Vegetarian

Pumpkin Ravioli

emma — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:40:35 -0500

For the dough:
3 cups “oo” flour (you can use all purpose flour as well, though the texture is not as fine)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
warm water, about ½ cup

For the Filling:
1 cup cubed butternut squash, roasted
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

For the Dough:
Sift the flour into a bowl. Make a well in the center, and add the eggs and salt. Add water as you knead the dough. Knead for 5-10 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.
Wrap in plastic wrap, and let it rest in the fridge for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, make filling by simply roasting the cubed butternut squash in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until fork tender. Mash the squash with a fork and mix in the cheese and nutmeg.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to be 1/8” thick. Cut even circles with whatever circular mold you have (an upside-down glass works fine). Place a small mound of the filling in the middle of the ravioli. Brush one side with water, fold over, and press down with the tines of a fork to seal the ravioli. Let dry for about 30 minutes on a tray lined with parchment.

Kale and Pumpkin Seed Pesto:
4 cups fresh Dinosaur kale, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup Kale cooking liquid (see directions)
½ cup Parmesan cheese
¼ cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds), toasted

Bring a pot of water to boil with a big pinch of salt. Add the kale and boil for about 3 minutes, or until cooked through. Drain the kale, reserving at least ½ cup of the cooking liquid. In a food processor, chop the garlic and kale, and then add in the olive oil and cooking liquid in a stream. Blend until the kale breaks down into a pesto-like sauce. Finally add in the Parmesan cheese and pepitas, and blend a little bit more until the sauce is smooth.

Serves 6.

Brown Rice and Lentils

sophia — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:47:57 -0500

Olive oil
2 tablespoons onion, finely minced
1 clove garlic, smashed
2 cardamom pods, smashed
1 small stick cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1 cup brown rice, rinsed
½ cup brown or green lentils, rinsed
3 cups water
Salt

Heat the olive oil on a medium-high flame. Sweat the onion and garlic until soft and translucent. Add the spices and stir. Add the rice and stir to combine with the onion and spices. Pour in the water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Add the lentils, stir and cover again. After about 20 more minutes the liquid should be absorbed and the rice and lentils cooked through.

Note: Spices really enhance the flavor of this dish, but you can substitute or add the spices you fancy.

Eating Healthy on a Budget

emma — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:51:14 -0500

It doesn't take a lot of time, money or complicated ingredients to eat something that is nutritious and earth friendly. Lentils and brown rice make a complete protein, making this dish an excellent vegetarian meal. This recipe is the perfect comfort food for cold weather, it's enough to feed a family of 4 and costs under $5 to prepare!

Other Basic Fall Favorites

emma — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:46:59 -0500

Fall vegetables like beets, cauliflower and parsnips are delicious when they are slowly roasted at low temperatures.

Try some of our favorite Kitchen Caravan recipes using slowly roasted fall vegetables: Slow Roasted Veggies with Garlic Yogurt Dip, Mamaliga with Roasted Beets

Fall Basic: Sweet Potato

emma — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:38:01 -0500

Sweet potatoes are a delicious fall vegetable. We like them best baked and eaten simply. They can also be dressed up with pepper, nutmeg or other fall spices.

Fall Basic: Lentils

emma — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:29:40 -0500

Lentils are very small, so unlike most legumes, they do not need to be pre-soaked. Place them in a pot, covered with about 2 inches of water. To give them nice flavor, add a few chunks of carrots, onion, celery, a bay leaf, crushed garlic, and thyme. Bring the liquid to a boil, then let simmer for about 20-30 minutes, or until cooked through. Drain them of their water, and remove the aromatics. Lentils cooked this way go very nicely dressed with a vinaigrette. Flavored oils, such as walnut oil, add a lovely flavor.

Carrots with Yogurt- Yogurtlu Havuç

sophia — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:30:57 -0500

Carrots with yogurt is a common appetizer, or meze, in Turkey. Grated carrots are cooked lightly and then mixed with yogurt and garlic. This is a healthy and low-fat Mediterranean recipe that you can eat for a simple dinner with some grilled meat, or serve alongside other vegetarian appetizers for a party. Carrots are very inexpensive and nutritious, so they a great ingredient for people on a budget.

4 medium carrots, peeled and grated (or 4 cups grated carrot)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, small dice
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 cup low-fat plain yogurt
Pinch of cumin and salt
Juice of ½ a lemon

Heat up the olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add the onions and cook until soft and translucent. Add the grated carrots and a drop of water and stir. Cover the pan with a lid and let steam lightly until cooked down and soft. Remove from heat and cool.
Meanwhile mix the garlic with the yogurt, cumin, and a pinch of salt. Stir in the carrots and lemon. Garnish with parsley.

Serves 6 as an appetizer.

Ingredient: Olives

emma — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:15:43 -0500

By Ellie Downing

For thousands of years olives have been viewed as a symbol of importance and peace. Archeologists have uncovered olive mills and presses, sculpted oil jars, as well as discarded pits, indicating a rich history of cultivation starting well before 3000 BC. Native to the Mediterranean region, the top olive and olive oil producers today include Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Tunisia, Morocco and California. Three-quarters of the world’s olive oil comes from countries belonging to the European Union.

