Cooking with Kale

My second box of farm share veggies included kale. Commence poor veggie knowledge in 3... 2... 1. "What is kale?" I asked myself. Apparently, it's a leafy green veggie that look sort of like lettuce but isn't. It's more like spinach or chard (which I learned about last week!) It's good in soups and sauteed in a pan. Who knew there were SO MANY different veggies out there!

I hadn’t made a soup in a while so I decided to try out a soup recipe with kale. I found a recipe online for kale, sausage, and potato soup (google search to the rescue again). Since I love tweaking recipes, I decided to add an onion as well to beef up the consistency and flavor.

Since the recipe is made with chicken broth and wine I thought it would be good to use a chicken sausage (instead of pork). I found a nice spicy chicken sausage at Whole Foods –- bonus, chicken sausage has way less fat, so at only 7 grams per sausage the whole big pot of soup only had 28 grams of fat.

This soup was amazing and oh, so simple! It really only required chopping some veggies and browning sausage and then throwing it all together in a pot. I absolutely loved it. I doubled the recipe that I found online because it claimed that it served two –- and I figured this might be two servings of soup appetizer, not soup for a meal. I made a good call with this, doubling the recipe made this pot of soup perfect for two people for a whole meal. I would gladly make this recipe again and can probably think of all sorts of other ways to add variety to it and try out different veggies to add, not to mention the fact that Whole Foods has a TON of different types of sausages. YUM!

Overall score: 9 out of 10.

-------------------------------------------

Smoked Sausage, Kale and Potato Soup compliments of Epicurious

Ingredients --

• 4 ounces smoked fully cooked sausage (such as kielbasa or hot links), sliced into rounds
• 2 3/4 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
• 3/4 pound small red-skinned potatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 5 cups thinly sliced trimmed kale leaves (about 3/4 of medium bunch) or 3/4 of 10-ounce package frozen chopped kale, thawed, drained
• 1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds, lightly crushed

Directions --

Sauté sausage slices in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat until beginning to brown, about 3 minutes. Add chicken broth, sliced potatoes and white wine and bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer until potatoes are almost tender, about 10 minutes. 

Add kale and caraway seeds to soup. Simmer soup uncovered until potatoes and kale are very tender, about 10 minutes longer. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle soup into bowls and serve immediately.

Garlicy Roasted Romano Beans

I received a big bag full of Romano Beans in my first week’s farm share box. The Enterprise newsletter told me that Romano beans are a form of flat snap bean which originates in Italy and that they are flattened, rather than rounded, and meant to be eaten whole, just as we would eat other summer green beans. Their flavor is tender and mild. Romanos are often braised with other summer vegetables and eaten as a side dish. I decided to try a create-it-yourself/fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants recipe:

First, I snapped the ends off of the beans and washed them. Then I coated the beans with a bit of olive oil, a heaping tablespoon of crushed garlic, then some freshly ground pepper and kosher salt.

I then put them in a small glass dish and baked them uncovered in the oven for approximately 7-10 minutes. The Enterprise newsletter warned me that Romano beans can become a yucky mush if cooked too long so I didn’t want that to happen and I took a peek at the beans every few minutes to see how they were doing. After a little under 10 minutes of cooking in the hot oven I turned on the broiler and let them broil for 2-3 minutes so the beans would get a nice toasted quality on the top. I wish I had some Parmesan or Asiago cheese to sprinkle on the top of them… maybe next time!

While I ate these all by themselves as a snack (I know, a weird snack) these beans would be a great accompaniment to a grilled steak or fish. I didn't overcook them so they still had a nice crispy texture and tasted wonderful with the garlic and pepper.

Overall score: 8 out of 10.

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

What is a beet? Is it just a nickname for that other red veggie known as the radish? But that leads us to another question… what is a radish? Are either of them actually veggies? Does Dwight actually own a beet farm? Enter all-knowing Wikipedia:

"Beet : The beet (Beta vulgaris) is a plant in the amaranth family (which includes beet, goosefoot, quinoa, and spinach.) It is best known in its numerous cultivated varieties, the most well known of which is probably the red root vegetable known as the beetroot or garden beet. The usually deep-red roots of garden beet are eaten boiled either as a cooked vegetable, or cold as a salad after cooking and adding oil and vinegar. A large proportion of the commercial production is processed into boiled and sterilised beets or into pickles. In Eastern Europe beet soup, such as cold borscht, is a popular dish."

