Wednesday, March 24, 2010

What's For Dinner Wednesday

Sometimes it's really hard to decide what to make for dinner. I find myself getting into ruts and patterns of cooking...for example, right now we're in a root vegetable rut. I just can't get my mind out of the carrots/kale/potatoes/yams/beets rut. :) Sometimes all it takes is a dinner at a friend's house to get a new idea, and I can get myself into a whole new rut. So begins my new, weekly, What's For Dinner Wednesday. I will share with you, readers, what we had for dinner each Wednesday night. Even if it's a bad day and we just have PBJ for dinner. And, if you're nice, you'll share what you had too. Please save us from root vegetable overdose!








Cheeeeese!










Tonight's dinner was:
•Barley Vegetable Risotto (recipe below....barley because I'm trying to cook some other grains besides just wheat, wheat, wheat)
•Sourdough bread with curried carrot spread
•Baby carrots and roasted garlic hummus


What did you have for dinner???


BARLEY AND VEGETABLE RISOTTO
adapted from "More Vegetables, Please!" cookbook

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 c pearl barley
2 c white wine
2+ c vegetable broth
1 c cubed sweet potato
1 c torn pieces kale
1 c chopped broccoli
2 med tomatoes, chopped
3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

Saute onions in oil over medium heat until tender. Add garlic and barley and cook, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes. Add the wine and cook until it's evaporated.

Steam the veggies and set aside.

Gradually add the broth (warm it first!) to the barley, stirring it regularly until it's cooked, about 50-60 minutes. Add additional broth if needed.

Stir in the cooked veggies, remove risotto from heat, and stir in tomatoes and cheese.

Serve sprinkled with additional parmesan cheese and/or toasted pine nuts.

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4 comments:

  1. ellen brennanMarch 25, 2010 at 3:49 PM

    hey les, i've been enjoying your blog a lot but hadn't commented til now. i think this is a great idea to help us all out of our food ruts! though i'm not the primary cook in our household (my role tends to be more of a dinner muse), so i don't always know all the details, here's what we had for dinner last night...it was a slight variation on what we made for st patrick's day last wednesday...
    *cubed firm tofu that was fried with cabbage, broccoli, and crumbles of ancient grains bread and seasoned with horseradish and various other spices
    *roasted red potatoes sprinkled with dill weed and garlic salt

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  2. AnonymousMarch 26, 2010 at 12:14 PM

    Mmmm. Yummy. We had homemade pesto pizza with mozzarella and a salad.and then a cheese pizza. Mmm.But a root vegetable rut doesn't sound so bad. It better than, say, a anchovy rut.

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  3. StephMarch 27, 2010 at 12:03 PM

    We had cheeseburgers on Wednesday. :P

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  4. ErinRupnickDesigner@gmail.comMarch 28, 2010 at 7:53 PM

    I'm a bit late to comment on this, but we had beef stroganoff on Wednesday - super yummy easy recipe. London broil sliced up and seared a bit in a pan with oil, beef broth, mushrooms, onions, wine...let it all simmer 3 hours and serve over noodles. Super tender and delicious with homemade bread. I can post the full recipe if anyone's interested!

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