Roasted Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad

March 28, 2016 by 9 Comments

This recipe for Roasted Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad is so simple! It is served warm and is just combined with salt, pepper, oil, and apple cider vinegar and takes only 15 minutes! But, it’s healthy, vegetarian, and comforting.
Warm brussels sprouts salad recipe - just shredded sprouts with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a bit of apple cider vinegar roasted in the oven. A warm salad for when you want to be healthy but want a little comfort from a rainy day

You can indulge a little by adding to your Roasted Brussels Sprouts Salad a shower of freshly grated parmesan, or crumble in some crispy bacon, toss in some slivered almonds, whatever to this sturdy foundation of shredded roasted greens. That might add a few more minutes to the time to create that salad, but this salad is also great without the additions. I’m currently reading Chrissy Tiegen’s cookbook Cravings and although her shredded brussels sprouts salad is raw and uses lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar, I liked her idea of adding in 1 1/2 cups halved grapes and 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds.

Roasting the shredded brussels sprouts is an extra step since you could just dress and eat them raw as is. But I like how roasting pays off as it gives the salad a little bit of crispiness that brings it up to a new level from a raw salad, without that much more effort. Having a warm salad is also comforting on spring days that drift more into chilly and rainy.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound of Brussels Sprouts
  • 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
  • Salt to taste
  • Freshly ground Pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon Apple Cider vinegar

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a baking pan with spray or olive oil – you might choose to put some parchment paper or foil down first for easier cleanup.
  2. Next, after cleaning and tossing any browned leaves on the outside of your sprouts, I cut them in half and then shred them in the food processor for about 15 seconds or so in two batches. All together that took maybe 5 minutes.
  3. Now mix the shredded brussels sprouts with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the salt and pepper to taste together in a large mixing bowl.  Spread the sprouts on your lined baking pan and roast just until the edges start to get crisped and brown.  This might be about 7 – 10 minutes.
  4. While still hot, toss the 1 tablespoon of Apple Cider vinegar into the roasted and shredded sprouts.  Serve right away. Done, warm healthy salad for four people in 15 minutes!
    This recipe for Roasted brussels sprouts salad is just shredded sprouts with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a bit of apple cider vinegar roasted in the oven. These little browned pieces are just from roasting in the oven, not bacon - though I won't stop you from crumbling a little crispy bacon on your version

I served this as a side dish along with a Leek and Cheese Ranch Chicken Breast and Garlic Mashed Potatoes – I even ended up mixing the sauce from the chicken with the potatoes and the brussels sprouts and it was all good, a traditional home cooked meal with your plate of greens, carbs, and protein.
Recipe for this Warm Roasted brussels sprouts salad - a side here with mashed potatoes and creamy ranch chicken

How would you like to eat your brussels sprouts – would you add additional toppings here, what would they be?

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Easy Mushroom White Wine Cream Sauce Recipe

January 11, 2016 by 8 Comments

One of the things I pride myself on is being able to re-invigorate leftovers into other meals. After a fondue party last year, I had a handful of mushrooms that were left over. I also had various bottles of leftover wine (it was a wine potluck), including a white wine that was open. And, there was a small carton of cream that was in my fridge from a guest who had left it behind after making a chocolate fondue.

To extend the mushrooms and the wine into a full meal (which I also enjoyed with a glass of red wine!), I made this vegetarian and super ridiculously easy mushroom white wine cream sauce recipe.

I put mine on pasta, but these does equally well on rice, or on chicken, pork, etc. As a sauce on protein, this would be enough for 4 people! But on pasta, this was just enough for 2.
Use this Easy Mushroom and White Wine Cream Sauce recipe on pasta to feed 2, or pour it over chicken or other protein to feed 4 or more! Easy MushroomWhite Wine Cream Sauce recipe on pasta
Ingredients:

  • Olive oil
  • 1/4 cup of diced onion (I always keep a frozen bag of diced onion in the freezer!)
  • 1 minced garlic clove
  • 5 mushrooms, thinly chopped
  • 1/2 of a vegetable stock cube: just cut the solid rectangle in half. If you use chicken stock depending on how strong the flavor you may want to use 1/4 instead
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:

