Red Cabbage, Apples & Onions with Cottage Cheese Dumplings

Cook with the food on hand, that's my motto. So, here's what was hanging around from last weeks share on the day before the new share was due to be picked up:

a little more than 1/2 a small head of red cabbage

1/2 a large white onion

2 summer apples (actually left from a couple of weeks ago)

What to do...

I used a slightly modified version of Mollie Katzen's Sweet & Tart Cabbage with Cottage Cheese Dumplings from her Still Life With Menu Cookbook.

1. You should start by putting a big pot of water up to boil for the dumplings. I used my soup pot, filled a little more than half way. You need a lot of room for the dumplings to bump and boil.
2. I sliced 1/2 of a white onion thinly and began to saute the slices in 2 tsp of Olivo margarine (you could use butter here, or olive oil - butter gives the best flavor).
3. While the onions were cooking I cored and quartered the cabbage and used the thin slicing blade on the food processor (savior of those who live with RA) to slice it.
4. I added the sliced cabbage, about 1/2 tsp of whole cumin seeds, some freshly ground black pepper,  and a sprinkle of salt to the  pan with the onions and continued to cook that mixture.

1. While the cabbage and onions were cooking, I cored the apples and put them through the thin slicing blade on the food processor as well (I did not peel them - mostly because I was feeling lazy, but it did not matter. After they cooked down, we did not even notice the peel).

1. I added the apples to the pan, plus about a teaspoon of sugar, covered the pan and let everything cook together while I made the dumplings.

1. I beat 2 eggs with 4 oz of cottage cheese, then added 1 cup of flour (I used unbleached white, you could use any kind you like I think) and a teaspoon or so of chopped dried dill (fresh is better, but I haven't got a dill plant on my deck this summer). I also added some salt - although I couldn't bring myself to add the full teaspoonful recommended in the original recipe.
2. I had my usual hard time getting the dumplings to be uniform in size and shape. I dropped them by teaspoonful into the gently boiling water. Too much handling of the dumpling dough makes tough dumplings, but I may try forming them into balls with floured hands next time to see if they I can get them a little more rounded.
3. The dumplings must boil gently for 15 minutes. They almost double in size. Then you scoop them out with a slotted spoon. I let mine rest on a linen towel while I removed the cabbage mixture from the pan to a serving dish, wiped out the pan, and melted another 2 tsp of Olivo. 
4. Then I sauteed the dumplings on med-high heat for a couple of minutes to give them a nice golden-brown crisp.

 

And the finished dish...

Ricotta Torta with Beet Greens and Spinach

Made the Torta from a modified Weight Watcher's Recipe

Ingredients:

1/4 cup plain bread crumbs

2 tsp olive oil

2 small red onions, chopped

1 bunch of beet greens, chopped

1 small bunch spinach, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 16 oz container part-skim ricotta cheese (I buy Sorrento because it has no additives or thickeners)

1 egg, lightly beaten

salt & freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F

Spray a 9" springform pan with olive oil cooking spray and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs

heat the oil in a large skillet, cook onions, stirring about 5 min until softened

stir in greens and garlic and cook until greens are wilted

while greens are cooking, combine ricotta, egg, salt pepper, and remaining breadcrumbs in a bowl, stir in the onion/greens mixture, then spoon into the prepared pan

bake until puffed and golden - about 45 minutes

It will puff up, then sink as it cools.

Served this with a Corn Salad from an Ina Garten recipe

 http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fresh-corn-salad-recipe/index.html

 I used purple and green basil.

Spinach & Sun Dried Tomato Fritatta

There are so many delicious things you can do with fresh spinach. This was a quick supper with eggs, kind of a fritatta. I used one bunch of spinach from the CSA box.

Wash the spinach well, especially if it just came from the farm market or the CSA box and still has dirt and sand clinging to it.. I usually put it in a big bowl of water, push it around gently, lift it out of the water into a collander, dump the water (and the sand and dirt) - or use it to water the plants, then repeat that process two more times or until there is no more dirt in the bottom of the bowl when I remove the spinach.

Chop the spinach bu piling up the leaves, slicing them into strips one way and then slicing the other way to cup those strips into pieces.

I made this a few weeks ago and used sun dried tomatoes - but if I make it now, I would use fresh tomatoes -mmm - makes my mouth water just thinking about fresh Jersey tomatoes...
For this fritatta, I chopped about 1/3 cup of sun dried tomatoes.

