Meatless Monday: Radish Pesto

I'm on a kick of late to try to use every part of the a vegetable.  From boiling and pureeing the woody ends of asparagus to using beet green in a smoothie to this pesto, my goal is to try to find some use for each part of the veggies I buy.  It's only been a week and I really home I can keep it up.  Last week I bought gorgeous organic radishes as the Birchcliff Farmer's Market.  It's funny that I say I bought gorgeous radishes, because I'm actually not a huge fan of radishes, luckily I can appreciate how lovely they are.  I pickled the bright red bulbs and had a slew of greens leftover.

Could I have tossed the greens? Absolutely!

Meatless Monday: Ramp & Arugula Pesto

Have you ever foraged for food before?  Picked wild raspberries off of a bush you found in the forrest or on the edge of your property when you were a child?  I vaguely remember picking berries with my grandfather when he would take my brother, cousins and I to find the creek, or "crick" as he called it,that was set deep in the farmland behind their house in Westmoreland, NY.  The few times we did it, I remember those wild berries tasting so sweet, maybe it was that we were on an adventure with Grandpa, maybe it was the sweetness of  sun-kissed berries in the heat of summer, I think it was a combination of these and many other factors.

Meatless Monday...Guest Post

Welcome first time guest poster Tania from Love Big Bake Often. I found Tania and her blog as soon as I started blogging and have considered us virtual friends ever since. She is Canadian, married to an American; the exact opposite of me, an American married to a Canadian. The big difference is that her hubs is in the US Army and she spent most of last year as a single mom to her two adorable boys while her hubs was deployed. She believes in making everything from scratch and much like me shows love through the things she makes for her family. She'll be posting twice this week and I'm sure it will all be delicious!

Hi there! Tania here. I love guest posting, so when Jen asked me to help her out, I jumped on the chance. Jen was actually the first person who told me about Meatless Mondays, and since then I have been trying to participate as much as possible. Jason hopped on board as long as it wasn't too much tofu! Though I have to say that he has thoroughly enjoyed the tofu stir-fry that I have made for him and eats it with gusto. And I am always on the look out for new tofu recipes, so if you have one leave me a link would ya? Thanks.

I am a Quiche Lover! Jason wasn't so much a quiche lover when we met, but I think I have turned him into one. Yes, I see a trend here....there are a lot of things that Jason had never experienced before he met me. This is one quiche that I make often....and we love. For dinner, breakfast, lunch...it's good hot or cold.

Meatless Monday: Three Bean Salad

This is by far one of the top Meatless Monday recipes I've come up with for awhile, if not since I started taking part last fall.  The Boy wasn't a fan, mainly because he just doesn't love beans, but I figure you can't win them all.  Plus it meant there was plenty left over for lunches and snacks all week.   It's beyond easy to throw together and works well with all kinds of spring and summer meals. It's even completely picnic friendly since it's best at room temperature with no dairy AND vegan, something I don't often pull off with out specifically aiming for it.

I came up with this salad to go with some chicken tacos I made with leftover roast chicken. I always prefer the beans part of the rice and beans that are often served with most Mexican meals so a salad made with just beans sounded good to me.  On this night, since I made the tortillas, pickled onions, guacamole and cilantro sour cream for the tacos a simple no-cook side was just what I wanted.  A few years ago when I was still living in LA, my sister and hosted a BBQ for our kickball team.  One of our teammates brought a salad similar to this, so that's what I decided to emulate.  I remembered the beans she used, but not much else.  Since I was making tacos I went with the  Mexican flavors of cilantro, chipotle and lime.

Meatless Monday: Polenta with Greens

Polenta has been a bit of a bone of contention in our house, I like it and the Boy doesn't.  To be fair I haven't made it very well the few times I have tried.  In the last little while we have ordered it out at a few restaurants and his view had changed, to the point that he said if you can make polenta like this I'll eat it.  Of course when he said it we were at Susur Lee's restaurant eating his Top Chef Master's dish.  Talk about setting a lofty goal for me.  But I took the challenge because polenta is a great whole grain option especially for Meatless Mondays.

About a year ago a bought a cookbook by Susan McKenna Grant called "Piano, Piano, Peino: Authentic Food from a Tuscan Farn" but have yet to cook anything out of it.  Beacuse of No ReEEATS I have been consulting my cookbooks alot more this year and have really enjoy not only using the books but learning different recipes and techniques from them.  Since I was challenged to make polenta as good as Susur Lee I know I'd need to go to a cookbook, and an authentic Tuscan one seemed like as good a place as any to start.  Since I was looking for a Meatless Monday dish when I saw a recipe for Polenta with Greens, I knew that it was what I wanted to make.  Because paired with a simple green salad it would (hopefully) make a tasty and pretty simple supper.

