(Home) Cooking School: Eat Your Vegetables

Posted by Aubrey in featured, yummy on January 9, 2012 | no responses

It’s January, and therefore a good time to recovery physically and fiscally from the holidays. That’s why the Yay-Today crew decided to jump in and start a series of posts that will help you accomplish both of these goals, with an emphasis on cheap and easy. So welcome to (Home) Cooking School, where we will share something you can make at home that’s affordable, good for you and extremely delicious. Trust me- if you just try to cook at home a little bit more, you’ll magically feel better, save money and probably lose some of the cookie jiggle we all put on last month.

So let’s get on to this week’s theme: Winter Vegetables! We’ve got a super-easy salad, a round-up of tips and tricks that will make upping your fiber intake ridiculously easy and an exciting (and cheap) event and bonus recipe from Whole Foods Westlake to tell you about.

(I ate my salad before I could take a picture, but it looked like this image from flickr user ilovemypit)

Vegetables are the easiest way to pump up your diet, nutritionally speaking. It’s pretty easy to make veggies delicious- through a little trial and error I’ve honed my skills to the point where my husband, who was fed beef broth in a bottle (not an exaggeration) and thinks that chicken wings count as a vegetable if they’re baked (slight exaggeration but not really) now asks for broccoli! For realsies. (We both still also eat said chicken wings.)

Here is my favorite way to make a big batch of something green to eat all week in the winter- a big kale salad. It’s ridiculously easy to make and pairs well with any main dish. I brought one to my book club last night and got some rave reviews from fellow Yay-Today-er, Alida. Give it a whirl and tell us what you think on Twitter, Facebook or in the comment section below! And keep reading for more recipes (including one from an actual chef from Whole Foods) and tips and tricks.

Kale Salad On the Fly

What You Need:

  • a bunch of kale
  • a carrot or two, grated
  • 2 tbsp or so extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp or so balsalmic vinegar (or whatever you have on hand)
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1 tangerine or orange-like citrus fruit, juiced (yay satsumas!)
  • 1 tbsp or so dijon mustard
  • salt, to taste
  • optional: some nuts, carmelized onions, thinly sliced shallots, your favorite cheese, dried cranberries, avocado… whatever you have that tastes delicious

What You Do:

  • Rinse and dry the kale leaves.
  • Tear the leaves off the tough stems. (This is great after a stressful day.)
  • Chop the kale into little tiny ribbons and stick them in a big bowl.
  • Throw the grated carrot in there as well.
  • Dump all the liquids (juice, vinegar, oil, mustard) in the bowl.
  • Sprinkle said salt on top.
  • Now the fun part- dig your hands in and massage your kale. (Make sure you washed your hands, because if not, that’s gross.) Go at it like you work at one of those awesome $30 foot massage parlors we love so much.
  • After a minute or two, your kale should feel softer. Slap a cover on your bowl and stick it in the fridge.
  • When you’re ready to eat, sprinkle whatever delicious toppings you love on your salad and dig in. Since kale is so tough, you don’t have to worry about the salad dressing making everything goopy and gross. The longer you wait, the more delicious everything gets.

You know a puppy cries every time you throw food away, so pack your lunchbox RIGHT NOW!

Want some other inspiration for jazzing up your veggie repertoire? I can help with that too.

  • The easiest way to make any vegetable taste good is to roast it. Curry Roasted Cauliflower from the rockstar nutrition blog Summer Tomato is one of the most insanely delicious things ever.
  • Fact: Caramelized onions are vegetable candy and make everything taste better. Make ‘em fast and with less oil/butter/delicious bacon grease (if you want).
  • This isn’t strictly veggie, but it’s full of inspiration- I’m loving the idea of Bon Appetit’s The Food Lover’s Cleanse. Yummy, easy, realistic recipes perfect for January.
  • Considering upping the vegetable ante and joining a CSA? I use New Roots and hear great things about Full Circle, but the folks at Fresh Picked Seattle and Cook Local have a great round-up on which is best for you.
  • Whole Foods is a national chain with a lot of love for local veggies and some surprisingly good deals (as long as you don’t pig out on the spendy stuff). On Tuesday, January 10, the Westlake location is holding a Winter Produce Happy Hour where you can get some inspiration and donate some of your grocery budget to a good cause. 5% of all proceeds that day go to the Just Garden Project. You can get your grocery shopping done and treat yourself to a super-affordable dinner if you stop in between 5:00-7:00pm, where, in addition to $4.99 glasses of wine and $1.99 beers, you can nosh on a variety of veggie-heavy dishes for just $5.99 each. They even sent us a recipe for one of the dishes they’ll be serving, Curried Lentil and Sesame Ricotta Tartine with Kaffir Lime and Mango Pickle. Yeah, that’s a LOT fancier than my kale salad, but reading the recipe makes me really hungry.

Curried Lentil and Sesame Ricotta Tartine with Kaffir Lime and Mango Pickle:

Tartine is basically a French open faced sandwich with a rich or fancy spread.

For the Lentils;

1cup black lentils
2.5 cups chicken stock
.5 cup fine minced onions
2 Tbs mustard seeds
3 Tbs blended curry powder
1/2 cube of butter
Salt to taste
Melt butter in a sauce pot, add onions and sauté until translucent. Add mustard seeds, curry, and lentils. Stir to coat. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil, then immediately reduce to a simmer. Cooking time should be about 20 minutes as you want the lentils to be soft  but not mushy, and the liquid completely absorbed. Remove from heat and chill.

For the Sesame Ricotta;

2 cups fresh ricotta cheese, whole milk is best
2 Tbs sesame oil
1/4 cup black sesame seeds
1/4 cup toasted white sesame seeds
salt to taste
Fold all ingredients well until uniform and then chill immediately until ready to use. The oil may bind to the milk fat and cause it to separate slightly but chilling should minimize this.

For the Mango and Kaffir Lime Pickle;
This must be made at least 2 hours prior to serving but I recommend 24 hours to get the full awesomeness!

2 firm green mangoes peeled and diced
1 bunch scallions chopped to equal size of the mangoes, using only the white ends
2 fresh kaffir limes using only the rind, fine julienned ( if kaffir limes are not available 2 small regular limes will work). Do not only zest the lime rind as you want the limes to have a bite and texture to them.
1 jalapeno chili julienned to equal size of the lime pieces
1.5 cup grape seed oil (or any mild, flavorless oil that will not coagulate when chilled)
1 Tbs salt
2 Tbs blended curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
the juice of 3 regular limes (do not use the juice of the kaffir limes as it is very bitter and has an unpleasant flavor)
1 Tbs cayenne chili
Mix all ingredients except the oil in a bowl and allow to rest about 30 minutes allowing the salt and seasonings to marry. You will see a small amount of brine form as the moisture is leeched from the mangoes and onions. Mix a couple of times to let the brine coat everything. Finally add the oil, mix, and refrigerate.

When you are ready to serve, make thick slices from your favorite, crustiest baguette and first spread ricotta, then lentils, and finally a dollop of the pickle. The bread can be grilled for an added dimension.

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