The recipe that will make my name

Check this out:

It’s a screencap from Boston.com last night. I came up with my “Easy Greek Casserole” recipe nearly four years ago, and every now and then, it shoots back into prominence. I’m glad it did: it’s a terrific recipe to add to your repertoire now that fall is here.

For those of you who haven’t tried it yet, here is Miss Conduct’s Famous Easy Greek Casserole:

I make this in an 8X8 pan, and it’s enough for two lunches for two, or dinner and maybe one serving left over, so expand accordingly if you’re cooking for more people. Absolutely none of the amounts are exact, because that’s just not how I roll.

1-1.5 cups cooked brown rice or other whole grain (quinoa is good)
1 T olive oil
1 small onion
1 bulb garlic, chopped, or one tablespoon minced garlic from a jar
1 bag baby spinach
herbs
1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half, or one can diced tomatoes
1/4 to 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 block firm tofu, drained & pressed
sliced black olives (optional)

Cook rice or other grain. Preheat oven to 375. Heat olive oil in skillet and add onion and garlic. Wash the spinach and squeeze dry. When the onion has become limp and tractable, add the spinach and whatever herbs you like (I use dill, oregano, basil, black pepper; there’s enough salt in the feta so’s you don’t need any of that). While that cooks, spray the pan with non-stick spray (it’s okay if you forget, which I do about half the time) and spread the rice or other grain evenly across the bottom. When the spinach mixture is just barely cooked, put that on top. Put the tomatoes on top of that, cover in foil, and bake for about 20 minutes.

Squeeze the tofu between your fingers and into a bowl. Add feta cheese. Mix together until it’s all just crumbly white stuff. Remove the casserole and add the feta cheese & tofu topping. Add sliced olives on top, and bake uncovered until topping browns, about 15 more minutes.

So tasty, and so nutritious! Also so sloppy. If you like your casserole servings to have neat edges and structural integrity, add a beaten egg or two somewhere, probably in the spinach.

This is good with steamed broccoli with some Cavender’s Greek Seasoning on top.

And a bonus one-pot dinner I came up with last week. Behold, Miss Conduct’s Vaguely African Stew:

1 cup brown rice or other grain (I used a Trader Joe’s grain mix)
1 16-oz can crushed pineapple
4-5 large carrots, peeled & diced
1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Thai Lime & Chili Cashews

Squeeze out as much of the juice as possible from the pineapple, and use that to cook the grain in. Peel and dice carrots while grain is cooking. Add carrots and cashews to pot shortly before grain is done cooking, and mix in the rest of the pineapple afterward.

I added some red pepper flakes to this as well, since we like the spicy. This isn’t quite right for dinner (too heavy for a side dish, not heavy enough for an entree) but it’s a great brown-bag option, as it’s tasty, nutritious, and not too sloppy to eat in front of a computer.

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