Vegetables Archives – Page 4 of 10

Got Squash? Here’s How to Use it Up

Ready to sneak some extra veggies into your next meal?

It’s officially spring, but you may still have some winter squash to use up. What will you do with it? After roasting some acorn squash, I put some away in the freezer for later while some went into a pasta sauce with chicken. It’s just about the easiest way ever to sneak some extra veggies into your meal. That’s how you can eat more vegetables even when you don’t like them.

Halved acorn squash on a white plate, shredded chicken on a brown plate and a box of whole wheat penne. Surrounding these are a bunch of kale, an onion, head of garlic and a wedge of parmesan on a rust colored napkin

Finding some kale in the refrigerator and some chicken in the freezer, I pulled some whole wheat penne out of the pantry and began to create. While the water boiled for the pasta, I diced an onion and minced some garlic. Into a skillet with olive oil they went. Next, the chopped kale stems. Yes, we eat all of our leafy greens; stems and all. You don’t have to, but there’s nothing wrong with them. They just need a little head start on cooking to get tender. Some chicken broth and the acorn squash got whisked into the mix before adding the chopped kale leaves. What other greens might you use?

As I looked around for something interesting to season all of this, I decided on a little umami boost thanks to some white miso. So, after heating the chicken in the vegetable sauce and adding the cooked pasta to that skillet, I put some of the pasta cooking water into a cup and whisked in a little miso paste to taste. The idea is to make a smooth slurry of miso without killing all the probiotic benefits by cooking further. Then I added it to the pasta with the chicken and acorn squash sauce, stirring until incorporated. Grated a little parmesan on top and served.

Penne with chicken, kale and squash miso sauce topped with parmesan cheese in a black bowl. A wedge of parmesan cheese and a microplane are in the foreground while a glass of white wine, a wine bottle and a carton of Shiro Miso sit in the background.

I used chicken in this dish because it was handy, but all kinds of seafood would have been great too. What about making the kale into a pesto with walnuts for a vegan version? Hmm…I’m getting ideas about the squash that I put away into the freezer for later…How would you combine these ideas and fish? Read How to Quickly Poach Fish That’s Delicious for a simple suggestion.

This Pizza Without Red Sauce is the Bomb

Expand your palate with this phenomenal pizza without tomato sauce.

Has your taste evolved over the years? I know that ours has. Years ago, Michael believed pizzas required red sauce. One Margherita pizza on our first trip to Sonoma changed all of that. It was the first time he had tasted a pizza without tomato sauce. Instead it had a base of crushed garlic and oil. Time to expand our palates!

Here’s another example of a few quality ingredients needing very little adornment. Start with a good store bought pizza dough unless you make your own. After rolling out the dough and placing it on a preheated pizza stone, spread a mixture of minced garlic and grapeseed oil over it. Then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and top with sliced tomatoes. Using the best tomatoes you can find, you won’t even need to salt them.

Why grapeseed oil? It has a higher smoke point than olive oil. Try it. You will like it.

After baking in a preheated 500 degree oven for 10 minutes or however long it takes for your crust to become golden, top with strips of fresh basil.

You don’t have any basil, you say? No problem. Here’s another variation using the same base of oil and garlic, mozzarella and sliced tomatoes.

pizza with sliced tomatoes, feta cheese and olives

Top with chopped Kalamata olives and crumbled feta cheese and bake to golden perfection. I will never say no to this pizza! What else might you top it with?

Read How to Make Our Favorite Pizza for step by step instructions for another amazing pizza without red sauce.

How To Successfully Bake Fish Fillets

Develop your intuition while learning to successfully bake fish fillets.

Fish is one of the things I am asked about frequently. I only buy wild and most often in the form of fillets because it’s what my husband likes best. What are you able to buy locally?

Frozen cod is readily accessible for me, so we eat it regularly. In pieces, I might put it in soup or tacos. Fillets can be fried or baked or poached. Whatever suits your fancy.

What’s the key to success with fish? Season it with something interesting and don’t overcook it. I can’t emphasize this enough. No one wants to eat dry fish.

Cod with yellow rice and greens on a white plate. 3 spice jars (cumin, turmeric and cayenne) in the background with an rust colored napkin.

