I’m honored to share my birthday with the noodle. There’s nothing like a hearty noodle dish to lift your spirits, especially as the weather starts to turn cooler and the days become shorter. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in Korea and was spoiled with all kinds of amazing Korean noodle dishes — savory, spicy, loaded with seaweed, dumplings and even rice cakes. Mmmm mmmm.
I recently saw an episode of Giada at Home on the Food Network where she made sweet potato and kale chips. With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, I decided to experiment with a healthy snack alternative myself (thanks for the inspiration, Giada!).
I decided to combine two of my favorite ingredients – beets and Greek yogurt – to make a figure-friendly version of chips and dip. Give these a try and I guarantee you won’t be grabbing any store-bought potato chips and dip anymore. Well, unless of course you screw up the recipe, in which case, that’s all your own fault 
. And if you have any guests who hesitate giving these a try, lie to them and say it’s purple potatoes — they won’t know the difference mwahahaha!
For the beet chips:
For the yogurt-chive dip:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the beets. Note: these little suckers bleed and turn everything red — I recommend keeping the beets on paper towels to minimize clean up later.
Using the thinnest setting on a mandolin, slice the beets.
Toss sliced beets with extra-virgin olive oil and salt & pepper. Place a baking rack on top of a flat baking sheet. Working in batches, place sliced beets in a single layer on top of the baking rack.
Bake until crisp, about 15-20 minutes. Note: Keep a close eye on these! The high sugar content of beets make them very susceptible to burning, especially when sliced so thin.
While the beets are baking, start on the yogurt-chive dip. In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt and lemon juice.
Add the chives and parsley and mix until well incorporated.
Season with shallot salt and white pepper; mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to combine.
When beet chips are done, season with additional salt while hot (optional). Plate with yogurt-chive dip, sit back, and watch the Packers kick some Steeler butt! 
Oh, and another helpful tip: don’t turn your back for even a second while working with raw beets…or else a sneaky little kitty may get into some mischief (notice the red beet mustache on his face ).
Anyone else doing some figure-friendly Super Bowl nibbles? This Buffalo Chicken Rolls recipe from Can You Stay For Dinner is definitely on my list to try — YUM!
My boss invited our staff over for a lovely dinner at her house this week. While she handled the main dish (delicious seafood stew from Tom Douglas’ Tom’s Big Dinners cookbook), the rest of us contributed side dishes and dessert. I volunteered to bring a veggie side dish, and knew instantly that I wanted to do a beet dish — they are in season and are absolutely delicious. And I also wanted to get one of my coworkers to give real beets a try — she had only ever tried canned beets (ick!) and decided she wasn’t a beet person.
Anyway, I consulted my new Williams-Sonoma Cooking From the Farmers’ Market cookbook and decided on a roasted beet dish (recipe below). Then during one of my lunch breaks, I hopped downstairs to Pike Place Market to gather my ingredients (ahhh, the joys of working at the Market ). My vendors of choice for this dish: Frank’s Quality Produce and Pike Place Market Creamery.
The recipe calls for goat cheese, but you all know how I feel about that (bleeech!). So I made a switch-a-roo and used feta instead — mmmmm, feta!
Serves 4 (I doubled the recipe to make enough to serve our larger gathering)
Slightly adapted from a recipe in Cooking From the Farmers’ Market
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wrap the beets individually in aluminum foil and roast until tender when pierced with a fork, about 1 hour.
When cool, peel and quarter the beets and place in a serving bowl. Note: Since I was preparing this dish the night before, I put the beets in two separate covered bowls (so the red beets wouldn’t bleed onto the golden beets) and stored them in the refrigerator. Right before dinner, I reheated the beets in the oven.
Meanwhile in a separate bowl, mix together the thyme, chives, and olive oil.
Remove the beets from the oven and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the oil-herb mixture over the beets and toss. Add the feta and toss. Check the seasoning and adjust as needed with salt and pepper. Serve and enjoy!
