Eggplant Caponata

What a day today! We've had veggies from the CSA slowly building up over the last couple weeks and I decided to put some serious effort to use them up before more comes in this week. First, the remaining cucumbers went into another batch of bread and butter pickles (the first batch of which turned out fantastically by the way). My next target was 3 pounds of yellow squash that I used to make a triple batch of fritters. I used the same recipe as before, but this time mixed in chopped Swiss chard that I sauteed with a clove of garlic and the last of the hot peppers. By tripling the recipe, I ended up with 12 big fritters, most of those will be frozen for a future meal. After all that work, there was still eggplant and several bell peppers left to use, and from that I decided to make caponata.

Caponata is a Sicilian dish centered around eggplant that is cooked until very soft with a variety of other vegetables in a sweet, vinegary sauce. In addition to the eggplant, a traditional caponata should have celery and capers in the mix, but after that there are many other things you could add depending on your taste. Bell pepper was already in for me, and to that I added onion, tomato, garlic and olives. This is a fairly simple dish to make and it gets better with age, which is good because the eggplant I had was rather large, and when all was complete I had close to 2 quarts of caponata. We typically eat this as a snack on chips or slices of baguette, though it can be used as a side dish and will go quite well with seafood.

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Eggplant
Bell Pepper

Ingredients
6 cups eggplant, cubed
1 tbs kosher salt
Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup green olives, chopped
1-1/2 cups canned crushed tomato
3 tbs capers, rinsed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbs sugar
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped.

Preparation

Toss the cubed eggplant with 1 tbs salt and then place in a colander over a bowl and let sit for 15 minutes so the salt can draw some of the water out of the eggplant. When the time is up, give the eggplant a quick rinse with fresh water and allow to drain completely. Spread the eggplant on a sheet pan and season with pepper and drizzle with olive oil, toss to coat then roast in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat one tablespoon of oil over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet, then add the onion, bell pepper and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook for another minute. Add the eggplant to the pan and cook, stirring for another 5 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the eggplant starts to fall apart.

Add the crushed tomatoes to the pan along with the capers, olives, sugar and vinegar. Bring to a simmer then turn the heat to low and cook, stirring often, for 20 to 30 minutes, until the vegetables are very tender and the mixture is quite thick and fragrant. Stir in the basil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

Vegetable Stuffed Zucchini

Prior to being overrun with various summer squashes from my CSA, I had thought of stuffed squash as a winter dish when the acorn, butternut and other winter varieties are plentiful and your choice of fresh local produce is severely limited. Its not just the squash, but the fillings as well with combinations of breads, sausage, dried fruit and other hearty flavors that one associates with cooler weather. However, with 2 pounds of week 11 zucchini still in the fridge when another 3 pounds of yellow squashes arrived with week 12, I was going to have to get past my seasonal preconceptions. 

Since I'm using a summer squash, it only makes sense to fill it with other summer ingredients, and the recipe I found not only accomplishes that, it does it with several other items I have from recent shares! The combination of sweet corn with spicy jalapeno is fantastic and black beans add a slightly meaty texture that really ties everything together. All the colors in this dish really shout summer as well, the bright greens, red and yellow along with a earthy brown from the beans truly make this dish as pleasing to the eye as to the taste buds!

Stuffed Zucchini, adapted from Spark Recipes

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Zucchini

Jalapeno pepper

Onion

Corn

Ingredients
2 medium sized zucchini
1 tsp olive oil
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 cup corn (cut off the cob of a fresh ear)

1/3 cup chopped tomato
1/3 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

Salt and pepper
2 tbs grated parmesean cheese
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley

Preparation
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dry the zucchini and then cut in half lengthwise. Using a  spoon, scoop out and discard the seeds and surrounding pulp. Place the prepared zucchini shells, cut sides up, in a shallow baking pan. If they are not sitting flat, you can use a vegetable peeler to take a strip of two off the uncut side to create a flat surface.

