Vegetables Archives – Page 8 of 10

No Waste Begets Big Taste

Zero waste cooking starts with using what you have to create simple meals.

Reheating left over mashed potatoes or polenta has never appealed to me. The texture is never the same as the first meal, so I prefer to turn them into something else for a new meal. No, you don’t have to throw them away! Reinvent them as fritters for zero waste cooking.

Fritters made of mashed potatoes and grits alongside sweet potato fries

I had part of a peeled sweet potato that I wanted to use up, so I decided to cut it up and roast it in the oven to make baked fries. While I had originally intended to fry the fritters in a skillet, I figured I might as well try baking them instead because I already had the oven on. Less work for me. Score for simple meals!

Making Fritters

So, I mixed the mashed potatoes and polenta together along with an egg. Formed patties and baked on a greased cookie sheet. They probably took about 40 minutes to cook. I turned them over when they started to smell like fritters and had turned golden brown on the bottom. That was probably at around the 25 minute mark. Develop your intuition in the kitchen to start cooking without a recipe.

I had a little leftover brown gravy with vegetables, so I added some frozen corn to it and heated that up in a saucepan for a topping. Zero waste cooking means using what you have. You could top them with something else entirely.

I thought of this as a zero effort/no brainer lunch, but Michael thought it was so wonderful that I should tell you all about it. Had I wanted to invest another few minutes chopping an onion, I would have braised some greens to go with this dish to round it out further. I had considered adding a protein, but I decided that the fritters had enough between the egg, the cheese in the polenta and the butter and yogurt that were already in the mashed potatoes. A salad would do nicely too. It all depends on what you have and what you feel like doing to create a simple meal.

For details on the original meal containing grits and brown gravy, please read Shrimp and Grits next.

What do you do with your left over mashed potatoes or polenta?

Cooking Lamb Chops for Simple Summer Elegance

Develop your intuition and learn how to cook lamb chops without a recipe.

What’s the quickest thing to cook on the stove top during a heat wave? Lamb chops. These loin chops weren’t very thick, so I seared them in a preheated skillet for a couple minutes on each side after seasoning with dried sage and garlic powder. Plated them and covered to let rest for 15 minutes while Michael finished work. That’s how to cook lamb chops simply without a recipe.

You really don’t want to overcook these beauties. Michael always requests medium rare plus in a restaurant…well, I’m not a restaurant, but I nailed it this time and so can you. Thicker chops require longer cooking time. If they’re really thick, you might consider putting them into the oven after turning them over. Resting allows meat to continue cooking a bit while staying juicy before cutting into them. Learning basic principles allows you to cook more intuitively.

lamb loin chops with potato salad and napa cabbage on a white plate

What are lamb chops without a nice bottle of wine? I love a good Pinot Noir, but they’re often a bit pricey. I really like this one and it’s not expensive. Perfect for simple meals.

Potato Salad

There are so many ways to make potato salad. Boil until fork tender and toss with your dressing of choice. My favorite begins with crushed garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Parsley is fantastic, but I didn’t have any, so I used cilantro instead. I decided a little dried dill would be good too. Look around to see what you have. Cooking without a recipe is practical.

Sautéed Cabbage

Napa cabbage is a bit more delicate than the round variety, so it doesn’t need much time to wilt in a pan. After chopping it, I sauteed it in olive oil with some garlic and added some chopped dates for a sweet note that paired nicely with the lamb. That’s how you develop your intuition in the kitchen. Consider the flavors and textures you’re combining to create a pleasing combination of ingredients.

Delicious and light. Quick and easy. Simple meals can also be elegant.

New to cooking lamb? Please read Be a Lamb and Try for more ideas.

How to Prepare Slammin’ Salads and Salmon

Preparing salads and fish fillets require minimal time in the kitchen.

Looking for ideas on simple meals that can mostly be made ahead? Salads and fish filets are great options and you won’t have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. How to prepare fish that’s delish? Look into your spice cabinet for inspiration.

I love when such a simple preparation yields rave reviews. Michael kept asking what I put on the salmon because it was so amazing. Amused, I replied, “Dried, crushed fennel and garlic powder on one side. Salt on the other.” Yes, that is the power of a well stocked treasure chest of flavor gems in my spice cabinet.

