Tag Archives: spinach

May 13, 2013

Warm Lentil Salad with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach

At first, I wasn’t going to post about this meal. I started out following Grab a Plate’s lentil salad recipe for dinner one night, but turned it into something slightly different when I didn’t feel like making yet another roasted red pepper dressing. It came out amazing, but I still thought maybe I didn’t need to blog about it.

Then Nate went back for seconds. And in case you didn’t know, that is rare enough to qualify a recipe as blog-worthy 100% of the time.

Warm Lentil Salad with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach

So here we are with this weeknight lentil salad. It fits the mold for what I’ve been making so often this spring (grain or green + roasted vegetables + sauce or dressing), but with one thing that sets it apart: To me this feels very much like a recipe rather than a loose set of suggestions (the opposite of my usual salad posts)… because I wouldn’t change a single thing.

The sweet roasted peppers, the acidic dressing, the way the creamy goat cheese melts into the lentils… nope, it’s perfect exactly the way it is.

I love using red lentils here because of their quick cooking time. Dinner can be on the table in just over half an hour, start to finish! And even that time is reduced significantly if you buy jarred roasted red peppers or have the foresight to roast them ahead of time, which clearly I never do.

I can’t decide whether I prefer this salad hot or cold, so I’ve been compromising by eating it hot for dinner, and then cold for lunch the next day. I recommend you do the same!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Warm Lentil Salad with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach

Hands-on time

15 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

35 mins

Author: Erica

Serves: 3

Ingredients

For the salad:

3 red bell peppers, quartered (or jarred roasted red peppers)
1 cup dried red lentils
3 cups loosely packed spinach
3 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

For the dressing:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp prepared mustard
1 tsp honey
2 small cloves garlic, roughly chopped
pepper to taste

Instructions

First, roast the peppers. (If you are using jarred roasted red peppers, skip to the next step!) Preheat your broiler. Lay quartered peppers, skin up, on a baking sheet. (I like to cover my baking sheet with foil for easier clean-up.) Broil until skin of peppers is completely charred, which will depend on your broiler, probably about 6-8 minutes. You want the skins to be totally black! Remove from oven and immediately place peppers in a large ziploc bag and seal. Set aside for 10 minutes to steam. (This can also be done ahead of time.)
Add lentils and 1 1/2 cups water to a small pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender but not mushy, 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat, drain any excess water, and stir in spinach. Cover and set aside.
Meanwhile, prepare the dressing by blending all ingredients together.
After peppers have steamed for 10 minutes, remove from bag. Peel the charred skins off and discard. It’s OK if some charred bits remain – we’re not going for perfection! Chop into bite-sized pieces and stir into the spinach and lentils.
To serve, top spinach/lentil/pepper mixture with goat cheese and dressing. Enjoy hot! This also makes awesome cold leftovers.

Notes

For a heartier option, serve over short pasta such as fusilli. Adapted from Grab A Plate.

7 Comments

Filed under Main Dishes, Salads, Vegetarian

Tagged as bell pepper, goat cheese, green stuff, lentils, quick & easy, salad, spinach

April 19, 2013

Baked Eggs with Tomato Sauce, Spinach & Quinoa

Baked Eggs with Tomato Sauce, Spinach and Quinoa It’s been a long week in these parts. Monday was not the best day, obviously, and that set a heavy tone for the week. I also started off the week already excited for to our trip down to Moab today. And waking up on Monday morning looking forward to the weekend is NOT a way to have your week pass by quickly!

Thank goodness Friday is finally here! My hiking shoes are packed, my gas tank is full, and Nate and I are psyched to drive down to Moab after work/school this afternoon. The one slight issue: my enthusiasm for planning is trumped only by my enthusiasm for grocery shopping. Also, I tend to think that I can cook 5 or 6 dinners in a week. Wishful thinking. I cooked twice this week? But as always, I got a little overzealous in the produce section last Sunday, and forgot that I don’t have the weekend to cook up any odds and ends. Goodbye asparagus, avocado, and bell peppers. Good thing you aren’t like the three most expensive things I could have purchased.

Anyone want to come over and clean out my fridge? I’ve got some wilted asparagus for you.

I won’t be in the kitchen this weekend, but should you be inspired to whip up a tasty brunch, lunch, or dinner, may I suggest these baked eggs:

Baked Eggs with Tomato Sauce, Spinach and Quinoa

We don’t often have eggs for breakfast, since I will pick sweet over savory any day, but I did make these for lunch recently. I think they’d even make a great dinner (I mean, they have spinach!), especially if you’re in the mood for a breakfast-for-dinner-ish type thing.

