Since we were in rush to move to the new garden plot we weren’t able to wait for the fava beans that we planted back in November (in the old plot) to be completely ready. It takes a while for the pods to appear and then grow to a useful size. So we harvested what we could, mainly the pods growing at the bottom of plants. We were able to get a fair amount. Steven gave away some to his co-worker Ernestina. She’s my Facebook friend, so I know she sautéed them in butter, salt and garlic. Because the favas were super young you don’t need to remove the inner membrane that covers the flesh of the bean. I made some of ours exactly the same way except that I used olive oil instead of butter, added a bit of chili flakes and some cherry tomatoes for additional color. It made a great side dish.

fava bean tempura

I used the rest for this incredible fava bean tempura. I got the idea from this restaurant in town that, unfortunately, has closed now. I left the beans in the pods but since they’re very young you can treat them just like green beans. And just like them, when cooked, they’re very tender. The texture is a bit different. Fava bean pods have a white velvety layer inside that acts as a cushion for the actual bean: nature’s way of protecting the development of life? That spongy layer makes eating this tempura especially fun as when you bite into it, it almost feels like it will pop in your mouth.

Enjoy this as a side dish or snack. It matches very well with a cold beer or a crisp un-oaked white wine.

fava bean tempura

about 20 fava bean pods
1 cup plain four
2 tbsp rice flour
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 tbsp mirin
Water
Canola oil for frying

Remove the tips and the stringy part of the pods.

Whisk together flours, salt, black pepper, mirin and enough water for the consistency of a runny pancake batter.

Add canola oil to the pan and heat to medium high. Dip individual bean pods in batter and drop them carefully in hot oil. Fry for a couple of minutes on each side. Transfer to a platter lined with paper towels. Repeat with remainder. Sprinkle some extra salt over pods as they come out of the pan. Fried food is naughty good, don’t you think? Eat responsibly

Some restaurants tend to make meat the focus of the main dish and skimp with regards to vegetable portions. How many times have you seen a huge steak served on a massive dish with a tiny portion of vegetables: something like a few minuscule cubes of carrot; a single, near microscopic broccoli floret or a lone spear of asparagus? Really the vegetables are there just for decoration.

sautéed zucchini and yellow squash

When you ask for additional vegetables, or, if they’re not on the menu, request that the chef prepares a dish with veggies, the wait-staff look at you as if you come from another planet. And once again, inevitably, when the vegetable plate arrives, the portion is just as absurdly little. (And I’m not even talking about the flavor here, as most often these mini-veggies only taste like butter.) It is funny as I have always thought that vegetables were cheaper (and healthier) than meat to serve, so they’d likely improve the bottom line of any restaurant. What’s up with that?

I’m pulling your metaphorical leg here a bit, as I know the reason for this. We’re trained to ignore veggies and focus on fattening foods, especially when we dine out. How sad.

Actually this dreadful paucity of veggies happened to me the other day when we went to Zuni with friends. I was not very excited about the main course offerings, so instead, I ordered appetizers and wanted some vegetables to go with them. The waiter promptly offered to have the chef prepare a ‘special’ side of veggies for me. On the face of it that sounds really excellent, don’t you think? Well, this chef-inspired dish turned out to have maybe a half-dozen small pieces of mixed veggies, probably 4 to 6 oz total, if not less. That’ll teach me to special order.

Needless to say, when we’re home, the vegetable portions tend to be a trifle bigger, and I love it. I served this zucchini and yellow squash sauté as a side to go with halibut en papilote. It matched well with the dish, I ate a lot and enjoyed every minute of it.

sautéed zucchini and yellow squash

2 Italian zucchini, cubed small
2 yellow squash, cubed small
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, minced
Black pepper
Kosher salt
Chili flakes
2 tbsp chopped Italian parsley
½ tsp minced lemon thyme

Heat up olive oil in a skillet, sweat shallot then add garlic. In goes the zucchini, yellow squash, salt, pepper, chili flakes, parsley and thyme. Toss around for about 4 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish and voilà!

I love pumpkin. Lately, I’ve begun to think that I might not be alone, as I’ve been reading Neide Rigo’s blog, come-se, and am thrilled to see that she’s been advocating it too.

kabocha pumpkin in dashi-shoyu sauce

These are some of my favorite pumpkin recipes that we’ve published thus far: quibebe, risotto, compote, ravioli, bread, gnocci, garden tempeh, snow peas and kabocha. They’re all good and feature pumpkin in classic and sometimes unusual ways.

