Greek Food – Great Vegetarian Alternative

11 Mar

I recently went to Houston for a business trip.  I asked my sister and brother-in-law for a few restaurant recommendations in Houston, because they lived nearby for about 5 years.  One of their recos was for a Greek restaurant called Niko Nikos…

Niko Nikos is a very casual restaurant in the Montrose area of Houston.  Nice, quaint area filled with lots of restaurants.  It’s definitely not the place to take any business associates, but if you’re looking for good food without the fuss, this is your place.  You order and pay in advance at a counter, they give you one of those buzzer things that buzz when your order is ready.  You get up from your table, go pick it up at another counter and then you eat it… you take your beverage from the soda machine or a cooler they have to the side…  plastic cutlery and disposable plates.  Nothing fancy here.

I ordered a falafel sandwich on pita bread and an eggplant dip called melizano salata.  Both choices were pretty good.  I liked the melizano salata better than the falafel… they were too “green” for my taste.  So I took the pita, lettuce and tomatoes and placed my eggplant dip inside the pita bread and had a melizano pita sandwich instead. 

niko-nikos

But this brought to mind how appropriate the Greek menu is for a vegetarian diner… they have a lot of great choices and at Niko Nikos they even highlight them on the menu:

  •  
    • Greek Salad – lettuce, tomatoes, onions, olives, feta cheese, vinaigrette
    • Tzatziki – Yogurt, sour cream, garlic & cucumber dip
    • Melizano Salata – Eggplant dip with tomato and onion
    • Hummus w/ Pita – Chickpea, garlic, fresh parsley dip
    • Falafel – Fried chickpea patties served in pita with lettuce, tomato, onion.  Tahini & tzatziki  on the side.
    • Veggie Kebob – Zucchini, squash, onion, bell pepper, tomatoes & tzatziki sauce.  Served with pita.
    • Spinach & Feta Pita – Sautéed spinach with dill, tomato, onion & feta on pita.
    • Spanakopita – Spinach pie in phyllo.
    • Cabbage Rolls – filled with rice
    • Dolmades– Grape leaves filled with rice.
    • Baklava – Flaky fillo filled with ground walnuts & cinnamon, topped with homemade honey sauce.

  

     greek-salad        sponokopita        baklava_main

I hope you have a Greek restaurant nearby and try and tell me all about your favorite Greek favorites.  We have a really nice Greek restaurant in San Juan called Fleria.  I usually order the stuffed vegetables or some stewed potatoes dish that is just heavenly.

I hope to be able to visit Greece soon and be able to taste all these delicacies first hand…  how about that!!! Opa!!!

Vegetable Tian

9 Mar

I think we have established already I love anything French…  so every time we have a get-together with my French-speaking friends, we try to create French recipes to keep the theme intact.

I first made this recipe for the Yoga Center – back when I was more consistent cooking at least once a month.  It was a way to introduce cooked vegetables in a different way than how they make them week in week out. 

Most recently, I shared the recipe with my friend Annie Mariel and she was the one who actually made the version photographed here.  It is cheesy yet tastes very light.   She created it as an example of Parisian cooking…  bon appétit.

 vegetable-tian-2

VEGETABLE TIAN

2 large onions, sliced in half
2 garlic cloves, minced
5-6 potatoes – I used russet potatoes, but Ina Garten says that Yukon Golds are a particularly good choice
2 medium zucchini
4 medium sized tomatoes – I used plum tomatoes
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 tbs thyme leaves or 1 tsp Italian Seasonings blend
2 ounces gruyere cheese, grated
Olive oil

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F
  2. Brush a rectangular baking dish with olive oil.
  3. In a medium sauté pan, heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook for about 8 minutes until they’ve beginning to soften.  Add the garlic and cook for a few additional minutes.  Spread this onion mixture on the bottom of the baking dish you oiled.
  4. Wash well and dry the potatoes.  Slice them in thin slices, about ¼” thick.  Slice the zucchini, tomatoes too the same thickness.  Layer them alternatively on top of the onions.  I placed them slightly at an angle one on top the other like shingles. Place a potato, zucchini, tomato, potato, zucchini, tomato, and so on…
  5. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme leaves or Italian Seasonings and drizzle a bit more of olive oil.
  6. Cover the dish with a parchment paper and then aluminum foil.  Place in oven and bake for 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are tender and cooked. 
  7. Remove the covering, add the grated cheese and bake for another 30 minutes until the vegetables are browned nicely on top.

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Rice and Soy Picadillo

7 Mar

This is a staple of Latin cuisine…  made the vegetarian way.    This is also another way to use they Soy Picadillo recipe I gave you guys a few weeks ago.

