Chickpeas for Dinner? Say what?? #recipe @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Did you know that sautéed or roasted chickpeas are back in vogue? I figured this out when I saw a recipe in Bon Appétit and another on a site I've been cruising called Blue zones, which is about the places in the world where people live the longest and happiest. Of course researchers are very interested in what they eat (and don't eat.)

John was surprised to see this as his supper, but after he got over the shock, we quite enjoyed it as a light meal on the way out to the movies. And another bonus: you can feel very good about what you've eaten! (Maybe even slip in a little bowl of ice cream later...)

Ingredients

One 15 ounce can of low-sodium chickpeas
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil and a pat of butter if you like
Two crushed cloves fresh garlic
Several dashes spices--this can be cumin or cayenne or chili pepper or turmeric; I used Penzey's Arizona Dreaming
Quarter cup chopped herbs of your choice (we used basil and dill)
Several generous handfuls fresh kale
Two eggs
Rinse the chickpeas well. Sauté them in olive oil and butter with the crushed garlic and spices, 10 to 15 minutes until they begin to brown. Don't go too long or they'll get dry. Mix in the fresh herbs and set aside.
 





Sauté the kale quickly until it just wilts. In another pan, cook the eggs to your liking, ours were over medium.
 




Assemble the dinner: mix chickpeas and kale on the plate and arrange the fried egg to the side of the greens. That's it! Dinner is served and then off to the movies...

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Yummy Vegetable Gratin #recipe @LucyBurdette

 
LUCY BURDETTE: Today's recipe was tweaked from one filed by Martha Rose Shulman in the New York Times. I made her version and then revised for my second attempt, which we modestly judged delicious. The recipe is quite flexible and can absorb about any vegetables you have lying around. You'll notice that I added no salt, though of course some of the ingredients have sodium naturally occurring. We did not miss it! And I'm very, very fussy! I'll list the approximate sodium content at the end for those interested.

For this version I used the following ingredients:

Two ears corn, kernels stripped off the cob
2 to 3 cups fresh spinach
Half a green pepper diced
One small onion diced
4 to 5 okra pods, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh dill
1 tablespoon fresh basil
3 eggs
Half cup milk
2 to 3 ounces lower salt Swiss cheese
1 ounce Parmesan, grated

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease an 8 x 8" pan well.
Sauté the onions, peppers, okra, and chopped spinach until the vegetables are tender but not overcooked. Mix in corn, dill, and basil.

In a bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. Then stir in the vegetables and the grated Swiss cheese. Scrape this mixture into the prepared pan and top with Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until sides and top are starting to brown. Let the dish sit for 10 minutes before serving with a green vegetable and salad.

(Now for the sodium count: Eggs, 62 mg per one medium egg. Spinach, 24 mg per one cup. Low sodium Swiss cheese, 4 mg per ounce. Shredded Parmesan, 85 mg per one Tbsp. Fresh okra, 411 mg per one cup-wow! One ear of corn, 262 mg. Half cup 1% milk, 53 mg.)

KILLER TAKEOUT is coming next April, but available for pre-order today!

And you can follow Lucy on Facebook,

Twitter,

Pinterest,

and Instagram! 

 

Easy Cheesy Rice and Spinach @LucyBurdette #recipe

 
LUCY BURDETTE: I've been making a variation of this recipe for years--if we're counting, probably close to 30-gulp! It began as a recipe I spotted in Diet for a Small Planet, but it's evolved over the years. You can make this with spinach, or chard, or even kale--it's very easy to pull together, especially if you made extra rice for dinner the night before.

We sometimes eat this as our vegetarian main dish, with a green salad on the side. (And I must assure you that John is not even close to vegetarian, and he loves this dish.) But you could also serve it on the side of something simple and grilled.


Ingredients

2 cups cooked brown rice

One large bunch fresh spinach
One half large onion, chopped
4 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
Olive oil
Soy sauce

In a large frying pan, saute the chopped onions in olive oil until they begin to turn soft and brown. Add the cooked rice, stir, and cook over low heat for five to ten minutes.

Meanwhile, clean and chop the spinach. Always opt for more than you think you need--as it wilts down to nothing. Distribute the spinach over the top of the rice, continue cooking, this time covering the pan. 

When the greens are wilted (10 or so minutes), sprinkle the cheese over the top and shake on a tablespoon or more of the soy sauce, to taste. Mix it all together. 

If you haven't been hasty, some of the rice will be a little crunchy, making a delicious contrast to the creaminess of the rest. 

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mysteries. #6 in the series, FATAL RESERVATIONS, will be in bookstores on July 7!

After you eat your spinach, you can go over and pre-order it!

And congratulations to Krista for THE DIVA STEALS A CHOCOLATE KISS, and to Sheila for PRIVY TO THE DEAD. Hope your copies are on your bedside table!  

And PS, one more thing, Goodreads is running a giveaway for 25 copies of FATAL RESERVATIONS. You can enter to win right here.

Garden Veggie Bake

Our apologies to our readers.  Blogger has been playing tricks on us and our posts aren't posting when they should!


I'm going to shock everyone today because I'm posting something almost healthy. No sugar or chocolate involved! The garden vegetables are coming in, so I was testing a garden veggie pizza recipe that will be in one of my books.  The combination of eggplant, zucchini, garlic, mozzarella, and goat cheese was wonderful, so when I saw a vegetarian recipe that called itself a quiche and used some of those ingredients, I was intrigued.  The thing is -- it was a crustless quiche!  It sounded more like something in between a frittata and a quiche.  So I used the fresh veggies I had on hand and this is the result.

Feel free to adjust the vegetables.  Omit whatever your family doesn't like to eat. I'm thinking this could be breakfast, lunch, or dinner!  It tastes a lot like a vegetarian pizza, though I have to admit that when I was posting the pictures, I wondered how good it might be with bacon crumbled into it . . . .

Garden Veggie Bake

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, sliced
1 average zucchini, sliced thin
1 teaspoon oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced red and/or yellow peppers
1 small eggplant, diced (about 2 cups)
6 eggs
salt (I used 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt)
pepper
1 cup shredded mozzarella
5 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 cup goat Gouda
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
hot pepper (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

Butter an 8x8 pan.  Saute the onion in the olive oil until almost soft.  Add the zucchini, oregano, garlic, and peppers and then the eggplant.  Saute, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, add salt and pepper to taste, then mix with sour cream, mozzarella, and Gouda.  When the vegetables are cooked, but not limp, mix the veggies and the eggs together and pour into prepared pan.  Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.  Bake approximately 30 minutes, or until set and baked through.

  Enjoy!