NYT Cooking: Crispy Halloumi with Tomatoes and Beans

 

See the recipe here. 

• Olive oil, as needed
• 1pound cherry or grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise 
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1tablespoon finely chopped parsley, plus more for serving  
• 1 teaspoon honey, plus more for serving
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans
• 1(8-ounce) block halloumi, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices (available at Trader Joe's)

1. Step 1

   Set broiler to high heat, with a rack positioned in the upper third of the oven, 3 to 4 inches from the heat source.

2. Step 2

   In a large, ovenproof pan (I used a Le Creuset pot) over medium heat, combine 2 tablespoons olive oil with the tomatoes, garlic, parsley (which I left out), honey and oregano. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until the tomatoes soften and release their juices, about 10 minutes.

3. Step 3

4. Stir in the beans and cook until heated through, about 3 minutes. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Turn off the heat.

5. 

6. Step 4

   Arrange the halloumi slices on top of the tomato-bean mixture in the pan. Transfer the pan to the oven. Broil until the halloumi is golden and crispy on top, about 5 minutes, depending on the oven’s broiler strength. (Broiling is essential. Without it, the hallomi will just be brick-like.)

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8. I served this on top of left-over white rice. Quick, sort-of-healthy May dinner.

9. 8/10

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Sheetpan feta with chickpeas, tomatoes, and mushrooms (NYT Cooking)

 Time for another sheetpan recipe. I picked one from the NYT again. I did my shopping at Trader Joe's. Simple ingredients, simple preparation. It all came together quickly.

In a spread of Greek appetizers, or meze, there’s often a warm feta dish like bouyiourdi (baked feta with tomato and hot peppers) or a saganaki (fried cheese). This recipe combines elements of these two classic appetizers into a sheet-pan meal. Softened feta provides a salty, creamy counterpoint to sweet, juicy tomatoes and chickpeas that are sticky from honey and spicy from dried chile. Try this version, then riff wildly: Switch out tomatoes for mini peppers, olives, dates or cauliflower. Swap the hot honey for anchovies, harissa, smoked paprika or turmeric. Eat with pita, grains, salad greens, hummus or yogurt.

 

First, the chickpeas. Roasting them made them less mealy, though not quite crispy. 

As for cheese, though the recipe advises against using feta made from cows' milk, that's what I did. I'm not a big fain of sheep feta. The cows' milk feta (from Trader Joe's) worked just fine. 

 Here's what I put into the oven. I added mushrooms in addition to the tomatoes and left out the tomatoes in one corner of the sheet (my daughter doesn't like tomatoes). It worked just fine. Here's the dish after the bake.

And everything arranged on a plate with some  yogurt and pita chips. It made for a lovely low-effort summer dinner. 8/10.

One-pot spaghetti with cherry tomatoes and spinach

When I saw this recipe at New York Times Cooking (which I have access to as a subscriber to the paper), I knew it was just right for me. Not many ingredients (I substituted spinach for kale) and ONE POT ONLY. It turned out great. My resident fussy eater (now 11 years old) picked out the spinach, but otherwise it was an overall success. I was even asked to make it again soon!

"In this simple recipe, raw pasta and cherry tomatoes are simmered together in a single pan, cooking the pasta and forming a thick, starchy sauce at the same time. The efficient technique is internet famous, but this is the British cookbook author Anna Jones's simple vegetarian take on the phenomenon, adapted from her book "A Modern Way to Cook." The technique is easy to master and endlessly adaptable: When you add the kale, you could also toss in a couple of anchovies and a generous pinch of red chile flakes. When you season and top with cheese, you could add a pile of fresh chopped herbs, like mint, basil or oregano."

I didn't do any of that, of course. Minimal all the way. This is what you need:

• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 pound cherry tomatoes, halved (about 2 pints)
• 2 lemons, zested
• ¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 bunch kale or spinach, leaves only, washed and chopped
•  Salt and pepper, to taste
•  Parmesan, for serving

• 
  

Bring just over a quart of water to a boil. Meanwhile, place spaghetti, tomatoes, lemon zest, oil and salt in a large, dry, shallow pan. (The pan should be large enough that the dry spaghetti can lie flat. )

Add the hot water to the pan with the spaghetti. Cover pan, and bring up to a boil. Remove lid and simmer for about 6 minutes, using tongs to move the spaghetti around now and then so it doesn’t stick.

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4. Add kale or spinach and continue cooking until remaining liquid has reduced to a sauce and the pasta is cooked through. Taste, season and top with cheese. 

 

And that's it, could't be easier, couldn't be more satisfying (at least for vegetarians).  Enough for a hungry family of 3. Easily a 9 out of 10.

