It's that time of year again, when a multitude of cabbage begins to arrive in our produce box and clutter up the fridge. This year, I will do my best to make sure we eat each and every one of the little darlings. Perfectly delicious when sautéed gently with butter, some of the more traditional recipes for cabbage, however, can be downright frightening.
This morning my kids both refused to eat the omelets their dad had so kindly prepared for their breakfast. So I cooked up a pot of brown rice, stuck it in the the fridge and used it to feed them their omelets for dinner.
This is a Senegalese dish that Marcus Samuelson likes to get in South Harlem. I was pretty excited to find a one pot meal recipe that calls for cabbage, and to see peanuts referred to as ground-nuts, since I've long wondered what ground-nut oil is. It often shows up in British cookbooks.
Kale salads seem to be magically delicious these days, and this one was no exception. Wild rice, popped like corn, gave it a crunchy topping, a sort of better-for-you crouton replacement.
Deborah Madison's Celery Root Chowder is a favorite of ours, I make it every winter when celery roots are in our CSA box. This time I served it with some fresh bread from the bakery, soft ripened cheese, and pâté, for my husband's birthday. Pâté is one of his favorite things that we almost never eat. We also almost never have Manhattans with dinner.
This meal is packed with protein, whole grains and greens. It can be easily assembled from ingredients cooked the night before or earlier in the day and it tastes great. That's a triple win, in my book.
The photos are beautiful and the concept is great, but so far I'm striking out with this cookbook. First the cruncny farro, now a dinner that elicits "Ew! Crusty? Brown? I won't eat it!" To top it all off, I singed the crust.
Brown rice, avocado, cilantro, peanuts and sauce - this one is kind of like a healthy casserole. It's pretty tasty and was a big hit with my husband but, sadly, not with my kids.
Pretty much anything called a casserole these days gets me thinking I'm stuck in the 1970s, and this recipe is no exception. In fact this whole book is a little bit like that. My husband calls it "comfort food." But I call it "what my Mom made," which while not necessarily a bad thing can seem a bit dated, seeing as I'm no spring chicken myself.
This dish puts an Indian spin on orange-beef, which I would usually consider Chinese. But adding Madras curry powder makes it something altogether different, a one-dish meal with the homey warmth of curry and a sour-sweet kick.
This is my favorite recent trifecta (or triple win): Mexican Green Rice, Lazy Chiles Rellenos, Yellow Indian Woman beans. I only wish my kids loved it as much as I do. They routinely ask for the beans by name and always manage to choke down a bite each of the rice and rellenos, so I'll call it good.
This is a super simple salad to celebrate spring, with a perfect combination of flavors: sweet beets, fresh young favas, salty cheese and mint. It makes great use of beets, these beautifully colored red, golden or pink roots that are a CSA box staple frequently just too sweet to be much good in many other dishes.