Red Cabbage, I ❤ You

I've made the Vegetarian Slow Cooker's "Bavarian Red Cabbage (Sauerkraut)" twice now and I am just thoroughly enamored with the dish. Sweet, tart, savory ... yum!

Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone and had to tweak the recipe a little bit each time. The first time, I used a red onion instead of yellow and added a tablespoon of ground caraway. The second time, I kept those changes and also reduced the sugar and added a bay leaf.

Bavarian Red Cabbage

Ingredients
1 small head red cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped
1 medium red onion, peeled, diced
1 cup very hot water
2 tsp salt
½ tsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup white vinegar
1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp ground caraway
3 Tbsp unsalted butter

Directions
Add all ingredients except butter to the slow cooker insert. Stir. Dot with butter. Cover and cook on High for 3-4 hours or Low for 6-8 hours.

Next time, I'm inclined to try swapping out the white vinegar and sugar for cider vinegar and honey ... I might also throw in some unsweetened dried cranberries or sour cherries.

It's spring and I'm in love with cabbage.

(The peas and carrots dish shown in the above photo was made using Chow's "Herbed Peas and Carrots" recipe. I threw fresh thyme in with the peas and it was really good -- way better than the frozen stuff).

The Eating O' The Greens

There was a bit of ham, cabbage, and peas leftover from other recipes and I had the idea to sauté them together in a pan with olive oil and seasonings. The idea, I think, was a sound one ... but the application left a little to be desired. Definitely a (delicious) work in progress!

I used my food processor's shredding disc to prepare the cabbage and that was not the best idea as the disk turned the cabbage into itty-bitty confetti pieces similar to what you'd fine in KFC cole slaw. Not what I wanted at all and, because the cabbage was so finely shredded, in the pan it went from crisp-tender to squishy in the blink of an eye. That was disappointing and I was prepared to be displeased by the whole dish, but the broth created by all the vegetable and ham juices was phenomenal and redeemed it all.

(If I made this again, I'd definitely use the slicing disk).

Sautéed Cabbage, Peas, and Ham

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups Napa cabbage, coarsely shredded
1 cup baby spinach, thinly sliced
1 cup chopped cooked smoked ham
Zest of half a lemon
Dried savory, to taste
Ground caraway, to taste
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
In a large heavy pot, heat oil over medium heat until hot; add peas, cabbage, spinach, ham, and zest. Sauté, stirring occassionally, 4 to 5 minutes, or until cabbage is wilted and tender.

Remove pot from heat and stir in caraway, savory, salt and pepper. Toss to combine and serve over brown rice or buttered noodles.

Healthy Breakfast Still Tastes Good

Now that we're in The Season of Eating, I'm trying very hard to eat healthfully and stick with Weight Watchers. I'm not forswearing any Hanukkah/Christmas goodness, mind you, as December without latkes or home-baked cookies would be a terrible thing indeed. I'm just trying to eat more sensibly the rest of the time.

So what does this "more sensibly" look like when it's at home? Well, for breakfasts, I've been doing this excellent egg white and spinach bake:

Egg Whites & Spinach Bake

Ingredients
16 oz carton All Whites 100% Liquid Egg Whites
7 oz package Nature's Promise organic baby spinach
3 oz fat free feta, crumbled
¼ diced dehydrated red & green bell pepper
1 Tbsp sriracha chili sauce
Salt and pepper, as desired

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Microwave baby spinach 1-2 minutes or until wilted. Stir in all other ingredients. Transfer to a greased pie plate and bake, uncovered, for about 20 minutes or until cooked through. Serves 4. (2WWP+ per serving, but ymmv).

You could bake these in four individual ramekins, but the cooking time will need to be adjusted.

I eat this egg bake with two tablespoons of garlicky Green Mountain Gringo salsa (0) and a satsuma mandarin (0) or banana (0) and I feel righteous. If I'm extra hungry, I'll add a fat-free Chobani Greek yoghurt (3) and still feel righteous.

Doubleplusawesomewithknobson Chard & Chicken

Now that it's December and snowed twice, I must accept there will be no fresh chard coming from my garden until spring. What to do? Frozen chard! Yes, you can find bags of chopped chard in the freezer section of the grocery store. What do you do with it? I'm guessing you can use it in pretty much any cooked dish. I made mine with tomatoes and white beans, because chard + tomatoes + beans = doubleplusawesomewithknobson.