It’s amazing, but I have several non-vegetarian friends who regularly ask me to make this Soy Picadillo for them and their families.  They tell me they love to eat it as a filling for lasagna, on top of a baked potato, as an appetizer in “barquillitos”.  But the most popular way of eating it is on top of white rice… I still have not been able to convenience them to change to whole grain rice, but one has to pick their battles.  They’re eating soy picadillo already!!!!

 arroz-con-picadillo

RICE AND SOY PICADILLO

Soy Picadillo recipe here
Whole Grain Rice

 

Serve with a side salad and sweet plantains…  traditional Puerto Rican fare at its best.

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Veggie Cuban Sandwich

5 Mar

I grew up eating Cuban Sandwiches… being the daughter of a Cuban, it was something I ate at least a few times a month.  My dad would take us to La España or La Ceiba – two bakeries here in Puerto Rico where the best Cuban sandwiches were made back then… now the same can be said for Kasalta too. 

Cuban sandwiches are now becoming very popular among US chefs – Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, among others have all sung the praises of the Cuban sandwiches.  Traditionally they’re made with roasted pork, sliced cooked ham, crusty white criollo bread, mustard, pickles and Swiss cheese.  There is a smaller version called Media Noche – same ingredients as the Cuban, but in a smaller sweet bread.  This is the kind my sister and I had when we were growing up… and when the Media Noche is too small for your more adult appetite, you graduate to the Cuban.

Now that I am vegetarian, traditional Cuban sandwiches are not an option… so I have come up with my veggie version.  I order these at any panadería in PR or Miami.  And even though I prefer whole wheat, whole grain breads in my sandwiches, Cubans traditional or veggie versions taste better in regular white criollo bread.  The crunch it has compared to a whole wheat version can’t be beat.

 veggie-cuban-sandwich

VEGGIE CUBAN SANDWICH

Criollo Bread
Swiss Cheese
Lettuce and Tomato
Pickles
Mustard
  1.  When you go out an order, say you want a grilled cheese on criollo bread with lettuce, tomato, pickles and mustard.

If you want to prepare it yourself…

  1. Slice a 1/3 pound of criollo bread “baguette”.  Slather the insides with yellow mustard.  Place Swiss cheese on one side, lettuce, tomatoes and pickles on the other.
  2. Place in a pannini press or a George Foreman grill and press the sandwich so the bread toasts and the sandwich flattens a bit. 
  3. You could press without the lettuce sand tomato and add them afterwards, but sometimes the cheese melts so much that it’s difficult to reopen to add the salad.

 

To me, the best way to wash down your Veggie Cuban sandwich is with a malta or a batido de mamey.  No other drink makes it justice…

One final note… be wary of Cuban breads out there (Pan Cubano – as they are called in Miami) you need to order Puerto Rican bread.  Why??? Cuban bread usually is made with lard.  You run no such risk in PR as “pan de agua” or “pan criollo” is made with vegetable shortening.  Something to watch out…

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Pita Pizzas with Arugula Salad

3 Mar

I just came back from a skiing holiday in Vermont with my little “nieces” Mariana and Natalia – they’re the daughters of my 2 best friends.

We stay at a slope-side apartment with a fully equipment kitchen.  We love to buy stuff for breakfasts, dinners, and the much needed après ski break.  Mariana and Natalia specially requested this time around for me to make them pizzas.  And my kind of pizzas is Pita Pizzas – especially because I was not going to “bake” any crust in an unknown kitchen.

This is what we came up with to satisfy the kids and adult tastes alike…

 pita-pizza-w-arugula-salad

PITA PIZZAS with ARUGULA SALAD

Serves 4

 

4 whole-grain pita breads – about 6″ in diameter
1 cup of your favorite jarred tomato sauce – you may not need as much but I did not measure the sauce after I already placed it on the pizzas.  You can also make your own… mixing crushed tomatoes and seasoning them with some garlic salt, pepper and Italian seasonings.
Shredded cheese – I like the Italian Blend type, but you can certainly go as fancy as you want … using fresh mozzarella, Fontina, gruyere, etc.
1 tomato, sliced thin
1 small onion, sliced thin
About 1 cup of Parmesan cheese, grated or shredded
Arugula Salad – click for recipe here

 

 

  1. Pre-heat oven or toaster oven to 400 F
  2. Take the pita bread and smear some tomato sauce leaving a ¼” border.  Not too much so they do not turn soggy.  
  3. Top each with pita a few slices of fresh tomatoes and onions.  Sprinkle some parmesan cheese and top with the Italian-blend shredded cheese mix.
  4. Place in oven for about 10 minutes until the cheese melts and turns a nice bubbly golden brown in sections.
  5. Top each pizza with a handful of arugula salad for a nice contrast of freshness and tang.
  6. Sprinkle with additional shaved parmesan cheese on top of salad.

 

Have to admit, the girls ate the pizzas on their own and left the salad to the side, but the adults loved it.

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