Herbed Olive Oil {Carrabba’s Copycat}

Herbed olive oil

Do you ever get into a side dish rut? I know I do. I fall back on things that are quick, easy, and familiar. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Sometimes a weeknight full of kids’ gymnastics, laundry piled high, and spelling homework calls for a bag of frozen peas heated in the microwave, or Trader Joe’s mashed potatoes (which are fantastic, by the way). Other times, though, inspiration strikes and an idea floats down from the kitchen muses of something different to try. Like an herbed olive oil dip from a favorite restaurant.

In general, we are a bread-and-butter-side-dish family. Bread and butter is our bread and butter. I think it was my college summer trip around Europe that first endeared me to the charms of this simple pleasure. You can’t visit France without getting hooked on crusty bread with butter (or, of course, cheese). Similarly, my husband’s relatives, New York Italians, scarcely have a meal without a loaf of bread and stick of butter on the table. I’ve come to embrace that tradition. There’s something so gustatorily delightful about the combination of soft, cottony white bread with cold, creamy butter in your mouth. (There, I said it. I like white bread. The nutritionist-in-training in me hangs her head in shame.) So I don’t mind getting a little stuck in a bread and butter groove sometimes. Recently, though, my husband and I had dinner at the chain Italian restaurant Carrabba’s, and I was reminded how delicious and unique their herbed olive oil is. I wondered if I could make it myself as a restyling of our bread and butter routine.

Herbed olive oil

Well, if course I could! This is 2015 and everything you ever wanted to know is on the Internet. Fast forward fifteen minutes and bam, here we are with a super flavorful dinner accompaniment. I even had all the ingredients in my pantry–you probably will, too, if you have an herb/spice cabinet. We had it with a lentil sausage soup (also a Carrabba’s copycat, soon to be blogged) and it made for a tasty fall dinner that was just a little different. So…easy, quick, cheap, and a familiar favorite from a restaurant? I think I can handle that, even on a busy weeknight.

Herbed olive oil

Herbed Olive Oil (a la Carrabba’s Italian Grill)
(Adapted from Food.com)

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. black pepper
scant 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 tsp. olive oil

Additional olive oil for serving (about 1/4 cup) and bread for dipping

Directions:

  1. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients except olive oil until well mixed. Add 1 tsp. olive oil and stir to incorporate.
  2. To serve: place 1/4 of herb mixture on 4 individual plates. Drizzle an additional 1 Tbsp. olive oil over herb mixture. Enjoy with crusty bread.

Serves 4.

Caramel Apple Sangria

Caramel Apple Sangria

This is a momentous post: it’s A Love Letter to Food’s first alcoholic beverage! And my first alcoholic beverage–today! (Just kidding.) It’s actually sort of odd that I’ve never featured any cocktails or other alcoholic drinks on the blog, as I’m not opposed to them and enjoy creative combinations of alcohol and mixers. It’s just that, because of my cheapness discerning palate I tend to stick with my favorite wine: Chardonnay. (As in, whatever Chardonnay is not over 5 bucks at the grocery store.) But fortunately for me, this three-ingredient, couldn’t-be-easier Caramel Apple Sangria can be made with Chardonnay–or really any white wine, depending on your sweetness preference.

Caramel Apple Sangria

There’s a reason I *had* to make this sangria. For Halloween, we’ve invited some of our neighbors to join us on our front porch to pass out candy together. (We’re basically trying to be the most desirable trick-or-treating house on the block. A one-stop candy shop, if you will.) Apparently, before we moved to this neighborhood, the former owners of our home used to do this every year…and from what I hear, lots of wine was involved. When we arrived on the street, I think there was some disappointment that we didn’t continue the tradition! So now, almost five years later, we decided it would be fun (and really, a pretty easy entertaining event) to resurrect it. Invitations have been sent, and neighbors will arrive for drinks, dessert, and candy passing at 6:30.

The dessert menu will include brain cupcakes,

Brain cupcakes
You can’t see it, but there’s a blood clot (i.e. pie cherry) inside each one.

chocolate-orange pinwheel cookies,

Chocolate Orange Pinwheel Cookies

and a pumpkin streusel pie. As for the drinks, there will certainly be wine, but I thought I’d jazz up the occasion by adding this sangria….meaning, of course, that I had to test it out before I could serve it to guests. (Right?)

Caramel Apple Sangria

I love the idea that sangria is a cocktail that can be modified to suit any season. It’s seasonal drinking to go along with seasonal eating! It might be an insurmountable challenge to make a sangria with everyone’s favorite fall flavor of pumpkin, but it’s pretty easy to make one with apples. So easy, in fact, that this recipe only calls for three ingredients: apples, white wine, and something I didn’t know existed until last week–caramel apple sparkling cider.

Caramel Apple Cider

It’s almost like it’s crying out to be put into sangria.

Caramel Apple Sangria

Dump all three things in a pitcher, stir, and you’re good to go. I shared my trial run with my friend across the street, and we both approved. So if you’re spending Halloween night with (grown-up) friends, try something a little different and give this delicious, super-simple cocktail a shot Or, you know, a glass.

