carrot

Fall Vegetable Tart with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto

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Fall is coming! Here in Southeast Texas we enjoyed a “cold front” this past weekend.  The mornings were slightly chilly and the days incredibly pleasant.  This week it’s humid and hot again.  But the promise of cooler weather is near.  And cooler weather means comfort food and cute coats and sweaters for my kids.

This fall tart recipe comes from the latest issue of Fine Cooking which I received last week and I’ve already made this twice.  I can see it appearing in our dinner rotation many more times in the coming months.  I love roasted vegetables.  I love goat cheese.  I love savory pie crust.  And so naturally, I love this tart.  It is incredible.

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You can make this from start to finish in a couple of hours, or you can make the vegetables ahead of time and simply assemble and bake the tart when you’re ready.  I’ve done it both ways now.

The combination of vegetables (butternut squash, carrot, cauliflower and red bell pepper) is great.  The recipe calls for leeks, but I decided to use a yellow onion instead.  I didn’t make a great grocery list and ended up using my only onion in another dish so I left out the onion entirely.  The tart didn’t suffer a bit.  The measurements in the recipe below are from the magazine, but I didn’t really measure.  I’m sure I used a bit more, maybe heaping amounts of those listed here.

After roasting the vegetables you mix in a bunch of chopped proscuitto.  That’s magic right there.  Magic.

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The dough is simply flour, butter, cream cheese and a pinch of salt.  It comes together in a food processor in no time and doesn’t need to be chilled before being rolled out.  However, this means you absolutely must roll it out onto parchment paper.  I made the mistake of rolling it out on the counter the first time and won’t do that again.  Since this is a rustic tart you don’t need to worry too much about how neat the edges of your dough are.

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After you roll out your dough you spread some softened goat cheese on it.  Again, there’s magic happening in your kitchen right about now.  Be sure the goat cheese is room temperature or it will pull too much on the dough and rip it.  I know from experience.

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On top of the cheese goes the vegetables.

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Fold up the edges, brush with a beaten egg and bake.  I baked mine on a pizza stone the second time with great results, but a cookie sheet works well, too.

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After cooling for a few minutes, slice and serve and enjoy.  It’s so amazing warm, but I ate a slice cold from the fridge as I was running out the door at lunchtime and it was still delicious.  As far as reheating goes you need to be prepared for a slightly soggy bottom crust.  But again, still delicious.  If you’re serving this to at least 4 people you probably won’t need to worry about leftovers, though.

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Fall Vegetable Tart with Goat Cheese and Prosciuttio

From Fine Cooking

Ingredients

Dough

  • 6 ounces (1 1/3 cups) flour
  • 6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter cut into chunks
  • 6 ounces cold cream cheese (low fat is fine) cut into chunks
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 beaten egg for egg wash

Filling

  • olive oil
  • 1 1/2 cups butternut squash cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 3/4 cup sliced carrots (1/2 inch thick half moons)
  • 3/4 cup sliced leek (optional)
  • 3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
  • 3/4 cup chopped cauliflower
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
  • 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
  • kosher salt and pepper
  • 4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, cut in to bite sized pieces
  • 4 ounces goat cheese, room temperature

Directions

Filling

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. Toss the vegetables together with rosemary, thyme 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
  3. Transfer to a 9×13 pan, cover tightly with foil and roast for 30-40 minutes until just fork tender.
  4. Let cool for 10-15 minutes then add in the prosciutto.

Dough

  1. Put flour, butter, cream cheese and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the dough just begins to come together.
  2. Place a large piece of parchment on the counter and sprinkle with a little flour.  Turn dough out onto the parchment and bring together with your hands, sprinkling with more flour if needed.
  3. Roll dough out onto the parchment into a roughly 16-inch round.

