Pasta with Spinach Pesto

Thinking about vegetables and wanting a very green dinner, I went for pasta with a spinach pesto. Fortunately, I made enough that we ate it for three nights.  It was super simple and it had enough spinach to make Popeye proud! To top it all off, it was so simple, which was exactly what I was looking for.

Pasta with Spinach Pesto
1 package of spaghetti or angel hair
2 bags of spinach (1 bag can be used for a less spinach-y dish)
3 garlic cloves
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper

Boil pasta, do not rinse, transfer to large bowl. Place all other ingredients into the food processor and puree. Mix all ingredients together and fold into pasta. Top with fresh grated Parmesan cheese. May also top with chopped with sun dried tomatoes and toasted pine nuts.

We ate it for 2 nights before deciding to spice it up a little with the sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts. I do admit, it was much better with the tomatoes, as most things are.

Pasta with Spinach Pesto: ~265 calories per serving, recipe makes about 6 servings.
With 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes and 1/2 tbsp toasted pine nuts: ~328 calories

Trying Indian & Lebanese

I pulled out "The World of Street Food: Easy Quick Meals to Cook at Home" by Troth Wells today to plan what I was going to make for the week. I decided on two similarly flavored (I had hoped, and I was right) dishes and I served them both with naan. It was pav bhaji from India and batata bil kizbara from Lebanon. Basically, the pav was a cauliflower curry and the batata was potatoes with seasoning. I changed the recipes a little bit and I will write the recipe as I did it, not as the recipe was published.

 Thanks Joe for the super awesome cookbook!

Pav bhaji, makes 8 servings
2 tbsp butter

Indian & Lebanese with Naan

1 large yellow onion, diced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 cup potatoes, diced
1 whole head cauliflower florets, about 2 cups
2 carrots, chopped
1/2 cup thawed frozen peas
1/2 tsp turmeric (I didn't have any, but I intent to next time, so I used saffron and mustard powder and it was pretty good)
1 tbsp curry powder

Indian Pav bhaji

salt and pepper (about 1/2 tsp in total)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Melt butter in large pan, cook onion and pepper until soft, add garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add tomatoes for 10 minutes and parboil the potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, and peas in a small amount of water at the same time. Drain vegetables and keep the water on the side. Add the vegetables to the tomato mixture with the spices in it. As the vegetables are cooking, add the parboil water a little at a time until a thick broth is in the pan. Serve with cilantro on top.

Lebanese Batata bil kizbara

Batata bil kizbara (I doubled the amount of potatoes but not everything, but I see now that I should have), makes 6 servings
2 lbs potatoes, cubed
4 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp coriander
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
4 tbsp cilantro
lemon wedges
oil salt

Parboil the potatoes until fork tender. Heat oil in a large frying pan and fry potato. Add garlic, paprika, coriander, sesame seeds, and 3 tbsp of the cilantro. Season with salt and serve with 1 tbsp cilantro and serve with lemon wedges.

Pav bhaji: ~120 calories per serving, recipe makes 6 servings
Batata bil kizbara: ~80 calories per serving, recipe makes 8 servings

Slow-Cooked Buttery Leeks

I'm still working on my Spanish cooking, and tonight was a success in creativity and recipe following. Like I mentioned before, Spanish food is not for a quick dinner. I was thinking about it today, and the Spanish people really do seem to be the slow cooked type. When we were in Barcelona for our honeymoon this summer, nothing was open before 11am and nothing closed before 3am. It seemed to be the type of place where people took their time to get the best flavor out of life, and I am noticing that in the food.

Buttery Leeks & Spanish Couscous

For dinner tonight, I made Puerros Cocidos, Slow-Cooked Buttery Leeks. They were so incredible that I literally felt like the leeks were filled with butter, which they almost were.

Cut the roots and green tops off leeks (the recipe called for 6 small leeks, but I used 3 large ones), and cut them into ~3 inch stalks. Sautée 1/3 cup of olive oil in a saucepan and lightly brown 4 sliced garlic cloves. Add 5 bay leaves and the leeks to the oil, laying them flat in the pan. Add 2/3 cups white wine (we used Riesling), 5 tbsp butter, enough warm water to almost cover the leeks, and a pinch of salt. Bring to a quick boil and then return to low heat and simmer covered for 45 minutes. Remove the leeks and then reduce the sauce.

