"Caldo Verde"

Adapted from John Villa/Irene Sax, serves 4 to 6
Date made 3/3/2012

1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 large turnips, peeled and chopped
1/2 lb kale, julienned
1 c. vegetable broth
water
salt and pepper, to taste

In medium pot, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions and cook until they are tender and golden brown.  Add garlic, and cook for a 2 minutes more.
Add turnips and vegetable broth and enough water to cover the vegetables.  Bring the liquid to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer.
Cover and cook until the turnips are tender, about 15 minutes.
When the soup is cool enough to handle, puree it in a food processor or blender, and return to the pot.  Bring the soup back to a boil and add the kale.
Simmer for a few minutes until the kale is tender.  Season with salt and pepper and serve.


This recipe was suggested for this past week's Hollygrove box, and I wanted to save the potatoes for a another dish, so I figured I'd replace them with turnips.  It's still a root vegetable, it has a similar texture as the potato, and it's a low-carb alternative for anyone who is concerned about any of that.  Plus, it was included in this week's box, as well.  I excluded the chorizo since I'm going veg for Lent this year, hence the quotation marks.  However, for a vegetarian alternative, I think it was a pretty tasty soup!

Turnip Sweet Potato Gratin

Adapted from The Chubby Vegetarian, serves 2
Date made: 4/17/2011

3 small sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced*

5 small turnips, peeled and thinly sliced*

2 oz Parmesan cheese

1 egg

1/4 c milk*

1 tsp dried thyme

2 cloves garlic

salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 9-in loaf pan and start layering vegetables, alternating sweet potatoes and turnips between layers.

Sprinkle a little salt and pepper in every other layer.

Blend remaining ingredients in food processor until smooth. Pour mixture evenly over root vegetables. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Uncover, drizzle with olive oil, and bake a 15 minutes longer.

Turnips with Swiss Chard

Adapted from cdkitchen, serves 2-4
Date made: 3/15/2011

3 turnips, halved and sliced*
1 bunch swiss chard, roughly chopped*
1 clove garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
lemon zest of one lemon
juice of half of a lemon
salt and pepper to taste

In large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat and saute garlic until it starts to brown.  Remove garlic and set aside.
Add turnips and saute until it starts to brown, about 5 minutes.
Raise heat to medium-high and add garlic, swiss chard, and lemon zest and saute for 2 minutes.
Turn the heat off and cover skillet.  Allow to steam for about 5 minutes.
Season with lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.


So it's been about a month since I posted my last recipe.  It's been busy, starting the new job with AmeriCorps and everything.  February/early March was a really bad month for cooking with PSO and then Mardi Gras I ate out a lot more than I should have.  Now that the new job is starting to set in and my bank account balance is starting to decline, I'm going to get better at cooking in and trying new recipes!

On Saturday, I did make a variation of Collard Greens and Turnips using kale and beet greens instead.  Jason said it turned out pretty tasty, and I thought it was a good use of the produce, so I think I'm going to continue to revert to this recipe for an easy meal when I'm short on time and don't feel like cooking.

Radish (and Turnip) Saute

Adapted from Hollygrove Market, serves 4
Date made: 2/9/2011

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 bunch of radishes, quartered and greens washed*
1 large turnip, chopped*
1-2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil is skillet over medium heat.  Add radishes and turnips and cook, stirring constantly, until tender, but still crisp.  Transfer to a bowl to cool.
Place greens in a skillet with wash water still clinging to the leaves.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it starts to wilt.
Turn off heat and add vinegar and radishes and turnips to skillet.
Stir well until combined and season with salt and pepper.


I'm starting to learn how to apply that adage of "use what's in your cupboard/fridge/freezer".  Since we didn't have any lemon juice from the original recipe, I substituted it with white wine vinegar.  And I got four huge turnips in my box last week, two of which were used in the mustard greens recipe, and the remaining have been sitting in my fridge, anticipating the day I'd find a culinary reason to take them out.

Mustard Mustard Greens

Adapted from Hollygrove Market, serves 2 (main course) or 4 (side dish)
Date made: 2/6/2011

1 bunch mustard greens, washed, destemmed, and torn into large pieces*
1 pint small shiitake mushrooms*
2 large turnips, sliced*
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp honey dijon mustard
1 Tbsp sugar
salt, pepper, and Tony Cacherie's to taste
water
Cajun brown rice*

Saute turnips on medium heat in a couple tablespoons of olive oil until they start to become translucent.
Add mushrooms and continue cooking until mushrooms are tender.
Remove from heat and set aside.
Meanwhile, saute garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil in a pot.  Add greens and enough water to cover the bottom of the pot, 3-4 tablespoons.
Add a tablespoon of sugar and season with salt and pepper.  Add Tony Cacherie's, if desired.
Cook until wilted.  Remove greens and squeeze as much liquid as possible into the pot.  Reduce liquid by half and add butter and mustard.
Add greens, mushrooms, and turnips to pot and mix well.
Serve over a bed of Cajun brown rice.  Can also be served as a side dish alone with some sort of protein.

Trying to cook mustard greens has been the bane of my existence.  For some reason, they'd always turn out bitter to the point of being inedible.  I guess I should have done some reading first: apparently, wilted greens = bitter greens.
http://www.naturalchoice.net/articles/cookinggr.htm.

From Mimi's cooking lesson on collards and okra, I always add a little bit of sugar to my greens, and I'd like to think that it cuts the bitterness as well.  I cooked these greens that day after I got them, and by following the source recipe and tweaking it a little, the greens turned out pretty well, the only bitterness coming from the dijon mustard.  Although I chose the honey dijon because it was the first mustard I found in the fridge, I kind of like the slight sweetness it brings to the dish.

Collard Greens and Turnips

From Mimi (aka Jenny Flowers), serves 4-6

Date made: 1/6/2011

Bunch of collard greens, chopped roughly*

3 medium turnips, sliced*

1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped

Tony Cacheries, salt, and pepper to taste

water

Saute onion until tender in pot on medium heat. Add greens and a little bit of water (1/2 c or so) to keep the greens from sticking to the pot. Add Tony's and salt to taste. Cover pot and allow greens to boil down, about 10 minutes. Add turnips and more Tony's, salt, and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to simmer and allow greens to cook down to desired texture.

My friend's 97 year-old grandmother showed me how to make collards a year or so ago when I was trying to figure out what to do with my Hollygrove produce. This is one of the few dishes that I cook according to feel, it's so easy (I generally need recipes). I don't like my collards cooked down as much as they are at restaurants, so this only took me a half hour to 45 minutes including prep.