Mushroom Stir Fry

I know what you are thinking... you're thinking, "Katy, aren't those the same ingredients that you used as your dumpling filling last week?" Yes, guilty. These were so good that I wanted them on their own, without the hassle of laying out the wonton wrappers and sealing and steaming the dumplings.

Also, I am newly obsessed with sesame oil. It packs an enormous amount of flavor, and it makes your whole house/apartment smell like toasted sesame seeds. Which is a very, very good smell.

Mushroom Stir Fry

INGREDIENTS:
10 oz baby bella mushrooms
1 medium white onion
1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce

DIRECTIONS:
1. Cut mushrooms and onion into 1/4" slices.
1. In a medium saute pan, saute onion in sesame oil, until onion is translucent.
2. Add mushrooms and soy sauce to onion and saute an additional 5 minutes, until browned and softened. Serve.

Serves 2-3.

Red Potato "Chips"

Last night, I got to try out the newest addition to my little kitchen: a wire baking rack! Now, theoretically, these are supposed to be used for cooling cookies, but they're a phenomenal help in making super-crispy oven-baked foods, too. Because the air can circulate around the food, including underneath, you get a crispy edge on the top and the bottom -- yum! Before I bought this, my oven-baked foods were always a little soggy on the bottom, just from contact with the pan.

You could serve these as a side dish for a twist on a meat-and-potatoes meal, or you could give them to little kids (or big kids) to snack on! I remember my dad making a variation of this for me when I was growing up, and I loved them, and I was a very, very picky child.

Here's what they look like straight out of the oven:
Red Potato "Chips"

INGREDIENTS
4 small red potatoes
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
Pinch of black pepper

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Wash and peel potatoes, and slice paper thin
3. In a medium-size bowl, toss potato slices with spices to coat thoroughly
4. Arrange potato slices on a wire rack in a single layer
5. Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, and serve.

Serves 2.

Roasted Purple Cauliflower

This is sort of a repeat post, because I used almost the same recipe as the golden cauliflower that I made a few weeks ago. However, I adapted it a little bit to suit the purple cauliflower, so I thought I'd show what I did. Changes are in italics.

Roasted Purple Cauliflower

INGREDIENTS:
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons of red wine
1 medium sized head of purple cauliflower, separated into florets
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt (I used red sea salt this time)
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place cauliflower florets in a large roasting or casserole dish. Add the garlic, olive oil, wine, salt, and pepper; toss thoroughly.
3. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through.
4. Remove from oven, top with Parmesan cheese. Stir, and serve.

Serves four.

Oven Sweet Potato Fries

These are so yummy I almost can't believe they're the healthiest food ever! Sweet potatoes are SO good for you, and this is such a better way to prepare them than coating them with butter, sugar, or marshmallows. These make a great late-night snack, and they don't take very long to prepare at all. They look a little like carrot sticks when they're all cut up, but once they're cooked, their color and flavor get so much richer. Leave the skins on if you want less color, more fiber.

Oven Sweet Potato Fries

INGREDIENTS:
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled
1 tsp black coarse sea salt (you thought it was pepper, didn't you?)
1 tsp onion salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice sweet potatoes lengthwise into thin strips, and place on a baking sheet.
3. Sprinkle olive oil, sea salt, onion salt, paprika and garlic powder, and toss to coat thoroughly.
4. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until "fries" are soft and delicious.

Serves 4.

Broccoli in Oyster Sauce

After visiting China this summer, the chinese food in New York tastes greasy and flavorless to me, so I'm trying to experiment a little on my own. This dish is really yummy, and actually tastes quite rich, considering there isn't even a teaspoon of butter or oil in the recipe. It only takes a few minutes to make, and it would be a great side to chicken or fish, or you could serve it over rice as a vegetarian main dish.

Broccoli in Oyster Sauce

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups of broccoli florets (or 4-6 small heads of broccoli, with the stems removed)
1 small white onion, sliced
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce

DIRECTIONS:
1. Coat a saute pan with cooking spray. Add broccoli, onions, oyster sauce, and soy sauce once pan is heated.
2. On medium-high heat, cook broccoli and onions, covered, for about 6-8 minutes, or until both are soft and have soaked up the sauce. Serve.

Serves 4.

Braised Carnival Squash

Personally, I think squash is best all by itself, just cooked plain and served -- it's naturally delicious. But since I had a second squash this week, I figured I would do something a little bit different.

