In our Dominion Harvest box last Wednesday we received a lovely bunch of fresh collard greens. Nornally I would fix these pretty traditionally, cooked down with vegetable broth and lots of garlic, red pepper and onions; but that didn’t seem very fresh and “summery” (that’s a word, right?). So off to  my favorite site for pretty food pictures and recipe ideas, Tastespotting. I came across this recipe from The Right Recipe for Overnight Marinated Collard Greens Salad.  With a few adjustments, it was the perfect salad for our Memorial Day cookout.

Overnight Marinated Collard Green Salad

(original recipe serves 8, I made about 1/2 )

1/4-1/3 lb (approximately) pound fresh collard greens, washed

4 grated grated carrots

1 bell pepper (I had a yellow one on hand, but orange or red would be fine as well), cored and thinly sliced

1 small onion, thinly sliced (purple or white)

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 tablespoons maple syrup (original recipe used sugar)

1/4 cup light olive oil

1 -2 tsp brown mustard

1 teaspoon celery seed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

“Cut the thick center vein out of the collard green leaves then stack several leaves together, roll into a cylinder, hold together and thinly slice to make narrow strips.  Repeat with remaining leaves and transfer to a large bowl.  Stir in carrots, bell pepper, and onion. In a small sauce pan, whisk together vinegar,  maple syrup, oil,  mustard,  celery seed,  salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Pour the hot dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat well.  Season with salt and pepper if desired. “

The recipe called for placing all the ingredients in a large ziploc bag and letting it marinate over night. I forgot to start this the night before, so I started it in the morning, let it sit in a covered bowl in the fridge for 6-7 hours and it turned out well

Spring has sprung and summer is fast approaching and that means farmers markets and CSA boxes. We are doing Dominion Harvest  right now, and I really like it. You can choose weekly or every other week deliveries (we do every 2 weeks right now). On Wednesday’s a  red box full of veggies, eggs, cheese and sometimes a little surprise (we got jam our first week) are delivered.

Our first weeks bounty, kale, bok choy, strawberries, shitake mushrooms, lettuce, spring onions, cheese and eggs

This week our box contained collards (recipe for a salad coming next week) more eggs and cheese, shitakes, strawberries, rainbow chard, spring onions and radishes. Now I was excited about everything except the radishes. What to do? I am not a fan of raw radishes so it was off to the oracle of ideas, twitter. A few ideas to quick pickle them, slice and eat with fresh butter and salt and then a suggestion to roast  them. Roasted veggies, yes.

Roasted Radishes with Spring Onion

1 bunch radishes, washed, tops trimmed off (save those and add them to a salad) and quartered

1 large spring onion, sliced

oil

salt and pepper

italian seasoning

rep pepper flakes (optional)

Toss the radishes and onion with oil, salt, pepper, italian seasoning and red pepper flakes. Spread on a sheet pan, roast at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes, stirring half way through. Delicious! Roasting takes the “bite” out of the radishes, if you are not a fan, this recipe should change your mind.

Enjoy! Next up, Overnight Marinated Collard Salad

My nemesis, Tempeh. That’s right, after 20+ years as a vegetarian, I am still baffled by tempeh, but not any more. Lauren over at Vegology (after many tweets to her about “How did you make that?” when she posted dinner with tempeh pictures) held a “Protein Power” cooking demo at Ellwood Thompsons. 

For those who aren’t familiar, tempeh is a fermented soy product that can be served raw or cooked. You can find it at natural foods stores from companies like LightLife  and local Twin Oaks.

The recipes included a Greek Salad with Herbed Tempeh, cooked in the flavors of souvlaki, but vegetarian of course, with a delicious greek dressing. In this recipe the tempeh was grated, then sauteed with olive oil and herbs. The greek yogurt dressing was lemony and light.

Next up was a Chili Maple Glazed Tempeh. After a heated debate over the shape of the tempeh ( I still vote parallelogram), the tempeh was marinated apple cider vinegar, Sriracha, maple syrup and soy sauce (you could substitute aminos, but watch out for the salt).

This was probably my favorite dish of the night, spicy and a little sweet.

Engagement Tofu was the third dish, along with the story of Lauren’s engagement to Kyle ( and a little gentle ribbing about doing the dishes), and a lot of talk about pressing tofu (it seems we all agree Twin Oaks does not need to be pressed) as well as freezing tofu (which I do for certain dishes; General Tso’s Tofu) Pressing and freezing changes the texture of the tofu, making it more dense.

The last dish of the night was Quinoa with Olives and Parmesan ( or nutritional yeast if you are making it vegan).

“qunioa – a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the true grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach and tumbleweeds.”

That was the biology section of our post today, essentially quinoa can replace rice in most recipes, with 5g of fiber and 8 grams of protein it is perfect for vegans, vegetarians and omnivores alike.

Thank you Lauren for demystifying tempeh for me and thank you to Ellwood’s for hosting