For Christmas my sister-in-law bought me a box of conversation cards with questions all about food. Some of the questions are a little bit silly like, “has our love of bacon gone too far?” (Yes, bacon is nice, but bacon maple frosting is too far) Some are really fun to think about like, “what would you serve if Julia Child came to diner?” (Probably something Puerto Rican since maybe she wouldn’t have eaten much of that before)

One question I really like is, “what do you eat when you’re alone?” I like this question because the answer encompasses a whole range of foods. When I’m lazy, I like popcorn, a spoonful of Nutella, and cheese and crackers. Sometimes when I’m alone I like to try something really difficult to make because then if it comes out badly, no one else knows. But my favorite thing to eat when I’m on my own is Greek salad. I love Greek salad. It’s crunchy and salty. It’s pretty healthy, but it’s got some indulgences with the olives and cheese. And I just love all the flavors and I eat it whenever I can. When I was in grad school writing my thesis, I’d run down to the deli beneath my apartment and grab a salad on a break. When, it was too loud and crazy at when I worked at Ford’s Theatre, I’d run to Cosi for lunch and get one. And now I always search for it on takeaway menus.

And also, I eat Greek salad when I’m alone because Ryan doesn’t like olives and feta. But sometimes I can’t resist, and I make it for dinner anyway. I wanted to make it a little heartier, so I decided to substitute the greens for bulgur, but still keep all the yummy other vegetables. This was the first time I ever had bulgur and it was so good! It’s small like quinoa, but chewier like rice. Also I like that it’s got an uneven shape.

To be honest, although it’s a straightforward salad recipe, I feel a little nervous sharing this! I have two Greek coworkers who sometimes ready this blog, and I’m changing up a traditional dish. That feels somewhat taboo. But in truth, this recipe is like tabbouleh and regular Greek salad fell in love and had a delicious hybrid child. So it’s like two wonderful Greek recipes in one. This is yummy, a nice side dish, and Ryan even liked it (without the feta and olives).

One last thing before the recipe – I have a tip on cutting cherry tomatoes. Cutting a lot of small circular foods is kind of annoying and time consuming. To speed up the process, take two lids from food storage containers. Put your tomatoes (or grapes or pitted cherries or your circular whatever) between the two container lids. Make sure your knife is sharp, then carefully cut horizontally between the two lids. Then boom, you’ve got lots of tomato halves in one slice. Some might be a little uneven, but for a salad that’s not really important. I really like this trick because I think it makes preparing a salad less tedious and it’s a fun trick. Sorry, I don’t have a trick for cutting tomatoes into quarters.

Unrelated to this post, after three years of having a Twitter account, I’ve decided to finally start using it. For real, I’m going to start tweeting and stuff. Help me get up and running! You can follow me @mariel621. Thanks!

Messy level: Salad is so easy and neat – if you plan it properly. You’ll need a cutting board, knife, and a saucepan for the bulgur. You could use a separate bowl to mix it all together and serve, but if you have a large enough saucepan you can do it in there. I didn’t have a large enough saucepan, then I transferred it to a mixing bowl that was too small, and then I finally got it right and put it in a big enough bowl. Don’t make my mistakes, and it’s a one spoon recipe.

Bulgur Greek Salad

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Serves: 6 large servings

Ingredients

• 1½ cups bulgur
• 3 cups water
• ½ cup cherry tomatoes in quarters
• ½ cup cubed cucumber
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped (or in strips if you prefer)
• ½ red onion, cut into matchsticks
• ⅓ cup pitted kalamata olives
• ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• oregano (optional)

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the bulgur and water. Bring it to boil.
2. Once the water has come to a boil, cover, and lower the heat. Simmer until all the water is absorbed. It should take about 15-20 minutes, but check what the package says.
3. While the bulgur is cooking is cooking chop up all of your vegetables
4. When the bulger is finished, fluff it with a fork and let cool to room temperature (or just slightly warm).
5. Stir the vegetables into the bulgur.
6. Pour the olive oil and balsamic over the bulgur and vegetables. Taste and adjust as you prefer. I like only a little balsamic to give it a nice tang, but not over power the dish.
7. Serve and sprinkle with a little oregano (dried or fresh) for garnish.

3.2.2925

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And then I tried a roasted acorn squash stuffed with rice and lentils. It came out under cooked and under seasoned. That was probably a recipe that with a little tweaking I could get right, but I was still disappointed.

But one meal worth writing about was my lunch on Monday. I had off for Columbus day and my friends Ashley and Mala came over. We had a pretty fancy lunch despite some lazy hostessing on my part. And by lazy hostessing, I mean that 75% of the dining table was covered with a puzzle of Abraham Lincoln that I’m working on, and I also made them use paper plates. In spite of that, lunch actually turned out quite nice and now I wish I had taken more pictures.

We started out with a cheese plate. Ashley brought apple-cinnamon covered goat cheese. I had never had goat cheese coated in anything but herbs, so it was cool to try. We also had Gruyere and cheddar, which I served on my fancy cheese platter with the fancy cheese knives.

