Blistered Shishito Peppers

Photo from Jenny Park and Teri Lynn Fisher's blog, Spoon Fork Bacon.



JP tells me that this week's bag will contain shishito peppers and suggested that I feature them in the recipe.

Of Japanese origin, folks describe shishito peppers as  grassy and citrusy,  sweet and mild in taste.  Except when they aren't.

Some say that about one in ten or twenty are hot, which makes them a fun kind of surprise.  In Scoville heat units, they measure  50 – 200, meaning that at their hottest, they are still 13 times milder than jalapeños.  Matt Bray of Pepper Scale writes that it's likely that the shishito has its roots in the padrón, another pepper which varies in heat.  That pepper likely ended up in Spain in the 16th century from South America.  He speculates that the Japanese soil mixed with continued growing of the mildest peppers likely converted the taste and heat to what we have today.

On the other hand, Sandi Gaertner writes in her Fearless Dining blog that "I have yet to find a hot one….and I have had at least four pints of shishito peppers in the past month in our farm box." Despite not finding any hot ones, they are still a favorite and she has recipes for a variety of chilled soups including pepper,  pepper and mango and gazpacho,  as well as for a shishito sauce to serve with chicken over cheesy polenta and a shishito stir fry.

Since shishitos have thin walls, they can be roasted whole and eaten, except for the stems.  I am giving you directions on how to blister them in an iron skillet.  Since it would take at least a half a  pound to serve four as an appetizer,  I'm suggesting that if there are fewer you halve them lengthwise and use to garnish this week's tomatoes and cucumbers in the quinoa salad or use them to supplement other sweet peppers in Gaertner's recipes.

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Serves 4

Salad ingredients:
2 cups of chickpeas or black beans, cooked
1 cup heirloom tomatoes, chopped coarsely quartered
1 cucumber, seeded and diced
1 cup quinoa, cooked
2 tablespoons onion, minced
2 tablespoons fresh herbs, minced
4 tablespoons lime juice
salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Blistered pepper ingredients:
whole shishito peppers, washed and dried
1 tablespoon non extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil or ghee
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil, plus more for drizzling at the end
salt and cracked black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

Directions:

1.  The night before, to cook the beans, in a heavy bottomed stainless steel pan, cover one cup of dried chickpeas with three cups of water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover with lid and simmer for five minutes.  Let soak overnight.  Drain and rinse the chickpeas and repeat, but this time simmer until soft, about an hour to an hour and a half.  Drain and rinse a second time.

2.  To cook the quinoa, add the 2/3 cup of raw quinoa and to two cups of boiling water and return to boil. Take off stove and rinse well. Add back in a scant 2 cups of water and return to stove and bring to a boil. Turn down to low. Cover. Cook 15 minutes. Let stand for five minutes and then
fluff with a fork.

3.  In a medium large bowl,  combine all the salad ingredients, cover and store in refrigerator to chill. 

4.   Place cast iron skillet over medium heat.  When a drop of water will evaporate add sesame seeds and cook until they pop and transfer to a dish.

5.  Turn the heat to high and add the oils.

6.  Carefully add peppers to pan and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes, moving them around the pan frequently. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Once peppers have charred/blistered all around and have begun to wilt remove from heat.  Cut in half lengthwise.

8.  To serve, transfer the salad to four individual bowls, top with half a pepper (or more, if they are available)  and toasted sesame seeds and drizzle with additional sesame seed oil.

Gazpacho

Photo (no photographer credited) from Epicurious


JP tells me that this week's farm share will include lots of tomatoes of various types.  They're so pretty you could just sliced them on a platter or dice them with watermelon in a salad.  If it cools down, they'd be delicious in tomato pie.  If it doesn't, here's another way to serve them, in a simple gazpacho which doesn't, like the more complicated versions, require blanching the tomatoes and seeding them.  I use quinoa in this soup,  rather than bread cubes, which still provides a smooth texture while having the advantage of being gluten free, if you have friends that are on restricted diets.

