Spinach and feta strata

You know I’m a fan of the do-ahead breakfast for busy (and early) weekday mornings.  But holidays and weekend brunches are also the perfect time to prepare a fabulous breakfast the night before.  On Christmas morning, the kids love to come down in their pj’s and see what Santa left for them and I don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen missing out on all the “oohs” and “ahhs.”  It’s also a great feeling to be able to relax after a late night of Christmas Eve revelry and still put a hot breakfast on the table for everyone.  Breakfast strata to the rescue!

A strata is technically a layered casserole, which mine is not since I just mix everything together in a bowl and pour it into a casserole dish.  This recipe is more of a savory bread pudding to which I add lots of spinach and in the summertime, ripe tomatoes.  In my quest for efficiency in the kitchen, I love stratas for using up stale bread and leftover vegetables from last night’s dinner.  In these photos I used a multi-seeded bread, which is not the norm for me, but we loved it.  Usually I buy a whole spelt bread from Le Pain Quotidien or a rustic whole grain bread from Whole Foods.  As for vegetables, you can add anything you would put in a frittata.  No spinach?  No problem!  Take those roasted or sauteed vegetables from last night and add them here.   I’ve used broccoli, cauliflower, every leafy green there is, mushrooms, zucchini and cherry tomatoes.  A couple of pieces of cooked turkey bacon or sausage links sitting in the fridge?  They’re welcome in this strata.

I’ve made a gluten-free strata with gluten-free bread and I’ve also made it dairy-free with hemp milk and a cashew-based cheese.  Sadly, I haven’t figured out a substitute for the eggs for those with egg allergies.  Don’t be afraid to freeze this, either.  Provided you freeze the strata well-wrapped, it will taste exactly the same.  We had about 50 people over for brunch the morning after my daughter’s bat mitzvah, and I had made and frozen several stratas 2 weeks earlier.  It was such a gift to myself to just pop them in the oven the morning of and not to have to cook, especially since I couldn’t walk from dancing all night.  So whether you’ve been “partying” at the shopping mall for the last few weeks or you’re just cooked out, give yourself and your loved ones this one last gift.

Merry Christmas to all of you celebrating!

Spinach and Feta Strata

Pamela
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Servings 8 or you can make 16 mini-stratas in a muffin tin or ramekins

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Tablespoons unrefined cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 large onion diced
  • 10 ounces fresh spinach leaves
  • 8 large eggs
  • 2 ½ cups whole milk or plain unsweetened hemp milk
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground pepper
  • 6 ounces feta cheese crumbled
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella
  • 2 large tomatoes when in season, seeded (if desired) and diced
  • 8 cups of whole wheat spelt or sourdough bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (I used Whole Foods' "Seeduction" bread here)
  • Butter or olive oil for greasing baking dish

Instructions
 

  • Warm the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until wilted, a few more minutes.
  • In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the milk, sea salt and pepper. Stir in the cheeses, tomato (if using), bread and spinach-onion mixture.
  • Lightly grease a 13 x 9 –inch baking dish and pour the strata mixture into the dish. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Uncover baking dish and bake for 45-55 minutes or until egg mixture is set and top is golden brown.

Notes

Can be frozen if wrapped tightly. Thaw in the refrigerator before baking. I’ve done it and you can’t tell at all that it’s been frozen.
MINI-STRATAS: grease 16 individual ramekins or muffin tins. First layer bread, then vegetables and cheese. Last, pour beaten eggs mixed with milk, salt and pepper on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
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Brussels sprout leaf salad recipe

I am a sucker for traditions most likely because I grew up with so many, most of which are still alive today.  In my family, Christmas Eve is the biggest night of the year.  Despite the fact that I moved from New York 20 years ago (gasp!), I have never missed it once.  And in all these years, it hasn’t changed much except for the fact that it has grown considerably from a sit-down dinner for 40 to a sit-down dinner for up to 80.  We’re so many people, that we even have a priest come to the house to perform mass in the living room.  Someone still dresses up as Santa and comes down the stairs after dinner to sit with the children who still believe.  There are a few hundred gifts to be given and carols to be sung.  It is truly a magical night.

