Tag: Tomatoes
salade nicoise with roasted beets & potatoes
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When I find myself with a refrigerator full of beautiful Alaskan produce (and sometimes, some fresh seafood), I often prepare this salad to make a big dent in it. Just pick several of the vegetables to prepare. I usually make a huge salad and invite friends over to help eat it, since it’s so beautiful—I just have to share it! It’s a meal in itself if you add plenty of vegetables and serve it with toasted whole wheat bread dunked in olive oil!
lemony vinaigrette
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small red onion, minced fine
juice of one lemon
¼ cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (if you have grainy mustard too, you can use 1 tablespoon of each)
1 tablespoon honey
½ to 1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
¼ teaspoon cracked pepper
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients, except the oil, in a small bowl. Slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking. Season with salt and honey to taste, then set aside.
vegetables (pick 5 or 6 of the following to prepare)
2 pounds garlic-roasted potatoes (see following recipe)
1 pound green beans, blanched in salted water until just tender. Drain the beans and immediately spread them out on a baking sheet spread with a dishtowel. (This allows extra water to evaporate, and the beans stop cooking almost immediately.)
1 pound roasted beets (see following recipe), peeled, sliced into wedges, and tossed with some of the lemony vinaigrette
1 pint cherry tomatoes or several slow-roasted tomatoes (see “tomatoes” section)
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered (See perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs in the “sandwiches and things to eat on toast” section.)
1 pound grilled asparagus (see “asparagus” section)
4 roasted red peppers (see following recipe)
1 large cucumber, sliced thin and tossed with some of the lemony vinaigrette
3 large carrots, grated and tossed with some of the lemony vinaigrette
optional fish (pick one if you’d like to include fish in your salad)
fresh Alaskan scallops, threaded on skewers, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and grilled on a clean, oiled rack just until done
kippered salmon, flaked
fresh salmon, seasoned with salt and pepper or lemon pepper, and grilled
fresh halibut, seasoned with salt and pepper or lemon pepper, and grilled
salad
½ cup kalamata olives, pitted
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained
12 cups of assorted salad greens
cracked pepper
Compose this salad on a large serving platter. Toss the salad greens with some of the lemony vinaigrette, and make a bed of lettuce on the platter. Attractively group each vegetable on the lettuce. Have fun with all those colors! Drizzle vinaigrette over all the vegetables. Scatter the olives and capers over all, and sprinkle cracked pepper over the top. Enjoy!!
garlic-roasted potatoes
2 pounds small Butterball potatoes (or other yellow, waxy potato)
garlic oil (recipe in Step 1.)
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly-ground pepper
1. Make garlic oil: Mash or mince 3 or 4 garlic cloves and cover with ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil. Let steep for 30 minutes if you have time. Strain out the garlic and store the oil in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the potatoes into halves or quarters. Toss them in a bowl with a few spoonfuls of garlic oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss again.
3. Lightly oil a large baking dish or sheet pan, and transfer the potatoes onto it, making sure that a cut side of each potato is touching the pan. (The side touching the pan will brown nicely). Roast the potatoes until tender and browned, 35 to 40 minutes.
roasted beets
1. Put the beets (unpeeled) in a baking dish and put ¼” of water in the dish. Cover with foil, and bake them until tender when stabbed with a paring knife. Usually they take 40 minutes or longer, but young beets might be quicker, depending on how big they are. In the fall, when the beets are bigger, they may take much longer—up to an hour and a half. Remove from the oven and let cool until you can pick them up without burning yourself.
2. When the beets are cool enough to handle, slip their skins off. Cut in halves lengthwise and then crosswise into ¼-inch thick slices, or in wedges—as you prefer.
roasted red peppers
1. Preheat your grill or broiler. Roast the red peppers, turning them as each side gets blackened.
2. When they are blackened all the way around, place them in a big bowl and cover it with a lid or a plate until the peppers are fairly cool (this steams and cooks the peppers the rest of the way).
3. Peel the skins from the peppers and remove the seeds, but don’t rinse the peppers—just rinse your fingers as you peel the skins off. Slice the peppers into ½” wide pieces.
roasted broccoli with tomatoes, olives and capers
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This is a recipe based on one from an Eating Well magazine, and it’s got great lemony-briny flavors to go with the rich, roasted broccoli. I didn’t have as many cherry tomatoes as the recipe called for, but it was fine even with just a few… Those Alaskan cherry tomatoes are so sweet and good, I tend to eat them up raw before I ever get a chance to use in them in a recipe. It’s a great accompaniment to any kind of pizza.
