I love garlic bread. It’s really easy to make and is the perfect accompaniment to spaghetti or soup. Here is a quick recipe to make garlic bread.
Ingredients:
1 loaf of French Bread
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon parsley
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the butter, garlic, parsley, oregano, and Parmesan cheese. Slice the bread, but not all the way through.
Divide the butter mixture evenly between each piece.
Wrap the bread in aluminum foil and cook for 15 minutes.
Serve right out of the oven. You can either slice the bread all the way through, or just serve it as is and tear off a piece as needed. This recipe makes a softer garlic bread. If you prefer a toasty garlic bread, broil the bread for 2 to 3 minutes instead.
In the south, collard greens are traditionally made with smoked or salted meats, primarily ham hocks. I looked for a substitute for ham hocks (they kind of freak me out, not going to lie), and found a recipe for Slow Braised Collard Greens that used bacon instead.
Ingredients:
3 slices of applewood-smoked bacon
1/2 cup chopped onion (I used about 1/3 of an onion)
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, more for additional heat
1/4 teaspoon salt
6-10 leaves of collard greens, torn with the tough stem removed
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup white wine
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
Begin by cooking your bacon in a Dutch oven over medium heat.
Cook until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove from the pan and allow to cool. While waiting for the bacon to cool, prepare your onion and collard greens. Crumble the bacon once cooled.
Add the onion to the bacon drippings in the Dutch oven.
Cook for two minutes, stirring so that it evenly cooks. Add the pepper, salt, and greens and cook for another two minutes, or until the greens begin to wilt.
Stir in the crumbled bacon, broth, water, wine, and vinegar.
Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 hours or until greens are tender.
I added a 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper instead of a 1/4 teaspoon and found it to be a bit too hot for my liking. However, if you like things spicy, by all means use a 1/2 teaspoon. This side dish has a ton of flavor. An hour is a really long time to cook, but it really lets the flavors meld together. Yum!
This week, I received collard greens as part of my CSA. Although traditionally made with smoked meats and such, I wanted to ease my way into this new veggie. (I’ll try a somewhat more traditional version later this week)
Ingredients:
1 bunch of collard greens, stems removed and roughly chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 spring garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Lemon, optional
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a teaspoon of salt. Prepare your collard greens while waiting for the water to boil.
remove large stem in center of leaf
roughly chop
When the water is boiling, add the collard greens and cook for ten minutes.
when initially added
ten minutes in
Drain the collard greens in a colander and rinse under cold water. Squeeze against the colander to remove excess water.
Chop the spring garlic.
Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for one minute.
Add the collard greens and season with salt and pepper.
Cook until wilted, about three to four minutes.
Collard greens have a slight bitterness to them that works well with the subtle garlic taste of spring garlic (versus normal garlic). I added a squeeze of lemon which helped brighten the dish a bit. It’s a nice alternative to spinach, my default leafy green. As with most darker green vegetables, collard greens are high in Vitamins A, C, and K and are high in fiber, so the more leafy greens in my diet, the better.
I am still on a Wilted Spinach with Garlic Vinaigrette kick, but my CSA gave me a bag of spinach about the size of my torso, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to branch out and try other spinach side recipes. I had all of these ingredients on hand, so this recipe from Cooking Light (August 2006) seemed like a good choice.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup boiling water
1/3 cup golden raisins
4 cups spinach
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 teaspoons pine nuts, toasted
First place golden raisins in a bowl. Add 1/2 cup boiling water and let stand for 15 minutes or until raisins expand. Drain and set aside.
Place the pine nuts in a saute pan over medium heat. Shake the pan frequently to keep them from burning. When fragrant and browned, remove from heat.
Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the spinach and 2 tablespoons water.
Cook for 3 minutes or until the spinach wilts.
Remove from pot and wipe the pot dry. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil to the pan and add garlic. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring frequently. Add the spinach and raisins. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Cook for 1 minute or until heated. Stir in pine nuts and serve.
I would have never thought to put something sweet like raisins with spinach, but they really worked well together. The pine nuts added a bit of crunch, as well as some flavor from toasting the pine nuts. Although I’m not willing to shelve my go-to spinach recipe, this one will definitely be added to my recipe arsenal!
