Spring Vegetable Minestrone with White Beans & Pesto

After a tease of summer-like weather last weekend, we've been making up for it all week here with rain, rain, and more rain.  Just in time for the long weekend!

For us Canadians, this May long weekend is sort of the unofficial kickoff to summer, but almost invariably ends up being cold and rainy.  So while soup isn't the type of recipe you would normally kick off a late May long weekend with, it's pretty appropriate for this wet and rainy spring weather we've been experiencing!

This is not a traditional minestrone soup, using asparagus and yellow peppers for some bright spring flavour along with the tomatoes, white beans for protein, no pasta, and with pesto and parmesan added in at the end for a boost of richness and flavour.

I realize now that my pictures don't really do this soup justice with the way I slightly overcooked my asparagus and then pretty much covered the whole bowl in pesto, but I do love pesto!  This was the perfect type of comfort spring food that's needed this time of year as we patiently wait for summer to kick in for good - hopefully not that long now!

Spring Vegetable Minestrone Soup with White Beans and Pesto

Adapted from Food & Drink Magazine

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 small yellow onions, peeled and diced

2 cups finely chopped yellow bell peppers, (about 1-1/2 peppers; red or orange would also work)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 cup halved grape tomatoes

1 (540mL) can cannellini or white kidney beans, rinsed and drained

6 cups vegetable broth (I use low-sodium broth)

1-1/2 cups chopped asparagus (half inch pieces; woody ends of asparagus removed)

Salt and pepper

For Topping:

~1 tablespoon prepared pesto per serving

Grated parmesan cheese

Chopped fresh basil, parsley, or green onion (optional)

Directions:

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.  Add onions and peppers and sauté for another 10 minutes, stirring often.

Add tomato paste and sauté for 30 seconds, stirring often.  Add grape tomatoes and sauté for another minute.  Add white beans and vegetable stock, bring to a boil, cover, and let simmer 10 minutes.  Add asparagus and simmer for another 5-10 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender (I did 10 minutes and my asparagus was a little overdone).  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Divide among bowls and serve warm, topped with pesto, parmesan cheese, and herbs, if desired.  Season with additional salt and pepper if needed.

Roasted Spring Vegetable Salad with Arugula Pesto Vinaigrette

So I just realized that I’ve been posting a lot of salad and vegetable recipes on here lately.  Sorry if it’s getting repetitive; but now that spring veggies are available and the weather is turning warmer, I seem to crave salads a lot more often! 

I promise I'll try to post something different next week, but with the May long weekend starting tonight (for us Canadians) and all the burgers, beer, ice cream, etc., that tend to go along with it, I thought you guys wouldn’t mind if I squeezed in one more healthy salad recipe today!  (Although by that logic I guess I should be posting this after the weekend instead, but because this weekend is the unofficial start to summer, I need to squeeze in another spring recipe before it’s too late!)

This is a perfect light spring meal (or side dish) that makes the most of local produce by packing a ton of roasted veggies into an arugula salad and covering it all in a fresh arugula pesto vinaigrette.  Because arugula has a bit of a bite to it, I mellowed it out with some grated parmesan cheese which balanced everything out quite well, though I also think a creamy goat cheese could be a nice touch instead!

I hope that all my Canadian friends have a safe and happy long weekend!  I don’t have anything exciting planned, and all I’m hoping is that the weather will be nice enough to enjoy some drinks and dinner outside to kick off the summer.  Fingers crossed!

Roasted Spring Vegetable Salad with Arugula Pesto Vinaigrette

Adapted from Eating Well

Makes 2 large servings or 4 smaller servings

Ingredients:

For the Vegetables:

1 cup mini potatoes, larger ones halved into bite sized pieces

1 cup radishes, quartered or cut into similar sizes to potatoes

1 cup baby carrots

1 tablespoon olive oil, divided

Salt & pepper

1 cup green beans or asparagus, ends trimmed*

For the Arugula Pesto:

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup packed arugula

2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon walnuts or pine nuts

1-1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Salt & pepper to taste

For the Salad:

2 cups arugula

Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F.  Toss potatoes, radishes, and carrots with 2 teaspoons of oil and season with salt and pepper.  Spread on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast in preheated oven for 30 minutes, tossing halfway through.  If using green beans, drizzle them with a bit of oil and add to the pan for the last 15 minutes of cooking.  If using asparagus, drizzle with a bit of oil and add for the last 8-10 minutes of cooking. 

