PICs: Fun w/ Veggies!!!
So some people I know don't like veggies! Oh, the pain! What could I possibly do to convince these unrepentant carnivores to give their veggies a chance? Veggies are awesome! And I'm speaking as an omnivore here (though I'll admit to herbivore leanings). Tonight for dinner we had a veggie fest: wilted spinach, tomatoes & cream, zucchini bread and roasted cauliflower parmesan. Can I get a "Hell, yeah!" I also recently made a vegan sweet potato casserole that I thought I should share w/ y'all. AND. A few weeks ago, I went to a tea party with Mama Blue. We had Delicious & Amazing Veggie Casserole, which I HAD to attempt to recreate. And I did! More veggie awesomeness! Will it never cease?! NO!!!! It shall not!!!!! Everyone, DRINK KAHLUA!!!!
Ahem. The dish that inspired this Vegetable Renaissance, direct from Pickity Place in New Hampshire:
Layers of roasted veggies topped w/ Havarti cheese and toasted bread crumbs. Mmmmm. Take an eggplant (aubergine), summer squash, spinach, zucchini (courgette) and a couple of tomatoes. Then just slice and roast them. I made twelve large to small circles of the eggplant and summer squash, and about sixteen or so of the zucchini and tomatoes, as those weren't quite as large.
Roasting Vegetables: Set the oven to 400. Sprinkle the veggies w/ olive oil and crushed/minced garlic. Roast for about 20 minutes, turning once. The eggplant could use the full 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the summer squash, zucchini and especially the tomatoes, as they won't need as much time, and you'll also be putting them back in the oven after you assemble everything, anyhow. Roast the spinach the same way, you just don't have to slice the spinach into circles. I used two packets of spinach. You cold probably get away w/ one, but I really like spinach, so I used two. I also toasted my bread crumbs at the same time. Now, you can just use regular bread crumbs if you want. But I wanted to be fancy, so I crumbled and tore apart a foccacia roll, sprinkled it w/ olive oil, and put it in the oven while I assembled the rest of the casserole.
Assembling the Casserole: First, spread a thin layer of marinara sauce on the bottom of a casserole dish. The eggplant circles are first, then summer squash, then spread some spinach on top. One or two circles of zucchini follow, to be topped by one or two slices of tomato.
Now it's time for cheese, glorious cheese! I used Havarti cheese for this, a kind of cheese I had not cooked w/ before. I now think that the Pickity Place people used slices, one over each mound, but I grated the cheese. I had to put it in the freezer for about ten minutes first, though, as this cheese is rather moist and crumbly. And after the cheese came my toasted bread crumbs! Voila!
I like the way this looks so much, I am going to post even more pics of it! LOL.
Okay. Enough w/ that deliciousness! It's time to try some more veggies!!! Can you believe that I had lived 31 years w/out tasting cauliflower? Well, it's true. But I changed all that, and how! Dig it: Roasted Cauliflower Recipe. So, so simple. So, so delicious!
Ingredients:
* 1 head of cauliflower
* 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely minced
* Lemon juice from half a lemon
* Olive oil
* Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
* Parmesan cheese
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut cauliflower into florets and put in a single layer in an oven-proof baking dish. Toss in the garlic. Sprinkle lemon juice over cauliflower and drizzle each piece with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. If the oven hasn't reached 400°F yet, set aside until it has.
2. Place casserole in the hot oven, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is lightly brown. Test with a fork for desired doneness. Fork tines should be able to easily pierce the cauliflower. Remove from oven and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately. Serves 4.
I actually posted how to make tomatoes a la creme before! Not to repeat myself, the entry is here. Though I did include some fresh pics!
A note on the brand of dairy products I use: I work w/ a few animal scientists, and one of my buddies has visited organic farms for lots of different companies. Organic Valley had quality animal welfare practices, plus it's owned by the workers. So if you're looking for a good company for your dairy needs, I would recommend Organic Valley. PSA over now.
Wilted Spinach is the easiest thing in the world to make. And I like its name. Wilted. Blah. Limp, lifeless, lackluster. And then you taste it! Holy juxtaposition, Batman! To make my wilted spinach, I spray a frying pan w/ olive oil, crush a couple cloves of garlic and throw those in, then dump a bag of baby spinach in the pan and sautee over a medium to low heat, stirring occasionally, until the spinach becomes about one/sixth its original size. That's it. Takes five to ten minutes, depending on how hot you make your burner.
I love zucchini. I love bread. I love the marriage of the two. I used Mom's Zucchini Bread for a recipe, and added half a teaspoon of nutmeg.
Ingredients:
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 2 1/4 cups white sugar
* 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups grated zucchini
* 1 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.
Sweet potatoes are scrum-diddly-umptious! Especially w/ nuts and maple syrup. This recipe for sweet potato casserole is so tasty, it could be dessert! Dig it:
4 large or 6 medium sweet potatoes, cooked and peeled
2 tablespoons margarine
1/4 cup soy creamer or soymilk
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Topping:
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup unbleached white flour
3/4 cups chopped pecans
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Preheat the oven to 350 F and spray a 2 quart casserole dish with non-stick spray (or wipe with canola oil).
Mash the sweet potatoes with the margarine until smooth. Add the soy creamer, orange juice, vanilla, sugar, maple syrup, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Pour into prepared casserole dish.
Mix the topping ingredients together until well-combined. Spread or sprinkle over the casserole and bake for 45 minutes or until hot throughout.
Yummy! The woman who submitted the recipe cooked the potatoes in a pressure cooker before mashing. I, on the other hand, boiled them. For about twenty minutes.