In a large skillet heat oil over medium heat then add the jalapeno and onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, corn, tomato and black beans and continue to cook for 3-5 minutes until everything is heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper to taste then remove from the heat and stir in the parsley. Spoon the bean mixture evenly among the four zucchini halves then sprinkle with the cheese. Bake, uncovered, about 20 minutes or until zucchini is cooked through and the cheese has started to brown. Serve immediately.

Cauliflower Jalapeno "Rice"

It’s hard for me to imagine how people came up with new recipe ideas before the internet. I suppose it was a combination of word of mouth and flipping through cookbooks, and while those methods certainly are still useful today, I for one would have a much less varied repertoire if not for Google. The best is when I have an ingredient that needs to be used; the cauliflower from week 10 in this case, but no idea what I want to do with it. In this case I added one item from week 11 to see what came up. Cauliflower + jalapeno then scroll through the results until something catches my eye, and catch it this one did! Let me tell you, after one bite of this cauliflower rice it immediately became my (and my wife's) favorite way of cooking cauliflower. The texture of the final dish is surprisingly similar to actual rice, but with added flavor of the cauliflower, which really reacts well to letting it brown and crisp up a bit on the bottom of the pan. Combine that with the added nutrients that cauliflower has (compared to pretty much nothing for white rice) and welcome to the regular rotation! The next step will be getting our daughter to eat it, which will be much easier if I make a batch isn't full of jalapeno...

Adapted from The Roasted Root.

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Cauliflower

Jalapeno

Ingredients
1 head cauliflower, grated
1/4 cup minced shallot

1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
1 tbs fresh ginger, grated

1 tsp olive oil
3/4 cup canned coconut milk
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Salt and pepper

Preparation

Remove any leaves from the cauliflower then chop it into quarters. Using a box grater or the shredding disk on your food processor, grate all of the cauliflower. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and then add the shallot and jalapeno. Saute for 3-4 minutes until the shallot is starting to brown. Add coconut milk, ginger and cumin and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Add the cauliflower and mix to combine. Turn the heat up to medium high and cook, stirring occasionally until the cauliflower starts to brown in spots. Don't be afraid to let a little crust form, you'll be rewarded with great flavor! Season to taste with salt and pepper then serve immediately as a side to any dish you would normally use rice with, you will be surprised how similar it is in texture and flavor.

Zucchini Fritters

Mid July and the zucchinis have started their annual campaign to take over the world. I still had a couple left from the week 10 share and then the week 11 arrives with bonus extra zucchini! And I thought I could avoid the zucchini stampede by not planting any in my garden...silly Ben. Anyway, it is what it is and to keep up with the influx I need recipes that use up a lot of zucchini at once, so my thoughts on the topic quickly turned to fritters. 

Once you shred the zucchini and remove the excess water (more on that below), a pound of them will yield only 7-8 small fritters, so if you are cooking for a group you can easily use up a couple pounds of zucchini. They also freeze well, up to 3 months if well wrapped, so double or triple the recipe and you'll be set with a quick snack or side dish for weeks. Just pop them in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until they are heated through and crisp.

The recipe I used below is from smitten kitchen.

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Zucchini (I had yellow ones, they taste the same as the green)

Ingredients
1 pound zucchini, shredded
1 tsp kosher salt
2 scallions, sliced thin
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying (I used olive oil)

Preparation

Heat your oven to 200 degrees and place a sheet pan inside. Wash the zucchini and trim off the ends. Using the shredding disk in your food processor or the coarse side of a box grater, shred the zucchini. 

Place the shreds in a colander and mix with the kosher salt, then set the colander over a bowl for 10-15 minutes to allow the salt to draw out some of the excess water. Transfer the zucchini to a clean tea towel then roll up the towel, trapping the zucchini inside. Over your sink, wring the towel as hard as you can to squeeze out more water. You'll be amazed how much will come out (zucchini is mostly made up of water) and this is essential to good fritters because if you skip this step the final result will be very mushy and not as flavorful. 

Remove the zucchini from the towel and place in a clean bowl with the scallions then season to taste with salt (go easy as there will be salt remaining from the water removal) and pepper. Mix in the egg, then combine the flour and baking powder, add to the zucchini and mix well. Heat the oil over medium heat in large, heavy skillet until it starts to shimmer. Place 3 or 4 dollops of the zucchini mixture in the pan and flatten them slightly to form rough disks around 3 inches in diameter.

