Gluten free kohlrabi tabouli (tabbouleh/tabbouli)

A new post!  It's been a while.  But I wanted to share this recipe modification cause it's a good one.  No pictures or anything... and it's barely even a recipe since I wasn't really measuring.  But here goes.

This idea was born of necessity and to address three small problems.
1) Ack!  What am I going to do with all this parsley!?
2) Ack!  What am I going to do with all this kohlrabi!?

3) Tabouli is a good use of parsley but Andy doesn't eat wheat anymore, so what to do...

Substitute kohlrabi for the wheat.  Easy peasy.  Actually it makes putting together tabouli easier cause you don't have to cook the bulgar.

Ingredients - serves 4 as a side

1/2 a medium sized kohlrabi (about the size of a large orange)

about 1 c. parsley leaves loosely packed, washed and spun in a lettuce spinner or dried with a towel

3-4 green onions

~8 cherry tomatoes

2 T. olive oil

juice of 1 lemon (I like it very lemony, you may want to start with less)

S+P to taste

1.  Peel the kohlrabi and cut into slices.  Cut the green onions into 1" pieces.

2.  Place the kohlrabi, green onions, and parsley in the food processor.  Process till everything is pretty finely chopped.

3.  Put the tomatoes in and pulse a few more times.

4.  Toss with oil, lemon juice, S+P.

Tip: don't worry much about getting the stems off the parsley.  I basically just grabbed all the leaves and pulled, taking whatever stems that wanted to come with me.  Since we get them finely chopped in the processor, the stems don't detract from the texture, and they actually increase the parsley taste!

This is a very fast way to make tabouli, and I love how the sweetness of the kohlrabi tempers the lemony acidity, and also improves the texture compared to a straight parsley based recipe.

Good leftovers = awesome sandwiches and salads

This one is going to be short and sweet.  I just wanted to express my love for an interesting sandwich.  When you have good leftovers in the fridge, good sandwiches (and wraps, and salads) just happen, naturally.  My dinner wrap tonight:
-Whole wheat tortilla
-Cream cheese
-Leftover grated raw beet and carrot salad that was similar to one I posted (had some cucumbers in it too this time.... can't remember what else)
-Zucchini pickles made according to this recipe, but with half the sugar (I had followed the recipe exactly another time, and found the pickles too sweet).
-Fresh CSA lettuce

My lunch salad earlier:
-Fresh CSA lettuce
-Sweet corn quickly steamed and cut off the cob
-Kohlrabi pickles (love this recipe, have made it a lot)
-Some dill and green onions
-Smoked salmon  -  this is a tasty product from a Colorado company.  There's so many conflicting reports about the sustainability and healthfulness of farmed salmon... from what I can gather, it really depends on the operation.  And usually, the consumer can't really figure much out about the fish farm where the product came from.  Some are better than others in terms of what kind of feed they give the fish (veg/grain based versus fish based - a veg/grain based feed obviously has less impact on fishery depletion), impact on the water body, PCB levels in the final product.  So in the end farmed salmon is not something I'll eat often (and I'll definitely go for a wild-caught Pacific salmon when I can - that one I'm pretty sure is on the Monterey Bay Aquarium's good list), but also not something I will completely shun.  This particular company's website does little to make me think they focus much on sustainability when buying their fish, which they then smoke and package.)

Whoops, that was supposed to be short, but I got sucked into thinking about  fishery sustainability and the pros and cons of aquaculture again.

Peach, cucumber, black bean salad/salsa

This one might sound familiar... at first I was going to title it "peach and cucumber salad," but being different by only one word from the previous post is unacceptable. So I aggrandized it. Also I realize every August post is a salad. But that's how it's supposed to be in the summer right? In reality, this salad is totally different, even from the previous peach salad. And, it would be just as great as a salsa to serve with chips, over fish or chicken, in a burrito, you name it. I would just recommend chopping everything a bit smaller if you are going to dip into it. I'm going to give you recipes for the full menu, although the salad was really the winner on the plate. The menu:
~Peach, cucumber, black bean salad
~Shredded cabbage w/lemon and cilantro
~Sliced raw beets w/lemon and chile
~Quesadillas

Peach, cucumber, black bean salad
3 peaches, chopped
1 cucumber (medium to large sized), half-peeled (leave alternating stripes of peel) and chopped
2 green onions, chopped
2 radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 t. salt or to taste
Zest of one lime
Juice of one lime and one lemon (I probably would have used 2-3 limes instead of 1 lemon and 1 lime, but I only had 1 lime)
2 squeezes of honey
2-3 T. canned chipotles in adobo, very finely chopped
1 T. olive oil
Optional: shredded cabbage