As far as food goes, it’s the biggest potluck you have ever seen in your life.  Italian Christmas Eve dinners usually revolve around fish and ours is no different.  There are usually several versions of codfish, as well as eel, scallops, mussels, octopus and linguine with clam sauce.  Would it surprise you that my husband’s Christmas Eve tradition is to stop by Sal’s pizza before coming to dinner?  Thankfully I have a mother who loves vegetables as much as I do, but she’s usually the only one who makes any, except for salad.   The long-standing tradition on Christmas Eve is that if you are pregnant, you get a break.  You only need to bring a salad since that is much easier to make than almost anything else.  In years past, my aunts, and now my cousins and my sisters and I have announced our pregnancies by entering the dining room with a salad.  It’s always a very joyous moment.

Because I usually arrive on December 23rd and there are dozens of gifts from Amazon that need immediate wrapping, I usually make a pan of gingerbread to bring and call it a day.  But also my parents are usually monopolizing their small-ish kitchen with eel prepartion and that’s enough for me to stay the heck out of there.  This year I arrive on December 22nd and I have a whole extra 24 hours to play with, so I thought I would make something a little more interesting for Christmas Eve, something that showcases the kind of food I love to share.  I immediately thought of this Brussels sprout leaf salad, which is such a different and delicious way to eat this incredibly nutritious and tasty vegetable that seems to get roasted more than anything else.  I also think it’s just perfect for Christmastime because the green from the leaves and the red from the dried cherries are just so festive.  The blanched leaves do not taste much like brussels sprouts at all, but in fact very neutral.  The salad goes beautifully with turkey, pork, beef and fish.  I would normally not recommend making this salad for an enormous crowd since you have to core each sprout and separate all the leaves for blanching.  But I have it pretty well down to 30 seconds a sprout, with 2 pounds taking me about 20 minutes.  My sisters, my daughters and I can likely tackle 10 pounds of sprouts at the kitchen table and catch up on all the gossip.  We’ll do all the prep the day before, as well as make the vinaigrette and I’ll dress the salad just before serving on Christmas Eve.

So it looks like I’m starting a new tradition, which is that you can bring a salad if you want, especially if you are trying to get your family to eat more healthfully.  But for the record, I am absolutely, positively, most definitely NOT pregnant!

Brussels Sprout Leaf Salad

Pamela, adapted from La Grande Orange Cafe as printed in the Los Angeles Times
5 from 2 votes
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Servings 8

Ingredients
  

  • 2 pounds Brussels sprouts washed, cored and leaves separated (discard the core)
  • 1 Tablespoon finely chopped shallot or 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest do not omit this – it makes the salad!
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 Tablespoon raw honey or maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon whole grain or Dijon mustard
  • ½ cup unrefined cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 6 Tablespoons dried cherries or cranberries
  • 6 Tablespoons whole raw almonds toasted and chopped or sliced

Instructions
 

  • Prepare a large bowl of ice water. In a large pot of salted (about 1 Tablespoon kosher salt) boiling water, blanch the brussels sprout leaves just until they are a vibrant green and barely tender (less than 2 minutes). Drain and immediately submerge in the ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and dry well. You can do this in a salad spinner.
  • In a small bowl, whisk together the shallot, lemon zest and juice, honey, mustard, sea salt and pepper. Continue whisking while slowly drizzling in the olive oil until the oil is emulsified or put everything in a screw-top jar and shake vigorously.
  • In a large serving bowl, toss the Brussels sprout leaves, dried cherries, almonds and just enough vinaigrette to lightly moisten. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Notes

Hazelnuts or pecans can be substituted for the almonds.
Dried blueberries can be substituted for the dried cherries, so can pomegranate seeds.
Diced, roasted beets are a complementary addition.
Shaved Manchego cheese can be added, as done in the original.
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Zucchini-potato latkes

