May 6, 2017
I mentioned a few posts ago that the confetti quinoa recipe can be made into vegetarian burgers or patties that you can serve as burgers or as the protein component for dinner with a nice sauce to go with it. The full recipe makes quite a few patties so you can freeze what you don’t need right away. I made the patties from what was left of the confetti quinoa after I served it first as... View Article
May 1, 2017
So does it seem I am cooking a lot of rice recently? It’s probably true and I am not apologizing. Rice goes well with so many dishes and is relatively easy to cook. I have also been on a Middle Eastern “kick” in the kitchen and rice is an important part of this cuisine. I find the flavours of the foods I have tried to be robust and generous, much like the people that make... View Article
April 27, 2017
I posted recipes for cauliflower “rice” before. It’s a useful method to add cauli to various dishes without the florets dominating the shape. Today I had a white and purple cauliflower and this dish evolved from it. Once I chopped and roasted both cauli and aded them to the cooked quinoa I needed more colour so into the processor went a few stems of broccolini, chopped into rice size pieces and roasted for a few... View Article
April 23, 2017
I recently bought “Persiana: Recipes from the middle east and beyond“, a book by Sabrina Ghayour, and so far I love what I tried. Persian cuisine is known for its rice dishes and one of the recipes that intrigued me was her Persian Bejeweled Rice (Morassa Polow), cooked differently than what I have seen before. Ghaour boils the rice in plenty of water for 8 minutes, then drains and rinses it. She then returns it... View Article
April 12, 2017
So I set out to make this recipe from my friend Colleen’s The Food Blog but somehow got distracted and ended up with the similar base ingredients but a different recipe. I’ll have to make Colleen’s recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook another time. I cooked the barley the day before, planning to do something with it but wasn’t sure what. Some of it went into a vegetable soup that is currently simmering on the back burner... View Article
November 23, 2016
Rice pilaf is an easy and flavourful dish to make for a side course or, for us, a main. Classic pilaf is made by sauteeing the aromatics (onion, garlic and vegetables) in butter or oil, adding the spices then adding the rice and toasting it in the skillet until it’s coated with the oil before adding the cooking liquid and finishing the cooking. I have a shortcut for you to make with an already cooked... View Article
November 1, 2016
I wonder who was the cook who first came up with the idea of cauliflower “rice”. Since they “invented” it, the concept has spread like wildfire in kitchens around the world and for good reasons. It’s a simple and delicious way to serve cauliflower and can easily replace rice if you are a no-carb person, which, let me clarify, I AM NOT. I love carbs. I prefer to chop the cauli in a food processor... View Article
October 11, 2016
Rice and vegetables are one of my go to things when preparing a quick lunch or light dinner. You can make it literally in minutes with no advance preparation. With the change of weather I brought inside the summer grill pan that we use in the outdoor kitchen and looking for something fun to make on it I pulled out the baby bok choy from the fridge and decided to grill them instead of stir... View Article
August 16, 2016
Cauliflower has a love-hate affair with foodies. Some love it some don’t. I am on the love-it camp and especially so when it is roasted. Roasting cauli brings out wonderful flavours, completely different than when you steam it. The cauliflower “steaks” became trendy a while back and it’s not a bad way of preparing them. You cut the cauli into thick slices through the stem and end up with beautifully shaped floral portions that you... View Article
August 9, 2016
G was out on the lake all day with his beloved Isa Lei and I stayed behind to “do my thing”. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I’d make dinner tonight, I enjoyed reading in the hammock under the blooming wisteria on the south patio and we can aways eat out. But, it was a beautiful evening and I love to cook and find it easy to put together something quickly. So I was... View Article
July 28, 2016
There is an art to travelling as a vegetarian. You would think that with the abundance of gorgeous produce in the markets, especially around the Mediterranean, it would be easy to find vegetarian dishes in restaurants but somehow it is not. Now, I am interested in food and culture and will try other things even if they are not vegetarian, especially the local and traditional. I am certainly not going to travel without experiencing local foods.... View Article
July 18, 2016
Grain salads can be quite beautiful when combined with colourful seasonal vegetables. This salad would make a good option for summer entertaining because it is all inclusive: it has grains, vegetables and salad greens all in one dish. The barley can be cooked in advance and kept in the fridge, but the vegetables are best cooked the day you serve it. I made this salad with three colours of cauliflower: white, orange and purple, but... View Article
