Navy Beans and Tatsoi with Roasted Fennel

Photo by Johnny Autry of Ashville accompanied a recipe similar to mine at Cooking Light.

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 The October 27 farm share from Glade Road Growing is slated to include salad mix, fennel, butternut squash, tatsoi and green peppers. 

Fennel is a  perennial bulb with a feathery top, a relative of the carrot.  You can use the fronds in salads or as a garnish. 

The bulb and younger stems are firm and crunchy and taste mildly of anise. You can serve them raw and thinly sliced in salads and slaws.  I especially like raw fennel in combination with tart fruits such peaches and tomatoes, granny smith apples or oranges.  You can also cook the bulb until tender to  bring out the anise flavor, either as part of a roasted squash or  root vegetable medley or braised with chicken. 

Fennel seeds (not included this week) are used to flavor stews, breads and cookies.



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Serves 8

1.  The night or at least a couple of hours before you plan to eat, bring one pound of dried  navy beans (about 2 cups) to a boil in a lidded heavy- bottomed saucepan with four cups of cold water.  Simmer five minutes. Rinse, cover again with water plus two cups, add a couple of bay leaves and bring back to boil. Turn off the stove and soak at least an hour or overnight. Rinse well and drain. Cover with colder water plus an inch and start to simmer. (Add water as necessary to keep the beans barely covered).  When the beans are tender, rinse, drain and set aside.  (You can cook the beans ahead of time and refrigerate in a lidded jar.)

2.  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (or you can use a counter top convection oven to roast the fennel.  Wash fennel and tatsoi  in cold water and rinse and wash a second time.  Trim fronds and stems of the fennel and reserve for another use. Thinly slice the bulb.  If the stems of the tatsoi are tough, tear the leaves off and reserve the stems for a vegetable stock.   Smash, peel and mince two or more cloves of fresh garlic. Peel and thinly slice one onion.

3.  Combine fennel, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes.  red pepper, and garlic in a large bowl; toss to coat fennel. Arrange mixture in a single layer on a lightly greased baking sheet or on the racks in the convection oven.

4.  Roast for ten minutes or more until brown.

5.  Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat with  with two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.  Add the onions and saute until tender and then add the  beans and cook together another 2 minutes.  Add fennel mixture and the tatsoi and cook until the tatsoi is wilted.

6.  Serve warm.  I like this recipe over cooked whole wheat pasta or rice and sprinkled with grated Asiago cheese.

Salad of Tatsoi, Carrots, Radishes and Cilantro Toasted Peanuts and Citrus Avocado Puree

Photo from Alayna Tucker is from a salad she ate at Billy and Kristin Allin's restaurant Cakes & Ale  in Decatur, Georgia.



Tucker doesn't provide a recipe, but she lists the ingredients as tatsoi, carrot, radish, fresh cilantro and peanuts, served with a citrus avocado puree.  Since the October 6 farmshare from Glade Road Growing  is slated to  tat soi, radish and carrot (as well as include lettuce mix, bunch arugula and delicata squash) I used this photograph as inspiration for today's recipe.  Tatsoi, like its more famous cousin bok choy is an Asian green in the mustard family.

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Serves 4

1.  Rinse and drain tatsoi, radish, carrot and cilantro.  (If the radish comes with the greens remove them and use for a savory salad green with the arugula and lettuce mix.  If you're not making this recipe today, go ahead and separate the leaves from the bulbs of the radish, as both will keep better separately.)  Thinly slice the radishes and carrots into round slices using a sharp knife or a mandoline.  Separate the tatsoi leaves.  If the tat soi leaves are large, tear into several pieces.  Pull the leaves off the stems of the cilantro.  Store any extra cilantro in a lidded glass jar inverted in the refrigerator.


2.  To make the dressing, halve, peel and de-pit one ripe avocado. Smash, peel and mince one clove of garlic. Squeeze 2 tablespoons of orange juice and 1 tablespoon of lime juice. In a blender or food processor, puree puree the avocado, garlic, orange juice, and lime juice. Season with 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes and a dash of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. With the machine on, gradually blend in 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil.

3.  Dress the tatsoi and vegetables but keep separate.  Divide the tatsoi among four plates or bowls.  Arrange the radish and carrot slices on top of each serving.  Garnish with cilantro and toasted peanuts and serve immediately.   If you'd like this to be a main coarse, rather than a side, you can add cook beans or chopped cooked chicken.

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While I'm at here's another recipe for the squash and radishes, a jewel-toned Moroccan stew I really like. You can use the tatsoi as a cooked green with tempeh or in a stew with tempeh or tofu and the squash, rather than sweet potatoes.  The arugula is yummy served wilted in a salad with pears and cheese or tossed with whole wheat pasta, walnuts and asiago cheese.