Chard with Tomatoes & White Beans

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
9 oz bag frozen chopped chard
14.5 oz can Muir Glen fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained
1 tsp Penzeys Tuscan Sunset (salt-free Italian-style seasoning blend)
Juice of one lemon half, or more to taste
15 ounce can cannellini or other white beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper, as desired

Directions
Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high. Add onion and garlic and cook 3 minutes or until onion is translucent and very fragrant. Reduce heat to medium, add tomatoes with juice, chard, lemon juice, and Italian seasoning blend.

Cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes or until chard is tender. Add beans and simmer 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Serves 4. (5WWP+ per serving, but ymmv)

I ate the chard for lunch/supper at work with four ounces baked boneless skinless organic chicken breast and it was made for an unbelievably yummy meal. Going to hit the grocery store this weekend and buy all the frozen chard I can fit in my shopping basket!

Easy Oven-Baked Chicken Breasts

Ingredients
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp Penzeys Tuscan Sunset (salt-free Italian-style seasoning blend)
1 tsp olive oil
Juice of one lemon half, or more to taste
¼ cup low-fat reduced-sodium chicken broth

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a small baking dish with cooking spray.

Season both sides of chicken with salt, pepper, and seasoning blend. Transfer chicken to pan and drizzle with oil and lemon juice. Pour broth around chicken to coat bottom of pan.

Bake until chicken is cooked through, about 30 to 35 minutes. Serves 4. (3WWP+ per 4 oz serving)

So many times in the past, I've baked chicken breasts and they've come out dry or flavorless, but with this recipe, the chicken came out really well -- moist, tender, and flavorful. Definitely worth repeating.

Eating the Alphabet: W is for Watercress & Walnuts

November's Eating the Alphabet Challenge was to use U, V, and/or W ingredients. I knew I wanted to use peppery watercress when I saw beautiful green bunches of it piled in with the mint and dill at Shoprite. Not only is watercress delicious, it's full of nutrients like iron, calcium, and Vitamin A and C. I like to eat it in cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, but that's not really exciting and the Alphabet Challenge is all about excitement and pushing boundaries, you know.

So needed a new spin on watercress. Why not salad? Something light and filling and green? I was first tempted by Patti LaBelle's recipe for "Out-of-This-World Watercress Salad," but tomatoes aren't in season, anymore, and I didn't want to ruin what sounded like a perfectly lovely recipe with questionable tomatoes. So I turned to Martha Stewart and she did not disappoint. Her recipe for "Watercress Salad with Roasted Sweet Potatoes" is delightfully simple and seasonable. If my family was comprised of more adventurous eaters, it's the kind of dish I might start Thanksgiving dinner with. It's very clean-tasting and just looks, to me, like autumn on a plate.

From all this ...

... to this!

Watercress Salad with Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Slightly Adapted From Martha Stewart
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch-long sticks
3 Tbsp + ½ tsp olive oil
Sea salt and ground pepper
½ cup walnuts
¼ tsp sriracha
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp honey
12 oz watercress, stems trimmed
4 oz fat free feta crumbles

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 °F, with racks on upper and lower thirds. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss sweet potatoes with 1 Tbsp oil; season with salt and pepper. Roast on upper rack, until tender, 20 to 30 minutes, stirring frequently. [Stewart's recipe cooks them longer with less stirring, but mine started to burn so ...]

Remove potatoes from oven and set aside. On another rimmed baking sheet, toss walnuts with sriracha and ½ tsp oil. Bake on lower rack, stirring occasionally, until golden (about 5 minutes).

In a bowl, whisk together lemon juice, honey, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil; season with salt and pepper. [Or put it all in an old jar and shakeshakeshake your dressing]. Toss watercress and dressing together. Serve topped with sweet potatoes, walnuts, and feta. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This salad best served while the sweet potatoes are still warm -- otherwise they just go kind of cold and chewy and that's not a good thing!

Overall, I really liked this salad.  It was easy, elegant, and completely yum! I'd definitely make it again, but I'll keep a close eye on the oven as some of my sweet potato sticks charred a bit!

If you can't find watercress, I'm sure baby spinach would work fine. Ohhh, baby spinach and blue cheese and sweet potatoes and pecans ...

