Recipes « (y)our food choices™

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Ah, bounty. The bags of produce we buy from Mariquita Farm are filled with an awesome bounty of winter fruits and veggies. Our most recent purchase contained a big bag of what we are pretty sure was arugula and we knew the second we looked at it that there was no way we would eat it all before it yellowed. While we love arugula, we couldn’t stomach the idea of eating arugula salads twice a day. It seemed destined to the compost bin. Big bummer.

But then it came to us – the spicy salad green makes for a tasty substitute for the more traditional basil in pesto sauce. We had our solution. The washed and dried arugula went into the food processor where it was ground and blended with a fruity, high quality extra virgin olive oil, toasted walnuts, fresh ground Grana Padano, raw garlic, fresh lemon zest and some salt and pepper. Perfecto!

Pesto is a versatile sauce. It’s great on pasta, but it’s also tasty served with grilled chicken or fish. It’s nice slathered on toasted baguette and eaten as a condiment with soup. Make it in big batches and freeze the extra in ice cube trays for future use. Just pull what you need from the freezer and toss with hot pasta or thaw for other uses.

We used walnuts in this version, but pesto invites experimentation. Basil pesto is traditionally prepared with toasted pine nuts or almonds. You can use just about any hard, salty cheese to make the sauce and nut oils make for interesting alternatives to the olive oil. Play with it, find what you like and enjoy your pesto choices with just about everything.

: Freezing pesto in ice cubes gives you a quick burst of flavor for pasta, chicken, fish, or anything you like.

: Pesto is delicious with whole wheat pasta.

: A big beautiful green bowl of arugula pesto.

Arugula Pesto

4-6 cups fresh arugula
¼ cup Toasted Walnuts
4-6 garlic cloves, finely minced
Zest of one lemon
1 cup freshly ground Grana Padano (Parmesan Cheese)
½ cup Extra virgin olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Add the arugula, walnuts, garlic, lemon zest, and Grana Padano to a food processor. Pulse a few times until starting to form a paste. Then, with the motor running, add olive oil through the feed tube. Stop the processor and add salt and pepper to taste. Pulse a few more times. Pesto can be used that day or frozen in ice cube trays for future uses.

Miso and cured olives instead of egg and anchovy…Et tu, Brutus?

When it comes to green leafy vegetables, kale is one of the most versatile around. This veggie can be sautéed, toasted (add to popcorn for a healthy and delicious movie night treat), added to soups, or served raw. Not many other green leafy veggies can be subjected to so many types of cooking.

We recently encountered the joys of eating kale raw as a salad while on a trip to Seattle, and honestly, it’s delicious. We serve our salad with an almost vegan Caesar dressing (the honey gave it a needed sweetness) inspired by Galeos Caesar dressing (we learned of the dressing from Chow.com). Our version uses miso and some dried cured olives to give the dressing the “fishy” flavor usually obtained from anchovies, and the miso is a great emulsifier so there’s no need for the egg or mayo. And even though roasted beets and avocado are not usually found on a Caesar we thought the earthy flavor of the beets and the creaminess of the avocado fit perfectly, you can leave them out if you’re a Caesar purist. Of course, if you’re a true Caesar purist you won’t be using kale, miso, or cured olives. The salad is delicious and vitamin-packed and it’s even good enough to please the iceberg lettuce munchers in your family.

Kale Caesar with Roasted Beets and Avocado

Dressing:
5 cured olives, finely minced
1 small garlic clove, finely minced into paste
1 tablespoon light miso
1 lemon, juiced (about 2 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon honey
4-6 tablespoons olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

1 bunch kale, stemmed and torn into small pieces
small bunch fresh parsley, whole leaves only
1 Avocado, diced
2-3 medium beets, roasted, peeled and diced*

Croutons**

Parmesan Cheese

In a large salad bowl, add the cured olives, garlic, miso, lemon juice, honey,and 4 tablespoons olive oil. Whisk until emulsified. Taste then add salt and pepper, and more olive oil if needed.

Add the pieces of kale, parsley leaves, and diced roasted beets to the bowl. Toss until the kale leaves are fully dressed. Plate the salad and top with diced avocado, croutons, and ribbons of Parmesan cheese***.

*To roast the beets; scrub the beets, then place them in a small foil-lined roasting pan. Pour a couple tablespoons of olive oil over the beets, cover and seal with another piece of foil. Roast in the oven at 450 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour +, or until beets are knife tender. Allow to cool before peeling the skins and dicing.

**Pieces of old bread make great croutons. Freeze small pieces of left over bread and when ready to use for croutons, remove from the freezer and lightly thaw. Cut or break into bite-sized pieces and pan toast them in a sauté pan with olive oil and minced garlic until lightly browned.

***Use a vegetable peeler to make ribbons.