Mascarpone Pancakes featured on Meatless Monday!

I'm so excited to announce that I have my very first featured recipe on the Meatless Monday site.  Last week's Gluten-Free Mascarpone Pancakes with Raspberry Maple Syrup is featured today as a breakfast suggestion.  If you messed them last week, make sure to check them out today.  As I've said they are so tasty you won't even notice they are gluten-free!

Do you participate in Meatless Monday? What are you going to make today?

Enjoy!

Meatless Monday: Gluten-Free Mascarpone Pancakes with Raspberry Maple Syrup

It's no secret that I love mascarpone I've used it in breakfast dishes, pasta and I make a killer tiramisu that I promise to share in the very near future, since it will make an AH-MAZING Easter dessert.  But back to these beauties.  With the Pancake Day falling a few weeks ago the web was saturated with pancake recipes.  I came across quite a few that incorporated ricotta cheese and while they all sounded delicious I thought that mascarpone would also work fabulously in a pancake.  And pancakes while obviously good fro breakfast also make a delicious Meatless Monday dinner, or really any meal for that matter.

I've also been pretty intrigued with quinoa flour and have been looking for an excuse to use it.  Making good gluten-free foods is intriguing to me, My friend Suz over at You Can't Eat What has so many food restrictions it's a bit crazy and she is always trying to make yummy foods while taking into account all of her restrictions. Keeping her and the numerous other people who have to restrict or eliminate gluten in their diets, I wanted to try to develop a recipe that would work for them and is also something that those of us who don't have to worry about such things would also enjoy.  What's interesting to me about quinoa flour is that is so high in protein and is so good for you that why not use in something that's a little decadent and indulgent to a bit healthier.  Also in many recipes that I've seen it seems that it can be subbed in a 1 to 1 ratio in many recipes.  I don't claim to know anything about gluten-free cooking & baking so don't take that as complete fact, just something I came to assume after a brief survey of some recipes.

Meatless Monday: Red, White & Blue Quinoa Salad

Have you ever seen purple yams? Carole first wrote about them over at NoREATS.  We shop at the same Chinese Supermarket and when I saw that she had picked them up there I ran over and got some myself.  They made some delicious yam fries, their gorgeous purple color and floral flavor was a great compliment to orange yams.  They baked up much crispier than the orange yams and held on to their great color. I had never seen them before so I have a feeling they aren't too readily available, but if you ever see them, you have to pick some up.  You won't be disappointed.

Last week, I had picked up a whole bunch of purple yams, more than I needed for just fries.  When thinking of something to do with these jewels I knew their color and flavor would pair wonderfully with quinoa for a great Meatless Monday Salad.  I found Mark Bittman's Sweet Potato & Quinoa salad and used it as the inspiration for mine, making use of ingredients I keep in the house and what I thought would taste good.  I of course had to add some cheese because just about everything can be made better with cheese.  It will absolutely work without it and make for a nice vegan salad if that's your preference.

Meatless Monday: Beet & Carrot Salad

Last weekend the Boy, my father and I went to the Brickworks Farmer's Market.  It was the first time we had been, even though it's been on my list of things to check out for quite sometime.  First because I love Farmer's Markets but also because it takes place year round.  There aren't many winter farmer's markets in these parts and the fact that this one was in the East End made it even more appealing.

The vibe at the farmer's market was great.  It was cold outside and so warm in the building where the market took place.  Full of families and fellow foodies, there not only for some great food to bring home but also for Saturday morning coffee & breakfast.  The boy got some belgian waffles with crunchy caramelized sugar on the edges and apple beignets. I had the best crepe I've ever had in my life from Clement's Crepes. The All-Day Breakfast Crepe had eggs, maple smoked ham, green onion, mozzarella cheese and hollandaise.  Clement does this fancy thing with the cheese, called a hangover, where he lets it hang over the edge of the crepe onto the grill and it gets all crispy and brown.  The hangover is a great name because I'm sure this filling and savory crepe with that little bit of crunch would cure whatever ails you the morning after. Dad got freshly fried French Fries sprinkled with fresh thyme with sides of  homemade ketchup and cilantro & lime mayonnaise.  This was all in the very first room!  Had we continued on we would have found ooey gooey cinnamon rolls (I did buy one for later even though I was obnoxiously stuffed from my crepe), pies from the Canadian Pie Company, various sandwiches and soups and a vendor selling Ethiopian food.  Luckily we were more than happy with our choices, but a return trip is definitely in order, though I'm not sure I'll even make it past Clement's Crepes.

