Turkey Chili

Here in the Northeast, it has certainly been a horrific few weeks with Mother Nature. Thankfully, we were all but spared minus a downed tree and a few evenings of rolling power outages.

All the talk of electricity, lack of heat and Nor'easter snow meant only one thing--it was time to cook and share my chili recipe!  That stick-to-your-insides, flavor-packed one pot meal that gets better each day it melds in your fridge.

This was one of my first real recipes. I pulled it together almost 15 years ago (gulp!) when I was living in Boston and wanted to enter my company chili contest.  As luck would have it, I won!  So, for fun, let's call this my "award-winning" turkey chili.

We top ours off greek yogurt, scallions and sometimes salsa.  Enjoy!

Turkey Chili
Ingredients

• 6 pieces of turkey or regular bacon
• 2 lbs of ground turkey meat
• 3 celery stalks, finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 can of white beans, rinsed in a colander
• 1 can of kidney beans, rinsed in a colander
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 2 large (16 oz) cans of diced tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons of chili powder
• 1 tablespoon of ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon of nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon of thai chili paste
• 1/2 - 4 tablespoons of Sirachi or hot sauce
• 1/2 cup of beer
• 1 cup of red wine
• Greek yogurt/sour cream and chopped scallions for topping

Directions

• In a large pot, brown the bacon over medium heat until it almost burns.  Remove from the pot, and let dry on a paper towel. 
• Drain 3/4 of the leftover fat from the pan if using regular bacon.
• Add the ground turkey to the fat in the pan, and brown breaking into small pieces with the back of a spoon.  When the turkey is almost cooked through, add the beer, garlic and onions and cook for 3-5 minutes. 
• Add the chili powder, cumin, green pepper and celery to the pot and cook for another few minutes. 
• Add all remaining ingredients except the sirachi/hot sauce, i.e. the two cans of rinsed beans, one can of tomato paste, two cans of diced tomatoes, nutmeg, thai chili paste, red wine and well crumbled bacon and mix well.
• Let simmer on low for 10-15 minutes, taste and add 1/2 to 4 tablespoons of sirachi depnding on your heat preference.  I typically add, then taste, add then taste.
• Simmer for at least another 20 minutes, 45 minutes ideally. 
• Top with greek yogurt or sour cream and enjoy!

Homemade Celery Salt

I am working my way through possible holiday gift projects.  Last year, I doled out homemade Baileys/Irish Cream, which was festive if slightly ironic considering I was pregnant and unable to enjoy it!  Previous years I've made salad dressing, flavored olive oils and homemade body scrubs. It is fun.

With two weeks of CSA celery stalks teetering towards wilt in my crisper, and the following recipe in my inbox, it was time for celery salt.  So easy to make, even easier to enjoy.  Perfect on fish, in a salad, topping soup and, my latest obsession, over scrambled eggs. 

This may just make the Holiday 2012 cut!  Do you have a go-to homemade gift? I'd love to hear about it below.

Homemade Celery Salt

Courtesy of 101 Cookbooks, a favorite food blog

Prep time: 5 min - Cook time: 7 min

Ingredients

• Leaves from one bunch of celery
• Flaky sea salt (Maldon sea salt is recommended)

Directions

• Pick all the leaves from the celery stalk, leaving stems behind.
• Rinse the leaves with cold water and then shake off as much water as you can. Gently pat them dry in a clean dish towel, or with paper towels ensuring they are as dry as possible. 
• Arrange the leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet, then roast in a 350F / 180C oven for about 5-7 minutes. Bake until dehydrated and crispy, but not browned.
• Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Once cool, use your fingers to crumble the leaves completely, discarding any leaves that aren't crispy.
• Combine equal parts celery leaves and salt in a jar, and shake to distribute the celery leaves evenly. Voila.

 

Rustic Apple Tart

Here are four good reasons why you should bake this apple tart: 

1. It's a recipe from the charming new kitchen memoir, My Berlin Kitchen, written by a favorite food blogger and loose acquaintance.
2. There is something perfectly fall-like about a bubbling, baked apple dessert.  
3. It's free form, making it a pleasant, less fussy alternative to the traditional pie.  
4. If your fridge looks anything like ours, below, it uses up a bunch of apples. And this photo was taken AFTER I baked!