You don’t have to serve it with rice, but starting by putting some brown rice into the rice cooker with water, turmeric, a touch of salt and olive oil is a basic starting point for me while I figure out what else will go with my anchor ingredient: the cod.

Where Are My Veggies?

I had planned to pick up some groceries the next day, so I decided to use the last of my leafy greens: collards and swiss chard. I love greens with fish. What else did I have in the fridge to use up? Part of a can of peeled tomatoes. Perfect. My vision began to take shape.

Collard greens, swiss chard, tomatoes, a quarter of an onion, some garlic cloves, the end of a jalapeno, a knob of ginger, a small light blue bowl of salt and a bottle of cumin on a wooden board

Pulling a piece of ginger and the end of a jalapeno out of the freezer, I decided to cook the greens with these along with onion, garlic, cumin and turmeric. Adjust the seasonings to your liking.

After sautéing the diced onions in some olive oil, I added the minced garlic, ginger and jalapeno. Then I tossed the chopped collard stems in because they take the longest to cook. Tomatoes were at the ready to add acid and liquid if things began to get brown too fast. As I began to add the collard leaves, I decided I needed some more liquid, so I took some shrimp stock out of the freezer and popped that into the pot. Water or chicken broth or wine would work too. Whatever is handy for you.

Eventually I added the chopped swiss chard stems and once the collards were mostly done, I added the swiss chard leaves because I just want them to wilt down. They’re not as tough as the collards and require much less time to cook. I gotta tell ya, I can make a meal out of these greens alone. Make it a vegan meal by pairing it with chickpeas or lentils.

What About the Fish?

Once the veggies were nearly ready, I dried the defrosted cod with paper towels and seasoned with:

garlic powder
salt
cumin
cayenne

In a shallow baking dish, it cooked in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes total. Checking them at 7 minutes to see how they were doing, they needed more time. Some liquid had released into the baking dish, so I added that to my greens to simmer away and put the fish back into the oven for a few minutes more.

Did I have a recipe when I began? No, nor do you need one. Start with an anchor ingredient, see what else you have to go with it and create something harmonious that suits your palate. Experiment and learn to trust your intuition in the kitchen.

Are collard greens new to you? Please read Keen On Beans and Greens for ideas to get you started on another delicious plant based meal.

Quick Shrimp With Remoulade Sauce

A simple remoulade sauce is the perfect companion to a quick, easy dinner.

What do you do when you don’t feel like cooking? Keep it as simple as possible! Here’s an idea for what to cook for dinner tonight that’s super easy and delicious.

Shrimp only take a couple minutes to cook, so I defrosted some: anchor ingredient done.

What else is a no-brainer? Frozen French fries. Preheated oven and put some on a cookie sheet. Check. Where’s my veggie? Collard greens. Tore stems off and chopped so they could get cooking before adding the leaves. Check.

Shrimp, fries and collard greens on a white plate. Remoulade sauce in a small light blue bowl and a bottle of hot sauce in the background with a beige linen napkin

The greens braised on the stove top in shrimp stock with onions while the fries cooked in the oven. So I was free to explore what else would make this meal sing. A dip or sauce of some kind, of course. Would I create something with the stock derived from boiling the shrimp shells? A possibility.

Looking into the fridge again, I decided on a remoulade sauce. I don’t know why I don’t think of this more often. It’s delicious. In case you’ve never tried it, it’s a mayonnaise based sauce and it’s perfect both for seafood and dipping fries. There are many versions of it out there. Here’s how I made this one:

3 cloves crushed garlic
salt
about 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon sweet pickle relish
3 dashes hot sauce
1/8 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Adjust the measurements to your liking. I usually put horseradish in here, but I was out of it, so that’s why I added a touch of mustard instead. Had I not been so heavy with the garlic, I might have added some lemon juice. Experiment and see which combination of ingredients and proportions work for you.

I tossed the shrimp with some grapeseed oil, dried oregano and garlic powder before searing in a screaming hot skillet for a minute or so on each side. You know they’re ready to turn over when you shake the pan and they release easily. Same for scallops. Screaming hot skillet and don’t move them until they release from the pan easily if you want to get some color on them.

