Hard to get healthier than this!

After a weekend of over-indulgence, I’m always in the mood for something that’s really quick and healthy.

I definitely don’t want anything with meat or cheese in it. For once.

This recipe was inspired by a recipe that was in the most recent Bon Appetit. I say inspired because I changed almost every main ingredient except chickpeas. The original had chicken in it, but I felt like keeping it veggie packed so I nixed the chicken and added in a few potatoes and some kale.

The bonus piece of cutting out the chicken is that it also trims about 20 minutes off of your prep time.

Thirty Minute Chickpea Stew

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 small bunch kale leaves, chopped
1 quart vegetable stock
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Crusty bread
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Add olive oil to a large heavy pot over medium-low heat. Add minced garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook for a few minutes until fragrant.

2) Add in cubed potatoes, tomato paste, and cumin. Turn the heat up to medium and cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

3) Add in vegetable stock, chickpeas, bay leaves, roasted red peppers, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and simmer until potatoes are soft, another 10 minutes.

4) Stir in kale and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

5) Break up some crusty bread in the bottom of a bowl. Ladle stew over bread. Serve immediately.

A Basic Stew

I think one of the best things you can learn as an at-home cook is to master the simple veggie stew. Learn how to balance the spices and flavors in a stew and you can usually make a fantastic meal with a few fresh veggies, a few canned foods, and some simple stock and spices.

For this version (and for a lot of stews that I make), these are some of the basics.

Just some basics.

I was worried that by cutting out the chicken, my stew wouldn’t have enough body to be really filling. I’m not sure if that’s entirely true because there’s still bread in the soup also.

But, I decided to add in a few chopped potatoes at the last minute.

I liked the potato addition, but I also think it would’ve worked fine without them.

Gives the stew some body.

Canned chickpeas makes this stew super-quick. It would add on at least an hour to use dried chickpeas and I’m not sure you would get much for your extra work.

Just be sure to drain and rinse the chickpeas well.

I think I’m almost in the market for a new strainer…

Rinse these guys pretty well.

Making the Stew

To start the stew, we need to infuse some oil with two really flavorful things: garlic and red pepper flakes.

Two of my favorite things.

The key to doing this correctly is cooking the garlic and pepper flakes over fairly low heat for a few minutes. If you crank the heat to high, you’ll completely char the garlic.

Instead, just add them to the olive oil over medium-low heat for a few minutes. When it starts to get really fragrant, you know it’s ready to go. The garlic shouldn’t even be browned really.

Low heat is important..

Next, add in the potatoes, tomato paste, and cumin.

This will immediately start to smell amazing. Stir it all together and let it cook for a few minutes. You can turn your heat up a bit to medium at this point.

Already smellin' good.

After a few minutes of that, just pour in the vegetable stock, add the bay leaves and chickpeas, and bring the whole thing to a simmer.

At this point the stew is pretty much done when the potatoes are cooked through which will probably take another 10 minutes or so.

Love that color...

Finishing the Stew

There’s a few ingredients to add to the end of the stew that completely make it in my opinion. First, roasted red peppers. Honestly, I’m not sure that I’ve ever had roasted red peppers in a stew before but they worked great and paired really well with the chickpeas.

Next, I added some chopped kale. You could also use something like swiss chard if you wanted. A leafy, sturdy green really helps the stew out though.

One of the most important ingredients is lemon juice. The acid just makes all the flavors really pop. Don’t forget it!

Gotta toss in some greens.

Once all that stuff is stirred in, just season it with salt and pepper and you’re ready to go.

This stew took me about 30 minutes to make and I was taking photos and stuff. You could probably make it even faster!

Serving the Stew

The stew tastes good as-is, but to really turn it into a meal, just put about 1/2 cup of torn bread into the bottom of your bowl before you serve it. Any super-crusty and slightly stale bread will work great.

Hidden bread!

Then just ladle on the stew with some of the broth and you’re all set.

Hard to beat in my opinion.

Betsy and I devoured this and we had plenty for leftovers also.

Give this a shot this week if you are crunched for time and looking for something healthy and filling!

A mess of awesome.

Have you ever had something that you know you should be doing regularly but you just can’t find time to get to it? I call this my procrastithing. I have many of them.

I think most people would say their procrastithing is something like going to the gym.

I have a bunch, but one of my procrastithings these days is listening to The Splendid Table podcast. That might sound ridiculous, but as a food blogger, it’s something that I should really be listening to every week. For some reason though, I have a hard time finding the time.

Of course, every time I do listen to it, I freakin’ love it. They talk about everything I want to hear about. I especially like the part of every show where listeners call in with super-random food or cooking questions and the host, Lynn, always has an amazing answer for every problem.

Recently, a guy called in and said something like, “I’m cooking brunch for 50 people. It needs to be filling, fast, hot, and all that good stuff.” It was a tough one. Her answer was something I had never thought of: Savory bread pudding.

As soon as the words came out of my speakers, I knew I had to make it.

Savory Bread Pudding

Yield: 8x8 dish.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes + Chill Time

Ingredients:

4-5 pieces of stale bread, torn into large pieces
1.5-2 cups various cheeses, I used cheddar and goat cheese
1-2 cups vegetables, I used a roasted red pepper and 1/2 an onion
4 large eggs
2 cups milk
1 Tablespoon butter, for dish
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Butter an 8x8 baking dish. Tear pieces of stale bread into large chunks and layer them in the buttered dish. If you don't have any really stale bread, toast your bread for 10 minutes in a 300 degree oven to dry it out.