My only dilemma with these eggs is that I can’t get into the runny yolk thing that the rest of the food blog world is crazy about. I’m sorry. I’ve tried, I really have… but I just don’t like egg yolks, especially runny. If you do, sweet. But I think I will make these with egg whites next time.

Baked Eggs with Tomato Sauce, Spinach and Quinoa

I made these specifically to use up a can of fire-roasted tomatoes that was burning a hole in my cabinet… or something. I adapted my favorite charred pepper sauce to use here by leaving out the pepper (didn’t have one. also too lazy.) and using the fire-roasted tomatoes. Then I threw in some quinoa and spinach, inspired by Serena’s blog, which makes these nice and healthy and filling. Yum. Just the perfect thing for the weekend.

Enjoy! I’ll be back next week, hopefully with some pretty pictures of the red rock for you. And if not… I have back-ups. With chocolate.

Baked Eggs with Tomato Sauce, Spinach and Quinoa

5.0 from 2 reviews

Baked Eggs with Tomato Sauce, Spinach & Quinoa

Hands-on time

5 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

45 mins

Author: Erica

Serves: 3

Ingredients

For the tomato sauce:

14-oz can fire-roasted tomatoes
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 Tbsp molasses
1/2 tsp prepared mustard
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp allspice

Everything else:

3/4 cup cooked quinoa
2 packed cups spinach leaves
6 eggs
sprinkle of parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375.
Combine all sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan. Simmer uncovered over low heat for 15-20 minutes.
Add spinach to sauce. (You may have to do this in a few batches if your pan is small.) Continue simmering until spinach is cooked down and bright green, just a few minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cooked quinoa.
Spoon the sauce mixture into three oven-safe ramekins. Carefully crack two eggs into each ramekin, keeping the yolks intact.
Bake until egg whites are set, about 15 minutes. Remember that the eggs will continue cooking a bit once removed from the oven.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot!

Notes

Adapted from Domesticate ME!

11 Comments

Filed under Breakfast, Vegetarian

Tagged as eggs, green stuff, spinach, vegetarian

March 29, 2013

Strawberry Spinach Sunbutter Smoothie

There’s nothing like a mug of strong French press coffee and a big, delicious smoothie to start your day off right.

Oh, and some birthday roses from your sweetie… and a couple smooches, too.

But sweet boyfriends aside, smoothies are the breakfast treat I’ve found myself looking forward to most lately. There are just endless combinations, and the fact that they’re sweet and frosty just makes them so much fun. Recently, I’ve been obsessed with making mine with sunbutter. Although I’m not a huge fan of sunbutter plain – as a spread, I prefer peanut butter – I love it in smoothies, especially with spinach, for some reason. It’s what makes this smoothie extra special!

Strawberry Spinach Sunbutter Smoothie

Speaking of spinach: I don’t really make green smoothies, but I do like adding spinach to my fruit smoothies. Especially if there are berries involved, the spinach doesn’t change the flavor much, although it does turn your smoothie kind of garbage-colored. (I considered naming this post “strawberry sunbutter garbage-colored smoothie,” but something about that just didn’t seem so appetizing… not sure why.) Anyway, it’s the flavor that counts, and the fact that you are eating green stuff for breakfast!

These are also my favorite way to recover from hot summer long runs. Those are a few months away at this point, but I’m looking forward to them lots! I have been dying a long, slow death by treadmill this winter. It has just got to stop.

Strawberry Spinach Sunbutter Smoothie

If you look at the ingredient list below, you’ll see an ingredient that looks a little out of place: apple cider vinegar. Weird, right? Well, I took Faith’s advice recently and added just a tiny bit of apple cider vinegar to my smoothie. And it totally made it more flavorful! So, odd though it may seem, definitely don’t skip the vinegar.

I like my smoothies so thick that they have to be eaten with a spoon. If you prefer a more slurpable smoothie, you could sub the Greek yogurt with more almond milk or just add another half cup of almond milk or water.

Enjoy this garbage-colored, I mean, green smoothie!

Strawberry Spinach Sunbutter Smoothie

Hands-on time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

Author: Erica

Serves: 1 smoothie

Ingredients

1 frozen banana, sliced
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 large handful spinach leaves
2 Tbsp sunbutter
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (I use Fage 0%)
1/2 cup plain unsweetened almond milk
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1/2 Tbsp ground flax seed
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Add all ingredients to blender or food processor and blend until smooth, scraping down sides and breaking apart chunks of fruit as necessary. Pour into a glass or bowl and enjoy!