1. Combine all the chopped things together, as well as the beans.
2. Combine the dressing ingredients and whisk: salt, lime zest, juices, honey, chipotles, olive oil. My measure on the chipotles is approximate - they have a little heat, so adjust to your liking. When I open a can I put the rest in the freezer and then use a knife to cut off however much I want from the frozen chipotle block. Then I microwave it, and I chop it finely enough so that it's almost a liquid consistency.
3. Toss dressing with the fruit mixture, let stand for 20 minutes before serving. Serve on top of or next to a bed of cabbage if you like, or even better, citrusy-cilantro-y cabbage (see below).

Shredded cabbage w/lemon and cilantro
Green cabbage, sliced very thinly (I used about 1/3 a head)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 T. chopped cilantro
One squeeze/glug/choose-your-verb-inspired-measure of olive oil

1. Toss them all together. Season.

Sliced raw beets w/lemon and chile, a recipe from The Kitchn.
2 large beets, sliced as thinly as possible
Juice of 1 lemon
A few shakes good quality chili powder (discussed here)

1. Toss them all together.

Quesadillas - don't need a recipe for these - but I like a simple white Vermont cheddar (mmmm Cabot) on corn tortillas.

The green stuff you can see in the picture (on top of the quesadilla) is a chutney I made to go with some saag paneer a week or two ago ... it was loosely based on this recipe, but I don't remember exactly what went into it.

Some of the things in tonight's dinner came straight from today's haul of the CSA. I thought it might be fun (for me at least) to write down what all the things in one week's CSA went into. And this was a particularly good-looking and large haul (which was quite interesting to bike home with), so I set it up for a photo shoot. Keep an eye out for that in a coming post.

Peach and tomato salad

I saw two recipes in one day for salads featuring peaches and tomatoes. One was here (via Saveur) and the second was from a cookbook I got for my birthday from Andy's parents: Fast, Fresh, and Green by Susie Middleton. The flavor combination struck me as a little strange, but I've certainly had both tomatoes and peaches alone in caprese salad type dishes, so they're probably good together, right? And since I had some awesome tomatoes and some awesome peaches, I decided to give it a whirl with whatever else I had in the kitchen. I think this would be great with some fresh mozzarella next time. Would also be good with basil, that's what the original recipes called for, but is not what I had.

We had this last night with some grilled chicken sausage and zuchinni, and a potato, pea, and mint salad with a yogurt-mayo-lime dressing that was also from Middleton's book. Yum.

Juice of one lime
1 t. soy sauce
2 t. balsamic vinegar
2 t. white or rose wine
2 T. olive oil
2 amazing (large) tomatoes (or equivalent of small or cherry tomatoes), chopped
2 amazing peaches, chopped (you can remove the skins if you want, I did not)
0.25 c. parsley, chopped
0.25 c. mint, chopped
Freshly ground pepper

1. Shake or whisk together the dressing ingredients
2. Toss with tomatoes, peaches, and herbs.

Mint-cilantro quinoa salad

This is a particularly good, very herby variation on my framework summer grain salad. I probably mentioned it on that initial post, but a recipe like this is my go-to for any summer potluck or barbeque. Especially when it’s a barbeque-centric potluck cause although there are tons of great vegetarian grillables (and BBQ tofu is a favorite of mine), I don’t love a lot of more typical barbeque fare: meats, veggie burgers, potato salad, etc. I really try to avoid store bought veggie burgers when I can (homemade is another story).

I made this particular salad a while ago and don’t have any pictures, but you can guess what it would look like. This recipe makes A LOT.

3 c. quinoa (uncooked)
1 bunch cilantro
about 1 c. mint leaves
2 bunches scallions
1-2 packets sun dried tomatoes
8 ozs. sugar snap peas
8 ozs. feta cheese
Juice of 5-6 lemons
Olive oil to taste
Salt and pepper
Optional: lettuce, and nice chopped romaine would be great

1. Rinse (if necessary) and cook quinoa according to package directions. Set aside to cool.
2. Roughly chop cilantro (stems okay), mint (no stems), scallions, sun dried tomatoes, and peas. Put in serving bowl.
3. Cube feta cheese, add to veggies.
4. Juice the lemons and mix together with about 0.5 c. of olive oil.
5. Toss quinoa and veggie-feta mixture with the dressing. Add salt and pepper, and more olive oil and lemon juice if desired.
6. Serve on its own or over some fresh lettuce. It’s really good on some very crisp chopped romaine.

