Warm Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Lime

It's rare for me to buy fresh tomatoes out of season. Cherry tomatoes seem to travel better so I buy organic cherry tomatoes (grown in Mexico) for Larry's lunch salads all winter. They seem to taste okay, especially when dowsed in honey-balsamic salad dressing.

But the other day my local grocery store had organic vine-ripened tomatoes and I bought a few to stir into this warm salad of quinoa and black beans. The zest of the limes made the dish interesting, and the tomatoes added juiciness and color. I then went outside to encourage my tomato seedlings to grow faster — I'm ready for homegrown tomatoes.

Quinoa is a much-hyped high-protein grain. It's also really bitter, which is why I rinse it three times — the first time with boiling water. There's melted butter in the vinaigrette, which also helps soften the taste.

I came in from the garden and threw some black beans in the pressure cooker. While they were cooking (15 minutes once up to pressure), I cooked asparagus for our side dish, started the quinoa cooking, and whisked together the vinaigrettes for the asparagus and the quinoa salad. It took a little over 30 minutes to put dinner on the table, not too bad for a healthy meal made from scratch.

Warm Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Lime
1/3 cup dry black beans (or 1 can)
1 cup quinoa
2 limes
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 shallot, minced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Pick over the beans to remove any stones or debris. Rinse them, then cook in boiling water until tender (about 2 hours) or pressure cook for 15 minutes. (If they're still a little hard when you reduce the pressure, put the lid back on and let them simmer until they're tender. Don't overcook them — you want them to hold their shape.) Drain the beans and set aside. (Or open the can of beans, rinse well and drain.)

Put the quinoa in a sieve and pour boiling water over it. Drain well, then pour cold water over it twice. This thorough rinsing will wash off the bitter saponins. Cook the quinoa in a pot of lightly salted water for about 10 minutes until tender but not soft — al dente if you will. Drain it, return it to the pot, and leave it covered, off the heat, to rest 5 minutes or so until you're ready to use it. It will absorb any remaining water and become fluffy and dry.

Grate the limes to make 2 tsp of zest. Squeeze 2 tbsp of lime juice into a large bowl. Add the zest, melted butter and vegetable oil. Whisk in 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.

Add the black beans and stir well. If necessary, let the beans rest in the vinaigrette until the remaining ingredients are ready. Then toss in the quinoa, tomatoes, shallot and cilantro. Season with extra salt and pepper if needed.

Serves 4

White Bean Salad

Bean salads are the ultimate lunchbox treat. They travel well, are full of protein and fiber to nourish the body for a busy afternoon, and pair so well with a simple green salad and a piece of fruit for dessert that the lunch hour becomes a satisfying break for the spirit as well as the body.

This week we're eating a white bean salad with sun-dried tomatoes. I use large white lima beans, but cannellini would be pretty too. When I packed them for lunch, I added some halved cherry tomatoes for color and freshness. When I was really organized I snipped some fresh mint over top as well.

Cooking the beans with aromatics enhances their flavor. If you are using canned beans, drain 3-14oz cans of beans and rinse well. Stir in one celery stalk, chopped in bite-sized pieces, and omit the onion and bay leaves. The salad will still be good, but I do encourage you to try cooking your own beans.

I used the sun-dried tomatoes that are hard, not packed in oil. If you use the oil-packed kind, don't refresh them in hot water. Also, use a little of the oil in place of the olive oil for a richer flavor.

White Bean Salad
1 cup dried great northern or cannellini or navy or white lima beans
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 celery stalk, cut in half lengthwise
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes, softened a few minutes in hot water then drained
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp capers, drained
1 shallot, finely chopped (or a couple of spring onions)
1/4 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil

Sort the beans to pick out any stones or debris or broken beans and discard. Rinse and put in a large pot with the onion, celery, bay leaves and 8 cups water. Bring to the boil, then simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender but still hold their shape, about 2 hours. Pick out the onion, celery and bay leaves. Drain the beans and place in a large bowl. Add the sun-dried tomatoes.

