Potato & Lentil Salad, Riced Broccoli Pilaf, Eggplant-Tomato Strata, Avocado Trick

Potato and Lentil Salad 

This is my take on a recipe that originated with the Publix Apronstm  program.  Serves 2 for dinner with leftovers for a lunch.

1 cup cooked Lentils, firm, not mushy

4 New Red Potatoes, cut into small wedges (eighths)

1-2 tsp Everglades Seasoning

1 Lemon, zested and juiced

1/4 lb Asparagus spears, the thinner the better, cut into 1" lengths

1/2 Shallot sliced thin

1/3 cup julienne cut, reconstituted Sun-dried Tomatoes

8-10 Cherry tomatoes, halved

1 Avocado, sliced

1/2 cup Feta Cheese crumbles

1/2 cup Walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Toss the potatoes with a splash of EVOO, dust with the Everglades seasoning, and toss again to distribute.  Spread on a foil covered baking sheet, and roast them for 12-14 minutes. 

Toss the asparagus with a bit of EVOO as well, and add them to the baking sheet.  Roast for an additional 12-14 minutes until the potatoes are tender.  Cool.

In a large bowl, combine the lentils, shallot, 1 Tbsp lemon zest, the lemon juice, and the sundried and fresh tomatoes.    Fold in the potatoes and asparagus.  Top with the feta, avocado, and walnuts.

Avocado Trick
Avocado not ripe enough?  I ran into that with the dish above where I was already committed to making the salad but discovered my avocados were not quite rock hard....

Microwave to the rescue!!   Poke a few holes in the avocado's shell, then nuke it for 30 seconds.  Test for softness.  Repeat a second time. Still not soft, go for 15 seconds.  Less than 2 minutes to ripen an avocado!


German-Greek Guacamole?!
Found this on the Blue Zones site as "Cameron Diaz' favorite longevity recipe".  Say What??!!

1 Avocado
1/2 cup squeezed Sauerkraut
2 Tbsp Feta Cheese

Mash the avocado.  After squeezing the sauerkraut as dry as you can, chop it so you have small pieces.  Fold the avocado and cabbage together, then carefully fold in the feta cheese.

Suprisingly it does not taste strongly of any one of the ingredients.  Pretty good though, as a dip or cracker spread.  Sally had it for a lite Sunday supper with a selection of crackers and cheese and a fruit bowl.

Riced Broccoli Pilaf
Cauliflower as a rice substitute came first.  At least it's white like rice...  Now we have Broccoli-Rice.  In both cases the named vegetable is run through a food processor grater blade or otherwise chopped finely to produce tiny nuggets of goodness.

We've been buying our cauliflower rice in a large bag from Costco -- it's pretty inexpensive for a huge bag... hardly worth the effort of making it at home.  But then, we ended up with three large bunches of broccoli and a friend who had just posted a broccoli-rice recipe...  "Sally sez..."

So I got out the Saladmastertm slicer and prepared to make little pieces out of big pieces. 

If you're going to make riced-broccoli, you need to handle the stems differently.  Peel them before chopping/shredding/ricing.  Otherwise you end up with really tough stringy bit.  The problem isn't there with homemade cauliflower-rice.  The Saladmaster did a good job with the tops of the broccoli.  Lots of tiny bits,  But the small stem-lets and bigger stem pieces came out more fine shreds than rice-like.  Next time I'll try the food-processor; or use the Saladmaster again but chop the results a bit finer after.

Pilaf

One thing I've picked up while learning to cook these rice substitutes is that you have to sort of work backwards when making a pilaf or a risotto.  With real rice you cook the rice slowly with a fair amount of liquid, and add the vegetables as the dish nears completion.    With cauliflower-rice or riced-broccoli you saute the diced and chopped vegetables until nearly done, then add the cauliflower-rice or broccoli-rice and finish the cooking.  Serves 4-6

3/4 cup Carrot sticks

3/4 cup Jicama cubes 

1/2 Celery crescents

1/2 cup diced Red bell pepper

1/2 cup diced Sweet Onion

1/2 cup toasted raw cashews (not roasted, salted cashews)

1 mild Anaheim Chile, seeded, veined and cut into rings

8 Cherry Tomatoes, halved

3 cups riced Broccoli

Everglades seasoning

Rice Wine Vinegar

Worcestershire sauce

I actually could have used 4 cups or more of riced-broccoli...

Eggplant Onion Tomato Strata

I'm always looking for good things to do with eggplant, onions and fresh tomatoes!  This is super simple and gives you an opportunity to work on your knife skills.

1 medium Eggplant - sliced into 1/4" thick rounds

Cavendar'stm Greek Seasoning to taste

1 large Beefsteak Tomato - sliced into 1/4" thick rounds

1 large Sweet White Onion - sliced into 1/4" thick rounds

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1 cup Panko 

1/2 cup Romano or Parmesan Cheese

Arrange the eggplant slices on a baking sheet.  Give them a drizzle of EVOO and a dusting of Greek Seasoning.  Broil the eggplant 2-3 minutes each side until they just start to turn color.  Turn the oven to Bake @ 350F.

In a 10" round baking dish, alternate layers of eggplant, tomato, onion and just smidge of cheese, stacked one on top of the next.  Repeat at least 2 twice more so each stack has a couple rounds of eggplant, a couple rounds of onion and a couple rounds of tomato, with cheese between.  

Pour the balsamic overall, then top with the breadcrumbs and a good dusting of cheese.  Bake for 30 minutes or so.