These were on Diners, Drive In's and Dives a while back. They looked very interesting so we had to give it a whirl. I cooked the beets one day and refrigerated them until ready to use. The rest is less time consuming. I also made a Green Goddess Dressing from Allrecipes.com http://allrecipes.com/recipe/green-goddess-chive-dressing/detail.aspx because I didn't have all of the ingredients called for in this recipe. If you can find a bottle of it already made, I'm sure that's ok as well.

These were very good! I was actually surprised!!!

The full recipe is at the bottom. ENJOY!

Pan searing the beets in my very well seasoned cast iron pan.

toaster rolls, then beets, then red onion then the dressing

YUM!!!

Beet Sliders

Recipe courtesy Chuck Caplener and Jared Nuttall, co-owners of Gatsby's Diner, Sacramento, CA

Prep Time:

20 min

Inactive Prep Time:

--

Cook Time:

1 hr 5 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

16 to 18 sliders

Ingredients

• 5 quarts water
• 1/2 cup sea salt, plus a pinch
• 1 tablespoon dried dill
• 6 dried arbol chiles
• 1/4 cup coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
• 1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
• 2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 4 tablespoons seasoning sauce (recommended: Maggi)
• 6 to 8 whole beets (depending on size)
• Olive oil
• Green Goddess Dressing, recipe follows
• Sliced red onions, for serving
• 16 to 18 slider buns, toasted

Directions

In a large stock pot, combine and the water, 1/2 cup sea salt, dill, chiles, coriander, caraway, carrots, celery, onions, seasoning sauce, and beets and bring to a boil. Boil on medium heat for about 1 hour.

Remove the beets and let cool, discarding the liquid. Once cooled, remove the skin from the beets with avegetable peeler. (Remember to wear gloves, as the beets will stain your hands as well as other surfaces.) Cut the beets into 1/4 to 3/8-inch slices. Place the beet slices, a drizzle of olive oil, and a pinch of sea salt into a skillet over high heat and saute until glossy and tender, about 2 1/2 minutes on each side.

Remove the beets from the skillet and serve with shaved red onion and Green Goddess Dressing on a toasted slider bun.

This recipe was provided by professional chefs and has been scaled down from a bulk recipe provided by a restaurant. The Food Network Kitchens chefs have not tested this recipe, in the proportions indicated, and therefore, we cannot make any representation as to the results.

Green Goddess Dressing:

• 1 bunch fresh tarragon, stemmed, finely chopped
• 1/2 bunch fresh parsley, stemmed, finely chopped
• 1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups mayonnaise
• Salt and pepper

Combine the herbs, green onions, buttermilk, lemon juice, and vinegar in a mixing bowl. Let macerate for 10 minutes. Add the sour cream and mayonnaise, and blend with an immersion blender until creamy. Season with salt and pepper.

Grilled Veggies including Garlic Scapes

This was a delicious grilled veggie platter. It was so easy and should be done ahead of time. The vegetables should be room temp when served. When we were camping in Ithaca last week, we bought a bag full of the garlic scapes. The guy told us that his favorite way to eat them is to grill them.

Heat your grill to medium- low.

For the first batch I used:

red peppers, zucchini and yellow summer squash

Cut them into 2" to 4" pieces so they don't fall through the grates on the grill

I brushed them on both sides with Soy Vay Hoisin & Garlic Sauce

SOY VAY HOISIN & GARLIC SAUCE

Then grill on one side until brown grill marks appear. Turn over and do the same. A bit of brown is good!

As they were done, I would add them to the top grate on the grill so they don't steam on top of each other. When they were all done, I then arranged them on a nice plate.

NEXT: I cut the seed head off of the garlic scapes. Leaving whole, I put them in a plastic bag, sprinkled a little olive oil over them, and a little balsamic vinegar. I made sure they were coated. I then put them on the grill and closed the cover. They were making popping noises. I then turned them until they were done. I brought them into the house and cut each scape into 3 pieces and then placed them in the middle of the veggie plate. They were delicious and not overpowering at all. The grilled veggies were also delicious!

KALE CHIPS

"These are a low calorie nutritious snack. Like potato chips, you cannot stop at just eating one. They are great for parties and a good conversation topic."
*I didn't use all of the seasoned salt that's called for. I used a pinch and put that into the palms of my hands and rubbed them over the kale to evenly distribute.
** I put a little EVOO into my hands and rubbed the kale together to lightly coat the leaves.

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale 1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

Directions:

1.	Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2.	With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
3.	Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

ZUCCHINI NOODLE PESTO

This was a pretty interesting recipe. If there was a way to make the Pesto to be less fattening, it would be the perfect diet food. Below is the original recipe. It comes from the blog called Tea & Cookies. http://teaandcookies.blogspot.com/2009/08/zucchini-noodles-with-pesto.html
I did change a few things though. I made a bunch of jars of Basil Pesto in the spring. I use quite a bit of garlic in mine so I didn't add more to this recipe. I also used sun-dried tomatoes instead of fresh ones. I thought it was pretty good.

ZUCCHINI NOODLE PESTO

Two medium-sized zucchini or one large one (but not those crazy baseball bat zucchini), about four to five cups.
One large bunch of basil, leaves removed from steams (about 3 cups)
Garlic, 1-2 cloves (start with one, add a second if you find you want more garlic flavor)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup dried or fresh tomatoes, sliced (if dried) or cut into chunks

Run the zucchini over a mandolin to create “noodles, or cut into 'matchbook size'.
Put basil and garlic in the bowl of a food processor (you can chop by hand, if you don’t have a food processor, it just takes a bit of time). Process the herbs while drizzling olive oil in though the feeder tube until you see the consistency change from chopped to smooth, (somewhere between 1 to 2 tbs. of oil). Add salt and pepper to taste (I’d start with 1/2 tsp of salt and add more if you like).

Toss all together. Eat immediately.

BLACK BEAN VEGGIE BURGERS AND PASTA SALAD..

While we were in Ithaca, I ordered a Black Bean Veggie Burger because I was feeling daring! I like black beans but thought it would be pretty boring. Too my surprise, it was delicious! The burger was topped with red onion, tomato, Montery Jack cheese and a Jamaican Jerk BBQ sauce. I decided to give it a try. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. They turned out delicious! To go with it, I made a pasta salad which will follow.

Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burgers


PREP TIME
15 Min
COOK TIME
20 Min
READY IN
35 Min
Original recipe yield 4 patties

INGREDIENTS
1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 onion, cut into wedges
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 eggs
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce or hot sauce
1/2 cup bread crumbs
DIRECTIONS
If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and lightly oil a baking sheet.
In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty.
In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Then stir into mashed beans.
In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce.
Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide mixture into four patties.
If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side.

Pasta Salad... A La Lynn

16 oz tri color pasta, cooked

Green Pepper, Red Pepper, Red Onion, Zucchini, Cucumbers, sliced olives, cherry tomatoes and a can of marinated artichiokes, drained, and whatever else you want to add.

1 bottle of Wishbone Bountifuls Tuscan Romano Basil salad dressing

Cut up all the vegetables into bite size pieces and put in a large bowl. Add the pasta and toss a bit with your CLEAN hands. Pour an entire bottle of the dressing into pasta salad mix and toss around. That's it! It was very flavorful and just right for a summer night when you don't have much time to spare!