Roast squash

I love all the little squash that appear at the Hollywood Farmers Market in fall and winter. I work hard not to carry home armfuls of them each week. There are so many varieties to enjoy.

I used to just wash them and throw them in a 350 degree oven until they were soft. Then they are easy to cut and seed and serve as a side with a bean stew.

But now I have an even better way to cook them. It requires cutting them when they're raw, which is a little hazardous, but use a big sharp knife and keep your fingers out of the way. Then brush the wedges with olive oil, toss them in aromatic spices, and roast until tender. Wow.

Roast squash
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/4 tsp chili flakes
1/8 tsp salt
1 small winter squash

Warm the oil in a small frypan. Add the cumin and chili and let heat until fragrant. Add the salt, stir well and remove from the heat to infuse a little.

Wash the squash with dish soap and water. (You do use environmentally-friendly coconut-based dish soap, right? If not, use a veggie wash. The peel might end up so delicious you want to eat it.)

Cut the squash in half, then into wedges a couple of inches wide. Scrape the seeds and membranes off each piece.

Rub the cut edges of each wedge in the oil and spices and then place on a lightly oiled rimmed cookie sheet. Pour the remaining oil and spices over the squash.

Bake at 375°F about 30 minutes until tender.

Serves 2.

(This same method is also great with cauliflower - cut it into 2" florets, toss in the spiced oil, and cook in the same way.)

Pain aux Noix

Here's another of my occasional posts on baking my way through Bernard Clayton, Jr.'s excellent book, The Breads of France and How to Make Them in Your Own Kitchen (Bobbs Merrill 1978).

I'm not going to share the recipe with you - this is not a baking blog - but if you like to bake, I recommend you track this book down and give the recipes a try.

These are Pain aux Noix - and they came out looking just like the picture in the book!

They are made with whole wheat flour, additional bran, and a half pound of walnuts in the three one-pound loaves.

They are dense and delicious, full of nutty whole-wheat flavor. They make great cheesey toast, and cheese sandwiches.

I think I have to go eat a slice now.

P.S. I used this bread to make cheese sandwiches to take on the plane when visiting my mother in Montreal. The sandwiches were great, but we didn't need to eat them all. The next day I put the remains of a sandwich on my mother's snowy verandah railing for the birds. This squirrel found it, devoured it, and spent the next day waiting hopefully for us to hand out more sandwiches. (This bread has a lot of walnuts!)

Sweet Potatoes with Kaffir Lime Leaves

Living in Southern California, it's hard to restrain myself when admiring citrus trees in local nurseries. Sometimes they just have to come home with me.

We have a lemon and orange which were in the garden when we moved in. Now we also have a tangelo and a meyer lemon in pots, a meiwa kumkuat (latest addition - see it here), and a kaffir lime.

Interestingly, although the kaffir lime does have fruit -- which looks like regular limes but bumpy -- it's the leaves that are most often used in cooking.

They are tough, like bay leaves, so I prefer not to actually eat them. But they do impart a spritely citrus note to the foods they're cooked with.

I have found that they combine well with sweet potatoes. The mild citrus and floral notes of the lime leaves lighten the earthiness of the sweet potatoes, and also cut some of their innate sweetness. Altogether a successful dish.

If you don't have a kaffir lime, skip the leaves and use the juice of a regular lime. It will still be a good dish, just less floral. (The leaves of a regular lime tree just smell of leaves, so don't bother using them.)

I keep roasted poblanos in the freezer, easy to whip out and add to a dish like this. If you don't have a stash of your own, you can remedy that next fall. In the meantime, you should be able to find them year round at Mexican markets.

Sweet Potatoes with Kaffir Lime Leaves
2 sweet potatoes (roughly 1 1/2 lbs total)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
juice of 1/2 lime
sprinkle of hot pepper flakes
4 fresh kaffir lime leaves
1 poblano chile
1 tbsp fresh cilantro (optional)

Scrub the sweet potatoes, but don't peel them. Chop into 1-inch chunks. Toss the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet with the oil, 2 tsp lime juice, a sprinkling of salt, and the hot pepper flakes. Tear the lime leaves and scatter over top. (The potatoes should be in a single layer.)