So what does a nice Italian girl from New York make for her nice Jewish husband for Hanukkah?  Zucchini-potato latkes, of course!  Believe me, you don’t have to celebrate Hanukkah to enjoy these little patties.  Grated potatoes mixed with a little onion and lots of fresh zucchini all fried to crispiness.  Mr. Picky has declared that this is the only way he’ll eat zucchini.  So be it.  But uh oh.  That fried bit does make latkes an “occasional” food, which is why we only indulge in them a mere once or twice a year.  Even though frying is a rather unhealthful way to cook, I’ll do it since the latkes are so much more tasty that way.

What’s funny about my education in latke-making is that I learned what I know from an unlikely source — my Puerto Rican mother-in-law, who also did not grow up Jewish.  Darn that woman can make the best latkes in the world!  Although she wouldn’t dare put in any zucchini or sweet potatoes in hers, I have accumulated some great tips from her that I will share here:

  • Russet or Idaho baking potatoes have the highest starch content and the lowest moisture content, which is good for making crispy latkes. But Yukon Gold (medium starch) work great, too.
  • Wear disposable gloves so your hands don’t smell like potatoes and onions for a day.
  • Squeeze out excess water from the potatoes — again helps to keep them crispy and keep them from falling apart.
  • Use the shredding disc on the food processor to make this job a breeze.  I also shred my onions (and zucchini), but my mother-in-law chops the onions and pulses them with the metal blade to avoid getting any big pieces.
  • Don’t make them too big.  The interiors won’t get fully cooked and they may not hold their shape well.
  • Fry them in an inch of oil — this helps to get all sides crispy so they don’t fall apart.  (I can’t bring myself to cook in that much oil and that’s one reason my mother-in-law’s latkes are better than mine.)
Whatever you celebrate, here’s hoping your holidays are happy!

Zucchini-Potato Latkes

Pamela
5 from 2 votes
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Ingredients
  

  • 2 pounds medium zucchini about 6, ends trimmed
  • 1 ½ pounds Russet potatoes about 2, peeled or unpeeled, and cut to fit a food processor
  • 2 medium yellow onions peeled and quartered
  • 3 large eggs lightly beaten
  • 1 Tablespoon sea salt
  • A few grinds of black pepper
  • ½ - ¾ cup panko bread crumbs or matzo meal
  • Olive oil for frying or a refined peanut oil or grapeseed oil has a higher smoke point, although not exactly healthful

Instructions
 

  • Shred the zucchini in a food processor fitted with the shredding attachment and place in a colander over a large bowl (my preferred method.) Toss with 1 tablespoon kosher salt and allow to drain for 30 minutes. Call your kids to the kitchen so they can watch the next step. Place the zucchini in a kitchen towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. There's a ton! Do not add salt to the mixture again. Or shred the zucchini with the potatoes and onions. You will get out more moisture though if you salt them first.
  • In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the shredding attachment, shred the potatoes and onions. Again, squeeze out as much liquid as humanly possible. Let the mixture rest for a minute and squeeze again.
  • Place all the shredded vegetables in a large bowl. Add the eggs, salt (do not add if you salted the zucchini early), pepper and bread crumbs to the vegetables and combine well.
  • Heat the oil (I use olive) in 2 large skillets until hot, but not smoking. An inch of oil will give you the best results.
  • Using about 2-3 tablespoons of the zucchini-potato mixture, form the latkes into 2 ½-inch pancakes. Flatten slightly and carefully place into the pan. When the edges are brown and crisp, turn them over and continue cooking until deep golden. I usually flatten them slightly in the pan when I flip.
  • Lay paper towels on a cooling rack or brown paper bag. Transfer the latkes from the pan to the rack. Sprinkle with sea salt if desired. Serve immediately with applesauce or sour cream (if you must).