1 pound broccoli
1 cup cherry tomatoes (OK to omit if you don’t have any hanging around)
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest (I love my Microplane zester for this task)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
10 kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons capers, rinsed and drained
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Peel the broccoli stalks if the skin is tough, starting from the bottom of the stem, using a paring knife—the thick skin will peel away from the stalk. Then slice the stalks into coins less than ¼” thick. Cut the florets into bite-sized pieces.
3. Coat 1 or 2 large baking sheets with non-stick spray or oil. (This makes clean-up a lot easier.)
4. Toss broccoli, tomatoes, oil, garlic and salt in a large bowl until evenly coated with oil. Roast until the broccoli is tender and is beginning to brown, about 10-15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, combine lemon zest, juice, olives, oregano, and capers in a large bowl. Add the roasted vegetables and stir to combine. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Alaskan eggplant parmesan, deconstructed summer-style
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I invented this recipe for the wonderful fresh eggplants from the Valley. The slices stay crunchy, and you can really taste the eggplant because you don’t drench everything in sauce and mozzarella. It’s a variation of a proper eggplant parmesan in Cooks’ Illustrated (January 2004), but it’s a much lighter dish, and to my taste, more delicious. If you don’t have fresh tomatoes to make the fast fresh tomato sauté, make the easy marinara sauce—see the following recipes. You can also use these breaded and baked eggplant slices to make a fantastic eggplant parmesan pizza…
It’s much more fun doing this recipe with another person—there’s quite a bit of dredging and drenching to do. You won’t be surprised to learn that I always make a double batch of this because it’s so yummy, and the slices freeze well! Serve this with a side salad, like the green salad with garlicky red wine mustard vinaigrette.
Note: If you’re not using really fresh, local eggplant, it might be bitter unless you salt and drain it first. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of salt, then drain for 30 minutes in a colander. Rinse under water, and dry on kitchen towels to remove as much liquid as possible.
2 pounds eggplant (2 medium eggplants), cut crosswise into ½” thick rounds
6-8 slices of bread (you know my preference: whole wheat sourdough)
½ to 1 cup fresh-grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup flour
3 eggs
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly-ground pepper
spray vegetable oil (or regular vegetable oil)
fast fresh tomato sauté OR marinara sauce (recipes follow)
1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Grind bread slices in food processor to make fine, even crumbs. Transfer crumbs to a pie plate and if your parmesan isn’t grated very fine, grind it up with a few pulses, too. Add cheese, ¼ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper to the crumbs and mix together.
1. Combine flour and 1 teaspoon pepper in large ziplock bag; shake to combine. Beat eggs in second pie plate. Place 8 to 10 eggplant slices in bag with flour; seal bag and shake to coat eggplant. Remove eggplant slices, shaking off excess flour, dip in eggs, let excess egg run off, then coat evenly with bread crumb mixture; set breaded slices on wire racks on your counter. Repeat with remaining eggplant.
2. Put 2 heavy, rimmed baking sheets (preferably non-stick) in the oven and let them preheat for 10 minutes or so. Remove them one at a time from the oven, spray or brush thoroughly with vegetable oil, and load the eggplant on the sheets in a single layer. Bake until eggplant is well-browned and crisp, about 30 minutes, rotating baking sheets after 10 minutes, and flipping slices after 20 minutes.
3. While the eggplant bakes, make the fast fresh tomato sauté or the marinara sauce. (You can make the marinara the day before, if you like. Just reheat before serving.)
4. Serve each person several slices of eggplant, overlapping slightly, on plates with little bowls of the tomato sauté. This is especially nice alongside a green salad.
fast fresh tomato sauté
This recipe is based on one from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen.
3 cups of sliced, quartered, or diced tomatoes
1 shallot or ½ a small white onion, minced
1 large garlic clove, minced
small handful basil leaves, slivered, or 1 teaspoon thyme, minced (whatever fresh herbs you have hanging around, or growing in a pot on your deck—oregano, maybe?)
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
a drizzle of balsamic vinegar
1. Toss the tomatoes with the onion or shallot, garlic, herbs, olive oil, and a pinch of salt. You can let the mixture marinate for up to 2 hours or use it right away.
2. Just before you’re ready to eat, heat a skillet and when hot, add the tomatoes. Swirl the pan around to warm them through, add a few drops of balsamic vinegar and some pepper. They should just warm up and release their juices, not fall apart.
marinara sauce
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
two 28 ounce cans whole tomatoes, or diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons dried oregano
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1. Coarsely chop the tomatoes if using whole ones.
