Potato Leek Gratin and Green Beans with Toasted Hazelnut-Lemon Butter

This meal was all about simple foods made anew without a lot of fuss. Potato leek gratin, the definition of comfort, is featured here. The familiarity of potatoes blends with the mild onion taste of leek and is topped with cheese to make everyone happy. Then, I whipped up some green beans with butter and hazelnuts to embark a nutty taste to this common vegetable. Finally, I served these sides with some Macadamia crusted Tilapia purchased at Whole Foods to round out the meal.

If you are short on time you can actually prepare the gratin the night before and keep it covered in your refrigerator. Then, simply bake it when you are ready for dinner. You'll need to either let it come slowly to room temperature on its own or bake it a bit longer than normal, however, since you'll be starting out with it cold.

Potato-Leek Gratin
You'll find this to be a very simple recipe. The only true time involved is the baking for an hour - and also you'll need to factor in enough time to wash and dice all of those potatoes and leeks. They are both notoriously hard to properly clean.

Follow along with the recipe and enjoy! However, also feel free to substitute. While Gruyere is perfectly acceptable it's not my favorite so I decided to substitute Asiago cheese instead. I grated it right before mixing it in for the freshest option. This worked out very well but I'm sure you could just as easily substitute your favorite cheese in here as well.

Green Beans with Toasted Hazelnut-Lemon Butter
And now for the vegetable! I'm not always the biggest green bean fan but I decided the combination of hazelnut and lemon-butter was too tempting not to give it a whirl. And it worked out.

Follow along with this simple recipe to create a savory vegetable dish very quickly. You are boiling the green beans then mixing in some hazelnuts, lemon rind, and butter. I used fake butter here to make the meal even healthier.

The combination of hazelnuts and green beans works out excellently. The nutty and savory yet firm textures work very well together, complementing one another to produce a wonderful side dish. Make this when you don't have a ton of time but you want something original and healthy.