We enjoyed this simple meal immensely because it gave us an opportunity to relive our first trip to New Orleans where I originally tasted remoulade in a diner down the street from the inn where we stayed. After studying the menu, I asked the waiter what remoulade sauce was. I imagine it took great restraint on his part not to laugh when answering because it’s so common there. What did I know? Just like when my husband, Michael, asked another restauranteur if their catfish was wild. She didn’t hold back her laughter in this case because, of course no self respecting New Orleans native would serve farm raised catfish. Now we know.

What fun food experiences have you had while traveling? Maybe they will inspire you to cook something easy for dinner tonight. Read Shrimp and Grits next for more inspiration gained far from home.

How To Be Creative With Chicken, Pasta and Vegetables

Experiment and cook something easy for dinner tonight.

Another day, another roasted chicken. Yup, I do them fairly regularly because it’s so simple and feeds us multiple meals. But that doesn’t mean I want to eat it with mashed potatoes and gravy every time. How about with pasta? Michael never argues about pasta. Here’s what to cook for dinner tonight that’s easy.

Linguine with roasted chicken breast, shitake and asparagus on a white plate

Since the oven was on, it was a cinch to roast some asparagus while the cooked chicken rested. Onions, shitakes and garlic in a skillet with olive oil. Done. Hit it with a little truffle oil to serve if you have some.

A couple days later some of these ingredients reappeared in another pasta dish. Nothing is easier than pasta, right? It’s a great way to use up all kinds of bits and bobs…like this:

Spaghetti with roasted chicken, asparagus, artichokes, tomatoes and bacon crumbles on a white plate

Wait! Do I see two kinds of pasta mixed together on that plate? Don’t tell me you’ve never done it…so I had a tiny bit of the linguine left over from the previous meal and why waste it? The mushroom flavor was a nice addition to the rest of this dish. Artichoke hearts that didn’t make it into a salad the day before. A few crumbles of bacon left over from BLTs a couple days before that. Did I season that chicken with some Herbs de Provence or thyme? I don’t really remember, but it was divine…not bad for a mish mosh of ingredients thrown together. What’s your favorite quick dinner?

What else goes with roasted chicken? Your imagination is the only limit. Read Get Happy With Apples and Cabbage for one suggestion.

How to Quickly Poach Fish That’s Delicious

You will love cooking fish, such as orange roughy, once you realize how easy it is.

For the past few months, we have been ordering online from the supermarket, so it’s difficult to see what’s fresh at the fish counter. That means I have been purchasing a lot of frozen wild fish. One that’s readily available is orange roughy. It’s a mildly flavored fish with a medium texture, which makes it very versatile. After defrosting it, I especially enjoy it poached.

I started by roasting some potatoes coated with grapeseed oil and dried oregano and rosemary in the oven at 400. After about 20 minutes, I added some carrots and swiss chard stems to the roasting pan along with some minced garlic. Stirred a couple of times and cooked until vegetables were tender when pierced with a fork. Seasoned with salt.

Poaching the Orange Roughy

The leaves of the swiss chard I reserved for cooking along with the fish in a large, deep skillet. First I sautéed some minced garlic in olive oil. Once the garlic had turned brown, but before it burned, I added some chicken broth because I had a carton open in the refrigerator. I could have taken some shrimp stock out of the freezer or used some white wine instead. Whatever is handy that will add a nice flavor will work.

Once the liquid came to a boil, I added the swiss chard and fish that I seasoned with salt and dried rosemary. Covered the pot and reduced to simmer for about 8 minutes, just until the fish flaked with a fork. These pieces of fish were fairly small, so they didn’t need much time at all. Tender and juicy as long as you don’t overcook. Spoon some of the cooking liquid over the top to serve and of course, find a way to reuse whatever is left in another meal, such as in a soup.

Are you intimidated by cooking fish? It really couldn’t be easier. It’s fast and healthy and can be dressed up in so many ways! Read Fine Dining in Under 30 Minutes for another idea on fish that your family will love.

Get Happy With Apples and Cabbage

Find an appealing way to use whatever you have in abundance.

It seems like apples have been multiplying in my refrigerator. While others might decide to bake apple pie, I prefer to use them in a savory dish. While a chicken roasted in the oven unassisted by me, I was free to mull over the possibilities. What would you do with them?

