Oven-Baked Burritos

You guys know I've got a lot of tomatillo action going on these days, so I have the pleasant challenge of finding new ways of using tomatillos and tomatillo sauce.  Here's another:  tomatillo oven-baked burritos.  Now, even though these are vegetarian and not vegan, you could easily make them vegan by omitting the cheese and adding, say, chopped onions and/or chopped tomatoes and/or vegan cheese if you're into that sort of thing.  These are simple and delicious!  The recipe serves 2.

4 flour tortillas
1 can refried black beans
tomatillo salsa (click here for recipe)or other salsa to cover burritos , probably 1 cup (ish)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Coat the bottom of a baking dish (large enough to hold 4 burritos) with salsa.

Zap each tortilla in the microwave just enough to make it fold-able (about 10 seconds).  Put 1/4 can refried black beans in a line, bisecting the tortilla.  Fold the tortilla in half over the line of beans, and roll up.  Place the rolled burrito, seam side down, in the baking dish.  Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Pour salsa over the burritos to cover and to coat the ends.  Cover the dish with aluminum foil.  Bake about 15 minutes or until burritos are heated through.  Serve warm, and eat with a fork.

Serving suggestion:  Spanish rice as a side dish.

Strawberry Sorbet

A big thank-you to P. Allen Smith, whose television show featured this recipe.  It's simple, it's healthy, it's vegan.  What more can I ask for in a summer dessert?  Although I only made it as sorbet, I think it would make a boss popsicle for those of you who have popsicle molds.


This is best made the day before, because although P. Allen says it only takes 4 hours to freeze up properly, mine took much longer.

1 quart fresh strawberries, washed and hulled
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 c. frozen apple juice concentrate


Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender and purée completely.  Pour the purée into a freezer-safe bowl, cover, and put in the freezer.  Wait 45 minutes, remove, and purée again.  Return to freezer.  Wait 45 minutes, remove, and purée again.  The multiple purées ensure a nice, smooth texture.  Return to freezer and allow to freeze completely.


Remove from freezer 25 minutes prior to serving to soften.  Scoop like ice cream.


Serving suggestion:  serve along side a home-baked brownie for a decadent dessert.  Brownies can be made with Ener-G Egg Replacer so that the entire naughty dessert can be vegan!

Tomatillo Salsa

Yes, another tomatillo salsa.  I have to do something with those tomatillos and jalapenos in my garden, since I'm not canning this year!  This one came from Rick Bayless's Authentic Mexican cookbook, adapted to be vegetarian.  (His version is not.)  You could use this salsa in place of the canned enchilada sauce in Cheese Enchiladas (see below).  It is also fine as a condiment salsa, too, of course.  I served it over refried beans at my sister-in-law's birthday dinner last night.

Ingredients:

1 lb. (about 11 medium-sized) tomatillos, husked and washed

1 - 2 fresh jalapenos, stemmed
2 - 3 fresh sprigs of cilantro, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 T. canola oil
1/2 t. salt, or to taste
juice from one lime (omit if using as an enchilada sauce)


Method:
In a 2-quart saucepan (or size appropriate for your produce), cover the tomatillos and jalapeno(s) in salted water.  Boil until the vegetables are tender, 10-15 minutes.  Drain the vegetables, reserving 1 c. of the used boiling water.


Place the tomatillos, jalapeno(s), cilantro, onion, and garlic in a food processor.  Process until smooth but retaining a little texture.


Heat the canola oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  When the oil is hot enough to make a drop of the tomatillo sauce sizzle, pour it all in at once.  Stir constantly 4-5 minutes until the sauce is thicker and darker.  Add the reserved cup of tomatillo boiling water.  Return to a boil, then reduce heat to medium.  Simmer until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, then remove from heat.  Stir in the salt and lime juice (if using).

Swiss Chard Tacos

Not familiar with Swiss chard?  It's a leafy green vegetable with edible celery-textured stems, related to beets.  Use it like spinach in general cooking.  We've had a very successful year with Swiss chard in our garden, so I've been looking for new things to do with it.  I'd seen Rick Bayless do Swiss chard tacos on his PBS show Mexico: One Plate At A Time before and had made a mental note of it just because it was a vegetarian recipe.  However, I didn't have an immediate use for it.  Later, I was unable to remember exactly what he did.  You can imagine my delight when I found this recipe for Swiss chard tacos in Martha Stewart's Living magazine.  As usual, I have adapted the recipe, if only slightly, to suit my tastes and needs.  And as always, you can definitely do the same!

Ingredients:
1.5 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 small red onion, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds and separated into rings
3 small cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
5 large leaves Swiss chard (stems removed and composted), washed and coarsely chopped
1 c. cooked pinto beans (canned is fine), drained and rinsed
1/4 t. coarse salt, or to taste
freshly ground black pepper
6 taco-sized corn tortillas (I haven't considered myself a fan of corn tortillas in the past, but I enjoyed them in this recipe.)

Method:
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.  Cook the onion rings until soft.  Add garlic slices, and cook 1 minute more.  Stir in the chard, and sauté until the greens are wilted.  Add the beans, and cook until warmed through.  Season with the salt and pepper.

Heat tortillas on a hot cast-iron griddle coated with non-stick cooking spray, turning so that each side is warmed and slightly browned.

Spoon chard filling into corn tortillas.  If desired, also top with Tomatillo and Chipotle Salsa.

