Eat, Like, a Meal

Remember those old Chunky soup commercials? "The soup that eats like a meal?" (Here's a highlarious reminder. What is going on with that roommate sitch anyway?) Those wacky commercials were on the air back in 1985 and it seems like it's been as long since my last post! Whoopsie!

Speaking of meals (not that I have been making many lo these past few weeks), I may not be cooking all that much, but I have been eating a slew of salads thinking that I am super healthy. And then I realized that these so-called salads have the word "chef" or "cobb" in front of them. Who am I kidding? Meat, cheese, bacon? Hello!

Well, how about adding some quinoa to justify the healthfulness? Totes. Done and done. A classic cobb, minus the grilled chicken, plus the quinoa, equals...a salad that eats like a meal.

Classic Cobb Salad (Plus Grains)
Adapted from Bon Appétit

6 ounces bacon (about 6 slices), cut into 1-inch pieces (plus more for snacking)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced shallot (about 1/2 medium shallot)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 small garlic clove, grated
1/4 teaspoon honey
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups baby greens
3 cups cooked grains (such as quinoa, semi-pearled farro, or wild rice), cooled
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, quartered
1 ripe avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 ripe tomato cut into 1/2-inch wedges
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

1. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crispy and most of the fat is rendered, 7–8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate.

2. Whisk the lemon juice, shallot, vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, and honey in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in the oil. Season the dressing to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Place the lettuce on a large platter. Arrange the the bacon, grains, eggs, avocado, tomato, and cheese over. Drizzle with the dressing. Serves 6.

Peppier than Popeye

Even though I didn't indulge in my favorite guacamole and margarita holiday last weekend, I still feel like I could use a break. From food and stuff. So I'm looking to my old lentil standby to help me out. Lentils are high in protein and fiber as well as folate, vitamin B1 and potassium among several other nutrients. Combining lentils with quinoa, which also offers complete protein as well as nine essential amino acids, makes a super-hard-core-healthy meal. I mean, it's got to be better than Popeye's plain old spinach!

For this salad I used what I had laying around, which wasn't much, but you could certainly add loads more of your fave veggies, feta or goat cheese and even some sliced almonds for extra crunch. My little twist with this recipe is using black (or beluga) lentils and tri-color quinoa, just for some visual interest. I'm feeling better already!

Black Lentil and Tri-Color Quinoa Salad

1 cup quinoa (white or red or tri-color)
1 cup lentils (black or green or brown)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove, grated
Zest of one lemon
1 cup chopped olives
1 small zucchini, diced
1/3 cup basil, chopped
1/3 cup parsley, chopped
Salt and Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Place the quinoa in a mesh colander and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Add the quinoa and two cups of water to a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile rinse the lentils with cold water and place in another medium saucepan. Cover with at least an inch of water, bring to a boil, cover, and then simmer until tender but not falling apart, 15 - 18 minutes.

3. While the quinoa and lentils are cooking, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and lemon zest in a small bowl. Set aside.

4. Drain the cooked lentils and toss with the quinoa and lemon mixture in a large bowl. Set aside to cool.

5. Once the salad has cooled, mix in the chopped herbs, olives, zucchini and salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serves about six.

Dry Black Lentils

Dry Tri-Color Quinoa

Cooked Tri-Color Quinoa

It's the End of the World as We Know It

And I feel fine. Earl is approaching and it's the last weekend of summer. Some people are behaving like it is the end of the world. Really, it's just going to rain a lot this afternoon and tonight, be super windy, and then be a gorgeously sunny weekend in the mid 70s. I'm not mad at that.

Since we'll only be able to get summer time produce for a tiny bit longer, I thought I'd include a few recipes that you might make for this coming weekend of grillin' and chillin'. With all of the basil that I bought last weekend, I made some pesto and then tossed it with some pasta and veggies for a cold pasta salad. Ordinarily I can't stand pasta salad, but anything coated with pesto is an exception. Because I said so. Use a bit more pesto and salt (use 12 ounces pasta rather than 16 ounces) than you would if you were serving the pasta hot. Flavors tend to diminish when food is cold, so this helps to keep it vibrant. And don't serve the pasta salad super cold right out of the fridge. Let it sit out for about 15 minutes and give it a stir just to make sure to redistribute any pesto that may have accumulated in the bottom of the bowl.



