Tag: Mediterranean Diet
Herbed Olive Oil {Carrabba’s Copycat}
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.
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 (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:
- In a small bowl, combine all ingredients except olive oil until well mixed. Add 1 tsp. olive oil and stir to incorporate.
- 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.
Roasted Butternut Squash Salad
We’ll get to this delicious roasted butternut squash salad with maple-mustard dressing, I promise. But first, a little digression. Last Friday our family returned from five days in central Illinois for a fall break trip to visit family. We enjoyed some gorgeous fall colors,
a visit to Wildlife Prairie Park (a combination park/zoo/recreated prairie farmstead),
a daytrip to Chicago, where the kids and I explored the Field Museum,
quality time with grandparents and great-grandparents,
and a hike that dead-ended at this picturesque-but-creepy abandoned woodcutter’s cottage.
The weather was just what you’d idealize for fall–crisp but not too cold–and the kids behaved really well overall. Can’t ask for much more than that! If I could lodge just one complaint, though, it would be this: MEAT OVERLOAD. I had forgotten how much people in the Midwest eat meat, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This half-time vegetarian was not prepared for the amount of (especially red) meat that is standard on Midwestern menus. I enjoy a good burger as much as anyone else, but by the time we got home, I was ready to bathe myself in vegetables. So when I meal planned for this week, I made sure to include some uber-healthy vegetarian meals. Hence this butternut squash salad.
I had made this meal once before, but this time decided to tweak it a bit, and was delighted with the results. The mix of nutty butternut squash roasted with honey and spices, salty pepitas, sweet cranberries, and a maple-mustard dressing made for an awesome, hearty fall salad. For lunch today I had the leftovers and they were just as tasty as night before. How often does that happen with a salad?
Full disclosure, though: not everyone in our family loved this salad as much as I did. My 8-year-old, who apparently detests butternut squash with a level of intensity most people reserve for Donald Trump and dental work, gave us MAJOR grief over eating that part of the salad for dinner. When my husband told him he had to eat the squash before he could get dessert, my son shoved it in his mouth, and moments later…..vomited.
Yep. Vomited. He wasn’t sick; he just hates squash THAT MUCH.
So, word to the wise: if your kid as much as much loathing for butternut squash as mine does, you may want to shy away from this meal. On the other hand, if you’re a grown-up who enjoys healthy, flavorful food, allow me to introduce you to a new favorite fall salad.
Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing
(Inspired by Two Peas and their Pod)
Ingredients:
For the salad:
12 oz. (about 1 small) butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. honey
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
8 c. spinach or mixed greens
1/2 c. roasted salted pepitas
3/4 c. crumbled feta cheese
1/2 c. dried cranberries
For the dressing:
1/4 c. maple syrup
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. grainy mustard
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/3 c. canola oil
salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread butternut squash chunks on a large baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and honey. Sprinkle with nutmeg, parsley, salt, and pepper and toss to coat. Roast 25-30 minutes, stirring once halfway through cooking. Cool to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the salad: in a salad bowl or platter, toss spinach/salad greens with pepitas, feta, and cranberries. Add roasted squash.
- To make the dressing, combine maple syrup, garlic, cider vinegar, grainy mustard, and Dijon mustard in a measuring cup. Add canola oil and blend with an immersion blender until emulsified. (Alternatively, you could use a regular blender or food processor.) Serve on the side or tossed in the salad.
Serves 4 as a main dish.
Tomato-Corn Risotto with Shrimp
Yesterday on my A Love Letter to Food Facebook page, I got a notification that read something like this: “You haven’t posted anything in five days. That means your followers haven’t heard from you in almost a week! Post now!!! (Or your readers will start to riot in the streets! Or jump off of bridges! Or you’ll be forever cast upon the trash heap of their minds!)” I may have embellished that last part. But it really kinda stressed me out. Like social media pressure has become the new peer pressure…and it’s not even from real people–it’s just a Facebook robot. “Keeping up with the blogging Joneses.” Thaaaaaaaanks, Facebook.
