Whole Wheat Pizza with Sundried Tomato Puree, Red Onions, Asparagus, and Goat Cheese

Growing up we didn’t each much junk food and fast food was only an option (mom made the decision, not us kids) that happened a few times a year.  Pizza though, was a once weekly treat and ususally ordered from one of the local pizza places.  Being from an area plentiful with Italians, we had many places to choose from.  Fritz’s in Bay Shore (no longer in existence) was very memorable to me mostly because of the pizza that my parents ordered.  Fritz’s made an “everything” pie which was loaded with veggies.  I don’t recall if it had any meat on it.  Back in those days I eschewed veggies on my pizza and was especially disgruntled (along with my brother) that a plain pizza was not ordered for us also.  We spent much of the dining time (in the restaurant or at home) picking the veggies off the pizza and then consuming the naked pie.  In hindsight I wish I would have left those delicious vegetables on the pie and eaten all of it. 

Making our own pizza became a regular and popular activity for my siblings and I starting in the 80’s.  Originally, my mother would make her own whole wheat pizza dough (she may have gotten crust recipe from her sister) with leftover marinara or meat sauce (always sweetened a bit with some grated carrot) and topped with conventional mozzarella cheese.  The 90’s brought about Boboli and “tube” crusts along with Italian bread and sometimes English muffins as a base.  I began asking pizza parlors to buy their raw dough to make my own pizza in the early 90’s and got some perplexing looks and comments.  Conventional mozzarella morphed into fresh mozzarella and our pizza started sporting grilled vegetables and pestos.  I have come full circle and am now back to making my own crust just as my mother did.

This pizza was inspired by some fresh asparagus I snapped up at my local farmer’s market (Islip Town Hall) this weekend and also by the ingredients in my pantry.  I usually make my own crust as I prefer a whole wheat crust.  It was delicious with a great combination of tang and sweetness.  I would love to do this on the grill too.  I also like that it tastes just as delicious the next day (I usually eat it cold) for lunch.  Switch the veggies and cheese up as you wish!  Mmmmmm.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
*This recipe makes 2 crusts and each crust will serve approximately 6 people
prep time: 25 minutes
cooking time:
serving size: 6 slices, approximately
*This is one of my favorite crust recipes which I altered slightly by substituting honey for sugar and using all whole wheat pastry flour and not any all purpose flour.  Find the recipe at:http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Amazing-Whole-Wheat-Pizza-Crust/Detail.aspx

Sundried Tomato Paste
prep time: 5 minutes
cooking time: 15 minutes
serving size: will cover 2 pizzas

3/4 c. packed sundried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
1 c. water
2 tblsp. olive oil

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan.  Add the tomatoes, cover, lower heat to low, and simmer for about 15 minutes.  In a blender or food processor puree the mixture and then stir the olive oil in.

Pizza Assembly
prep time: 10 minutes
cooking time: 25 minutes, approximately
serving size: 6 servings, approximately

1 lb. of asparagus, tough ends snapped off
1/2 red onion, sliced into half moons
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 small log of goat cheese, crumbled
handful of fresh basil, chopped

Preheat oven to 450F.  Stretch your pizza crust onto your pan that has been greased with some olive oil.  Brush the top of your crust with olive oil and bake for 10 minutes.  Take crust out the oven and spread with a layer of about half of the sundried tomato paste.  Layer on the red onion and then arrange the asparagus on top.  Crumble the goat cheese on top.  Return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes.  The veggies will still be crispy and the cheese will have just started to melt and the freshness of the asapargus really comes out.

Sweet Potato Plantain Bites

prep time: 60 minutes (but so worth it)
cooking time: 15 minutes
serving size: makes 15 bite sized treats (to be divided up the way you’d like)

1 1lb. sweet potato
1 large ripe plantain
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cumin
3 cloves of garlic, grated
1 handful fresh cilantro, finely chopped
juice of half a lime
1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
olive oil
black sesame seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425F, scrub and then prick the potato on all sides and rub with olive oil.  Roast until tender, about 50 minutes.  At the same time, roast the plantain in its skin for about 30 minutes.  Remove potato and plantain from the oven and let cool.  Peel the plantain.  I did not peel the sweet potato since there are great nutrients in the skin.

