Menestras

Menestras are vegetable casseroles, very popular in Spain. They are an excellent spring meal for good reason. First, spring is the best season for vegetables, which are their main ingredient, and, second, menestras are a perfect transition between the comfort foods of winter and the first cold dishes of summer because they are warm and light, as any lightlystewed vegtables. An added bonus; a menestra can be a great one dish meal and, if using decorative earthenware, it can be taken to the table straight from the stove, in the same cooking pot; a considerable advantage when you have guests.

In the most sophisticated versions, like the recipe used in the Rioja region, the vegetables are initially boiled; then coated in batter and fried, to finish cooking in the sauce. Faster, but no less delicious, is just to sauté the vegetables; to finish, again, cooking in the sauce. Of course, there are also a speed cooking versions for menestra, skipping the sauté step or the sauce.

The vegetables to include depend on your personal taste and availability; there are many combinations. Though fresh vegetables are best, a pack of varied frozen vegetables -or a combination of fresh and frozen vegetables- can be used, saving preparation time.

VEGETABLES: peas, carrots, artichokes, broad beans, chard (only the white), asparagus, Brussels sprouts, green beans, cauliflower, cardoons, mushrooms, lettuce, leeks, potatoes. Boiled beforehand or sautéed, and cooked in the sauce.

SAUCE: onions, garlic, flour, paprika, oil, water. Optional: wine, bay leaf, pepper, ham or bacon. The sauce starts with the traditional sofrito.

AND SOMETHING ELSE: hard boiled egg, meat. Lamb, abundant in spring, is the best meat, but you can use veal, pork, poultry or anything else if it is tender and will cook along with the vegetables.

Estimate ¾ lb (about 2 cups prepared) fresh vegetables per person, and, if used, 1/8 lb meat per person for an appetizer; ¼ lb for an entrée, double this for meat on the bone.

When to serve a menestra? A menestra can be an appetizer to your main meal or make a light meal. It can be served as tapas in tiny earthenware pots. The heartier recipes with meat make a single dish meal. Leftovers freeze well, as long as there are no potatoes.

The best way to discover what we are talking about is hands on. The recipes below illustrate different techniques and combination of ingredients.

Easy or speed cooking? Start with an easy menestra, or try a no sauce menestra which does not take any time at all.

Try a basic vegetable menestra, when you have more time to prepare the vegetables. A lamb menestra is an example of one pot meals, mentioned before. The two most popular versions are the Navarran menestra, as Navarra produces wonderfully tender vegetables, and the Riojan menestra, as delicious as it is time consuming.

You have now graduated with honors. Consider it a masters degree if you attempted the Riojan version. We hope that you now will be inspired and create your own menestra recipe.