Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Eating What You Grow

It helps to be a bit of a cook. A curious one.

For the past month I've had a lot of chard and kale. It's a little overwhelming to be honest. "Eat your vegetables!" is connected to some unpleasant memories.

So................

Looks good, but what is it?

Another clue -


Chard Pie.

What makes it come alive is the Turkish red pepper and walnut sauce, or Muhammara, that sits on top.

Another interesting prep for kale is slow roasting which results in something similar to nori. Both of which can be added to cucumber salad, btw.

Bittman's Vegetarian cookbook is a terrific resource for gardeners. Especially if you want some new ideas on what to do with all the (_________ ) you've grown.



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In other garden news, most plants are growing nicely. One type that didn't do anything this year was broccoli and brussels sprouts. They grew full size but never set up complete heads; it's not a total loss, a friend of mine juices the leaves--they aren't bad sautèd either.



My rooftop tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are setting up plenty of fruits. The beans, cukes, summer squash, and melons are only a couple of feet tall; I think all the cold weather we had earlier this summer set them back a bit.


The sunchokes, this pic is a month old, are about 6 feet tall right now.

Down on the ground, my potato box vines are about a foot above the top of their box but haven't flowered yet. Probably another month to go until they're ready.

It looks like I'm going to have plenty of extra produce in a month. Any ideas on what to do with it?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I roasted some kale this weekend, from your recipe, and it was amazing. Hot from the oven = seriously addictive. I had to force myself away from the cookie sheet.

Here's another good use for all that chard. Sort of a "chard-a-kopita": http://tinyurl.com/mcgs56. I also made this lazy person's chard pie, a la Erik K: http://tinyurl.com/lwj4yc

Now, I'm just drowning in zucchini. Already.

Bruce said...

Chard-a-kopita. Nice.

At this point the chard pie, and it's variations, are an excuse to eat the red pepper/walnut sauce.

Another use for all my greens: Bittman's Veg. cookbk has a handy 'Beans and Greens' chart.

Bean + Green + Fat + Garnish = Recipe

Chickpeas/Chard, Lentils/Sorrel, Lentils/Lovage, Black Beans/Kale, Soybeans/Collards are a few of the better ones.

Like I said, I've been eating a lot of chard and kale.

H2 said...

The red pepper walnut sauce would be yum on Erik K's eggs too. Let's face it, that sauce is beyond good straight from the bowl.

I'm such a peasant with greens, just slicing, steaming, and topping with olive oil and dijon. And now sliced tomatoes. God that's good.

Of our new greens varieties this year, Red Russian Kale (BF can you add link?) is a favorite.

Mr. Homegrown said...

I'm coming over for dinner.