Cook for 3-4 minutes until nicely browned then flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Move to a sheet pan in the warm oven while you cook the rest of the fritters. Serve hot with your choice of dipping sauce.  I mixed some sour cream with salt, pepper and a bit of lemon juice for a cool, tangy accompaniment. Use your imagination as the fritters will go well with spicy or sweet sauces also. 

Sesame Garlic Snow Peas

You may recall that the share I received two weeks ago contained some sugar snap peas, and you may have also noticed that they have not shown up in a recipe. The reason, unfortunately is that the result of what I cooked with them was not very good. Seeing as that there is the possibility that some of you might try one of these recipes yourself, I only post things that were enjoyed by myself and at least one other person (usually my wife, because if my 3 year old got a vote there might never be anything posted). The post mortem of that dish revealed that I went wrong by letting the peas sit in the fridge for nearly a week before using. Certainly one of the benefits of CSA membership is how fresh everything is, and therefore items will last much longer.  I've had heads of CSA lettuce age over a week and still be green and crisp (ever seen grocery store lettuce after a week? Yuck!). Anyway, peas such as the snap and snow varieties are so yummy because of their high sugar content, but those sugars will start converting to starches as soon as the pea is picked, so fast use is a must. Armed with that knowledge, when week 10 brought a bag of snow peas I was ready to get them on our plates without delay with a quick and easy recipe adapted from one I found at simply recipes.

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Snow peas
Mint

Ingredients
1/2 pound fresh snow peas
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sesame oil
5 mint leaves, chopped fine

Preparation
Wash the snow peas then trim the tips and remove their fibrous string. Cut any large peas in half.  Heat sesame oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the snow peas and garlic. Stir to coat with the oil. Cook for 1-2 minutes, being careful not to overcook. They should remain a bit crunchy.  Remove from heat. Stir in the chopped mint leaves and season taste with salt. Serve immediately.

Simple Coleslaw

There is the promise of coleslaw, crunchy and creamy, and then there is the all to common reality of limp, soggy cabbage in a watery dressing. What is it about this simple recipe that can go so wrong? In a word; water. Cabbage is full of water and the dressing will slowly draw that moisture out of the shredded leaves until your slaw is more of a cabbage soup. Yuck! The best way to deal with this is to remove the excess water from the cabbage before dressing it by salting the shredded leaves and allowing time for the salt to draw out the water.  Its a little extra work, but you will be rewarded with a much more appealing result and the leftovers (if any...yeah its that good) will keep much longer as well.

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Cabbage

Ingredients
6 cups shredded green cabbage
2 tbs grated onion
1 small carrot, peeled and shredded
1 tsp salt
2 tbs sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1.5 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp pepper

Preparation
Place the shredded cabbage, onion and carrot in a colander and sprinkle with the salt.  Mix a few times to distribute the salt evenly and then set the colander over a bowl and let sit for 1 hour.  The salt will draw excess water out of the vegetables.  When the hour is up, discard the water and then rinse the salt off of the shredded veggies with fresh water.  Allow to drain thoroughly and then dry by spreading the shredded vegetables on one or two tea towels, then roll the towels up and squeeze to wring out as much moisture as you can.  In a small bowl, mix the sour cream, mayo, vinegar, sugar and pepper. Return the vegetables to a clean bowl and then toss with the mayo mixture. If the slaw seems too dry (which can happen depending on how aggressively you wrung out the tea towel) add a bit of fresh water back in and mix. Or, if you have some handy, try using pickle juice. I used juice from some sweet bread and butter chips for this batch and it added a great level of flavor. Just go slow with the additions and taste often lest your slaw ends up tasting more like relish.

