Tabbouleh with radishes and peppers

I love tabbouleh, but it's hard to find decent tomatoes ten months out of the year. Occasionally I'll make a no-tomato tabbouleh just to mix things up a little. This one has thinly sliced raw breakfast radishes and one raw yellow pepper, plus parsley and mint, minus the usual tomato and cucumber. I also added some pickled ramps, for onion flavor.

The great thing about tabbouleh is that you can make it ahead of time, eat it cold or at room temperature, or throw it into a wrap with some greenery. It's very versatile, very forgiving (you can leave it in a hot car), and very delicious.

Barley succotash

Succotash is sort of a catch-all term, but to me, it means lima beans, corn, and bacon together in some combination. Like here. I made this succotash with cooked pearled barley, and the result was really delicious. Also filling. And used up the rest of my barley supply. So it was a win all the way around.

Barley with truffle oil

Barley makes a great substitute for brown rice, and will happily thicken up a soup, salad, or casserole. It also makes a nice side dish all on its very own. Here, I added a little truffle oil at the very end, and ohmygoodness was it delicious.

No recipe needed; just cook pearled barley (just like you would rice). Add truffle oil and salt to taste. Enjoy!

Eggplant and barley salad

You can get the recipe here; reprinted below.

• 1 1/2 pound eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3/4 pound zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 10 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup chopped scallion (from 1 bunch)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 1/4 cups pearl barley (8 oz)
• 1 (14-oz) can reduced-sodium chicken broth (1 3/4 cups)
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 pound cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/3 cup Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and halved
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion, rinsed and drained if desired
• 1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

• Accompaniment: 1 (1/2-lb) piece ricotta salata, cut crosswise into thin slices

Roast eggplant and zucchini:
Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.

Toss eggplant and zucchini with 5 tablespoons oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in a bowl, then spread in 2 oiled large shallow (1-inch-deep) baking pans. Roast vegetables in oven, stirring occasionally and switching position of pans halfway through baking, until vegetables are golden brown and tender, 20 to 25 minutes total. Combine vegetables in 1 pan and cool, reserving other pan for cooling barley.

Cook barley:
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a 3- to 4-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook scallion, cumin, coriander, and cayenne, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add barley and cook, stirring until well coated with oil, 2 minutes more. Add broth and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until all of liquid is absorbed and barley is tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Transfer to reserved shallow baking pan and spread to quickly cool, uncovered, to room temperature, about 20 minutes.

Make dressing and assemble salad:
Whisk together lemon juice, garlic, sugar, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 3 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Add barley, roasted vegetables, and remaining ingredients to bowl with dressing and toss until combined well. Serve with cheese slices.

No-tomato tabbouleh

I've made tabbouleh with cilantro many times; to me, tabbouleh is a summer dish, full of tomatoes and fresh herbs, something that can be eaten room-temperature (so it's great for work lunches, car rides, etc.).

I harvested the first of my mint and cilantro yesterday, and realized I had some parsley in the fridge. The first thing I thought of making was tabbouleh, but I didn't have any tomatoes. (Nor will I, until they're officially in season. I refuse to eat tomatoes before their time.)

So I made tabbouleh without tomatoes.

Which is essentially bulgur wheat salad, with herbs.

Start with one cup of bulgur wheat, uncooked. Cover it with enough cold water so there's an inch of water above the grains, and let soak for 20 minutes. While it's soaking, chop:
a big handful of mint
a big handful of parsley
a big handful of cilantro
some very finely chopped onion or a few green onions (I went light on the onions since I'm not a huge fan of raw onion)
Drain the wheat and add this stuff to it, along with the juice of one lemon and maybe 1/4 cup of olive oil, and salt to taste. Let this sit for another hour or so, to allow the flavors to combine. Eat. 

Shaved winter salad

About this time of year, my body starts craving greenery. Too much starch, too much bean soup, not enough salad. That said, I don't want to buy lettuce that's been hosed down with chemicals and flown in from who-knows-where.

Enter this, the shaved winter salad. Lots of seasonal veggies (and fruit!), lots of fiber, and easy to throw together. It also won't get soggy, like a lot of salads.

1 cup cooked pearl barley or farro
1/2 cup shaved raw butternut or acorn squash (just peel it and take a vegetable peeler to it)
1 pear, shaved (ditto with vegetable peeler)
1/2 bunch carrot greens, chopped (or you could pick apart a few brussels sprouts into individual leaves)
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Just mix together and enjoy. Adjust the oil/vinegar/salt and pepper as you see fit.