Ranging in color from pale green, deep eggplant, to black, olives boast a variety of flavors perfect for giving your favorite pasta or salad a little kick. Some of the most popular varieties include manzanilla, picholine, kalamata, niçoise and lugano. The difference between green and black olives is simply their ripeness. Unripe olives are green, whereas ripe olives are black.

Olives contain a high monounsaturated fat content and no cholesterol. Additionally, olives are a good source of iron, vitamin E, copper, and dietary fiber. Olive oil is the only vegetable oil edible right after pressing. No further processing is necessary which ensures we benefit from all those healthy natural antioxidants left in the oil.
Before delving into this wonderful fruit, however we do need to remove the glucoside, a particularly bitter compound.

Thankfully, the bitterness is naturally removed during the pressing process when producing olive oil. Olives harvested for their oil are picked ripe in late autumn and winter by means of traditional hand-picking or use of mechanical tree-shakers. The first press (‘virgin’ olive oil) is often very green and sharp in taste, which some prefer to the mild, more mature pressings. ‘Extra Virgin’ olive oil indicates a low acidity often desired for flavor.

Olives reserved for their fruit, often called table olives, are harvested at various degrees of ripeness depending the desired texture and taste. Table olives once picked are first cured to remove the bitterness and then often packed in olive oil or vinegar. Curing techniques include water-curing, defined by repeated water soaking and rinsing (a lengthy process), brine curing (often combined with the use of herbs and spices to impart a particular flavor), lye curing or dry curing. Dry cured olives are packed in salt. This process removes the excess water from the fruit resulting in a dry, furrowed fruit. Table olives are available whole, sliced and chopped, not to mention pitted, un-pitted and stuffed. Some of our favorites are stuffed with pimentos, jalapenos, garlic and almonds.

Afghan Split Peas with Apples and Cinnamon

sophia — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:19:31 -0400

You can substitute green or brown lentils for the split peas.

½ cup split peas
1/4 cup onion, small dice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
¼ cup apple cider vinegar

Soak the split peas in water for at least 2 hours. Drain.
Heat up the oil and butter in a medium saucepan.
Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the sugar and keep cooking until the onions are very soft and starting to pick up color.
Add the apples and cinnamon and cook for 5 minutes with the onion.
Add the split peas and cover with 4 cups of water. Bring to a simmer and cook covered for about 30 minutes-1 hour, or until the water has been absorbed.
Check the pot one in a while to make sure there is enough liquid. Add more if necessary.
One the liquid has been absorbed, add the vinegar and simmer down until it is like a thick stew.
Serves 2.

In Season: Sweet Potatoes

sophia — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:12:44 -0400

There are so many sweets and desserts associated with Autumn. Candy apples, apple pie, apple crisp, candy corn, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, sweet potatoes with marshmallows (yuck) - the list of Fall favorites goes on and on. What I find funny about this is that most of the fruits and vegetables used in these dishes are naturally sweet, and yet they are usually prepared with lots of sugar, masking their true identity as nutritional powerhouses. We could get so much nourishment from eating these fruits and vegetables if we just prepared them simply.
Sweet potatoes are the perfect example of this. Even though I have always liked sweet potatoes, they were never a part of my habitual diet. I always associated them with heavy preparations with lots of butter, sugar, and spices. They almost seemed foreign to me. But something changed this Fall, and I have been eating them often. One of the reasons I have been eating them so regularly is because I am trying to cut back on my intake of sugars and sweeteners. Sweet potatoes provide me with natural energy and a sweetness that hits the spot, which makes me not want dessert after my meals. When the weather changes and the leaves turn to their gorgeous hues of orange and red, I always crave warmer things that provide comfort and fill me up heavily. This fall I have not had any cravings for desserts or simple carbs, because the nutritional content of sweet potatoes is providing me with sustainable energy, and their natural sweetness is preventing any needs for finding refined sugar in other places.
Another reason that I have been eating them so regularly is their preparation and texture. I have to admit that I have been a bit boring in how I cook them, because all I ever do is wrap them in foil and bake them (usually at 375° F for 1 hour). Once they are baked, I can mash them up with seasonings and other ingredients, or just cut them into cubes and toss onto my salads. Tonight I added baked cubes to a pot with mustard greens and beans. Their texture is soft and mashable, yet they can hold their shape and get tossed in with other things.
Sweet potatoes are very nutritious. They are filled with vitamin A and C, both water-soluble vitamins that have antioxidant as well as anti-inflammatory properties. Vitamin A is definitely the vitamin for Fall, as it is found in so many of the vegetables in season-squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes are the most obvious examples of this. They are also rich in manganese, copper, fiber, potassium, and iron. Even though these beautiful tubers are native to Central America, they have made their way into the diets of many cultures. Christopher Columbus brought them back to Spain, from where they then went to the Philippines. The Portuguese brought them to Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. I was even surprised to find Japanese sweet potatoes at the farmers market today. They were white and starchy, their texture almost reminding me of yucca.
The bottom line is that we have all of these naturally sweet, yet incredibly nutritious vegetables in season now. My favorite of the moment is the sweet potato, but I encourage you to find your own. And try them without sugar!!!