Eating the Alphabet: S is for Spinach

October's Eating the Alphabet Challenge is S and/or T ingredients. Being pressed for time, I rolled the Alphabet Challenge up with homework for my online Italian cooking class and made "Stracciatella" (Italian egg-drop soup with spinach). I only began appreciating spinach once I reached adulthood and, even as recently has three years ago, I would only eat it raw in salads. Now I love it prepared pretty much anyway imaginable!

Indeed, I've grown to love leafy greens of all kinds and can only shake my head at childhood me who would only eat lettuces and cabbage for leafy greens.

Of course, childhood me would be appalled by many of the things I eat now.

Beginners Stracciatella

Ingredients
10 cups chicken broth or stock [I used half broth, half stock]
1 bag fresh baby spinach
2 large eggs beaten with ½ cup of cold water
¼ cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
⅛ tsp ground nutmeg [I used mace]
1 cup orzo, uncooked

Directions
Heat chicken broth in a large pot over medium/low heat until simmering, add pasta and cook for five minutes, lower heat. Sauté garlic with the olive oil over low heat in a skillet until garlic is fragrant.

Coarsely chop spinach and add to broth. Add the garlic & oil, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to the pot. Stir well. Make sure the broth is hot, but not boiling. Slowly drizzle the beaten egg into the soup as you briskly whisk it so that thin ribbons of egg form. Cook and stir for one minute. Ladle into bowls and serve.

Serves 4 generously.

Peppery and rich, this soup will definitely chase your Monday blahs away!

More Chard Goodness

Turns out sriracha does make my chard scramble recipe even better. I added a half teaspoon sriracha and two diced seeded tomatoes and, wow, it was delicious! (And two servings of vegetables at breakfast time is a pretty neat feat).

If you don't have chard, I'm pretty sure this recipe would work just as well with spinach.

Thanks to all the scrambles I've been making, I've finally amassed enough chard stems to make Bon Appetit’s easy "Sriracha Fridge Pickles" today. Based on the amount of chard I had and my general taste preferences, I tweaked the ingredient amounts somewhat.

I chopped my stems into bite-sized pieces and dumped them in a glass storage container with a small, thinly sliced, onion.

I mixed together 2 cups vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 6 tablespoons sriracha, and 1 tsp celery seed. Poured that over the vegetables, snapped the lid on the container, and gave everything a good shake.

Then I put the container in the fridge and told myself to leave it alone for a few days rather than do what I usually do with fridge pickles -- obsessively check the container, wondering if pickle-ization is happening.

They should be ready for taste-testing on Friday ...

Chard for Breakfast!

Last year, I made scrambled eggs with chard and, while it was good, I knew I could do better. And I have! Oh, dear gods of egg and leaf, yes.

Scrambled Eggs with Chard & Cheese

Ingredients
5 large-leafed stalks of chard (each leaf was the size of my hand or bigger)
1 large shallot, minced
1 tsp olive oil
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp whole milk
1 .75 oz Cabot 50% light cheddar snack bar, diced small
Salt & pepper, to taste
Sriracha, if desired

Instructions
Gently wash chard to remove any soil. Remove stems and set aside for another day. Roll leaves up into a cigar and slice thinly. Set aside.

Whisk eggs with milk and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat until fragrant. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, until they go translucent. (The olive oil is here more for flavor than for it's lubricative powers so use a "tasty" one -- right now, I'm loving Lucero Arbequina Three Star Blend Certified Extra Virgin Olive Oil).

Add chard and cook, stirring, until chard is wilted. Pour in eggs and cook, stirring gently, until eggs begin to set.

Top not-quite-cooked eggs with diced cheese. Cover pan with a tight-fitting lid and remove from heat. Let sit until the cheese is melted.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Add a little sriracha if you like your mornings spicy).

I’m thinking this will be nice topped with some fresh chopped garden tomatoes when they’re in season. Or, instead of using scrambled eggs and cheese, I bet this would be good with a nice soft-poached egg nestled in the chard. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to master poached eggs so I’ll stick with scrambled.

Seriously, this is yum. I would happily eat it every day until the chard gave out. I’m wondering, though, if I could cook the shallots and chard ahead of time and then reheat them, adding the eggs and cheese, the next morning?

And what do you do with chard stems? I’m using mine in Bon Appetit’s easy "Sriracha Fridge Pickles." Mmm. My spicy, crunchy, pickle-love.