Roast in a 375° oven for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, roast, peel and seed the poblano. (Click here for instructions.)

Add the poblano to the sweet potatoes and cook another 15 minutes until the sweet potatoes are tender and lightly browned. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Remove the tough stems from the kaffir lime leaves and slice the leaves into thin shreds. Toss the potatoes with the lime leaves, cilantro, salt and lime juice to taste.

The leaves are edible, but a little goes a long way, so let your guests know it's fine to leave them on the side of the plate.

Serves 2

Three Years Today!

Three years ago today, I launched this blog.

The first post was about the benefits of starting the day with fresh fruit, especially grapefruits in the winter because of their stress-busting and immune-boosting benefits. (You can read it here.)

I started writing because I was frustrated that my clients were depending on pills not food to get their daily nutrition. "Eating real food can be simple," I wanted to shout from the roof tops. "Plus it's the most important thing you can do for your health."

It didn't occur to me that three years later I'd still have things to write about.

But I do.

And I thank you for tuning in to read them.

I hope my endless enthusiasm for vegetables and whole grains and beans inspires you to add more of them into your daily life.

Because while Turbo Tonic (and other supplements) is a fine addition to a diet, the actual food we eat is the primary contributor to our health.

Watercress and Tangerine Salad

The watercress is flourishing on our patio. The banana plant collapsed in the icy weather, the bird baths froze over, and the watercress kept on growing.

It will die out in the heat of summer, but for now we have spicy homegrown greens for our salads.

The other night I tossed some watercress with a tangerine for a great combination of heat and sweet.

Watercress and Tangerine Salad
6 almonds
1 tangerine
2 cups watercress
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
salt

Toast the almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat. Toss with salt and let cool.

Peel and section the tangerine.

Rinse and dry the watercress. Remove any thick stems.

Combine the almonds, tangerine and watercress. Whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice. Add to the salad and toss gently. Season to taste.

Serves 2

The hummingbird was unamused when the fountain froze over.
The watercress seemed to enjoy the frosty weather.

Purple Mustard Greens

Purple mustard greens are back at the Hollywood Farmers Market!

I don't know what it is about these greens, but just the sight of them makes me happy.

(Mustard greens are a cruciferous vegetable, and so have the the anti-cancer benefits of this whole group of cabbage-like veg. But I think it's the purple color that makes me smile.)

I cooked up a big bunch of them the other night. It always amazes me how a big pot of greens shrinks down to almost nothing.

I sautéed half an onion in a tablespoon of olive oil until tender. I stirred in a few chile flakes, and then added the chopped mustard greens, still damp from the water I washed them in. I sprinkled some salt over the top, and then stirred the greens top to bottom to make sure all the leaves were covered with oil and salt which helps them wilt down more quickly.

I covered the pot and let them cook, stirring once or twice, for 10 minutes until they were very soft and tender. I turned off the heat and let them sit until the rest of the meal was cooked.

They were a great addition to a meal of farro and butternut squash, Mexican beans, fried cipollini onions, and a celeriac and beet salad.

Simple Carrot Salad

I think I'm very observant as I power through the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sunday mornings. But it turns out I miss a lot.

I've been buying apples regularly from Ha's Apple Farm at the south end of the market - he's had varieties I've never heard of, all of which have been delicious.

Last week I was buying apples, and I noticed a bottle of apple cider vinegar. I asked if that was new, and he assured me that no, he's been making and selling it for a long time. I just never noticed it before.

Of course I bought a bottle. Larry drinks apple cider vinegar every morning (you can see his post about it here) and I thought it would be nice to have vinegar made by someone we know.