For my very last Meatless Week meal yesterday, I decided to really step up the challenge by trying a vegetable that I generally don’t like: bell peppers. Actually, I don’t mind raw bell peppers dipped in some hummus or ranch, but I’m not a fan of cooked bell peppers. I came across this recipe for roasted bell peppers stuffed with a quinoa mixture and was instantly intrigued.
Something this beautiful couldn’t quite possibly taste bad. I was right, this dish is amazing! The hearty and flavorful quinoa mixture with the tender and juicy bell peppers are the perfect combination. I’ll definitely be making this one again…Meatless Week or not.
I learned quite a bit this past week, including wonderful new recipes and ingredients (did you know that quinoa is full of protein?!). I also learned to really listen to my body and eat just enough to curb hunger pangs. It’s amazing how some celery with peanut butter or handful of edamame can do just that. But as fun as it was to be a vegetarian for a week, I look forward to reintroducing meat into my diet today. Now the question is, what will be the first piece of meat I eat. Bacon? Chicken? A sampling of everything?
Adapted from Whole Foods Market recipe
Serves 6
)Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally until transparent, 8 to 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook until softened, 4 to 5 minutes more. Add carrots and chopped peppers, cook until just softened, then add parsley and spinach (in batches, if needed). Let spinach wilt then stir in cinnamon, cumin and cooked quinoa and toss gently to combine. Add salt, pepper and cashews (or pistachios) and cook 1 to 2 minutes more. Set aside to let filling cool until just warm.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9- x 13-inch baking pan with oil then set aside. Divide quinoa mixture evenly among remaining 6 bell peppers, gently packing it down and making sure to fully fill each pepper. Top each pepper with its reserved top then arrange them upright in prepared pan. Cover snugly with foil and bake, checking halfway through, until peppers are tender and juicy and filling is hot throughout, about 1 hour. Transfer to plates and serve.
I didn’t have any major cravings for meat this week…until yesterday. All I could think about was eating a juicy piece of meat. So naturally I rebelled and resorted to eating crap…meatless crap. Yesterday’s “meals” consisted of these three food groups: cheese, cornichons, Swedish fish.
I woke up today with a renewed attitude (and grumbling tummy), and managed to make not one, but two delicious meat-free meals to make up for yesterday.
Jeanine, a blogger for Belles of the Sound, passed along this recipe for curried sweet potatoes and lentils. I haven’t met a sweet potato I didn’t like and I’ve actually never had lentils (gasp, I know!) so I was extremely excited to give this recipe a try. It was fantastic — hearty and full of flavor! This would be a perfect dish for a chilly autumn night, which is exactly how the weather felt today despite being the unofficial start to summer (Memorial Day weekend).
Serves 4
In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion and cook 5 minutes, stirring often. Add garlic and curry powder, and cook 1 minute longer, stirring constantly. Stir in sweet potatoes, lentils, rice, salt, broth, and 2.5 cups water; heat to boiling over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 30 minutes or until lentils and rice are tender and almost all liquid is absorbed. Let stand 5 minutes. Sprinkle with cilantro to serve.
After running a bunch of errands and re-arranging the house, I decided tonight would be a stay-in-and-watch-a-movie kind of night. And what better to go along with such a night than pizza! With some help from Trader Joe’s, I made a delicious semi-homemade pizza with all my favorite toppings: cheese, mushrooms, jalapenos and black olives.
I began by pickling the jalapenos for approx 2 hours in a mixture of distilled white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, water, salt, sugar, onion, garlic and peppercorns.
When it was time to build the pizza, I simply followed the instructions on the fresh pizza dough package (thank you, TJs, for making this Amateur Gourmand-proof ):
I didn't take a pic of the entire pie because it came out as an ugly oval
The original plan was to serve a lentil salad alongside (I received a great recipe from Joyce, author of the The Heritage Cook blog). But I totally overcooked the lentils and they fell apart and turned into the ugliest pile of mush. So I said the heck with it and ate the pizza by itself.
Self, what the hell were you thinking when you decided to take on the Meatless Week challenge during one of your busiest work weeks?
That question ran through my head all day long. Between meetings, training our new team member and handling unforeseen circumstances, I managed to skip breakfast and lunch.