2) Add any sort of grated or crumbled cheese to the top of the bread until it just barely covers the bread. Two cups will be more than enough. I used a mix of cheddar and goat cheese.

3) Add a few handfuls of leftover veggies (or meat) to the dish. You can use almost any fresh vegetable. I used a roasted red pepper and 1/2 an onion.

4) In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and milk and pour the mixture over the bread and vegetables.

5) Cover the dish and let it rest for at least 15 minutes or up to overnight in the fridge.

6) Season the dish with salt and pepper and a tiny pinch of ground nutmeg.

7) Bake the dish at 350 degrees covered for 20 minutes and then uncovered for 30 minutes. The dish is done when the custard in the center are set.

8) Let cool for a minute or two and then serve immediately!

Recipe adapted from a Splendid Table recipe.

What the Custard?

Just like any bread pudding, you need a good custard. Depending on the size of your dish and how much bread you have on hand, you might need more or less custard than the recipe above.

Always shoot for two eggs for every one cup of milk. That’ll make for a really good custard.

Just milk and eggs, baby.

Just whisk the eggs with the milk and set it aside until you need it.

The Pudding Parts

The best part about this recipe is its flexibility. I’ve only made it once, but I could tell immediately that you can put almost anything in it. You can use almost any kind of bread, any kind of cheese, and any kind of vegetable.

It’s the perfect leftover dish.

The one key to the dish is to make sure you have really stale bread. This will make sure that the bread can absorb a lot of the custard mixture. If you don’t have stale bread, no big deal. Just stick your bread in a 300 degree oven for about 10 minutes and it’ll dry it out quickly.

Then just break your bread into pieces and layer it into the bottom of a buttered baking dish.

Then cover the bread with whatever cheese you’re using. I went with cheddar and some goat cheese I have left over from my macaroni and (goat) cheese recipe.

Toast that bread if it isn't really stale.

The Vegetables

As I mentioned, you can shove almost any veggies you have around (cooked or raw) in this dish. I went with 1/2 an onion and a roasted red pepper. I’m having a hard time thinking of something you couldn’t put in this though. Almost anything goes.

Just dice up whatever veggies you want to use and toss them on.

You can use almost any veggie.

Then just pour your custard mixture right into your dish!

Action shot!

Give it a Rest

It’s very important to let this dish sit for at least 15 minutes, but ideally an hour, before baking it. You could make it the night before you needed it and just stick it in the fridge overnight. That would be fantastic.

When you are ready to bake it, season it well with salt and pepper and a pinch of ground nutmeg. The nutmeg will really bring out the cheese flavors. It works well, trust me.

Nutmeg is a secret ingredient.

Baking the Dish

Bake this awesome thing at 350 degrees. I recommend baking it for 20 minutes covered in foil and then uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the custard is set in the middle. It should get slightly crusty and browned around the edges.

This will make your house smell awesome!

Let this rest for a few minutes once it comes out of the oven and then scoop into it.

It’s absolutely packed with flavor.

This is a really great dish.

I could easily see how you could feed a bunch of people with this method. Just make these the day before the event and toss them all in the oven.

Done deal.

Does anyone else listen to The Splendid Table podcast? They do good work!

This is some serious flavor.

When goat cheese won the poll last week, I started immediately having Paradox of Choice woes. There’s just so much that you can do with goat cheese.

Staring at a log of fresh goat cheese is the food blogger equivalent of a fiction writer staring at a blank page.

I started immediately brainstorming. I could put it in some fancy appetizer. I could make a salad. I could make some strange (but probably delicious) dessert out of it.

Or I could do the right thing and make macaroni and cheese.

I almost always do the right thing.

Macaroni and (Goat) Cheese

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound macaroni, cooked
2 roasted red peppers, diced
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes (from oil), minced (about 6)
4 tablespoons butter + a bit for the pan
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups milk
6 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup goat cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Roast red peppers over a flame. If you have a gas stove, you can stick them right on the flame or you can grill them. You can also just used jarred peppers. Cook them until they are nicely charred all the way around.

2) Add peppers to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for 10 minutes and then peel off pepper skins. It's okay if some skin is left on.

3) Dice peppers and sun-dried tomatoes.

4) Cook macaroni according to package.

5) For cheese sauce, add butter and flour to a medium pan over medium heat. Whisk together once butter has melted to form a roux. Cook for about 3 minutes, whisking constantly.

6) Slowly add milk to the roux, starting with just a few tablespoons. Whisk it constantly so no lumps form. Keep adding milk in small increments until all your milk is added and your sauce is silky smooth. Turn your heat down to medium-low and continue to cook it until it thickens.

7) Whisk in cheeses into the sauce and season with salt and pepper.

8) Drain pasta and mix with peppers and tomatoes, then stir in cheese sauce.

9) Add macaroni to a buttered baking dish (2.5 quart or 9x13). Top with bread crumbs and bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

10) Let cool briefly before serving.

Adapted from a recipe in How To Cook Everything.

