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Spinach, Tomato and 5 Cheese Rissotto

I have to confess here… I do not necessarily enjoy watching Sandra Lee’s cooking at the Food Network, but I do identify a lot with her philosophy of Semi-Homemade. I love the idea to make everything from scratch, but if there are products that fit my dietary requirements and at the same time can help me along time-wise – hey why not use them?

I’ve had a box of Arborio rice in my pantry for the longest time. I am fortunate this rice comes vaccum-packed, because if it was not, I am sure it would have spoiled by now. Why would I leave a perfectly nice box of rice unused in the cupboard for so long??? Because there are pretty nice packaged risottos varieties that allow me to make this wonderful rice dish, without the need to dirty at least 2 pots (one for the stock and another one for the rice) or to stand in front of the stove stirring. I know I will indeed try it someday; however, that day has not come yet.

I used to buy the Lipton bag of Creamy Garlic Parmesan Risotto – it was superb. When the nice parent company started tweaking with the brand and flavors, for some reason the perfect risotto bag disappeared from the supermarket aisle. I used to have 2 bags of this at hand ALWAYS…

Enter our good ol’ friends at Target – they make the nicest boxed risotto mixes now. They have risotto mixes with asparagus, with red pepper, with butternut squash. But my favorite is the 4 cheese blend. It’s a nice clean canvas for us to embellish with the flavors we’re in the mood for, making this the perfect semi-homemade meal, in my humble opinion.

This time I’ll show you my version using fresh baby spinach and fresh tomatoes…

SPINACH, TOMATOES AND 5 CHEESE RISOTTO

1 box Archer Farms’ 4 Cheese Risotto

2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach leaves, washed and spun dry

15-20 grape or cherry tomatoes, washed and halved

About 2 oz of cream cheese

¼ cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese

A tiny bit of garlic salt to taste – optional

Prepare Risotto mixture according to package directions in a medium heavy bottomed pot.
When the risotto is about 10 minutes to be done… add the cream cheese in little pieces to help it melt in the sauce. Mix it together well.
When the cheese is mostly integrated into the sauce, add the spinach and the tomatoes. Mix it well so the spinach wilts and the tomatoes integrate into the rice and sauce.
Wait a few minutes , by this time, the rice should be done according to the package direction timing. Turn the stove off. Add the grated parmesan or pecorino. Cover the pot and let the rice stand for at least 10 minutes so the sauce thickens a bit.

In my opinion… if you wait about 30 minutes after the stove is turned off, the rice will be perfectly cooked, the sauce would have thickened and it will be warm enough to be able to eat without burning your tongue and enjoy the flavors of the risotto.

I love to have this with my Cinnamon Baked Plantains or with a simple salad on the side.

To me this is a very simple dinner I can make in a jiffy, even when I am busy doing other stuff. Taking something store-bought and adding fresh ingredients to make it your own is my interpretation of the semi-homemade meal.

I have a full line-up of other flavors we can play with in the future… just wait and see.

Tags: cheese, risotto, spinach, tomato

Comments 2 Comments
Categories main courses

Vegetable Noodle Soup

23 Mar

I just came back from a spiritual retreat… the ones I spend in silence, meditating about 10 hours a day and fasting. Yes… fasting. No solid food – only water, lemon juice and honey… We drink that “watered down lemonade” about 5 times a day, which helps our body use up all the energy it usually uses up digesting food to actually eliminate a lot of toxins that accumulate over time…

After these retreats, you feel light and energized, but you also you need to ease your body into taking solid foods again… We usually start with a huge fruit salad – today’s salad had a lot of papaya and bananas with a little bit of mangoes and other “sweet” fruits. But after that, your body starts getting hungry… and what better way to welcome your system to solid food again than with a hearty vegetable soup.

Literally, it took me 25 minutes to make this soup. It hit the spot…

VEGETABLE NOODLE SOUP

4 baby red-skinned potatoes, quartered

1 carrot, sliced

1/2 onion, sliced

1 tbs sofrito

1 tbs olive oil

1 vegetable broth bullion cube

1 bunch of noodles – whole wheat vermicelli

Salt and Pepper to taste

about 2 cups of water

5-6 grape tomatoes, quartered – optional

2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves – optional

In a medium pot over medium heat, pour olive oil. When the oil has heat up a bit, add sofrito and the vegetable bullion cube. Smash the cube a bit so that it dissolves better.
Add the onions. Saute for a little while.
Add the cut potatoes and the carrots. Saute for a little while to give it a head start.
Add the tomatoes.
Add enough water to cover the vegetables. Cover and let it boil at a medium roll for about 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, the potatoes and the carrots should be done.
Add the noodles and stir so the noodles separate and they don’t stick together. Cover again.
After the noodles have cooked, about 5 minutes, add the spinach leaves. They will wilt into the broth almost immediately. Cover and turn off the heat. Let the soup finish cooking with the residual heat.
After about 10 minutes… serve and enjoy.