Salad of Shredded Pears, Watermelon Radishes and Hakurei Turnips Served with Asian Dressing and Greens

This photo accompanied a  Sanura Weathers recipe in Frugavore. Check out her blog, My Life Runs on Food (at the link for her name) for more of her creations. Weathers used kohlrabi and a balsamic vinaigrette, but I adopted the recipe for a more Asian flavor, using the October 7 farm share from Glade Road Growing, which is slated to include: tat soi, bok choy, a watermelon roasting radish, cilantro, red onion, salad turnips, and arugula.

Weathers and I both like to combine something sweet such as pears with  the sharp taste of greens like arugula (last year's recipe) and brassica root crops such as turnips and radishes.  If you find the turnips and radishes too sharp for your taste when raw, you can make them milder by lightly sauteing with the onion and letting them cool before adding to the dressing.

1.  Wash tatsoi, bok choy, arugula, and cilantro and dry using a salad spinner or by setting in a colander lined with a clean kitchen towel.   Remove the cilantro from its stems and reserve stems for another use, such as a vegetable broth or pesto.  If arugula is mature, wilt in a lightly oiled skillet and set aside to cool.

2.  Smash, peel and mince a couple of cloves of garlic.  Peel and finely mince fresh ginger root to make 1/2 TB.  Combine in a covered jar with the juice of one lime, 2 TB of extra virgin olive oil, 1 TB of miso,  a dash of freshly ground black pepper, a small pinch of crushed red pepper

3.  Separate turnips from greens, reserve greens for another use. Trim root end.  Peel red onion and discard peel or save for making a vegetable broth. Cut in half and reserve one half for another use.  Trim ends from watermelon radish and peel. (If the greens are included separate and reserve as you did for the turnips.) Peel one under ripe bosc pear, trim ends, cut vertically in half and use spoon or melon baller to remove tough center and seeds.  Using a box grater, coarsely grate the turnips, onion, radish and pear into a large bowl.

4.  Lightly toss the grated salad and dressing. Let marinate for at least an hour at room temperature.
Toss again before serving.

5.  Prepare a bed of shredded tatsoi and/or bok choy either on a large platter or in individual bowls.  Top with grated salad and garnish with arugula and cilantro.  If you like, you can also top with  crumbled goat, feta or blue cheese and nuts such as walnuts, pecans or almonds.

Tatsoi is one of my favorite greens. You can use just the bok choy for this salad and save the tatsoi to make my tempeh recipe from last year.  The tatsoi would also be nice in a salad with clementines, bell pepper, red onion and almonds in a dijon vinaigrette, similar to the one shown in this photo from Shabnam Arora Afsah's Flavor n' Spice blog post:

Or, Martha Stewart has a nice recipe for poached sweet potatoes and tofu with tatsoi  photographed by one of my favorites, Romulo Yanes.

Tempeh and Tatsoi

This photo is from the recipe blog of Joan E. Marrero (email), CSA Director for J. R. Organics in Escondido, CA 85 acres under organic cultivation by  Joe Rodriguez, Jr.


For the September 17th delivery, Glade Road Growing expects to include tatsoi, broccoli, bell pepper, onions, cilantro, and summer squash.  YUM!  If you don't know, tatsoi is an Asian green, also known as Spinach mustard, Spoon mustard, or Rosette bok choy, but it's a bit more delicate than regular bok choy and works really well in recipes calling for wilted greens.  You can also eat it raw as a salad green.  Here's a recipe you can try.

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Serves 4

Cut one package (8 ounces) of tempeh into strips.  If you prefer, you can use a package of tofu cut into 1/4 " cubes, or 2 cups of cooked chicken or cooked beans (or a combination of chicken and beans.)

Wash tatsoi and dry on a clean kitchen towel.

Unless you already have some from a prior time, toast 1 TB or more of sesame seeds in a cast iron skillet until they just pop.  You can store any extra in a glass spice  jar after they cool.

Smash, peel and mince 2 fresh garlic cloves and 1 TB fresh ginger root.  In a small bowl, make a slurry of   1 1/2 tsp of corn starch and an equal amount of water.  In the bowl whisk together the garlic and ginger and slurry with:
1 TB miso
1 TB brown sugar
1 TB lime juice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

In a cast iron skillet, heated and lightly coated with extra virgin olive oil, saute tempeh or tofu over medium heat for 5-7 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Remove from skillet. Re-coat skillet with oil and add tatsoi; once wilted, add sauce. Reduce heat to low and cook just until sauce slightly thickens.

This is cook served over cooked brown rice or Japanese soba noodles mixed with chopped cilantro or parsley. Divide greens on plates. Top with tempeh or tofu. Drizzle with remaining sauce, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

If you are making this recipe with cooked chicken or beans, fold them in as sauce thickens and cook until warmed through.