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In 2003, Sid Lerner, a former Madison Avenue Mad Man, created “Meatless Monday,” a slogan and campaign that quickly spread throughout the world. He wanted to draw more public awareness to the importance of fruits, vegetables and grains in our daily diet. Lerner, who is not a vegetarian, became a partner with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and soon chefs, school cafeterias and non-vegetarians hopped on the Meatless-Monday bandwagon.
It’s a popular tradition in our home. I prepare dishes with eggs, cheese, yogurt and other dairy products. I am always looking for unique dishes to serve once or even twice a week that are vegetarian but not vegan.
Enter Michael Natkin, the creator and author of the award-winning blog, Herbivoracious. I just received a copy of his cookbook. It is brimming with vibrant vegetarian recipes for dishes one can prepare any time during the week. The recipes are vegetarian, not vegan.
“It was not exactly a hotbed of haute cuisine,” Natkin, who was born in Louisville, Ky., writes in his introduction. “Everyone ate fast-food hamburgers and vegetables were boiled until they begged for mercy.”
Natkin lost his mother to breast cancer when he was 18. He did a lot of the home cooking as a teenager, and his eyes opened wide when he arrived in Providence, R.I., to attend college. He ate Portuguese, Thai, Italian and Armenian foods for the first time. Natkin admits in the run-up to college, he devoured cookbooks like a fine meal.
He lives in Seattle, where he spent years in the software industry before turning his attention to writing. He’s a pretty good food photographer as well. He took the full-color photos for his book.
Ten-Minute Chickpea Salad with Feta and Basil
Ingredients:
2 15-ounce cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 of a red onion, finely diced
1/2 of an English cucumber, finely diced
8 ounces of roasted red peppers from the jar
8 ounces of feta, crumbled
1 garlic clove, crushed and minced
1 handful of fresh basil leaves, torn
3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients except for the salt and pepper in a salad bowl and toss well. Depending on how salty your feta is, you might not need any salt. Add the pepper to taste.
Serve right away or refrigerate for up to a few hours.
Serves three as an entrée, eight as a side dish.
Chevre with Sautéed Grapes
Ingredients:
8 ounces of fresh soft chevre (goat cheese), cut into eight pieces and rolled into balls
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1-1/2 cups of red seedless grapes, halved
1 tablespoon of fresh chives, minced
1 tablespoon of chive blossoms, pulled apart into individual florets, optional
1 teaspoon of fresh oregano leaves
Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon, to taste
Directions:
Just before serving the salad, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a medium sauté pan over medium-high. Add the grapes, and sauté them for 30 seconds.
Arrange the chevre on a serving platter. Pour the grapes around the cheese. Drizzle with the remaining oil. Top with the chives and remaining ingredients.
Serves four.
Note from Phyllis: Natkin prefers the Laurel Chenel brand of goat cheese, but any top-quality chevre will work well. A small handful of baby microgreens can be substituted for the chive blossoms. You also can use kosher salt.
Dutch Baby with Sautéed Apples
Ingredients:
5 large eggs
1-1/4 cups of whole milk
1-1/4 cups of flour
Pinch of kosher salt
1 stick of unsalted butter
2 apples such as Cortland or Gala, peeled, cored and cut into 16 slices each
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
Generous sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Place the first four ingredients into a blender and blend at high speed for one minute.
Put 6 tablespoons of the butter into a well-seasoned 12-inch cast-iron skillet or other oven-safe pan. Put the skillet into the oven.
When the butter has melted, pull the skillet out of the oven, and swirl the butter around using a brush to coat evenly. Pour the batter into the skillet, and return to the oven. Cook until puffed and golden brown, for about 18 minutes.
Melt the remaining butter in a sauté pan over medium-high. Add the apples, and sauté until they are tender and glazed, for about five minutes. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon and pinch of salt and sauté for about two minutes more.
When the Dutch Baby is done, remove the skillet from the oven. Top with the apples and confectioners’ sugar.
Carefully turn out the Dutch Baby onto a serving platter. Serve with the lemon wedges.
Serves four. SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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