Greek Pasta Salad

Greek Pasta Salad

This is so easy to make it's ridiculous. It can also easily be made vegetarian.

Ingredients:
3/4 c. to 1 c. kalamata olives, halved
1 can artichoke hearts, quartered
2-3 roasted red bell peppers, cut into strips
1 c. feta
1/2 red onion, cut into slices then quartered
2 chicken breasts, grilled then cut into 1" chunks
1 lb. rotelle pasta, cooked and rinsed with cold water
1/3 c. or so Greek salad dressing





First, I sliced half a red onion then quartered the slices so they became manageable pieces for eating.



Meanwhile, I grilled two chicken breasts that I had seasoned with Cavender's Greek Seasoning. (So delicious! Good on french fries!)



Quarter the artichoke hearts. I like to get these in cans without marinade. That way you control the flavor AND the fat content!



I get my roasted red peppers in a jar without any fat also. I sliced these into strips.



Cut the kalamata olives in half. Try not to eat too many as you're prepping this dish!



After the pasta has cooked, rinse it with cold water until it has totally cooled.



Admire the feta and the dressing since you don't have to do anything to prepare them...



Once the chicken is cooked thoroughly, let it cool for about 15 minutes.



Cut into bite-sized chunks and add to your salad bowl.



Add the pasta, feta, and dressing. I "eyeballed" the dressing. In the end it was about 1/3 cup but you can use more or less, depending on your tastes. In our house we like a lightly dressed salad in general for just a hint of flavor. I don't like to overwhelm the flavors of the other ingredients.



Now it's done and time to serve! This pasta salad is excellent for a weeknight dinner and if you double it, I can definitely see it being very popular at a potluck. If you leave the chicken off it's vegetarian friendly (so I'll add the vegetarian tag anyway).

Everyone in the family loved this dish. The preschooler picked out the onions but liked everything else. Middle son and husband had three servings!!

Indian Food Night

Last night we had a great dinner with friends. A lot of this food I picked up from the market but I made some toor daal from a recipe I got from a friend. But first...the market food!



Samosas from the salad bar area of Central Market. These were delicious!



Naan from Trader Joe's.



Daal palak, also from Central Market. It was so good and a bit spicy.



And here's the daal I made! It was a hit! It was also health, as the only oil I used was less than a tablespoon. Here is the recipe, as written by my friend Payal:

Need:
Toor Dal (found at Indian grocery stores)
2 1/2 tsp Paprika
3 tsp Cumin-coriander powder
3/4 tsp turmeric
Juice of one lemon (can substitute with lemon juice from store)
7 tsp sugar
green chilli (optional)
a small piece ginger (optional)
salt (according to taste)

Also need separately:
3 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds

Soak the lentils (toor dal) over night if possible or at least 4 hours. Then boil it until its completely soft or put it into a pressure cooker for 3 whistles. Then add some water and whip it until its blended. Now put the pan on a stove and put the whipped dal in there. Add all the spices up to salt. Once the dal is boiling, in a second small pan, heat up oil. Add black mustard seeds and heat until they sizzle. Add fenugreek seeds and heat some more. Add the mixture to the dal. Stir it up and add more water if needed. Let it boil for 30 minutes or until it reaches a desired consistency. Eat with rice.



I used equal amounts of coriander and cumin. I also could not find black mustard seeds so I used brown. Speaking of spices, a good tip is that if you happen to have a store near you that sells them in bulk it's much cheaper to get them from that section. This is especially true if it's a spice for a recipe that you do not use very often.

Oh, a couple of other amendments I made: I did not use the chili and for the garlic, I had some from a jar (oh, the humanity!) and I put in about a teaspoon. I'm not sure if the consistency I made was correct but it was so delicious. The consistency was a bit like mashed potatoes but it went very well with the rice (brown basmati) and the naan.

I loved making food with friends! It was fantastic.

Buitoni Pasta - Wild Mushroom Agnolotti

Being a Foodbuzz featured publisher has its perks. One of those perks is occasionally they send out a product to try and review. This past Friday I came home to a huge box. I opened it and was so pleased to find a lovely note from Foodbuzz along with a package of pasta!



Not just any pasta, but Wild Mushroom Agnolotti by Buitoni.



For the next 36 hours I thought and thought about what kinds of sauces would go well with this agnolotti. I contemplated alfredo sauce and while that would be good, it would overpower the mushroom. I felt the same way about a marinara sauce. In the end, I developed a flavorful sauce with chicken broth as its base. (Vegetarians: you could easily substitute vegetable broth and make this a vegetarian meal.)

Here is my recipe:

Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Asparagus, Spinach, and Sun-dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:
1 9 oz. package Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti
1 bunch of asparagus, tough ends trimmed and cut into 1" pieces
4 oz. spinach leaves, washed
7 to 8 sun-dried tomatoes (dried, not packed in oil*), sliced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
2 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. grated Romano cheese
3 Tbsp. pine nuts, toasted

*I found sun-dried tomatoes at Trader Joe's that were not packed in oil. They were just dry, in a bag. There are some similar tomatoes here but I've never purchased from this vendor and can therefore not verify how good they are.

