Roasted Potatoes and Beets with Balsamic Glaze

Serves 6

4 red beets, cut into chunks
2 potatoes, cut into chunks
1 yellow onion, cut into chunks
3-4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon rosemary, chopped
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
½ cup olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Toss beets, potatoes, onion, & garlic with olive oil, balsamic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for about 1 hour or until edges are crispy. Top with chopped fresh parsley.

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Summer Squash, Onion, Bell Pepper and Tomato Skillet

1 yellow onion, sliced very thin
2 garlic cloves, minced 
1 large patty pan squash (or a medium size Italian Zucchini), thinly sliced
1 medium size yellow crookneck squash, thinly sliced
5 roma tomatoes, halved, seeds removed and them sliced in 1/2" pieces
2 tablespoons rehydrated red bell peppers, finely diced (1/4 cup of fresh peppers would work as well)
Olive oil
Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Drizzle olive oil into a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and then onions and stir to coat with oil. Let the onions cook without stirring for a few minutes to brown them slightly. Stir them and continue cooking until done and then remove to a small plate. Add a little bit more olive oil to the skillet and then add the squash. Allow it to cook without stirring for a few minutes while it browns slightly. Then stir and turn as needed while it cooks to your desired doneness. We like our squash with a good bite, not at all soggy or wilted. Once the squash is almost done, add the tomatoes and the bell peppers to the skillet and stir to mix. Allow the vegetables to cook until the tomatoes and peppers are warm, but not overcooked at all. Serve with the onions on top or you can add the onions back to the skillet and toss to make sure everything is warm. I served it with the onions on top and didn't notice that they were any cooler than the other vegetables. My intent was to warm them again, but I inadvertently skipped that step. Enjoy!
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Rachel's Stewed Summer Veggies

Serves 3-4
~1 T. extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 large onion, diced
4 small potatoes, chopped into bite size chunks
1 yellow squash (or zucchini)
3 cups of tomatoes (I used a combo of whole cherry tomatoes & chopped larger tomatoes)
1 T. white wine vinegar
3 stalks of kale, torn off the rib and into pieces
1 cup of water or veggie broth
1 can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Salt & pepper
Seasoning salt
Smoked paprika

Pour EVOO into a large tall-sided skillet or sauce pan and heat on medium heat. Add onions & a dash of salt and saute for about five minutes. Add potatoes, squash, tomatoes, water or broth, and vinegar. Reduce heat to med-low, cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in kale and gently mash the tomatoes so they release their juices. If it needs more liquid, you can add another cup of water or broth. Gently stir in the beans and season to taste with seasoning salt (like Lawry’s or Tony’s), smoked paprika (use just a pinch for a nice smokey flavor) and a little salt and pepper if it needs it.

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Roasted Root Vegetables

Last week's share of gorgeous root vegetables inspired me to turn on the oven one last time before summer hits!

5 small red potatoes
2 sweet potatoes
6 medium carrots
4 medium beets
4 lg or 6 small cloves garlic
6-8 I'Itoi or green onion bulbs (the bottom 2" of the onion)
2-3 fresh rosemary or thyme sprigs - optional
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

Shallow roasting pan

Peel the beets. Chop the red and sweet potatoes, carrots and beets into approx. 1" cubes. Slice the onions in half lengthwise. Peel the garlic - split large cloves in half. Put all the veggies and the herbs into the roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with about 1/2 tsp salt and a bit of pepper. Toss until the veggies are coated.

Cover with lid or foil and bake at 385F for 45 minutes. Uncover (careful for the escaping steam!) and turn the veggies over. Check for tenderness. If still firm, cover and roast for another 15-20 minutes. Remove the cover and put back into the oven for another 15-30 minutes, depending on how brown you'd like them.

Vegetable Lentil Soup

Here's a delicious vegetarian recipe that will use up all the extra veggies in your crisper drawer.

Essential ingredients:

1/2 large yellow onion
3-5 carrots (about 1.5 cups chopped)
4 celery stalks (about 1.5 cups chopped)
4-6 cloves garlic
1 TBSP thyme leaves
1 tsp oregano
2 bay leaves
2 16 oz cans tomatoes plus juice
1 cup green or brown lentils, rinsed
1.5-2 liters stock (I used mushroom but chicken or beef would work as well as a non-vegetarian option)
Olive oil

Optional ingredients - use whatever you have on hand and would like in the soup. This is what I had:

1 red bell pepper
3/4 c. flat-leafed parsley
1/4 c. freshly shelled peas
6 i'itoi (green) onions, white and green parts
2 cups chopped greens - I used mizuna but kale or chard would work nicely too

Chop the veggies ahead of time and keep in separate piles.

Put about 2 TBSP olive oil into a large soup pot. Heat until the oil starts to shimmer, then add the onion, carrot and celery to the oil. Cook on medium heat until the carrots start to soften; about 7 minutes. Stir often. The vegetables should sweat, not brown.

Add the garlic, thyme, oregano and optional veggies (minus greens) to the pot. Cook, stirring often, for about three minutes, until you can smell the garlic cooking.

Add the stock and lentils to the pot. Chop the tomatoes and add them and the juice from both cans*. Stir it all together and add the bay leaves. Poke them down into the liquid.

Cover and bring the soup to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 45 minutes, then check the lentils for tenderness. Cook longer if needed. Once the lentils are tender, season the soup to taste with salt** and cracked pepper. Fish out the bay leaves and discard them. Add the greens to the pot. Cover and cook for another 20 minutes.

*This is very much a tomato-based soup. If you don't want such strong tomato flavor, reduce to one can and add two more cups stock to the recipe.
**Add salt at the very end. If it is added earlier in cooking, the lentils will be tough.

