Crispy Parmesan Veggie Sticks

Sometimes planning what to cook feels like a futile exercise in free association. Making one thing leaves you with a lot of leftover ingredient A, so you buy ingredients B and C to make another dish, but then you're left with too much B, so you run out and get D, E, and F, but E is only sold in bulk so you hunt desperately for other things to do with it before it goes bad, and so on and so forth.

Its difficult to buy ingredients in the proper quantities when cooking just for yourself or for a few people- hence the plethora of random ingredients cluttering my cabinets and my refrigerator (flaxseed, anyone?). But lately I've been trying to use up the food I already have before running off to the store. Sometimes this is successful (like when I used the parsley and lentils left over from this meal to make this salad), and sometimes it's not (like when I was left with a boatload of dill after making this casserole and for the life of me couldn't think of anything to do with it. I think its still in the back of the fridge somewhere).

I'm doing well this week though, and to make this snack I scheduled another date with Panko breadcrumbs (evidently pronounced pahn-ko, not pain-ko, an embarrassing revelation I had when I asked for it at the grocery store last weekend) to create a healthy treat that has all the satisfying crunch of french fries but with a whole lot more vitamins and a whole lot less fat. These veggie sticks are great served with tomato sauce, aioli, or honey mustard. If you make them with seasoned breadcrumbs they might even be good all by their lonesome. I used asparagus and zucchini but I bet other vegetables would be good as well.

Crispy Parmesan Veggie Sticks
adapted from How Sweet Eats

Ingredients:

• Asparagus spears (the thinner the better)
• Zucchini, sliced into wedges
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs (seasoned or plain)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup ground or finely grated parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a wire rack on top of a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray (if you don't have a wire rack, just the baking sheet is fine, but you will need to turn the sticks over halfway through the cooking time).

With the egg whites in one shallow bowl and the breadcrumbs, flour, parmesan, salt and pepper in another, dip the veggies first in the egg whites and then the breadcrumb mixture.

Unfortunately I could only find this thick asparagus, but thinner spears will be a whole lot crispier!

Arrange veggie sticks on top of the wire rack/baking sheet.

like modern art, no?

Place in the oven and cook for about 20 minutes, until the breadcrumbs turn golden brown. Remember to turn the sticks over once midway through cooking if you are not using a wire rack.


Yum scrum!

Leek, Zucchini and Cheese Casserole

This lovely recipe is introduced in Olive Trees and Honey as follows:

A classic example of the Sephardim's love of vegetables mixed with cheese and eggs, this comforting casserole goes by many names: quajado/cuajada ("coagulated"), sfongato de puerro ("leek sponge"), and almodrote de prassa ("hodgepodge of leeks")...

First of all, since when is the "Sephardim's love of vegetables mixed with cheese and eggs" a cultural characteristic of note? And secondly, what a hilariously unappetizing collection of names. Although "hodgepodge of leeks" is kind of great, if only because it gives me an excuse to use the word hodgepodge. Repeatedly. Hodgepodegehodgepodgehodgepodge.

Err, anyways... the original recipe was a straight up leek and cheese casserole but I thought that would be a tad bit too one-dimensional. I love me some veggies, so I made a modified version by replacing half of the leeks with grated zucchini. I used feta and Gouda as my cheeses but you can also use kefalotyri or parmesan instead of the feta and Muenster or cheddar instead of the Gouda.

This dish represents a lot of firsts for me:

• My first time cooking with leeks
• My first time making anything with Gouda.
• My first time using fresh dill since a scarring incident that started with me making greek zucchini fritters for my family and ended with my mother discovering that she has a violent allergy to dill

So needless to say I was a little nervous about this one. How did things go? Let's take a look!

Remember when using leeks...

...to only use the white and light green parts. Wash them carefully; leeks can hold a lot of dirt. The fresh leeks smelled delicious.

The grated zucchini adds some extra flavor and texture, and helped me tone my right bicep

Sautee the leeks and onions in a saucepan with vegetable oil until slightly softened and then simmer with water, zucchini, and kosher salt until tender
Strain the leeks and then add them to a mix of feta and Gouda cheeses, eggs, salt and pepper, olive oil, and fresh dill

Spoon the mixture into a 9x9 casserole pan and bake in the oven for 55 min until firm and golden brown on top

The verdict? Delicious! The heaviness of the cheese and eggs was nicely countered by the light vegetables. The dill added some complexity to the briny feta. Since I used the feta I probably could have cut down on the salt. Otherwise, the dish was perfect- like a greek frittata. Love. The casserole can be served warm or at room temperature with some rice or a side salad.

Proof that I do in fact eat vegetables

See? I had these for dinner one night. Bell peppers. YUM.
Of course, I added chicken and cheese (and some fajita sauce) due to my love of protein.


And yes, this means I'm eating meat now! BIG life decision! Chicken, turkey and fish. Never red meat or pork or bacon or any of that. And not when served in a form that reminds me that I am in fact eating an animal (i.e. No bones please. And if I eat fish, I don't want it looking at me). Cognitive dissonance is key. But the siren song of lean protein was too tough to resist.

Recipe: Vegetable Chili

In dietary penance for the past couple of posts, today's recipe is totally healthy, fresh, and sugar-free. I call it chili, mainly because I dump tons of chili powder into it, but its relatively low on beans and completely lacking in meat so perhaps that's not the best name. At any rate, its simple, delicious, low-fat/calorie/carb/etc., and for the vegetarians out there it packs a good amount of protein (you can also add vegetarian ground beef if you wish). I often double the recipe and then freeze some of it so I have it around for awhile. The mechanics of the recipe are simple so feel free to experiment with different beans and vegetables.

Vegetable Chili

Ingredients:

• 2 onions, chopped
  
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 3 celery ribs, chopped
• 2 green bell peppers, seeded and diced
• 2 zucchini, sliced
• 14-oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 14-oz can chopped tomatoes
• 2/3 cup passata or tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1 teaspoon each hot chili powder, ground cumin, and ground coriander (I usually double this... sometimes triple...)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Put the first 5 ingredients (the green stuff) in a large saucepan and mix together

2. Add the next 5 ingredients (the red stuff)

Add the spices, season with salt and pepper and mix well

Cover, bring to a boil, then simmer for 20-30 minutes (this may vary depending on how finely you chopped the vegetables)


Serve with a sprinkling of cheese or a spoonful of plain yogurt sprinkled with cayenne pepper
It's not very photogenic, but I promise its delicious.