Caramel Apple Sangria
(Inspired by A Night Owl Blog)

Ingredients:

2 large apples, any variety (one red and one Granny Smith makes for a nice color combo)
1 750-ml bottle white wine
1 bottle Caramel Apple sparkling cider

Directions:

  1. Chop apples into 1/2-inch chunks and place in a large pitcher.
  2. Pour white wine and sparkling cider over apples and stir to mix. Keep refrigerated or serve immediately.

Spicy Pan-Fried Noodles with Tofu

It’s rare that one dinner gets made twice in two weeks at our house–or even twice in a month. I’m too fond of variety (and of trying new recipes) for that to happen very often. But every once in awhile a dinner recipe comes along that makes me want to make it EVERY. DAY. Like these spicy pan-fried noodles with tofu:

I gave these a try a couple of weeks ago on a Friday when our family was gathered around the TV for our semi-monthly Family Movie Night. It’s kind of a shame I was in the kitchen cooking during part of the movie, because it was Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the Second Dimension. I may have mentioned before that Phineas and Ferb is, in my opinion, the greatest kids’ show of all time. I’ve actually thought about getting on Twitter just so I could stalk follow Dan Povenmire, one of the show’s creators. Anyway, since I made this delicious meal to the sounds of the movie in the background, I now associate the tantalizing blend of lime, brown sugar, and Sriracha with the voice of Dr. Heinz Doofenschmirtz (AKA the best character in the best kids’ show of all time).

Fast forward two weeks to our next Family Movie Night. I had been craving these noodles so much since the Phineas and Ferb movie night, I decided to bend my usual rules and make them again. Now I’m going to associate their taste with a combination of Dr. Doofenschmirtz and Judy Garland’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow, because this time around we watched The Wizard of Oz. So that’s a weird mental picture.

Regardless, I stand by my fortnight-long craving for these spicy noodles and tofu. They are absolutely restaurant quality, like something you’d get at Pei Wei (and then order every time you go there from here to eternity, like I do with their honey-seared chicken). For little ones or picky palates, the spice level can be adjusted by scaling back the Sriracha. I also realized after making this twice that it happens to be vegan. So there’s that, too, if that floats your boat. Or if it doesn’t, forget I said it and enjoy this meal for the spicy-sweet deliciousness it is!

Spicy Pan-Fried Noodles with Tofu
(Adapted from Fine Cooking)

Ingredients:

1/4 c. soy sauce
3 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 1/2 Tbsp. Sriracha, adjustable to taste
2 large cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp. vegetable or peanut oil, divided
14 oz. extra-firm tofu, pressed as dry as possible and sliced into 3/4 inch cubes
5 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1 1/2 inch long matchsticks
1/4 c. shallot, minced
16 oz. cooked Udon noodles*
2-3 c. green cabbage, thinly sliced

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, Sriracha, minced garlic, and 2 Tbsp. water. Set aside.

2. In a large non-stick skillet, heat 1 Tbsp. of oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add tofu, season with salt and pepper, and sauté until golden brown on all sides, about 7-10 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. Off the heat, add another 1 Tbsp. oil to the pan. Return to heat and add sliced carrots, cooking and stirring occasionally 3-5 minutes or until tender and browned in spots. Transfer to bowl with the tofu.

4. Off the heat, add the remaining 1 Tbsp. oil to the pan. Add shallot and return to heat, sauté about 1 minute, then add cooked noodles. Saute 2-3 minutes until noodles have browned in spots. Stir the sauce and carefully add it to the pan. Toss well to coat and cook and stir until the sauce reduces to a sticky glaze, about 2 minutes.

5. Return tofu and carrots to the pan. Add sliced cabbage and toss until heated through.

Serves 4.

*To make preparation faster and easier, consider using microwavable steam-pack noodles such as these:

Microwave while carrots are cooking in the skillet–voila! Instant cooked noodles!

Spiced Red Lentils

In my last post, I shared about what I had learned from writing a research paper on the multifunctional spice turmeric and its many potential medicinal uses. Today I thought I’d share a real-life example of how to incorporate turmeric into your diet. (Because turning research into dinner always sounds like a good idea.) This red lentil side dish was a real sleeper hit at our house. It’s a classic example of don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover–I mean, how often do we expect something that looks like a pot of rust-colored mush to turn out to be full of restaurant-quality deliciousness? Not often, yes? But that’s just what happened the night we gave this recipe a try.

As for myself, I would never have started cooking with lentils if it hadn’t been for a half-finished bag my vegetarian brother left at our house after one of his visits. Being a neurotic food-user-upper, I knew I had to find a purpose for the remaining legumes in the bag. But how to do so was kind of a mystery to me, because prior to that, my only mental associations with lentils had been the following:

1.) Thinking of them as “those tiny beans that people from other countries eat” (my inner ‘Murica coming out)

and

2.) The line in the musical Funny Girl: “When a girl’s incidentals are no bigger than two lentils, well, to me that doesn’t spell success.” (Don’t tell my husband that quote or he’s gonna start using it about me).

