Lentil and Ricotta "Meatballs"

Confession: I don't get the vegetarian obsession with "meat replacements".

What's up with tofurkey? Vegetarian hot dogs? Fake bacon, or as I call it, Fakin'? What's the point? Must we pretend to eat meat?

This summer, I've attempted to use tofu for chicken, make my own veggie burgers with quinoa and mushrooms, and try several of the packaged veggie meat substitutes on the market. In a word: yuck! Perhaps it's just me, but all of the meat substitutes I've tried are either horrible, bland, or simply leave you wanting the real thing. I'd much rather grill a simple portabella cap and stick it on a bun than to suffer through another mealy, unsatisfying veggie burger. Can we just let veggies be veggies instead of trying to make them be something else? They are delicious just as they are!

That being said...You know every rule has to have an exception, and this is mine. This is the first and only recipe for a meat substitute that I actually ate and enjoyed. So much so that I have made it more than once. On purpose.

Pasta is a comfort food for me, and I often find myself craving spaghetti and meatballs. With fear and skepticism, I decided to give this recipe a try, and I am SO glad I did. The meatballs are hearty, moist, have a great texture, and while no one would mistake them for actual meat, they are delicious.

This is also the first time I can recall ever using lentils in a recipe. What took me so long? Lentils are quick to cook and have an earthy, sagey, dare I say almost bacon-y flavor that lends a richness and depth to the meatballs.

Have I convinced you yet? Here's the recipe:

Lentil and Ricotta "Meatballs" - slightly modified from Tasty Kitchen*

• 2 cups Prepared Or Canned Lentils, Pureed
• ⅔ cups Herbed Whole Wheat Breadcrumbs
• 2 whole Large Eggs, Lightly Beaten
• ½ cups Part-Skim Ricotta, Well-drained
• ¼ cups Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1-½ teaspoon Fresh Chopped Italian (flat-leaf) Parsley
• Other Italian herbs, to taste (I used fresh basil and rosemary)
• 1 T. capers, finely chopped
• Marinara Sauce (I used homemade; see notes)
• 1 lb. cooked pasta

Preparation Instructions

• Add all ingredients to a deep bowl. Mix very well, using hands or a wooden spoon. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight.
  
  
  
• When ready to cook, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Generously spray a nonstick cookie sheet with cooking spray.
• Shape mixture into 3/4-inch balls.
  
  
• Place meatballs on cookie sheet. Bake for 7-10 minutes, until they start to brown on the bottom.
• Turn meatballs over and bake for another 10 minutes.
• Add to simmering marinara sauce if serving immediately, then serve over pasta.
  
  
  
• Meatballs in sauce freeze and reheat well.

For the marinara, place 6 large tomatoes, roughly chopped, one medium onion, roughly chopped and several peeled cloves of garlic on a rimmed cookie sheet greased with olive oil.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Flip vegetables over and return to oven for 15 more minutes. The edges of the tomatoes should just be starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Once the vegetables are cool, add a small batch at a time to a food processor and pulse until the sauce is the right consistency. Add herbs and seasonings, to taste.

*The original recipe says to make the meatballs much larger and fry them. I found making them smaller and baking them helps them hold their shape better so they don't fall apart in the sauce. It also reduces the fat content because you're not using oil for frying.

Lemon Cottage Cheese Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

Confession: I've been neglecting you!

It's not that I haven't been cooking delicious vegetarian food and taking beautiful pictures to share. It's just that the summer in Maine with all its festivals, family gatherings, and days that beg for a visit to the beach can simply overpower even the most dedicated blogger with the best of intentions.

It's bound to stay that way, too - I looked at my calendar this morning and realized I don't have one single free weekend between now and Labor Day! It's not a complaint at all - I'm loving being home in Maine and close to family and friends. It's just making the goal of a post a week here a little challenging. So I'm asking you to bear with me! There is good stuff to come, sporadic as it may be.

One of my favorite things to do on a lazy weekend (ha!) is to sleep in late and make brunch. Normally brunch around our house includes bagel sandwiches, or homemade omlettes. I don't usually make pancakes because I find them too sweet and frankly rather boring. This recipe changes that!

