Black Bean "Burger" with Beet and Sweet Potato Roasted Fries

I finally found the time to spend a few hours in the kitchen, taking my time, making some good good food.  Last evening as a Spring rainstorm, that's been happening off and on all week, stormed on, I cooked up a storm in my happy kitchen.

Shout-out to my husband for helping me clean up the colossal mess that came with dinner.

I modified a black bean/quinoa burger I've made a few times before and here's the recipe I ended up using:

ingredients:

1/2 Cup uncooked quinoa

roughly chopped vegetables:
     2 carrots
     1/2 red onion
     1/4 of a small purple cabbage

2 cloves garlic

spice blend:
     1.5 tsp. paprika
     1.5 tsp cumin
     1 tsp Italian seasoning blend
     1/2 tsp. cayenne

1 can black beans, drained

2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. sriracha

1/2-1 cup breadcrumbs

olive oil
salt and pepper

cook quinoa with water or vegetable broth.
meanwhile, wash and roughly chop the vegetables.
heat olive oil in a pan and cook vegetables until they begin to soften.
add cooked vegetables, spice mixture and beans to a food processor and begin to mash them together.  (the length of time you process the mixture depends on how chunky you'd like your burger.)

next, mix the tomato paste, soy and sriracha. then add to the bean and vegetable mixture in the food processor until combined.
transfer mixture to a large bowl.

the quiona should be finished by now.  add quinoa and mix everything together with your hands.  slowly add breadcrumbs until the mixture starts to hold together if you ball it up, and loses most of its moisture.  it will be slightly sticky.  make into round patty shapes and set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

while the burgers were chilling and settling in the fridge I made beet and sweet potato roasted fries.

ingredients:
one beet & one sweet potato, both peeled and sliced into thin rounds

salt, pepper, olive oil

optional:  spices such as rosemary, cumin, cayenne...

I saw a recipe for beet chips with rosemary, salt and cayenne here, which I tried.

mix up a small amount of olive oil, a pinch of rosemary, cayenne and salt.
let the beets sit in this mixture for about 10 minutes.

I kept the sweet potatoes plain except for a small amount of salt, pepper and olive oil.

roast at 375 for about 20-25 minutes, turning the veggies over halfway.

Before I cooked the burgers in a pan on the stove, I chopped up some more purple cabbage, red onion and a half of an avocado to top the burgers with.  I also chopped up one adobo pepper (great fridge item to have on hand)... the kind that come in little cans that can be found in the Hispanic section of the grocery store and mixed it with mayonnaise.

Then, I heated some olive oil in the pan and cooked each burger for about 3-5 minutes per side.  The ingredients are all pretty much cooked, the mixture just needs to heat through.

Get that burger on a bun with some toppings and dinner is served!

Found Winter "Stew"

Sunday brought unexpected snow and sub zero temperatures, so leaving the house to go do my regular grocery trip wasn't gonna happen.  When dinner time rolled around I scrounged the fridge for ingredients I could throw together.  I found...

2 chicken sausages
half of a red pepper (already chopped... bonus!)
some red onion (also already chopped... hooray!!)
1/3 bag of baby spinach.

With the snow and temperatures falling, I couldn't think of anything else to do with those chicken sausages but make but comfort food.  Beautiful magazine photos of sausage and white bean stew in rustic bowls popped into my head.  This dish seemed intuitive to me though I've never made it before!  Luckily a quick search of the pantry yielded one can of white beans!  I was in luck.

Next I thought about what I could create to bring a creamy element to the dish without the use of actual cream or cheese (to keep things on the lighter side). I experimented with making a little sauce or gravy (it worked!!).
Here's what I did...

For the sauce:

1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1-2 Cups chicken broth

in a medium sauce pan melt the butter over medium heat and slowly whisk in the flour.  it will mix into a crumbly mixture.    
next, slowly add about 1 cup of the broth, whisking continuously until flour lumps dissolve. reduce heat to med-low and whisk/stir.  (when my sauce was thick enough to coat a wooden spoon I called it done.)  scrape sauce from pan, put into measuring cup or bowl and set aside.

For the rest:

2 chicken sausages, sliced into small discs
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1/3 bag baby spinach, chopped to small pieces
1 can white beans drained and rinsed
olive oil, salt, and pepper

in a medium sauce pan, heat olive oil.  add onions and peppers to the pan on med-high heat.  cook until onions are soft.  add sausage.  cook for about 5 minutes, then add beans and stir.  next, add the previously made sauce and begin to stir it all together.  add more broth if you think the liquid is too thick. lastly add the spinach until it begins to wilt.  season all with salt and pepper. serves 2.

