Tag Archives: vegetarian recipes

Artichoke and Rosemary Pasta

12 Replies

Our artichoke harvest has been meager so far this year: one lonely bud.  The girls’ enthusiasm to eat it buoyed it straight from the back yard onto this week’s menu, where it was luckily joined by a larger bag of artichokes from our CSA.

I always end up feeling that artichokes are worth the work, don’t you?  I usually take the easy way out and steam them in eighths, but at least once a year I roll up my sleeves, clear my counters, and set to work cleaning and slivering artichokes for this recipe.  When you’re done, the deep, haunting flavor of any passable artichoke is magnified by caramelization, teased out by rosemary, and slathered across a gorgeous pile of pasta.  I confidently assert that this recipe is worth the hour it takes.Prepared Artichokes

Here’s a decent photo tutorial showing the steps for reducing a healthy-looking artichoke to a very-tasty shadow of its former self.  You can use artichokes of any size for this recipe–baby artichokes won’t have the thistle-blossom choke in the center, but if you use a larger artichoke you can just scoop out the choke with a paring knife or grapefruit spoon as you go.  Thinking of the task as meditative rather than repetitive helps.

Whatever you do, be sure to save the meaty outer leaves that you peel off.  I usually steam and serve them separately, but Elise of Simply Recipes offers the even-better idea of simmering them to make a broth.  I like the idea of getting three dishes from my bag of artichokes–this pasta, a plate of cold artichoke leaves with dipping sauces, and a steaming bowl of pillowy cheese ravioli floating in artichoke broth.  I’ll try that next time and report back.  Waste not want not, and all that.

p.s. After all that, the kids refused to eat the pasta, of course.  The leaves, which remained in recognizable artichoke form, were as popular as ever.

Artichoke and Rosemary Pasta Continue reading →

Black Bean Enfrijoladas

19 Replies

Today I’m here to offer you another version of my favorite black bean chilaquiles.  The original recipe gives you a riot of textures and bright flavors: the salty crunch of tortilla chips, lime, feta, chunky salsa, cilantro, a drizzle of crema, maybe even a few crisp radishes, all supported by a spicy puree of black beans, smoky chipotles, and garlic.  A bowl of those chilaquiles is one of my favorite foods.

But some days call for something a little simpler, a little healthier, and a heck of a lot less work.  On those days, lately, I’ve been making this version of the recipe instead.  The backbone of the dish, the spicy black bean puree, is unchanged from the earlier recipe.  But once the beans are ready, I don’t fuss with the little bowls of assorted toppings or with baking or frying the tortillas into chips.  Instead, I just dunk warm corn tortillas into the beans and then fold them into quarters right on our plates, topping them with a scoop of salsa, avocado, a handful of toasted pine nuts, and a dusting of cilantro.  With a salad alongside, dinner is served.Black Bean Enfrijoladas Continue reading →

Spiced Lentils and Rice with Fried Onions (Mejadra)

34 Replies

I recognize that early January is a time of year traditionally reserved for repentance and asceticism, but I’ve never been much good at either of those.  After many years of making my never-changing Annual New Year’s Resolution (yeah, I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours), this year I didn’t make one at all.

So while better women are perfecting their green smoothie technique or annoying the regulars at the gym, I’ve been getting over my fear of deep frying.Lentils and Rice with Fried OnionsAnd I’m so glad I did.  This dish is spectacular for a few reasons.  The flavors are deep and rich and sweet, beautifully spiced but not at all spicy.  You probably already have all the ingredients in your cupboard, but I bet it won’t cost you $2 if you have to restock anything for this recipe.  And the leftovers just get better and better as the days go by. Continue reading →

My Favorite Recipes: November 2012

6 Replies

It’s always so hard to choose.

 Savory Oatmeal with Blue Cheese and an Olive Oil Fried Egg Savory Oatmeal with Black Pepper, Blue Cheese, and an Olive Oil Fried Egg
Roasted Squash and Kale Salad with Miso and Curry Kale Salad with Miso-Roasted Winter Squash
 Fish and Potatoes Baked Fish and Potatoes in a Saffron-Tomato Broth
 Roasted Broccoli and Tofu Rice Bowl with Harissa Roasted Broccoli and Tofu Rice Bowl
 Whole Wheat Pasta With Brussels Sprouts (2) Pasta with Shredded Brussels Sprouts and Pine Nuts
Roasted Celery Soup from emmycooks.com And this month’s Readers’ Favorite: Creamy Roasted Celery Soup

Thanks again for being part of the Emmy Cooks community!  If you like what you see here, you can sign up on the sidebar to receive a daily recipe by email, add the RSS feed to your own reader, or follow Emmy Cooks on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

 

What’s Cooking: Late November, 2012

9 Replies

Massaged Kale SaladAnd that’s all I have to say about that.

