Roasted Delicata with Yuzu and Pistachio

Here's an easy wintry side dish that's perfect for a dinner party (easy to scale up and just as delicious when it's at room temperature). The citrus and basil add a lovely high note counterpoint to the deeper tones of squash and pistachio.

Ingredients
Olive oil
3-4 delicata squash, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped out, and cut into 1/2'' slices
Zest of 2 yuzus, Meyer lemons, and/or tangerines
2 handfuls shelled pistachios, lightly crushed or coarsely chopped
1 large handful (about .5 oz) basil leaves, chiffonade
Kosher salt
White pepper (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Toss the delicata with a glug or two of olive oil and about 3/4 of the citrus zest. Lay in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn them if they have started to brown on the bottom (they may not, if the baking pan is crowded, which is fine). Sprinkle with pistachios, then return to the oven and continue roasting for 10 minutes more or until squash is tender.

Let squash cool slightly, then sprinkle with salt and toss with the basil. Adjust salt and citrus zest to taste, add pepper if desired, then serve. Good warm or at room temperature; reheats well the next day.

Serves 4-8.

Khichdi

After reading an article about what kids around the world eat for lunch, I was curious to try khichdi, a one-pot Indian comfort food made of lentils, rice, and vegetables. This dish was delicious, comforting, and happily devoured by adults and toddlers alike.

Recipe adapted from here and here. You can use smaller lentils for a creamier consistency or larger lentils (like chana dal) if you want it chewier; I liked a blend of both. Feel free to sub out various veggies depending on what you have on hand—just keep the proportions of rice to lentils to veggies about the same as what's listed here. Everything blends together into creamy, subtly spiced deliciousness.

Ingredients
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1.5 tsp cumin seeds
1.5 tbsp julienned fresh ginger
3 carrots, diced
1/2 cup frozen green peas
1/2 medium to large orange sweet potato, diced
2 cups chopped cauliflower
2 handfuls coarsely chopped greens (spinach, collards, mustard greens)
1 Anaheim chile, chopped
3/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1.5 cups mixed lentils (e.g., toor dal, moong dal, red lentils, chana dal), rinsed well and checked through for stones
6 cups water

2 bay leaves

4 whole cloves
2 cardamom pods, crushed
2 tsp salt
1.5 cups white Basmati rice, rinsed well
Chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add the butter and olive oil. When the butter melts, add the cumin seeds and ginger and sauté for 30 seconds, then add the veggies. Sauté, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes.

Add the turmeric and chili powder and stir, then add the lentils and mix well. Pour in the water and stir. Add the remaining spices and salt, then cover and bring to a gentle boil. Turn the heat down and simmer 10 minutes. Add the rice and simmer for another 30-40 minutes or until everything is tender and the desired consistency.

Remove the two bay leaves (you can also try to find the cloves and cardamom pods while you're at it). Serve warm, sprinkled with cilantro.

Serves 4-6.

Spacecakes 2.0

This version is toastier, crunchier, crumblier, still savory, and delicious.

Ingredients
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 + 1/2 cups rolled oats and/or quick cook steel cut oats
1 large handful fresh basil leaves, rinsed and dried
1 clove garlic
1-2 tomatillos (optional)
1/4 cup almond butter
2 tbsp olive oil
Squeeze or two of lemon juice
Generous 1/4 tsp ground cumin
(optional: 1 tsp salt)
1/8-1/4 cup water
1 cup grated zucchini
1/2 cup or slightly more stone ground whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 475°.

Lightly salt the zucchini and toss. Let sit for 10 minutes, then wring out well in a kitchen towel to remove excess moisture.

In a food processor, pulse the almonds until evenly ground. Add 1/4 cup oats and pulse a few more times. Add basil, garlic, and tomatillos, and blend until everything is finely chopped. Add the almond butter, olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, salt if desired, and 1/8 cup water. Blend until smooth, adding a little more water if necessary to help the ingredients combine easily.

Scoop the mixture out into a bowl and mix in the zucchini, then the oats, then the flour. You can add a little more water if necessary to get all the flour to combine, but the dough should be thick rather than easily spreadable. Spoon onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and flatten to make cakes. Bake for 15 minutes.

Makes 8-12 spacecakes depending on how you size them. You can freeze extras and thaw them in the toaster.

