Italian inspired mushroom medley with an olive oil/garlic based sauce.
Ingredients
Crimini mushrooms, sliced
Shiitake mushrooms, sliced
White button mushrooms, sliced
Gnocchi
5 Cloves of garlic, sliced
Olive Oil
Oregano
Red pepper flakes
Boil water in pot with 1 tsp of olive oil and a dash of salt. After water boils place gnocchi in pot until floats. When ready, drain. In the meantime, take a pan and sauté the mushrooms with 1 Tbsp of oil. Add a dash of red pepper flakes and salt. Turn down heat. Separately, for the 'sauce' you'll need to place 3 Tsp of oil with the sliced garlic. Cook until garlic turns a bit brown. Add about and additional 1/4 cup of oil. Cook until hot.
Place gnocchi on plate top with mushroom sauté pouring olive oil sauce to taste including a few garlic pieces.
Although it's New Year's Day, I couldn't sleep in due to the fact that I've been recovering from a nasty upper-respiratory 'thing.' So I'm leaving you with this wonderful recipe that Steve just conjured up from that many faceted brain of his. I'm not hungover at all, but I bet this recipe is well and good if you're feeling that way today.
Ingredients:
10 oz of Cauliflower, thinly sliced
8 oz Extra Firm Tofu, cut into thin long strips
2 Handfuls Spinach, chopped coarsely
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Pinches of Black Pepper
Combine olive oil, soy sauce, and pepper in pan. Turn to high heat. Add cauliflower. Stir and let cook, remaining on high. Cover for 5 minutes. Add tofu strips. Cover again and cook for an additional 3 minutes. When cauliflower begins to soften add spinach. Turn down to low heat and let spinach wilt. Stir.
Add salt to taste and serve (over bed of rice.)
Do you like orzo, feta, tomatoes, and dill? If the answer is yes, then definitely try this recipe stolen from Epicurious.com once again. I loved this dish because it was super simple to make and I wound up with a lot of leftovers!
Ingredients:
3 Tbs of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cups of Cherry Tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup Chopped Dill
1 tsp grated Lemon Zest
1 cup Orzo
1 1/2 cup Crumbled Feta (6 oz) (I bought an exact 6 oz plastic tub of this at Trader Joe's)
Toss together oil, tomatoes, dill, and lemon zest in a large bowl. By the way an easy way to zest a lemon is to take a vegetable peeler and peel some skin off of a lemon. Then mince. 1 tsp of zest is easy to get from just peeling it a few times. Add a little pepper and a tiny bit of salt to your mix. (The feta is pretty salty so you want to make sure you don't add too much salt.) Let sit after stirring.
Meanwhile, boil salted water and cook orzo. Drain. Add to the above bowl mix. Stir vigorously. Add feta. Stir once more. Add additional salt or pepper if necessary. But only after you taste test it!
Simple and good!
Another stolen recipe from Epicurious.com. Although quick, this recipe does take a little time to cook in the oven. But it's totally worth it! All I have to say is: YUM!
Ingredients:
1 pound of Asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 large Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 Tbs of Olive Oil
1/3 Cup Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan) - they sell tubs of these already grated at Trader Joe's
Preheat oven at 450ºF using middle or lower rack.
Toss together cut asparagus, potatoes, oil and sprinkled salt and pepper about 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp in a large shallow baking pan. Spread evenly. Roast stirring once after 20 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and roast until cheese has melted. About a minute or so.
I accidentally placed my pan on the top rack for almost 15 minutes. It really depends on your oven. I have a powerful gas oven which I had preheated, so it cooked pretty quickly.
Yummy!
I can attest that this recipe is super yummy. It might even convince you carrot haters out there to start eating carrots (or not)! This simple dish can compliment other dishes really well. For example, I made the carrots and then cooked a separate batch of green beans. Then took a little of both and packed them over brown rice for lunch. I could just tell that my co-workers were envious!Required: Carrots, Olive Oil, Salt, Sugar, Black PepperFirst, you should julienne the carrots. Julienning is essentially cutting a food item into thin long strips. I used baby carrots and sliced them in half first. Then I took my knife and cut them thinly at approximately a 45 degree angle. This helps make them nice and thin!Poor about 3-5 Tbsp of Olive oil into a pan. Just realize that the ratio should match how much carrots you're using. Since I usually only cook for myself, I'll make a little more than I need so I can have leftovers for lunch or the following evening. If you need more olive oil, you can always add more. Set the stove to high heat. Wait until pan heats up and then add the carrots. Cook carrots until a little brownish and soft. In the meantime, add 1-2 tsp of sugar. Make sure you stir thoroughly, you want it to mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.Simple, easy, fast, good, and good for you!
To my surprise, I found out recently that one of my co-workers prefers asparagus over broccoli. I had just assumed that most people were iffy on asparagus. Boy, was I wrong! This really simple recipe goes out to the 'a' lovers out there in the world. For those of you who are skeptical, try this and report back to me.
Required: Asparagus, Olive Oil, Garlic, Sea Salt
Prepare asparagus by chopping the stems. I bought my asparagus from Trader Joe's so they were already cut, I simply had to cut them in half. Mince one garlic clove (or two if you love garlic). Oil the pan enough to cover the bottom. Saute the garlic under high heat for a few minutes. Throw in the asparagus. Throw in some salt for taste. Cover while keeping the heat high. You want the stems to get a little dark (see above picture). Stir. Uncover when you think they look about right.
Serve over rice. Yummy!
Another recipe with tofu and broccoli! I promise I'll insert some variety in here. This dish is inspired by Cafe 101 on Franklin. They have a No Huevos Rancheros (no eggs) entree which uses tofu that's pretty good.
Required: Onion, Corn, Black Beans, Tofu, Salsa, Cayenne Pepper, Black Pepper, Sea Salt, Olive Oil
Optional: Corn Tortilla, Broccoli, Cumin
Chop the onion! Slice the firm tofu into cubes. Oil pan with 2 or 3 Tbsp of olive oil. Saute onion. If you're going to use broccoli, I would put it in at this point. Stir in tofu cubes. Sprinkle a little less than desired amount of cayenne pepper and a pinch of cumin. Add black beans then corn. Stir. Sprinkle more cayenne pepper to taste. Top off with sea salt and black pepper to taste and stir.
Prepare a piece of warm corn tortilla on a plate. Spoon the mix onto the tortilla and top with some salsa. Mmm, vegan mexican!
If you like pesto, try this...
Required: Bowtie pasta, Crimini Mushrooms, Firm tofu, Pesto (For vegans, you can find vegan pesto at Whole Foods), Olive Oil, Black pepper, Salt
Optional: Garlic powder
First, prepare the pasta by boiling just enough in a pot. Put a little olive oil and salt in the pot while boiling the water. In the meantime, slice the mushrooms as desired. Cut firm pieces of tofu into cubes. Saute the tofu and mushrooms in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Add a few pinches of salt and black pepper. Add a few dashes of garlic powder if you have it. If you like garlic, you can also add a minced clove into this saute.
When the pasta is ready to drain, let saute stand while you are draining the pasta. Put a dash of olive oil in the drained pasta and stir. This will prevent the pasta from sticking to each other. When you refrigerate the leftover pasta, it will also prevent the pasta from clumping.
Add desired pasta topped with mushroom and tofu saute to a large bowl. Stir in desired amount of pesto. Mix well.
15 minutes and you're done!
Italian inspired mushroom medley with an olive oil/garlic based sauce.
