Butter Beans with Sweet Peppers and Tomato

 Found in the garden: Sweet Italian heirloom peppers, tomatoes, flat-leaf parsley

Found in the cupboard: Red Bhutanese rice, butter beans

Found in self: A lazy summer reluctance to go anywhere near the store

Solution: Quick, easy, and delicious—variation #1,304 on rice and beans

Serve this over rice, orzo, or even polenta. Perfect for a night when you want something that tastes gourmet but can throw itself together in twenty minutes.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 large shallot, chopped
1/3 cup chopped sweet pepper (bell or heirloom)
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 oz fresh mild greens, chopped (e.g., chard, amaranth, and/or spinach)
1 can butter beans, mostly drained
1 handful fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped*
1 tomato, diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese

Heat a glug of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Saute shallot until it softens, then add the pepper and saute a minute more. Stir in the garlic and a pinch of salt (unless your beans are already highly salted) and continue to cook for another minute or two, then fold in the greens and saute until wilted.

Add the beans, stir, and simmer 2-3 minutes, covering the pan if it starts to get dry. Toss in the parsley, tomato, and another pinch of salt, cook for another minute to heat through, and turn off the heat. Serve layered over rice or pasta, and top with pepper and a little grated Parmesan cheese.

Serves 2.

*Like any fresh herb that isn't from a supermarket, the amount you want will depend on the particular bunch. Bite into a leaf. If it's potent (young and recently-picked), use a small handful. If it's very mild (older and picked awhile ago), use a larger handful. Or just start with a small handful and adjust to taste as you cook.

Mixed Greens with Garlic and Toasted Walnuts

This turns out to be a perfect side dish for pumpkin soup. Or just about anything else, for that matter. Make it when you have an assortment of dark leafy greens on hand and want something fall-like and delicious and quick to dress up the side of your plate.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 garlic clove, smashed

Mixed braising greens (e.g., baby mustard, baby kale, chard, beet greens, amaranth greens, etc...chop larger greens or cut crosswise into ribbons)

Splash veggie or chicken broth

Coarsely chopped walnuts

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a glug of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the smashed garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes until it softens, then add the greens and toss to coat. Saute, tossing occasionally, until the greens start to wilt. Add a splash of broth, cover, and let simmer and steam for a couple minutes (if using baby greens) or 4-6 minutes (if using big greens). If the pan gets too dry, add a little more broth. Stir every couple of minutes or so.

Meanwhile, toast the walnuts in a pan over medium heat, shaking from time to time, until lightly browned. Remove from heat.

When the greens are tender, uncover the pan, steam off any excess liquid, and then serve on a warmed plate. Drizzle with a little olive oil, sprinkle with walnuts, salt, and pepper to taste, and serve hot.

Warmed Tomatoes and Basil over Garlicky Greens

This was a let's-cook-whatever's-in-the-fridge dish, and yet the flavors turned out to be perfectly balanced and wonderfully complex. You could use just regular sweet basil if you didn't have both kinds (and maybe try adding just a bit more sherry vinegar to compensate for losing the hint of lemon).

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 slice multigrain bread, chopped into small croutons
1 cup cooked and well-drained chickpeas and/or cannellini beans
1 clove garlic, sliced
2-3 large handfuls fava greens, amaranth greens, or spinach
1 tsp sherry vinegar, divided
Salt and black pepper
Ñora pepper
6-10 fresh sweet basil leaves
2-3 medium heirloom tomatoes, cut into large chunks
1 rounded tsp chopped lemon basil

Heat a large, nonstick frying pan over medium heat. When hot, add a generous glug of olive oil and swirl around the pan. Add the bread and toss to coat lightly, then shift to the side of the pan and scatter the beans on the other side (everything should be just one layer thick). Toast, shaking or stirring occasionally, until everything begins to turn golden brown.

Turn the heat down slightly, add the garlic and a bit more olive oil, and toss to combine. Saute for about a minute, then add the greens and saute until they begin to wilt. Season to taste with salt and pepper, add a few dashes of ñora pepper if you have it, drizzle with 1/2 tsp sherry vinegar, and throw in the basil leaves. Stir a few times, then serve into bowls.