Then I was inspired to make this simple carrot salad of grated carrots tossed with apple cider vinegar. It's so simple I'm almost embarrassed to describe it. But it tastes good, so I encourage you to try it too. So often carrot salads have mayonnaise and/or capers. This version has a cleaner taste, and the vinegar encourages digestion so it's a good addition to any meal.

The mild acidity of the vinegar enhanced the sweetness of the carrots, plus it kept them bright orange for a few days. I was able to put a large spoonful on the salads I packed for our lunches. (I like anything that makes that morning salad-making easier.)

Simple Carrot Salad
1/2 lb (3-4) carrots
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp salt

Grate the carrots. Toss with vinegar and salt. Taste and add more vinegar or salt to taste.

Serves 2-4

Thick Lentil Soup

On these chilly days, I automatically reach for the lentils.

Nothing is as warming as having a big pot of lentil soup in the fridge, ready to be re-heated in the middle of a busy day of gardening, or eaten in the evening by the fire with hot rolls and butter.

Best of all, lentils are a very good source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. They help your body lower cholesterol and keep your colon healthy. And like all legumes, they are good for the heart. They have significant quantities of folate which lowers homocysteine and magnesium which helps your veins and arteries relax.

This is the lentil soup we've been eating this week. It's actually more of a stew than a soup. You can serve it over brown rice, or add a little extra liquid and eat it as a thick soup.

Vary the recipe depending on what's in your fridge. I was going to add turnips, but they seem to have disappeared from the Hollywood Farmers Market. I fried up some cipollini onions, which add a sweet rich flavor, but regular onions would be fine too, or even the small white pearl onions. If you don't have fresh rosemary, use 1 tsp dried. Rosemary is good for the digestion, so it's a good herb to add to bean dishes if you don't eat them enough that your body is used to breaking them down.

Like all good soups, this one gets better with age. So make a big pot and enjoy it throughout the week, knowing that it is good for your body and soul.

Thick Lentil Soup
1 cup green lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine
4 carrots, diced
1 leek
4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and diced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
28-oz can diced tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
8-9 cipollini onions
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp lemon juice

Put the lentils, onion, garlic, carrots, leek, potato, celery and rosemary in a large pot, and cover with a quart of water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer 45-50 minutes until the lentils are tender.

Add the tomatoes with their juice, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Simmer gently.

Peel and halve the cipollini onions and fry in the vegetable oil until golden brown. Add to the pot.

Stir in lemon juice just before serving.

Serves 6-8

Macadamia Nut Burgers

Sometimes a burger hits the spot.

In this case, a nut burger.

When my grandmother was a vegetarian in 1960s England, you could buy nut rissoles in a tin. I guess they were early gardenburgers, before refrigeration was as reliable as it is today.

These macadamia nut burgers we ate the other night are nothing like the hockey puck called a gardenburger. (I've never seen a nut rissole so I can't compare them.)

They were crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, with texture from the nuts and celery.

We ate them with baked sweet potato fries and coleslaw - no buns. It was high protein fast food with a healthy twist.

I adapted the recipe from Rose Eliot's peanut burgers in her book The Complete Vegetarian Cuisine. It contains marmite, a staple of British school children and vegetarians (excellent source of B vitamins and a rich flavor similar to beef broth). You can buy it locally at Lucky Baldwin's Pub in Old Pasadena (along with other essentials like Branston pickle and Bird's custard powder).

The burgers will be good even without the marmite. You might add a little extra soy sauce if you like.

Macadamia Nut Burgers
3 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp marmite
1 cup roasted salted cashews
1/2 cup macadamia nuts
2/3 cup fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
extra breadcrumbs for coating
oil to coat the frypan

Grind the nuts fairly finely in a food processor or blender. Some large-ish bits are fine. Don't over-pulverize them and turn them to nut butter.

(You can also grind 1-2 slices of whole wheat bread to make the fresh breadcrumbs.)

Melt the butter or olive oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion and celery until soft, about 10 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook another 1-2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water and stir until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the soy sauce, marmite, nuts and fresh breadcrumbs.

