Hello Kelly blog readers! Heather asked me to do a guest blog post of my top five vegetarian recipes. ”FIVE?” I thought. I’ve surprised myself and managed to cut it down to 8 recipes, but that does include a bread, a salad, and a dessert. And there are dozens of other recipes that can’t all be included in one blog post, but I’m happy to email them to anyone who is interested! I tried to pick a variation of recipes that are all easy to make and don’t require any special kitchenware. I kept in mind the time I told a friend that a cake was easy to make, as I had made the curd filling and the frosting on one day, the four cake layers another day, and then assembled it all and coated with coconut and boxed it up on the final day. She rarely bakes and we found out that she had a different definition of easy than the one I was using. Hopefully these are all actually easy. All of them are definitely tried and true ones that have been repeat successes in my house. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of any of them, which is something I will have to work on.
Black Bean and Corn Chili
It’s vegetarian, but it doesn’t have any faux meat and it has satisfied many a carnivore. Excellent with corn bread and a salad.
1 med onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
2 14-oz can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
2 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 cup beer
2 15-oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cup frozen whole-kernel corn
Serves 5
Sweat onion, garlic in oil in a saucepan over medium heat until quite tender but not brown. Stir in oregano and cumin; cook for 1 min more.
Drain stewed tomatoes, reserving liquid. Set tomatoes aside.
Add tomato liquid, tomato sauce and beer to onion mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 min.
Coarsely chop stewed tomatoes. Add tomatoes, black beans, corn, and black pepper to taste to the onion mixture. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 to 20 min or until most of the liquid is absorbed and the mixture thickens. Stir every so often to avoid burning.
Brie Pasta
A recipe I got from a friend who spent a couple of years in Italy growing up and whose mother picked this gem up along the way. Greetings from Aruba friends, it is me Heather, this is one of my go to favorites from Lisa.
1 box linguine
1 triangle of brie (~1/2 lb), rind cut off and brie torn into small chunks
1-2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced or minced, then rinsed (unless using fresh garlic from farmers’ market, then it doesn’t need to be rinsed)
Fresh basil- “more than you think you need” as I was told (a whole box as it comes at the grocery), leaves torn or chopped
About 3 tomatoes, seeded and diced (I often take the extra step of peeling them as well, but you certainly don’t have to)
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil― a couple of glugs
While the pasta is cooking, mix the other ingredients and let them marinate in a pasta bowl. When the pasta is done, drain but don’t rinse. Add the hot pasta to the mixture and stir until the brie is all melted. Serve hot.
Portobello Mushroom Burgers (Rosemary)
A recipe that we found in Bon Appetit years back and adapted slightly.
2 servings, can be doubled.
1/3 c balsamic vinaigrette (we make our own simple vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar and olive oil)
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 round crusty rolls, split
2 large portobello mushrooms (about 5 inches diameter), stemmed
4 slices mozzarella cheese
1 tomato, thinly sliced
Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Whisk vinaigrette and rosemary in small bowl. Brush cuts sides of rolls with vinaigrette. Place rolls on grill, cut side down. Grill until lightly toasted, about 1 min. transfer to 2 plates.
Brush mushrooms on both sides with vinaigrette. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place mushrooms on grill, dark gill side down. Close grill or cover mushrooms with small metal roasting pan; cook until mushrooms begin to soften, brushing with vinaigrette once, about 5 min. Turn mushrooms over. Cover; grill until tender when pierced with a knife; about 7 min longer. Place 2 cheese slices on each mushroom. Cover; grill until cheese melts, about 1 min.
Place 1 mushroom on bottom half of each roll. Top with tomato, arugula, and top half of roll.
Pasta with Goat Cheese, Lemon, and Asparagus
Excellent in the spring with fresh local asparagus, but still very good even with asparagus that has been flown in. We had this one while Lisa was visiting us in June. Fantastic!!
1 pound fusilli or rotini (spiral-shaped pasta)
1 pound slender asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into 1- to 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon plus sprigs for garnish ( or ¾ tsp dried- hydrate by mixing with oil etc before pasta starts cooking)
8 ounces of soft fresh goat cheese
Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until almost tender, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes. Add asparagus and cook until pasta is tender but still firm to bite, about 3 minutes longer.