I've been looking for ways to ensure I'm getting enough protein, calcium and B12 in my diet this summer, and when I spotted a pancake recipe using cottage cheese I thought it was definitely worth a try. These pancakes come out unlike any I've had before. They are dense but they melt in your mouth. The lemon gives them a fresh and complex flavor. I can't get enough! I've made these 4 times in the last month. I've made them with and without lemon. I've added blueberries. I've made a homemade maple raspberry syrup. And they have been OUTSTANDING every time.

I hope you can find a lazy Saturday - or heck, a busy weeknight! - to whip these up and enjoy. Forget your Hungry Jack and Bisquick folks - these are worth the effort!

Here's the pancake recipe, modified (slightly) from this site. I used whole eggs instead of egg whites and that seems to keep the batter together better in the skillet.

Lemon Cottage Cheese Pancakes

½ cups Whole Wheat Flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
¼ cups All-purpose Flour
¾ teaspoons Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Baking Soda
¼ teaspoons Salt
1-½ Tablespoon Sugar
1 whole Large Lemon (the Zest)
⅔ cups Skim or Low Fat Milk
¾ cups Low Fat Cottage Cheese
2 whole eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.


2. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and lemon zest with your fingers. This will bring out the lemon flavor. Add the sugar and lemon to the dry ingredients. Whisk again.


3. In a small bowl, add the milk, cottage cheese, eggs, vanilla extract, and fresh lemon juice. Whisk until smooth. The cottage cheese will still be somewhat lumpy and that is ok. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir until combined. The batter will be a bit lumpy (and a little ugly. Press on, my friend! It's worth it!).


4. Heat a large nonstick skillet or griddle. When the pan is heated to medium spray well with cooking spray. (I actually used a little pat of butter) Add about 1/4 cup of batter to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes. You want to see bubbles all over the pancake. Then flip and cook the other side for a couple of minutes. Repeat until you’ve used all of the batter. Make sure you spray the pan in between each pancake.


At some point, these transform from ugly to mouthwatering. Sheer magic, I tell you!



5. Serve pancakes hot with fresh strawberries. You can also use syrup and a little powdered sugar. Orrrrrrrr... you can make homemade raspberry syrup like I did!



Raspberry Syrup

1 c. fresh or frozen raspberries
1/4 c. real Maple Syrup

Combine in a sauce pan and simmer until the raspberries are broken down and the syrup is hot and thick.

What other brunch recipes do you love?

Garlic Scape Pesto

Confession: I feel as though I owe you a second recipe this week, given how blah the last one turned out.

And boy, do I ever have a good one for you! This is so amazing and downright addicting in fact that you may decide to forego the agonizing delay of enjoyment it causes you to take the time to spread this pesto on a cracker and just go at it with a spoon. Or a finger. Not that I have done that. I admit to nothing. Ahem.

Anyhoo, what the heck is a garlic scape? If you, like me, have spent most of your adult life buying produce in a grocery store, you may never have seen or heard of garlic scapes before. Simply put, a garlic scape is the green shoot that a garlic bulb produces as it begins to mature. It looks very much like a green onion and has a milder flavor than a garlic clove.



Farmers cut off the scapes because a scape left attached will stunt the growth of the garlic bulb, which of course is the part that is harvested and we purchase in the store as garlic. Garlic scapes are not merely edible, but are absolutely delicious! You can use them as you would green onions in any recipe. Hie thee to thy nearest farmers market and grab a bunch! You will not be disappointed, I promise.

One of the best uses I know for garlic scapes is to make a garlic scape pesto. It can be used on crackers, spread on bread as a condiment, used as a pizza or pasta sauce, dolloped on soups or salads, or just enjoyed with a spoon.

This is a recipe I conjured up off the top of my head. It's a little of this, a little of that, more art than science, following pretty much every pesto recipe I've ever seen. The basil serves to balance out the garlic flavor with an earthy freshness, and the walnuts and parmesan play off each other to add depth and richness to the pesto. I'm in love... I hope you will be, too!

Garlic Scape Pesto

1 bunch garlic scapes - a handful or so of long shoots, adjust to your taste*
1/4 c. fresh basil leaves**
1/2 c. walnuts
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
1/3 - 2/3 c. olive oil
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

Roughly chop the garlic scapes and basil. Add to the bowl of a food processor and pulse for a few moments until they are finely chopped but not fully ground.





