Turkish Garbanzo Salad

We had not BBQ’ed since the power went out during  blizzard last Christmas.  I do not normally eat turkey, but I have to confess I tried some of the BBQ’ed breast meat and it was damned good.  We’ve almost decided to make it a tradition to BBQ our Christmas turkey every year, but that’s another story for another time.    

Yesterday was a beautiful warm spring day, so we got the old Webber out,  cleaned it up and lit it.   Our first REAL BBQ for spring.  The guys ate grassfed beef burgers, while us girls enjoyed our Morningstar Meatless patties on a bun.    I made some fresh kale soup, sliced up the first fresh spring strawberries, roasted asparagus and bought a tasty garbanzo bean salad from the PCC Deli.   I had sampled three salads — all made with organic ingredients– then settled on the Turkish Garbanzos.   Now that we’ve all tried it, I plan to make it myself.  It was delicious and different and full of protein. 

PCC publishes many recipes on their home page to the right.  Here’s the recipe for the salad I had last night. 

Turkish Garbanzo Bean Salad Recipe
2 Cup garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 red onion, diced

1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced

1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted, sliced

1/4 cup Turkish apricots, slivered

3 T organic extra virgin olive oil or flax seed oil

2 T Barengo Gourmet Red Wine Vinegar

1 clove garlic, minced

1 T Dijon Mustard

1/2 T each: oregano, paprika

1 Tsp sea salt

black pepper to taste

Mix together all ingredients and serve or refrigerate. This salad tastes even better the next day, after all the flavors have had a chance to seep into the beans.
Prep time; 10 minutes

Beautiful Chard

rainbow chard

Chard is one of the few locally grown crops abundantly available in the Pacific Northwest this time of year.   I’ve seen locally grown organic chard at PCC Markets  all winter long, and also found it at the Yakima Fruit Market, which just recently opened again March 4th.  You would think with its high availability I might have tried it before, but I confess I usually pass it up in favor of  spinach or kale — another recently discovered leafy green.   Feeling adventuresome this past week I ever bought a bunch for the very first time.  WOW!  I’m in love with this delicious beautiful plant!  So far, I’ve sauteed it and added it to salad, soup and a stir-fry.  It tastes great in everything! 

Chard comes from the same family as spinach and beets, but is a little milder than than both.  According to the World’s Healthiest Foods website, it is high in vitamins K, A, C, and E, plus magnesium, manganese, potasium, calcium, and iron.   

Here’s my sauteeing recipe–

Ingredients

• 2 bunches fresh chard.  Or other greens– (kale, spinach, mustard)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil 
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic a splash of vinegar
• salt to taste

Cut the leaves and stems with kitchen shears.  (You can eat both leaves and stems!)

Toss into a fry pan with olive oil and garlic.

When the leaves begin to look a little bit limp, add the vinegar, cover with a lid and cook for a minute or two.  Because the leaves are bigger and thicker, it has to cook just a little longer than spinach, but watch it because it gets limp fast.

Salt to taste. 

There are many alternatives here.  You can substitute lemon juice if you prefer that  flavor over vinegar.  Add some pine nuts for protein, or add a jalapeno or dried pepper seeds for some zip.  It’s very versatile. 

I look forward to planting some in my garden this spring.

Split Pea Soup

• Ingredients
  1 cup split peas
  4 cups water
  1/2 teaspoon or two cloves minced garlic
  1 cup coarsely chopped carrots
  1 small onion, sliced
  2 ribs celery, sliced
  2 teaspoons olive oil
  1 teaspoon thyme
  1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
  1/2 pound meat (ham or cooked bacon pieces if you like) or 1/2 pound tofu dogs

1. Bring peas, garlic and water to a boil, then simmer for about an hour
2. Chop carrots while peas are cooking, then toss them in with peas
3. Chop celery and onion, then saute in olive oil. When the onions are transparent, toss celery and onions into the pot, add thyme
4. Keep simmering until peas and vegetables are done
5. If you like a smooth texture, blend soup in a food processor or with an immersion blender
6. Add meat, (or non-meat) salt and pepper to taste

Cabbage Salad

One of my favorite salads is made with cabbage and Ramen noodles.  I have been experimenting with a noodle-less substitute ever since I realized Ramen noodles were processed with partially hydrogenated oil and BHT.  What’s BHT anyway?  I looked it up and found a nifty site that explains all kinds of food additives.   Personally I prefer eating real food rather than chemically modified food. 

  

Here’s my new recipe for Cabbage Salad.

 

1/2 to 3/4 small organic cabbage

1/4 cup cashews

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup pecan pieces

2 t. olive oil

4 organic green onions cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

 

 Directions.

 

1. Chop cabbage coarsely as if you’re making a slaw.

2. Toast the nuts and seeds in 2 t. olive oil until the sesame seeds are golden.

3.  Mix the olive oil, rice vinegar and honey in a small bowl, then mix everything together– cabbage, onions, nuts and dressing.

