Vegetarian

Solo Supper: Greek Pasta

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Jul 9th 2007 @ 6:15PM

Every once in a while, I actually do get into the kitchen and cook something for myself. I say "myself" because it's not that cooking is a rare occurrence for me. I cook for friends, family, dinner parties, etc. However, I very rarely cook for myself. It's just too much of a hassle. During the work week, I get home so late that by the time I have a moment to eat dinner, I'm too exhausted to cook and it's too late for take-out. Solo suppers are hard to come by. Solo suppers made at home are even more difficult.

Pasta is most people's go-to on late work nights. My current favorite is a pasta-ized version of one of my favorite salads, the Greek Salad. The ingredients of Greek Salad are very summery and can be found fresh at the farmers' market (I'm lucky that one of the largest farmers' markets in LA is about two blocks from my office). The only things I have to get elsewhere are feta cheese and olives, but these are things I always have on hand anyway, along with an endless supply of dried pasta in the pantry.

Filed under: Vegetarian, Spirit of Summer, Raves & Reviews, Ingredients, How To

Recipe: Baba Ghanouj, aka Eggplant and I are an "item"

COMMENTS 7

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Jul 8th 2007 @ 8:45PM

At the start of every summer, I do this. I tell myself I am going to make all kinds of new foods with the summer's produce bounty, particularly vegetables that I have never cooked myself before. Like a high school girl on summer vacation between sophomore and junior year, I want to flirt with all different kinds of vegetables that I find randomly at the farmers' markets!

Um, never mind about that "high school girl on summer vacation" part. I took college prep classes during the summers...

Anyway, at the start, I always tell myself I want to expand my cooking horizons by challenging myself with something new in the kitchen every day, or even every week, and I always end up having one long torrid affair with one vegetable every summer. One summer I was enamored of zucchini. The summer before that, I was having a hot fling with every kind of tomato I could get my hands on. This year, I've been seeing eggplant. A lot. In fact, you might call us "an item."

Filed under: Vegetarian, Vegan, Spirit of Summer, Ingredients, Methods

Food Porn: Thai Tofu

COMMENTS 0

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Jul 8th 2007 @ 5:01PM

thai tofu with grilled mango, zucchini and seaweed salad

When first I saw this photo of a dish prepared by SingleGuyChef, I thought I was looking at very squarely cut slices of some flat fish that had been crusted withherbs and spices and stacked with...American cheese? The I actually read the title of the post and saw that this gorgeous stack is actually alternating slices of grilled mango, zucchini, a seaweed salad, and firm tofu that has been seared, then brushed with a reduced Thai BBQ sauce and broiled.

I can't say that I would have put a seaweed salad together with the other ingredients, but the stacked presentation sure is pretty.

Filed under: Food Porn, Vegetarian, On the Blogs, Feast Your Eyes, Ingredients

If it's winter where you are, pumpkin soup

COMMENTS 3

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Jun 23rd 2007 @ 4:01PM

Wondering What Kim Ate? Wondering why Kim ate something so wintry? I'll tell you. Food blogger Kim writes the food blog What Kim Ate from New Zealand, so while we may be eating salad and cold soups here in the northern hemisphere, Kim and her partner Thomas are savoring the flavors of the opposite season. This is a simple soup made from pumpkin, potatoes and vegetable stock. As cooked, it's vegan, but with the garnish of what looks like either sour cream or creme fraiche, it's vegetarian. There are some cheese and corn scones to make the soup a meal.

Filed under: Vegetarian, Vegan, On the Blogs, Fall Flavors, Ingredients, How To

Grapefruit Cranberry Muffins

COMMENTS 0

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Jun 17th 2007 @ 8:31AM

It's pretty common to use citrus fruit flavors in cakes and muffins. Most commonly, we use lemon, followed in popularity by orange; sometimes we use lime when we start to get really tropical, but very rarely do I ever see grapefruit!

Certainly, people eat fresh grapefruits, drink juice, or drink it in some other flavor format, but in a muffin? Apparently, it isn't a bad idea, since the Wandering Eater baked Vanilla-Crusted Grapefruit Cranberry Muffins for a birthday. The cranberries were frozen, and the grapefruit flavor came from the zest, no juice.