Notes

TO BAKE LATKES:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Brush a baking sheet with oil. Place formed (raw) latkes on baking sheet and brush tops with oil. Bake 10-15 minutes, or until undersides are golden. Flip latkes and bake another 10-15 minutes until golden on both sides. They won’t be as crispy as the traditional, but a good alternative if you don’t like to fry.
TO FREEZE AND REHEAT LATKES:
Cook, cool and freeze immediately. Reheat at 425 degrees for 10 minutes or until heated through.
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Vegan gingerbread recipe

Vegan Gingerbread | Pamela Salzman

Vegan Gingerbread | Pamela Salzman

Nothing says “holiday” to me like the smell of gingerbread baking in the oven.  I am crazy about that combination of molasses and fragrant spices that are quintessential to gingerbread.  I have made lots of different baked goods with this characteristic flavor — gingerbread pancakes, waffles, cookies, biscotti, and of course, the classic gingerbread cake, my most favorite of all.  I even make a pan of gingerbread for Thanksgiving as my official signal that the holidays have begun.  But my feeling is if you’re going to make gingerbread, you really need to go for it.  I use a heavy hand with the spices, especially, you guessed it, GINGER.  This recipe, I have to admit, is DELICIOUS.  It’s exactly what I want it to be — high-quality ingredients like whole wheat pastry flour, coconut oil, maple syrup and molasses that come together to make a moist, dense, intensely flavorful cake.  Daughter #1 said to me recently, “who knew gingerbread could be this good?”  Love her.

Actually, my whole family loooves this cake, even Mr. Picky whom I have caught more than once in the last month in the pantry with the door closed sneaking extra gingerbread.  The cake always gets eaten rather quickly at our house.  In fact, I should really adapt the recipe to fit a much larger pan.  The only time my kids didn’t like this was when I used blackstrap molasses.  I wanted to see if they could taste the difference which they did and said, “no, thank you!”  Molasses is the by-product of refining sugar and is sold in grades according to how much it as been boiled.  “Blackstrap” molasses is the result of the last boiling and thus has the most intense flavor and the highest mineral content.  I figured this was a good thing, but molasses is rather bitter and blackstrap molasses is way too bitter for my kids.  So I gave up a little extra iron and potassium for “regular” unsulphured molasses that would taste good to them.

During the holidays, I’m in the business of making people happy, which in turn makes me happy.  And this gingerbread does both.  Enjoy!

vegan gingerbread recipe | pamela salzman

Vegan Gingerbread | Pamela Salzman

Vegan Gingerbread

Pamela
4.67 from 9 votes
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Ingredients
  

  • ¾ cup unsulphured molasses not blackstrap
  • ¾ cup 100% pure maple syrup Grade B is fine
  • ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
  • ½ cup melted unrefined coconut oil or unsalted butter
  • 2 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour*
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  • 3 teaspoons 1 Tablespoon ground ginger
  • 3 teaspoons 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • ¾ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 cup hot water
  • 1 teaspoon powdered sugar for dusting optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or grease and flour an 8-inch square baking dish.
  • In a blender, combine the molasses, maple syrup, applesauce and coconut oil. Blend until smooth.
  • In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and spices.
  • Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared pan.
  • Bake 20-25 minutes for muffins or 35-50 minutes (ovens vary wildly) for an 8-inch cake, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before serving. Sift powdered sugar over cake, if desired.

Notes

*Gluten-free version, substitute the following for the 2 ½ cups of wheat flour:
1 7/8 cups brown rice flour (measure 2 cups, then take out 2 Tablespoons)
7 Tablespoons potato starch (measure ½ cup, then take out 1 Tablespoon)
2 ½ Tablespoons tapioca flour
1 ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
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Creamy white bean dip with roasted garlic

Do your kids ask you for things at the last possible second even though they have known about whatever it is they need for weeks?  My husband does this, too.  “If you knew last Friday that you would need to bring a wrapped gift for your party, why are you telling me as we’re getting into the car on the WAY to the party??”  It really messes up the walk I talk about being organized.

