Madhu Knits and Cooks

Recipe, knitting, and sewing project notes

Tag: Cooking — Main Courses

  • A Truly Unique and Mouthwatering Saag Paneer – with Feta!

    I checked out Priya Krishna's great Indian-ish cookbook from our library ebook reader, and the recipe that immediately caught my eye was the Feta Saag Paneer recipe.  

    Feta Saag Paneer Served

    Feta instead of paneer?  Yes, it works!  And it works really, really well.  The saltiness and brine of the feta melts wonderfully into the cooked spinach to create a creamy, tart, and herby dish, though I think Krishna's liberal use of butter helps enhance the flavor as well 🙂

    I made a few modifications to this recipe – substituted 1 tsp. of ground coriander for seeds based on the recipe reviews and personal preference, less butter (don't remember how much, but I think just a small amount works), and one Thai red chile.  I also reduced the spices overall because I had only 10 oz of spinach and about 4 oz of feta.  

    Yum!  I look forward to making this recipe again.

  • Whole Roasted Cauliflower in a Gobi Manchurian-ish Style

    When I saw Milk Street had a recipe inspired by one of my Indian-Chinese favorite dishes, gobi manchurian, I knew it was a "when" not "if" for my first attempt at this recipe.  

    Gobi Cauliflower Roasted Whole

    Unfortunately, while the flavors were slightly reminiscent of the sweet-spicy gobi manchurian I know and love, I overall found this roasted cauliflower too overspiced for my preferences.  It was similar to the last whole roasted Milk Street cauliflower recipe I made, but without the additional herbs, tomatoes, etc. to cut the very strong deep dried spice flavor.  So I think this will not be a recipe repeat.  

  • Fettuccine with Kale, Parmesan, Olive Oil, and Garlic – A Simple Weeknight Dinner

    With leftover homemade fettuccine in the freezer, and leftover kale in the fridge, I decided to put the two together.  But how?  Enter Bon Appetit.  I modified their recipe by using my homemade fettuccine instead of spaghetti, about 3/4 of a bunch of dinosaur kale, 2 cloves of garlic, less olive oil (maybe 2-3 tbsp. instead of a quarter cup), and a sprinkling of shaved parmesan on top.  

    Kale and Parmesan Fettucine

    The result was very good, though slightly more on the bland end.  A bit more salt, kale, olive oil, and parmesan to taste would have helped, so in the future, I will not reduce the original recipe amounts.

  • Updated Favorite Homemade Vegetable Noodle Soup – with Potatoes and Kale

    With some leftover potatoes and kale in the fridge, I decided to do the easiest thing I could think of – throw them in a soup!  

    Vegetarian Soup with Potatoes and Kale

    I used my favorite vegetarian noodle soup recipe, and added the cubed potatoes in for 9 minutes to fully cook while the ripped kale only took a few minutes.  Both were fantastic additions to the soup, with the kale in particular really adding to satisfying meal.  Look forward to adding these again to my future soups!

  • Baked Spinach and Ricotta Manicotti – An Adaptable Recipe that Produces a Hearty Dinner

    With leftover spinach ricotta filling from my first stuffed pasta, I decided to attempt the Cook's Illustrated Baked Manicotti.  I thought the manicotti would be less time consuming than making and stuffing fresh pasta again, and while I was correct, the multiple steps required also make this more of a weekend than weeknight meal.

    Baked Manicotti - Rolled Filling

    I first sautéed leftover spinach, red onion, and garlic, and combined it with leftover ricotta to supplement the pre-made spinach and ricotta filling.  I then soaked the Wegmans no-boil lasagna noodles as directed, and then filled and rolled the shells with the filling.  The approx. half leftover spinach ricotta filling was enough to fill 4 rolls and then newly sautéed spinach mixture enough for 2.  I then decided to use jarred tomato sauce – Wegmans Diavolo – instead of fresh, grated some parmesan on top, and baked the manicotti for 34 minutes.  As directed, I then broiled the dish before serving.

    Baked Manicotti - Out of the Oven

    Many steps, but for a great result – tangy from the tomato sauce, fatty and rich from the ricotta, and fresh herb-y flavors jumping out from the spinach.  The recipe took very well to my adaptations (jarred sauce, leftover filling with different ingredients, an improvised new filling of leftovers), such that I think this will be a well used recipe in the future.

  • An Improvised Chickpea Salad Sandwich – Bland, but Different Meal

    I recently went on a vegetarian sandwich googling kick, after feeling a bit exhausted from my lunch salad routine.  One of those searches resulted in an unexpected discovery – vegetarian/vegan chickpea salad sandwiches!  Who would have thought?