I love asparagus. I love risotto. So I thought combining the two would be easy and delicious. I used a recipe from Bon Appétit, just to make sure I knew what I was doing. Well, my poor “asparagus risotto” ended up looking more like asparagus soup with rice. Sigh. It still tasted good though…
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds asparagus
5 cups (about) canned low-salt chicken broth
1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups arborio rice or medium-grain white rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup whipping cream
Fresh rosemary sprigs (optional)
Begin by prepping your asparagus. Trim off the tough ends from the asparagus and discard. Cut off the asparagus tips and place in a bowl. Cut the stalks into ¾ inch pieces and place in another bowl.
Place 2/3 of stalk pieces, 1 cup broth and 1 cup water in blender (note: I would only use 1 cup broth, no water).
Puree until smooth and set aside. Chop your onion. I used large pieces, but I think the smaller the pieces, the better. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 8 minutes.
Add rice and stir for 1 minute.
Add the wine and cook until absorbed, stirring often, about 2 minutes. Add ½ cup broth and the chopped rosemary. Simmer until liquid is absorbed.
Continue to cook for an additional 15 minutes, adding more broth by the ½ cupfuls and allowing liquid to fully absorb before adding more. Stir often.
Add remaining asparagus stalk pieces and reserved asparagus tips and continue cooking rice until it’s tender and creamy, about 10 more minutes. Add extra broth if needed.
Add reserved asparagus puree until absorbed, about 3 minutes. (Note: 3 minutes? Ha. After 12 minutes I just gave up.)
Asparagus soup?
Stir in Parmesan and cream. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with rosemary sprigs if desired.
So, I’m guessing that cutting out the water in the puree may help a bit. I also think it might work to slowly add the puree by the ½ cupfuls versus dumping the whole thing in at once. Despite how ugly it is, it did taste good. If anyone tries this out and manages to make it look aesthetically pleasing, please let me in on your secret!
I Signed up for a CSA vegetable half share through the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative. Once a week, I pick up a box of local, organic and (obviously) in-season vegetables. This week my bundle included pink radishes. I have never tried to make anything with radishes so I was excited to see what kind of recipes were out there for this ingredient. I decided to try a salad recipe from Martha Stewart.
Ingredients:
1 English cucumber (or 3 Kirby cucumbers) halved lengthwise, seeded, thinly sliced
4 radishes, thinly sliced
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
A handful of feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 garlic clove, crushed with the flat side of a cutting knife
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
Begin by prepping your vegetables. Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise, and use a spoon to remove all seeds.
Once seeded, thinly slice the cucumber.
The radishes I had were tiny, and I was afraid to try to thinly slice them without losing a finger. I used a mandolin slicer to slice the radishes as thin as possible. Be very careful not to get your fingers!
Add the sliced cucumber and radishes to a bowl. Zest the lemon into the same bowl.
Add the feta cheese and set aside.
In another bowl, combine the lemon juice, vinegar, dill, sugar, and garlic. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Season with salt and pepper.
Whisk in the oil in a slow, steady stream until emulsified.
That just means mixed so the vinegar/oil don’t separate
Add the vinaigrette to the cucumber mixture, tossing to coat. Make sure to discard the garlic before serving.
Even if this turned out to be the most offensive salad I’ve ever eaten, I’d still probably post it just so you could see how beautiful the salad is. Thankfully, the flavors worked really well together. The lemon soaked into the cucumbers and radishes adding a hint of citrus, the dill added a little earthiness to the dish, and the feta was a nice balance to the fresh vegetables. I am pleasantly surprised to say that I hope to make radishes a part of my normal ingredients during the spring!
I found a recipe for Fig & Arugula Salad with Parmesan and really wanted to try it, but figs are not in season until September-ish. Comments for the recipe suggested using red pears as a substitute, so I tried it out. I also didn’t have any shallots so I nixed those, and added in some walnuts for a bit of crunch. The result was this Pear Arugula Salad with Walnuts and Parmesan!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 red pears, peeled, cored & chopped
6 cups trimmed arugula (about 6 ounces)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shaved fresh Parmesan cheese
A handful of walnuts
Combine the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt. Whisk to combine.
Very exciting photo, I know
Peel pears.
Cut in half and remove the seeds and stem. (You can use a melon baller or just a spoon)
Chop into bite-size pieces.
Add the pear pieces to the vinaigrette and toss to coat.