I preheated the skillet with olive oil and then put the salmon in there to cook a minute or two on each side, which created a nice little crust even though it wasn’t breaded at all. A delicious, quick and simple meal.

pink salmon with farro salad on a white plate — Farro salad with pink salmon

Simple Salads

Farro is an ancient grain I discovered in Italy. It has a pleasantly chewy texture and I enjoy it served hot or cold or anywhere in between. That means you can keep leftovers and change up how you serve it for a few different meals. Here I mixed it with fresh mint and grape tomatoes with some olive oil and dried oregano.

Here’s what else I served on the side tossed with healthy homemade salad dressing: Sliced celery dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and grated parmesan cheese.

celery salad on a white plate — Celery salad

For more on making salad dressing and using farro, please read Undressing the Dressing next.

yellow watermelon salad in a black bowl — How about a watermelon salad for lunch? With the addition of feta cheese and mint, it is a refreshing meal in itself.

Amazing Zingy Unstuffed Cabbage Anytime

Simple meals begin with a well stocked pantry and freezer.

Simple meals like this one come together quickly when you keep basic ingredients in your pantry and freezer. Try this zingy “unstuffed” cabbage. You could go to the extra trouble of filling cabbage leaves with rice and seasoned meat, but I would rather put it all in one pot and let it do its thing.

2 white plates of red cabbage with ground turkey and rice served with Sauvignon blanc at a table covered with a decorative cloth.

My Syrian friend, Zouka, introduced me to all kinds of amazing Middle Eastern meals. At twelve years old, I fell in love with the bold, refreshing flavors of garlic, lemon and fresh herbs so characteristic of this cuisine. She is eager to share ingredients and techniques with those who take an interest in trying it themselves, making what was once foreign part of a repertoire of simple meals. My first solo experimentation in the kitchen as a teenager was inspired by tasting her food. Unaccustomed to the fragrant garlic, my family would leave me alone in the kitchen while I created my concoctions, tasting as I worked, adding more garlic…and more garlic…until I decided it was enough. That’s how I began cooking without a recipe.

In this “unstuffed cabbage”, begin by browning some ground turkey and then adding some minced garlic. Cabbage and a combination of basmati and jasmine rice go into the pot along with enough chicken broth to cook the rice. Season with salt, dried mint and lemon juice. Simmer covered, stirring occasionally, until it’s done.

Starting With Leftovers

Pictured above, I had some leftover brown rice in the refrigerator that had been cooked with turmeric. So that’s what I used. After cooking the ground turkey and garlic, I tossed in some cabbage, dried mint and lemon juice. I didn’t need to add a lot of liquid because my rice was already cooked, so I added the rice to the pot to reheat once the cabbage was tender. The acid prevents the red cabbage from turning blue. Green cabbage works just as well and I would prefer it if cooking along with dried rice.

You can play around with the ratio of all the ingredients. Do you want more cabbage or more rice? More ground turkey or other protein? For me, the lemon and mint are what make this dish both zingy and refreshing. It’s delectable and you could feed an army for very little money using pantry items. Yes, cabbage is kept in your refrigerator, but it has a long shelf life, so I consider it a pantry item. Lemons, like other citrus, can also keep longer than a lot of other fruits. Keep a little ground turkey in the freezer for such an satisfyingly simple meal anytime. Cooking without a recipe is so easy when you keep basic ingredients on hand.

Ingredients:

rice
ground turkey
cabbage
garlic
lemon juice
mint
chicken broth
salt

For more on using citrus and cabbage, please read Simple Ceviche next.

Simple Down Home Calzone

You can cook simple meals like this homemade calzone without a recipe.

We make pizzas with store bought dough regularly, but I didn’t think Michael would be very keen on a pizza without mozzarella, which we happened to be out of. So I decided to make a homemade calzone instead. Folded over and sealed up, I was sure he wouldn’t miss it. You can make all kinds of simple meals by using ingredients you have on hand.

Homemade vegetable calzone on a white plate

First off, I let a pound of store bought pizza dough rest at room temperature while I heated the oven and my pizza stone to 500. You can use a cookie sheet if you don’t have a pizza stone.

Zero waste cooking led me to some ricotta and roasted cauliflower I wanted to finish. So, after letting the food processor chop up the cauliflower, I mixed it with an equal amount of ricotta and a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Hooray for sneaking in more veggies! Spread that combination onto one half of the rolled out crust. What else could I fill this calzone with? I had some bell peppers and mushrooms in the freezer. So after sautéing some sliced onions in olive oil, I added the peppers and mushrooms to the skillet and cooked until tender. Seasoned with salt. Cooking without a recipe allows you to create an endless variety of simple meals everyone will love.

