Archive for the ‘Veggies’ tag
Stuffed Baby Eggplants with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts
Tina over at Choosy Beggars summed up my feelings on baby eggplants quite nicely in this post. I feel compelled to buy them, though I don’t always have a recipe in mind. You could fry them in strips and make a miniature eggplant parmesan starter, or chop them and add it to stir fry. But that takes away the appeal of the miniature eggplant. I prefer to keep them intact, and stuff them with cheese. What could be better?
Spicy Squid Stir-Fry
Squid is a fish that is oft-neglected by the home cook. Relegated to the deep fryer at the local bar, squid seems to have the bad reputation of being something that you only eat while you’re out. The truth is that it’s an easy-to-cook, delicious alternative to traditional proteins such as chicken or beef in a stir-fry. It can be had for a fraction of the price of other fish (I paid $3.99/lb today) and it takes only minutes to prepare and cook. I threw together this quick stir fry for lunch, and it was very satisfying.
Frittata with Swiss Chard and Potato Crust
Today I received a farm share distribution that included eggs, milk, and potatoes, along with a number of other great food items. I figured that a frittata for dinner was a good plan, so on the way home I picked up some Swiss chard and set about making one:
Spinach and Walnut Bisque with Parmesan Chili Croutons
This week’s Food52 competition gave me an excuse to cook up an old favorite of mine: Spinach and Walnut Bisque. This recipe, believe it or not, came from our dining hall in college. No joke. Admittedly the food at Dartmouth was far above average, but specifically the food at Collis Hall was what I wound up living on for breakfast and lunch during my freshman year. Collis was about 50 feet from my dorm room, and while small, had an excellent selection of food. An omelet station, smoothies for the morning, a great sandwich and wrap area, an ever-changing array of soups to go along with the sandwiches, and the requisite coffee for early morning classes (“early morning” being “10 a.m.”). Back then I was still in the “fledgling chef” phase, but as soon as I tasted this soup, I knew that it was one that would be added to my quiver. The nice thing about this particular dining hall was that since it prided itself in “health” and “nutrition”, the ingredients for each soup were listed on a card in front of the soup station. Thus I was able to take quick crib notes on the ingredients of the soup, and from there I experimented to come up with the proper proportions. Along the way I added a freshly toasted crouton to the dish, and now I can make it in my sleep. I figured that there was no better way to showcase spinach as an ingredient than in this unique, creamy bisque that takes no time at all to make. Back in the day I used to cut corners and make it with canned spinach (for shame!) but now I use fresh. Because everyone would laugh at me if I posted a recipe with canned spinach, obviously.
Chicken Noodle Soup for a Cold, Snowy Day
As New York City was hit with another big winter storm (Snowpocalypse Now: Redux? SnOMG 2?) I had the ingredients for chicken noodle soup just sitting in my fridge. So I did the obvious after a romp through the snow in the park, and made a chicken noodle soup. I almost feel embarrassed to call this a “recipe”, because it’s really easy and it was made with ingredients I had on hand, but I will include it here because it is the “second life” of my roast chicken recipe. Actually, I used some of the leftover chicken in the Buffalo Chicken Pizza, so this is the third meal we’ve gotten out of them. Don’t throw out those carcasses, because they will make a great dishes that aren’t even close to leftovers!
In this case I used two carcasses, one of which I’ve had in the freezer for a few weeks since cooking fried chicken. Never throw out old chicken carcasses, pork bones, or beef ribs. You can make great stock from them, and you never know when you’ll want to whip up a batch of homemade soup. Like when you get home from running the dog around in knee-deep snow, and all you want is comfort food. Two dried chipotle chili peppers added to the broth give this soup a warm, zesty finish. A few vegetables, some herbs, noodles, and your chicken, and you are on your way to “so-far-from-Campbell’s-soup-in-a-can-you-can’t-even-say-Warhol” heaven.
Quick Cabbage Soup
This afternoon I made a quick cabbage soup, using mostly vegetables from the CSA farm share (Community Supported Agriculture) to which I belong.
I love making soups. They are usually very easy, and you wind up with tons of food that keeps well and can be frozen and defrosted later. This is a very simple and tasty vegetable soup:
