Filed under Vegetarian …

Apr 30 2012
4 Comments
Main, Pasta, Vegetarian

Broccoli-Basil Mac and Cheese

Sometimes you need something cheesy and gooey to satisfy your mac and cheese craving.  Sometimes, as evidenced by our garbage can last week, you need a cardboard box of the stuff that you ate as a kid to fill the void when your girlfriend isn’t in town to cook for you.  Sometimes you need to add some vegetables to your mac and cheese to convince yourself that the dish in front of you isn’t all that unhealthy.  Usually the act of adding vegetables to a wholly unhealthy dish rubs me the wrong way (why not just indulge in a bit of the good stuff and eat better come the next meal?), but this is one time when it works and it works well.  Squash, tomatoes, and broccoli make appearances in this mac and cheese, each in a different capacity, and they add layers of flavor to it instead of seeming like a hasty addition to fend off cheese overload guilt.

{ Recipe: Broccoli-Basil Mac and Cheese from 101 Cookbooks}

I made a few minor changes to the recipe.  I prefer as much crunchy topping as I can get, so I used slightly more than double the amount of broccoli and combined that with about a cup of homemade breadcrumbs instead of starting with whole slices of bread.  I also used red grape tomatoes because they were in much better shape than the cherry tomatoes that I found, and instead of macaroni I used cavatappi because it’s Matt’s favorite pasta for mac and cheese.

I never thought that I’d find a mac and cheese that would rival the pimiento version, but this is it.  This also reminded me that I need to splurge on gruyère more often, and speaking of gruyère, how much more exciting would hockey playoffs be if this guy’s name was Gruyère?

Mar 26 2012
7 Comments
Vegetarian

Falafel

We all have things that we’d like to cook at home, but for whatever reason we’re afraid of them.  I used to be afraid of gnocchi, I’m still a little hesitant to make a soufflé, and until two days ago I was absolutely terrified of making falafel.  My irrational fear of falafel-making can be credited to my mom who’s had a couple of failed attempts at cooking it.  Here’s how I imagine it going down:

Mom: I’m going to make falafel for dinner tonight.

Falafel-loving dad: Why don’t you just buy it?

M: Because I want to make it. Don’t worry, you can just work on your crossword/painting/SportsCenter while I cook.

(Falafel prep…hot oil…disintegrating balls of falafel)

M: Expletive! Expletive! Expletive!*

D (rolling eyes): You can just make me a grilled cheese.

My mom is a good cook who is better at following directions than I am, so I figured that if she had trouble with falafel, then I would, too.  It’s probably been a few years since her last attempt, and I’d pretty much written it off until last week when we watched a segment of a cooking show featuring a falafel truck in San Francisco.  The behind-the-scenes look at how the falafel was made combined with the plethora of unique sandwich toppings made us both want to fly west immediately, but we settled for staying home and making it ourselves.

I soaked two cups of dried chickpeas overnight on Friday, and on Saturday afternoon I made pitas, cabbage slaw, chimichurri, tzatziki, and roasted red pepper hummus.

Once all of the toppings were ready, I got to work on the falafel.  I used Mark Bittman’s recipe, and I highly recommend it. The flavor was exactly what I was hoping for – a little parsley, a little lemon, cumin, and coriander.  I briefly panicked when I started to form the minced chickpea mixture into balls, and they refused to do anything but crumble back into the bowl, but a quick google search informed me that I should add a little flour as a binder (I just noticed that this tip is in the recipe that I linked to, but I was reading the recipe from the cookbook which left out that bit of information).  I probably added 1/3-1/2 cup of flour to the mixture before it held together nicely, and after that it was a breeze.

This was easily some of the best falafel that I’ve ever had.  The flavor was great, the texture was fantastic, with tender insides perfectly crunchy outsides, and when you make them at home you can enjoy them when they’re piping hot.  My favorite bites were the ones with falafel, a little tzatziki, and a lot chimichurri – crunchy, creamy, cool, and spicy all at once.  We spent the greater part of the weekend tasting nothing but garlic, but it was totally worth it.

*My mom and I share many traits, one of which is the tendency to spew profanities when things in the kitchen take a disastrous turn. Should you have the same tendency, here’s a tip: don’t throw a big handful of chickpeas into the cooking oil after you’ve fried all of the falafel, especially if there is a lit gas burner under the pot of oil.  And be at the ready with a skimmer to remove the chickpeas when the hot oil starts shooting into the air.

Jun 21 2011
1 Comment
Sides, Vegetarian

Green Potato Salad

Happy First Day of Summer!

How about some potato salad to celebrate?

Nice, fresh potato salad.  Not the kind that’s equal parts mayo and potatoes.

Instead of hard-boiled eggs and celery, how about adding a few handfuls of greens and herbs to the salad?

And perhaps you could swap out that boring mayo for a brighter, lemony aioli.  How does that sound?

And then, just for fun, maybe you could sneak in some capers and not admit to it until someone who thinks that they don’t like capers bites into one and asks whether you added capers.  Why?  Because it might turn out that they do, in fact, like capers.

Who’s with me?

Green Potato Salad

All of the amounts are estimates of what I added, as I wasn’t really measuring as I threw this together.  You can definitely play around with the additions – maybe use basil or chives or dill instead of parsley or add green beans or peas or asparagus.

