Tag Archives: pine nuts

(Cafe) Barcelona Soup and Sandwich

Sandwich and SaladOne of the things I really enjoy about cooking is trying to recreate restaurant meals.  Sometimes I even think that I’ve gotten a recipe just a little bit better than the original – but that’s probably because I believe the best meals are those made and eaten at home.

This quick and easy salad-and-sandwich combination was inspired by a delicious lunch shared with my mom, dad and Kel during a recent trip to Marco Island, Florida.  We cooked most of our meals at our rental house, but found this vegan-friendly restaurant right in the heart of Naples.  The food was simple and very fresh and the company couldn’t be beat.

I eliminated the olive oil in both the sandwich and the salad – they just don’t need it!  And I created a kind of chopped salad for the sandwich filling rather than keeping the ingredients whole.  I thought it would be easier to eat that way (plus you get a bit of everything in every bite), but it turns out, this sandwich is just messy.  Serve it open-faced if you aren’t eating this with family!

One year ago today: Best Friends Forever: Soup & A Sandwich
One year and one day ago today: Earl of Chai: Another Drink from the Slow Cooker

Cafe Barcelona Veggie Sandwich
Serves 2

1 baguette
1 roasted pepper, chopped
2 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
6 Spanish olives, chopped
a couple of slices of red onion, chopped
lemon zest
ground black pepper

Cut the baguette in two and then slice each piece in half.  Set aside.

In a bowl, combine the roasted pepper, lettuce, olives, red onion, lemon zest and black pepper.  Divide the mixture between the baguette slices.

Salad and Sandwich collage

Cafe Barcelona Wilted Spinach Salad with Pine Nuts, Apple and Golden Raisins
Serves 2

5 oz. fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 oz. pine nuts
1/2 tart-sweet apple, cored and chopped
splash veggie broth
splash fresh lemon juice

Lightly brown the pine nuts, raisins and apple in a dry skillet.  Stir often to prevent burning.  Add a splash of vegetable broth and put the spinach in the pan, turning to gently wilt it.

Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the burner and splash the spinach with lemon juice.  Stir and divide the mixture between two plates.

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VeganMoFo: Roasted Pear, Roasted Pepper Chedda’ & Sauerkraut Quesadillas with Pecans

QuesadillaThis is one of those combinations that – on paper – doesn’t seem at all reasonable.  Sauerkraut in a quesadilla?  With pears??  In the mouth, however, it works with delicious synchronicity.  There’s the smooth richness of the cheddar cheez (yet another riff on my Smoky Pesto Cashew Cheez - this time using pine nuts and roasted yellow bell pepper), the delicate sweetness of the roasted pear, the crunch of toasty pecans and the tang of sauerkraut.  In short, it’s kind of addictive.

(Thank you, VeganMoFo for including me in yesterday’s round-up!  Appreciate it!)

Roasted Pear, Roasted Pepper Chedda’ & Sauerkraut Quesadillas with Pecans
Makes 3-4 quesadillas

Roasted Pepper Chedda’ Cheez:
1 yellow pepper, cored and deseeded
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 shallot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1 tbsp. white miso
1 tbsp. tahini
1 tsp. Liquid Smoke
1/4 nut milk
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. ground white pepper
1/4 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 oz. agar flakes
1 1/2 cups water

Quesadillas:
3-4 whole wheat tortillas, warmed
1 large pear, sliced into 1/4″ strips, lengthwise and the core and stem trimmed out
1 1/2 cups sauerkraut, drained well
Slices of chedda’ cheez (as much as you like)
~1/8 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Pepper Collage

Make the cheez:

You’ll need a dish with a 3+ cup capacity.  No need to spray it with oil.

Cut the pepper in half and place on a baking sheet.  Smash the halves down – just to flatten them a bit.  Broil them until the skin turns black and your house smells like a farmer’s market in Santa Fe.  Place the peppers in a bag and let them sit for about 15 minutes.  Carefully remove from the bag and peel off the skin.  Roughly chop and set aside.

In a food processor, grind the pine nuts until fairly fine.  They don’t need to be powdery – there will be one more step that will get them nice and smooth.  Now add the roasted pepper and all of the remaining ingredients – except for the agar flakes and water.  Process until fairly smooth.  Now for the kind of pain-in-the-butt step: pour the mixture into a blender.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, combine the agar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, but keep the mixture on simmer.  Stir regularly.  After five minutes, quickly pour the agar mixture into the blender with the roasted pepper mixture and process until very smooth.  Quickly pour the cheez into the dish you set aside earlier.  Place in the refrigerator to firm up.