*Note you can use any mix of vegetables that you want, as long as you have about 4 cups of veggies total.  Just adjust the cooking times accordingly.

Meanwhile, prepare arugula pesto.  Add all ingredients for the pesto to the large bowl of a food processor and process until smooth.

Let roasted veggies cool slightly, then toss with arugula.  Add arugula pesto and mix well.  Season with salt and pepper and top with shaved or grated parmesan cheese.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Asparagus & Arugula Salad with a Poached Egg on Toast

So I really wanted to wait until local asparagus was available before I posted an asparagus recipe this Spring, but this week I finally broke down and bought some of the imported stuff from the grocery store.  I was feeling too left out because it seems like every other blogger I follow has been posting asparagus recipes for a month now, but our asparagus season in Ontario hasn’t even begun yet (though it should really soon!) 

Of course, as soon as I got home I discovered that my asparagus smelled like someone had used it as toilet paper – so gross.  Serves me right for being impatient!  I tried Googling if smelly asparagus is still edible, but the only links that came up were about smelly pee from asparagus, so I decided to just give it a good rinse and use it anyway because it still looked fine as long as I kept my nose at a proper distance!  Turned out that it was fine once cooked, but I learned my lesson and will wait for the fresh stuff before I make my next asparagus dish.

I hope I didn’t turn you off this dish talking about smelly asparagus, because it was really good - it’s light and fresh and tastes just like Spring!  Peppery arugula is tossed in a light lemon dressing, topped with asparagus that’s been roasted just long enough to soften it up a bit and deepen its flavour but still keep it crisp, followed by a poached egg with a runny yolk that makes everything creamy and delicious.  I liked this so much that I made it again the next night (stinky asparagus and all), but this time added a piece of hearty Bavarian rye toast, which made the whole thing even better.  This makes a great lunch or light dinner, but could easily be eaten for breakfast or brunch too!

I'm hoping that the market will have some local Spring veggies available this weekend (though it will more likely be the following weekend), I'm not sure I can wait much longer!

Roasted Asparagus and Arugula Salad with Poached Egg

Adapted from Cooking Light

Serves 1

Ingredients:

Roasted Asparagus:

Handful of asparagus stalks (desired amount for one serving)

1-2 teaspoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

Arugula Salad:

2 handfuls of baby arugula

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon minced shallot

1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper

Poached Egg:

2 tablespoons white vinegar or white wine vinegar

Dash of salt

1 large egg

Assembling:

Salt & Pepper

Freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 or 2 slices of hearty whole grain bread, toasted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°F.  Snap off the woody ends of the asparagus spears where they naturally break off.  Toss asparagus with oil and season with salt and pepper.  Spread on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare dressing by whisking oil, lemon juice, shallot, and Dijon in a small bowl.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Toss with arugula in a small bowl.

Fill a large skillet almost to the rim with water (or fill a shallow saucepan with a couple inches of water) and bring to a gentle boil. Add vinegar and salt to water. Break egg into a small cup, then bring the edge of the cup to the water and gently tip the egg into the water.  Turn off heat, cover, and let cook for 4 minutes (or 3 minutes for a runnier yolk).  Lift the egg out of the pan with a slotted spoon and set on a paper towel to drain.

Transfer arugula to a plate with the toast (you can either put the arugula on top of the toast or on the side), add roasted asparagus and poached egg atop the toast, and top with parmesan and salt and pepper.

*Note: You can use 2 poached eggs instead of 1 if you want this to be more filling

Warm Dijon Roasted Asparagus & Potato Salad

I’ve always thought that I didn’t like potato salad, and I usually avoid it at potlucks and picnics.  Then I realized that there are so many different types of potato salad out there, and the versions that I don’t like are the cold, mushy type.   

Warm potato salads are actually amazing, especially when you roast or grill the potatoes so they’re crispy and golden brown, as opposed to those soft and mushy boiled potatoes.  And when you combine the roasted potatoes with roasted asparagus and a light and tangy Dijon yogurt dressing, you’ve got a potato salad that’s pretty hard not to love!

I’ve already made this recipe twice in the last week, once with green beans and once with asparagus (both were good, but I prefer asparagus), and I absolutely love it.  It’s also healthy and light – a far cry from the mayo-drenched, gloopy (is that a word?) potato salads you find in a grocery store.   It doesn’t make for great leftovers, but it’s so good that you probably won’t have any leftovers to save anyway!

