Fava Beans and with Spiced Onions and Cilantro

Summer must finally be here because the Ranui Gardens is now abundant in its assortment and we are getting all kinds of fun veggies. I’ve been perusing a borrowed cookbook for ideas and have come up with ones that use more than 2 items in this week’s box, thanks to Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

I don’t think we’ve ever had fresh fava beans in our CSA box—let’s enjoy their flavor with hints of the Middle East, such as the tahini and spiced onions suggested by Mr. Bittman.

Fava Beans and with Spiced Onions and Cilantro

fava beans in and out of their pods

Fava beans must be stripped from their pods and then you still have to remove the tender beans from the pale green, bitter skin enclosing them. Then you can stew them briefly in olive oil and garlic, adding other seasonings just before serving. My friend Ginger of Orchard House Catering in Hood River, Oregon prepares and serves bright green fresh favas in the Chez Panisse style—with rosemary—I called her to learn her tricks and I borrowed some of her wording to explain.

2 pounds fava beans

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon Real Salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup water

2 tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves

1 cup cooked brown basmati rice, optional

Remove the fava beans from the pods and blanch them in boiling salted water for 1 minute. Right away “fish them out of the water” and drain in a colander. Using your fingernail, break the outer skin and the “slip out the slimy things” between your forefinger and thumb. Set aside.

Heat the first olive oil in a skillet. Cook the sliced onion and half of the garlic until soft. Add the coriander and cumin along with the salt and some cayenne, stirring well. Cook for another minute; remove from the pan and set aside.

Heat the second olive oil in the same skillet. Add the reserved fava beans, the second half of garlic and the water.  On low heat, bring to a simmer, cover and allow to stew 5 to 10 minutes, until the beans are softened. Add more water if needed, stirring the beans as needed to keep them from sticking.

When the beans are tender to the bite, stir in the tahini, the reserved spiced onions and cilantro. Stir in the cooked rice, if using, just to heat through. Season to taste with salt and more cayenne if desired.

We stirred in cooked rice just before serving

Makes about 4 servings.

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Black Beans with Yellow Beets and Orange

Beans of any kind are important staples in a vegetable-based diet and we have them often here in the Flatt household, in salads, and in the grain and bean combos I am always coming up with. This idea comes from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian book. I chose it to feature the beets and cilantro we have this week. The black beans with orange is a nod to the Brazilian national dish, feijoada, which normally includes meat, such as sausage, but these vegetarian beans are also fabulous accompanied by feijoada’s traditional side dishes of rice and shredded and pan-sautéed kale—hey, kale is in the mixed greens in this week’s Ranui Gardens CSA box–we can serve these beans with sauteed mixed greens! Use canned black beans or some you have cooked yourself. Steam, boil or roast the beets first, so they are ready to slice for the garnish.

Black Beans with Yellow Beets and Orange

1 cup cooked gold beets, sliced

3 cups cooked or canned black beans, with about 1 cup of bean liquid, cooking broth, or ‘liquor’, whichever you call it. (4 cups total)

1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

Real Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 orange, with the peel well washed

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 red or yellow pepper, chopped

1 tablespoon minced garlic

½ cup dry red wine

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Put the beans in a large pot over medium heat; add the cumin and a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Cut the orange in half. Peel one half and add the orange peel to the beans. Divide the orange sections from that half and set aside. Squeeze the juice out of the second half and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet, cook and stir the onion and bell pepper, until the pepper softens, about 10 minute. Add the garlic and cook and stir another minutes. Add to the beans.

Heat the now empty skillet to high heat; pour in the red wine and cook until the wine is reduce by half, about 5 minutes. Add to the beans along with the reserved orange juice. Taste and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper.

Serve garnished with the reserved orange sections, sliced yellow beets and cilantro, with rice and sautéed kale or mixed greens, if you wish.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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Escarole Cheese Packets

John’s pick list, the one he sends me after he walks the garden and decides, sometimes contains vegetables that we don’t see in our markets, Farmer’s or any other. Like today. John guesses escarole will be another item on the list most people will not know what to do with. I can take a hint—how about a recipe using escarole?

It’s not like escarole is a frequent visitor in my kitchen either, so I pull my vegetable “bible” from the shelf. With 500 recipes and 275 photos you can see why it belongs on my shelf, Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference, by Elizabeth Schneider.