Spacecakes

Breakfast cookies are, of course, for breakfast, but is there a way to pack whole grains and veggies and protein into some sort of magic, savory, whole food, hand-holdable biscuit for the middle of the on-the-go toddler day? Enter the spacecake. So named because (1) it's fun to say and (2) it's way better than astronaut ice cream and (3) it's just as unlikely as astronaut ice cream to ever make it onto an actual space mission menu (because of crumbs, apparently).*

Adapted from this recipe here, with some tweaks to improve the texture and some added tomato juice and lemon for Vitamin C (which helps maximize iron absorption from the almonds and oats, which is nice if you're trying to make sure a toddler gets enough iron in his diet). These are flavorful, so if your kid prefers their food bland, take out the shallot and garlic and maybe add some chopped apple for a bit of sweetness. If you're making these for yourself, add the optional salt, and eat them warm out of the oven, maybe dipped in some yogurt sauce.

Probably, though, you'll make them as a healthy snack for someone too young to care that they're green, because you'll think (like I did) that they look...dry and healthy. That's fine. Just know that if you taste one that's still warm from the oven, you'll probably have a hard time taking just one bite.

Ingredients
1/2 cup almonds
3/4 cups rolled oats or quick cook steel cut oats
3-4 handfuls spinach, baby arugula, or other leafy greens
1 small shallot
1-2 cloves garlic
1 plum tomato
1/4 cup almond butter
1 tbsp olive oil
Zest of 1/2 lemon
Squeeze or two of lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground cumin
(optional: 1 tsp salt)
1/8-1/4 cup water
Scant 3/4 cups stone ground whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 475°.

In a food processor, pulse the almonds until evenly ground. Add about half the oats and pulse a few more times. Add greens by the handful, then the shallot and garlic, and blend until everything is finely chopped. Add the tomato, almond butter, olive oil, lemon zest and juice, cumin, salt if desired, and 1/8 cup water. Blend until smooth, adding a little more water if necessary to help the ingredients combine easily.

Scoop the mixture out into a bowl and mix in the flour. Spoon onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and flatten to make cakes. Bake for 15 minutes.

Makes 6-10 spacecakes depending on how you size them. You can freeze extras and thaw them in the toaster.

*Apparently, it's also a pot thing, but you know what, I'm having too much fun saying it to change the name now, so too bad. Just be cautious with the spelling (space cake, two words, can be ordered in Amsterdam. Spacecake, one word, is a fun, kid-friendly veggie-filled biscuit that you might want to call something else in front of your Dutch friends).

BREAKFAST COOKIES

Sometimes, you're wandering along the road of life, minding your own business, when it suddenly becomes apparent that breakfast cookies are a real, actual, possible-to-create-in-this-particular-universe sort of a thing. And then you make them. And you eat them. And you tinker and bake and eat some more.

These particular breakfast cookies were purportedly inspired by the need to find a way to transmute the grain-and-veggie mixes I had been feeding my increasingly independent one-year-old into something he could hold in his own two hands (spoon feeding is for babies; big kids feed themselves cookies for breakfast).

Of course, secretly, the breakfast cookies are for me.

Did I mention that they taste like a perfect blend of chewy cookie and muffin but have crazy healthy ingredients and just a hint of banana-cinnamon-vanilla sweetness?

Make some and see.

Ingredients
2-3 oz baby spinach
2 ripe or overripe bananas
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup or slightly more creamy 100% peanut or almond butter
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill 10 grain breakfast cereal*
1/2 cup cooked quinoa*
1/2 apple, peeled and diced**

Preheat oven to 350°.

Toss the spinach, bananas, cinnamon, vanilla, and peanut butter in a food processor and blend until smooth. Spoon out into a mixing bowl and add the grains and apple. Mix well to combine.

Spoon the dough onto a nonstick cookie sheet and pat to form cookies. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom.

Makes about 12 cookies.

*you can sub rolled oats (quick cook or regular) for either or both of these, or a different cooked grain like farro...just use whatever you have on hand. I liked this combination for the texture and protein.
**I like my cookies not too sweet. But if you like them on the sweeter side, consider subbing raisins or chocolate chips for the apple, and use bananas that are overripe.