This is the foundation recipe – to this you can add anything else you might have on your fridge – mushrooms, peppers, celery, etc. Your imagination is the limit…

This is also the same soup recipe I make when I am feeling “under-the-weather”… so you can say this is my “vegetable soup for my soul”. From my soul to yours… buen provecho.

Tags: carrots, potato, soup, spinach, Vegan

Comments 3 Comments
Categories main courses

White Lasagna with Spinach and Almonds – VEGAN version

3 Feb

When I did this recipe for the Yoga Center, I adapted it using non-dairy cheeses. This way, you can crave this lasagna without concern if you eat cheese or not… I am sure you’ll not be dissapointed.

WHITE LASAGNA with SPINACH AND ALMONDS – Vegan Version

4-6 lasagna noodles – I use DeBoles NoBoil Rice lasagna noodles

1 tbs olive oil

2 tbs sofrito

3-4oz Toffutti Better -Than-Cream cheese cheese

1 cup soy milk

1 ¼ cup shredded Soya Kaas mozzarella style cheese, divided

1 ½ tbs cornstarch, dissolved in ½ cup of water

Sprinkle of Salt, Garlic Powder and freshly cracked black pepper

1 cup frozen spinach measured frozen, defrosted and squeeze out of most the water but still wet

1/3 cup marcona salted almonds – but any almonds will work

1/2 cup Veggie Parmesan cheese

Pre-heat over to 325 degrees F.
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, heat olive oil. Add sofrito and cook for a few minutes.
Add in the Tofutti cream cheese and whisk in together until the sofrito and cream cheese are incorporated.
Whisk in soy milk. Add in 1 cup of the Soya Kaas cheese and whisk every few minutes to make sure the cheese melts well and does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Reserve the rest for the lasagna topping. Season sauce with the garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add in the diluted cornstarch. Make sure you the cornstarch is diluted well and is not settled in the bottom of whatever container you’re using to mix it.
The sauce should have a light creamy consistency. Is important the sauce be more on the liquidy side because we’re using no-boil rice pasta and the “liquidy” consistency will help the pasta cook. So you might want to err on the side of a liquidier cream sauce rather than a tight creamy sauce.

Now we assemble the lasagna…

In the bottom of a small casserole dish, spoon a few ladles of the cream sauce. Layer lasagna noodles. Spoon more sauce, so the noodles are always touched by sauce on the top and the bottom.
Distribute evenly the thawed spinach in a layer. Sprinkle a bit of garlic salt and pepper. Sprinkle a light layer of the Veggie Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle a 1/3 of the almonds. Spoon a few ladles of the sauce.
Place another layer of noodles and spoon some sauce over them.
Repeat step #2.
Repeat step #3. This will be your last layer of noodles. Pour the remaining sauce all over the last layer of noodles. Sprinkle with veggie parmesan cheese and the remaining ¼ cup shredded Soya Kaas mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle the last bit of almonds you have left.
Cover the casserole dish and bake in oven for 30 minutes.
Uncover and bake for 15 more minutes until cheese on top is golden brown.
Turn oven off and leave in there for a few minutes until lasagna cool a bit and sets.

Tags: almonds, gluten-free, spinach, Vegan

Comments 2 Comments
Categories main courses

White Lasagna with Spinach and Almonds

3 Feb

I am a craving girl…

It’s hard for me to go grocery shopping having a few menus in mind for the week. Why? Because, I go to the store and see stuff that inspires me, what looks delicious that day, but that isn’t necessarily what I will be craving to eat another day. It’s always been like that… ever since I was a little girl, my mom never made a fixed dinner – it was all a la carte. Whatever you craved, that’s what you ate. Mind you, my mom did not have junk food at home, so all the alternatives were, for the most part, healthy. That’s how we learned to make our own food.

So this past week, I was browsing thru some fellow blogs and there I saw it… the Cooking Light Veggie Lasagna… I have that recipe clipped, but the photos this fellow blogger posted were amazing!!! That’s how I knew what I wanted to have for dinner that night – a spinach lasagna using white sauce. Yumo!!!! (like Rachael Ray would say).

I improvised with the ingredients I had on hand… remember, I do not go out and but any specific ingredients for any specific recipe. And even less when I got a craving at 7PM at night… I was craving some serious comfort food.

