Portabella Eggs Benedict

Real eggs benedict consists of Hollandaise sauce-topped poached eggs on ham and an English muffin. The only thing this dish has in common with eggs benedict is the presence of eggs, but, because the idea for this dish came from “grilled portabella benedict” in Ellie Krieger’s So Easy cookbook, we decided to keep the benedict in the name. Portabella eggs benedict has a little more in common with grilled portabella benedict than it does with real eggs benedict (but just a little). Both recipes include portabella caps, eggs and pesto and that’s where the similarities end.

If you make roast the tomatoes and make the pesto ahead of time, you can throw this dish together in a matter of minutes.

4 portabella mushroom caps

olive oil

4 eggs

roasted tomatoes (click here for the recipe)

Nino’s pesto (click here for the recipe)

Shredded parmesan cheese

1. Preheat grill or grill pan.

2. De-gill the portabellas (gently scrape the dark gills out from inside the cap with a spoon) and coat them with olive oil.

3. Grill the portabellas over medium-high heat until they’re tender, 7-10 minutes per side (they're ready to go when they soften and start leaking clear liquid).

4. Fry the eggs.

5. Fill each portabella cap with as many roasted tomatoes as you can fit. Top with the fried egg. Drizzle with pesto and sprinkle with shredded parm.

Roasted Tomatoes

I don’t have much to say about these. They’re easy and delicious and they make the house smell great. We throw them in pasta, on pizza and in the middle of this slightly wacky Portabella eggs benedict recipe I’ll be posting soon.

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

2-3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

EVOO (about ¼ cup)

1 tsp dried thyme

1. Preheat oven to 375º and line an edged baking sheet (or lasagna pan) with parchment paper.

2. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, on the baking sheet. Scatter the sliced garlic over and around the tomatoes. Drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle with thyme.

3. Roast for 30-40 minutes and then jack the temperature up to 400º and roast for 10 minutes. 

Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Honey-Butter Glaze

We roast sweet potatoes all the time (slice ‘em thinly, spritz ‘em with a little canola oil, roast, flip, spritz the other side with canola oil and sprinkle with lemon juice, roast). They’re totally delicious and pretty darn healthy. Now that it’s grilling season, we’ve moved the sweet potato operation outside and experimented with a slightly less-healthy variation. The verdict? Totally delicious!

Sweet potatoes

Unsalted butter

Honey

1. Preheat grill.

2. Wash sweet potatoes and slice into rounds (about ¼-inch thick).

3. Combine butter and honey (you choose how much) in a microwaveable bowl and microwave until the butter melts. Stir to combine.

4. Brush one side of the sweet potato rounds with the honey-butter glaze and plop glazed-side-down onto the grill.

5. Cook until grill marks appear, then brush the glaze on the other side of the sweet potato, flip and cook until grill marks appear and the sweet potato is tender enough to bite into.

Nino's Pesto

I was lucky enough to spend the fall semester of my junior year of college in Florence—actually I lived in Sesto Fiorentino, 9 miles outside Firenze. We lived and took classes in a villa with frescos on the walls. Sometimes we could hear Nino (our opera-singing chef) singing in the kitchen, while we sat in class…I could go on and on about villa life and my adventures in Europe, but it’s probably better if I don’t. Instead, I’ll share Nino’s recipe for the best pesto in the universe.

1 medium potato, peeled and diced

3 oz. (more or less) chopped green beans

at least 12 fresh basil leaves per person

1 tbsp pine nuts (walnuts work if you’re in a bind)

3 tbsp shredded parmesan cheese (OR 2 tbsp shredded parmesan cheese and 1 tbsp shredded pecorino cheese)

½ cup EVOO

2 cloves garlic

1. Fill a large pasta pot with water. Add potatoes and green beans and bring to a boil.

2. Add pasta and cook until it’s al dente.

3. Meanwhile, place basil, cheese, nuts and garlic in a food processor and blend. Add EVOO and blend again.

4. Pour the pesto sauce into a large bowl.

5. When the pasta’s done drain it.* Then add the pasta and vegetables to the pesto sauce and toss to cover.

6. Mangia!

*If your pesto is too pasty, add 3 tbsp of the pasta water—unless you’re using brown rice pasta. In that case either add 3 tbsp tap water or 3 tbsp of the vegetable-y water (reserve the water before you add the pasta). I rarely add water.

