Tonight's Dinner: Potato & Leek Soup, Roasted Broccoli, Rice with Lentils

I'm officially on vacation this week, and so far, things have been pretty tasty.  I've made two kinds of buns and chocolate cookies, in addition to regular meals over the last few days.

Speaking of regular meals, tonight's was pretty delicious!  Here's what I did.

Rice with Lentils:
This bit wasn't from scratch.  I used minute rice and just added a cup or so of dried red lentils to it at the beginning so it all cooked together.

Roasted Garlic Broccoli with Oven Dried Tomatoes:
1-1 1/2lbs broccoli (about 4 small heads, or 1 large bunch) - broken into florets, with stems peeled & diced
1-3 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
oil-packed sun or oven dried tomatoes
salt & pepper to taste

Toss the broccoli with the garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice.  Spread in a single layer in the bottom of a small casserole dish, or on a foil lined baking sheet.  Dot with your dried tomatoes in oil.  Bake, uncovered, in a 425F oven for 16-20 minutes.

Potato & Leek Soup:
1 large leek, washed & chopped (all of the white bit, and as much of the green bit that's good - watch out for the sand in the crevices!)
2 tbsp butter or margarine, or some oil
4 potatoes, diced
4-5 cups broth (I only had 1 bouillon cube left, so I added that, water, and a handful of herbs)
1 cup milk
sour cream
salt & pepper to taste

Heat the butter in a large saucepan.  Add the chopped leek, and stir for about 5 minutes, until it is all well softened.  Add the broth and the diced potatoes, then bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer, and cook until the potatoes are cooked through.  Turn off the heat (or remove the pot from the heat), and blend the soup (either with an immersion blender right in the pot, or remove to a blender and puree in batches).
Return the soup to the pot, add the milk and two big blobs of sour cream, and stir until combined.  If the soup is now too cool, heat on low until the soup is heated through.

I hope at least one of these dishes works out for you.  I'm currently really into soup, so if you have a good recipe you'd like to share, feel free!

Still on the Preserving Train! This Time: Walnut Pesto & Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Although the weather has started to vary (yay, never knowing if you need rainboots or a jacket when you leave the house for the day!), I'm still getting tons of stuff out of the veggie patch in the garden.

I've been trying to use up as much as I can, but there's always something that outgrows your efforts.  This year, for me, it has been the basil and the cherry tomatoes.

As a result, this weekend, in an attempt to preserve some of the bounty I oven dried some of the cherry tomatoes, and made some walnut pesto with the basil.

To make your own basil walnut pesto, you will need:

2 cups packed basil

1/3-1/2 cup olive oil (start with 1/3 cup, and add more as needed)

1/2 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese

1/2 cup walnuts

1-4 peeled cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you want it)

Start by putting 1/3 cup of olive, and all the other ingredients in a blender.  Blend until well combined.  If you need more oil, feel free to drizzle it in.

If you aren't using your pesto right away, as I was not, you can pour your pesto into an ice cube tray and freeze it.  Once it is set, pop out the cubes and put them in a freezer bag.  Then, you can just grab cubes of pesto as needed!

To make your own oven dried tomatoes all you need are some tomatoes (plum tomatoes usually work best, but my cherry tomatoes went pretty well), salt, vinegar, olive oil, and if you like, some herbs for extra flavouring.

Preheat your oven to 200F.  Put a cooling rack on a baking sheet.  Cut your tomatoes in half (if using plum or other large tomatoes, some may need to be cut into quarters).  Sprinkle them with salt, and put them in the oven.  Keep the door slightly ajar (I used a wooden spoon to keep mine open), so that the moisture can escape.  

Depending on size, the tomatoes should take 3-6 hours.  They are done when they are leathery and a deep red (which means that you'll need to check on them periodically).

When they are done, and cool enough to handle, put them in a bowl and sprinkle them with a little bit of vinegar, and toss to coat. 

If not using right away, put them in a clean, sterilized jar, and cover with olive oil.  If you are using herbs, add them in as well (I put rosemary in mine).  The longer you leave them in the jar, the longer the herbs flavour will infuse through the oil and tomatoes.  Mine is now in the fridge for extra safekeeping.

Have you been setting aside anything for winter?  Got any recommendations on how to use up the tomatoes I still have coming in?  I'm starting to run out of ideas!