Pasta Primavera

 

This recipe came to my attention courtesy of my beautiful daughter and her boyfriend. The two of them made this over the weekend and enjoyed it so much I received an email containing the recipe along with photos! They found it on the Food Network website from Giada De Laurentis (I've included the link below). My daughter said it was easy to make and fairly flavorful. Her other comments were that it was good either hot or cold, but she preferred it cold, so it sounds like a great lunch too. The recipe below is a copy of what appears on the website but I added the two notes, "minus tomatoes," and "great for the omni's in the house". Thanks Lo!!!

Pasta Primavera

Makes about 6 servings  

Ingredients

• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
• 2 medium zucchini or 1 large zucchini, cut into thin strips
• 2 yellow squash, cut into thin strips
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs or herbes de Provence
• 1 pound farfalle (bowtie pasta)
• 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (great for the omni's in the house)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

On a large heavy baking sheet, toss all of the vegetables (minus tomatoes) with the oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs to coat. Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another heavy large baking sheet and arrange evenly over the baking sheets. Bake until the carrots are tender and the vegetables begin to brown, stirring after the first 10 minutes, about 20 minutes total.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixtures in a large bowl to combine. Toss with the cherry tomatoes and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Season the pasta with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve immediately.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/pasta-primavera-recipe/index.html

Vegan Party on a Plate

My daughter use to eat at Chipolte everyday. She tells me the meal cost her $10.00, though I'm not sure I believe her. In all honesty, it was probably a ploy to extract more money from me. Anyway, there is a Chipolte Mexican Grill right at the heart of Michigan State University's campus, so it was easy to get to, and it didn't hurt that her roommate worked there either.

Interestingly, I recently learned that Chipolte is known for using the best local, fresh and organic ingredients available. So no matter what the cost was to me, it was worth it. You should really check out this article on the founder Steve Ells and this restaurant. It's impressive.

http://planetforward.ca/blog/fast-food-revolution-chipotle-serves-corporate-social-responsibility/
 
The following recipe is based on what my daughter loved to eat at Chipolte during her college years, and now that I've eaten this dish, I realize why she ate it daily. It's delicious. Serve it with Baked Tostitos and a margarita! Your entire family will love it. Yum!

Ingredients
Serves 4


1 cup brown rice, cooked according to instructions
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
olive oil
2 peppers, red and green
1 large onion
1 large cob of corn
Freshly made guacamole using 2 avocados
Hearts of romaine

Begin by cooking the rice. As the rice cooks, slice the corn off the cob and the onion into wide rings. Chop the lettuce. Rinse and drain the black beans. Put them into a sauce pan with a little water and warm them on the stove. Make the guacamole to your taste. Lightly oil the peppers and onion and lay them on the grill until slightly black and soft. Once the peppers have cooled to the touch, slice into long strips. When the rice is done you can begin assembling the plates. Lay the rice down first, then the beans, peppers, onions, corn, guacamole and romaine. Dive in!

As a side note, we made it vegetarian by adding cheese for the non-vegan family members.

Greek Panzanella

This recipe comes from Ina Garten. She uses feta cheese in her recipe, which I omitted. Also, I added capers to the dressing for a little more flavor. It's a perfect summer salad, especially when using fresh vegetables from the garden. My family loved it and I will definitely make it again!

 

Ingredients

• Good olive oil
• 1 small French baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices (approx. 6 cups)
• Kosher salt
• 1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, and sliced 1/4-inch thick
• 1 red bell pepper, large diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, large diced
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved or one large tomato large diced
• 1/2 red onion, sliced in half rounds
• 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted

For the vinaigrette:

nocoupons

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano 
• 1 teaspoon capers, drained
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup good red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup good olive oil

Directions

Place the cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, tomatoes and red onion in a large bowl.

For the vinaigrette, whisk together the garlic, oregano, mustard, vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper in a small bowl. While still whisking, add the olive oil and make an emulsion. 

