Cheesy Tomato and Kale Pasta

This is another recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Recipes for Health. It's easy and mostly contained things I keep in my pantry. It also makes tons of leftovers and reheats well, which is always a plus.

Tomato and Kale Pasta 

1 bunch kale (or any dark greens)
1 tbsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
12 oz. whole wheat pasta
2 oz. goat cheese (1/2 a log)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese (shredded)
basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste

Heat oven to 350 and begin boiling a pot of water. Heat oil on medium in a saute pan, add the garlic. While it is cooking, puree the tomatoes and tomato paste in a food processor or with an immersion blender to make a smooth sauce.  Add this to the garlic along with basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. Turn down the heat and mix in the goat cheese. The sauce should have a creamy texture.

Stem the kale and rip it into pieces. When the water is boiling, add the kale and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in or run under cold water. Cook the pasta in the same water according to package directions. Squeeze the water out of the kale and roughly chop.

Mix the kale into the tomato sauce. Drain the pasta and place in a large casserole dish. Mix in the sauce and 1/4 cup of Parm. Top with the remaining Parm and bake for 25-30 min. until bubbling.

Serve with a glass of red wine.

The verdict: tasty, but somewhat lacking in seasoning. Some spicy Italian sausage would give it a little more oomph.

Squash and Parsnip Soup

This is one of my all time favorite soups. It is delicious and easy to make, and can be made in large quantity. It's very filling but also quite healthy. The recipe originally calls for carrots, but since parsnips are in season right now I've substituted those. We got an awesome Oregon sweet meat squash, which is a local heirloom variety, that I used in this recipe. It looks like a pumpkin but with a greyer tone to the outside. But I've also used butternut squash which works very well.

Squash Soup

1 medium onion
1/2 sweet meat squash (or a large butternut)
48 oz.(6 cups) vegetable broth (Or some combination of broth and water.)
1/2 lb. parsnips, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup half and half
1 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Depending how much time is available, you can roast the squash for awhile before starting the soup. I prefer this method because it is much easier , and it adds a nice sweetness to the soup. Either roast the squash for an hour on a cookie sheet, and then remove the skin and break into pieces, or simply peel and chop it. Add the squash to a large soup pot along with the parsnips and onion. Cover with broth, bring to a boil, and then simmer until tender (about half an hour).

When all the vegetables are soft enough to be pierced by a fork, puree with an immersion blender, or in batches in a food processor. Add the pepper, ginger, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil again and simmer for 10 min. Blend in the half and half.

And that's it! Serve with bread and salad for a warm and filling meal.

This time I went a spinach salad with goat cheese and dried cranberries. Delicious. This is one of the boys' favorite meals and I've probably made it 4 times this CSA season. It also freezes really well.

Thai Style Cabbage with Chicken and Peanut Sauce

We are now at the point where the winter vegetables get really repetitive. Another blasted cabbage. Getting two heads of cabbage last week was a blow, especially since I hadn't finished using up the last one. After having an awesome Thai chicken wrap that included cabbage at Good Life Brewery in Bend this weekend, I decided to try my hand at something similar. We had also gotten green onions in the CSA, and I had some leftover bell pepper and hot peppers to use up, which all went perfectly with together.


Thai Cabbage with Chicken and Peanut Sauce

1 chicken breast, boiled and shredded, or leftover rotisserie chicken
1/2 a small head red cabbage
1/2 a small head green cabbage
1 orange bell pepper
1 jalapeno, seeds in (optional)
1 inch piece of ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 bunch green onions

Peanut Sauce

1/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp. soy sauce
pinch of sugar

That's really it. Peanut sauce is shockingly easy to make and really delicious. You can add ginger or garlic or lime or any number of other things but it really boils down to just those few ingredients.

This recipe helps clean out the fridge. It also has lovely color.

Mince the ginger and garlic and chop the jalapeno. Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium high heat. Add the garlic, ginger, and pepper and let cook for a few minutes. Core and roughly chop the cabbage and add it to the pan.

Start making the peanut sauce. In a small sauce pan, heat the peanut butter on low and slow add the water, with stirring. Add as much water as necessary to achieve the desired consistency. Mix in soy sauce and sugar to taste.

Back to the stir fry, after the cabbage has cooked for a couple minutes and is starting to become tender, add the bell pepper, shredded chicken, and half of the chopped green onion. Stir and let cook until peppers are tender but still somewhat crunchy. Add the peanut sauce and coat thoroughly.

We served this over some rice noodles we found lurking in the back of the pantry. (I haven't had time to go to the store this week.) Top with the rest of the green onion.

While I am not a fan of cabbage, I do really love how pretty red cabbage looks in dishes. Some fresh cilantro would really perfect this dish, but we had a parsley/cilantro mixup. Still, it was unanimously voted delicious. Especially for cabbage.