    Chickpea Salad Sandwich - Filling Prepared

    When I got to actually making the sandwich filling, I improvised significantly from the recipes linked above, simply to accommodate what I had in my fridge and pantry.  So I eyeballed some cooked chickpeas, dijon mustard, mayonnaise, chopped red onion and scallion, herbes de provence, salt, and pepper into a bowl, and then lightly mashed the chickpeas as I stirred these ingredients together.

    I then spooned the filling into some toasted bread, added some thin sliced tomatoes, and sat down to eat.

    Chickpea Salad Sandwich - Served

    The result was somewhat bland, but still pretty tasty to eat smashed, flavored chickpeas in bread.  I think the key changes to make in the future are to include fresh celery for a textural contrast, some lemon juice for a more sharp tartness, and some herbs (as called for by the ATK recipe) would have definitely helped as well.  So a work in progress!

  • Spinach and Ricotta Mezzalune – A Fantastic, Albeit Time-Consuming Stuffed Pasta

    My first stuffed pasta, largely following the ATK Half-Moon Stuffed Pasta with Spinach and Ricotta recipe.  This pasta turned out even better than I could have expected – incredibly fresh spinach flavor with just the right amount of saltiness and creaminess from the ricotta and butter/salt/parmesan sauce.  AND you can freeze the uncooked leftovers (just add a minute or two to the cooking time for the frozen ravioli), making it a fantastic future weeknight treat.

    Mezzalune - Served

    The modifications I made:

    Notes for future attempts:

    • Per the recipe guidance, used only 8oz of the pasta but had a tremendous amount of filling leftover (approx. half!) so should have used the entire amount pasta dough I made
    • Definitely don't need a sauce for this – so incredibly tasty on it's own
    • A multi-hour (maybe 3-hour) effort with the dough and filling prep, pasta rolling, and then ultimately not only filling the pasta but also then letting it dry for 30 minutes before cooking

    Mezzalune - Pasta Being Filled

    Mezzalune - Filled Pasta Drying

    Mezzalune - Cooked in Pan

  • Caramelized Onion and Brie Pizza – Pretty Good Alternative to Tomato Sauce and Mozzarella!

    With one serving of pizza dough in the fridge, and not enough mozzarella and tomato sauce to put on it, what to do?  We didn't have any smoked gouda to make my beloved Matchbox Fire and Smoke Pizza, so to the internet I turned for other options.  King Arthur Flour conveniently had a Caramelized Onion and Brie pizza recipe, which not only could use up our leftover pizza dough, but also some leftover brie.

    Carmelized Onion Pizza

    I largely followed the recipe (halved the ingredients for a half pie topping) though I did finish the pizza under the broiler which resulted in the very dark, crisp onions pictured above. 

    The flavors of the toppings were great – rich and creamy brie with slightly earthy yet sweet caramelized onions.  My husband really loved this topping as is, though I think I would have preferred another sweet or salty contrast – perhaps the sweetened cranberries, almonds or fresh herbs mentioned in a KAF recipe note.  However, it's a great recipe to use up leftover onions and cheese, so one I can see us making again.

    Carmelized Onion Pizza Close Up

  • Milk Street’s Eggplant, Tomato, and Chickpea Tagine – Fantastic, Healthy Weeknight Dinner

    I've had some leftover couscous I've wanted to use up, and found a vegetarian tagine-style recipe on Milk Street that seemed like the perfect excuse to attempt couscous v2.  The recipe – Eggplant, Tomato, and Chickpea Tagine – also had the benefit of being prepared within minutes in the Instant Pot and as such, another way to try to prepare eggplant, my previous foe.  

    Chickpea Tagine - Served

    The result was fantastic – flavorful, with great textural variance from the well-cooked eggplant and tomatoes with still firm chickpeas.  I halved the recipe and used regular paprika in favor of the sweet paprika. 

    The chickpeas themselves were ever so slightly bland, but may have been because I twice as many chickpeas as the halved recipe would use.  I look forward to making this again as an easy, very quick (and healthy!) weeknight dinner.  

  • Unique Whole Baked Cauliflower that Tastes Like Falafel

    Whole baked cauliflowers – they are a thing!  This next attempt from Milk Street, the Cauliflower with Spiced Tahini and Garlic-Chili Oil, definitely was the opposite of the lightly flavored Miznon whole cauliflower.  This cauliflower burst with strong dried spice (cumin, cinnamon, sumac, cardamon) flavors, bright parsley, and an olive oil / tomato glaze of sorts.  And I omitted the pine nuts, which probably would have added another strong flavor!

    Tahini Cauliflower - Whole

    In all, my husband said this cauliflower almost tasted like falafel, which seems fairly accurate with the deep, dried Middle Eastern spice flavor.  I would make this again for a crowd, but would need to pair it with carefully picked sides as this definitely is a distinct flavor explosion.  

    Cooking note:  The cauliflower was 1.6 pounds and I cooked it for 40 minutes in a more tight foil wrap, and it baked up fine!

    Tahini Cauliflower - Served