Simple Pleasures: Leftovers and a Glass of Wine

One of the things you’ll quickly discover here on LUTTE is that I love a one-dish meal, and more importantly, I love a one-dish meal that will feed me for a couple of days. I’m not afraid of repetitive meals (as long as they’re good) and I love home-cooked food (especially when I don’t have to cook it right that minute), so a meal that refrigerates well or freezes well makes me extremely happy.

Tonight, I’m having another helping of the rosemary cauliflower strata, along with a glass of wine (care of my friend Alex, who brought over a bottle last week), and it struck me how I find this vegetarian dish just as satisfying as a good meatloaf. It’s got the nice mouth-feel of meatloaf, along with a lot of umami (xing in Chinese)–that savory flavor of denatured protein–from the cheese and shallots. Side note: in fact, I think it might be a good item to serve a mixed crowd of meat-eaters and vegetarians.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be sure to share with you recipes for some of my other go-to, single girl, freeze for the week dishes like Turkey Meatloaf (made with yogurt…I’ll put yogurt in just about anything), Irish Beef Stew, Beet Soup, Turkey or Chicken Xi Fan (congee or zhou), and Paprika Chicken, along with all the various ways to eat them so that you don’t get bored.

Happy making!