Meatless Monday: Broccoli & Wild Mushroom Quinotto

After a weekend chock full of lots of delicious and rich eats, I have to be honest I was pretty psyched for Meatless Monday.  After we dropped my sis and DD, her boyfriend off at the airport I knew I had to figure out something for dinner.  The only requirement the boy had was something not too heavy.  Now keep in mind not too heavy to him and to most people aren't one in the same.  When I say something not too heavy I think of a salad, while he'd happily at that I knew for dinner he'd want something a bit heartier.

We had some broccoli and a bag of dried wild mushrooms that I knew would be the basis for whatever I made.  I thought about risotto and when asking for some inspiration on twitter, risotto was also suggested.  To me that meant that some form of risotto was in the cards.  I then got to thinking risotto with mushrooms and broccoli sounds all well and good but I'd still need to figure some sort of protein and this Monday was definitely a one dish kind of day for me. That's when it came to me, quinoa, that amazing ancient grain that I've made a few times but have yet to come up with a recipe to post.  What if I made a quinoa risotto, a quinotto as I soon found it was called after a bit of web research.  I did some reading and found that it is really made in much the same way as risotto just subbing in the quinoa.  And thus this recipe was born.

Meatless Monday: Pumpkin Mascarpone Ravioli

As I've written about before, I was lucky enough to receive the pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid  as a wedding gift.  I haven't used it as much as I should mainly because of poor planning.  While homemade pasta doesn't take long to make, it is more time consuming that throwing a box of pasta in boiling water.  Of course that extra time is soooooo worth it.  As is proven by my pesto with homemade fettucine!

Something I've been dying to tackle with the pasta maker is homemade ravioli, since Thanksgiving when I roasted and pureed pumpkin for pumpkin pie I have wanted to make a Pumpkin Mascarpone Ravioli.  Lucky for me pureed pumpkin keeps beautifully in the freezer so I was able to pull some out to make these little beauties.  Boy am I glad that I did!

Meatless Monday: Sherried Mushroom & Goat Cheese Frittata

Back to reality and back on the Meatless Monday track.  I took the easy way out today with a frittata, but since I really didn't eat too many eggs over my trip back to Boston I had a craving.  Besides that I love frittatas, they are easy, hearty and keep great for leftover lunches or dinners.  With the boy back to work today and me heading back on Wednesday, I'm all over easy leftovers.

I love how meaty mushrooms taste and for a carnivore they are a great substitution for meat especially if cooked right.  These mushrooms are so full of flavor and come together very easily.  They can easily be used in anything you like mushrooms in or on, a steak, risotto, let your imagination run wild!

Meatless Monday: Domestic Divas Wild Rice Risotto with Cranberries and Walnuts

I feel so lucky to have the Domestic Diva herself back with a very special Meatless Monday holiday recipe.  It was the Diva who inspired me to take part in Meatless Mondays, and I can't think of a better guest post that this delicious sounding risotto.  What could be better on your holiday table?

From the Diva
I'm thrilled to be back for another guest post on Piccante Dolce! Even better, this special guest post is also a Meatless Monday recipe. How's that for service?

I created this recipe for Wild Rice Risotto with Cranberries and Walnuts especially for the holidays. The wild rice, sauteed with ginger and shallots, doused with white wine, and then slowly cooked in vegetable stock captures that rich, spicy, comforting vibe of this special time. The dish is finished with chopped parsley, toasted walnuts, and dried cranberries.

While this rice makes a great stuffing (try using it instead of traditional bread stuffing -- it's a gluten-free alternative) or a perfect side dish, it's also wonderful as a stand alone Meatless Monday main course. The whole grains and walnuts give it both fiber and protein. Oh, and did I mention that it's healthy, too? That's right! It's a winning recipe all around.

Meatless Monday: Quick Cheese Enchiladas

This week's Meatless Monday came about simply by trying to use items I had in the house as well as fulfilling a craving for Mexican.  While cleaning the pantry I found a can of chopped tomatoes, with onions, garlic & green pepper.  While I usually prep everything from scratch, this is a short cut that makes sense every so often and absolutely came in handy since I wanted a quick and easy lunch.  This little can of tomatoes would be the perfect base for a spicy Enchilada sauce, especially when paired with some of the various chili powders I have collected.

Living in LA and having tons of great Mexican at my fingertips I grew to love it.  Unfortunately good Mexican is few and far between in Toronto, especially because a burrito us generally my last choice when I have a craving.  It can be found, but not easily in my neighborhood.  As a result I am constantly looking to fill my cravings for it at home.  If I'm out of good corn tortillas and don't feel like driving downtown, I make my own.  It's time consuming, but oh so worth it.  Luckily for this dish I had the tortillas on hand, because making my own would take the quick out of the equation in this one.