An Adoration of Kumquats

sweet pulp and sour skin --
or was it sweet outside, and sour within?
For however many kumquats that I eat
I'm not sure if it's flesh or rind that's sweet,
and being a man of doubt at life's mid-way
I'd offer Keats some kumquats and I'd say:

You'll find that one part's sweet and one part's tart:
say where the sweetness or the sourness start. 

            -- from "A Kumquat for John Keats" by Tony Harrison in the anthology Eat, Drink, and Be Merry:             Poems About Food and Drink (Everyman's Library, 2003)

Last week, I tried kumquats for the first time. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the idea of eating any citrus fruit in its entirety -- just pop it in my mouth and chew it up like a grape -- seemed a little weird. And, texturally, it was a little weird but the flavor was excellent. First a burst of bitter lemon, then a sharp orange burst, then a just generalized sweet-tart deliciousness that filled my mouth with the promise of summer.

Still, I did not think I would be able to eat them all whole or raw and turned to the internetz for recipes. And the internetz were very good to me, for the first recipe I found was Beyond Salmon's "Spinach with Kumquats." Excepting spinach, I had all the ingredients on hand and what's a quick trip to the grocery store when a promising new recipe is in play?

Oh, I am so glad I tried this recipe. Full of fresh, bright flavors, the spinach tasted fabulous. My jaded winter tongue could not get enough of the sweet-tart kumquats, zesty lemon, and sweet raisins. I served the spinach with marinated chicken breasts and Basmati rice, but I think I would have been just as happy skipping the chicken and serving a big scoop of it over rice. Yes, it was that good.

Note to self: acquire more kumquats.

Improv Challenge: Potatoes & Cheese

I knew I had to sign on for March’s Improv Challenge (hosted by the wonderful Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker) when I saw the ingredients where potatoes and cheese. Potatoes and cheese! Is there any combination of potatoes and cheese I wouldn’t like? Methinks not.

Anyway, despite days spent pinning hearty cheesy potato soup recipes and casseroles, I ended up making "Healthy Sweet Potato Skins" from Pinch of Yum, because it used three ingredients I like a lot -- sweet potatoes, spinach, and chickpeas. Also, lots of dairy. Mmm, dairy!

 

Healthy Sweet Potato Skins
Reproduced with permission by the author: Pinch of Yum
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Total time: 1 hour 20 mins
Serves: 2-3

Ingredients
2 medium or large sweet potatoes
1 ½ tablespoons butter
1 shallot, minced
1 bag fresh baby spinach
¼ cup light sour cream
2 ounces light cream cheese
1 cup chickpeas
¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Bake sweet potatoes at 350 for 45-60 minutes, or until fork tender.

Cut sweet potatoes in half and let cool for 5-10 minutes. While sweet potatoes are cooling, saute the shallots with the butter over medium heat until translucent. Add fresh spinach and heat for 2-3 minutes, until spinach has cooked down. Set aside. [I dumped the chickpeas into the hot pan and gave them a stir 'round until they were lightly toasted]

Scrape the sweet potato out of the peel, leaving a thin layer inside with the peel so that it can stand up on its own. Mash the sweet potato with the cream cheese and sour cream. Stir in chickpeas, spinach, and salt and pepper.

Coat potato skins with a drizzle of oil and bake for about 5 minutes to get a crispier outside. Remove from oven and fill each skin with the sweet potato mixture and top with shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake again for 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and filling is heated through.

I love these potatoes -- they're pretty, portable, and perfectly delicious. I baked two large sweet potatoes and took a potato half to work each day for lunch. They reheated really well using the staff room toaster oven and a little foil and, paired with a small salad, they kept me going all afternoon. No three o'clock slump for me! No sirree, Bob. Not with these potatoes.

When I make these again, because I will be making them again, I might season the chickpeas and spinach with sweet curry powder and swap the mozzarella out for some fresh goat cheese crumbles.

Eating the Alphabet: C is for Chickpeas

I knew I wanted to use chickpeas in this month's Eating the Alphabet Challenge and so was pleased to find Oxmoor House's "Lemony Fusilli with Chickpeas, Raisins, and Spinach" posted on myrecipes.com. This was a warm pasta salad made from whole wheat pasta, lemon juice and zest, chickpeas, baby spinach, and golden raisins. With all that yellow and green, it seemed like an excellent recipe to welcome Spring!