Let the mixture cool until it's easy to handle, and then form 4 burgers about 1/3 inch thick. Press them together well, then pat dry breadcrumbs onto the top, turn them over, and pat more breadcrumbs on the other side. (The breadcrumbs will crisp up in the frypan and make a crunchy exterior.)

Warm the frypan over medium heat. Pour in enough oil to just cover the bottom of the pan. Cook the burgers about 5 minutes on each side, until browned and crisp.

Drain on paper towels, then serve hot.

Serves 4.

(Store the leftovers in the fridge. They reheat well in the toaster oven. The uncooked burgers will last a few days in the fridge. Cook as needed.)

Macadamia nuts

I was strolling through the Hollywood Farmers Market a few weeks ago when I was brought up short by small boxes of round wooden things. They were macadamia nuts - in the shell.

I had never seen the whole nuts before, so of course I had to bring some home. They're organic macadamias grown near San Diego.

I suggested to Larry that he crack a few so we could try them.

Two nut crackers and much grunting and cussing later, Larry was on wikipedia searching for macadamia-opening strategies. Place the nutcracker on the round spot, crack them on the little line - whatever he tried, it didn't work. After much struggle he shared one shelled macadamia nut with me and mum. It was very good, but I can see why they're usually sold without the shells.

The following week I stopped at the stall where I'd bought the nuts to ask how they opened them.

It turns out the secret trick is to wrap a nut in an old towel and tap it with a hammer.

So yesterday I sat on the concrete floor of our garage with an old towel, a hammer, and the macadamia nuts. Tap is a relative term - some nuts require more bashing than others. And the towel is essential, not just to soften the blow from the hammer, but to contain the nut shells. They are hard and thick and could definitely do damage.

I managed to remove all the nuts from their shells without harming me or the floor. Some of the nuts split in half, but a remarkable number stayed whole and just popped out of the shell. The towel, however, got holes in it from the broken edges of the nutshells. Did I mention they're hard?

Now I have a half cup of shelled macadamia nuts. What to do with them?

I confess to not having eaten many macadamia nuts in my life. The main recipe I know is for white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, which seems a little like overkill, especially after the holidays.
So instead I'll be using them in Rose Eliot's recipe for nut burgers. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Winter Fruit

Winter fruit is extra high in Vitamin C, very useful in cold and flu season.

We juice oranges on Sundays, and take tangerines and apples in our lunch bags.

Our bowls of morning fruit are full of the excellent grapefruit we get from Jorge at the Hollywood Farmers Market - both pink and white. I add color with pomegranate seeds, and an extra zip with kumquats from the dwarf meiwa tree mum gave me for Christmas. The fruit is a little larger than a regular kumquat, and a little sweeter.

All these vitamins help us feel stronger during this virus and bacteria laden season. And eating the fresh fruit is much more fun than swallowing a vitamin pill.

Isn't it cute? This is the dwarf meiwa kumkuat we got at Bellefontaine Nursery in Pasadena. It was tough to come home with only one citrus tree - talk about a place of temptation!

Sweet Potato Biscuits

As I mentioned in my last post, I served a root vegetable soup to celebrate the Winter Solstice, and to encourage the sun to return after the longest night of the year.

What I didn't mention was that with the soup I served sweet potato biscuits - in round sun-like shapes of course.

Both my mother and my husband declared this to be the best use of sweet potatoes ever.

(It's a recipe from the a book I recommend to all bakers, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Easy Artisan Bread by Yvonne Ruperti. Her naan recipe is great too.)

Sweet potatoes are high in beta carotene and other antioxidants that are particularly good for the digestive tract. They are high in anti-inflammatories, and are also being studied for their ability to minimize the negative affects of heavy metals on the body. We should all be eating them regularly.

