Greek Quinoa Salad

I love making salads like this in the winter and fall. You could really use any grain. I use quinoa because it is gluten free, it soaks up flavor so well, and its a fluffy little nutritional powerhouse. Anything that you would put into a regular green-leaf salad, you can chop up & stir into quinoa. Remember to season with salt, pepper, a little citrus or dressing and then let it sit in the fridge overnight.

2 cups cooked quinoa
olives
cherry tomato
red onion
bell pepper
cucumber
1 T balsamic
3 T hemp oil (or olive)
1/2 t mustard
1/2 t honey
salt & pepper

combine the cooked quinoa with the olives and veggies. Then whisk together the remaining ingredients and stir into the salad. Its best to let this sit overnight to let the flavors soak in. Enjoy!

Tangerine Quinoa Slaw

1/2 c red quinoa
1 c filtered water
1/2 red bell pepper, small diced
1/2 jalapeno, minced
8 sugar snap peas, sliced thin longwise
1 scallion, sliced very thin
2 tangerines, supremed (see previous post Supreme Citrus)
1 small avocado, diced
cilantro, minced
salt


Rinse the quinoa well. Grains and beans are often pretty dirty.
Bring the water to a boil, add the quinoa, and cook until all of the water has cooked into the grain.
Prepare the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, and once the quinoa has cooled, stir it into the mix. Adjust the salt to taste.The flavor of this salad is best if you let it marinate and get happier overnight.

Roasted Potatoes & Butternut Gravy

Red and Yukon Potatoes Roasted with garlic, spring onions and herbs

Sauteing onions and garlic in olive oil, agave nectar and thyme

melting butternut squash broth ice cubes that I saved from soup-making last month


whisking the broth into the onions & garlic

You can make gravy with any stock, broth, water, milk... etc. All you really need is a thickener, usually a roux, but in this case arrowroot powder.

I love to freeze leftovers in ice cube trays. I reserved squash cooking liquid from several weeks ago, knowing that I love to make this gravy. For a quicker version, just make some broth with a bouillon cube/paste & some water.

Gravy
12 butternut squash broth ice cubes, melted
1/4 of an onion finely minced
2 cloves garlic
a couple drops agave nectar (or any sweetener)
thyme
olive oil
arrowroot powder (kudzu & cornstarch work too)

heat oil and saute onion until translucent & soft. Add garllic, thyme & agave & continue to cook for another minute. Stir in broth, but reserve 2 T. Mix the 2T broth with 1 T arrowroot and whisk in this mixture. Continue to whisk until the gravy thickens.

Serve over Roasted Potatoes & Onions. or whatever!
Make sure to slice the onions very thick so that they cook evenly with the potatoes.

Kale Sauté

½ bunch kale (doesn’t matter what kind)
¼ large red onion
2 cloves garlic
1/3 lemon
toasted pinenuts
parmesan
drizzle balsamic vinegar
salt pepper
red pepper flakes
Italian herb blend
cherry tomatoes

Adding lemon, or any citrus to your green vegetables is a good idea. It makes all the super fantastic nutrients easier for your digestive system to absorb!


Wash Kale thoroughly. Seriously. Then, strip the leaves off of the tough stems. Shred the leaves with a sharp knife. Heat olive oil in a pan and add the onion, salt, pepper, red pepper and herbs. Cook until the onion is tender. Add the minced garlic and cook an additional minute. Then add the shredded kale to the pan and toss until it wilts and cooks down. This only takes a minute. Don’t cook it too long, the longer it cooks, the more precious nutrients are destroyed by heat! Finally add the tomatoes, pinenuts, parmesan, balsamic and lemon juice. Heres to our health!

Rosemary “brown butter” Applesauce

This actually isnt the final photo, it will cook down even more than this and be more applesaucey in appearance.

MMMmmm. A classmate of mine brought in a huge bag of rosemary and gave it out to all of us. I sat in lecture the rest of night wondering what I should do with all this rosemary… On my way home from school I bought 5 apples and made this sauce! Thanks Jeanine!

1 bunch rosemary
+dry rosemary to taste
5 apple
¼ earth balance
3 T brown sugar

In a pan heat the earth balance and add the brown sugar and diced fresh rosemary. Bring to a simmer and keep on low until the sugar is dissolved. Strain out the rosemary.
Meanwhile, dice the apples and place in a food processor. I used my blender, but chances are, unless you have a Vitamix, your blender isn’t powerful enough for apples! Blend them in batches, until they are still kind of chunky, and toss them into a wide pot. You may want to add some apple juice. I didn’t have to… but that’s because I have a Vitamix and it juiced some of the apples! Cook the applesauce for an hour on low. As soon as your butter/rosemary mixture is strained, add butter to apples and continue to cook on low. Taste it. I didn’t think the rosemary was coming through strong enough, so I ended up grabbing some dry rosemary from the cupboard, grinding it, and adding it directly into the applesauce until I was happy.

