Tahini Broccoli Pasta Bake

tahini broccoli pasta bake, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This recipe from the Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook is such a great comfort food recipe. We keep coming back to this recipe again and again. The broccoli is covered up by cheese and breadcrumbs in the picture, but there is quite a bit of it in there. The sauce is really delicious, but unusual too. Soft tofu, tahini, onions, and spices make up the creamy sauce that is blended in a food processor. The sauce is mixed with a bunch of broccoli and partly cooked pasta and then topped with breadcrumbs and cheese and baked until all the flavors meld and the cheese melts. We used a cheddar cheese on top that was not very melty, but really good none-the-less.

Crisp Tortillas with Pattypan Squash, Eggplant, and Tomato

eggplant squash tortilla, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This dish from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen is the best thing that I have tasted in a long time. It is so simple, yet full of flavor. Everything really came together in order to make this recipe. Our local co-op had beautiful pattypan squash and lovely small firm white eggplants. In addition to these tasty veggies, the recipe contains lots of olive oil, garlic, chipotle chili in adobo sauce, tomato, cilantro, lime juice and the recipe calls for queso fresco, but we used feta.

Again this is a one pot meal (although we browned the tortillas in a different skillet) which was ready in less than an hour. Our white eggplants turned purple when cooked which I found to be quite interesting. We had lots of the veggie mixture left over so we had this again for lunch the next day. We heated the veggies in the microwave and browned the tortillas in the pan. It was just as good the next day.

Lentils and Wild Greens

Italian Lentils, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

The greens that we used in this dish are sadly not wild, but no less tasty. This is another fabulous recipe from Verdura, Vegetables Italian Style. It contains mustard greens, lots of olive oil, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, fresh oregano, fresh rosemary, Italian parsley, basil, brown lentils, tomatoes, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.

I usually think that lentils are just okay, but this dish came out really great. The bitter greens and lemon juice really make the dish, but it is surely a joint effort with all of the other tasty ingredients. This recipe is a throw everything into one pot recipe, which is nice and is ready in less than an hour. I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but every recipe we have tried out of this book has been a real winner.

Baby Broccoli and Feta Pizza

baby broccoli and feta pizza, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Our pizza journey continues. This is the last of the huge batch of pizza dough so this should be the last pizza for a while.

The toppings here include baby broccoli (a tasty surprise at the store--this was the perfect use for this lovely tender stuff), cherry tomatoes, green olives, feta cheese, and of course, more jarred pizza sauce.

The process of getting the pizza dough to the pizza stone in the oven still needs some work so this pizza had some thin spots, but it was delicious. I have decided that baby broccoli is a perfect pizza topping.

Savory Asian Inspired "French Toast"

Maybe this should be called "French Colonial" toast. Optimistic wanted something savory for breakfast, and I wanted French Toast. Sometimes you just have to go where the journey takes you, even if it sounds crazy.

But sometimes crazy isn't all bad. This "experiment" was actually good, and not just a little bit good, but really really good.

First, make the avocado-tomato salad, mix the following in a bowl and set aside:

1/2 avocado, diced (we had a half an avocado, if you have a whole one, this recipe could easily utilize twice as much salad, so just double the rest of the ingredients.)
8 to 10 small grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 ume plum, removed from its pit, and cut into small bits, (or a teaspoon or so of ume plum paste)
1 teaspoon ume plum vinegar (sometimes hard to find, you could use any other asian vinegar, like brown rice vinegar, etc)
1 dash of yuzu concentrate (also hard to find, lime would probably provide a similar flavor)

For the toast, you'll need 4 slices or so of day-old Brioche, or another bread with a light profile, like Challah.

Take 2 Eggs, 1/4 cup soy milk, and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, and beat this together in a shallow dish.

Toast the following in a hot skillet until crisp:

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small diced shallot
1 small diced clove of garlic

Add the garlic last, so it doesn't burn. Once the shallots are crisp, remove the shallots and garlic from the oil and set aside for later. Leave as much of the oil as you can. Pour off the oil so that you can use it a little at a time, for each piece of toast.

Dip the bread briefly in the egg mixture on either side, and cook each in around 3/4 of a teaspoon of the shallot infused oil over medium high heat until browned, about 2 minutes per side. If it browns faster, turn down the heat a bit.

Top each slice with a quarter of the salad, and sprinkle a teaspoon or so of crumbled feta cheese over each slice.

Maple Mustard Potatoes and Green Beans

maple/mustard potatoes and green beans, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I love potatoes, I love green beans, I love maple syrup, and I love mustard so this recipe was totally made for me. The recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance and calls for waxy potatoes, green beans, onions, garlic, olive oil, maple syrup, and mustard. You toss is all together and then it gets roasted in the oven. Super yummy.

We've never roasted green beans before, but we probably will again. I was surprised by how good they are. We slipped some slices of Quorn roast in this bake so I'm pretty sure we made it non-vegan because the Quorn contains egg. If you have never heard of Quorn products, they are made out of some weird "mycoprotein" which I am assuming is somewhat like mushrooms. Regardless of what it is made of, it is darn tasty and was a good way to add some protein to this somewhat starchy dish.

Another attempt at Roman style pizza

roman style pizza, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This one has zucchini, cherry tomatoes, rughetta, olives and sauce.