Recipe: Tomato Tort, Broccoli Salad

These two dishes probably aren’t the best complement to one another in flavor; they both have a lot going on. But I wanted to make both, and what-Madoline-feels -like-making/eating won over tonight. 

I pulled this recipe out of the May Cooking Light because I was fascinated by the idea of a crust made of brown rice. I love crusts, but usually they have very little nutritional value.  Mine didn’t turn out terribly crust-like, but the layer of seasoned rice tasted quite good with the tomato-egg-cheese flavors.

The recipe tells you to prepare it in a pie plate, but I modified it to go in a bread pan to make fewer servings. I also made a few other modifications based on what ingredients I had on hand.

Italian Tomato Tort

Crust:

1 cup cooked brown rice

1 ½ Tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. Greek seasonings

1 egg white

2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

Filling:

½ cup fat free milk

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

salt and pepper

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

½ oz. prosciutto, cut into thin strips

1 tomato

1 Tbsp. basil

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare crust, combine all ingredients; firmly press mixture into the bottom and up sides of a bread pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven.

3. Increase oven temperature to 400°.

4. To prepare filling, combine milk, eggs, egg yolk, salt and peppe; stir with a whisk.

5. Sprinkle half of mozzarella and half of prosciutto into bottom of prepared crust. Top with half of tomato slices. Repeat procedure with remaining mozzarella, prosciutto, and tomatoes. Pour milk mixture over tomatoes; bake at 400° for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325° (do not remove tart from oven); bake an additional 35 minutes or until set. Cool 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with basil.

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I only eat broccoli if its taste is well disguised. The best tasting yet relatively healthy broccoli veil to reach my palate recently was a broccoli salad a caterer prepared for my grandfather’s 80^th birthday in May. I recreated the recipe tweaking this Cooking Light broccoli salad to incorporate two of my favorite salad staples, cranberries and pecans.

Broccoli Salad

4 cups  small broccoli florets (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 cup  chopped celery

1 cup  dried cranberries

1/3 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup  plain lowfat yogurt

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. white vinegar

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine mayonnaise and remaining ingredients, stirring with a whisk. Pour dressing over broccoli mixture, and toss well. Chill for 1 hour.