A while ago I featured cookin' greens, the frozen bag of chopped greens in my holiday appetizer post and today I'm sharing a quick healthy pasta ideas!
I love delicious dishes that come together using leftovers. Here I threw together a dish that used my favourite pizza sauce which has been laying around in the fridge (watch out, it's spicy because it's got GINGER in it! Dry and tons of fresh grated ginger root) My ginger sauce is also the base of the dipping sauce I used for my mini lamb meatballs with the moroccan twist last week as an appetizer/light meal as well.
Now that I had this spicey tomato sauce on hand I knew it would stand up perfect to all those greens with character.
I used rotini in three colours, but honestly I think what would have been perfect is if I had some spelt or kamut pasta in the pantry, I just love sinking my teeth into the healthy and hearty pasta! Need to get some (you'll find it in your organic section at the local supermarket)
I boiled the pasta, set aside.
I steamed the greens adding a bit of chicken stock, use veggie if you want to go vegetarian since this dish has no meat in it.
Once the greens are steamed, stir in the tomato sauce and toss with pasta. Add some chili flakes if you like it spicy!
Perfect for a rainy winter day!
I steamed a bit and threw it in with the sauce. It was totally delicious!
I want to express my excitement for this product that I recently discovered, it's called Cookin Greens and it's basically all those good healthy greens that you should be eating but might be too intimidated to try, or maybe like me you're just too inconvenienced by the process of buying those large bunches of wet leaves from the supermarket and then having to shove them in the fridge somewhere and wash/chop/blanch whenever you have a moment in your busy life!
Who has time for all that? I'm sure those are some of the reasons that people are less encouraged to buy them regularly! .... so you can imagine my excitement when I saw this bag of frozen greens on tv, I mean flash frozen greens which are at the convenience of your fingertips, just open the bag and throw it into soups, pasta dishes, casseroles, blanch, steam, make dip, whatever you fancy but you can at least sleep at night knowing that you've had your GREENS! Those greens that we keep hearing about as cancer fighting and probably the healthiest of all the vegetables.
I will be buying these, for sure! They are available at the organic frozen freezer in Metro, and Loblaws Superstore as well as other stores, check their site www.cookingreens.com for more details. I think it's totally worth it because you're getting the healthy and fresh greens which you sometimes can't even get in the regular produce department.
I wanted to make something that is fun for parties so a Turkish borek was perfect, we make it regularly in our household and it's a hit with guests because it's crispy, delicate, fancy and vegetarian too but healthy all at the same time! Normally we make it with spinach but adding the greens will just bump up the nutrition. You can do it with just greens or greens and feta cheese.
- 1 pack Cookin' Greens designer mix (it containers spinach, rapini, collards, onion, yellow wax beans) I dumped it all into a shallow pan and picked out the wax beans then threw them back into the freezer for another use.
Blanch greens: Place in a pot with 1/2 cup water, pinch of salt and 2 cloves of garlic whole, steam for 5-10 minutes. Strain the greens from the water really well and place into shallow pan.
Use the water for soup or just add some salt and drink it! It's healthy :)
- 1 cup feta cheese
- 1-2 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
Shell:
- 1 package phyllo from freezer, thawed overnight in fridge.
Batter, mix in a bowl:
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup yogurt
- 1/2 cup olive oil (or melted butter) You can use another oil if you'd like.
- 2 eggs
Pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350 F
Open phyllo package, lay the pieces flat.
Take 2 layers and place in pan, if the pieces are larger than the pan it's ok, crinkle them up a bit to make it fit.
Add a ladle or so of batter and spread over the phyllo layer, using hand make sure to cover all areas so the phyllo isn't dry.
Do another 2 layers, then batter, then another 2 and batter and another 2 then you would have achieved 8 layers. No batter on the top here.
Add the greens, spread out.
Grate the feta with a large grater over top, sprinkle with lemon juice and begin with another 8 layeres, two at a time adding batter over top each 2 layers. If you want them more crispy use less batter, you could have 2 ladle fulls leftover like me.
Score almost all the way through into long finger shapes or into squares, if making appetizers do them smaller.
Bake, and check in 35 minutes. Broil on top if needed for a golden layer (it boils in seconds so stay close to the oven)
Recipe adapted from this lovely video by Turkish Mother and Daughter duo cooking in the kitchen.
Enjoy!! :)
.. And there is no excuse when it comes to entertaining... I threw together this little party grazing station in seconds!! Thanks to the mounds of stuff I collect from my favourite places like IKEA/ Chapters/Indigo and HomeSense as well as some small treats I had laying around (dry nuts/cookies, kettle corn) it all came together.
I'm a thirty-something Canadian girl inspired by my rich & very diverse (Africa-Europe-Asia....) heritage! Join me here for an adventure in food, lifestyle and all good things with a touch of exotic.