The Add-Ins

You could leave out the add-ins in this recipe if you wanted and still be left with a pretty rocking macaroni and cheese. But there’s something about the deep flavor of the peppers and sun-dried tomatoes that works really well with the goat cheese.

Plus it’s fun to roast peppers on a gas stove.

Any flame will do.

If you don’t have a gas stove, you can also roast these guys on a grill or in a 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

You can also just buy the jarred peppers and use those.

If you do roast your own though, stick them in a bowl after they are nice and charred all over and cover them with plastic wrap. Let them sit and steam for about 10 minutes. That’ll make them much easier to peel.

Then just start peeling off the skin of each pepper. It’s okay if the peppers aren’t 100% peeled.

Some skin is okay.

Then just remove the seeds and dice them up along with a few sun-dried tomatoes. I like to use the sun-dried tomatoes that are in oil for this recipe. If you use the dried ones, reconstitute them in some hot water for a few minutes before using them.

Sun-dried tomatoes are also in there.

The Cheese Sauce

Besides the peppers and macaroni, the only thing left for this recipe is the cheese sauce. And let’s be honest. It’s the star of the show.

You’ll need this stuff.

A cheese sauce!

Start by adding the butter and flour to a medium pan and get it cooking over medium heat. It’s probably a good idea to melt the butter first and then add the flour, but I like to live on the edge so I just threw them in together.

The beginnings of something beautiful.

Once the butter melts, whisk the butter and flour together until it forms a paste (a roux to be specific and French). Continue to cook and whisk this paste until it turns a light brown color. This will probably take 3-4 minutes and you’ll end up with something like this.

That's the color you want.

Then start to slowly add your milk. When I say slowly, I mean start with just a few tablespoons and whisk that in. Then add a few more and whisk whisk whisk. If you add to much milk at once, your roux will get lumpy which will lead to a lumpy sauce.

Nobody likes a lumpy cheese sauce.

So work slowly and after a few minutes you should have all your milk incorporated with the roux and you’ll be left with a light gravy basically. Again, you could be French and refer to it as a Béchemel, but let’s be real. It’s gravy.

Once you have that part of the sauce done, you’ll need some cheese. Goat cheese is the star of the show obviously, but I added in some grated cheddar also just to give it a more complex flavor.

Hard to go wrong here...

Finishing the sauce is as easy as dumping all this cheese into the white sauce and continuing to whisk it until the cheeses are melted and smooth.

Lots of cheese....

Then just season the sauce with salt and pepper and you’re ready to make some serious mac and (goat) cheese.

Finishing the Mac and Cheese

Cook and drain whatever kind of macaroni you choose. I went with shells this time around, but you could use anything except those little wagon wheels.

I’m just kidding. You can use the wagon wheels. I have an irrational hatred of them for some reason.

Sorry. Getting sidetracked.

Add the peppers and tomatoes to the pasta and then pour on all of that delicious cheese sauce.

Whoa man.

Stir this all together and feel free to serve it up like that if you like or you can take it to the next step.

The next step being to pour the mac and cheese into a buttered casserole dish, top it with bread crumbs, and bake it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Bread crumbs give some texture.

The bread crumbs should crisp up a bit and give the dish some really nice texture.

Yum.

It’s pretty hard to go wrong with goat cheese I guess, but that should just make you even more confident to throw it in random dishes with abandon.

Betsy and I ended up housing about half of this in one meal which, for the record, is a lot of macaroni and cheese.

Like roasted peppers? I have a treat for you!

When I was a kid, I remember we had a small garden out back behind our house. Ok. Actually it wasn’t that small. It was probably like 1/2 an acre. And we grew a huge amount of peppers – mostly green chiles.

We would pick them all off the plants and my dad would set them up on some wire mesh grates and then pull out an enormous butane torch. He would roast the crap out of all of them.

This of course led me to have a serious love for two things during my childhood: Fire. And roasted peppers.

Turns out that it’s not really realistic to set up a butane torch in a DC apartment, but you can get pretty close with a gas stove or really hot oven.

And if you like roasted peppers, well, this dip is for you my friend.

Roasted Pepper Dip

Yield: Makes 4 Cups

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

4-5 assorted roasted peppers. If I did this again, I think I would skip normal bell peppers. They don't add much flavor when roasted. Go with red peppers, banana peppers, green chiles, etc.
2 Jalapenos, roasted
1/2 onion, roasted (optional)
2 Cups yogurt (Greek yogurt would work also)
1/2 Cup sour cream
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Roast peppers in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes, turning occasionally, until peppers are charred all around.

2) Add peppers to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to steam for a few minutes.

3) Don't wash the peppers, but rub them with your hands to remove as much skin as possible. No need to be completely thorough here.

4) Slice peppers and remove most of the seeds.

5) Dice peppers (dice the jalapenos very small) and add to a bowl. Let cool to room temperature before mixing in other ingredients.

6) Mix in sour cream, yogurt, and any other spices you are using. Taste for salt and pepper.

7) Serve with tortilla chips, pita chips, or anything that you can dip!

The Peppers

I kind of just grabbed some peppers for this dip but if I were to make it again I’d be a bit more thoughtful about it I think. For starters, roasted bell peppers don’t add much in the flavor department. I’d skip those entirely and maybe substitute some green chiles or something.

