When it’s 82º in New York City.
Tag Archive for 'cheese'
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A few weeks ago, I was waxing rhapsodic about Patricia Wells’ fantastic Italian cookbook, Trattoria, which I’ve had for years and love dearly. I think the subtitle really says it all: ”Healthy, Simple, Robust Fare Inspired by the Small Family Restaurants of Italy.” Yes, please. These are recipes that are not particularly hard to make, but the flavors are fresh and delicious and you feel good cooking them and eating them. It’s happy food. We like happy food here at WIG HQ.
So, the baked risotto. This is a good one, particularly now that asparagus is in season (although not for much longer!). And I used these gorgeous spring onions, but you could go with shallots too. It’s also another one of those great recipes that lends itself to experimentation and substitutions, depending on your mood and/or the current contents of your refrigerator. Mushrooms would totally kick ass in this; also, I could even see tiny little cubes of fresh tofu nicely nestled in there. The original recipe doesn’t call for any particular herb, but thyme, sage or basil would all be lovely. It’s also pea season, so peas with a bit of mint would be another great combo. The world’s your oyster, people…ooh, oysters? That could also work! OK, I’ll stop now, but you get the idea.
Most non-vegetarians would probably consider this a side dish, but we love it with a quick frittata or even a couple poached eggs on top. Yes.
And I am dutifully including a pic of the cooked final product. And while it’s not nearly as lovely and green green green as the pre-baked image, it tastes much better.
Baked Risotto with Asparagus, Spinach and Parmesan
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, minced
Sea salt, to taste
1 cup Italian Arborio rice
2-1/4 cups vegetable stock
4 cups loosely packed fresh spinach, roughly chopped
1 bunch fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into bite-sized diagonal slices
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1 tablespoon basil, finely chopped
Zest of half a lemon
Hot pepper flakes, to taste (or black pepper)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 400ºF/205ºC.
In a large wide saucepan over a medium flame, heat the olive oil, then add the onion and salt. Cook until the onions are translucent and soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add the Arborio rice, stirring to coat with the oil. Add the stock, spinach, asparagus, nutmeg, basil, lemon zest, hot pepper flakes and salt and stir to combine. Bring just to a simmer, then stir in half the cheese.
Transfer to a one-quart soufflé dish, smooth out the top of the mixture, then top with the remaining cheese. Cover and bake until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and is cooked through, between 30-40 minutes. You want it to be moist, but not soupy. Serve immediately with a bit more cheese for good measure.
Ryan has been reminding me about the fact that I haven’t been making much quinoa lately, and he’s right. I was all jazzed up about switching over to quinoa for breakfast from our usual oatmeal, just for a change of pace, but then never really got around to doing it. I hate when that happens.
But as part of our “health kick” (see here for the first and last post about that…whoops) and because it’s the beginning of the week and we need to atone for our weekend sins, I thought a nice, clean quinoa recipe would be a great idea. I’ve been buying these giant vats of Earthbound Farm organic baby spinach (which keep surprisingly well, by the way), so I went hunting for ideas out there in Webland and prompting fell hard for a quinoa casserole recipe from the NY Times, which of course, has cheese in it. Not exactly part of the “clean” plan, but I figured that, for Ryan, I’d take half the recipe and do a non-baked version without cheese (and the kiddo and I can hoard all the cheesy goodness of the other half).
You can go in a lot of different directions with this dish too, which is nice. I used feta, but Gruyère, which is what the original recipe calls for, would be really nice and melty. You could also do chickpeas or another bean or cut that out altogether. Yet another flexible dish — this is becoming a habit (a good one though). Now if I can just keep up the healthy theme…
In the interest of my health (and bikini season, which is fast approaching), I’d love to hear about your favorite clean and healthy dishes. Me and my thighs thank you.
Quinoa Spinach Casserole
4 cups/6 ounces baby spinach*
1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups cooked quinoa, (1-1/3 cup uncooked)
3 large eggs
1 cup black beans, rinsed
3/4 cup (3 ounces) feta cheese, crumbled (3/4 cup)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage or thyme (or whatever you have on hand)
3 tablespoons Parmesan, grated or a few slices of fresh mozzarella
Preheat the oven to 400ºF/204ºC. Oil a 2-quart gratin or baking dish.
Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Wash the spinach and without spinning dry, add to the pan and wilt in the liquid left on the leaves after washing (you may need to do two batches). When the spinach is wilted, take off the heat and rinse it in a colander with cold water. Squeeze out as much water as you can and give it a rough chop. * If you use frozen chopped spinach, you can skip this step. Just thaw and squeeze out the liquid.
Wipe the pan out and heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic cook for about a minute. Add the spinach and season with salt and pepper.
Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Add the quinoa, beans, cheese, herbs, the onion and spinach mixture, and black pepper and stir to combine. Pour into a gratin dish and sprinkle with Parmesan or mozzarella, which is what I used this time. Bake until browned on top, about 20-25 minutes. Let it sit for a few minutes before serving.
As I’ve mentioned many times before, my mother is an excellent cook. So much so that it is possible for me to name the exactly three times Mom made something that was just not up to snuff. I’d say that’s a pretty good record for any cook, let alone one who had four kids in five years and cooked pretty much every meal we ate.
Two of the recipes were admittedly experiments — recipes pulled from magazines with the promise of a catchy name or an exotic list of ingredients. The first one, “chicken in a biscuit” was a misguided attempt at creating a casserole out of bone-in chicken pieces and biscuits. Soggy, unattractive and just not right. The second, cheese blintzes, had too much going on. I seem to recall some kind of sweet sauce that perhaps would’ve been better served with a dessert blintz rather than a savory one.
The third — and my siblings may disagree with me on this one — was stuffed peppers. I think part of the problem was that I really hated green peppers — this is back when a mellower-flavored yellow or red pepper was not an option. They were just so strong, as was the filling, and my youthful taste buds just couldn’t take it. To be honest, I’m still not crazy about green peppers, but am working on learning to like them (cooked, not raw).
All of which is to say, I’m not sure what possessed me to make stuffed peppers. I suppose it was the lovely peppers I found at the market, combined with a surplus of tempeh, along with some leftover brown rice that needed to be put to use. Stat.
And I must say, they turned out rather well. I would even venture to say this would make a nice side or main dish at a dinner party. I mean, come on — things in edible packages are cute and festive (with lids to boot!). I stuffed the peppers with a Spanish style filling, but you could go in lots of different directions here: Mexican (cumin/chili powder/chipotle), Indian (curry/cumin/turmeric), Italian (basil/lemon/oregano), Asian (sesame/soy/satay)…you get the idea.
So maybe it was just me. Maybe Mom’s stuffed peppers were actually really good, and I just was too young to appreciate them. But I’m still not going to attempt chicken in a biscuit. Not a chance.
Tempeh-Stuffed Peppers
4 peppers (in the color of your choosing)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion (~1 cup), finely chopped
16 ounces tempeh
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup of veggies (corn, carrots, edamame, peas all work well), fresh or frozen
1 cup crushed tomatoes (or pasta sauce in a pinch)
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1/2 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
Salt
Red pepper flakes (optional)
3/4 cup cheese, shredded (provolone, mozzarella, fontina, cheddar all work)
Preheat oven to 375ºF/190ºC.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut the tops off the peppers and remove stem, seeds and white ribs. Cook the peppers (and tops) in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove with a strainer or tongs and drain in a colander.
While the peppers are cooking, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook until translucent (about 5 minutes). Crumble the tempeh into the pan, and cook until tempeh browns, 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add veggies, rice, spices and tomatoes and stir to coat. Add the stock a bit at a time if the mixture is dry. Add salt and red pepper flakes to taste. Remove from heat.
Arrange the peppers cut side up in an 8″ square pan coated or sprayed with olive oil. Fill the peppers with the tempeh mixture, then place the tops back on each pepper. Cover with foil and bake 15 minutes. Remove foil and tuck the pepper tops along the sides of the pan. Sprinkle each pepper with a couple tablespoons of cheese. Bake uncovered another 15 minutes, or until tops are browned.
Hello, it’s me. Sick again. Yippee. It sucks really. I don’t know how mouth breathers do it. Breathing through your mouth is very unpleasant.
Anyway, I spent some time clicking away on some of my favorite food sites last night and wanted to share some things I’m craving…even though I can’t taste anything. But you go have fun. Really. It’s okay.
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Soup. More soup. We like soup. This soup. Smitten Kitchen delivers (as usual).
Post Punk Kitchen is cooking up some quinoa goodness here
I’m a sucker for poppy seeds. Tim at Lottie + Doof is too.
Matt (of Matt Bites fame) is an incredible photographer and going to his site always makes me hungry. Like, this. Hello.
Winter makes me want to eat potatoes. I’m particularly obsessed with sweet potatoes right now. Give me a sweet potato roasted in its skin, slathered with butter, and topped with a healthy grind of black pepper and a sprinkle of fleur de sel and I’m in my happy place. Gluten Free Girl has taken it up a notch, and I’m feeling happy in a whole new way.
Never met a chocolate chip cookie I didn’t like. And this one from Orangette is, um, healthy. Sort of. Not really.
More soup. Again with the soup? Yes. Again with the soup. It’s for sick people. Heidi says so. Thank you 101 Cookbooks (my online food bible).
Last and perhaps least, if you’re feeling virtuous and/or enormous, pop on over to Bon Appétit and get yourself on a cleanse for food lovers. Doesn’t sound so bad actually. There is no lemon cayenne water involved. And chocolate is still on the menu.