minestrone/pasta e fagioli

two days ago, i slightly adapted a minestrone/pasta e fagioli from mark bittman's awesome 'how to cook everything vegetarian.'

i began with with chopped onion, carrot, and celery. you will notice that the celery is in large blocks so that i can remove it later, because, as we all know, celery is evil.

after a bit of cooking, i added a bit of potato, parsnip, and turnip.

plus some awesome hard cheese rind. yes, it is locatelli, because i have italian blood in me and therefore i am a snob about such things.

and, finally, two cans of chopped tomatoes and about seven cups of broth.

after this cooked a while, i decided it was rather unsophisticated, and needed the help of my trusting sidekick, the immersion blender.

oooh, smooth!

then came some zucchini (which i would leave out next time, as the final texture didn't seem right), and some green beans. plus full cup of ditalini pasta and a can of beans. the kale went in a few minutes before serving.

so did the minced garlic.

this was good - leftovers were better. must make again.

black bean and sweet potato chili!

i made sweet potato and black bean chili last night, because it was time to cook and i realized that i thought we had all the ingredients.

also, i decided to just kind of wing it, for once, and not really follow any specific recipe. and, you know what? it worked! also, its kind of impossible to mess up chili.

i chopped up an onion and some garlic and let them brown for a bit. in the meantime, i chopped up the biggest sweet potato EVAR, along with some carrot coins, and popped them in the microwave for a few minutes to get a little head start in the softening process, since i was hungry.

i added cumin, chili powder, and some chipotle to the onions/garlic, and, after a minute and a spash of water, dumped in the sweet potatoes and carrots with a small amount of tomatoes in juice.

later on came salsa, more tomatoes, black beans, and, at the last minute, some frozen organic corn...

here you see some chili pictured with a bit of cheez and a lovely organic blue corn chip. easy-peasy, as the cool kids like to say.

spinach and mushroom lasagna!

i made spinach and mushroom lasagna tonight.

it was going to be my first, full on, vegan spinach mushroom lasagna. as in, the kind with cheeze. because, i do pasta dishes that are naturally vegan all the time, but never any that have, you know, vegan type 'products' in them. but i was going to try an actual recipe that included tofutti and vegan shredded cheeze. i wrote down the ingredients i needed and went to the supermarket.

and guess what? they didn't have tofutti or shredded vegan cheeze. and, for various reasons, it just wasn't feasible tonight to trek on over to try the other supermarket. so, i decided i'd just improvise and buy what i thought would be the ingredients for a related vegetarian spinach mushroom lasagna. as it turns out, i did pretty well. only bought one thing that wasn't in the recipe.

and the first recipe i clicked on was one that i liked, which almost never happens. and, interestingly enough, the winner is some kind of hybrid in a green planet series that was developed by emeril but is owned by martha stewart. i don't make these combinations up. (click here to link to the original recipe).

i'm wondering if there's a dinner recipe on this blog that doesn't start out with onions and garlic. i don't think so. i'm certainly not breaking that chain now:

add some mushrooms...

and then the spinach...

and then tomato sauce (i also added some tomato paste), veggie broth, and spices. and there you have it - lasagna sauce!

mix low-fat ricotta with a touch of nutmeg. and there you have it - lasagna cheese filling!

assembly is easy: first layer no-boil noodles...

for the record, its hard to spread ricotta on noodles. not a TOP CHEF moment.

follow that with a layer of sauce...

and a layer of shredded mozzarella. repeat assembly 3x's.

this is what it looks like finished with some locatelli romano, pre-oven

and post-oven. done. i could have taken a pic of this on the plate, but, uh, it wasn't pretty on the plate, although it tasted quite good. but i think it looks pretty here, so here is where i will leave you. thank you and please have a nice day.

tempeh reuben!

i felt like a tempeh reuben, so i scoured the internets for various recipes, and basically threw stuff together from what was in the fridge minus buying the actual tempeh, saurkraut, and rye.

one must begin with the thousand island dressing, which is an odd name for an odd dressing. one, i might add, that has no business anywhere near my palate except in a thin layer when a reuben is involved.

you start with around 1/4 cup of ketchup:

add the same of whatever form of mayo you are into:

a few tablespoons of minced onion:

and a few teaspoons of some powdered mustard and some relish/minced pickle. and yes, i know this isn't pickle isn't 'minced,' but whatever - send the pickle police after me.

mix it all up and chill for an hour or so, so that the ingredients can get to know each other better.

we also must do the same for the tempeh to marinate in. i believe i pretty much used a few tablespoons of each of the following: water, olive oil, braggs liquid smoke, maple syrup, mustard, caraway seeds, oregano.

when ready to cook, heat a bit of oil in two different pans. in one, put the tempeh, and fry on both sides with the excess marinade, which eventually cooks off a bit like a syrup:

in the other, saute half a chopped onion until it starts to brown...

and then add some saurkraut so it warms and the flavors mix.

at this point, when things were mostly done, i put on the bread to toast and also heated up this soup. yes, i didn't make it, but i think i get points for buying organic and on sale, don't you?

assemble like so - dressing:

tempeh (this pic isn't slightly blurry. i have absolutely no idea what you're talking about):

saurkraut mixture:

mmm. hungry.

greek yogurt spaghetti!

"i like you: hospitality under the influence," by amy sedaris*, is a fabulous book. at first glance, it can be daunting, because you're not quite sure what to do with it. its a very fun read, offering tips on everything from putting together a pirate theme party to how to remove vomit stains from one's clothing.

*fun side note - i've been in a house where the flooring was done by amy's brother, paul, also known as 'the rooster' (see david's book 'me talk pretty one day.') being as i love the sedaris family, it was an actual moment for me. ok - carry on.

yet, there are actual recipes in there. good ones. i've made greek yogurt spaghetti probably half a dozen times, and its been delicious every single time. and, for those of you who don't have the book (it makes a great gift, fyi), the recipe is also posted (here).

last night was no exception. the base of the recipe is onions. lots of them. i didn't use five, but i did use three. here they are before they were carmelized:

about 15 minutes into the process....

and this, my friends, took about 45 minutes. it was worth it.

like 'epicurean', 'carmelized' is also a lovely word. this one has more bite to it, though. it sounds like something an evil but beautiful queen would do to you with her special powers. carmelize. carmelize.

**

you take your carmelized onions, and you mix them with spaghetti...

some greek yogurt, which you have mixed with some reserved spaghetti water...

and some greek related cheese (i used feta, mixed with locatelli romano - don't tell anyone)

throw some toasted pine nuts on top (just put them in a DRY pan on medium heat and watch them closely - there's nothing sadder than burnt nuts. nothing.)...

and some fresh parsley.

and there you have it. this makes me happy. if you make it, you will be happy, too.

carmelize!