Aioli-dressed cole slaw

The CSA has been giving us a cabbage a week lately, which is about a cabbage a week more than I would normally eat. I like cabbage just not quite enough that I am super inspired every time I see it. And I don't often buy it in the grocery store. But the point of the CSA is to eat seasonally and locally, so instead of relying on my tried and true cabbage preparations (like this one and this one), I looked for outside inspiration. Specifically, I sought the advice of high school kid from Pennsylvania. It's kinda funny/weird, but I really like this kid's blog, Foodie at 15 (now 17). I love his passion for cooking, curiosity about methods and ingredients, and the fact that he is not averse to using candy corn as an ingredient. It's a nice voice in the sometimes snooty world of self-righteous foodies.

Anyway, the other day he was doing a "live chat" on the website of a WHYY, Philadelphia public radio, cooking show. So I decided to ask him about my cabbage Here's the "transcript":


So I decided to take the advice of my favorite not-so-celebrity chef, just for kicks, and it was pretty good. Mayonnaise and aioli are really pretty easy to make in a blender or food processor, and a food processor makes cutting the veg a snap. And while I still wouldn't say cole slaw is one of my favorite dishes, a homemade sauce is a vast improvement on the original. Here's the recipe, but keep in mind that the amounts of the vegetables is completely tunable to your whims, this is just what I used.

Ingredients, slaw:
1 to 1.5 heads of green cabbage
3 large carrots
4 small turnips
1 bunch parsley

Dressing:
3 cloves garlic
4 egg yolks
4 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. dry mustard
a small squeeze yellow or dijon mustard
0.5 c. olive oil
0.5 c. neutral oil (vegetable or canola)

1. Prepare vegetables. I used the slicing attachment for most of the cabbage (I think it gets a little too texture-less and watery if you use the grating attachment), the grating attachment for the carrots and turnips, and the normal blade for chopping the parsley. No need to clean the work bowl in between vegetables or before the next step...
For the dressing:
2. Chop the garlic in the food processor till it's quite fine. Then add the yolks, lemon juice, and mustards and process till combined.
3. Combine the two oils in a measuring cup. With the processor processing, pour in the oils in a slow, steady stream. This should take almost a minute.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and a little extra lemon if you feel it's necessary.
5. Toss every thing together, add a little more salt and pepper if you like.

PS - my posts have been slowing down, eh? I have 8-10 recipes scrawled out on paper and may get around to posting them. I'll at least try to post the better ones. We'll see.

Citrus and grated beet salad

There's lots of recipes out there for raw, grated beet salad. I don't see how you can go wrong with any of them. They're all super easy, fast, healthy, and tasty. I think the tastes in raw beets go really well with citrus, especially oranges. And this salad was really pretty! I had one yellow beet and one red and white striped beet. Grated together they looked like a party. The picture here doesn't really do justice.

I had been planning on putting some chunks of feta in the salad. But then decided against it in favor of just serving it aside some plain cheddar cheese quesadillas on corn tortillas. I'd also been planning on putting it atop some super fresh, tasty lettuce from the CSA, but in my excitement over the beets, I forgot. I think the salad would be good with cheese in it (what's not?), but actually, the clean, fresh taste of the other ingredients really makes it great without.

A side note - I had forgotten about the pictures I took of 5-green saag paneer and poached fish with lettuce sauce. I just found the pictures on Andy's camera, so those posts are updated with pictures now.

2 medium to large beets (get two different colors if possible!)
2 oranges
1 lime
2 T. olive oil
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 to 1 serrano pepper (or jalepeno, serranos are a little spicier), seeds discarded and chopped very finely
1/3 c. roasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds
salt and pepper to taste
sliced avocado (optional)

1. Peel and grate beets (I used the food processor for the grating.)
2. Juice ONE of the oranges, and the lime. Toss the beets with the juices and olive oil.
3. Peel and cut up the other orange. Toss the beet mixture together with the orange, cilantro, chili pepper, and sunflower or pumpkin seeds. Season with S&P to taste and serve with some sliced avocado on top!

Grilled romaine salad two ways

It's certainly greens season at our CSA! We are getting lots and lots of lettuce, and last week, we started getting kale, green onions, beets, and kohlrabi (kohlrabi is a weird vegetable, I don't really love the taste of it raw or cooked, but I love it pickled, have made a few batches using this recipe) ... some other stuff I'm forgetting too.