After I made the pumpkin puree for my Thanksgiving pie, I tossed the pumpkin seeds with olive oil, sea salt and smoked paprika.  They are delicious and I knew the subtle heat and crunch would be perfect with the spicy savory enchiladas , so I sprinkled a couple tablespoons atop the enchiladas before baking.

Meatless Monday: Portobello Burgers

Have you been to the Burger's Priest?  This question only applies if you live in Toronto or have visited in the last 6 or 7 months, but it's a very serious question.  If you are in Toronto and haven't been, go today. Go for lunch, dinner, a snack, just go.

What does a place called Burger's Priest have to do with Meatless Monday?  I mean it makes no sense, right?  Wrong!  While it is any red-blooded burger loving carnivores dream, we aren't talking about meat today.  We are talking about veggies and specifically veggie burgers.  The Priest's answer to a veggie burger is something called "The Option." Sounds vague, right?  Totally vague, but when you ask you are told it's two portobello caps, sandwiched together and filled with cheese, breaded in Panko and fried.   I don't care whether you are a meat-lover or not, you have to admit this sounds good and completely unlike any veggie burger you've ever had.  At least it did to me.

I was at the Priest earlier in the month when my friend JM was visiting.  She's is a pescatarian and having heard about The Option from me, really wanted to try it.  Now my burger was delicious, but when I say her ooey, gooey burger of mushrooms and cheese looked unreal, it's an understatement.  I mean this burger flies right in the face of anyone who thinks being a vegetarian automatically means you are eating healthier.   Recognizing that, while nice once in awhile, this is far from a healthy option I wanted to see if I could recreate "The Option" at home but in a bit healthier of a way.

Meatless Monday & Love 4 Lasagna: Sweet Corn Lasagna

This past July my sister threw what could not have been a more perfect bachelorette (or stagette as they say he in the Great White North) weekend for me.  It was chock full of lounging by a pool, great food, great friends and a select few bachelorette type activities.  I had the best time and was able to eat some amazing food.  Our first night we ate at Cube Marketplace, a gourmet market mixed with a cafe that focus on traditional Italian cooking with a California twist.  They buy almost all locally at the Santa Monica Farmer's market and only buy from producers who practice cruelty-free farming.  This place was so up my alley it's scary and ridiculous that I hadn't eaten here before.  Each week they pick a different region in Italy to focus, so you could literally eat there every week and not have the same thing.  

For the life of me I don't remember what region was the focus when we were there, I just remember delicious wine, delicious cheese and delicious foods.  The one that specifically stuck in my head was the Sweet Corn Stuffed Pasta.  We agreed on a couple of appetizer items and then each of us selected a salad or pasta or other entree, one of my girlfriends chose the Sweet Corn Stuffed Pasta.  While I had heard amazing things about Cube, for me this is a dish that could have gone either way.  Upon tasting it I couldn't believe I was skeptical!  It was delicious a ricotta corn filling in a brown butter sauce with crispy sage, it was delicious!

When I was brainstorming ideas for Love 4 Lasagna I thought of this dish and thought it could potentially translate well into a lasagna and could do double duty for Meatless Monday.  The problem was I didn't entirely remember what was in the dish and since they have an ever changing menu I couldn't even go online to see how the dish was described in the menu.  So I went on the Cube site, went out on a limb and emailed telling them what I was doing and asked for the recipe.  In less than 6 hours I had the recipe in my inbox, such a pleasant surprise!  Upon reading it I knew that the sweet corn filling would be the perfect jumping off point for my lasagna.  I made a few tweaks along the way but the following recipe is where it ended up, all credit for the idea and the bulk of the filling recipe goes to Jun Tuan who is from Cube and sent it my way. 

Meatless Monday: Whole Wheat Winter Squash Pancakes

Here we are Meatless Monday is upon us and yet again I find myself scrambling for a post.  This time I'm really scrambling for a post because I feel like the majority of my Meatless Monday creations have been soup or pasta and when I first think of meatless recipes those are the two things that are top of mind.  I do have a couple of great sandwich options that I'm working on for the coming weeks but nothing for today.  What's a girl to do?  I surveyed my fridge as I thought about breakfast and saw a container of pureed Blue Hubbard squash that I made last week.

While we were out at Cooper's Farm last week, we saw this HUGE blue winter squash that I just had to bring home.  Mainly because I was hoping the flesh might be blue.  That hope that was immediately dashed upon doing some research and finding that Blue Hubbard squash has a bright orange flesh and a starchy texture.  I also learned that the best way to break into this puppy was to wrap it in a bag and just drop it.  That just sounded like too much fun, so I went for it.  The initial gentle drop yielded nothing, so I just smashed it on our patio stone out back and it cracked in two!

