Grilled eggplant and leeks

Today's culinary adventure was a spontaneous, original creation designed to utilize my family's super-cool Cuisineart grill/panini press/griddle. I love grilled leeks and eggplant, so I figured they'd taste good together and with some other Mediterranean-themed ingredients.

I started by trimming, halving, cleaning, and grilling 3 leeks while a sliced eggplant was salted. Transferred the leeks back to the cutting board, sliced into 1/2 inch strips, and grilled the eggplant, which was later quartered.

Meanwhile, I cooked up some Israeli couscous. If I had veggie broth, that would've been good instead of water. I put the leeks, eggplant, one can of chickpeas, some canned artichoke hearts, and a bit of sundried tomato in a pan to let the flavors mingle and to warm up the chickpeas. I added some salt, smoked paprika (which is the BEST THING EVER), some cumin, and a spritz of truffle oil (yeah, advantages of cooking at my dad's). Finally, I mixed in the cooked couscous.

This dish is pretty vegan-y (high in fiber, lack of any dairy or egg, and not very energy-dense), and I feel like it was missing something. Maybe balsamic vinegar or lemon juice? Also, next time I think I would only use 2 leeks, and saute them on their own a bit longer.

Southwestern frittata

Coming back to Michigan for Christmas break, I always love shopping at Meijer because of their great vegetable selection. So I picked up some underutilized (by me, anyway) vegetables and decided to try something new. I ended up with okra, tomatillos, and a poblano pepper-- all intended for different recipes, but by the end of the week they just needed to be cooked, and we needed dinner.

Enter the frittata, here to save the day!

I started by slicing up and sauteing half an onion. I sliced a handful of tomatillos and threw them in with the onions once they started to brown. I cooked these just until the tomatillos were tender, added a pinch of salt, then set aside.

Meanwhile, my brother acted as sous-chef by roasting the poblano over an open flame (could also broil it, but I couldn't handle that). He removed the skin then cut it into thin strips. And in a separate pan-- yep, just had to make this complicated instead of sauteing everything in one pan-- I fried up some sliced okra (battered in just flour).

Ok, I promise there's just one more simultaneous step (it helps to have extra family members around!). I mixed together 6 large eggs, a splash of milk and yogurt (it adds extra tanginess and helps with the consistency), and salt. Once the vegetables were fairly cool, I mixed everything together, wiped and reused the large saute pan, and then poured it all it. I kept it at a low heat for about 10 minutes, then broiled until the top started to brown.

After cooling just a bit, I slid the whole thing onto a cutting board and cut it into slices. We enjoyed it with some pumpkin bread and local hard cider. It will also be great for breakfast tomorrow! There are plenty of veggie variations on this recipe, and I also wish I had some queso to sprinkle on top, but so it goes.

Artichoke and goat cheese casserole

Technically this is called a "strata"... but I will stick to layman's terms and call it a casserole. The recipe is straight out of Cooking Light, and you can find it here.

Image source.

This is not exactly "light" fare, but it is delicious and is a hearty vegetarian side dish. Last year I made it with fontina instead of goat cheese, which turned out good, but the cheese didn't really stand out against the other flavors. So this time I'm sticking true to the goat cheese. I also used a slightly larger pan, but it ends up being less deep, obviously.