But anyway, grilling lettuce is really a nice twist on your standard salad. It gets a little smokey flavor to it and wilts a little, but is still crunchy. This makes it even easier to eat large quantities of lettuce, which is kind of necessary right now since we got 4 heads in the this week's delivery (and that's not counting the kale). It also requires using a knife, which I think is a good thing (as I recently noted.) When I say "hearts" of romaine, I mean to take off the outside layer or two of leaves - they are a little tougher, and usually a bit bruised and not as crunchy and falling off the head.

So here's two recipes, made the first a few nights ago, and had it with a pasta dish with sardines similar to what I wrote about here, minus the fennel and raisins, plus some kale. Made the second tonight, had it with the same leftover pasta.


Grilled romaine salad "Mediterranean" style - serves 2
1 heart of romaine lettuce
Olive oil
About 6 canned or jarred artichoke heart quarters
About 8 olives (nice ones, preferably, standard Kalamata do the trick)
About 2 ozs. fresh mozzarella, cut into small bite-sized pieces
1 tomato, chopped
1 T. red wine vinegar
Fresh ground pepper

1. Pre-heat the grill to medium or medium high.
2. Prepare the lettuce as described in the commentary, then slice the head in half, length-wise. If there is a lot of excess in the root area, cut some off, but be sure to leave enough so the half-head stays intact.
3. Rinse the lettuce, make sure the water goes in between the leaves. Gently fan out the leaves to some degree to make sure you get rid of the grit. Gently dry with a clean towel. It's okay if it's a little wet.
4. Brush the cut sides of the half-heads with olive oil.
5. Place on the grill, cut sides down, and grill for about 5 minutes. They should get a little wilted, and have grill marks on them. If some of the outer leaves get burned, that's fine, you can just get rid of them.
6. In the meantime, combine the artichokes, olives, cheese cubes, tomato, and vinegar in a small bowl. Given the oil on the lettuce and that came with the artichokes, I didn't feel it needed much more, but hit it with some more olive oil if you wish!
7. When the lettuce is done, top with the mixture and some fresh ground pepper. I think this is best served warm-room-temperature-ish.


Grilled romaine salad with roasted beets and goat cheese - serves 2
A handful of baby beets, or one larger beet (you may just want to roast as many as you have though and save them for something else!)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 heart of romaine lettuce
Goat cheese to taste
Optional: some toasted pine nuts or walnuts
Balsamic vinegar

1. Pre-heat the grill to medium or medium high.
2. Clean the beets and cut into bite sized pieces (slice in half if using baby beets).
3. Put the beets on a square of aluminum foil, and add olive oil, some salt and pepper. Fold the foil into a packet - not too tight, give the beets some room. Throw the packet on the grill. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, to whatever level of doneness you like.
4. When the beets are cool enough to handle, peel off the skins.
5. Prepare and grill the lettuce as described above.
6. Top the grilled lettuce with the beets, crumbles of goat cheese, and possibly some nuts or croutons. Splash on some balsamic vinegar right before serving, and some more olive oil if you desire.

Arugula and egg panzanella

Panzanella is just a fancy name for a salad with about equal volumes of bread, tomatoes, and greens, with some other great stuff. This is the best salad I have made in a while. I don't often make it (a nice loaf of bread rarely makes it to "day-old" around here). But for some reason I really wanted some yesterday, so I bought a fresh loaf of bread and made the croutons in the oven. This combination has really strong flavors - sourdough, herbs, vinegar - with a little creaminess from the eggs and cheese - I think it's just about right. We had this on its own for dinner, but it would also be a good side dish for some grilled chicken, steak, or fish. See below for my favorite method of hard-boiling eggs.

Ingredients - serves 4

A third to a half a loaf of day old sourdough bread - sliced and left out to dry overnight, or dried in the oven.
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
3 T. olive oil
1 t. spicy mustard
Salt and pepper
2-3 c. arugula (1/2 a package), coarsely chopped or ripped
2-3 c. cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 c. basil, sliced in a chiffonade (one small package from store)
1/4 c. mint, sliced in a chiffonade or just chopped
1 small shallot, diced
***2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced
About 10 thin slices of parmesan cheese, sliced with a carrot peeler

1. Make the croutons. If the bread is not very stale/dry, dry slices in a 300 degree oven for about 15 minutes right on the rack. Then break the slices up into bite sized pieces.
2. Whisk together oil, vinegar and mustard. Season with some salt and pepper.
3. Prepare and combine arugula, tomatoes, basil, mint, and shallot in a serving bowl.
4. Toss with the vinegrette.
5. Add the bread and toss again.
6. Put the egg slices on top. Peel the parmesan cheese right over the bowl.
7. Serve immediately. If there are leftovers, the bread while not be crisp anymore, but it will still be good!

