hungry poodle

This stew comprises a combination of summer’s best vegetables. It is very similar to ratatouille, with the exception that it includes small Yukon Gold potatoes. The recipe is adapted from one in Nancy Harmon Jenkin’s excellent book, “The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook”. It’s extremely easy to make–all you do is layer vegetables in a Dutch oven and then cook them slowly over low heat.

The original recipe included fresh green beans, and I’ve made it that way once. Although I like green beans, I preferred eggplant in this dish (hence the ratatouille similarity) and substituted it. If you’re more of a green bean lover, use them instead.

Stews are almost-soups. If you want, you can eat it with a spoon in front of the TV. At last, a bowl of goodies that won’t go straight to your waistline. OK, so I may be stretching it with the “goodies” moniker. Couldn’t fool you ice cream pros, could I?

How about thinking of this as healthy comfort food that takes little more effort than dialing up the pizza delivery?

Serve with a whole wheat roll as an entree, or alongside grilled chicken or fish

2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced (I used Vidalia)
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
12 tiny whole Yukon Gold potatoes
1 lb. eggplant, peeled and cut into chunks (or 1 lb. green beans)
1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 green bell pepper, sliced into strips
3 fresh thyme or oregano sprigs
3 small zucchini, cut into 1″ chunks
1 14-1/2 oz. can diced tomatoes (or 3 to 4 chopped fresh tomatoes) and their juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh basil
Grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven. Add onion and garlic and cook slowly until soft, about 10 minutes. Arrange potatoes on top of onions, then add the eggplant and peppers. Lightly salt layers. Add thyme sprigs. Add the zucchini and top with the tomatoes. Cover pot tightly. If you don’t have a tight-fitting lid, place a piece of aluminum foil over pot and then add lid.

Cook over very low heat for about 45 minutes, or until the vegetables are thoroughly cooked. Add water if there isn’t enough liquid. The vegetables should be “meltingly tender”.

Turn off heat and allow pot to cool slightly. Nancy says this dish is best just slightly warm, but I like it almost hot. Sprinkle with chopped basil and some grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.

As with most stews, this is even better the next day. The eggplant and zucchini will begin to break apart, but that’s their nature. Go with the flow and smile. You’re doing a good thing for body and soul.

Serves: 6

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I used three kinds of beets, including golden and variegated. The beautiful colors are jewel-like.

If you say you don’t like beets, you’ve probably only tasted the ones that come in a can or a jar. The difference between fresh and canned beets is profound, I think. Perhaps it will help to know that typical red garden beets are a close relative of sugar beets, which provide us with the white sugar that eventually ends up in much of the processed foods we hate to love. So don’t say you’re completely off beets. You probably eat some version of them every day!

Following is a recipe for roasted beets that you should try, because beets are healthful, because they’re unfairly maligned (due to the tinny flavor of the canned ones) and most of all because they are downright delicious.

Here’s what you do: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut greens away from beets, leaving about 1/4″ of stem. Scrub them well and place in a baking dish. Add 1/4″ of water to dish and cover tightly with foil. Roast small beets for approximately 30 to 40 minutes. Larger beets will take up to 60 minutes. Beets are done when a knife slips through them easily.

Remove from oven and allow to cool a bit. Then cut stems and slip off skins. You can serve them warm, at room temperature or cold. I cut them into chunks, drizzled them with light balsamic vinaigrette and served them with slivers of basil and chunks of goat cheese alongside a green salad. I roasted plenty of them, refrigerated whole extras and cut them up for salads for several days.

By the way, although beets are usually considered to be a winter vegetable, they’re best in the summer months when you can get the smallest, most tender ones at farmers’ markets.

Roasting vegetables has recently become a very popular way to prepare all kinds of vegetables. One of my favorite side dishes is roasted, sliced  potatoes tossed with various green vegetables such as asparagus and green beans and sprinkled with real Parmesan cheese.

I’m a big fan of broccoli, but I’ve always considered it to be “unroastable”. The flowery stalks, I thought, would come out burned while the stalks would still be uncooked.

Not so. Ina Garten introduced me to roasted broccoli via her “Back to Basics” cookbook, and I’m now hooked on it. Of course, Ina dresses it up with lots of flavors–garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, toasted pine nuts, Parmesan cheese and julienned fresh basil leaves.

I’ve simplified it just a bit. No pine nuts or basil (I think I’ll save those for later in the spring). I found the garlic, lemon rind, lemon juice and Parmesan to be quite enough. Fabulous, and such a nice change from plain old steamed broccoli. The oven heats up the kitchen on a cold day too!

1 large head broccoli
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thinly
Olive oil
kosher salt
Pepper
1 t. grated lemon rind
2 T. fresh lemon juice
Grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Cut broccoli into florets with about an inch of stalk attached to the florets. Place the broccoli in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Toss garlic slices on broccoli and spray well with olive oil (or drizzle oil over and toss). Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast for about 20 minutes or until broccoli is crisp-tender and the tips of the florets are browned.

Remove from oven and toss with lemon zest, lemon juice and grated Parmesan cheese. If you want to follow Ina’s recipe, add lots more olive oil, toasted pine nuts and julienned basil leaves.

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