Pesto Pasta Salad

Make the pesto. Meanwhile, cook 12 ounces of pasta according to package directions. During the last minute of cook time, add 1 medium zucchini (that has been cut into matchsticks) to the cooking pasta. Drain and rinse briefly under cool water. Add the drained pasta and zucchini to a large bowl along with the pesto, 1 pint of halved cherry or grape tomatoes, and 1 cup of perlini or bocconcini mozzarella (small mozzarella balls). Stir to thoroughly combine. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate. Serves 4 to 6.




I came across this recipe in The New York Times last week. I loved the idea of grating a tomato to make the vinaigrette. I ended up using quinoa because when I first made the recipe using brown rice, my rice was way too sticky to be worthy of being called a salad. It was more of a cold risotto...not a very desirable texture. I also decided that with the flavors of the vinaigrette, it would work really well as a Greek Grain Salad, for lack of a better name, so I added the feta and olives to round out the salad.

Greek Grain Salad with Fresh Tomato Vinaigrette
(Adapted from Martha Rose Shulman)

1 medium to large ripe, locally grown tomato
1 garlic clove, green shoot removed, minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cups cooked (and cooled) grains, such as quinoa, brown rice, medium or large bulgur, or a combination
1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1 medium cucumber, seeded and diced
1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts for garnish

1. Cut the tomato in half along the equator (see tomato photo above), and grate the cut side on the large holes of a box grater into a wide bowl. Discard the skins. Stir in the garlic, salt and pepper, vinegar, and olive oil. Add the remaining ingredients, toss together and serve. Serves four to six.




Last but not least, let's not forget about corn on the cob. First, yum! And second, can I please say that it is a major pet peeve of mine when people boil the hell out of their corn on the cob. You don't need to boil corn for 20 minutes. It's not a potato, people! You can eat it fresh. I usually just boil it for about 5 minutes (just to warm through), top with salt, maybe a touch of butter, and eat. You can also make this fabulous fresh corn salad.

Have an amazing weekend!

Keen What?

Recently a friend of mine asked me about alternative recipes to make for Thanksgiving that wouldn't leave you feeling like a "fat bastard" after. That got me to thinking: Is it the recipes that make you feel like a fat bastard or just how much of those recipes you shovel into your mouth? I'm thinking both, but I also think that that stuffed, sleepy feeling you feel after eating Thanksgiving dinner is more a result of a carb extravaganza overload (rolls, stuffing, mashed potatoes...) than from the trace amounts of trypotophan that you ingest from eating one or two slices of turkey. And then there's the wine. I mean, c'mon.

I came across this quinoa recipe in Food & Wine recently and actually thought that it could be a great alternative to stuffing. I've made quinoa before but always in a vegetarian context. Although I've always I liked it, I've felt that my recipes were lacking something. Hello! Just add bacon, Tina! Duh. Suddenly quinoa has taken on a whole new dimension for me. Not only is it high in protein, full of amino acids, magnesium, and iron, cooked with bacon it is delicious! And since quinoa is not a true grain (it's considered a pseudocereal more closely related to spinach or beets) and it's so healthy, you won't pass out from a fat bastard Thanksgiving coma. Well, maybe skip the appetizers just to be safe. And maybe the mashed potatoes and gravy. And the pecan pie...



Quinoa with Bacon and Almonds
(Adapted from Food & Wine)

1/3 cup sliced almonds
4 slices bacon (preferrably thick sliced), diced
1 small shallot (or garlic clove), minced
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups chicken stock
1 sage sprig
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add the almonds and toast, stirring frequently, until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Let cool.

2. Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until the fat has rendered and the bacon is starting to crisp, about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove half of the bacon and set aside.

3. Add the shallot (and/or garlic) to the remaining bacon in the saucepan and cook, until softened but not browned, about 1 minute. Add the quinoa, stock, and sage and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat until the stock has been absorbed, 15 - 20 minutes. Remove the quinoa from the heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Discard the sage and fluff the quinoa with a fork. Stir in the parsley, toasted almonds, and reserved cooked bacon. Add salt an pepper to taste. Serves 4 as a side dish.