Kale, Tomtoes, and Chickpeas with Couscous

I am an avid follower of Martha Rose Shulman's series Recipes for Health in The New York Times. So I was really excited to see that this week's recipes were all devoted to quick one dish meals, because that's pretty much what I always cook. I object to dirtying more dishes than necessary, and they are easier to pack up for lunches. When I saw this recipe I knew right away that I would make it, because we always have kale. I have changed it a bit to work better with what I had in my pantry.

Kale, tomatoes, and chickpeas with couscous

1 bunch kale, stemmed and chopped
1 can (14 oz.) diced tomatoes (no salt added)
1 small can tomato sauce
1 can chickpeas
1 cup couscous
3-4 cloves garlic
pinch red pepper flakes
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Cook couscous according to package directions. Set aside. Mince the garlic. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan on medium heat. Add the garlic and red pepper.

Let cook a couple minutes til aromatic. Add the tomtoes, sauce, and oregano. Heat til bubbling.
While that is heating, remove the stems and rip up the kale.

A special appearance by Flat Stanley

Add the kale, cover, and turn up the heat. When the kale is wilted, add the chickpeas.

Cook until the chickpeas are heated through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over the couscous.

For some reason I could not get this picture in the blog right side up. I realized after eating that this would be perfect topped with a little feta cheese. It was delicious on its own though, and very quick and easy.

SOUPer Bowl...Potato Leek Soup

I couldn't resist that title. I am not a huge football fan, though I do enjoy watching a game, but with my team out of it this year I wasn't too excited. That combined with a cold meant I just wanted to sit on my couch and have some soup for the game.

I still can't get used to how early the games start out here on the West Coast. I ended up cooking during halftime (which turned into blackout time pretty quickly). By the time the game picked back up, we were ready with our potato leek soup.

We get leeks pretty frequently in the winter CSA, but the combination of leeks and potatoes this week just screamed soup. I added in a couple of bulbs of  celery root for a little kick. Celery root (or celeriac) is related to the commonly used celery stalks and has a similar flavor with a texture similar to a turnip.

Creamy Potato Leek Soup

2 lbs. potatoes
3 medium leeks, white and light green parts
2 small bulbs celery root
32 oz. (4 cups) vegetable stock
2 tbsp. butter
1 cup half and half
Fresh ground black pepper

The celery root are the furry looking things in the back.

Remove the dark green parts and ends of the leeks and wash thoroughly. You can save the tops of the leeks and the celery root to make stock if you want. Cut into quarters and chop. In a large pot, melt butter on medium heat and add leeks. Cook until they are tender and start to brown. (About 5 min.)

While the leeks are cooking, wash potatoes and celery root and cut into quarters. The size of the pieces doesn't matter too much since it will all be pureed. When leeks start to brown, add roots and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil.

Turn down to a simmer and cook covered until potatoes are soft, 20-30 minutes. Then puree with an immersion blender or in batches with a regular blender.

Stir in half and half and fresh ground pepper to taste. Serve with bread and salad.

This soup gets a little thick as it sits. On reheating it was more of a porridge, but still delicious. This could be helped by adding a little broth.

A pretty delicious and easy soup overall. The celery root really adds some depth to the flavor. The huge batch I made was gone in two days.

Pasta with Brussels Sprouts and Bacon

Brussels Sprouts get a bad rep, but they are one of my favorite winter vegetables, and one that we get infrequently enough that it is still exciting. There are a lot of ways to cook Brussels sprouts, but they are particularly delicious with bacon. This week we also got shallots, which are great in this dish.

This recipe is based on one from the Williams and Sonoma cookbook Cooking from the Farmer's Market, (which I got as a wonderful gift) but enhanced by adding bacon.

Pasta with Brussels Sprouts and Asiago Cheese

1/2 lb. thick noodles, like fettucine or linguine (we usually use whole wheat)
1 lb. Brussels sprouts, stems and outer leaves remoced
1/2 cup shallots, chopped
3/4 cup half and half
1/4 cup shredded hard cheese (asiago or Parmesan) 
4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tbsp. butter
pinch sugar
salt and pepper to taste

My favorite cookbook.

Start the bacon cooking and the pasta water boiling while chopping. When the bacon is crispy, drain on a paper towel and crumble Chop the shallots, about 6 or 8 depending on the size. (I love shallots. They bring almost any meal to another level.)

Stem the Brussels sprouts and remove the outer leaves. Chop in half. If they are particularly large, cut into quarters.

Melt the butter in a saute pan on medium heat and add shallots. Cook until they start to become translucent. Add the Brussels sprouts and a pinch of sugar. Stir and cook for 4 or 5 minutes until leaves become tender.