Homemade Sauce For the Calzone

Next I decided to make a quick and simple sauce to top the calzone. Sautéed some chopped onions and a couple of cloves of minced garlic in olive oil before adding some tomatoes from a can. Broke up some of the tomato chunks a little with a potato masher and simmered briefly until I liked the texture.

A quick note on canned tomatoes here: quality is very important. I use a lot of canned tomatoes and I have learned that they are not all created equal. I would rather pay a little more for organic, ripe canned tomatoes without any extra stuff added. As far as the style is concerned, whole peeled are very versatile. Chopped ones are great when you want them to hold their shape a bit.

Rolling Out Dough and Baking

Michael is the master of rolling out the dough, but I got a head start on it for him because I didn’t think it needed to be perfectly round or very thin for this meal. Once he saw what I was doing, though, he took over and tried to correct my work…with limited success. Hey, I was going to top this with sauce, so it didn’t have to look perfect. He also remembered to prick it with a fork to let the steam escape while cooking.

calzone on pizza stone beside rolling pin

After folding over and sealing up the edges, bake the calzone for 13-15 minutes or until crust is golden. Top with sauce and fresh basil to serve.

Again, cooking without a recipe is the goal for these simple meals. As with pizza, the sky’s the limit on what you can create. Develop your own intuition in the kitchen, using ingredients you have available. Below is what I had on hand and used for this Veggie Calzone. Have fun!

Ingredients:

pizza dough
ricotta cheese
roasted cauliflower
garlic
bell peppers
onions
mushrooms
canned tomatoes
olive oil
basil

Learn how to make our favorite pizza without red sauce next.

Simple Ceviche and Healthy Homemade Salad Dressing

Take a shortcut to making ceviche and enjoy healthy homemade salad dressings.

Too hot to slave away in the kitchen? Who says you have to? Make a healthy homemade salad dressing and serve ceviche instead. Okay, I confess this is not the real ceviche made by marinating raw fish in lime juice for an extended length of time. You can make a quick version with cooked fish and/or shellfish.

Start by putting pre-cooked shrimp and surimi in a big bowl. Squeeze lots of fresh lime juice over it and refrigerate while chopping the following ingredients:

green or red onion
jalapeno or serrano pepper
tomatoes
celery
cilantro
salt

Toss everything together and serve. It tastes best if you let the ceviche marinate while chilling for a few hours, but it’s not absolutely necessary as the seafood is already cooked. I won’t tell if you’re impatient and can’t wait to dig in!

I didn’t think of it this time, but I enjoyed ceviche that I had in Kauai once containing ground coriander. The next time they put fresh oregano in there. What other herbs or spices might you use? Let your imagination run wild and start cooking without a recipe. Chopped avocado would be great in this as well.

What have your travels inspired you to create? Find out how my family learned to make a legendary Caesar Salad from their travels.

Cabbage Salad With Healthy Homemade Salad Dressing

Smash a clove of garlic with a pinch of salt using your mortar and pestle. Whisk into it: equal parts white balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Toss with chopped cabbage and cilantro or mint. Add some cucumbers for additional texture and hydration. Delicious and refreshing!

red cabbage with cucumbers and mint on a white plate

How about adding an Asian flair to your salad dressing? Here’s an amazing one with healthy probiotics.

Easy Eggplant Lasagna For Tonight

Here’s your easy answer for what to cook for dinner tonight.

Here’s a story about what to cook for dinner tonight that’s easy: Looking at an eggplant that I needed to use, Michael suggested that I had never made eggplant parmesan. Well, actually I have made it a number of times, but it’s been so long and if he didn’t remember, I didn’t think I needed to go to all that trouble.

I love eggplant parmesan, but it’s too labor intensive for me to think about making it very often. Baking the slices rather than frying simplifies it, but a number of steps are still required to do it properly. I generally prefer making simple meals from whatever was fresh at the market.

So, I opted instead to treat the sliced eggplant like lasagna noodles. I wanted to buy some lasagna noodles the other day, but the pasta aisle was too crowded, so I skipped it and decided this was what to cook for dinner tonight: easy!

eggplant lasagna with roasted fennel on a white plate — Eggplant lasagna with roasted fennel

Preparation

I do think it’s worth salting the sliced eggplant and letting it sit out on paper towels an hour before cooking. It draws out some moisture and any bitterness. If you’re cooking a different variety of eggplant that is long and skinny, that step isn’t necessary. But the big, rounded variety works well for this dish. By the way, if English is not your first language, have you wondered about the strange name of this vegetable? As I have explained to friends in the past, it refers to the shape, not the taste. This conversation had us in tears with laughter.