In a mixing bowl put the sweet potato, peeled plantain, coriander, cumin, garlic, fresh cilantro, lime juice, and flour.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and mash with a potato masher until fairly smooth.  Put in the fridge for about an hour or overnight to firm up. 

Preheat oven 400F.  Shape mixture into a meatball size.  I used my hands but you could use spoons if you’d like.  Put them on a greased cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with the black sesame seeds and bake for about 15 minutes.

Makes about 15.  Serve with guacamole.

Chocolate Yogurt Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

This is a cake that was inspired by another lovely blogger at http://belachan2.blogspot.com/2008/10/dark-chocolate-yogurt-cake.html and is one of my favorite cake recipes as of yet.  Many of you may have noticed that I don’t like overly sweet things and over the years I have cut out a lot of sugar from my diet.  At this point I am pretty sensitive to how cloyingly sweet most treats are.  When I make desserts/sweets, I test the recipe a few times and mess around with the amount of sugar.  I try to cut it by half but sometimes I do have to add a bit more.  I also have been known to throw a pureed banana in for some extra sweetness but I didn’t do that here. 

I also made a chocolate cream cheese frosting for these sweetenend with maple syrup.  I did it by eye and the measurements of maple syrup and cocoa powder here are not exact.   When serving these, I make it like a sandwich and cradle a spoonful of the frosting between two thin pillow slices (or slivers as my grandmother would call them) of cake. 

I am also a big fan of eating this cold because the cake firms up in the fridge and gets fudgier and the frosting has a sharp chocolate flavor spiked with cream cheese that is awesome.  I am thinking that some fresh mint leaves in the sandwich with some sliced berries would make this even yummier!

Chocolate Yogurt Cake

prep time: 10-15 minutes
cooking time: 50 minutes
serving size: makes approximately 16 slices

1 c whole wheat pastry flour (I buy it in the natural foods area of Stop and Shop)
2/3 c cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c coconut oil, melted I do this in a small pan over very low heat)
3/4 c Sucanet/Rapadura/sugar
1 c plain whole milk yogurt
3 eggs, whisked
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8.5×3.5 loaf pan

In a bowl sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and set off to the side.  With a mixer (I used my trusty Kitchen-Aid) cream the coconut oil, sugar, yogurt, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together until creamy.  Add in the sifted dry ingredients and mix until completely combined.  Pour into prepped loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes or until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes, take out of pan, and cool completely on wire rack.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

prep time: 5-10 minutes
cooking time: none, you are just mixing for about 5 minutes
serving size: will frost slices of cake above

1 block of cream cheese, softened
1/3 c sour cream or yogurt
1/2-3/4 c cocoa powder
1/4-1/2 c maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

I also did this with my mixer so I wouldn’t get any lumps but you could do it in your food processor also.
Mix the cream cheese, sour cream/yogurt, and cocoa powder together first and add the rest of the ingredients and mix till very creamy and smooth.  Taste and adjust for sweetness and chocolateyness.  Spread on slices of cake.

Strawberry Banana Coconut Milk Smoothie

This is ridiculously easy and is a popular breakfast and often dessert choice for me when I am either on the run or want something sweet to end the night.  It’s also not overly sweet.  It would be equally good with some rum blended in, just not for breakfast.

prep time: 5 minutes
cooking time: 1-2 minutes in the blender
serving size: serves 1

1 frozen banana
1 large handful fresh or frozen strawberries
1 c coconut milk (I dilute one 15 oz. can of coconut milk with an equal amount of water and then measure out 1 c of this)
*rum optional

Blitz this all together in your blender and serve. Yum!

Slow Roasted Salmon and Broccoli Rabe

This is a popular weekly dinner for me.  I sometimes make this up to three times and week and just vary my seasoning of the salmon and maybe switch up the vegetable.  It’s ridiculously easy and perfect for when I am eating without my husband or just want a quick meal.  I buy my wild Alaskan salmon at Costco in 2lb bags which means that they are all individually packed and sealed.  I defrost each fillet in the fridge the night or morning before I am planning to cook this.