Another Quinoa Bowl Idea

Happy New Year!!

This week I finally feel like I'm getting back on track after the weird schedules of Christmas and New Years plus winter blizzard/snow day craziness!  Was it just me or did it seem like there were more Christmas cookies around than usual? It was wonderful to be able to spend time with family and friends, but I'm also grateful to be getting back to a normal schedule, though I'm still on semester break from school.  On Sunday I planned, shopped and have been cooking again!!

I haven't been using a lot of recipes lately.  Either out of just convenience or instinct, I'm not sure which it is yet, I've been doing more ingredient combining rather than following others written recipes.  A couple recipes I know quite well by now as they've been popping up at the table many times this season (for instance: butternut squash soup, roasted Brussels sprouts, and black bean soup).

Here's a dish I made last night.... a tasty quinoa bowl that comes together quickly.  I like to use quinoa in a dish where I might use rice and vice versa.  Lately I have been just throwing things together that sound good.

On Winter evenings  I find myself just wanting to eat something steaming hot that comes in a big bowl and can be eaten with a fork or spoon rather than the sandwiches, salads and grilled items that are so good in the warmer months.

What ingredients would you put in a quinoa or rice bowl?  

ingredients:
1 c quinoa, rinsed
1 1/2 C vegetable broth or water

1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 C frozen corn
a handfull or two of raw spinach
1/4 lb. pork sausage
1 C black beans, drained and rinsed

salt, pepper, olive oil

condiments:  hot sauce, shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream (salsa might also be good!)

Set the water/broth on the stove on high heat, then rinse the quinoa.
Add quinoa and heat to boiling.  Once boiling, cover and reduce heat to low.

Prep other ingredients.

Heat olive oil in large skillet and add onions, salt and pepper.  Cook until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add sausage breaking it up into small pieces.  When sausage begins to brown, Add corn and beans.  Stir and cook on medium heat.  Add spinach last right before plating.  Cook until lightly wilted. Season with salt and pepper and add hot sauce if desired.

Check on the quinoa.  It should be done and the water should almost be gone.  Keep covered and if it's done turn off the heat, if not quite done, keep it on low for a few minutes more.

Mix quinoa and other ingredients in a large bowl.

Serve with toppings such as cheese, sour cream, hot sauce, or salsa... perhaps avocado!

Enjoy!

Sauce: 1, Squash: 0

I haven't been making things from scratch as often as I used to/want to... That's when handy prepared items, like the many tasty items that can be found at Trader Joe's are quite convenient.

I picked up a container of "fresh" (aka not dried and in the refrigerated section) butternut squash ravioli that was in triangle shapes making it a triangoli!  Wow!  I love butternut squash so was very excited to try this product.  Though I didn't know what sauce to use...  when I Googled, I found that most of the time butternut squash ravioli is served with brown butter sage sauce.  While that sounded delicious I wanted something a little less... buttery/creamy.  So I searched for a vegan recipe knowing that would be without both of those items and I could modify however I wanted.  I came across a great, simple recipe for mushroom and walnut broth from theveganversion.com .

It was an amazing broth, and I added butter instead of vegan butter, making a really nice sauce.  In fact, the brothy sauce was the best part. I didn't read the whole ingredient list on the butternut squash until after I started eating.  The butternut squash ravioli, which usually tend to be a little sweet due to the sweetness of the squash, was way too sweet.  They tasted like a Dutch letter.   Which was weird, especially with the awesome savory mushroom broth.  When I checked the ingredients I found that they included some sort of amaretti cookies in the squash filling.  Here is a product review from Trader Joe's fan and blogger What's Good at Trader Joe's.com  for more information.

All in all, it was an ok meal, but I definitely would not get the ravioli again.  I would love to try this broth again with a savory pasta because it was perfectly delicious without being too heavy. I'm glad I now know how to make such a quick and easy, savory, non cream sauce for pasta.  The sauce was the winner in this dinner.

Seasonal Summer Cooking: Sweet Corn!

It's finally here.  Iowa Sweet Corn!  A few ears may be found early in the summer, but a sure sign that sweet corn is in its prime are the appearance of roadside stands and mountains of the beautiful ears in supermarkets.  Sweet corn is an Iowa icon... and from now until the end of sweet corn season, it will be eaten several times a week.  You better believe that when I get a good chunk of time, I'll buy an embarrassingly large quantity of corn to stash in the freezer!

A delicious, local summer traditional treat!! 

But what will I do with this mountain of corn?