Wild Mushroom Gravy

Mushrooms in photo (left to right) Shitake, White Clamshell, Brown Clamshell, Bluefoot Chantrelle, Yellow Chantrelle, Hen of the Woods, & Cremini

1 minced shallot
1-2 cloves minced garlic
2T olive oil
½ lb mushroom variety
2 c vegetable or mushroom stock
2 T Tamari or soy sauce
¼ c dry white wine
½ t dry oregano or 1t fresh
2 T arrowroot powder
salt and  pepper

Heat the olive oil in a pan, then add the shallots. Once they are soft add the garlic & cook for an additional minute. At this point, add your chopped mushrooms and sauté them until soft. Add the white wine, and stir, about 30seconds or so later add the Tamari & vegetable stock. Bring the contents to a low simmer, then make a slurry with the arrowroot. If you don’t make a slurry, and just sprinkle the arrowroot in, it will clump. So whisk 1T water into the powder, then whisk it into the pan. Keep whisking until it begins to thicken up. If it is too thick, add more stock. If it is too thin, make another slurry. Add the oregano and season with salt & pepper.

Pasta Primavera & Breaded Squash

Primavera means "season of spring." Pasta primavera usually consists of vegetables and herbs in a light sauce.

Sauce
5T olive oil (or butter/margarine)
1c chopped fresh herbs
sauteed onion, bell pepper, squash, cherry toms
1/4c grated Parmesan
sprinkle cayenne pepper
juice 2 lemons
1/2c chopped walnuts

The herbs I used were from the back yard: basil, chives, oregano, parsley, tarragon and rosemary.
This dish comes together pretty quickly.

The sauteed veggies I used were leftover from the quiche a few days ago. I heated up the olive oil, added the herbs and veggies, and another handful or 2 or fresh cherry tomatoes. Once the veggies were heated through I added the other ingredients. This quantity would be good for 5 servings of noodles.

Breaded Zucchini and Summer Squash.
Real easy. Its just like breading the eggplant for eggplant parmesan. Heat oven to 380.
Scramble 2 raw eggs in one bowl. Fill another bowl with Italian breadcrumbs. (There is a recipe for Italian breadcrumbs on the blog.) Slice the veggies in long thin strips. Not too thin. A medium sized zucchini should make 4 or 5 strips. Spray or oil a sheet tray. Dip the squash in egg, then cover in breadcrumbs, then lay on the sheet. Cook each side for 12-15minutes.

Baba Ganoush

This is a spread. Its good on toast, sandwich, vegetables, pita.. its easy to make and only requires a few ingredients. I've made A LOT of baba ganoush in my day, it was on the menu at the brewery. If you want, you can add your favorite spices, or some parsley, or diced tomatoes.. or eat it in its simplest form. It tastes best after sitting in the fridge for a couple hours after preparation.

2 medium eggplants
1/4c tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/8c lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
salt pepper
olive oil

Set oven to 450. To roast the eggplants. Slice in half, lay flat side down, and score the skin with an X. Chop the garlic cloves into several thin pieces and stuff them inside the slits. Rub both sides of the eggplants with oil, and place flat side down on an oven tray. Pour water on the tray, just enough to cover the surface of the pan. In about 25 minutes the eggplants should look wrinkled and slightly deflated.
Allow to cool. Discard the skin, and scoop the flesh into the food processor with the remaining ingredients. Make sure the garlic gets in there too! mm mm mm

Garden Vegetable Quiche

Something I've never done before! This is a crust-less version of a quiche, and was a big hit at dinner last night with Anna's family.

-roasted potatoes
-paprika
-scallion
-1/2 onion
-1bell pepper
-1yellow squash
-handful cherry toms
-chard/kale/spinach
-5 eggs
-cheddar & parmesan
-breadcrumbs
-fresh herbs

start by dicing all the vegetables into small pieces. I cooked the potatoes separately from the rest of the vegetables, they take the longest to cook.
In one pan, with a couple T oil, add the potatoes and cook on high heat, once they start to brown, you can lower the temp.
In another pan saute the onion for several min, until transparent, then add the squash and bell pepper. Cook until tender, then add the whole cherry toms, and the finely chopped greens.
Season everything with salt and pepper, and add some paprika and chopped scallions to the potatoes.
Grease a pie pan, and place the potatoes in the dish. Top off with the sauteed vegetables, and leave room for egg. I had quite a bit of the vegs left over, to save for another meal.
Blend the eggs well, in a blender or food processor. Once the Pie pan is full bake at 350 for about 45 min, until firm. At this point, I spread the shredded cheese on top and sprinkled with bread crumbs & fresh herbs, then let it melt for a minute at a low broil.

I served this with the roasted pepper sauce recipe that follows.