Green Beans, Red Peppers, Mushrooms and Shell Pasta

It's been so hot in the Northwest that many crops are appearing early and these past few weeks, green beans are here, so get them before they're gone!  This was my favorite vegetable as a child.  Not the most nutritious vegetable, but it's fun to eat raw or cooked. Buy them at your favorite farmers market because green beans toughen when picked. 

This picture was taken last year near Portland, Oregon.  I'd say the price of beans has gone up to $3.50 a pound for regular beans and $6.00 a pound for the haricot vert beans.  These are a slender, tender, sweet variety, and perhaps they have less yield, which could explain the price difference.

Long time vendors at the U-District farmers market, Liz and Michael grow crispy sweet beans, picked at just the right moment.  

I love everything Grouse Mountain Farm grows!

For color and taste I love red peppers.  I like to sauté, grill or roast until the peppers blacken and become even sweeter.

You could use any type of mushrooms but shiitake supports your immune system.  I like to maximize the healthy potential of any dish with shiitake mushrooms.  Like other mushrooms, if you dry-fry them, they add a meaty texture.

This is a simple, no-fuss recipe. You could add some jalapeno for spice if you want. You could also cut up a few tomatoes and blend those in before serving.  I had a great pesto sauce that a friend gave me and I got some garlic sauce from the Edmonds farmers market. 

Green Beans, Red Peppers, Mushrooms and Shell Pasta

(Serves 4)

3 cups shell pasta

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 tablespoon canola or coconut oil

1 red pepper. seeded and sliced

4 cups fresh green beans, tips removed

2 tablespoons apple cider, white wine or water

1/4 cup pesto or garlic sauce (optional)

Chopped fresh chives, basil, parsley, etc

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  While you wait, heat a heavy skillet over medium heat and add mushrooms.  Cook and stir until mushrooms soften.  Remove from heat and set aside.  

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add oil and red pepper.  Stir and cook until pepper softens.   Add green beans and stir until they are coated with oil.  Add apple cider, cover and steam until beans soften to desired tenderness, however, do not overcook them.

Combine cooked vegetables with pasta, then toss in pesto or garlic sauce, if desired, and top with fresh herbs.

Roasted Vegetable Sliders

It's raining in Seattle.  Big news, huh?  

I have to confess, I love grey days with lots of drizzle.  The tiny Anna's and Rufus hummingbirds love it too. The best part of rainy days for me?  

Roasted root vegetables are often on the menu.

Taco sliders came to mind when I spotted the corn tortillas in the refrigerator. They'd be perfect with roasted root vegetables and black beans, but when I found a can of butter beans in my pantry, I thought why not make some quirky taco sliders with butter beans? You can use any kind of beans you like, or try seitan or chunks of sauteed tofu.

You can get sweet potatoes or yams at the farmers market now for $2.49 a pound, or you can buy them in a grocery store.  I love local flavors and get them when I can, but do whatever your budget allows because this recipe is all about roasting.

What can be easier than roasted vegetables? 

That's what I'd always thought. But recently I discovered not everyone is on the same page when it comes to roasting.

Last week I learned that local chefs often parboil potatoes before roasting them.  "The texture and taste is better," a farmer at the market told me.  I nodded, but as we walked away my friend said, "Parboiling? What's that?"

Parboiling is an old-fashioned term, but the  technique is exactly like blanching, except for the ice water bath at the end. In both techniques, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the vegetables and cook briefly to set the color and activate enzymes. Strain the vegetables, and for blanching rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process. For parboiling, once the vegetables are parboiled, you can then use them in cooking.

Bringing the pot of water to a boil, etc, seems significantly more work for a home cook, so I tried an experiment this past weekend. I parboiled half the vegetables I cooked and I cut the others and roasted them raw.  Both were tossed in oil.

The end result?  The vegetables that were parboiled, were slightly sweeter and retained more moisture when roasted.  

The taste difference was not enough to induce a lazy chef like me that home cooks need to "parboil" vegetables before cooking.

Roasting times:

Another rumor I heard recently was rutabagas take longer to roast than carrots.  So I deliberately used different vegetables and roasted them for the same amount of time.