I made this salad twice and the second time through I changed up the amounts of seasonings (the first iteration was a bit bland) and subbed fresh goat cheese crumbles for the shredded fontina as, while fontina is a tasty cheese, I thought this salad needed a tangy-sweet creaminess to balance the lemon. Also, I really like fresh goat cheese crumbles!

Pasta With Chickpeas, Spinach, and Golden Raisins

3 cups uncooked whole wheat rotini
2 lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 (9-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
¾ cup golden raisins
¼ cup (1 ounce) goat cheese crumbles

Cook pasta as directed.

While pasta cooks, zest lemons and squeeze juice from lemons to measure 4 teaspoons zest and ¼ cup juice. Whisk zest, juice, olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt, and garlic together in a really big bowl. Add spinach, chickpeas, and raisins; toss well. (I think you could do this an hour or two ahead of time to really let the spinach, raisins, and chickpeas pick up as much flavor from the dressing as possible).

Drain pasta and return to hot pot. Immediately add the spinach mixture, stirring until spinach wilts. Taste for salt. Serve warm sprinkled with goat cheese crumbles. Serves 4.

Easy Mixed Greens & Tomatoes

Last week I was at Shoprite looking for The Husband's favorite ice cream and, while I didn't find that, I did find a big display Glory Foods bagged chopped greens! Super-excited, I snapped up a bag of mixed greens and brought it home, full of fantasies of the good things I could make from it. When I got home, I knew I wanted "proper" greens -- rich, flavorful, hearty greens -- but I didn't want to use meat in the dish. I ended up with this, which is an amalgamation of ideas I found on the internetz and, yes, the recipe on the back of the greens' bag:

Easy Greens & Tomatoes

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small red onion, chopped
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 16 oz bag Glory Foods chopped mixed greens
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth stock
A dash or two of liquid smoke
1 14.5 oz can Muir Glen no salt added diced tomatoes, undrained
Salt and black pepper, as desired
Red wine vinegar, as desired.

Heat oil in a French/Dutch oven. Sauté onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes until onion is until tender and fragrant. Add greens and cook for about a minute, stirring. Add broth and liquid smoke, cover pot, and simmer on low for about 40 minutes or until the greens are much reduced in volume and most of the liquid has cooked away. Add tomatoes and cook, stirring, until tomatoes are heated through. Season with salt and pepper, as desired, and serve drizzled with a little red wine vinegar.

Oh, this was delicious! I used leftover cheddar biscuits to sop up the pot liquor and it was an awesome flavor combination.

Kale Is For Stew

I stopped in a Trader Joe's last weekend and bought a big bag of washed chopped kale on impulse, which is the kind of thing that always happens to be when I go shopping without a grocery list. Officially, I'm the only one who eats kale in this household so I knew I was free to do with it whatever I liked. Being traditionally-minded, I made a big pot of Bon Appetit's "Kale and White Bean Stew." I had to make some changes based on what I had in my pantry, but tried to stick pretty close to the original recipe where I could. The stew came out really well and I took forward to making it again.

Modified Kale & White Bean Stew

10 oz bag Trader Joe's Kale
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped peeled carrots
1 cup chopped celery
2 shallots, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup Beringer 2009 Californian Chenin Blanc (or whatever you're drinking)
1 15-ounce can Goya Habas Grandes (large butter beans), drained and rinsed
1 15-ounce can Muir Glen Organic fire-roasted diced tomatoes, not drained
1 cup slightly wrinkly cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cups turkey broth (more if you like broth-y stews)
2 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
Really good sherry or red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Blanch kale in boiling salted water for 1 minute or until brilliant green. Immediately drain and plunge into a ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Drain well. Wrap in a tea towel and squeeze out as much water as possible. Set aside for later.

Heat oil in a French/Dutch oven over medium heat. Add carrots, celery, shallots, red onion, and garlic. Cook until tender, stirring, about 15 minutes (vegetables will probably brown a little -- I liked this but Bon Appetit said not to).

Add wine and simmer until liquid is slightly reduced. Add beans, broth, tomatoes, thyme, and bay leaf and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add kale and simmer 5 minutes longer. Remove bay. Add more broth if stew is too thick for you. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls and served drizzled with sherry or red wine vinegar. Have a bit of crusty bread on the side for dunking.

