One-Pot Vegan Tomato Basil Spinach Pasta

 

This recipe comes from The Ordinary Vegan  webpage. The print out I have is dated June 24, 2015. I found it stuffed between some other things on my cookbook shelf. I have no recollection of how I originally came across this recipe, but when it fell into my hands recently I realized I had everything I needed to make it, so I did. 

 

Although the recipe calls for linguine, I used some tri-colored bow-tie pasta we bought recently at a fancy-schmancy food store while we were traveling in the mid-west. The preparation was easy and quick. Just about everything went into the pot at the start, even the dry pasta. The pot was covered and the liquid was brought to a boil, then reduced to a simmer. The only real prep work was slicing the onion and garlic cloves. The only thing that went in later was the spinach, which was added after seven minutes of cooking. Since this is a vegan dish it did not call for any cheese, but we like cheese so we added a bit of feta to each of our plates.

This had a very peppery flavor, which we both liked. From start to table was about 25 minutes. Easy, quick, delicious.

Cilantro Lime Rice and Beans

There's not a whole lot more to add to this post, once one reads the title. The recipe showed up on my  Facebook feed, posted by a friend. I remembered it on Friday when we were looking for an easy meal for dinner. Serendipitously, we had part of a lime, as well as some cilantro left over from a meal we prepared earlier in the week. Since the only other ingredients listed (besides rice and beans, of course) were water, salt, and olive oil we were good to go. I used the basil flavored olive oil we found at Fieldstone Farm Market (a great grocery store we recently discovered in Marion, MA). 

The recipe can be found here. I used my indispensable cast-iron skillet for this one-pot meal.

Corny Corn

We picked up some corn at the local farmers' market yesterday and decided to cook it on the #BigGreenEgg. But how to do it? (Our usual approach is simply to bring a big pot of water to a boil before putting the husked ears in for exactly ten minutes.)

The EGGhead forum offered many options; we settled on a simple one. We removed the husks and soaked the corn, while heating up the Egg to about 400. (Since we were essentially using it for a quick, direct cooking, we did not worry too much about the exact temp.)

Then we put the ears directly on the grill, turning every five minutes with our indispensable kitchen tongs. Giving the corn a 5-minute head start, I then put some burgers on the griddle insert.

When the burgers were done (perfectly, I might add!), I could not tell if the corn was done. I asked Pam to look with me, and we agreed that we really had no way to know. So we took the burgers in for condimentage, which in our house is always a process. At this point, the corn had 20 minutes of regular turning over high heat, so we decided to declare victory.

Photo shamelessly stolen from EGGhead Forum
member bitslammer

And a victory was had! I did not think to try a photo until too late, but the corn looked a lot like the image above, taken from the forum. We were skeptical -- it looks tough and we like our corn-on-the-cob tender. Somehow, though, it was -- tender and delicious. I think the soaking must have played a big part in this. I applied nothing but Amish butter and a little black pepper to mine.

Lagniappe

This simple story is not a recipe story in the traditional sense, but it is a good example of what happens as we build cooking experience. Once we decided on a goal, Pam and I each consulted a wide variety of informed opinions. We did not follow any one of them as a script, but as a group, the other #BigGreenEgg users gave us key things to consider as we figured this out. 

Some of those ideas require considerably more time and effort; following this success, we might just revisit those and keep exploring the world of grilled corn. Local corn, that is, not the King Corn stuff.

Red Beans and Rice

I decided to make red beans and rice when I realized we had quite a few cans of kidney beans in the pantry. I turned to trusty Deborah Madison for a recipe. Of course her recipe called for dry beans with overnight soaking which wasn't necessary with canned beans, so I did my best to adapt the recipe using the canned beans. It was good news that we had the rest of the ingredients on hand (or some reasonable substitution) since our grocery store trip wasn't scheduled until the day after I made this.

I started by dicing a small onion, one garlic clove, a stalk of celery and the rest of a red bell pepper that I had used in a recipe last week. I sauteéd the vegetables in Chipotle Olive Oil. Once the veggies were soft I added some bay leaves, thyme, oregano, parsley, and some salt and pepper. I let it all cook on low for about 20 minutes and then added the beans and then cooked for another 7 minutes.