2. Saute the garlic in the olive oil until fragrant (30 seconds or so). Add the tomatoes and cook the sauce until nicely thickened, about 30 minutes.
3. Crush the oregano between your palms as you sprinkle it into the pot. Stir to combine, and add salt and pepper to taste. If you want a smoother sauce, put some of the sauce into your blender, or use a hand-held immersion blender to puree some of the chunks out of the sauce.
sauteed tomatoes on garlic-rubbed toast
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This is a very fast, really delicious recipe, but I don’t recommend making it unless you can get fresh local tomatoes. It’s based on a recipe in Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen. These toasts make a great meal with any green salad alongside (try the green salad with garlicky red wine mustard vinaigrette), or with soup (for example, lentil soup). These toasts are also great with the broccoli salad with roasted peppers, capers, and olives. You can also forget the toast, and serve the tomatoes over pasta, with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
3 cups of sliced, quartered, or diced tomatoes
1 shallot or ½ a small white onion, minced
2 large garlic cloves, one minced
small handful basil leaves, slivered, or 1 teaspoon thyme, minced (whatever fresh herbs you have hanging around, or growing in a pot on your deck—oregano, maybe?)
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 thick slices hearty bread (I like to use 100% whole wheat sourdough)
a drizzle of balsamic vinegar
cheese (optional)
1. Toss the tomatoes with the onion or shallot, minced garlic, herbs, olive oil, and a pinch of salt. You can let it marinate for up to 2 hours or use it right away. Set aside until you’re ready to eat.
2. Heat a skillet and when hot, add the tomatoes. Swirl the pan around to warm them through, add a few drops of balsamic vinegar and some pepper. They should just warm up and release their juices, not fall apart.
3. Toast the bread well. Rub it with the whole clove of garlic.
4. Spoon tomatoes onto toast and serve.
5. You can put cheese (try some from the Farmers’ Market!) on the hot toast before adding the tomatoes, if you like.
tomato soup with cheese & garlic toast
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This tomato soup was a revelation to me when I first made it. It’s based on a recipe in Peter Berley’s book The Flexitarian Table. How can a soup be so yummy, creamy and rich without any cream or butter in it? I think you’ll love it. In the summer, you can use our local carrots and onions to make it, and it’s wonderful, but I make this recipe all year long. I think it makes a difference to use really good canned tomatoes and tomato paste, and I like Muir Glen.
If you serve the soup alongside Rise & Shine Bakery’s toasted Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic bread, it’s like a gourmet flashback to the toasted cheese and tomato soup cafeteria lunches you ate at school long ago… still comforting and warming, but a lot yummier! I always make a double batch of the soup, because it freezes really well!
Serve this soup with any kind of a simple green vegetable or savory salad, like roasted broccoli with garlic, or roasted brussels sprouts, or green cauliflower with parsley and green olives, or grilled zucchini.
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced onions (3-4 medium)
sea salt or kosher salt
1 head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
2 medium carrots (peeled if the skins are tough), sliced
large pinch of red pepper flakes, or to taste
2 tablespoons tomato paste
28-ounce can of whole plum tomatoes or diced tomatoes in juice
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock or water (I use broth left over from cooking white beans with onion and garlic)
two 2-inch strips of orange zest, removed with a vegetable peeler
1 teaspoon dried sage
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, for garnish when serving
Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic bread, or other hearty whole-grain bread
1. I slice the onions and carrots in the food processor—this is especially time-saving if you’re doing a double batch. Just cut off the stem end of the carrots and push them down through the narrow feed tube, pushing with the pusher cup.
2. In a heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and ½ teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until the onions have softened—5 minutes or so. Add the garlic cloves, carrots, and pepper flakes, lower the heat, cover, and cook until the vegetables are sweet and juicy and tender, but not browned, 20 minutes or so. Check and stir occasionally, adding a few tablespoons of water if the vegetables are dry.
3. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the stock or water, orange zest and sage and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the pot from the heat and discard the orange zest. Puree the soup with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender. It’s easiest to do this if you’ve let the soup cool for a while first. Season with salt if you like, but I didn’t find it necessary because of the salt already added to the onions and in the canned tomatoes. Reheat the soup before serving, and add water to thin the soup if it seems too thick.