So figuring out how to cook and serve lentils was a real education. And as it turns out, a useful education, since turmeric is such a health-beneficial spice. (Again, see that last post.) As discussed in that post, turmeric is best absorbed by the body when paired with black pepper. This red lentil dish does so with a 2:1 ratio of turmeric to pepper.

Looks like they like each other. Turmeric and pepper, sittin’ in a tree…

In my research, I found out that a typical amount of turmeric in the dietary supplements people take to experience its health benefits is between 400 and 600 milligrams. With this in mind, I was curious–how much benefit would be gained from eating this red lentil dish with only a 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric in it? A half teaspoon doesn’t sound like a lot. Would it be at least the same as one dose of turmeric in supplement form? To find out, I had to do a little finagling involving my food scale. Since a teaspoon is a measurement of volume and milligrams are a measurement of weight, they don’t convert. The half teaspoon had to be weighed to determine how its content might compare to a supplement.

See, honey, that food scale is good for something!

The verdict? One half teaspoon of turmeric is equivalent to 2 grams (my spoon weighs 18g–don’t get too excited), or 2,000 milligrams. So if you ate the entire batch of spiced red lentils (good for you in the turmeric department, bad for you in the bathroom department) you would get a whopping five times the capsule amount. But if you, like a normal person, eat a regular serving–say, 1/5th of the recipe–you’ll get about as much as if you took one turmeric supplement. As someone who would rather eat than take a pill, I call that good news. While I don’t expect it to keep me from getting cancer, it’s a nice way to incorporate a health-beneficial spice into my diet from time to time. Maybe over the long term, it will work some magic.

But I digress. The important thing is mainly that these lentils are incredibly, aromatically delicious. Served with a tortilla-crusted tilapia and a drizzle of red pepper-shallot aioli, they were HEAVEN. My husband talked about this dinner for days afterward. I could also see them pairing well with grilled chicken or pretty much any Indian dish. Give them a try even if you think you don’t like turmeric–your taste buds and your health will thank you.

Spiced Red Lentils
(Adapted from Myrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. butter (or olive oil, to make vegan)
1/2 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
28 oz. chicken or vegetable broth
1 1/4 cups red lentils, thoroughly rinsed
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. black pepper
salt to taste

Chopped basil for garnish, if desired

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté about 6 minutes or until onion is tender. Add broth, lentils, turmeric, cumin, and pepper.

2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender and have absorbed the broth. Season with salt to taste and garnish with basil, if desired.

Makes 5 cups.

Vegan Peanut Butter Energy Bars

This year, my noble, brave husband and 7-year-old son both decided to give up sweets for Lent. I’m not sure which of us is having the harder time with it, them or me. As a dessert-making addict, it’s been awfully difficult for me to have two members of my family not eating the sweet treats I make. For me, dessert making is like the sixth Love Language. Not to mention the fact that with two fifths of our family not eating it, there’s way too much to go around when I do make some. So since the Lenten season began I’ve been trying to only make desserts that can be frozen, so that I don’t eat entire layer cakes or pans of seven-layer bars all by myself. (A very real possibility.)

Both my husband and son really have displayed amazing resolve in this Lenten fast, but last week my husband made a request. Could I make something “sweet-but-not-sweet”? I had to pick his brain a bit to figure out what this meant. What tastes sweet but doesn’t qualify as a sweet? He wasn’t really sure. He just knew he wanted something to curb the craving for sweetness without “cheating.” It set me on a mission to make the perfect non-treat treat. It actually kind of felt like one of those cooking show challenges. (“You have 30 seconds to make a dessert out of one tablespoon of barbecue sauce, three handfuls of popcorn, and a Fruit by the Foot–GO!”) In the end, I think I succeeded. I’d like to imagine the celebrity chef judge (can it be Curtis Stone? Let’s just say it’s Curtis Stone) proclaiming my creation the winner of the sweet-but-not-sweet challenge: these vegan peanut butter energy bars.

I tend to assume that when I see the word “vegan” in front of a recipe (especially a baked goods recipe) that it’s not worth my time. What good is baking without butter, eggs, or milk? I’m happy to say these bars prove me wrong. They are genuinely moist, tasty, and addictingly snackable. With mashed banana, whole wheat flour, oats, and just 1/3 cup of brown sugar, I think you could even get away with calling them healthy. I may have made them for my husband, but I ate at least as many as he did.

If you, too, are looking for a little something to stave off your sweet tooth without breaking the sweetness bank, look no further than these bars!

Vegan Peanut Butter Energy Bars
(Adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction)

Ingredients:

1/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1/2 c. mashed ripe banana (about 1 small banana)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Scant 1/3 c. almond milk (or 2% milk)

Optional mix-ins: 1/2 c. raisins or chocolate chips (vegan if you want to keep it vegan)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 x 8 inch baking dish or line with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, mix brown sugar and peanut butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add mashed banana and vanilla extract, mixing well until smooth.

3. With the mixer on medium speed, add whole wheat flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Mix until almost combined, with a few floury streaks. Slowly add almond milk until the dough comes together completely. Fold in mix-ins, if using. Spread into prepared pan.

4. Bake 20-23 minutes. Let cool completely before slicing into bars. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Makes about 12 bars.