Serve with a salad and hot bread with butter. YUM.

What else would work well in this soup? Turnips, added with the greens. Kohlrabi, added with the 2nd batch of veggies. Spinach, added about five minutes before serving. 1/4 c. wheat berries, added with the lentils.

It's a versatile recipe! Enjoy!

Bubble & Squeak, Colcannon, Rumbledethumps, Stamppot...Call it what you like, we call it comfort food!

I have been making some variation of these traditional European dishes for quite some time now, but never really knew how similar they were to one another. The dish can be SOOOOO easy to prepare; quick, simple, warm and comforting. It can be a meal in itself, or it can be served with any number of meat side dishes; corned beef, sausage or ham is common, and frequently is mixed right into the hash, but a fried or poached egg is delicious as well.

Traditionally, these hashed potato and cabbage (or kale) dishes were a way to use up vegetables leftover from a Sunday roast dinner. Most frequently, the potato and cabbage are the only vegetables, but you can use carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes, or any other veggie that suits your taste. Adding some chopped dark greens helps liven up the color contrast a bit as well. If it suits your taste, you can also mix in diced or shredded cheese (strong Irish cheddar.

In addition, you can prepare the dish in any number of ways, from a simple hashed/mashed version, to fried patties of hash. We have also prepared a version of this dish as more of a soup/stew to which I add egg noodles when I add the cabbage. The proportions listed below are flexible and forgiving. I usually use about a 1:1 ration of potatoes to cabbage, but it very easily accommodates more cabbage or more potatoes depending on your preference. One item to note, if you opt for doubling the cabbage, you might need to add an egg to hold it together for frying into patties.

1 lb potatoes, cubed (we usually leave the skins on, but this is up to you)
1 lb cabbage, chopped roughly
2-3 cups water or broth*
2 scallions (or I'Itoi onions), chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbs butter or olive oil (optional)

Place water or broth in large pot with potatoes and garlic. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium and cook 10-15 minutes or until almost cooked through (this will depend on how big your chunks are). Add cabbage and return to a boil. Cook until cabbage is tender, about 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat, add onions, salt and pepper, butter or oil (if using) and mash coarsely with a potato masher. At this point, you can serve the dish as-is (or dressed up to your liking), or you can opt to fry the mix into patties. Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat with a few tablespoons of oil. Scoop mixture about 1/2 cup at a time into skillet; flatten to 1-inch thick patties with a spatula. Cook about 3-5 minutes on each side until browned and slightly crispy, adding more oil as needed. They are tricky to flip because there's not much holding them together, which is why I prefer to skip this step; you could possibly try coating the patties in breadcrumbs first, but I personally haven't tried this to know how it would work. Serve the patties or hash topped with sour cream or yogurt if desired.

*You can use more water, as if for boiling the potatoes and cabbage completely submersed, but you will have to drain it off and add the cooking liquid (or milk) back in if you are mashing the mixture. Also, if you opt to include egg noodles as mentioned in the headnotes you may need more water, or you can cook them separately and add them to the vegetables when they're finished cooking. When adding noodles, there is no need to mash the vegetables, just toss it all together with plenty of butter, salt and pepper!

Wheat Berry Chili

It was cold, snowy and windy Saturday here in Flagstaff and I definitely had a craving for a thick, yummy and spicy stew. I thought a stew would be a perfect vehicle for the wheat berries we got last week and I was right! They are sweet, earthy and chewy and provide great texture in a vegetarian chili. Wheat berries remind me of barley, and like barley, are a great source of dietary fiber. This recipe makes enough for about 4 hungry people.

Before starting the recipe, I soaked a 1/2 c. of wheat berries in 4 c. of water overnight. I also soaked the pinto, black and kidney beans overnight in enough water to cover by 5 in.

Ingredients:

1/2 c. wheat berries, soaked

1/2 c. black beans, soaked

1/2 c. pinto beans, soaked

1/4 c. kidney beans, soaked

1/2 onion, chopped

1 portobello mushroom, sliced

1 serrano chile pepper, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3 chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped

1 14.5 oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes

1/2 head spinach, chopped or torn (any winter green would work nicely here)

chile powder

salt to taste

olive oil

For the topping:

sharp cheddar cheese, grated

avocado

cilantro

blue corn chips

To Prepare:

I cooked the wheat berries in the same water I soaked them in. I boiled them on a low flame for about an hour. I kept tasting them to see if they were done. They should taste chewy, but not hard. Drain and set aside. After soaking overnight, I drained the beans and cooked them in about 6 c. of fresh water over a low flame for about 2-2 1/2 hours. Again, taste and check for doneness. If you had a pressure cooker, you could save time here or use canned beans. Once the beans were done cooking, I drained them (reserving the bean water) and left about a cup of their cooking water still in the pot. To this I added the wheat berries and the can of tomatoes. I happened to have some leftover quinoa from the previous night and I threw that in as well. I put this on a low simmer. While that was simmering, I sauteed the onion, serrano, chipotle, garlic, portobello mushroom in some olive oil and salt. When that was done cooking, I added it to the pot of beans. Then I added the spinach. I threw in a little chile powder and some salt to taste. If the stew looks too thick, you could thin it out with some of the reserved bean water. I let it simmer for another 15-20 minutes to let the flavors combine. I served it garnished with grated cheddar cheese, avocado and cilantro. I also added some blue corn tortilla chips for scooping.

This stew definitely satisfied my craving! It was warming, hearty and delicious. I tend to like things spicy, so adjust the flavors to suit your preference.