Category Archives: Easy to Prepare

Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Simple Roasted Asparagus

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I’m constantly on the search for easy, inspiring side dishes.  When you are making use of fresh, locally sourced ingredients, it’s easy to avoid reaching for the bag of frozen corn as a quick accompaniment to your main course.  That being said, I get extremely lazy sometimes.  To the point where I don’t even want to boil a pot of water for anything or anyone.  When I get a case of the doldrums and asparagus is in season, this is my answer to the big question of “What the hell am I going to eat with this?”

Roasted Asparagus © Spice or Die

For you folks that don’t dig asparagus (like my hubby and sis for starters), you can use this exact same preparation to cook string beans and haricots verts.  And also cherry tomatoes on the vine.  All of which are gorgeous and couldn’t be simpler.  There you go – 3 options for those days that you couldn’t possibly peel yourself off the couch to make anything involved.

Simple Roasted Asparagus

1 lb. of asparagus
1/4 c. of olive oil
2 pinches of kosher salt
1 pinch of black pepper

Preheat oven to 450°.  Snap ends off asparagus spears (and save for stock for Cream of Asparagus Soup).  Toss asparagus in olive oil, salt and pepper and spread out evenly over a flat baking sheet.  Bake in the oven until crisp and tender (I know, an oxymoron) – about 10 minutes for thin asparagus (cigarette size) and 17 minutes for thick asparagus (cigar-sized).

Variations

If you want to brighten things up for the summertime, mix 2 tbs. of lemon zest and two tbs. of chopped parsley to make a gremolata.  Top asparagus with the mixture and serve.

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Recipes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Tomato Bruschetta

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I’m hoping that by posting this recipe, I’ll be making my sister Lexi really, really, really inspired to start making this for herself.  It’s her favorite – probably in the top five things that I make that she loves the most.  And accomplished chef and baker she may be, she always cons me into making it for her.  Maybe it’s like how I feel about a good grilled cheese – I can make it for myself, but it tastes so much better when someone else makes one for me.  Come to think of it, Lexi makes my favorite grilled cheese of all time – Tilamook cheddar, feta cheese and a tomato on slices from a pullman loaf.  Maybe we were meant to be sisters.

Tomato Bruschetta © Spice or Die

There are very few ingredients in this bruschetta, so you have to use the best ingredients possible.  Fresh ripe tomatoes, leafy basil and fruity olive oil make all the difference.  This topper is killer on toasted ciabatta, baguette rounds brushed with olive oil and baked, or even focaccia.  If carbs aren’t your thing, try it atop chicken paillard (or a simply grilled chicken cutlet) and a handful of arugula.  It’s a bistro meal without a ton of calories.  You can also toss this bruschetta with boiled, cooled potatoes and blanched string beans for my absolute favorite salad of all time (similar to my Potatoes Vinaigrette).

Tomato Bruschetta © Spice or Die

This bruschetta doubles and triples easily – make enough for friends, but not enough for leftovers.  It’s best eaten the same day before the tomatoes become soggy and too acidic.  It’s a carpe diem kind of recipe, so tuck in post haste.

Tomato Bruschetta

2 c. of chopped tomatoes
1 shallot, finely diced
3/4 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of black pepper
5 tbs. of olive oil
2 tbs. of red wine vinegar
7 leaves of fresh basil, stacked, rolled and thinly sliced
toasted bread or crostini

Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, shallot and basil to a bowl.  Toss with olive oil and vinegar.  Taste for seasoning.  Top crusty slices of bread with a few tablespoons of bruschetta and serve with sprigs of basil for garnish.  Or put out the bread and bruschetta and let people assemble for themselves.  For non-vegans, you can serve bruschetta topped with slices of buffala mozzarella as an added treat.

Easy to Prepare, Recipes, Salads, Vegetarian Dishes

Mixed Greens with Clementines and Pecans

Oh My Darlin’, Oh My Darlin’

I love this salad because it screams Springtime even though it’s made with ingredients that are delicious in the winter.  When you are feeling that your menus are lugubrious with heavy stews and dull, overcooked madness, you should give this a try.  From the crunch of pecans, tartness of juicy clementines, and a light rice wine vinegar dressing to wake it all up, you will swear that winter is long gone and warmer days are on the way.

Mixed Greens with Clementines and Pecans © Spice or Die

Use the greens that look the freshest at the market when you go shopping – I like frisee and arugula together, because the bitterness is well-contrasted with the sweet bits of clementine.  You can, though, use anything that you see that should be on your plate – mesclun, red leaf, radicchio and butter lettuce all work as well.

Mixed Greens with Clementines and Pecans

6 c. of arugula, loosely packed
2 c. of frisee, loosely packed
2 clementines, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
1/3 c. of chopped pecans
1/3 c. of crumbled ricotta salata

4 tbs. of olive oil
2 tbs. of rice wine vinegar
1 tbs. of dried tarragon
1/4 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of black pepper
1 tbs. of shallots, finely chopped

Add greens, clementines, pecans and ricotta salata to a bowl.  In a jar (or a plastic chinese soup container, like I use), shake together the oil, vinegar, tarragon, salt, pepper and shallots.  Pour the dressing on the sides of the salad bowl (so as to not oversaturate the greens) and toss.  Serve salad to people longing for a little sunshine.