One of my daughters was going to a girl scout meeting which started at 6:00 pm, and guess what?  She announced at 5:25 that she needed to bring an hors d’oeuvre.  That 10 pre-teens would actually want to eat.  And “not like something so totally healthy either, Mom.”  Like cool!  Like let’s pretend we’re on an episode of Chopped!  But seriously, even though I like the idea of being able to whip something yummy together with stuff from my pantry in 20 minutes, it’s a little stressful.

Normally, my go-to would have been hummus, which I can make in 10 seconds and I know my daughter and her friends like it.  But of course, on this day I had no cooked chickpeas.  So you know what they say about necessity being the mother of invention.  I found some canned white beans in the pantry and added them to the food processor with a few other staples that generally taste good with white beans and we had ourselves a winner dip.  My daughter even said she liked it better than hummus.  At the time, I made it with a raw garlic clove and it was terrific, but another day when I wasn’t under the gun I tried it with a whole head of roasted garlic and looooooved it more.

I just made the bean dip again recently to bring to a birthday dinner with some health-conscious ladies and served it with some crudites as shown in the picture.  I stole the idea from Martha Stewart of putting the cut veggies in modern drinking glasses.  It always makes for a pretty presentation.  I also included a small bowl of balsamic vinegar and olive oil with a pinch of sea salt — another stolen idea, this time from an Italian restaurant.  We have also used the dip as a sandwich spread with grilled vegetables.  Fabulous with eggplant, sweet bell peppers and zucchini!

Sure I could have gone to the market on the way to the meeting and picked up a tub of salsa and a bag of chips, but thankfully I didn’t because then there would of been two of the same hors d’oeuvre at the meeting that night. (At least it’s not just my kid.)

Creamy White Bean Dip with Roasted Garlic

Pamela
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Ingredients
  

  • 1 head of garlic unpeeled to roast or 1 large clove raw garlic, peeled
  • 2 cups cooked white beans* such as cannellini or Great Northern, drained and rinsed, if canned
  • ¼ cup cold-pressed unrefined extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
  • Several dashes hot sauce
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • a few grinds finely ground black pepper

Instructions
 

  • Roast the garlic: preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice off the top fifth of the head of unpeeled garlic. Add a drop of olive oil. Replace the top. Wrap with parchment paper and then aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour. Discard foil and parchment.
  • Take the top off of the garlic and squeeze the softened garlic out of the skins into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth and creamy. When I'm ready to serve it, I like to drizzle it with a touch of fruity olive oil. Can be made a day ahead and kept covered and refrigerated.

Notes

I like to serve this as a dip with crudités or blanched vegetables and/or with warm pita bread, chips or toasted slices of baguette. You can even assemble your own crostini with grilled baguette toasts and white bean spread topped with sautéed greens. It is also great as a sandwich spread.
To cook your beans from scratch, soak dried beans in lots of cold water for at least 6 hours or longer. Drain them. Put them in a pot with enough fresh water to cover by 4-6 inches. Bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cook until tender, anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, depending on the age of the beans. I like to add a tablespoon of kosher salt to the beans and allow them to cool in their cooking liquid for 30-60 minutes, if possible, but it's not necessary. Drain and use immediately or store in the fridge for 3 days. Beans also freeze very well.
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Spaghetti squash with kale and chickpeas

Did you participate in the low-carb craze of the 90’s?  If you did, you may have eaten a lot of spaghetti squash with tomato sauce trying to convince your carb-starved body that you were actually eating pasta. The body is no fool, though.  At least mine isn’t.  I ate lots of “spaghetti” for a good year, but never really felt like I was eating pasta and then I had a negative association with this pasta imposter.  The better attitude to take is to acknowledge that spaghetti squash is a delicious food unto itself and that replacing a processed food (pasta) with something whole and full of vitamins and minerals is a fantastic idea.  I had sworn off spaghetti squash for 15 years because I thought the only way to eat it was with marinara sauce and I had O.D.’d on that.  But my lovely summer intern, Hannah, had found this recipe that sparked my interest and I was back.

