Red Pepper and Potato Frittata

 It's been too hot to cook this week, so we've been enjoying leftovers for dinner each night. One of my favorites has been this red pepper and potato frittata that I originally made for brunch on Sunday. Cold with a green salad it made good dinners too.

Often frittatas like this include bacon. The key to getting good flavor without the bacon is to brown the onions until they are deep golden in places. A few bits stuck to the skillet are no bad thing, just unstick them before pouring in the eggs.

The other key flavor is the fresh oregano. It adds a green base note that offsets the sweet pepper and salty cheddar.

This is the beginning of red pepper season, and I can think of no better way to start it than with this frittata.

Red Pepper and Potato Frittata
1 potato, peeled and cut in 1/4 inch dice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
8 eggs
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1 cup grated cheddar

Put the potato cubes in a saucepan, cover with cold water and add a little coarse salt. Bring to the boil, covered, and simmer until just tender. This will take 5-8 minutes depending on the size of the cubes. Pierce with the tip of a knife to see when they're done. Drain and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a 10 inch cast iron skillet (or other oven-proof skillet) over medium-high heat. Add the red pepper, onions, and a sprinkling of salt. Sauté 5 minutes or so until tender and the onions are starting to brown. Add cooked potato, garlic and oregano. Sauté another minute or so until it smells great and the onions are well-colored. Smooth the vegetables out, scraping the bottom of the skillet to release any stuck pieces.

Whisk together the eggs, salt and pepper. Pour over the vegetables, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and let cook until the eggs are set around the edges, 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the broiler.

The center will still be wet. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and place the skillet under the broiler until the cheese is melted and browned. This will take about 3 minutes. As you can see in the picture, mine got very dark in places. Larry allowed as to how that tasted even better.

Let the frittata stand a minute before cutting into it.

Serves 6-8

Kale Salad with Grilled Carrots

Grilled carrots are really awesome. They're almost worth lighting a barbecue just for them.

Sunday night we cooked a full meal on the barbecue and I grilled some carrots and served them with a kale salad. The warm buttery carrots were a wonderful foil to the greens. And the salad made good leftovers for lunch the next day.

This is what I did.

Kale Salad with Grilled Carrots
Grilled Carrots:
6 carrots, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Kale Salad
juice of 1/2 lemon (and more to taste)
juice of scant half an orange
1 tsp chopped shallots
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch Tuscan kale

Cut carrots in half lengthwise. Blanch them in salted boiling water until tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain and cool in ice water. Dry them off and toss with the olive oil, oregano and balsamic. Grill over medium-high heat until grill marks appear, 3-5 minutes. Keep warm.

Whisk together lemon juice, orange juice, shallots, balsamic, olive oil, and a little salt and pepper.

Stem the kale and cut the leaves in half lengthwise. Stack them together and cut them in 1/4 inch strips crosswise. Toss the ribbons into the dressing, massaging the leaves well to absorb the oil and soften.

Mound the kale on a plate and place the warm grilled carrots on top.

Serves 4-6

Good as cold leftovers.

Spritely Winter Salad

Winter is the season for the more vigorous salad greens - watercress, radicchio, curly endive, cabbages, kale, nasturtium leaves - all of these are great additions to the salad bowl, and are more often found at the farmers markets in winter than summer when the heat causes them to wilt and become bitter (or dead).

I picked some watercress from a pot on the patio and some marjoram from the garden to decorate this salad we ate last night. The dressing is a vigorous combination of citrus juice, capers and oregano, so the greens need to be perky to stand up to it. I used radicchio and frisée on a bed of butter lettuce. Olives and pomegranates are an unusual combination, but added to the fun.

We enjoyed this colorful and zesty salad with a main course of leftover lentil stew and brown rice. It really perked up the meal.

Spritely Winter Salad
2 tbsp orange juice (from 1/2 an orange)
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tsp olive oil
1 tsp chopped drained capers
1/4 tsp chopped fresh oregano (or a sprinkle of dried)
2-3 cups mixed greens
2 tbsp pomegranate seeds
4 cured black olives, pitted and sliced

Whisk together the orange juice, lemon juice, olive oil, capers and oregano. Season with salt and pepper to taste, but remember the olives will add salt to the salad.

