Home Again Dinner

Last weekend I flew to Southern California to wish a dear, dear friend a Happy Birthday.  How dear?  Well, let's just say, there aren't many people who could persuade me to take a picture like this...

If you're going to rock a duck face, the only way to do it is in fabulous glasses.

I hadn't been back in CA in 4 years.  It was a little surreal to see the old stomping grounds again.  Between seeing old friends and visiting old places there was lots and lots of eating at old favorite restaurants.  Imma pretend it was all 100% unprocessed, m'kay?  When I got back, I needed something to cleanse my palate from all the Indian/Fondu/Italian/Random Stuff I Found in People's Pantries/Disgusting Water Kefir (a story for another day) I'd been pounding for two days.

This is the kind of meal we eat a lot.  Simple, balanced, seasonal.  I threw this together with what I found in the fridge.  If you have the beans and beets made ahead of time, this comes together pretty quickly.  

Roasted Beets with Sautéed Chard, White Beans and Quinoa

2 C cooked white beans

1 large roasted beet, peeled

1 bunch chard, washed and roughly chopped

2 large cloves garlic, pressed

3 C cooked quinoa

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1 tsp olive oil

feta or fresh Parmesan cheese (opt)

If you don't have your beans and beets made, go ahead and get that started.  You can quick soak your beans two or three hours ahead by bringing your beans to a boil, turning them off and letting them sit covered for an hour.  When the hour is over, drain the beans, cover with water and add a teaspoon of salt and boil for another hour or until beans are tender.  Or of course you could use canned.  

To roast your beet, preheat the oven to 350°, wrap the beet in foil and put it on a cookie sheet.  Bake until you can pierce easily to the center.  It took about 40 minutes to cook my large beet, but I've had them take up to two hours!

When beets and beans are nearly ready, start quinoa on the stove.  Wash your quinoa with clean water until water runs clear then boil with a little salt for about 15 minutes.  

Once your beet has finished, wait until it cools enough to touch, then peel and slice as desired.

Meanwhile, sauté chard and garlic in olive oil until chard wilts and garlic becomes aromatic.  Add thyme and cook until fragrance releases (between 30 seconds and a minute).  Remove from heat.

You can plate it as I have above, or you can just mix it all up together and top it with cheese.  We don't stand on ceremony much in this house...

Substitutions/Additions:

If I'd had it, I would have added 1/2 C chopped chanterelle (or other) mushrooms to this, but I was slap out.  If you have mushrooms, add them when you add the chard.

You can sub the beans with just about any kind, goat cheese would be a nice sub, too.  And kale or beet greens could easily stand in for chard if you have them.

On an Unprocessed note, Mary Papoulais-Platis posted a very interesting article on Eating Rules for last year's October Unprocessed about olive oil.  Did you know that a lot of the cheap ones aren't even 100% olive oil?!  It pays to know what you're paying for, folks.

Dinner by Chance...

I recently had a serendipitous congruence of leftovers.  (Whew!  Dragged out the $5 words for that one!)  Not long ago, I spent a large portion of a two days putting up tomatoes.  It just so happens to have been the same week I made the quinoa kale wraps.  I ended up with a few large tomatoes that I had broiled for canning, but didn't have enough to make a whole jar.  I wasn't sure what to do with them till I scrounged around and found the leftover lentils and quinoa and I also had some baby bella mushrooms.  A wonder was born.  Can I just say how much I love this?

The tomatoes are barely cooked, paired with fresh basil and roast vegetables.  Mix in a little quinoa and french lentils?  It's just wonderful...

Start with a few demure ingredients...  I used chanterelle mushrooms this time and French lentils.  I will forever be indebted to my friend Matt who introduced me to French lentils...  They hold their shape so much better than regular green or brown lentils.  Also, I really liked the earthiness of the chanterelles in this tonight, though the baby bellas were nice, too.  (P.S. I grew that basil!)

Cut X's in the bottoms of your tomatoes.  Remove stems, and place them on a roasting pan with the X's up.

 

Place vegetables in the center of a roasting pan with a little olive oil drizzled over top.

Roast veggies at 450° for 10-15 minutes until garlic is soft.  Remove herbs after roasting.