Grated about 1/2 cup Parmesean cheese

Sauteed one chopped yellow onion in 1 tsp olive oil

I beat 6 eggs with a little soy milk, then poured them into the ovenproof saute pan

I cooked the fritatta on top of the stove until it was almost set, then sprinkled the mozerella and Parmesean cheese on top and popped it into a 400 degree oven just until the top browned

Day 36:Broccoli, Mushroom, Onion Strata

Family Dinner - the whole family is here tonight.
I started with this recipe
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/1862
But I only had half a package of portobello mushroom slices and I did not have any asparagus or goat cheese. I did, however, have some freshly dried sage from the Thanksgiving CSA share and lots of broccoli in the freezer, so I substituted broccoli for the asparagus and used cheddar cheese. I also only had 6 eggs, so I cut everything else down to about 2/3 . Final result was pretty tasty - there are no leftovers. Next time I would up the mustard and sage though. I served it with some packaged vegan mushroom gravy and a Waldorf Salad (a family favorite: apples, grapes, celery, raisins, dates, cheddar cheese cubes - usually add dried apricots but did not have any - used plain Greek yogurt for the "dressing".

Day 27: Potato, Zuchinni, & Feta Latkes

It is the fifth night of Hanukkah and I have not fried anything in oil yet. I made something I will call Latkes with a Greek Twist - or Twisted Greek Latkes.

2 potatoes
1 onion
2 small/medium zucchinis
2 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
salt & pepper, oregano, basil
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
olive oil

Grate the vegetables together - always put onions and potatoes together in the food processor chute to keep the potatoes from turning that ugly grey/brown color. Squeeze out the excess liquid.  Beat the eggs, then mix them into the vegetables with the flour and seasonings, then add the cheese and mix that in. Heat a heavy pan, coat with thin layer of oil, drop tablespoons of batter - keep the latkes small so they cook through. Cook until brown on both sides. Keep warm in the oven until you eat them. These are a little soft - as opposed to crunchy - because of the zucchini and the feta - but very good.

To go with the Twisted Greek Latkes:
Chick Pea Salad (1 can chick peas, 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes, 1 cup chopped celery, 1/2 c chopped flat leaf parsley, S&P, 2 tsp EV Olive oil, some balsamic vinegar)
Braised Red Cabbage with apples and onions from the freezer (prepared and frozen in August)
Apple and Cranberry Chutney from Thanksgiving

Day 18 : Thanksgiving #2

We traveled to visit my husband's mother - and brought some vegetarian Thanksgiving dishes with us. Once again, the family voted,  and this time it was a split decision, the boys wanted squash with a nut stuffing and the girls wanted stuffed mushrooms.  I made both. First, I modified  Chloe Coscarelli's vegan Harvest-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/a-vegan-chef-dishes-up-thanksgiving/) by adding a bunch of fresh spinach, chopped, to the onion, cashew, and garlic sauté. Then I added  some grated Parmesan cheese to the finished stuffing mixture. The flavors blended well and the result was very tasty.


For the squash, I started with a nut stuffed Delicata squash recipe from Sunset Magazine (http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001842377). We had acorn squash from our CSA share, so I used that. I wasn't sure I would like the nut stuffing (and it is a little too high in fat and calories for me) so I stuffed my squash with the stuffing I made for the mushrooms - making a total of three different main dishes. For sides, we had the roasted left-over winter vegetables that I made earlier, a big green salad made by grandma, and some of the apple cranberry chutney.

Day 8: Veggie Strata

On hand: red onion & broccoli from the CSA share, mushrooms, fresh eggs from a friend at work, stale ends of white & whole wheat Calandra sliced Lanella bread, various cheeses to choose from.

What to make?  Strata

How I did it:

• Diced the red onion, sliced the mushrooms, sauteed them in 1 tablespoon olive oil till starting to brown
• chopped the broccoli - smallish pieces. steamed it till bright green and still a little crisp and mixed it with the onions & mushrooms and added 1 tsp Annie's Organic Vegan Worcestershire sauce
• cut the bread into cubes
• grated 1 1/4 cups low fat cheddar and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• sprayed a large shallow casserole dish with Olive oil cooking spray, then layered: 1/2 bread, 1/2 veggies, 1/2 cheese - repeat
• Whisked 1 3/4 cups almond milk, 6 eggs, 1 1/2 tablespoons Annie's Organic Dijon mustard, and a little more  Worcestershire sauce, then poured that over the bread and veggies.
• Put in the fridge for about 5 hours, then baked at 350F for 1 hour

Result: "Tastes like dinner and dessert at the same time"

I don't know what that means - but the strata was good.