I made this recipe to go with a Japanese inspired dinner we had recently. The dashi-mushroom broth adds umami flavor.

kabocha pumpkin in dashi-shoyu sauce

½ kabocha pumpkin, cut into wedges, skin on, seeds removed
1 cup dashi broth (follow link for instructions on making dashi)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp sugar
sprinkles of kosher salt

Place kabocha wedges at the bottom of a large sauce pan. Add remaining ingredients, cover pan and cook at low heat until pumpkin is soft. Liquid will evaporate. Add a couple more tablespoons of water if needed. Serve warm or room temperature as a side dish to go with any meal.

This recipe was adapted from the latest issue of Vegetarian Times. I didn’t have most of the veggie ingredients so I made do with what was available at home. It turned out as granola as it can be, of course not in any pejorative way, but simply healthy and delicious. The sauce reminded me of something similar that I made to dress a Thai inspired salad.

springtime garden tempeh with snow and garden peas, Kabocha with quinoa and almond butter sauce

springtime garden tempeh with snow and garden peas, Kabocha with quinoa and almond butter sauce

1 block of garden tempeh, cut into bite size cubes
2 wedges Kabocha pumpkin, skin on; steamed and then cut into bite size cubes
1 cup snow peas
1 cup fresh garden peas
1 cube vegetarian bouillon
1½ cups dried quinoa
1 tsp black sesame seeds
2 scallions cut into thin rounds

for the sauce:

1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp red miso paste
2 tbsp almond butter
1 tsp cider vinegar
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
2 tbsp canola oil

Rinse and soak quinoa for 20 minutes. Drain, add to a sauce pan with vegetarian bouillon, 2 cups of water, bring to a boil reduce the heat to medium/low and cook until water has absorbed and grains are soft, approximately 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Keep covered for few minutes.

Prepare the sauce by combining together ginger, miso, almond butter, cider vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic and a third to a half cup of water. You want the sauce to be relatively thick but with a runny consistency. Set aside.

Add canola oil to a skillet. Bring temperature to high. Toss in tempeh cubes, sprinkle with salt and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, turning cubes occasionally to brown them evenly. Add one tablespoon of water, cover the pan and let tempeh absorb the water. Transfer tempeh cubes to a plate and keep them warm. Add remaining oil to the skillet, followed by snow peas, garden peas and cook for a couple of minutes until they turn bright green. Add kabocha pumpkin and tempeh cubes.

To serve, fluff quinoa with a fork, mix in scallions and transfer to a large serving platter. Pile sautéed tempeh and veggies combo next to the quinoa. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve sauce on the side.

One of the many things I enjoy about Delfina is that they’re always serving different sautéed veggies as side dishes. These sides are invariably delicious and change with the capital-S Seasons. Often “vegetable side dishes” get a bad rap, but I never get bored ordering them there. On our last visit we savored whole leaf and root sautéed Japanese turnip. The presentation was beautiful: the roots remained attached to the wilted leaves. Like the best of foods, this was prepared simply with salt, garlic, and good olive oil using a technique that didn’t overcook the turnips, letting the leaves stay bright green and allowing the roots a bit of a crunch. Just perfect.

sautéed Japanese turnip

Turnip and all other roots from the radish family can be a little off putting for those who cannot appreciate bitter flavors. They all share that quality, some more intense than others. I find these Japanese turnips very mild in flavor, even sweet with just a slight bitter finishing taste. I almost feel I am describing the flavor of a wine here! That’s a happy thought.

I never thought of eating turnip leaves before. I saw a post from Taste of Beirut on radish leaf salad few months ago. Joumana inspired me so already I’ve tried the leaves on salads and made tabuli with them. All delicious! Next time you shop for daikon, radishes or turnip, don’t discard the leaves. They’re totally edible and tasty.

Obviously, Delfina’s my inspiration today.

sautéed Japanese turnip

1 bunch turnips (if too big like mine, split them in half, keeping leaves on both halves)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Few tbsp water

Add 2 tbsp olive oil to a pan on high. Add garlic, toss in turnips and sprinkle with salt. Shake the pan to coat turnips with oil and garlic. Add a couple tablespoons of water. Cover and cook until tender. Poke roots with a fork to test. They should be tender yet with a crunch. Add a bit more of water if needed and continuing cooking. Remove from heat, adjust salt, drizzle with remaining olive oil and sprinkle with black pepper.

roasted baby potatoes with fresh sorrel leaves

This is another simple tapas-inspired dish. Sort of a take on patatas bravas, which are potatoes baked in the oven with spices and then dredged with a spicy tomato/mayo based sauce. It is yummy and I could have just made the traditional recipe, but the thing is that sometimes a vegetable wants to speak for itself, and my new yellow baby potatoes were crying out “No sauce! Keep it simple.” They looked as if they had been harvested that afternoon, they were so fresh. So I kept it simple.

my "talking" baby potatoes

some usufruct fresh sorrel

roasted baby potatoes with fresh sorrel leaves

15 new baby potatoes, cut in halves
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt
Black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
½ tbsp canola oil
Hand-full fresh sorrel leaves

Place potatoes in saucepan and barely cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 4 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 500F.

