I have a delicious and simple side dish recipe for you today. A couple months ago I was contacted by Katherine at Thomas Nelson and she wanted to send me a cookbook for review. The book was titled Simply Suppers by Jennifer Chandler. This sounded perfect for me because at the time, I just had surgery and was recovering. I didn't have much energy or the desire to cook. But when my body was feeling up to it again, I grabbed this book off the shelf and read each and every page, mentally bookmarking recipes and drooling along the way.
This book is categorized into several chapters including, but not limited to Soups, Meat, Pasta, Sandwiches, Grains and Vegetables. It is mostly comprised of savory meals and sides, but there is a section of Sweet Endings which has recipes for Double Decker Peach Cobbler, Banana Pudding Pie, Tarts and Cakes. Every single recipe is accompanied by a photo so you'll know what your food is supposed to look like. That also helps when trying to decide what to make. A few other useful sections in this book are 30 in about 30 (you guessed it, 30 recipes made in about 30 minutes), 10 Leftover Chicken Makeovers (recipes in the book you can make using a rotisserie chicken) and 20 Freezer Go-To's (recipes from the book that freeze well).
I chose to make Parmesan Roasted Tomatoes (p.189) as a side dish to brown rice and Pesto Parmesan Chicken. It was a fantastic meal if I do say so myself. Even Mr. H agreed with me and he's not a big fan of Parm. I made a couple adaptations to the recipes but rather than altering the recipe, I just made my changes in italics below. This would be a great recipe to make any time of year because roasting them makes them sweeter and taste like Summer even if the tomatoes aren't so ripe. After roasting, the tomatoes became soft and the flavor intensified. The tomatoes burst in your mouth, but the topping was crispy and garlicky. I could eat a whole bowl of just crumbs, they were that good! I'm looking forward to trying other recipes from this book, because if they're half as good as these tomatoes, I'm in for a treat.
Parmesan Roasted Tomatoes from Simply Suppers by Jennifer Chandler
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- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
- 2 Tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I used 1 Tablespoon dried parsley)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 6 large ripe tomatoes, cut in half horizontally
- kosher salt
- fresh ground pepper
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
Preheat oven to 395 degrees.
In a medium mixing bowl stir together the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic parsley and oregano until well combined.
Place the tomato halves in a shallow baking dish, sliced side up. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper to taste. (I added the salt and pepper to the bread crumb mixture).
Sprinkle the tops of the tomatoes with the Parmesan bread crumb mixture. Drizzle the olive oil evenly over the tomatoes. (I mixed the olive oil in with the bread crumbs so they'd stick together and create a crisper topping).
Bake until the topping is golden, about 20 minutes. Serve warm.
NOTE: Since this recipe was part of a cookbook review I didn't want to alter the original recipe. Instead I added my changes to the recipe in blue italics.
Katherine from Thomas Nelson also wants to give away 3 copies of Simply Suppers for you to enjoy! All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post telling me what your favorite side dish is.
Anyone and everyone is eligible to win. Just be sure to leave me your contact info so I can contact you if you win. One entry per person please.
I'll reveal the (3) winners next Tuesday, May 10. Good luck!