5. If you’re just serving 1 or 2 people, toast slices of the bread in the toaster. If you’re serving several people, heat the oven to 350 degrees and put the whole loaf in the oven, unwrapped and unsliced, for 15 minutes to heat and re-crisp the crust.
6. Ladle the soup into bowls, sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve with bread or toast on the side.
slow-roasted tomatoes
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These tomatoes are fantastic if you make them in the summer with fresh, local tomatoes—but they are also very good using plum tomatoes, any time of the year. And to add to their charm, they freeze and thaw wonderfully! You can just pop them out of the freezer any time you need a quick little appetizer bite, or a nice addition to an open-faced sandwich. You can eat them on toast, or as a component in a composed salad like the salade nicoise with roasted beets & potatoes. If we’re having people over for dinner, I love to serve these tomatoes, along with little plates and bowls of several other tidbits—like some stalks of pickled asparagus, a tiny bowl of nice green olives, maybe a bowl of crisp potato chips, and/or some celery or red peppers with hummus.
One thing I really like to do for this recipe, because it makes the preparation so easy and fast, is to use olive oil spray in a can. One brand I like (it actually tastes like extra-virgin olive oil!) is Spectrum Naturals.
10 or 12 medium or large tomatoes (any kind if local, or plum tomatoes if not)
olive oil (in a spray can, if you have it)
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
2. Slice each tomato in half, pole to pole.
3. Coat a large baking sheet with non-stick spray or oil. (This makes clean-up a lot easier.)
4. Line up the tomato halves on the sheet, cut side up. Spray the cut surfaces well with olive oil (or use a pastry brush and brush the oil on if you don’t have a spray can). Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Roast for an hour, then rotate the tray and roast for another hour. When they are nice and collapsed to about half their original thickness, golden-brown on top, and browning around the edges, take them out. Eat them warm, room-temperature, or cold—right out of the fridge!
summer vegetable and potato “pie”
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It’s not actually a pie at all, except that it’s got a bottom layer of potato slices that acts like a crust. I love to make this recipe in the peak of our growing season, because of all the perfect Alaskan produce that can go into it. You can get the potatoes, garlic, herbs, zucchinis, and tomatoes from the farmers’ market! It makes such a difference to use those beautiful Alaskan Butterball potatoes,they are sweet and yummy, and brown up so nicely.
If the weather is warm, serve this with any green salad. But if it’s cold and rainy, it’s also great with green soup of sorrel, beet greens, and lettuce. This recipe is based on one from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen. If you have a truly huge skillet (with a lid), you can double this recipe like I do—it makes great leftovers and can be served warm or at room temperature.
1 pound waxy potatoes (like Butterball)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
a handful of herbs, like parsley and basil or rosemary
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 zucchinis
2 roasted red peppers, cut into ½” strips (see the “red pepper” section for recipe)
2 cups small tomatoes, halved
1. Scrub the potatoes and slice them into ¼” rounds. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a skillet over low heat, add the potatoes, stir them to coat with oil, then spread them evenly over the pan. Scatter a third of the garlic and herbs over the potatoes, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Add a layer of the onion, follow with the zucchini, and top with more garlic, herbs, salt and pepper. Add the pepper strips with the remaining garlic and herbs, then the tomatoes. Dribble any juice left from the roasted peppers on top, plus 3 tablespoons water. Raise the heat just enough to get the water bubbling, then cover the pan and reduce the heat to low.
3. Cook until the vegetables are tender, 25 minutes or more (stab with a paring knife to check). Remove the lid, raise the heat, and reduce the excess liquid by simmering gently for a few minutes. If there is a LOT of liquid, you can pour a portion of it off (carefully) into a separate pan and boil it down for a little while until it reduces and thickens (be careful not to let it burn). Then pour it back over the pie, along with a drizzle of olive oil over the top.
4. If you have time to let the pie sit for 20 or 30 minutes, it melds the flavors and sets the pie up nicely, making it MUCH easier to slice.
spaghetti with grape tomatoes, olives, capers, & pine nuts
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When the kalamata olive bread is on our baking schedule for the week, we like to make this pasta dish. The olives in the bread are great with the olives and capers in the pasta! If you want to heat a whole loaf of bread to eat with dinner, you can heat it, unwrapped, for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven just before serving dinner.
Dan likes to call this recipe his signature dish, because he’s the only one who has the patience to cut all the grape tomatoes in half before roasting them. I think if you just left them whole (and let them burst in the oven) they’d be just fine—maybe the dish wouldn’t be as pretty, but it would still taste great!!