(I didn't have any sherry vinegar to mix into the finished stew, but used the really delicious, fruity Katz Late Harvest Zinfandel AgroDolce Vinegar in its place and ... wow! It just made the stew sing).

Vegan Casserole Love

It's that most wonderful time of year -- that time of year when one's place of work puts on its party shoes and busts out the punch bowl. Or is it only my place of work still clinging to the godawful sherbet punch tradition? Please tell me other worker bees in other hives suffer similarly.

Anyway, we had a holiday party last week and my department was charged with procuring the main dish. We voted on rotisserie chickens all carved up and prettily plated by the local market, but I felt I should bring something extra for all the vegetarians among us. Also, I'd seen a great recipe in Faith Durand's Not Your Mother's Casseroles (Harvard Common Press, 2011) for "Sweet Potato, Chard, and Coconut Milk Casserole" and I desperately wanted to try it out. I love sweet potatoes and have developed a real liking for Swiss chard since I tried to out in our vegetable patch this summer.

I used a beautiful bunch of rainbow-colored chard in this casserole. Seriously, the colors of the stems were just phenomenal -- the yellow so bright it nearly glowed neon. Alas, the red stems bled when cooking and changed the yellow and white chard to muddy pinks. It all ended up soaked in coconut milk and covered with sweet potatoes, anyway.

And did the casserole meet my expectations? It exceeded them! The flavors worked so well together -- the coconut milk was creamy, but not unctuous, and the slight bitterness of the chard paired well with the starchy, sweet taste of the potatoes. Everyone else seemed to like it, too. The casserole dish was scraped clean well before the end of the party and three of my coworkers asked for copies of Durand's recipe.

(And this year's punch was 100% sherbet-free!)

Yummy Vegetables for Work

I had a bunch of vegetables that needed eating up, but I wasn't sure what to do with them so I turned to Barbara Kafka's Vegetable Love (Artisan, 2005) for inspiration and found many good recipes. I've borrowed Vegetable Love from my library so many times that I don't know why I haven't bought my own copy yet!

Thanks to Vegetable Love, I made some really great, easy dishes this weekend using Swiss Chard, kale, cabbage, and sweet potatoes. Making all four dishes took about three hours altogether and yielded enough food to keep me feed at work all week.

I made:

• Maple-Glazed Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• Curried Cabbage
• Braised Kale
• Braised Chard

I liberally sampled these dishes as I cooked them and they tasted so good that I almost looking forward to going back to work tomorrow!

A Little Cookery

Last weekend, we went to the last Hill-Stead's Farmers Market of the season. This was our first year attending the market, but we'll definitely be back next year as it's a really nice market with lots of goods noms and is quite close to home, too. Anyway, on our last trip, we bought lots of local apples and pears, goat's milk yoghurt, turnip greens, and a rather yummy-looking frozen shepherd's pie.

The pie we ate Sunday night with buttery, garlicky green beans and braised cabbage.

The frozen pie did not come with reheating instructions (and I didn't think to ask when I bought it), but I found baking it, covered, for 30 minutes at 400°F and then uncovering it and baking it for another 30 minutes worked fine. I sprinkled the pie with a Penzey's Hungarian Smoked paprika before shoving it in the oven and it gave the pie some nice color.

The pie came from Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm in Lyme -- we've bought yummy yoghurt and frozen lamb bolognese sauce from them in the past so I had no qualms about purchasing a pie. My only regret is that I did not purchase two -- one for Sunday and one as an emergency "forgot to plan" supper.

To make the buttery, garlicky green beans, I just microwaved fresh green beans and peeled cloves of garlic until the beans were tender. Then I mashed the garlic into bits and tossed the beans and garlic with unsalted butter. Seasoned them with fresh ground black pepper and salt and that was that. Green deliciousness.

The cabbage was a first attempt and tasted okay, but needs tweaking. I took two small green and red cabbages from my garden and chopped them into small pieces. I cooked the cabbage and a chopped red onion in a hot pan with unsalted butter and olive oil until the onion was translucent, then I poured in some low-sodium chicken broth, covered the pan, and let it simmer for about twenty minutes. I gave the cabbage a good stir, seasoned it with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and parsley.

Swiss Chard Scramble

I had meant to make a frittata with the Swiss Chard I harvested ahead of Hurricane Irene, but was feeling lazy and did a quick scramble instead.