Roasted Romanesco Broccoli with Olives and Chickpeas

"So, what should we do with our (insert vegetable here) tonight?  How about roasting them?  That's a good idea, I'll just toss them with some olive oil, salt and pepper and......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Sound familiar? Yeah, I know...the roasting rut.  While you can't beat roasting as a simple way to get great flavor out of most vegetables, it can get a little monotonous.  Salt, pepper, oil, maybe some garlic or a few herbs. Always a reliably good result, but I was looking for a way to change things up a bit and try some new flavors.  My weekly CSA share typically includes a flyer with a couple recipes and in this week's flyer had the inspiration I'd been waiting for.  Adding olives and chickpeas to the mix injects two strong and unique flavors to the dish that compliment the vegetables nicely.  A real winner that received a lot of compliments at the dinner party we brought it to. The recipe below was adapted from the one I received with the share.

A quick note about the romanesco broccoli.  It tastes pretty much exactly like cauliflower, so since it can be hard to find, you can simply double the cauliflower (maybe find a purple variety for a nice color contrast) or use regular broccoli, which would give you a little more taste variety.

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Romanesco Broccoli

Cauliflower

Ingredients
1 lb romanesco broccoli
1 lb cauliflower
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 14oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 tbs olive oil
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Chop the romanesco broccoli and cauliflower into bite sized florets. Wash and drain well and then toss together in a large bowl with all the other ingredients. Transfer to a 9x15 baking dish and roast in the oven until the florets are tender and browned around the edges. About 30 minutes.

Roasted Beets with Kale and Feta

I don't often cook with beets because my wife and I tend to find their earthy taste too strong after a few bites.  The thing is, we really enjoy those first few bites, so my challenge for the beets (which have been sitting patiently for over a week) was to find a way to serve them where we would not be overpowered by their flavor.  I had seen recipes that combined beets with feta, and that seemed like a good start; by using other ingredients with strong flavors, the beets would have more to compete with.  Wanting to use another item from the CSA share, I settled on the kale, thinking that their slightly bitter flavor would stack nicely with the beats (earthy and sweet) and feta (salty). Since kale will lose some of its bitterness when cooked, I used cider vinegar to ensure that it retained a unique flavor that would stand on its own.  I probably would have left the recipe at that, except as I was pulling the feta out of the fridge, my eye landed on a pack of bacon that had used its siren song to lure me into buying it last time I was at the supermarket.  Everything is better with bacon, right?  Darn right it is!  The olive oil can have a rest, for tonight we cook with bacon drippings!

The final dish was a great success. The combination of the beets with the kale, feta and bacon complimented each other wonderfully.  We still could taste that sweet and earthy beet flavor, but it never overpowered the dish.  Needless to say, we cleaned our plates!

One side note that you may want to know (and can probably tell from the picture) is that the beets immediately stained the feta red when I tossed everything together. Certainly didn't effect the flavor, but if you are worried about presentation, I suggest sprinkling the feta on top after tossing the rest together.

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Beets (from week 7)

Kale

Ingredients
4 medium sized beets

Salt and pepper
4  thick-cut bacon slices, diced
1/2 lb kale, washed, stemmed and torn into bite sized pieces
3 tbs water
3 tbs apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup crumbled Feta cheese

Preparation

Heat your oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dry the beets then cut them in half and place cut side down on a sheet pan covered with aluminum foil. Place in the oven and roast until the beets can be easily pierced with a fork, about 45 minutes. When done, set aside to cool.

Cook the bacon in a large skillet until crisp, then remove to a bowl and set aside.  Add the kale to the bacon drippings remaining in the pan and stir to coat all the kale with the drippings.  Add the water and vinegar, bring to a simmer and then cover the pan and cook until the kale is wilted, about 5 minutes.  Uncover and continue cooking until the majority of the liquid has evaporated.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

When the beets have cooled enough to handle, peel them and cut in to half-inch cubes.  Toss the beets, kale and bacon together in a bowl.  Adjust the seasoning to taste and then sprinkle the crumbled feta on top. 