So get peeling! I promise your just sweet enough tooth will thank you.

Rustic Apple Tart
Courtesy of The Wednesday Chef

Ingredients
Dough

• 1 cup all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes  
• 3 to 5 tablespoons of cold water

Filling

• 2 pounds of apples, peeled, cored and sliced (do not through out scraps) 
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3 to 5 tablespoons sugar, depending on your sweet tooth

Glaze

• Apple scraps
• 1/2 cup sugar

Tools

• Rolling pin
• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• Plastic wrap
• Pastry brush OR paper towel

Directions

• Put the flour, sugar, salt and butter cubes for the dough in a food processor bowl.  Pulse a few times, until the butter is broken up into lima bean size pieces
• Drizzle in the cold water one tablespoon at a time, processing or mixing as you go until the dough just holds.  You may need more or less water depending on your climate
• Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface, and quickly gather into a 4-inch-wide disk.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days
• Heat oven to 400 degrees and prepare a floured work surface again.  Remove the dough from the fridge, and roll it out (turning over if you like) until its about 14 inches round.  Since it will be a rustic tart, an ovalish shape is fine
• Place the dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Crowd as many apples as you can in concentric circles over the dough, leaving a 2 inch border. Fold the dough over the edges of the apples, leaving an open middle
• With a pastry brush or folded up paper towel, brush the butter over the apples and exposed upper crust. Top with a little sugar
• Slide into the oven on the center rack, and bake for 45 minutes, rotating halfway through
• Meanwhile, start the glaze by dumping the apple cores, peels, sugar and any leftover apple chunks in a sauce pan. Add water until the apple bits are just covered. Bring to a boil and cook for up to 30 minutes.  Strain the liquid, discarding the trimmings.  Return the liquid to the pan, and reduce until syrupy.  About 10-15 minutes
• When the tart is finished, pull off the parchment paper and let cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Brush the glaze over the apples and enjoy warm or at room temperature

Homemade Hummus

I kind of obsess over the photos that accompany my blog entries. I often make a dish for dinner, then remake it a few weeks later snapping a lot of pictures.  Sometimes 25 photos per vegetable.  Then I edit those photos down, and test between two and 10 pictures with each entry before posting.  It's fun to me, if also a bit obsessive.

Earlier this week, when I tweeted about my love of homemade hummus and a fellow foodie tweep asked for the recipe, I realized sometimes I should simply post without going crazy with the camera.

So here it is: My super simple, totally addictive homemade hummus recipe.  I love that homemade hummus doesn't have a uniform texture, and you can feel the chunks of the chick peas. There are two great things about this recipe1) you can not screw it up and 2) you can have lots of fun trying additional ingredients to spice it up... I'm looking at you roasted cherry tomatoes and pine nuts!

Homemade Hummus
Ingredients 

• 2 cups of chick peas / garbanzo beans*
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
• Up to 1 cup, plus 1 tablespoon of good extra virgin olive oil 
• 2 - 4 tablespoons of tahini
• Fresh Lemon Juice
• Salt 

*While canned chickpeas work just fine, it is sooooo easy to cook your own.  Soak dried chick peas in water over night. Rinse the beans, bring to a boil in a fresh water and lower the heat to a simmer, cooking for 1 - 1.25 hours.  Extra beans easily freeze. 

Directions 

• Saute garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, over medium heat for 1 - 2 minutes
• Add garlic, oil from the pan and chick peas to a food processor
• Pulse a few times until the chick peas start to break up
• Now, add 2 tablespoons of tahini, a quarter of the olive oil (1/4 cup), a sprinkle of salt and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.  Pulse the mixture well. Add another 1/4 cup of olive oil, if it's seeming dry. 
• Taste it! Do you like it?  
• Do you want a nutty flavor? Add the remaining tahini.  If you are looking for a smoother consistency, add the olive oil in 1/4 cup increments until you reach your desired consistency. For a brighter bite, add more lemon juice

Skirt Steak with Chimichurri & Husk Cherry Sauce

We enjoyed a lovely 10 day holiday in Montauk over Labor Day which included a BBQ at the house with friends.  I was determined to use those husky little guys above and decided to serve grilled skirt steak with two sauces... An herby chimichurri and a sweeter, roasted husk cherry sauce. 

