vegetarian – And What I Ate

I’ve been trying recently to make salads that combine a bunch of produce and taste like they could be served in Paris (“Feed me like one of your French girls”). This was a great combo of some cherry tomatoes that were a couple days away from their expiry date, roasted cauliflower (which is my all-time fav), chickpeas, mediterranean olives and lemons, topped with a lemon-tahini drizzle and served over a quinoa and bulgur mix. It seems way fancier than it is, takes about 10 minutes tops to throw together, minus cooking time, and makes a ton of a really healthy, super filling dish for lunch or dinner.

Roasted Cauliflower, Tomatoes, Chickpeas, Lemons and Olives with Quinoa and Lemon-Tahini Dressing

Two 15.5-oz. cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
One lemon, sliced into fairly thin rounds
Half a large head of cauliflower, cut into bite-size slices
1/3 cup olives, pitted
1.5 cups cherry tomatoes
One cup dry quinoa, or quinoa/bulgur mix, which is delicious and takes approx. 10 minutes from start to finish to cook
1.5 tbsp. Herbs de Provence
1/2 tsp. coarsely-ground salt
2.5 tbsp. EVOO, or Lemon Olive Oil, if you have it
Lemon-Tahini Dressing

Preheat oven to 400.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, for easier cleanup.
Spread chickpeas over the parchment paper, then top with sliced cauliflower, olives, cherry tomatoes and sliced lemons.
Drizzle olive oil over everything, then add herbs de provence and salt. With your hands, mix everything until fully covered.
Roast for 30 minutes, then remove from the oven and use a spatula to flip as much as you can. Roast for another 15 minutes or until tomatoes are blistered and cauliflower has browned edges.
While the dish is roasting, make the quinoa/bulgur mix according to package directions. When ready, fluff with a fork and remove from heat.
Serve the veggies and chickpeas over the quinoa. Drizzle with some lemon-tahini dressing to taste.

Ughhh, I love this so much. It’s like a giant spanikopita, which is one of my favorite foods in the world. It’s both healthy and indulgent enough, needs almost zero seasoning, and can be prepped the day before, then assembled after work for a quick meal that’s ready in no time flat.

32 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained really well
1.5 tbsp. EVOO
1 large vidalia onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. dried dill
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 C. crumbled feta
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 eggs
One sheet puff pastry
1 egg (for egg wash on puff pastry)

1.Preheat oven to 375.

2.Heat the 1.5 TBSP EVOO over medium in a large saucepan.

3.Dice onion and mince garlic, then add to the saucepan and stir until soft and translucent.

4.Remove onion mixture from saucepan and set aside to cool.

5.Wring out as much liquid as possible from thawed spinach, using a cheesecloth, or in small fistfuls with your hands. This is key so you don’t have a soggy spinach pie.

6.In a large bowl, combine the spinach, the room-temperature garlic and onion mixture, the feta, nutmeg, salt, pepper, dill, lemon and two eggs. Mix well to combine. If you’re going to make this the day before, so the flavors really meld together, leave out the eggs until the next day.