Assemble

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Transfer parchment to a cookie sheet or pizza stone and trim any excess parchment that hangs off the sheet or stone.
  3. Spread goat cheese onto the dough leaving a 1 1/2 inch border.
  4. Pile vegetable evenly on top of the goat cheese.
  5. Fold edges of the dough over the vegetables, then brush with beaten egg.
  6. Bake for 35-45 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

 

Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan

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Slowly but surely I am getting back into the groove of making a proper dinner.  This dish has a pretty quick prep time and you can even put it together earlier in the day and bake it later.  It can be a side or your main dish.  So even on a busy weeknight you can have dinner together without much fuss.  And you can use up any summer squash you might have around!

Once at a pot luck dinner a friend brought this amazing, creamy, cheesy squash casserole.  She described the ingredients to me, but I never got the entire recipe.  When I saw this squash casserole on Pinterest I had to give it a try because it looked so similar. Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan | Hottie Biscotti This casserole is different.  Less creamy and cheesy, more focus on the vegetables, which is really nice.  It’s flavorful, clean tasting, and delicious.  One of the main differences is that this one doesn’t use condensed cream soup, something I really have nothing against, but something that I don’t mind finding a replacement for if I can.  The original recipe calls for eggs and sour cream as the binders.  I used the eggs, but substituted greek yogurt and it turned out really well.

The feta gives a nice punch to the dish.  I mixed in some shredded carrots to add extra veggies and to help with some fridge clean out.  This is a really great side dish.  I served it with grilled pork tenderloin and bread.

The thyme is a great herb here, you can use fresh or dried.  I used a mixture of green and yellow squash, but you can use all of one type of course.  And something I think I might try next time is using goat cheese instead of feta because I love me some goat cheese.  Enjoy! Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan | Hottie Biscotti

Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan

Adapted slightly from Kitchen Escapades Serves 4-6 as a side dish Ingredients

  • 5-6 squash (mix of zucchini and yellow squash) sliced
  • 3-4 grated carrots
  • olive oil
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme (or 2 tsp dried)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup greek yogurt
  • heaping half cup of crumbled feta
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. In a large saucepan heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium high heat.
  3. Add in the squash and cook for a few minutes.  Add in the carrots and garlic and cook, stirring to keep the garlic from burning, until the squash just begins to soften.  Season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.
  4. In a medium bowl whisk eggs and yogurt, then stir in the feta and parmesan.  Season with a little salt and pepper.
  5. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and layer half of the squash in the pan.  Spread half of the yogurt mixture on top, then layer again with squash and then yogurt.  Sprinkle with a little extra feta if you have some!
  6. Bake for 45 minutes until top is golden brown.  Serve warm.  This reheats well for a light lunch.

Simple & Satisfying Potato Soup

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The forecast for this past week boasted 3 days in a row of cool and rainy weather.  Time to make some soup!  I started looking around for a potato soup recipe but most looked so heavy, full of sour cream and cheese.  I wanted a soup that would leave us full and satisfied without being totally weighed down.  I finally found a terrific recipe from The Pioneer Woman (are you at all surprised?).  Instead of cups and cups of whole milk and sour cream, there are cups and cups of chicken broth, with a little dairy to round out the soup and add creaminess.  It is heavenly.

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I was immediately excited about the celery, onion and carrot in this soup.  Made me feel like I was eating even healthier with those extra vegetables.  And they add such wonderful flavor.  I used shallot instead of onion because I didn’t have one.  Next time, though, I will use a regular onion.  Less peeling and chopping.  Everything else in the recipe is unchanged.  I might cook a few extra pieces of bacon because, if you are anything like me, having some of those crunchy bits on top is necessary.  The 6 pieces aren’t enough for the entire pot of soup.  Maybe this says something about our love of bacon.  I’d say 10 pieces would be good, and if you have extra, well, there is not a thing wrong with extra bacon bits.

After cooking the soup you puree about half of it in the blender.  This creates a nice balance of smooth and chunky so that every bite has something to chew on, which is what I like in a soup.  I used a sharp cheddar on top of the soup, but a sharp white cheddar would also be delicious, or whatever cheese you like on a baked potato.

Top this soup with a little bacon, cheese and green onion and you have all the flavor of a hearty baked potato soup but without the bulk of it.  This is definitely a recipe I’ll be making again.