In a small bowl, stir together the vinegar, parsley, capers, shallot, mustard, salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil to make an emulsion. Pour this over the warm beans, toss gently to combine, and set aside at room temperature to cool.

Just before serving, add chopped tomatoes if desired, and a little sprinkling of mint. Season with extra salt and pepper as desired.

Serves 4-6

Kale Salad with Grilled Carrots

Grilled carrots are really awesome. They're almost worth lighting a barbecue just for them.

Sunday night we cooked a full meal on the barbecue and I grilled some carrots and served them with a kale salad. The warm buttery carrots were a wonderful foil to the greens. And the salad made good leftovers for lunch the next day.

This is what I did.

Kale Salad with Grilled Carrots
Grilled Carrots:
6 carrots, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Kale Salad
juice of 1/2 lemon (and more to taste)
juice of scant half an orange
1 tsp chopped shallots
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch Tuscan kale

Cut carrots in half lengthwise. Blanch them in salted boiling water until tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain and cool in ice water. Dry them off and toss with the olive oil, oregano and balsamic. Grill over medium-high heat until grill marks appear, 3-5 minutes. Keep warm.

Whisk together lemon juice, orange juice, shallots, balsamic, olive oil, and a little salt and pepper.

Stem the kale and cut the leaves in half lengthwise. Stack them together and cut them in 1/4 inch strips crosswise. Toss the ribbons into the dressing, massaging the leaves well to absorb the oil and soften.

Mound the kale on a plate and place the warm grilled carrots on top.

Serves 4-6

Good as cold leftovers.

Simple Salad

We have some blue cheese crumbles in the fridge (from Organic Valley) so I've been sprinkling them on our dinner salads. The muskiness of the blue cheese complements the crunch of the vegetables and the sweet tanginess of the dressing.

Here's a salad I made the other night. It added a nice crunch to a meal of spicy rice casserole.

Simple Salad
1 shallot minced (about 2 tbsp)
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dijon
1 tbsp chopped chives
1 tsp honey
juice of 1/2 lemon
6 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
3/4 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
3/4 cup red pepper, sliced
3/4 cup radishes, halved and sliced
1/3 cup blue cheese crumbles

Whisk together shallot, vinegar, oil, mustard, chives, honey and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Toss lettuce with a little dressing. Put on a plate. Layer cucumber, red pepper and radishes on top. Pour a little dressing over all. Sprinkle crumbles on top.

Serve with remaining dressing on the side.

Serves 2-3

Sunday Morning Hash

After the morning rush of driving the crazy freeways to the Hollywood Farmers Market (yes, the freeways are crazy early on Sunday mornings - speed racers weave in and out, every couple of months we pass accidents, especially in the rainy season), buying the week's groceries, then braving the traffic home, we are ready to relax with a leisurely breakfast.

Yesterday, I went for simplicity. While Larry squeezed the o.j., I tossed diced potatoes and sweet potato in olive oil and cooked them in the toaster oven. I diced them small enough that they cooked quickly and became the perfect foil for simple fried eggs. Fresh blueberries and strawberries rounded out the meal.

(You might remember that Larry is not a fan of the sweet potato, but he really enjoyed this potato dish - the sweet potatoes, shallots and mushrooms mix with the red potatoes to make a hash that is fun to eat.)

A word about vocabulary: When we ate breakfast at Kitchen 24 on Cahuenga a couple of Sundays ago, the waiter explained to us the difference between hash browns, home fries and breakfast potatoes. My eyes glazed over, so I'm not sure what the technical term is for diced potatoes cooked in the toaster oven.  I'm calling it hash.

Sunday Morning Hash
5 oz cremini mushrooms
3 1/2 oz sweet potato
8 oz red potatoes
1 small shallot
1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Wipe the mushrooms clean and cut them in 1/2 inch pieces. Peel the sweet potato and red potatoes and cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch dice. Peel, half and thinly slice the shallot.