Thankfully I had my trusty hard-boiled egg and cup of green tea to keep me from gnawing my own arm off by the end of the day.
Needless to say I was starving by the time I got home at 7:30pm and didn’t want to fuss with anything complicated. My colleague Rooizu (using her nickname to preserve her anonymity ) introduced me to an amazing couscous recipe last weekend during Wine:30 at her house. I can’t even begin to explain how freaking phenomenal this couscous is — pretty to look at and packed full of flavor. Not to mention, couscous is one of the easiest and quickest dishes to make.
For a protein punch, I added some pan-fried tofu. I’m not gonna lie folks, while the tofu was pretty tasty, it paled in comparison to the juicy grilled chicken Rooizu served us last week.
Recipe adapted from Gourmet Magazine (1991)
Serves 4
In a saucepan combine the butter and the broth, bring the liquid to a boil, and stir in the couscous. Remove the pan from the heat, let the mixture stand, covered, for 5 minutes, and transfer it to a bowl. Break up any lumps with a fork and stir in the currants (or cranberries), the scallion, the pistachios, the parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. In a small bowl whisk together the lemon juice, the cinnamon, and the oil. Toss the couscous mixture with the dressing and season it with salt and pepper.
Had a jam-packed day and am super fried so this update will be short and sweet. Day 2, check. Meat consumption: ZERO. Mood: pretty darn satisfied, actually.
Breakfast: the MBC made a repeat performance — yes, I’m a creature of habit.
Lunch: lovely fiery Caesar salad and vegetarian quesadilla from the lunch combo menu at Sonrisa.
Appies: I attended the “Eating While Tweeting” event hosted by the local AAJA chapter at TASTE Restaurant. Chef Craig Hetherington and team hooked us up with some amazing nibbles including a beet salad, potatoes w/ edamame puree, polenta w/ morels and — my personal fave — CHOCOLATE ESPRESSO WHOOPIE PIES! I was too busy stuffing my face and tweeting that I didn’t get around to taking any pics of the spread.
Dinner: Of course I was still hungry when I got home so I whipped up a quick and easy staple: miso udon soup. This is one of those dishes I make without exact measurements so there isn’t really a recipe to share — sorry to disappoint! But like I said, it’s super easy — if you know how to chop ingredients and boil water, you can do it!
Not shown: udon noodles and tofu...they looked gross when I photographed them
In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil. Mix in a couple Tbsp (to taste) of miso paste and dissolve. Add red chili powder and bonito, to taste. Add green chili pepper, garlic and zucchini. Lower heat and add udon noodles, tofu and green onion; let simmer for a few minutes to allow all the flavors to incorporate. Serve and enjoy!
My first day as a week-long vegetarian was pretty successful — I didn’t slip and I actually didn’t have any cravings for meat. Well, OK, I guess that’s debatable…because I had a hard-boiled egg. Now if you ask ME, it’s legit, but some others may disagree. Bahh whatever, I wanted a damn egg so I had a damn egg
For breakfast I had the amazing Magical Breakfast Cream (MBC) from The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook. This seriously trumps any yogurt-granola parfait I have ever had. EVER! The MBC alone is delicious, but I was particularly hungry this morning and needed a little extra something — so I threw in a handful of blueberries and strawberries. Délicieux!
Lunch was a bit lame with a simple PB&J and some raw veggies with spicy hummus. And then late-afternoon is when I snuck in the controversial hard-boiled egg.
Fast forward to dinner. Whole wheat pasta + cherry tomatoes + cannellini beans + Mark Bittman’s asparagus pesto recipe. The best analogy I can think of for this meal is an ugly baby…you know, the one with the face only a mother could love. As you can see from the pics below, this dish isn’t the prettiest to look at (yeah, yeah, I know it’s my lack of photography and plating skills). BUT! Let me tell you, it tasted phenomenal…and I’m one proud mama!
Serves 4-6
Pasta
Mark Bittman’s asparagus pesto
Bring 2 large pots of water to a boil and add salt. Add penne to one pot and cook until al dente, according to package directions. Drain and toss with tomatoes and cannellini beans. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside. Add asparagus to the other pot and cook until fully tender but not mushy, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain well, reserving some of the cooking liquid, and let the asparagus cool slightly.
