Vegetarian

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Snacking Tokyo-Style: Plum Onigiri

riceAre you looking for an easy way to jazz up your weekday lunch?

All over Tokyo, food courts and convenience stores sell triangles of sticky rice filled with all sorts of wonderful goodies. Called onigiri, these snacks fit easily in the palm of your hand, are quite filling, and are very affordable – many cost the equivalent of $1 or less. Our whole family enjoyed sampling onigiri filled with pickles, plums, smoked salmon, and even hard boiled eggs. Our favorite were the plum-filled snacks, which we are creating today.

rice mold

Onigiri mold

You can Continue reading →

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Creamy Asparagus Soup

asparagus

Asparagus is at it’s lowest price of the entire year right now, at least where I live. I bought a few bundles and used some to make a pot of this amazing soup. If you’d like to stock up (this soup really is that good), simply follow the directions below and stop at Step 3. You can freeze the partially prepared soup well into autumn, then thaw and continue with the last few steps. So easy!

Ingredients (Serves 4) Continue reading →

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Savory Garden Pie

WIN_20160809_182515My apologies, friends. I’ve been playing in the garden, and haven’t offered up a new recipe for a few days now. What began a few weeks ago as a daily walk to the garden with a kitchen bowl has blossomed into a daily walk to the garden with a wheelbarrow. The harvest this year is amazing!

A few days ago, I pulled all of the beets in my beet patch. Oh my, what a job! The highlight of the morning was watching the kiddos gleefully spray a huge pile of freshly pulled beets with the garden hose. While most of the bounty found its way into jars of pickled beets, I saved a few for this Savory Garden Pie. With rich flavors of ricotta, walnuts, and earthy root vegetables, Savory Garden Pie makes a delightful dinner with a side salad and crusty bread. Bon Appetit!

108761Ingredients (Makes 1 pie, serves 6 – 8)

1 roll-out, refrigerated pie crust

2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese

1 tablespoon seasoning mix, such as Wildtree Picnic Salad Blend*

1 egg

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

1 cup chopped walnuts

3 cups sliced root vegetables (any combination of beets, carrots, parsnips, celeriac, or turnips would be delicious)

* Interested in Wildtree products? Feel free to email my favorite Wildtree consultant, Tricia, at adams4@ncn.net     

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Ricotta mixture with 1 teaspoon of beet juice for color (optional)

Directions

 

Step 1) (Optional) If you prefer your vegetables fork-tender instead of crisp, steam your sliced root vegetables in a steamer rack for 3 – 5 minutes.

Step 2) Roll out your refrigerated pie crust into a 9 inch pie plate.

Step 3) In a small mixing bowl, combine ricotta, egg, seasoning mix, parmesan, and walnuts. Blend well. Spread this mixture over the bottom of the pie crust.

Step 4) Arrange sliced root vegetables on top of the ricotta mixture. If desired, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.

Step 5) Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 40 minutes, or until the crust is a deep golden brown. Allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

 

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Chard and Squash Blossom Sauté

WIN_20160708_110715Here in the US, there is a lot of madness right now. Working in my garden provides me with much needed respite. There is something calming about working slowly in the sunshine, blocking out media as I focus on pulling weeds, listening to bees, and tending to my vegetable plants.

Summer squash are prolific in my garden, with many zucchini and patty pan squash retaining blossoms on their ends. Those blossoms are so bright and cheerful! They’re also delicious, with a fresh, mild, almost fruity flavor. Hmm…

Swiss chard is also growing well, and I realize I haven’t had breakfast yet.  Hmm…

Here’s the super simple dish I prepared – a bit of sunshine on a plate. We could use a little more sunshine these days.

WIN_20160708_105912Ingredients (Serves 1)

6 large Swiss chard leaves, stems included

3 squash blossoms

1/2 tablespoon butter

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

WIN_20160708_110145Directions

Step 1) Slice Swiss chard stems into 1/2 inch pieces and sauté in butter for 1 minute.

Step 2) Slice Swiss chard leaves into 1 inch strips and add to the pan. Sauté for an additional minute.

Step 3) Slice the top half of each squash blossom (the orange part) into thin strips and add to the pan. Sauté for one, final minute. Transfer to a serving plate and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.

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Kohlrabi Roll-Ups

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One Kohlrabi Roll-Up makes a lovely side dish. Two Kohlrabi Roll-Ups sprinkled with cheese and served with crusty bread makes a delicious vegetarian dinner!

It’s kohlrabi season in my neck of the woods. As excited as I am to see farm stands re-opening for the summer season, the selection in early June is pretty limited. Kohlrabi, peas, more kohlrabi, more peas… you get the idea. It’s a shame so many cooks discard the leaves from their kohlrabi. The leaves are both nutritious and delicious! Today we’re using them a bit like cabbage leaves, and are using fresh kohlrabi leaves to roll up a hearty filling of seasoned rice, tomatoes, corn, and peppers. Feel free to add ground beef and/or top with grated cheese if you’d like.

This is a frugal recipe, and makes use of an ingredient that many people overlook – my grandmother would approve. (Grandma might have used different spices and found a way to work in a dumpling or two, but she’d still approve.)

Let’s make the most of our early summer veggies!

WIN_20160501_135603Ingredients (Serves 6)

12 – 18 large kohlrabi leaves

1 cup basmati rice, uncooked

2 cups diced tomatoes with juice (fresh or canned; either way, keep the juice)

1 cup corn kernels (I used frozen)

1/2 cup bell pepper, red or green, diced

1 tablespoon onion, finely diced (optional)

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon chili powder (mild or hot)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup water (or chicken broth)

1 cup tomato juice

WIN_20160501_142617Directions

Step 1) Combine rice, 2 cups diced tomatoes with juice, corn, bell pepper, onion, cumin, chili powder, black pepper, and water or broth in a large skillet. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover. Cook over low heat for approximately 20 minutes (check after 15 minutes), until liquid is absorbed WIN_20160501_140920and rice is tender. Remove from heat.

Step 2) While rice mixture is cooking, carefully cut the center stem (sometimes called a vein) from each kohlrabi leaf. Overlap the two sides so that each leaf forms an approximate oval shape without a visible hole in the middle.

WIN_20160501_142747Step 3) Place a small amount of the rice mixture (about 2 tablespoons) on the center of each kohlrabi leaf. Fold the sides of the leaf in toward the middle (shown), then carefully roll up the leaf from the bottom. Place each kohlrabi roll-up seam side down in a lightly greased baking dish (I used two small baking dishes and froze one to enjoy later).

WIN_20160501_143930Step 4) Pour 1 cup of tomato juice over the top of your kohlrabi roll-ups. and cover the baking dish(es) with foil. Bake in a preheated, 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. If desired, uncover and top with shredded cheese for the last 10 minutes of baking time.