Serves 2.

Tomatillo and Chipotle Salsa

Two plants have been extremely successful in our food garden this year:  tomatillos and Swiss chard.  It's been fun and challenging thinking of different things to do with these 2 foods, neither of which are usually a staple of our diet.  I found this great salsa recipe in Martha Stewart's Living magazine.  It's different, delicious, and uses tomatillos!  Tomatillos are a distant cousin to the tomato.  They look like a small green tomato with a papery husk.  I've adapted the recipe slightly, but it's mostly as I found it.  Here we go...

Ingredients:
6 or 7 tomatillos, husked, washed, and quartered
3 unpeeled garlic cloves
2 - 4 chipotles that have been canned in adobe sauce, seeded and coarsely chopped  (Chipotles are smoked jalapenos, and they give this salsa a smoky flavor.  The more you use, the spicier your salsa will be.  You can find chipotles at some grocery stores.  If you can't find them there, try the local international market.  I found them at Whole Foods.)
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 t. salt, or to taste

Process:
Cook tomatillos and unpeeled garlic cloves in a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.  Turn the pieces occassionally, and continue cooking until they are charred on all sides.  Remove from heat and allow to cool enough to handle.  Peel the garlic, then finely chop the tomatillos and garlic.

Mix the tomatillos, garlic, chipotles, sugar, and salt together.  Serve as a dip with tortilla chips, as a sauce on burritos or tacos, as a condiment on veggie burgers, or as desired.

NOTE:  For those of you who are not vegan, this salsa is also excellent mixed with plain cheese dip.

Bruschetta

It's so hot recently that there are days I can barely stand to turn on the oven or stove to prepare a meal.  This bruschetta is the perfect answer on those days.  I do have to turn on the stove, but only briefly.  Plus, it uses the produce that is so perfectly in season right now.  It's easy to think of this is a light dinner (and I often do), but it's definitely not low-cal due to all the olive oil.  It does, however, have a lot of health benefits.  Check out the benefits of eating garlic, olive oil, and tomatoes when you get a chance.  You'll be impressed.  And now, on to the recipe, which was inspired by a scene in Julie and Julia where "Julie" is making some delicious-looking bruschetta for dinner.

Ingredients:
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil, plus approx. 1/4 c. more for frying the bread
1/4 c. onion or shallot, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3 - 5 fresh tomatoes, cored and chopped (I'd say 3 if you're using slicer tomatoes or 5 if you're using Roma-style tomatoes.)
1 T. fresh basil, minced
salt and freshly-ground pepper, to taste
1/2 baguette, sliced on a long diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices

Method:
In a large nonstick skillet, heat 2 T. olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion or shallot, and sauté until the onion is translucent (5 - 8 minutes, approximately).  Add the garlic, and sauté a minute more.  Add the tomatoes and sauté until heated through but still in chunks.  Stir in the basil, and add salt and pepper, to taste.  (I season generously.)  Remove the tomato mixture to a serving bowl.

In the same skillet, add 2 T. olive oil and maintain a medium flame.  Add a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper, then arrange the slices of bread in the oil.  Allow the bread to brown on the lower side, then turn each slice over to brown the other side.  When you turn the bread over, it may be necessary to add more olive oil and pepper.

Remove the toasted bread to dinner plates.  (This usually serves 2 in our house, but that may be more or less in yours.  Hey, to each their own!)  Spoon the warm tomato mixture over the toasted bread, and enjoy.

NOTE:  If I have leftover tomato mixture after dinner, I might save it for a snack.  Spoon it over buttered (vegan-margarined, really) slices of baguette bread with extra black pepper.  Just stand over the sink to catch the juices, and delight in your messy, delicious snack!

Cold Asian Noodle Salad

First, a big thank-you to my neighbor, Kim, who brought this noodle salad to a block party and was kind enough to share her recipe outline with me.  Kim's recipe is very flexible, so I'll give some basic measurements, but you can adjust to your taste.  I made a couple of minor tweaks, but you know how I cook...Really, unless you're baking, everything is flexible!


12 to 16 ounces of pasta (thin spaghetti, vermicelli, angel hair, or soba noodles)
soy sauce, tamari, or shoyu:  about 5 T., but flexible
rice wine vinegar:  about 4 t., but flexible
sesame oil (toasted or not):  about 1 T., but flexible
1 t. sugar
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
crushed red pepper, to taste
1 cucumber, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
a handful of shredded carrots, optional

Break the pasta noodles into thirds, then cook them according to package directions.  Once the noodles are cooked, drain in a colander and briefly blanch them in iced cold water (or rinse them with cold water while still in the colander).

Meanwhile, combine the soy sauce (or tamari or shoyu), rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, garlic, and both peppers in a small saucepan.  Heat over a low flame until just heated through.  (Kim noted for me that if one has not used sesame oil, it is is worth paying attention to the fact that it has a strong flavor.  She suggested I use sparingly and add a little at a time.  I was glad she did, because I was not very familiar with this ingredient other than knowing it is a volatile oil and should be kept in the fridge to prevent a quick rancidity.  Anyway, it's easy to add more, but you can't remove what's added, so use with care!)  Taste the sauce and adjust to your liking, adding more of whatever you feel is missing.

When the pasta is cooked, toss it with the sauce, cucumbers, scallions, and carrots (if using).  Store in the fridge until time to eat.

Thanks, Kim!