Note:  When reheating you might need to add some chicken broth or milk to thin it out since it does thicken as it sits in the fridge.

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Potato Soup

From The Pioneer Woman

Feeds 6-8

Ingredients

  • 6 – 10 slices of bacon, chopped
  • 1 whole medium onion, diced (I used 4 large shallots)
  • 3 carrots, diced (I used about 20 baby carrots)
  • 3 celery stalks, diced
  • 6 whole small russet potatoes (or 3 large) peeled and diced
  • 8 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1 cup milk (I used 2%)
  • 1/2 cup half and half (or heavy cream)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
  •  Balck pepper to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt (I used Lawry’s)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
  • 1 cup grated cheese
  • 4 green onions, sliced thin

Directions

  1. Heat a large pot over medium high heat.  Add in the chopped bacon and cook until crispy, being careful not to burn it.  Remove from the pot and place on a paper towel-lined plate and wipe out some, but not all, of the bacon fat.
  2. Over medium high heat cook onion, celery and carrots for a couple minutes, until they begin to soften.  Add potatoes and cook, stirring things around a little, for about 5 minutes.  Season with salt, pepper and seasoning salt.
  3. Add the broth to the pot and bring it to a simmer.  Cook for 10 minutes, until potatoes are fork tender.
  4. In a bowl whisk flour and milk and add to the pot.  Stir together and cook for about 5 minutes.
  5. Puree about half of the soup in a blender (I filled my blender almost full).  Be sure to remove the center piece from the top of the blender and cover with a dish towel.  If you don’t, you could make a big mess since you’re pureeing hot liquid.
  6. Pour the puree back into the pot, taste and season as needed.  Add in the cream or half and half, and the parsley.
  7. Serve with cheese, bacon bits and green onion.

 

 

Meatballs with Zucchini and Carrot

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My kids, ages 3 and 16 months, aren’t very good at eating their vegetables.  Fruit, cheese, bread, french fries, ice cream, cookies, chocolate?  No problem.  But vegetables are another story.  Carson will eat a baby carrot from time to time, and Betsy will eat a few green peas if I mix them up in her macaroni.  But that’s as good as it gets around here.  So in an effort to get them to eat more vegetables I decided to hide them in meatballs.  Both of my kids are pretty good at eating meatballs, so I figured this was a genius plan.

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The first night I gave them the meatballs plain without sauce, and they weren’t the biggest fans.  And I felt like a failure.  I went to all that trouble and they didn’t want them!?  But the next night I heated them in some pasta sauce and we had much better results.  My kids ate vegetables!  Without gagging!

These meatballs are simple and geared towards a picky kid’s palate.  Not a lot of spice or heat.  If your kids are more daring than mine (or if you’ve done a better job of exposing them to spices!) add what you like to the mix.  You could also use half beef and half Italian sausage for a more interesting meatball.  I used jarred sauce, but if you have a great recipe, then use it…and then share it with me!  Do you have any great meals that are healthy and delicious that your kids enjoy?  I’d love to hear them.  We need all the help we can get!

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Meatballs with Zucchini and Carrots

Makes 24-30 meatballs

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef (85/15)
  • 3/4 cup dried breadcrumbs
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/2 cup shredded carrot
  • 1/2 cup shredded zucchini (pressed between paper towels to remove excess moisture)
  • 1/4 cup grated onion
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • Pasta sauce

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Combine breadcrumbs and milk in a large bowl and let soak for a couple minutes.  Add in beef, egg, vegetables and seasonings and mix (clean hands are a great tool here) until combined.
  3. Form into balls (around golf ball size) and place in a greased pan.
  4. Bake for 30 minutes.  You can pour on some sauce in the last 10 minutes of baking or heat the sauce separately.

Carrot and Coconut Scones

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During my first sit down with this cookbook from Baked I saw this recipe and knew I had to try it.  Two (plus) years later and I’ve finally gotten around to it!  I am glad I did.  While these little gems were baking my house smelled incredible and I was instantly in a better mood.  Baking does that to me a lot of the time, but there was something about the sweet carrot, toasting oats and coconut that was more magical than usual.  We all have a special thing that makes a bad day better, and baking (and the promise of something delicious) is mine.