Heat a grill or grill pan. Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a small bowl. With a pastry brush, lightly brush olive oil onto each piece of bread. Grill the bread turning as they brown. Once they are nicely browned remove and add to the salad.

Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables. Add the olives and grilled bread and mix together lightly. Set aside for 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. Serve at room temperature.

Panzanella

Farewell Fresh Tomatoes

Recently, my husband turned another year older. We decided it was a great excuse to have a party and invite our neighborhood friends. We are lucky to live in a subdivision filled with really great people and getting together is always a lot of fun! I decided to make it a “Strolling Cocktail Hour” with lots of bite size appetizers so people could easily mingle (although everyone stayed in the kitchen).

That night, the only appetizer I could eat without veering off my diet too wildly were the gazpacho shooters. These were itty-bitty martini glasses filled with gazpacho and each had a shrimp floating on top. The soup was really good and I ate a bowl of it during the evening (without the shrimp of course, but if I'm going to be honest, I did try other foods that night that were not on my diet, oops again). Anyway, the recipe called for olive oil, and as I tasted the gazpacho I wondered if its flavor really benefited from the addition of the oil.

So, as the tomatoes make their final curtain call for the season, I decided to come up with a recipe. A recipe that excluded oil and that I could be proud to serve to company. This is a solid start. The flavor is great, and you won’t miss the oil. My family likes it, I love it and I hope you will too.

Note: This is really good garnished with diced ripe avocado, but cilantro is great as well. If you like your gazpacho spicy, add ½ - 1 small, seeded and diced jalapeno!

Gazpacho

4 ripe tomatoes
2 C tomato juice
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
½ C red onion, chopped
½ C red pepper, chopped
¼ C cilantro, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 t. cider vinegar (I use Bragg's)
1 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. kosher salt
¼ t. pepper
Avocado for garnish

Bring a large pot full of water to a boil. Make an X with a knife on the bottom of each tomato. Drop the tomatoes into boiling water for about 15 – 30 seconds. Remove and put them into an ice bath until cool. Pat dry, peel, core, seed and chop. In a large mixing bowl put the tomatoes, tomato juice, cucumber, red onion, red pepper, cilantro, garlic, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Put half of the mixture into a blender and puree for 30 seconds. Pour back into the bowl with the remaining mixture. Mix well, cover and chill for at least 1 hour, best overnight. Garnish with avocado, cilantro or both.

Orzo Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

This dish smells so good while its cooking you’ll want to pull it out early and eat it. I serve this with a steamed vegetable, like broccolini, and undressed greens. The greens taste great mixed with the sauce and stuffed mushroom. It cooks for a long time, so this dish isn’t fast, but it is easy!

Orzo Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Serves 4
30 minutes of prep
55 minutes in the oven

1 small onion chopped (1 C.)
2 garlic cloves finely minced
5 sun dried tomatoes chopped
2 T. coarsely chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
¼ C. basil, chiffonade before measuring
2T. bread crumbs
1/8 t. dried oregano
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 C. organic vegetable broth
½ C. uncooked whole wheat orzo
4 large Portobello mushrooms, remove the gills
Pasta sauce – about 2 cups

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Boil a pot of water for the orzo and cook orzo according to directions. Simmer the onion and garlic, over low heat, in ½ C. of vegetable broth until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stop the cooking and mix in the sun dried tomatoes, parsley, basil, bread crumbs, oregano and red pepper. Add the cooked orzo to the onion mixture and spoon equal portions of the mixture on top of each mushroom. Place the mushrooms into a casserole. Pour the remaining vegetable broth into the bottom of the casserole. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 minutes. Warm the pasta sauce and ladle up to 1/2 C. onto each plate. Place a mushroom on top of the sauce and serve.

Notes: Sometimes you have to reconstitute sun-dried tomatoes by soaking them in warm water for 30 minutes. If you have to do this, pat them dry before cutting them up. Also, I use Pacific organic vegetable broth. It comes in packages of four one cup servings. This makes it very convenient and not nearly as wasteful.