Oven-Roasted Mush

I bought some herbes de Provence with absolutely no idea what to do with it. But I'd always wanted to try it. I decided to go simple and oven roast some veggies tossed in olive oil and sprinkled with the herbes de Provence. Great idea, and the flavor was fantastic, but the texture left much to be desired.

The problem was two-fold: first, when you are cooking vegetables all at once, they need to be vegetables that cook at roughly the same rate. Second, when baking vegetables in the oven, you need to spread them out in an even layer - again, so they can cook at the same rate.

The veggies I chose to roast were potatoes, carrots, green peppers, button mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, and eggplant. Also, I used A LOT of all of them - too many to roast effectively on the one large sheetpan I was using. I baked them at 400 degrees and checked them after 25 minutes. The pepper, mushrooms, zucchini, squash and eggplant were perfect, but the potatoes and carrots were still too hard in the center. The baking continued for another 10 minutes. When I took everything out of the oven, the potatoes and carrots were just right, but of course, the other vegetables were practically paste - especially the eggplant. But hey - it was delicious! And I really liked the herbes de Provence. Usually, I oven roast veggies with Italian seasoning, so it's nice to have another option when I'm looking for something different.

On the side, I served plain brown rice topped with a little Eden Shake.

Bean Burgers

No picture with this post, mostly because my recent batch of bean burgers were consumed on two pieces of whole wheat bread spread with Dijon mustard. Not the most photogenic - but darn tasty!

My bean burgers always start with the same three ingredients: chickpeas, dry oatmeal and prepared oatmeal. After that, anything goes! Here's the recipe for my last "not-ready-for-its-closeup" batch:

Olive Tapenade Bean Burgers
1 16 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 2.25 oz. can sliced black olives, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp. sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, with a little bit of the oil
1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal, prepared and cooled
1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal, unprepared (dry)
2 tbsp. roasted and salted sunflower seeds
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. lemon juice
3/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. flaxseed
cornmeal or breadcrumbs, as needed

Combine all the ingredients (except the cornmeal/breadcrumbs) in a food processor and pulse until combined and the chickpeas are still a little chunky. If the mixture is too wet, add just enough of the cornmeal/breadcrumbs to dry it out a little. Put the mixture in a covered bowl and let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 400°. Form the mixture into six patties of equal size and put them on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake the patties for 20-25 minutes or until they set and brown slightly. Serve on whole wheat buns or bread slices and top as desired.

Keen on Quinoa

For lunch leftovers this week, I made the Quinoa and Sweet Potato Salad from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. This is one of my absolute favorite recipes, but I'd forgotten about it because I haven't thought to make it in quite a while. When I was making out my dinner schedule/shopping list Friday night, I was thumbing through Bittman's book and came across this recipe again. It's simple, but incredibly delicious! Cooked quinoa, diced sweet potatoes, red bell pepper in a basic balsamic vinaigrette. His recipe calls for you to boil the sweet potatoes - I roast the dices in the oven for better flavor and texture. I also doubled the red bell pepper because they were so deep red and sweet. Then I added some fresh asparagus, cut into inch-long pieces and roasted along with the sweet potatoes. I ate it warm for dinner last night, but it is best served cold the next day. I can't wait for lunch!

Along side, I sauteed shreds of plain old green cabbage in a little bit of canola oil, then added a bit of melted Earth Balance. One of my favorite side dishes. When I was a kid, my mom would boil cabbage and serve it with butter. She and I were the only ones in our house who liked it - more for us! I've tried boiling it myself like she used to do, but I find I prefer the flavor and texture when the cabbage is sauteed.

(NOTE - I recently edited this post because I accidentally said that I used melted butter on my cabbage. Uh, hello - not accurate and certainly not vegan! I used Earth Balance. My bad.)