Meanwhile I cooked the rice, which turned out to be a bigger project than it should have been. I left the heat on too high and the water evaporated before the rice fully cooked, so I added some more water and turned the heat down, and then I had to do it again, and again, and again. Some to the individual rice grains had burned to the bottom of the pan, but we just scraped them off added them to the rest and called it cajun.

As Goddess is my witness I will never buy granola again!

Well, I can't believe it took a pandemic for me to make this simplest of recipes. I frankly was always in awe of people who made their own granola (or granilla as it is called in our house) but now I know my fascination was unwarranted. I don't know why I expected this would be some big kitchen-based project. We ran out of our store-bought granola this morning, so I did have some motivation to get on with this but honestly, it was so easy I'm embarrassed that I never made this myself before. It took less than 30 minutes to gather the ingredients (all of which were already in my pantry), mix them, and bake. I used this recipe from Cookie and Kate which calls for oats, sea salt, coconut or olive oil, nuts and/or seeds, cinnamon, maple syrup or honey, vanilla extract and optional fruits or chocolate chips. I opted out of the last two, used honey rather than maple syrup, and used chopped walnuts. I also used the last of our blood-orange infused olive oil from L.O.V.E.  Good thing they have shipping to anywhere in the U.S. This is super tasty, and not too sweet. I think next time I will use a higher ratio of nuts though.

This can easily be made vegan by using maple syrup rather than honey.

Cabbage with Apples, Onions, and Caraway

This one comes from the New York Times Cooking Page, and was selected because I had some leftover cabbage from the cole slaw James made last week, and an apple that needed to be eaten soon, or be composted. Fortunately I already had the other ingredients (onions, celery and caraway) on hand. The recipe also called for sprinkling sliced scallions on top before serving, but that would have required a trip to the grocery store, so I skipped that part.

I started by cutting the 1/2 head of cabbage into strips and cooking in boiling salted water for less than one minute. This was drained and rinsed in cold water.

Next I sliced the apple and onion and cooked with salt and pepper in our indispensable cast-iron skillet. Once they were browned I added the celery and caraway seeds. All of this was placed into a casserole dish with the cabbage and cooked at 400 for 10 minutes.

It made a fine side dish to accompany a family-favorite, comfort-food, hamburger-helper type meal.

I wouldn't go out of my way to prepare it again, but it was an excellent way to use up produce that otherwise would have gone bad.

Sweet Potato & Refried Bean Tacos

I made this dish a few weeks ago, and as I was getting ready to blog about the divine pie I made for Thanksgiving, I remembered that I never posted about this fabulous meal. The recipe has two parts - one for the filling, and the other for the poblano salsa. I dutifully asked James to procure the poblano, tomatoes, and lime but unfortunately assumed onion and garlic were already on hand, only to discover I was wrong. Further complicating the problem was the less than stellar set up I had for roasting the pepper. We usually roast them directly on the flame of our gas stove, but we were at our beach house which has the inferior electric stove top. I attempted to roast the pepper by placing it in an indispensable cast-iron skillet on top of one of the burners and turning it several times, but it didn't work very well. I ultimately decided to simply add the diced tomatoes and diced (semi) roasted pepper to a jar of prepared lime salsa - not an ideal solution, but a solution nonetheless.

The sweet potatoes were roasted in the oven at 425 for half and hour after drizzling with olive oil, chili powder, salt, and pepper. The roasted sweet potatoes were simply served on warmed tortilla shells with a helping of refried beans and topped with salsa and cilantro. We also added some sour cream. A very delicious and hearty vegetarian meal despite the problems with making the salsa.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