Warm Dijon Roasted Asparagus & Potato Salad

Adapted from Food Network

Serves 4-6 as a side dish

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds small white or red potatoes

1/2 pound asparagus, woody ends removed, cut into one or two-inch pieces

Olive oil, salt, and pepper

Dressing:

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon plain yogurt

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/2 shallot, minced

1/4 teaspoon each salt + pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. 

Scrub potatoes and cut into bite-sized chunks, roughly one inch wide.  Toss with a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then spread in an even layer on a baking sheet (I lined mine with aluminum foil).  Roast for around 30 minutes, until golden brown and tender.

Meanwhile, toss asparagus with another drizzle of olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Add to the oven with the potatoes during the last 8-10 minutes of cooking.

Prepare Dijon yogurt dressing by adding the yogurt, Dijon, red wine vinegar, shallot, salt, and pepper to a small bowl and whisking until smooth.  Taste and adjust amounts to your liking if necessary.

Remove asparagus and potatoes from oven and let cool slightly.  Transfer to a large bowl and mix with the Dijon yogurt dressing.  Serve warm.

Easy Salmon Pilaf with Asparagus & Peas

Happy Friday!

This will be a short (or at least quickly-written) post as I'm about to leave to catch a Greyhound home for the weekend to spend a couple of days with my family and boyfriend.  I'm looking forward to seeing them but am not so excited about the trip home considering it's been raining cats and dogs (does anyone say that anymore?) all day and is FRIGID outside!  

I'll admit I was a little excited when I realized it would be cooler out today because it meant I could wear the pretty new red spring jacket I just bought, but after about three minutes outside I was cursing my flimsy jacket and wishing I had worn a parka instead!

So considering the very spring-like weather we'll be having all weekend, I thought it was appropriate to share a spring-like recipe today!  This pilaf with salmon, asparagus, and peas, is an easy and healthy weeknight dish that I've made quite a few times and will probably make a few more times this season while asparagus is still in its prime!

I'm calling this an "easy" pilaf because it's sort of a shortcut version of a traditional pilaf that makes the dish come together fairly quickly and with minimal effort.  I use instant rice that I cook separately for only the 5 or 10 minutes directed on the package, I roast the salmon in the oven so that it's very hands-off, I cook the asparagus and onions quickly on the stove, then basically just mix them all together with some broth in a big pan and voila!

The one caveat with this dish is that its flavour depends on the quality of the ingredients you use.  If you have good-tasting salmon, asparagus, peas, and stock, then you'll end up with a good-tasting meal.  I also rely on lots of salt and pepper to season this dish - it makes a huge difference!  You can certainly feel free to add in any other ingredients or seasonings you like though.

Well, I'm off to go stand in line for a bus in the pouring rain.  Hope you have more exciting Friday night plans than me and that you all have a great weekend!

Salmon Pilaf with Asparagus and Peas

Adapted from Cooking Light

 

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

2 salmon fillets

1.5 cups uncooked instant long grain white rice or brown rice (I prefer brown but for the dish pictured I used enriched white rice)

2 cups chicken or vegetable broth, divided (I prefer chicken broth here)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup chopped asparagus

1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 cup packed chopped parsley

Lots of salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F.  Season salmon with salt and pepper, place on a foil-lined baking sheet, and roast for 12-15 minutes, until salmon flakes easily with a fork.  (Alternately, you could cook the salmon according to your own preferred cooking method).

Meanwhile, cook rice according to package directions, replacing the water with 1.5 cups chicken or vegetable stock.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or deep skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion, garlic, and asparagus, and sauté for 4-6 minutes, stirring often, until onion starts to brown.  Add rice, peas, and 1/2 cup chicken/vegetable broth, stir, and cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add lemon juice and parsley, and season generously with salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring often, for another 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and serve warm.

Broiled Asparagus and Spiced Mandarins

I have been very patiently awaiting the start of asparagus season here in Ontario, as local asparagus is so much better than the often already wilted grocery store variety.  But when seemingly every other blogger I subscribe to has been posting asparagus recipes for almost a month now (apparently asparagus season begins much earlier down south), it's so hard to resist joining in!  I finally caved the other week and bought some imported asparagus to have for lunch, but since local asparagus should be ready this week (and since others may not even have their local asparagus for much longer), I thought now was a good time to share this recipe!