Also, you could also roast up half an onion. The caramelized onion would go great with all the other flavors.

An assortment of peppers...

Roasting the Peppers

Unless you happen to have a huge butane torch laying around, you’re gonna have to get creative about roasting these guys.

I’ve used my gas burners for roasting before, but I was roasting so many peppers this time around I decided to just do it in the oven. Lay out all the peppers (including the jalapenos) on a baking sheet and roast at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. Turn the peppers every few minutes.

Charred skin is what you’re looking for. When most of the skins are charred and shriveled, remove the peppers and add them to a big bowl.

All roasted up!

Cover this bowl tightly with plastic wrap so the peppers can steam for a few minutes. This will make the skins really easy to peel off.

Peeling and chopping

Since this is all going in a dip, there’s really no need to be completely thorough about the peeling process here. I wouldn’t recommend rinsing the peppers either because that washes off a lot of the flavorful juices.

Instead just use your fingers to rub or peel off as much of the charred skin as you can. Then slice the peppers in half and discard the seeds. Again, it doesn’t have to be a perfect job.

A bit messy...

Dice up all your peppers and add them to a bowl!

One tip: If you’re using the jalapenos, dice them very small. I made the mistake of dicing them the same size as all the other peppers and when you got a jalapeno, it was a bit over-powering because of the size of the pieces.

This smells pretty solid.

Once you have your peppers chopped, let them cool to room temperature and then stir in all your other ingredients!

Taste it as you go and adjust the seasonings to your liking. You can obviously add salt and pepper, but feel free to experiment with other spices as well like maybe oregano, basil, chives, or parsley.

Also, you might need a bit more yogurt or sour cream based on how many peppers you end up using. Just eyeball it here people.

Great colors!

Add this to a bowl and serve it with tortilla chips, pita, or really anything that allows you to scoop a maximum amount of dip and put it in your mouth.

From above!

So while this may not be as fun as playing with a butane torch on a nice Fall day, the flavors are great and it’s pretty versatile. You can also make it spicy or just savory.

This would be awesome for a football game and as you might imagine, if you let it sit for a day or so in the fridge, the flavors get even better as the meld together.

I’m making three different pizzas in this post and three different sauces. But all of them are on the same crust so that makes them pretty easy to throw together once the crust is ready to go.

Here’s a few slices of each.

Let’s talk dough first and then we’ll get to each pie individually. I went with a dough that has been my go-to for the last few months. It’s a bit sticky and tougher to handle than some, but once it’s cooked, it produces a very crispy and delicious crust. It’s supposed to replicate the New Haven style that I know and love.

Neo-Neapolitan Pizza Dough

Yield: Makes four 10 ounce dough balls

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes + rise time

Ingredients:

22.5 ounces (about 5 cups) unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey (I used sugar)
3 1/2 Teaspoons kosher salt (or 2 Teaspoons table salt)
1 Teaspoon instant yeast
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 3/4 Cups + 1 Tablespoon room temperature water (70 degrees F.)

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer (or you can definitely do it by hand as well)
Pizza Stone and peel

Directions:

1) It's best to make this recipe the day before you want to make pizzas. If you're using a stand mixer, add everything but the flour to your mixer and stir it together. Let it sit for a few minutes until the yeast starts to foam. Then add the flour and mix it with the dough hook until it comes into a ball, just a few minutes.

2) Let the dough rest for 5 minutes to relax, then mix for another 3-4 minutes. If the dough is really sticky, add more flour by the tablespoon.

3) If you're doing it by hand, mix all your ingredients together in a large bowl with a spoon until they come together. Then start working the dough by sticking your hand in a bowl of room temperature water and work the dough vigorously as you rotate the bowl with the other hand. After 4 to 5 minutes of this, all the flour should be well incorporated and you should have a coarse dough ball. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes and then continue to work the dough for 3 minutes or until the dough is slightly sticky, soft, and supple. Remember that wet dough won't stick to your wet hand, so dipping it in water is important while you work it in the bowl.

4) Once your dough is made, shape it into 4 10-ounce balls. Store the balls in some large plastic bags drizzled with olive oil. Let these rest at room temp for 15 minutes, then store them in the fridge overnight (or at least 4 hours).

5) Remove dough balls and let sit at room temperature for 90 minutes before using so the dough can return to room temperature.

From American Pie. Read my review.

Making the Dough

I think the most important thing about pizza dough is giving it plenty of time to rest before you make the pies. In fact, if at all possible, make the dough the day before you plan on making the pies. I think this is better in most cases because it splits up the work.

You do not have to have a stand mixer to make this dough. I’ve made it easily half a dozen times by hand and it’s just as good and honestly kind of a fun workout! With a mixer, just mix all your ingredients in a large bowl mix on medium with the dough hook until the dough comes together in a ball.

Then let the dough rest for 5 minutes to relax a bit. Then mix it for another 3 minutes on medium. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl, but just barely stick to the bottom of the pan.

If you’re doing it by hand, mix all your ingredients together in a large bowl with a spoon until they come together. Then start working the dough by sticking your hand in a bowl of room temperature water and work the dough vigorously as you rotate the bowl with the other hand. After 4 to 5 minutes of this, all the flour should be well incorporated and you should have a coarse dough ball. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes and then continue to work the dough for 3 minutes or until the dough is slightly sticky, soft, and supple. Remember that wet dough won’t stick to your wet hand, so dipping it in water is important while you work it in the bowl.