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Serves 4

Ingredients

3 cups of tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
2 cups cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 cup sweet pepper, chopped
1 1/4 cups onion, chopped
3 cups canned tomato juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (such as tarragon, thyme, basil, parsley and/or cilantro)
1/4 balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves smashed, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoons of lime juice
1 cup of cooked quinoa
sea salt
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon cumin

Directions

1.   In a bowl, reserve 2 tablespoons each of the tomato, cucumber, pepper, and onion, plus the herbs to garnish.
2.   Purée the remaining ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth, adjusting the seasoning to taste with lime juice, salt, and cayenne pepper.
3. Cover and chill thoroughly, at least 3 hours but preferably overnight.
4.  Serve in chilled bowls garnished with the reserved vegetables

Moroccan Stew with Butternut Squash, Red Potatoes and Brined Green Olives

Photo by Deb Perelman of The Smitten Kitchen

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This week's farm share from Glade Road Growing includes butternut squash, so I thought I'd do another Moroccan stew.  The original recipe calls for preserved lemons, which, if bought prepared  are pricey.  Making them takes three weeks or four weeks, if you want to use this recipe or this one. Since Perelman says they're an acquired taste which she hasn't yet acquired,  I substituted lemon juice.

I also used a combination of lentils and chickpeas, rather than only chickpeas. While couscous is traditional,  it's a pasta.  I prefer to use quinoa, which is gluten free and higher in protein.

I also roasted the potatoes and butternut squash to deepen the flavor.  If you want to cut out this step, you can add them at the beginning of the boiling time. 

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2  cup  dried chickpeas, cooked
2/3 cup raw quinoa, cooked
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, divided in half
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves of fresh garlic, smashed, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups of  tomatoes, diced (canned is fine, if they are out of season)
3 cups water
1 pound butternut squash, cut in half, strings and seeds removed
3/4 pound small red potatoes, cut in half
1 1/2 cups green lentils, rinsed well
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 cup brined olives, pitted. (Green Cerignolas are nice.  If you prefer, substitute Kalamatas.)
1/3 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
1/3 cups of sliced almonds, toasted


Instructions:


1.  To cook chickpeas,  in a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, cover with an 3 cups of water, and and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let stand over night or for at least one hour. Rinse a second time, add three cups of water and bring to a boil again and simmer on low heat until soft, about 1 hour.

2.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees, F. Coat the  squash and potatoes in one tablespoon of the olive oil and roast, cut side down  on a cookie sheet in preheated oven until soft, about 30 minutes.  Cook until you can handle and then dice.

3.  To make the stew, heat the oil in a medium pot over medium heat and saute onions and garlic few minutes until the onions are softened.  Stir in cumin, cinnamon,  sea salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and turmeric.  Cook a few minutes until spices are fragrant. Add cooked chickpeas, tomatoes, water and lentils.  Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat.

4.  To cook quinoa, bring 2  cup of water to a boil.  Add the 2/3 cup of  raw quinoa and return
to boil.  Take off stove and rinse well.  Add back in a scant 2 cups of water and return to stove and    bring to a boil.  Turn down to low.  Cover.  Cook 15 minutes.  Turn off heat.

5.  Add roasted squash and tomatoes to the stew mixture and cook for an addition 5 minutes or until lentils are fully cooked. Stir in lemon and olives.

6.  Fluff the quinoa with a fork and divide among six bowls.  Ladle the stew on top, garnished with cilantro, almonds and with greek yogurt, if desired.

This would be good served with steamed or braised greens, such as kale, tatsoi or spinach.

Quinoa and Chard Fresh Spring Rolls

Photo by my one of my favorite food photographers and stylists, Andrew Scrivani, for the New York Times' Martha Rose Shulman's recipe (which is different than mine, but also delicious.)

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Sally tells me that the Glade Road Growing bag share for June 21 will include  rainbow chard, broccoli, carrots, bunch onion, basil, and summer squash.  I thought I'd come up with a recipe for spring rolls that uses the chard as a wrapper rather than rice paper.

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Serves 8


1 bunch rainbow chard
2/3 cup of raw quinoa
4 hard boiled chicken or duck eggs, peeled and sliced into in half lengthwise, as you would slice them for deviled eggs.
1 summer squash, cut into matchsticks
2 large carrots, cut into matchsticks
fresh basil leaves, reserve 8 for garnish
2 green onions, sliced thin, reserve some of tops for garnish
1 tablespoons miso, thinned with water
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger


1.   Make dipping sauce(s).  You will find the ingredients and recipes for a sweet  miso sauce here and/or a peanut sauce (with other nut substitutes, if you are allergic) here.

2.  Cook the quinoa.  You can find the directions here.

3. Wash and prep the veggies.

4.  Remove the large stems from the chard. Break the spine with a fork, Blanche chard for one minute. Set aside to cool and drain.

5. Mix quinoa, garlic, ginger, vinegar and miso in a bowl.  (If you have extra, you can refrigerate the excess tossed in salads.)