When I make asparagus as a side dish, I pretty much always just drizzle it with a little olive oil, generously season it with salt and pepper, then roast it in the oven - simple and delicious.  But a few weeks ago I saw a recipe for asparagus with broiled spiced tangerines in Sobey's Inspired magazine and just couldn't get it out of my head, so I decided to be a little more adventurous one day and give it a try with some mandarins I had leftover from this mandarin chicken salad.

 

The recipe is still quite simple - rub a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and honey on some sliced mandarins, broil them with the asparagus, then serve them together along with a little extra orange zest.  You can then squeeze the orange juice over the asparagus so it sits in a delicious puddle of warm orange juice and spices (note that these pictures were taken before doing that).  Even though I didn't make this with fresh, local asparagus, it was still so tasty!

I tried eating one of the broiled mandarin slices on its own and then devoured almost all the rest of them the same way - they're so good!  I love how the warm spices complement the sweet mandarins in such an interesting way that actually reminded me a lot of Christmas flavours!  I supposed it's a strange combination to pair Christmas spices with spring asparagus, but it's actually perfect for a rainy Spring day when you want something comforting but fresh at the same time. 

Give this a try if you're looking for a different way to serve your asparagus.  If you're already sick of asparagus or are still waiting for local produce, then you should at least try the spiced mandarins as a snack to tide you over while you're waiting!

Broiled Asparagus and Spiced Mandarins

Adapted from Inspired magazine, Spring 2012

Serves about 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:

1 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed

2 mandarin oranges (or tangerines)

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons honey

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to broil.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Blanch asparagus for 1 to 2 minutes, depending on thickness.  Transfer asparagus to a bowl of ice water to cool, then remove and pat dry.

Zest one mandarin and set zest aside (you won’t need the rest of the mandarin for this recipe so you can just eat it!).  Cut the second mandarin in half crosswise.  Mix cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then sprinkle it evenly on the two cut sides of the mandarin.  Spread 1 teaspoon honey on each half, then place them cut-side-up on a foil-lined baking sheet.

Toss asparagus with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Spread in an even layer on the baking sheet with the mandarins.  Broil in top third of oven until honey has caramelized and asparagus is lightly blistered, about 4-5 minutes.

Transfer asparagus to a platter and garnish with the reserved zest.  Slice mandarins into wedges to serve alongside asparagus – they can be squeezed over individual servings (but also taste great eaten on their own!)

Asparagus Ribbons with Lemon Parmesan Dressing

With the ridiculous heat we've been having here lately (not that I'm complaining one bit about it!), I thought I'd post a recipe that doesn't require turning on the oven or grill. I know it's not really asparagus season here anymore, but if you can still find some tasty asparagus at the grocery store, why not try something different with it?

I love roasted or grilled asparagus as much as the next person (assuming everyone loves it of course, since I can't see why you wouldn't), so I didn't expect to like this dish because the asparagus is not cooked at all. I've tried a bite of raw asparagus before out of curiosity, and it was not very pleasant. But I decided to go ahead with the recipe, mostly because making asparagus ribbons sounded like so much fun! (Although when your life involves sitting in front of a computer doing research all day, organizing your sock drawer can seem like fun in comparison.)

All you do is take a vegetable peeler and peel the asparagus stalks into thin strips. You end up with a mountain of ribbons that look so pretty you won't even want to eat them, but once you add the dressing they reduce in size and turn into a lovely looking little salad. I ended up being so pleasantly surprised that the asparagus soaked up the lemony dressing so it tasted delicious, but still maintained a bit of crunch instead of getting wilted. Plus, it's so easy to throw together, yet elegant enough to impress all your friends. Not that I had any friends over to test this on, but Gen was impressed and she has high standards when it comes to food, so I assume others would also love this.

Since I was just making one serving for myself (I'm really making it seem like I have no friends here), I didn't really measure anything out, but the recipe is over at Bon Appetit so you can adjust it according to however many people you're serving.

I can't wait to try other ways to eat asparagus ribbons, like Cooking Light's asparagus ribbons with lemon and goat cheese, or Cooking Canuck's shaved asparagus salad with balsamic syrup and almonds. The ribbon method also works well on zucchini and squash - vegetables are just so much more fun when you eat them in unexpected ways!