While corn is great on its own as a side or a main dish ( and if its really good and fresh it doesn't even need butter or salt!) last night I used corn to dress up pasta dish.

1/2 box whole wheat spaghetti
2 cups corn kernels
2 or 3 strips of bacon
1-2 cloves of garlic
2 Tablespoons fresh basil pesto
parmesan cheese

bring a large pot of water to boil.
meanwhile, cut the kernels off corncobs. (2 or 3 should make 2 cups)
cook the bacon in a skillet until brown, set aside on paper towels to drain.
wipe most of the bacon grease from the skillet, saving a very small amount in the pan for cooking in the next step.
hopefully your water will be boiling at this time.  add pasta.
while pasta cooks, grate or mince the garlic.
heat the skillet to medium and add corn and garlic.
chop the bacon into small pieces.
when pasta is finished, drain and bring pack to pot.
add corn and garlic mixture, bacon and the pesto.  mix well.
serve with generous amount of grated parmesan cheeese.

if you have extra corn, throw some in your side salad with fresh summer tomatoes!

A Frittata Idea

I make frittatas very often and don't share my recipes often enough! Here's what I made last night...

Remember the half bunch of asparagus I put in my veggie quinoa bowl?  The rest found its way into this delicious Friday night frittata. In fact, it was the star.  Sometimes I like to load the egg dish with veggies, but not this time.  Here's the run down.

ingredients:

6 eggs
1/2 bunch of asparagus cut into 1-2 inch pieces
1-2 Tbsp goat cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper

preheat oven to 400.
whisk 6 eggs, add salt and pepper.
coat oven proof pan with olive oil, paying attention to the sides, I usually use spray oil.
heat olive oil in pan on the stove.
pour eggs into hot pan.
add asparagus, spreading it all around the pan.
add small chunks of goat cheese throughout.
by this time, the egg should begin to set. 
place the entire dish into the oven for about 20 minutes.

Roasted Yukon gold potatoes and a simple spinach salad made this a nice Friday night meal after a long week.

To make the side dish: Cut 8-10 Yukon golds into bite sized pieces.  Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika.  Put in the oven, 10 minutes before you begin prepping the frittata.  Stir a few times. They should be done by the time the frittata is brown around the edges.

Veggie Quinoa Bowl in 30 Minutes or Less

Here is a very quick, delicious dinner you can prep after a long day of work!  Here's what I did.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
2/3 cup quinoa, rinsed
1/2 can chickpeas, drained
1 red bell pepper, sliced lengthwise
1/4-1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 bunch of asparagus, stalks broken into thirds
3 handfuls washed spinach
olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions: 
Bring veggie broth to a boil.  Add quinoa and set stove to medium-low heat.  Cover. 

Wash and prep veggies. Wait until quinoa has about 5-7 minutes left to cook (quinoa usually takes about 15-20 minutes, and at the 5 minute mark most of the liquid should be gone, if you still have a lot of liquid remaining, turn up the heat, just be careful not to burn it.).

Heat olive oil in a sautee pan on high, add peppers, onions and asparagus.  Cook for about 5 minutes.  Add spinach in the last minute and cook until wilted.  Add chickpeas.  Turn heat off.
By this time, the quinoa should be done.  If all the liquid is not yet gone, drain the quinoa if you don't like it brothy.  Transfer your vegetables to a bowl and mix in the quinoa.

Sunday Night Dinner

Baked salmon with cilantro, pumpkin seed (aka pepitas), and lime pesto (recipe found here)

with baked yukon gold potatoes:
     take about 1/2 pound yukon golds, wash and dry, then toss with olive oil, chopped garlic, salt and pepper.  roast at 400 for about 40 minutes.  

Now I have some leftover roasted pumpkin seeds (found them in the bulk bins at Hy Vee) to snack on this week as well as leftover pesto. 

Dinner tonight: Cara's kale and walnut pesto

 kale and my beloved food processor 

 kale, garlic and walnuts. i like how you can still get a sense of the texture.

it looks a lot different with the olive oil and lemon juice.

 yum!

 

Dinner.  Kale with veggie pasta and a salad!

Easy Weeknight Dinner...

As an Iowan, I grew up eating pork chops.  Pork is one of the meat products I still eat.  It can be made very easily on a weeknight with minimal ingredients.  There are so  many gimmicky food products out there being advertised as quick and easy meals for busy families (so often I just want to throw something at the TV when I see them) that just don't look or sound like real food.  I'm really busy, but I still manage to cook real food with names I can pronounce.  Here's what I did with just a few ingredients and minimal prep... I didn't time myself, but dinner was on the table in about 30-40 minutes.

