Zippy Roasted Broccoli

Broccoli is the quintessential American vegetable to me. We put in in warm, creamy broccoli cheese soup in the winter. We ate it raw with ranch in our childhood lunch boxes. We have it in a crunchy salad in the summer. Now, we even shred it and make pizza crusts, tots, slaw, etc.

Broccoli is a star. However, when it’s so easily available and easy to cook, I can get super sick of it. The flavor is lovely, but it’s the same flavor every time!

So, I’m always looking for ways to totally re-imagine broccoli. I don’t want to cover up the flavor, I just want to play with it in an unfamiliar way.

This recipe boasts a strong hit of lemon, the salty Parmesan cheese and some funky garlic. It’s great with fish and chicken (lemon, duh!) but I actually love it with any kind of Italian or BBQ entree. It’s very light and fresh, so it’s perfect to pair with a heavy, sweet, or cheesy protein.

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 cups of broccoli florets, cut to even sizes
• juice and zest of one large lemon
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• plenty of salt a pepper- like, at least a teaspoon each
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Preheat the oven to 450

Toss the broccoli with the olive oil. Add the remaining ingredients and toss together.

Pour onto a large baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Don’t worry if it gets a little charred!

Enjoy!

Greek-ish Brown Rice Salad

My love for brown rice is a recent development. I’ve never been much of a rice eater, so growing up, I usually just kind of picked at the pile of rice pilaf hanging out on my plate.

However, when I started college, I suddenly found the tastiness that is brown rice. I love the earthy flavor, hearty texture, chewiness… it’s so much more complex than white rice. It reminds me almost of an oat.

Where did I make this discovery? At the build-your-own burrito place in the student union. They offer two rice varieties: brown and cilantro-lime. Well, anyone that’s read my blog regularly knows that I am one of those people born without a taste for cilantro. I won’t go into what it tastes like because this is a food blog, but I’ll leave it up to your imagination.

So, brown rice entered my life by default. I am obsessed. I am always looking for ways to use it.

This salad was born out of a love for brown rice, a garden full of mint, and a need for a side dish. We were having ribs and honeyed carrots, so I needed something bright and acidic. With mint, feta cheese, and red wine vinegar, the flavors in this salad remind me of a Greek restaurant. However, it’s not exactly authentic Greek cooking, so I’m calling it Greek-ish. It reminds me most of the filling in a stuffed grape leaf!

It’s also good cold, warm, or at room temperature, so it’s perfect for a potluck. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 shallot, chopped finely
• 1 1/2 cups instant brown rice
• 3 cups low sodium chicken stock
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted in a dry pan for a few minutes until smelly
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 2 tablespoons fresh mint, thinly sliced
• 3 ounces feta cheese chunks

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium sauce pan. Add shallot and saute’ over medium-high heat until transparent. Add the rice and stir for 2-3 minutes until toasted. Pour in the chicken stock.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 10 minutes (or according to package directions). Let sit, COVERED, for ten minutes so the rice can absorb the the liquid.

Combine vinegar, oil, and salt/pepper to taste. Pour over the hot rice. Let rice cool to desired temperature (can be hot, warm, or even chilled).

Toss rice with walnuts, raisins, mint, and feta. Serve!

Green Beans with Dijon Sauce

If you read my last post, you know I did a French night recently. Well, I cannot do French without some delicious fresh green beans! This is loosely inspired by a salad nicoise.

Let’s face it, though. Green beans are a pretty boring vegetable. They bring back memories of poorly drained canned stuff plopped next to frozen Salisbury steak and instant potatoes. Which, by the way, I have the upmost respect for. America was built on meals like that!

However, I can do a bit better now. But how do you make green beans exciting? Bacon-wrapped bundles with brown sugar is a popular side down south, but I wanted something healthier and more savory. A chilled three-bean salad is lovely, but I wanted something warm.

So, this side dish was born. A creamy sauce, crunchy almonds, and perfectly-cooked green beans. I can’t sell this healthy side dish anymore.

Serve with pasta, chicken, fish, beef, or do what I did with the leftovers and plop a fried egg on top!

Need I say more?

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cleaned
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
• salt and pepper

TO PREPARE:

Melt butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the almonds and stir until toasty, about 5 minutes. They’ll be slightly brown, but the real indicator is the smell of almonds!

Bring salted water to boil. Plop in the green beans for 5 minutes or until desired doneness.

Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients in a small bowl.

Drain the beans and transfer to serving dish. Drizzle over the sauce and sprinkle on almonds.

Happy Spring!

 

 

Baked Halloween Sweet Potato Fries

Who says all Halloween recipes have to be unhealthy? Not I! This is a great side dish or party food that is completely festive without being a calorie bomb! It’s kid friendly AND adult friendly, and it bakes for an hour, so you can get the fries in the oven and work on the rest of your meal!

It leaves room for dessert, which is all I really need. I didn’t need a dipping sauce, but ranch or ketchup would be lovely. I served it with some other appetizer-like things, like some eyeball stuffed mushrooms and a witch fruit tray. But this would be adorable paired with a cheeseburger with a face carved into the cheese, or some “bat wings” (buffalo wings). To keep it healthy, a baked chicken breast with some bright green pesto on top would have an eerie effect and be loaded with nutrition. They’d also be great on a tailgate spread! No matter how you serve them, this is a treat that has no tricks! You can feel good about eating/ serving these.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 large sweet potatos
• 3-4 tablespoons oil of choice
• seasoned salt

TO PREPARE:

Preheat the oven to 400, and oil 2 baking sheets.

