Meatless Monday: Spinach Calzones with Blue Cheese

A couple of weeks ago, both my husband and I were really busy with work. With our limited time, I knew putting together dinners for the week was going to be a challenge. My solution was to find and print out a bunch of yummy sounding but simple recipes with limited ingredients lists. I did all the shopping at the beginning of the week. Then, each night when Matt called to say he was on his way home, I'd take a break from work and prep the ingredients for one of the recipes. When he got home, he'd take over doing whatever mixing, constructing, sauteing, etc. that was needed to finish the recipe and I'd go back to work. In this manner, we put together some tasty dishes that neither of us had to exert too much effort to make.

This next dish is one of the one's from that week's menu. It only calls for 7 ingredients, two of which (cooking spray and garlic) you'll likely already have in your pantry!

Spinach Calzones with Blue Cheese
Recipe

When I think of calzone, I think of the traditional calzones I grew up eating in a very Italian suburb of Boston, the kind that look like large flat logs that you cut into slices to eat. The calzones we made with this recipe looked very different from those traditional ones, but I liked them because they were very pretty (see pic) and were sized for individual consumption.

We used gorgonzola (an Italian blue cheese) because we had it left over from two dishes we'd made the previous week. And we drizzled some fresh pizza sauce from a local Italian market on top. They were pretty good! When I make these again though, I will probably try a more traditional cheese like mozzarella or provolone and a bag of fresh pizza dough from the bakery. I thought blue cheese might be a little too strong a choice for a recipe like this, and, while the canned pizza dough is quick and convenient, real pizza dough has a better taste and texture.

Another option you might consider - make much smaller versions of these as hors d'oeuvres for your next gathering!

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Pasta with Mushrooms & Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Sauce

Back when I was reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma (see an earlier post), I came across this sentence in the "Gathering: The Fungi" chapter:

"Mexicans call mushrooms carne de los muertos - 'flesh of the dead.'"

"Greeeaat. Thanks, Mike," I thought. "Way to ruin one of my favorite foods for me." But, turns out, give me enough time and, like a proverbial goldfish*, I forget all about the 'flesh of the dead' and return to shoveling forkfuls of mushrooms into my mouth at every opportunity. (Yay for bad memory!)

I was reminded of the whole 'mushroom/rotting flesh' thing today because it is the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead (or El Día de los Muertos), during which Mexicans celebrate and honor their deceased relatives and friends. I thought, what better way to celebrate than with a mushroom dish? And, since we're fresh off of Halloween and it's in season, why not a recipe with pumpkin in it too?

Pasta with Mushrooms & Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Sauce
Recipe

I don't have much to add to the recipe instructions other than to say that:

• Shitake mushrooms taste great and really complement the gorgonzola, but definitely feel free to substitute the mushroom of your choice;
• Freshly ground nutmeg will taste so much better than jarred pre-ground nutmeg;
• Use however much onion suits your taste; personally, I think 4 cups is overkill;
• However, I don't think 4 cloves of garlic is overkill - again, depends on your taste; and
• Remember to only use about 1/3 of what the recipe calls for if you're going to use dry, jarred sage; again, as with the nutmeg, fresh is better.
  

The cool thing about this recipe? If you've got leftover gorgonzola cheese, pumpkin, and sage (and you will if you get the usual package sizes), later in the week, you can always make the following recipe, which is also great.

Pumpkin Ravioli with Gorgonzola Sauce
Recipe

This isn't as good as ravioli made from real, homemade pasta, but, on the plus side, it's also not as difficult or time-consuming to make and it should sate your craving for ravioli.

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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*I say 'proverbial' because goldfish memory actually isn't as bad as the common saying would suggest.

Meatless Monday: Garlic-Toasted Quinoa with Vegetables

A couple of weeks ago I introduced you to a quinoa dish I like a lot. This week, I thought I'd introduce you to another quinoa dish that involves a different preparation method, the results of which produce a very different and delicious flavor. The preparation method? Toasting.


Garlic-Toasted Quinoa with Vegetables
Recipe (bottom of the page)

As with the risotto dish I highlighted here before, this is a dish that requires some attentive stirring and patience, so make sure you're in the mood for that before you embark. This is also a dish with which you need to be careful with measurements. If you use too much oil to toast your quinoa, it will never absorb all the vegetable broth when you steam it later. I learned that the hard way and had to artfully spoon excess vegetable broth out of the pot. The result was a bit more oily than it was supposed to be but still yummy.

You can also substitute the veggies they suggest for others you might prefer. For instance, they suggest you can use either spinach or baby chard. I myself swapped out broccoli for asparagus, each an equally hearty green stalk vegetable. And I'm assuming the recipe writer's choice to use shiitake mushrooms was just to keep the focus of the dish Asian. But if you're being frugal, I don't think it would hurt the recipe much to switched them out for more reasonably-priced button mushrooms.

Something I might try if I make this again will be putting a few dashes of soy sauce into the vegetable broth in which I steam the quinoa instead of seasoning it with it at the end. I think that might be an interesting way to subtly infuse the quinoa with the soy sauce flavor. Of course, the advantage of doing it at the end, as the recipe suggests, is that you can just put the bottle on the table and allow those eating to decide how much they want.

Options, options, options. The same recipe can yield so many different results with a little tweaking. Go head, be adventurous and make each recipe your own!

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Vegetable-and-Cheese Strata

Strata (or stratta) is a casserole with egg, cheese, and bread as its main ingredients. It's a great dish to make for brunch, but you can also make it for any meal of the day; I made this particular strata recipe for dinner earlier this week.