Add walnuts, cheese, salt and pepper, and grind until everything is coming together in a paste.



With the processor running, drizzle in olive oil until the pesto has reached the desired consistency. I like mine thicker, with less oil.




That's it! Enjoy any which way you desire.



*Absolutely everything in this recipe should have a note that says "to taste" - there is no right or wrong here!

**I used a combination of regular flat leaf basil and a variety called Cinnamon Basil that I have growing in pots in my yard. Just use whatever looks fresh and smells delicious at your market.

I've put about 2/3 of the batch in a freezer container, topped with a little extra oil to prevent oxidation (this is mostly to prevent me from eating the entire batch right now). I plan to pull it out and use it again later this summer and I'll update the post at that time with how it fared in the freezer. I'm hopeful that it will be fine; most of the articles I've read on pesto say the freezer is no challenge.


If you try this, let me know in the comments how it turned out!

In the meantime, I'm going to eat the rest of it with soup for supper and head back to my CSA farm to pick up some more scapes before they are gone for good!

Red Curry Coconut Noodles

Confession: I've had my first vegetarian "meh".

I am willing to accept part of the blame for the forgettableness (is that a word?) of this recipe, since I didn't follow it to a "T", but I'm sure some of it has to do with the recipe itself.

At first glance, it seemed to have everything going for it - thai flavors, including curry, ginger, cilantro and coconut. A good mix of veggies and noodles. A little spice and intrigue. But the resulting sauce was simply too heavy, rich and thick. Not at all the light thai noodle dish I had envisioned.

What did I do wrong? Well, it's possible that the noodles I used (the grocery store was out of traditional rice noodles, so I used rice spaghetti) added too much starch to the sauce, and that combined with the additional cooking time the noodles needed thickened it much more than the recipe intended. But the other issue is that the recipe calls for 2 entire cans of coconut milk - the real deal, not the light stuff - which is just overload for me.

Not one to give up after a setback, I do plan to make this dish again with a few adjustments to see if I can rescue the recipe from the pile of papers designated for the recycle bin. Next time I will find real quick cooking rice noodles, use one can of light coconut milk and add extra vegetable stock if it needs more liquid. I will also add more curry paste and a little more ginger, just to hammer home the flavor profile.

Here's the recipe as I made it. Given the rave reviews on the site it's from, I'm holding out hope that I could make it better next time. If you make it and it turns out great, please tell me what you did!

Red Curry Coconut Noodles

2 cans Coconut Milk
2 teaspoons Red Curry Paste
1 Tablespoon Ginger (fresh, Grated)
1 Tablespoon Cilantro (fresh, Chopped)
¼ cups Sweet Thai Chili Sauce
16 oz Vegetable Broth (have more on hand, trust me)
1 package Rice Noodles (I used rice spaghetti - I do NOT recommend it!)
1 whole Onion
2 whole Red or Green Bell Peppers
1 cup Broccoli Slaw
Salt To Taste

Julienne your peppers and onions. Set aside. Start with a large pot over medium-high heat. Scoop the cream off the top of the coconut milk, and put into the pot. The cream will be used as the “fat” instead of oil or butter. Along with the cream, add the curry paste and ginger. Let this simmer for 1 minute.




Then add the rest of what is in the coconut milk cans, sweet Thai chili sauce, cilantro, and vegetable broth. Bring this to a simmer.



Then add your julienned veggies, slaw and rice noodles (on the advice of some of the recipe reviewers, I used only 1/2 pkg of noodles). Simmer this. You will see the broth slowly thicken as the rice noodles absorb it. It should only take about 5 minutes for the rice noodles to be cooked through. (This took me at least 15 minutes due to the spaghetti noodles)




Pull the pot off the heat, and let sit for about 5 minutes. It will thicken during this time. Then, it’s done. Slurp these noodles out of big noodle bowls! Garnish it with a bit more cilantro and some Sriracha.



Note: I also rubbed some tofu with the curry paste and sauteed it to throw on top of the dish as added protein. The dogs loved the tofu. Me, not so much. I'm still working on the whole tofu thing...more on this to follow.

