“I really want to play Princess Leia. Stick some big pastries on my head. Now that would be interesting.” ~ Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor (1971 – )

While we aren’t big proponents of consuming prepared foods, one of the exceptions is in using frozen puff pastry. There are a few reasons – the homemade stuff contains cholesterol from butter and can take days to make what with chilling the layers, for instance – but of most significance is that this is a lifesaver ingredient.

In the past, puff pastry was on my list of “maybe once a year at the most because it isn’t exactly healthy” foods. Recently, however, Pepperidge Farm has eliminated the trans- fats by switching to non-hydrogenated oils in producing their frozen puff pastry sheets. It still contains “2% or less” of high fructose corn syrup and salt, but for an occasional treat, I’ll accept that.

The beauty of this product is in its versatility because it can be combined with minimal ingredients to make a spectacular dish. It can be used to create lovely desserts, like the Little Britches palmier cookies we enjoy in the summer (see page 136 of the Mosaic Meals cookbook), or it can become part of a dinner entrée enveloping a savory filling.

For this appetizer recipe – also perfect for serving at a special tea time to celebrate a princess’ wedding – we combined the alternatives and came up with a savory cookie by layering a parsley-mint pesto between the folds. The filling choice is really incidental, as we can also envision this working with all kinds of simple spreads like an olive tapenade, a coarse mustard, or even a finely chopped caramelized onion.

The inspiration for this variation came while sitting at a Lebanese café and wondering what we could do with some leftover tabbouleh besides eating it as the salad it was intended to be. The little bit of cracked wheat in it doesn’t get in the way at all if you opt to use ½ cup prepared tabbouleh instead of assembling your own filling ingredients as indicated below.

Savory Palmiers
Serves 6
Time: 10 minutes active + 15 minutes baking

½ cup curly parsley (not packed)
½ cup mint leaves (not packed)
2 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
6 grape tomatoes

1 sheet puff pastry dough, thawed to room temperature

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Measure the parsley, mint leaves, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt into the food processor. Run on high speed until finely minced, then add the tomatoes and process until the mixture becomes a coarse paste.

Open the dough out onto your work surface and spread the parsley mixture to about ½ inch of the edges. Gently fold the 10-inch edges in to their nearest crease mark, then fold again to about ¼ inch from the center (leaving a ½ inch gap). Fold one side over the other to make a strip that is four layers thick and 10 inches long.

Using a very sharp knife, cut the dough into ½ inch wide slices. Lay the pieces out with one cut side down on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, 10-15 minutes depending on the temperature of the dough. Serve warm or at room temperature.

“My dream is to become a farmer. Just a Bohemian guy pulling up his own sweet potatoes for dinner.” ~ Lenny Kravitz, American singer and songwriter (1964 – )

When is a potato not a potato? Apparently, when it is a sweet potato. They aren’t even related! No, my friends, it has come to our attention that the orange sweet potato with its inner beauty is merely a root vegetable. Sort of like royalty in plain clothes.

We’ll take it. Sweet potatoes are full of really good stuff, like vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. Isn’t it great when something delicious is actually good for us?

The sweet potato is also a great base ingredient in creamy textured soups. It breaks down into a smoother consistency than white potato and it has a more distinct flavor, which works to our advantage by requiring fewer ingredients to fill out the soup.

At our house, we have people sitting around the table who might or might not enjoy spicy food. A few consider chili peppers to be an adversary issuing a personal challenge. I say, let ‘em have their fun – just don’t make me go there!

The adobo sauce in this soup is entirely optional. We can’t get just the sauce here, so we take it from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, which are found in the grocery story aisle with the Mexican food. The leftover chilies and sauce can be placed in a resealable container and stored in the freezer for future use.

NOTE: While it looks so innocent as a beautiful red drizzle floating on the top, but don’t be duped by adobo sauce. This stuff is throat-closing hot for some of us, so it is important to not mix it into the soup for everyone unless you’re all of the same mind.

Sweet Potato Soup, Spicy or Not
Makes 6 cups
Time: 15 minutes

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 ½ cups vegetable broth
1 (15-ounce) can navy beans, drained and rinsed
1 (6-ounce) can diced green chilies
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Adobo sauce (optional garnish)

Bring the sweet potato cubes and vegetable broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Cook until the potato are very soft and can be easily mashed with a fork, about 10 minutes. Add the navy beans and mash together with the potatoes using a fork, or puree in a blender until smooth.

Stir in the green chilies and cumin, then salt and pepper to taste. For those who want the adobo sauce, drizzle it to float on the top of the soup and allow individuals to stir it in after serving – usually no more than ¼ teaspoonful.

This soup does well with a variety of garnishes. We like snipped chives, candied nuts, or even a handful of crispy Cereal Treat (recipe on page 54 in the Mosaic Meals cookbook).

“How lush, how loose, the uninhibited squash is.
If ever hearts (and these immoderate leaves
are vegetable hearts) were worn on sleeves,
The squash’s are.” ~ from the poem “Squash in blossom” by American poet Robert Francis (1901 – 1987)

Potato pancakes have been a long-time favorite around this house. We’ve created many variations including shredded beets, zucchini, carrots, sweet potatoes, and parsnips all in the name of making them just a wee bit healthier.

Yesterday, however, when I went to get the potatoes out of the cupboard, there was a spaghetti squash that was sitting front and center, too obvious to ignore. And I wondered…

Well, we’re here today to tell you of a not just moderate success, but that these were fabulous. Using spaghetti squash resulted in a sweeter, more tender patty without the need to add any eggs and without the starchy heaviness that the potato pancakes have. It was absolutely one of those forehead slapping, “Why didn’t we do this before?!?” moments.