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I put off making these most recently because of the ingredient “carrot puree” and the extra step of making it.  Turns out it’s one of the easier parts of the recipe and should not deter you.  It will make a mess of your microwave, so next time I might try it on the stove top.  Also, don’t worry about it being super duper smooth.  Mine was a little chunky and it worked out fine.  I used baby carrots, about a handful, and had no issues.  I pureed them in my mini food processor, and think a stick blender might be a better choice.  Looking into getting one of those…

As with all scones, you don’t want to overwork the dough.  And if you don’t overwork the dough, the dough will be delicate, so be careful when transferring it to the baking pan.  Use a wide rigid spatula to move them so they don’t fall apart.

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Scones are best the day they’re made.  Day 2 or 3 is still ok, especially after a nice warm up in the microwave or quick toast in the oven and with a nice smear of softened butter.  Day 4, you’re about to cross the line into hard as a rock and inedible.  I kept mine in a sealed container in the fridge after the first day and we ate them in a few days with the exception of one scone who was sadly tossed out.  You could easily freeze these and warm them up one at a time or warm the entire batch for company.  If you do freeze them, glaze them just before serving.  Enjoy!

Carrot and Coconut Scones

Courtesy of Baked Explorations

Makes 8 scones

Ingredients

Carrot Puree

  • 1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into chunks (or a handful, 6-8, baby carrots)
  • 1/4 cup orange juice

Scones

  • 2 3/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
  • 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
  • 1 large egg
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup carrot puree
  • 1 egg white, beaten (for egg wash)

Citrus Glaze

  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons orange juice
  • 1 cup powdered sugar

Directions

Carrot Puree

  1. Place the carrot and the orange juice in a medium microwave safe bowl, cover and microwave for 5 minutes on high.  Check that carrot is fork tender.  If it’s not, microwave for 30 second intervals until it is.
  2. Blend the carrot and orange juice until smooth and set aside.

Scones

  1. Preheat oven to 400°.  Line a baking sheet with parchment.
  2. Whisk together flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, salt and coconut in a large bowl.
  3. Add the butter and use your fingertips to work it into the flour until the butter is pea sized and the mixture is coarse, not worked too much.
  4. In another bowl, whisk the egg, buttermilk, vanilla and carrot puree.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until the dough just comes together.  Turn it once in the bowl and knead gently once or twice to bring it together.  Be careful not to overwork the dough!
  5. Lightly sprinkle a clean surface with flour and turn the dough out of the bowl.  Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour if it looks sticky.  Flatten the dough into a disk about 1 3/4 inches high.
  6. Cut the disk like a pizza into 8 slices and transfer the scones to the parchment lined baking sheet.
  7. Whisk egg white with  1 tablespoon of water and brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash.
  8. Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotate baking sheet after 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the tops are slightly browned.
  9. Cool scones completely on a wire rack.

Glaze

  1. Sift powdered sugar (to get rid of any lumps) into a bowl, then whisk in the juices until smooth.
  2. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled scones and allow it to set before serving.

Vietnamese Turkey Meatball Bún

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While in Austin a few weeks ago my sister took me to Elizabeth Street Cafe.  Eat here if you ever get the chance.  It’s a French-Vietnamese cafe, which may sound strange to you (it has to a couple people I’ve told about my meal) but the marriage translates into delicious bánh mì, bún and pho as well as sweet eclairs and delicate macarons.  We didn’t actually have dessert here since we’d already made plans to have ice cream at Lick.  Go there too.

This was one of the yummiest meals I’ve had in a while.  Vietnamese cuisine has a way of leaving you totally satisfied but not stuffed.  I think it’s the abundance of fresh veggies and herbs, differences in textures and the heat and intense flavor of the sauces.  We shared the pork belly steamed buns, pork  bánh mì on house-made baguette, and the keffir lime fried chicken bún.  All delicious.