With either method, if the dough is too sticky, mix it a tablespoon of flour. If it’s too dry, mix in a Tablespoon of water.

Shaping the dough

Once your dough is made, immediately shape it into four 10 ounce balls and store them in a few plastic bags drizzled with some oil. I like to use gallon bags and put in two balls of dough per bag. Let these rest at room temperature for 15 minutes and then stick them in the fridge overnight.

Get it?

The Sauces

I made three different sauces, but they were all very simple. You can make all of them can be made in about 20 minutes total.

Basic Marinara Sauce
Makes about 4 Cups

- 1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2-3 Tablespoons fresh basil, minced
- 1 Teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 Lemon, juice only
- Salt and pepper to taste

You can cook this sauce if you want to make it a bit thicker, but honestly, I just stick all the ingredients in a blender and blend them up. I like the fresh, light flavors. If you cook them too much they get thick and like a pasta sauce.

Chipotle Marinara Sauce
Makes 2 Cups

- 2 Cups of the above marinara sauce
- 3-6 Chipotle peppers from chipotle in Adobo sauce
- 1 Tablespoon (or more) of the Adobo sauce
- 1/2 Teaspoon crushed red pepper

The thing to remember about this sauce is that it should be really spicy on its own. It will mellow out on the pizza with the cheese and everything. I used about 4 Chipotles in my batch, but I’d kick it up a notch if I made it again, which I will because it rocks. Again, just blend or process everything together.

White Sauce (Adapted from American Pie)
Makes about 1 Cup, enough for a few pizzas actually

- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 Cup heavy cream
- 1 Teaspoon thyme (fresh would be best but I used dried)
- Salt and pepper to taste

In a sauce pan or frying pan, heat up your oil and add your onions and garlic. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes until they are softened (probably 5 minutes). Add the cream and lower the heat to low. Stir for another 3-5 minutes until the mixture is thick and reduces a bit. Take it off the heat and then add your thyme and taste for salt and pepper. Let this cool completely before using.

You can make all of these sauces days before using them. They would store in the fridge without a problem. The marinara sauce and white sauce are great on pasta also if you have leftovers.

The two red sauces are not identical. Trust me.

Ok. We got our sauces and crust ready. Let’s do the pizzas. All of these pizzas are cooked at 500 degrees on a pizza stone for about 12 minutes. A pizza peel would be helpful also, but I’ve used the back of a baking dish to slide in the pizza in a pinch.

If you need help shaping the pizza, check out this post where I go into much more detail on the shaping, etc.

I must admit, this pizza is not an original. I totally stole it from a restaurant here in DC, but man is it good and I think I have it down pretty close.

Fire/Smoke Pizza (Adapted from Matchbox Pizza)

- Chipotle marinara sauce
- 2 ounces shredded low moisture mozzarella
- 6 ounces shredded smoked gouda
- 1/4 red onion, sliced
- 1/2 roasted red pepper, sliced (I just bought the jarred variety.)

This is a surprising pizza for people because when it’s done, it looks like a normal cheese pizza, but when you take a bite it’s spicy and smokey and delicious. It’s seriously an amazing pizza.

Holy Chipotle Batman

Next on the list is a white pizza which is creamy and more filling.

This pizza tastes kind of like a mushroom Alfredo, but in a very good way.

Mushroom White Pizza

- White sauce
- 8 ounces shredded low moisture mozzarella
- 1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced and sauteed for a few minutes until soft
- 3 ounces hot Italian Sopressata (optional)

I decided to add the Sopressata to this pie at the last minute and I think it was a good call. It gets kind of crispy and gives a great texture and a bit of spice to the finished pizza. The mushrooms and white sauce go great together.

Awesome.

Finally on the list is a meat lover’s type pizza although the meat is hidden under a light bed of arugula.

I used some high end meats for this pizza which give much more flavor than normal pepperoni, but you can use that also.

Macheesmo’s Meat Lovers

- Marinara sauce
- 8 ounces low moisture mozzarella, shredded
- 3 ounces hot sopressata
- 3 ounces proscuitto
- Arugula

Add the arugula to this pizza after it comes out of the oven. It gives some peppery freshness to the pizza that works great with the spicy meats. It doesn’t look like there is a lot of meat on it, but it’s packed with flavor.

The meat is hiding you see.

If you’ve passed second grade math, you’ll note that I have one ball of dough left over. You could obviously just make one of these again (people’s choice!) or another pizza.

The Fire/Smoke pizza was the favorite on this night I think, but it’s a pretty close call.

If you’re a home pizza maker, you gotta try these.

For me, hitting that button usually means drinking an absurd about of water and making a really nutritious salad that I can eat for the next few days.

Enter the wheat berry salad. Wheat berries give an awesome texture to this really flavorful salad that includes roasted peppers, roasted garlic and a tangy vinaigrette. It’s health on a plate.

Good food.

If you aren’t familiar with wheat berries, I guarantee you that you are familiar with their most common application: flour. Basically these are just the whole berries that are normally ground down to produce flour, but you can find them whole in the grain aisle. You cook them a lot like you would cook beans or rice and you end up with a very nutritious final product that has a great chewy texture and light, nutty flavor.

