Delishytown

Potato and Squash Terrine

Yum, this is so good and so easy. This is like a potato lasagna. I’ve made this and posted the recipe before, but was not happy with the pictures. So I remade it this week and took this photo. I might photograph it one more time with a different lighting situation. 

This is an easy vegetarian main dish or a yummy side dish to go with fish or chicken or whatever protein you are into. It would be so good with ham. Potatoes and ham always go great together. I like this casserole because it’s mostly healthy, and uses end of summer veggies and herbs. And cheese! It has cheese! Yum, but it doesn’t have to. This could easily be a vegan dish if you don’t eat cheese, or you could use almond or cashew chz. I love cheese.

Here’s how to make this easy and delicious dish. 

Heat oven to 400

Slice 2 -3 large portabella mushrooms, 1 golden squash, 1 eggplant, 3 or 4 tomatoes, 1 sweet onion, 2 shallots, and 4 or 5 red potatoes. Grill the eggplant and portabella mushrooms in a grill pan or just sear in a hot skillet. These are the only vegetables I pre-cook for this. I do it to sweeten the eggplant, and I sear the mushrooms because it takes a bit of the moisture from them, so the casserole doesn’t come out watery. It also gives them a nice texture. Wash basil. We have a ton of basil growing in our garden right now. It’s so good on so many things. I scrambled some into eggs the other day with a little parmesan and they were the best scrambled eggs ever.

Here’s how to make this potato veggie lasagna thingy:

Crush 4 garlic cloves. Whisk crushed garlic in a dish with a few tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper, and 1/2 cup white wine. 

Grate your favorite cheeses. I used parmesan, cheddar and a little mozzarella. 

Layer the veggies one vegetable at a time, adding cheese, basil leaves and a tablespoon of the white wine dressing between layers. Season with an extra pinch of salt and pepper between potato layers. I use about 2 to 3 layers of potatoes in between the other veggies. It’s good to have an extra tomato layer in the middle too.

I try to make the top layer tomato with little onion on top and then a bit of cheese, that way you get a really flavorful crust. Make sure to save a little of the dressing for the very top layer.

Cover with parchment for the first 25 minutes or so of cooking so the cheese on top doesn’t cook faster than all those veggies. Bake for about 45 minutes total, uncovered at the end. Dress with a drizzle of good quality balsamic dressing. Yum!

Roasted Beet & Black Lentil Salad with Pomegranate Seeds 

This is the recipe for this salad I posted from Instagram. I brought it to a holiday party and it was a hit. It's citrusy, garlicky and deliciously healthy. I made it with Beluga lentils which my awesome & beautiful friend Lyndsy gave me. It's her birthday today! Happy birthday Lyndsy!

Lyndsy and her family run an organic importing company called Edison Grainery. They sent me a whole box of stuff to cook with because they are generous and awesome! These black lentils, aka. "Beluga" lentils are delicious. They stay firm after you cook them and they're perfect for a salad like this. When you put the citrus vinaigrette on, they glisten.

I added roasted beets for freshness, color and sweetness. I'm about to plant a whole mess of beets in my back garden this afternoon. They're easy to grow in our cool winter climate, and you can eat the greens too. Harvesting them is really fun, like finding gold. The second photo is our beet harvest from last spring. I can't wait! 

Here's how to make Roasted Beet & Black Lentil Salad:

Wash and trim beets, I keep most of the peel on when I trim them so they don't dry out in the oven. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast at 400 for 45 minutes or so. Let cool, then peel and cube them.

Meanwhile, cook black beluga lentils in 4 cups unsalted water with 2 smashed garlic cloves, 1 star anise if you have it, and a little olive oil, for 30 minutes or so, until done but still firm. Salt the cooked lentils at the end. Salting while cooking makes them take longer to cook.

Mince 1 small shallot and 1 small garlic clove, juice 1 tangerine and 1 Meyer lemon. Whisk together with some fresh chopped herbs and olive oil. I used parsley and basil, about 1/2 tsp each. Season with celery salt and pepper. Toss the lentils gently with the dressing, top w/ cubed beets, drizzle with more dressing. Garnish with pomegranate seeds for more color, crunch and sweetness.

Strawberry & Garbanzo Bean Salad

This salad was inspired by my friend Jen who said she forgot a salad just like this on her kitchen counter when she left for work. I've been thinking about a healthy strawberry and garbanzo salad ever since.

Most of the greens in this delicious slaw salad were grown in our front garden. We have Romaine, green curly kale, Lacinato kale, Radicchio, and strawberries growing up there. I like to grow a variety of greens because if one of them bolts and becomes bitter, I still have others I can enjoy. 

I harvest two or three outer leaves from each plant, leaving the center leaves growing for next time. Kales and lettuces grow pretty quickly and if you have a lot of different kinds of plants growing in your garden, you can harvest from one day to the next without running out of fresh greens.  

Harvest wash and spin any greens you have growing. Rub a salad bowl with a cut garlic clove. Make a dressing by combining 2 tblsp. red wine vinegar, the juice of 1 tangerine, 1/4 tsp dijon mustard, a big drizzle of honey, a pinch of dill, celery salt and pepper, and olive oil. Toss the chopped garden greens along with any other fresh vegetables you have on hand. I used shredded carrots and green cabbage from the crisper drawer. Add 1 can rinsed and drained organic garbanzo beans. Garnish with sesame seeds and strawberry slices. Yum! 

