sesame shrimp bowl with rice, cucumbers, avocado, and cabbage
We have had a lot of these sesame bowls lately, some with salmon and some with shrimp. They are a big hit here. We were planning on shrimp scampi but changed the menu because we had a last avocado that was ripe and needed to use it. I could not imagine just pitching it what with ban on imports from Mexico. California grows avocado but not enough to satisfy all the guacamole eaters in the U.S! I imagine the next time I go to the store they will either be nonexistent or very expensive!
Fettuccine with kale, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and pasta water
Tonight was supposed to be fettuccine arrabiata but after Tuesday’s harissa failure I needed a non-spicy dish, thus pasta and greens. With the exception of some salt, olive oil, and an optional sprinkle of parmesan cheese the caption under the picture lists all the ingredients.
I suppose if you do not like chopping things up (a personal pleasure of mine) you might find preparing the ingredients a bit onerous but you can buy all of them pre-chopped from the grocery store these days. I used Carba-nada pasta to keep calories and carbs down and I must admit to being in love with Trader Joe’s shredded kale.
Oh, Pasta Wednesday, you are my unabashed favorite dinner of the week!
Harissa white bean stew with turmeric yogurt served over raw kale and a cauliflower white rice mix
Although this looks super interesting on my plate, we miscalculated proportions and ended up with an overly spiced bitter dinner. How did this happen? We decided that two cans of beans would be equal to one pound of dried beans so we kept the sauce as originally written and just added two cans of cannellini beans. The flavor of the harissa was over powering! Too late I looked up the fact that 3 1/2 to 4 cans of beans equals one pound dried.
We have leftovers so today we will add an additional can of beans and see if that helps. I am thinking of adding pinto beans since they have kind of a sweet flavor. We plan on having the rest of it as lunches.
It seems like every other day I am making a bowl of something that I start off with a base of raw kale. I really like the taste and volume of it which makes my dinner seem larger. Plus kale contains fiber, antioxidants, calcium, vitamins C and K, iron, and a wide range of other nutrients. What’s not to like?
As usual I augment my 1/2 cup of white rice with an equal portion of cauliflower rice. It still has the flavor and texture of rice for half the calories.
If you are interested in trying this dish the recipe can be found on the Food and Wine website. For a vegan dish omit turmeric yogurt or use non-dairy yogurt.
Valentine’s Day lamb chops with sheet pan butternut squash and Brussels sprouts
We had delicious grilled lamb chops for Valentine’s Day. John grilled them perfectly. I was in charge of the vegetables (as usual.) I bought a packet of already peeled and chopped butternut squash which I have decided is worth the extra money. When I buy a whole butternut squash the peeling and chopping is a real chore and usually there is too much squash for the two of us. I put the squash and the sprouts in a 425F oven for about 25 minutes after shaking them in a bag with a little olive oil and salt.
Looking through my food pictures I am always struck by how unattractive meat looks. The vegetable dishes I make are always so much more vibrant and make the plates look appetizing.
It has been quite a while since our last red meat dinner. Our dining has become almost exclusively plant-based, seafood, or chicken. It is a much healthier and planet-friendly way to eat. It was really tasty last night but I do not find myself yearning to have more.
Sunday is traditionally our Breakfast For Dinner night but I just was not feeling like eggs. I decided to use a little leftover chicken in my stir fry with lots of vegetables. I served it over some leftover rice. Easy-peasy, John had his usual omelet made a little unusual as we were totally out of mushrooms and green onions. Grocery shopping tomorrow!
The pictures are a little blurry due to steam getting on the camera lens.
Farro grain bowl with kale, tomatoes, and edamame plus sheet-pan eggplant and Brussels sprouts with a yogurt/peanut butter sauce
Farro is a delicious nutty flavored grain that not many people know about. It can take the place of rice in many dishes. I make mine in the oven but you can also cook on your stove top as well. The eggplant and Brussels sprouts are tossed with some salt and olive oil and cooked in a 425F oven for about 25 minutes. I used raw kale as the base for the grain bowl followed by farro and then the vegetables and sauce on top.
This recipe actually calls for a tahini sauce but I decided on a yogurt sauce with peanut butter powder, lemon juice, a little sweetener, and 1/4 teaspoon of sesame oil plus salt to taste. If you want to keep the dish vegan go with a tahini sauce.
Our dinner was easy to make, lovely to look at, healthy, and delicious to eat.
Steelhead trout, avocado, cucumber, and cabbage in a soy-ginger sauce sprinkled with ebi furikake over rice
If you are thinking that the steelhead trout looks a lot like yesterday’s salmon, you would be right because we had Trout Niçoise yesterday and I misnamed it. Anyway, because we bought a large piece of this trout at Costco we needed to eat it two days in a row.
Once again John cooked it expertly, just cooked through. I made the vegetables and the sauce. And everyone in our household enjoyed it. I used a mandolin to slice the cucumber and cabbage thinly. Instead of just using bagged cabbage slaw I sliced an actual cabbage. It was much better than the bagged stuff, juicy and fresh tasting.
I whizzed up some ginger and scallions in my mini-food processor (I am so glad I bought it) and combined that with the liquids, soy sauce, white vinegar, and a neutral oil to make the dressing for the dish and sprinkled ebi furikake over the top.
So far I have made this sesame bowl with salmon, steelhead trout, and shrimp but much like the Niçoise salad of Thursday I think you could use other types of fish and shellfish and even chicken or tofu as the protein in this yummy dish.
Salmon Salade Niçoise with egg, potatoes, olives, snow peas, and tomatoes on raw kale with a mustard sauce
What do I love about this dish most? It’s the decision-making of what to eat next. Do I make a circuit around the plate again and again until everything is eaten? Do I eat the thing I like best entirely first or save it for last? This is a very interactive plate of food that is as fun to eat as it is delicious and attractive.
Kudos to John who cooked a perfect piece of salmon and kudos to me for making the rest of it. I used my new favorite, shredded kale from Trader Joe’s, as a base. With one small pot of boiling water I boiled the hard boiled eggs, followed by a quick blanch of the snow peas, and then a 15 minute cook on the new potatoes. I laid those artfully around the plate along with some cherry tomatoes and castelvetrano olives. John put on the salmon and I dressed the plate with mustard sauce that I make out of Skinny Girl buttermilk dressing and Dijon and whole grain mustards.
Now I am thinking why not other types of seafood on a similar plate? Shrimp Niçoise? Mahi mahi Niçoise? Or even chicken Niçoise?
Moroccan chickpeas with turnips, carrots, and fennel over rice
I made this vegan dish a few weeks ago and it turned out tasting pretty good so I thought I would try it again. I think it turned out even better this time. I did not have any dried apricots so just skipped them which made the dish less sweet (which I like.) To make up for the fact that I did not have a whole bulb of fennel, I added chopped celery which did not change how it tasted. I also had two turnips left so I used both of them.
Using two cans of chickpeas instead of soaking and cooking them for more than an hour made our dinner come together much more quickly. Adding vegetable stock instead of water gave everything more flavor. You could also use chicken stock.
Here is a picture of the original recipe from the NYTimes by Melissa Clark. I adapted it to make it more busy home cook friendly.
Moroccan chickpeas with chard, carrots, fennel, and turnips. Makes about 6 servings
So at the end of step 2 I just added two cans of rinsed and drained chickpeas and stock to cover all the veg and the chickpeas and cooked the stew until the chickpeas were heated and the vegetables were cooked through. I skipped step 3 and then carried on to step 4.
Note: we found jarred preserved lemon in a fancy grocery store.
We really liked the end results and served it over rice with cilantro and fennel fronds as garnish.
Omnivore 