Prep Time: 6 hours (defrosting time) 1o minutes if you are using fresh wild salmon
Cooking Time: approximately 20 minutes
Servings: as many pieces of salmon as you are making

Salmon

Preheat oven to 350F with dish/cast iron pan/skillet you plan to cook salmon in with a bit of olive oil and/or butter in it

1 salmon fillet, rubbed with olive oil and salt and pepper

Put salmon in your cooking vessel of choice skin side down and roast for about 10 minutes.  Flip the salmon over and roast for an additional 5 minutes.  I usually peel the skin off for presentation.

Broccoli Rabe
*prepare while salmon is cooking

1 bunch of broccoli rabe, well washed and woody portion of stems trimmed off
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
salt and pepper

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add some salt.  Add the broccoli rabe and blanch for about 3 minutes.  Plunge into cold water to stop cooking.  Drain and add broccoli rabe to a pan with olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and saute for about 3 minutes.  Serve alongside salmon.

Cinco de Mayo Pasta Bean Bowl

So it’s Cinco de Mayo and I really want to make (or go out for) fish tacos but that’s not happening.  Instead I whipped this up with what I had around.  Luckily, I had bought a plantain, limes, and avocado, or else calling it a Cinco de Mayo meal would’ve been difficult  I had also made a bolognese sauce and had some pasta left over so I added that in too.  It had a nice mix of flavors overall.  I served it sort of room temperature.  The roasted veggies were hot, pasta and beans room temperature, and the cheese, sour cream, avocado, jalapeno, and lime juice were cold, giving it bright and comforting spots.  Some grilled shrimp would be a good addition with the leftovers.

prep time: approximately 10 minutes
cooking time: approximately 30 minutes
servings: approximately 3

2 handfuls of whole wheat spaghetti (cooked al dente)
1 15 oz. can of cannellini/black/kidney beans (rinsed and drained)
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 of an avocado (chopped)
juice of one lime
sour cream
1 c. freshly grated cheddar cheese

Roasted Veggies

Preheat oven to 400F

1 plantain, peeled and sliced
1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 red pepper, chopped
1 red onion, peeled and sliced into half moons
1 tsp. cumin
1 tblsp. olive oil
salt and pepper

Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and cumin.  Spread on a large baking sheet and roast till caramelized for about 30 minutes.  About halfway through, check the veggies and scrape up with a spatula.

After roasting the veggies, toss them with the pasta, beans, and jalapeno.  Lightly mix in the avocado and lime juice.  Check for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if needed.  Top each serving with some sour cream and grated cheese.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Beans, Fresh Ricotta, and Pesto

This recipe is inpired by a Deborah Madison recipe.  I often make dishes for my father and brother when they are working.  My brother says that he doesn’t have time to heat up things and this is the sort of dish that could be served at room temperature and it was.   It’s also completely thrown together from ingredients I had in my pantry.

1 box whole wheat pasta (cooked al dente as per package instructions)
2 cups homemade (or low sodium) chicken or vegetable stock
1 15oz. can cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
1 pint grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 c whole milk fresh ricotta cheese
1 c whole wheat bread crumbs (tossed with a bit of olive oil to moisten)
1/2 c. pesto (use recipe from this site if you’d like)
2 tblsp butter (cut into little pieces)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350F

Now you just assemble it.  Put your pasta in a casserole dish and pour over the chicken/vegetable stock.  Stir in the cannellini beans and tomatoes.  Dollop ricotta cheese and pesto throughout and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs and the butter over the pasta mixture.  Bake for 35 minutes.

Carrot Potato Soup with Tiny Buffalo Meatballs

For the last few months I’ve been feeling as if something has been missing from my life.  More specifically, my body has started to crave animal products once again.  For awhile I resisted the urge because I felt that I needed to be committed to the vegan path I started to follow around 8 months ago.  If you have read any of my previous posts, you will notice that I was not an extrememly strict vegan though.  Occassionally, I would have fish and cheese found its way into many of my recipes as well. 

