Category — Vegetarian

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• Mark Bittman’s twist on chicken w/40 cloves of garlic
• Are you a “foodie,” “cook,” or “home-cook?”
• Learn to make a Asian fusion dish with Gwyneth (video!)
• What Marion Nestle has to say about BPA

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I don’t think this is going to get me any fan press out on the ‘net, but I have been completely digging cantaloupes this year – so much so that I have been eating about 1 entire melon per day, on average.  Cantaloupes are a nutritional powerhouse, with very few calories.  A cup of cubed fruit has more than a day’s worth of vitamin A, nearly a day’s allowance of vitamin C, 12% of your daily potassium needs, and 9% of a day’s folate.  And all this for the low-low price of 50 calories, folks!  Even bestsellers like apples, pears, and bananas have at least 100 calories.

I have been just cubing these super-sweeties up and eating them for dessert or a juicy snack, maybe combining them with some fat-free Fage, but there are some creative ideas in the latest issue of CSPI’s Nutrition Action Health Letter:

• Spritz the chunks with lemon or lime juice, and eat as-is.  Lime sounds particularly good to me.
• I never would’ve thought of this - top the ‘loupe with shaved Parmesan and drizzle it with balsamic vinegar.  That sounds really interesting – I’m going to try that one today. 
• Another one with cheese – fill half a melon with low-fat cottage cheese and a sprinkle of toasted sunflower seeds – yum! 
• Cube it and serve it over a bed of mixed greens and some goat cheese, tossed with a red wine vinaigrette.  Another fruity salad – you know I’ve been lovin’ up on those this summer.

Are you loving cantaloupe?  How are you eating it?

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This is an adaptation of a Deborah Madison recipe.  I made this with fresh rainbow chard from the farmers’ market – it’s in season now and if you are trying to incorporate more leafy greens into your diet, this is a delicious vehicle!

Chickpeas With Chard & Moroccan Spices

For the greens:  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Meanwhile, separate the stems of the chard from the leaves and coarsely chop each, but keep separate.  Add the chard stems to the boiling water and cook for approximately 5 minutes, until just tender.  Add chard leaves to the water and cook an additional 2 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the garlic, 1/2 t. of salt, dried spices, 1 t. oil, 2 T. of the cilantro and the parsley.  Stir to make a thick paste.

Heat the remaining oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and pepper.  Cook for 7 minutes, then stir in the garlic paste, chickpeas and 1/2 c. chicken broth.  When the onion is translucent, add tomatoes, chard, another 1/2 t. salt and the other 1/2 c. broth.  Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes.  Stir in the remaining cilantro and serve.

Serve over brown rice, barley or whole-wheat couscous.  Serves 4, generously.

P.S.  This is even better the next day, when the flavors have come together.  Makes a GREAT lunch!

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Tried it mixed with a huge tomato, which I cubed.  Although it was better (lending credibility to my too-much-pesto-hypothesis), I still wasn’t a huge fan.  Don’t know what I’m going to do with all these remaining leftovers!

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I think it was my sister-in-law who turned me on to green salads with fruit in them.  Until I’d had her spinach salad with strawberries, I’d always been a salad-traditionalist of sorts – salads were savory, and for me, eaten after my main course (unless, of course, a salad was my main course, which it often is).

But there is something interesting and tempting about a salad loaded with both greens and fruit, and maybe some nuts and dried fruits too, with a slightly sweet dressing.  For me, they’re always slightly unexpected, but enjoyable.

I tried this on Saturday night, and we liked it.  It incorporates fresh figs, which we “discovered” last summer.  I ate dried figs as a kid, but as a grownup I hadn’t regularly eaten fresh figs, and certainly never cooked with them.  If they are ripe, they can be very tasty.  If they aren’t (they’ll be very firm), they won’t be.  And sometimes they’re really mushy and over-ripe, in which case they’re awful.  So see if you can man-handle your figs a bit before you commit to a basket.  I also try to find organic ones, and then I just wash them and slice them with the peel intact.

