Vegetable Tian with Herbes de Provence

This is basically roasted potatoes & shallots, but it's so delicious! I think as a vegetarian for the past 13 years, I had forgotten that pot roast was the most common crockpot dish that my mom would make during the cold Midwest winters. These potatoes, carrots & shallots were very flavorful with the herbes de Provence which I happened to have as a gift from a friend who had recently gone to France. No photos, but here's the recipe.

6 shallots, halved
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1.5 cups baby carrots
1 lb small red potatoes, quartered
1 small red bell pepper, seeded & diced
1.5 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 c veggie stock
3 tbsp olive oil
1.5 tsp dried herbes de Provence
salt & pepper
1 c fresh bread crumbs

1. Combine all the vegetables in slow cooker. Add the stock & 2 tbsp olive oil. Season with herbes, salt & pepper. Combine well to coat the veggies. Cover & cook on low for 6-8 hours.

2. In small skillet, toast bread crumbs in remaining 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat until golden. When veggies are down, sprinkle bread crumbs over the top & serve.

Flageolet Beans with Rosemary and Thyme

Damn good. This recipe came from the December issue of Sunset magazine. It was super simple & took very little time to cook. The fresh herbs came straight from the backyard and really made the beans flavorful. I used small white beans from the regular grocery store instead of trying to find the called for flageolet.

Ingredients:
12 oz dried flageolet beans
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tsp salt
2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
2 carrots, cut into 1/2 in slices on diagonal
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1. Put all but parsley into slow cooker. Add 5 cups boiling water & stir. Cover & cook until beans are very tender & most of water is absorbed, 2-3 hrs on high or 4-4.5 hrs on low.

2. Stir in 3 tbsp of parsley. Transfer to serving dishes. Add more oil to taste if desired. Garnish with sprigs of rosemary & thyme & remaining parsley.

Farmhouse Stew

7.7.12

Another recipe with green beans from the garden! Carrots too! We even used the last jar of canned tomatoes from last year's garden just in time for the 1st red one of this year. I made homemade seitan first before adding some to this recipe. Seitan is made of wheat flour and vital wheat gluten and can also be made in the slow cooker. This recipe didn't call for any spices except salt and pepper and I was worried it wouldn't have much flavor. But the potatoes, carrots and beans were very tasty. I think the seitan added a lot of flavor.

Stew with homemade rye sourdough bread.