Transfer the asparagus to a food processor and add the garlic, pine nuts, 2 tablespoons of the oil, Parmesan, a pinch of salt and a couple of tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Process the mixture, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container if necessary, and gradually add the remaining oil and a bit more of the reserved cooking liquid to moisten if necessary. Add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste, pulse one last time. Serve over pasta and top with additional Parmesan.
I cannot express my love for zucchini enough – it’s quite possibly my favorite veggie. In fact, my best friend’s mom knows how much I looooove me some zucchini, that she plants some in her garden for me every summer. Of course, she always lets them grow to the size of an infant and I end up having to bake endless loaves of zucchini bread in order to use it all up.
But my relationship with zucchini has hit a rut – I’ve been taking it for granted and subjecting it to the same old boring sautéed side dish. So last weekend, I decided to bring the spotlight back to my dear zucchini – no more of this secondary side dish business. The end result: mushroom-stuffed zucchini boats w/ a crispy cornmeal-Parmesan topping – hearty and full of flavor.
Now I know some of you big time meat-eaters may want to add some protein in the mix. By all means, do as your heart wishes – some ground meat would taste lovely in the stuffing mixture.
Note: You’ll have to excuse the poor quality of the photos below — I took them with my Blackberry camera.
Serves 4 (2 boats per person)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut zucchinis in half lengthwise and scoop out the pulp to create a hallow tunnel down the center. Reserve the pulp. Drizzle zucchini boats with olive and lightly season with salt and pepper. Bake for 8-10 mins. When done, remove from oven and set aside.
Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat and add some olive oil. Add red pepper flakes, garlic and reserved zucchini pulp; sauté until soft (you’ll want to break down any large clumps of zucchini pulp with a wooden spoon).
Add shallots and mushrooms and continue sautéing until shallots are translucent and mushrooms are tender.
Add diced tomatoes and tomato paste; season mixture with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning, to taste. Lower heat and let mixture simmer until tomato liquid evaporates a bit.
In the meantime, combine Parmesan cheese, cornmeal and melted butter together in small bowl. Lightly toast the mixture in a small saucepan (until slightly golden).
Remove mushroom-tomato mixture from heat and stuff into zucchini. Top with cornmeal-Parmesan mixture. Bake for 10-12 minutes to heat everything through together.
Serve immediately. Optional: sprinkle fresh minced parsley before serving.
It’s been ages since I’ve posted a Fave Recipe Friday entry and I’ve been wanting to share this amazing delicata squash recipe I tried awhile back. And what better timing to share a delicious vegetarian recipe than on a Friday in Lent!
I’m a gal who loves her some squash — zucchini, acorn, butternut, you name it. But up until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t yet tried the delicata squash. I had heard so many great things about its flavor and was just itchin’ to give it a try. Well, imagine the moves I busted out in my happy dance when I saw delicata squash listed in my CSA delivery last month. And imagine the encore performance when I stumbled upon this mouth-watering recipe on Epicurious.com.
The sweet flavor of the delicata combined with the savory roasted mushrooms is a match made in heaven. Although, I’m sure my slightly modified version of the recipe may have been considerably milder in flavor since I used fresh parsley instead of thyme (I didn’t have any on hand and wasn’t about to make a store run for one single ingredient ). I also only used cremini mushrooms since I had a large supply that I needed to use up. While this is a light meal, I found it to be pretty hearty and filling.
Courtesy of Gourmet Magazine (Nov 2004)
Serves 6
Stir together oil, thyme, salt, and pepper. Toss squash with 2 tablespoons thyme oil in a shallow baking pan (1/2 to 1 inch deep) and arrange in 1 layer. Toss mushrooms with remaining 1/4 cup thyme oil in another shallow baking pan (1/2 to 1 inch deep) and arrange in 1 layer. Roast squash and mushrooms, stirring occasionally and switching position of pans halfway through roasting, until vegetables are tender and liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated, 25 to 30 minutes.
