The Dinner Winner

Meatless food for all!

Pasta

2 Dairy-Free

Dead Simple Tomato Sauce

For me, pasta sauces fall into two categories, fast sauces, and sauces I never make. This dead simple tomato sauce is the former. You can easily throw it together in a couple of minutes, though it tastes best when it has at least 10 minutes to simmer. It is an incredibly forgiving recipe, so feel free to play around with the proportions if you want something different out of your sauce. This dead simple tomato sauce is of course great on pasta, or use it in my weeknight baked eggplant Parmesan recipe, or on a pizza.

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced (I like yellow, red, or white. Not a Vidalia)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 28 oz cans whole tomatoes in juice
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Method

  1. Open the cans of whole tomatoes and dump them in a large bowl. Squeeze the tomatoes with your hands to break them up into small bits.
  2. Heat the oil in a large (12” or so) pan with a lid
  3. Sauté the onion for 5-6 minutes until translucent 
  4. Add the garlic, stir and cook for 45 seconds or so
  5. Add the tomatoes and basil, salt and pepper to taste and red pepper flakes if you are using them.
  6. Turn heat low enough that the sauce isn’t splattering everywhere, partially cover and simmer for 10 minutes to so, stirring occasionally. 

5 Dinner

Weeknight Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Weeknight Baked Eggplant Parmesan

We have all had tons of time at home over the last few months. For all of us that means more cooking, which is a great thing. For those of us with two working parents and kids in the house, it does not necessarily mean more time to cook. I came up with this dead simple version of baked eggplant parmesan because I was really craving it, but I wanted a faster way. Roasting the eggplant makes everything much easier than individually frying each piece. It also probably makes it lower in fat, but that was not my main goal in making the recipe. 

I chose to throw together a quick and simple tomato sauce for this. If you are really crunched for time, feel free to use a good quality jarred sauce. I like Victoria’s and Rao’s, but use whatever you like. Throwing together a red sauce is dead simple, so give it a try. 

Feeds 3-4. This recipe is easily doubled
Time 45 minutes, somewhat unattended

Ingredients

1 large eggplant (1.5 – 2 lbs)
1/2 cup olive oil (for brushing)
Salt
1/2 lb fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
1 recipe dead simple tomato sauce
Fresh basil for serving

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Slice the eggplant crosswise into 1/2 inch thick slices. Arrange the slices on a large baking sheet.
  3. Generously paint the eggplant on one side with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt. A pastry brush works well for this. Flip the eggplant slices and paint and salt the opposite side. This is a great step to let a child do. It’s very simple and not too messy.
  4. Roast the eggplant in the oven for 15 minutes. Flip and roast for 15 minutes longer. The eggplant should be nicely browned. If it is not, leave it in a bit longer. Remove when the eggplant is browned. Leave the oven on.
  5. While the eggplant is in the oven, make the sauce. 
  6. Now it is time to assemble the dish. Spread 1/2 cup of the sauce on the bottom of a 9 inch square, or oval baking dish.
  7. Place one layer of eggplant down, trying to cover the entire surface of the dish. 
  8. Cover the eggplant with a layer of tomato sauce, then cover with slices of the mozzarella. Repeat until you run out of eggplant. In the dish I used, this worked out to be two layers of eggplant. 
  9. Bake the dish, uncovered for 15-20 minutes. The cheese should be melted, maybe slightly browned and the sauce should be bubbling. 
  10. Make a chiffonade of the basil and sprinkle it on top of the eggplant. Serve with pasta and the remaining sauce.
Eggplant before baking
Eggplant before baking, brushed with oil
Roasted eggplant
Eggplant after roasting
Baked eggplant Parmesan
Baked eggplant Parmesan, right out of the oven

1 Dinner

Pasta with Garlicky Dandelion Greens and Raisins

My daughters absolutely love running around any patch of grass and grabbing a bouquet of dandelions to lovingly present to my wife, or anyone else who happens to be at hand. Swing by, you might get a bouquet too. So, the other day when I came across a lovely stock of dandelion greens at the grocery store, they were delighted when I told them we were going to eat dandelions for dinner.

If you’ve never cooked dandelion greens before, you can treat them pretty much the same as any other green you would wilt, but be forewarned, they are quite bitter. In this recipe, I cut the bitterness of the dandelion greens by also using a power greens mix of baby kale, chard, spinach, and arugula. The sweet raisins and earthy parmesan make for a wonderful play of flavors in the dish. Best of all, you can get this on the table in under 30 minutes.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can forage for your own dandelion greens  I would recommend finding some grass you are certain has not been treated with weed killer though.

P.S. – I’m still figuring out how to make the nutrition content correct for the dish. There is no way this is 2000 calories per serving.

 

Pasta with Garlicky Dandelion Greens and Raisins
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INGREDIENTS

  • 1 bunch dandelion greens, about 8 oz
  • Other assorted greens to make 12 cups. I used baby chard, kale, spinach, and arugula power greens mix
  • 5 cloves garlic sliced
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 12 oz short pasta like rotini, cavatelli, even ziti. I used whole wheat
  • ½ cup raisins
  • 1.5 oz grated Parmesan
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Serve with crushed red pepper flakes

METHOD

  1. Put on a large pot of well salted water to boil. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. If you time it right, the pasta will be done right when the greens are done. Wash your greens and roughly cut into three-inch pieces. Mix all the greens together with your hands, so you don’t end up with big clumps of only one kind of green once everything is cooked.
  2. Slice the garlic into thin rounds. Heat a large (at least 12”) skillet over medium heat. Sauté the garlic for about a minute. Stir it regularly so it does not burn. After a minute, dump in all the greens. It will seem like a lot of greens; they should be mounded over the pan. Sprinkle with salt and stir to get the garlic off the bottom of the pan so it does not burn. Cover and lower heat to medium-low. Cook for about four minutes, or until the greens are wilted. Add the raisins, cover, and remove from the heat. I like the raisins to get a little tender with the warmth of the pan, but not cook so long that they get mushy.
  3. When the pasta is done, reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water before dumping the noodles into a colander. Put the noodles into a large bowl. Toss the pasta with the greens and raisins. Mix in parmesan and serve.

Tags

Diet
vegetarian
vegan
lacto vegetarian
ovo vegetarian
pescetarian
Allergy
dairy free
egg free
soy free
peanut free
seafood free
treenut free
sesame free
mustard free

7.8.1.2
6

https://thedinnerwinner.com/pasta-with-garlicky-dandelion-greens-and-raisins/

Nutrition

Calories

2192 cal

Fat

83 g

Carbs

306 g

Protein

76 g

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