Potluck food (2) - the reincarnation of spinach salad

I improvised my second dish for tomorrow's potluck as part of my ongoing effort to consume the leftovers from last Sunday's brunch. (This seemed particularly appropriate because many of the same people will be at both meals - will anyone notice the reusing of ingredients?) The ingredients at hand were jarred mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, and slivered almonds, all of which I originally intended for spinach salad.

Tonight, I tossed a couple of cups each of cooked brown rice, white rice, and quinoa (cooked with cinnamon) together with a couple of handfuls each of the almonds and cranberries and the remaining half-jar of oranges. I then added a tablespoon or two each of balsamic vinegar and the juice from the orange jar. The mixture was generally good, but I think I need to experiment more with the dressing - I added a bit too much vinegar, then went overboard with orange in my attempt to compensate.

Potluck food (1)

I'm headed to a vegetarian Shabbat potluck dinner tomorrow night, and spent the last hour or so putting my contributions together. I love the concept of potlucks - they're so much easier than hosting a solo dinner party, and so much cheaper than going out - but the food can be hit-or-miss. So I always try to bring a large quantity of something that I'm happy to eat, so that at least some people will be well fed.

This first recipe was originally inspired by "Greek-Style Canellini with Vegetables," from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, a cookbook that influenced me enormously when I was learning to cook in high school and is probably most responsible for my general cooking style. I've made a bunch of substitutions and changed the proportions over the years, depending on what vegetables, herbs, and beans are at hand.

Vegetable Pasta Salad

1 lb. short, chunky pasta
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 large yellow or vidalia onion, diced
3 medium summer squash (squashes?), quartered length-wise and sliced - I used two zucchini and one yellow squash
3 large carrots, halved length-wise and sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons dried dill
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 14.5 oz cans Italian-style stewed tomatoes
2 14.5 oz cans garbanzos

Cook the pasta according to package instructions, rinse in cool water to stop cooking, and drain. Toss with a tablespoon of olive oil and place in a large serving bowl.

While the pasta is cooking, saute the onions and garlic in a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a very large pan or soup pot until translucent. Add the carrots and dried herbs and saute for a few more minutes, then the squash. When the squash is tender (about 5 minutes), add the cooked vegetables, tomatoes (undrained), and garbanzos (drained and rinsed) to the pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste.

(As with any good potluck contribution, this is good warm or at room temperature.)

The Pantry Challenge

The chickpea recipe in my last post (almost) qualifies for Kathryn Elliott's pantry challenge over at Limes & Lycopene! Here it is more formally, with two quick modifications to meet the only-one-spice and frozen-veggie requirements:

Ingredients
1 10-oz package frozen whole-leaf or chopped spinach, thawed
1 14.5-oz can garbanzos (chickpeas)
1 small onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons cumin

Saute onion in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add cumin and drained & rinsed garbanzos and saute for a few minutes more. Add spinach and cook on medium heat, stirring, until the mixture is hot. Serve over rice.

Brunch leftovers for dinner

I hosted a large brunch on Sunday, leaving me with a refrigerator full of leftover ingredients for spinach salad and fruit salad. Here’s what I came up with in my attempt to cook dinner without buying more groceries:

Garbanzos with Spinach
Variations on garbanzos with spinach are among my favorite foods. Tonight I sliced a small onion into thin half-moons, then sautéed it in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. After three or four minutes I added one drained can of garbanzos and about two teaspoons of cumin and a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon and cooked, stirring, for a couple of minutes. As I continued to stir the garbanzo mixture occasionally, I steamed about 10 oz of baby spinach until it was bright green and slightly wilted (using the steamer basket on top of my rice cooker, as I also had a pot of brown rice on). I added the spinach to the garbanzo mixture and stirred, then served over brown rice.

Fruit soup
I peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped a medium-sized cantaloupe and a 3- or 4-pound section of seedless watermelon, then pureed the fruit in the blender along with a tablespoon or so each of balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. Simple and delicious.