I set the temperature to 425F.  Tossed all the vegetables with a bit of oil and roasted them for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to prevent burning or sticking.

The garnet yam, carrots, turnip and rutabaga were all roasted in 30 minutes.

Some people think roasting is only done in an oven.  But what about the fire roasted peppers at the market?

River Farm at the University District Market

Techniques

Other experts insist roasting is done without any covering but what about foil covered roasted garlic?

The more I found out, the more I wanted to know more about this technique that many people define differently.  And why are potatoes in foil called baked while garlic in foil is called roasted?  

If not adding any liquid is part of the roasting process, why does Barbara Kafka use liquid with roasted vegetable in Roasting: The Simple Art?

While many chefs say roasted vegetables should be cut into uniform pieces, some recipes defy this rule laid out in The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chessman. 

Garlic, peppers, carrots and even cauliflower can be roasted as whole vegetables.

Are there any rules at all for roasting?   It seems like it depends on which cookbooks, blogs or websites you read or what your friends tell you. 

Who wouldn't want these amazing tiny carrots from Willie Greens Organic Farm left whole? 

For this recipe, I cut everything to the same size, only because I was estimating the timing for different vegetables.

One of the delicious things about roasting without any liquid or covered in foil, is the oil and heat caramelize the outside and make the vegetable sweeter.

I cooked the onions and mushrooms with a little olive oil, adding the butter beans and a few leaves of baby collard greens in the last few minutes of cooking.

Roasted Vegetable Sliders with Butter Beans

(Serves 4 to 6)

6 small corn tortillas

Canola oil, enough to coat the bottom of a small pan, plus 2 tablespoons

1 rutabaga, root trimmed, small dice

1 turnip, root and top trimmed, small dice

1 large carrot, small dice or matchsticks

1 small sweet potato or yam, small dice

1 small onion, diced

1 cup small shiitake mushrooms, or sliced larger mushrooms

1 can butter beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup salsa

Slices of avocado, chopped tomatoes, sliced green onions and chopped olives

1 cup chopped cilantro 

Heat oil in a skillet and fry corn tortillas until almost crisp.  Remove tortillas and place on an absorbent towel.   

Heat oven to 425F.  Place rutabaga, turnips, carrot and sweet potato in a single layer in a shallow baking dish.  Toss with 2 tablespoons canola oil.  Roast on a rack close to the heat for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to brown evenly.

While vegetables roast, heat a heavy skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and shiitake mushrooms.  Stir and cook for about 5 minutes.  Add about a tablespoon of oil, butter beans and 1/4 cup salsa.  Cook for about 5 minutes.

Place roasted vegetables and butter bean-mixture on tortillas.  You can top it with avocado, tomatoes, green onions and chopped olives, and garnish with cilantro, or enjoy it plain with a little salsa.

And try not to tempt your Cooking Assistant too much. 

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Brussels Sprouts have had quite a long season in the Northwest this year. But the season is nearly over and Alm Hill Gardens, was the only farm still selling Brussels sprouts at the U District Market last Saturday. The farm vendor said they had about 2 or 3 more weeks until all the Brussels Sprouts are gone. "Buy them now," he'd said. These sprouts were so good, I may have to get more next week.

This was the first time I'd bought the sprouts from Alm Hill Gardens.

I had great Brussels sprouts from Willie Green's Organic Farm.

 And I've had sweet sprouts from Nash's Organic Produce.

I can't recall how much the sprouts, cost, probably around $5 a pound, but since I'm on a budget these days, I only bought a few, and the ones I got weren't exactly all the same size. I often find I don't really need much, and I appreciate flavors more when I don't buy an overload.  

It's in those sweet moments in life to lose myself to the flavor of something delicious.  Eat slowly and savor the moment.

 My Cooking Assistant would disagree.  The faster he eats something, the sooner he can look for more.

Including oranges.  An orange isn't safe for long around this boy.

You don't need this many oranges.  Just one. I'm using the remainder for coleslaw I'm making tomorrow.