Meatless Monday: Grilled Halloumi on Baby Romaine & Pomegranate Vinaigrette

I made it pretty clear when I started writing the Meatless Monday posts, that one of the reasons I was doing this as a way to get the boy and I to eat more veggies.  One of the simplest things I try to throw together with every meal, meatless or not, is a salad.

Growing up I loved blue cheese dressing, something I likely picked up from my father who still favors blue cheese, along with other creamy dressings.  Now don't get me wrong it's hard for me to turn away blue cheese, especially when it comes to buffalo wings, but I know that it is not the best option for  everyday.  In recent years I've discovered that when eating salad at home, rather than buy pre-made vinaigrette it's just as easy and more tasty to throw together my own.  Sometimes I'll take the time to  whisk ingredients together in a bowl but more often than not I will throw one of my various vinegars and a bit more of one of my various oils, with some salt & pepper and toss it as is.   The key to making this work and keeping it from getting boring is to have an arsenal of oils and vinegars.  We always have olive oil, grapeseed oil and at least one nut oil.  Other types will come and go, but those are some of our pantry staples.  For vinegars, I have balsamic, red wine, white wine, and lately a pomegranate balsamic that's really great.  But that too will rotate based on what I see when I go to the market and my favorite store for oil, vinegar and hot sauce Taste the Fourth Sense.

Meatless Monday & Unprocessed: Tomato & White Bean Soup

With the brisk weather and the coming of fall I've been on a bit of a soup kick lately.  The last few days have been particularly grey which only intensified my soup craving.  I so didn't feel like leaving the house to put together the week's Meatless Monday so I came up with this soup using simple items I always have on hand.  It is inspired by one of my favorite Tuscan dishes, Fagioli all'Uccelletto.

The ingredients in this soup are pantry staples that I think everyone should keep since they make throwing together a quick meal infinitely easier.  Carrots, celery, onions and garlic are the perfect base for soups and canned white beans are great on their own or in salad or soups or stews.  Since starting Unprocessed October I've made them from dried and keep them in the fridge the way I would keep cans in my pantry.  They are so easy to make fresh and have so much more flavor that I don't know if I will ever buy canned beans again.  

I used to buy and keep commercially canned tomatoes, but at the end of August the boy and I decided to can 2 bushels of farm fresh Roma tomatoes.  It was pretty grueling and took a whole day, but seeing my 40+ jars line up on a shelf in the basement makes it all worth it.  Being able to just pull from that shelf whenever I want to make sauce or soup and know where the tomatoes came from and exactly what is each jar is so satisfying.   Upon opening a new jar I am immediately hit with the smell of summer and sun-kissed tomatoes fresh off the vine.  It bring me back to childhood and eating a big juicy tomato like an apple while swinging on my blue and white swing set outside of our home in Shelburne, VT.  

Meatless Monday & Unprocessed: Zuppa di Verdura & Ribollita

Years ago I was given a cookbook, The Flavors of Tuscany from a friend I has studied with in Florence with who was as much of a foodie as me.  One thing we both really enjoyed during our time was Ribollita which translated means re-boiled.  To the uninitiated that doesn't sound like much, but to those with a love of Tuscan fare as I do, it makes you swoon.  It brings to mind a thick and hearty vegetable and bread soups with gorgeous ribbons of cavolo nero.  Cut to last week when I was at the farmer's market, Zephyr Farms had gorgeous organic black kale.  Now gorgeous and kale are not two words I generally would put in the same sentence.  I am the first to admit, I'm so not a kale person.  While I love the idea of it, the look of it when it's fresh, I've just not been able to get over the flavor.  But when I saw the kale (or cavolo nero) at the market I was instantly reminded that the only time I have enjoyed it was when I was in Florence eating Ribollita.  At that moment I realized I had no other choice but to finally after more than 10 years attempt Ribollita.

The thing about Ribollita is that each person or restaurant's is just a bit different from the next.  The reason it is called reboiled is that you take leftover vegetable soup, "reboil" it on the stove and layer it with stale bread rubbed with garlic.  If you don't have stale bread just toast it up to get it all crispy, rub the cut side of a clove of garlic on the bread and let it soak up the delicious veggie soup.    Each ribollita is different because each person's vegetable soup  is made differently.  I went with the Flavors of Tuscany Zuppa di Verdura as everything I've ever made from this book has been a perfect reminder of my time in Tuscany.