Creamy Butternut Spaghetti

Vegans, I suspect, already know about the miraculous richness and versatility of the cashew. Non-vegans, I suspect, eschew the cashew (oh yes, I went there) because they assume that it's some sort of lackluster substitute for real cheese.

It is not. It is brilliant. In fact, in this dish, cheese would be a lackluster substitute for cashew.

Make it and see.

Ingredients

1 medium butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise, seeds removed, roasted, and diced

2/3 cups cashews
Kosher salt

Olive oil

1 strip applewood smoked bacon, diced (optional)
2 large shallots, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, pressed
2-3 pinches dried thyme
Freshly grated nutmeg
3-4 oz baby arugula
3-4 tbsp chopped parsley
4 servings whole grain spaghetti
Black pepper

In a small pot, bring about 2 inches of water to a boil. Add the cashews, simmer 2 minutes, then turn off the heat and let soak for 20 minutes more or until soft. Drain, then place in a food processor. Add 1 cup of the roasted squash, 1 tsp salt, and a glug of olive oil. Pulse to blend, adding up to 1/3 cup veggie broth or water to thin.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for the spaghetti. Cook until al dente, according to package directions (you might want to take it out 30 seconds early, since it will continue cooking a bit in the sauce). When the pasta is done, add a ladleful or two of the pasta water to the squash-cashew mixture and pulse briefly to combine (you want to end up with a deliciously creamy consistency, like alfredo sauce).

Meanwhile, in a large pan with high sides, heat a glug of olive oil over medium heat. Add the bacon if desired and cook until the edges turn golden. Add the shallot and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes until it softens, then add the garlic and cook a minute more. Toss in 2-3 cups of diced squash, sprinkle it with thyme and a pinch of salt, and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally. Grate nutmeg lightly over the squash and continue cooking for a minute more. Add the arugula and toss to distribute evenly, turning off the heat after about a minute.

Add the spaghetti to the pan with the veggies, then add the squash-cashew mixture and toss to distribute evenly.

Serve hot, sprinkled with parsley and freshly ground black pepper.

Serves 4.

Easy Cucumber Gazpacho

There were cucumbers again in my CSA box this week. At first, my heart sank. Cucumbers again? There are only so many Greek salads one can eat in a summer, after all. And who knows what else to do with a billion cucumbers. Cucumber sandwiches for a small army? Vegetable carving? Gazpacho?

Gazpacho.

This recipe was made by breeding this one with this one. The result is rather gorgeous: The avocado provides a subtle creaminess that elevates the whole thing from normal to dreamy.

Make it. It's insanely easy and insanely delicious, and how often do those two things go hand in hand?

Ingredients
3-4 scallions, white and light green parts, cut into pieces
1 small clove garlic, pressed
2 cucumbers, peeled and cut into a few pieces
(if you have oddly sized CSA box cucumbers, just estimate roughly about how many you'd need to make up an average-sized, supermarket cucumber)
5-6 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh basil
1 red gypsy pepper or 1/2 red bell pepper, cut into a few pieces
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Pinch cayenne if you'd like a bit of spice
Chives (optional) for garnish

Blend all the ingredients except the chives in a food processor until smooth. Adjust basil, salt, and pepper to taste (you want to be able to taste the basil without it being overpowering. If you can taste the basil but the soup still tastes a little bland, you can turn up the volume with a bit more salt).

Serve immediately or chill until you're ready for it. Just before serving, garnish with snipped chives and a drizzle of high quality olive oil.

Serves 2-4, depending on whether you're going for bowls or smaller cups.

Guacamole with Green Garlic and Cilantro

'Tis the season for green garlic. Which means: Make this.

Ingredients

4 ripe avocados

2 tbsp minced green garlic (or sub 2 small cloves garlic, pressed)

4-6 tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

Several dashes ground cumin

Cayenne or Aleppo pepper to taste

Pinch or three of salt

Coarsely mash the avocados in a bowl. Mix in half the garlic, most of the cilantro, and most of the lime juice, then add a couple dashes of cumin, a couple pinches of cayenne pepper, and a light sprinkling of salt.

Taste, and adjust all the proportions as desired. Cumin and salt will both help round out the flavor if it tastes thin, but note that you may want to under-salt (or taste with your chips) if you're serving with something salty.

