Chard and White Bean Stew

Smitten Kitchen

Adapted a bit generously from Dan Barber

I started with a recipe from Dan Barber for a kale and white bean stew, even though I knew it wasn’t what I wanted. I have yet to get over my dislike of kale, despite a brief period of acceptance when I learned how to make it into chips. I used chard instead, but you could use any green you’ve got, even spinach. (Though if you are unfamiliar with chard but like spinach, trust me, you’ll love chard.) I also only used 2/3 of the greens suggested, because I really want this to be a white bean, not greens, stew. Then, I swapped some of the vegetable broth for pureed tomatoes, because that’s what I think a bean stew needs. I dialed back the broth a bit, because I don’t like soupy stews… Oh, and I added some weights and then (typical!) forgot I was weighing ingredients so only some are listed. Sorry about that.

Finally, I cooked the wine down more than suggested because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t accidentally going to booze up the kid so that he might accidentally get a good night’s sleep. Because that would be terrible, you know?

• 1 pound Swiss chard (can also swap kale, spinach or another green), ribs and stems removed and cleaned
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup (5 1/4 ounces) chopped carrots
• 1 cup (5 ounces) chopped celery
• 1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) chopped shallots, about 4 medium
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 15-ounce cans (or about 3 3/4 cups) white beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups (or more to taste) vegetable broth
• 1 cup pureed tomatoes (from a can/carton/your jarred summer supply)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 fresh thyme sprigs
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

Toasted bread slices, poached eggs (tutorial), chopped herbs such as tarragon, parsley or chives or grated Parmesan or Romano to serve (optional)

Bring medium pot of salted water to boil. Cook chard (or any heavier green; no need to precook baby spinach) for one minute, then drain and squeeze out as much extra water as possible. Coarsely chop chard.

Wipe out medium pot to dry it, and heat olive oil over medium. Add carrots, celery, shallots and garlic and saute for 15 minutes. Barber warns not to brown them but I didn’t mind a light golden color on them. Add wine (scraping up any bits that have stuck to the pot) and cook it until it reduced by three-fourths. Add beans, broth, tomatoes, a few pinches of salt, freshly ground black pepper, thyme and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Add chard and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove thyme and bay leaf. Add more broth if you’d like a thinner stew and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Serve as is drizzled with sherry vinegar. Or you can ladle the stew over thick piece of toasted country bread or baguette that has been rubbed lightly with half a clove of garlic, top that with a poached egg and a few drops of sherry vinegar and/or some grated cheese.   

Spinach and Smashed Egg Toast

I use this spinach method, scaled up, all the time to make a quick, lazy creamed spinach with dinner. (A more classic one is here. An even more gussied one is here.) Creme fraiche could replace the cream (unlike yogurt or sour cream, it doesn’t curdle when heated).

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 1 slice of your favorite hearty bread
• 2 ounces baby spinach
• 1 pat butter
• 1 tablespoon minced shallot or white onion
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon smooth Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon crumbled cheese, such as goat cheese or feta

Directions

Bring small pot of water to boil. Lower egg into it and boil for five (for a runnier egg, as seen in top photo) to six (for a less-runny but still loose egg, as seen in bottom two photos) minutes.* Rinse egg briefly under cool water and set aside.

Wash your spinach but no need to dry it. Put a small puddle of water in the bottom of a skillet and heat it over medium-high. Once the water is simmering, add the spinach and cook it until it is just wilted, and not a moment longer. Transfer it to a colander and press as much of the excess water out with the back of a fork as possible. No need to wring it out here; we’re hoping to those lovely wilted leaves intact. Keep that fork; you’ll use it again in a moment.

Put your bread in to toast.

Dry your skillet if it is still wet. Heat a pat of butter in it over medium-low heat. Add shallots and cook them for a few minutes, until translucent and a little sweet. Return spinach to skillet and add cream. Simmer them together for one minute, then season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Put your toast on your plate and spread it thinly with Dijon mustard. Heap the spinach-and-shallot mixture on top, then add the crumbled cheese. Peel your egg; doing so under running water can make this easier. Once peeled, place it on your spinach toast, smash it open with the back of that fork you used a minute ago, and sprinkle it with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Eat immediately.

* When you’re eating a soft-boiled egg right away, six minutes is the way to go. But here, since we boil the egg and then prepare the rest of the toast, it continues to cook and firm up a bit in its shell, so I’ve found that a 5 to 5 1/2 minute egg will give you the equivalent in the end.

