3. Add vegetables to cooker on top of lamb*.
4. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours.

Slow cooker cranberry pork chops

This recipe incorporates 4 of my favorite things in life: pork, cranberry sauce, the slow cooker, and incredibly easy food prep.

Ingredients:
4 pork chops (~ 2 1/2 lbs of meat)
16 oz. bag of frozen stew vegetables
16 oz. can of whole berry cranberry sauce
1/4 cup chili sauce

To make:
1. Place chops in slow cooker.
2. Put frozen veggies in cooker on top of meat.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together cranberry sauce and chili sauce.
4. Pour sweet-n-spicy mixture over food in pot.
5. Cook on low ~8 hours or high ~3 1/2 hours.

If you're into grains, this would probably be good with white rice.

The 1/4 cup chili sauce adds a little kick to the sweet-tartness of the cranberry sauce. I can definitely handle the added heat, though it does prevent me from devouring the pork as quickly as I might like. Next time I might try this one with half as much chili sauce...

Slow cooker chicken and sweet potatoes

Another easy comfort dinner made in the slow cooker.

Ingredients:
~2 lbs chicken thighs and drumsticks
4 or 5 medium-large sweet potatoes
3/4 cup honey mustard salad dressing
1 tsp crushed dried rosemary

Preparation:
Peel and quarter sweet potatoes, place in slow cooker.
Remove skin from chicken, place in cooker over yams.
Mix rosemary and dressing in a bowl, pour over chicken and sweet potatoes.
Cook on high 3 1/2 hours.

Makes enough for 3 or 4 dinners. When the chicken was almost done, I steamed some green beans to have on the side.

Classy Ramen

Between getting home from Philly and leaving again for rehearsal the other day, I had ~30 min to make and prepare dinner, with not much in the way of fresh dinner food. I did, however, have a pack of chicken-flavor Top Ramen. Every so often I get a hankering for the cheap salty goodness of ramen noodles, but to feel a little more wholesome about it I class 'em up with proteiny and vegetabley add-ins. The latest version:

1 package chicken-flavor ramen noodles
2 eggs
~ 1/2 cup of frozen edamame (unshelled)
~ 1/2 cup of leftover cooked spinach

Preparation:
Bring a few cups of water to boil in a pot.
Add ramen noodle brick. Boil for a minute or so to soften.
Crack two eggs into boiling water.
Add frozen edamame to boiling mixture.
Add spinach.
Cook for another couple of minutes.
Add contents of delicious, MSG-laden flavor packet.
Drain off half of the liquid (depending on how soupy you like your noodles).

Slurp down.

Other things I've mixed into ramen: leftover cooked chicken or pork, broccoli, seitan. Please feel free to comment with your own ideas for ramen enhancers.

Fried fresh sardines

Ok, so this is really too simple to be called a recipe, but it's a really nice dinner. It does require access to fresh sardines which may be difficult depending on where in the world you are, but here they are a cheap and delicious (and healthy) fish.

So, I had two whole (cleaned) sardines - large ones, about 1/4 pound each. I dipped them in flour, salt, and I coarsly chopped a garlic clove each, crushed the cloves a little with the side of my knife, and put them in the stomach cavities. Heat a little olive oil in a pan, and fry for about 6-7 minutes on each side, until the flour turns golden brown. Remove the garlic before eating (it will still be mostly raw and will overpower the fish if you bite into it). Enjoy.

Oven-braised lamb shanks with sweet potatoes

This is a really straightforward use of lamb shanks, which are a meat I really like. The quantities below are for 1-2, depending on the size of the lamb shank and appetite.

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium/large onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bullion cube (chicken)
2 medium sweet potatoes, sliced (peel if you like, I don't)
1 large lamb shank, or 2 small ones (I used 2 shoulder shanks tonight)
1/3 cup white wine
1 bayleaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (fresh is better if you have it, of course)

1. Put oil in casserole dish, making sure it covers the bottom. Put lamb shank(s) in, roll around in oil until they are covered completely.
2. Pre-heat oven to 180 c (350 f), and put lamb in. Let it cook for 10 minutes or so, until lamb starts browning.
3. Remove lamb, and insert onion (and cover dish). Put back in oven until onion starts going clear (about 5-6 minutes for me)
4. Add garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper, and return to oven for 2-3 minutes.
5. Stir everything well, and add lamb and sweet potato slices. Cover about halfway with water, and add wine, bayleaf and crumble the bullion cube into the liquid.
6. Cover the casserole dish, and put in oven for 45 minutes. Turn the lamb shanks over, then cook for about 45 more minutes, when lamb is so tender it falls off the bone.
7. Optionally, If you like your meat a bit crispier, turn the meat over once more, and cook for 10-15 minutes uncovered.

If you feel like it, once you remove the lamb and potatoes, you can strain the liquid, reduce it and add a little flour to make a gravy. I don't normally bother.