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my own family background and doing some anthropological reading of the history of food and humans and seem to always come back to the fact that there are not many traditional vegan societies out there.  Even when it seems that there is, bugs and the like must come into contact with the veggies and grain and therefore must end up in the bellies of the vegetarian/vegan groups.  Of course, with modern technology and pesticides, I think that not many bugs get into our food supply, but there is really no way of knowing.

Since winter does not seem to want to go away from NY, I give you this soup.  I just threw it together with what I had on hand.   You could easily substitute leeks for onions and sweet potatoes/butternut squash for the potato.  The meatballs were very simply spiced and could be left out as well to make a hearty vegan soup as well.  I also don’t seem to be able to let go of my obsession with orange hued soups, I always come back to this sunny color for some reason. 

Carrot Potato Soup with Tiny Buffalo Meatballs

2 tblsp ev olive oil
1 lb carrots, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inche pieces
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 potato, scrubbed and diced (I always leave the skin on mine)
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 tblsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp salt
few grindings of pepper
5 c. homemade or low sodium veggie, chicken, or beef stock
salt and pepper to taste

In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat.  Add the carrots, onions, potato, and garlic.  Add the salt and pepper.  Saute for a few minutes and add the tomato paste and stir to coat.  Add the stock of your choice, bring to a boil, lower heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 35 minutes.  In two batches, blitz the soup until smooth and creamy (don’t fill the blender up completely and blend with a towel placed over the hole in the cover to keep from spattering all over your kitchen).  Return to stockpot and adjust for salt and pepper.

Buffalo Meatballs

1/2 lb groud buffalo (I use organic and try to get grass fed if I can)
1 handful of breadcrumbs
scant 1/4 c. finely grated parm. or romano cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix the buffalo mixture together and form into little meatballs.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Put into the soup and serve.

I also chopped up some purple olives that my grocery sells and stirred them into the soup as I was serving it.  They deepened to color of the soup and gave a welcome tang to it.

French Onion Soup with Turkish Cheese & Date Syrup Quesadillas

 

I don’t know if I am being spurred on by the lackluster economy, the New York Times article that I read interviewing people who lived through The Depression and the measures they took to survive, or thumbing through a few pages of Julia Child’s biography that inspired me to make this.  I think it was a combination of all three.  The article made me think of ways to use the food items that I have on hand along with inexpensive items procured at the grocery store.  Julia Child always reminds me of onion and potato soups, savory soups that are luxurious while being thrifty at the same time.  Root vegetables are the way to go.  It’s “shabby chic”.  Use whatever kinds of onions you have around.  I used onions and leeks because that’s what I had.  Who doesn’t want to have a crusty piece of bread or even better, a grilled cheese, savory and sweet to dip in a rich vegetable broth brimming and infused with caramelized onions spiked with bay leaf, pepper, and thyme? 

 

This is also a ménage a trois of the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Latin America in that the onion soup is the sexy lady, the cheese and date syrup a hot guy hailing from Turkey, and the tortilla encasing the cheese and syrup the other participating Latin American female.  Whoa, kinky but good, the flavor of course!

 

Kasseri is a medium hard cheese with a soft texture and a hard rind (think provolone in hardness) made of unpasteurized sheep’s milk with sometimes goat’s milk mixed in. The use of fresh unpasteurized milk is necessary to get the correct flavor/texture and it is aged for at least four months to develop the flavor.  Traditionally, this cheese is eaten (I didn’t know this) in sandwiches or in the kasseropita pie (Turkish cheese pie).