Week 14: Lentils & Macaroni

Vegetable ingredients: Lentils, tomatoe

This week, I was a bit under the weather. I needed a homey, simple dish. Mark Bittman had the answer: Lentils and macaroni! I used Trader Joe's ready-to-eat steamed lentils, which made the process very easy.

Ingredients
1/2 packet Trader Joe's ready-to-eat steamed lentils
2 carrots
1 medium onion, minced
1 cup cored and chopped tomato (canned is fine)
salt and pepper
1 TS minced fresh oregano
1 pound elbow macaroni or something similar
1 ts minced garlic

Preparation
Combine lentils, carrots, onion in large pot, simmer for 15 mins
add tomatoe, sald, pepper, half of th eoregano, stir, keep warm
bring water to boil for pasta
reserve a cup of water
stir cooked pasta into lentils, add oregano, perhaps water
cook for 2-3 minutes

It doesn't look very fancy, but it tasted really good. We helped ourselves to seconds. Even the little person tried one of the shells (after carefully peeling off a lentil).

Verdict: 7/10 for taste and ease of preparation. 2/10 for looks.

Week 9: Curried Eggplant With Tomatoes and Basil

Vegetable ingredients: Eggplant, tomatoes, chickpeas.


I feel I'm running out of vegetables that I like. Or at least don't dislike. A student recommended recipes published by the magazine Real Simple, so I gave their website a try. I didn't really find many appealing (to me, anyway) vegetarian recipes. In the end, I decided on Curried Eggplants with Tomatoes and Basil, mainly because I have never cooked a dish with eggplants (I think). Getting adventurous, right?

Ingredients

• 1 cup white basmati rice

• kosher salt and black pepper

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 onion, chopped
(love pre-chopped onions!)

• 2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
(very expensive at Whole Foods, $8 or so, so I settled on a large can of diced tomatoes instead -- not sure if that helped or harmed the dish, but it cut down on prep time) 

• 1 eggplant (about 1 pound, cut into 1/2 inch pieces)

• 1 1/2 teaspoons 
curry powder

• 1  15.5 ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
(it took me a while at Whole Foods to figure out that chickpeas = garbanzo beans, which tells you all you need to know about my culinary talents)

• 1/2 cup fresh basil
(basil really made a difference!)

• 1/4 cup plain low-fat-yogurt, preferably Greek (I used 1/2 cup whole-milk yogurt)

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, combine the rice, 1 ½ cups water, and ½ teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Stir the rice once, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 18 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 6 minutes.
3. Stir in the tomatoes, eggplant, curry powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
4. Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until eggplant is tender, 12 to 15 minutes.
5. Stir in the chickpeas and cook just until heated through, about 3 minutes.
6. Remove the vegetables from heat and stir in the basil. Fluff the rice with a fork. Serve the vegetables over the rice with yogurt, if using.

Verdict: 6/10


My family found it "vegetably," but I quite liked it (more than I had expected, eggplants are not really my thing, they look better than they taste). It was easy enough to prepare and would have served 4 (as stated in the recipe). My daughter didn't eat any of it, no, she ate a single chickpea and then frowned. Ah well. We enjoyed the leftovers the next day, when it was more like a stew. I forgot to take a picture, but the recipe website (linked above) has a pretty accurate one. It seems like something one could take to a potluck.

Week 2: Lentil Soup With Pasta

Vegetable Ingredients: Lentils, tomatoes, carrots


This week I made lentil soup. Again, this is something I made in the past (with some success), but I couldn't find my original recipe anymore. So I used this one, by Giada De Laurentiis (a person I had never heard about before).

• Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling (I did without the drizzling)
• 1 medium onion, chopped (this is when I discovered that one can buy prechopped onions. Hooray!)
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped (ditched these, I hate celery)
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped (used frozen garlic cubes from Trader Joe's)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 pound lentils (approximately 1 1/4 cups)
• 11 cups low-salt chicken broth (11 cups? That's a lot!)
• 4 to 6 fresh thyme sprigs
• 2/3 cup dried elbow pasta (I used a little more)
• 1 cup shredded Parmesan

Directions

Heat the oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and carrots. Add the garlic, salt, and pepper and saute until all the vegetables are tender, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juices. Simmer until the juices evaporate a little and the tomatoes break down, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Add the lentils and mix to coat. Add the broth and stir. Add the thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and simmer over low heat until the lentils are almost tender, about 30 minutes. Stir in the pasta. Simmer until the pasta is tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Ladle the soup into bowls. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve.

Verdict: 7/10

The soup didn't taste as rich and stewlike as the one that I meant to make, but it was really quite good, especially the next day. 6 servings seems about right (4 servings for hungry people).