Replace the pan on the heat, add about 1 tbsp olive oil, then slide the tomatoes in and sprinkle with salt. Saute for about a minute, stirring occasionally (you basically just want to warm them up without really cooking them). Add the lemon basil, a little black pepper, and a half tsp (or just a little more) of sherry vinegar. Saute for about another minute or until the tomatoes are just barely warmed through, then serve over the beans.

Garnish with basil, and serve hot.

Serves 2 for lunch, or pair with a salad and bread for dinner.

Eggs on Toast with Aztec Spinach and Green Coriander

I'm in love with June produce. (True, some people might think of today as July, but I prefer June 33rd. Anything to maintain the illusion that my grant is due next month.)

First, there's the garlic. Soft-skinned, totally fresh, balanced between the wimpy spring variety and the dried out autumn and winter staple, perfect for adding in slices or slivers to every green vegetable you can think of. Not to mention the ones you couldn't think of because you'd never seen them until they showed up in your CSA box.

Case in point: Aztec spinach. Similar to regular spinach, but milder, and a bit drier so it holds its structure better when sauteed. Perfect for pairing with an egg atop toast on a lazy summer Sunday.

And finally, a new discovery in our produce box: green coriander. I always thought you could either eat the cilantro fresh or dry the seeds for a few months until they turned into brown coriander, but it never occurred to me to taste them in between. And, go figure, they taste more corianderish than cilantro, but fresher and more cilantro-y than coriander -- another perfect halfway point.


 



The point being, you should cook this and eat it. But then, that's always the point.
 
Ingredients
2 pastured chicken eggs, medium-boiled (about 7 minutes) or poached
Olive oil
1 small clove garlic, slivered
Several handfuls Aztec spinach, coarsely chopped (or sub chard, amaranth greens, or spinach)
A sprinkling of green coriander
2 slices fresh whole-grain bread, toasted
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 nasturtium flowers* (optional)

Heat a wide pan over medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil and the garlic, turn the heat down a bit, and saute for about 30-60 seconds or until the garlic is tender. Add the greens, turn the heat back up to medium, and toss with the garlic and olive oil (I often use a spatula and a cooking spoon together to corral the greens until they cook down a bit). Saute for 2-4 minutes, until greens are wilted (saute regular spinach for just a minute or two, and other greens for longer). Add a light sprinkling of green coriander about a minute before it's done (you can substitute a couple pinches of chopped cilantro or parsley if you don't have green coriander).

Toast the bread, drizzle very lightly with olive oil, cover with wilted greens, and top with an egg. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, garnish with a nasturtium, and serve.

Serves 2 for breakfast.

*Nasturtiums, it turns out, are not just another decorative edible flower...they actually have their own, slightly floral, slightly radishy, totally delicious taste. We kind of want to wander around our garden grazing on them like some new breed of flower-obsessed sheep.

Stir-fried Amaranth Greens with Toasted Almonds and Mustard Seeds

Easy and delicious (good for when you totally forgot the leafy green side dish till the last moment):

Ingredients
A couple handfuls amaranth greens, per person
1/4-1/2 tsp black and/or yellow mustard seeds, per person
1 tbsp sliced almonds, per person
Olive oil
Kosher salt

Toast almonds in a wide pan over medium-high heat, stirring or tossing frequently. Just as they begin to brown, add a tablespoon or two of olive oil and stir to coat, then immediately add the mustard seeds. Stir and fry for a few seconds, then add the amaranth greens. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally and pressing the leaves against the pan for a few seconds from time to time. Add a tablespoon or so of water, cover the pan, and let steam for few moments till the water evaporates, then uncover, sprinkle with a little salt, and serve.

Beluga Lentils with Mushrooms and Paprika

I came across this recipe and blog today, searching for something (probably lentil recipes, go figure), and thought it looked delicious enough to try. Plus, it calls for cherry tomatoes, and I had a basket sitting on the counter getting perilously close to going all mushy. Plus #2, he uses "glug" as a unit of measurement (as in, "saute with a good glug of olive oil") and I felt instantly that we must be kindred measuring spirits. Or maybe this is more common practice than I thought. But most (pre-blog) recipes I've written down have the words "glug," "handful," "liberal dousing" and "more than you would think" in place of more, um, traditional (read: normal) measurement terms, and given that apparently legitimate people do this too, I am seriously considering dropping all this tablespoon business in favor of my typical haphazard approximations. Feel free to lodge a complaint if you like the safe precision of quarter teaspoons. I get all excited when people leave comments.