 

 French Onion Soup 

 

2 tblsp x vir ol oil

3 lbs onions and/or leeks (finely sliced)

1 tblsp balsamic vinegar

8 c low sodium vegetable stock

1 bay leaf

½ tsp dried thyme or Herbs de Provence

10 white or black peppercorns

1 tblsp Dijon mustard

salt and pepper

 

In a large heavy stockpot heat oil over medium high heat and add the onions and stir till coated.  Add a pinch of salt and few grinds of pepper.  Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring every now and again until the onions are soft and caramelized (nice and brown) for about 40 minutes.  Add the balsamic vinegar and then add the stock, bay leaf, thyme or Herbs de Provence, and peppercorns.   Bring to a boil, cover partially, reduce heat to low, and cook until reduced by about a fourth (about 20-30 minutes) and sort of thick ( there are a lot of onions in relation to the broth).  Adjust for seasoning and add more salt and pepper.

 

Turkish Cheese and Date Syrup Quesadilla

 

This is very versatile to say the least.  Change the bread up or use a different kind of cheese.  Use honey or agave instead of the date syrup.  I found the Turkish cheese at a local Turkish restaurant/market and the date syrup at Fairway but use what you have!

 

2 whole-wheat quesadillas

Thin slices of Turkish cheese to cover 1 quesadilla

1 tsp date syrup (or to your taste)

 

Cover one quesadilla with the slices of cheese.  Dribble the syrup over the cheese and top with the other quesadilla.  Pan fry in a skillet over medium heat with a bit of olive oil until cheese has melted.  Flip once.  Cut in wedges and serve along with soup or on its own.

 

Pantry Eggplant Pesto Lasagna Bowl

I’ve been a busy girl (maybe a bit lazy too) and haven’t gotten a chance to write this recipe down since I posted it.  It’s not really a recipe, just something that I threw together, a method if you will.  It involved stirring, boiling, baking, and blending for the most part.  Feel free to use any kind of tomato sauce that you have on hand whether it’s leftover or your favorite bottled sauce.  I have been trying to use up all of the open pasta boxes that I have laying around in my fridge so this meal fit the bill for that.

I remember a time when I would make gagging noises and faces (very classy) when my mother would serve any and all kind of eggplant.  Just like many kids, I spent a lot of my time deciding that I did not like something without even trying it.  My mom persisted, but to no avail.  When I was a teenager a small restaurant was next to my family’s store and they ran daily lunch specials.  One day, one of those specials was eggplant rollatine.  Little eggplant pillows, filled with creamy ricotta, and topped with a tangy tomato sauce.  I tasted a tiny bit and was hooked.  Now I like eggplant and cook it often.  It’s funny how our taste buds change and thank goodness they do!

Pantry Eggplant Pesto Lasagna Bowl

Eggplant

1 medium eggplant, sliced into 1/2 -3/4 inch round slices
1 c. whole grain breadcrumbs
1/2 c. H2O
1 tblsp. x.virg.ol.oil

Preheat oven to 350F

I don’t salt my eggplant but you can if you’d like.  I find that as long as I use smallish eggplants they are not bitter in any way.  Put the breadcrumbs in a bowl and the H2O and oil together in another bowl.  Dip the eggplant slices in the H2O and oil mixture and then in the breadcrumb mixture.  Place on a lighly oiled cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes on each side.  The bottoms (when you flip them) should be golden brown.  Remove from cookie sheet and cool.

Basil Spinach Pesto

This is the kitchen sink of pestos and you can add anything you’d like in place of anything else.  Swap arugula or a bunch of blanched asparagus out for the spinach.  Use any nuts you have around.  Throw in some olives and/or sundried tomatoes.  The choice is yours.

1 pkge. basil
2-3 handfuls fresh baby spinach
2 handfuls of pumpkin seeds
2-3 garlic cloves
1 tblsp. balsamic vinegar
x.virg.ol.oil
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt to taste

Blitz everything in the food processor except for the salt and olive oil until it is a coarse paste.  Stream in the olive oil until it is a bit more liquidy.  Add salt to taste a 1/4 tsp. at a time.

Pasta

Cook your choice of whole wheat pasta or any other kind of pasta you’d like.  I broke up some leftover whole wheat lasagna sheets that I had and cooked them until al dente (still a bit firm but not crunchy). 

To Serve

In a bowl I layered my freshly cooked pasta with the baked eggplant and then doused it with the sauce and topped the whole thing off with a dollop of pesto.  I also brought this to work for lunch for the next two days.