photo from allrecipes.com

James and I bought a rather large bag of sweet potatoes a few weeks ago, and have been using them in various recipes (both old favorites and new temptations). I noticed that we had several cans of black beans in the cupboard so I started looking for a sweet potato and black bean soup recipe. I thought I would be able to count on good ol' Deborah Madison for this one, and was surprised to discover that her great big vegetarian cookbook in fact does not include such a recipe. My next stop was the New York Times Cooking pages. Once again, I was disappointed. So I next turned to allrecipes.com where I hit the jackpot with this hearty chili.  The ingredient list is rather long, but I am now such a foodie that I had everything in my own pantry (or at least a reasonable facsimile of everything). This isn't especially difficult to prepare, but it does take some time. The sweet potatoes have to be peeled, diced, and roasted. Additionally, the cooking time for the chili is close to an hour.  I made a few minor changes to the ingredients. The recipe calls for coating the sweet potatoes along with a chipotle pepper in olive oil. Since I keep a big bottle of chipotle- infused olive oil in my pantry I just used that to coat the sweet potatoes. (If you are in need of such a bottle I got mine at Lebherz Oil and Vinegar Emporium - they deliver!). In lieu of water I used the coffee that was left in our carafe from our morning brew. And, instead of of the teaspoon each of cocoa powder and sugar called for I used two small pieces of Mexican chocolate which turned out to be exactly the right thing to do. Topped with fresh cilantro and sour cream this was rich in colors, flavors, and textures.We both quite enjoyed this meal, and it paired perfectly with a bottle our own Barolo wine. In fact, I don't think we've ever had anything that so perfectly complemented the Barolo. There is no doubt that we will be making this one again.

Thanksgiving Pot-Luck Contribution

This year we spent Thanksgiving with some friends at the Second Annual First Parish Thanksgiving Dinner. About a dozen people chipped in and shared a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the Unitarian Universalist church in Bridgewater.
James and I spent the morning preparing Wild Rice Stuffing from the New York Times cooking page. Mostly we followed the recipe as presented, with two small changes. The proportions of wild rice to brown rice were reversed, and we used hazelnuts instead of pecans (only because I didn't put pecans on the list for James to buy because I thought we already had some, only to find out they were hazelnuts).  The dish was sweet and savory -- and the leftovers were divine.

Good food, sparkling conversation, and a warm setting made this a lovely holiday. Also, we brought the biggest bottle of wine ever!

The empty bottle of homemade Barolo wine we brought to the dinner.
Shown here with a regular-sized wine bottle for scale.

Lime Butternut Squash Soup

Another tasty recipe from the Civilized Caveman. I was surprised by how much flavor this five-ingredient soup had, The lime was more prominent than I expected. The preparation was rather simple. I had to peel and cut the squash which took some effort, and the steaming took some time so I used that time to make our favorite cornbread to accompany the soup. Once the squash was steamed I drained the water and added the rest of the ingredients and used my immersion blender to blend it right in the same pot. It was super creamy, and very thick. James and I also added some fresh nutmeg to it, because it is butternut squash after all!

Lilith's Lily Fair Soup and Lemon Potato Salad with Mint

Last week I posted about our summer solstice meal with a recipe from The Wicca Cookbook. One of the recipes I wanted to try was the Lilith's Lily Fair Soup, but I had to wait because our day lilies were not yet blooming. Today I noticed the familiar orange color in the garden and bought the rest of the ingredients I needed.

    

                    

Preparation was fairly simple, but had to be started several hours in advance so everything would have time to chill. Essentially I made two fruit smoothies, and then poured them carefully into bowls once they were chilled. The first round was made from the mango, melon (we used cantaloupe instead of honeydew) and the orange juice. Once that was blended I put it in a bowl which I placed in the refrigerator to chill. I rinsed the blender and then mixed the raspberries, liquor, and sugar in it. This mix, too went into the refrigerator. I let it chill about two hours, and then poured the mango/melon mix into the bowls. Next, the raspberry mixed was poured slowly to one side to create an eye-pleasing soup. One day lily was cut up and sprinkled on top of the soup, and then one whole lily was placed on top. This soup was beautiful, and delicious. And, for me, it was also a bit nostalgic. First because day lilies were the first edible flower I ever learned about (many years ago during an elementary school field trip), and also because the neon orange and bright pink color combination of the soup reminded me of a treat I used to get from the Good Humor truck!