Broil tomatoes.  Once tomato skins blacken slightly and crack, remove from oven and let cool until you can handle them enough to remove skins. 

Chop tomatoes, mix with vegetables, warmed quinoa and lentils.  Garnish with chopped basil, and serve!

Roast Vegetables with Quinoa and Lentils
5 medium or 2 large tomatoes
1-2 C leftover quinoa cooked with veggie bullion
1-2 C leftover lentils
5-6 cloves garlic, in skins
1 medium onion, cut into 8 chunks
1 sprig fresh rosemary
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 C whole baby bella, white, or chantrelle mushrooms
1 stem fresh basil, chopped
olive oil

Place garlic, onion, and mushrooms on pan, drizzle with oil.  Place rosemary and thyme sprigs on top of mound.  Bake at 450° for 10-15 minutes, until garlic is soft.  Remove from oven.  Switch oven to "Broil" and place tomatoes on top rack.  Broil tomatoes until skins begin to crack and blacken, between 5 and 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Meanwhile, reheat quinoa and lentils in a pan or the microwave.  Once roast vegetables have cooled slightly, squeeze garlic from paper shell and discard shell.  Peel tomatoes and chop, roughly.  Combine quinoa, lentils, tomatoes, garlic, and onion blend, top with basil.  Serve warm or cold. 

Salt and pepper as you wish, though I find it unnecessary.

For instructions on cooking the quinoa and lentils from scratch, see my previous post.

Review:

The nearly raw tomatoes and the fresh basil make this very "new" tasting, while the mushrooms and roasted garlic really mellow it out.  Quinoa is my favorite grain so I am always happy to find new uses for it.  The Littles will eat everything but the onions, which is great because there's so much healthy stuff going on here!  It is one of the few dishes that really is good warm, room temp, or cold.  Hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

Purslane Plus Kale Equals Love

I've been trying to put up 40 pounds of tomatoes so please forgive me if this post is a little rangy, disheveled, and rambling.  That's pretty much me at the moment.  (Also, I may be slightly over caffeinated *tremble, tremble*)  Before you ask, no I didn't grow the tomatoes.  My tomatoes are barely larger than an egg and greener than a leprechaun on Sunday.  And there are about 6 of them.  Fried green tomatoes, here we come... =)

 See the tomatoes?  (Pobre tomates.)

Anyway, I am still geeked about finding purslane at the market last week.  I hadn't found any for years and when I saw it, I giggle-snorted like an Urkle and shoved handfuls of it into my shopping bag.  Strange looks from my vendor aside, I've been holding on to this recipe I created a few years ago and was really excited to get to dust if off again.

This is a great recipe for using up leftover quinoa and lentils.

Purslane Stuffed Kale Leaves
Yield: 4-5 servings
1C quinoa
4 C water, divided
1 tsp vegetable bullion
1 C lentils
1/4 medium onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, sliced
8-10 leaves kale
1/2 C chopped purslane (stems, too!)
4 sprigs fresh thyme, chopped
1/4 C freshly grated Parmesan (optional)
olive oil
salt and pepper

Bring quinoa to a boil in 1 3/4 C water and stir in the bullion.  (I like Better than Bullion Organic Vegetable or Mushroom.  You could substitute vegetable stock if you like.)  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer on low for 15-20 minutes.  Fluff with fork.

Meanwhile, boil lentils in 2 C water until soft, around 20 minutes.

Sauté garlic and onion in a little olive oil until softened and slightly browned. 

Combine 1 C quinoa, 1 C lentils, onion/garlic sauté, and optional cheese.  Season with salt and pepper as desired and set aside.

In the same hot sauté pan, brown kale leaves slightly, then add remaining 1/4 C of water, stock, or even wine to the pan and cover.  Steam leaves until stems are soft and pliable, around 2-3 minutes.

Remove from heat.  When leaves are cool enough to touch, place one heaping spoonful of quinoa mixture on the leaves, then top with a generous helping of purslane and a little thyme.  Roll the leaf and put it on a plate.  If your leaf is coming unrolled, you can use a toothpick to help hold it together.

Review:
I served this with steamed butternut squash last night and it was fabulous.  This keeper would make a nice side dish for chicken, also.  The hubs and the eldest loved it.  The youngest ate two bites of squash.  *sigh...*