Pork Chop Ingredients:
pork chops (we had 4)
1 small shallot
fresh rosemary
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil

First, I chopped 1 sprig rosemary, 2 cloves garlic and 1 small shallot, then combined them in a small bowl with about a teaspoon of olive oil.
Then I dusted each side of the pork chops with salt and pepper and seared them lightly on each side, then placed them on a baking sheet and sprinkled the rosemary, garlic and shallot mixture on and popped them into a 425 oven.  I let them stay there until the meat thermometer beeped.  We have one that you can set an alarm to beep when your food reaches the desired temperature.


Roasted Brussel Sprouts Ingredients:
1/2 pound brussel sprouts, washed and cut in half, if desired (TIP! call your partner on the way home and have him or her cut and wash them for you to save time!)
olive oil
salt and pepper

Roast, shaking/turning occasionally at 425 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.  How do you know when they are done?  When they are tender enough for your liking.  There will be some delightful little crispy pieces that fall off the round sprout. Be sure to eat them up, ASAP! 

I put the sprouts in the oven about 10 minutes ahead of the meat. So  when the meat was securely placed in the oven, I checked the brussel sprouts, and  gave them a quick shake. When the meat thermometer beeped about 10 minutes later, I took everything out of the oven and let it rest for a few minutes.  Then, dinner.

I Made Your Dinner!

I made the sweet potato black bean burritos tonight.  I will admit that at first I was a bit leery of the sweet potato and black bean combo for what reason I cannot understand since I LOVE both ingredients.  The aversion was 100% foolish.  What a terrifically tasty combination.  This is a delicious and easy dinner.  Just be careful not to burn the cumin seeds or the potatoes (I almost did!) the outer edges of those potatoes will brown before the rest is tender.  Watch the heat carefully and you'll be all right. 

sweet potatoes with cumin seeds

sweet potatoes combined with corn, beans and diced tomatoes

A couple things I did differently...  I made about a half recipe (our fridge is full of leftovers!).  Ryan had 2 small burritos, I had one and there was a little left over.  Also, I had some leftover diced tomatoes with green chiles from the last time I made black bean soup so threw those in.  I also didn't have any cilantro or fresh limes wedges so I omitted them.

I paired the burritos with a side of quiona with golden raisins and chopped almonds.

Bring 1 Cup water + 1 tsp veggie bouillon to a boil.  Add 1/2 Cup quinoa.  Cover and reduce heat to medium-low.

Toast a teaspoon of ground cumin and a some red pepper flakes in a hot skillet.  Add about a handful each of chopped almonds and golden raisins to the skillet and heat until raisins begin to puff up (don't walk away it doesn't take long).  Add to quinoa.  The quinoa is done when most of the liquid is gone and the quinoa has grown larger and formed little rings around the outside.

This quinoa dish is a perfect example of my "well-stocked pantry" mentality. I hadn't really planned a side for this dinner and threw this together by taking a quick peek in the pantry while thinking about the spices included in the main dish.  I usually stock up on walnuts (I put them in so many dishes), almonds and other dried fruits for snacking, to toss in with my hot cereal, baking whims, etc.  I like to keep a variety of versatile grains on hand: several kinds of rice, lentils, quinoa, bulgur, barley, etc. to mix with veggies or other ingredients as I have done here. 


I highly recommend this dish to everyone!

Your Kitchen Table Friend,
Allison 

Weekly Menu: Thanksgiving Week!!

To avoid the "what's for dinner" discussion every night, I try to make a weekly menu on Sunday. Weekly basically meaning weeknight dinners... weekends are more flexible because there's more time to think and cook.  This helps keep shopping organized, dinner less stressful and lunches basically automatic due to leftovers!

Here is the weekly menu November 21-25:  

Butternut Squash Lasagna (new recipe!)

Chicken & Lentil burger with oven fries (Burger from Everyday Food, new recipe!)

Slow Cooker Vindaloo 

Ravioli w/ apples & walnuts

Homemade pizza w/ salad 

Thanksgiving!:  pumpkin cinnamon rolls and coffee for breakfast!
 sweet potatoes and cider (contribution to Friendsgiving meal) 

UPDATE!  Here and here are two homemade pizza dough recipes I use frequently.  They both make mini pizzas, but work well to make two large pizza dough crusts. That is what I always do.  Use one that day and freeze the other.  Take it out of the freezer the morning you plan to make the second pizza!  Homemade pizza is an awesome way to use leftover veggies not used in other other recipes. Enjoy!
P.S. I have made the first recipe in it's entirety before, but liked how easy the dough was to make. It's worth a try, it's so good!!