                      

To complement this summer soup I also made the lemon/mint potato salad from the New York Times. Again, the dish was simple, but I had to start it several hours in advance. We enjoyed some Tuscan bread, purchased from the Fairhaven (Massachusetts) Farmer's Market, and some Cinco Cães wine from the Westport Rivers Winery.

Strawvacodo Salad

It is summer concert season again, when we return to Westport Rivers -- our favorite local vineyard -- for a weekly picnic with live music and excellent wine. (This season is off to a bit of a rough start, thanks to onerous reinterpretation of puritanical liquor laws. But this is still the place to be for the summer.)

Westport Rivers supports area businesses, so that a raw bar, food truck, or both are usually part of the event. Even if we try some of those items, though, this is a picnic so we always bring some or all of the food we are going to want. Pam turned to Intercourses, the cleverly-named romantic cookbook that we have cited many times on this blog, and found another winner.

Not only is this a case of a book cover that is more photogenic than the actual food; it is also a reminder of just how passionate the authors are about this particular ingredient.

Strawberry and avocado salad brings together two ingredients that each warrant a whole chapter in this book -- buy the book to enjoy all of the rhapsodizing about these two fruits. For now, the basics: chill a dressing and chop a bunch of produce.

Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup raspberry vinegar (we used blackberry-ginger balsamic from L.O.V.E., our aptly-named favorite provider of infused oils and vinegars, run by a fellow UMBC alumna)

1-1/2 T sugar
1/4 t hot sauce
1/4 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1/4 t cinnamon

Produce
1 head romaine (we used about half a head of green lettuce -- not iceberg -- making the sensual ingredients all the more prominent)

1 orange, sectioned then halved (the recipe calls for half a can of mandarin oranges, but fresh seemed a better choice)
1/2 cup sliced onion (we used a few scallions)
1/4 cup toasted pecans (toasted them myself in a cast-iron skillet)
1/2 avocado (this made no sense to me -- I used a whole one)

Pam made the dressing; I prepared the produce. We tossed it all in a bowl and took it to the vineyard -- perfectly paired with Cinco Cães, the lovely sunset, and the lyrical stylings of Rebecca Correia.

Special Salad

Last night James and I bought some stuffed cod at Kyler's Catch Seafood Market and brought it back to our Whaling House for me to bake while he went Whaleboat rowing. I knew we didn't have many options in the way of vegetable or salad at the house and found only a small wilting carrot and a clementine on the downturn in the refrigerator. Not one to waste food I decided I was going to make a salad with them. I found some raisins and slivered almonds in the cupboard and so I shredded the carrot, and sectioned the clementine, removed the membrane, and added the pulp to the carrots. I threw in a handful each of the raisins and almonds. It seemed like it needed a dressing, so I went back to the cupboard where I found a grapefruit/raspberry vinaigrette - a free gift sent along with our last order from L.O.V.E. It turned out to be a perfect topping. This was sublime. I loved that it was sweet, crunchy and chewy. I will definitely make this again, but next time I will plan ahead and make sure we have additional carrots and oranges so that I can have a bigger serving!

Roasted Potatoes with Figs and Thyme

I really like the New York Times cooking section for suggestions of food combinations I wouldn't have thought of myself. This recipe for fingerling potatoes with figs was a prefect example. The figs were seeped in tea before being cooked in with the potatoes. Although I didn't let it sit overnight as the recipe called for, by pouring hot water over the figs along with three tea bags and letting it seep while everything else was prepared the subtle flavor of the tea came through. Otherwise we followed the recipe as written and had it as a side dish with some haddock cooked in lemon oil. A wonderful meal with leftovers to boot!

Something like the Ghanaian Spinach Stew posted on the NYT website

I try to read at least some of the New York Times online everyday, and occasionally I try a recipe I find there. The Ghanaian Spinach Stew looked good, and I thought I could probably substitute some of the mixed greens I froze over the summer from my CSA for the spinach. I ended up making a variety of substitutions as it turned out, and in fact, ended up adding an ingredient just because it seemed like a good idea. Ultimately, I wound up with a pretty tasty dish that still had some resemblance to the recipe provided.

