The escarole is perfect just with a nice tangy vinaigrette with plenty of lemon and garlic. Add a few croutons and you have a bit of a Caesar salad. If you get a head of radicchio, do the same but add some rich, crumbly cheese to the mix. And the first of the Delicata are wonderful just sliced crosswise and roasted on a baking sheet with olive oil and salt.
Gingery Coconut Milk Soup with Carrots, Potatoes and Basil
Eggplant Rounds with Tomato and Basil
Baked or Sautéed Kale with Tomatoes and Egg
Frikeh (Parched Green Wheat) or Barley/Farro/Lentils w/ Roasted Vegetables & Egg
Polenta with Sweet Pepper and Tomato Sauce
Escarole and Beet Salad with Goat Cheese
Roasted Squash and Onions tossed with Escarole
Gingery Coconut Milk Soup with Carrots, Potatoes and Basil
This a fragrant, simple and delicious soup. It’s begging for adaptations: add chicken or use different vegetables such winter squash or sweet peppers. Add lots of cilantro at the end instead of the basil. Spice it up with chilies or more green curry paste. Serve it over rice for a complete meal.
Serves 4
1 can full fat coconut milk
1/2 – 1 teaspoon green curry paste (I particularly like the local Thai & True brand), depending on how much spice you want
1 onion, finely diced
2 medium to large garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon minced fresh green chili like jalapeno or serrano including seeds, or more to taste (optional)
3 medium carrots, scrubbed and cut into rounds or chunks
3 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut into medium dice
3-4 cups chicken broth, veggie bouillon or water (depending on how thick/thin you want it)
1 cup basil leaves, roughly torn
Salt, to taste
Lime juice, optional
Scoop the thick/solid part of the coconut milk from the top of the can (usually the liquid and solid parts are nicely separated–if this is not the case just use about 1/3 of the can for this step) into a soup pot over medium high heat. Add the ginger, garlic, turmeric, green curry paste and hot pepper if using, and mix well. Cook for about 3-5 minutes until fragrant and reduced a bit. Add the onions and carrots and stir well and cook for another few minutes. Add the potatoes and stir well. Add the remainder of the coconut milk and the broth or water and 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the torn basil leaves. Simmer, partially covered, for about 15 minutes until all the vegetables are tender. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt. Serve with a squeeze of lime juice, as is or over rice.
Eggplant Rounds with Tomato and Basil
There are many variations on this theme, most use mozzarella or another gooey cheese. I made these when I had just one medium-sized globe eggplant to use. It comes together quickly and is good hot and at room temperature.
Serves 4
1 medium globe eggplant
2-3 medium-large slicing tomatoes
1/2 cup basil leaves (save a few to garnish)
Salt
Olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
Turn on the broiler.
Slice the eggplant into 1/2-inch thick rounds. Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet. Cook the rounds, sprinkled with salt over high heat until brown on both sides, about 5 minutes for the first a bit less for the second side. Put the browned rounds on a baking sheet.
Top each round with a few basil leaves, then a slice of tomato, a sprinkle of salt and drizzle of olive oil. Set the pan under the broiler and broil until the tomatoes have softened and are bubbling a little. Remove from the oven and divide the Parmesan between all the rounds. Return to the broiler for another minute or two until melted and browning. Garnish with chopped basil and serve.
Baked or Sautéed Kale with Tomatoes and Egg
This is fun and delicious. The dish takes about 7 minutes to pull together and about 45 minutes to bake. Toast a little bread and you’re set for dinner (or brunch). You can also make a quicker version on the stove top. Same process just in a large skillet and the cooking time is about half of that in the oven, see photo below.
Serves 4
1 bunch kale, well washed, tough stems discarded and leaves cut into 1/2-inch ribbons
2 small cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups finely chopped tomatoes (juice and all)
1/4 -½ teaspoon smoked Spanish Paprika (pimenton)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 eggs
More good olive oil for drizzling
Good, toasted bread
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Put tomatoes in a baking dish (8 x 13 works and gives you room for six eggs) and stir in pimenton. In a large bowl, toss the kale ribbons with the vinegar, minced garlic, some salt and pepper and some olive oil. Stir this mixture into the tomatoes. Taste to make sure it seems well-seasoned and put in the oven and bake for about 25-35 minutes until bubbly. Remove the pan from the oven and make four (or six) indentations in the vegetables and crack the eggs into these. Season with sea salt and pepper and return to the oven. Bake until the eggs are cooked to your liking. I takes about 7-10 minutes in my oven to get eggs with the whites set and the yolks runny. Serve with good, crusty bread and a generous drizzle of the best olive oil you have.
Polenta with Sweet Pepper and Tomato Sauce
In late summer and early fall in many parts of Italy, sweet red peppers are stewed with onions and tomatoes (and sometimes sausages) and then ladled over bowls of creamy polenta. It’s a lovely dish.
If you want to add sausages you can either cook them whole, separately or slice or crumble them into the skillet when you’re cooking the onions and peppers, before you add the tomatoes.
