Growing up, we always ate spaghetti and meatballs on Monday nights. It’s not like we had a weekly dinner rotation or anything, that was just Monday night dinner. And we loved it. That was before “Meatless Monday” was a thing, anyway. Being kosher, we had a lot of meatless dinners throughout the week, so I don’t even feel the least bit guilty that most of my life was spent eating meat on Monday nights. Continue reading
It’s fall! And fall means winter squash! Wait… huh!? I guess it’s fall squash. Well, it’s not zucchini and yellow squash! It’s so much better.
Acorn squash is great, because it’s like a bowl! It’s nice and round, unlike its cousins delicata and butternut. So it’s often stuffed. Here, I stuffed the squash with kale and chick peas, along with a little bit of homemade tomato sauce. Continue reading
Springtime means artichokes, a vegetable I’ve gotten familiar with these past few years, but this spring marks the first time I’ve ever made baby artichokes.
Baby artichokes are a smaller, fully mature variety of the globe artichoke. The fun part about them is that there’s no choke to be found in these little guys, so with a little bit of trimming, the whole thing is edible. I guess they should really be called artis?
Another Ina meal. What can I say, she has such fabulous recipes that are perfect just the way they are, but also really easy to tweak. This one needed some tweaking. A vegetarian recipe using chicken stock? What’s the point! So I used store-bought vegetable stock…don’t worry, all this chopping and peeling let me make 3 quarts of my own vegetable stock for next time.
I also switched around the vegetables (but of course kept the butternut squash, because it’s my favorite. Can you tell?) and omitted some ingredients that I didn’t have – Pernod? No thanks. The fennel gives enough anise flavor for me. And while I know saffron gives a great color and flavor, I can’t bring myself to spend the money on it. Maybe if someone buys it for me I’ll try it next time.
Recently I’ve been craving chicken pot pie. I see recipes in cookbooks and on TV and think it just sounds so good. With this cold weather here, a big bowl of steaming veggies covered with flaky pie crust is just what we need for a 1-bowl dinner. It’s also a hearty way to make a Meatless Monday meal!
Vegetable pot pie, adapted from Ina Garten:
Directions:
1. Make sure all your vegetables are chopped to the same size.
2. Combine the butter and olive oil in a large pot and add onions and fennel. Saute over medium heat for ten minutes, until lightly browned.
3. While the onions are browning, bring a pot of water to a boil. Boil the potatoes for ten minutes and remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl.
4. Boil the butternut squash, carrots, and celery for five minutes. Drain and add to bowl.
5. Add flour and mix. Turn heat to low and cook for 5 minutes, until all the flour is absorbed. Mix occasionally.
6. Pour vegetable broth into pan and mix until thickens.
7. Add vegetables, including peas, into sauce.
8. Add parsley and mix.
9. Divide dough into six oven-proof bowls or two nine-inch pie plates.
10. Cut dough into 6 pieces. Roll each piece flat. Wet edges of bowl, and place pie crust over the bowl.
11. Brush will egg wash, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
12. Bake at 375 degrees for an hour until the top is crispy and the vegetables are bubbly and hot. Let cool for about ten minutes, because it’s going to be very hot!
