Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped (or two small carrots)
• 4 garlic cloves (but really as much as you want)
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped and divided into two equal portions
  
• 8 oz dried black beans (or 30 oz canned, undrained)
• 1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes (with juice)
  
• 1.5 cups chicken broth (or vegetable, I guess)
  
• fresh cilantro, for garnish
• crumbled feta, for garnish

If you're using canned beans, you can skip this first step, which is:
wash the dried beans thoroughly. Rehydrate them based on the instructions likely to be found on the package. You don't have to spend hours soaking these things. Just add the water and boil for a few minutes, then remove from heat and let them sit for an hour. That should do it. Drain when done.
Heat oil in heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, and garlic. Saute until vegetables begin to soften, about 6 minutes.
Mix in cumin and one pile of jalapeno (should be able 1 tsp or so).
Add beans, tomatoes (do not drain tomato juice), and chicken stock.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until carrots are tender, about 15 minutes.
Blend about 1/2 of the soup in a blender. Or, if you want to make things a little easier, just use a stick blender through the whole soup and stop when it looks to be about the right consistency.
When desired consistency is reached, return the soup to the heat and simmer for another 15 minutes, until thickened.
Season with salt, pepper, and the rest of the jalapeno.
Garnish with cilantro and feta.

Thoughts: Pretty delicious, and pretty easy to make. Dan says the soup had good flavor, but he wouldn't use feta in the future -- we'd probably use something like queso fresco or a variation thereon. Also he thought the beans were a little toothsome, which means next time we would either use canned (we ordinarily would have, but we had these beans sitting around in our cabinet forever and I was like "good god, I will make something with these beans") or actually soak them overnight the way everyone recommends. I would also top this with some sort of sour cream too.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Wheat Berry Salad with Tomato, Feta, Zucchini, and Olives

Based on a dish we had in Italy that originally uses farro instead of wheat berries. We couldn't find farro in our local Giant. Wheat berries worked just fine.

Ingredients

kalamata olives, as many as you'd like

chopped tomatoes, as many as you'd like

1/2 cup dried wheat berries

1.75 cups water

crumbled feta cheese, as much as you'd like

salt

pepper

basil (though mint would be even better)

olive oil, to drizzle on top

grilled zucchini, if you like that sort of thing.

The trickiest part of this recipe is making the wheat berries (i.e making sure you have the ratio of berries:water correct). We tried doing it on the stove, but you know what happens when you turn your back on stovetop wheat berries? They totally burn and ruin your new cookware (we actually salvaged the pot but we did start a fire and now our apartment is filled with the lingering scent of burned wheat berries. What does this smell like? PRAY YOU NEVER FIND OUT). We also tried cooking them in our new slow-cooker, which worked much better but which left a lot of water. If you do it on the stove, you will need to stir constantly. CONSTANTLY. SERIOUSLY. I would recommend using a slow-cooker, if you have one.
Once you have your wheat berries made, refrigerate them until they're cool (several hours).
Mix in your tomatoes, zucchini, feta, olives, basil/mint, salt/pepper, and olive oil. Toss. Eat.

Thoughts: Oh my goodness this is so good. It's like, taking all of the most savory things from the Mediterranean and putting them together and then eating them. It's exactly like that. The only thing we're missing is anchovies...we'll have to experiment with this. The first time we made this (on the stove) the wheat berries were not quite soft enough, but the second time we made them (in the slow-cooker) they were perfect. Seriously, I could eat this all day and it's hella easy. It's a really nice summer dish.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Vegetable Roulade Mk. II

This was another experiment. I didn't use a recipe for any of this, so it's all approximate.

Ingredients

• Dough:
  
  
  
  • 2.5c flour
    
  • 1.5tsp sugar
    
  • 2tsp salt
    
  • 1.25tsp yeast
    
  • 3tbsp olive oil
    
  • cold water
    
  • Herbs de Provence, garlic powder, parsley, pepper, oregano
    
  
  
• Filling
  
  
  
  • 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
    
  • 1/2 white onion, finely chopped
    
  • Some crushed tomatoes
    
  • sliced cremini mushrooms
    
  • ~4oz feta
    
  
  

So for the dough, I did the normal dough method (see previous roulade recipe / pizza dough recipe) except for the slight difference that I used only about half the yeast and let it rise for about double the time. It didn't rise QUITE as much in the oven, but it had a great texture, flaky yet soft. It didn't even have all that much oil. So that was a success. The addition of garlic powder from previous pizza doughs was also good. Make sure that you season it a little more than you think you should. You won't regret it.

So prepare dough and let it rise for five hours. You're going to have to do the "microwave trick" for this (boil water in microwave, put dough in microwave to rise because it's super humid). When it's done rising, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll to about 11"x19". It will be about 1/4" thick. Top dough with toppings, and roll the thing into a log (the long way). Cut into as many slices as you possibly can (I managed about 10) and place these as you cut them onto a greased, floured baking sheet, cut side down. Bake at 375 "until it looks right" - the dough gets dry around the edges and starts to show signs of browning.