Back to lentils: I suspect the original version is delicious, but I didn't have smoked paprika and did have some other things, so an adapted version is below. 

Ingredients
Olive oil*
Small yellow onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, pressed
Scant 2 cups beluga lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 cup organic vegetable broth
Sherry vinegar 
Spanish sweet paprika
Aleppo pepper
Ground cumin
About a pound of mushrooms, half crimini and half shiitake, brushed and halved or quartered (depending on the size)
2-3 large handfuls amaranth greens, coarsely chopped (could substitute 2 handfuls spinach)
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
2/3 basket cherry tomatoes, halved
Basil chiffonade (6-7 leaves, rolled & thinly sliced)

Saute the onions in a pot over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until slightly softened, add garlic, and cook for an addition minute or two. Add the lentils and stir to coat with the onion-garlic mixture, then add the broth and 2 cups water. Cover, bring to a boil, and turn heat down to low. Simmer for 25-30 minutes or until just tender, stirring every ten minutes or so. (If you don't want to stir, add an additional cup of water at the beginning and then drain the lentils after they're done. I don't like having to drain them, so I often use less liquid, but this does mean you have to stir more frequently and it probably takes a little longer to cook.)

Turn off heat and add 1 1/2 tsp sherry vinegar, 1 tsp paprika, a spoonful of Aleppo (or adjust spiciness to taste), and a pinch or two of salt. Liberally dust with cumin, stir, and taste. Adjust seasonings if you'd like it to have more tang or more spice.

Meanwhile, heat a pan over high heat until very hot. Add a generous metric glug of olive oil and let that heat up too, then add the crimini mushrooms. Turn the heat down to medium-high and brown the criminis on each side. When they're about halfway done, add the shiitakes as well (these will cook more quickly). When the mushrooms are browned and just tender, add the amaranth greens and stir-fry for about a minute or until just wilted. Turn off the heat and season with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, combine the cherry tomatoes, basil, about 2 tsp sherry vinegar, a slosh of good-quality extra virgin olive oil, and some black pepper.

Serve (lentils first, then the mushrooms, with a couple spoonfuls of the tomato-basil mixture on the top).

To round off the meal, add a crusty loaf of fresh bread (get something whole wheat and/or seeded if you want to make a complete protein, and skip the twenty-billion-ingredient variety in favor of something straightforward if you're going the Pollan route) and a glass of Spanish wine (pairs well with a 2007 Juan Gil Jumilla, currently on sale at Costco for a crazy low $11/bottle).

Serves 4, or 2 for dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day.


 *Incidentally, a ridiculous number of major brand olive oils are not actually extra-virgin as claimed...see p. 10 of the report from UC Davis to see whether yours is.

Soft Set Eggs with Shiitake Mushrooms and Amaranth Greens

Found at the coop: Amaranth greens. No idea what to do with these. The internets suggested something called callaloo soup, which was great fun to say, repeatedly (go on, you know you want to try it), but which was accompanied by some greenish-gray pictures that didn't look particularly appetizing. The next meal was breakfast, so we thought we'd put them in an omelette and see what happened (only we like revueltos, or Spanish soft set eggs, better than omelettes, so that's what this is).

Ingredients
Olive oil
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
3-4 scallions, sliced
1 clove garlic, pressed
4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A few shakes of crushed ñora pepper
Coarsely chopped amaranth greens (about 2 cups, or a little more)
4 pastured chicken eggs

Break the eggs into a bowl, leaving the yolks whole. You can make this with two whole eggs and two egg whites, or all whole eggs.

Heat a little olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds and toast for 10-15 seconds, stirring, then add the pepper and scallion and cook for about 2 more minutes. Add the garlic, saute for another minute, then add the mushrooms, salt, black pepper, and ñora pepper. Cook until the mushrooms just start to release a little liquid, then add the amaranth greens and saute until just wilted.

Pour in the eggs, turn heat down to medium low, and slowly stir the eggs in with the vegetables. They should set softly as you stir. I like to break one yolk, stir once and wait for a moment, then break the next. You want the white and yellow to still be distinct when it's done.

After a minute or two, the eggs will have set. Serve hot.

Serves 2 for breakfast.