Toss together (or decoratively plate) the greens, pomegranate and olives. Toss with the vinaigrette and serve.

Serves 2

Summer Entertaining

Summer is an easy time of year to entertain. The fresh produce is spectacular and needs very little fussing - serve plain old corn on the cob and everyone's happy. And many dishes can be made ahead and served at room temperature on these warm evenings, so the chef can mingle with her guests.

Saturday night, we invited Shane and Emma to dinner. We poured glasses of hibiscus-lime iced tea and strolled the garden. I picked some herbs, greens and cherry tomatoes to round out the main course, and Shane picked blueberries for dessert.

We chatted over corn chips and our homemade salsa while I dressed the greens for the grilled eggplant salad. I had grilled the eggplant a couple of hours before when I got home from work, and left it at room temperature.

Warming up in the slow cooker was a white bean and tomato stew I had cooked early that morning. It had a little heat from our home-grown poblano and jalapeño peppers, but was still a gentle foil to the tart and spicy greens on the eggplant. (The slow cooker is a great way to warm food without having to watch that it doesn't burn.) Larry cooked corn on the cob, and we sat down to an easy yet delicious meal.

Dessert was peach ice cream that I'd made Wednesday evening with mountain-grown peaches from Ha's Apple Farm. I felt bad turning this luscious fruit into ice cream, but it got rave reviews, especially with our homegrown blueberries scattered on top.

As we ate dessert, the night grew dark and we lit candles. An owl flew to the top of our cypress tree, and the full moon rose. There's nothing like a simple summer dinner in the garden.

White Bean and Tomato Stew
1 cup dry white beans
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large tomato, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 poblano pepper
1 jalapeño pepper
1 heaping tablespoon fresh basil
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
1/2 cup parsley

Cook the beans in plenty of simmering water until tender, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours depending on the age of the beans. They should be just cooked, not mushy, because they will cook further in the stew. Drain them and set aside. They can be refrigerated overnight. If you prefer, you can use 2 14-oz cans of cannellini beans. Drain them and rinse them well.

Warm olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender. Add the garlic, tomato, and seeded and chopped peppers. Cook a couple of minutes and add the beans. Season with salt to taste. It can be refrigerated now if necessary.

Chop the fresh herbs and add to the stew as it warms. If it gets too dry, add a splash of water. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve warm.

Serves 6

Poblano peppers - like green peppers but with a little heat

White Bean and Tomato Stew

We're having a heat wave. It is just too darned hot to cook.

But we still need to eat, so I braved the kitchen to stir up this simple but delicious white bean stew. It's a one-pot meal that can be eaten hot or at room temperature, and it takes full advantage of the bounty of fall produce.

I had planned to use our home-grown tomatoes, but I think the heat is too much for them and the tomatoes on the vine are stuck at yellow.

I used dried white lima beans, but you can use any white bean like cannellini. Canned is okay too. Use 3 14oz cans, well drained and rinsed to remove the tinny flavor.

While I used just red peppers the other night, I have made this recipe before using a green bell pepper and an anaheim pepper (which is slightly spicy). So vary the peppers based on what your garden is producing or what you find at the market.

We enjoyed this easy meal sitting under the fan on our covered patio, listening to the Dodgers game. It was filling and tasty and very simple to eat. Just what was needed on that hot summer night. I enjoyed leftovers for lunch the next day.

If we had been hungrier, we could have eaten the stew with rice or another grain to up the protein count. A crisp salad would have been a nice addition too. I'll try that when it cools off.

White Bean and Tomato Stew
1 cup dry white beans
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped (or 1 14-oz can diced tomatoes)
2 red bell peppers, seeded and diced
1 heaping tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano

Cook the beans in plenty of boiling water until tender but still firm -- probably about 2 hours depending on the age of your beans. Drain them and set aside.

Sauté onions in olive oil over medium heat until soft. Add garlic, tomatoes and peppers. Cook another couple of minutes. Stir in basil, oregano and beans. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook another 15 minutes or so until the flavors are blended and the tomato juice has cooked off enough to make a thick stew.