In the summer, we love to make this recipe with local cherry tomatoes, but we make this recipe all year ‘round with big boxes of grape tomatoes from Costco. The original recipe (from Cooks Illustrated) called for this amount of sauce for a whole pound of pasta, but we like twice as many tomatoes for our pasta—so please note that the recipe below only calls for a half-pound of pasta. We always make a double batch to have plenty of leftovers, so we buy two of those giant boxes of grape tomatoes at a time. While you’re at Costco, you can pick up a giant jar of capers, a bag of pine nuts, a mesh bag of garlic, a huge jug of olive oil, a big wedge of Parmesan cheese, and a jar of kalamata olives… Then you’re set up to make this dish whenever you get a hankering!
2 pounds grape tomatoes, halved pole to pole
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt or kosher salt
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 large cloves garlic, sliced thin
¼ cup rinsed and drained capers
½ pound spaghetti (I like whole-wheat, especially DeCecco or Ronzoni)
½ cup pitted and sliced kalamata olives
¼ cup chopped flat-leaved parsley
¼ cup pine nuts, toasted (optional)
2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, gently toss tomatoes with oil, ½ teaspoon salt, pepper flakes, pepper, garlic, and capers. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with non-stick spray or oil. Spread tomatoes in an even layer on baking sheet and roast until tomato skins are slightly shriveled (tomatoes should retain their shape), 35 to 40 minutes. Do not stir tomatoes during roasting. Remove from the oven and cool 5 to 10 minutes.
2. While tomatoes cook, bring a large pot of water to boil. Just before removing tomatoes from the oven, stir 1 tablespoon salt and pasta into boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain pasta and return to pot. Scrape tomatoes into pot on top of pasta, add olives and parsley; toss to combine. Serve immediately, sprinkling pine nuts and optional cheese over individual bowls.
chopped greek salad with garlicky croutons
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This recipe reminds me of a salade nicoise (the recipe for my salade nicoise is in the farmers market cookbook, and on the web), but it’s inspired by Greek flavors, and it’s a lot easier to do, since you don’t have to cook the green beans and roast the potatoes. It’s inspired by a recent recipe in Fine Cooking.
It goes without saying that I like to make my croutons out of Rise & Shine Bakery whole-grain sourdough bread! They make such flavorful little morsels—crunchy and delicious. You can leave the anchovies and/or feta cheese out for a vegetarian or dairy-free meal!
garlicky whole-grain croutons
5 slices hearty whole-grain bread
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed in a garlic press
¼ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mash the garlic with the salt in the bottom of a medium-sized bowl. Stir in the olive oil. Cut the slices of bread into ½” cubes and toss them in the garlicky oil until the oil is thoroughly absorbed and distributed.
2. Spread the bread cubes out on a baking sheet and bake for 15-25 minutes, until the croutons are crispy and golden-brown.
dressing
¼ cup minced shallots
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
½ teaspoon dried oregano, or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
¼ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice, or white wine vinegar
½ tin of oil packed anchovies, chopped and mashed (about 4 fillets)—optional
----------------------------------
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1. In a bowl, whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients except the oil. Continue whisking while slowly drizzling in the oil.
2. Correct seasoning to taste—if it’s too sharp and lemony, add a bit more salt and/or oil.
salad
6-8 cups of young arugula, washed and dried (or substitute any salad greens)
2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced into ½-inch pieces
1 English cucumber, seeded and diced into ½-inch pieces
½ cup Kalamata olives, pitted and quartered
½ cup feta cheese, diced into ½-inch pieces—optional
1. Compose this salad on a large serving platter. Toss the arugula or salad greens with a couple of spoonfuls of the dressing, and make a bed of lettuce on the platter. Then toss the cucumber with a little more of the dressing. Attractively group each component on top of the greens. Drizzle a little more vinaigrette over all the vegetables, if you like. Sprinkle cracked pepper over the top, and enjoy!!
2. When you’re ready to sit down and eat, drizzle some of the dressing over the leaves and toss, adding more dressing as needed until all the leaves are lightly coated. Sprinkle with the optional Parmesan cheese, toss again to mix, and then toss in the croutons. Sprinkle with pepper and serve right away, before the lettuce wilts.
zucchini & tomato gratin
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This recipe is exactly what to do with the big, beautiful zucchinis you can find at the Farmers’ Market! This dish is just fantastic—savory from the thyme, sweet from the onions, and just delicious from the really fresh zucchinis and tomatoes. The recipe was inspired by a recent Cook’s Illustrated recipe, although simplified. It’s easier than lasagna but I think tastes just as good (maybe even better)!