I took a handful of stemmed Swiss Chard leaves and cut them into thin ribbons, then I stirred them around a hot skillet with a little olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes until the leaves were wilted. Feeling daring, I then drizzled them with a bit of red wine vinegar and tossed everything around until the vinegar had evaporated. Finally, I plopped in two eggs and scrambled until the eggs were cooked. A quick grind of salt and pepper and breakfast was ready to go!

This was pretty tasty for a first attempt, but there was much more chard than egg and the vinegar was a little sharp for breakfast.  Omit the vinegar next time (but add hot sauce?) and use more egg/less chard.

Tasty Chard & Bean Soup

For work this week, I made a black bean, Swiss chard, and sausage soup based on Beth Hensperger's recipe for "Black Bean Soup with Sausage and Greens" from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two. Hot soup in August may sound crazy to you, but my work's staff room is so cold in the summer that hot soup is just the ticket!

Ingredients: precooked organic spicy chicken sausage, Swiss chard from my garden, low-sodium organic chicken broth, organic fat-free refried black beans, red onion, garlic, low-sodium organic black beans.

To make this soup, I heated the sliced sausage with red onion and garlic until the sausage was a lovely brown and the onion was translucent. Then I dumped the chopped chard into the pan with the sausage and gave everything a good stir 'round until the chard started to wilt. Hensperger's recipe said to discard the stems and use only the leaves, but I used the stems and leaves -- just chopped the stems very finely as if I was chopping celery for tuna salad.

Once the chard was wilted, I dumped the broth, refried beans, and chard-sausage mixture into my slow cooker and cooked everything on HIGH for 2½ hours. At the end, I decided the soup was too thin and stirred in a can of mashed up black beans and let everything sit at WARM for thirty minutes or so. This helped somewhat, but I still feel the soup was not thick enough. Especially as Hensperger's recipe indicated this soup would come out so thick that I might want to thin it with a little boiling water!

Still, this soup turned out really quite tasty and I recommend you give it a try.

Cookery Catch-Up or "Not Quite My Menu Plan"

I did cook this week -- just not anything from my menu plan! I know, I know. What is the point of drawing up a plan if I do not follow it? It makes me feel organized even if I am not?

Wednesday, I made pasta sauce from ground bison, mushrooms, garden tomatoes, red onion, garlic, garden parsley, and a jar of Stonewall Kitchen's Garden Vegetable Sauce. Served it over whole grain penne and called it good. And it was!

Friday, I marinaded and grilled a rather nice beef steak and served it with a packet of butter and herb noodles and garlicky sauteed chard. (To make the chard, I removed the stems, sliced the leaves into thick ribbons, and sauteed them in a hot pan with olive oil, butter, garlic, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes until wilted).

I guess I used many of the ingredients I'd intended to use in my menu plan -- just not in the way I had planned!

Squash Season: Swiss Chard Bean Soup

Despite this week's to-ing and fro-ing I did manage to do a little cooking. Namely, I made soup. And such soup! I made a pot of Taste of Home's "Swiss Chard Bean Soup" with Swiss chard, crookneck squash, and herbs from my garden and it was delicious -- light, yet flavorful and filling, and so easy.

Ingredients: one pint diced cherry tomatoes (instead of drained canned diced), Swiss chard, zucchini, crookneck squash, carrots, red onion, garlic, organic low-sodium vegetable broth (instead of chicken), low-sodium cannellini beans, quick-cooking pearl barley (to thicken), fresh thyme, fresh oregano, salt, fresh ground black pepper.

Since I was using fresh tomatoes instead of canned, I cooked the tomatoes with the zucchini, crookneck squash, and onion then prepared the rest of the soup as directed and the whole thing was still ready to eat in less than thirty minutes!  While I wasn't planning on eating it the same day I made it, it was still really nice to have made a big pot of soup in a jiffy. I portioned the soup out into one-cup containers and took it to work (or ate it for breakfast) all week.  Wasn't the least bit sick of it by Friday!

While I did think the soup was a little both-y, I just threw a handful of quick-cooking barley in with the beans and it thickened up quite nicely. Next time, I might just doubled up on the beans and give half of them a bit of a mash before adding them to the pot. I might also try substituting low-sodium vegetable juice for half of the broth.

Would I make this soup again? Of course! And probably sooner rather than later as the garden is going mad producing squash and chard.