New Recipe Night + Public Notice of Awesomeness

[sabotabby]

First, the Public Notice of Awesomeness: To bike4fish, thank you! I got your cookies and they were even mostly intact. And also yum. Huzzah!

We held a New Vegetarian Recipe Night last night and it was awesome. Here is my plate:



The Menu

Roasted vegetable panzanella—zingerella
Some sort of yummy salad—thegiantkiller
Greens of yum—neeuqdrazil
Spicy Chickpeas with Ginger—mycrazyhair
Quinoa with Currants and Almonds—mycrazyhair
Frittata, a.k.a. Cholesterol Pie—curgoth
Squashikopita—J.
Junior Mint cheesecake—sabotabby

Can you tell that I don't know what a lot of these things were called? Anyway, it was all incredibly tasty. Photos and my recipe (others to come) under the cut.




I had never heard of Panzanella before.


I approve of any salad with apples.


Delicious and healthy, and maybe compensates for the cheesecake.


"WTF am I supposed to do with this?"


Chickpeas!


Did you know that quinoa had protein? I did not.


Look, curgoth made something that didn't have lentils in it!


Like spanakopita, except with squash.


Oh my, that is a lot of food.


Here is mine. I yoinked it off one of you guys, and for the life of me, I can't remember who. Anyway, it is dead easy to make. The only problem, which I realized after I bought them, is that Junior Mints contain a small amount of gelatin. So my next attempt will involve a minty substitute that doesn't have, like, horse hooves in it and shit.

Hint: Do it the night before. Also, Junior Mints take awhile to freeze.

Junior Mint Cheesecake

Ingredients:

* Crust:
* 2 cups graham cracker crumbs or chocolate cookie crumbs
* 3 tablespoons sugar
* 6 tablespoons melted butter

* Filling:
* 6 ounces Junior Mints candies, frozen
* 3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, room temperature (you can use the light stuff; I did)
* 2/3 cup sugar
* 3 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:
Prepare crust. Combine crumbs, sugar and melted butter. Press into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

With electric hand-held mixer (I used a cake mixer and it was fine), beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition; stir in vanilla. Pour cheesecake batter into prepared crust. Chop frozen Junior Mints and sprinkle onto the cheesecake batter. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in a 350° oven or until just set. Cool on wire rack, then chill several hours or overnight. Makes about 8 servings.

Comments

[awwh-snap.livejournal.com]

Very nice. Quinoa is pretty awesome, and in comparison to cereal grains, it contains all the so-called "essential amino acids."

[90pointmetaphor.livejournal.com]

Ooooh - looks yummy!

[metalana.livejournal.com]

Now if only I could eat cheese, eggs and chocolate, I could try that disturbing-looking creation. Junior Mints are yummy! Must be all the gelatin. Maybe you could mortar-and-pestle some mint leaves, add to a regular chocolate cheesecake, and get the desired flavours. Except possibly for the SUGAR BOMBS that scattered Junior Mints would create.

[sabotabby]

I was thinking something like After Eight (except not that because they are owned by Nestlé now) would work almost as well.

[revolution-grrl.livejournal.com]

Can I tell you how much I love the idea of squashakopita??

Recipe for Greens of Yum

[neeuqdrazil.livejournal.com]

1 large bunch kale
few handfuls of baby spinach
(or equivalent amounts of other greens - chard, um... chard...)

5 cloves garlic, chopped fine
parmesan cheese
olive oil
sea salt

Heat olive oil in a large pan, add sea salt, then the greens. Toss in the oil, then cover and let wilt. Just before they're done, add the garlic and mix up so the garlic is all through the greens. Sprinkle with parmesan, pull out of the pan, and add some more parmesan, and serve.

[ironed_orchid]

Mmmm cheesecake.

Thing without lentils

[curgoth]

Recipe here

[turkishb.livejournal.com]

Bwahhhh. I am jealous. And I love quinoa.

[kellista.livejournal.com]

ooh. give me heads up next time. i always bring the delicious. and my current housemate is a 'golden foods' kind of guy - means i do a lot of cooking for one.

[sabotabby]

I had totally forgotten that you live in Toronto.

[marsianer.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much how on most days I would describe ironed_orchid's cooking: "something yummy with [insert most memorable ingredient here]".

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

I think the quinoa and the chickpeas go really well together, given their common spices, and the fact that one uses the juice of half a lemon and the other uses its zest. I'll be making these together again.


Quinoa with Currants and Almonds

3/4 Cup quinoa, thoroughly rinsed
Salt
Pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, finely minced
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp turmeric
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup currants
3 Tbsp almonds, slivered and toasted
1 tsp grated lemon zest

Bring the quinoa to a boil in 1 1/2 cups water with 1/4 tsp salt. Lower heat, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed (I forgot to cover mine, so had to add more liquid). Cook 12 to 15 minutes. Let stand 5.

Meanwhile, warm oil in a small skillet. Add onion, spices, pepper and cook gently about 10 minutes, until softened. Add salt.

Drain quinoa when it's done. Toss with onion mixture, plus parsley, currants, almonds and lemon zest. Yum.

Spicy Chickpeas with Ginger

3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
3 garlic cloves (large)
2 Tbsp grated ginger
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
salt
pepper
1 large tomato, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups water
3 cups cooked chickpeas (i.e. 2 15-ounce cans), rinsed
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup fresh parsley, julienned

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until well browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Lower heat. Add bay leaf, garlic, ginger, spices, 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper, and the tomatoes. Cook for 5 minutes, then add water and chickpeas. Simmer until liquid is reduced to a saucelike consistency. Taste for salt and add lemon juice. Mix in parsley and serve.

In theory you're supposed to use cilantro where I used parsley, but fortunately I remembered in time that I hate cilantro.

Both of these recipes are from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison, though slightly modified.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Looks super tasty. ^_^

[bike4fish.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed the cookies :)

I'm not sure how I missed this - I love the Vegetarian Recipe Night posts.