Vegetable-and-Cheese Strata
Recipe

As with most casseroles, this a convenient dish to make because you can construct your layers in the pan earlier in the day and then keep it in the refrigerator until you're ready to put it in the oven (just like another dish I wrote about a few months ago). Makes good leftovers too.


Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Spinach Mushroom Pasta

In a previous Meatless Monday post, I extolled the virtues of a great searchable recipe database. I mentioned a few ways you could use the search features, but I failed to mention one way that can be a real life-, er, meal-saver - you can search by ingredients you have in the kitchen and see what comes up.

The other day, I didn't have time to run out to the grocery store and the dinner hour was fast approaching. So, I took a peek in the fridge and saw that I had some spinach and mushrooms on-hand. I thought they might be good together in a pasta dish, but I wanted to venture out a bit and not fall back on my usual preparation methods (a little evoo and garlic). So, I went to the search engine and ran an 'enhanced recipe search.' I typed 'spinach' in the search window and then chose 'pasta' under 'main ingredients,' 'main dishes' under 'courses,' 'quick/easy' under 'conveniences' (figuring quick/easy would also mean less ingredients), and 'meatless' under 'dietary considerations.' After pulling up the results for that search, I typed 'mushroom' in the 'search within these results' window and VOILA! This recipe and 5 others came up. I scanned them quickly to check ingredients and preparation requirements and this one looked perfect . . .

Spinach Mushroom Pasta
Recipe

One substitution that I made, that I would recommend, was swapping out the cream cheese for Neufchâtel. Used for centuries in Europe, the American version can be found pretty easily in most U.S. grocery stores nowadays. It's substantially lower in fat and, because it's softer in consistency, it's also easier to work into a sauce.

Another good substitution recommendation would be to swap out the spinach for kale. If you do though, keep in mind that you'll want to add the kale to the sauté pan with the mushrooms earlier than you would spinach because it takes longer to wilt.

As with most recipes, this one instructs you to "season to taste with salt and pepper." I would advise not being shy in seasoning - a fair amount of salt will really bring out the flavors of the vegetables, and a generous sprinkling of fresh cracked pepper will balance the creaminess of the sauce with a nice little kick.

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Creamy Parmesan Risotto with Mushrooms

In my last Meatless Monday post, I recommended a 'recipe' for a fast and easy meal. We need those every now and then (ok, more like pretty often) to accommodate our fast-paced lives. However, sometimes something is just sooo good, it's worth the extra effort it may require to make. Case in point? Risotto. *Ohhh how I love risotto.* When made properly, the texture of the arborio rice is firm without being al dente, creamy, and just YUM.

My favorite risotto is one that I get at Galletto's in Westlake. They put porcini, shitake, and champignon mushrooms in it and put Parmesan cheese on it - or, rather, they put the risotto in the cheese. Yes, that's right, they put the risotto in the cheese. They roll out a cart with an enormous wheel of Parmesan cheese on it to your table. Then they plop the hot risotto into a hole carved out of the middle of the wheel, scrape the cheese on the sides into the risotto, mix it all around, and plate it. Sure, the table-side plating gimmick is a bit much, but I don't care - if ordering the risotto at Galletto's required I withstand listening to the waitstaff sing a version of the 'The Wheels on the Bus' with lyrics adapted to suit their enormous cheese wheel, . . . I'd still do it. Seriously, it's that good. For those of you not willing to withstand the fanfare (or who don't live near Galletto's!), here is a good recipe you can make in the privacy of your own home (enormous cheese wheel optional).

Creamy Parmesan Risotto with Mushrooms
Risotto
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1038780

(This recipe calls for chicken stock, but you can obviously substitute vegetable stock.)

Mushrooms
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1534868


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Meatless Monday: Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Spinach & Goat Cheese

As many of you ponder recipes for stuffing various types of birds this week for your Thanksgiving feast, I thought I would offer up a recipe for a different type of stuffed edible that is perfect for this time of year:

STUFFED PORTOBELLO MUSHROOMS WITH SPINACH & GOAT CHEESE
www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?newVideo=y&docid=17663
(Along with the recipe, this site also has a great little video of the whole process for making it.)

I've always loved stuffed mushrooms. In fact, one of the first things I ever cooked for my husband when we first started dating was stuffed mushrooms. The button variety make such a great, satisfying hors d'oeuvre because you can just pick one up with your fingers and pop it whole, just like a sushi roll, and just like the description I once saw on a sushi menu, "you will have heaven in mouth!" Of course, you should wait until they cool a bit before doing that . . . a warning my husband unfortunately disregarded when I served him one that first time. As his tongue came close to feeling like it would ignite and he oh-so-suavely spit the whole thing out into a napkin, he wondered if he'd ever be asked over for dinner again.

Of course, button mushrooms aren't the only kind you can stuff. Portobello mushrooms are also ideal for stuffing, as this recipe proves. It's a much nicer choice if you're looking for something to plate and serve as an appetizer. You lose the convenience of being able to pop it into your mouth whole, . . . but maybe that's better for some people anyway. ;) The variety of things with which you can stuff them is endless too. Naturally, I would suggest a recipe involving cheese. The goat cheese in this recipe complements the earthy flavors of the mushroom and walnuts remarkably well.

Bon appetit & Happy Thanksgiving!

Got any favorite vegetarian recipes?? Please share!

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