Wheat berries are jam-packed with iron, fiber, and protein and they work perfectly for this salad.

Wheat Berry Salad with Roasted Peppers

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups uncooked wheat berries
6 peppers, roasted, peeled, and cubed
2 heads garlic, roasted
1 Cup basil, chopped
1/3 Cup pine nuts, toasted
1/3 Cup red wine Vinegar
1/2 Cup extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Spinach or greens for serving

Directions:

1) Boil the wheat berries in salted water and then drain them, but check the packaging before you dive in (this takes approximately 75 minutes).

2) Get a whole bulb of garlic, peel off any papery stuff that is on the outside, but make sure the bulb stays intact, and then slice off the very tip of the bulb to expose just a bit of each clove. Wrap this in foil with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.

3) Bake the foil package at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until a knife easily slides into a clove. It should be tender and golden brown and smell like awesomeness.

4) Let it cool a minute and then you should be able to literally squeeze out each clove. You can use a fork if you are trying to be all proper about it. Then for this recipe, just mush it up.

5) Roast red, yellow, and orange peppers in the broiler for a few minutes a side until they deflate and are charred on the outside. Or you could grill them. Or if you have a gas stove, you can lay them on the open flame for a few minutes a side.

6) Stick all the peppers in a large bowl and cover it with plastic wrap and let them steam for 15 minutes.

7) After that you need to peel and dice each pepper. Peel off as much skin as you can using your hands and a paper towel, then use a knife to slice out the core and slice the pepper down the middle. Then clean up the pepper a bit more with a paper towel, and then dice them all up.

8) Roast some pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat.

9) Chop up the fresh basil!

10) Whisk olive oil and red wine vinegar together to make the dressing for the salad.

11) Once the wheat berries are cooked (they should be tender, but have some chew to them), drain them and then rinse them for a few seconds so they don’t stick together.

12) Stir in the peppers and garlic and basil.

13) Pour the dressing over the whole thing and stir it up! Be sure to taste for salt and pepper.

14) It's best to let it chill for a few hours so the flavors can have plenty of time to come together.

15) Serve on a bed of spinach, topped with the pine nuts along with some toasted bread slather in garlic!

Adapted from How to Cook Everything.

Cooking the Wheat Berries

The wheat berries will normally take about an hour to 75 minutes to cook, so get them started first. Basically, you just boil them in salted water and then drain them, but check your packaging before you dive in.

Before there was flour, there was wheat berries.

Roasting the Garlic

While this dish only has a few ingredients, each one is incredibly flavorful. Also though, each ingredient takes a bit of time to prepare. This is definitely not a quick weeknight meal if you do everything from scratch mainly because the wheat berries take about 75 minutes to cook.

But also you need to roast some garlic! If you’ve never had roasted garlic, you don’t know what you’re missing. Luckily, it’s really easy to make. Just get a whole bulb of garlic, peel off any papery stuff that is on the outside, but make sure the bulb stays intact, and then slice off the very tip of the bulb to expose just a bit of each clove.

Wrap this in foil with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt (top left). Bake the foil package at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until a knife easily slides into a clove. It should be tender and golden brown and smell like awesomeness (top right).

Let it cool a minute and then you should be able to literally squeeze out each clove. You can use a fork if you are trying to be all proper about it (bottom left). Then for this recipe, just mush it up (bottom right).

It doesn't get better than this for me.

Roasting Peppers

You can definitely buy the canned roasted peppers if you want, but since you have to wait so long for the wheat berries you may as well roast your own. I used a combination of red, yellow, and orange peppers for my salad. You can definitely roast them in the broiler for a few minutes a side until they deflate and are charred on the outside. Or you could grill them.

Or if you have a gas stove, you can just do this:

I'm such a pyro.

When the peppers are 90% black, they are done if you’re using the grill or gas stove method. Then stick all your peppers in a large bowl and cover it with plastic wrap and let them steam for 15 minutes.

After that you need to peel and dice each pepper. This is kind of a mess, but it’s worth it in my opinion. I read somewhere that if you wash the pepper after roasting it washes off all the flavors and juices so I didn’t wash mine this time.

I peeled off as much skin as I could using my hands and a paper towel (top left), then I used a knife to slice out the core and sliced the pepper down the middle (top right). Then I tried to clean up the pepper a bit more with a paper towel (bottom left), and then I diced them all up (bottom right).

I would say the whole pepper process took me 45 minutes, but that’s fine because my garlic was roasting and my wheat berries were cooking anyway.

After a 15 minute steam, do this.

Other Ingredients

To finish off this dish, you’ll also need to roast some pine nuts which you should do in a dry skillet over medium heat.

Whatever you do, don’t take your eyes off these guys. They go from toasted (below) to burned (not shown, luckily) in about 30 seconds.

These guys burn quickly. Watch them!

Also, chop up a good amount of fresh basil!

If your kitchen didn't smell good already.

I didn’t take a photo of it but you’ll also need to whisk your olive oil and red wine vinegar together to make the dressing for the salad. That’s really easy though.

