Chop Mexican Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

I've been a bad blogger. I apologize. Here is me trying to get back on the horse. So recently I subscribed to Vegetarian Times magazine. Great mag with lots of healthy, quick meals. For those of you that got the July/August magazine you might remember this recipe. I changed aspects of it to suit my taste, but the credit certainly goes to VT on this meal.

I've been trying to eat more veggies lately. I came to the sad discovery that multivitamins aren't inherently vegetarian. I don't know why I thought they would be, but then I was in the Common Market looking at vitamins and noticed they had a bunch marked vegetarian and vegan. Huh....so I did some research. No more Centrum for me. And hey, here is an idea...why not get my vitamins and minerals from a good diet. Yes!



Mexican Chopped Salad

Salad:
1 small head of romaine, sliced
1/2 bunch spinach, stems removed, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 avocados, diced
1/2 cucumber, halved lengthwise and then sliced
the corn cut from one fresh cob, raw
1 can black beans
several large pieces of roasted red pepper, sliced
1/4 red onion, minced
1/2 cup broccoli or alfalfa sprouts

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
juice from one lemon and one lime
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
pinch cayenne pepper


1. Heat the oil, garlic, cumin, coriander, sugar and salt in a saucepan for until the garlic begins to sizzle.
2. Blend the remaining dressing ingredients with the garlic oil. Blend in a blender if you want it to be smooth (I left it chunky)
3. Toss over the chopped salad




I gave this salad to a few friends without the dressing a few days later and the veggies had marinated to the point where they even liked it with no dressing at all. If you want the salad to last a few days keep the avocado on the side and just top each bowl with it rather than putting it in the whole mixture.

Pita Pizza with Hummus, Leeks, Spinach and Radish

Like I mentioned in a previous post - I have been getting myself to the Frederick farmers market every saturday in hopes of filling a void left from my French market days. Last week I came across these cute little radishes and thought to myself that perhaps the markets in the US aren't so different after all - oh wait - there are no pigs heads here or chickens with their feet and feathers and heads still attached!....but mostly its the same right?




I got back to the house and went out in the garden right away to snap a few pictures of them and then got to thinking - what should I do with them? In France we ate them raw - with a little butter or salt - but I wanted something a little more exciting for my meal.



Tuesday this week we went to Ocean City for the day with some friends. After swimming we chowed down on some Thrashers and then moved on to pizza. Unfortunately as I have recently cut out dairy from my diet - pizza was kinda a boring choice for me. What it came down to was a fourth of a pizza with a thin layer of tomato sauce and two or three wilted looking broccoli on top. This is no pizza - so I decided to make my radishes a topping for a satisfying "pizza."

I say "pizza" because as you can see - it doesn't look like your typical pizza.



Pita Pizza for 2

2 whole wheat pita rounds
2 leeks, sliced thin
small bunch of radishes, sliced thin
2 cups torn spinach leaves
roasted red pepper hummus
1 avocado, diced
small bunch cilantro
extra virgin olive oil
herbs de provence



1. Preheat the oven to 375. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Sautee the leeks and radishes together until the leeks begin to brown and the radishes soften. Add the spinach and sautee, stirring, until the spinach is wilted and soft. Set aside.
2. Place the pitas on a foil lined baking sheet. In a small bowl combine several soup-spoonfuls of hummus, 1 tsp of olive oil and a 1/4 teaspoon or so of herbs de provence. Spread the mixture evenly on the pitas. Top the hummus with the suateed veggies.
3. Bake the pizzas for 7-8 minutes or until the sides of the pita are golden. Top each pizza with avocado and serve with cilantro.



I left this meal totally satisfied and totally shocked that I hadn't even felt the slightest twinge of dairy desire.

Look out for some cooking with kale next week!

Vegan Spinach and Portabella Lasagna

So you might have noticed I've been trying out some vegan recipes lately. I just recently found a bio (translate organic) supermarket in my area (dont know how i missed it before really) and have discovered things I was missing like tempeh, seitan, tofu varieties, alfalfa sprouts, and new to my list is soy creme fraiche. With my newly found creme fraiche and a package of no boil spinach lasagna noodles I decided to go about this lasagna thing in a less traditional way and cut out the meat and cheese.




Now I know what you're thinking. What is that pile of slop? Food is by far one of the most important things to me but honestly Im more interested in eating it than making it look pretty. I've gotten more and more interested in food photography but when it comes to photographing my own food, I just cant spend 45 minutes making this lasagna look amazing. It'll get cold!

Vegan Lasagna
16 oz chopped spinach (if fresh blanch first, if frozen, thaw and squeeze out extra water)
several palm sized portabellas, cleaned and sliced
1 package firm tofu
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup soy creme fraiche (you can use soy milk if you want)
2 minced garlic cloves
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tbsp minced fresh basil (20 leaves or so)
1 tsp salt
4-6 cups of your favorite tomato sauce

1. Preaheat the oven to 350F
2. Cook the noodles according to the package or get smart and get the "no boil" kind. Wha? I know.
3. Place all the ingredients except for the mushrooms, tomato sauce, noodles, and spinach in a blender and blend until you have a mixture that resembles ricotta.
4. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in the spinach.
5. Cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole with a thin layer of tomato sauce. Then start layering. Noodles, ricotta, mushrooms, tomato sauce. Repeat. Top it all with tomato sauce. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes. Serve it with crusty bread drizzled in olive oil, popped in the oven for 15 minutes or until the olive oil is bubbly.

Happy eating!

Potato, Quinoa and Spinach Omelette topped with Gruyere

So this is not one of the recipes I said I was going to be posting but it was something I made for lunch yesterday that turned out quite nice. The idea came from a little lunch party I attended a week or so back. Therese and Paula invited me to join in on an outing to Panzole to go the weekend market and afterward we went over to Anne's house where she made us a lovely lunch, part of which included a simple potato omelette.



I made a few alterations to Anne's omelette but it was still quite simple.

Potato Omelette for One (or two! you could split it and have a nice salad on the side!)
2 eggs, beaten well
2 small russet potatoes, sliced thin
large handful of spinach, stacked, rolled and sliced thin
Herbs de Provence
1/8 to 1/4 cup cooked quinoa
olive oil

1. Heat oil in a large skillet and then add the potatoes. Throw in some Herbs de Provence and a little salt. Cook, stirring often so they don't get too brown on one side. When they start to turn brown and crispy put a lid on the pan and let them cook a bit more (this keeps them from turning into dry chips). Taste a slice and make sure they are cooked through, then put them on a plate to wait.
2. Throw the spinach in the pan with a little oil and flash wilt them - meaning they are in the pan for less than a minute! Stir them up and let them soak up a little olive oil and get wilted, then throw them on the plate with the potatoes.
3. In a nonstick pan or a oiled/buttered one, throw in your well beaten eggs and let it start to cook. As its starting to set dash a little salt, pepper, and Herbs de Provence on top. When the bottom seems to have firmed a bit add your toppings. I did quinoa, then spinach, then potatoes. Cook the omelette until the top is cooked to your liking.
4. Remove from heat and sprinkle with Gruyere. Fold the omelette over and cut it in half. Serve right away!