Sauteed Savoury Vegetables -- A change of Pace

In my house one thing is absolutely true: sauteed broccoli is a safe choice. For this reason, we eat sauteed broccoli nearly every night. Broccoli will pretty much always be eaten with gusto, be enjoyed by everyone, be accepted universally, and won't necessitate coaxing, bribery, threats, or hostage situations.

That being said, my little-rock-hard-fossilized-carbonized-but-vegetable-loving heart yearns for ... more. But not more Broccoli. Broccoli ... just doesn't always cut it. Yes folks, I want to branch out.

This week I got some cauliflower at the farmer's market. But the idea of a simple saute of veg in coconut oil with a sprinkle of sea salt just didn't ... move me. Fortunately the farmer's market yielded some other finds: onions, broccoli, and carrots to go with that cauliflower.

The resulting saute with some spices is vegetable dominant flavour wise, but lightly savoury, for something more than just the usual simple and green side dish. I haven't really included quantities, because the spicing should all be to taste, and the vegetables will vary in size. I swear the carrot was the size of my son's arm, and the cauliflower was the size of two normal caulis (so I used half) ... but the ratio doesn't really matter. It will be delicious any way.

ingredients:

extra virgin coconut oil

1 cooking onion, chopped

1 carrot, sliced 

1 cauliflower, into florets

1 broccoli, into florets

ground cumin

ground turmeric

chili powder

sea salt

black pepper

directions:

1. in a large saute pan, saute the onion, carrot, and cauliflower in coconut oil (use enough!)  over low heat with some sea salt, cumin, turmeric, chili powder, and black pepper to taste. I prefer cooking over a low enough heat that I need to keep the lid closed to help steam the veges

2. when the veges have achieved that 'cooked' look, add the broccoli, toss well, and cover to cook for a few minutes.

serve!

Dinner, again. An autumn meal complete with pie ...

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It wasn't a celebration. It was just a meal. It just worked out that way. We had plums that wanted pie-ing, and lovely kale and carrots from the farmer's market. Despite thinking about the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and the six months since Japan suffered a huge earthquake, it turned out to be a day for good eating.

We enjoyed a saute of sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin seeds, and chickpeas with sauteed kale, tomato salad, and sweet potato biscuits. We washed this down with a pretty plum pie topped with vanilla custard sauce. It was all so freakin' good. It was all so freakin' good that I would have loved to share the meal with you. Instead, I'll just share the recipes.

It was a day to look at photos and think and remember. Remember those lost, remember the lives broken, remember man's inhumanity to man, remember man's frailty in the face of nature and natural disaster, remember man's folly in the face of power, both nuclear and governmental.

I find it hard to feel grateful that my loved ones and I are safe and whole in light of all that, because it feels like it means I'm being glad someone else isn't, glad that these tragedies happened elsewhere to other people. Instead, I feel like we are all diminished somehow.

I hope my son grows up in a world where terror attacks and nuclear meltdowns are historical only.

And for all those who are lost or have lost, my thoughts are with you. I am with you ...

Green Sesame Noodles with Bok Choy Saute

green sesame noodles with bok choy saute

We received another organic bin this week, and in it was baby bok choy. Really lovely fresh baby bok choy. I thought green noodles would make a wholesome backdrop to a saute of baby bok choy, perhaps sauced with something in the miso honey and ginger family ...

I wanted to see what would happen if I added chia seeds to my standard green noodle recipe. And then tossed them with coconut oil and toasted sesame seeds after cooking. Here's the amended noodle recipe, and the saute recipe follows.

green sesame chia noodles:

ingredients:

150 g frozen organic spinach, defrosted

1 organic egg (xl or l)

1/2 cup almond flour

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 chia seeds

1 1/2 cups  kamut flour

directions:

1. in a food processor, puree the defrosted spinach. If you are using fresh spinach, let me know how it turns out.

2. add the egg and combine

3. add the sea salt, chia seeds, and almond meal, and combine

4. add 1 1/2 cups kamut flour, and pulse to combine.

5. gather the dough into a ball, flatten, wrap, and set aside to 'rest'.

6. divide the dough into 4 parts

7. roll each part on a mat sprinkled with kamut flour, using a rolling pin sprinkled with kamut flour.

8. if the dough is too sticky, add more kamut flour

9. roll the dough out until it is nice and thin

10. make sure the surface is well sprinkled with kamut flour, and roll it up 

11. set the roll aside and repeat with the other portions of dough

12. once all the portions of dough have been rolled up, cut them into spirals using a sharp chef's knife or bread knife (I prefer a bread knife because the serrated blade makes this task easier)

13. uncoil the spirals and lay them out

14. put the noodles in boiling water spiked with a little oil, and cook for 2 minutes.

15. drain the noodles, and toss with coconut oil and a couple of table spoons of toasted sesame seeds

Ready to roll

Green noodle dough with chia seeds. What country does this look like?

A spiral

Three rolled up portions of dough

Cutting them efficiently with a serrated blade

Spirals before they are unrolled

the noodle spirals, after cutting, before unravelling

unravelling the noodle spirals

boiled for 2 minutes, and tossed with coconut oil, a pinch of sea salt, and toasted sesame seeds

bok choy saute:

ingredients:

2 lbs baby bok  choy, cleaned and cut into bite sized pieces
2 cups carrots, cut into medallions then sticks
1 celery rib, cut on the diagonal, then into strips
1 cup raw almonds
2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
1 or 2 tbsp finely minced fresh ginger

up to 1 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp honey
1 or 2 tbsp lemon juice


directions:

1. heat the coconut oil in a large saute pan, and add the almonds, carrots, celery, and ginger, with a little sea salt. Cook until happy.
2. add the baby bok choy and a little sea salt, and stir
3. mix the miso, honey, lemon juice in a small bowl
4. add the miso paste to the vegetables, and combine well
5. serve on a bed of sesame tossed green noodles


Now, if you want to orchestrate the making of this meal in a way that fits into your busy life, you can do it in stages:

1. make the dough, and wrap it and put it in the fridge. The dough can easily be made a day ahead.
2. at your leisure, roll out the dough in 4 parts, roll up the dough, and slice. Put in an airtight container, and put it back in fridge
3. at your leisure, clean and cut the carrots and celery, and store in an airtight container.
4. Before cooking, measure out your ingredients into 'junbi' bowls. 'Junbi' is the Japanese word for 'preparation'. A student of mine who was an amateur gourmet cook used to say to me 'Ryori wa junbi desu', which means 'Cooking is all in the preparation'.
5. You can actually saute up your almonds, carrots, celery, and ginger earlier, and leave 'em in the pan on the stove.
6. Bring water to a boil at the same time as the carrots and almonds are done cooking, and hot.
7. Add the bok choy and do your thing with it, and then toss in the sauce. When that is all ready, set it aside, and cook your noodles. They only need 2 minutes. When the noodles are done, drain 'em, and toss  'em with a little coconut oil and sesame seeds. Put a little bed of noodles in a bowl, and top with the vege stir-fry. Easy-peasy!

ready to top the noodles

ta-da!

:)