In The Kitchen

I’ve been on a lunch kick lately.  Great kale salads.  That chickpea and avocado smash on mustard-smeared whole grain toast.  Baked chipotle-rubbed tofu to sandwich into my favorite crisp-n-crunchy sloppy-gloppy tofu reubens.Tofu Reuben with Pickles and Fries from emmycooks.comBecause I made another batch of sauerkraut.  A gallon.  I love it.  What on earth am I going to do with it?  More about that soon.

And I can’t get enough roasted winter squash right now.  I made a more substantial version of this Miso-Roasted Squash Salad, which may be my new favorite food.  And if you didn’t catch this riff on the standard roasted squash wedges, I highly recommend that you try a batch drizzled with maple syrup and ancho chile powder in addition to the olive oil and salt.Roasted Pumpkin with Maple Syrup and Ancho ChileOn My Plate

Don’t think for a moment that I’ve forgotten about my savory oatmeal fixation.  I made this one from The Jittery Cook this week, and I have my eye on this curry coconut savory granola from The Kitchn (right?).  More savory oatmeal coming your way soon, along with a breakfast-themed giveaway from Bob’s Red Mill.  Stay tuned.Savory Oatmeal with Blue Cheese and an Olive Oil Fried EggAnd it’s almost Hanukkah!  It’s early this year.  There will be lots of latkes, of course, but I like to branch out in the fried foods department as well.  I always make this apple-gruyere french toast with red onion, and this year I’m also planning on these black rice fritters with chimichurri from Herbivoracious. And sweet potato latkes.  What are your favorite Hanukkah foods?

Thanks For Cooking with Emmy Cooks!

Thank you all so much for reading and chatting in the comments and telling me how things are going in your kitchen and always helping me out with good ideas when I need them!  And I love seeing Emmy Cooks recipes in the wild–here are a few I’ve come across lately.Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpea SaladAndrea’s Garden Cooking made my Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpea Salad.

Tiny Kitchen Stories has been making this Kale Caesar Salad three times a week.  I learned from Hannah at Blue Kale Road how delicious that salad is for breakfast, topped with poached eggs!

And Always Add More Butter liked my Sweet Potato Pie–hey, thanks!

Thanks again for being part of the Emmy Cooks community!  If you like what you see here, you can sign up on the sidebar to receive a daily recipe by email, add the RSS feed to your own reader, or follow Emmy Cooks on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Mirin-Glazed Tofu and Tomatoes

16 Replies

The mise en place, to me, is a creature that exists in fantasy only.  Here’s how dinner happens in real life: I cook and chop at the same time.  It’s revolutionary, I know, but I suspect that many (most?) home cooks join me in rising up against French tradition in this regard.  First we chop the onions, and then once they’re in the pan we chop the next thing.  I’m not alone here, right?

But here’s the thing about on-the-fly prep when you’re making what’s essentially a stir-fry: you have to work fast.  So be prepared to let your knife fly—or get all Martha and chop your ingredients in advance. Continue reading →

What’s Cooking: October 2012, Week 3

6 Replies

Aside from the apples, this has been a very relaxing week for me in the kitchen.  My in-laws visited last weekend and, as I’ve told you already, my mother in law is an excellent cook.  She arrived with a stack of recipe print-outs and a plan, and she fed us well.  What luxury.  I could get used to that.

In The Kitchen

Menu 1: My mother in law made this leek and gruyere tart in puff pastry, which sparked a lively discussion about the difference between a tart and a pizza.  The upshot, I think, is that if you want to serve something fancier than a pizza you should put the toppings on puff pastry instead of pizza dough.  (These mushrooms and blue cheese would certainly work in puff pastry.)  I made that super-green lemony spinach soup and my favorite summer crunch salad–which is too good to confine to summer–to serve with the tart.Menu 2: If you’re most people in the world, apparently you’ll love Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce.  But whatever tomato sauce you choose, I recommend serving your pasta alongside roasted eggplant tossed with pesto and garlic bread.  My favorite garlic bread formula is as follows: 2 Tb. softened butter, 1 Tbsp. olive oil, 2 pressed cloves of garlic, a big pinch of salt.  Mix together and spread on a length of baguette.  Top with fresh parsley and toast for a minute under the broiler.Preserving

Meanwhile, we’ve been peeling and peeling apples.  We made more applesauce.  A friend dropped two dehydrators by so we could dry countless apple rings (which somehow, once dried, shrink to an insignificant size that belies all the work it took to make them).  And I made apple peel tea.  I’ll tell you more about that this week.On My Plate

I’m looking forward to participating in the Virtual Vegan Potluck on November 1!  I’m bringing soup, of course.  A roasted celery soup.  Creamy.  Intense.  Vegan.  I hope you’ll join us!