Each vegetable entry has a complete description of the food, its Latin and common names, how to store and use, as well as a photo or two. Recipes are offered two ways, some with an ingredient list and numbered steps, and others that are simply well written recipe ideas suggested by professional chefs, under the heading “Pros Propose.”

For escarole there is Salad of Cooked and Raw Escarole with Garlic and Herbs. In the headnote Ms. Schneider describes how “the dark and chewy leaf tips are cut thin; sautéed with garlic, rosemary, and lemon zest; and then strewn over the pale, raw crunchy hearts, which have been drizzled with mustard-lemon-thyme dressing.”

But I am going to make Escarole Cheese Packets, a recipe suggested by chef  Charles Saunders, who wraps cheese in wilted escarole leaves.

Escarole Cheese Packets

Blanch large, fairly flat escarole leaves in boiling salted water, just until wilted, about 3 seconds. Gently tap the heavy bases to flatten and soften fibers. Wrap eggroll-style around soft white cheese, such as fresh mozzarella. Brush with oil and pre-heat the grill.

Escarole packets

almost gone escarole packets

Make a tomato and olive oil and balsamic vinegar sauce. (That’s what the pro proposes.)

I envision a sauce made in the Mexican salsa method: Puree one (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with ¼ cup chopped onions and one minced garlic clove in a blender. If you have some sun-dried tomatoes, throw a few of those in. Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a skillet. Pour the tomato puree into the oil and cook and stir for about 3 minutes. Season with about one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and salt to taste.

Grill the escarole cheese packets briefly and serve with the sauce.

Make as many as you want—depending on how much cheese you have, how many you are serving, and whether it is a first or main course.

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Whole Wheat Couscous with Pea Shoots, Sesame and Lemon

This quick and easy recipe comes from Elizabeth Schneider’s Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Recipe. Ms. Schneider offers 2 ideas, in one, corn kernels are cooked a minute before adding the couscous and butter and pea shoots. Here is the other variation, with an Oriental twist provided by the sesame oil.

Pea Shoots

In any case, be sure to trim the heavy base from each pea shoot as necessary. “Tough tendrils will not be transformed by cooking.” But couscous can be ready to eat in 15 minutes.

Couscous with Pea Shoots

3 cups lightly packed pea shoots

1 ¼ cups water

½ teaspoon Real Salt

1 cup whole wheat couscous (or regular couscous)

¼ to ½ teaspoon dark sesame oil

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Bring water to boil with salt. Remove from the heat and immediately stir in the couscous and pea shoots. Cover. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork, adding in the oil and lemon juice. Serve warm.

Makes 4 side dish servings.

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Chipotle Cilantro Salad Dressing

We are on a big social whirlwind this vacation in The Gorge. First came Laura from Twisp, bearing fresh-picked succulent strawberries and lettuce from her garden. Robbie’s Dad from Bend came the next night—they set up their travel trailer 10 feet away and hooked into our septic for their wastewater. My sisters and niece from Seattle overlapped my in-laws so we hosted a pizza-on-the-grill party. You should have seen me rolling the dough with a wine bottle.

As soon as family left us, we started the parties, getting invited or inviting. Tonight we have veggie burgers at our camp. As seems to be the norm, everyone’s lettuce is begging to be picked all at once so the salads are generous. I personally scarfed down a few servings of Spinach Salad with Curry Dressing last night. Basil is in this week’s Ranui CSA box, so enjoy every bite and squirrel some away. I am pretty sure the basil I washed this morning won’t make it back to Park City in good enough shape for pesto so save some for us.

Down the street, I sit here typing, with a view from the bluff overlooking the Columbia River, and the kiters and windsurfers enjoying the waves. A barge is going through them all right now. I have a direct shot of Hood River and Mount Hood, if I just move my eyes a foot above the screen. There’s also an internet connection, a washer and dryer and great salad recipes in Andy’s journal—and I am taking advantage of it all. Andy says this recipe comes from Nordstrom’s. Sure enough, upon Googling, I found they serve this dressing tossed with mixed greens, sliced chicken breast, corn kernels, and cubes of jack cheese, tomato wedges and toasted pumpkin seeds. I’ll skip the chicken but I have all the salad greens I want.