Kale Tomato Soup with Chickpeas and Cumin Rice

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons ginger, minced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 shallots, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 2 cups water
• One ounce 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatos
• 1 bunch curly kale, stalks trimmed
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 1/2 ounces canned chickpeas, preferably low sodium
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons chili powder

Directions

Combine the ginger, olive oil, shallots, and zucchini in a pot. Sauté the ingredients together for 5 minutes. Add the water, can of tomatoes, ¾ of the bunch of kale, 1 tomato, can of chickpeas, cumin and chilli powder. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.

Using an immersion blender (or transfering the soup to a blender in batches), mix the soup until fully blended. Mince the final ¼ of the kale and put into the pot with the second tomato. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes and then serve hot. 

Kale Tabbouleh

From NY Times

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup fine bulgur
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt, more as needed
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, more as needed
• 1 bunch kale, stems removed, leaves finely chopped (5 cups)
• 2 large ripe tomatoes, diced (about 2 cups)
• 1/2 cup torn mint leaves
• 1/2 cup diced radish
• Black pepper, as needed

Directions

Cook bulgur according to package instructions. Cool.  In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, shallot, cumin and salt. Whisk in olive oil.  In a large bowl, toss together bulgur, kale, tomatoes, mint and radish. Toss in dressing. Season with black pepper and more salt if you like, and drizzle with additional oil if desired. 4 to 6 serving. 

Celeriac Gratin From Martha Stewart

Ingredients

• Unsalted butter, for the dish
• 4 shallots, thinly sliced
• 3 medium bulbs celeriac
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Gruyere cheese
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 1 1/2-quart gratin dish. Scatter shallots over bottom of dish. Trim celeriac by cutting off bottom and top, then cutting off thick outer layer with a sharp knife. Cut into 1/4-inch slices, and then julienne. Arrange evenly in gratin dish. Sprinkle thyme leaves over celeriac.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together cream, mustard, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Pour over celeriac, and sprinkle with cheeses. Cover with foil, and bake for 20 minutes.
3. Remove foil, and continue baking until top is brown and bubbly and cream is thickened and reduced, about 20 more minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, and serve.

Celeriac and Apple Mash with Blue Cheese

From Martha Stewart

There are MANY versions of the celeriac mash recipe, our favorites incude apples and/or cider. Potatoes are added to mellow the celery flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups homemade or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock
• 1 cup water
• 1 pound celeriac (also called celery root), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 medium shallot, coarsely chopped
• 1 dried bay leaf
• Coarse salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 ounce blue cheese (about 2 tablespoons), such as Buttermilk Blue, Danish blue, or Roquefort (see the Guide), plus more for crumbling

Directions

Bring stock, water, celeriac, potatoes, apple, shallot, bay leaf, and 1 teaspoon salt to a boil in a large pot. Cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Strain, reserving liquid; discard bay leaf. Return celeriac, potatoes, apple, and shallot to pot, and add 3/4 cup reserved cooking liquid. Coarsely mash with a potato masher. Using a fork, mash together butter and blue cheese in a small bowl. Stir into celeriac mixture. Season with salt. (Mash can be made up to 1 hour ahead; transfer to a heatproof bowl, cover, and set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally.)  Spoon into a warm serving bowl, and crumble blue cheese over top.

Chopped Miso Salad

from 101 Cookbooks

I used Westbrae Natural Organic Mellow Brown Rice Miso for the dressing. If you like the flavor of sesame oil - go ahead and add it to your dressing in fact you can go ahead and add it "to taste" - although sometimes I like to go a bit more neutral and skip rhe sesame oil altogether. I also had two small heads of little gem lettuce so I threw them in here as well. You can use any kind of extra-firm tofu you like here - this salad works well with baked tofu or plain. Tofu cooked in a skillet for a few minutes to take on some color is great - I cheated a bit and used Soy Deli baked tofu (savory) for the salad pictured up above.

1 1/2 cups shallots, skinned and thinly sliced
splash of extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of salt

2 tablespoons miso
1/2 teaspoon powdered mustard (or a bit of whatever mustard you have around)
2 tablespoons brown sugar (or honey or agave)
1/4 cup (brown) rice vinegar
1/3 cup mild flavored extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon pure toasted sesame oil (optional)

1/2 of a medium-large cabbage
1 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 medium red onion, sliced
3/4 cup chives, minced
8 ounces extra-firm tofu (see headnotes), room temperature

Stir together the shallots, splash of olive oil and big pinch of salt In a large skillet over medium heat. Stir every few minutes, you want the shallots to slowly brown over about 15 minutes. Let them get dark, dark brown (but not burn). if needed turn down the heat. Remove them from the skillet and onto a paper towel to cool in a single layer. they should crisp up a bit.

Make the dressing by whisking the miso, mustard, and brown sugar together. Now whisk in the rice vinegar and keep whisking until it's smooth. Gradually whisk in the olive oil, and then the sesame oil. Two pinches of fine grain salt. Taste and make any adjustments if needed.

