Goat Cheese and Quinoa Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Apparently, the husband is the real cook of the household(s), because while I've been stuck in a repeat loop on old (and newer) favorites, he's been making up recipes left and right. Here's one that I've been promised upon my return to Kansas. (I asked for delivery, but apparently I'm outside the delivery radius. Hmph.)

Ingredients
4-6 Poblano peppers (use 4 if you want leftover stuffing to top with a fried egg the next day)
Olive oil
1 cup quinoa
1 large shallot, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
10 oz canned black beans, drained
4 oz mild, soft goat cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Cook the quinoa per package instructions.

Create a 1-2" opening in the top of each pepper and remove the seeds. Brush peppers lightly with olive oil, then broil for 7 minutes on each side. Let cool.*

In a nonstick pan, sauté the shallot for about a minute, then add the jalapeno, bell pepper, and garlic and sauté, stirring, until the peppers soften. Add the black beans and allow to warm through. Stir in the cooked quinoa, let warm, then mix in the goat cheese in small pieces to allow it to melt evenly. Turn off the heat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Stuff the peppers with the quinoa-black bean mixture. Return to oven and broil an additional 8-10 minutes until heated through.

Serve warm. Pairs well with a Caprese salad.

 
The peppers reheat well in the microwave the next day. Or, reheat the leftover quinoa stuffing and top with a fried egg.

Serves 3-6.

*Helpful hint! If you store a rubber-handled saute pan in the oven because it's too big for the Kansas kitchen cupboards, you should remove the pan before you turn on the broiler. Even if you've been storing it there all summer and haven't turned on the oven yet and so you were thinking of it more as a cupboard than an oven. This PSA brought to you by Concerned Citizens for Oven Awareness.

Sukuma Wiki: Kenyan Braised Sweet Potatoes and Collard Greens

The husband has been cooking up a storm while he's on his own in the wild midwest. Recently, he adapted a recipe from our Kansas produce box for Sukuma Wiki, a common Kenyan dish of braised collard greens. In Swahili, sukuma wiki literally means "stretch the week," and this dish is surprisingly filling (in addition to being deeply delicious).

And, when we each cook it in our respective kitchens for a Skype dinner date, it can stretch the week from here to Kansas City.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 medium to large red onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, minced
1 large Japanese sweet potato (about 12 oz.), peeled and diced
1 bunch collard greens, lower half of the stems removed, coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 to 1 1/2 cups diced Roma tomatoes
Dash or six ground cumin
Scant 1/4 tsp turmeric
1 cup veggie broth
Freshly ground white pepper to taste

Heat a deep saute pan (one that has a lid) over medium heat. When hot, add a generous glug of olive oil. Add the onion and saute, stirring, until it turns translucent, then add the jalapeno and saute a couple minutes more.

Stir in the sweet potato and continue to saute, stirring occasionally, until golden brown in places. Next, add collard greens by the handful, stirring to coat. Sprinkle in the salt, and continue to cook for another 5-7 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add the garlic, tomatoes, cumin, turmeric, and broth. Stir, cover, and reduce the heat to low or medium-low (you want to end up with a strong simmer). Cook for 40 minutes, stirring every 10-15, until the collard greens are very tender and the kitchen smells amazing.

Adjust seasonings to taste, top with freshly ground white pepper, and serve warm.

Serves 2-4.

Red Rice and Black Beans with Peppers and Cilantro

There are few things as simple, hearty, inexpensive, and roundly delicious as rice and beans. Here's one of our favorite versions yet.

For the rice:
Combine 1 cup red Bhutanese rice and just barely under 1 1/4 cups water in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes. (You can substitute brown rice, but red is worth seeking out if you haven't tried it before.)

For the beans:
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
1 green bell or Anaheim pepper, chopped
Olive oil
Salt
1 can black beans
Handful cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup grated pepper jack cheese (Petaluma Creamery is still our all-time favorite)

Saute onion in a wide saute pan until translucent, then add peppers and continue sauteing until onion begins to lightly brown around the edges (more cooking brings out more flavor). Add the beans and salt to taste (unless beans are already highly salted) and stir. Turn down heat to low or very low and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes.

Serve in layers: rice, a sprinkling of cheese, beans, a sprinkling of cilantro, and the rest of the cheese over the top.

Serves 2.

Black Beans and Rice with Greens and Oregano

The combination of rice and beans and whatever greens we have on hand tends to be my go-to meal when I haven't thought ahead about dinner and just want something straightforward and easy that doesn't require going to the store. But because it's the Backup Plan and doesn't really sound that glamorous, I'm always surprised when it turns out to be not just passable but really good...and it almost always does. So here's another version that works well if you have black beans and beet greens or chard nearby (if you have fresh cilantro instead, see this post or this one, and for white beans and kale, go here).