Place potato halves on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle with canola oil, enough to slightly coat potatoes. Roast until golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, pat dry to remove oil. Put hot potatoes in a bowl. Add garlic, olive oil, sorrel leaves and toss to combine. The leaves will wilt. Adjust salt and serve warm.

I love the sweet flavor of spring onions (or for that matter any onion) when they are grilled or baked. Well, raw is delicious too, so maybe I should re-state my opening with the always appropriate, “I love onions!” Perhaps I should get a t-shirt printed?

oven roasted red spring onions

Onions are especially good in early spring, which is just around the corner. Yippie!!! I got these gorgeous red spring onions at the Alemany Farmers Market last weekend. Immediately I thought about grilling them, just like we had at the fabulous Estadio, a superb tapas bar in Washington, D. C. I was too lazy to fire up the grill so oven roasted them instead. The grill marks are missing here but the flavor is pretty similar to the restaurant. I even got a small jar of spicy Romesco sauce from “whole paycheck”, just like them.

salting red spring onions before oven roasting

oven roasted red spring onions

5 large bulbed red spring onions
Kosher salt
1 garlic clove, cut into slivers
Black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Romesco sauce – optional but highly recommended 

Pre heat oven to 500F and adjust rack to the closest position to the burner or coil.

Wash spring onions and pat dry them. Arrange on baking tray, sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and bake for about 10 minutes. It’s that simple! Serve with Romesco sauce at table. We had this as side dish for a homemade tapas-inspired dinner. More Spring inspired recipes from 2sisters2cities

This intensely flavorful recipe comes from the wonderful blog, Pescatarian Journal. We always feel a spiritual connection with Alaiyo’s food, which is land-animal free, often vegetarian and low fat, and using both familiar and unusual ingredients in exciting ways. Her black-eyed peas and polenta with minced collards really caught my eye. This then is my “version” of her masterpiece.

black-eyed peas with purple kale and polenta

Of course, I’ve had to modify things a little. For starters, I used the purple kale that we’ve been growing in our community garden rather than collard greens. I put the stems in the polenta and sautéed the leaves to serve separately. I didn’t have fresh turmeric or ground chipotle pepper, so I used dried for the first and pasilla pepper for the second. I was anxious about not pre-soaking the dried black-eyed peas, so went ahead and did that for about 3 hours before cooking to relieve my nerves. Finally, I cooked the stems as described below.

This dish was really thrilling!

purple kale from our community garden plot

Oh, just remembered, I couldn’t find the quick-cooking polenta which was a real drag. Instead I used the regular stuff which I prepared over a double boiler per package instructions.

black-eyed peas with purple kale and polenta

for the black-eyed peas:

1½ cups dried black-eyed peas, rinsed, picked over and soaked in water about three hours
3 cups water
1 yellow onion, in medium dice
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp dried pasilla powder
1 tsp dried turmeric
Black pepper to taste
1 cup veggie stock (I made my own with onion and celery)
Kosher salt to taste

for the polenta:

1 cup polenta
2 to 3 tbsp mascarpone
¼ tsp ground white pepper
1 large bunch of purple kale stems, sliced thin
½ onion, in medium dice
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup sake or cooking wine (white)
Salt to taste

for the sautéed purple kale:

1 large bunch purple kale (use stems above), sliced finely
1 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 tbsp soy sauce

to prepare black-eyed peas:

onions with turmeric and pasilla powder in pot with uncooked black-eyed peas

Drain soaking peas. Place peas in pot with 3 cups water.

In a skillet, sauté the onion in olive oil until translucent. Don’t add salt or your peas won’t cook. Add garlic, turmeric and pasilla then cook for a half minute more. Add to peas and bring the pot to a boil then reduce to simmer. Stir occasionally. Add veggie stock when liquid is reduced by about half. Cook until peas are tender (about an hour). When ready, add salt and black pepper to taste. Set aside.

to prepare polenta:

Sauté the onion and crushed garlic in olive oil with a pinch of salt. After they’ve begun to cook, add the kale stems and sauté for a few more minutes. Add sake and cover to let steam. If still not tender, add some water and let cook until tender. Discard garlic clove and set aside.

