Wild Rice with Leeks and Dandelion Greens

Found at Whole Foods: Local eggs from pastured hens at Campo Lindo Farms (for about half the price of the local pastured eggs we get in California...score another one for Kansas)*
Found at Natural Grocers: More leeks, beautiful local dandelion greens

A few judicious tweaks, and an old simple standby got a trendy new makeover:

 

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 medium-small leek, white and light green parts, chopped

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1 rounded cup wild rice

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

1 bunch dandelion greens, sliced crosswise into 1/4 inch strips

2-3 handfuls baby spinach

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

2 eggs from pastured hens

Heat a glug of olive oil in a smallish pot over medium heat. Add half of the leek and 3 of the smashed garlic cloves and saute until they soften and the leek turns slightly translucent. Add the wild rice and stir to coat the grains, then pour in the chicken broth. Cover to bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes (if there's a little extra liquid at the end, you can uncover the pot and raise the heat back up to medium for a minute or two to let it evaporate).

Meanwhile, bring a second pot of water to a boil for the eggs, but wait to cook them until a few minutes before the rice is done (you can either poach them, if you're adventurous like that, or boil them for 7 minutes or until desired doneness...7 minutes will get you a medium-boiled egg with the white fully cooked and the yolk still runny on an average-sized egg).

When the rice is done or almost done, heat a wide saute pan over medium heat. Drizzle the pan with a little olive oil, then add the rest of the leeks and the remaining garlic clove. Saute until very soft, then add the dandelion greens and toss to coat. Saute, stirring occasionally, for a couple minutes until the greens wilt. Sprinkle with salt, stir, and cover to steam for a minute more. Uncover, add the spinach, and turn off the heat. Add the fully cooked rice, and fold everything together.

Serve in bowls. Top with an egg, sliced in half if you'd like, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Serves 2.

*On the other hand, Whole Foods had only $6 dandelion greens imported from California...which cannot possibly be necessary for growing weeds...and Natural Grocers had nothing resembling pastured eggs. So our co-op still wins for convenience...

Sauteed Dandelion with Apricot and Golden Raisins

Speaking of dandelions, here's a springtime twist on winning the weed wars:

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 red spring onion, halved and sliced (or sub a shallot)

Small handful golden raisins

1 bunch dandelion greens, cut crosswise into ribbons

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 ripe apricot, halved and thinly sliced

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for a couple of minutes until soft, then add the raisins and cook for a minute more. Fold in the greens and saute, stirring, for another minute or so, then pour in the chicken broth. Stir once or twice, then cover and let simmer for 3-4 minutes. Remove the lid and simmer until the excess liquid boils off. 

 

Turn off the heat, fold in the apricot slices, and cover. Let sit for 1-2 minutes till the apricots have just warmed through, and then serve.

Serves 2-3.

Dandelion Green Reprise

This is really just a variation on the theme of an earlier recipe, but I liked it even more than that one and thought it deserved its own post.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 large shallot, sliced

Small handful golden raisins

1 bunch red-stemmed dandelion greens, cut crosswise into ribbons

1/4 cup chicken broth

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the shallot and saute for a couple of minutes until soft, then add the raisins and cook for a minute more. Fold in the greens and saute, stirring, for another minute or so, then pour in the chicken broth. Stir once or twice, let simmer for a moment, then stir again and simmer until the excess liquid boils off and the greens are completely wilted. Serve hot.

Soft Set Eggs with Mushrooms and Greens

Lest anyone ever argue otherwise, let me assure you, as a self-declared Person Who Cooks Things, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with having breakfast for dinner. But if evening pancakes tend to bring with them an inevitable nudge of guilt, consider making this recipe the next time you find yourself craving Sunday morning on a Tuesday night. It tastes complex enough to feel like dinner, despite the basic eggy-something-over-bread theme, and it's absolutely delicious.

Ingredients
2 tbsp chopped yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
Assorted savory greens, chopped (e.g., 1/2 bunch Russian kale, 2-3 handfuls baby red mustard greens, 1/4 bunch dandelion greens)
1 medium leek, white and light green parts, halved lengthwise and sliced
Flavorful mushrooms, sliced
(e.g., a mix of Trumpet Royale, Clamshell, and Velvet Pioppini, or a mix of shiitake and crimini)
Small handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
3 pastured eggs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 slices fresh bread

Heat a glug of olive oil in a deep saute pan over medium heat. When hot, add the onion and saute for a few minutes until it starts to smell sweet. Next, add the garlic and saute for a minute or so until soft. Add the greens to the pan and toss to coat evenly. Saute, stirring, for 2-3 more minutes until the greens begin to wilt, then cover the pan and turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, heat a nonstick frying pan (14" is good) over medium heat. When hot, add a little olive oil, wait for a few moments, and then add the leeks and saute until soft. Add the mushrooms and saute, stirring and sprinkling with salt and pepper as they cook.

