Squash Good Bye Winter, Hello Summer

I enjoy my food simple and these two dishes are so simple but do not lack flavor.

Braised Squash with Wilted Spinach:

Pan fry summer squash in olive oil (I enjoyed using my garlic oil here) with an herb of your choosing. I went with tarragon.
With one bag of spinach, toss with a light basil balsamic vinegrette salad dressing. Spead it across a cookie sheet and broil for a few minutes, toss and continue to broil until it's all warmed, but not cooked all the way through.

Pile the spinach on your plate and place the squash over the bed. Sprinkle with salt and better and welcome summer squash back into your life.

Butternut Squash Fries with Vanilla:

I picked up a fun, new salt - vanilla salt! Where to use it? - sweet fries of course!

Here I chopped up butternut squash into fry-like pieces, tossed with olive oil and baked at 400F for awhile. I became impatient and wanted them before they became crispy fries so I took them out, sprinkled them with a wonderful new vanilla finishing salt. This was a perfect way to celebrate the savory of the squash and the sweetness of the sugars within the squash. I love this salt and will find many more uses for it I am sure.

In the oven now - a chocolate version of my glutten-free almond cookies. They smell heavenly!

My First Risotto

I think I've only ever had risotto once (I grew up in a Tex-Mex house give me a break!) I went about making it awhile ago but I bought orzo instead of risotto rice so my cooking was stopped at the grocery store.
Below is my story with risotto.

I started with this recipe. I added rosemary and sun dried tomatoes as a base flavor, then stirred in spinach later.

Started by sauteing some onion. When it was translucent I added some rosemary, chopped sun dried tomatoes and three cloves of chopped garlic.
I added the rice and dry cooked it for three minutes.
Then went the "wine." My wine was mostly water with a splash of apple juice. Next time I will just use more broth.I slowly added more veggie broth, while stirring continuously.When all the both was incorporated I added the spinach.
I added the fresh herbs of oregano and basil and bit more chopped garlic. Also a pat of Earth Balance and covered the rice and let it sit for 5 more minutes.Served with fresh oregano, black salt and some figs on the side because they are just so beautiful.
The risotto was good, but it was a lot of work to sit there and constantly stir it. Next time I will try the lazy approach where you add the water all at once and just let it cook, stirring when I remember.

Low-fat Potato Dinner

This dish is very filling and is pretty low in calories and fat but high in flavor.

Baked Potato with Salsa:
1/2 cup corn
2/3 cup black beans
1/2 cup chopped spinach
1 Tablespoon Wildwood Aioli or a vegan mayo
Salsa to taste

Mix the ingredients and serve over a warm baked with a side of salsa.

This dish was served with a side of yellow watermelon sprinkled with lime juice.

More Broil Tofu Scramble

One of our favorite breakfast places here in Portland, Beaterville, has this wonderfully textured tofu. So I was inspired by both the delicious scramble tofu I had the previous weekend and the Beaterville tofu so I tried the following.

Broiled Tofu Scramble:
1 block of tofu
2 Tbl. Braggs
Light oil

1. Turn the broiler onto high.
2. Cut tofu into cubes and scatter on cookie sheet. Spray with oil and broil for 10 minutes.
3. Toss the tofu and spoon over some Braggs.
4. Stick it back in the oven and continue to broil, repeating the above process until your tofu reaches the desired consistency. You might want it drier than you think because if you'll be adding any vegetables to it, it will absorb some.

1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 bag baby spinach
1 Tbl. roughly chopped sun dried tomatoes

1. Saute the onion and garlic in some oil.
2. Add the sun dried tomatoes and tofu and cook until it all reaches the same temperature.
(Your tofu will change texture the longer you cook it because it will gain moisture.)
3. Add spinach, cover and cook until wilted, making sure to stir and add spices to your taste.

I love the strong flavors of the tomatoes and don't feel this dish needs much extra spice.
Serve with home fries, juice and toast of your choice.
Enjoy!

Baked Ricotta

Baked Ricotta
My mom got a non-vegan version similar to this at a resturant the other night and it inspired me to make this. I am unsure if it's really called baked ricotta, but this is what I am calling it now.

1 block firm, silken tofu
3-5 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chopped basil
1 cup chopped spinach (I used frozen)
1/4 cup finely chopped soy moz.
2 Tbl. chopped sun dried tomatoes
salt and pepper

Place in a bag and let marinate over night.

I rolled them into balls, making sure to squeeze out as much liquid as I could before frying.
At first I used too much oil and they fell apart, as you can see in the picture. They stayed together much better using just a bit of oil. However, they weren't that beautiful.

Dinner is served with a salad with basil and balasic vinegar dressing and some steamed summer squash. The baked/pan fried ricotta was served on a bed of tomato sauce with some soy cheese served over it.

D-lish!

Raw Lasanga

1/2 zucchini cut into very thin rounds
Less than 1/4 onion cut into very thin slices
1 clove garlic
2 roma tomatoes
1/3 cup finely chopped spinach.
1/2 tsp. fresh rosemary
1/4 tsp. thyme
3 Tbl. chopped basil
3 Tbl. raw tahinni
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. dehydrated onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

1. As thinly as possible, slice the zucchini. Chop the garlic clove in half and gently rub on both sides of each piece of zucchini. Set aside.
2. Dice the tomatoes, a tiny bit of garlic, spinach, rosemary, and thyme. Mix together and add salt and pepper to taste
3. In a seperate bowl mix the tahinni, lemon juice and onion powder. Add 1/2 tsp. at a time until the mixture is light in color and isn't pastey or runny.

To assemble:
1. Lay zucchini down so they slightly overlap one another.
2. Layer the thinly sliced onion.
3. Spread half of the tomato mixture over this and 1/3 of the tahinni mixture.
4. Repeat the zuchinni layer.
5. Lay another around of onions or thinly sliced garlic pieces.
6. Repeat the remaining steps until you're left with the last third of the tahinni mixture. Pour this over thetop zucchini layer.
7. Cut and serve.

Taste:
oh man. I never expected this to taste as good as it did. The best part about it was the lingering taste it left after it was done. I thought the tahinni was going to be too much but the way it mixed with the fresh tomatoes and the garlic flavor was so wonderful.
Brian doesn't normally say how it tastes until after I ask him. But with this, after the first bite he started talking about how good it was. He asked if I wrote the recipe down to make sure I know how to make it again. I can't wait to serve this to other people to see what they say.

Notes:
Sharp knife is required for this recipe. When I say thin slices I mean less than 1/16". with the onion and garlic it becomes almost just the juices.
The zucchini might start to warp. They can be stored in a bowl with cold water and 1 clove of crushed garlic.