Rather than list all the substitutions, I'll describe what I did from the beginning:

I chopped up and sauteed half a medium onion, along with some garlic scapes (frozen from the CSA) and a dried, chopped chili pepper. I followed the recipe's instructions to cook until the onion was caramelized, at which point James and I both started to cough from volatilized pepper. I turned down the heat, and put on the mostly useless stove hood fan. (James adds: Our fan does not have an outdoor vent, so it is essentially a Playskool fan. One of these days...)

Once the air was brought back under control I added a can of tomato paste, some ground ginger, and a can of diced tomatoes. I had planned to used pumpkin seeds (as the recipe called for) but realized the ones I bought were not raw, but rather roasted and salted, so I decided to throw in a can of chick peas instead. Finally I put in some of the frozen greens and cooked until everything was heated. The dish was spicy hot, so it worked well served over some leftover rice and paired with some Long Trail Ale.

L.O.V.E. the Fruit

Where wine- and music-lovers gather

This one will be short and sweet. Well, short and sweet and tangy. One of the things we most enjoy about South Shore summers is the picnics we take nearly every Friday evening to the Sunset Music series at Westport Rivers. It is a great way to begin a weekend, bringing food (some great food is also for sale there), enjoying the wine and beer for sale there, listening to live music, and supporting a family business that is deeply dedicated to the protection of coastal open space.

We decided to include a fruit salad in the picnic we would share with friends who were meeting us at the vineyard. I cut up some strawberries, a banana, some apples, and a mango -- and put them all in the fridge to chill. I was not quite sure what to do about a dressing. A salad like this needs some kind of acid -- perhaps lime juice -- to deter browning, and something for sweetness as well. I had a few ideas, but decided to wait until Pam got home in case she could come up with something better.

And indeed she did. She went immediately to our Treasure Island (the kitchen island that contains all manner of potions and libations, from Triple Sec to infused olive oils), looking for just the right vinegar. That's right ... readers of this blog will know that we are smitten with L.O.V.E. -- a small business operated by a fellow UMBC graduate that introduced us to the magic of infused oils and balsamics a few years ago.

In this case, ripe peach white balsamic was the perfect dressing for the fruit I had prepared. The result was gobsmacking!

Almond Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

Recently my FaceBook feed featured a link from the Huffington Post for "19 New Recipes to Make with a Jar of Almond Butter." I have had a jar of almond butter in my refrigerator for quite a while now. I occasionally use it instead of peanut butter when making a sandwich, but it really never occurred to me to try to find a recipe to make with it. There are actually several on this list of nineteen that I might try, but I started with a rather simple one. The recipe provided is for a vegan smoothie using vanilla almond milk, but I made a non-vegan version with vanilla yogurt. I started by grinding 3 T. of oatmeal in the blender until they were finely ground. Then I added one chopped banana, a handful of ice cubes, 1/2 c. vanilla yogurt and a bit of agave nectar and blended until mixed well. I was a little concerned about the texture of this, and I was right to be. It was a bit grainy for my taste. It was just the right amount of sweet though. It wasn't bad, but I doubt I will try it again. There are plenty of other kinds of smoothies I like better. I do not plan on trying the Almond Butter Spinach smoothie (no. 11 on the list) at all.

Six-Minute Chocolate Cake - The "Espresso" of Cakes!

So, James had a birthday on Sunday. I baked him a cake, but he was away most of the day taking a train from Baltimore to Providence, Rhode Island where Paloma and I picked him up. It was almost 9:00 p.m. when we met the train, and then we stopped for a bite to eat, so it was close to 10:30 when we got home - past my bedtime. I had to work the next day, so the cake sat until after our Cinco de Mayo Celebration on Monday.

I found the recipe in the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook. The editors say they got the original recipe from a 1976 House & Garden magazine. It is quite simple, and really only takes about 6 minutes to whip together.  Mixing of ingredients is done directly in the pan in which it is cooked.

