Vegetarian Dish

I have decided to create a section that just covers vegetarian options. This is for a good friend of mine that lives in Portland. (She's my suedo Mexican Sister). Here's a list of things that will aid in cooking vegetarian dishes, please read all of them, they are in no particular order.

1. Olive oil- Olive oil is the most versatile ingredient in the kitchen when it comes to cooking anything healthy and vegetarian in the kitchen. While other oils can be used and are less expensive, olive oil is unique in flavor and tastes great with practically anything. For beginners I wouldn't recommend trying it just by itself, but rather adding it with other ingredients to form a sauce, marinade or dressing.  For example:

• Olive Oil and balsamic vinegar- Two parts olive oil to one part balsamic vinegar, with a pinch of salt and pepper. Use this as a marinade or simply as a dip with bread. You can add basil or garlic as well, but these are optional. If you want to emulsify it so that the oil and vinegar don't separate, add a teaspoon of vinegar (you can add more until it comes together) and wisk together in a bowl. Always add salt and pepper to taste.

• Olive oil and garlic- Have a pan on low heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 freshly crushed/cut, cloves of garlic. The pan doesn't have to be really hot, start with a low heat and until you can smell the garlic aromas come out. (Try not to brown your garlic because that will make it bitter). Toss some pasta and some parmigano regiano for a quick meal or add some spinach for a quick side dish. Cook spinach until it slightly wilts, (turns dark green and shrinks), and finish with some salt and pepper. 

2. Salt and Pepper- The most overlooked ingredient in a kitchen. Salt and pepper is the most fundemental and important ingredient when cooking anything, repeat ANYTHING!

• Salt-When picking your salt I like to either use either kosher salt or sea salt. Reason being these two can be added in increments that don't turn your food too salty. When picking up Kosher salt, don't get confused with pickling salt, just by normal kosher salt. Kosher salt kind of looks like regular table salt, but its grains are slightly bigger. 

• Pepper- Buy a good pepper mill that can be easily reloaded. Don't buy the pre crushed because they loose their flavor after being crushed. If you can refill your pepper mill its more cost efficient than buying a disposable one once a week. Also you can adjust how coarse or fine you want your pepper, fine being for smaller items and coarse for bigger ones.   

That's it for now, but these principles can be used for basically anything.