Cover and let marinate for 20 minutes. In another bowl, add the arugula.
You can add raw walnuts, or if you’re up for it, saute them in some butter until fragrant.
Remove and place on a paper towel to drain the butter.
Allow to cool and add to the arugula. Add the cheese. After 20 minutes, add the pear pieces.
This was really refreshing! I wish I could have made it with fresh figs, so I will have to attempt that again in the fall. There was just the right amount of sweetness from the pears, tangy-ness from the vinegar, crunch from the walnuts, and spice from the arugula. This would be a perfect summer dinner and a great spring board dish. Grilled salmon or chicken would be a great addition to this dish.
I have been feeling exceptionally lazy and have been avoiding food shopping at all costs. Thankfully, the latest Food & Wine magazine allowed me to go one more day without getting more groceries. I happily had all of these ingredients on hand.
Ingredients:
6 ounces bacon, diced
2 cups frozen baby peas, thawed, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, minced (I used 1/2 of a leftover onion I had)
2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
7 cups simmering chicken stock
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper
I forgot to put the wine in this photo. Whoops
Warm the chicken stock in a saucepan on the stove over low heat.
In a large saute pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook over medium heat until soft, 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring, until the rice is evenly coated with the oil. Add the wine and simmer until almost evaporated, 3 minutes.
In another saute pan, cook the bacon over moderate heat until crisp, about 6 minutes.
Drain the bacon on paper towels; reserve 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat.
While the rice is absorbing the wine, puree half of the peas (1 cup) with 1 cup of water in a food processor. (I used my trusty Magic Bullet. Best Christmas present ever.
Not terribly appetizing..
Once the wine is absorbed, add enough hot stock to just cover the rice and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the stock has been absorbed. Add more stock, enough to cover the rice.
You can tell I burnt some of the onions…
Continue cooking and stirring, adding more stock as it is absorbed, until the rice is creamy, about 25 minutes.
The rice really expands!
Add the pea puree, the remaining peas and the bacon and cook, stirring, until hot.
Remove the risotto from the heat and stir in the butter, reserved bacon fat, cheese and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.
This was very satisfying, especially for not having to buy any ingredients. I think I’d like it with a bit more cheese, just as a topping upon serving. To take advantage of the spring season’s fresh vegetables, you could substitute in asparagus, or maybe just add some fresh asparagus to the dish.
Risotto is a great go-to meal on week days because it always takes about 30 minutes to make. I haven’t typed up many risotto recipes yet, but you can expect them in the future.
The April 2011 Issue of Cooking Light included a seemingly simple side dish using a type of mushroom I have yet to work with: Smoky Asparagus and Mushroom Saute. Morels are a wild mushroom; efforts to cultivate this mushroom have been mostly unsuccessful. Because they need to be “hunted” (those that collect morels are called mushroom hunters, I kid you not), they are super expensive– the market I went to was selling them for $69.99/lb., ouch. So this recipe can get pricey fast. I substituted in some hen of the woods (“Maitake”) mushrooms to save my wallet a bit. I ended up spending about $4 on the morels and a $1 and some change on the hen of the woods.
I had some left over asparagus from making the Orzo Risotto with Buttery Shrimp dish a few days ago so this dish was perfect to use ingredients I mostly had on hand.
New York Times recently had an article with a recipe from Carmen Quagliata, the executive chef at Union Square Café. The recipe was for a perfect winter dish: Vegan Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash and Apple with Candied Walnuts. Usually when searching for Brussels sprouts recipes, bacon is almost always included, so I was happy to find a somewhat healthy alternative. I thought Ash Wednesday would a great to try out this recipe for dinner.
Ingredients for Brussels sprouts:
1 ½ cups Brussels sprouts, trimmed, halved
2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch asymmetrical chunks
2 cups (about 1 large) Honeycrisp, Cortland, or Granny Smith apple, cored and cut into 1-inch asymmetrical chunks (my local market was out of these options so I used two Pink Lady apples)
1 shallot, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 fresh sage leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper
½ tablespoon maple syrup
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. While it is heating up, prep your Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, apples, and shallot. To trim the Brussels sprouts, cut off the rough white stem and then cut the sprout in half. If any outer leaves fall off discard them as well.