Skirt steak is a perfect crowd-feeding cut because not only is it in-expensive, it is super easy to prepare (salt, grill, serve) and just looks good sliced on a serving platter. Paired with a choice of a sweet or spicy sauce, there was a taste for everyone.  Forgive me for the strange lighting in the picture of the final plate; I still had my camera on the night setting trying to capture the Harvest Moon below!

Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri & Husk Cherry Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/3 a pound per person of skirt steak
• Salt & Pepper

Directions 

• Salt & pepper the steak liberally
• Grill 3 minutes per side over medium heat
• Let rest 5 minutes before slicing

Roasted Husk Cherry Sauce
Ingredients

• 1 cup of husk cherries, husks removed*
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
• Salt & Pepper 

*Cherry tomatoes can be substituted if husk cherries / ground cherries are not readily available 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325
• Peel the husks off the fruit
• Toss the husk cherries / ground cherries with the half of the oil, salt & pepper and red pepper flakes
• Spread in an even layer in a glass pan and roast for 25-35 minutes until they just start to wrinkle
• Let cool, then puree adding the remaining olive oil as needed
• Heat gently before serving

Before

After

Chimchurri
Modified courtesy of Food52 

Ingredients

• 1 cup of cilantro
• 1/2 cup of mint
• 1/4 cup of fresh oregano
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced and sauteed in olive oil 
• 4 tablespoons red wine, rice or sherry vinegar 
• 1/4 cup of olive oil 
• 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

• Saute the roughly minced garlic in olive oil until fragrant
• Cool and transfer to a food processor or blender
• Add the remaining ingredients, and blend until processed
• Salt & pepper to taste

About Husk Cherries or Cape Gooseberries

Husk Cherries or Cape Gooseberries (not be confused with regular Gooseberries!) are little nightshades, covered in a papery husk.  Sweeter than a cherry tomato, they almost have a pineapple or jammy flavor.  They can be eaten raw in salads, dried or cooked into a dessert.

Vegetable Chana Masala

My love for all things food is happily extending into my relationships with others as friends and family increasingly reach out to gab about cooking.  Conversations with one high school friend lately have almost exclusively been about food. "What do you think about swapping goat cheese for feta in this recipe?" "Have you seen this foodblog?" "Tonight I'm making a crumble, I will let you know how it turns out...."  It's so fun for me.

So this post is a little virtual nod to our conversations.  It's vegetarian, because she is one, and it's an Indian recipe in tribute to the many lunch buffets we enjoyed when living in the same town years ago.

While the numbers of different spices might seem overwhelming at first glance, fear not.  You basically plop them all in the pot at one time and after a quick visit to a specialty market, you have enough spices for a number of dinners. I tried a handful of different recipes before settling on a modified version from this site. I omit fancy spice grinding and ginger (hubby hates it!) with the hopes of compiling an easy go-to curry for you.

My one suggestion? The first time you make this recipe, create identical mounds of the spice base.  Seal the second heap away in a zip lock bag, and voila, you are that much closer to your next curry.

Vegetable Chana Masala

Modified courtesy of Aarti Paarti

Ingredients

• 4 tomatoes, finely diced (about 2 cups)
• 1 summer squash diced into cubes  
• 2 cups of chopped greens (collards, kale, swiss chard) 
• 1 large white or red onion, finely diced
• 2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed well
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin 
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon amchur powder
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2-3 tablespoons peanut oil
• Juice of half a lemon or lime 
• 1 cup water
• Salt and pepper

 Directions

• Combine all the spices, except the cumin, in a bowl
• Set a skillet over medium-high heat, and warm the peanut oil until it’s shimmering.  Add the onions,  cumin and a little kosher salt, and saute until they start to brown (about 15 minutes). If the onions start to stick to the bottom of the pan, sprinkle with water and scrub up the pan bits.
• Add garlic; saute 30 seconds.
• Add the spice mixture (“masala”), and saute for 30 seconds. Then add the tomatoes and summer squash. Cook, seasoning with a little salt again, picking up anything that’s sticking to the bottom of the pan, until the tomatoes soften, deepen in colour and form a coarse sauce, about 5 minutes.
• Add the greens and chickpeas, and cover in the masala, cooking a minute or so.
• Stir in the cup of water, then gently simmer, uncovered for about 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning, adding salt, pepper and citrus juice as needed. Turn the heat off, cover and let sit for 10 minutes. Serve over rice.

