Beet salad with goat cheese & green beans

This salad is complicated, but worth the trouble.  Not only was it completely delicious, it felt pretty righteous what with the amaranth, beets, beans, and greens.

So, you kind of have to do this one in steps but here are all the ingredients:

• 5 medium/small beets, grated
• 1 small sweet onion, chopped small
• 1 leek, white part only, minced
• 2 cups green beans, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped small
• a mixture of salad greens, arugula, and amaranth greens.
• goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon butter
• olive oil
• dried oregano
• salt & pepper
• walnuts (optional)

Amaranth is actually the same plant as pigweed, a common farm weed. Cultivated amaranth is yummy and fairly spinach-like. It is nutrient dense and a nice purple and green color. It's also sometimes called Chinese spinach.

So, first, combine the grated beets with the leek and onion in a baking dish with a teaspoon of olive oil.  Add salt and pepper.  Roast at 400 for about 25 minutes.  Check and stir every so often.

Meanwhile, clean and prep the green beans and garlic.  Melt a tablespoon of butter and 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a frying pan with a light sprinkle of dried oregano, salt, and pepper.  Add the garlic and cook on low heat until it starts to turn transparent.  Add the green beans and stir constantly on slightly higher heat.  after five minutes add a few handfuls of water (probably 2-2 1/2 tablespoons) of water.  Stir to combine then turn the heat down a little bit and cover so the beans will steam.  It should take about seven minutes, stirring every few minutes.  Be sure the garlic and olive oil mix doesn’t burn-check often.

Combine all your wonderful salad greens in a big bowl.  You can splash a little balsamic vinegar on them if you like.

Now, the green beans and the beets should both be done.  Either combine them with the salad greens in the larger bowl, or mix them in your bowl individually.  Top with crumbled goat cheese and crushed walnuts.

In the end: wonderful slightly warm beets and green beans on salad with walnuts and goat cheese

in the beginning: grated beets waiting for onions and leeks

All-Occasion Crepes

Last week, seeing as we had the panini grill out (admittedly an odd graduation present but one which has proved extremely useful) S decided to make crepes for dinner.  Then, since there was batter left over, she went ahead and made crepes for dessert.  Then, since there was still some batter left over, I made crepes the following morning for breakfast.  There is certainly nothing like starting the day out with an asparagus and arugula crepe.

The batter recipe is from Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything Vegetarian.

So, for dinner we had this:

That is, finely chopped portobello mushrooms, cured and green garlic, chives, arugula, ramps, local rosemary-fig goat cheese, and a drizzle of heavy cream.

Then for dessert this:

Raspberry jam, nutella, heavy cream.

Then breakfast (sorry, at 7:45am  I don’t take pictures):

Asparagus, chives, green garlic, arugula, salt and plenty of pepper.

Recipe for Batter:

Whisk together a cup of all-purpose flour, a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, two eggs, and 1 and 1/4 cups milk, in a blender if you’ve got one (we don’t). If  it’s not pourable, mix in a little more milk.

Let it sit in the fridge for an hour. It can be used for up to 24 hours, if you are the kind of person who would prep a meal a day in advance (if you also iron your socks, seek help!)

When you’re all ready to crepe, put an 8-10 inch non-stick skillet on medium heat, and wait a few minutes before adding a pat of butter. Stir the batter and use a large spoon or ladle to pour a couple of tablespoons of batter onto the skillet. Swirl it around so it forms a thin layer on the bottom of the pan. When the top is dry, after about a minute, then flip it and cook the other side for about 15 to 30 seconds. It should be only very slightly brown and not crispy. Do not freak out if you screw up the first one or several, even pros mess up this fickle chemistry.  Just try again!

Put the filling in the bottom third, and use a spatula/your fingers (it only burns a little, totally worth it) to roll it up. Then slide it off and keep it in a warm oven. Put more butter on the pan, pat yourself on the back, and start the next one. You rock! Now go casually drop your crepe-making skills into conversation and watch your dates pile up.

 

Nice variation on Greens and Pasta

This week, rushing out to a screening of The Greenhorns film, we threw together this variation on our beloved greens and pasta:

Arugula

Asian greens

1 head of garlic

2 shallots

a dash of balsamic vinegar

On pasta!

Yummy, fast, and not quite the same on Asian greens and pasta

Portobello Mushroom Paninis

In honor of our first winter’s Portobellos:

Arugula, fresh mozzarella, raw garlic, onion, balsamic vinegar and, of course, Portobello mushrooms.

An Excellent Saturday lunch

Everyone else is out of the house today, so here’s my recipe for a quick and seasonal lunch for one.  This took me 10 minutes, tops, and looked so good I ate it without taking a picture first.

Scrambled Eggs with Mostly Raw Arugula and Mushrooms

Ingredients:
– 2 eggs, or some soft tofu (for scrambling)
– 2-4 large button mushrooms, sliced (other kinds would work, this was what we could get locally)
– A handful of arugula (cut in half if the leaves are long)
– A bit of butter or oil (to grease the pan)
– A splash of milk (if you’re cooking with eggs)
– Salt and pepper

Directions:
1. If you’re using eggs, crack them into a bowl and whisk/fork until mixed.  Add a splash of milk and some salt and pepper.  
2. Melt the butter or put some oil in the bottom of a frying pan.  Add the eggs or crumble the tofu into the pan.
3. Cook over low heat until just scrambled.  I tend to stir them frequently and break up big curds (roughly following Mark Bittman’s advice for the best scrambled eggs), and keep the eggs moving in the pan until they’re cooked.  Our stove is hyperactive so this happens in less than 5 minutes – your mileage may vary.
4. Turn the heat off, and push the eggs/tofu over to one side of the pan.  Add the arugula and sliced mushrooms.  I simply stirred them all together and started eating, but you could turn the heat on low and cook it for a minute or so.