Winter salad with barley, watercress, mushrooms and roasted beets

Now that I don't have access to a winter CSA, and I'm not in the habit (or budget) of regular grocery shopping, it can be difficult to get green things. I'm also not interested in flabby, wax-covered supermarket greens that have been shipped halfway across the world from God-knows-where; I'd much rather go to the farmer's market and get fresh local green things, but alas, the farmer's market was snowed out this past weekend.

So I went to Whole Foods instead.

Still a supermarket, but at least I could get cage-free eggs and local fruit there. I got eggs, apples, and hey, look! Watercress was on sale. Probably not local, but I had an instant craving for it.

I picked up some button mushrooms too and threw together this wonderful winter salad. It's just cooked warm barley, sauteed warm mushrooms, and roasted sliced beets (I had white beets) with the raw watercress. The warm vegetables cook the watercress down just a little, which is nice. Sprinkle liberally with salt, and you've got your winter greens craving taken care of for a bit.

1 cup uncooked barley, cooked in water (bring to a boil, then let simmer) until done, and drained
2 bunches watercress, large stems removed
3 roasted, peeled and sliced beets
1 container button mushrooms, sliced

Saute the sliced mushrooms in a little butter until browned. Combine all in a bowl, salt and pepper to taste, and serve warm.

Swiss chard, barley, and lentil soup

I ate more junk food last week than I normally do in a year.

I love my family, and I love seeing them at Christmas, but my uncles are junk food fiends. I was in a house filled to the rafters with chips, store-bought pastries and pound cakes, enormous bags of M&Ms, and every kind of soda imaginable. It all got eaten, too.

So I was very happy that my mother sent me home with some goodies from her garden--several bags of fresh-cut herbs which are now drying, but most importantly, two great big bags of chard. Instead of having to run right out and buy groceries as soon as I got home, I've now got a several-day supply of greenery that I can supplement with pantry stuff.

My body is crying out for green stuff.

Last night I made a chard, barley and lentil soup, but I made it more like a slurry and less like a soup--I didn't put much liquid in there at all. You can put in more, if you like.

Here's the original recipe, reprinted below. I didn't put in carrots or dill (didn't have any) and I used shallots instead of onions (didn't have any).

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 1 1/2 cups chopped peeled carrots
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 10 cups (or more) low-salt chicken or vegetable broth
• 2/3 cup pearl barley
• 1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
• 2/3 cup dried lentils

• 4 cups (packed) coarsely chopped Swiss chard (about 1/2 large bunch)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Heat oil in heavy large nonreactive pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and carrots; sauté until onions are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and stir 1 minute. Mix in cumin; stir 30 seconds. Add 10 cups broth and barley; bring to boil. Reduce heat; partially cover and simmer 25 minutes. Stir in tomatoes with juice and lentils; cover and simmer until barley and lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.

Add chard to soup; cover and simmer until chard is tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in dill. Season soup with salt and pepper. Thin with more broth, if desired.

Tomato and wheatberry salad

There's going to be a lot of variations on the "tomato and ____ salad" theme. But hey, they're all tasty.

This is essentially tabbouleh, made with wheatberries instead of bulgur wheat. There's more prep involved, but there's also a chewier, more toothsome texture. If you like that sort of thing.

2 cups wheatberries
4 medium tomatoes, diced
1 cup cucumber and/or celery, diced
3 tablespoons lemon juice and/or olive oil
1 tablespoon each sherry or tarragon vinegar and balsamic vinegar
Crumbled feta, chopped fresh parsley and mint (amounts to taste)

Soak the wheatberries in water at least one hour or overnight. Pour them with the soaking water into a saucepan, bring to boil, then cover and simmer for an hour. Let sit 15 minutes. Drain, and add the rest. Let that sit one hour, and serve at room temperature.

Quinoa salad with roasted sweet potato

Reprinted from The Kitchn:

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes, all around rhe same size
3 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/3 cup pine nuts
4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup dried cranberries
4 scallions, sliced

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Place the quinoa into a small saucepan and add 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes, or until the water is evaporated. Turn off the heat and let quinoa sit covered for at least one, hour or preferably, three hours.

Place the sweet potato cubes into a roasting pan and toss with 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil. Bake for 25 minutes, or until you can just pierce the cubes with a fork. Set aside.

Place the pine nuts into a small pan over medium heat until lightly toasted, stirring often. Set aside.

In a small bowl, place the remaining three tablespoons olive oil, vinegar, honey salt, pepper, cumin and cinnamon. Whisk well.