This meal inspired me to make my own Vietnamese noodle bowl at home.  I decided on a Vietnamese turkey meatball instead of fried chicken.  Thanks to my Farmhouse delivery last weekend I had fresh carrots and cucumbers to use in the bowl.  I made the dressing for the bún, nuoc cham.  It’s a basic Vietnamese dipping sauce of lime juice, fish sauce, peppers, garlic, a touch of sugar and water.  I think this a really great summer dinner.  Fresh crisp veggies and herbs with warm meatballs and a spicy cool heat from the sauce.

I baked the meatballs instead of pan frying.  I think there was too much liquid in the meat mixture because the baked meatballs were sitting in a pool of meatball juice (you know what I’m talking about, and it ain’t pretty) so I had to drain them.  They tasted delicious and with some tweaking they could definitely be something I’d make again.  Although, these meatballs I know are good and could easily be used here.  The recipe below makes about 35 meatballs.  I wanted to have enough to make bánh mì later in the week, which we did (2 nights in a row, in fact).  Cut the meatball recipe in half if you’re only planning to use the meatballs for one meal with some leftover.

The meatballs do take some time to prep with all the chopping you have to do, and the chopping and slicing doesn’t end there.  The bún is full of shredded lettuce (I used iceberg but you could use romaine) julienned carrots, cucumber slices, chopped cilantro and mint.  So get your best knife and cutting board ready!  I made the meatball mixture, dressing and chopped everything during nap time.  This made dinner time pretty easy.  All I had to do was scoop and bake the meatballs, and cook the rice noodles.

In looking at different recipe for bún I saw other vegetables used like bean sprouts, daikon and red radish.  Traditionally beef is used as the protein as in this recipe from Leite’s Culinaria that looks dleicious.  But pork can also be used, like in this recipe from Fine Cooking which is making me crave grilled pork at 9 in the morning.

Vietnamese Turkey Meatball Bún

Ingredients

Meatballs

(Makes about 35, you may want to cut this recipe in half)

  • 2 pounds ground turkey
  • 5 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
  • 3 small shallots, finely chopped
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 teaspoons minced ginger root
  • 2 stalks of fresh lemongrass, tender white inner bulb only, minced
  • 4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped mint
  • 2 tablespoons chopped basil
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Nuoc Cham (Dressing)

  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • 3 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 teaspoons ginger, minced
  • 1 red or green Asian chile, or serrano chile, sliced into thin rounds

Salad

  • 1/2 head iceberg lettuce, shredded (or you can use romaine)
  • 6-8 ounces of rice noodles (this depends on how many people you’re serving and how much you like noodles. We used 5 ounces and it made 5 servings.)
  • 1 cucumber, sliced into half moons or halves
  • 6-8 carrots, peeled and julienned
  • 4 green onions, sliced
  • chopped cilantro
  • chopped mint
  • chopped basil
  • chopped peanuts
  • sriracha (if you need more heat!)

 Directions

Meatballs

  1. If baking right away, preheat the oven to 400°F.  Position a rack in the top third of the oven.
  2. Combine the turkey, fish sauce, shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, herbs, egg, salt and pepper and mix with your hands until well combined but without overworking the mixture.  At this point you can either refrigerate the mixture in the bowl, form into balls and cover and refrigerate on the pan, or form into balls and bake right away.
  3. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Using slightly moistened hands, roll the mixture into 1 1/2-inch balls. Transfer the meatballs to the prepared baking sheet and bake them for 15-20 minutes, until they are lightly browned and cooked through.

Nuoc Cham (Dressing)

  1. Combine warm water and sugar and stir to dissolve sugar.
  2. Stir in the remaining ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use.

Salad

  1. Cook rice noodles by bringing a pot of water to a boil.  Add the noodles and remove from the heat.  Let sit for about 5 minutes.  Drain and rinse the noodles in cool water.
  2. Layer in deep, wide bowls: lettuce, noodles and meatballs.  Arrange vegetables and herbs around the sides.  Sprinkle with peanuts and green onion and drizzle with nuoc cham.  Toss everything together and enjoy using fancy chopsticks (or a nice reliable fork!).