Gojee, Go thee!

How did I not know about gojee.com?  Seriously, I cook, I am obsessed with food photography, I work in Internet search... Thank goodness a dear friend clued me in after reading this post.

Gojee is part food porn, part geek heaven. Drop-downs like "I have", "I crave" and "I dislike!" are combined with search results of gorgeous food images and quick links to recipes.  It's fantastic.  Check out the screen grabs below. 

Have an ingredient but at a loss of what to do with it? Gojee!  

Swiss Chard & Onion Pasta

This post is as much about the perfect afternoon, as it is about a delicious meal.  The pasta was easy to prepare ahead of time making it just right for a summer picnic.  Feta lends creaminess, caramelized onions a dose of sweetness, and swiss chard nutrient-rich goodness. I've added it to my go-to pasta list and hope you do too.

If only I could do the same with the afternoon, re-creating it whenever I pleased! Great friends in town, two new babies meeting for the first time and a sunshine-filled picnic. Here are my two guys, incognito, enjoying it.

Swiss Chard & Caramelized Onion Pasta

courtesy of The Kitchn

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons of olive oil
• 4 cups chopped white onions
• 8 cups packed chopped swiss chard
• 1 lb whole wheat penne or fusilli
• 1/2 lb crumbled feta cheese
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Water for pasta
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Start pasta water, and when boiling begin cooking it
• Meanwhile, in a large saute pan, saute onions in olive oil over medium heat for about 10 minutes, til they start to caramelize
• Add chopped greens to the pan, de-glaze with the balsamic vinegar and cook another 10-15 minutes
• Just as the pasta is finishing, add feta to the greens mixture (reduce heat to low) and mix to melt
• Add the pasta to the greens pan, mixing thoroughly with heat for a minute or two
• Salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot or at room temperature 

About Swiss Chard

Swiss Chard, also known as silverbeet, Roman kale or strawberry spinach, is a nutritional powerhouse. Popular in the Mediterranean, the stems are varied in color and can be grilled on their own for a crunchy treat. 

WWAD: Fava Bean Puree

WWAD: What Would Alice Do?  When in culinary doubt, this is the question I ask myself.  A quick look at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse Vegetables and I landed on Fava Bean Puree.  Many steps, not a lot of fruit for your labor but a very tasty result.  A result that my husband actually loved.  Fellow CSAers, with the excess fava beans, this post is for you!

While the puree makes a tasty dip or crostini topper, I used it as the sauce for a vegetable pasta. Yummy!

Up next?  Grilled Fava Beans.

Fava Bean Puree
Ingredients

• 3 pounds of fava beans in their pods (3 cups of shelled/shucked beans)
• 6 tablespoons of olive oil, plus more for finishing the purée
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, finely chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 thyme sprig
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Water
• Salt & Pepper

Directions 

• Bring a pot of water to boil, and prepare an ice bath nearby
• Add beans to boiling water and cook for one minute
• Drain and plunge the beans in the ice bath. Once cooled, pierce the shell and pop the inner bean out of the lighter shell
• Heat the olive oil in a saute pan, add the beans, garlic, herbs and salt
• Saute, mixing frequently and adding splashes of water as needed, for 20-25 minutes until the beans soften up
• Remove from heat, pull out the bay leaf and thyme sprig and mash in a food processor or by hand. Add the lemon juice, pepper and 1/2 - 3/4 cup of water if making a saucier puree

Cherry Yogurt Popsicles

The cherry capital of the world is in Northern Michigan, right by our family summer cottage. Traverse City and the Grand Traverse region harvest many wonderful delights in addition to all those cherries: breathtaking ocean-like sandy dunes, quaint lighthouses, sunlight until nearly 10 pm, petosky stones, birch trees, ideal swimming water, the list goes on and on. 

