Roasted Chickpeas, Broccoli Rabe, and Grape Tomatoes

 This winter I fell head over heels for a smokin’ hot oven.  Asking for nothing in return, it beautifully bronzed my vegetables, and provided heated for my house.  But spring sprang right into mid-summer this year, and suddenly I knew my days with this hottie were numbered.  Come mid-July, when I am already roasting hot myself, I won’t even want to touch it.  For now though, I’m giving my oven some more lovin’. 

Roasted vegetables really are the way to go.  I can’t say it enough about them.  Being able to enjoy potato-chip-like-crunchiness of the broccoli rabe leaves, along with the silkiness of the roasted chickpeas at the same time shouldn’t happen.  But with roasting, it does.  Roasting rewards you twice by encouraging you to eat more veggies because they are healthy and delicious.  Plus, you can keep the vibrant color and flavor that you often lose with boiling or blanching.  Simple seasonings upgrade the flavor even further.  Rosemary livened up my grape tomatoes with notes of fresh-cut pine and squeezed citrus.   The taste was earthy, yet sophisticated.

Although it was vegetarian, you could easily pair this with a grilled chicken breast or tuna steak.   Colorful, texturally diverse, and wildly tasty, I toast this roast!

Roasted Chickpeas, Broccoli Rabe, and Grape Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

About ½ a bunch broccoli rabe, remove stems

2/3 cup (about 5 oz) grape tomatoes, sliced in half

¼ cup olive oil

1 heaping tsp dried rosemary

½ tsp – 1 tsp Salt and pepper

Instructions:

1.       Preheat oven to 400˚F. 

2.       Rinse and prepare broccoli rabe and tomatoes.  Dry off broccoli rabe.

3.       Add all ingredients to a large mixing bowl. 

4.       Toss to coat completely with oil. 

5.       Arrange mixture on baking/cookie sheet.  **If possible, lay leafy parts of broccoli rabe on top of other ingredients (not touching the bottom of the sheet pan), so they will be less likely to burn.

6.       Roast for about 15-20 minutes, or until leafy greens are crispy, and chickpeas have a golden shell.

Serves about 2.

Coconut Rice with Broccoli and Fried Edamame

Plain white rice.  It’s a jumping off point for many who have just entered the kitchen.  It’s easy, it’s versatile, but let’s be honest, it’s also pretty boring.  So, how do you make it tastier?  You could go the down dairy drive, adding butter or cheese.  You could stop into sodium station for some soy sauce, Sriracha, or barbeque sauce.  You might even try to sweet talk it with a little brown sugar.  But what through me off my rice rocker was coconut milk.  

 Now, it won’t make your dinner taste like a plate of Mounds or Almond Joy.  Coconut milk isn’t super-sweet, and has only a faint coconut taste.  All the same, coconut milk gives rice a rich, meaty flavor that does not compete with bolder notes.  Although the flavor of the milk is considered mild, it adds a pleasant silkiness.  Add some aromatics like ginger, green onion, and garlic and you are on your way to a fragrant Thai-style curry.  

 This recipe was simple; it only took about 30 minutes.  It was hardly more involved than plain white rice, but with much more flavor.  The nutty, meatiness of the edamame complimented the tart lime, garlicky Sriracha, and hints of ginger that pecked through the smoothness of the meal.  Plain white rice, no more. 

Coconut Rice with Broccoli and Fried Edamame

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil

3-4 green onions, thinly sliced

1 T fresh ginger, grated

1 (15 oz) can coconut milk

¾ cup water

1 tsp salt

2 T lime juice

1 cup basmati or jasmine rice

2 T olive oil

1 cup shelled edamame

1 tsp salt

2-3 cups broccoli, chopped

1 clove garlic, finely diced

1 T lime zest

¼ cup chopped peanuts (optional)

Sriracha (optional)

Instructions:

1.       In a large saucepan, heat 1 T oil over medium heat.  Once hot, add green onions and ginger.  Cook until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. 

2.       Add coconut milk, water, salt, and lime juice.   Bring to a boil over medium high heat.

3.       Add rice, cover.  Turn heat down to low and simmer until rice is fluffy, about 15-20 minutes.

4.       Meanwhile, in a medium sized frying pan, heat 2 T olive oil over medium heat.  Once hot, add edamame, toss with salt.  Fry edamame until golden brown and slightly crispy, about 5-6 minutes. 

5.       Add garlic and broccoli to frying pan, cook for about 3 minutes. 

6.       Add edamame and broccoli mixture to rice (mix well) in the last 5 minutes of cooking to steam broccoli. 

7.       Add lime zest to rice before serving.

8.       Garnish with peanuts and Sriracha, if desired. 

Sesame Sauce

For those of us trying to save a buck, Chinese food is a classic take-out option.  Granted, what they sell at China House or Panda Express is heavily Americanized “Chinese food”, but you can generally walk away with pounds of food for some loose change.   My $4.50 always feels well spent.  Occasionally though, the MSG-flavoring accosts my taste buds and puts them into a salty headlock.  Not even the sticky rice can save me.  

