Make the Peperonata if you make anything this week. It improves the next day so make plenty! Lots of beet recipes this week maybe because they’re piling up a bit in my fridge–but they are so sweet and perfect in any form, they shouldn’t be. Happy cooking!
Peperonata (Stewed Peppers, Tomatoes & Onions)
Oven Braised Cabbage with Apple Cider and Wine
Pasta with Sweet Corn Pesto and Basil
Cook-with-What-You-Have Succotash
Beets, Chard and Garlicky Yogurt
Grated Beet and Apple Salad
Beet Pesto
Joi Choi Fried Rice with Peanuts and Coconut Milk
Peperonata (Stewed Peppers, Tomatoes & Onions & Potatoes if you’d like)
The classic Italian Peperonata is made with peppers, onions, and tomatoes. This version includes potatoes which makes it a more substantial dish and with a green salad and piece of bread, a perfect summer/fall dinner.
Serves 4-6
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium or 1 ½ large onions, thinly sliced
1 ½ -2 cups potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes (optional but wonderful)
¼ – ½ teaspoon of hot chili flakes (to taste) or 1 serrano pepper, minced (remove seeds if sensitive to heat)
3 medium tomatoes, diced
3-4 sweet peppers, washed, deseeded and cut into bite-sized pieces
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
½ teaspoon or more salt
More good olive oil for serving
Chopped parsley for serving, optional
Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan, add the onions and several generous pinches of salt and sauté until they are translucent. Do not let them brown (though the dish will still be delicious, so don’t worry if you do). Add the potatoes and cook slowly, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. Add the hot pepper and sweet peppers and saute uncovered, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, garlic, and another pinch or two of salt and cook for another 10-15 minutes until the peppers are tender and the juices have thickened. Serve warm or at room temperature. Drizzle with a little more olive oil at the table and scatter over fresh parsley, if using.
Oven Braised Cabbage with Apple Cider and Wine
This is a simple and delicious way to work your way through a lot of cabbage. I can eat a quarter of a good-sized cabbage in one sitting prepared this way but by all means scale this down to suit your appetites/needs.
Serves 4-6
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
1 small red cabbage
Salt
Olive oil
1/3 cup dry white or red wine (I tend to use red wine with red cabbage and white with white but anything you have will be fine)
1/2 cup apple cider
1 tablespoon sherry or balsamic vinegar
Remove the outer most leaves of the cabbage if ratty. Cut the cabbage in quarters and remove most of the core, leaving enough so that when you now cut the cabbage into wedges about 2 inches wide, so the wedges stay together. Place the wedges snugly next to each other in an 8 x 13″ or comparable baking dish.
Generously sprinkle the cabbage wedges with sea salt and drizzle with olive oil. Pour in the wine and cider. Bake the cabbage for about 45 minutes until nicely browned and tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from the oven and drizzle with the sherry or balsamic vinegar. Return to the oven for 5 more minutes and then serve hot or warm.
Pasta with Sweet Corn Pesto and Basil
–adapted from Bon Appetit
This dish is ridiculously good. It’s sort of end-of-summer comfort food, in a very good way. To make this vegetarian, instead of the bacon you can sauté the corn in butter or olive oil and add 1 teaspoon pimenton (smoked Spanish Paprika) and then add a few squeezes of lime juice at the very end. There is no excuse for not having a photo of this dish other than maybe that it is inhaled so quickly, never leaving a chance to photograph.
Serves 4, generously
3 bacon slices, diced
3-4 cups fresh corn kernels (cut from about 4-5 ears)
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or 1 serrano chili minced (with seeds if you like heat)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan or aged Asiago or Pecorino cheese
1/4 cup almonds, pine nuts, walnuts or hazelnuts (I typically use almonds because that’s what I have on hand)
1/3 cup good olive oil
3/4 lb penne or fettucine or tagliatelle
3/4 cup torn basil leaves, divided
Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp and brown. Remove from pan and set aside. Pour off all but 1-2 tablespoon bacon fat (and reserve for frying potatoes or some such). To the skillet with the bacon fat add corn, garlic, about 1 teaspoon sea salt, red pepper flakes or serrano pepper, and some black pepper. Sauté over medium-high heat until corn is just tender, about 4 minutes. Transfer 1 1/2 cups corn kernel mixture to a bowl and reserve. Process almonds until finely ground, add cheese, process again, then scrape remaining corn mixture into processor. With machine running, add olive oil and blend until pesto is almost smooth. Set pesto aside.
Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot. Add corn pesto, reserved corn kernels, bacon (if using) and 1/2 cup basil leaves. Toss pasta mixture over medium heat until warmed through, adding reserved pasta cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls to thin to desired consistency, 2 to 3 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Transfer pasta to a serving dish. Sprinkle with remaining basil leaves and serve immediately.
Cook-with-What-You-Have Succotash
You could just make this with onions, peppers, corn, chard stems and maybe some cooked dried beans and it will be delicious. Succotash was created by the Naragansett Indians and remains popular especially in the South and there are dozens of interpretations of the dish. I think of corn as the essential ingredient and that all the vegetables are chopped quite small. Lima beans are the classic bean to use but I’ve used many different kinds and sometimes substitute or just add blanched, green beans (as I did here). It’s a great technique to employ with CSA/market/garden vegetables since you can adapt it with what you have (summer squash, turnips, chard stems, etc.) and vary the ratio of vegetables as you like.
I make it with and without bacon and both versions are wonderful.