Into a greased casserole dish, I laid out the biggest slices of eggplant and then proceeded to build them up in layers like a lasagna using:

Jarred marinara sauce
ricotta cheese
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
sliced eggplant

Repeat. In the middle layer, I put the no bake lasagna noodle that I did have. Then I looked for another vegetable to round out this meal and found a fennel bulb that needed to be used. So I sliced it up and scattered it into the baking dish around the eggplant slices in the empty spaces. Why dirty another cooking vessel? Work smarter, not harder and use what you have to create simple meals.

Covered and baked this for about 40 minutes and then uncovered for another 20 minutes. If you wanted it a little softer, you could cook it longer, but this is what worked for me. Simple and delicious…and my husband still referred to it as eggplant parmesan. 😂

Tender fennel is also delicious raw. See Meet the Beets for one suggestion.

Broccoli Beef and Other Ideas for Simple Meals

Make broccoli beef one of your homemade simple meals.

beef broccoli with rice on white plate — Beef with broccoli over brown rice

I may not know how to make Szechuan pork the way my favorite Chinese restaurant used to do it, but beef and broccoli with a quick sauce is one of those simple meals that’s easier than ordering takeout.

This thinly sliced beef was great for this. I dusted it with some corn starch and then seared it in a hot pan with some oil. Then I removed the meat and added enough water to the pan to scrape up all the brown bits with a metal spatula. (I didn’t have any beef broth handy or else I might have used that. But I decided that the browned bits would add enough flavor anyway.) Once that had reduced, I tossed in some minced garlic and minced ginger (from the freezer) and cooked those for a couple minutes before adding:

Mirin (sweet cooking sake)
Soy sauce
Go-Chu-Jang (Korean style hot/sweet sauce)
Water

I was just looking for a pleasing balance of sweet, salty and spicy. So eyeball the amounts and make it according to your taste. I always have soy sauce (salty) and mirin (sweet) and a bottle of something spicy hot around. Experiment with other ingredients if you don’t have these. Sugar and water or sugar and broth of some kind? Chili flakes? I used to keep oyster sauce and black bean sauce in my refrigerator, but I guess I don’t use them often enough to remember to restock them. Develop your intuition in the kitchen and start cooking without a recipe.

Once the sauce is boiling, toss in your broccoli florets and beef. Cover and reduce to simmer. Cook just until the broccoli is tender when pierced with a fork and the sauce has thickened up a little bit. It doesn’t take much more than 5 minutes. Quick and easy. Served over brown rice, it’s pretty healthy too, as simple meals should be.

Authentic?

Am I claiming to be an expert in authentic Chinese food? No way! Did this dish taste good and have my husband asking me to make it again? Yes.

I enjoy foods from all over the world and when I have had the privilege to sample some of them at the homes of friends from other countries, I often ask how to make a particular dish. Frequently I have been told that they will have to continue to make it for me because I wouldn’t know how it’s supposed to taste, so I shouldn’t try. Hooray for someone volunteering to cook for me! However, while it’s true that my palate would probably not be able to replicate every nuanced flavor the way a native would make it, I will forever try to do my best with what I have.

So, I encourage you also to try to identify the main ingredients of your favorite restaurant or ethnic dishes and experiment in your own kitchen. Play around with the various flavor components and see how they complement one another. You might end up liking your own version even better! Simple meals adapted to your own taste are so rewarding.

Try a similar sauce with different vegetables and chicken.

stir fried vegetables and rice on a black plate. bell pepper, garlic and green onions rest on orange napkin in the background. white teapot on the side

By the way, just because I only used broccoli florets above does not mean I threw the stems away. As long as you peel them, they’re perfectly flavorful and tender, either raw or cooked. Zero waste cooking! They were great in this salad another day.

garbanzo, broccoli and cabbage salad on a white plate — Broccoli stems with cabbage and garbanzo beans dressed with apple cider vinaigrette

Here’s an example of a “pantry salad”: canned garbanzo beans pair nicely with red cabbage and broccoli stems, which have a long shelf life when refrigerated. Simple meals can also be healthy!

For another Asian inspired dish using similar ingredients, please read Butakim next.

Scrumptious Sea Scallops On The Stove Top

Learn how long to cook sea scallops on the stove top for an elegant meal anytime.

Perfectly cooked sea scallops are a thing of beauty, but it burns me up to pay sky high restaurant prices for 3 of them.. They are so easy to make at home, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t learn how to cook sea scallops on the stove top. They make an elegant meal that you can enjoy preparing as well as eating.