The salting and draining is necessary to keep the gratin from being soupy. It really works—after you take it out of the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes, it slices nicely without making a big lake on your plate.
3 pounds zucchini, ends trimmed and sliced into ¼-inch thick rounds
sea salt or kosher salt
2-3 large ripe tomatoes, about 1 pound
olive oil
3-4 medium onions, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly, pole to pole (about 5 or 6 cups)
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme, or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
2 slices hearty bread (I prefer whole wheat sourdough)
2 medium shallots, minced (or substitute minced onion)
1. Coat a 13x9-inch baking dish with olive oil; set aside.
2. Toss zucchini slices with 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl; transfer to a colander and let sit for about 45 minutes to let plenty of liquid drain out.
3. Toss tomato slices with ½ teaspoon salt in a bowl, and let sit for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, ½ teaspoon salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened and golden-brown, about 15 minutes. Set the onions aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
6. Drain the zucchini thoroughly.
7. Combine garlic, 3 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon pepper, and thyme in a small bowl. In large bowl, toss zucchini with the garlic mixture, then arrange in overlapping rows in the baking dish. Arrange caramelized onions in an even layer over zucchini.
8. Drain the tomatoes in the colander, then arrange the slices in a single layer on top of the onions. Bake until vegetables are tender and tomatoes are starting to brown around the edges, 40 to 45 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, process bread in food processor until finely ground. You should have about 1 ½ cups of crumbs. Combine bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and shallots in a medium bowl. Remove baking dish from the oven and sprinkle bread crumb mixture evenly on top of tomatoes. Bake gratin until bubbling and the bread crumbs are nicely browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.
pita stuffed with roasted mushrooms and sautéed rainbow chard
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I had leftover mushrooms and leftover sautéed chard, so I invented this sandwich. It’s fantastic!
the sandwich
pita breads, cut in half (I prefer whole wheat)
roasted mushrooms (see recipe, below)
sautéed chard (see recipe, below)
tomato slices
homemade Russian dressing (see recipe, below)
1. Warm the mushrooms and chard if they aren’t already. (I just put the leftovers in the microwave to warm them.)
2. Spoon the dressing into the pita, covering all surfaces well.
3. Pile in sauteed chard, then roasted mushrooms, then tomato slices. Try not to overload it too much, but the happy thing about a pita is that it is pretty good at keeping everything inside.
4. Have a big napkin handy, and devour!
roasted mushrooms
1 pound oyster mushrooms (or other mushrooms)
2 tablespoons garlic oil (either of the two versions, below)
¼ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and coat a heavy rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Slice the mushrooms into ½-inch slices, cutting off the ends of any particularly large stems.
3. Toss the mushroom slices with the the oil and salt and spread out in a single layer on the baking sheet. If they don’t fit in a single layer, use an additional baking sheet, because they will steam instead of roast if they aren’t directly on the sheet.
4. Roast for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and flip them all around with a spatula. If they are brown and crispy in places, and completely tender, they are done, but if not, continue roasting until browned and perfect. (See the photograph on the website if you like.)
olive oil infused with roasted garlic
several heads of garlic, cloves peeled
olive oil (you don’t need extra-virgin olive oil for this—the garlic imparts so much flavor that you can use regular olive oil)
1. Put all the whole peeled garlic cloves in a heavy pot. Cover the garlic cloves completely with olive oil.
2. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Give the garlic a stir, and then turn the heat down to the absolute lowest possible heat, cover the pot, and simmer just at a bare bubble. Stir the garlic occasionally and continue to cook until the garlic cloves are completely soft and tender, and you can easily squish them against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. This will probably take an hour or more, but check after 45 minutes.
3. Uncover the pot and let cool. Strain the garlic from the oil. This garlic can be used in any recipe that calls for roasted garlic (for example, in the Southwest Caesar Salad, or in the Hummus in the cookbook or on the website). If you make a soup or a stew that needs a little extra pizzaz, just scoop out a few cloves, mash them with a fork, and add them to your dish to really pump up the flavor. You can freeze the garlic indefinitely (I keep it in pint-sized canning jars in the freezer), and just take it out when you need it.
garlic oil
3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1. Mash or mince the garlic cloves and cover with the olive oil. Let steep for 30 minutes if you have time.