4.  Chill until ready to serve.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Many Cream of Broccoli Soup recipes require cheese.  If you don’t eat cheese (or just want something less fattening), this is an easy and tasty recipe without the cheese.  Non-fat sour cream can also be used in place of yogurt.

Ingredients

1 med. onion, sliced

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 cloves minced garlic

1 and a half pounds broccoli, cut up (stems too)

3 small potatoes

1/3 cup white wine (optional)

4 cups vegetable broth

dash of  nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups yogurt, OR buttermilk OR sour cream

cream (optional)

Directions

1. Saute the onion in the olive oil.
2. Place onion, garlic, broccoli and potatoes in a stock pot with vegetable broth and wine if you’re using it
3. bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer on stove about 20 minutes until you can poke a fork into the potatoes and broccoli stems easily.
4. Remove from heat and let cool.  Then pour into a food processor to  blend OR use an immersion  blender to puree the ingredients
5. salt and pepper to taste, then add a dash of nutmeg
6. heat up again, then add two cups of yogurt, or buttermilk or sour cream
7. when serving place a spoonful of cream into the soup

Sustainable Spaghetti

I have often been asked (by my kids) for my spaghetti sauce recipe.  Spaghetti is one of those dishes I’ve never used a recipe for.  I’ve pointed out on more than one occasion that women cooked for thousands of years without using recipes.  They couldn’t read and consequently resorted to eyeballing it, then tasting.  Cooking is one of those skills that takes some practice.  It’s both a science and an art.  The artists among us are most comfortable NOT following a recipe, whereas the scientists need exact measurements, since they evidently don’t trust their taste buds.  But just for the record, I haven’t measured anything in this recipe for years.  If you feel there needs to be a bit more garlic or less chili powder, feel free to add and/or decrease, or eliminate an herb or spice all together. 

This is not a ‘sustainable recipe’ in the purest sense, since I use canned goods.  But we all have those busy nights when we need to throw things together quickly– and what can be busier than the holiday season when we have so much to do and so many parties to attend? 

So– this is as sustainable as possible, since I only use organic ingredients.  Most of this stuff isn’t locally manufactured, however. 

Ingredients

• 1 pound grass fed organic ground beef (if you eat meat.)  If you don’t eat meat you can add more vegetables, such as chopped canned artichokes, mushroom and onion, or fry up some tofu to put in at the last minute, OR throw in some seitan or frozen Morningstar Meal Starters (which really isn’t at all organic, but at least it’s meatless. . .)   You choose.
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 can organic chopped tomatoes.  (I buy the S&W brand at Costco.)
• 1 can organic tomato sauce.  (In the summer, I opt for fresh cut up cherry tomatoes instead of the canned, but add an extra can of sauce.  The cut up cherry tomatoes add nice texture and fiber.
• 1/2 chopped onion, 1/2-1 cup chopped mushrooms, and maybe some artichokes (optional)
• 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried chili pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• organic pasta (Costco and Trader Joes both have good good organic brands for a cheap price.)
• parmeson cheese for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Brown the beef  with chopped onions in a frying pan if you eat meat.
2. Otherwise brown the mushrooms and onions together in some olive oil until soft and the onions are transparent.   Add some artichokes if you want.
3. Drain the meat, then add all the ingredients together, except the noodles and the cheese.
4. Bring sauce to a simmer, then cover and cook while you attend to the noodles OR if you’re in a real hurry you can start the noodles first, so they’re cooking while you make the sauce.  I usually do the noodles second to give the sauce time to simmer.
5. Put on a large kettle of water to boil, then boil noodles according to your package directions.  Drain and serve with a little parmesan sprinkled on top.  
6. I don’t find it necessary to salt my sauce, as processed sauce is usually salty enough, but if you buy unsalted organic sauce, then feel free to salt to taste.  My son who likes spicy stuff adds pepper flakes to his along with the parmesan.   

New England Clam Chowder

When I was a little girl, I lived by the Puget Sound.  One of my favorite activites on a summer day was to dig up butterclams.  Here is a simple recipe for New England Clam Chowder.

Ingredients:

• 2 leeks, sliced thinly (white and light green part only)
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 3 medium sized potatoes, cut up and peeled if you like them that way.  I prefer leaving the skins on to add texture to the soup
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon garlic
• 32 ounces vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• pepper to taste
• 1 cup half N half
• 3 small cans of chopped or minced clams, including liquid

Directions

1. Slice leeks and saute in butter in a large stock pot until translucent.
2. Add flour and stir up with butter and leeks.  Add garlic, celery, potatoes and vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to let simmer until potatoes are done.
3. Do not drain the stock.  Mash up potatoes until chunky and soupy.
4. Add oregano, parsley, salt and pepper.
5. Add clams with liquid and milk.
6. Heat through.

Serve with home-made rolls or biscuits.

