Wine-Braised Vegetables with Garlic-Herb Butter

Once again, I found myself with some fresh vegetables I'd forgotten I owned that needed to be used or they were going to go bad. Since I was already making Pork Marsala for dinner, I thought I'd add some colour and texture variety to the plate with them, but being me I went just a bit further than normal. What I ended up with was a really tasty side dish that will definitely happen again, with these and/or other vegetables.

The vegetables were a bagged mix I picked up on sale last week, and they came in a 12 ounce package. You can use whatever vegetables you'd rather, of course, but I'm writing the recipe for these since they're what I had. To them I added the rest of the package of mini bella mushrooms I wasn't going to use for the pork, some Yellowtail Pinot Grigio, and made the butter with garlic, dried tarragon and dried basil (the basil also came from my garden, but I'd already crushed it and put it in an empty container from the store).

Usually, I make herb butter with fresh herbs, but since it's November my garden is done for the year. With dried herbs, it's important to make the butter even earlier than normal so they can absorb the oil and soften. I made this about six hours before I intended to use it. If your butter is soft you can just mix the garlic and herbs into it, but it's cold in my house so I had to soften it in the microwave. It only took about 10 seconds.

Fast-forward to actually cooking... First thing I did was slice the mushrooms, then saute them in a tablespoon of regular unsalted butter. I let them cook, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Bellas tend to take longer than other mushrooms, and I wanted to make sure they'd released all the liquid they wanted to before I added everything else.

Some of the broccoli and cauliflower florets were huge, so I broke them apart before adding them to the pan. I stirred everything together, then added the wine and covered the pan. I braised the vegetables in the wine about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Once the liquid was almost all gone, I stirred in the garlic-herb butter. Then I continued cooking, stirring a few times, for a couple of minutes to ensure all the vegetables were coated with the butter mixture.

Wine-Braised Vegetables with Garlic-Herb Butter

Serves 2

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

3/4 teaspoon dried tarragon

3/4 teaspoon dried basil

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 ounces mini bella mushrooms, sliced

1 (12 ounce) package mixed vegetables (such as broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots)

1/4 cup white wine (I used Yellowtail Pinot Grigio)

Combine 3 tablespoons butter, tarragon, basil, and garlic in a small bowl. Set aside for several hours to allow flavours to meld and herbs to soften.

Heat 1 tablespoon unsalted butter in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and saute, stirring frequently, until liquid is released, about 10 minutes.

Add rest of vegetables and wine to pan and stir to combine. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender and liquid is almost gone, about 10 minutes more.

Remove lid, add butter mixture to pan and cook, stirring occasionally, to completely coat vegetables.

Serving Size: 258g

Calories: 302

Calories from Fat: 212

Total Fat: 23.5g

Saturated Fat: 14.7g

Trans Fat: 0.0g

Cholesterol: 61mg

Sodium: 550mg

Total Carbohydrates: 14.9g

Dietary Fiber: 7.2g

Sugars: 0.6g

Protein: 3.8g