 

Spaghetti squash comes into season in the early fall and lasts through the early spring.  Like most winter squashes, spaghetti squash lasts quite a while off the vine without losing nutrients.  In fact, many winter squashes actually get a little sweeter when they’ve been allowed to “cure” on your countertop for a bit.  What is unique about spaghetti squash is that the flesh is not meaty like other winter squashes like butternut squash or pumpkin, for example, but instead stringy after it has been cooked.  It resembles spaghetti strands when you rake your fork through the flesh.  Pretty cool, actually.  The flavor of spaghetti squash is like the glass half empty-glass half full.  It has a very subtle flavor — really subtle — which means it tastes kind of bland, but it also means you’re not that limited with flavors you can use.

Funny enough, the trickiest part about cooking spaghetti squash is actually cutting it open.  I have tried numerous methods and the one that is hands-down the best is what I call the slot machine method.  You can see from the photos that I insert the tip of my big, sturdy chef’s knife into the flesh of the squash a few inches from the bottom and pull down.  Then I inch my way up the squash towards the middle and keep inserting and pulling down the knife.  This is the safest and easiest way to do it.  If you don’t want to try cutting it open and you have extra time, you can pierce the squash a few times with the tip of your knife so it doesn’t explode in the oven (ask me how I know this) and roast it whole.  This way it will soften up and be much easier to cut open, but you’re adding an extra 15-20 minutes to the cook time.  I prefer to roast the squash halves, which takes about 45 minutes.  You can also plunge the halves into a pot of boiling water for about 13 minutes if you’re in a rush, but I think you lose nutrients when you boil vegetables for a long time like that.  Also, it’s easier to overcook it and then the subtle flavor becomes even more subtle (as in, it tastes like water.)  I’m well aware that people also microwave spaghetti squash halves, but this is a site about NOT microwaving food, so you’ll have to figure that one out on your own.

 

Here I sauteed my BFF kale with garlic and a pinch of chili flakes to toss with the cooked squash strands and then I add cooked chickpeas.  But we’ve hung out enough that by now you know that you can substitute Swiss chard or spinach for the kale and white beans for the chickpeas.  Really the sky’s the limit with how you complement the squash.  Just make sure you add lots of flavor and don’t be stingy with the salt.  I added vegetable chili on top of it one day. Another time I tossed it with chunky braised root vegetables in a spicy tomato sauce.  Daughter #2 found some cooked spaghetti squash in the refrigerator and warmed it up and added olive oil, feta, olives and some leftover broccoli.  It was so darn good and I never had to convince anyone to try it because it was “just like pasta!”

Spaghetti Squash with Kale and Chickpeas

Pamela, adapted from My New Roots
5 from 1 vote
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Servings 4 -6 (or just me and my intern, both starving, standing over the stove)

Ingredients
  

  • 1 spaghetti squash about 3 1/2 pounds
  • 3 Tablespoons unrefined olive oil + more for drizzling the squash or unrefined coconut oil or ghee
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 bunch kale center rib removed, leaves chopped
  • 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas rinsed and drained, if canned
  • 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red chili flakes or more to taste
  • Parmesan or Pecorino-Romano cheese shaved on top optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Rub the inside of each half with a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Arrange cut-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes until tender.
  • Heat oil in a large skillet over medium. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute or less. Add chili flakes, stir for a few seconds and add chopped kale with a few pinches of sea salt. Sauté kale until the leaves are bright green, about 5 minutes. Add the chickpeas and cook until warmed through. Remove from heat.
  • Remove squash from oven when it is cooked through and tender. Using a fork, pull the strands of squash from the peel so that it resembles…spaghetti! Place the strands into a serving bowl and add the kale-chickpea mixture. If you do the spaghetti squash in advance and it is no longer hot, add to the kale and chickpeas and sauté over medium heat until warmed through. Toss to combine and taste for seasoning. Since spaghetti squash is rather bland, you will need to add plenty of salt and pepper. Garnish with cheese if desired.
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Mini-empanadas with mixed greens