2. Strain out the garlic and store the oil in the refrigerator.
rainbow chard sauteed with chard stems & onions
You can use rainbow chard, or red chard, or (my favorite) Swiss chard for this recipe.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
sea salt or kosher salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bunches rainbow chard, stems diced into ½-inch pieces and leaves washed and sliced into 1-inch slices
1. Heat the olive oil and sauté the onions and the chard stems over medium heat with a teaspoon of salt until tender, adding a couple tablespoons of water every now and then when the pan dries out and the vegetables start sticking. You can cover the pan with a lid for this part if you like. This will probably take about 10 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and sauté for another couple of minutes. Then add the chard leaves and sauté for another 5-10 minutes, until the chard leaves are lovely and tender. Taste for salt, and add more to taste.
homemade Russian dressing
This dressing recipe was inspired by a similar one in the new Moosewood cookbook, Moosewood New Classics.
½ cup tomato, diced
1/3 cup prepared mayonnaise, or Vegenaise (egg-free mayonnaise)
3 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Combine all the dressing ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth and creamy.
Swiss chard with cumin, tomatoes, and cilantro
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This recipe is deceptive—maybe it doesn’t look all that phenomenal, but I’m telling you, it is fabulous. The fresh Swiss chard at the market now is so sweet and delicious, and those big red tomatoes are so good… You can get fresh cilantro, and I even used Alaskan storage onions! Even if you don’t have the cilantro, make this anyway!
It’s a variation of a recipe in a Cooks’ Illustrated from many years ago. I have all the back issues, and I love mining them for good ideas!
If you happen to have a fresh jalepeno hanging around, by all means use it, but otherwise, just use a small can of chopped green chiles. I always keep a few cans in the pantry just for these sorts of occasions. The chiles really do add a great taste.
I ate this with spicy roasted cauliflower with red peppers and cumin and a little brown basmati rice (recipes in the cookbook and on the website), and it was SO GOOD!
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, minced
sea salt or kosher salt
4 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 medium jalepeno pepper, OR 1 small can chopped green chiles
1 ½ teaspoons cumin
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2 pounds Swiss chard with stems
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
freshly-ground black pepper
1. Wash the chard and cut the stems off each leaf. Holding the stems in a bundle, cut them into ½-inch slices. If the leaves are large, slice them into 1-inch wide ribbons, but if they are small, you can leave them whole. Drain the leaves, but don’t dry them.
2. Heat oil in a large saute pan. Add onion and ½ teaspoon of salt, sauté for a minute or two until starting to soften, then add the chard stems. Cook until stems are tender and onion is cooked. How long this takes will depend on the age of the chard. If the pan is drying out before the stems are tender, just add a bit of water to steam them and finish cooking them.
3. Then add the garlic, chiles, and cumin; sauté another minute or so. Add the tomatoes and cook until their juices release, about another minute. Add wet greens to the pan, stir around a bit, then cover and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until greens completely wilt but are still bright green, about 5 minutes. Uncover, and if needed, finish cooking until just tender. Add cilantro. Taste and season with additional salt if desired, and pepper if it’s not spicy enough already from the chiles.
fast, fresh tomato saute
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This recipe is based on one from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen.
3 cups of sliced, quartered, or diced tomatoes
1 shallot or ½ a small white onion, minced
1 large garlic clove, minced
small handful basil leaves, slivered, or 1 teaspoon thyme, minced (whatever fresh herbs you have hanging around, or growing in a pot on your deck—oregano, maybe?)
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
a drizzle of balsamic vinegar
1. Toss the tomatoes with the onion or shallot, garlic, herbs, olive oil, and a pinch of salt. You can let the mixture marinate for up to 2 hours or use it right away.
2. Just before you’re ready to eat, heat a skillet and when hot, add the tomatoes. Swirl the pan around to warm them through, add a few drops of balsamic vinegar and some pepper. They should just warm up and release their juices, not fall apart.
marinara sauce
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This recipe will make more than you need for this recipe, but it’s so easy and yummy, you can make extra and freeze the leftover for next time you need tomato sauce. Or just make a half-batch!
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
two 28 ounce cans whole tomatoes, or diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons dried oregano
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1. Coarsely chop the tomatoes if using whole ones.
2. Saute the garlic in the olive oil until fragrant (30 seconds or so). Add the tomatoes and cook the sauce until nicely thickened, about 30 minutes.