Braised Kohlrabi Greens with Garlic and Chives

Tonight was pork chop night, and to accompany the chops I turned to the kohlrabi greens. The greens are rather tough and bitter in raw form, similar to collards, so it seemed best to treat them the way I would collards and go for a slow braise.  For flavoring, I cooked them with garlic and then used the entire bunch of chives from this week's share to add a mild onion flavor at the end .  The result was quite nice, the bitterness of the raw greens mellowed down to just a hint and allowed the more pleasant flavors of the dish to be heard.  This was also a great way to use up all the chives, which would otherwise have languished in the fridge, being slowly picked apart for garnish and other small uses.

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Kohlrabi greens
Chives

Ingredients:
1 tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch kohlrabi greens, stems removed, chopped. (about 6 cups)
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh chives
Salt and pepper

Preparation:
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, being careful not to burn.  Stir in the kohlrabi greens plus a quarter cup of water, cover and simmer over low heat until the greens are soft, about 10 minutes. Taste to ensure the greens are softened to your liking and then remove from the heat and stir in the chives.  Season to taste with salt an pepper.

Parmesan Roasted Broccoli

Not too much to say here, except no more boiled broccoli!  Yay!  It didn't take much extra effort to put together this delicious side dish.  Roasting the broccoli in the oven gives it a different flavor compared to boiling, with a slight charred taste from the tips of the florets browning in the heat.

Recipe courtesy of the Food Network.  Modified below for less broccoli.

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Broccoli

Ingredients
1 pound broccoli
1 garlic clove, peeled and thinly sliced
Olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbs freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tbs julienned fresh basil leaves

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Cut the broccoli florets from the thick stalks, leaving an inch or two of stalk attached to the florets. Peel the thick stalks and slice into 1/4 inch disks. Cut the larger florets through the base of the head with a small knife, pulling the florets apart. Place the broccoli on a sheet pan large enough to hold them in a single layer. Toss the garlic on the broccoli and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until crisp-tender and the tips of some of the florets are browned.

Remove the broccoli from the oven and immediately toss with 1 tsp olive oil, the lemon zest, lemon juice, Parmesan, and basil. Serve hot.

Oven Roasted Kohlrabi Fries

Boy, the last week sure flew by, and while the kohlrabi waited patiently in the crisper, I may have unintentionally limited my options for it.  When I finally found time to research methods of cooking it I learned that a raw preparations can be a good option for kohlrabi.  Shaved over a salad or julienned in a slaw for instance.  Unfortunately, after a week its likely that my kohlrabi will not be that tasty raw, but I still wanted to  prepare it in a way that wouldn't hide its flavor.  To that end we have a simple roasted preparation that I served alongside some salmon and Swiss chard (separate post).

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Kohlrabi (bulb only)

Ingredients
1 large kohlrabi – peeled, tough outer layer sliced off; cut into 1/4" sticks

Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh oregano
1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat your oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine the kohlrabi, salt, pepper, herbs and olive oil and toss to coat.  Lay out the kohlrabi on the baking sheet in a single layer. Bake, stirring once or twice until they start to brown, 15-20 minutes. When they start to get brown, sprinkle the Parmesan over and bake for another five minutes. Serve immediately.

These kohlrabi fries were delicious! They had a texture that you might expect from potatoes, but with a much more complex flavor. Sort of similar to the taste of broccoli stems with a peppery hint you'd get from a radish.  

Peas and Lettuce

I love a good ham dinner.  For me, its not enough to enjoy it once or twice a year on holidays, so once in a while I'll pick up a ham steak to build a meal around.  Peas are a great accompaniment to ham, so for tonight's dinner I wanted to find a more interesting way to use them that would involve some of the CSA vegetables.  After a bit of searching, I came across a French preparation called Petits Pois à La Française, which simply means "French style peas".  The traditional preparation involves peas, onions, lettuce, stock, creme fraiche and butter among other things and seemed a bit too rich for my tastes.  There were, however a lot of simpler variations on this recipe, and what you see here is based on bunch of recipes from here and there.  This recipe was delicious with the frozen peas, but I'll probably try this again when I can get my hands on from fresh peas.  Bon Appetit!