If, like mine, your family balks at eating these excellent orange tubers, try these biscuits. Serve them hot with butter and a healthy soup, and even the most reluctant sweet potato eater will dig in.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

1 large sweet potato (to make 1 cup mashed)

1 3/4 cups flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

8 tbsp unsalted butter, very soft

1/2 cup buttermilk

Scrub sweet potato well, and then prick it several times with a fork. Bake on a cookie sheet in a 425°F oven 30-40 minutes until soft. Let cool completely (about 45 minutes) then peel and mash. Keep one cup for this recipe and save any leftovers for another use. (Using too much sweet potato will make the dough wetter and harder to handle.)

Keep oven at 425°F.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in the mashed potato, soft butter, and buttermilk until just combined.

(I can't find organic buttermilk, so instead I squeeze a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice into the bottom of a measuring cup, and then pour in regular organic milk to the 1/2 cup measure. I let it sit a couple of minutes before adding to the mix. It won't look like buttermilk, but it has the right chemistry to help the baking powder reactions that make the biscuits rise.)

On a well floured surface, pat or roll the dough to a rectangle 3/4 inch thick. This is a moist dough, so it's easier to just cut the rectangle into 12 squares. However, to make sun biscuits, cut rounds with a well-floured 2 1/4" cookie cutter. Push the cutter straight down and then up. Don't twist it or the biscuits won't rise as high. Push the trimmings together to make a 13th funny-looking biscuit.

Place the biscuits on a lined cookie sheet and bake 25 minutes until golden brown and set.

Makes 12-13 biscuits.

Root vegetable soup

I made this golden soup on the Winter Solstice to remind the sun to come back after the longest night of the year. (As you can see, it worked.) I floated a slice of golden beet on each bowl as extra encouragement.

This simple root vegetable soup was inspired by the baby rutabagas and turnips and the golden beets at the Flora Bella and Finley Farms stands at the Hollywood Farmers Market. 

Because I had run out of vegetable stock, I used a base of onions and garlic cooked in olive oil and butter - similar to the way I start risotto. I usually depend on good stock for well-flavored soup, but the flavors of the roots shone through in this dish.

I added protein in the form of pinquito beans, tiny little beans native to southern California that I buy at the Hollywood Farmers Market. You could use adzuki beans instead, or any other small bean.

Don't wait until next Winter Solstice to try this yummy dish.

Solstice Root Vegetable Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp unsalted butter

3/4 cup diced onion

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 cup dried pinquito beans

3 golden beets

5 small turnips (5 oz total)

7 very small rutabagas (8 oz total)

2 carrots

5 cups water

1 tbsp salt

Cook the beans in a large amount of boiling water until cooked, 2-3 hours. Drain and set aside.

Scrub the roots, take off the tops and ends, and chop them in 1/4 to 1/2 inch dice.

Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil and butter until tender and fragrant. Stir in the remaining ingredients and simmer, covered, until all the roots are meltingly tender.

Serve hot with fresh pepper to add as desired.

Serves 3-5.

Brazilian collards

Collard greens are a great way to get the health benefits of brassicas without eating cabbage. Not that there's anything wrong with cabbage, or broccoli for that matter, but it's nice to have a simple green that cooks quickly and is full of good nutrition.

Collards are exceptional anti-cancer greens. They are full of anti-oxidants, anti-inflammatories, and sulfur-containing nutrients that help the body ward off cancerous changes in the breast, prostate, bladder, colon and more.

I read in Maria Baez Kijac's fascinating book, The South American Table, that collard greens are the traditional side dish to serve with feijoada, the Brazilian black bean and meat dish. I used the same simple technique on New Year's Day, and served the collards with hoppin' john — black-eyed peas and brown rice. An excellent combination.

If you find collards at the market, pick them up and try this simple recipe. If you don't like soft mushy greens, it will be a revelation.

Collard Greens
1 bunch collard greens
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Wash the greens and cut out the heavy stems. I do this by placing the leaf flat on a board and cutting down each side of the stem with a long knife. I then cut the leaf through at the top to make two half-leaves. I threw the stems in the compost. Although they can be cooked and eaten, this dish is best with just the leaves. Roll a few half-leaves into a cigar shape, and cut them across in fine slices. You will get thin ribbons of greens.