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Recipes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Lima Bean Bruschetta

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Luscious Lima Action

This recipe was born of a 100% “oh, crap” moment – I was cooking dinner for myself when I found out that a few good friends were on the way over to share a drink.  My Brazilian/Italian roots are firmly planted in perennial hospitality – if people come over and you’re eating, you absolutely share what you’ve got, small though it may be.  There’s a Brazilian song that says that the more people that come over, the more water you add to your beans to thin them out.  All are welcome.

Lima Bean Bruschetta © Spice or Die

My dinner for one was barely enough to share with 4 hungry ladies, so I found myself rummaging through the freezer and pantry for items to whip into something special.  In a moment of divine inspiration, I threw leftover lima beans, parsley, and lemon into the food processor and blitzed away.  The result, similar to what Cesar Cardini must have felt when he turned lowly anchovies, garlic, eggs and oil into caesar dressing, was majesty.

This recipe is similar to a popular crostini topping that I used to eat all the time in Orvieto – there it was made from fava beans (or broad beans) and drizzled with fruity, golden olive oil.  The lima beans are great because they’re easy to pull out of the freezer in a pinch, and cheaper than fava beans.  That being said, if you see fresh fava beans at the market, grab them and try them as a replacement for the limas – they are so lovely.  I like this bruschetta plain, but for a bit of decadence, you can crumble a bit of ricotta salata over the top for some added salty goodness.  Lowly limas never had it so good.

This recipe is hard to make smooth without a food processor, but you can certainly do it with a mortar and pestle (or a mocajete).  Just make sure to chop your herbs first, and then stage the ingredients in the same order as listed for the food processor in the instructions below.

Lima Bean Bruschetta

10 oz. of frozen lima beans
1 c. of water

1 tbs. of lemon juice, freshly-squeezed
2 tbs. of red wine vinegar
1/3 c. of olive oil
2 – 4 cl. of garlic
4 leaves of basil
5 sprigs of parsley, leaves removed and stems discarded (save stems for stock)
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of crushed red pepper

Put the lima beans and water in a pot and cook until tender, about 6-7 minutes.  Drain and rinse with water to cool.

To your food processor, add your garlic, basil, parsley, salt and red pepper.  Pulse until chopped finely.  Add the vinegar, lemon and olive oil.  Pulse until smooth.  Remove to a tupperware and chill.  Serve spread on grilled bread or crackers and drizzled with good olive oil.

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Recipes, Sauces and Condiments, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Olive Tapenade

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Like a Dirty Martini. Extra Dirty. Without the Martini…

Back when I fancied myself a writer and a thinker (ha!), I wanted to write a book on similarities and trends in people’s palettes.  I found that the folks that hated olives also hated coconut, avocados and other lovely things that I couldn’t imagine not eating.  It was like a package deal or something.  While my theories have yet to be tested on a larger scale, I definitely do believe that your palette can be trained to taste and eventually love foods that you may not like right now.

Olive Tapendae © Spice or Die

For me, one of the foods that I’ve come around to over the years are green olives.  I’ve always adored black olives – I was the little kid who put the canned ones on my fingers like a fool, only to eat them off – but absolutely abhorred green olives.  In a moment of revelatory tastetastiness (sure, that’s a word), I had olive tapenade at a local tapas restaurant as an amuse bouche.  The chef served it with plantain chips – a fun spin on chips and salsa.  Needless to say, I was hooked from that moment on. Continue reading Olive Tapenade →

Appetizers and Small Plates, Cheese Dishes, Easy to Prepare, Recipes, Vegetarian Dishes

Boursin (for Fakers)

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Fake It ‘Til You Make It

What’s the deal with the price gouging at the grocery store?  Makes a girl get all huffy and work on a recipe for homemade majesty to save some bucks.

You’ve probably seen/had boursin before, a creamy fresh cheese spiked with herbs and a healthy shot of pepper.  The cheese, created in Normandy, is a delicious treat on crackers and bread, and a perennial party pleaser.  Problem is the stuff runs about $5-6 for a mere 5 oz.  I could warrant spending that much on a fancier cheese, but on something in the aisle next to the Rondele?  Forget it.

My childhood church put out a cookbook back when I was a kiddie, and one of the recipes in there was a Homemade Boursin.  A combination of dried herbs, cream cheese and butter, it was close enough to the original stuff that I couldn’t see a reason to spend the money on the real stuff.