Double Broccoli Quinoa

Confession: I am a recipe hoarder.

I have pages and pages of recipes torn from magazines and printed from the web. Recipes that I doubt I'll ever get around to making, but they just look so enticing that I am unable to recycle or delete them. So many, in fact, that I could probably make a new recipe twice a week for the rest of my life and never have to lift a food magazine again. But lift them I do. And subscribe to them, I feel I must. It borders on obsession.

Every now and then, I will actually make one of the recipes in the pile, and it lives up to my expectations so well that I wonder why on earth it took me so long to do it. This is one of those recipes.

If you don't know much about quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah), you are missing out! I fell in love with quinoa the first time I used it in a recipe for tabouleh. It's nutty, it's easy and quicker to boil than rice, and the nutritional value is off the charts! I'll pause for a moment while you read this article as a primer. There! Notice the awesome recipe there too? Sigh. Another one for my pile o' paper.

I made this exactly as written, so I decided to simply paste the recipe in its entirety below. I topped the finished quinoa with a little avocado and found it was just about perfect. The punch of the lemon juice and garlic are offset deliciously by the smooth toasted almonds and the subtle richness of the cream.

If you have leftovers, you can freeze the quinoa and broccoli florets separately and they both reheat well.

Double Broccoli Quinoa - stolen from 101 Cookbooks
3 cups cooked quinoa*
5 cups raw broccoli, (about 3 large heads) cut into small florets and stems
3 medium garlic cloves
2/3 cup sliced or slivered almonds, toasted (I toasted them in a skillet)
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 big pinches salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup heavy cream

Optional toppings: slivered basil, fire oil (optional)**, sliced avocado, crumbled feta or goat cheese

Heat the quinoa and set aside.

Now barely cook the broccoli by pouring 3/4 cup water into a large pot and bringing it to a simmer. Add a big pinch of salt and stir in the broccoli. Cover and cook for a minute, just long enough to take the raw edge off. Transfer the broccoli to a strainer and run under cold water until it stops cooking. Set aside.


To make the broccoli pesto, puree two cups of the cooked broccoli, the garlic, 1/2 cup of the almonds, Parmesan, salt, and lemon juice in a food processor. Drizzle in the olive oil and cream and pulse until smooth.


Just before serving, toss the quinoa and remaining broccoli florets with about 1/2 of the broccoli pesto. Taste and adjust if needed, you might want to add more of the pesto a bit at a time, or you might want a bit more salt or an added squeeze of lemon juice.

Turn out onto a serving platter and top with the remaining almonds, a drizzle of the chile oil, and some sliced avocado or any of the other optional toppings.

Serves 4 - 6.

*To cook quinoa: rinse one cup of quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer. In a medium saucepan heat the quinoa, two cups of water (or broth if you like), and a few big pinches of salt until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done when you can see the curlique in each grain, and it is tender with a bit of pop to each bite. Drain any extra water and set aside.

Rhubarb and Red Onion Chutney

Confession: I will never be a vegan because it would mean I'd have to give up cheese.

I love cheese. All kinds of cheese. Hard cheeses, stinky cheeses, soft and spreadable mild cheeses. If it's cheese, I'll eat it. But you can't just go around eating cheese all day and nothing else, can you? So I've found creative excuses to eat more cheese, like making a chutney and buying a loaf of crusty bread. Cheese, fruit, bread - now THAT's a balanced meal. I'm only kind-of kidding.

My CSA farmer, Mark, had some absolutely gorgeous rhubarb this week,



so I decided to try a new recipe for a sweet, tart and surprisingly bold Rhubarb and Red Onion Chutney that I found here.

As far as recipes go, this could not be more simple. Chop up your rhubarb and onions, throw them in a pot with the other ingredients and simmer until it looks right. And the smell! Wow! The onion and ginger take over your entire kitchen - but press on, my friend - the end result is definitely worth the temporary olfactory overload.

I doubled the recipe to have enough to eat, share and freeze.

Rhubarb & Red Onion Chutney

1 lb rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red onion, roughly chopped
1/2 cup prunes (or raisins), roughly chopped
1-inch piece of ginger, grated
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Toss all the ingredients in a large pot over medium heat.