  • 1-1/2 to 2 lbs. waxy potatoes
  • 2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped
  • 1/4-1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1 tsp – 1 tbsp capers
Dressing:
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4-1/3 cup sour cream
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
  • Salt & pepper

Chop the potatoes into bite-sized pieces.  Add them to a large pot, and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, and cook until the potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork. Drain and return to the pot or to a big bowl.

While the potatoes are boiling, you can make the dressing.  Whisk together the mayo, sour cream, garlic, lemon juice, and lemon zest.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and adjust the other ingredients to your liking.  I found myself adding more and more sour cream to make it more tangy and less mayonnaise-y, but that’s just my preference.  I also used malt vinegar sea salt instead of regular salt, but I don’t think I used enough to make the vinegar flavor noticeable. I just like the feeling of throwing in pinches of fancy salt.

While the potatoes are still warm, add enough dressing to thoroughly coat them.  They’ll absorb some of it, so don’t be too stingy.

Add the spinach, parsley, and capers, and mix well.  Add more dressing if needed.  Serve immediately or chill for a while to let the flavors meld.

We ate our potato salad with a freshly baked baguette and a salami + cheese plate, and we enjoyed every bite.

Mar 30 2011
3 Comments
Pasta, Vegetarian

Semolina Fettucini with Watercress Pesto

It’s technically spring, but with a few inches of snow still on the ground, it doesn’t really feel like it yet.  It doesn’t really feel like winter anymore either, with temperatures stuck around the 30s.  While we’re in season limbo, it can be difficult to figure out what to cook.  I’m sick enough of winter that heavier dishes are no longer very appealing, but it’s still cool enough that I feel like I should take advantage of cooking with heat before the temperatures shoot up.  (Ha. Who am I kidding?  That’s still months away.)

The solution?  Homemade pasta with a light, fresh sauce.  Instead of making a traditional basil pesto, I decided to use watercress (thanks to my New Year’s resolution to use a new ingredient each month).  I didn’t have the highest of hopes for the pesto after tasting a plain piece of watercress, but it turned out really, really well.  Like some-of-the-best-pesto-I’ve-ever-made well.  The toasted walnuts and heavy-handed use of fresh lemon juice definitely contributed to the success, but the watercress was still the star.

For the pasta, I tried a new dough recipe, and it was perfection.  It requires two ingredients (semolina and water) and creates a dough that is super easy to work with.  It was so easy that we had no problem rolling out the dough by hand and slicing it with a pizza cutter instead of using my KitchenAid pasta discs, which was a relief considering I recently destroyed the disc for making flat noodles.

To finish the dish I added boiled potatoes and blanched green beans (pasta al pesto genovese according to Silver Spoon Pasta).  This dish is a keeper, and it will definitely be making more appearances in my kitchen regardless of the season.

Watercress Pesto

  • 1 bunch (or about a cup) watercress
  • 1/3 cup walnuts, toasted
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon (or more)
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Note: all of these amounts are approximate and should be adjusted according to taste.

Combine the watercress, toasted walnuts, parmesan, garlic, and juice of 1/2 lemon in the bowl of a food processor.  Process until you  have a thick paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice if necessary.

With the motor running, drizzle in olive oil until it reaches the consistency of a moderately thick sauce.  Season with salt and pepper, and add additional lemon juice if needed.

The pesto can be made hours or a day in advance, covered, and refrigerated.  Bring it back to room temperature (or at least take of the chill) before tossing it with the pasta.

Fresh Semolina Pasta

From Gourmet via Epicurious

  • 2 1/2 cups semolina
  • 1/2 plus 1/3 cups water
  • Flour for dusting

Combine the semolina and water in a medium bowl, and stir until you have a fairly cohesive mass.  Turn the mixture out onto a work surface (I used my big, wooden cutting board), and knead for 7 to 9 minutes.  The dough may seem dry and you might doubt its ability to pick up all of the semolina, but if you keep at it you should end up with a smooth ball of dough with most or all of the semolina incorporated.  Sprinkle a little flour in the bottom of a bowl, add the dough, and let it rest, covered with plastic wrap, for 30 minutes.

After the resting period, you can either run the dough through a pasta machine, or you can hand-roll it with a rolling pin.  If you opt for the hand-rolling method, make sure that your work surface is lightly floured at all times (all-purpose flour is fine for this), and keep rotating the dough as you go to prevent any surprise stickiness.  Roll the dough into a thin sheet, keeping in mind that it will puff up and out when boiled, and slice with a knife or pizza cutter.

Add the cut pasta to a large pot of salted, boiling water.  Cook until al dente.  We didn’t keep track of the cooking time, but I’d guess that it was in the 5-7 minute range.  Drain the pasta in a colander, reserving about 1/4 cup of the pasta water.

Return the pasta and the reserved water to the warm pot.  Add the pesto as well as 1-2 cups of blanched green beans and 1-2 cups of boiled potatoes.  Gently toss to distribute the sauce.  Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with grated parmesan and yummy buttered bread for an extra dose of carbs. I’d like to note that I refrained from turning the bread into cheesy bread, proving that I do have some self-restraint.  Or maybe I was just planning ahead for that hot fudge sundae from Dairy Queen that I ate for dessert.

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