Food Matters Project #30: Broccoli & Cherry Rice with Acorn Squash

With the start of 2013, we’re back to doing Food Matters Project posts!  I apologize for neglecting this awesome weekly project, but after missing it for a couple of months, we’ll be doing them again!

This weeks recipe was chosen by Gracie, of Food Fascination.  Her choice was Hippie Rice, from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook.  Check out how others have adapted and made this recipe here.  See what other recipes we have made: Fifth Floor Kitchen Food Matters Project.

As always, I love recipes from this cookbook, since they can really be adapted to what you have in your fridge or pantry.  If I’m in the mood, I love to take the idea and run with it.  So here’s my recipe, inspired by Mr. Bittman- a great veggie, non-dairy dish to get you back into the healthy groove after all those holidays!

Broccoli & Cherry Rice with Acorn Squash
Inspired from: Food Matter’s Cookbook

1 acorn squash
1 tsp salt
1 cup rice, uncooked
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 head of broccoli, chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Cut the acorn squash in half, horizontally.  Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and toss them out.  Lay the squash halves, cut side down, on a greased foiled lined tray.  Bake for 40 minutes, or until the acorn squash is tender inside.  Scoop out the acorn squash with a spoon or fork, add it to a medium bowl.

Meanwhile, cook your rice according to package instructions.  Remember to add 1/2 tsp salt into the pot.  Once it’s cooked, add to the bowl with the acorn squash.

Heat up a medium skillet, and add 2 tbsp olive oil.  Allow to heat up, then add the onion.  Sauté the onion for about 3-5 minutes, then toss in the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes.  Finally, add in the broccoli and soy sauce, cook for another 5 minutes.  Once it’s finished cooking, mix in the ingredients with the rice and acorn squash.

Lastly, add in the dried cherries, pumpkin seeds, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper- mix all of the ingredients together.  Spoon the rice mixture into the 2 halves of the acorn squash.

November 2012 Review

And we’re back with the monthly reviews on Fifth Floor Kitchen!  What photos did I capture on my iPhone this past month?

Interested in past months?  Check them out: May June July August

This was taken on our last day of our honeymoon in Phuket, Thailand.  Check out our posts about it here.

First week back from our honeymoon and we were excited for food from the farmer’s market!  We got: arugula, turnips, a pie pumpkin, apples, pears, sweet potatoes, cheese & eggs from the Penn Quarter Farmer’s Market.

Don’t know what to eat for breakfast?  Check out this post on making Fall Granola– perfect to mix with yogurt or milk!

Sam and I visited our friend Beth in Baltimore.  We loved this place: Abbey Burger Bistro, make your own burger (and it’s got some good beers as well).

While in Baltimore we stopped by the Baltimore Farmer’s Market & Bazaar (check out the post about it here).  Sam pickled the cucumbers, and we enjoyed the spicy cheese & duck eggs.  But the honey butter is the best- have you had honey butter?  If not, you’re missing out!

My friend Alix and I got a chance to see Deb Perelman from Smitten Kitchen!  There were so many people at Politics & Prose to see her!  Checkout her cookbook and blog for some great recipes!

We have 2 cats who have really enjoyed getting wedding gifts.  Well, mostly the boxes that the gifts come in- Van Gogh loves to relax among the bubble wrap and paper!  One of the many gifts was a cookbook- and we tried this Shepherd’s Pie recipe!

Another Penn Quarter Farmer’s Market week!  The goodies were: bok choy, yogurt (to go with Fall Granola), broccoli, cheese, apples, pear and arugula!

Last May, when I attended Eat, Write, Retreat (check out my post about it) I met a lot of wonderful bloggers.  One of them was Olga (blog: Mango & Tomato; Twitter: @MangoTomato), we tried out the new DGS Delicatessen in Dupont Circle for lunch, and I had a delicious Salmon Pastrami Sandwich on a bagel.

As I mentioned, we had a low-key Thanksgiving.  After running the So Others Might Eat Turkey Trot 5K– Sam, myself and his brother went to Hill Country Barbecue for an all-you-can-eat dinner.  As always, Hill Country did not disappoint!  Although my favorite was the green bean casserole- it’s been so long since I’ve had it!

The past week’s Penn Quarter Farmer’s Market finds were: eggs, turnips, cheese, pears, eggs & meat sticks!

Food Matters Project #26: Veggie Stir Fry

Another exciting recipe for the Food Matters Project!

This weeks host is Big Girls Small Kitchen College.  It’s a blog written by college students across the country on how to cook, eat, drink and live on and off campus.  There are a number of contributors that provide recipes and college stories.  Today’s contributor, Jen, chose the Crispy Rice Cakes with Stir-Fried Vegetables and Chicken; check out her version of the recipe here.  For all Food Matters Project contributors recipes, look under the comments section on this page.

I really enjoy making Asian food, especially since the home version is always healthier than the takeout!  Although I glanced over Mark Bittman’s recipe in the Food Matters Cookbook, I decided to do my own version of this dish.  First, we didn’t have chicken, so we enjoyed a vegetarian dish (you can also add tofu, chicken, beef or shrimp).  Secondly, although the rice cakes sounded great- I just wanted some regular stir-fry.  Sounds like everyone had some fun making the rice cakes, so check out Mark’s original recipe on page 324.  I was going to add water chestnuts, which I forgot about- so definitely add that into yours.

