Vegetarian

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A brief respite in the cooler weather made for a perfect opening to have a room temperature salad for dinner last night. With warm air streaming through the windows, I got to work breaking down a pumpkin from our visit to Verrill Farm to serve as the star of the show.

sugar pumpkin

The second I cut into the pumpkin, that smell hit me, and I was suddenly standing there daydreaming about sitting around our dining room table as a little kid, newspapers laid out to take the pumpkin guts and seeds. In that moment I literally felt like I shouldn’t be holding the knife, that my dad should be doing the carving while my sister and I drew our designs and our mom brought out cider or snacks.

I hadn’t planned on toasting the seeds, but that happy memory said that I had to, the later taste and crunch again bringing me home. It’s pretty amazing how senses can do that.

pumpkin carving

Once I snapped out of my daydreaming, I got to work once again on dinner, starting with the pumpkin. I simply roasted it at 400 degrees until the flesh was tender, then peeled the blistered skin off and chopped it into cubes.

roasted pumpkin

To finish off the pumpkin, I sautéed it in brown butter and a sprinkle each of cinnamon and cayenne pepper.

roasted pumpkin with cinnamon and brown butter

Next I got my salad dressing ready, mixing apple cider, maple syrup, olive and oil, and hot paprika until it tasted just right.

maple apple cider dressing

I also cooked a cup of lentils and then got started building the salad on beds of Olivia’s Organics baby kale.

baby kale

I topped the mix of pumpkin, lentils, and kale with creamy goat cheese and the toasted pumpkin seeds. The combination was absolutely delicious! It felt great to eat salad without feeling cold inside, and I loved the mix of seasonal ingredients.

roasted pumpkin salad

I saved the remainder of the pumpkin to toss in a smoothie in the morning, a blend of vanilla soy milk, yogurt, cinnamon, pumpkin, and steamed spinach. With less than three weeks until NYC Marathon time, I need all the nutrition I can get!

I am excited to be participating in a Vouvray tasting with TasteLive tonight. So far it’s been a good week, and I hope keeping that positive attitude will only make it get better.

What’s making you happy this week?

Tags: dinner, easy dinners, goat cheese, healthy recipes, lentils, pumpkin, quick dinners, quick meals, recipe, salad, Vegetarian

With the New York City Marathon officially one month away, I’m starting to hope that eating really well will be able to help make up for lack of training, even if ever so slightly. It works that way, right? Maybe if I believe it enough, it will be so.

We’ve been trying to eat less meat in general, and I’ve been trying to cook on the cheap, and since it feels like winter out, a simple soup came out of a few pantry ingredients along with some fresh additions.

onion

I started this soup by adding a chopped onion, a bunch of garlic, and a big bowl of beautiful kale to some olive oil in my treasured Le Creuset French oven which will soon be two years old. I love how kitchen memories sometimes spark life memories. Two years ago, I had quit my full time job, was really, really, sick, and was cooking up this delicious pork dish in my new cookware. It’s been quite the two years. . . and I having a really good memory is a blessing a curse.

Back to the soup!

kale

I let the kale cook down a little bit before adding a can of stewed tomatoes, using my vegetable scissors to chop the tomatoes into smaller pieces.

stewed tomatoes

I drained a can of white beans and added them in.

cannelini beans

Then I poured in enough veggie broth to cover everything.

vegetable stock

To season the soup, I added two heaping tablespoons of Pastene pesto. I am not generally a fan of jarred pesto; fresh pesto is SO good. But Pastene makes great products and I thought I would give this one a try. It’s quite good, especially on toast with olive oil, which we had alongside the soup. I am embracing my emerging carb monster!

Pastene pesto

I let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes, then turned the heat off until we were ready to eat. At that point all of the flavors had combined nicely, and the kale was perfectly soft but not mushy.

kale and white beans soup

The soup, along with pesto toast, made for a delicious and simple dinner. My favorite thing about a soup like this is how versatile it is. Add some chicken sausage, small pasta, rice, other veggies, really whatever you have on hand. Recipes like this make for great leftovers and take some of the thought out of lunches during the week.

Is it the weekend yet?

Tags: healthy, kale, recipe, soup, vegan, Vegetarian, white beans

Eggplant Lasagna

There’s food in our kitchen again! Summer definitely kicked my love of cooking out the door for awhile, but I have been slowly meal-planning again, looking forward to spending time in the kitchen chopping, combining flavors, and looking forward to something delicious.

I’ve also been trying to create meals that are both comforting and healthy. As I round the bend to the final stretch of NYC Marathon training, I am feeling exhausted, and I could just chow on fries for all meals. Add in some coffee and maybe a little cake, and I would be all set.

Thankfully, there are lots of great blogs to inspire me. I’ve been loving the Detoxinista, and recently I made an eggplant-based lasagna based on her eggplant and goat cheese lasagna.

The cheese filling in this lasagna, a goat cheese and cauliflower puree, is the creamy, delicious highlight, sneaking in nutrients and fiber without taking away any scrumptiousness.

image

I started by prepping my eggplant. I cut it into thin slices (they should have been thinner), and marinating them in balsamic vinegar.

image

Next up, I prepped my “meat”, chopped mushrooms sautéed with garlic and onions with a bit of pepper and salt.

image

Then came the goat cheese and steamed cauliflower, which I mixed with oregano, basil, and garlic. Then I had a big spoonful before adding two eggs to bind the mixture together. I think these would make a great pancake appetizer with the eggs or a great veggie side dish on their own.

image

When all of the pieces were ready, I started to layer, first some Bobby D.’s Angry Sauce (which was not at all spicy, sad), then eggplant, cauliflower cheese, mushrooms, sauce, repeat. I baked the whole dish at 425 degrees for about 50 minutes, keeping an eye on it until the sauce was bubbling nicely. The final layer of cheese on the top should be nicely browned; if not a few minutes under the broiler can help.

Bobby D's Sauce

A side note about the above sauce: after getting soaked on a bad run, freezing to death in the air-conditioned grocery store, and ruining my phone and a paycheck in the downpour, I was walking home with this sauce and it crashed through my grocery bag and hit the ground.

Thankfully it didn’t break; the bottom cracked and the lid was crushed. The worst part? The college kids walking behind me laughed at me! The day of this dinner didn’t start very well, but luckily it ended with a cozy dinner.

This lasagna is definitely something I will be making again. Even though it was noodle-free, the cheese and mushrooms really made it satisfying and filling.

How are you warming up your kitchen on these first days of Autumn?

Tags: dinner, eggplant, Food, healthy cooking, lasagna, Meatless Monday, Vegetarian, vegetarian recipe

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