And now we’re on to the good part of the apple project: all the perfect ones we stashed in the fridge for eating and baking.  I can never decide between apple cake and apple pie.  Which do you prefer?

Green Spinach Soup

15 Replies

What more do you need to know?  It’s a velvety, lightly lemony spinach soup.  A nearly-effortless soup.  A 15-minutes-to-the-table soup.  A vegan soup.  A painless way to drink your veggies.  And a green, green, green, green soup. Continue reading →

What’s Cooking: October 2012, Week 2

17 Replies

I’ll give you a clue about what’s cooking around here….But first, this: I was just reading about October Unprocessed, a project that has inspired literally thousands of people to take a pledge to eat only unprocessed foods during the month of October.  I’d say I’m an avid home cook, but reading about this made me reflect on what it would mean for our family to take that pledge.  No Os cereal for the baby.  No granola bars for the kids on the go.  No MSG-laced almonds at happy hour.  (I don’t know if they really have MSG.  But probably.)  It would be kind of a big deal.  Have any of you taken the pledge?  Do you think you could?

And hey, what’s cooking in your kitchen this week?  Please feel free to leave your seasonal favorites and links in the comments! Here’s the weekly glimpse into my kitchen.

In the Kitchen

Menu 1:  Tune in to the Virtual Vegan Potluck on November 1 for a rich and creamy (vegan) roasted celery soup.  We had it with homemade beer bread and cabbage and apple salad.Menu 2: J grilled sardines for maybe our favorite sandwich of all time: crusty bread, swipe of mayo, generous smear of dijon mustard, crunchy lettuce, grilled sardines.  Try it.  We had them with a cooked-greens salad and a beet-and-orange salad.  (There I go again with the many-salads thing.  So decadent!)

Menu 3: We made a tomatillo pizza with cilantro pesto (recipe soon!) and had it with a roasted carrot and avocado salad.Preserving

Today I canned 26 pints of applesauce (which meant four loads in the canner; maybe I’ll do quarts next year) and started a gallon of sauerkraut.  Someone remind me to check it in a few weeks, please!I also dried the leaves from a bunch of celery and made a kind-of-amazing homemade celery salt.  So far it’s gone on soup and buttered bread, and I can’t wait to sprinkle it on deviled eggs.  What else should I do with it?

On My Plate

How many apples are in a bushel?  I think I’ve still got at least that many in the basement.  What are your favorite or most unique things to do with apples?

Thanks for Cooking with Emmy Cooks!

Epicurean Ramblings made our favorite Healthy Cookies.

Blue Kale Road made chickpeas from scratch and used the broth in a gorgeous-looking Kale and Polenta Stew.  I can’t wait to try it.  (I also want to make most of the other recipes on that site, and I’ve loved the ones I’ve tried.  Check it out.)

Thanks again for being part of the Emmy Cooks community!  If you like what you see here, you can sign up on the sidebar to receive a daily recipe by email, add the RSS feed to your own reader, or follow Emmy Cooks on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

What’s Cooking: October 2012, Week 1

8 Replies

In the Kitchen

What’s cooking in your kitchen this week?  Please feel free to leave your seasonal favorites and links in the comments!  Here’s a glimpse into my kitchen:

Menu 1: Grilled salmon, salsa verde, and three salads.  I always feel like it’s so decadent to have three salads.  The first was a quinoa salad with corn, green onions, cilantro, tomatoes, and lime.  The second was a plate of thinly sliced cooked beets dressed with olive oil, sherry vinegar, and chopped hazelnuts.  The last was a lemony arugula salad.Menu 2:  The leftover arugula salad & quinoa became ingredients in a batch of quinoa cakes, which I served with the leftover salsa verde.  (We also slathered some of the quinoa cakes with tomato jam.)  We had them with beet soup and braised greens in an anchovy broth.Menu 3: Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Tomatoes, and Olives (using fresh tomatoes instead of jarred) and a green salad.  If you roast the cauliflower in advance, this meal can be ready in the time it takes to cook pasta.Other Tidbits:

I make granola when our gallon jar runs empty–which is to say, quite often.  Continue reading →