Serves 6

Vegetarian Niçoise Salad

On these hot summer days, I don't feel like cooking.

But with the right produce in the fridge, dinner can be a nutritious and easy meal.

The other night I made this salad with leftover Greek Bean Salad as the main protein source.

I piled torn-up lettuce on the plate and dressed it with a simple red wine vinaigrette. I then added cherry tomatoes, diced avocado, hard boiled egg, black olives, cucumber and green pepper for extra crunch.

I spooned the bean salad in the center, and sprinkled a little extra dried oregano on top for color.

Protein from the eggs, beans and cheese, lots of vitamins and minerals from the vegetables, and a short time in the kitchen.

That's my kind of summer meal.

Grazing the Garden

I went out to the garden before lunch the other day, and harvested some salad ingredients.

Our lettuces are too small to make a good-sized green salad, so I used a butter lettuce from Finley Farms as a base. To this soft sweet lettuce, I added the following:

tender leaves:
young lettuce
various mesclun

spicy leaves:
wild arugula
nasturtium leaves
watercress

flowers:
nasturtiums - just the petals
arugula
watercress

herbs:
marjoram
thyme
oregano

I felt good sharing this bounty with my family. Unfortunately, by the time the salad was dressed with honey balsamic vinaigrette, the flavors were muted. That might have been a good thing, because I was not feeding adventurous eaters.

And I wanted them to eat this dish. A diversity of plants gives us a diversity of nutrients, so this was one healthy salad.

Chopped Italian Salad

This is a great marinated salad in the Italian style. Although it contains many antipasto ingredients, I serve it as a meal by itself, maybe with some good bread to sop up the dressing.

The protein comes from garbanzo beans (chickpeas). Toasting gives them a nutty flavor, and they act as croutons in the salad. They're not crunchy, but they have a density that makes a nice contrast to the tangy vegetables. Plus they have the added benefit of detoxifying your body of any sulfites in the wine you're drinking. They contain molybdenum, a trace mineral that detoxes sulfites, as well as plenty of insulin-balancing fiber and protein. Isn't it great that health food can taste so good?

Chopped Italian Salad
1 15-oz can garbanzo beans
1 6 1/2 oz jar marinated artichokes
3-4 tbsp olive oil
2 large stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 small red onion, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch dice
8 kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
2-3 tbsp red wine vinegar
2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
pepper
4 cups romaine leaves torn into bite-sized pieces, chilled and crisped

Rinse garbanzo beans and blot dry with a kitchen towel. Drain artichokes, reserving liquid, and cut them into 1/4 inch thick slices.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in skillet over high heat. Add garbanzo beans and cook, shaking pan often, until browned, about 7 minutes. (Add more oil if necessary.) In a 2-quart bowl, combine garbanzo beans, artichokes and their liquid, 2 tbsp olive oil, celery, onion, bell pepper, olives, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Toss until well mixed. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Let rest at room temperature up to 4 hours.

Toss vegetables again. Add romaine and mix well. Taste. If desired, add the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, and 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and toss again until well mixed. (I often leave out this second round of dressing because I find the salad tangy enough without.) Mound salad on platter and serve.

4 very large servings.

Healthy Quesadillas

Broccoli stems don't often make it into the steamer at our house. Usually, broccoli is a side dish, and I use the florets attached to the long thin stems, but the thicker trunk is too much bother to deal with and gets put back in the fridge.

On Saturday night I pulled it out, cooked it up with some spinach, and added it to quesadillas. What a great way to hide broccoli!

Remember, we need to eat the cabbage family (including broccoli) regularly in order to make healthy use of our body's estrogen. These quesadillas have the health benefits of broccoli without the taste.

My broccoli stems were not tough and woody, so I didn't have to peel them. When they were almost soft I added the spinach and let it all cook down. Finely chopped, the greens made a nice filling in the quesadillas along with sautéed mushrooms and tangy feta and cheddar.

Mexican oregano is different to the Mediterranean kind - it is from a different plant, and the dried flowers are used, not the leaves. Use whichever is in your pantry. You can also use any greens in place of the spinach - leftover cooked greens would make this a speedy supper dish.

Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas
3/4 cup broccoli stems, peeled if necessary, and cut in 3/4" pieces
5 oz malabar or baby spinach
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 small clove garlic, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 tsp dried Mexican oregano
1/4 cup crumbled feta
1/2 cup grated cheddar
4 flour tortillas

Bring an inch of water to boil in a large pot and add the broccoli. Cover and cook until almost tender. Put the washed spinach on top, cover, and cook until very tender. Drain and let cool a little, then squeeze out as much water as possible and chop finely.

Melt 1/2 tbsp butter in a small skillet. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and sauté until golden, about 5 minutes.

Warm the olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion, garlic, jalapeño and oregano and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is softened but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the broccoli/spinach mixture and cook, stirring often, until the mixture is hot and any liquid has evaporated, 3-4 minutes. Salt to taste. Let cool a little, then add the feta and cheddar.

Top two of the tortillas with the greens and then the mushrooms. Top with the other two tortillas and press lightly with your hands.

Warm 1/2 tbsp butter in a large skillet and add one of the quesadillas, cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes, then flip and cook the other side. Repeat with the second quesadilla. Cut into quarters and serve.

Serves 2

Calabacitas

At Thanksgiving, I made this sauté of peppers, zucchini and corn to spoon over the lentil loaf. It's also great with mashed potatoes or wrapped in warm corn tortillas.

Regular readers know my affection for the poblano. When roasted, it has a smoky depth that enhances this dish. (Click here for roasting instructions. You could substitute a regular diced green pepper. The heat of the jalapenos is mellowed by the cream -- add more or less to taste.

The recipe calls for a lot of stirring, but it's more a matter of keeping an eye on it and stirring as needed rather than hovering over the pot.

Calabacitas
1 poblano, roasted and peeled
1 red pepper
1/2 lb medium zucchini
2 jalapenos
1 tbsp oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups corn kernels, thawed if frozen
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried
1 tbsp whipping cream
1 tbsp chopped cilantro

Seed and quarter the roasted poblano and the red pepper and cut into 1/2 inch wide strips. Keep separate. Halve zucchini lengthwise and slice across in 1/3 inch half-moons. Seed and chop the jalapeno.

Heat oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion until golden, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini, red pepper, jalapeno and garlic. Sauté until zucchini begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Add corn, oregano and poblano. Stir 3 minutes. Add cream and half the cilantro. Cook, stirring, until the cream thickens, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with the remaining cilantro.

Leftovers can be refrigerated for a few days.

Serves 4

Thanksgiving Dinner

This Thursday, vegetarians across America will be digging into Tofurkey.

Not I.

I don't want to eat turkey. Why would I want to eat fake turkey?

(Yes, I know the fowl in the picture are not turkeys - they're our neighbor's chickens. In this case, they are fake turkeys - tofurkeys!)

As I've mentioned before, I like the look of vegetables. If we were having company at Thanksgiving, I would serve a stuffed squash, or a vegetable pot pie, or a beautiful filo vegetable tart.

But it's just Larry and me this year. He's doing the Trader Joe's pre-cooked piece of turkey, stuffing and gravy. And I am going to make a lentil-nut loaf.

Like turkey, lentil-nut loaf makes great leftovers: cold in sandwiches; or patted into burger shapes, dusted with breadcrumbs, and fried. And the last piece will freeze well for a few weeks, quick to defrost for dinner.

This is one of my favorite loaf recipes, even though it's not baked in a loaf pan. It's light, with a nice crunch from the nuts, and good flavor from the mushrooms, tamari and fresh herbs. (You can use dried if necessary.)

The loaf can be made the day before and refrigerated. Reheat it, covered, in a 350° oven for 20 minutes until warmed through.