6.  On the large end of each large end of a chard leaf,  put a 2 T of the quinoa mixture in the middle of the leaf.  Nest half of a hard boiled egg in the center with the white side down.  Layer on matchstick veggies crosswise, green onions.  Top with basil leaves.  Fold in the sides and roll like a burrito.

7.  Refrigerate for  one hour before slicing in half, cross wise.   They will look something like this.   (If you prefer your veggies cooked, you could steam the rolls for six minutes and then refrigerate. If you do not have a steamer. you can use a pot of water with a colander and some foil for a lid. 

8.  Serve on plates garnished with extra basil leaves and green onions.  I like to put the dipping sauces in individual ramekins on the plates or you can set out in small bowls with a spoon for sharing.

Spinach-Feta-Quinoa Cakes with Lemon-Dill Sauce

Photo by Allyson Zea for her blog, Domestic Superhero.

Glade Road Growing will have its first farm share on May 31.  JP tells me there will be spinach and green onions and so I created a recipe, which is similar to one on Allyson Zea's blog.

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Serves 4

Ingredients:

2/3 cup raw quinoa
bunch of green onions
several spigs of fresh dill enough to make 4 tablespoons chopped
1 lemon
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic
10 ounces fresh spinach (You can also use kale, arugula, chard or a combination.)
2 slice whole grain bread, crumbled into soft crumbs
4 chicken or duck eggs
1/2 # feta cheese
Salt
Black pepper

To make the sauce:

1.  Finely chop 4 tablespoons of the green portion of the onions and 4 tablespoons fresh dill.
     Reserve 1/2 of the dill for the quinoa cakes.  If you have extra dill, do not wash the portion you are
     going to store.   Just shake the stems loosely and place them in a plastic bag with a piece of paper
     towel to absorb and condensation and store in the refrigerator.
2.  Squeeze the juice from one lemon and measure out 4 teaspoons and refrigerate the rest in a lidded
     jar for another use.  Zest the lemon from the peel. You will use 1/2 teaspoon of the zest from the
     skin for the cakes.  You can dry any remaining zest on a piece of parchment paper and then store
     in a small spice jar.
3.  Whisk 1 cup plain Greek yogurt and the lemon juice and add in the herbs.  Season with salt and
     freshly ground pepper.
4.  Cover and refrigerate the sauce for at least 1 hour to allow the flavors to
     meld.

To make the quinoa cakes:

1.  Cook the quinoa by bringing 2  cup of water to a boil.  Add the 2/3 cup of  raw quinoa and return
     to boil.  Take off stove and rinse well.  Add back in a scant 2 cups of water and return to stove and
     bring to a boil.  Turn down to low.  Cover.  Cook 15 minutes.  Let stand for five minutes and then
     fluff with a fork.
2.  While quinoa is cooking, finely chop the white portion of the onions to make 1  cup and the four
     cloves of garlic.  Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic, stirring
    often, until softened, about 4 minutes. Chop the spinach and cook, stirring often, until wilted, about
    3 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a medium-size bowl.
3.  Beat the eggs lightly.  Add to bowl with the onions, garlic and spinach mixture, along with the
     cooked quinoa.  Crumble in the feta cheese and bread crumbs. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of
     chopped dill, the 1/2 teaspoon of the lemon zest and 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper.  Let
     mixture sit for a few minutes to allow the bread crumbs to absorb the moisture.
4.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
5.   Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Form quinoa mixture into cakes about 2 1/2 inches in
      diameter and 1/2 inch thick and place on sheet.
6.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until the bottoms are brown.  Flip with a spatula and bake for
     another five minutes.
7.  Serve warm with the lemon-dill sauce.

Delicata Squash and Quinoa with Dried Cranberries, Sunflower Seeds and Cheddar Cheese

Photo from Kaylee Pauley's Lemon and Basil food blog

Sally tells me the farm share for Glade Road Growing for September 8 will include:  2 delicata squash, a red onion, lettuce mix, a sweet pepper, a banana pepper and possibly 1 or two small tomatoes.

Delicata squash is a winter squash that is much easier to slice than butternuts or hubbards!


Serves 4

1. Preheat  oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly oil baking sheet with extra virgin olive oil.

2.  In a covered saucepan, bring one cup of quinoa to a boil in 2 cups of water.  Drain water and rinse.  Add a scant 2 cups of water and bring to a boil a second time.  Simmer for five minutes and then turn off heat and let continue cooking until water in absorbed.