Anyway, this post is not a response to that nudge. (Or maybe, subconsciously, it is?) I’ve been wanting to share this summery risotto recipe for awhile. I knew it was good when my husband suggested I create a sidebar on the blog called “Husband-Approved Favorites” and put this on it. The man doesn’t even like shrimp and he literally ate the leftovers of this for breakfast. I was shocked. But I had to agree it was delicious–the mix of corn, tomato, and basil offering the flavor package of summer in a bowl. (The good kind of summer, like running-through-the-sprinklers-with-a-4th-of July-parade-rolling-by, not the get-me-out-of-this-face-melting-inferno kind we experience in Phoenix.)
So perhaps the timing of posting this risotto now is serendipitous, because it reminds me in the wake of Facebook robot peer pressure that, like risotto, good things take time. I’ve been on a blogging roll last month, but it’s probably not sustainable. I’m never going to be the kind of food blogger who posts five times a week. (Let’s face it, I can’t get my family to NOT eat that many things long enough to take pictures of them.) As much as I enjoy food blogging, I’m not ready for it to take over my life. There are more important things in life than giving to the pressures of Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/OtherFoodBloggersAreCoolerThanYou.com. I can stand to go five days without posting on Facebook, and so can my (small group of) readers. So thanks for reading, whoever you may be, and give this recipe a try when you’re feeling summery–in a good way.
Tomato-Corn Risotto with Shrimp
Ingredients:
6 c. vegetable broth, low-sodium preferred
2 Tbsp. butter
1 small onion, diced
1 1/2 c. arborio rice
1/2 c. dry white wine
1 1/2 c. frozen corn, thawed
shrimp
1 1/2 c. grape tomatoes, quartered
3 Tbsp. fresh basil, chiffonaded
1 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 Tbsp. heavy cream
Directions:
1. In a saucepan, heat vegetable broth over medium-low heat until warm.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté about 3 minutes until translucent. Add rice and stir to coat with the butter. Pour in the wine and cook, stirring, until liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute.
3. Ladle about 2 c. of the warmed broth into the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is absorbed, about 3-5 minutes. Continue ladling broth into rice mixture about 3/4 c. at a time, cooking 3-5 minutes after each addition and continuing to stir occasionally, until liquid is absorbed. Add corn and shrimp to the skillet with the final addition of broth.
4. While the rice is simmering, combine grape tomatoes, olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
5. After final addition of broth is absorbed, add Parmesan and cream to the skillet and stir until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and fold in the tomato-basil mixture. Top with any additional basil and serve immediately.
Serves 5.
Zesty Greek Tilapia with Orzo
Earlier this week, our family returned from a little vacation (or, more aptly named, a “family trip”–hard to call it a vacation until the kids are a bit older) to the charming city of Avalon on Catalina Island. For four days we soaked up what the island has to offer, including a ferry ride from Long Beach,
trips to the beach,
a glass-bottom boat tour,
exploring around the historic Avalon Casino,
and climbing the steep staircases around the city to take in some beautiful views from above.
After returning from this trip, I feel unusually motivated to make positive changes in my life. It’s like a mini New Year’s Day. I suddenly want to clean my house from floor to ceiling, take a math placement test I’ve been putting off for my nutrition degree, and start a fundraising campaign to buy a new play structure for our church’s religious education center. (Calm the heck down, right?) And certainly after all the vacation eating–ice cream, margaritas, giant burritos, and a probably ill-advised stop at Carl’s Jr.–I’ve definitely felt the desire to get back to “normal” eating habits, i.e. healthy eating habits.
The first evening we were back, I decided we needed a mega-healthy dinner to counteract some of the vacation’s excesses. (Did I mention the two boxes of Girl Scout cookies that somehow stowed away in our snack bag for the drive?) Bring on the fiber! the vitamins! the omega-3 fatty acids! All those things not found in Girl Scout cookies and Carl’s Jr. onion rings! I’d been eyeing some recipes for Greek-style tilapia for awhile, but ended up winging it to create my own version that fit my craving for something healthy and flavorful.
