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.

Sunchoke Hash

This week from the CSA:

Beet bunches
Jerusalem Artichokes/ Sunchokes
Potatoes
Garlic
Leeks
Kale
Saute/Braising mix - mostly chard, collards, kale, and escarole


No cabbage this week! Although I'm sure there will be some next week. This share is pretty easy to use, the only kind of weird thing are the Jerusalem artichokes.


Jerusalem artichokes, or sunchokes, are neither artichokes nor from Jerusalem. They are actually the roots of a species of sunflower. In texture and taste they are similar to potatoes, but a little crunchier and sweeter. In looks they are similar to ginger root. They have very little starch, and instead are composed largely of inulin (the polymer of fructose) which gives them their sweetness.

It's been unusually cold and damp here this week, so I decided to make a warm and hearty sunchoke hash, and also use up the braising greens from the share. I decided to keep it simple, but any combination of vegetables could be used here. I finished it off with some pesto from the freezer for some extra flavor.

Sunchoke and Greens Hash

Ingredients:
2 lbs. sunchokes
1/2 lb. potatoes
1 bunch dark greens
1 small onion, diced
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp olive oil (divided)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup pesto

Scrub the sunchokes and potatoes and chop into half inch cubes. (As evenly as possible, the sunchokes aren't exactly regularly shaped.)

In a skillet or saute pan heat 1 tbsp. of olive oil and red pepper flakes over medium high heat. Add onion and cook until it gets soft, about 5 minutes. Add a second tbsp. of oil,  sunchokes and potatoes, then cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or until soft. (The sunchokes will still be a little crunchy.)

While those are cooking, clean the greens and chop into bite size pieces. You could use kale, chard, collards, escarole, or a mix like I have.

When the potatoes and sunchokes are soft, add the broth and the greens. It will seem like far too many greens, but they will shrink a lot. Cover the pan and let the greens wilt (about 5 minutes). Uncover and stir in pesto. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You could eat this as a meal or serve it with some sausage or an egg. I tried to poach an egg to go on top of it but I have not quite mastered that technique yet, so i just went with a fried egg. If you don't have pesto, add some herbs and several cloves of garlic.

This dish went over pretty well, although the boys were somewhat confused about the sunchokes. John thought I had undercooked some potatoes.