3.  While the quinoa is cooking, coarsely chop the red pepper and red onion and saute in a cast iron skillet.

4.  Also slice the delicata squash into ½" rings, discarding the ends and seeds from middle. Lay them flat, in single layer, on baking sheet(s) and sprinkle with one 1 tablespoon of demerara sugar.  Bake for 10 minutes, then flip each piece over and bake additional 5 minutes, or until tender and cooked to your liking.

4.  While squash is cooking, grate 4 ounces of extra sharp cheddar.  Once quinoa has cooked, fluff with a fork and add onions and peppers. Salt and pepper to taste. Spoon quinoa mixture out onto four bowls, sprinkle each bowl with 1 tablespoon of raw sunflower seeds, 1 tablespoon of dried cranberries, and grated cheddar and stir.  Top with squash slices.

Chickpea Ratatouille with Quinoa

Photo from Sonia Lacasse at The Healthy Foodie

Glade Road Growing's  vegetable share for the week of August 11 is expected to include tomatoes, red onions, sweet peppers, eggplant and summer squash.  As Sally suggested, this is perfect for ratatouille.  Two years ago, I posted a recipe here and have another one for you today.

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Serves 6


1.  Cook 1 and 1/2 cups of dry chickpeas.  In a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, cover with 3 cups water, and and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let stand over night or for at least one hour. Rinse a second time.  Add two cups of water and bring to a boil again and simmer on low heat until soft, about 1 hour.

2.  In a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, combine 1 1/2  cup quinoa, 3 cups water, and and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Turn off heat and leave for 20 minutes until water is absorbed.

3.  While quinoa is cooking, wash, peel and chop onion.  If you are using cherry tomatoes, cut in half.  Otherwise chop coarsely to make 2 cups.  Cut 1 eggplant (about 1 pound) into 1/2-inch pieces.   Cut squash in half lengthwise and cut crosswise into 3/4-inch-thick pieces.  Cut peppers in half and remove seeds and stems and slice into 1 inch pieces.  Smash and peel 6 cloves of garlic and mince.  Rinse basil and remove leaves from stems to make about 1/2 cup. 

4.  Heat 1 TB extra virgin olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion  and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 6 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for another minutes.  Remove to plate.  Replenish oil and cook peppers until soft.  Remove to plate and repeat for squash and then egg plant.

5.  In a 3 quart covered saucepan, add tomatoes, cooked vegetables, 1 teaspoon sea salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until eggplant is tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in the cooked chickpeas and cook just until heated through, about 3 minutes. Remove the vegetables from heat and stir in  fresh basil leaves.

6.  Uncover the quinoa and fluff with a fork. Divide among six bowls and top with vegetables and, if you like, some shaved Parmesan or Asiago cheese.

Celeriac! (and Butternut Curry)

Photo by Janet for her 2012 recipe for curry.  She has other celeriac recipes here.  I first published this post at 8:07pm on 11/24/14 and updated it for formatting  at 11:20am on 11/26.

The November 24 (and last 2014) farm share from Glade Road Growing is slated to include celeriac, kale, lettuce mix, butternut squash and napa cabbage, oh my! (Sally and Jason will be at the Blacksburg Farmers Market in December on the 6th, 13th and 20th with root veggies, meats, some greens and winter squash. They'll be back there in April and the 2015 farm share sign up will probably open in December.)

Today's recipe features celeriac.  Who can resist something that roasts or pickles so well and tastes yummy raw, something like a cross between celery and parsley. 

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By day, Janet is a physician in Toronto, after living for a year in Houston, Texas. By night, she's a food blogger and photographer at The Taste Space and also shares recipes with Kahakai Kitchen.

She made the above curry with pumpkin, but after all, that's just one type of winter squash and this week we'll be getting butternuts. It turns out she adapted her recipe from one by Sarah Breton, who used squash.  Here's my remake of her remake...

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Serves 6

1. In a countertop convection or conventional oven (on a cookie sheet), roast veggies for 1/2 hour and let cool enough to prep:

1 large onion
1 carrot
1 lb celeriac
4 garlic cloves
1.5 lb pumpkin or butternut squash

2. While veggies are roasting, cover 1 cup of dried red lentils with water and bring to boil. Cover with lid and let sit for 5 minutes. Rinse well , cover with fresh water plus 1 cup, cover with lid and  back to boil and and let sit.