Green Salad With Figs, Grapes & Pine Nuts

Dressing

*To toast your pine nuts, put them into a small, dry skillet and stir them constantly over low heat – they’ll toast quickly, so watch them!  Let them cool before you add them to your salad.

For dressing:  combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine (or use an old spaghetti sauce jar – add all ingredients and shake vigorously – this is my fool-proof method).  This makes about twice as much dressing as you will need for the salad – so you can either halve the recipe, or keep the leftovers in the fridge for about a week).

For salad:  toss all ingredients in a large bowl, dress with prepared dressing to taste.

Serves 4 as a side-salad.

Some tips:  Pine nuts are expensive, and because of their high oil content, they spoil more quickly than your other nuts.  Trader Joe’s has great prices on nuts generally, and also on dried fruits.  Buy a large bag of nuts and use what you need – keep the rest in the refrigerator and they won’t go rancid as quickly.

Turned on by sweet dressings?  Newman’s Own makes a good light raspberry walnut vinaigrette that is a staple at our house – try tossing it with mixed greens, crumbled blue cheese, dried cranberries and then topping it with a sliced grilled chicken breast (here again, TJ’s can be a time-saver – their already-grilled chicken breasts are pretty darn good (no weird texture) and don’t have any crazy sauces on them.  The balsamic ones are my favorite, but lemon-pepper and plain grilled are great, too.  Voila!  If you used bagged salad greens and the pre-cooked chicken, you now have a healthy and summery main-course in less time than it takes to order take-out!

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Tonight I made Heidi Swanson’s Arugula Pesto Wheat Berryrecipe and my verdict is “meh.”  My husband’s verdict is two-thumbs-down with a pouty face.  That’s pretty bad.

There’re a few things that were going on here.  I absolutely do not think that this recipe was a dog.  I think I put too much pesto on my wheat berries, for starters.  So if you do make this, go easy at first and add more, which Heidi does encourage you to do.  I just thought the pesto was delicious and so I was in a “if some if good, hell, more is better!” place, and, well, I overdid it.

Second.  I did add the fried seitan, and although I’ve been wanting to like seitan forever now, I just don’t.  The texture is too weird for me – if you’re a seitan lover, put it in and you’ll have a tasty, protein-packed meal.

Third.  Wheat berries are chewy.  They have a great, sort of nutty flavor, but they are work.  I like this, actually, but they are not for everyone – for instance, my poor husband.  I think these pushed him over the edge of his whole-foods tolerance.  He said “I like quinoa soooo much better.”

Fourth.  The pesto.  I love arugula – it’s peppery and fresh.  This pesto is an electric green color, toasty from the pine nuts, zesty from the fresh Parmesan.  I thought it was great.  Husband pronounced it “too green,” both in color and flavor.  I tried some on our daughter’s plain udon noodles and it was terrific.

I’m not giving up on this!  I have the leftovers in the fridge and tomorrow for lunch I’m going to try them again – the flavors will have melded well by then, and if it’s still too much, I might put a mound of wheat berries, etc. on a bed of arugula and eat it that way.  Some chopped tomato might be great with it too. 

I’ll let you know.

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This is easy, cheesy, carby lusciousness . . . 20 minutes to put together and you’re crockin’.  This was adapted from a recipe in Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

Directions

1. Rinse and drain beans. In large bowl combine beans, 2 tablespoons of the pesto, the onion, garlic and Italian seasoning.

2. In a slow cooker, layer half of bean mixture, half of polenta, and half of cheese.  Add the remaining beans and polenta. Cover and cook on the low heat setting 4-6 hours or on the high heat setting 2-2-1/2 hours. Add the tomato, remaining cheese, spinach, and radicchio. Combine the remaining pesto and 1 tablespoon water. Drizzle the pesto mixture on casserole. Let stand, uncovered, 5 minutes.

Makes 8 servings.

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