Interesting Veggies

I find that there is usually a lot less time spent on truly innovative vegetable dishes. For me I think making a totally unique vegetable dish is really a challenge. Some of my favorites are roasted cauliflower with cocoa powder, carrot osso buco, green peas with shiitake mushrooms and dill and green beans with coconut. What are some of your favorite veggie dishes?

My favorites are simple......Grilled Asparagus, and fresh green beans from the garden.

Your veggies sound delightful you simply must share some recipes for them pretty please!

I love all kinds of veggies. My favs are oven roasted baby new potatoes with onions garlic and a little turnip. Toss with olive oil then season it with some herbs de provence, salt and pepper.
Sometimes I just do salt, pepper, rosemary & thyme which is equally yummy.

I love just about any veggie roasted. Love roasted cherry tomatoes, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, squash and mushrooms. I keep meaning to get some fennel the next time I go to Kroger's but manage to forget when Im there lol. I have never tried it.

I love vegetable stews like okra and tomatoe, or green bean/tomato/potato.

I love stuffing vegetables especially.

Speaking of stuffed veggies, we are having stuffed bell peppers with peppers from the garden tonight!!!

How do you stuff yours? I stuff mine with this rice mixture.

- 2 cups white uncooked rice
- handful of chopped fresh parsley
- handful of chopped fresh mint
- 2 zucchinis grated
- 1 large onion grated
- 2 large tomatoes seeded, skinned, and crushed
- salt/pepper
- 1 tsp cumin
- a few glugs of good olive oil.

Mix all ingredients (it will be a wet mixture, not stiff) and let it sit for about a half hour until the rice puffs up a bit, or sautee lightly. Stuff the peppers and bake covered with foil for an hour at 350 then remove foil and continue baking for another 20 minutes until desired goldenness.

Well as of the past few months I have used some Ras-el-Hanout in my meat mixture, I also use cooked rice and onion, and tomato paste, and egg and also some milk, and garlic.

I should try the rice mixture you suggest here, it sounds wonderful, and you know sometimes I like to try something new! I still think my stuffed grape leaves are the very best in the world but the peppers are a close second! I'll bet the rice filling you mention here is really GREAT in Grape Leaves?!?

Yes, it's the exact same mixture I use in grape leaves too.

I've really got to give it a try, I will let you know how I like them. Do you ever have them cold in olive oil? (The stuffed Grape Leaves?) I know I see them like that at deli's and Mid-East stores, I just wonder why they do them like that.

Our Peppers turned out so good tonight!

I think that's just the way they preserve them over longer periods of time.

stuffed veggies

Mapiva said:

How do you stuff yours? I stuff mine with this rice mixture.

- 2 cups white uncooked rice
- handful of chopped fresh parsley
- handful of chopped fresh mint
- 2 zucchinis grated
- 1 large onion grated
- 2 large tomatoes seeded, skinned, and crushed
- salt/pepper
- 1 tsp cumin
- a few glugs of good olive oil.

Mix all ingredients (it will be a wet mixture, not stiff) and let it sit for about a half hour until the rice puffs up a bit, or sautee lightly. Stuff the peppers and bake covered with foil for an hour at 350 then remove foil and continue baking for another 20 minutes until desired goldenness.

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I use a similar mixture to stuff tomatoes in the summer. Delicious. I never get to do stuffed peppers since DH hates them but I've been thinking lately I will just make a batch anyway and eat them all myself!

I stuff everything. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, zuccinis, eggplants, even potatoes. Just stick a couple of peppers inbetween the tomatoes just for yourself. They're great with grilled lamb by the way. The mint really brings it together.

Here is a recipe I tried recently. It really gives new life to the carrot side dish.

Carrot Osso Buco
Servings 4
Ingredients
1. 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2. 1 1/2 pounds medium carrots
3. 1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
4. 1 celery rib, finely chopped
5. 1 garlic clove, smashed
6. 1/2 pound tomatoes—peeled, seeded and chopped
7. Bouquet garni made with 6 parsley sprigs, 3 thyme sprigs and 1 bay leaf, tied with kitchen string
8. One 1/2-inch-thick orange slice, halved
9. Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
10. 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped flat-leaf
Directions
1. Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the carrots and cook over moderate heat, turning frequently, until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Transfer the carrots to a plate.
2. Add the onion, celery and garlic to the skillet and cook over moderate heat for 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, bouquet garni and orange slice, season with salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Nestle the carrots in the sauce. Cover and cook over low heat, turning the carrots occasionally, until meltingly tender but not falling apart, about 1 hour. Discard the bouquet garni. Sprinkle the carrots with parsley and serve warm or at room temperature.