3. In a separate pot, do the same for 2 cups of raw quinoa.

4. Peel veggies and cut into cubes. Finely chop two T fresh ginger root.

5. Chiffonade kale, keeping stems separate.

6. In the bottom of a steamer pot, combine veggies, ginger, lentils, and the following spices:
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 t coriander
1 t cumin
1 t tumeric
1/4 t dry mustard
1/2 t gound fenugreek seeds
1/4 t ground cinamon
1/8 t ground cloves
1/8 t ground cardomon

7. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium and steam first the stems, and then the leaves of the kale until tender, but bright green.  Add kale to curry.

8. Serve over quinoa (or cooked yellow rice) and garnish with celery leaves or cilantro leaves.

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If you're not going to make this recipe tomorrow, refrigerate the celery root in an unsealed plastic bag for up to 2 or 3 weeks. To prepare, trim the leaves (if present) and root end. Scrub well. You can roast it to make it easier to remove the skin and any brown bits. If you’re using it raw, peel quite thickly and place cut the pieces in water with a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent discoloration.

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"British chef" (other than for all those exquisite cream and fruit pastries) may sound like an oxymoron, until you think about Nigella Lawson.  As of today, I'm adding Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I came upon his feature at The Guardian when I was looking for celeriac recipes. Just take a look at this  salad he composed.  Since we don't have endive in this week's farm share, think about a chiffonade of kale with cashews (or your favorite nut) and orange or apple slices.

Fearnley-Whittingstall has been "championing food integrity + consumption of local, seasonal produce since 1998" River Cottage on the Dorset/Devon border and he LOVES celeriac. He writes, as compared to a potato, it's

even more unprepossessing, with knobbly, knotted looks that only a mother could love – or a cook who has unearthed its inner beauty. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that celeriac might just be my favourite root of all time. It's nothing less than a winter wonder.

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Want more celeriac recipes?  Here are some that look yummy:

• Epicurious.com
• Chef Jamie Oliver
• BBC's Good Food
• Martha Stewart
• Eating Well
• The Food Network
• Chow
• Fait Maison
• Blue Apron
• Cooks by Books (Peggy Klineman's Book Club Blog)

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BTW, did anyone make it to the farm November 21 for the final 2014 farm stand which included a meat show case? Besides the veggies, there was a fresh supply of goat and pork cuts, sausages, fresh chicken, duck eggs, and more, along with cooking tips.

If you didn't make it, you missed some good eating. I heard a lot of folks say they had no room for dinner after stopping in for samples. (My own black bean and rice dinner had to wait until the next day.)

Here's the scoop on this years samples, as best as I can remember (sorry I didn't take notes):

• goat sausage congee and goat bone broth from Hoof Harted Farm
• a variety of ham steaks (my fav was Lisa's lemon rosemary) from Ben's  pastured pig, plus his cracklings and Lisa's spinach and ground pork fritatta
• hard boiled eggs and Lisa's squash or pumpkin curd  featuring Sally's ducks
• gizzard stew, a brined roast  and a roast with fennel from Sally's Freedom Ranger chickens. 

Roasted Winter Squash and Apples with Quinoa, Kale, Pecans and Tahini Maple Dressing

This gorgeous photo is from  Ashley McLaughlin, an architect turned "cookbook author, freelance food photographer, recipe developer, and portrait photographer."  McLaughlin uses acorn squash with her kale (which makes for an interesting shape), but the winter squash in the 9/30 farm share from Glade Road Growing is slated to be a 2-3 pound buttercup squash as pictured at the bottom of the page. Beside the squash, kale and garlic used in this recipe, other veggies slated for delivery are:  parsley, lettuce mix, and peppers.

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To make tahini dressing:

Heat a clean, large dry cast iron  skillet over medium high heat and add 1 cup of whole sesame seeds.  Stir frequently until they begin to turn golden brown and pop.  Remove from skillet and process in a blender, food processor or mortar and pestle with about 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to make 3/4 cup.  For this recipe, you will need 4 TB.  You can store the rest in a lidded jar in the fridge.  Peel and smash one clove of garlic. Combine tahini and garlic in a jar with with 2 oz. lime juice (about two limes). Seal and shake and let sit for at least 10 minutes.  Add 1 TB of  real maple syrup and sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.  Set aside.

To roast squash and apples:

Slice two crisp, tart  apples, leaving skin on, but removing core (Granny Smith and Cortlands are two of my favorites).

Cut the squash in half, remove the seeds.  I roast it roast face up  in a counter top convection oven for 30 minutes at 475 degrees F, then slice it, peel it and cut it into chunks.  Alternately, you can cut it into 1/4 thick slices and roast it in a conventional oven at 400 degrees F for about 35 minutes, flipping once halfway through.  If you are cooking the squash in the oven, during the last seven minutes add the apples.  Otherwise you can roast separately in the convection oven for a couple of minutes once the squash is done until the apples start to soften and turn fragrant.