A medium squash yields about 4 cups of shreds. Use whichever flour you prefer as the binding agent, however we chose chickpea flour (a.k.a. besan or garbanzo bean flour) to create a richer flavor and boost the protein. The chickpea flour also makes this a gluten-free dish.

Cook the squash a day or two ahead of time, if you wish, by whichever method you choose to give yourself a head start on a workday meal that can be quicker to prepare than stopping for fast food on the way home.

NOTE: Cook the squash only until it is barely tender and shreds easily, but not until it is mushy.

Spaghetti Squash Pancakes
Serves 4
Time: 15 minutes to cook the squash
+ 10 minutes to make the pancakes

Patties:
1 medium spaghetti squash
2 teaspoons Taco Seasoning Mix (from commercial, or see page 110 in the Mosaic Meals Cookbook)
¼ cup chickpea flour or other flour
Vegetable oil for cooking

Toppings:
½ cup applesauce
½ cup plain yogurt or tofu cream (see below)
Whole chives (optional)

To cook the squash: Split lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place in a microwave bowl with an inch of water on the bottom. Cover and cook on full power for about 15 minutes, until the squash separates easily into shreds with gentle prompting from a fork.

Shred the squash into a large bowl. Stir the seasoning mix and flour into the squash until evenly distributed.

Generously oil a griddle or skillet. Place over a medium-high heat source and allow it to become hot before adding the squash mixture. Spoon ¼ cup portions into the hot pan and lightly press with the back of a spatula to form patties about ½ inch thick. Continue to cook until the bottom is browned, about 4 minutes, then flip and cook the other side until it has also browned, about 3 more minutes.

Serve hot with applesauce and the creamy topping of your choice, garnishing with fresh chives if you wish.

To make tofu cream: Puree a 12-ounce box of firm silken tofu with the juice of one lemon in a blender until smooth. Makes about 1 cup.

“Spring can’t come to the phone right now…
She’s flown to distant hills
to dabble speckles on a fawn
and fling out daisy spills.”
~ from the poem “Spring Can’t Come to the Phone Right Now” by Charlotte Partin

Happy Earth Day! Are you ready for some warm spring sun? Perhaps we’re jumping the gun a little with this icy dessert, but think of it as a little bit of sunshine in a bowl.

If you’re hoping for a dessert that almost everyone who happens into your kitchen can eat, this would be the one. It is free from flour, gluten, dairy, and eggs.

Granita is an Italian ice with many variations, but really need not be complicated to be beautiful in presentation with a clean, fresh flavor. One of the reasons we like using orange juice for this is because it doesn’t require any added sugar, which means it also doesn’t require any cooking.

Making a granita doesn’t require any special equipment — just a freezer, a baking dish, and a fork.

The orange liquor is entirely optional. We like to add it to put an adult spin on it, but also because the “anti-freeze” effect of the alcohol makes the granita a little easier to scrape. By all means, leave it out if there is any question of its appropriateness for the people who will be eating it.

Orange Granita
Serves 6
Time: 10 minutes active + 2 hours freezing time

3 cups orange juice
2 tablespoons orange liquor (optional)

Sprigs of mint leaves or small chocolates to garnish

Pour orange juice into a 9 inch square baking pan. Stir in the orange liquor, if using, and place the mixture on a shelf in the freezer. After ½ hour, stir the mixture with a fork and scrape the frozen portions away from the sides into the center. Return to the freezer and repeat the stirring and scraping every 30 minutes three more times. Cover and allow to freeze until ready to use.

Remove from the freezer and scrape the surface of the frozen juice with a fork to create icy flakes. Spoon into serving dishes and garnish with sprigs of mint leaves or small chocolates.

“Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits, Take care of your garden And keep out the weeds, Fill it with sunshine Kind words and kind deeds” ~ Nursery rhyme attributed to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet (1807 – 1882)

Somewhere between us and the sunshine is a heavy layer of stormy grey clouds preventing the brightness and warmth we crave from coming through. While we are waiting for the weather to change, a hot soup that is full of the colors and flavors of spring is in order.

This soup is a great palette refresher between the courses of a multi-course meal, or serve it with tiny, tea sandwiches for a light lunch. Using fresh vegetables will require the same amount of cooking time as frozen, so use whichever suits your purposes. Double or triple the quantities called for to create more servings as needed, but the cooking time remains the same.

Lemon-Rice Soup
Serves 2
Time: 5 minutes active + 35 minutes simmering

1 ½ cups light vegetable broth
2 tablespoons rice
¼ cup peas
12 snow pea pods
4 asparagus stalks
Dash of turmeric
½ large lemon
2 sprigs fresh thyme (optional garnish)

Bring the broth and rice to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cover and continue simmering until the rice is fully cooked, about 30 minutes for white rice or 35 minutes for brown rice.

While rice is cooking, remove any strings from pea pods and cut them into halves. Cut each asparagus stalk into thirds. When the rice is fully cooked, stir the vegetables and turmeric into the broth and simmer for 5 minutes, then immediately remove from heat to prevent overcooking the vegetables.

Meanwhile, slice 4 thin, round slices from the lemon half and set them aside for garnish. Squeeze the juice from the remaining piece of lemon, about 1 teaspoon, and stir it into the soup. Serve soup while hot, garnishing each bowl with 2 lemon slices and a sprig of fresh thyme.