Toss the mushrooms, sweet potato, potatoes, shallot and oil together. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread in an even layer on a baking sheet and cook for 18-20 minutes, stirring at 10 minutes and 15 minutes, until tender and golden brown.

Serves 2-3

Roast Salted Sweet Potatoes with Sage

I'm always looking for new ways to cook sweet potatoes. Larry would be happy if I just cooked regular potatoes, but sweet potatoes are so much healthier - not to mention more colorful on the plate.

Sweet potatoes are high in antioxidants, and contain compounds that help our digestive systems be less sensitive to heavy metals and other toxins. We've done so well at polluting our soil and groundwater that our bodies need all the help they can get.

One of the challenges with sweet potatoes can be their texture. I buy from a farmer who has three or four varieties of sweet potato, some the soft juicy orange kind, others are dryer and more chestnut-y, and yet others are purple-ish. I tend to buy the orange ones because I like the color. And then I have to find a way to dry them out a little.

Slicing thin, sprinkling with salt, and roasting made the sweet potatoes delicious. I added garlic and sage, and a drizzle of lemon at the end, and Larry said these were the best sweet potatoes ever. (He thinks it was because of the salt.) If you don't like sage, leave it out. Or use thyme or rosemary instead.

The oil is essential, because we need to eat sweet potatoes with a little fat in order to get the health benefits. (That's true of so many vegetables, isn't it?)

In the picture on the right, the sweet potatoes are below, and a casserole of roasted shallots is on top. I keep experimenting with baking members of the onion family because I feel I should like them, but I don't. They get slimy and are hard to cut. We ate a couple of the shallots as a side dish, but I chopped the rest and added them to Green Rice the next day.

Roast Salted Sweet Potatoes with Sage
1 lb sweet potatoes
2 tsp olive oil
coarse salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage
juice of 1/2 lemon (or so)

Preheat oven to 375°F. (400°F works fine too if you're cooking something else at the same time, just keep an eye on the sweet potatoes so they don't burn.)

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into 1/4 inch slices across. Place on an oiled cookie sheet and lightly brush with more oil. Sprinkle with coarse salt and garlic.

Bake until the potatoes are tender when you poke them with a fork. Sprinkle with sage and lemon juice and serve.

Serves 2-3

Whole Oat Pilaf

Oats are one of the best foods we can eat to keep our inner microbes happy. There are a wide variety of microbes living inside us - the ones we hear most about are the ones in the large intestine that benefit from yogurt and other probiotics, but there are many many more -  and the fiber and natural sugars in oats do a great job of keeping them balanced and harmonious, which in turn helps us stay healthy.

Rolled oats serve this purpose, so granola is a good way to start the day.

However, whole oat groats are even better for the body.

And they make a fine substitute for brown rice when you're looking for a grain to round out a meal. Make sure to buy hulled oat groats, not the ones with the husks on that are used for sprouting. They should look similar to brown rice or barley.

I took advantage of the fresh peppers at the market to make this cheerful fall pilaf that I served with a bean stew, beets with mint, and wilted greens. It was a colorful meal that our bodies really appreciated.

(And it tasted good too!)

Whole Oat Pilaf
1 cup whole oats
1 jalapeno
1/2 red peppers
1/2 orange pepper
4 mushrooms
2 shallots
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh basil

Bring three cups of water to a boil, add 1/2 tsp salt and the oat groats, cover and simmer until cooked, about 20 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile dice the peppers and shallots. Chop the mushrooms and mince the garlic.

Warm the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the peppers, shallots, mushrooms and garlic and cook 2-3 minutes until crisp tender, stirring occasionally. Lower the heat and add the cooked oats. Season with salt and pepper. Toss so all is warmed through. Stir in the basil and serve immediately.

Serves 4

Beets - roots and greens

At this time of year when spring beets with their fresh greens are at the market, I like to cook them separately, then reunite them in this colorful dish that is flavorful without being too "beet-y".

When you get beets and their greens home from the market, cut the tops off and store them separately. Otherwise the roots will draw the liquid out of the greens and they will wilt.