For our lunch we had a salad (that Ashley made), pici pasta, and homemade tomato sauce. Ashley’s salad was a great combination of sweet, from the fruits, and a sharp saltiness, from the blue cheese. The pear she used was a little soft, which was actually really nice because it soaked up the dressing. And the addition of pecans made for a nice crunch.

The recipes for the pici and tomato sauce I adapted from the Amateur Gourmet. We were all skeptical of how well the pasta would come out and we were delighted that it actually tasted like pasta. We did have some issues with shaping the pasta. The Amateur Gourmet said to shape the pasta, put it on a plate, and toss it with flour before putting the pasta into boiling water. We did that, but we must not have used enough flour because all the pasta stuck together and Mala and I ended up ripping the heap of dough apart and throwing in random sized pieces into the water. The three of us agreed it would have been easier to bring the water to a boil, then shape the pasta, then immediately throw it in the water so the shape would be less weird. Because of the random shaping, some of the fatter pieces were heavy and reminded me of gnocchi. But, if you roll thinner pieces it really tastes just like pasta. Though in the end, I think we were all impressed that we made homemade pasta for lunch.

The pasta sauce was my favorite part. I learned about it from the Amateur Gourmet, but the original author is Marcella Hazan. This recipe is SO EASY and SO DELICIOUS. I really don’t think I’m overselling it. There’s this pasta restaurant that Ryan and I love called Pasta Mia. The pasta there is so good that we always overeat because we want to soak up as much of the good flavor as possible. The first time I made this recipe I thought, “this smells like Pasta Mia.” But I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to influence Ryan. Then he took a bite and said, “this is like Pasta Mia.” So if Pasta Mia means anything to you, then you’ll know this sauce is good. If Pasta Mia means nothing to you, sorry. You should still try it because it’s so simple and comforting and tasty.

Anyway, today’s post has three recipes and I hope you enjoy!

Ashley’s Salad–

Ingredients:

(Portion amounts based on your taste preferences)

arugula

sweet and spicy pecans

crumbled blue cheese

1 pear, sliced

dried cranberries

balsamic vinaigrette

Directions: 

1. Mix arugula, pecans, cheese, pear, and cranberries in a large bowl.

2. Dress with balsamic vinaigrette. Serve!

Tomato Sauce –

Ingredients:

1 28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes

5 tbsp butter

1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half.

Directions:

1. Empty the can of tomatoes into a pot. Use a knife and roughly cut up the tomatoes. Don’t get crazy with this, just cut the tomatoes in halves or quarters.

2. Add the butter and onion halves. Turn on the heat to medium and bring to a simmer.

3. Once it’s simmering, lower the heat. Let it simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally and use your spoon to smash and crush the tomatoes.

4. After 45 minutes, discard the onion.

5. Serve.

Pici Pasta –

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 large egg, beaten (Mala beat the egg first, then we measured out half)

1 cup water, room temperature

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix together flour and salt.

2. Add the water and egg. Knead until smooth. (Amateur Gourmet says about 5 minutes)

3. Flatten it and rub it with olive oil. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes.

4. While you’re waiting for the dough, bring  a large pot of water to boil.

5. Generously flour your work surface and hands. Roll out the dough. Cut the dough into desired pieces. (I cut the dough into chunks and then rolled out snakes).

6. Drop the pasta snakes into the boiling water.

7. Boil for 3-4 minutes.  You want the pasta to be cooked through but not raw.

8. Drain, top with sauce. Serve!

Messy level: The salad and tomato sauces are easy 1-2 spoon recipes. The pici though is a 4-spoon recipe. You have to stick you hands in and knead the dough and it get really sticky and caked into your finger nails. Also you have to flour your work surface and roll everything out. It takes a bit of work and makes quite a bit of mess. All this mess is the reason I was  a lazy hostess and opted for paper plates.

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I feel like I should name my cooking guy. In part because, I feel guilty that I cut him in half. And I cut him in half because I think this recipe is mostly pretty good for beginner cooks – but not completely novice friendly. 2/3 of this recipe is super easy, it’s just the dressing that I think is the step up. It’s not hard to make the dressing, but it requires ingredients that a beginner cook might not want to buy (sherry vinegar). But, this recipe is really yummy and so if you don’t want to make the dressing, just do the quinoa and veggies and top it with some store bought dressing if you like.

Also, before we get to the instructions, I wanted to  let it be known that I think this recipe is for girls. I know that’s a huge blanket statement and probably a little bit unfair, but here’s my reasoning.  This recipe is all about the vegetables. And it has some frou-frou ingredients. Now, that’s not to say that boys don’t like vegetables but based on the men in my life (Ryan, my father, and my brother Eric) vegetables aren’t their first choice. I mean they’ll eat them, but their first choice is never going to be a salad.  Recently, my mom and I made a seafood stew heavy with vegetables.  At the end of the meal the seafood was gone, but the veggies were still lining Papa’s plate. And also, from what my friends tell me, the same is true of their respective husbands and boyfriends. And things like quinoa, shallots, and sherry are a little frou-frou. Now I’m sure some of you are saying, that you totally eat quinoa regularly and it’s completely a staple. I agree, quinoa can be a staple but the average single guy probably doesn’t make quinoa as part of their repertoire.

