Kale chips

It's winter vegetable time! Kale is a great winter vegetable, and it's really great for you. Most of my kale recipes end either in soup or in wilted greenery, but a quick internet search yielded the following recipe for baked kale chips. We made this on Friday night (for once I followed the directions exactly, except that I eyeballed the measurements) and it was an immediate hit. Crunchy and delicious, we gobbled them all up as a snack before dinner. This is definitely something we will be doing again.

Baked kale chips

Origin: All Recipes
Yield: 6 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
  ● 1 bunch kale
  ● 1 tbsp. olive oil
  ● 1 tsp. seasoned salt

Directions:
 1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
 2. Cut kale leaves away from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale (this is why I actually love my salad spinner). Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
 3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature.

 Nutritional Information:  Calories: 58, Total Fat: 2.8g

Pumpkin soup

Yes, another pumpkin recipe! We are truly embracing the fall flavors around here. This is actually my own concoction (although not a very original one), and Jon said it was pretty darn good, and that's a quote.

Pumpkin soup

Yield: 6-8
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: ~20 minutes

Ingredients:
  ● 6 cups pumpkin puree
  ● 4-5 cups vegetable broth (chicken would also work)
  ● 2 tbsp butter
  ● 2-4 garlic cloves, diced
  ● 1-2 medium onions, chopped
  ● 3-4 tsp curry powder
  ● 1 tsp corriander
  ● salt & pepper, to taste
  •  1/2-1 cup heavy whipping cream (optional)

Directions:
1. Melt butter in a medium pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until tender (~10 minutes)
2. Meanwhile, in a medium pot combine pumpkin puree and vegetable broth and stir well. Add curry powder, coriander, salt, and pepper and stir until combined.
3. When onions are done scrape pan into soup and stir well. Heat over medium heat for 10-20 mintues, or until soup is hot and flavors are well combined. Sometimes I add heavy whipping cream at this point, stir to combine, then cook an additional 5 minutes or so. Serve hot, topped with roasted pumpkin seeds if desired.

Edamame bread salad

Mmmmm...it's garden fare time!  This is a great meal for using up the beans and tomaotes you have erupting from your gardens, and also a vegetarian dish with lots of flavor and a good side of protein.  The recipe came from Better Homes and Gardens, athough I've lightened it up a bit and added a tad more basil than originally called for, of course.

Ingredients:

  ● 3/4  cup feta cheese
  ● 1/2  cup Greek yogurt or plain low-fat yogurt
  ● 2  Tbsp. snipped fresh basil
  ● 1  small clove garlic, minced
  ● 2  12- oz. pkgs. frozen soybeans (edamame)
  ● 1-1/2  lbs. fresh green beans, trimmed
  ● 2  cups yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
  ● 12  slices crusty country bread, toasted
  ● Fresh basil leaves
Balsamic Dressing:
  ● 1/4 cup olive oil
  ● 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  ● 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  ● 1/4 cup fresh basil, lightly packed

Directions:

1. In food process combine feta cheese, yogurt, basil and garlic.  Blend until creamy and season with salt and pepper as desired. (If you don't have a food processor you can mash the cheese and yogurt together with a fork then add the remaining ingredients and stir).  This may be made ahead.

2. In saucepan bring 8 cups lightly salted water to boiling. Add soybeans and green beans and return to a boil. Reduce heat and cook, covered, 6 to 8 minutes or until tender. Drain and cool (speed up by rinsing with cold water.  Add tomatoes to bean mixture and drizzle 1/2 of balsamic dressing mixture (see below); toss to coat.

4. Spread feta mixture on bread slices; place slice on serving plate; mound bean mixture on top. Drizzle remaining dressing; top with fresh basil leaves.

Balsamic Dressing: In blender or processor combine 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, and 1/4 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves; blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Recipe shown here with gazpacho soup on the side - another garden great!

Peruvian quinoa stew

Quinoa is an amazing grain. It is gluten free, relatively high in protein, and surprising well rounded when it comes to amino acids (the building blocks of protein), making it a wonderful choice for vegetarian or vegan fare. It's also rather bland and we've tried recipes in the past that have, in our opinion, left something to be desired. But we refuse to be deterred, and a little inernet searching produced at least one interesting recipe, which we tried tonight and enjoyed.

A quick note first. I believe most of the quinoa sold in the United States is pre-rinsed, but if you buy it in bulk from health food stores (to avoid undue pre-processing), rinsing the grain before use is an absolute must. Quinoa grows covered in saponin, a very bitter substance that keeps away birds and is equally as unpalatable to humans. Because it is a relatively fine grain I used a coffee filter for this job, slowly running cool, filtered water over the grain until the rinse water no longer had a soapy look to it.

Peruvian Quinoa Stew

● 1/2 cup quinoa
● 1 cup water
● 2 cups chopped onions
● 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
● 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
● 1 celery stalk, chopped
● 1 carrot, cut on the diagonal into ¼-inch thick slices
● 1 bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
● 1 cup cubed zucchini
● 2 cups undrained chopped fresh or canned tomatoes
● 1 cup water or vegetable stock
● 2 tsp. ground cumin
● ½ tsp. chili powder
● 1 tsp. ground coriander
● 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
● 2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
● salt, to taste
● cilantro, optional, to taste
● grated cheese, optional

Place rinsed quinoa and water in pot (covered) and cook covered on medium-low heat for about 15 minutes until soft.

While the quinoa is cooking place the onions, garlic and vegetable oil in covered soup pot and saute on medium heat for 5 minutes. Add celery and carrots and cook an additional 5 minutes, stirring often. Add bell pepper, zucchini, tomatoes, and vegetable stock. Stir in cumin, chili powder, coriander, cayenne and oregano. Simmer covered for 10 to 15 minutes, until vegetables are tender.  Stir in cooked quinoa and salt to taste. Serve hot, topped with grated cheese and cilantro if desired.

Fries. Of the baked variety.

Since sweet potatoes came in our organic delivery this week we decided to try this delicious looking recipe we found on Sarah's Cucina Bella for oven baked sweet potato fries (disclaimer - I know nothing about this website, just did a search for sweet potato recipes and that one caught my eye).  The "fries" were good, although be forewarned that we've never had luck in actually crisping the wedges via oven baking (if you have a trick for doing this please let me know!), and we decided that next time we will be skipping the salt.  Otherwise, we think this one's a keeper.

Clean and peal the sweet potatoes, then cut them into fry-looking wedges no bigger than 1/2 inch on any side (the website specifically name 1 - 1.5lbs of sweet potatoes, though I don't think amount is too crucial here - I never weighed mine), then transfer wedges to a mixing bowl.  To wedges add 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2t paprika, 1/4t cinnamon, 1/2t Kosher salt (give or take, depending on how many potatoes you use - I just eye-balled my measurements).  Toss to coat well, then spread out evenly on a cookie sheet and bake at 425 for ~30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.  Serve hot and enjoy!