Simply Recipes: Vegetarian

Apple Walnut Gorgonzola Turnovers

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:51:51 -0800

Yes yes I know it's June and it's not apple season here yet, but we make cooked apples every year and freeze them, we grow our own walnuts and thyme, and this was just plain good, so there. Remarkably it is the middle of June in Sacramento and we haven't had a day over 90 degrees in weeks, in fact, it's barely been getting up to the 80s. So, the oven is still in use. Ever have one ingredient that you have left over from something so you devise an entire recipe around it? I had some gorgonzola cheese begging to be eaten, some puff pastry in the freezer, and my mother's book club potluck event at our house coming up. Apples and walnuts we always have on hand. Apples, walnuts, gorgonzola, thyme, and honey make up the filling of these mini-turnovers and let me tell you, this is a great combination. Put the filling on a pizza, keep the apples fresh and make a gorgonzola version of Waldorf salad, or place it on a flour tortilla and roll it up and eat it as a wrap, whatever you do these ingredients belong together. Big hit at the book club too, nary a turnover was left.

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Quick and Easy White Bean Salad

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:20:38 -0800

My mother is a genius. She throws together the most simple of ingredients, and they are so good that I have to get up in the middle of a meal to write everything down, for in her words, "if you like it, ask me now what I did because in an hour I won't remember." What I love about this white bean salad creation of hers is that it is so dead easy, and it's good protein too. It would make an excellent picnic salad because you can make it a day ahead; the extra time just gives the flavors more time to sink into the beans. It can also be put together at the last minute with basic pantry items. If you have fresh herbs available, you can use those, if not, dry herbs de provence work well too.

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Noodles with Mushrooms and Lemon Ginger Dressing

Sun, 24 May 2009 12:15:32 -0800

Please welcome guest author Jaden Hair of the ever-so-Steamy Kitchen. Jaden and I have been visiting Seattle recently, take a look at the interesting scenery we encountered there. ~Elise

Because I'm the resident foodie here in my neighborhood, I'm usually the one hosting dinner parties. And that's totally fine by me because of all the recipe development and testing that I have to do every week. I'd rather feed my friends than to see all the food go to waste. But sometimes, the recipe development goes awry and the dish just fails. Yes, so bad it would ruin my rep as the kitchen superstar. In those moments, I whip out my never-fail-save-my-dinner-party dish. Of course, I hide all evidence of the earlier recipe disaster in the trash.

So, what's that dish? Well, honestly it's not even MY recipe, it's part of a recipe from Heidi's 101 Cookbooks blog called Otsu. I've committed to memory the lemon-ginger dressing that's in the Otsu dish and use it for everything - tossed with warm noodles, drizzled on roasted cauliflower, as a salad dressing and even to top grilled fish. Yes, it's that good.

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Spring Fava Bean Fennel Salad

Thu, 14 May 2009 19:38:20 -0800

Fava beans are a gardener's dream. The come up early in Spring, they're easy to grow, and their roots fix nitrogen in the soil, helping to prepare the soil for vegetables planted later in the season. They are delicious, though you do have to work for it. Unless very young, the beans need to be shucked twice, first before cooking to remove the bean from the pod, and then after cooking to remove the tough outer membrane from the bean. Garrett was over the other day to help pick and shuck and we made this lovely spring salad with fava beans from my garden. Fennel and Parmesan are one of those weird but wonderful flavor combinations that work great alongside fava beans and mint .

We still have plenty of favas growing in our garden. Do you have a favorite way of preparing them? (Hold the Hannibal Lector quote, thank you.) If so, please let us know about it in the comments.

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Mushroom Risotto

Tue, 05 May 2009 00:31:16 -0800

Updated, from the recipe archives.

Risotto is one of those dishes that we love to eat, but neither my father nor mother have the patience to make often. It takes about 20 minutes of careful watching and every few minutes adding a half cup of hot stock to the rice, as the rice slowly absorbs the liquid it's in. For this mushroom risotto, mushrooms are saut�ed first, then cooked in cognac (or vermouth) and cream. Arborio rice is cooked slowly with stock and when done, the mushroom cream mixture is stirred in, along with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese. (Hungry yet?) I actually don't mind watching over risotto, it's easy enough to do, and you can prepare other things while keeping the corner of your eye on the risotto. The result is so worth the effort.

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Asparagus Pesto with Pasta

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:07:35 -0800

From the recipe archive, spring is here! And so are asparagus. ~Elise

A while ago I got together with Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks to try out one of the recipes from her cookbook, Super Natural Cooking. The recipe we selected is perfect for spring, a pesto made with blanched asparagus, baby spinach, pine nuts, Parmesan, garlic and olive oil, tossed with a mix of egg and green spinach noodles. Heidi calls this recipe "Straw and Hay Fettuccini Tangle, with Spring Asparagus Pur�e" in her book, a nod to the mixing up of different colors of noodles. The asparagus pesto would work with any pasta or even as a sauce for pizza or potatoes.

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Asparagus with Lime and Mint

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:38:53 -0800

Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic. ~Elise

As a child I despised the asparagus my mother served. It was steamed to a dreadfully pathetic wilt and tasted, I assumed, no better than the old grass clippings trapped in the blades of the lawn mower. Only until I decided to overcome my own fear of these precocious green stalks did I come to fully appreciate them. Now every spring I prepare them the same way - lightly sauteed in a bit of oil, salt and peppered, and then a good squeeze of lime juice over them to give them a bit of spark. Plus these have an ear pleasing snap when you bite into them.