I used a carnival squash, although you could substitute butternut with this recipe. The flesh of the squash was much heartier than acorn, almost more like potatoes. If you wanted, you could also puree this recipe with some chicken stock and have a yummy winter squash soup.

Braised Winter Squash

INGREDIENTS:
1 large carnival squash, or medium butternut squash
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cup water
1/4 small red onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp coarse sea salt
Pinch of ground pepper

DIRECTIONS:
1. Cut squash in half, microwave in small bowl with 1/4 cup water for 3 minutes.*
2. Cube squash into 1" pieces, place in saute pan.
3. Add onion, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper. Pour in remaining cup of water.
4. Cook on medium-high until water has evaporated and squash is soft (about 10 min). If the water evaporates but the squash still isn't fully cooked, just add another 1/4 cup until it's done.
5. Remove from heat, let cool, and serve.

Serves 2-3

* Cutting squash has sent me to the emergency room once already. I refuse to let it happen again.

Sweet Dumpling Squash

This is usually my recipe for acorn squash, but the farmer at the market on Sunday told me I could cook these the same way, and they would taste better. Who am I to argue with that? Sweet dumpling squash is a little milder than acorn, and I thought the flesh was a little heartier, but maybe I just haven't had fresh squash in a while!

I made mine in the microwave (I will do almost anything to avoid slicing up a raw squash), steamed with a little bit of water so it wouldn't dry out. But, you could also roast a pan of 4 of them if you wanted to use them for a bigger group.

Sweet Dumpling Squash

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium sized sweet dumpling (or acorn) squash

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp coarse sea salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. Poke squash 4 or 5 times with a chef's knife, creating 1" slits in the skin. Cut where you would slice off the top of the squash, but do not cut all the way through.

2. Microwave squash in a small bowl with 2 tbsp of water below it, for about 5 minutes.

3. Remove from microwave. Slice off the top of the squash, using the previous slits as guides. Remove the seeds and discard. Delicately scoop the squash away from the sides, mix with butter and salt, and serve.

Serves one.

Roasted Golden Cauliflower

This was honestly amazing. Yellow cauliflower tastes almost the same as white cauliflower, but it looks incredibly striking (and it's higher in vitamin A!). Roasted, it's soft and full of flavor. I could eat this entire recipe myself, it's that good.

Roasted Golden Cauliflower

INGREDIENTS
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons of white wine
1 medium sized head of yellow cauliflower, separated into florets
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt (I used pink sea salt this time)
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place cauliflower florets in a large roasting or casserole dish. Add the garlic, olive oil, wine, salt, and pepper; toss thoroughly.
3. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through.
4. Remove from oven, top with Parmesan cheese. Stir, and serve.

Serves four.

Extra Healthy Spinach and Mushrooms

Can you call it a saute if you don't use any oil? This dish is probably closer to steamed vegetables, although it's made without a steamer. This is a super low-calorie vegetable side dish that would work really well if you're serving a rich entree and want something really light to serve with it. Or you could mix this into risotto, or use it to top pasta with tomato sauce. Either way, it's definitely packed with vitamins and the parmesan adds a lot of flavor.

I "created" this recipe last night as I was about to eat some leftover spinach and mushroom salad, and I realized that raw spinach leaves are actually kind of gross as a salad base. Baby spinach is fine, and just as healthy, but regular spinach really needs to be wilted to taste any good. So I figured that rather than add dressing, I would just throw it in my saute pan. It was about a hundred times better.

Steamed Spinach and Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS:

1 10 oz bag spinach

8 oz mushrooms (1 box), sliced paper thin

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/4 cup water

Coarse sea salt

Additional parmesan, to garnish

DIRECTIONS:

1. Wash spinach. Rub mushrooms with a damp cloth to clean, immediately before using them.

2. Pour water into the bottom of a saucepan, add spinach, mushrooms, salt and parmesan (if the spinach doesn't fit into the pan, wait until some has wilted and put in the rest).
3. Let steam for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Remove from pan. Garnish with extra parmesan and serve.

Chicpkea Salad

A creation all my own! This is almost too easy to make, and since the main ingredient is chickpeas, it's both vegetarian and very inexpensive! It looks so pretty though, and it's so simple to throw together. A great addition to any summer dinner. You could garnish it with parmesan cheese or a drizzle of olive oil -- I just left it plain.

Chickpea Salad

INGREDIENTS
1 can chickpeas (15 ounces), drained
2 plum tomatoes, cut into sections
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/4 tsp paprika
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS
Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl. Garnish and serve.