Ingredients
1 cup Forbidden rice (or sub brown basmati rice), cooked
Olive oil
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 tbsp(ish) chopped green garlic
1 jalapeno, minced
1 red pepper, chopped
2-3 cups beet greens (or sub chard), sliced into ribbons
1 can black beans, partly drained
Finely chopped fresh oregano, to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A little extra sharp white cheddar, grated

Heat a glug of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. When hot, add the onion, green garlic, and jalapeno, and saute for 2-3 minutes until soft. Add the red pepper and cook for a minute or two more, then stir in the beet greens and saute until they begin to wilt. Add a pinch or two of salt.

Stir in the black beans, cover, and turn the heat down to low. Simmer for 5 minutes or so to let the flavors blend, then add a couple pinches of oregano and cook a minute more. Turn off the heat, add some pepper, and adjust the salt and oregano to taste.

Serve over rice with a little grated cheddar sprinkled over the top. This is one of those dishes that will taste more complex when it's not piping hot, so leaving a minute or two between serving and starting dinner will help bring out the flavors (you want it to be warm, just not molten).

Serves 2 for a light dinner (if you're hungry, you might want a little salad too or a fruit course afterward).

Black-Eyed Peas and Polenta

I suspect this would be even better with home-soaked beans (update: it totally is), but it worked just fine with canned and made for a lovely, hearty, comfort-foodish sort of meal.

We served them over polenta (you could substitute rice), and paired it with a mixture of turnip greens (left over from our yellow turnips earlier this week) and some gorgeous young collard greens from our co-op, using this recipe.

Ingredients
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 strip pastured smoked bacon, sliced crosswise into strips
1 Anaheim chili, chopped
1 jalapeno, minced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 cans Eden Organic black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed (or sub 1 cup dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight in 4 cups water, then rinsed and drained)
1-2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup or more veggie broth
Salt and pepper
                                                            Small handful flat leaf parsley, chopped

Heat a little olive oil in a pot over medium heat, then add onion and saute for about three minutes. Push to the side of the pan, add the bacon, and allow to brown on one side (stirring the onion on its own side from time to time, as well). Mix together, add the peppers, and continue to cook until the onion is soft and golden. Stir in the garlic and cook for a minute more, stirring, then add the black-eyed peas and saute for 2-3 minutes more. Add the tomatoes, then the veggie broth (enough so that you can see it at the level of the beans). Cover partially, and let simmer for 10 minutes or until liquid is mostly evaporated, stirring occasionally (if you're using soaked dried beans, simmer for 25-40 minutes until beans are tender, and add a little water if it starts to get dry since the beans will absorb more of the liquid).

Uncover, season with salt, black pepper, and parsley to taste, and serve.

Serves 3-4.

Pan-fried Garbanzos with Peppers and Greens

By all rights, this should have been a disaster. Bok choy and garbanzo beans clearly don't mix, and I honestly don't understand my fascination with saffron or my inability to keep from throwing it into dishes in which it obviously does not belong. And yet instead of being disastrous, this dish turned out surprisingly well, and even bordered on addictive. Which actually probably explains my obsession with saffron...I tend to throw it in when it a dish is already moving in bizarre directions, and then when it turns out, I associate the resulting deliciousness with the pinch of fiery red strands I couldn't help but toss into the pan.

Serve this over black Forbidden rice or brown jasmine rice.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
A couple generous sprinklings of black mustard seeds
A pinch of saffron, crumbled
1-2 bell peppers (white, red, purple, green, whatever), halved and sliced
1 jalapeno, thinly sliced
1 large clove garlic, pressed
2-4 heads of bok choy, sliced crosswise into one-inch pieces
1/4-1/2 cup veggie broth
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Heat a generous glug of olive oil in a large, wide pan over high heat. When hot, add the garbanzos and shake the pan to coat them with olive oil. Let sit for a minute, then shake again. Wait until a few start to pop, shake to stir, and wait again, adding a little more olive oil if necessary to keep the bottom of the pan coated. After several minutes, they should start to turn a little golden brown.

Next, add the mustard seeds and saffron, stir a few times, then add the peppers and cook, stirring, for a minute or two. Turn the heat down and add the garlic, wait a few seconds, then stir to combine. Add the bok choy, a pinch of salt, and 1/4 cup of broth, cover the pan, and let the greens steam for a minute or two until you can get a spatula under them to mix them in with the garbanzos. If the pan is dry, add a little more broth, stir, and cover to steam again for another minute or until greens have started to wilt. Uncover, stir-fry for another minute or so, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve.

Serves 2-3.