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Sweet Potato Mash with Mint

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:29:09 -0800

If you've been following our Simply Recipes updates on Twitter then you know that I recently spent a week in the Bahamas with several other food bloggers at the Club Med Food and Wine Festival (more on that soon). As we were being wined and dined, and treated to amazing 6 and 7 course meals every night I kept my eye out for ideas and recipes that might work well for us at home. The first night's dinner was spectacular (you can see a list of menus here on Jaden's site), and included fresh caught wahoo fish served on top of a boniato mint mash. As good as the fish was, I could have skipped it completely and just had a huge plate of the sweet potatoes, they were so good.

Boniato is a sweet potato popular in the Caribbean, light in color, and fluffy when cooked. The chef who prepared the mash was Chef Sean Bernal of The Oceanaire Seafood Room Miami, who recalled to us how his grandmother in Puerto Rico would make him boniato sweet potato with onions and mint. Chef Sean generously shared with us how he prepared the mash, the trick he said was to roast the sweet potatoes so that you get the richness of flavor from the caramelization of the sugars in them. I prepared a couple batches, one boiled and one roasted, and I agree that the roasted approach produces more flavor, but it also takes longer to cook and uses more energy, so if you have time, yes, roast, but if not, boiling works fine too. The real surprise was the combination of the sweet potatoes, crunchy raw chopped onions, and mint. I never would have thought to put mint with sweet potatoes, but it's a great combination.

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Simple Cauliflower Soup

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:00:11 -0800

Making soup doesn't have to be difficult, and if you are working with fresh, high quality vegetables, you don't even have to add stock. This cauliflower soup couldn't be easier; just blanch cauliflower florets for a few minutes, pur�e them with some of the blanching liquid, salt, and butter, and serve with olive oil and chopped chives. The idea for this soup comes from my pal Garrett who was raving to me recently about a cauliflower soup he had at a local Sac bakery. Sam of Becks & Posh made a similar soup a while back. Of course when you are working with so few ingredients, you have to make sure that each ingredient is as good as it can be. There's no place to hide if something is off. What I love about this soup is that the cauliflower really shines through, and it's also pretty light, so it works well as a starter for other courses.

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Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:21:09 -0800

Have you ever made potato gnocchi? If you have, then you know that the process can be tricky at best. What you want are light, fluffy dumpling pillows. What we often get is dense, chewy dough balls. Gnocchi with ricotta cheese is much more forgiving than the potato version. The dough holds together better, and the result is likely to be more pillow-like than chewy. I was taught this approach by a wonderful local Italian chef, Biba Caggiano, who showed me that the trick to a light gnocchi was in how you rolled them out. You want a light touch, gently stretching the dough outwards as you roll it into shape. A heavy touch will compress the dough. The sauce is a simple one, just tomatoes and goat cheese with a hint of garlic. But you can use any favorite sauce with the gnocchi.

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Mixed Green Salad with Pecans, Goat Cheese, and Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:45:41 -0800

For the last couple of years, my neighbor Molly has been bringing this salad to our neighborhood potluck parties, and every time I go completely zonkers over it. The basic elements are mixed greens with pecans and goat cheese, tossed with a sweet mustard vinaigrette. The recipe has plenty of room for improvisation—use baby spinach or butter lettuce instead of or in addition to the mixed greens, orange segments or sliced kumquats for a citrus note, toasted walnuts instead of pecans, etc. Use more or less of any ingredient to taste.

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Chayote with Tomato and Green Chile

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:33:08 -0800

Perhaps you too have noticed an odd, pale green, oblong is-it-a-fruit is-it-a-vegetable in your market and wondered what the heck it was, or what you could make with it. Actually I've known the name of it for a while—chayote; one sees them often in Mexican markets out here, and Whole Foods carries them. But it wasn't until a friend thrust one into my hand with the challenge "it's good, I'd love to see what you make with it" that I actually set out to cook one.

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Holiday Spiced Sweet Potatoes (Yams)

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:38:30 -0800

We almost always have pur�ed sweet potatoes or garnet yams with our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Usually we just bake them, scrape out the insides and mash them with a little butter and brown sugar. My father found a wonderful recipe in an old issue of Bon Appetit which includes grated orange peel, lemon juice, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg, spices that you would normally find in a hot mulled cider. The spices give the yams a wonderfully festive holiday accent.

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Polenta Casserole with Fontina and Tomato Sauce

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:51:58 -0800

We came across this baked polenta recipe in an old Bon Appetit issue, and used up the last of our garden basil to make it. The recipe comes from an article on a unique Tuscan farm, Spannocchia, a working farm "eco" retreat, noted for its artisanal salumi. The casserole was delicious, and the farm looks even more intriguing. I love the idea of being able to hang out in a Tuscan kitchen taking cooking classes for vacation, don't you?

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Butternut Squash with Browned Butter and Thyme

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:23:01 -0800

If you have only one oven in your kitchen, any Thanksgiving side dishes you prepare generally need to be made on the stovetop, as the turkey is taking central stage in the oven. Here is a simple butternut squash side that you can easily do on the stove. The trick to this dish is browning the butter before adding the squash, so that the squash absorbs some of the complex and wonderful browned butter flavors, before it too is browned.

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