Category: Vegetables + Salads

Vegetables + Fruits + Fungi Recipes

Cauliflower Pizza

There’s several cauliflower pizza recipes out there, but my version doesn’t use tomato sauce because I don’t want my pizza to be soggy. Using one egg binds the ground cauliflower, but not so much that you can actually fold it and eat it like a pizza–you’ll still need a fork to eat this, and perhaps a spoon to scoop everything together.

What I like about this recipe is how you can play with different toppings. Sure you can use mozzarella instead of Parmesan, but I wanted a hardy cheese that won’t get soupy. I had extra Gruyere in the fridge and so I decided to grate that over the rest of the toppings. Arugula leftovers? Sure! You can also leave this as a vegetarian dish and skip the pepperoni, but where’s the fun in that?

Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower, chopped in smaller pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten
a nice block of Parmesan cheese, grated
salt, pepper
non-stick spray
a smaller block of Gruyere cheese
2 tomatoes, sliced
a handful of basil leaves, torn
a handful of arugula
pepperoni
oil

1. Preheat oven to 425º and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Using a food processor, quickly blitz cauliflower florets. Do it in 2 separate batches if necessary. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
3. Combine ground cauliflower with the egg, Parmesan cheese, and season with salt and pepper. Lightly mix with a spatula.
4. Spray the lined baking sheet with non-stick spray and pat the cauliflower mix flat onto it like a rectangular pizza. Spread evenly with the spatula.
5. Grate the Gruyere over it and top with the rest of the ingredients. Drizzle some oil and bake for up to 18 minutes, or until golden on the edges.

Pasta with Creamed Summer Corn Sauce

Why aren’t you puréeing that corn? Because I want to leave some of them whole for texture. You’ve thought of everything!

There’s a new man in my life and he’s been quite easy to impress, but I do have to admit that even I was pretty floored with this dish I whipped up after seeing Melissa Clark’s summer corn recipe. We started our meal with a simple caprese salad and then paired this dish with a very dry rosé.

I didn’t want to buy any new pasta so I ended up using the squid ink pasta I already had. The corn came from the farmer’s market at Columbia University over the weekend, and I shucked and sliced off the kernels from the cobs before sautéeing with garlic and butter. I then puréed it to make a sauce-like consistency.

The creaminess of the corn was enough to make it so; there is no need for dairy here except for the butter, but feel free to shred some Parmesan cheese over it to give it more of a heft.

Ingredients:
a package of squid ink pasta
oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced (keep the whites and greens separate)
salt, pepper
chile flakes
3 large ears corn, shucked and kernels sliced off the cobs, about 2 cups
a small know of butter
basil leaves, torn
mint leaves, finely chopped
fresh lemon juice, as needed

1. Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente, drain, reserving some of pasta water, and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in large pan over medium heat. Sauté garlic until golden and add scallion whites. Cook until soft, about 3 minutes, and season with some salt, pepper, and chile flakes.
3. Add a splash of the pasta water and the corn kernels. Simmer until corn is heated through and almost tender, up to 5 minutes. Transfer all except a handful of corn to a food processor and purée until smooth, adding a little pasta water as needed to get a creamy but pourable texture.
4. Heat the same skillet with the corn that you didn’t purée over medium-high heat and add the puréed corn. Add butter and stir to melt. Toss in the scallion greens, basil, and mint, adding a splash of pasta water or two to keep it from getting dry. Turn off the heat and add pasta, gently tossing to coat. Serve with lemon slices.

Rasam, South Indian Tomato Soup

Dal is often referred to as lentils but it’s actually the split version of lentils, peas, chickpeas, mung beans, kidney beans, and so on. The edible seeds of various leguminous plants are called pulses. If a pulse is split into half, it is a dal.

Rasam is a South Indian soup using tamarind and tomatoes as base. I added dal to make it meatier. For this recipe, I used an “Autumn blend” of brown, yellow, and orange lentils. I used 2 limes here to replace the tamarind’s sour note and deseeded the Serrano chile to keep the heat down. If you want to make a real meal out of this, buy some kebabs and serve with basmati rice and naan, like I did below.