Well, like it or not, it’s officially holiday season!  Even though there’s so much to love about the holidays, I just wish it didn’t all happen at once.  Do you ever have that feeling?  But one thing I truly look forward to is getting together with friends for a good, old-fashioned cocktail party, provided I get invited to one.  I love mingling and chatting with lots of different people and eating fun little noshes at my leisure.  However, if you ask me, I do think there’s a little room for improvement in the hors d’oeuvres arena.  (Maybe that’s why I don’t get invited to too many parties.)  You know what I mean, right?   Lots of baked brie with chutney, sad-looking crudite with not-homemade hummus, or tomato-basil bruschetta…in the winter!  We’re going to step it up a notch today, folks.  You need to bring an hors d’oeuvre to a party either this weekend or next, correct?  Although I have several fab party recipes on the site already, these empanadas are tied for my favorite with the Zucchini-Gruyere Tart, which is a winner every time.

Empanadas are these delicious little savory hand pies.    It’s almost like a small tart that has been folded over.  Whereas there are infinite fillings you can use, empanada pastry dough is usually stuffed with seasoned ground beef and fried.  We’re not doing any of that.  When I noticed a recipe for empanadas in Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone using leafy greens and olives, I knew I had to try them.  I have tweaked the recipe over the years to make it simpler and sometimes I add finely diced precooked turkey sausage to the greens — delicious, I tell you.  My kids are crazy for them and I really don’t think they even know what they’re eating.

After my last class the Friday before Thanksgiving when I thought I might collapse, I realized that two months ago I had volunteered my house for a pot luck dinner the NEXT night because, you know, it seemed like a bonehead  good idea at the time.  Well, what was a good idea was that I offered to do a turkey since I would have a leftover demo bird from Friday’s class as well as an hors d’oeuvre, knowing full well that I could make these scrumptious little empanaditas in October and freeze them.

Daughter #1 and I had fun making them one afternoon when she had a day off from school.  You don’t have to make the pastry from scratch like I did.  I have seen prepared empanada pastry rounds in specialty markets, or you can cut out rounds from pie crusts.  But if you have ever made cut-out cookies, you can do this.  I normally just roll out the little rounds and leave them with imperfect edges, but I was surprised that my daughter wanted to take the time to use round cookie cutters to make them “prettier.”  If you don’t want or need to freeze the empanadas, you can roll out the rounds the day before and keep them well-covered.  You can also make your filling in advance and then assemble the empanadas before you bake them.  Let me just tell you right now, you should make these whether you’re party-bound or not and freeze them for a rainy day.  My kids will pull them out of the freezer and pop them into the toaster oven for an after school snack or to eat with a bowl of soup on the weekend.  You can even stick them in a lunchbox!  Do my good ideas ever end?  Can you tell I’ve had too much green tea today?!

 

Mini-Empanadas with Mixed Greens

Pamela, inspired by Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
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Ingredients
  

  • Empanada Dough:
  • 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour you can sub out ½ cup with whole wheat pastry
  • ¾ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  • 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 2 sticks + 2 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into pieces
  • ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons ice water
  • Filling:
  • 2 Tablespoons unrefined cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil or ghee
  • 1 small onion finely diced
  • 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 12 cups mixed chopped greens such as Swiss chard beet greens, kale, spinach, and/or escarole
  • 2/3 cup shredded fontina cheese optional
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 beaten egg + 1 Tablespoon milk