Thoughts: The dough for this recipe worked a lot better. Problem was, Emily and I had planned on putting spinach on this as well, and we forgot. Not that it would have mattered - we used more like a whole red onion rather than half, and there was just WAY too much onion. Mushrooms were good, but next time we have to cut them smaller. If we're going to use feta and tomato again, we're going to need a slightly sweeter tomato to take the edge off the sharpness of feta. I would say San Marzano if we can get our hands on it. Otherwise I would cut out the tomato entirely. Finally, the onions NEED to be sauteed first before you put them on the dough. Oh my god. They just don't cook sufficiently in the oven. So while this was tasty, it had WAY too many toppings (next time scale back to 1/3s of onions, less mushrooms), we FORGOT some toppings (spinach) and the onions were really sharp.

Still, the dough was a big success.

Disaster Index: 4/10 - really pretty good to eat, but it could have been a lot better.

Spinach Feta Roulade

I totally made this recipe up on the spot. And it worked! How cool is that?

Ingredients

• One recipe pizza dough (especially with added herbs)
  
• 1/2 red onion, sauteed in olive oil
  
• 10oz chopped frozen spinach, thawed (or fresh if you've got it)
  
• 4oz feta cheese
  
• 1/2c grated parmesan
  
• 8 cloves garlic, roasted
  
• dill, salt, pepper to taste
  
• some olive oil
  

Prepare the pizza dough. Let it rise about an hour, until doubled. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll the pizza dough out on a well floured surface to about a 18" by 24" rectangle. Spread garlic evenly across dough, and then do the same for the spinach, onion, and cheese. Sprinkle with dill, salt, and pepper and a little bit of olive oil. Now, carefully roll the dough up into a log the long way - that is, so that the 18" sides will be at each end of the log. Using a serrated knife (or an electric knife!) start cutting the log into rounds, about 1" wide. Lay the rounds out on a greased baking sheet - this is kind of like making very thin, savory cinnamon rolls. The recipe will make about 24 rolls - you'll need two baking sheets in total. Going in two batches (don't try to bake them all simultaneously) bake the roulades until they're a little brown, about 20 minutes (though sometimes a little longer). Serve.

Thoughts: This recipe has enormous potential, and they were pretty successful this first time we tried to make them. Next time, we will use more feta (6-8oz) and more spinach (last time we used about 6-8oz, next time we'll use the full 10oz). Alternatively you could use arugula or mustard greens.

This recipe is very adaptable, too. I considered using a thin layer of tomato paste (so it'd be like pizza) or pesto. Strips of zucchini would be good, too, so long as they're thinly cut. We considered adding prosciutto, but we didn't have any. More red onion would have done well, too.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - more toppings next time, though.

Spanikopita

Ingredients

• 2 pkgs frozen spinach
• 4 small onions or two large onions, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• 1 pkg feta cheese, 8 oz, crumbled
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 4 scallions, chopped
• liberal amounts of dry parsley (fresh is obviously better)
• equally liberal amounts of dill
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• ground black pepper
• salt
  
• several sheets of filo pastry

Preheat oven to 375F. Take filo out of the freezer to thaw, if frozen.
Thaw the frozen spinach in a pot. Chop the onions and scallions.
Put the onions/scallions in the pot with the spinach and add some olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.
Cook until onions are translucent. Set aside and let cool.
Crumble the feta into a bowl and combine with the 2 beaten eggs. Once spinach mixture has cooled enough to not cook the eggs, combine them.
At this point, also combine all the herbs you have. Stir well.
Layer a few sheets of filo pastry into the bottom of a glass pie dish (or a baking sheet or something). Add the filling. Fold filo sheets over the top to cover the pie. Brush top with olive oil
Pake for 40 minutes. Eat.

Thoughts: Fresh herbs definitely work better than dried, though dried will do in a pinch. If you want a moister filling, do not drain the spinach after thawing. If you want a slightly drier filling, drain the spinach after thawing and then mix it back in with the onions. This recipe also works well with pearl onions instead of regular onions. Use about 2 cups of these.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Pasta with Mustard Greens, Tomatoes, and Feta

So the title is pretty self explanatory.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb part pasta
  
• 1/2 lb mustard greens, ribs removed and chopped coarsely
  
• 1 medium tomato, chopped coarsely
  
• 1-2oz feta cheese, crumbled
  
• some olive oil
  
• salt and pepper
  

Boil water. Throw in some salt, and put in the pasta. In a separate pan, sauté mustard greens and tomatoes in the olive oil with some pepper. When it starts to get a little dry, add about 1/2c of the pasta water and let it cook off. When pasta is cooked, add cooked pasta to greens and tomatoes, reserving water. Add feta and about 1/4c reserved pasta water, plus or minus. Stir to combine.

And, yes, the pasta water necessary.

Thoughts: I pretty much made this up as I went along. The bitterness of the mustard greens balances nicely against the sharp flavors of the feta and the sweet and sour of the tomatoes. Next time, I'm going to add more greens and tomatoes per pasta.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - Would cook again.