While I am unable to spend the extended time there my brother does (note to self: be a teacher in my next life!!), it's a true gem of a place that I'm lucky to visit every other summer. 

Today, like every Fourth of July, my family is hosting a party. It's one of those great traditions that has been happening for decades, on the exact same deck, with the exact same families. Here is their view:

We will especially miss the party this year, since we'd love to introduce our newest family member.  This post and recipe is in honor of the family BBQ and Northern Michigan. A shout-out to Crystal Lake and all those wonderful Cherries...

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!!

Cherry Yogurt Popsicles
Ingredients
(makes six 3oz Popsicles) 

• 1 cup of pitted fresh cherries 
• 12 oz of low fat Greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 3 tablespoons of agave syrup*
• 2 tablespoons of water

      *If you want a sweet popsicle, add more agave after taste testing the mixture

Directions 

• In a food processor or blender, puree the cherries and honey.  Optional: Remove 3 tablespoons of the mixture into a cup.
• Add the yogurt, agave and water, then puree until blended. Adjust sweetness to your taste, I prefer a tart popsicle.
• Fill the popsicle containers half way with the cherry yogurt mixture. 
• Optional: Spoon in 1/2 tablespoon of the reserve cherry/honey mixture per popsicle to add a few dense cherry red bites of color.
• Top with the remaining cherry yogurt mix, insert the sticks and freeze for at least 3 hours. 

Sweet & Spicy Cucumber Soup

Since my day job involves website analytics, I’ve had some nerdy fun following the search terms and traffic sources to my little blog.  My most trafficked post, for instance, is this tart and the most commonly used search terms resulting in a visit include “apple and pear crisp ina garten” “quinoa and kale crustless quiche” and “sopes Mexican”.  Dorky? You bet. Fun? For me.

My favorite stat is that, for a time, my carrot-ginger salad dressing blog post ranked 1^st in a Yahoo! blog search. As a former Yahoo! employee, that makes me smile. How, you may be wondering, does this get us to cucumber soup?

I was struggling, you see, to get rid of use all the cucumbers piling up in my produce drawer when it hit me. I’d go to Yahoo! Blog search, type in cucumber soup and use the first food blogger recipe in the search results. A little blogger pay it forward. It turns out this was a fairly auspicious decision because the soup is actually pretty darn good. Considering cucumbers are not my favorite, this is high praise!

As foodblogger Emma Clare aptly points out, the most redeeming quality is that this is NOT another cold cucumber soup.  It’s a roasted, spicy and served warm. If you  need to use up love cucumbers, I suggest you give this new approach a try. Enjoy!

Sweet & Spicy Roasted Cucumber Soup
Ingredients
Courtesy of Emma Clare Eats

• 4 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 cup olive oil, plus one tablespoon
• 2 tbs honey
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 cups broth
• 1 avocado
• 1 cup plain greek yogurt
• Salt & Pepper

 Directions  

  

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
• Peel and slice the cucumbers, then arrange in a baking dish. Whisk together the olive oil, honey, red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper; pour over cucumbers and toss to coat. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes.
• Meanwhile, saute the onion in 1 tbs olive oil for 3-4 minutes until soft. Sprinkle with pepper and cook for another minute. Add broth and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. 
• Remove from heat, add cooked cucumbers, broth and avocado. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth.  Top with a dollop of Greek yogurt and serve. 

Zucchini Turkey Burgers

While devouring turkey burgers the other night my husband said, (and I quote!), "At this point, I like your turkey burgers better than a regular burger." And by regular, he meant red meat.  Oh did my heart sing! I love when a healthier alternative becomes a preferred one, and I admit to putting a lot of effort into getting my turkey burgers just right.

The lower fat content in turkey means the burgers can dry out during the cooking process if you are not careful. To combat that, I add all sorts of liquid rich ingredients. I will saute apples, leeks, celery or even pears to add to the patties. I borrow liberally from the Mar-a-lago playbook and toss in chutney. I love sticking a disc of goat cheese in the middle for a goey surprise.  When a friend sent me this recipe for zucchini turkey burgers, I couldn't wait to give it a try with a local zucchini.