When the mushrooms soften and begin to release their juices, add most of the parsley (reserve a little for garnish), stir, then distribute the mushroom mixture evenly along the bottom of the pan. Working quickly, crack three eggs into the pan in different places, and immediately turn the heat down to low. Begin to gently stir the mushrooms into the white, leaving the yolks whole for a few moments as the eggs begin to set. After a minute or two, gently begin breaking the yolks, one at a time, and folding them into the mushroom mixture (you want to do this slowly and gently, folding often enough that the mushrooms get coated with some egg, but not so often that the eggs get scrambled -- at the end, you should still be able to see distinct yellow and white parts).

Serve in layers: Bread (or toast drizzled with just a little olive oil), then greens, then mushrooms on top, garnished with parsley.

Serves 2 for dinner.

Dandelion Greens with Golden Raisins and Caramelized Onion

For any vegetable adventurers out there who can't quite bring themselves to like bitter greens, here's a way to try dandelion greens that takes out almost all of the bitterness with the addition of sweet golden raisins, caramelized onion, and toasted almonds.

Ingredients
A handful of sliced almonds (optional)
Olive oil
1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
A handful of golden raisins
1 bunch red-stemmed dandelion greens, chopped, rinsed well, and dried in a salad spinner
Salt & pepper

Toast almonds in a pan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until lightly brown and fragrant. Remove from pan and set aside. Adjust heat to medium-high, add olive oil, then the onion. Saute until golden, stirring, then turn the heat down to medium and cook a little longer until it smells very sweet and starts to brown. Add the raisins and stir a few times, then add the dandelion greens and a pinch of salt and saute until wilted. Sprinkle with a little black pepper and serve, with or without toasted almonds on top.

Serves 2.

Sauteed Dandelion Greens

There have been dandelion greens at our coop for about two weeks now.

Every time I near the vegetables, I see them out of the corner of my eye and quickly turn the other way out of a sudden and overwhelming interest in the carrots. I've been on a mustard greens kick, I think primarily because they're the leafy green most distant from the dandelions. I almost reached for collard greens the other day, then thought better of it...too close to the dandelion greens; too obvious, if I picked up one, then I would have seen the other.

But yesterday, they had been moved. Despite my carefully averted gaze as I edged past the lettuces, it turned out I had averted straight at them. Front and center. Dandelion greens. I had definitely seen them. They were new. So far this summer, I have fearlessly (or, let's face it, fearfully, in several cases) picked up every new, untasted, uncooked vegetable that has presented itself and cooked it. I bit my lip. I furrowed my brow. I glared at the guy who was giving me a weird look.

Was I going to be cowed by a weed? Was it fair for a weed to be engaged in such a decidedly unvegetarian-sounding activity as cowing? Was I overthinking this? And was it just me, in my agitated state of vegetable-induced anxiety, or was there actually not one but several happy, hippy voices around me singing merrily along to the Simon and Garfunkel song currently playing in the store?

Lulled by the sense that a truly satanic vegetable couldn't survive a surround-sound onslaught of a remarkably on-key, chorused tune of "Feeling Groovy," I picked up the dandelion greens and deposited them in my basket. I took them home. I told myself that my deep and abiding hatred for dandelions was related solely to the demonic dandelions entrenched in my lawn that can somehow regrow from the millimeter of root the inevitably snaps off when you're spending large portions of your otherwise quite tolerable life weeding them in a fruitless attempt to keep them from completely overtaking life as we know it, and had nothing to do with the red-stemmed leaves sitting on the kitchen counter. I told myself no, seriously, I mean it. I told myself cooking and eating them was the only possible way to get the upper hand -- it would be like weeding them, only with more of a victorious feeling. I cooked them. I ate them. I feel, yes, slightly victorious.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic
1 bunch dandelion greens, sliced crosswise into strips, rinsed well, and dried in a salad spinner
Salt & pepper

Saute onion in some olive oil over medium-low heat until it smells sweet and begins to take on a little color. (The sweet onion offsets some of the bitterness of the dandelion greens, so make sure it's good and caramelized.) Add garlic and saute for another minute, then add the dandelion greens. Turn the heat up a little and saute, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, and serve.