Add the vinegar, and let reduce for about a minute. Turn down the heat and slowly add the half and half. Stir in the cheese.

Reserve a half cup of the pasta water before draining. Finally add in the crumbled bacon and the cooked and drained noodles. If the noodles aren't saucy enough, mix in some of the pasta water. Add slowly. The starch in the water helps add creaminess to the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy!

Even the Brussels sprouts haters in the house ventured to try this one with the bacon and cheese combo. They even ate a whole serving. Alex thought it was one of the best things we've ever cooked.

Red Cabbage and Kohlrabi Stir Fry

I make stir fries pretty frequently (my roommates are probably sick of them) because they are a great way to use up a lot of vegetables at once. Especially the dreaded cabbage. I had 2 heads of cabbage in the fridge, one red and one white, along with some kohlrabi and some leftover peppers from chili. I decided to make a stir fry to at least get rid of some of the cabbage. I used the red cabbage because it was a bit smaller.

Cabbage and Kohlrabi Stir Fry

1/2 head red cabbage
1 large kohlrabi
1 bell pepper
1 block (14 oz) tofu
1 medium onion
1 inch piece of ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
half a jalapeno, seeds in
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped loosely, plus some for topping
2 tbsp. vegetable oil, divided

Sauce:

3 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tbsp. hoisin sauce
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp. cornstarch


Kohlrabi is one of the weirdest vegetables we get from the CSA, and one I had never tried before we started getting a share. It looks like an alien. Every time we have one in the fridge I am mildly concerned that it is going to turn into some kind of monster plant like Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors and eat us all. (Not really. But they are pretty weird looking.) The word kohlrabi comes from the German for cabbage turnip, which is pretty appropriate. It has a texture similar to a turnip and tastes like a broccoli stem.

The kohlrabi have to be peeled really well. I usually peel it once with a knife and again with a peeler to remove all the fibers on the outside. Otherwise they can be really tough to eat. Chop them into quarter inch sticks. It helps for stir fries to chop all the vegetables as uniformly as possible so everything cooks at the same rate. The bell pepper should also be chopped into strips and the cabbage roughly chopped into bite size pieces. This stir fry can really be made with any combination of vegetables and protein.

The ginger, garlic, and jalapenos are minced and the onion is sliced in half and then cut into strips. Mix the sauce before you start. The key to a stir fry is to have everything ready in advance before anything starts cooking, so that you can just throw things in.

Heat a wok or saute pan on high and add 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil. Olive oil doesn't work for stir fries because the smoke point is too low. Once the oil is so hot you think it's going to start on fire, add your protein. I use tofu cut into strips. Fry until one side is golden brown and then flip. If there is not enough room in the pan for all of the tofu, fry it in batches. Once both sides are cooked, remove from the pan and set aside on a plate.

Add the second tablespoon of oil. Add the onion, cook until it starts to become translucent, about 1 minute. It should start to smell amazing. Add the garlic, ginger, and jalapeno. Cook for about 2 min.

Add the vegetable that takes the longest to cook, in this case the kohlrabi. Let it cook about 3 minutes. It should not cook fully since it will continue cooking with the rest of the vegetables.

Add the next longest vegetable, the cabbage for this stir fry. Cook another 2 minutes.

Add the peppers and cilantro and cook for another minute. Add the tofu and the sauce, mix well. Cook until the sauce has thickened, another minute or two. This is possibly the prettiest thing I have ever made, between the yellow peppers and the purple cabbage.

Serve over rice or noodles.

Baby Collard Greens and White Bean Ragout

School is ramping up again so I have been behind on the vegetables, with the result that we have 2 fridges practically full of vegetables. The greens are particularly overwhelming right now. But I've been getting home at 9 this week so something quick is in order.

One of my favorite recipes that is quick and easy to make is a ragout with greens and white beans. I normally use kale for this dish, but this week we got chard and baby collards. Collards are also really good in a ragout because they can be a little tough and bitter and benefit from braising. It's also a good recipe to use up some of the pile of garlic we have been getting.

Greens and Bean Ragout

1 bunch baby collard greens, stemmed and chopped
1 can (14 oz.) fire roasted tomatoes
1 can white beans (rinsed)
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp olive oil
2 links chicken sausage

Heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and heat until garlic is aromatic.

Add tomatoes and heat for a couple minutes til bubbling. Add chopped greens, cover, and turn heat to medium high until greens are wilted.

Add the beans and sausage. Turn down heat to medium and let simmer for 10 minutes until the sausage and beans are warmed and the greens are tender.

Serve with Parmesan cheese, bread, and red wine for a light and delicious meal.

Beet Burgers!

