Zucchini Spiral Quiche

There are so many things to love about summer - long sunny days, fluffy clouds, beautiful sunsets, and weekend farmers markets! Farmers market is my prime motivation on Saturdays to get an early morning workout. Once I’m up and about, and feeling good about having burnt some calories, I head to the market for delicious breakfast crepes or tacos, and pick up fresh veggies and fruits for the week. Lately I’ve been seeing über bright yellow & green zucchini at several vendor booths. Last week I got one of each, and decided to make something that really highlights those lovely bright colors. I had seen pictures of spiral quiches floating around on the internet, and quiche being one of my go-to dishes when I can’t figure out what to make, I thought I’d give the spiral quiche a try! I added ricotta cheese to the custard to make it a bit dense so it could hold the zucchini. This quiche certainly required some extra efforts, but the eye-catching results were worth it, and it was absolutely delicious!

 

Ingredients:

2 large Zucchini (1 green, 1 yellow)

1 pie crust

3 eggs

¾ cup part skim ricotta cheese

¼ cup skim milk

1 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese - optional

¼ tsp Nutmeg - optional

Salt and ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F.

 

Wash the zucchini and slice them very thin lengthwise?. You want the slices to also be of similar width so slices towards the wider middle might need to be cut in half lengthwise. Sprinkle a little bit of salt on the slices and let them sit for a half hour to release moisture. Use paper towels to squeeze out as much moisture as possible. If this step is skipped you’ll end up with a lot of liquid in the quiche as it starts baking. If this happens, don’t worry! Just use paper towels and soak up the liquid on top and continue to bake. You might have to repeat blotting a few times during the total baking period.

While the zucchini slices are resting, lightly grease a 9” baking pan and line it with pie crust. Add pie weights (or dry beans, rice etc.) and bake the crust for 10 min. Increase the oven temperature to 375 F.

 

Make the custard by mixing the eggs, ricotta cheese and milk in a bowl. Add nutmeg and season with salt and pepper (remember there’s salt on the zucchini slices!!).

Assembling the quiche:

Add the custard to the semi baked pie crust.

 

Start rolling one zucchini slice with the skin side on top. Roll it really tight! Then take another slice of different color and roll it around the first one. Keep doing this till you get a tightly wound disk about 5-6” in diameter (or as wide as you can hold securely). While you are rolling it is best to have someone assisting or use heavy objects to hold the ends of the zucchini slices in place. I had a few glass bowls helping me with this.

 

Once you have a 5-6” disk, gently pick it up and place it in the center of the pie crust with the custard. Continue adding zucchini slices till you reach the crust. You’ll get custard all over your hands but trust me, it’s totally worth it!

 

Transfer the baking pan to the oven and bake for ~45-50 min until the custard is well set. As I mentioned earlier, don’t worry if you see liquid pooling on top. You can just soak it up with a paper towel. Once the custard is set to your liking, sprinkle grated cheese on top and broil on high for a couple minutes until the cheese is browned.

 

If at any point you feel like the crust is getting too dark, you can cover the crust with Aluminum foil. This will allow the rest of the quiche to continue baking while reducing the intensity of heat transferred to the crust.

 

Once baked, let the quiche cool for ~5-10 minutes, then slice and serve!

~Gayatri

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Asian Lasagna

A few years ago, we cooked a ‘mostly vegetarian’ Thanksgiving meal, with the star of our dinner being a zucchini lasagna. The Parmesan-vegetable sauce blanketing layers of zucchini, topped with mozzarella cheese was just what we needed for a scrumptious Thanksgiving meal. If prepped properly, the vegetables don’t get soggy, and form beautiful layers. Its a great substitute for pasta if you want a lighter, healthier lasagna.

This recipe is a similar preparation, but with an Asian twist! I used extra firm tofu along with vegetables - its the best thing to soak up all the amazing flavors from the marinade and the vegetables, and it firms up as it bakes making the texture quite delectable.

Ingredients (For a 9x13 baking pan: ~10 servings)

For the layers

1 large eggplant

3 small-medium zucchini squash (I used 2 green + 1 yellow)

1 medium carrot

3-4 radishes

14 oz (or more) extra firm tofu

For the sauce

16 oz mushrooms (finely chopped - I used food processor)

5-6 green onions (separate the onion bulb from the shoots and slice the onion part for the sauce, reserving the shoots for marinade and/or garnish; Can also use regular onion chopped)

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp grated ginger (or ginger powder)

1 tsp sesame oil (or olive oil)

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1-2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp honey

For marinade (Adjust ingredients to taste if required)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water

1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp honey

sliced green onions (optional)

Prepping the veggies for layering:

This step is required to remove excess water from the vegetables so that they don’t get soggy while baking. It can be done in a pan on the stovetop, or in the oven. Since the volume was quite high, I decided to use the oven for this.