Putting the dish together

Once your wheat berries are cooked (they should be tender, but have some chew to them), drain them and then rinse them for a few seconds so they don’t stick together.

After about 75 minutes...

Then stir in your peppers and garlic and basil. Pour your dressing over the whole thing and stir it up! Be sure to taste for salt and pepper. I probably added 2 Teaspoons of salt and 1 Tablespoon of fresh ground pepper.

All together now! Don't forget the dressing.

I think this salad is best if you let it chill for a few hours so the flavors can have plenty of time to come together.

I served mine on a bed of spinach, topped with the pine nuts along with some toasted bread that I slathered with some extra roasted garlic I made because it’s just so darn good.

Pretty food.

Betsy and I ate this dish for 2 dinners and we both brought it for lunch one day also. So it served 6 full meals. It’s also possible that it’s the healthiest thing I’ve ever made on Macheesmo. I mean, just look at those colors! How could it not be delicious?

If you’ve never tried wheat berries, give them a shot. Prepared with these tasty add-ins and with the tangy vinaigrette dressing, they make a fantastic reset button salad.

And so I settled on this awesome shrimp pizza with a red pepper pesto sauce.

Spicy shrimp pizza!

I went with a thin crust for the pizza. It just seemed like a crispy thin crust was the best way to go. The original recipe actually said to buy store bought stuff, but you can probably guess how I feel about that.

I actually keep a few balls of pizza dough frozen that way I just have to pull them out a few hours before (like 5) and let it thaw slowly. Then it is just like fresh.

Shrimp and Red Pepper Pesto Pizza

Yield: 1 large pizza.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes + time for dough

Ingredients:

1/2 pound large (16-20 count) shrimp, peeled, deveined, and halfed
1 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flake
1/4 medium onion, cut into thin strips
1/4 red pepper, seeded and cut into strips
2 Cups low-moisture mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil (I left this off because I didn't have any. It was fine.)
2/3 Cup red pepper pesto

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto (Makes about 2 cups)
Clove garlic
1 jar (16 ounces) roasted red peppers
3 Tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 Tablespoon fresh basil
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Teaspoon sugar
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes

Helpful Equipment:
Pizza stone and peel

Directions:

1) If you purchased nice whole shrimp, take your time to shell them entirely and cut them in half head to tail. Also remove the black vein near the back of the shrimp if there is one.

2) Toss the shrimp in a bowl with the garlic, pepper flakes, olive oil, and lemon juice. Let this marinate for 10 minutes or so.

3) Throw all the roasted red pepper pesto ingredients in a food processor and give it a pulse until it is sauce.

4) Chop up the onions and red pepper. Try to get them pretty uniformly sliced.

5) Check out this post on how to make the pizza crust.

6) You should preheat the oven to about 500 degrees and if you are heating up a pizza stone, make sure you give it at least 30 minutes to get the stone as hot as possible.

7) Roll out the dough and slap it on a lightly corn mealed pizza peel. You can also use the back of a sheet pan if you don’t have a peel.

8) Add an even layer of the red pepper pesto and then top it with the onions and fresh red peppers.

9) Pile on the cheese and finally those shrimpies. Try to keep the shrimp in one layer or they might not cook all the way through. You can pile them on though as long as they don’t overlap. They will shrink up when they are cooked.

10) Cook about 12-14 minutes in a 500 degree oven and the shrimp should be cooked perfectly, the cheese melted, and the crust super crunchy and delicious.

Adapted from Pizza!

Prepping the Shrimp

If you purchased nice whole shrimp, take your time to shell them entirely and cut them in half head to tail. Also remove the black vein near the back of the shrimp if there is one.

Then toss your shrimp in a bowl with the garlic, pepper flakes, olive oil, and lemon juice. Let this marinate for 10 minutes or so.

A garlic marinade is one of my favorite things.

Red Pepper Pesto

The pesto is actually really simple. Just throw all your ingredients in a food processor and give it a pulse until it is sauce. It’s okay if it has some lumps.

The original recipe said to not use the oil in the jar, but then the recipe called for added oil. I thought I would try just pouring in the entire contents of the jar and skipping the extra oil. That worked like a charm.

This is good stuff.

Besides the pesto, chop up the onions and red pepper. Try to get them pretty uniformly sliced.

Pretty simple toppings really.

The dough

I’m not going to go into the exact specifics of making pizza dough in this post. You can check out a really detailed explanation on this post. I actually made the dough I’m using for this recipe a few weeks before and just froze it in a bag with a bit of olive oil drizzled inside.

You should preheat your oven to about 500 degrees and if you are heating up a pizza stone, make sure you give it at least 30 minutes to get the stone as hot as possible.

Then roll out your dough and slap it on a lightly corn mealed pizza peel. You can also use the back of a sheet pan if you don’t have a peel.

If at all possible, it's always worth it to make it.

Add an even layer of your red pepper pesto and then top it with the onions and fresh red peppers.

This sauce is maybe the best part of the pizza.

Next pile on your cheese and finally those shrimpies. Try to keep the shrimp in one layer or they might not cook all the way through. You can pile them on though as long as they don’t overlap. They will shrink up when they are cooked.

Nice shrimpies.

About 12-14 minutes in a 500 degree oven and your shrimp should be cooked perfectly, your cheese melted, and your crust super crunchy and delicious.