I cut off an inch of bacon from my treasure chest of freezer gems and looked into the refrigerator for some kind of leafy green to accompany it. Then I realized that I had bought a new head of cabbage, while another older one had been waiting for its turn. Yes, the cabbage would be perfect for combining with the apples and bacon. Now that I am writing this, I wonder how it might have worked out as a salad. Maybe I will try that next!

Roasted chicken and yams served with cabbage and apples on a white plate with a fork resting on top. A lemon, onion and apple sit in the background while a glass of white wine and beige linen napkin lay beside the plate.

Am I old fashioned for putting a trio on my dinner plate? A variety of colors and textures appeals to me, so here’s how it often works out. I made a huge pot of this cabbage with apples, so it could have been a meal in itself. Nothing wrong with leftovers for later. We did, in fact, enjoy it for days!

Cabbage With Apples

bacon
onion
cabbage
rosemary
apples

After browning the chopped bacon in a large pot, I discarded most of the grease before adding some chopped onion. Once that had softened, I added the chopped cabbage and some dried rosemary. Why? It seemed to me like a good match for everything that was going on here: the chicken and bacon and fruit…And indeed it was! What else might you try? I added the apples near the end of cooking the cabbage because I didn’t want them to become overly soft. Michael isn’t a huge fan of cooked fruit. I just wanted everything to be pleasingly tender. Poke around with a fork to see when it’s right for you.

Because of the bacon, this dish didn’t even require much salt. I love cabbage to begin with, but the apples, rosemary and bacon gave it so much additional flavor. It was a party for the taste buds. I’m just saying, if you are having trouble getting others in your household to eat vegetables such as cabbage, try it with a savory, sweet and herbal component. Vegetables, like people, enjoy being well dressed. So experiment with different ingredients and see what appeals to your family.

Yams

As for the yams: after cutting them into wedges, I sprinkled them with Herbs de Provence and put them into the roasting pan with the chicken during the last half hour of cooking. While the finished chicken rested, I put the yams under the broiler for a minute to get a touch more color.

After talking to a friend the other day, I realized how many of you still think it’s a big deal to roast a chicken. She said, “That’s a lot of work. You have to brine it. You have to season it…” Well, it’s true that you can get very creative and do all kinds of things with it, but it’s not really necessary. If you’re still not confident in roasting a chicken, trust me when I say it’s just about the easiest thing ever. Read Don’t Be Chicken next.

It’s Fun Experimenting With Onion and Herb Burgers

It’s fun and easy to cook once for multiple meals.

How do you keep meal planning simple? I often have some kind of meat defrosting overnight in the refrigerator. Ground beef, for example, is so versatile. I don’t necessarily know until I start cooking what it will become. Cooking without a recipe is so liberating!

A white platter is filled with 5 kofta burgers, yellow rice, yogurt dip, roasted red pepper topped with eggplant dip. Green onions on the side. A red pepper, wooden pepper mill and beige linen napkin sit in the background with a plant in a copper pot.

What’s in those little burgers? Could be just about anything you wanted. I made them kofta style with lots of onion, parsley and Middle Eastern spices.

Ground beef in a package sits on a gray granite surface with a white marble mortar behind it. A black bowl is full of chopped onion, parsley and cilantro.

Did I say onion? Yes, I mean a lot of it, which is why I took this picture to show you. You could use less, but I chopped a whole medium onion in the food processor to go with a pound of meat. A big handful of parsley and half that amount of cilantro went into the food processor next to be chopped. To that mixture I added the following dried spices in descending order of amounts:

turmeric
cumin
garlic
cardamom
cinnamon
ginger
salt

If I had some coriander, I would have used that too, but I was out. Time to order spices!

You could cook these just about any way you wanted. On a cookie sheet for about 20 minutes seemed the easiest in this case. Flipped them over at around 12-15 minutes.

Make it a meatloaf, meatballs or hot dog shaped. Serve with Middle Eastern dips like roasted eggplant or yogurt, along with flatbread and salads. Or…serve some mashed potatoes and gravy with whatever fresh veggies are handy.

On a white plate are 3 kofta burgers, mashed potatoes with gravy and swiss chard leaves and colorful stems. A glass of red wine and beige linen napkin sit in the background.

Pictured above, lamb stock from the freezer made a quick gravy. Swiss chard stems roasted in the oven while the leaves were sautéed just until wilted.