Quinoa Cakes with Eggplant and Tomato Ragout

A few weeks ago, I made the mistake of telling a friend about these surprisingly delicious quinoa cakes. I promised her I’d post the recipe eventually. Apparently, “eventually” is not soon enough. Apparently “eventually” was three weeks ago…Well, here are the friggin’ quinoa cakes. Enjoy!

Seriously, these are delicious and, although the recipe looks wicked long, most of the steps can be done simultaneously so it can definitely be done in under an hour, less if you make the quinoa and/or roast the peppers ahead of time.

(Adapted from Epicurious.com)

1 cup quinoa

1 egg

1 egg white

shredded parmesan cheese

1 clove garlic, minced

dried oregano

4-5 tbsp olive oil, divided

1 medium eggplant, peeled and cubed

1 onion, diced

2 small cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp dried oregano

3 tbsp EVOO

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

1 large red bell pepper, halved and seeded

¾ c water

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1. Heat broiler. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray.

2. Place pepper halves on baking sheet, cut side down. Broil peppers on top rack (about 3 inches below the heat source) for 5 minutes or so, until the skins are mostly charred.

3. Remove peppers from the oven and place in a saucepan with a lid.

4. When the peppers are cool enough to handle, remove them from the saucepan, de-skin them (the charred parts will peel right off) and dice. Set aside.

5. Combine egg and egg white in a small bowl and beat lightly. Set aside.

6. Cook quinoa according to package instructions. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool.

7. Add the lightly beaten eggs, a handful (more or less) of shredded parmesan, 1 minced garlic clove and a reasonable amount (or an unreasonable amount if that’s how you roll) of dried oregano to the quinoa. Mix well.

8. Mold the quinoa mixture into cakes and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and spritzed with cooking spray. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes (up to an hour).

9. Heat EVOO in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the eggplant, onion, 2 minced garlic cloves and oregano and cook covered until eggplant softens, about 5 minutes.

10. Stir in the tomatoes, roasted red pepper and ¾ cup water and simmer, covered (but stirring occasionally) for about 10 minutes.

11. Meanwhile (assuming the quinoa cakes have had sufficient time to chill), heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. When the oil shimmers, add the cakes.

12. Cook the cakes for 8-10 minutes, turning once and adding 2-3 tbsp of oil when you flip the cakes. The cakes should be crisp and golden.

13. Plate the cakes. Top each cake with the ragout and sprinkle with mozzarella. 

Banana Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Pete eats brown bananas. That means we rarely have brown bananas for banana bread or other scrumptious dishes that require mushy bananas. But I got lucky yesterday—I snagged two bananas that were “brown” by my definition (merely “freckled” by Pete’s definition) and made my first attempt at banana ice cream. It was an enormous success! Even doubtful Pete thought it was so good that we should start buying brown bananas in bulk.

(Adapted from the advice of two brilliant friends and Cooking Light)

brown bananas

chocolate chips

1. Slice the bananas into rounds and place them on a baking sheet.

2. Freeze the sliced bananas for a few hours.

3. Put the frozen bits o’ banana in a food processor and process until creamy.

4. Add chocolate chips and process until they’re sufficiently mixed into the banana ice cream.

5. EAT!

Atayne

We’ve got some new blog bling. It’s over there…to the right. See the banner that says ATAYNE? That’s our bling. Ain’t it purdy?

Atayne is a really cool company that makes performance apparel (ie. shirts that will pull sweat away from your skin) from recycled plastic bottles and other natural stuff. When you click on the banner, you’ll go straight to the Atayne website. There, you can buy lots of great clothes (like cycling jerseys, après run tops and performance tops) and check out this totally fascinating feature called “Science Made Simple” (shameless plug).

Now that I’ve disclosed that I write for Atayne, there’s something else I need to tell you: when you click on that Atayne banner and buy some stuff, we get commission—and you (obviously) get some really cool performance apparel. In other words, when you buy Atayne stuff from our link, you’re also making a donation to Healthy-ish.

Go ahead. Click on the bling and shop away.

Note for those of you who don’t know us personally: We’re really opinionated and will never pimp anything that we don’t deem absolutely awesome.