Follow package instructions for your polenta. Instead of butter or olive oil, add mascarpone at the end of cooking with the sautéed purple kale stems and white pepper. Press polenta into an oiled pie or cake dish. I used a pie-shaped serving dish. Set aside.

to prepare sautéed purple kale:

Merely sauté kale in olive oil. Add soy sauce and crushed red pepper after kale has begun to wilt.

the three components for black-eyed peas with purple kale and polenta

to assemble dish:

Ladle some black-eyed peas onto a dinner plate. Top with a slice of polenta. Garnish with sautéed kale. Mmm-mmm-mmm! Thanks again for this amazing recipe, Alaiyo!

This recipe comes from an enjoyable blog that we’ve recently begun following, almost veg. Sweet and sour sauce is a classic that’s often popular with kids, as it is so yummy and not particularly spicy. I found it especially appealing because there’s no pineapple. Almost-veg writes “I like pineapples but not in savory foods.” Well, I like them too, but they don’t care for me. I’ve a terrible allergy and get hives all over my body in a matter of hours after eating even a tiny mouth-watering morsel of this glorious tropical fruit. Not a pretty picture. Or appetizing, so to move on…

sweet and sour tofu

I changed around the recipe a little by adding more veggies and using hoisin sauce instead of plum. I had the first and not the second, but no time to shop. I used poblano with the sweet bell peppers since we really enjoy its smoky flavor.

One final note before I give the instructions: I was amazed by the tofu! I had always wondered how Chinese restaurants get that thin crispy coating over soft tofu. And now I know. I will definitely make that again.

sweet and sour tofu

1 package tofu (I used regular)
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
1 green bell pepper, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 red bell pepper, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 poblano pepper; stem, seeds and ribs removed; cut into bite-sized chunks
1 onion, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
3 garlic cloves, minced
Kosher salt to taste
6 tbsp canola oil
¼ cup cashews (optional)

for the sauce:

2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1½ tsp rice vinegar
½ tbsp oyster sauce (veggie)
½ tsp sugar
4 tbsp water
½ tsp toasted sesame oil

Cut tofu into 1 inch cubes. Toss with cornstarch then mix with rice wine. Add 4 tbsp canola oil to a large non-stick skillet and fry tofu for a few minutes on each side to brown. Set aside.

Mix sweet and sour sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.

Add remaining canola oil to skillet with onion and garlic. Add a bit of salt. Sauté for a few minutes until the onions become translucent. Add remaining veggies and continue to sauté. After they’ve softened a bit, add tofu, cashews if using, and sauce. Fold together gently and allow to warm through for a few minutes. Adjust salt if needed.

Serve with rice.

I am always on the lookout for the next cabbage recipe, or for that matter any new recipe for Brassicas. It sounds super-glamorous when I put it like that, don’t you think? Sort of like I’m scouting little towns or obscure places for the next movie star or pop music sensation, American Idol style. Move over Randy, I’m here!

Savoy cabbage curry

What can I do? I just love cabbage and all of her bewitching sisters. We’ve tons of stories already. Look here for refreshing cabbage mango salad, one of my all-time faves. Too cold for that right now? Then try this hearty and tasty vegetarian red dal and Savoy cabbage soup. Don’t know what to do with a Brussels sprout? Make this delicious shaved Brussels sprout sauté. Your guests will love you.

Having said all that, and contemplating checking into the Betty Ford Clinic for my Brassica addiction, I think this Savoy cabbage curry has become my newest darling for the Brassica Hall of Fame. I hope that you will like it, and if not, well… there’s always next time. I bet you thought that I was going to write something mean, didn’t you? Go ahead and admit it. But you, my dear readers, are all that matter. If you object, then let me know! Though personally when it comes to this one, I think that you might be a little bit silly. I’m just saying.

Savoy cabbage growing in our community garden

I’ve adapted the dish from this nice blog I have been reading lately, Vegetable Platter.

Savoy cabbage curry

½ head of a medium sized Savoy cabbage
1 tbsp black mustard seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 branch curry leaves
2 green chile peppers, sliced fine
2 red chile peppers, sliced fine
1 tsp ural dal (hulled & split black mung beans)
1 tsp chana dal (hulled & split chickpeas)
½ tsp turmeric powder
3 tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt

Rinse and shred Savoy cabbage, add to a saucepan with half cup of water, sprinkle turmeric over, cover pan. Cook on high temperature until cabbage has wilted and reduced in volume by a third. You want it to be parboiled, al dente but not squishy soft and wimpy. Reserve ¼ cup liquid and drain the rest.

Put oil, mustard seeds and cumin in a skillet on high heat and cook until mustard seeds start to pop. Add chile peppers, urad and chana dals. Continue cooking for another minute just to soften the pepper and toast the dals. Sprinkle with salt. Add curry leaf branch and immediately remove from heat. Toss cabbage in pan, transfer to a serving platter and drizzle with some of the reserved cooking juices.

Serve as a side dish.