Baked Stuffed Potato

I decided that a hearty side of baked stuffed potato was desirable alongside such a light protein, but scallops are so versatile that they pair well with any number of things.

I have never been a huge fan of plain baked potatoes, but mixing something tasty in there makes a world of difference. Simply bake your scrubbed potatoes for an hour. Then cut off the tops and scoop out the insides, leaving about a quarter inch of potato around the edges so they keep their shape. Mash the scooped out insides in a bowl and mix in whatever you think would elevate them. In this case, I had a little cream cheese to use up, so I mixed that in before returning the mixture to their skins. Topped with a touch of grated cheddar and a tiny bit of butter. Baked another half an hour, during which I roasted the carrots with a little bit of chopped fennel tops.

How Long to Cook Sea Scallops

Scallops cook very quickly, so do them once everything else you’re serving is ready. Make sure you dry them well or you won’t get any color on them. While heating up my skillet on the stove, I put my scallops into a bowl and coated them with a little oil. You can season them with all kinds of spices. I opted simply for salt and a little garlic powder here. Once your skillet is hot, put the scallops in one by one to sear. Turn them over once you see they are getting brown and they release easily from the pan. They only take a minute or two on each side. That’s it. Tender and juicy and so delicious!

After removing the scallops, I put a little white wine into the skillet and scraped up some of the brown goodness to cook a little something extra to drizzle onto the carrots.

About Flavors

Because everything on this plate is basically sweet, I decided to put my scallops on top of a bed of wilted dandelion greens. I enjoy a little bitter component in there to keep things interesting. Not everyone is a fan of these bitter greens however. If you’ve never tried them or want to introduce them gradually, I would suggest starting with a little bit mixed into a salad with other greens.

I have been inspired by my friend, Josephine, who has taught her children healthy eating habits from day one. How did she do it? She pureed her own fresh food for them as babies and got them used to all kinds of flavors that way. Did you know you could puree salmon for a baby? As children get older, they may say they don’t like a certain vegetable. Does that mean you should stop serving it? Jo says no. She puts it on the table and is often surprised when the kids reach for it again. Just because they didn’t like it once doesn’t mean they will always dislike it. There’s a lesson here for adults too, I think…You can learn how to eat more vegetables even when you don’t like them.

Ready for another restaurant quality seafood dish prepared quickly on the stove top? Please read Calamari and Pasta next.

You Can Make Michael’s Famous Homemade Tacos

Homemade taco shells are easy and fun to make.

When I met Michael, there was one thing he could cook. He called it “Michael’s Famous Tacos”. Eventually I took over the taco making in our house because it was excruciating to see how long it took him to prepare the ingredients. There are three things he is still in charge of though: Grating the cheese, cooking the homemade taco shells and assembling them.

3 tacos on a white plate — Michael’s Famous Tacos

Like most of us, Michael grew up eating home made tacos with prepackaged taco shells. However, during his college days, he learned from his friend, Adrian, how to make his own homemade taco shells.

Baking Tortillas for Homemade Taco Shells

Lay out the tortillas on a cookie sheet and grate some cheese on them. Put them into a preheated 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes. They should be crispy, but still pliable enough to bend them.

3 baked taco shells on a white plate held in place with a spoon — Here’s how Michael gets the baked tortillas to hold their shape while he works on the rest of the tortillas.

The Meat

We used ground turkey here, but it could be whatever kind of meat you choose. Michael used to use a packaged seasoning mix, but I prefer to create my own. After browning the meat, I add to it:

salt
garlic powder
dried minced onion
cumin
paprika
smoked paprika
cayenne pepper
oregano

The Salad Mix

romaine
tomatoes
green onions
cilantro
avocado

Of course you can still make tacos without all these ingredients. Use what you have. After crushing some garlic with salt in my mortar, I whisk in these ingredients:

lime juice or vinegar of some kind
olive oil
salsa

Flat baked tortillas with cheese on a white plate with half an avocado — Baked cheese tortillas make an easy snack or can become the base for tostadas

For tostadas, you would bake the tortillas about 5 minutes longer.

Got any meat left over? Toss it into a salad the next day along with some rice or beans for a satisfying lunch. Make some dressing by crushing in your mortar and mixing together:

garlic
salt
coriander
lime juice
olive oil
salsa

taco salad on a white plate — Taco salad

Got more soft tortillas? Make fajitas. See Use Your Head, Plan Ahead.