Category: Side Dish

Categories
Side Dish Vegetables

Roasted Cauliflower

I love roasted cauliflower. The flavor is great and you can season it to match whatever you’re cooking. Cauliflower – like all brassicas (broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, etc.) loves a ton of heat and tastes better when it gets browned and even blackened.

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees, put an oven rack in the top position (this will help the cauliflower brown faster due to reflected heat from the top of the oven.
  • Cut one head of cauliflower into 1-2 inch pieces. Don’t sweat perfection here.
  • Toss with 1/2 c or so of Greek yoghurt, 2 T of olive oil, and a good amount of S&P. This is the basic recipe – you can add other flavors, see note below.
  • Place cauliflower on a sheet pan and roast for 15-20 minutes until browned and softened. Stir once or twice and rotate the sheet pan for even cooking.
  • Serve – sprinkle with parsley, nuts, lemon/lime juice if you’d like.

Other flavoring ideas:

  • Curry powder (1 T or so)
  • Sriracha or other hot sauce (to taste)
  • Paprika (smoked is great!) (1 T or so)
  • Chili crisp (1 T or so) and soy sauce (1 T or so)
  • The world’s your oyster here – be creative (and send me your ideas!)

Categories
Side Dish Vegetables

Celery and Parmesan Salad

This is a great fresh salad that uses an unexpected main ingredient, celery! Make it at least an hour ahead of time so that the flavors have time to meld. You can omit the parmesan to make this vegan. Save the celery leaves and add them to the salad too.

  • One head of celery, thinly (1/8 inch or so) sliced. Use a mandoline if you have one
  • Lemon-y vinaigrette as needed (1/3 c lemon juice, 3/4-1 c olive oil (to taste), 1 T mayo, S&P (to taste) – whisk to combine)
  • 1/2 c grated parmesan or pecorino (or a combination)
  • 1/2 c chopped nuts – walnuts are my fav here

Combine celery and vinaigrette, add only enough dressing to coat the celery – you don’t want it all gloppy. Set aside for an hour. Just before serving add the cheese and nuts, toss to combine and serve. Fresh herbs – parsley, dill – would be good here too!

Categories
Comfort Food Side Dish Vegetables

ChezHoff’s White Bean Stew w/ Toasted Bread Crumbs

This is one of the favorite side dishes at our house and amongst our family and friends. Like most things I make it is easily adaptable – you can add different ingredients, leave things out, etc. It’s also a great main course and can be made vegetarian (or even vegan – which is a bit outside my norm!)

Ingredients

  • I large yellow onion, diced (optional if your initials are JS)
  • 2-4 (depending on your taste) cloves of garlic, minced
  • 4 slices of bacon (or a similar amount of pancetta, nduja, guanciale, salami, etc) (optional)
  • 3 – 14 oz cans of any kind of white beans (cannellini, great northern, etc.), drained and rinsed
  • 2 – 14 oz cans of diced fire-roasted tomatoes drained, juice reserved
  • Olive oil, as needed
  • ½ c white wine
  • 2-3 cups of low sodium chicken broth
  • Pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 1 T. dried thyme (rosemary would be fine too)
  • 8 cups (ish) of Kale, Spinach, Arugula, Chard – something green and bitter (optional)
  • 1 c panko bread crumbs
  • Zest of one lemon
  • 1 c parsley, minced
  • S&P

Directions

  • Cook bacon in a large dutch oven (you know, a pot) until crisp, remove, saving fat
    • If you’re using another meat, sauté it for a couple of minutes in olive oil
  • Chop bacon and save it (snacking on some of it is totally understandable)
  • Sauté onion in the bacon fat over medium heat, adding olive oil as needed (or just cause you want to), 4-5 minutes until golden brown(ish) and soft
  • Now would be a good time to add some salt – maybe ½ teaspoon of Kosher
  • Add garlic and sauté another 2-3 minutes
  • Add tomatoes and – you guessed it, saute another 3-4 minutes. Stir a lot to prevent burning
  • Add the red pepper flakes and thyme
  • Add the reserved tomato juice, bacon, white wine, and broth
  • Add the beans and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes – you want everything hot and bubbly
  • Put about ¼(ish) of the bean and broth mixture into a blender and blend (leave the lid slightly ajar and put a towel over the damn thing when you turn it on unless you enjoy being covered in lava hot beans and broth. Add more broth to form a smooth puree
    • You want this really smooth. Would be good if you had a Vitamix (the only blender worth having – they’ll outlast 3-4 cheap blenders and do a better job. They’re expensive but you can save money by getting a refurbished one from the Vitamix web site)
  • Add the pureed beans back into the pot and cook (keep stirring) until they reach your desired consistency – maybe another 10 minutes, this is up to you
  • Add the kale and cook until softened
  • Stir in ½ of the parsley (a little more olive oil would be good too)
  • Adjust salt and pepper as needed
  • Meanwhile…you can do this next bit while the beans are cooking:
    • Heat a large non-stick skilled over medium heat
    • Add 2 T of olive oil and heat for a minute
    • Add the panko and sauté until GBD (golden brown and delicious)
    • You’ll need to stir these a lot – watch them, they can burn quickly (don’t ask me how I know this)
    • Once GBD, remove from the heat and stir in the remaining parsley and lemon zest  
  • Serving
    • This can be a main dish or a side (it’s particularly good with pork) (or with prosciutto wrapped cod)
    • Serve topped with the breadcrumbs and drizzled with (good) olive oil
    • A little parmesan or other hard (Italian – don’t buy the American crap…we make some amazing cheese here but the knockoffs of Parm and such suck. A lot) cheese would be just fine too
Categories
Side Dish Vegetables

Pickled Red Onions (P.R.O)

This is an easy one. Thinly slice one red onion – cutting pole-to-pole, French-style (look it up). Put the onions into a strainer and rinse under running water for about 30 seconds (this removes some of the sulfuric compounds – the stuff that makes you cry). In a bowl mix the onions, 1/2 c each of water and cider (or white or red) vinegar), 1 T of sugar, and 1 T of Kosher salt. You can add other flavorings too – lime juice, jalapeños (or, if you’re into that sort of thing, habaneros). Put the onions in a nicely labeled container and let sit for at least 3-4 hours. You can reuse the pickling liquid a couple of times – just add more onions.