3. Crush the oregano between your palms as you sprinkle it into the pot. Stir to combine, and add salt and pepper to taste. If you want a smoother sauce, put some of the sauce into your blender, or use a hand-held immersion blender to puree some of the chunks out of the sauce.
chard & fennel with tomatoes & black-eyed peas
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This recipe is loosely based on one in Paula Wolfert’s Mediterranean Grains and Greens. I love the flavor of fennel with the chard, and I love that the onions and chard stems and fennel mingle together into a luscious, syrupy sweetness that goes so well with the chard leaves and tomatoes. I usually just eat this for dinner, but you could serve it with garlic-scrubbed whole-grain toast or rice.
2 cups dried black-eyed peas, soaked for 4 hours or overnight
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 bay leaves
----------------------------
2 large onions, diced
sea salt or kosher salt
2 cups diced fennel bulb
2-3 large bunches Swiss chard, stems chopped into ½-inch slices and leaves cut into 1-inch ribbons (separate from each other)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large (28-oz) can diced tomatoes
¼ teaspoon fennel seeds, smashed in a mortar
freshly ground black pepper
1. Drain and rinse the soaked peas. Cover the black-eyed peas with 2 inches of water in a large pot, toss in the whole garlic cloves and bay leaves, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and let simmer until the beans are completely tender (you can squish them between your tongue and roof of your mouth). This will probably take about 30 minutes, but keep testing.
2. Meanwhile, sauté the onions in the olive oil in a large soup pot or saucepan with 1 teaspoon salt until they begin to release their liquid. Add the fennel bulb and chard stems, and cook over high heat until soft and aromatic.
3. Add the greens to the pan, along with the tomatoes and fennel seeds and grindings of pepper, and cook for 10 minutes, or until the chard leaves are tender.
4. Drain the cooked black-eyed peas, reserving the broth for use in another recipe (as soup stock). Add the black-eyed peas to the saucepan along with enough broth to moisten everything nicely. Simmer for a couple of minutes to combine the flavors, then try it and add salt to taste. I like this dish kind of as a soupy stew consistency, but just add the amount of bean cooking broth to your liking.
5. Serve warm or cool. It tastes even better the next day, as with all bean dishes.
cauliflower with raisins & pine nuts on pasta
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This is a really fun and unusual pasta dish! As usual, I make tons of veggies relative to the pasta! It’s based on a similar recipe in Peter Berley’s Modern Vegetarian Kitchen
I haven’t tried this without the saffron, and I’m sure it would still be good without it, but the saffron does add a nice flavor. You can find it at Summit Spice & Tea Co., along with really full-flavored bay leaves, hot pepper flakes, sea salt, and any other spice you might need for other dishes!
This makes a big batch, because our Alaskan cauliflowers are usually quite large, and it seems silly to give you a recipe for a half a cauliflower. It makes good leftovers, too! But if you want a small batch, just halve this recipe.
1 large cauliflower, cored and separated into smallish florets
sea salt or kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, diced
6 garlic cloves, minced
4 large bay leaves
½ teaspoon saffron
½ to 1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (to your taste)
¼ cup tomato paste
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
¾ cup raisins
1 cup water
½ cup dry white wine
½ pound pasta (spaghetti or rigatoni, for example—I like to use whole-wheat pasta)
½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
freshly-ground black pepper
½ cup pine nuts, toasted in a small skillet over medium heat until lightly browned
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add 2 tablespoons salt. Add the cauliflower and cook until just barely tender, about 3-4 minutes. Remove the cauliflower, but reserve the water for cooking the pasta.
2. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, sauté the onions in a large, non-stick skillet in the olive oil until golden-brown, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, bay leaves, saffron, and red pepper flakes and sauté for another 2 minutes.
3. Stir in the tomato paste, optional tomatoes, raisins, water and wine. Raise the heat and bring the sauce to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, add the cauliflower, and stir well to combine. Let it sit, off heat or on very low heat, while you cook the pasta.
4. Return the cauliflower water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until tender. Drain.
5. Add the parsley to the cauliflower sauce, and season to taste with salt and fresh-ground pepper. (It is likely to need quite a bit of salt. Don’t be shy!)
6. Put a small pile of pasta on each plate or pasta bowl, and pile high with cauliflower. Garnish with lots of toasted pine nuts. Try it first, and if you like, add Parmesan cheese!
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Since Rise & Shine began selling bread, my family has not purchased store bought bread. The 100% whole wheat sourdough pan loaf is a staple item for us. We use it for toast and sandwiches and the toasted walnut and toasted seed breads has become a morning favorite. It's wonderful to have fresh whole grain organic bread made locally with so much passion and love!!!
