09.09.12_Spinach Burgers and Potato Wedges

Caitlin posted a link to a recipe for Spinach Burgers on my Facebook wall the other day. She told me that when she made them they fell apart a  bit but that hopefully using real eggs instead of egg replacement would hold the burgers together better. I've had a lot of bad luck with "burgers" falling apart when trying to flip them. I did not want to take any chances with these so I decided to take the recipe and adapt it a bit so that they would hold together better.

The burgers stayed together great and tasted amazing. My mom makes this Spniach Souffle/Casserole that I LOVE and the burgers reminded me of that a lot. We served the burgers on regular buns, and topped them with some hot sauce; you know how much we love hot sauce (see Buffalo Fried Goat Cheese, Tofu Buffalo Wings, Buffalo Popcorn Chik'n). I had a leftover burger for lunch today and put ranch on it since we were out of hot sauce and it was equally delicious. Phillip made some potato wedges as a yummy side dish.

Spinach Burgers
Serves 4  
Adapted from The Domestic Mama & The Village Cook 

• 1 10oz bag spinach
• 2 egg whites
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup onion, minced
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cub panko bread crumbs (or regular if that's what you have)
• 1 TSP red pepper flakes
• 1 TSP salt
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• Extra virgin olive oil

1. Defrost the spinach and squeeze out all the excess water. I usually wrap the spinach in paper towels when doing this.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the spinach, cheese, egg whites, egg, onion, garlic pepper flakes, salt, flour and bread crumbs until everything is incorporated. I used my hands for this. Also, I minced the onion super fine because Phillip isn't a huge fan of onion still and I also did not want huge chunks of almost raw onion running throughout the patties. If the mixture seems a little too wet, you can always add more flour or bread crumbs.
3. Divide the mixture into four equal parts and form them into patties.
4. In a large skillet, add some extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat, and cook the patties about 4-5 minutes on each side. Cover the pan so that the patties will steam a bit, helping the cheese melt and the onions soften.
5. Serve plan or with a dash of hot sauce, ranch, or any other toppings you like!

Potato Wedges
Serves 4  

• 3 russet potatoes
• 1 TBSP fresh rosemary, minced
• 1 TBSP red pepper flakes
• 1 TSP fresh thyme
• Salt and pepper 
• Extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place potatoes in pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat and let sit for 15 minutes.
3. Remove potatoes and place in an ice bath for a minute or two, to make them easier to handle.
4. Cut potatoes into about eight equal wedges. Place wedges in large mixing bowl.
5. Coat potatoes with olive oil, and mix in with the rest of the ingredients. Toss well to make sure it is evenly coated.
6. Place wedges on baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, flipping half-way through.

06.29.12_Spring Veggie Pasta

 

Phillip and I always try to eat something a little more substantial on Fridays before going out for the night. Too many nights in college taught me light meals (ex: soup, sushi, etc) do not cut it when you plan on drinking. One of the things I like about vegetarian cooking is that typically the meals are lighter, but when the objective is a heavy meal it can be tricky. I turn to pasta a lot when I want something more substantial, and this dish, though light with all its veggies, was definitely filling. I think I even saw Phillip eat a mushroom or two...

Spring Pasta with Snap Peas

Serves 3-4

From Dinners for Winners

• 1/2 pound farfalle
• 1/2 pound sugar snap peas, halved
• 1 TBSP olive oi
• 1 lb mushrooms roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup heavy cream or half-and-half
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• a few handfuls fresh spinach
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 1/2 cup basil leaves, chiffonade
•  1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

1) Boil a large pot of water then cook pasta. When there's about one minute left, add snap peas and cook 30 more seconds. Drain and reserve 1 cup pasta water.
2) In same pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Sautee the mushrooms until they become tender. 3) Add cream and wine and cook for about 2 minutes, then add the Parmesan and spinach. Stir until the spinach wilts.
4) Return the pasta and peas to pot and slowly add the pasta water until the sauce is at your desired consistency.
5) Finally toss in the basil and season with some S&P.

05.29.12_Dal Palak

It has been a while since we made an Indian dish so when I came across a recipe for "Very Simple Dal Palak" which is vegan, I thought it would be a good one to try out. The original recipe said it made 8 cups which seemed like way too much so I decided to half the recipe. And I'm really glad I did because we still had more than enough for two dinners and two lunches. I am continually surprised by how easy these Indian dishes are. They are always super simple, they just use spices that you might not normally have on hand. The only unsual spice this recipe called for was Garam Masala, which I had from when we made the Paneer Tikka Masala, otherwise the ingredients were very straight forward. Here's the recipe cut in half:

• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 1 packages (about 8 ounces) mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 1 medium-sized red or white potatoes, cubed
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoons coriander
• 1/2 Tablespoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoons red chili powder
• 1 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 5 ounce bunch of spinach (or more if desired)
• 1/2 cup lentils (the recipe called for red but I had black on hand and used those instead)
• 1/2 cups of water or broth
• 1 Tablespoons salt
• 2 scallions, chopped

For my birthday my parents got me new Calphalon pots and pans so I was super excited to use them for the first time making this recipe. In a large soup pot, I sauteed the onion and mushrooms in some olive oil. While those were browning, I diced the potato then added it to the pot. After a couple of minutes and the edges of the potato started to become translucent, I made a well in the middle of the pot and added the garlic, ginger, and all the spices. I stirred everything together before adding in the tomatoes (and their juices), the lentis, and the spinach. I tossed everything together so that all the spinach would start to wilt. Finally, I added the water and brought to a boil, before reducing the heat and simmering for about 45 minutes. At the very end I tossed in the chopped scallions, reserving a few for garnish. 