Filed under: Vegetarian, On the Blogs, Ingredients, How To, Methods

I might make rolled omelets now

COMMENTS 0

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Jun 16th 2007 @ 8:06AM

Oh, how I love an omelet, both because they're so easy to make, and because they can be made with just about anything. However, the omelets that I make are usually more of frittata that's been folded over -- the ingredients are sauteed in the pan, the eggs added, and everything is mixed together. The result is an "omelet" that has the vegetables and other stuff cooked into the egg. I very rarely make omelets the way Heidi of food blog 101 Cookbooks has done. She has cooked the eggs first into a pancake that's almost as thin as a crepe, then rolled the ingredients up inside. The omelets are gorgeous, and with pesto, greens, and cheese, delicious, too.

Filed under: Vegetarian, On the Blogs, Ingredients, How To

Eat your mojitos as dessert

COMMENTS 3

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted May 26th 2007 @ 7:44PM

Not that I would ever turn down a real mojito, but if for some reason I had to eat a dessert instead of drinking a cocktail, I'd love this Mojito Cupcake, from food blog Vegan Yum Yum. The recipe in on the blog post, but as a summary, the cake is a modified version of the golden vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Soymilk was infused with traditional mojito flavors, mint and lime juice, rum and lime zest were added to the batter, and the frosting wass flavored with dark rum. The natural garnish is, of course, a wedge of lime (though a sprig of mint would be pretty, too!)

Filed under: Vegetarian, Vegan, On the Blogs, Ingredients, Methods

Grilled black bean quesadillas with spinach, sweet potato and chicken

COMMENTS 0

by Nick Vagnoni, Posted May 25th 2007 @ 12:01PM

The quesadilla is perhaps the sturdiest of staples in my roster of go-to meals. Lately, my favorite combination is the one you see here: flour tortillas with Monterrey Jack cheese, spinach, black beans, chicken and sweet potatoes. Really, all you need for a satisfying quesadilla is tortillas and cheese, but taking the time to get a few quality components together yields something far more satisfying. As a bonus, the following recipes for black beans, sauteed spinach and mashed sweet potatoes are all great side dishes on their own. I usually wind up using leftover roasted chicken, but grilled or sauteed shrimp are also a great substitution. The assembly is pretty simple, regardless of the fillings you choose, but we'll get back to that later. The following proportions should be enough for two large quesadillas. All of the ingredients can easily be multiplied.

Filed under: Vegetarian, Ingredients, Methods

Food Porn: Goat Cheese Ravioli

COMMENTS 4

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted May 20th 2007 @ 2:40PM

Granted, the quality of the image isn't exactly the highest caliber, but this one, Slashfoodies, is pure food porn because I can't actually read the post on the other side. It's in ~~Italian~~ Portuguese! (Shows you how much I know!) All I do know is that this is a photograph of capeletti de queijo de cabra ao azeite Vale dos Lobos from blog clo dimet. I am guessing these gorgeous pieces of filled pasta are the capeletti, and that they are filled with goat cheese and served with Vale dos Lobos olive oil. I love the light-on-light colors of the whole thing, and the tiny herb sprig tucked inside the folds of the pasta.

[via: TasteSpotting]

Filed under: Food Porn, Vegetarian, On the Blogs, Feast Your Eyes, Ingredients

Refuse to eat broccoli? Put it in a cake!

COMMENTS 3

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted May 19th 2007 @ 3:04PM

It's not unusual to put vegetables, things we normally consider savory, into sweets. We have carrots in carrot cake, zucchini in zucchini bread and muffins, and obviously we have broccoli in broccoli cake.

Wait. What?

I have to say, it has never occurred to me to ever make or eat broccoli cake. However, blog Chic City Rats came across this broccoli cake, perfectly sliced to show off the florets inside, at Rose Bakery in the Parisian rue des Martyrs. Unfortunately, there is no additional information about the cake itself, but just the idea might get our culinary creative juices flowing.

Filed under: Vegetarian, Ingredients, Bakeries, New Products, Methods