Ingredients:
1 cup dal, soaked for 30 minutes in water, then drained
2 tsps cumin seeds
2 tsps black peppercorns
2 tbsps clarified butter
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 Serrano chile, deseeded, chopped
a small knob of ginger, peeled, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp, turmeric
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 limes, halved
a handful of cilantro, finely chopped

1. In a medium Dutch oven, toast cumin seeds and the peppercorns, and then remove to ground with a pestle.
2. In the same pot, heat clarified butter and toast mustard seeds. Cover the pot since the seeds pop. When they quiet down, add back the ground cumin and peppercorns. Be careful not to burn.
3. Stir and sauté in garlic, then chile, ginger, and the onions for about 5 minutes. Add the drained dal and turmeric and mix to coat.
4. Add the tomatoes and 4 cups of water. Stir and squeeze the lime into the pot without the seeds, and then throw in the spent lime halves. Season with salt. Simmer in medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat, remove and discard the lime halves, and mix in cilantro.

Recommended:
A bag of Pereg Gourmet Autumn Blend of heirloom lentils was $3 at my grocery store. Use the leftover for multiple salads and other lentil dishes.

Farro with Pickled Carrots, Kale and Shiitake Mushrooms

Spring cleaning is a bitch to do, but it’s always worth it in the end. You stand in front of your pantry and you can actually find stuff! I was applying the KonMari method of Marie Kondo to my kitchen cabinets when I found a small bag of farro. I set it aside to remind me to make use of it later in the week for a healthier dinner option. The carrots were a bit stale, found in the back of the vegetable bin, so I decided to quick-pickle them here. I used leek and scallions since I had leftovers, but feel free to use onions and some parsley for green coloring instead. If you want to impress, sous-vide your eggs at 146º for 45 minutes and crack them open on top of the salad before serving.

Ingredients:
a handful of baby carrots
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 tsp sugar
salt, pepper
olive oil
1 cup semi-pearled farro
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 leek, cleaned, chopped
1 scallion, chopped
a large handful of dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, drained, chopped
1/2 bunch of kale, center ribs and stems removed, torn into smaller pieces
a jigger of fish sauce
2 large eggs, fried

1. Quick-pickle the carrots. In a small saucepan, bring vinegar, sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 cup water to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt. Pour over carrots in a bowl; let sit at least 30 minutes, or until ready to use. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup pickling liquid.
2. Cook farro. In a medium saucepan, heat olive over medium-high heat. Add farro and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until farro is dark brown, about 10 minutes. Add 6 cups water and bring to a boil. Boil farro until tender but still firm to the bite, about 25 minutes. Drain; let cool.
3. Heat some more oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté leek and scallions. Add mushrooms and kale and cook, tossing often, until mushrooms are soft and kale is wilted. Season with fish sauce and pepper. Add the pickled carrots and the farro. Pour in some of the pickling liquid to make sure it’s not dry. Serve and top with the eggs.

Recommendations:
The Marie Kondo book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing will change your life. I also highly recommend the Anova Sous Vide as one of those toys you don’t think you need.

Stewed Cranberry Beans with Bacon

Miriam and I drove up to the Catskills for her bachelorette party two weekends ago. Yep, a bachelorette party with just the two of us. I’ve known her for the last 12 years and even though we’re always miles away from each other, we just always pick up where we left off the next time we’re together. She was coming from Singapore and was jet-lagged so our Phoenecia weekend was pretty chill and quiet. Besides eating and drinking around town, we stopped by Migliorelli Farm to pick up some fresh produce. I ended up taking home their fresh cranberry beans which I shelled several days later and soaked before making this dish.

Ingredients:
olive oil
4 slices bacon, chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
salt, pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup shelled cranberry beans, soaked for 24 hours, drained
chicken broth
2 sprigs rosemary, roughly chopped
2 tsps lemon zest
2 tbsps lemon juice
a dash chile pepper flakes
1 tsp sambal oelek
a handful of spinach leaves

1. Cook and stir olive oil and bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until bacon is fully cooked and begins to crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in shallots and season with salt and pepper and cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
2. Add the beans and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until the beans begin to swell, about 25 minutes.
3. Uncover and continue cooking bean and bacon mixture until the liquid reduces and beans are tender, 5 to 10 more minutes. Add rosemary, lemon zest, lemon juice, and chile pepper flakes. Stir in sambal oelek to incorporate and to adjust the taste. Remove from heat, stir in spinach until wilted.