Simmer for about 1 hour, until all the ingredients have mushed together to form a mostly smooth texture (a few lumps and chunks are ok).

Remove from heat and let cool. Spoon into a few jars and store in refrigerator for up to a week* or the freezer for up to 6 months.

Hmmm, what to do with this delectable tangy concoction? I think a panini is in order! I took a piece of rustic ciabatta, a slice of havarti**, a schmear of chutney and some freshly cracked pepper and threw it on the panini press. Hello, heaven!

*This will probably keep much longer than a week in the fridge.
**Havarti? Sure. But you can pick your poison - goat cheese, a sharp white cheddar, a bit of bleu if you're feeling adventurous, or maybe a combination?

Mark told me he harvests his rhubarb in such a way that it keeps coming back all season. Do you have a favorite rhubarb recipe you'd like to share? If so, leave it in the comments, won't you?

Potato Pizza? Yes!

Confession: Long, detailed instructions are not really my thing.

I'm more of a cut to the chase, give me the big picture kind of person. So when reading a new recipe, sometimes my eyes skip things like "leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes". This means that on occasion, that suppah I thought I was going to whip together in an hour really takes more like 2 and a half, and we're eating at 9 o'clock at night. This was one of those suppahs. But it was worth the wait. Sweet, salty, lovely, roasty toasty flavor awaits those who dare take on the challenge!

**Other details escape me, too, like: make sure the camera has a fresh battery so you can photograph your 2 and a half hour recipe. Hence the missing step by step photos and the one grainy cell phone picture of the final result.**

This is another one from The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook that I mentioned in a previous post. This recipe is a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes, and if you have some on hand it cuts the prep time considerably. The mashed potatoes add moisture, volume and a light texture to the pizza dough. Delicious!

I would suspect you could make the pizza dough in the morning, refrigerate it, and pull it out about an hour before you want to bake it, letting it rise while you roast the red peppers and make the caramelized onions. Next time, I will do just that!

Potato Pizza with Onions and Goat Cheese

Prep Time: 40 minutes (PLUS RISING TIME!!!!)
Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes

For the dough:
1/2 c. warm milk
2 packets of yeast, 1/4 oz. each
1/2 t. sugar
1 t. salt, divided
3/4 c. mashed potato
1 c. all purpose flour, plus more for kneading
2 T. chopped fresh parsley, or other herbs if you're feeling adventurous
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the topping:
2 T. olive oil
1.5 red onions, thinly sliced
2 red bell peppers
1/2 c. sliced kalamata olives
4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled - I used some from a local farmers' market.

Mix together the milk, yeast, sugar and 1/2 t. salt in a small bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes or until frothy. Stir together the mashed potato, flour, parsley, 1/2 t. salt, pepper, and yeast mixture in a large bowl until a soft dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes (using more flour as you go) until the dough is smooth and springs back when pressed. I had to use about another cup or so of flour.

Return the dough to a large, clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size (60 - 90 minutes).

Meanwhile, make the caramelized onions and roast the red peppers. For the onions, heat the 2T. olive oil in a heavy bottomed skillet over low heat. Cook the onions, stirring occasionally, for 20-30 minutes until golden and glossy. Remove from heat. For the red peppers, wash and dry, then place whole on a cookie sheet and place under your broiler until the skin is blackened. Turn every few minutes until the entire skin is equally black. Remove from the oven, place in a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap for 10 minutes. The steam from the bowl will loosen the skins. After 10 minutes, peel and seed the peppers and slice them into thin strips.

When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 415 degrees. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and gently knead for another 2 minutes. You can then divide the dough into 2 smaller rounds, or make one large pizza as I did. Generously oil your pizza tray. Place the dough on the tray and press out to the desired size and thickness.

Top the dough with the onion, red pepper, olives and goat cheese. Sprinkle with additional black pepper and herbs if desired. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the dough is lightly and evenly browned on the bottom and the toppings are heated through. Serve immediately.

If you absolutely must have tomato sauce on your pizza, you could definitely add some to this pizza for a little extra zip. And although pizza isn't usually great as a leftover, this one held up beautifully in the fridge for a couple of days.