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RECIPE ROUNDUP
From Loathing to Loving
By Kevin Hargis
Did you hate your veggies when you were a kid? You are not alone.
I was always a good eater—and still am. But some things were just hard for me to stomach. Peas and lima beans often found themselves being pushed around my plate as if I could make them disappear by keeping them in constant motion. I would resort to swallowing them whole like pills so I could have dessert. (My folks were clean-your-plate kinds of parents.)
My dad dearly loved calf’s liver and onions and chicken livers and gizzards—which seemed disgusting then and still make me a little squeamish, although I enjoy liver sausage now.
Many of our tastes evolve as we mature, so foods we loathed as 5-year-olds might actually seem delicious to us as adults. For me, it wasn’t always the taste of a vegetable that turned me off, but it was the texture that often did me in. Sweet potatoes seemed too soft and stringy, and squash, especially when it was overcooked, was way too slimy.
I’ve gotten more tolerant of those vegetables, and now I even like sweet potatoes (in oven-fry form), and I love squash (especially cooked tender-crisp).
Add enough spices and sauces to your veggies, and you can mask offending flavors. Drop on a little cheese sauce, for instance, and broccoli or cauliflower might disappear from a child’s plate. But such sauces add possibly undesirable fat and calories to an otherwise perfectly healthful dish. Use them judiciously.
I’ve grown to where I savor broccoli without the cheese—just a sprinkling of lemon pepper and a squeeze of lime, thanks. I enjoy peas, although my brother, at age 56, still can’t stand them.
But I still hate lima beans.
Here’s a dish I first had at Austin’s Magnolia Cafe that features many of the most-hated food items in one place, but manages, with the help of a little butter and cheese, to make it all delicious.
LOVE THOSE VEGGIES
1 large red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 head broccoli
1 medium zucchini
2 medium yellow squash
1 large bell pepper, green or red
8 ounces mushrooms
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon red pepper (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup shredded Monterey jack or mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 pound raw spinach
Salt and black pepper to taste
Cooked brown rice to serve
Wash and prepare vegetables before starting to cook. Peel onion, stem and seed bell pepper and cut both into bite-size strips. Mince garlic. Chop broccoli into small pieces. Trim and slice zucchini and yellow squash into quarter-inch rounds. Slice mushrooms thinly. In a wok or large sauté pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, red pepper and garlic powder and sauté until fragrant. Be careful not to allow garlic to brown. Add broccoli and bell pepper and stir-fry until broccoli just begins to soften. Add zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms and stir-fry another couple of minutes.
Top with half of cheese. Add spinach in one layer, top with remaining cheese, cover and cook until spinach wilts. Serve over brown rice.
Serving size: 4 cups. Per serving: 344 calories, 23.1 g protein, 14.7 g fat, 37.3 g carbohydrates, 372 mg sodium, 40 mg cholesterol.
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HOME COOKING
Recipe Contest Winner: Rosalie A. Peters, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative
Prize-Winning Recipe: Cream Cheese Spinach Quiche
There are a bunch of reformed spinach-haters out there. Broccoli and sauerkraut also apparently ranked low on your lists when you were youngsters. At least, that’s the message we got from readers who sent ideas for this month’s recipe contest: Foods You’ve Grown To Love. The main occupants of your culinary doghouses were a variety of veggies, which we’ve all grown up to love now, right?
I wonder whether it was not the veggies we all hated, but the way they were prepared. These recipes just might make once-hated foods a must-have in your house.
Our taste testers loved Rosalie A. Peters’ rich quiche that would be appropriate for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The spinach is just an added bonus.
CREAM CHEESE SPINACH QUICHE
1 pie crust, unbaked
5 extra large eggs
1 cup whipping cream
12 ounces cream cheese
2 cups grated Swiss cheese, divided
1/2 cup grated jalapeño jack cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
2 cups fresh spinach, stems removed
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons chopped green onion, white portion only
1 small Roma tomato, seeded and thinly sliced
Generous sprinkling of paprika
Put pie crust in a 10-inch deep-dish glass or ceramic pie dish. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prick bottom of crust with fork and bake, unfilled, for 10 minutes. Remove crust and reduce oven to 325 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except tomato, 1 cup Swiss cheese and paprika and mix well. Pour into pie shell and return to oven. Bake 35 to 45 minutes. In the meantime, dry tomato slices on paper towel. Remove partially baked quiche from oven and top with tomato slices, then remaining Swiss cheese, then paprika and return to oven. Bake another 10 minutes or until knife inserted in center of quiche comes out clean. Serve immediately. Serves eight.
Serving size: 1 slice. Per serving: 510 calories, 20.7 g protein, 39.5 g fat, 13.8 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 587 mg sodium, 247 mg cholesterol.
CARROT SOUFFLE
1 pound boiled, peeled carrots
1/2 cup melted butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put carrots in blender and purée until smooth. Place remaining ingredients with carrots and blend well. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 1-quart casserole or soufflé dish. Bake 45 minutes. Serve immediately. Serves six.
Serving size: 1 cup. Per serving: 325 calories, 6.2 g protein, 17 g fat, 38 g carbohydrates, 6.6 g fiber, 371 mg sodium, 146 mg cholesterol.
Marsha Mayfield Lockett
Hamilton County Electric Cooperative
BROCCOLI SALAD
8 cups chopped broccoli (flowers only)
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
8 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
4 tablespoons chopped red bell pepper
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 cup regular or fat-free mayonnaise
Mix broccoli, raisins, sunflower seeds, onion, bacon crumbles and pepper in large bowl. In a small bowl, mix sugar, vinegar and mayonnaise then pour over broccoli mixture and blend well. Serves 10 to 12.
Serving size: 1 cup. Per serving: 234 calories, 5.9 g protein, 8.7 g fat (with fat-free mayonnaise), 35.5 g carbohydrates, 2.4 g fiber, 306 mg sodium, 7 mg cholesterol.
Sarah Hensz
Bryan Texas Utilities
SAUERKRAUT POTATO SALAD
4 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup diced tart apples
1 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 can (10 ounces) sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped parsley
Salt to taste
Boil potatoes until tender. Drain and allow to cool. In large bowl, combine vinegar, oil, pepper, sugar and 2 tablespoons water. Blend in apples. Brown sausage in skillet over medium heat about 10 minutes. Drain on paper towel.
Add potatoes, sauerkraut, onions, parsley and sausage to apple mixture and toss gently. Season with salt. Serves 12.
Serving size: 1 cup. Per serving: 226 calories, 6.3 g protein, 11.4 g fat, 21.2 g carbohydrates, 1.5 g fiber, 353 mg sodium, 23 mg cholesterol.
B.J. Willis
Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative
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RECIPE CONTEST
July’s recipe contest topic is Pie. Sweet ones, savory ones, one crust or two—there is much variety in pie. Do you have a favorite you’d like to share? Send ’em in. The deadline is March 10.
Send recipes to Home Cooking, 1122 Colorado, 24th Floor, Austin, TX 78701. You may also fax them to (512) 486-6254, e-mail them to recipes@texas-ec.org, or submit online at www.texascooppower.com. Please include your name, address and phone number, as well as the name of your electric co-op. The top winner will receive a copy of 60 Years of Home Cooking and a Texas-shaped trivet. Runners-up will also receive a prize.
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