  1. In a pan on medium heat, heat a little olive oil. Add the diced onion for a couple minutes until it becomes translucent.
    Add the diced onion for a couple minutes until it becomes translucent.
  2. Then, add, garlic and mushrooms and saute until the mushrooms so that the garlic is not so raw. You don’t need to brown the mushrooms, so this will only take a few minutes.
    For this easy mushroom and white wine cream sauce, you saute briefly onion, garlic, and mushroom
  3. Reduce the heat to low, and carefully pour in the wine. Simmer until the wine has been absorbed by the mushrooms, which should take 5 minutes or so.
    Easy Mushroom and White Wine Cream Sauce - add the wine and let the mushroom absorb it Easy Mushroom and White Wine Cream Sauce - add the wine and let the mushroom absorb it
  4. Crumble in the 1/2 of a vegetable stock cube, and pour in the 1/2 cup of cream. Raise the heat to medium-low, and let it simmer and thicken, about  5-7 minutes.
    Easy Mushroom and White Wine Cream Sauce Recipe - add the wine and let the mushroom absorb it, then add the cream and let thicken Easy Mushroom White Wine Cream Sauce Recipe - add the wine and let the mushroom absorb it, then add the cream and let thicken

It’s pretty crazy right? I can easy pop in 5 mushrooms in my mouth off a vegetable tray. But, here the 5 mushrooms really last by chopping it up into all these little bits into a pretty mushroom-y sauce to take full advantage of the flavor of mushroom.
Easy Mushroom White Wine Cream Sauce Recipe- add the wine and let the mushroom absorb it, then add the cream and let thicken Easy Mushroom White Wine Cream Sauce recipe on pasta

This recipe is so easy, I was making the pasta, the sauce, texting with my family, and talking to F all at the same time. But, it’s such a satisfying sauce, and dinner.
Easy Mushroom and White Wine Cream Sauce recipe on pasta

Do you have any special recipe or trick to transform leftovers into another meal? How do you stretch an ingredient?

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Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole

December 21, 2015 by 5 Comments

While I was in Santa Fe, I saw several times the options for a Southwest Squash Casserole. Instead of the usual burritos or other Mexican food with the generous ladling of red or green (or both, “Christmas style” – get it, using both red and green?) chiles, the Southwest Squash Casserole option sounded less heavy but still celebratory of the namesake southwest chiles. I didn’t have any while I was in Santa Fe, but I was inspired to make one myself.
Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole that uses yellow squash, butternut squash, and green chiles and red salsa

This recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole uses both red salsa and green chiles, as this was my favorite way to enjoy the chiles in Santa Fe (though they used red chiles and green chiles – I dialed down the heat by using a salsa instead). Also, maybe I could never really know which would be the best at any restaurant – the green or the red – so why decide? Why not both?
Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole that uses yellow squash, butternut squash, and green chiles and red salsa

In Santa Fe sometimes the green chile came with chunks of shredded chicken in it, but if you get the ones in the can you normally see in the store it will just be the chiles – it’s up to you if you want to add in some shredded cooked chicken to this dish.

Ingredients:

  • 8 cups of squash – I used a mix of yellow squash that I chopped into half moons (they should be at least 1/2 inch thick so they don’t get too mushy) and cubed butternut squash
    A mix of yellow squash and butternut squash for this Vegetarian Recipe for Southwest Squash Casserole
  • 2/3 cup chopped onion
  • 1 4 ounce can of chopped green chiles
    A 4 ounce can of green chiles for the green and salsa adds the red for this Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole
  • 2 cups grated cheese, divided – I used a blend of cheddar and jack cheeses
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 3/4 cup salsa – if it’s not spicy you may want a little more if it’s a chunky salsa you are using, if it’s spicy you might dial it back a little to not overwhelm the dish with too much heat
  • 2 green onions, chopped

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a 11-by-7-inch 2 quart casserole baking dish with cooking spray.
  2. I had to do this in two large mixing bowls because I didn’t have a bowl large enough, but you will want to combine your 8 cups of squash, 2/3 cup chopped onion, the 4 ounces of chopped green chiles, half of your grated cheese (so just 1 cup cheese), and the 1/4 cup flour together and mix. Since I used two mixing bowls, I just put half of everything in each bowl to do the mixing – you will want to flour, onion, and green chiles and cheese to coat all your squash lightly. Then combine the mixture together into your sprayed baking dish. Cover with foil.
    Toss together your squash, cheese, green chlies, chopped onions, and flour for the first step of the Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole Toss together your squash, cheese, green chlies, chopped onions, and flour for the first step of the Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole Toss together your squash, cheese, green chlies, chopped onions, and flour for the first step of the Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole
  3. Bake the casserole until the squash is tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and distribute your salsa over the top, as well as sprinkling over the salsa your last 1 cup of grated cheese.
    Top with salsa for the red in this Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole Top with salsa for the red in this Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole
  4. Return to the oven uncovered to bake for another 15 minutes or so until the cheese is bubbling. Remove from oven and sprinkle with green onions.
    Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole that uses yellow squash, butternut squash, and green chiles and red salsa Recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole that uses yellow squash, butternut squash, and green chiles and red salsa

Have you ever heard of a Southwest Squash casserole? Did it have this “Christmas” version of red and green chiles, or how was it?

