Ingredients:

Preparation:

Spread tortillas with avocado and top with lettuce and tomato. In a bowl, combine carrot, spinach, onion and cabbage; toss with vinegar; add salt and pepper to taste. Divide salad among tortillas and top with cheese. Fold tortillas around salad.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/California-Garden-Roll-230231#ixzz1l4wSRVao

I will admit though that it’s not entirely vegetarian as I used chicken stock rather than water, which I think made the soup.  Reviewers had noted they used vegetable broth rather than water and credited that substitution with giving the soup flavor, so I decided to use some home-made chicken stock I had on hand.  I think veggie stock would be just as good too though, just so long as it’s flavored well.   Also note that the original recipe calls for 6 cups of water, but I only used 4 cups of stock.  I think 6 cups of either water or stock would make it way too watery.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Heat oil and butter in a 6-quart heavy pot over medium heat until foam subsides. Add fennel, onion, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly browned, 7 to 8 minutes.

Add leafy greens (but not spinach) and water (or stock) to pot and simmer, covered, until greens are tender, about 30 minutes. Stir in spinach and cook, uncovered, just until wilted, about 1 minute.

Purée soup in batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids) until smooth, then return to pot. Stir in cream and lemon juice and reheat over low heat. Season with salt.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Creamy-Fennel-and-Greens-Soup-358114

I didn’t take a picture but Epicurious had a nice one on their website, above.  It’s not super filling though, so I made some biscuits and sweet potato fries to eat with it.  Very tasty!

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Creamy-Fennel-and-Greens-Soup-358114#ixzz1jl5g8xrZ

Here’s the epicurious recipe:

Bring 4 cups water, 2 cups broth, barley, and 1 scant teaspoon sea salt to boil in large pot. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until tender, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, sprinkle with sea salt, and sauté until golden brown, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Add sautéed onions and remaining 6 cups broth to pot with barley. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, cover, and chill. Rewarm before continuing.

Add kale and chard to soup. Simmer until greens are tender, about 15 minutes. Add spinach, green onions, dill, fennel fronds, and mint; simmer 5 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Season soup with sea salt, pepper, and additional lemon juice, thinning with more broth, if desired.

Divide soup among bowls. Sprinkle feta cheese over, drizzle with oil, and serve.

But wait! What’s that delicious-looking little roll in the background, bringing visions of Red Lobster to your eyes? It’s a cheddar dill biscuit, which was pretty easy to make with a food processor and made the whole meal more filling.  I had more dill to get rid of, and these biscuits helped me use up a little more.  This is also an epicurious recipe:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.

• Pulse flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add Cheddar and dill and pulse until just combined. Whisk together yogurt and milk, then add to food processor and pulse until dough just comes together. Spoon 12 (1/4-cup) mounds of dough about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased large baking sheet and bake until puffed and pale golden, 12 to 15 minutes.

The soup was really easy to make once all the veggies are washed, and I think it’s a good recipe to make on a weekend and then eat leftovers of for the rest of the week.  Making my own biscuits was fun but a little more work than usual for me (I usually would just buy some crusty bread at the store to go with soup), so I don’t think I would get around to making these ever during the week, but for a nice meal on the weekend when you have time to relax in the kitchen, it’s a nice touch.   We also had some rutabaga pie for dessert (recipe here) to use up the rutabaga from the box, which was surprisingly delicious but unlike any pie I’ve ever had before. All in all a great vegetarian/local meal!

Ingredients

• 1 cup macaroni elbows
• 2 medium-sized acorn squashes, cut in half, lengthwise
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus a few extra pinches for garnish
• 4 sage leaves, chopped finely, plus more for garnish
• few dashes of nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/8 cup bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water according to package directions. Drain and return to pot. Set aside.

While pasta cooks, use a metal spoon (or a serrated spoon, if you have one) and scoop most of the flesh and seeds out of the squash halves, leaving about 1/2” in the skin (this is a little tricky and takes a bit of time, but is an important step). Discard the seeds and transfer the pieces of squash a medium pot.

Cover squash with water and cover pot with a lid. Turn heat to medium-high heat and cook, covered for 8-10 minutes or until squash is very soft. Drain and mash with the back of a fork (or puree in a blender, food processor or with an immersion blender) until very smooth. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat and cook just until lightly browned. Whisk in flour to form a sticky dough. Slowly whisk in the milk to form a very creamy sauce.

Stir in the butternut squash and the cheese until completely distributed. Add the sage, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. The sauce should be very thick and creamy at this point.