You could use balsamic vinegar if you want a deeper flavor.  But I like the orange flavor to come through more, so apple cider vinegar was my choice for this dish.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Blood Orange Vinaigrette

(Serves 4 as a side dish)

1 pound Brussels sprouts, all roughly the same size

Sea salt 

1 tablespoon canola oil

Juice of 1 blood orange

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon agave nectar or a generous pinch of sugar

1 clove garlic, pressed

1/4 teaspoon white or black pepper

Preheat oven to 400F.  Wash and trim Brussels sprouts. Place in a shallow baking dish and toss with oil while oven preheats.  

Sprinkle with sea salt and bake for 40 minutes, turning the sprouts every 10 minutes.  Brussels sprouts will be browned on the outside and soft on the inside when done.  

Combine orange juice, apple cider vinegar, agave nectar, garlic and white pepper in a small bowl.   Whisk for a few minutes.  When Brussels sprouts have cooked, toss them with the vinaigrette and then serve.   These Brussels sprouts are great as a side dish or if you're looking for a great vegetarian main dish, add them to quinoa, rice or millet with mushrooms with red beans, seitan or tofu.

My Cooking Assistant thinks there aren't enough recipes for Brussels sprouts.  Next week, I'm trying a Meyer Lemon-Mustard Sauce--another figment of my imagination at this point.  I'm glad to have two more weeks of this amazing vegetable. 

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

For Thanksgiving last week, we drove south, visited friends and dined with family for the big feast. It was so cool because where we stayed wasn't far from the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove.

I'd been dreaming about seeing clustered Monarchs since last summer when I wrote this article about dwindling Monarch populations. The Mexican reserves where Monarchs from the eastern and midwest United States overwinter are more extensive than the California butterfly groves, but it was still shocking to see so few butterflies clustered and flying around compared to the hundreds of thousands I'd seen in videos of the Mexican reserves.


Declining Monarch populations are sad.  Attention Californians: please plant milkweed!



I loved catching up with friends and family and who doesn't love the over-the-top big annual feast?  Of course my Cooking Assistant totally made himself at home--so spoiled, he'll find a chair when he's sleepy and avoid sleeping on the floor.

If the seat fits, take it.

Of course the best part of Thanksgiving are the side dishes and I was looking forward to trying them all. There was something for everyone from roasted Brussels sprouts, to yams, to spaetzle. I brought my favorite quinoa salad, but the dish that really intrigued me was what everyone called Mom's Red Cabbage.

I watched my sister-in-law start the dish.  Cabbage, vinegar, sugar--it seemed easy and really, what can go wrong with cabbage, especially local cabbage.

I'd created a recipe for red cabbage in my first book called Red Cabbage with Apple and Red Wine Vinegar.  This recipe used half vinegar and half sugar.  I'd also added onion, lemon juice and garlic.

The recipe made it into my second book practically unchanged.  Until now.  Every recipe need to be updated and this time cut out most of the sugar and dropped the onion and lemon.

Use any apple you want.  I chose a Pink Lady because it was handy.  If you like it really tart, a Granny Smith might be exactly what you need.

My Cooking Assistant likes Pink Pearls.

And you probably already know I love Rockridge Orchards' berry vinegars.  I always keep enough of this on hand to give one for a gift.

This is one reason why I specified one or two apples.  The size differences of farmers' market apples can be startling.

Here's the new version of the  recipe:

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

(Serves 4 to 6)

1 or 2 tablespoons canola oil

1 medium-small head of red cabbage, sliced thin

1 or 2 medium to large sweet tart apples, diced

1 tablespoon chopped Mama Lil's Peppers (optional)

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar (or to taste)

1 or 2 tablespoons apple cider (optional)

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat oil over medium heat, in a medium-size heavy skillet.  Add cabbage, apples and Mama Lil's, if desired.  

Stir and cook until cabbage softens.  While cabbage cooks, combine apple cider vinegar and sugar.  Blend until sugar is dissolved, then stir into cabbage and apples.  Cover and simmer on low until apples and cabbage are very tender.  This may take up to 30 minutes.  If you need more liquid add a little apple cider.  When cabbage and apples are done, sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Here's my Cooking Assistant getting carried away.  You can hardly blame him, gone from the kitchen and cooking for a week, what's a dog to do?

