Kale and Chickpeas

My house smells amazing right now. I'm cooking up lemongrass in sugar and water to make a lemongrass syrup. I'm not what I'll do with it exactly, maybe include it in brown rice pudding?

This has nothing to do with kale and/or chickpeas. I just wanted to tell you about it.

A couple nights ago I put together a meal that I knew would be super healthy. It was a bunch of stuff that I'm not really wild about on their own, but figured they would go together really well. Here is what I learned:

Mushrooms + Kale + Brown rice + Chickpeas = Amazing.

Kale and Chickpeas
dedicated to Mark Bittman

Garlic
About 5oz. of baby bella mushrooms, sliced
About 1 tbls. soy sauce
2-3 cups broth
One bunch kale, chopped up
One can of chick peas, strained
Red pepper flakes, salt and pepper

Serve with brown rice (cooked according to package instructions).

Saute garlic in olive oil on low heat for about a minute. Raise heat to medium and add mushrooms with soy sauce and about 1 cup of broth. Saute for about 5 minutes. Add kale with another cup of broth. Saute for another 5 minutes. Bring heat to low and add chickpeas and more broth (if desired). Season with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Let cook on low heat for about ten to fifteen minutes or as long as it takes to shovel the snow in front of your South Philly rowhome.

Red Cabbage and Orange Salad with Lime Ginger Vinaigrette

There isn't much of a story to tonight's meal. I simply wanted something healthy and easy. The fact that it is also really pretty doesn't hurt at all.

Red Cabbage and Orange Salad

inspired by the Watercress, Orange and Avocado Salad from Bon Appetit, December 2005

1 small head of red cabbage, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
3 navel oranges
Bean sprouts

Remove peel and pith from oranges. Pull apart each segment and halve. Mix together cabbage, pepper, oranges and sprouts.

Lime Ginger Vinaigrette*

Juice from 1 1/2 limes
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 small clove of garlic
1 tsp. honey
salt and pepper
1/2 c. olive oil

Combine lime juice, ginger, garlic, honey, salt and pepper. Add olive oil slowly in a thin stream. Dress salad.

* All measurements are an approximation. Play with it and find the right balance to suit your taste.

Vegetable and White Bean Soup

The abundance of vegetables in my fridge, plus the dreary Monday night weather, called for a vegetable soup. I very rarely make veggie soups; they tend to bore me. Minestrone? Blah. But with garlic sauteed veggies and a touch of dill, I may be a believer after all. I also experimented by adding a drizzle of homemade Dijon vinaigrette before serving.

Vegetable and White Bean Soup

1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
4-5 carrots
1 large green squash
2 cans chicken broth
1/2 pound pasta (I used gemelli)
1 large can cannellini beans (white kidney beans)
dill (fresh or dried)
salt and pepper
splash lemon juice

Serve with grated parmesan or homemade Dijon vinaigrette drizzled on top (omit the lemon juice if adding vinaigrette). Recipe for the vinaigrette is below.

Saute onion in olive oil till translucent. Add garlic, carrots and squash. Saute till just tender. Add broth, bring to a boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes.

Start cooking pasta separately.

Add beans to soup. Continue simmering till beans are tender. Season with dill, salt and pepper.

When pasta is done, toss with olive oil to keep from clumping together.

Add pasta to soup just before serving. Garnish with cheese or Dijon vinaigrette.


Dijon Vinaigrette

large plop of Dijon mustard
splash of white wine vinegar
salt/pepper
olive oil

Mix mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper. Add olive oil slowly in a thin stream, mixing as you pour.

Roasted Winter Vegetables and Confessions of the Heart

My name is Karina and I'm addicted to roasted vegetables. I love how good they taste, how easy they are to make, how pretty they look. I make them at least once a week and I usually have to talk myself down from the eating/them/all/at/once ledge. Is an addiction ok if it supplies you with necessary vitamins and nutrients? Would Vitamin A-enriched crack be legalized?

I blame the Reading Terminal Market. I blame Iovine Produce with their abundance of inexpensive and fresh veggies. They're the reason why I chose brussels sprouts over Thin Mints last week, an act that would have been unthinkable a year ago (see the January post below). I mean, who in her right mind does something like that?

My sickness reveals itself in the comfort I feel knowing that I have brought other people under this spell, such as one of my co-workers (who shall remain nameless). And here I am, putting in print a how-to-guide for a road to ruin.

But...

that said...

last night was great. I had a date with brussels sprouts, onions, carrots, and green squash. Add a 400 degree oven to the mix, and you have a pretty hot time.

Roasted Winter Vegetables

Use a combination of any of the following:
brussels sprouts
cauliflower
carrots
parsnips
turnips
onions
potatoes (blue potatoes add a new color element)
squash
zucchini

I typically use 4-5 varieties at once, enough to fill up a large roasting pan by about an inch.

Pre-heat oven at 400 degrees. Chop up the veggies. I like to chop the onions and squash in rounds, the sprouts in halves, the parsnips and carrots in sticks, the turnips and potatoes in wedges, and the cauliflower into florets.

Place veggies in roasting pan. Generously pour olive oil, season with salt and pepper; mix.

Roast in oven for 45-60 minutes. Stirring once, about halfway through. Test done-ness by piercing a few veggies with a fork. I like them very soft and a dark golden brown.

Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Devour.

Thin Mints or Brussels Sprouts?

Approaching the register at Reading Terminal Market, grocery basket in hand, my mind ran down the list of meals for the coming week... black bean whiskey soup with red peppers, roasted green squash and brussel sprouts... Life felt good, full of realized potential. My shopping list was complete and yet there had been surprises... such as Thin Mints, my all-time favorite Girl Scout cookie,* and the brussels sprouts that had been conspicuously absent from the market over the past month.

It was only after placing my basket on the counter that I realized I had left my wallet at home. The woman was sweet, "It happens all the time..." Not to me, it doesn't... "You can come back tomorrow." But the market is out of my way...

As I started to leave, and she began putting my produce (and cookies) back on the shelves, I remembered the random $10 bill I had in my pocket from the past weekend. Oh happy day!

I retrieved my box of cookies and found the woman as she was unloading my red forelle pears. Triumphantly, I displayed my money. Huzzah!

"You can't get the cookies and all this. The cookies are $4.00." $3.50, actually. "The cookies are $4.00..." She kept repeating that over and over. I held onto them, because, well, I love these cookies. I plan on making my first foray into competitive eating over these cookies (check yourself, Christopher Hu...). I need to start training. Oh woe is me!

I calculated the baskets contents. I mentally removed the mushrooms and ginger (stir-fry could wait till next week). Still too much money. I would have to make a choice: Thin Mints or brussels sprouts?

I walked away from the market this morning, shopping bag in hand, feeling good about my choice. I chose the much maligned and sadly misunderstood sprout. Because if there is one thing in this world that I can rely on, it is that Girl Scout cookie season is upon us and I will have possession of a box of Thin Mints in my future. What I can't gamble on is when I will next enjoy roasted brussels sprouts, tender and slightly caramelized. It's just not worth it.

Up this week: Recipes for black bean whiskey soup and roasted vegetables

*yes, I like them much more than Samoas, or caramel delights, or whatever they are called these days.