Serves 4
For the sauce:
3 sweet peppers (more or less), well washed, cored and seeded and cut into thin strips
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4-5 medium tomatoes (heirloom or slicers), diced
Olive oil
Salt
Chopped basil (optional)
For the polenta:
1 1/2-cups polenta
6 cups water, veggie bouillon broth or milk or a combination of any of those
1-teaspoon sea salt (less if you’re using veggie bouillon)
2 tablespoons butter
¾ cup grated cheese (Parmesan, Asiago Stella, . . .), divided
To make the polenta, bring the liquid and salt to a boil in a heavy, large saucepan. Whisk in the polenta and turn down so that it’s at a steady simmer. Whisk or stir frequently for the first few minutes to ensure that there are no lumps. Continue cooking and stirring occasionally over low-medium heat for about 45 minutes until the cornmeal is tender. Add butter and half the cheese.
For the sauce, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes. Add the garlic and peppers and several pinches of salt and sauté, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes, making sure not to burn the garlic. You do want the onions and peppers to take on a bit of color. Now add the tomatoes and bring to a lively simmer. Turn down and gently simmer for about 15 minutes until the tomatoes have thickened a bit. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and another good glug of olive oil.
Top the polenta with the sauce and the remainder of the Parmesan and some chopped fresh basil if you have it.
Frikeh (Parched Green Wheat) or Barley/Farro/Lentils w/ Roasted Vegetables & Egg
Frikeh is parched green wheat. It is smoky, chewy and delicious. You can substitute regular wheat berries, farro or barley or even small green lentils (that keep their shape when cooked) for the frikeh in this dish. Consider adding a little smoked paprika (pimenton) if you are not using frikeh to intimate that smoky flavor.
Frikeh is often sold cracked, rather than in whole kernels, in grocery stores and cooks more quickly in that form and has a much finer texture and increases in volume from dry to cooked more than the whole kernels. Adjust quantities and cooking times as needed.
Serves 4-6
3 cups cooked frikeh, drained and cooled (cook frikeh in plenty of lightly salted boiling water until tender about 35-40 minutes for whole kernels–see headnote)
1 globe eggplant (or 2 smaller Japanese ones), cut into 3/4 -inch rounds
2-3 sweet peppers
Handful of small tomatoes, cut in half on the equator (crosswise) or into chunks if you only have large tomatoes (you want them to brown/roast quickly)
1/2 cup or more fresh cilantro, chopped or basil or parsley or a combination of those plus a little mint if you’d like
1 large scallion, thinly sliced or 1 tablespoon onion, minced
2 large eggs, covered with cold water, brought to a boil, then heat turned off and left covered for 9 minutes then rinsed in cold water; roughly chopped
Dressing
1/3 cup whole milk yogurt, Greek-style if you have it
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 small serrano chili, minced (including seeds if you like heat)
1 large garlic clove, minced and mashed with plenty of coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon or more sea salt
Set your oven to broil. Arrange the eggplant rounds, halved tomatoes (cut side up) and the peppers on a sheet pan. Broil, turning the peppers and eggplant rounds to ensure even browning, and broil until the peppers are blackened and the eggplants and tomatoes are well burnished. Remove from oven and let cool. Peel and seed peppers and coarsely chop all vegetables.
In a small bowl mix the dressing ingredients. Put the frikeh, roasted vegetables, herbs and scallions in a serving dish and mix gently. Drizzle over the dressing and scatter the eggs over the top. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve just warm or at room temperature.
Escarole and Beet Salad with Goat Cheese
I particularly like the heft and slight bitterness of chicories (escarole, frisee, radicchio, sugarloaf) here. And by all means use hazelnuts,walnuts or almonds in place of the pistachios or use sunflower or pumpkin seeds and skip the sesame seeds.
Serves 4
2-3 medium beets, roasted or boiled and diced
4 cups washed, dried and chopped escarole and/or radicchio
2 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup toasted pistachios (or other nuts/seed, see headnote)
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
2 teaspoons minced shallot or onion
Juice of 1 lemon, about 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
Mix the lemon juice, shallot/onion, mustard, salt, pepper and olive oil in a bowl or shake well in a small, lidded jar, until emulsified. Taste it. It should have a nice tart tang to balance the sweetness of the beets.
Put the greens in a bowl an toss with half the dressing. Toss the remaining dressing with the beets in a separate bowl (to prevent the beets form “bleeding” all over if you’re using red beets. Chioggia and golden beets don’t bleed).
Add the goat cheese and seeds and nuts to the greens and toss gently. Stir in the beets and taste and adjust seasoning with a bit of vinegar or more lemon, and salt to taste.
Roasted Squash and Onions tossed with Escarole
A nice vinegary dressing pulls together this lovely of earthy, sweet, roasted vegetables and bright escarole.
Serves 4, generously (it keeps quite well and you can also reduce the recipe of course)
1-2 Delicata squash, cut in half lengthwise, seeds and membrane scraped out and cut into ½ – ¾ inch half rounds
1 large onion, peeled and cut into thin wedges or chunks
1 teaspoon each finely chopped sage and rosemary (or just one or the other or skip the herbs entirely)
Salt
Olive oil
5-6 cups escarole, washed and dried
1 scallion, white and green parts, thinly sliced (optional)
1 1/2 – 2 tablespoons red wine or sherry vinegar
Salt
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup
Freshly ground pepper
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Toss the squash and onions in 1-2 tablespoons olive oil and mix in the chopped herbs, if using, and about 1 teaspoon sea salt. Spread on a sheet pan and roast, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender and browning a bit. Put the vegetables on a platter and let cool a bit.
Stir the vinegar, oil, syrup, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Toss the greens with the sliced scallion, the vegetables and the dressing. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and/or vinegar.