The first is Roasted Grapes & Olives. At first, I was turned off by this recipe because I thought it didn't sound worth the effort. Then I thought about it more, especially about how much I love things tossed in olive oil and roasted in the oven, of which this recipe requires. Since we just happened to have some olives and grapes at the house, I figured, why not! This specific recipe is from Smitten Kitchen which is one of my favorite blogs to follow. She will never steer you wrong. This recipe works for a multitude of uses:
- crostini
- pizza topping
- dip with the ricotta cheese you just made at home (YES, I'm bringing it up again!)
- snacking with a spoon :)
The second recipe is Sausage Stuffed Red Onions. You don't even have to like onions to enjoy this recipe. It is slow cooked and the sausage stuffing is so very flavorful, you want to keep eating it well past your full-point.
An excellent and easy side dish to serve with the onions is Roasted Mashed Cauliflower. I've found that most mashed cauloflor recipes call for boiling the cauliflower, draining it and then mashing it up. I have found this method to be unneccesarilly time consuming and ultimately, flavorless unless you add a lot of butter/oil/milk, etc to it. So I would like to declare, that I have invented a better method! LOL...please don't tell me if you already make yours this way.
What's your favorite type of food to roast?
Roasted Grapes and Olives
2 T olive oil
1 c seedless grapes, I used purples grapes
1 c olives, I used pitted, kalamata
1 1/2 t chopped rosemary (dried will work)
Sea salt & red pepper flakes
Step 1:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Step 2:
Combine olive oil, olives, grapes, rosemary and a pinch of the sea salt and red pepper flakes in a bowl. Then pour them into a baking dish (8x8 square or 8" round cake pan should work).
Step 3:
Roast for about 35 - 40 minutes, until the grapes are wilted and leaking (delicious) juices. It is recommended to roll the pan a few times during this process, to keep the baking even.
Step 4:
Eat a bite and enjoy the delight that this will be in your mouth.
3 ways to use the grapes:
1) crostini: toast bread, spread ricotta on the bread then top with the olives/grapes
2) pizza: spread olive oil on pizza crust, then top with mozzarella, some ricotta cheese and then spread olives/grapes around the top. This is a delicious appetizer pizza.
3) dip: put ricotta in the bottom of a small dip bowl then top with the olives/grapes. I recommend just putting the olives/grapes on top, not the juice, as it will make your dip quite runny, albeit delicious. I put the dip in the oven for about 5 - 8 minutes to let it warm up and the flavors to meld. Serve with your choice of crackers.
Sausage Stuffed Red Onions
This recipe will fill 4 onions, but I usually only make 2 onions. That said, I make the full recipe of filling. You can serve the additional filling if you're hungry, with your grain of choice (I like to use quick-cooking bulgur wheat) or you could save it for another meal.
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| Inside look at the yumminess! |
Additional prep notes:
- The best part of this recipe --> the filling can be made in advance! Make up to 1 day in advance and keep in the refrigerator until you are ready to make your dinner.
- The onions take about 1 hour in the oven, make sure to plan this time into your prep
- A melon baller is incredibly helpful to use in hulling out the onions
Ingredients:
- 2 - 4 red onions (smaller size)
- 1/2 lb of sausage (breakfast roll sausage works great and is an inexpensive protein option)
- 1 C carrots
- 1/3 C Granny Smith apples
- 1 1/2 t fennel seeds
- 3/4 C Gruyere cheese (I used Provel as well and it worked great). Basically, you want a smooth, white cheese that will complement the flavors, not overpower them like a cheddar might do.
- 1 t parsley
- 1 t sage
Step 1:
Preheat your oven to
Step 2:
Preparing your onions: Slice the ends off of the onions, so that they have a flat spot to sit in your pan. Peel the outer skin off of the oven. Using your melon baller, scoop out the insides of your red onions.
Step 3:
Once your onions are ready, place them in a baking pan then top with parchment paper and then cover the whole baking pan with foil (this will keep the delicious baked flavors inside and focused on the onions!). The onions will need to bake for 1 hour to become softened.
Step 4:
While the onions are baking, you can work on the filling. Place carrots in the food processor & process until they are in smaller chunks. Put carrots and ground sausage in skillet and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add in the apples and fennel seeds. Once the sausage is fully cooked, drain the sausage.
Step 5:
Once the sausage mixture has drained, add in 1/2 C of cheese to the mixture and your parsley and sage. Your mixture is ready to go!
Step 6:
Once the onions are baked, you can remove them from the oven and carefully put your filling in the open space of the onion. Push the filling gently into the whole to make sure you have it completely full. Once the filling is inside, top the mixture with your remaining cheese.
Step 7:
Place onions back into the oven for about 20 minutes, to let the cheese fully melt and the filling flavors to meld into the onion.
Enjoy!!!
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| It's hard to make a scoop of mashed cauliflower look yummy but I can promise it tastes delicious. |
Roasted Mashed Cauliflower
This recipe is so good, even Cory requests seconds of it!
1 Head of Cauliflower
1 T olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
3 - 4 T butter (if you want)
1/4 - 1/2 C milk/half n half/whipping cream (your choice!) and the amount depends upon the creaminess of the mixture that you desire
You will need a food processor, for this to puree as smooth as possible.
Step 1:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Step 2:
Prepare a jelly roll pan (large cookie sheet with edges) with parchment paper. If you don't have parchment paper, spray the pan with cooking spray and then top with foil; spray the foil with cooking spray as well. Why spray underneath? Sometimes, the liquid from a vegetable can go underneath the foil & make clean-up a booger.
Step 3:
Slice the head of cauliflower into 1" thick pieces. Place cauliflower on the prepared baking sheet, drizzle olive oil over the pieces and then use a pastry brush to spread the oil evenly over the cauliflower. Next, sprinkle salt and pepper over the pieces. I've mentioned before that I love flavor grinders, this is a recipe where I use my sea salt, basil and rosemary grinder to add some extra flavor.
Step 4:
Bake cauliflower for about 20 - 30 minutes, until some browned edges start to show on the top. See note below on why we roast!
Step 5:
Once the cauliflower is fully cooked, safely transfer the pieces to your food processor. They should all fit in at one time, if not, two batches is fine because you'll mix it all together at the end. Also place the butter and milk in with the cauliflower.
Step 6:
Process the cauliflower mixture & add liquid (chicken stock works too!) until it reaches your desired consistency. It should be silky smooth. One additional ingredient you can add at this point is grated Parmesan cheese, yum!
If you're not ready to eat your cauliflower right away, you can always put it into a pretty casserole dish and keep it warm in the oven (at a low temperature) until you're ready to serve it!
*Side note for education! Roasting does two things to the cauliflower, to make this better than the boiled version:
- it gives the cauliflower more depth of flavor
- it removes the excess moisture from the cauliflower, removing the draining step
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