This was my first attempt at cutting and peeling a butternut squash, and I found the blog A Veggie Venture to be super helpful. The blog has a lot of great tips about veggies in general, so I suggest checking it out. If you’re not up for cutting your own butternut squash, Trader Joe’s sells already cubed pieces. However, they are a bit more dried out than freshly cut squash so keep that in mind.
I only needed the top half of the butternut squash
I used an apple corer to prepare the apples, and then cut the slices in half.
Keep the skins on the apple
Toss the Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, apple, and shallot with the olive oil and sage leaves in a shallow baking dish.
So many colors!
Season with salt and pepper.
Bake at 375 until vegetables and apple are wrinkled and slightly brown, about 45 minutes to an hour. Do not disturb or mix the dish while it’s cooking.
If you don’t have time or are just apprehensive about making the candied walnuts, you can purchase them already made.
However, the recipe is below in case you’re feeling adventurous. (Honestly, it wasn’t that difficult!)
Ingredients for walnuts:
6 cups vegetable oil
6 ounces walnut halves
2 cups confectioners’ sugar (I ended up using less than a cup and they were fine)
kosher salt
To make, place a deep fryer or high-sided saucepan over high heat (I ended up using my pasta pot; my saucepans were all dirty from previous cooking adventures). Add the oil making sure there is at least 3 inches from the top of the pot. (When the walnuts are added, the oil bubbles and rises so you need room for this to happen) Heat to 375 degrees.
Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in another pot. Add the walnuts and boil for 10 seconds. Drain well and immediately toss with confectioners’ sugar. Spread flat on a baking sheet to allow to dry.
Walnuts after tossed in powdered sugar
The original directions suggest having a baking sheet lined with paper towels nearby. Mine stuck to the paper towels (boo) so I’d suggest maybe using parchment paper. Working in batches if necessary, add the walnuts to oil and stir once or twice. Fry until amber-brown or about 30 seconds. Using a wire skimmer or a heatproof slotted spoon, remove walnuts and move to baking sheets. Sprinkle with salt and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
To serve, drizzle maple syrup over roasted vegetables and sprinkle with walnut pieces.
How good does that look??
This dish was really great. It had the feel of a comfort food dish without the leftover heaviness.
I was sort of hoping the Brussels sprouts would play a bigger role in the dish, but the butternut squash was what I kept going back for (nothing wrong with that). The walnuts add a lot of sweetness to the dish so don’t go overboard on topping the dish with them. The best part though, was that with so much flavor, I didn’t even miss not having meat for dinner!
Note: If you want something to pair with this to make a more hearty meal, the recipe suggests serving it with walnut bread.
Most sides are a bit of an afterthought. I tend to just whip something up really quick to give my dish more color, or to make me feel like I’m being healthy because there is some green on my plate. But this Wilted Spinach with Garlic Vinaigrette side dish is so good, I’d be happy to have just this for dinner. I am not the biggest fan of mustard in general, but the small amount of Dijon mustard really ups this side from good to great.
Ingredients
1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 garlic cloves, minced (or thinly sliced, whatever makes you happy)
6 cups baby spinach leaves
¼ cup sliced red onion
To prepare the vinaigrette, combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl (up to salt) combining with a whisk. Heat the vinaigrette in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Gradually add the spinach (it will shrink up a lot!) and toss to combine. Remove from heat when wilted (1-2 minutes).
The spinach ended up stealing the show when I made it (I had a pasta/chicken dish along with it). It was a very quick and easy side; I cannot wait to make this again!
I made my weekly trip to Reading Terminal’sIovine Brothers Produce and noticed huge display of Brussels sprouts. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever had Brussels sprouts and felt the need to try them out. I always feel bad for Brussels sprouts, everyone always hates on them. Essentially tiny cabbages (in look and taste), Brussels sprouts are loaded with antioxidants, vitamins C and A, and cancer fighting properties. I may or may not have negated a lot of the benefits of these little guys in my cooking preparation though, so I hope to make a healthier version in the coming weeks.
As a heads up, Brussels sprouts should most certainly not be overcooked; they begin to release a sulfur odor which will really ruin your appetite.
This recipe for Bacon Braised Brussels Sprouts is a good introduction to Brussels sprouts in my opinion. It includes bacon, and honestly, what isn’t better with bacon? I used a recipe from foodnetwork.com as a base, and just changed the recipe to fit my tastes and what was in my fridge. The original recipe can be found here.