Very Umami Veggie Burgers

These veggie burgers are the best! They're savory and so delicious! They  have many wonderful ingredients, including beets, black beans, and quinoa, but I think the three main things that make them Very Umami tasting are the combination of 1) worcestershire sauce, 2) organic soy sauce and 3) cheddar cheese in the mix. The beets & red quinoa give them a sweet taste and meaty appearance too. 

Here's how to make these delicious vegetarian burgers.

In a sauce pan, cook red quinoa with 2 small beets. Stem and chop the beet greens and add those to the pot at the end to soften and wilt. Drain the quinoa and set aside. Squeeze out the excess water from the beet greens and chop them up. Peel and Chop the beets into fine mince.

In a skillet, saute 1 minced shallot and 2 or 3 cloves of minced garlic, in 2 tblsp olive oil, add the chopped beets and cook them together. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside and let cool. Rinse, drain and smash 1 can organic black beans. Grate 1 carrot. Mix all the ingredients together with 1/2 cup cooked rice or bread crumbs, 1 tblsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp organic soy sauce, celery salt and pepper, a sprinkle of smoked paprika, a pinch of ancho chili powder, a little onion powder, some garlic powder, 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese and one egg. The mixture will be mushy. 

Heat a skillet to med/ high, add a tblsp olive oil and spoon 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the mix into the hot skillet. Form it into a patty, cover loosely and then don't touch it. Let it firm up and form a crust on the bottom before attempting to flip it or it will break apart. Let it cook for 2 - 4  minutes on the first side. If you try to flip it and it wants to break apart, cover and let it cook another minute or two before flipping it over. These cook about 7 to 10 minutes total, partially covered. You can add cheese after flipping if you want.

Serve with sliced tomatoes, sliced avocado, a little mayo and fresh chopped cilantro or basil. Yum! 

Grilled Treviso Radiccio, Green Bean & Peach Salad with Sun Dried Tomato Dressing

This was delicious! Treviso Radiccio is slightly bitter, but the grilling adds sweetness and smokiness. The grilled peach and sun dried tomatoes also sweeten up this unique salad. 

Heat grill pan to med high. Slice treviso in half, slice a peach in half, cut ends off green beans.  Drizzle all veggies and fruit with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. Grill on med high on both sides for a few minutes. Since you're using a grill pan, the green beans are easy to keep track of. Outside on the grill you could just use one of those vegetable baskets or trays made for the grill.

Smash a garlic clove and rub it all over your serving dish. Sprinkle the dish with salt and pepper. Place the grilled treviso on the serving dish and slice into big slices for serving.  Add the grilled beans and peaches once they're cooked. Dress with chopped sun dried tomatoes and balsamic vinegar.  Serve and enjoy!  Yummy!

Curried Lentil Cauliflower Soup w/ a side of Carrot, Beet & Kale Chips

This is a good thing to make when you want something healthy and satisfying. These two recipes are delicious, inexpensive and easy. I used pantry staples and garden veggies to make this today. This whole meal is vegan if you use veggie stock in the soup.

One unusual ingredient here is Sumac, the red spice in the shot glass. Sumac looks like chili powder, but instead of being hot, it's got a savory, lemony flavor that's  very fresh and delicious. I usually buy it at the Middle Eastern grocery store.

The kale, carrot and beet chips on the plate were grown in our back yard.  I'm in the process of harvesting and using up all the carrots and beets growing in two large pots out back to make room for eggplants and squash. Our kale is still growing vigorously in the raised bed even though it's getting warm. Kale is much more heat tolerant than I thought it would be. And it makes delicious chips!

For the vegetable chips: Turn oven very low, about 275. If you have a convection oven, put that to the lowest setting. Mine goes down to 300.

In order to get crispy chips, slice the carrots and beets very thinly. I don't have a mandoline, so I used a knife. Cooking them on a pizza pan with holes or cookie rack helps the hot air to circulate, promoting even crisping.

Spritz with olive oil spray on both sides, salt and pepper. Bake for 10 minutes & check. Some of the small ones might be done. Eat those. Flip the ones that aren't crisp yet, and continue cooking for a few minutes. It's ok if they don't all get crispy, some of the fatter ones I made came out sorta chewy with caramelized edges, and that was delicious too.

Meanwhile, tear kale leaves off stems, toss with olive oil spray, salt and pepper. Cook on a separate cookie sheet. They crisp up faster than the root vegetables, about 4 minutes.

For the soup: In a heavy bottomed pot, sauté 1 chopped onion, 2 or 3 celery stalks with leaves, 2 carrots. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1 cup of dry red lentils, rinsed, 2 tblsp chicken base & 3 or 4 cups of water, or 2 containers chicken or veggie stock, 1 bay leaf, celery salt, chopped garlic, pinch of garlic powder, pinch of turmeric, pinch of curry powder, and 1 whole tomato, cored and cut in half. (As the soup cooks, the tomato will fall apart and you can easily remove the peels.)

Let the soup simmer for 45 minutes. Once it's all cooked and hot, add big cauliflower florets and let those cook an additional 5 or 10 minutes in the soup. I like my cauliflower al dente. 

Serve each bowl with 1 or 2 big cauliflower pieces, garnish with vegetable chips, and a pinch of sumac. I keep the sumac separate because I like things very lemony, but my husband likes it not as lemony.

 Sorry this was long, but it's two recipes in one. Enjoy!!