I don’t really know where the original recipe’s gone, but I’ve been making this version for years – a spicier alternative with both white and black pepper and a shot of chopped garlic.  I also make it with half the fat by using Neufchatel and SmartBalance spread in lieu of butter and cream cheese (you can certainly go full fat if you’d like, though).  The whole mess is whipped up in the food processor in mere seconds, and I then get to watch as it’s systematically devoured at parties.  The best kind of recipe of all 🙂

To my vegan friends, I’ve made this with Tofutti and vegan margarine before and it is absolutely as good as the vegetarian version.  Definitely give it a try – your dairy consuming buddies won’t know the difference.

Boursin (for Fakers)

8 oz. of neufchatel (or other cream cheese), softened
4 tbs. of Smart Balance spread (or butter), softened
1 1/2 tbs. of dried herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary, tarragon – I just use Herbes de Provence and call it a day)
1/2 tsp. of white pepper
1/2 tbs. of black pepper
1/2 tsp. of salt
2 cl. of garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients well (or blend in a food processor).  Serve with crusty bread, toasts or crackers.

Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes

Grilled Lemongrass Beef

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A Sweet and Salty Affair

From chocolate covered pretzels to a salt-rimmed margarita, our palettes all crave the goodness that is sweet and salty.  This recipe tackles all the taste points, with a fair share of sweet, salty and tart.  I slather this simple marinade on beef and grill until charred on the outside and juicy pink on the inside, but you can certainly use it on pork or chicken as well.  It’s comprised of a simple kalbi sauce (a delicious combo of brown sugar, soy and mirin used in Korean BBQ), a splash of toasted sesame oil, and an aromatic bit of ground lemongrass (which can be found at Asian markets or online).  I’ve given you the lazy version below that uses a pack of Noh Korean Barbecue mix – I score the packets on Amazon along with orders of char su, the lovely crimson Chinese marinade used on roasted pork.  If you want to go homemade, though, you can certainly make it from scratch using some soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil, sugar and salt and pepper.  Garnish with white and black sesame seeds for an added bit of lovely. Continue reading Grilled Lemongrass Beef →

Easy to Prepare, Recipes, Salads, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Thai Chopped Salad with Crisp Noodles and Herbs

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Chopper Style

There’s a time and a place for Applebee’s, and that’s when your dead.  Kidding, but seriously, the salads at all these chain restaurants (I’m talking to you too, Chilis and TGIFridays) are a waste of money.  I’m sure that the dressings are prepackaged with all kinds of preservatives, and heaven knows when the produce last left the garden.  It’s a waste of cash as well.  The only thing that they’re doing right is illustrating the point that salads don’t have to be boring.

This particular recipe reminds me of all of my favorite things about a salad – exceedingly crisp, ultra light, and super refreshing.  Matchsticks of carrot, daikon and red bell pepper give an addictive crunch, and the crisp noodles help to soak up the yummy peanut lime dressing.  Cilantro and mint add spice and sweetness, and the dressing gets a kick from a bit of chili and garlic.  It’s all around goodness. Continue reading Thai Chopped Salad with Crisp Noodles and Herbs →

Beverages and Cocktails, Easy to Prepare, Recipes

Basil Lemonade

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Can I Give Your Lemons a Squeeze

I think my first memory of perfect lemonade was from when I was a kid (I had to have been 7 or 8) at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and in an effort to stave off the DC summer heat, tried a hand-shaken lemonade for the first time.  There’s something about freshly squeezed lemon juice that can’t ever be duplicated with concentrate – after that first taste, I was sold.  Lemon, sugar, water – that was it.

My francophile mom eventually turned me on to the art of the citron pressé – the French imbibe the same drink in cafés as a DIY drink.  You get a glass of ice with the juice of a lemon, a small pitcher of water, and a dish of sugar.  Depending upon how tart or sweet you’d like your drink, you add the sugar and water to your liking.  As my sister would say, “sassy and classy!”  Ok, maybe just sassy in this case. Continue reading Basil Lemonade →

Easy to Prepare, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes

Simple Hanger Steak

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Hanger? I Hardly Knew Her!

Face it, kids.  Filet mignon is overrated.  Yes, it’s tender.  Yes, it costs more than most other steaks.  But really, if you ask me for the cut that I turn to time and time again for an in-home, steakhouse experience, it’s all about the hanger steak.  Centered between the other popular cuts of brisket and flank.  It’s sometimes referred to as skirt, even though it’s actually a completely separate cut of meat (though close by).  If you see “onglet” on a French bistro menu, they are referring to hanger steak.  The steak itself is comprised of two long strips of meat, with an inedible white membrane running down the middle.  I’m usually too lazy to cut this out when I cook the steak at home, but if you want to be a fancy pants, trim this out before you cut portions of steak.

Prized for it’s beefy flavor and chewy goodness (read: chewy but not at all tough), it’s referred to as “the butcher’s cut” because it was the steak that the butcher kept for his fam.  I’m not so sure that this is the case these days, but because of its caché, it’s been marked up in price from time to time.  Funny how the cheaper cuts (short ribs, skirt steak) have suddenly gone up in price once people collectively “discover” how good they are. Continue reading Simple Hanger Steak →