Roasted Broccoli, Brussels Sprout, and Lentil Salad

In in interest of being healthy, I’ve decided to leave this salad mostly as I found it and share it with everyone. I didn’t have any arugula handy, so tried it as a roasted vegetable side, and it worked fantastic. If you’d like a little more greenery in it, feel free to follow the link below in the actual recipe to the original post I got it from. If you want a little less healthy of an option, I bet this would be amazing with some crumbled bacon. Mmmm bacon. Sorry.Got distracted there for a moment. Anyway, on to the recipe.

Start out by preheating an oven to 425°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat. Have you noticed yet how much I love my silpat? Cut the broccoli into bite sized chunks and cut the brussels sprouts in half through the stem. Toss everything in olive oil. Bake 10 minutes, stir, bake another 10, and if the vegetables are crisp-tender and well browned, pull them out. If not, toss them again and bake until they are.

 

Roasted Vegetable Panini

Today marks the start of a new series of posts on this blog, which I’m calling Technique Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I’ll post a new dish which features a basic cooking technique, and go over that technique in greater than usual detail. Hopefully this will help everyone learn a bit more about the nuts and bolts of cooking.

Today we’re going to be broiling vegetables. Broiling is wonderful for browning, melting crumbs, and cooking thin foods. For example, it’s great for fish, thin vegetables, and garlic bread. It’s not good for thicker foods, such as potatoes, large cuts of meat, or actually baking bread. Generally broiling is done 4-5″ from the heating element of your oven (measured to the top of the food, not the rack), so I usually use the second rack down in my oven. If I’m broiling something very burn-sensitive like a quick brown on a breadcrumb topping, though, the third down might be better for more even browning and less chance of burning. You want to watch the food closely when broiling, since the difference between browned and burnt is less than a minute.

 

Feta Cheese Spread

This is going to be a short post… first, I’m not entirely awake yet, and second, this is a pretty simple recipe. It’s also kind of a pre-post for a roasted vegetable panini that I’ll post in a few days, but I wanted separate recipes since this is a really tasty spread.

Anyway, start with feta cheese, sour cream, fresh dill, kosher salt (I’m using a roasted tomato salt, hence the red, but kosher is fine), a diced garlic clove, and a bit of lemon juice.

 

Gluten-Free Granola

Eating healthy is difficult when you travel, and especially so if you’re on a restricted diet. A friend of mine who has to avoid gluten was going out of town, so I made her a batch of gluten free granola. As is typical for my house, I did a double batch, which is why the quantities you’ll see here are so much larger than what you might see from this recipe.

Start by mixing together gluten free rolled oats, chopped almonds (or substitute other mixed nuts), pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds in a roasting pan. I used to use a baking sheet, but this works much better for stirring and not spilling any into your oven or on the floor.

Next add in ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and kosher salt.

 

Tangy Sauteed Cabbage

Well, St. Patrick’s Day is over. Time for leftover corned beef sandwiches, and nursing hangovers. Well, no hangover this year, but we did make an awful lot of great food. One very pleasant surprise was this tangy cabbage recipe that I tried, and will definitely be making again soon.

Start by sauteing some onions in olive oil in a dutch oven or large skillet. You’ll notice there isn’t much onion, and they’re actually sliced pearl onions, due to a lack of foresight in checking the quality of my onions before starting cooking.

Once the onions have started to soften, add in garlic. We can’t cook onions without garlic!

 

Turkey Taco Casserole

I always try to keep a balance, in my life and on this blog, of healthy and indulgent. I’ll post apple cranberry crisps one day and chocolate gingersnap tarts the next, or rich and creamy macaroni and cheese but balance it with a winter ribollita soup. So since I just posted incredibly chocolaty PMS Cookies a few days ago, today I’m giving you all a healthy turkey casserole. Which, as it happens, is going to be my lunch today as well.

Start by browning turkey in a large skillet, draining off any excess fat when browned.

Add a small can of spicy v-8 and some taco seasoning, then mix thoroughly and cook a bit longer.

 

Pomegranate Roast Chicken

This dish, and especially this sauce, has rapidly become a favorite of mine. I’ve cooked it twice now, and used a variation of the sauce for another dish as well. The chicken is tender and moist, the sauce has incredible flavor, and I love the vegetables cooked in the chicken drippings with butter and sage. I got this recipe from In Sock Monkey Slippers, and changed a few things, but the basic awesome recipe is from them. They also truss the chicken, which I’m too lazy to do.

To start, preheat your oven to 425 and cut up a bunch of root vegetables (potatoes, yams, carrots, squash, apples, and brussels sprouts all work well) and put them in the bottom of a roasting pan.