To cook kale and quinoa: 
Smash, peel and mince 3 cloves of garlic. Chiffonade the kale by removing center stem, rolling and slicing crosswise to make long strips. 

Cover 1 cup raw quinoa in 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 5 minutes and then rinse.  Add fresh water and bring back to a boil and let sit covered until water is absorbed, about a half hour.  Fluff with a fork.

Cook kale in lightly oiled cast iron skillet for about four minutes.  Add garlic and cook another minute, then   add a bit of water to steam lightly.  Remove from stove to plate while kale is still bright green and combine with  cooked quinoa.

To serve:

Place quinoa and kale  on a large platter then arrange roasted squash and apples on top. Or you can serve in individual bowls. Sprinkle with 1/2  cup of pecans and drizzle with dressing. 

This buttercup squash photo is  from Canadian registered dietitian, freelance magazine nutrition writer and recipe developer Matt Kadey of the blog Muffin Tin Mania.  Be sure to check out his 11/10/10 recipe for buttercup squash and oat muffins. Other yummy recipes for winter squash and kale include Kaela Porter's roasted squash with red peppers and rosemary from her Local Kitchen blog and Liz Harris's wheat berry salad with roasted squash, kale and whiskey soaked cranberrries from her Floating Kitchen blog.  Plus, here are my winter squash recipes from last season:

09/10/13: Moroccan Squash and Eggplant Stew
10/07/13: Another Moroccan Stew: Beets, Buttercup Squash and Radishes
11/11/13: Pecan-Topped Winter Squash Pie (Pumpkin and Sweet Potatoes Work, Too)

11/18/13: Parsnip, Carrot, Winter Squash and Apple Stew

Roasted Beet and Quinoa Salad with Beet Greens, Red Onions, Cucumbers, Feta and Walnuts

Photo from Dani Spies.  I first published this post at 8:15 pm on 7/7/14 and updated it at 3:00 pm on 7/8/14 to include the actual farm share and links to additional recipes.

The July 8 farm share was slated to include lettuce mix, beets, cilantro, tomatoes, red bunch onions and cucumbers.  The actual share also included summer squash and the beets included the greens, as I had hoped.



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Beets and chard are part of the same species (and, as is spinach in the Amaranth family), so the greens are very similar in taste. Make sure you remove the greens right away before storing so that they won't drain moisture from the roots.  You can used the greens  raw in a salad or steam or saute them.  Because the stalks take a little bit longer to cook, I cook them first, before adding the greens.  Besides tasting good, beet greens are packed with vitamins A and C and have a good amount of iron and calcium too.This recipe uses both the roots and the greens.

Serves 4-6

1.  Cook one cup of quinoa.

2.  Separate the beet roots from the greens.  Scrub the roots.  I roast the whole beet roots unpeeled for 20 minutes in a countertop convection oven, as it doesn't heat up the house so much in summer and saves electricity, too.  But if you don't have  one, you can roast the beets, wrapped in foil,  in a regular oven preheated to 400 degrees F for 50 minutes or until tender (small beets cook faster.)

3. Chop the beet stems, keeping separate and tear the greens into large pieces.

3.  Mince three whole cloves of garlic (or you can substitute 2 TB of garlic scape pesto, if you have some left.  

4.  Finely chop the red bunch onions and greens. Reserve 2 TB of onions for the beet roots.


5.  Lightly coat cast iron skillet with extra virgin olive oil and heat to medium.  Saute beet stems until tender and add  remainder of onions saute until translucent.  Stir in beat greens until just wilted. Set aside to cool.

6.  Peel the roasted beets and cut them into small bite site pieces and let cool.

7.  Chop 1/2 cup of cilantro.

8.  Chop 1 cucumber.

9.  In a large bowl combine  beets, beet greens, chopped cucumbers, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 TB balsamic vinegar, garlic, and pepper to taste. Toss with cooked quinoa.  Top with 1/4 c. walnuts, 1/4 # of crumbled feta and top with cilantro before serving.

Additional beet recipes:

Moroccan Stew:  Beets, Buttercup Squash and Radishes

I also like to make a cold beet borscht by boiling grated beets until soft with lemon juice and a bit of sugar, chilling and topping with Greek yogurt or tofu sour cream and cold diced boiled potatoes.