"Radish : The radish (Raphanus sativus) is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family (includes Some examples of cruciferous food plants are the cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, rapeseed, mustard, radish, horseradish, cress, wasabi and watercress) that was domesticated in Europe in pre-Roman times."

Dwight Schrute : Dwight lives on his family's 60-acre beet farm, in a nine bedroom farmhouse (with one bathroom), with his cousin Mose where they grow table beets. Dwight also likes paintball, survivalism, Karate and weapons. Fact: bears eat beets (see shirt from café press.)

Note to self: All red veggies are not related. Either way, both beets and radishes are two things that I have never eaten before. The other distinguishing difference? My first farmshare basket from Enterprise Farms included 6 beets (and no radishes.) How do I know this? It was in their newsletter -- thank goodness, or perhaps I would have misidentified these suckers!

So how does one cook beets? I scoured the internet for something to make that has beets in it and is not borscht, which I will save for a later date. (Given my Eastern European background it really is quite surprising that I’ve never had borscht before, but it’s good to see that it makes numerous appearances in all four of my Polish cookbooks and my one Ukrainian cookbook. You know, in case I want to try out some different ways of making it.)

Have you ever felt like something was made JUST FOR YOU and nobody else? Well, I had that feeling earlier today while searching for a beet recipe. Really. I found a recipe for beets (which came in my farmshare), potatoes (which came in my farmshare), an onion (which came in my farmshare), and mint (my dad sent me a baggie of garden-grown mint about a week ago!) Talk about fate.

Of course, having never tasted a beet, I had no idea what to expect. What I learned: Beets turn everything red, including your fingers. Really, everything... including your cat's water dish when you accidentally drop in a beet chunk. (Sorry kitty.) Also, when peeled and chopped beets bear a striking resemblance to raw meat.

In general, this recipe was just a little too bland for my taste and I ended up spicing it up with some basil, salt, and pepper which helped it out a bit. It probably could have used some meat or something, but for my first beet experience I would say it went well. 

Lesson: Beets just taste like an earthy, less soft potato.... I'm no longer frightened of them.


IF YOU HAVE A BEET RECIPE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR IT, LEAVE ME A COMMENT BELOW!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beet, Potatoes and Mint (recipe compliments of Lovetoknow.com recipes):

Ingredients

6 beets, peeled raw, diced small

4 potatoes, peeled, diced large

1 onion, peeled, chopped fine

2 cups water

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon mint leaves, chopped

Seasonings to taste 

Instructions

Put all ingredients, except the mint, in a stew pan.

Bring to the boil, then cover and lower heat to low.

Let simmer about 35 minutes.

Before serving, sprinkle with the chopped mint leaves. 

Overall score: 6 out of 10.

--------------------------------------------------------

PS: What else came in my farmshare this week? Blueberries, acorn squash, zucchini, lettuce, salad greens, and romano beans. YUM!

CSA Time!

I just got my first email newsletter about what to expect for my first pickup of my farm CSA basket (which I am doing through Enterprise Farms). I can't even express how so so so excited I am! Here's what could be included in my basket this week:

• Baby Bok Choy: Enterprise Farm (see picture to the right)
• Lettuce (Redleaf/Greenleaf/Romaine): Enterprise Farm
• Salad Mix: Enterprise Farm
• Romano Beans: Mt. Vernon, Georgia
• Yukon Gold Potatoes: Craig Farm, PEI, Canada
• Grape Tomatoes: Somerset Organics, Florida
• Zucchini: Cottle Farm, North Carolina
• Acorn Squash: Somerset Organics, Florida
• Bunched Beets: Lady Moon Organics, Florida
• Blueberries: Eastern Carolina Organics, North Carolina
• Dandelion Greens: Enterprise Farm / Lady Moon, FL
• Vidalia Onions: Bland Farm, Georgia

While I won't be getting everything on the list (especially since I ordered a small share) I am still way excited to start cooking with this wonderful stuff. My newest cookbook purchase also includes a delicious sounding bok choy recipe as well as something for grilled onions and potatoes. YUM! My first pickup is this coming Thursday, stay tuned to see how this all pans out... (Dandelion greens? This sounds fab.) Cheers!