Serve. Eat. Sigh. Resolve that you'll totally obviously definitely share next time. Right?


Serves 3-4.

Warm Quinoa Salad with Roasted Kabocha and Pomegranate

After the husband reintroduced me to kabocha squash by way of a brilliant farroto he invented last month (coming soon to a blog near you), I became obsessed. (I say reintroduced because in retrospect, I have eaten it—and always loved it—in Japanese tempura, but never knew what kind of squash it was.) Roasted, kabocha tastes of toasted pumpkin seeds and squashy wonderment. You might think the latter is more of a delirious rant than an actual taste. Roast some yourself and see.

This recipe calls for enough kabocha to make about 2 cups cooked, plus 3-5 extra wedges for snacking, because I am a realist, and realists believe in accurately predicting the amount of a given ingredient that will make it past one's mouth and into the pot. Also because it allows you to have the following conversation:

You: Would you like a slice of kabocha?
Other person: Kabocha?
You: KABOCHA.
Other person: Is it good?
You: KABOCHA.
Other person: What?
You (mouth full): Mmrmph.

Ingredients
1 kabocha squash (weighing about a pound; or sub butternut squash)
Olive oil
1/2 cup quinoa
3 inches of a medium leek, white and light green parts, halved lengthwise, rinsed well, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
5 oz veggie and/or chicken broth
2 oz. baby spinach or arugula
Seeds of 1/2 pomegranate
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted in a pan until golden brown
Freshly ground white pepper

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Rinse the kabocha squash and pat dry. Cut the top out as you would when carving a pumpkin, then slice in half from top to bottom. Scoop out the seeds, then slice both halves into even wedges (roughly 3/4" wide at the thickest part).

Drizzle a cookie sheet with olive oil, and arrange the squash wedges on the sheet, turning them over as you go so that both sides are lightly coated with olive oil. (Note that if you overcrowd, they won't brown well, so try to leave a little space between them.) Roast for 15 minutes, flip, and roast 12-15 minutes more or until lightly browned and tender without being squishy. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, rinse the quinoa and let soak in cold water for 15 minutes.

Heat a pot over medium heat. When hot, add a glug of olive oil. Saute the leek with a pinch of salt until it softens, then add the garlic. Saute a minute more, add the quinoa, and stir a few times. Pour in the broth, cover the pot, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.

While the quinoa is cooking, slice about 3/4 of the kabocha squash wedges out of their skin and cut into 1 inch pieces. (You also have time to seed the pomegranate and toast the pine nuts here if you want.) The rest of the squash is yours for the snacking.

When the quinoa is done, fold in the squash very gently (to avoid smushing it) and let heat through, then turn off the heat and cover the pot. Toss the baby greens with a little bit of olive oil and a spoonful of sherry vinegar so that the leaves are very lightly coated. Pour the quinoa-squash mixture over the greens, and let sit for 2 minutes to slightly wilt the leaves. Toss gently, sprinkle with salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste, and serve topped with pine nuts and pomegranate seeds.

Serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as a side.

Fried Chickpeas

Protein in a pinch. These are fast, and easy, delectable, and the perfect way to satisfy a wayward fried street food craving without any of that post-fried-street-food guilt.

You can make this without measuring anything, but I've put suggested measurements in parentheses for those of you with a penchant for teaspoons. You can toss the chickpeas in the flour and spices on a plate first, or (easier still) just add everything to the pan, tossing to coat, in the order listed.

Ingredients
Generous glug or two olive oil (1-2 tbsp)
1 can chickpeas, rinsed well and patted dry
2 generous sprinkles stone ground whole wheat flour (1 tsp)
1 generous sprinkle coarse-ground cornmeal (1/2 tsp)
6 dashes cumin (1/2 tsp)
3 dashes paprika (1/4 tsp)
Aleppo pepper to taste (1/4 tsp, or sub a pinch of cayenne)
Sprinkling of kosher salt (1/4 tsp)

Heat the olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, add the chickpeas, then sprinkle in the rest of the ingredients, tossing to coat. Fry for 6-7 min until golden brown in places, shaking the pan from time to time.

Serve hot.

Serves 2-3 (but note that if you make them by yourself, you're unlikely to have any leftovers).