Instructions:
1. Prepare the pasta per the package instructions.
2. Heat olive oil in a wide, deep pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add garlic, thyme, oregano, and crushed red pepper flakes. Stir for about 30 seconds.
4. Add spinach and stir until the leaves have completely wilted.
5. Add the chicken broth and white wine. Bring to a simmer.
6. Add the sun-dried tomatoes. Let simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Add the asparagus and cook for another 4-5 minutes, or until asparagus is mostly tender and bright green.
8. Gently add the agnolotti and stir - gently - to coat with sauce.
9. Put the butter in the pan and stir gently until it is melted.
10. Remove pan from heat, stir in the grated Romano and pine nuts gently.
11. Serve and enjoy!



First, the pine nuts were toasted.





The garlic was first up in the pan. This starts the magic.



Next, the herbs were added.



After about 30 seconds, the spinach went into the pan.



It wilted so nicely, don't you agree?



Next up is the chicken broth and white wine. I just used a white wine blend from Metropolitan Market.



After the liquid came to a simmer I added the sundried tomatoes. I wanted to add them now as opposed to reconstituting them in separate boiling water because I wanted to retain all that lovely tomato flavor and color. These look a little dark because they are sulphur-free. I got them from Trader Joe's.



After about 5 minutes I added the cut up asparagus.



4-5 minutes later I added the agnolotti into the sauce mixture.



Butter, of course, is a wonderful finish to any sauce!



Stir gently... Do not break up those beautiful agnolotti!



Remove the pan from heat and add the grated Romano.



Finally, add the toasted pine nuts. Remember to stir gently!



The finished dish is a sight to behold.



This was delicious!

I have, in the past, picked up some refrigerated ravioli and sauce as a quick meal for the family. Honestly, it is a decent meal but not exactly awe-inspiring, know what I mean? This agnolotti, though, was different. This was special. Gourmet! The flavor was out of this world amazing. It tasted like we had made them at home. The sauce balanced the agnolotti perfectly. This is exactly what they were asking for.

Do you want to know the best thing about this Buitoni pasta? It inspired me to think of other ways to cook it. I wonder how this would taste with beef broth and red wine instead of chicken broth and white wine. Ooooh! And I'd bet it would be lovely with duck broth and fennel!

We will definitely be purchasing this agnolotti as it has totally won us over. And special thanks to Foodbuzz for introducing this wonderful pasta to our kitchen!

Spanish Rice with Soy Chorizo

A few months ago there was a clearance on chorizo at the grocery store. Despite my best intentions, I took a peek at the ingredients. Ever since then I have wanted to try the soy version. I often like the soy versions of meats. Yves Ground Round is a good thing in my house for lasagna, spaghetti, etc. I like making Taco Soup with soy "hamburger" instead of the real thing. It was with that spirit, then, that I picked up the soy chorizo from Trader Joe's the other night. Instead of just making eggs I wanted to make something a bit more substantial. Launching off the spanish rice I made a while back, I decided to make that and add the chorizo for more of a main dish feel.

Spanish Rice with Soy Chorizo

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 cup uncooked brown rice
2 cups vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1 14 1/2-oz. can whole tomatoes, undrained
1/2 tsp. saffron
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. thyme
16 oz. soy chorizo, casings removed and crumbled


Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and celery. Sauté for 5 minutes, or until onion is transparent.

Add the rice; stir so it is coated with oil. Add the broth and bay leaf; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 35 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf. Stir in the tomato juice, the cut up tomatoes, the saffron, paprika, thyme, chorizo and stir. Cover and simmer until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes longer.

Ingredients:



The stars of this meal are saffron (try Trader Joe's for affordable saffron) and a smoky Spanish paprika. My friend gave me this tin *cough*a few years ago*cough* and it is wonderfully smoky and still full of flavor.



Dice up the celery.



Dice up the onion.



Heat up the olive oil. It's a little more than 1 tablespoon but that's all right...



Once the oil is nice and hot, add the celery and onion to the pan.



After the onion is transparent and the vegetables are soft, it's time to add the rice. Stir the rice around so it's all coated with oil. I kept it in the pan for a couple of minutes prior to adding the broth.



Now add the broth. This was actually homemade turkey broth because I didn't have vegetable broth on hand but I didn't worry since no actual vegetarians were fed during this meal. If you have actual vegetarians you definitely want to be sure to use vegetable broth.



Drop the bay leaf in, cover, turn the heat to low, and simmer for about 35 minutes. You don't need to disturb it; just let the rice cook.



When it's getting close to the 35 minute mark, get your spices together. Pour some saffron in your hand and admire it for a little bit.



Take the casings off the soy chorizo. This is very important!!



After the rice has been cooking for 35 minutes, add the rest of the ingredients. First, the spices go in.



Next, drain the tomato liquid into the pan.



After that has been drained take kitchen shears or a knife and cut up the tomatoes.



Add the chorizo and stir. Cover it and let it cook for about 15 minutes more, or until the rice is tender.

Serve with sour cream (it is a little on the spicy side!).



This was delicious! Everyone except the preschooler and me had seconds. I was surprised my middle child loved it but he did! Mr. Mary Cooks, for his second helping, put the rice mixture into a tortilla and said he liked it that way.

I'm happy this was a hit and I'll definitely make this again. I think the Spanish rice was great, too, and a good keeper for a rice dish from scratch vs. out of a box. Sure, it takes a little more time but it is so worth it because you know what your family is getting.