For that reason I was a little hesitant about posting this recipe. And also because Ryan wasn’t a huge fan, and that made me nervous. Ryan is usually 50% of my taste-testing base. So if Ryan doesn’t like it, and I do, how do I know if I should post it? But, my coworker Cara inadvertently helped convince me that I should post it. I was eating it for lunch in our tiny shared office and she walked in and told me it smelled good. I told her that it was good, and tasted even better two days later. I also told her what was in it and that Ryan didn’t really like it. And she said, unprompted from me, that it sounded good and “like a girly recipe.” Also a few weeks later she said I inspired her and that she had made her own beet-quinoa-salad.

Also, to clarify, it wasn’t that Ryan didn’t like it because the recipe was bad. I mean, we’ve had recipes that have gone awry, and we look at each other like, “let’s throw this away immediately and make a PB&J.” This wasn’t that time. Ryan wasn’t a fan because the flavors weren’t something that his palate enjoyed. So, that’s a whole different beast. I have friends who don’t like tomatoes, or cilantro, or onions and so a recipe isn’t inherently bad because it has those things, it’s just not to their liking. So read the recipe below, and see how you feel.

Anyway, I thought this recipe was delicious and was even more delicious as leftovers because the flavors mellowed and blended. And so I know it’s bad form to start with some weird negatives and then try to convince you that’s it good. But it’s too late I did it. This recipe is good, and easy, and you should try it.

Pretty little radishes and beets

And I was really excited when I found this recipe because I had never found anything interesting to do with radishes. Ryan and I went to the farmer’s market and saw the most beautiful bunch of magenta radishes, and so we just had to buy them. But all I’ve ever done with radishes is eat them raw with dip or chop them up for salads. Occasionally I’ve diced them really fine and mixed them into meatloaf, but that’s the most exotic thing. I did a little Google searching and really didn’t come up with a whole lot.

But then, I got an email from the library and Deb Perelman’s The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook was available for pick up! I love her blog and she is my go-to for sweets and baked goods. I was really excited to get her book and there was so much I wanted to try. And then, when I found this recipe I knew it would be perfect for my lovely radishes. Perelman used radishes, beats, and turnips, but I just used the first two. You could probably improvise and use any root vegetables that are your favorite (carrots, parsnips, potatoes, etc). I really liked this dish because you can prepare it, heat it, and forget about it. You don’t really have to attend to it much throughout the cooking. It’s also a great stand-alone dish or it can be eaten as a side with some meat. I thought it was filling, but not too heavy, and with a great complex and yummy flavor. Hope you enjoy it too.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

Salt

3 small shallots

1 – 1 1/2 pounds of beets and radishes

Lemon juice

Black Pepper

For the dressing:

2 tbsp sherry vinegar

1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

salt, to taste

3 tbsp olive oil

Black Pepper

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 400°

2. Rinse quinoa and cook it according to package instructions. Cooking quinoa usually means this: Use double the amount of water as quinoa, so in this case 1/2 cup quinoa and one cup water. Put both in a pot and bring to boil. Then turn down heat to low, cover, and simmer until the water is absorbed. This takes about 10-15 minutes. You’re not supposed to lift the lid while it’s cooking, but if you’re a new cook and curious, open the lid about 2 minutes before you think it should be one. Take a fork or spoon and push aside some quinoa to see how much water is under the grains. If it’s a lot of water you need more time. If it’s no water, it’s probably good to go.

3. Scrub and rinse veggies. Chop them in half or in quarters if the veggies are especially large

4. Peel shallots and separate cloves if there is more than one inside the skin. Place the shallots on aluminum foil, sprinkle them with olive oil, and then fold the aluminum foil into a little packet.

5. Coat a baking sheet or roasting pan with oil. Arrange the veggies in one layer. Sprinkle with olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

6. Put the roasting pan and the aluminum foil shallot packet in the oven.

7. Roast the veggies for 30 minutes. Stir about halfway through cook time. Veggies are done when they are tender (which is when you can easily poke them with a fork).

For the dressing:

1. Remove the shallots from the oven when you remove the root veggies.

2. Take the shallots and put them in a food processor or blender.

3. Blend with the sherry, balsamic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Taste. Add more olive oil if it’s too tart and tangy from the vinegar. Add more vinegar if you like the flavor.

Assembly:

1. Put some quinoa on the plate.

2. Put the root vegetables on top of the quinoa.

3. Pour the dressing over the quinoa and vegetables. Leave it like that for presentation, but when you eat it I recommend mixing it all up because it tastes GREAT.

Messy Level:  Low. As I said before, it’s pretty much prep, cook, and serve. You don’t need too many utensils and there’s not a lot of opportunity for spilling. Although, beet juice does dye everything.

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