Onion Soup in a Crock Pot

Like many people, I travelled out of state to have Thanksgiving with family.  Before leaving I realized I had an abundance of organic onions and one leek left in my produce bin, which might have become spoiled by the time I got back.  I have been craving French onion soup for awhile, but was too busy to deal with the constant stirring caramelizing the onions could have required.  Luckily I’ve recently checked out a great slow cooker book from the library called 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes.  I like it so much I’m adding it to my Christmas wish list. 

Their recipe for onion soup suggests leaving the onions in a slow cooker with butter for one hour, then adding sugar and allowing to them to slow cook in the butter and sugar for another four hours.  This was easy, and not too time-consuming!  As always I’ve modified some ingredients to allow for what I had on hand and my vegetarian diet.  Serves six.  It’s great!

 

Ingredients

 

3 pounds onion *I used a combination of green onion, yellow onion and one leek

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

8 cups of ‘enhanced’ vegetable stock, which is the equivalent of two boxes + extra seasons- see below

1 baguette

2 cups Swiss, Guyere cheese *(I used Parmesan)

Directions

1.  Melt the butter then dump the onions into your crock pot.  Pour the melted butter over the top and stir well to cover all the onions.  Cook on high for one hour.

2.  While your onions are cooking, ‘enhance’ your vegetable stock with two carrots, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1 teaspoon cracked pepper, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, a bay leaf and 1 cup of red wine (or white–whatever you have.)  Simmer this until the carrots are cooked, then remove the carrots and save the liquid for later.

3.  Add your sugar, salt, pepper into the crockpot, then cook on high four more hours, stirring every so often to be sure the onions are browning.

4.  Add vegetable stock and cook on high two more hours.

5.  At serving time, preheat your broiler.  Place a couple baguette slices in each bowl.  Top with cheese and broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

 

YUM!

What’s In Season?

What

If you are like me and have been used to buying fruits and vegetables based on your own personal cravings rather than fresh seasonal produce, a trip to the grocery store can seem baffling with all the greenhouse raised, non-organic choices available.  Previously I never gave much thought to what was in season.  Sure- I knew that strawberries tasted sweeter in the spring, and that fresh corn wasn’t usually available until mid-summer, and that the price of tomatoes went up in the winter even though they didn’t taste half as good.  But since most fruits and vegetables can be found on grocery store shelves all year long, I just didn’t think about it. If my recipe called for a fresh tomato, I bought a tasteless greenhouse grown thing in the middle of winter.

 

Now I plan my menus around what’s in season rather than what will be the simplest thing to throw together at the last minute.  And surprise!  Because our veggies are fresh, they taste better, and they’re relatively cheap even though they’re organic.  Also they really take no longer to fix.  What could be easier than roasting a squash or stir-frying a bunch of kale?  It’s no more difficult than throwing a tasteless salad together.   However, trying to buy fresh, locally grown veggies can be confusing if you don’t know what grows in your area and when.    

    

Yesterday  I found an informational website that charts in-season vegetables and fruits.  It’s called What’s In Season, and I’ve posted a link to it on the right side of my page here.  When you click on a season, a list of fruits and veggies pop up.  There is also a recipe search engine and a link that provides nutrient information, as well as a ’how-to’ page on selecting a good fruit or veggies, and how to store them properly. 

 

The chart here can point you in the right direction for finding seasonal (and organic) vegetables that haven’t been sitting in a cooler for months or raised in a green house.  Also it lists fruits and veggies like pomagranates, guava and quince that are only fresh for a short period of time each year.  It’s a fantastic little tool, so I wanted to share it with others.

Mushroom Season

Late fall is mushroom season.  Last week I saw an article about mushroom pickers in my area.  How I envy their finds!  Mushrooms are high in vitamin D, folate, phosphorous, selenium, and potassium- which means they have antioxidant properties and they’re good for your bones.

  

One of my favorite mushroom recipes came out of the South Beach Diet Cookbook (2004). While I don’t follow the diet, most South Beach recipes are tasty and made with whole foods.  Nutrition facts are posted at the bottom of each recipe, and the cook book also has a lot of full page color pictures, which I like.  These portobello mushrooms are baked with chevre and pinenuts.  They look elegant served on a pretty plate.  The taste combination of mushroom, pinenuts and chevre is out of this world! 

 

As always, I’ve made a couple personal changes.  I’ve replaced the south beach tomato sauce with organic tomato sauce, and left out the fresh basil, which isn’t in season right now.  Season the tomato sauce to your own tastes with a little garlic, salt, oregano, chili powder, etc.  Here’s the recipe.

 

Baked Portobello Caps with Melted Goat Cheese

 

 

Ingredients:

1 cup tomato sauce

4 large portobello mushrooms

4 ounces (reduced fat)* goat cheese, cut into four pieces

2 tablespoons pine nuts, finely chopped

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

a sprig of basil for garnish 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

Spread the sauce in the bottom of a 9″x9: baking dish.  arrange the mushroom caps, gill side up, on top.  Place a piece of goat cheese on each mushroom.  sprinkle evenly with the pine nuts.  

Bake for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. 

Optional- top with the chopped basil, garnish and serve

*I have used both reduced fat and regular, and haven’t noticed much difference in taste.