All Caps Cooking + Spanakorizo

Power Vegetables!, a cookbook by Peter Meehan and the editors of Lucky Peach promises  ALL CAPS cooking for people looking to eat more vegetable-centered meals.  This book turbo-charges vegetable dishes to make them powerfully good... for example, vichyssoise made with dashi, or braised collards with peanut butter.

Power Vegetables! is not a book full of vegetarian or vegan recipes.  There is plenty of fish and dairy in this book... even some bacon.  Many recipes lend themselves to be adapted to your dietary requirements.  Most recipes use ingredients that will get you "out of the box", and create a taste sensation for your mouth.

I enjoyed paging through this book, reading about the recipes, marking those that I wanted to make, and looking at the beautiful pictures.

I made a recipe from this book, Spanakorizo, which I am sharing with you below... it was delicious.  I had my doubts when I read the recipe that it would be anything but boring, and would need some "spicing up".  I was happy to be proven wrong.  Meehan notes that Spanakorizo became his favorite dish from the whole book.

Spanakorizo

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for finishing

1 onion, cut in half and thinly sliced into half-moons

1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced

kosher salt

1 package (16 oz) frozen spinach

1 bunch dill, chopped

1 cup long-grain rice

1 1/2 cup water

juice of 1 1/2 lemons (cut the extra 1/2 lemon into wedges and bring to the table)

freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil over medium-high heat in a pot large enough to eventually host the whole party. After a minute, add the onion, scallions, and leek and a large pinch of salt. Sauté the onion mixture, stirring occasionally, until it has wilted, maybe 5 minutes. Stir in the spinach, dill, and another pinch of salt and sauté, stirring until all are wilted, probably fewer but certainly no more than 5 minutes

Add the rice, water, remaining oil, and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover; cook for 15 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let rest unmolested for 10 minutes before serving. Zazz the spanakorizo up with salt, pepper, additional oil (glug it on like a Greek grandma), and fresh lemon before it goes to the table.

I used pink Himalayan sea salt. I did not finish with extra olive oil. I needed to add 1/2 cup water and cook an additional 10 minutes (my rice was still crunchy).

NOTE: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher, through Blogging For Books for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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I’m linking up withRock My Vegan Socks & VNutrition for Healthy Vegan Fridays!