***To hard boil eggs
Way too often, people really overcook their hard-boiled eggs. You might think you can't overcook a hard boiled egg, but that's not true. A properly cooked hard-boiled egg has a solid, but fragile white (not rubbery or chewy), and a soft yolk that is creamy, crumbly, but cohesive, and has little to no gray tint. An overcooked hard-boiled egg has a rubbery white, a chalky yolk, and a lot of gray tint on the yolk. I actually like my hard boiled eggs even a little less cooked that what I described - with a yolk that is a little gelatinous (sorry, that sounds gross, but I can't think of a better description). Here's how to achieve a good hard boiled egg.

1. Put eggs in saucepan.
2. Cover eggs by 1 inch with warm water.
3. Bring to a simmer. Simmer for 30 seconds.
4. Turn off the heat and cover the saucepan with a lid that fits. Let the eggs sit for:
12-15 minutes for a traditional hard boiled egg (depending on the size)
10 minutes for a gelatinous yolk (seriously, it's good)
5. Immediately remove from the hot water and play in cold water with ice cubes. If the ice melts, add more.
6. Once they're completely cool you can peel them or refrigerate for later use. To peel them, slide a spoon between the eggs and the shell while immersing the eggs under cool water.

Sardines! Sardine-jicama-orange-avocado salad

On Saturday I woke Andy up in the middle of the night saying that I needed to give Alton Brown the salad. I don't remember any of this, but I started writing this blog posting that day, so I must have been dreaming about it. I wonder if I meant I had to give him the recipe or the salad itself?! The title of this recipe may give you pause; sardines have a bad rap as a smelly, oily fish. But I encourage you to read on and then give them a chance (except Matt, you're exempt).

Let's discuss sardines first. I bought some canned brisling 2-row sardines packed in olive oil at King Soopers the other day after being inspired by, who else, Alton Brown (I realize this is the third post in a row where I mention him...) On a recent show, he extolled the virtues of sardines as a healthy and tasty food, and made open faced sandwiches that I made the other day - they were great! The health benefits and tastiness are definitely true, but more importantly in my mind is that sardines are a sustainable fishery. They are abundant and very low on the food chain. Because they are low on the food chain, they don't require a lot of inputs and don't create much waste - essentially the oceans can support a lot of them. Compare sardines to, say, canned tuna. Tuna are high on the food chain, thus they require more inputs and the ocean can support fewer of them...making them prone to overfishing especially when they are a super popular fish. Another outcome of being high on the food chain is that they bioaccumulate toxins as they consume the fish that are below them on the food web; most notably mercury and PCBs. I've made a table to compare canned tuna and canned sardines. All the nutritional information is for equal serving sizes (by mass) of the fish, canned in oil. The cells highlighted in green show which fish shines in that category. Yellow and red highlights where you might want to be cautious. You can see sardines are higher than tuna in a number of beneficial nutritional measurements: calcium, fatty acids, vitamin D, among others.



Sources of data:
Sardine nutritional data
Tuna nutritional data

Monterey Bay Aquarium factsheet for sardines
Monterey Bay Aquarium factsheet for canned tuna
Mercury measurements

So, having made the case for sardines, here's the recipe. I think that the citrus helps moderate the oilness of the sardines.

Ingredients
2 cans of 2-row brisling sardines packed in olive oil
Juice and zest of 2 limes
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
1/4 t. chili powder
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 of a medium-large jicama or 1 small jicama - the equivalent of about a grapefruit sized volume
3 oranges
2 avocados

1. Drain the sardines reserving the olive oil.
2. Whisk together 1 T. of the sardine oil, the juice and zest of the limes, the cilantro and chili powder. Add some pepper.
3. Add the sardines to the dressing, lightly break up the sardines with a fork into bite sized pieces. Marinate the sardines in this dressing for 30-60 minutes.
4. Cut up the jicama into bite sized pieces... I like it in fat matchstick shapes. Cut up the orange and avocado into small bite sized pieces. Remove most of the oranges' pith if you're picky.
5. Toss everything together, let the flavors coalesce for 15-30 minutes or so, and serve.

This is best served the same day it's made.

Variations
I think this could be made with a variety of fruits or even vegetables. I can see sardine-watermelon-banana salad, sardine-jicama-grapefruit (with honey!), sardine-potato-raisin (with vinagrette, a potato salad variation)...