Meatless (and Mexican) Mondays

I am a meat eater, but I mostly eat vegetarian--mainly because it's cheaper and tends to be easier to do so as a cook (i.e., it's a lot easier to mess up a piece of meat than a pot of pasta). Nowadays though, I try to make it a point to be meat free on Mondays--mainly for health reasons, but also for budget purposes. So I've been experimenting with more exciting vegetarian meals, and though I'm not a fan of green bell peppers (and they don't like me, either), I've always found that when a poblano is cooked, the flavor is mild and tasty. So last week I picked up some poblanos, which I decided to grill and stuff with beans, rice and corn.

Grilled and Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Ingredients
4 Poblano peppers
3/4 cup cooked brown rice
1/2 cup of black beans (I used refried)
1/4 cup of sweet corn kernels (canned or frozen)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
a few grape tomatoes sliced (for garnish)
Oil for grill pan

Serves 4

I cut each of the poblano peppers in half (lengthwise), removed the seeds and washed them. Then I popped them onto a lightly oil grill pan. I left them on the pan (on a medium flame) until they had some nice grill marks and were softened.

In the meantime I made the "stuffing" by combining the rice, corn, beans and all the seasonings (chopped cilantro through garlic powder) so that everything seemed well mixed.

Once the peppers were ready, I let them cool for a few minutes and then stuffed each with about a half cup of the filling and placed them in a roasting pan. Then I sprinkled the cheese on top of each and garnished with slices of grape tomatoes.

I popped the peppers in the oven for approximately 35 minutes on 350° just so the peppers would be nicely warmed through and until the cheese was melted well (see top photo).

I decided to use a jarred mole sauce to top the peppers, but the sauce itself, which isn't bad, seemed like it needed something extra, so I doctored it up with some  raisins and smoked paprika. Any tasty Mexican sauce (salsa verde, enchilada sauce, etc.) would probably go well with these, but I did enjoy the rich flavor of the mole.

I served the peppers with chopped romaine lettuce and pea shoots and the mole sauce, and it was a lovely meal. I definitely think I'll add this into my rotation. I've even considered adding chopped spinach to the stuffing, just for a little more greens.

Eating More Kale

Lemony Kale and Walnut Pesto

Recently at the HWFC Cheese and Specialty department, where I work as a monger (well, kind of), we acquired a new product. It is a Lacinato kale and garlic pesto, and it's very good, but also very expensive. I read the ingredients and it seemed pretty straight forward. Since I've been doing my best to get more greens into my diet, I had a ton of kale in my house (regular curly kale, however) and set out to make my own. 

Before I started I did a "something" search for some basic recipes to see what other people out there have done to make a kale pesto--I wondered if people basically did the same thing as a basil pesto or if anyone had added some tricks (certain special ingredients, etc.). I found for the most part that it was more or less like a basil pesto, except in all the recipes the kale was blanched first. This makes complete sense to me because otherwise it might still be too tough to make the pesto smooth. Plus, since I have trouble digesting raw kale, I was happy to find this as the first step. 

What I used and did:

Ingredients

3-5 cups raw kale, stems removed and roughly chopped (then blanched)

3-4 cloves garlic

1 small shallot or half a medium one

1 lemon for juice and zest (all the juice and about a teaspoon of its zest)

1/2 cup toasted walnuts (more or less can be used depending on how creamy you want the pesto)

1/2 cup of Parmigiano Reggiano

1 cup (more or less) of good extra virgin olive oil

After removing any tough stems left on the kale, I blanched it in boiling water for about one to two minutes. On top of softening the kale, blanching gave it a really nice bright green color. 

After the couple minutes in the hot water, I moved the kale to a bowl of ice water to stop it from cooking too much (and losing some of its nutrients to the water). 

While I let the kale cool off in the cold water,  I gathered all the other ingredients: walnuts (which I toasted), a lemon (for juice and zest), 4 cloves garlic, half a shallot, and Parmigiano Reggiano. Oh, and olive oil, of course. 

After toasting the walnuts and letting them cool, I tossed them in the mini food processor and gave them a whirl for about 20 seconds. Then I added, the shallot and garlic and spun all of them together for another 10-15 seconds. 

Once those were all nicely ground up, I added the lemon juice and zest, and whirled it for a few seconds just to make sure it was all combined. 

I then drained the kale and patted it dry with a clean, lint-free towel and tossed it in the large food processor. After chopping it up nice and fine, I added the walnut mixture. 

I spun that together and then got ready to add the cheese.

I shredded the cheese then added it to the food processor and whirled it together, then I slowly added the olive oil. 

I think I may have used a little more walnuts than necessary because the mixture was extra creamy and thick, but it was still tasty. It wasn't quite as garlicky as the one from the coop (or as oily), but it had a nice lemony flavor making it taste very fresh. The yield was about a pint of pesto total. 

I brought over a half pint to my buddy's house for a picnic, and we served it with a very tasty cheese and homemade spelt crackers (she made). 

I think everyone liked it because it was all gone before we had dinner. :)