Veggie Stir Fry
Fifth Floor Kitchen Original
Servings: 4

1 cup uncooked rice
2 tbsp stir fry oil
1 large onion, chopped
7 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, peeled & chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
1 head of broccoli, chopped
1 1/2 cup snow peas, halved or quartered
1 jalapeño, chopped (optional)
2 tbsp fish sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 tbsp sesame seeds

Cook rice per package instruction.  The cooked rice should yield about 2 cups.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp stir fry oil in a skillet.  Once it’s hot, add the onions and saute for about 5 minutes.  Next, add the garlic and carrots- cook for about 3-5 minutes.  Then, add in the ginger and broccoli, cook for 2 minutes.  Finally, add in the snow peas, jalapeño, fish sauce, soy sauce, 1 tbsp stir fry oil, pepper and red pepper flakes.  Cook all of these ingredients, while stirring, for about 5 minutes.  If you don’t want your broccoli or snow peas to be crunchy, cook for another 5 minutes.

Place the rice on the plate, add the stir fry veggies.  Then sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds.  Serve with some chopsticks!

Broccoli-Edamame Soup with Goat Cheese

I’m not sure this is the best soup, visually-speaking.  I’m not going to lie, when I took it to work, I felt a little weird putting it into the fridge.  If anyone would look down, amongst the lunch boxes, sandwiches and salads… there was my neon-green soup.  Fortunately, no one commented on it, phew!  What could I say…delicious green soup?

I don’t think I have ever tried to warm up goat cheese, and I wish I had!  It is ridiculously delicious: cheese, soft and warm.  I smeared some of it on each of the bread slices, and then once I took it out of the oven, I pressed it down a bit more- smushing it all over the piece of bread.  Yum!  Definitely not just for this soup, I will have to try it out with more recipes.

Broccoli-Edamame Soup with Goat Cheese
Adapted from: Vegetarian Times (March 2011)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
6 cups broth (veggie or chicken)
3 cups frozen shelled edamame
1 lb frozen broccoli
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 oz goat cheese
4-8 slices from a baguette

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the onion, garlic and nutmeg, sauté for about 10 minutes.  Add the salt and pepper while it’s sautéing.  Then stir in 1/2 cup of broth, scrapping the bottom of the pot for the brown bits.  Once scraped, add the remaining broth.  Finally, add the edamame and broccoli.  Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 20 minutes.

While the soup cooks, preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Place the baguettes on a baking sheet, and arrange the cheese over the toasts.  Bake for about 6 minutes, or until the cheese has softened.

Once the soup is cooked, transfer the soup to a blender and blend until smooth (or to your liking, we prefer ours to be a bit chunky).  Return the soup back to the pot, and warm over low heat.

Finally, ladle soup into soup bowls, and float 1-2 cheesy breads on top of the soup.

Asparagus & Broccoli Orzo Salad

Not having access to the Internet is a lot more difficult than I thought (well, at least when you’re not on vacation).  Last week was my first at my new job.  After rewriting my name, filling in all the special numbers, having my picture taken, and signing my name about 30 times- I am now allowed to have computer access!  Success!  I felt very out of touch with the world up until today.  Unless someone left a paper copy of an article, or was talking about a specific topic, I had no idea what was going on in the world (yes, that includes the Prince William-Kate wedding gossip).  So for all of those that have had busy days, this is a perfect salad- either to eat during your lunch hour, or enjoy when you get home and don’t have time to do much.

It’s asparagus season!  Last week I saw it for the first time at our Farmer’s Market, so it’s time to get cooking with it.  This is a great spring recipe- light, flavorful and fast.  Although I had made it for friends (when I made this dessert), we had plenty of leftovers for the two of us.  We don’t tend to buy alfalfa sprouts often, just because if you don’t use them fast enough they’ll get all soggy, but this was definitely a fantastic edition to this salad.

Asparagus & Broccoli Orzo Salad
Inspired from: 101 Cookbooks

1 cup orzo pasta, uncooked
1 lb asparagus; washed, trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp salt
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups alfalfa sprouts
1 cucumber, quartered and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup feta, crumbled

Bring a large pot to a boil, add 1 tbsp of salt.  Once the water is boiling, add the orzo and cook per package instructions.

This next step can be done in 2 ways:

1) About 30 seconds before the orzo is finished cooking, stir in the asparagus and broccoli.  Cook for 30 seconds, then drain and run cold water over the 3 ingredients.

OR

2) Once the orzo is cooked, drain it and run cold water of the pasta.  Then boil another pot of water, add the asparagus and broccoli for about 1/2-1 minute.  Then drain and run cold water over the vegetables.

In a small bowl whisk together the dressing: lemon juice, olive oil and 2 tbsp of salt.

Add the orzo, asparagus and broccoli to a large bowl.  Then toss those ingredients with the dressing.  Finally, add the alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and feta.  Toss once more for all of the ingredients to mix well.