Being from the Southwest, it’s probably hard-wired into my system to turn anything with diced tomatoes into a kind of salsa. I started off by combining tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, and some other Mediterranean staples to make a Greek-style pico de gallo:
Spread over tilapia fillets, this zesty mixture complemented the fish’s mild flavor nicely. Served with orzo and accompanied by a green vegetable, it made a flavorful meal packed with nutrients that will be easy to whip up on a weeknight in the future. And yes, I promise there’s fish under there in the picture…I just happened to like the Greek salsa…a lot.
Zesty Greek Tilapia with Orzo
A Love Letter to Food Original
Ingredients:
3 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 2.25 oz. can sliced olives, drained
2 oz. crumbled feta cheese
1 green onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
scant 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
black pepper to taste
5 medium tilapia fillets (about 15 oz.)
8 oz. oz. orzo pasta
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, mix tomatoes, olives, feta, green onion, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, and salt. Season with pepper.
3. Spray a 9 x 13″ baking pan with cooking spray and place tilapia fillets evenly in the pan. Spread the tomato mixture on top of the fish to cover.
4. Bake about 15 minutes or until the tilapia flakes easily with a fork.
5. Meanwhile, cook the orzo according to package directions. Serve tilapia over orzo.
Serves 3-4.
Lemon-Dill Orzo with Chickpeas and Artichokes
I have a friend who used to say in the summer that she had “broken up” with her oven. It’s a mental image I’ve carried with me for years. I always picture this friend engaged in a painful split from Mr. Kenmore Oven. She tells him she can’t take the heat. First he wheedles, then he sends flowers, makes promises–he even bakes cookies. He writes love letters to prove his emotional range. She resists, ignoring him each time she walks through the kitchen, flaunting her new-found relationship with no-cook meals in his shiny metal face. But we know where this cat-and-mouse game ends when fall rolls around. Every year she comes running back to his warmth–how could she stay away when he’s SO HOT??–and the sizzling romance resumes. (Are you rolling your eyes at the oven puns yet?)
Awful oven puns aside, I get what my friend means. The to-oven-or-not-to-oven question is a seesaw many of us who love to cook tend to ride as seasons change. It seems counterintuitive to heat a metal box to 450 degrees in the middle of your house when every other effort you make all day is to stay cool. So while June hasn’t started off too terribly here in the Phoenix area (no temps soaring over 110–that’s what we call moderate), I still feel the pull to keep the oven off and serve something closer to air-conditioned room temperature.
When we tried this vegetarian orzo salad last night, it hit the non-piping-hot spot. The recipe does, admittedly, use the stovetop to boil the orzo, but 15 minutes on the range beats a lasagna in the oven for an hour, and the end result is a refreshing blend of cool flavors perfect for a warm day. It’s packed with:
- Chickpeas for fiber and protein (see my ode to the nutritional value of chickpeas here)
- Feta for a non-fatty cheese indulgence (the Pasta Salad Code of Ethics states that every pasta salad needs a cheese indulgence)
- Artichokes for veggie goodness including additional fiber and Vitamin C
- Fresh dill, lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil to add flavor without overdoing it on calories and fat (in keeping with the ideology of the Mediterranean diet).
Put them all together and you have a quick, light one-dish dinner or a hearty potluck side. So, sorry, Mr. Oven. Like my friend, I’m off for my annual summer fling without you. Or at least a few days’ break…you know I still need you for cookies.
Lemon-Dill Orzo with Chickpeas and Artichokes
(Adapted from Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. uncooked orzo
1/2 c. sliced green onions
3/4 c. crumbled feta cheese
1 14-oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
5 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill
2 15-oz. cans chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), drained
1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp. cold water
scant 3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. minced garlic
Directions:
1. Cook orzo according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2. In a large bowl, combine cooled, rinsed orzo, green onions, feta, artichoke hearts, dill, and chickpeas.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, water, salt, and garlic. Drizzle over pasta mixture and toss gently to coat.
Serve immediately or refrigerate.
Serves 5-6 as a main dish, 8-10 as a side dish.