Cut the cabbage into two quarters and cut out the core. Using a knife shred each quarter into whisper thin slices. The key here is bite-sized and thin. If any pieces look like they might be awkwardly long, cut those in half.

Gently toss the cabbage, shallots, almonds, red onion, chives and tofu in a large mixing/salad bowl. Add a generous drizzle of the miso dressing and toss again - until the dressing is evenly distributed. Add more a bit at a time if needed, until the salad is dressed to your liking.

Serves 3 - 4 as a main dish, 6 - 8 as a side.

Chicken with Potatoes, Bacon & Cabbage

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound new potatoes, thinly sliced 
• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 4 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts 
• 3 slices bacon, chopped 
• 1 small shallot, minced 
• 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar 
• 1/2 small head savoy cabbage (8 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch strips

Directions

1. Heat oven to 425° F. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the potatoes with 1 tablespoon of the oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Roast, tossing once, until golden brown and tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper; cook until golden brown and cooked through, 6 to 7 minutes per side.
3. In a second large skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes; remove. Add the shallot, mustard, and vinegar to the drippings in the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until the shallot is soft, 2 minutes. Add the cabbage and cook, tossing, until wilted, 2 to 4 minutes more. Serve with the chicken and sprinkle with the bacon. 

Broccoli with Lemon and Shallots

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter, divided
• 1 cup chopped shallots, divided (though shallots add a wonderful unique flavor, the red onions are a nice substitute)  
• 3 teaspoons grated lemon peel, divided
• 1 1/2 pounds broccoli crowns, cut into florets
• 1/4 cup water

Directions

Melt 1/4 cup butter with shallots or onions and 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon peel in very large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté 2 minutes. Mix in broccoli and 1/4 cup water.  Cover; cook until broccoli is crisp-tender and water evaporates, about 4 minutes. Add remaining lemon peel, season with salt and pepper, serve.

Balsamic Braised Brussels with Pancetta

Adapted from

Sunday Suppers at Lucques

From Smitten Kitchen:  

The only major change I made to this recipe was that I adapted it to cook the medium-sized brussels I can easily get, versus the baby ones Goin recommends - this required more liquid and much more cooking time but the reward is a heartier bite with the same complex flavors. The recipe below is for the larger sprouts.

Serves 6 to 8 as a side

 1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs (though I found I needed far less) 

2 teaspoons thyme leaves

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil plus an extra glug or two for drizzling

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 pounds medium-sized brussels sprouts, washed and trimmed

Salt and pepper

6 ounces pancetta in small dice (1 1/2 cups)

3 tablespoons minced shallots

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 cups veal stock, rich chicken or vegetable broth, more if needed 

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs and thyme with a couple glugs of olive oil, and spread on a cookie sheet. Toast, tossing frequently, until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes.

Heat butter and remaining olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until foamy. Add brussels sprouts, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and sauté, tossing frequently, until lightly browned, about 7 to 10 minutes. Add diced pancetta, and sauté, tossing frequently, until sprouts are well browned and softened slightly, and pancetta is crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes more. Reduce heat, add shallots and garlic, and sauté until fragrant, 2 minutes. Increase heat to high, add balsamic vinegar and stock, and cook, tossing frequently, until sprouts are glazed and tender, about 20 minutes; add more stock if needed. Taste, adjusting seasoning if necessary, and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Transfer to a warm serving bowl and scatter bread crumbs on top.

Dijon-Braised Brussels Sprouts

Serves 4 as a side dish

1 pound brussels sprouts
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup broth (chicken or vegetable)
2 to 3 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon smooth dijon mustard (or more to taste)
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional)

Trim sprouts and halve lengthwise. In a large, heavy 12-inch skillet heat butter and oil over moderate heat. Arrange halved sprouts in skillet, cut sides down, in one layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook sprouts, without turning until undersides are golden brown, about 5 minutes. [Updated to note: If your sprouts don't fit in one layer, don't fret! Brown them in batches, then add them all back to the pan, spreading them as flat as possible, before continuing with the shallots, wine, etc.]

Add the shallots, wine and stock and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, reduce the heat to medium-low (for a gentle simmer), cover the pot with a lid (foil works too, if your skillet lacks a lid) and cook the sprouts until they are tender can be pierced easily with the tip of a paring knife, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove the lid, and scoop out brussels (leaving the sauce behind). Add cream and simmer for two to three minutes, until slightly thickened. Whisk in mustard. Taste for seasoning, and adjust as necessary with more salt, pepper or Dijon. Pour sauce over brussels, sprinkle with parsley, if using, and serve immediately.