Wanting to keep the salt-and-soy-sauce taste to a minimum, I made a sesame sauce over broccoli, red pepper and rice.  The sauce was smoky and sweet, accentuated by a tinge of vinegar.  I drizzled the sauce over a plate of crisp steamed vegetables and rice.  If you make a fair amount of Asian food, soy sauce should not be the only flavoring weapon in your arsenal.  While soy sauce is a necessity, I would recommend adding sesame oil as well.  This oil adds a rich, smoky taste to sauces and pairs well with chicken and vegetable dishes.  Sticker shock might coax you to avoid this selection, but when you use only a teaspoon at a time it is well worth the investment.  The next asset you should have is Sriracha, an Asian chili (hot) sauce.   Its spicy garlic flavoring emboldens soups, sauces, and entrees.   This is not a complete or even extensive amount of Asian flavorings, but it will provide us with enough to vary the taste options in future cooking endeavors. 

Sesame Sauce

Ingredients:

2 ½ T white sugar

2 T all-purpose flour

½ cup vegetable/chicken broth

1 ½ tsp white vinegar

1 ½ tsp soy sauce

1 ½ tsp sesame oil

¼ tsp sriracha hot sauce

1 tsp minced garlic

Instructions:

1.       Combine sugar and flour in small sauce pan. 

2.       Turn stove on to medium heat.  Add broth, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, sriracha and garlic.  

3.       While whisking contents, bring to a boil. 

4.       Then reduce and simmer for about 5 min.

Two Times Is Better Than One

Ah, the first day with enough time at dinner to bake a potato! It’s crazy what you come to value in college. Some steamed broccoli on the side. Mmm, it was going to be delicious. One little hot potato had begun to bake in the oven when I craved mashed potatoes; but I was already committed! What to do…

Well, it didn’t take long, and with the help of butter, cream and broccoli, I had an idea that would give me the best of both worlds. As soon as the potatoes had become soft, I took them out of the oven and scooped the insides into a bowl. Leaving the crisp outer skin on the baking sheet, I added butter and cream to the potato innards and made mashed potatoes! A little salt and pepper and some steamed broccoli blended into the mix made it even better. After I had whipped up peaks of thick, creamy goodness I stuffed the mix back into the skin, sprinkled a little cheddar cheese on the top and baked it again.

Sounds like a long process, right? Total time from putting the potato in the oven to eating it was about an hour and a half. But, my argument is that anything that’s good is worth the wait. This was one of those instances. It was just the right amount of crispy and creamy all in one. Enjoy this on a cold evening where you are in the middle of watching your favorite TV show. It spends a lot of time in the oven, yet that only means you aren’t required to be constantly working with it. Overall, it’s a great dinner.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 medium baking potato

2 T butter

¼ cup heavy whipping cream

½ c steamed broccoli

¼ c cheddar cheese, shredded

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Slice potato lengthwise into two, baste the outside with butter. Poke holes throughout with a fork.

3. Bake in oven for about 1 hour.

4. Meanwhile, steam [or boil] broccoli until very tender – you need it to break down easily and mash into the potatoes later on.

5. Take out potatoes once fork tender. Spoon out the insides, place in medium size mixing bowl.

6. Add butter and cream. Blend with blender until fluffy and smooth.

7. Add in broccoli and blend until incorporated.

8. Spoon mashed potato mix back into the potato, top with cheese.

9. Bake for another 15 minutes.

10. Eat!

Makes one potato, but could be enough for 2. NOMS: 8.6

A Broccoli Basil Bash

So it’s Saturday, 4:30pm and I’m on my break at work. As a college socialite, I usually entertain myself during these precious 15 minutes by chatting with coworkers and supervisors, checking emails, looking at last night’s pictures on Facebook, or walking across the street to get a coffee with my friends. But today, my stomach demanded an excursion to food and recipe websites. By the time my mouth was watering, break was over and the long wait until dinner began. Rushing home to cook up something delicious, I found my fridge meatless. Some fresh ginger on the verge of being forgotten caught my eye; parmesan cheese a few shelves up. A green head of broccoli sat off in the corner; pungent onions and garlic begged to be used. So it’s going to be like that, huh?

Yes, it was a meatless meal, but paired with some pasta, it’s not something that will sit on your plate for long. Ginger, basil and broccoli was Trifecta winner; the combination produced a taste that was sweet and bright. The hard block of parmesan was the perfect cheese to use as it is not a melty, stringy cheese, so it didn’t smother the broccoli or the pasta. However, it offered a nice little nutty and slightly acidic bite in the aftertaste.

Basil Ginger Broccoli and Pasta

Ingredients:

1 c broccoli, cut into small florets

½ onion, chopped

½ clove garlic, minced

1 t fresh ginger, minced

½ t dried basil

**½ c water, may be needed

2 T olive oil

½ c rigatoni pasta, cooked

¼ c parmesan cheese, shredded

Instructions:

1. Prepare the vegetables and spices. Cook pasta.

2. In large skillet, add olive oil. Heat over medium high heat.

3. Add vegetables and spices, cook for about 5-7 min. [Add necessary water parts.]

4. Place cooked pasta on plate, add broccoli mix, and top with shredded parmesan.

5. Instant NOMS.

Makes 1 serving. NOMS: 8