Slice the eggplant about ⅛ - ¼ inch thick. Sprinkle with some salt and lay them on paper towels. Put some weight on eggplant slices to let some of the moisture drain out.

Slice the zucchini ⅛ - ¼ inch thick. I decided not to slice them lengthwise, but that would also work. Sprinkle with just a little bit of salt.

Spread out the eggplant and zucchini in a single layer on a baking sheet if possible (it’s okay if it overlaps though). Preheat oven to 400 F and roast the eggplant and zucchini for ~20 minutes until they are a little tender (they will cook more later, so don’t keep them in too long).

Thinly slice the carrots and radishes.

Prepping the tofu:

While the veggies are roasting, drain and squeeze the block of tofu; cut it into ¼ inch slices. I like to squeeze out water one more time after slicing. Mix all the marinade ingredients, and let the tofu soak in the marinade for ~20-30 minutes.

Making the sauce:

Heat sesame oil on medium heat, add the onions, ginger, garlic. Saute for a minute, then add the mushrooms and cook uncovered stirring frequently till the moisture from the mushrooms is reduced. Add soy sauce, vinegar, and honey, adjusting to taste. The sauce shouldn’t be very liquidy.

Assembling:

Line a baking dish (I used a 9x13 pan) with aluminum foil (it’s okay not to, just makes cleanup easier). Spread a thin layer of the mushroom sauce on the bottom. Lay down marinated tofu in a single layer, followed by a layer of eggplant slices. Top that with a layer of zucchini, another thin layer of mushroom sauce, and then the carrots and radishes. Repeat layering the eggplant-zucchini-sauce-carrots-radishes until you run out (I got 2 layers). Top with the remaining tofu (I was just short of a complete layer). Spoon over about ¼-⅓ cup of the leftover marinade evenly on top.

Baking!

Bake in preheated oven (400 F) for 25-30 min until all the vegetables are cooked through and there aren’t any noticeable pools of liquid.

Remove from the oven, let it stand for a few minutes, then slice and serve topped with more marinade if desired.

Serving suggestion:

I served this Asian lasagna with a simple coleslaw salad tossed with a lemon-ginger dressing. However, it would go very well with rice or noodles. The marinade is quick and easy to make, and can be used as a sauce for the noodles or rice.

~Gayatri

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Asian Lasagna - layers of goodness!http://cooksofcakeandkindness.blogspot.com/2015/08/asian-lasagna.html

Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Thursday, August 6, 2015

Vegetarian Thanksgiving (Tofurkey not included)

My parents came down to visit us last Thanksgiving, so we decided to cook them a feast, vegetarian style. We did have a few traditional turkey legs, but one of the main dishes was lasagna - only with zucchini slices instead of noodles! Low-carb! :) The original recipe came from a cookbook called Simply Delicious Vegetarian by Carla Bardi, and it was pretty tasty the first time we made it, but we decided to put our own (somewhat healthier) spin on it. This one takes a lot of prep time, but we think it's worth it!

Ingredients

4-5 large green zucchini, sliced length-wise (about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick)

1/2 - 1 cup mushrooms, chopped

1/2 - 1 cup asparagus, chopped

1/2 - 3/4 cups sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (soak in warm water for about an hour to soften)

grated Parmesan cheese

1 - 2 cups bread crumbs (we used finely crushed bran flakes instead)

skim milk, both powdered and regular

garlic, salt, pepper

shredded mozzarella cheese (low-fat or part-skim)

Prep the zucchini: It's best to slice the zucchini at least 4 hours ahead of time to help reduce the moisture in the slices. Lightly salt the slices and layer them in a colander, with paper towel between the layers of zucchini. Put something heavy on top (like a stack of bowls) to help press some of the water out of the slices. When you are ready to make the lasagna, broil the zucchini slices 5-7 minutes per side to further reduce moisture.

To make the filling: chop the mushrooms, asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes, and saute them, seasoning them with salt, pepper and garlic. Pour about 1/4 cup skim milk into the pan and stir. Alternately add Parmesan cheese and powdered skim milk to thicken the mixture, until it is almost like a bisque. If you add more milk than cheese, be sure to also add more spices. (Note: if you don't have, or can't find, powdered skim milk, you can use 2% or whole milk, and add more grated cheese than milk to the mixture.) You can experiment with different filling ingredients, like spinach. The original recipe called for carrots, shallots and celery - which we though was a little boring :)

Put it all together: Heat oven to 350F. Layer the bottom of a baking dish with the broiled zucchini slices, spread a thin layer of filling over the zucchini, sprinkle with a layer of bread crumbs, then sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top. Repeat this process until all the filling is used up. Make sure to leave enough zucchini for a top layer to cover the last of the filling (making an odd number of zucchini layers). Sprinkle the top layer of just zucchini with bread crumbs, and instead of using Parmesan cheese, top with shredded mozzarella. Bake 15-25 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted and/or browning slightly at the edges. Let cool, then slice and enjoy!

~Karla