Stored in the fridge, they will last a few days until you are ready to cook them.

This is a very simple recipe, suitable for these long spring evenings when you'd rather be out in the garden than in the kitchen.

And it's highly nutritious. Beets are full of iron and other minerals, they are good for the colon, the gall bladder, the kidneys, the eyes and heart -- well, actually they're good for the whole body.

(But then so are all vegetables. It makes for repetitive reading, but a true diversity of eating. We eat different vegetables every day, and still I look longingly at the varieties I have to leave behind at the market stalls.)

Anyway, beets are great. I hope you enjoy this colorful dish.

(If your beets don't have enough greens to make a decent dish - greens do shrink to practically nothing when they're cooked - then add any other green you like. Chard, spinach, kale, mustard greens, collard greens - they'd all be great in this dish.)

Beets - roots and greens
1 bunch beets with greens
1 tsp olive oil
1 shallot, diced
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
olive oil and salt and pepper to taste

Cut the greens from the beets.

Scrub the roots, place them in a covered casserole, and bake at 350°F until tender, 25-60 minutes depending on their size. Let cool until you can handle them, then peel and dice, and toss with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, wash the greens well. Cut the stems at the base of the leaves, and then chop the stems into small pieces. Chop the leaves coarsely.

Warm the shallot in the olive oil. Add the beet stems and let cook a couple of minutes until soft. Stir in the greens along with any water remaining on their leaves. (If they're completely dry, add a tablespoon of water.) Stir well, then cover the pot. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the greens are completely soft. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

Spread the greens on a serving plate. Pile the roots in the middle.

Let each diner add olive oil or balsamic vinegar to taste.

Serves 2-3 depending on the size of the beets.

Roasted Root Vegetables

Something magical happens to a root vegetable when you dice it, toss it in olive oil, and bake it in the oven. It gets tender and buttery - nothing like the tough gnarly thing you brought home from the market.

I like to use a variety of root vegetables in a casserole - each provides different nutrients, textures and colors. I can make a meal on this dish alone.

The ingredients vary depending on what is at the market. The recipe below is one I used last week, but vary it depending on what you like. I use roughly 1/3 potatoes and 2/3 other roots, by weight. I scrub all the roots well, and remove any hairs or nubbly parts. I always peel celeriac (celery root) and rutabagas. I sometimes peel parsnips, turnips and sweet potatoes. I never peel beets - way too messy.

Cut the vegetables in similar sizes - 3/4 inch is a good standard. Sweet potatoes cook more quickly than the others, so either cut them a little larger, or enjoy them a little soft.

What roots should you use? Start with potatoes and carrots, and add a few others. Try roots you don't think you like - you'll be amazed at the difference in flavor and texture when they're roasted.

You can use thyme or bay leaves (fresh or dried) in place of the rosemary. Sometimes I add peeled shallots or chunks of onion. Peeled garlic cloves are a good addition, as are cubes of peeled butternut squash.

This casserole is also wonderful re-warmed the next day - either as breakfast hash with a fried egg, or reheated in the oven as a side. Sometimes I make a quick root vegetable soup by puréeing them with some vegetable stock and reheating gently on the stove.

Roasted root vegetables - you'll wonder how you ever lived without them.

Roasted Root Vegetables
3/4 lb potatoes
1 celeriac (celery root)
1 sweet potato
2-3 beets
2-3 turnips
2 parsnips
1 rutabaga
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

Scrub all the roots well. With a sharp knife, remove the peel and all nubbly parts from the celeriac - you'll probably remove about 1/4 inch of peel in total. Peel the rutabaga, and the sweet potatoes, parsnips and turnips if you like. Trim the ends off the beets and remove any hairs from the stem end. Chop all the vegetables in roughly 3/4 inch dice.

Toss them in a large bowl with the olive oil, a good seasoning of salt and fresh pepper, and the rosemary. Pour into a casserole, cover, and bake at 375°F for 45-60 minutes until they are tender.

Serves 4-6