Roasted Mushrooms

I love to roast just about any vegetable. It is such an easy way to prepare veggies. Today I roasted a mix of cremini and shitake mushrooms. The shitake mushrooms are from the farmer's market so that counts as locally grown (in my quest to be a better consumer) but the creminis are from Washington (not very local).

Drizzle olive oil on the mushrooms, season them with thyme, rosemary and pepper. Then roast them in a 350 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes, until tender. Season with salt when they come out of the oven (if you salt them before they go in, they will lose a lot of their moisture). They cook down quite a bit.

Black-Eyed Peas in a Walnut Sauce

Being that I love beans and eat some sort of bean everyday, I thought I would post about beans all week!! Beans and nuts are my main source of protein and this recipe has both. It is a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian cookbook. This is must have cookbook for everyone, especially vegetarians and vegans. There are so many wonderful recipes from all over the world and she uses all types of grains and beans without too many hard to find ingredients.

This black-eyed pea dish isn't the prettiest but it is so tasty and very good for you. It would be great over your favorite grain along with a salad. I served it with a warm spinach mushroom salad. I make a very simple salad. I saute sliced mushrooms (shitake, crimini, button, etc) and when tender I put them on top of some fresh spinach leaves. Then I season it with a good olive oil (this time I used a porcini olive oil-so good) and salt and pepper.

Quick and Easy Pantry Cooking Day Eight: Wild Rice with Mushrooms

I keep many kinds of rice in my pantry but I find that I usually end up using brown rice for lots of dishes. I had some wild rice left from a Thanksgiving wild rice and corn bread dressing dish so I decided to use it up. There were some beautiful shitake mushrooms at the farmer's market that I thought would be good with wild rice. You could use whatever mushroom you can find or use the dehydrated kind. This is not the prettiest dish but it has a nice earthy flavor.

Wild Rice with Mushrooms

• 1 cup wild rice
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 teaspoon fresh
• 2 cups mushrooms, chopped
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper

Cook wild rice in broth for about 45 minutes. Drain excess broth from rice. While the rice is cooking saute onion, garlic, red pepper flakes and thyme until onion is translucent, about five minutes. Add mushrooms and cook about 10 minutes more, until mushrooms are tender. This time will vary depending on the mushroom you are using. Combine mushroom mixture and rice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

variations: Add 1/4 cup white wine to mushrooms near end of their cooking time for some extra flavor. Garnish with chopped scallions or parsley