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Romaine lettuce from week 4

Ingredients:

2 tbs unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1½ cups frozen green peas
1 cup frozen pearl onions
6 oz romaine lettuce, washed, stems removed, and sliced into small strips
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat 2 tbsp. butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add the garlic and onions and cook, stirring often, until the onions are thawed but not browned, about 4 minutes. Add the peas, season with salt and pepper and cook until hot, about 4 minutes. Stir in lettuce and 1 tbsp. water, season with salt and pepper. Stir until lettuce is just wilted.  Serve immediately.

Grilled Asparagus

I could not let asparagus season go by without putting them on the grill.  This simple preparation like this is arguably one of the best ways to enjoy these tender spears.  Grilling gives the best flavor, but roasting in the oven is a good alternative when the weather isn't cooperating.

Last night the asparagus from week 4's share went on the grill to serve as a side to some marinated grilled chicken kabobs. I used a plain preparation, which I've written out below along with two of my other favorite ways to prepare them.

Plain
As easy as it gets.  Trim, wash and toss on the grill over medium high heat.  This is all about letting the asparagus flavor shine, so cook them only long enough to get some good grill marks, 5 minutes or so, turning once. Serve immediately with a pinch as salt if desired.



Olive Oil & Herbs
Trim and wash the asparagus, then toss with olive oil, chopped fresh thyme, salt and pepper. Cook as directed above.  I love the fragrance and flavor that thyme adds, but just about any herb could work here.  Just use your imagination!




Butter and Garlic
Melt unsalted butter (1 tbs per pound of asparagus) and mix with crushed garlic.  Toss with the asparagus to coat then season with salt and pepper.  The butter will cool and stick to the asparagus, trapping the garlic against it.  I recommend this preparation only with the grill because it allows most of the butter to run off as the asparagus cooks.  Doing this on a sheet pan in the oven will result in your asparagus sitting in a pool of butter.

Spinach with Garlic

The name says it all!  Fresh spinach lightly sauteed in olive oil that has been infused with garlic. By first cooking the garlic in the olive oil, you add a light garlic flavor to the oil and also end up with crisp little chips of garlic that add a bit of crunch to the final dish.

This is a great and simple side dish that you can use to accompany just about any main course.  We enjoyed it with some baked salmon and Israeli couscous.

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5 oz Spinach

Other Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper








Clean and dry the spinach.  Tear large leaves into bite size pieces and remove any long stems. Set aside.

Thinly slice the garlic into little chips.  Heat 2 tsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and add the garlic.  Saute until the garlic is brown and crisp, then remove the garlic from the pan and set aside, leaving the olive oil (now infused with garlic flavor) in the pan.

Add the spinach to the skillet and saute until just wilted.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve sprinkled with the toasted garlic chips.

Asparagus and Quinoa Salad

Straight from the pages of Bon Appetit.  How could I not try this recipe where quinoa is combined with two of the items in my week 1 share. Because we did not have any handy, I omitted the walnuts in the recipe.  Also, I used yellow quinoa as that was what I had.

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Asparagus, 5 spears
2 Radishes


Other Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
1/2 tbs Lemon juice
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
Salt & Pepper





Cook the quinoa per package directions.
Chop the asparagus into 2 inch pieces and split down the middle if necessary.  This is a raw preparation for the asparagus, so you don't want them too thick.
Thinly slice the radishes
Toss the cooked quinoa (while still hot), asparagus, radishes in a bowl along with lemon juice, olive oil and the salt & pepper to taste.

I served this as a side to some fantastic fresh sea scallops that I picked up on the way home from work.  What a treat!

Asparagus and Mushroom Saute

Fresh spring asparagus is one of my favorites, so I kept it simple with my first recipe. A side dish of asparagus and shiitake mushroom caps lightly sauteed in a little olive oil with garlic, scallions and crushed red pepper.

Share contents used:
1/2 lb Asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 scallions, chopped

Other ingredients:
6 large shiitake caps, quartered
1 clove garlic, minced
Olive oil
Pinch crushed red pepper
Salt & pepper to taste

Sauté all ingredients together in a large skillet until the asparagus is just cooked, about 5-6 minutes.
Season to taste and serve immediately.