The recipe calls for:
1 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. sugar (I used a little less - about 3/4 cup)
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. cold water OR brewed coffee (regular readers of this blog will have no problem guessing which one I chose!)
2. t. vanilla extract
2 T. vinegar

The dry ingredients were sifted directly into an ungreased 9" round cake pan. Then everything else, except the vinegar, was poured into a 2-cup measuring cup, then poured and mixed with the dry ingredients. Once the batter was smooth I added the vinegar (I used one tablespoon of Espresso-flavored vinegar; and one tablespoon of dark chocolate-flavored) and mixed well. It baked at 350 for about 25 minutes. It was such a dark brown color it was almost black after it baked.

The recipe also includes directions for an optional glaze, which I also made.

Ingredients are:
1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate (I had to re-read that several times, yes 1/2 pound, which was all I had in my cupboard)
3/4 c. hot milk
1/2 t. vanilla

The chocolate was melted in a 300 degree oven then mixed with the other ingredients. It was not so much a "glaze", but rather a blob of bittersweet chocolate. I could not figure out why it called for so much chocolate, I ended up using only a tiny fraction of the "blob" to frost the cake. I added some confectioners sugar to the top of the cake, along with a bit of ground cocoa, coffee, and sugar. The cake had a rich flavor, not too sweet, and was enjoyed by us both (alas - poor Paloma did not get to partake).  James is taking the rest over to his Social Justice League meeting today.

Sputnik II

Careful readers of this space may recall my introduction to the vegetable kohlrabi (COAL-ROBBIE or COAL-RABIE) two years ago, in a post entitled Kohl-whatee?, in which I compared the German turnip (as it is also known) to the Soviet satellite that scared the Eisenhower generation into raising taxes for NASA and that was nearly as edible.

When our orbit crossed that of the cabbage's humble cousin this year, Pam went to the shelves and found two possibilities, suggesting that I choose one to prepare. The winner -- as she often is -- was Jane Brody, whose Good Food Book includes a kohlrabi salad on page 544.

NOTE: This recipe calls for two hours of chilling time.

This is quite a simple salad, which calls for 2-1/2 pounds of kohlrabi bulbs and 2 small white onions. Since I had just one medium kohlrabi (it seems like the singular should be kohlrabo -- like biscotto -- but it is not), I used just a quarter of a medium yellow onion. I chopped the onion finely and put it in a bowl and then trimmed and peeled the kohlrabi. I sliced it into 1/4-inch sticks about two inches long and put them in boiling water. The recipe calls for boiling at one minute; I accidentally left it a bit longer, but no harm was done. Since this is related to cabbage, I can imagine over-boiling would release unpleasant sulfurs. I then rinsed the kohlrabi under cool water in a sieve.

In a separate bowl, I whisked together the dressing. The original proportions are shown -- I used about half and could have done with a bit less.

1/2 c tarragon wine vinegar (I used red wine vinegar and 1/2 t of dried tarragon)
1/4 c sugar
2 t sesame seeds
1/2 t minced fresh ginger (this was the exception -- I used about a teaspoon)
1/2 t hot red pepper flakes
1/2 t ground black pepper
1/4 t salt

I tossed this together with the vegetables and then realized that the last step was to chill. We were ready for dinner when I noticed this, so we settled for 20 minutes or so. More would have been better.

Readers of this space also know that we are fans of elaborate oils and vinegars from our friends at Lebherz in Frederick, Maryland, but I used a generic wine vinegar in this case. I am looking forward to recommendations from L.O.V.E.

The intention of this recipe, is to use hot spices and cold temperatures to help the diner forget about the kohlrabi. It actually works pretty well,  and the result reminded me of a hot slaw I made a few weeks ago with actual cabbage. This was a decent side dish for our crab cake sandwiches; the pairing with a semi-sweet wine was not ideal, though I am not sure what I would recommend -- perhaps a peppery Cabernet Sauvignon will be in order next time.

Avocado Lime Popicles - (a.k.a. Oobleck on a stick)

While I was looking for recipes using lime for my recent birthday celebration, I came across this one which seemed a bit weird, but  I really felt the need to try it anyway. I didn't make it for my birthday, but kept it in mind for possible "pops on the porch" enjoyment this summer. Made with agave nectar, water, 2 avocados, and the juice of one lime it turned out to be a delicious sweet and creamy treat for a summer eve.