Meanwhile, combine oil, lemon peel, and chopped tarragon in large bowl. Coarsely crumble in goat cheese.
Drain pasta and asparagus, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Add hot pasta, asparagus, and 1/4 cup reserved cooking liquid to bowl with cheese mixture. Toss to coat, adding more reserved liquid if dry. Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to shallow platter. Garnish with tarragon sprigs.
Tomato Ramekins
So simple and so delicious. Serve with toast or bread to sop up the juices. I highly recommended Zingerman’s Farmhouse bread (and pretty much anything from Zingerman’s, which we first found out about through Leon and Heather. Advance warning: their food is like crack and you will have to set aside a certain amount of your monthly budget to go towards Zingerman’s orders and Mecca-like trips to Ann Arbor, because once you have their bread it’s hard to go back.)
Put a tablespoon of cream and a slice of tomato in each of several small ramekins. Top with an egg then salt, pepper, and grated Parmesan. Bake at 350° until the eggs set (~20 min). Easy and delicious!
Pearson Spinach Salad
This recipe I got from a friend who is a great cook and who has an amazing repertoire of salads in particular. The dressing is fantastic and keeps for a long time in the fridge. It’s hard to go back to grocery store dressings now.
Dressing- makes enough for 8 or more people
¼ c + 2 T (6T) red wine vinegar
¼ c + 2 T (6T) sugar
2 t poppy seeds
2 t salt
1 tsp dijon mustard
½ medium red onion, chopped
1 lg or 2 sm green onions, sliced
¾ c olive oil
Serve over spinach or mixed lettuce greens. Top with some kind of nuts, like slivered almonds, and some kind of fruit like pomegranate seeds or dried cranberries. I often add goat cheese on top, and switch up the toppings based on season and what I have on hand.
No Fail “French” Bread
From the same friend who gave me the salad recipe, a bread recipe that is about as quick as a yeasted dough gets and quite good. Not as crusty and a little sweeter than real French bread. I haven’t tried it as rolls but I’m sure it would be delicious. If you’re afraid of yeast breads this might be a good place to start.
2 packages yeast
½ cup warm water
2 cups hot water
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
5 Tablespoons oil
3 cups flour plus
3 more cups flour
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Set aside for 10 minutes. In a large bowl mix the hot water, sugar, salt, oil and flour. Stir well with a wooden spoon. This recipe only requires spoon stirring. Add the yeast mixture and 3 more cups of flour. Beat well with spoon. Let sit 10 minutes and then stir again; do this 4 more times letting it rest 10 minutes between each stirring. At the end of the 50 minutes, divide the dough in two. Shape into a long loaf shape. If desired, cut diagonally 3 times across top. Let rise for 30 more minutes. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Bake both loaves on the cookie sheet at the same time.
Orange Yogurt Cake
Originally from a local food magazine. While it’s not hard to find a vegetarian dessert, this one is so good and so easy that I couldn’t not include it.
2 c unbleached flour
1 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 c whole milk yogurt
½ c canola oil
Zest of 2 oranges
4-6 T freshly squeezed orange juice
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 c powdered sugar
Orange segments for garnish (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a 10” round or a 9” square cake pan.
Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt, oil, orange zest, 2 T of orange juice, eggs, and vanilla. Add this to the flour mixture. Stir to combine.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a tester comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Let the cake cool on a rack for 10 minutes before inverting to remove.
While the cake cools, combine the confectioner’s sugar with enough orange juice to make a pourable glaze. Drizzle the glaze over the cake, then let the cake cool completely. Cut and serve with dusted powdered sugar or fresh orange segments if desired.
Lisa Kohli
The brie pasta sounds great. Thanks Lisa!
Thanks Lisa, I have been a vegetarian for over 2 months now. I can’t wait to try your bread recipe. I hope you are planning on posting more while Heather and family are away.
Theresa
Bean & corn chili tonight! Thank you.