Chipotle Cilantro Salad Dressing

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

¼ cup fresh-squeezed lime juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons chipotle chiles en adobo, chopped

2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar

½ teaspoon Real Salt

¾ cup canola oil

1 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves and stems

Blend the vinegar, lime juice, garlic, chiles, honey and salt in a blender. Then, slowly drizzle in the canola oil until it is incorporated, followed by the cilantro, stems and all.

Makes about 2 cups dressing.

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Vegan Basil Pesto

John says there is basil in the box this week. My loss since we won’t be in Park City to reap the harvest. But I am getting some organic basil right away, because I want to try the recipe for vegan pesto from this month’s Vegetarian Times magazine, with nutritional yeast substituting for Parmesan cheese. And I’ll indulge the expense of pine nuts vs. my usual economy use of walnuts, so as not to alter my go-to basil pesto recipe  too much, at least this first test of cheese-less pesto. When good cheese is calling my name, I can’t stick to a vegan diet, but I do know how nutritional yeast substitutes for cheese in recipes. It’s not the same but is delicious in its own healthy way. Have you ever had nutritional yeast sprinkled on popcorn like they do in Eureka California movie theaters?

Basil in the lettuce spinner

2 cups fresh basil leaves

2 cloves garlic

¼ cup pine nuts

¼ cup nutritional yeast

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

With the motor of the food processor running, mince the garlic by dropping it through the feed tube. Process until it is very finely chopped. Add the basil, pine nuts, nutritional yeast and salt. Process for about 10 seconds, stopping to move things around if they get hung up. With the machine running, pour oil through the feed tube in a thin stream, processing until everything is well blended.

Makes about 1 cup.

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Lentil and Quinoa Salad

"camping" in Underwood

I am going to miss our CSA box this week, as we are “camping” on our lot in Underwood Washington, a sleepy town near the bluff overlooking the Columbia River and 5 minutes from the Hood River Bridge that crosses the river. Everyone says we arrived just in time, as it has been June-uary and even Feb-july until 2 days ago.

I was so busy working and packing until Sunday morning that I didn’t have time to cook—and use up the scapes, summer savory and tarragon from last week’s box, not to mention all the chive blossoms from the week before. But all those herbs were preserved in the jars in the fridge until we loaded the ice chest, so they were perfectly ready to go into last night’s salad, our contribution to a patriotic potluck party in our Underwood neighborhood.

This is a big salad, and even though there were close to 50 guests at the party, I took home enough leftovers for lunch today. You could easily cut the amounts in half and serve 8 to 10—or 25 if there are 20 other salad choices like last night. Slice the radishes in this week’s box and toss them in as well.

Tri Color Quinoa

Lentil and Quinoa Salad

2 cups tiny green lentils, rinsed and picked over

1 cup quinoa (I used half red quinoa and half regular)

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

2/3 cup red wine vinegar

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons Real Salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup finely chopped summer savory (the leaves of one bunch)

1/3 cup finely chopped tarragon leaves (from one bunch)

2 cucumbers, peeled and seeds removed, cut into ½-inch pieces

1 red pepper, cut into ½-inch pieces

½ to 1 cups scapes

½ cup or so of chive blossom florets, separated from the blossom

Bring about 4 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Add a shake of salt (1/4 teaspoon or so) along with the lentils and cook until tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain, place in a large bowl, drizzle with some olive oil and set aside to cool.

Rinse the quinoa and drain in a fine-mesh sieve. (Quinoa has a natural coating called saponin that repels insects and birds and can create a bitter taste. Rinsing with warm water removes the saponin.)

In another saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add another shake of salt and the rinsed quinoa. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and cook about 15 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Add the cooked quinoa to the bowl of cooked lentils.

Mix the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. Pour over the lentils and quinoa. Stir in the savory and tarragon. (Be sure to use plenty of herbs because they provide dazzle.) Toss in the cucumbers and red pepper, and season to taste. Chill in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld.

You have the option of grilling the scapes or sautéing them in some oil until they are tender. When I went to grill the scapes last night, the propane tank was empty. Instead of switching to another tank, I just cut them into the ½-lengths beforehand and pan-sauteed them. Either way, season the scapes with salt and pepper. When they are tender, toss them into the salad with the chive florets. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper seasoning. Refrigerate until you leave for the party.

Lentil and Quinoa Salad on a bed of Ranui lettuce

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