Instructions
 

  • Make the dough: In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is in pea-sized pieces. With the machine running, slowly add the water through the feed tube and pulse until a ball of dough comes together.
  • Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Use your hands to pat the dough into a disk. Wrap the dough with the parchment (or plastic wrap) and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  • Divide the dough into 24 pieces: first cut 8 equal wedges, like a pizza. Then cut each wedge into three pieces. Roll each piece into a 4-inch circle. Transfer to a sheet pan and refrigerate.
  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Make the filling: Heat oil or ghee in a large skillet over medium heat and add the onion, garlic, parsley and red pepper flakes. Saute until the onion is tender, about 4 minutes. Add the greens and sea salt and pepper to taste and cook until softened, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. If there’s a lot of moisture, drain some of the liquid.
  • Add the cheese to the greens and taste for seasoning. Allow to cool slightly before filling the pastry.
  • Place a spoonful of filling on the lower half of each dough circle, then fold the pastry over and seal the edges with the tines of a fork. Brush with the beaten egg and milk mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned. (If you are baking these directly from the freezer, bake an additional 10-15 minutes.) Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

If you would like to add some precooked turkey sausage to the filling, take 4 (about 12 ounces) and diced them up. Add them to the pan with the onion, etc. Reduce the greens to 10 cups.
If you have a few tablespoons of leftover filling, save it the next day for an omelet. Yum!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 

Rustic butternut squash soup with fennel and wild rice

One way that I have learned how to be a more confident cook is by identifying certain “formula” recipes and then just changing the ingredients around to come up with something that seems like a different recipe. One day last year after I was bored with making Mushroom and Barley Soup for the umpteenth time, I changed a few ingredients based on what I had in the fridge and voila!  A new soup was born.  After a weekend of over-indulging (I keep leaving the house just before 4:00 when I know the craving for pumpkin pie will hit), this is exactly the kind of thing I want to eat.   It is light, but filling and very satisfying.  A bonus is that it is awesome with turkey stock, which I have loads of right now.  The kids are also happy to have this soup in their thermoses at school for a nourishing lunch, especially if I toss in a little shredded leftover turkey.

 

You can use any vegetables or grains you want or even substitute white beans or chickpeas, but one of my rules for a good diet is variety.  The day I made up this soup, I poked around the pantry and found a lonely bag of wild rice that I hadn’t said hello to in a while.  Funny thing about wild rice is that it’s actually not a rice at all, but really a grass.  And most of the wild rice that we find in our local markets is not really “wild,” but cultivated.  I love it all the same.   (Not) wild (not) rice is an absolutely delicious and nutritious whole food that you probably never eat.  It is nutty and almost smoky-sweet with a great chewy texture.  Wild rice is extremely high in folic acid (an essential B-complex vitamin lacking in many people’s diets), potassium and fiber.  Plus, that dramatic black color provides some powerful phytonutrients that aren’t easy to come by in nature.

Although this recipe came about as a pleasant surprise (just like my third child!), it has since become a regular in my repertoire.  Some things in life are just meant to be.

Rustic Butternut Squash Soup with Fennel and Wild Rice

Pamela
5 from 1 vote
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Servings 6 -8

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Tablespoon unrefined cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter or use all oil
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1 garlic clove chopped
  • 1 carrot chopped
  • 1 celery stalk chopped
  • 2 fennel bulbs trimmed and chopped
  • 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 1 cup wild rice or whole grain of choice -- adjust cooking time accordingly
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt double this if using unsalted stock + more to taste
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 8 cups vegetable chicken or turkey stock (preferably homemade)
  • 1 medium butternut squash peeled and chopped (about 5 cups)
  • a few green leafies such as Swiss chard, coarsely chopped (if using chard, chop stems and keep separate from leaves)
  • 1-2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar to taste (optional)

Instructions
 

  • In a large stockpot, melt the oil and butter over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and fennel (add chopped chard stems, if using.) Sauté until vegetables are tender, about 8 minutes.
  • Stir in the thyme, rice, stock, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, partially cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 25 minutes.
  • Stir in butternut squash, cover slightly and simmer for an additional 25-30 minutes or until squash is tender. Add chopped greens and stir until wilted.
  • Taste for seasoning and garnish with fennel fronds, if desired. If you like a little acidity, add a few drops of apple cider vinegar. (I think the soup is better with the vinegar.)
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!