I could barely wait to eat it.

Honestly, I had never really made a seafood pizza before, but it worked really well. I ate about half of this pizza for dinner one night and took the other half for lunch the next day.

As with most pizzas, it’s possible that this one was better cold.

This was pretty good cold the next day also.

If you are looking for a spicy and interesting pizza to try, definitely give this one a go.

Be sure to check back tomorrow also to vote on a new dish for next week!

It would be solid for a picnic or just to use as a side dish. It always keeps really well and I ate it throughout the week. The night we made it though we just ate with some toasted homemade bread.

Turns out broccoli makes a good salad.

Before I dive into the recipe, I have to admit something. I was kind of a bad food blogger for this recipe. I took photos, but I wasn’t exactly measuring all the ingredients. Luckily, I don’t think this is a recipe that calls for exact proportions. In any event, the recipe below is just an approximation, but I’m very certain that it will produce good results and also that you could add a bit more or less of any one ingredient and it should be fine.

Broccoli Salad

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1-1.5 pounds of broccoli, floret and stems
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
3 red peppers, roasted, or maybe 1.5 Cups of jarred red peppers
1 Cup Kalamata olives
1 Cup Feta cheese
1/4 Cup red wine vinegar
1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Prep the broccoli by cutting off all the florets and then peel the stems and chop them into half inch cubes.

2) Dunk all the broccoli into a large pot of boiling salted water. (I usually use about 1 Tablespoon of salt per gallon of water and I always just approximate it.)

3) After about 3 or 4 minutes, drain your broccoli using a colander and then dunk the colander into ice water.

4) Roast peppers in the oven (450 degrees for about 30-40 minutes turning every 10 minutes or so) or on top of your gas stove (set the peppers right on the stove top, turn on the heat and using tongs, turn the peppers every few minutes until they are almost black all over for about 10 – 15 minutes).

5) Set the roasted peppers on a plate and wrap them up well with plastic for 10-15 minutes.

6) Chop up your other ingredients like the onion, tomato, olives (in halves or quarters), and feta.

7) Peel and dice the peppers and add to mixture.

8) Add broccoli to the mix.

9) In a separate bowl, whisk the olive oil into the vinegar to make a simple vinaigrette.

10) Add the vinaigrette to the veggies and add some salt and pepper to taste. Chill in the fridge for a few hours.

The Broccoli

Prepping the broccoli is pretty easy. Cut off all the florets and then peel the stems and chop them into half inch cubes. The stems and florets work great in this recipe.

Blanching ain't no thing.

Once you get your broccoli chopped, we need to blanch it which couldn’t be easier. Just dunk all your broccoli into a large pot of boiling salted water. (I usually use about 1 Tablespoon of salt per gallon of water and I always just approximate it.) After about 3 or 4 minutes, drain your broccoli using a colander and then dunk the colander into ice water. This will stop the broccoli from cooking. The broc should still have a bit of a crunch to it. It shouldn’t be soggy at all.

The Peppers

Now you can always buy peppers that are already roasted, but I like to roast my own if I have the time. That way they are really fresh and flavorful. Now you can definitely roast these guys in the oven (450 degrees for about 30-40 minutes turning every 10 minutes or so), but I like to roast them right on my gas top stove.

Literally, just set the peppers right on the stove top. Then crank up the heat!

No grill = get creative.

Using tongs, turn the peppers every few minutes until they are almost black all over. It’ll probably take 10-15 minutes to get the peppers totally roasted. Oh and you definitely cannot do this if you have an electric stove. Only gas here people. If you have an electric stove then you will have to use the oven or a grill if you have one.

Once your peppers are roasted, set them on a plate and wrap them up well with plastic. This will basically steam the peppers and make them super-easy to peel. They need to steam for 10-15 minutes.

Steaming is the secret.

While you are waiting for your peppers to steam, you can chop up your other ingredients like the onion and tomato.

Lots of chopping.

Then add in your olives and feta. I like to chop the olives in half, but you could quarter them if you wanted. Also, be sure that your olives are pitted. The last thing you want is a lawsuit because someone choked on an olive pit at your picnic. Ok. Maybe you shouldn’t worry about a lawsuit, but ya never know.

Adding the good stuff.

Once you get everything chopped, the peppers are probably cool and ready to peel and chop. When peeling the peppers you can run them under a little water if you want, but the skin on the peppers should basically slide off. If there are a few black specks that is okay. You won’t be able to taste it in the final product and it kind of gives it a rustic feel.

Dice these guys to be the same size as you tomatoes and onions.

These guys are good.

Then finally add your broccoli to the mix.

The dressing

In a separate bowl, whisk the olive oil into your vinegar to make a simple vinaigrette. It’s pretty important to do it in a separate bowl so you can make sure the dressing is mixed well and also so you can taste it and adjust it if you need to.

Then add it to your veggies and add some salt and pepper to taste. I liked it with a lot of pepper. We probably added 1 Tablespoon of fresh ground pepper and that was a lot. You probably won’t need that much salt. The feta is pretty salty as is.

All mixed up!

This salad will be best if you let it chill in the fridge for a few hours. It is perfect on a hot summer day though. Not to mention it’s reasonably healthy!

Give this a shot if you are looking for an interesting salad on these hot days.