Scrape the sauce into the cooked pasta and stir well to ensure all the pasta is coated. Divide between the hollowed-out squashes and top each with a few pinches of cheese and a sprinkle of bread crumbs.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the tops are browned and bubbly.

Serve garnished with fresh sage leaves.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Butternut-Squash-and-Roasted-Garlic-Bisque-104280#ixzz1cUevuOxR

This was supposed to be an appetizer, but I made it our main course. An egg dish like a frittata or omelet is an especially good vegetarian meal for a busy weeknight since you can quickly whip it up, sneak in some veggies, get some protein, and usually get away with only dirtying one or two dishes.

Here’s the recipe, as modified to be vegetarian:

Ingredients:

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1 12-ounce bunch Swiss chard, stems and center ribs removed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 8 large eggs
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 4 1/2 ounces)
• Fresh Italian parsley leaves

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray 8 x 8 x 2-inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray. Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Add Swiss chard and cook just until wilted, about 2 minutes. Drain. Finely chop chard, then place in kitchen towel and squeeze dry. Set chard aside.

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion to skillet and sauté until soft,  7 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Whisk eggs, cream, salt, and pepper in large bowl to blend. Add chard, then feta; stir to blend. Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish.

Bake frittata until set in center, 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer baking dish to rack and cool frittata 15 to 20 minutes. Place platter atop dish with frittata. Using oven mitts, hold baking dish and platter firmly together and invert frittata onto platter; place another platter atop frittata and invert again so that frittata is right side up; serve warm or at room temperature. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Place frittata pieces on rimmed baking sheet. Cover and chill. Rewarm in 325°F oven until heated through, about 10 minutes.
Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Frittata-Bites-with-Chard-Sausage-and-Feta-359351#ixzz1bpnIpPYP

Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing
Adapted from Orangette, who adapted it from Casa Moro

Yield: 4 servings

For salad:
1 medium butternut squash (about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoons ground allspice (I skip this)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
One 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (1 1/2 cups)
1/4 of a medium red onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro or parsley

For tahini dressing:
1 medium garlic clove, finely minced with a pinch of salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons well-stirred tahini
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to taste

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

In a large bowl, combine the butternut squash, garlic, allspice, olive oil, and a few pinches of salt. Toss the squash pieces until evenly coated. Roast them on a baking sheet for 25 minutes, or until soft. Remove from the oven and cool.

Meanwhile, make the tahini dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic and lemon juice. Add the tahini, and whisk to blend. Add the water and olive oil, whisk well, and taste for seasoning. The sauce should have plenty of nutty tahini flavor, but also a little kick of lemon. You will probably need to add more water to thin it out.

To assemble the salad, combine the squash, chickpeas, onion, and cilantro or parsley in a mixing bowl. Either add the tahini dressing to taste, and toss carefully, or you could serve the salad with the dressing on the side. Serve immediately.

Check out smittenkitchen.com for some step-by-step pictures and give it a try!

If they look unappetizing in the picture, it’s because they are in real life.  Not to say they weren’t good – it’s hard to make a cookie turn out really badly unless you under- or over-cook them, and of the 5 people I’ve fed them to, only 1 looked dismayed as she bit into it (I think she had preconceived notions about okra in pastry form), but if you read the recipe, the chef describes these cookies as “less a dessert than a snack” and I think that’s true. They aren’t super sweet or decadent, and  you feel a little healthy eating them. Mine came out with a plastic-y sheen to them, but they served their purpose extremely well, using up a vegetable I otherwise would have had to eat raw in my lunch everyday (the only other way I’ve been able to enjoy okra, which gets old fast).  In the picture above, I experimented with adding cocoa powder and chocolate chips, but they turned out better using the original recipe, which is as follows:

Yield: 12 large cookies

• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground fennel
• 1/2 C unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1arge egg
• 1 cup oats, old fashioned or quick (not instant)
• 3/4 cup pulverized raw okra (okra that’s been chopped and food processed so it looks like chunky guacamole – I pulverized part of a defrosted bag of frozen okra)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a small bowl, thoroughly mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and fennel. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and both sugars until creamy.
4. Beat in vanilla and egg.
5. Slowly mix in the flour mixture until just combined.
6. Fold in the oats and okra.
7. Scoop approximately 1/4 cup balls of batter onto a Silpat or parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Place 6 balls to a sheet and bake one sheet at a time on the center rack for 18 minutes.

Thank you cupcakeproject for solving my okra problem!