I'll serve it with mashed potatoes and calabacitas - a sauté of zucchini, corn, red peppers, jalapenos, and my favorite poblanos.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Lentil-Nut Loaf
1 1/4 lb green lentils
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup diced onions
1/2 cup diced red and/or green peppers
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (1 slice bread)
1/2 tsp minced fresh basil
1/2 tsp minced fresh oregano
1/2 tsp minced fresh thyme
1/2 tsp chili powder
pepper to taste
1 tbsp tamari
2 egg whites, beaten to soft peaks
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup shredded jack cheese
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup water

Place lentils, mushrooms, onions, bell peppers and water to cover in a 4-quart saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 1 hour. Drain lentil mixture and cool slightly, 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Place lentil mixture in large bowl and stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into lightly greased 9" square pyrex dish, spreading evenly.

Bake until lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Cool 15 minutes before cutting and serving with gravy or tomato sauce.

8-10 servings.

Postscript: Make sure to cook the lentils until they're very soft. Otherwise you'll end up with lentil casserole, not lentil loaf.

Summer Chickpea Stew

Sometimes the vegetable garden takes a little break and production slows for a few days. The harvest might be limited to one tomato, a zucchini and some herbs. Don't despair. Add some canned beans for a simple home-cooked stew that tastes of summer.

Spoon it over brown rice for a satisfying supper for two, or serve it as a vegetable side-dish for four. Even people who think they don't like beans will enjoy this meal.

This recipe works fine with canned chickpeas (also called garbanzos), just rinse them well before you use them.

Dry chickpeas seem to take longer to cook than other dried beans, so I use the quick-soak method. Put them in a pan of water, bring to a boil, and simmer 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat, cover the pot and let the beans sit in the water for an hour. The chickpeas will have expanded a lot. Drain them, then cook in boiling water until tender, probably another 45 minutes to an hour. For this stew you want them cooked through but still firm. Drain and use fresh, or freeze until you need them.

Summer Chickpea Stew
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced 1/4" thick
3 mushrooms, sliced (about 1/2 cup)
1 can chickpeas (or 1/3 cup dry, cooked)
2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
1 tomato, chopped

Warm the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté oregano and garlic one minute. Add zucchini, mushrooms and chickpeas, stirring well to coat with oil and herbs. Let cook, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini is tender, under 10 minutes. Add the fresh tomato and mint and cook another five minutes. Add a little water at any time to prevent sticking. Serve warm.

Vegetable Stock

I’m often asked how I make vegetarian food so flavorful. The secret is vegetable stock.

Homemade stock is culinary gold. Add it to soups, stews, even the water for cooking rice -- it adds a boost of flavor and cohesiveness to any dish.

You can buy organic vegetable stock in liquid or cubes, but while these will add flavor to your dish, they have that underlying processed food taste. Better to make your own.

Simply put vegetables in a pot, cover with water, and simmer a couple of hours until the flavor transfers from the vegetables to the water. Strain and use. I store the stock in 2-cup containers in the freezer.

Because the stocks I make are well-flavored, I can use just 2 cups in recipes calling for up to 5 cups of stock. I add water to make up the difference.

This is my current favorite recipe. Vary the ingredients as you like. Use canned tomatoes or different herbs. The mushrooms and onions are essential.

You can put the ingredients together before dinner, let it simmer on the stove for a couple of hours, and then stash it in the freezer before you go to bed. It’s a good winter project: it smells good while cooking, steams up the kitchen, and adds to your storehouse of good food.

Vegetable Stock
1 leek, trimmed and halved lengthwise, washed well, then chopped
3 onions (about 1 1/2 lbs), peeled and chopped
3 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
8 oz mushrooms, quartered
2 shiitake mushrooms, fresh or dried, washed well and chopped
2 plum tomatoes, rinsed and quartered (optional)
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme or 1 tbsp fresh
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano or 1 tbsp fresh
1 tsp salt (optional, but recommended)
1 tbsp black peppercorns

Combine everything in a large pot. Add water to cover (about 2 quarts). Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat, and simmer without a lid for 2 hours. Add water as needed to keep vegetables barely covered.

Strain through a fine mesh sieve (lined with cheesecloth if you like) over a large bowl. Gently press the vegetables against the sieve to release their moisture, then add to the compost pile. You should have about 8 cups stock. (If you have more, boil it down to concentrate the flavor.) Cool, then refrigerate for 1 week or freeze for 6 months.