This is my last post until after the holidays: in fact, I actually left for Japan several days before this post went up! So I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful warm holiday until 2016, full of new memories and of course lots of deliciousness.

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Rosemary and Cheddar Breakfast Sausage Dip

December 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment

A incredibly delicious recipe I made for brunch one weekend was this Rosemary and Cheddar Breakfast Sausage dip.
Rosemary and Cheddar Breakfast Sausage dip paired with Food Should Taste Good gluten free GMO free Multigrain Chips

The original inspiration that I only did minor tweaks came from the Food Should Taste Good website recipe for Brunch that users breakfast sausage, maple syrup, cheddar cheese and fresh rosemary. They got the recipe courtesy of Amanda Paa of heartbeetkitchen.com. My minor change as that I used sage breakfast sausage and removed the use of salt as I’m not a huge fan of too much salt and I also had some leftover sage that I minced and added as well to help highlight the sage in the sausage I used.

I’ve written about Food Should Taste Good chips before based on an event I attended and made a Mexican Street Corn dip with their Blue Corn Chips, and then again with a Caramelized Onion Jam and Goat Cheese with Sweet Potato Chips.

These  are the Food Should Taste Good multigrain tortilla chips that are paired with this dip are gluten free, GMO free, and include healthy ingredients such as brown rice flour, flax, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, quinoa, and stone ground corn as well as rosemary extract, which will echo the bit of rosemary in the dip.

And, it was a great way to use some of the leftover grated cheddar cheese I had grated (I grated 36 ounces of it for the cheddar fondue recipe I posted earlier on Monday!)

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces of breakfast sausage
  • 1/4 cup minced onion
  • 3 cups freshly grated cheddar cheese (9 ounces)
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
  •  bag of Food Should Taste Good Multigrain Chips for serving

Directions:

  1. In a medium sized skillet over medium high heat, add the 8 ounces of breakfast sausage. Crumble it as much as you can as you add it to the plain skillet, and as you cook the sausage crumble it some more to break it up and stir.
  2. When sausage has just a little pink remaining, add the 1/4 cup of minced onion and continue cooking, until meat is no longer pink and onions are translucent. Drain meat (separate it from the oil that emerged – I save the oil in a container to use for fried rice or something else) and set aside to cool.
    Crumble and cook breakfast sausage with minced onion
  3. In a bowl, toss together the 3 cups of freshly grated cheddar cheese, 2 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 1/2 teaspoons of rosemary, and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. If you use pre-grated packaged cheddar cheese it already has cornstarch and other preservatives in it – I recommend grating the cheese fresh!
  4. In a medium sized saucepan, combine the 1 1/2 cups of milk and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup. Turn the heat to medium and stir constantly while it warms to steaming but not burning. Once it starts steaming, add your cheese rosemary dry mix and continue stirring as the cheese melts.
    Adding the cheese to the warmed milk and maple syrup
  5. Once the cheese is melted and smooth, add the sausage and stir is to distribute the sausage evenly. Pour into a container and serve with the chips!
    Combining the pre cooked breakfast sausage with the melted cheese

This dip is so good I can imagine folding a few spoonfuls into an omelette as well. This feeds 6 people and refrigerated well – I just warmed it up before serving again. I served mine in mini-ramekins with the chips. It’s great for if you have guests staying over for a little fancy extra breakfast side, or just to treat yourself on a cold morning – I justified the healthy multi grain chips as making this cheese and mat dip totally balanced.
Rosemary and Cheddar Breakfast Sausage dip paired with Food Should Taste Good gluten free GMO free Multigrain Chips

If it looks sorta fondue-y… you’re right I thought the same thing! Obviously this isn’t vegetarian, which I wanted for my party, but for brunch for myself, sausage and bacon are fair game right?

What’s your favorite breakfast?