The results were really nice – so nice in fact that I decided to make this recipe for our upcoming Yoga Center Menu. I made a version at home that serves 2 and I also did a version that served 20. I’ll use the proportions for the smaller version, which is probably closer to what you’ll make at home. Here is the play-by-play (I’m into Super Bowl mode here I guess):

WHITE LASAGNA with SPINACH AND ALMONDS

4-6 lasagna noodles – I use DeBoles NoBoil Rice lasagna noodles

1 tbs olive oil

2 tbs sofrito

3-4oz cream cheese

1 cup milk

1 cup shredded Italian Cheese mix

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese – you can use Pecorino Romano also if you prefer

Sprinkle of Garlic Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

1 cup frozen spinach measured frozen, defrosted and squeeze out of most the water but still wet

1/3 cup marcona salted almonds – but any almonds will work

4oz fresh mozarella cheese

Pre-heat over to 325 degrees F. I do this in my toaster oven for just 2 people.
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, heat olive oil. Add sofrito and cook for a few minutes.
Add in cream cheese and whisk in together until the sofrito and cream cheese are incorporated.
Whisk in milk. Add in the Italian cheese mix and Parmesan. Season with the garlic salt and pepper. The sauce should have a light creamy consistency. Is important the sauce be more on the liquidy side because we’re using no-boil rice pasta and the “liquidy” consistency will help the pasta cook. So you might want to err on the side of a more liquidy cream sauce rather than a tight creamy sauce.

Now we assemble the lasagna…

In the bottom of a small casserole dish, spoon a few ladles of the cream sauce. Layer lasagna noodles. Spoon more sauce. so the noodles are always touched by sauce on the top and the bottom.
Distribute evenly the thawed spinach in a layer. Sprinkle a bit of garlic salt and pepper. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese if you like. Sprinkle a 1/3 of the almonds. Shred with your hands 2-3 thin slices of the fresh mozzarella. Spoon a few ladles of the sauce.
Place another layer of noodles and spoon some sauce over them.
Repeat step #2.
Repeat step #3. This will be your last layer of noodles. Place a few slices of fresh mozzarella on top. Sprinkle the last bit of almonds you have left.

6. Cover the casserole dish and bake in oven for 30 minutes.

7. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes more until cheese on top is golden brown.

8. Turn oven off and leave in there for a few minutes until lasagna cool a bit and sets.

It seems like a lot of steps… but not really. You know how to make a lasagna… I just wanted to show you how I layered the ingredients. You don’t need to cook the spinach, just make the sauce and assemble. I had it all put together and in the oven in 20 minutes.

Believe me… this lasagna hit the spot. My cravings were curbed… until next time.

Tags: almonds, cheese, gluten-free, rice pasta, spinach

Comments 6 Comments
Categories main courses

Egg-less Frittatas

25 Dec

This recipe has many ingredients, but it’s easy to assemble and TASTY!!!!

I took them as an addition to a non-vegetarian party and they were all gone in about 10 minutes… my best friend and her mom almost did not get a chance to try them. If non-vegetarians were devouring them at a Christmas party, image how good they taste.

EGG-LESS FRITTATAS

1 package of firm silken tofu, drained of water

1/2 cup of soy milk

4 tablespoons of cornstarch

2 oz goat cheese – I used half of a small log

1/2 cup sour cream

squirt of Dijon mustard – about 1 teaspoon

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1 cup of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained of as much water as possible

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, without sulphur dioxide

1/2 cup of chopped grape tomatoes

4 green onion stalks, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/4 teaspoon garlic and herb seasoning

Salt and Pepper to taste

Canola oil spray

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Place the first 7 ingredients in a blender. Process until completely smooth and silky.
Place tofu mixture in a large bowl and add the spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, grape tomatoes, garlic, parsley, seasoning, green onions, salt and pepper.
Lightly spray 2 muffin tins with canola oil spray. Spoon mixture into muffin pans using a 1/4 cup measure.
Bake in oven for about 30 minutes until they’re set and a bit golden on top. Check that a knife or wooden skewer comes out cleanly before removing from oven.
When they’re done, remove from oven and let cool for about 20 minutes. When they’re cooler, they’ll come out from the pan neater and nicer.

They’re light… you can serve them as a party appetizer, you can also serve them as a nice brunch entree with a nice green salad. I guess you could also bake it in a baking dish and cut it into pieces instead of doing individual servings… I just have not tried it like that yet… so I am not sure if we’ll need to make adjustments to to baking time.

This recipe yielded me 20 individual fritattas.

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This is my last post of the year. I will take a few days off from cooking and blogging. This has been a wonderful few months… I promise to come back in the new year with new added inspiration to cook and share with you all.

May the New Year 2008 bring only the best… until then.

Madelyn.