The mashed sweet potatoes and the topping. I used the masher instead of the electric mixer.
The directions said to sprinkle or spread the topping on top of the potatoes -- I have no idea how you're supposed to sprinkle this shit. It is not sprinkle consistency. I spread the topping.
Enjoy your veggies! Piper and Milo do. Here they are, begging for just a little morsel of cauliflower. Awww, such good doggies!
Ahem. The dish that inspired this Vegetable Renaissance, direct from Pickity Place in New Hampshire:
Layers of roasted veggies topped w/ Havarti cheese and toasted bread crumbs. Mmmmm. Take an eggplant (aubergine), summer squash, spinach, zucchini (courgette) and a couple of tomatoes. Then just slice and roast them. I made twelve large to small circles of the eggplant and summer squash, and about sixteen or so of the zucchini and tomatoes, as those weren't quite as large.
Roasting Vegetables: Set the oven to 400. Sprinkle the veggies w/ olive oil and crushed/minced garlic. Roast for about 20 minutes, turning once. The eggplant could use the full 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the summer squash, zucchini and especially the tomatoes, as they won't need as much time, and you'll also be putting them back in the oven after you assemble everything, anyhow. Roast the spinach the same way, you just don't have to slice the spinach into circles. I used two packets of spinach. You cold probably get away w/ one, but I really like spinach, so I used two. I also toasted my bread crumbs at the same time. Now, you can just use regular bread crumbs if you want. But I wanted to be fancy, so I crumbled and tore apart a foccacia roll, sprinkled it w/ olive oil, and put it in the oven while I assembled the rest of the casserole.
Assembling the Casserole: First, spread a thin layer of marinara sauce on the bottom of a casserole dish. The eggplant circles are first, then summer squash, then spread some spinach on top. One or two circles of zucchini follow, to be topped by one or two slices of tomato.
Now it's time for cheese, glorious cheese! I used Havarti cheese for this, a kind of cheese I had not cooked w/ before. I now think that the Pickity Place people used slices, one over each mound, but I grated the cheese. I had to put it in the freezer for about ten minutes first, though, as this cheese is rather moist and crumbly. And after the cheese came my toasted bread crumbs! Voila!
I like the way this looks so much, I am going to post even more pics of it! LOL.
Okay. Enough w/ that deliciousness! It's time to try some more veggies!!! Can you believe that I had lived 31 years w/out tasting cauliflower? Well, it's true. But I changed all that, and how! Dig it: Roasted Cauliflower Recipe. So, so simple. So, so delicious!
Ingredients:
* 1 head of cauliflower
* 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely minced
* Lemon juice from half a lemon
* Olive oil
* Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
* Parmesan cheese
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut cauliflower into florets and put in a single layer in an oven-proof baking dish. Toss in the garlic. Sprinkle lemon juice over cauliflower and drizzle each piece with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. If the oven hasn't reached 400°F yet, set aside until it has.
2. Place casserole in the hot oven, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is lightly brown. Test with a fork for desired doneness. Fork tines should be able to easily pierce the cauliflower. Remove from oven and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately. Serves 4.
I actually posted how to make tomatoes a la creme before! Not to repeat myself, the entry is here. Though I did include some fresh pics!
A note on the brand of dairy products I use: I work w/ a few animal scientists, and one of my buddies has visited organic farms for lots of different companies. Organic Valley had quality animal welfare practices, plus it's owned by the workers. So if you're looking for a good company for your dairy needs, I would recommend Organic Valley. PSA over now.
Wilted Spinach is the easiest thing in the world to make. And I like its name. Wilted. Blah. Limp, lifeless, lackluster. And then you taste it! Holy juxtaposition, Batman! To make my wilted spinach, I spray a frying pan w/ olive oil, crush a couple cloves of garlic and throw those in, then dump a bag of baby spinach in the pan and sautee over a medium to low heat, stirring occasionally, until the spinach becomes about one/sixth its original size. That's it. Takes five to ten minutes, depending on how hot you make your burner.
I love zucchini. I love bread. I love the marriage of the two. I used Mom's Zucchini Bread for a recipe, and added half a teaspoon of nutmeg.
Ingredients:
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 2 1/4 cups white sugar
* 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups grated zucchini
* 1 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.
Sweet potatoes are scrum-diddly-umptious! Especially w/ nuts and maple syrup. This recipe for sweet potato casserole is so tasty, it could be dessert! Dig it:
4 large or 6 medium sweet potatoes, cooked and peeled
2 tablespoons margarine
1/4 cup soy creamer or soymilk
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Topping:
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup unbleached white flour
3/4 cups chopped pecans
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Preheat the oven to 350 F and spray a 2 quart casserole dish with non-stick spray (or wipe with canola oil).
Mash the sweet potatoes with the margarine until smooth. Add the soy creamer, orange juice, vanilla, sugar, maple syrup, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Pour into prepared casserole dish.
Mix the topping ingredients together until well-combined. Spread or sprinkle over the casserole and bake for 45 minutes or until hot throughout.
Yummy! The woman who submitted the recipe cooked the potatoes in a pressure cooker before mashing. I, on the other hand, boiled them. For about twenty minutes.
The mashed sweet potatoes and the topping. I used the masher instead of the electric mixer.
The directions said to sprinkle or spread the topping on top of the potatoes -- I have no idea how you're supposed to sprinkle this shit. It is not sprinkle consistency. I spread the topping.
Enjoy your veggies! Piper and Milo do. Here they are, begging for just a little morsel of cauliflower. Awww, such good doggies!