Slice the potatoes into 1 inch slices, then use a pairing knife to carve the faces, as pictured.

Place the potatoes on the baking sheets, and brush each with additional oil. Sprinkle on the seasoned salt, then bake for 50 minutes to an hour, depending on the size. Serve hot!

 

Pumpkin Soup with popcorn!

Ahhh fall is in the air, here in Arkansas, and it is a glorious thing indeed.

Fall is by far my favorite season of the year. It’s cool, but not freezing outside. There are no snow storms or spring showers. The leaves turn to beautiful colors, but don’t die. Pumpkins, corn, and apples come in season, and everyone starts to prepare for the upcoming holiday months.

Yes, nothing quite gets me like a crisp fall breeze hitting my cardigan while I smell Oak in the air and drink my favorite beverage of all time, apple cider.

Because I love fall so, so much, I stretch it out as long as possible and do every possible fall activity in the book. Halloween parties, pumpkin patches, apple picking, corn mazes, trunk or treats, trick or treating, fall movies, hikes, camping trips, the works!

And, of course, LOTS of fall cooking! Pumpkin cookies, bread pudding, apple crisp, caramel apples, bratwurst, corn, and LOTS of hot drinks.

So, this pumpkin soup is a great part of my fall menus. It absolutely tastes like October, it’s a gorgeous color, and it’s a very light, healthy meal to have before a rich fall dessert, or as a side dish to a big hunk of fall pot roast.

It’s also optionally vegetarian (depending on what stock you use) and super low fat and low carb. It’s a guilt free meal that feels like a warm, fall comfort food.
Here you go:

Ingredients (4 large bowls):

• 4 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 very large white onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 2 cups popped plain popcorn
• 4 cups chicken stock or veggie stock
• 4 tablespoons plain greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup (really just a good splash) of milk
• popcorn, pumpkin seeds, hot sauce for garnish

Heat the butter in a large soup pot, then add the onion. Saute until very tender, almost caramelized. Add the garlic, ginger, curry, and cumin, and cook until smelly, like 2 minutes.

Add the popcorn and toss around to coat it in the butter and seasonings. It’ll start to turn to mush, and that’s great.

Add the chicken stock, pumpkin, yogurt, and milk. Stir until the yogurt dissolves. Simmer for 10 minutes, until the popcorn is pretty much gone and the soup is nice and hot.

In batches, puree it all in a food processor! Remember, hot liquids expand, so only fill it like halfway. Combine all the pureed batches in a big bowl, and taste it for seasoning. You may want a hit of salt, if the pumpkin is too sweet for you.

Garnish with the popcorn, seeds, and hot sauce. Fall in a bowl! What’s for dessert?

Cloud Bread that actually works

Lately, Pinterest has been totally blowing up with recipes for “cloud bread.” This is a grain free bread substitute made from baked meringue and cream cheese.

To be honest, I was skeptical. For one, while I do pay attention to carbs, I am a big proponent of the idea that your body NEEDS grain to function. Carbs are energy. Americans just tend to eat more than their body needs. But, in general, I do not much care for bread substitutes when a whole grain bread is very GOOD FOR YOU and NOT SOMETHING TO CONSIDER A SPLURGE!

However, when I have already had my daily carb requirement, then it makes sense to find a substitute, and that’s where I feel justified doing zoodles, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, etc.

However, I was still skeptical. I have baked meringues many times, and the texture is not at all like bread. Spreading butter on it would not only be gross, it would probably break. Could a couple ounces of cream cheese really stabilize it that much?

Well, I decided to try it. I figured if it failed, I could pull out the whole grain bread instead.
Turns out: THIS RECIPE WORKS! CLOUD BREAD IS DELICIOUS!

That’s right! It has a very light, biscuit-like texture, that is delicious spread with butter, but so rich you don’t even need it. It holds its shape, it makes a great bread for a lunch meat sandwich, and it doesn’t even taste like eggs! It tastes like a light, flaky bread.

I won’t pretend to understand why it works, but it does. It actually works, and I will never be skeptical again!

You HAVE to try it

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 eggs, seperated
• 1/2 tsp cream of tarter
• 2 oz cream cheese
• parchment paper is essential, so I’m listing it here for your grocery list, just in case.

Preheat the oven to 300′.
Beat the egg whites with the cream of tarter until super firm and fluffy. Like, when you take out the beater, it should totally hold its shape.

Beat the egg yolks and the cream cheese until totally combined. No white streaks here. At this point, you could add garlic powder, Italian seasoning, some sugar, etc, if you want it to be flavored. I did not, because I want to be able to use it for sweet and savory things.

Using a large spatula, gently fold the whites into the yolk mixture. Go super slow here. You just want it to have very few yellow streaks, but still be super fluffy.

Use a 1/4 cup measure to make rounds on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes until gold on top. It should not jiggle. Let cool for a few minutes, then remove from the baking sheet. You can eat these hot or let them sit out. They get slightly denser and more bread-like at room temp, so that’s my recommendation.

Surprise surprise! Cloud bread works!