The vegetables in the winter CSA tend to get a little repetitive. Beets, cabbage, beets, cabbage. I have to remind myself how awesome it is that we can get fresh local produce in the winter at all. At home in New England, that wouldn't be possible. But I have definitely had to come up with some new things to do with beets. While they are delicious roasted, that gets old fast when you are getting a bunch almost every week.

Enter the beet burger. This recipe comes from my roommate Alex, and while I was very skeptical when he first told me about them, they have quickly become a favorite meal of the whole house. They are based on a recipe from the Northstar Cafe in Columbus, Ohio.

This recipe is quite prep intensive, so it's usually one we make when everyone is home to help out and we are having a family dinner. We got parsnips from the CSA this week, so we made oven parsnip fries as a side.

I didn't take enough pictures for this recipe because the boys had already done most of the prep by the time I got home from work. I am not complaining though. :)

Best-ever Veggie Burger with Parsnip Fries

1/2 cup brown rice
1 onion, diced small
3 large red beets (about 1 pound), diced very small
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 small potatoes, mashed
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons parsley, minced
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon thyme
cheese(optional)

Start the rice first thing, or this recipe really takes forever.  Cook it according to package directions, but you want it to be a little on the softer side.

Chop the onions and beets into a very small dice. I mean very small. This is most of the reason for the amount of time this recipe takes. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the onions. Cook til tender, then add in the beets. Cover and let cook until the beets are soft (20-30 minutes). (This is where the process was when I got home.) Add the garlic and lemon juice and let cook for a few more minutes.

While these are  cooking, mash the beans and the potatoes and add the spices. Transfer the beet mixture to the bowl with the beans and potatoes and add the apple cider vinegar to the skillet. Deglaze the pan and add the liquid to the rest of the ingredients.

Mix everything together and form patties. Cook on a greased skillet on high eat, about 2 minutes per side. You should see a crust on the cooked side. They may fall apart a bit when flipped, just reshape them with the spatula. Add cheese to the second side if desired.

Parsnip fries:

Parsnips look like white carrots, but are milder in flavor. These oven fries are similar in taste to sweet potato fries.

1 lb. Parsnips
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic
fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel parsnips and chop into fries, keeping the sizes as even as possible.

These got dyed pink from cutting on the same board as the beets.  Coat with olive oil, salt and pepper, and any other spices desired. I used garlic and rosemary, but a little cayenne or Cajun seasoning would probably also be delicious. Spread evenly on a non-stick cookie sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the fries are browning and crispy.

And the finished product:

I was so excited I took a bite before taking a picture. The burgers are excellent with avocado, barbecue sauce, or any other burger toppings. They have a nice sweetness, but the mix of ingredients cuts down on the earthy flavor that a lot of people dislike about beets.  My roommate who hated beets was even persuaded to try them, and she now eats beets in other forms too. They are like a gateway to beets.

Even Katniss helped out by checking that there were no more veggies in the bag.

Barley Stew with Kale and Leeks

Whenever I get leeks in a share I automatically think soup.  Soups are easy to make in quantity for 5 and still have leftovers for lunch. Plus, it's been pretty cold here the past couple weeks. I have been making a lot of pureed soups lately, and I wanted to mix it up with a stew. When I saw this recipe from Bon Apetit magazine I was excited because it looked delicious and would use up a lot of ingredients I had (kale and leeks from this week), including making a dent in a huge bag of barley from a previous CSA. I decided to add some chicken sausage for additional flavor and protein.

Barley stew with leeks and Greens

1 cup barley-recipe calls for pearl barley but I had some purple hulless barley from the farm
2-3 leeks-white and light green parts only
1 bunch kale (or other dark green), stems removed, chopped
1 15 oz. can tomatoes
8 oz. crimini mushrooms
32 oz. vegetable broth
1 tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. minced fresh rosemary
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 links chicken sausage, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

 Start out cleaning the leeks (really well, they pick up a lot of dirt). Cut into roughly 1/2 in. pieces.

Heat the olive oil in a nonstick pot, add the leeks and cook til tender (about 5 minutes). Add the garlic and rosemary and the mushrooms.

 You could probably substitute dried rosemary here, bit the fresh rosemary really adds flavor. Fortunately, I have some trying to take over my garden.

Cook until the mushrooms brown. Add the tomatoes with their juice, let cook 1 minute. Then add vegetable broth and barley. Let the barley cook until almost tender.

While this is cooking, stem and roughly chop the kale.

When the barley is almost cooked, add the kale and the sausage. I used a precooked chicken sausage. You could use any sausage, but if it is not precooked you may want to cook it separately. Cook an additional 10 minutes until kale and barley are tender.

I served this with some sourdough bread. It was very filling and made a great meal. The barley was still a bit chewy, maybe because it wasn't the pearl type the recipe called for, but it added some texture. Seth pronounced it very tasty.