We served the Dal Palak over a bed of rice with some store bought naan on the side. The apartment smelt so good while this was cooking and the end result was super delicious. I think this would actually be a great recipe to try and cook in a slow cooker because it seems like the type of dish that would only get better the longer it cooked. Definitely a good recipe to try if you want to try a very easy Indian dish that doesn't hit you over the head with a ton of spices.

04.30.12_Braised Coconut Spinach and Chickpeas

April went by so fast! With Phillip's parents visiting and his birthday, we had little time for cooking let alone blog posts. Now that it is somehow May (how did this happen?!) things seem to be slowing down a little bit and we've been able to start cooking a bit more again. I had found this recipe for Braised Coconut Spinach and Chickpeas with lemon a couple of weeks ago and added it to our never-ending list of recipes to try. I let Phillip chose what to have for dinner on Monday and he chose this.

The recipe called for:

• 2 teaspoons oil
• 1 small yellow onion
• 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (we left these out for Phillip)
• 1 large lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 dash of red pepper flakes
• 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
• 1 pound baby spinach
• 14-ounce can coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• Sweet potatoes (2-4 depending on how many people you are serving)

This recipe was served over baked sweet potatoes so to start, we preheated the oven to 400°. We pierced the potatoes with a fork and then popped them in the oven for about an hour. While the potatoes cooked we prepared the topping! Phillip actually helped me with a lot of the prep work for this and I will say his mincing skills have improved drastically! After we had the onion, garlic, ginger, and lemon zest ready, I heated oil in my biggest pot over medium-high heat. I then added the onions and let them sweat for a few minutes. Next, I added the garlic, ginger, lemon zest, and red pepper flakes. This cooked for a few minutes before I tossed in the chickpeas to let them cook a bit and get coated with the mixture.

Then, I started adding the spinach. I am still surprised every time by how much spinach wilts. A lb of fresh spinach looks like a TON but after it all cooks down it is much more manageable. It cook a couple of minutes to get all the spinach into the pot and wilted. I was stirring pretty regularly to make sure the garlic and onion weren't burning on the bottom of the pan. Once the spinach had wilted, I added the coconut milk, fresh lemon juice, and salt. This got brought to a simmer then I lowered the heat and let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes. Then we were ready to eat. We scooped the spinach chickpea mixture oven the sweat potatoes and I topped them with some cilantro. These were super delicious. We realized after we were eating that this was a vegan dish which was a nice surprise. Serving the mixture over the sweet potato was a great idea and adds nice texture since the spinach and chickpeas don't have much. Definitely try this one out!

09.19.11_Spinach and Goat Cheese Quiche

Hello everyone! This is Phillip, for once. I'm not much of a cook, unless you want some killer shells and cheese, but Jonathan and I decided that a Spinach Quiche would be a great recipe for me to try. Jonathan found this recipe on Spoon Fork Bacon, and it looked - like all of their dishes do - phenomenal.

I started out by preheating the oven to 425 degrees and grabbing a mixing bowl. All the ingredients will end up in this bowl, so you might as well get a large one. The recipe calls for three full eggs and two egg whites. If anyone is watching you do this, it is extremely vital that you crack the eggs with one hand, so that you look as cool as possible. After the eggs, I mixed in 2/3 cup milk and 1/3 cup heavy cream, some S&P, and whisked it until everything mixed together.

Back off Morimoto, I got this.

My happy helper Jonathan sliced half of a red pepper and grated a cup of Fontina cheese while I sauteed the spinach in olive oil with some salt and pepper. You need about a full cup of cooked spinach, which came out to three or four handfuls of fresh spinach. After I cooked the spinach, I used my hands to wring out the excess liquid. Using my rockstar knife skills, I chopped up the spinach and set it aside.

The pie crust I used was a frozen 9" Whole Foods crust that we thawed in the fridge overnight. Jonathan placed his peppers in the bottom of the crust while I spread around my chopped spinach on top of the peppers. Back to the mixing bowl, I added a tbsp of minced thyme with the Fontina cheese, gave it a quick stir and poured the entire mixture into the pie crust. Jonathan crumbled
some goat cheese on top, and it fit perfectly in the 9" crust.

I was a little paranoid about spills, so I put the quiche on a baking sheet before putting it in the oven. After baking for 20 minutes, I turned the oven down to 375. I peeked to make sure it hadn't overflowed or exploded, but thankfully everything looked fine. After 25 more minutes at 375, I pulled the quiche out of the oven and let it set for another 10 minutes to let it cool down and settle. I washed a bowl of grapes for our side, and we were ready to eat!

Overall, I'd call this a huge personal victory. It tasted delicious and was a huge step up from anything I think I've ever made before. The only change I made to the recipe was that I cooked it for five minutes longer on 375 than suggested and used skim milk instead of whole. In retrospect, I would have used a little less thyme. Even though it is one of my favorite spices, it seemed to take over the dish. I hope to have many more successes to share with you all in the future!