Roasted Veggies With Fresh Herbs

One of the things I love best about having a garden is having a seemingly endless supply of top quality fresh herbs to cook with. I do try growing them inside in the winter, and I certainly break down and buy them from time to time when they aren’t garden fresh (because the inside growing never works for long). Nothing can replace freshly cut herbs that have been happily growing outside with plenty of fresh air and sunshine. They just taste amazing.

Sage (Salvia officinalis 'Icterina' - Gold Variegated)

So when I was thinking about what to cook for dinner tonight, I took a good look at my herb patch and decided to harvest sage, thyme, oregano and a lot of garlic chives (aka garlic grass, Chinese chives, ku chai). I already had a decent selection of veggies in my fridge, and plenty of grains and beans in my pantry.

At home I looked through my various cook books and was inspired by various recipes for ratatouille, stewed veggies and the like. I decided to do my own version with my fresh herbs and some of the veggies. I decided to skip the tomato base common to these recipes. Since I had some good fresh tomatoes on hand (thanks to those freaking hydroponic visionaries up there in East Thetford, VT that have somehow managed to bring us good tomatoes at the end of May in western Mass), I thought I’d just chop them up and serve them along side, rather than loose their good flavor and texture by cooking them. I settled on quinoa as my grain of choice. We needed the protein for this meal, and I knew I could start cooking it when the veggie dish was halfway done. I decided to mix in garbanzos and garlic chives with the cooked quinoa to make something of a pilaf.

You could vary this every which way depending on what you have on hand. I noted what I did so I could write about it here. Like the many recipes I looked at this afternoon, I hope that this will provide inspiration.

Roasted Veggies with Fresh Herbs

Preheat oven to 400 (F).

2 med zucchini, chopped coarse (aprox 2 cups)

2 small (italian) eggplant, chopped coarse (aprox 2 cups)

1/2 a med cauliflower, chopped into florets (aprox 2 cups)

1 large red onion, halved and sliced into crescents (aprox 1 1/2 cups)

1 head of garlic, broken into cloves, peeled, larger cloves split in half

Fresh herbs of your choosing

Today, I used the following:

3 tbs of minced fresh oregano

2 tbs of thyme leaves (I just stripe ‘em off the stems, I don’t bother to mince them)

2 tbs of sage leaves (about 5 large) cut into thin ribbons

1 tiny sprig of rosemary ( an inch long)

copious amounts of good olive oil (maybe 1/4 cup?)

lots of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper–enough to coat everything

1 large tomato, diced (optional)

grated parmesan reginato to taste

Oregano,Sage, Thyme stems

Put all of the cut vegetables, garlic and herbs in a baking dish deep enough to hold it all, preferably one with a lid. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss to coat. Feel free to add more oil, salt and pepper if you think it is needed.

Seasoned and oiled and ready for the oven

Cover and bake for about 30 minutes and stir. (Start cooking the quinoa if you’re making it, after stirring the veggies.) Cover and bake for another 30 minutes or so until veggies are very tender.

Taste, and add more salt and pepper if you like. Top with tomatoes and parmesan (and more olive oil if you want) and serve, maybe with the quinoa dish that follows or with some good bread.

Quinoa, Garbanzos and Garlic Chives

1 1/2 cups of quinoa

2 tsp of olive oil

2 1/2 cups of liquid to cook the quinoa (water, stock, wine, what-have-you)

1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans, drained

minced garlic chives to taste, today I had about 1/3 cup (regular chives, scallions or shallots would work fine)

salt and pepper to taste

Garlic Chives

Rinse the quinoa in a strainer (it tends to be bitter if you don’t). Drain well.

Heat olive oil over med-high heat in a medium sauce pan. Add the drained quinoa and toss to coat with oil. Cook, stirring frequently until the grains start to toast and smell nutty, about 5 minutes. Add the cooking liquid and stir. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium. Simmer, uncovered, until all liquid is absorbed, about 15-20 minutes. Fluff with a fork and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Stir in the drained garbanzos and chives. Taste, add salt and pepper if you need it, and serve.

Delicious

My new fave veggie burgers

I’ve been making veggie burgers for a long time. I’ve only posted one of my recipes so far, because I try to make recipes a bunch of time before I post.

Trouble is, I have a day job and a life, so sometimes that stuff gets in the way.

I generally make some sort of veggie burger on a weekly basis. In the case of veggie burgers, I’ve got to admit, I’ve been completely distracted by this recipe by Heidi Swanson. Her website is incredible, if you are a vegetarian cook you should be looking at it.

Here is her Ultimate Veggie Burger recipe. I’ve decided it’s my total fave veggie burger recipe, other than some really specific stuff dependent on seasonal garden fresh items that I’ll blog about in spring and summer.

Normally, I have a lot of things to say about other people’s recipes and I pick them apart. This is recipe is perfect how it is. I don’t have anything to add.

I also was unable to take any pictures today, so I will let the picture on her website stand as the best one.

Baked Garbanzos

I really love garbanzo beans. Their rich and somewhat nutty flavor works well with many different types of flavors, particularly string flavors like feta cheese and garlic. I had plenty of dried garbanzos in my cupboard, time to cook them up and lots of odds and ends of other food that I wanted to use up. I decided to make baked garbanzos and incorporate the odds and ends into the recipe. I’ve written out what I improvised this particular time. This concept works well with other families of flavors as well as the Mediterranean slant in this version.  Canned beans also work.

Baked Garbanzos

2 cups of cooked/canned garbanzo beans, drained.

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

1 scant tablespoon of capers

3 tablespoons of crumbled feta cheese

2 garlic cloves minced to a paste or pressed

2 tablespoons of white wine

3/4 cup of tomato puree

2 roasted red peppers, minced

1/4 cup of parsley, minced

1 cup of mozzerella cheese, shredded (completely optional–I had it and wanted to use it, so I threw it in)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pour the drained garbanzos into a baking dish in a single layer. Toss with the tomato paste until coated.

Garbanzos covered with tomato paste

Stir in the rest of the ingredients except for the mozzarella. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Cover with mozzarella if you’re using it and bake until melted another 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Ready for the oven

That’s it! It’s that easy.