When the quinoa is dry, use a whisk to break apart the seeds and place into a large bowl. Add half the vinaigrette and mix with the whisk. Add more to taste, depending on how wet you like your quinoa; I add it all. Add the sweet potatoes, pine nuts, cranberries and scallions and mix gently. Serve at room temperature.

Israeli couscous with squash, pistachios and mint

This is one of those great lunchtime dishes that's good either hot or at room temperature. You can bring it to work, leave it on your desk all morning, and still have a nice meal, even without a refrigerator or a microwave.

Israeli couscous, cooked
1-2 yellow squash, chopped fine
1 shallot, chopped fine
a handful of pistachios (shelled, of course)
a handful of dried cherries or golden raisins
chopped fresh mint
a lemon

Saute the shallot in some olive oil until soft, and add the squash. Let that cook for a couple of minutes, then combine with the cooked couscous and everything else in a big bowl. Add more olive oil to the mix, along with a few squeezes of fresh lemon. Stir, and let sit for a few minutes to let the flavors combine.

Mushroom ragout with barley

Remember my shittake mushroom patch? So far I've gleaned nearly a full pound of shittakes from it. Last night I sliced those, added a few button mushrooms to round it out, and made this. Mushroom ragout with barley sounds fancy, but essentially it's just cooked mushrooms on top of cooked barley. Decadent, but easy.

1 pound mushrooms, sliced (I used shittakes and button 'shrooms, but any kind will do)
1 cup pearled barley
1/2 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 cups broth
a little sour cream or creme fraiche
chopped fresh parsley

Saute the onion and celery in olive oil until soft. Add the barley and broth, cover and reduce to low, and let cook until the barley is done and the liquid is mostly gone, about 30 minutes.

In a separate pan, saute the mushrooms in a little butter until browned.

Serve by heaping the mushrooms on top of the cooked barley, drizzling the sour cream/creme fraiche on top, and garnish with the parsley. Salt and pepper to taste.

Truffled mushroom grits

This dish tastes like a million bucks and costs next to nothing. And it takes only about 10 minutes to prepare, from start to finish. Essentially it's cheese grits, with mushrooms sauteed in truffle oil, all mixed together. I even added some bacon-bourbon jam to it, though of course that's optional. (Really damn tasty, though.)

Make a batch of grits. (Quick grits: 3 cups water to 1 cup grits.) When done, stir in two handfuls of shredded cheese. I used a combination of smoked gouda and comte. Meanwhile, slice a package of white button mushrooms, and saute them gently in a mixture of truffle oil and a little button, until they're dark and soft. Stir into the grits, and serve.

Grits n' greens

This dish came from a thwarted mac n' cheese craving.

I had macaroni, I had cheese. What I didn't have was milk. Or cream. So I couldn't make mac n' cheese.

DAMMIT, I thought. How else can I use up this cheese?

Hmmm, cheese grits, I thought. Oh wait, I don't have any milk. How am I supposed to make grits?

So I went rooting around through the back of my cupboards, hoping for inspiration, and came upon a package of quick-cooking grits.

"Quick grits?" I thought. "How do I have these?" But I checked the directions, and it claimed I could make them with just water. Not milk. I was skeptical, but figured with enough cheese, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

And I was right. More to the point, my cheese grits were ready to go in under five minutes. (Granted, quick grits are not as toothsome as the original, long-cooking, with-milk kind. But whatever, there was cheese involved. In this case, a shredded mixture of smoked gouda and comte.)

In order to give my cheese grits some semblance of healthiness, I pulled out a head of collard greens from my produce drawer, sliced it into ribbons, and sauteed those for three or four minutes in some sesame oil, until they just started to wilt down.

I stirred about half into the cheese grits, and mounded the rest on top.

Tomorrow: more adventures with quick grits!

Israeli couscous with roasted eggplant, caramelized onion, and feta

A lot of people don't like eggplant. If not cooked properly, eggplant is bitter and hard, and I suspect people that don't like eggplant have only ever had it cooked the wrong way. Cooked properly, eggplant is creamy, rich and smooth, with a great satisfying depth.

If "creamy, rich and smooth" does not come to mind when you think of eggplant, here's how to get it that way.

You roast it.

(You knew I was going to say that.)

You don't even have to peel it. (In fact, you shouldn't, the rind--especially on purple eggplant--is full of vitamins.) Just slice in rounds. Coat a casserole dish with olive oil, put the slices in the pan, flip to coat with the oil, and roast at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Done.

You don't have to pre-salt, or soak, or any of that other stuff.

