Roasted Potatoes with Thyme

I found this recipe several years ago in my Vegetarian Times cookbook.  It's hardly an actual recipe, because all you do is toss some potatoes with olive oil, add some salt & pepper and fresh thyme, and bake.  What could be simpler?

But, of course, simple does not mean boring, and these potatoes are really really good.  We all love them, and they are a Passover tradition around here.  I decided the menu needed simplified years ago.  We have leg of lamb, these potatoes, peas, and unleavened bread.  We might have some pickles and olives and sometimes a salad - depending on who's coming and what they want to bring - but the main meal is just really simple, and it's just perfect that way.

Roasted Potatoes with Thyme
adapted from Vegetarian Times

Ingredients:

• Red Potatoes
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper
• Fresh Thyme

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Toss potatoes and olive oil together (1 T oil for each pound of potatoes) in baking dish
3. Add salt and pepper and then top with sprigs of fresh thyme (about 8 sprigs per pound of potatoes)
4. Cover baking dish and bake potatoes for 45 minutes (or longer), giving the dish a shake a couple times during baking.
5. Cool slightly and serve.

The small red potatoes are best, but if you use bigger ones they'll still taste good.  They may just take longer to bake, and you will probably want to cut them in half to serve.  The oven temperature can be adjusted.  For instance, I bake the lamb at 325°, and I just bake the potatoes right alongside it.  And, the longer these bake, the better they seem to get.  The potatoes almost melt in your mouth, and they're really good mashed slightly with a fork and drizzled with some of the flavored oil from the bottom of the pan.

I could not find this actual recipe on the Vegetarian Times site when I searched, but I did find a couple more recipes that look pretty good - these Salt & Vinegar Roasted Potatoes and these Garlicky Mashed Sweet Potatoes.

Black Beans and Rice

I made this a while back to go with some crockpot chicken fajitas (not the exact recipe, but similar).  Normally I just make some cilantro lime rice, but I didn't have any cilantro so I figured I'd try something different.  The fajitas definitely need some kind of rice because they always turn out so juicy.  I just put some rice on my plate and then hold over the rice while I eat, and all the juices go into the rice and make it even more yummy. (and keep me from having to just lick all those juices off the plate, because they definitely should not be wasted)

Black Beans and Rice
adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients:

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
• water

Directions:

1. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high.  Add onion; cook and stir until tender.
2. Add oregano, garlic powder, cumin, and rice; cook for a few minutes, until fragrant.
3. Drain liquid from tomatoes into measuring cup; add water to equal 2 cups.  Stir tomatoes and beans into saucepan; then add water.
4. Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes before serving.

This rice had a really nice flavor on its own and was especially good with the juices from the chicken.  I really love the addition of the beans.  Cilantro stirred in would have been excellent, but since I didn't have any we just had to do without.

I ended up mixing the leftover chicken fajita mix with the leftover rice and adding a can of tomatoes or so - it's been a while; I can't remember exactly - and we had soup.  It made really good soup, too.

Spinach and Cilantro Green Rice

Also from the What the Bible Says about Healthy Living Cookbook - I made this rice to go with the burritos last night.

Spinach and Cilantro Green Rice

Ingredients:

• 2/3 bunch cilantro (stems OK)
• 1 cup firmly packed fresh spinach
• 1-1/4 cups milk
• 1-1/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• Juice of 1/2 lime (about 1 T)
• 1-1/2 cups brown rice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Several generous grindings pepper

Directions:

1. Trim the cilantro stems to 1 to 2 inches.
2. Add the cilantro, spinach, milk, broth and lime juice to a blender and puree the ingredients.
3. Combine the liquid mixture with the remaining ingredients in a medium saucepan.  Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.
4. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan with a tightly fitting lid, and simmer fo r45 minutes.
5. After 45 minutes, turn off the heat and let the rice sit for 10 minutes, without removing the cover.  Fluff the rice with a fork before serving.

1/3 bunch of cilantro for the burritos, 2/3 bunch for this rice - you'd think all my cilantro would be used, but those aren't really good measurements, and cilantro bunches vary - so I just used quite a bit of cilantro and called it enough, for both recipes.  I also used frozen spinach because I didn't have any fresh.  I'm not sure how much frozen spinach equals a cup of fresh, so I just threw some in.

I made half this recipe because we just didn't need that much rice.  I usually cook my brown rice 40 minutes so I thought the 45 minutes would be plenty long enough, but there was still liquid in the pan when I took the lid off, and the rice was a bit chewy.  It tasted really good though, so I'm either going to cook it at a higher temperature next time or do like it says and turn the heat off and let it sit - instead of removing it from the heat to let it sit.  The rice should continue to cook on the still-warm burner for a bit longer.

I put some of this on my Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burrito for lunch - along with the salsa, sour cream and guacamole.  Yum!