When you are ready to eat, warm the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Using the flat side of your  knife, mash the garlic on your cutting board with the salt and pepper. Stir it into the warm oil, then add the collards and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and let simmer, stirring occasionally, 5-10 minutes until the greens are done to your liking. They will retain their shape, and are best with a slight crispness. Taste for seasoning and serve immediately.

Serves 2-4

Welcoming the New Year

Even though I've never lived in the south, I've adopted the tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. I use a recipe from Diana Shaw's book, Vegetarian Entertaining, which combines the peas with brown rice and smoked cheese for a protein-rich comfort food dish that helped ease us into 2013.

(I'm sure true Southerners would blanch at calling this decidedly untraditional dish hoppin' john.)

I used dried black eyed peas that I buy at the Hollywood Farmers Market. I find they cook in about the same time as the brown rice so I don't pre-soak them. If your beans are older, soak them overnight or for a few hours in cold water, then drain them before adding them to the pot. I suppose you could use canned beans, stirring them in at the end to cook through, but I'm not sure the flavor would be as good.

The color comes from a roasted red pepper. Since pepper season is finished here in southern California, I pulled a roasted pepper from my freezer. Each fall when organic peppers are overflowing at the Tutti Frutti stand, I buy dozens to roast and freeze. (Click here for my post on roasting peppers.) They defrost well for any cooked dish, and have that great roasted flavor.

For the liquid I used one cup of my roasted vegetable stock and 3 cups water.

The final touch is the smokiness of the cheese stirred in at the end. Diana calls for smoked mozzarella, but I prefer smoked firehouse Mike cheddar from the jersey cows at Spring Hill Organic Farm (sold at the Hollywood Farmers' Market). It adds a little kick along with the smoke.

With this gooey, soft dish (which Larry says is very hard to photograph attractively), I served Brazilian-style collard greens and an Indian flatbread. Later we sat by the fire with port and stilton, and felt very well-fed by vegetarian dishes from around the world.

Hoppin' John
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp oil
1 large red pepper, roasted, seeded and chopped
1 cup black-eyed peas, picked over and rinsed
1 cup long-grain brown rice, rinsed
4 cups water or vegetable stock
1/3 cup minced parsley
3/4 cup diced smoked cheese

In a large pan, sauté the onion and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in the red pepper, black-eyed peas, rice and water or stock. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer over low heat until the beans and rice and cooked through, 45-60 minutes. Add liquid if needed. If the beans and rice are cooked and too much liquid remains, remove the lid and cook until it evaporates.

(It can sit off the heat now until you're ready to eat. Reheat gently before stirring in the cheese.)

Stir in the parsley and cheese. Serves 6.

Reheats well and makes great leftovers.

Saying good-bye to 2012

I could think of no better New Year's Eve dinner than a feisty dish of wild arugula and gorgonzola.

The arugula is lightly sautéed with mushrooms and diced tomatoes. The gorgonzola melts when tossed with hot pasta, and the ingredients meld together to create a dish that is even better than the sum of its parts.

It was a great way to see 2012 out with gusto.

Penne with Arugula and Gorgonzola
16-oz package penne
3 tbsp olive oil
6 oz crimini mushrooms
14-oz can diced tomatoes
1 bunch arugula
6-8 oz gorgonzola

Cook penne in a large pot of boiling salted water according to the directions on the package.

Cut the mushrooms in quarters (or sixths if they're large). Wash the arugula, remove the bigger stems, and tear it in large pieces. Sauté the mushrooms in the olive oil for five minutes. Drain the tomatoes, saving the juice for another use, and add them along with the arugula. Sauté another couple of minutes. Spoon into a large serving bowl. Cut the gorgonzola in large dice and stir it into the vegetables.

Drain the pasta well and add it to the bowl. Add freshly-ground pepper and toss well.

Serves 4-6.

It even looks like health food (before the pasta and cheese are added).