For the caramelized onion, slice the onion into half-rings, and saute on medium-low with some olive oil for a long time. At least 30 minutes. Until the onion is dark and slippery and sweet. You don't have to watch the pan or anything, just put it on low and walk away. The longer the onions cook, the sweeter they'll be.

For this dish, I used about three cups of cooked Israeli couscous (that's the large, pearl-like kind), one small roasted and diced eggplant, half of one caramelized onion, and two handfuls of crumbled feta. Mix together, add salt, pepper and seasonings to taste. Serve warm or room temperature. It makes a great brown-bag lunch, and a great way to feature eggplant.

Israeli couscous with butternut squash and preserved lemons

Remember those preserved Meyer lemons I started a while ago?

This is an excellent use for them.

(Adapted from Epicurious.)

1 preserved lemon (regular or Meyer)

1 1/2 pound butternut squash, roasted, peeled and seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch dice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 3/4 cups Israeli couscous
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries (I used currants)
Halve lemon and scoop out flesh, keeping both flesh and peel. Cut enough peel into 1/4-inch dice to measure 1/4 cup. Put lemon flesh in a sieve set over a bowl and press with back of a spoon to extract juice.


Saute onion in olive oil until soft, and toss with roasted squash. Cook couscous with cinnamon stick in a large pot of boiling salted water 10 minutes, or until just tender, and drain in a colander (do not rinse). Add couscous to vegetables and toss with 2 tablespoons oil to coat. Add lemon peel and juice, parsley, nuts, and fruit, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to mix well.

This is really good and surprisingly hearty; another half a preserved lemon wouldn't hurt anything.

Wheatberries with roasted root vegetables

I picked up some wheatberries for the first time the other day. As the name indicates, these come from wheat--ground up, they make flour. They're sort of like a chewier quinoa.

1 1/2 cups wheatberries
2 quarts salted water
2-3 lbs worth of winter vegetables: I used some purple potatoes, a big turnip, a butternut squash, several carrots, and a beet. You could also use parsnips, rutabagas, celery root, whatever.
1 onion
dried cherries or cranberries

Bring the 2 qts salted water to a boil and add the wheatberries. Cook until done (chewy with just a hint of crunchy), 30-60 minutes. Drain. Meanwhile, peel chop the vegetables into a small to medium dice. Toss with olive oil, and roast in a 400-degree oven until tender all the way through. Mix the wheatberries and roasted vegetables together, season with salt, pepper and thyme, and add the dried fruit. Stir together. Serve hot or at room temperature. Yum yum.

Roasted beet, barley, and feta salad

More fun with beets!

1 cup pearl barley
4 medium beets, roasted, peeled and diced
1 shallot, minced
a big block of feta, crumbled
juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil

Cook the pearl barley. Combine all. Serve hot or cold.

Beef and barley stew

Yep, it's that time of year here in Massachusetts. Had to wear my hat and gloves this morning!

Get some olive oil in a Dutch oven going, and sear 1 lb of beef stew meat (not cooked all the way through, just browned on both sides). Remove that, add some more olive oil, and add to that:

1 small onion, chopped
2-3 chopped carrots, and stalks of celery
1-2 chopped bell peppers
a few cloves of garlic, minced

When the veggies are soft, deglaze with a little red wine. Add two cups of pearled barley (I didn't have that much, so I threw in a handful of quinoa as well), two cans of tomatoes, and enough beef broth to float the whole thing. Add the beef back in. Season with:

cumin, cayenne, paprika, chili powder, dried chili flakes,

Let that all cook down on medium-low until the barley is done. Salt and pepper to taste.

You can substitute in other grains (like quinoa) or potatoes. Or sweet potatoes. Or other root vegetables (parsnips, etc.).

Bulgur wheat "risotto" with corn and shrimp

Turns out you can make risotto with arborio rice, pearled barley, or bulgur wheat! Best of all, if you leave off the shrimp in this recipe, you can create a fully vegan risotto.

I keep bulgur wheat around to make tabbouleh, but with fresh tomatoes out of season now, I needed something else to do with it. You make this risotto ("risotto") the same way you make any other, to wit:

Saute a finely chopped onion (or a couple shallots) in olive oil until translucent. Add a cup of bulgur wheat, stir, and cook an additional minute. Deglaze with a little white wine. Add chicken broth (or veggie broth), a little at a time, until the bulgur wheat is cooked through and most of the liquid is gone.

Then add a package of frozen corn, and a couple handfuls of shrimp (fresh or frozen) if you're using them. Cook until the shrimp are just pink, then remove from the heat and add the juice of a lime, a bunch of chopped cilantro, and salt.