Buttery Leeks & Spanish Couscous

In the meantime, I made some couscous with flavors inspired by the recipes I had read about. I toasted my Israeli couscous, which really gives the couscous a nice nutty taste to it. I added the water and simmered until cooked thoroughly. I added dried thyme, paprika, cumin, and smoked salt to the mix. I served the leeks on top of a pile of couscous and put some of the leek sauce on top. The words melt-in-your-mouth don't even describe how incredibly soft and buttery the leeks were.

North African Chickpea and Date Tagine

North African Chickpea & Date Tagine

I had made this recipe once before, but I had some kosher strip steak in the freezer and I wanted to use it. I took a recipe from The Vegetarian Times, a Chickpea and Date Tagine. A tagine is a sweet and savory dish, and this particular one comes from North Africa. The recipe, with my own variations, can be seen below:

North African Chickpea & Date Tagine

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced (I used a medium sweet onion)
4 cloves garlic (I used 3 large cloves)
1 tsp each ground cumin, coriander, ginger (I used 1/2 tsp each)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I used 1/4 tsp)
15 oz.can crushed tomatoes
15 oz. can chickpeas
1 cup whole wheat couscous
1 cup pitted dates, halved (I large chopped)
1/4 cup lemon juice (I used lime)
salt and pepper (to taste, I didn't use any)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (I used more like a cup, because we love cilantro)

Cilantro and Lime

Cook onions until brown, cook 10 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, coriander, ginger, and cinnamon. Add tomatoes, chickpeas, 1/4 cups water, simmer 10 minutes. While the tagine is cooking, brown dry couscous in pan, add 1 3/4 cups water and bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover for 5 minutes, fluff to serve. Add dates, lemon juice, salt and pepper to tagine and serve with couscous, garnish with cilantro.

To serve, I put the couscous down first, followed by the meat (if using), spoon the tagine on top, and top it off with cilantro. The recipe says to garnish with cilantro, but I really pour it on top. I find that the fresh cilantro does something magical to the whole dish. It is also very good for you, and many claim that cilantro is helpful in removing heavy metals and other toxic agents from the body. Cilantro is also used as an anti-inflammatory for arthritis, for relief of stomach gas, to ward off urinary tract infections, reduce feelings of nausea, and to help stimulate the endocrine glands (which secrete hormones into the bloodstream). Cilantro has also been used to ease hormonal mood swings, reduce menstrual cramping, and is a source of iron and magnesium, which may be helpful in fighting anemia.

For the meat, I cooked it in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. While the meat was cooking, I pressed cilantro with fresh squeezed lime juice with a mortar and pestle. After the meat had been cooked medium rare, I added the cilantro lime mix and simmered it for a couple minutes.

I really found this to be a filling and delicious dish when we made it without the meat, but with the meat cooked in similar flavors, it really went with it. I was very happy with now the dish turned out, as was Nathan. The best part is that the leftovers will marry in the fridge overnight and be even better tomorrow.

My Most Delicious Meatballs

I had a vision today for a turkey meatball recipe. I made it happen. It was awesome!!

Minced ingredients all in a row!

MEATBALL INGREDIENTS
1 lbs Kosher lean turkey
1 small onion- diced super fine
1 shallot- diced super fine
1 garlic clove- diced super fine
1 bunch of parsley- diced super fine
1 egg
1/2 tsp (could have used more) sun dried tomato powder from the North Market Spices in Columbus
salt & pepper
smoked salt
thyme infused olive oil
olive oil

Meatballs simmering!

First, I sauteed the olives, shallots, and garlic in the thyme olive oil for just a minute. I put them aside and mixed them in with the turkey, egg, parsley, tomato powder, onion/shallot/garlic, salt and pepper, and a small pinch of smoked salt. I balled them up (a bit larger than a golf ball) and cooked them in the onion/shallot/garlic pan with regular olive oil. Once they were thoroughly cooked, I added a small can of tomato sauce (just sauce, nothing special) and coarsely chopped sweet basil.

The final dinner plate

I served the meatballs up with kale and whole wheat couscous. It was an awesome dinner, but seriously- the best meatballs I've ever made! Considering I have only made a few, this isn't a huge feat, but everyone who ate them agreed they were totally awesome!