Versatile persimmons

Our morning fruit has been extra colorful recently, with the addition of persimmons to the grapes and pears.

There are two kinds of persimmons - those that are good when firm, and others that need to be very mushy in order to taste good.

I prefer the firm ones, the fuyus. They are what I cut up for our bowls of fruit.

At Thanksgiving, I served persimmons in a colorful salad with pomegranate seeds, lime juice and jalapenos. It was pretty and zesty — a lively addition to the festivities.

Persimmon and Pomegranate Salad
1 lime
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
2 fuyu persimmons
seeds from half a pomegranate
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp oil
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
lettuce

Toss the jalapeno in the lime juice and let stand a couple of minutes. Cut out the stem end of the persimmons, and take a thin slice off the bottom. Quarter and thinly slice the persimmons, and add to the jalapeno. Peel half the pomegranate (see my blog post here for detailed instructions and pictures), and add the seeds to the bowl along with the pumpkin seeds, olive oil and cilantro. Turn well and let marinate at room temperature 30 minutes to 2 hours. Line a platter with lettuce and pile the salad on top.

Serves 4.

Spiced Lemon Quinoa

Quinoa is a high-protein grain that makes a quick main dish. The other night I served it with broiled eggplant, steamed broccoli, and baby turnips with their greens. It was a colorful meal full of good flavor.

I cooked the quinoa with Indian pilaf flavorings, and even went so far as to cook a couple of tablespoons of channa dal (yellow split peas) ahead of time to add to the authenticity of the dish. You can skip the dal if you like, but it adds a nice texture and variety.

Do not skip pouring boiling water over the uncooked quinoa. It removes the saponins, bitter chemicals that give quinoa its bad name. Without them, it's quite a tasty grain.

Spiced Lemon Quinoa
2 tbsp yellow split peas or channa dal
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 serrano chile, seeded and diced
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp salt
5 oz loosely packed spinach (6 cups)
1 cup quinoa
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped cilantro (optional)

Cook split peas in boiling water until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and pat dry.

Put quinoa in a sieve and pour boiling water over it a couple of times to remove the saponins. Cook in 4 cups boiling water with 1/2 tsp salt until tender, about 10-12 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Heat oil over medium heat. Add mustard seeds, cover the pan, and cook until they pop, 1 minute. Stir in cumin and cook until sizzling. Stir in split peas, chile, tumeric and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook, stirring often, until split peas start to turn golden brown. (If not using the split peas, cook until spices are fragrant.) Scrape into a bowl.

Add spinach to hot skillet, increase heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring, until wilted, just a few minutes. Drain any liquid. Stir in cooked quinoa, split pea mixture, and 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice. Toss to mix. Season with salt and more lemon juice to taste. Scatter cilantro on top and serve.

Serves 4

Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

This was our Thanksgiving day menu:

Halftime appetizer:
Pumpkin empanadas with cilantro-mint dipping sauce

Dinner:
Honey-baked ham (for Larry and Trace)
Homemade bread with honey butter
Green bean and mushroom casserole
Baked kabocha squash
Spicy brown rice with mushrooms and chipotles
Kohlrabi greens and roots with garlic
Beets with mint
Salad with persimmons and pomegranate seeds

Dessert:
Lemon pudding cake with cranberry syrup

Giving Thanks

We had a good Thanksgiving. Tracie visited, the right football team won, and the food was yummy.

As I sat looking at the bounty on the table, I thought of the farmers who grew the food we were eating:

Finley Farms: lettuce, leek

Jared: onions, kabocha squash, garlic

Givens Farms: purple kohlrabi (Tracie's favorite!), green beans

Jorge: pomegranates, limes

Mr. Ha: eggs, persimmons

South Central Farmers Cooperative: beets, cilantro

Spring Hill Dairy: smoked firehouse Mike cheddar

and our own magical garden which provided the pumpkin (self-seeded!), mint and lemons.

Thank you all! You made our Thanksgiving delicious.