Potato and Leek Soup (no GMOs in my soup)

I'd been thinking about potato-leek soup ever since a friend of mine made some last week. All he had wanted to get at the market were leeks and potatoes, which for one thing surprised me because how does anyone go to the farmers market with only two vegetables in mind?  It also made me wonder how his soup had turned out. 

"How did you cook it?" I asked, when I saw him at the market.  "What recipe did you use?"

"I always used Julia Child's recipe.  I can watch them on the PBS series," he said.   Years ago, Julia Child had a PBS series, and my friend said he'd bought the series when they were in VHS format.   Remember that?

"You still have a VHS machine?  Oh, I'm sorry," I said as I burst out laughing.  Maybe the tapes still playing is a testament to how long some things from the 70s last.  Also it's a good thing my friend has a sense of humor.  Luddite humor--what can I say? 

The recipe my friend described was incredibly simple. Water, leeks, potatoes, he'd said.  After all the muffins I've been making lately, I'm ready for simplicity in the kitchen. 

Finding leeks and potatoes for soup was my goal at the market this week. 

The Market

Rain and wind were fierce and some vendors hung onto their tents as the winds picked up.   It was just about the worst weather ever for the the market, which actually closed early due to the high winds.  But we had fun while we were there. 

I snapped a picture of this sign. Every farmer I know is voting yes for GMO labeling. I don't know where the opposition found those people posing as farmers on the TV ads, but the yes ads actually have real farmers who truthful food labels.  

I'd like to know if the tomatoes I'm reaching for have fish genes inserted. Tomorrow is the day. Go cast a yes vote for food labels and say no to big business running our food system.  New labels won't raise your food prices.

These potato carvings from Olsen's Farms were too cool not to post.   Apparently long ago, kids in Ireland used  to carve potatoes and turnips before they carved faces into pumpkins. 

Buying market potatoes is a treat because I don't get them every week.  Olsen's has a wide variety, and I couldn't recall which type of potato the soup recipes called for but my friend had gotten some nice russets, so that's what I got--about 5 medium-size potatoes.

Leeks are a treat too because as far as onions go, leeks are pricey. I found organic leeks at Alm Hill for $2 each, so I got two, hoping to make those work for the soup, which should be a budget meal.

Leeks are in the onion family and so they are toxic to dogs.  My Cooking Assistant isn't impressed anyway.

The Recipe

I don't have the Julia Child's PBS series, plus I wondered how much butter Julia used, so when I got home, I thumbed through cookbooks.  I'm amazed at the number of cookbooks that don't list potato-leek soup as a recipe.  Did everyone think it was too common and decided to exclude it?  It seems common enough.  

I found this one in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone.   A side bar says her recipe is a farmhouse version of these two humble vegetables simmered in water. I love the simplicity of it.  She had a number of variations on the side, but I decided to add sauteed mushrooms and a sprinkling of parsley, both proved excellent additions.

Here's the recipe:

Potato and Leek Soup

(Serves 6)

2 cups sliced organic leeks (about 2 medium leeks)

2 tablespoons organic canola oil or ghee (clarified butter)

2 stalks organic celery diced

2 cups peeled, diced organic potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 tablespoon chopped Mama Lil's peppers (optional)

5 cups water

3 cloves garlic, pressed

1 1/2 cups sliced shiitake mushrooms (optional)

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Heat a soup pot over medium heat.  Add leeks and oil.  Stir and cook for a few minutes, or until leeks begin to soften.   Add celery, potatoes and Mama Lil's peppers. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes.

2. Add water and garlic.  Stir, cover and simmer for about 35 minutes, or until potatoes begin falling apart.  Use an immersion blender to create a creamy texture. 

3. Dry from the shiitake mushrooms for a few minutes, then add a little oil, stir and cook, until mushrooms soften.   Add mushrooms to the soup.  

4. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste, then ladle soup into bowls and garnish with parsley.  

My Cooking Assistant isn't making any pretence about what he prefers.