Roast the pears:
Preheat the oven to 425F.  Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place the pear slices on the parchment and roast for about 10-15 minutes.  Pears should be soft and juicy, but not necessarily browned.  Remove from the pan and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Sliced Pears

Assemble the quesadillas:
Place cheez slices, pear slices, a scoop of sauerkraut and a sprinkling of pecans on one half of a quesadilla.  Gently fold it over; repeat with remaining tortillas.  Lightly spray a pan with cooking oil and brown the quesadillas on low to medium heat.  Turn over and brown the other side.  Remove from pan, slice quesadillas in half and serve.  (This cheez does melt, but you gotta be patient.  Low and slow heat.)
Quesadilla Ingredients

Quesadillas

VeganMoFo

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Rotini “Alfredo” with Roasted Vegetables

Aerial Bowl of Pasta, FlowersRemember that Spinach-Cilantro Pesto from a few days back?  Here’s where you can use it.  I’ve tried a quite a few different cheez sauces and this one pleases my taste buds more than all of the others.  I think the reason is the rather hefty amount of nutritional yeast and the lack of soy milk.  I love soy milk, but it can be a bit rich and heavy in sauces and not in a good way – at least to me.  This makes for a quick and easy supper.

Rotini “Alfredo” with Roasted Vegetables
Serves 4

Sauce:
vegetable broth, as needed for sauteing
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup vegetable broth or water
2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 tsp. Bragg Liquid Aminos or soy sauce
1/4-1/2 tsp. chile powder
1 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. of salt, if needed
dash ground black pepper

13.25 oz. box of rotini (or your favorite noodle; BTW, when did pasta stop coming in 1 pound quantities??)

Roasted vegetables (use what you love, by all means):
1 small eggplant, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
red, yellow or orange bell pepper, seeded and sliced

Spinach-Cilantro Pesto

Vegetables:
This is simple: line a baking pan with aluminum foil and place the veggies on it in one layer.  Broil at 500F, watching closely and turning once, until they’re soft and slightly charred.  Set aside.

Make the sauce:
While you’re getting the sauce ingredients together, get a big pot of water going on the stove so you can multi-task and have the noodles cooked by the time the sauce is done.  In a skillet, saute the onions in a little bit of vegetable broth for about 3 minutes.  Add the garlic and saute for a couple more minutes, adding vegetable broth as needed to prevent sticking.  Transfer to a blender, add the remaining sauce ingredients (through the black pepper) and blend until smooth.

Transfer to a saucepan and keep on low heat to stay warm while the pasta finishes cooking.

Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot you boiled it in – pour on the sauce and stir to get that creamy goodness all over the noodles.  Divide amongst four plates, top with roasted vegetables and Spinach-Cilantro pesto, if using.

Bowl of Pasta, Roasted Veggies(The sauce recipe comes from Vegan with a Vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz with minor changes: reducing the amount of chile powder – I find the flavor a bit too dense – and omitting the olive oil to saute the onion and garlic.)

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Bright Green in Winter: Spinach-Cilantro Pesto

Spinach Cilantro PestoAs good as the rotini “alfredo” (recipe appearing here soon) looked, it really needed something green.  Pesto.  But I had no fresh basil.  I did, however, have a handful of spinach picked that afternoon from the greenhouse and a bunch of cilantro in the veggie drawer.  I pureed them along with some toasted pine nuts left over from making the alfredo sauce; added garlic (of course) and vegetable broth to get that nice thick consistency – and my something green was ready to go.  The combination of spinach and cilantro is so tasty and bright with none of the heaviness of olive oil – just fresh herbs and the heat of lots of garlic.  Unlike basil pesto, this retains its beautiful color even after being stored in the refrigerator.  This would be fantastic on a grilled vegetable and tofu sandwich, or as a savory topping for big portobello mushrooms – or place a big dollop in a bowl of pasta e fagioli.  Spinach and cilantro are available year-round in grocery stores, and I’ll bet other herb/greens combinations would also work equally well.

Spinach-Cilantro Pesto
Serves 4

1 small bunch cilantro (about 1 cup, packed)
4 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
vegetable broth, as needed
ground black pepper, to taste

In a food processor, combine the cilantro, spinach, garlic, pine nuts and ground pepper and process until chunky.  With the processor on, drizzle in vegetable broth – to the consistency you desire.  I like a coarser pesto, but by all means, keep processing until it’s smooth, if you like.

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