2 kofta burgers topped with tomato sauce are served with rice parsley salad with tomatoes on a brown plate. A bottle of oil, a lemon and a tomato sit in the background.

How about adding a touch of tomato sauce and serving with a salad of rice and parsley? Cook once and enjoy multiple meals. It’s fun cooking without a recipe and so easy to do.

Ready to sneak another vegetable in there? Take Your Burger Further With This Surprise Ingredient.

Keep It Simple In the Kitchen

Learn to work smarter, not harder creating simple meals.

Besides striving for safety and hygiene in the kitchen, my main objectives are to be practical and to keep it simple. Simple meals are the best.

I always keep hard squash in the refrigerator not only because it lasts longer than a lot of other more perishable vegetables; but it also gives me variety in color, texture and nutrients. Whenever you already have the oven on is a perfect time to put one in. Whole or halved or sliced, it doesn’t really matter. Roasting a chicken? I put a butternut squash and a kabocha in there at the same time. It could be part of dinner or repurposed for later.

Here’s an example of lunch the next day. After boiling the chicken carcass to make stock, I combined some with the butternut squash and pureed. Simple as that. Michael wanted to know what else was in this soup because it was so delicious. No other ingredients. You could add herbs or cream or any number of other things, but sometimes the simplest and quickest meals are the best…just like this chicken breast sandwich. He loves it with lettuce and mayonnaise. Could you put other goodies on it? Sure. But why do you need to? Simple, quality ingredients require very little embellishment.

Ruffled pasta with kabocha sauce and ground turkey on a white plate. Behind it sits an acorn squash, a cabbage salad on a white plate and a small plant in a copper pot.

After doing the same thing with the kabocha, I put some of that soup in the freezer. Later it reappeared as a sauce for pasta along with some ground turkey. At first I considered adding pumpkin pie style spices to it, but then I decided on fennel and fenugreek in addition to minced garlic. I bought some fenugreek a while back and then promptly forgot what I intended to do with it. So I have been having a fun moment experimenting with it. I like it for its sweet, warm character. Once again, only your imagination is the limit. Especially if you begin with a basic preparation for the first time you serve something, you have so much versatility to completely reinvent it in the future.

What have you been experimenting with in the kitchen? How do keep things simple? For more simple meals as you develop your intuition in the kitchen, read this next.

Salad Rules Are Made to Be Broken

A good salad is one your family will eat, so toss it with healthy homemade salad dressing.

Want to know about the first fight Michael and I had after returning from our honeymoon? It must have been something really important to disrupt early romance, right? Well, I thought it was very important at the time…

We argued about how to cut tomatoes for a salad. Yup. Growing up, I was instructed to only cut tomatoes into wedges for salad. That was the only “proper” way that was allowed. Michael requested that I cut them into small pieces so that he could have a little bit in every bite. “Out of the question!” I insisted. So silly, right?

Imagine how my friends’ parents looked at me when I was a guest in their home as a child and told them not to cut lettuce for a salad…”Lettuce must only be torn…”

Changing My Ways

Guess what. I acquiesced to Michael’s request to chop tomatoes smaller and I often cut lettuce these days! The sky has not fallen and everyone is happy. Woo-hoo!

That’s a good thing because we eat a lot of salads and there are so many ways to do them. I used to think I needed an array of vegetables to make a good one, but Michael is just as happy with 3 ingredients. So play around and have some fun. There are no rules. Make it the way you and your family like it!

Chopped lettuce, tomatoes, arugula, red onion, avocado, kalamata olives, capers, pepperoncini and mozzarella cheese arranged on a white platter with red pepper mill and dressing in gray marble mortar. — Lettuces, arugula, tomatoes, red onion, avocado, mozzarella cheese, pepperoncini, Kalamata olives, capers and roasted chicken await being dressed with herb vinaigrette

A composed salad makes a beautiful presentation, but tossing with dressing before serving tastes the best. I often put the dressing in the bottom of a bowl along with anything juicy or needing acid to retain its color, such as tomatoes and avocado. Lettuce or anything else that would wilt goes on top until you’re ready to toss and serve.

Dressing is so simple to make. Pictured above, I crushed a clove of garlic with salt using my mortar and pestle. Using a fork, I whisked in some red wine vinegar, dried basil, thyme and olive oil. Please read Undressing the Dressing for more ideas.