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Gluten-free Cheddar Fondue Recipe

December 7, 2015 by 10 Comments

Last week, for a ladies wine night I hosted at my home, I prepared a Cheddar Fondue. This is so easy to do- the most time consuming part will be grating the cheese. You want to use freshly grated cheese rather than pre-grated because the kind that come in the bag already have starches and powder added to them during packaging. I generally do this while watching TV – I did this while watching Amazing Race and Walking Dead!
Gluten-free Cheddar Fondue Recipe with broccoli as your dipper instead of bread is healthier. You can have the broccoli raw or blanch it quickly to soften it (but not too much) Cheese fondue with cauliflower as your dipper instead of bread is healthier. You can have the cauliflower raw or blanch it quickly to soften it (but not too much)

Otherwise, it’s pretty straightforward, but so worth it for a party. Or dinner. Or lunch. Is there ever a wrong time to enjoy melted cheese?  My secret for this version is that besides the cheddar, I add additional flavors via a pinch of nutmeg, dry mustard, and sometimes a  few tablespoons of pesto (you can make your own or buy it from the store, whatever works for you) if no one in your party has a nut allergy. Other optio nsmight be to add in diced tomatoes or red peppers.

For dippers, I sliced up apples and had blanched broccoli, but other veggies would work like cauliflower, asparagus – and this was too time consuming for me, but boiled fingerling potatoes would be a perfect addition too. If you’re not trying to be vegetarian, you could also slice up some cooked sausage. Since this time I was intentionally striving to be gluten free I didn’t have bread – though you could seek out gluten free bread if you’d like.
Great dippers for a cheese fondue that is healthier than bread - broccoli and cauliflower! Just quickly blanch them to soften them up

Since this time I was intentionally striving to be gluten free I didn’t have bread – though you could seek out gluten free bread if you’d like.
Cheddar fondue, a fun interactive way to eat together

A particular guest I had coming not only was gluten-free, but also has corn allergies. So, as a subsitute for the cornstarch that most fondue recipes call for, I used tapioca flour! Tapioca flour, also known as tapioca starch, is gluten free as it’s made with a root. I first became acquainted with tapioca flour when making pao de quejio Brazilian cheese bread rolls in the past, and often have it on hand.

I also admit I had 3 times as much of all the ingredients below- as I was making the fondue I measured 8 ounces of recipe at a time, but I prepped more than that in case the cheese ran low so I could add another 8 ounces or 4 ounces as desired. You should do this even if you aren’t sure of your party size because having a little bit of extra cheese or wine available will mean you can adjust the thickness and amount of your cheese as you need based on the way your cheese is melting to get the desired melty texture.

Make sure you don’t get your cheese too hot, as it will start to glomp together and fats will ooze from it. You want it just warm enough to be melted.

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces of sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 cup of dry white wine
  • 4 teaspoons of tapioca flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon of dry mustard
  • 2 tablespoons of pesto –  regular basis or red pepper sauce
  • Blanched broccoli (you can also use raw or steamed, but I like blanched because it softens it slightly but not too much so you still get great green color and firmness to stay on your fondue fork)
  • Sliced apples
  • Whatever else you’d like to dip into your cheese!

Directions:

  • Grate the sharp Cheddar cheese and then set aside – it will melt better if it’s closer to room temperature rather than cold from the refrigerator when you start to melt it.
  • In a small bowl, mix the 4 teaspoons of tapioca flour with 2 tablespoons of cold water. Stir until it dissolves.
  • Peel the 2 garlic cloves  and rub the inside of the surface of your pot or saucepan with the cloves. I then minced the garlic and put it in the pot along with 1 cup of the white wine. Heat the wine until it is simmering.
  • Slowly whisk in a handful of the 8 ounces of cheese at a time so that it will melt evenly. The liquid cheese should still be at a simmer.
  • Once the cheese has melted, whisk in the tapioca and water mixture, then the 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon of dry mustard until it is smooth and fully incorporated.
  • Swirl in the 2 tablespoons of pesto at the end for a little extra depth of flavor
  • If you want to use a slow cooker to keep it warm, you may have to start this on a pot on the stove to get the heat needed to first melt and incorporate everything, and now move it into the slow cooker.

From here, just dip and eat! If for some reason you have leftovers, I will often refrigerate it and add it in an omelette or on open faced sandwiches or other veggies later.
Cheese fondue with broccoli as your dipper instead of bread is healthier. You can have the broccoli raw or blanch it quickly to soften it (but not too much)

Other fondues we had were broth (a great shortcut for this is to buy pho broth!) with meat and seafood, chocolate (dip crackers, cookies, fruit, cream puffs and eclairs…). It’s a fun theme for a party as it kept everyone standing around my table to move around to the various stations and accompaniments. Or, it’s lovely for a dinner with close friends or your loved one because the constant dipping as you eat helps with conversation as you are interacting with your food together!

What’s your favorite type of fondue?

 

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