Serves 4
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 slices bacon, diced (optional and if you use bacon you can skip the butter)
Kernels from 3-4 ears of corn
1 onion, diced
3 sweet peppers, deseeded and diced
1 bunch chard stems, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups cooked beans such as lima, flageolet, navy, etc; drained
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons (or more) herbs (thyme, sage, savory, oregano, chives, etc.)
Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bacon, if using, and peppers and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and some salt and cook for another 8 minutes or so. Then add the corn and beans and cook until heated through and browning just a little, 5-7 more minutes. I cover the pan for this stage. Stir in the herbs and taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
Beets, Chard and Garlicky Yogurt
Typically I use beet greens for this but chard would be perfect and they are cousins after all. This dish is quite garlicky. Reduce if you want it milder.
Serves 4
1 bunch chard (reserve the stems for the succotash, above, or another use), washed and leaves cut in half lengthwise and then crosswise into ribbons
5 or so medium beets
3 small garlic cloves, divided and minced
1 cipollini onion, finely chopped
½ cup of full fat Greek or regular yogurt
1 teaspoon lemon juice plus an extra squeeze or two
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Scrub the beets well and cut into wedges. Put the beets in a small pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook covered for about 15-20 minutes or until beets are tender when pierced with a fork. Alternatively you can roast them (takes a bit longer). Drain well. There is sometimes no need to peel them but if they skin is prominent and at all tough, peel it off the wedges and discard. Then toss the beets with a little lemon juice and salt. Meanwhile sauté the onion in a little olive oil over medium high heat until soft. Add chard and a little olive oil if necessary and one clove of garlic, minced, and a few pinches of salt. It will only take about 5-7 minutes for the greens to be tender. In a small bowl mix the yogurt with the remaining garlic, a pinch or two of salt and the teaspoon of lemon juice. Mix the beet wedges with the greens and heat thoroughly and then serve with a generous dollop of the yogurt.
Grated Beet and Apple Salad
–adapted from Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry
This is a gorgeous and refreshing salad.
Serves 4 +
2 large beets or 4 small ones, peeled
2 large apples, cored, peeled
1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey (warmed if too thick)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup golden raisins (or regular ones or dried currants or any dried fruit, chopped if needed)
Coarsely shred beets and apples on box grater or in a food processor fitted with large grater attachment. Put the grated apples and beets in large mixing bowl and set aside.
In a small bowl mix the sweetener, vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper and whisk to combine. Pour dressing over grated beets and apples, add raisins and toss well. Season to taste with salt and pepper and more vinegar or sweetener, if needed.
Beet Pesto
This is a delicious and beautiful variation on regular pesto. And if you have cooked or roasted beets on hand it’s very quick to pull together. You can serve over grains, hardboiled eggs or other egg dishes or roasted veggies or as a spread or dip. I don’t tend to use it over pasta, however, as somehow the even pink coating doesn’t seem quite right to me.
Yields about 1 1/2 cups
1 1/2 cups cooked, diced beets
Generous handful of walnuts, toasted or raw (or hazelnuts or almonds)
1 small clove garlic
About ¼ -1/3 cup grated Parmesan or other hard cheese
¼ cup good-tasting olive oil
Salt and pepper
1-2 teaspoons lemon juice or 1 teaspoon of cider, white wine or sherry vinegar
Process the cheese and nuts first until finely ground. Then add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Adjust seasoning to your liking.
To use with pasta, dilute with ¼ cup of hot pasta-cooking water before tossing with cooked pasta. Top with extra cheese.
Joi Choi Fried Rice with Peanuts and Coconut Milk
–loosely inspired by Food Matters by Mark Bittman
This is a great way to use up leftover or previously frozen rice and whatever veggies you have on hand. The pictured version includes carrots and doesn’t have sweet peppers but it’s eminently adaptable. You can also easily add chicken or beef cut fairly small. If you’re going to add meat, stir-fry the veggies first, then remove from pan, add meat and stir fry until cooked. Add veggies back in as well as rice, garlic, etc. and proceed with recipe. The addition of coconut milk is a bit unusual here but I think it’s a nice touch.
Serves 4
3 tablespoons coconut, vegetable or olive oil, divided
½ onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 3-4 medium cloves)
1 medium head joi choi, trimmed, well washed, leaves and stems cut in half lengthwise and then into thin strips crosswise
1-2 sweet peppers, trimmed, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
3 cups cooked long-grain white or brown rice, day-old (freshly cooked rice is much too sticky)
2-3 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup coconut milk
2-3 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoons soy sauce or Tamari
2 serrano chilis (or small green Thai chilies), seeded and minced (or ¼ tsp chili flakes)
Salt
1/3 cup chopped, roasted peanuts (wonderful but can do with out in a pinch)
½ cup chopped basil or cilantro or mint
Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of the oil in the largest skillet or wok you have over high heat. Add the onion, ginger, garlic and sweet peppers and cook, stirring frequently for about 1-2 minute until fragrant. Add the joi choi and cook for a few more minutes. The joi choi will give off some liquid and you want to keep the burner up as high as it goes to evaporate that quickly. Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil and the rice, breaking up the chunks (with your fingers is easiest) as you go. mix the rice in well and cook for a minute or two then make a well in its center and pour in the egg; scramble it a bit then incorporate it into the rice.
Add the coconut milk and cook, stirring, until most of the liquid has boiled off or been absorbed, a couple of minutes or so. Add the fish and soy sauce, and the minced chilies. Turn off the heat and serve, topped with the herbs and peanuts. Taste and add salt if needed.