vegetarian – Page 5 – The Kitchen Illiterate

Easy White Bean and Tomato Sauce

A few nights ago I found myself rooting through my pantry, trying to think of something easy to make for dinner that would not involve a trip to the grocery store. I wanted something hearty but not unhealthy, something vegetarian, and something that would make for excellent leftovers. I came up with this, and couldn’t have been more pleased. This simple white bean sauce makes an excellent topping for just about anything you can imagine. I ate it first on top of a mashed potato, with a little Parmesan and bread crumbs. I ate some of the leftovers with pasta, and some over simple grilled chicken. These would be terrific with polenta, or in an omelet or frittata, or mixed with some extra broth to make soup. Talk about versatile. This is most assuredly a new kitchen staple.
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Kuri Squash Gratin

I love the end of September. I love the way we seem to be hovering between summer and fall: Cool mornings and sunny afternoons, the crisp smell of colder weather in the air, but no need to pull the jacket out of the closet just yet, and still plenty of zucchini at the farmers’ market, right alongside the first of the winter squashes. As much as the harsh New England winters made me hate the cold, I have to admit I love sweaters and casseroles and big pots of chili, and someday, I swear, I’ll have a fireplace, and I’ll probably light fires in it at the first sign of the inkling of a frost.

This gratin is tailor made for this time of year: It is super comfort food, but isn’t so heavy you’ll need to lie prostrate on the couch after eating it. And it combines winter squash and summer squash in perfect balance, just like late September.
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A new kind of Rice and Beans

This post is especially for my brother, Patrick, who is newly independent, and who loves cooking as much as I do.

I have been making and eating rice and beans for a long, long time. It’s probably the first thing I learned to cook. It is comfort food, it is day-before-the-paycheck food, with a little meat thrown it is day-after-the-paycheck food. It can be healthy or over the top and indulgent. I suspect it is the endless versatility of rice and beans that makes me love it so, and come back to it at least once a month.

For a long time I made rice and beans using packaged mixes, like Goya or Mahatma. And I’ll be honest, sometimes I still do. But making rice and beans from scratch is one of the least expensive, easiest dinners around, so the box mixes aren’t really worth it, unless you need the sodium fix. And it is great for college students. You can make a big pot for about $5 and it will last you all week. The rice and beans together make a complete protein, so you don’t need to splurge for meat. And you can add all kinds of vegetables to be sure you’re getting your greens.
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Simple Fresh Tomato Pasta

This summer is flying by, so quickly it’s kind of nerve-wracking. And it has been an extremely full one, what with moving across country, starting a new job, being visited by friends, traveling for work, and spending a glorious week on Puget Sound with a group of some of my favorite people. I have been neglecting this blog, and I have been neglecting my new garden. The lawn is definitely overgrown, but at least it’s still alive. And I’m learning that there is truth in the statement that things in Walla Walla pretty much grow themselves: my tomatoes are thriving through no work of my own.

So what do you do with tons of cherry tomatoes? You make very simple and summery pasta dishes.
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Squash and Pepper Enchiladas

I knew I had found my Walla Walla grocery store when I stumbled upon the Mexican food aisle in the Super 1 Foods. Queso Fresco, Mexican-style chorizo, Jarritos soda: I am definitely back on the West coast. I almost squealed aloud with glee when I spotted the nopales and chayote squash, and then again when I saw my favorite brand of refried beans, unavailable to me on the East coast (though now that I know they’re made by ConAgra, my affection is wearing thin).

I had been craving enchiladas for weeks. I have a pretty standard enchilada recipe that I usually swear by, but I thought perhaps this time I would try something different. And I am glad I did. These squash and pepper enchiladas might just supplant my stand-by chicken enchiladas in the roster of recipe favorites.
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Garlicky Sauteed Kale and Chickpeas with Polenta

I am not very good at summertime cooking. When most normal people are throwing their fresh tomatoes and mountains of zucchini into cool and refreshing salads, I insist on standing in front of a hot stove before dinner. I will heat the oven to 550 degrees, and keep it on for over an hour, in the middle of August. I will labor over risotto, trying not to sweat into the stock. I don’t know what it is, but I just have to have a hot meal at the end of the day. It’s a strange compulsion, but there it is.

I am getting a little better at reducing the amount of heat I produce in the kitchen when it’s over 100 degrees outside of it. Last week roasted red pepper tacos turned into sauteed pepper tacos, and this week another recipe I’ve had in my to-be-tried pile was similarly reinvented to avoid using the oven. Garlic roasted garbanzos, you say? I say nay, but the stovetop might work just fine.
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Saucy, Spicy Pepper Tacos

Dinner was originally supposed to be Roasted Pepper Tacos, from a recipe I’ve had tagged to try for months. But it has been 172 degrees here in Walla Walla all week, and the last thing I wanted to do was turn on my oven to roast peppers. And I know that grilling is supposed to be great for hot weather, but grilling the peppers would have required I stand outside for more than 30 seconds, not to mention in front of a fire, not to mention building said fire would have taken For. Ever. All that to say that my Roasted Pepper Tacos turned into Sauteed Pepper Tacos. But you know what? I think they were even better than Roasted.
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Spinach and Barley Soup

Alright, so it’s not really soup weather anymore. In fact, Boston has suddenly leaped forward into what is pretty much summer. But I bought all this spinach when it was still soup weather, overcast and wet and chilly, and I really wanted this soup. It might be my last soup of the season, or at least, the last hot soup (I have some gazpacho in mind). So I had to do it. And even though it was 85 degrees out, and probably hotter in my kitchen, it was completely worth it. That bright green color made me so happy, and it was light and brightly flavored, and really would have been 100 percent perfect if I had made it when it was still hovering around 50 degrees in Massachusetts. At least now I have it in my repertoire for fall. And if you come across another cool day before summer is official, I recommend you give this soup a shot.
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Spinach and Sweet Pea Pasta

I don’t need to say it again, do I? In Boston, our farmers’ markets are still a long way away. Things aren’t really growing yet. Eating locally without eating potatoes is still a distant dream. So, a message to all the food writers out there in happier climes: Stop taunting me with all your joyous greenery and ramps and asparagus and small, alive things poking their little heads out of the ground.

Alright, maybe I should just stop reading if it saddens me so much, right? Or, I can use the bounty of others as inspirations in these last, dragging days of winter here in New England, and create a light, simple, verdant pasta dish that lets me pretend like it’s spring, even if none of its ingredients are really fresh from the ground. As you can see, I decided to take the second course.
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Creamy Parsnip and Chickpea Soup

I will admit it: I’m a little bit tired of soup. I’m extremely tired of winter, and of root vegetables and lentils, and of meals that are primarily beige and orange. I am ready for some tender, leafy greens. For zucchini. For tomatoes! Oh spring, you cannot come soon enough. (And yes, I’m aware that technically it is spring right now, but in my neck of the woods, it’s really not. It’s still cold and farmers’ markets are a long ways away.)

But you know what? Even though this is soup, and it’s made of root vegetables, and is pretty much beige and orange, oh it’s delicious. It is delicious enough that I feel a little less frustrated with winter. It is warm and silky and full of bright flavors, a little spicy, a little sweet. Eating this for lunch all week might help me to forget that it’s still not above 50 degrees outside.
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