This is the simplest recipe, perfect for mid-week. I topped ours off with some of my quick pickled radishes, and wow were they good. Enjoy!

Zucchini Turkey Burgers
Ingredients

• 1 small zucchini, grated on the smallest holes of a box grater
• 1 lb of ground turkey meat
• 1/4 cup of panko or Italian bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried tarragon 
• Salt & Pepper
• Olive oil

Directions 

• Mix all the ingrediants together
• Form 4 patties
• Saute in a little olive over medium high heat, for 6-7 minutes per side
• Serve with the condiments of your choice (though I highly recommend pickled radishes / pickles of some kind!)

Pickled Radishes

Radishes were the first farm-fresh vegetable to stop me in my tracks.  The taste was so totally different, so totally better than the supermarket variety that my love affair with CSA's and farmers markets began.

There are so many great ways to eat radishes.  Raw with salt, sliced in a salad, roasted, just the green tops sauteed in olive oil, and now, pickled.

Pickled radishes make a great addition to sandwiches, sit pretty on a plate next to grilled protein and are a nice snack when you are craving something with a bit of a bite.  They *might* stink up the kitchen, but it is well worth it, I promise.  Best of all, they only take moments to prepare.

In the June #FoodiePenPals exchange, I was paired up with a local penpal and decided to fill my box with only homemade treats.  I included a jar of these pickled radishes, and hope they are as enjoyed by Andie as they are by me!

Pickled Radishes

Ingredients

• 6-8 summer radishes, thinly sliced on a mandoline or by hand
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds

Directions

• Thinly slice the radishes by hand or on a mandoline (a.k.a. the finger shredder 2000 as my husband refers to it)
• Place the radishes in seal-able container, cover with the water, vinegar, mustard and coriander seeds
• Mix well, and let refrigerate for 3-5 days before enjoying

Black Bean, Shrimp & Quinoa Salad

While I knew I'd love the food memories this blog would help me create, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the memories its helped me recollect. Like one about the little nuggets below.  Beans.

My final winter CSA share delivery and my wonderful #FoodiePenPal package both included bags of black beans. It was a sign that it was finally time to move away from the canned alternative.  I've been meaning to cook beans from scratch forever, in that "I will clean out my closet and go to good will" kinda way.  You should, you know the end result will be good, but you keep putting it off.

Sifting through the beans, I flashed back to my dad and the family baked beans recipe. A recipe, I am now realizing, I have to get my hands on.  A recipe I can't tell you much about but a recipe I can vividly picture being prepared. I'd arrive in the kitchen in the morning, and there, in the sink, red beans would be soaking.  A signal that a BBQ or party was imminent.  

The single challenge of cooking beans is planning ahead to soak them. Otherwise, it's a really really easy process. 1) Soak the beans overnight covered in two inches of water.  2) Rinse the beans twice the next morning.  3) For every cup of beans, add two cups of water, a clove of garlic, a bay leaf and a half a teaspoon of ground cumin into a pot.  4) Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour until tender, adding more water if necessary.  Done! Easy!

                                        Pre-soak                             In the morning

Even if you don't find the time to prepare your own black beans, the salad below is a bright, healthy and perfectly summery meal.  It serves four quite happily.

Black Bean, Shrimp & Quinoa Salad

Modified courtesy of Pressing On 

Ingredients  

• 1 cup uncooked white quinoa
• 2 cups of vegetable broth 
• 2 cups of rinsed, chopped kale 
• 4 cups of cooked black beans
• 1 cup chopped, fresh cilantro
• 2 ripe avocados, pealed and diced
• 1 lb medium shrimp, cleaned
• Juice of three - four limes  
• Zest of one lime
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil 
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• Salt & pepper

Directions

• Rinse your quinoa, and place it in a pot with the two cups of stock.  Bring to a simmer, cooking for 20 - 25 minutes until the stock is absorbed. 
• Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium heat in a saute pan, add the shrimp and saute 3-4 minutes a side.  Chop in half once cooled. 
• Steam the kale for 2-3 minutes until tender.
• Once the quinoa is cooked, fluff with a fork and then add the beans, kale, cilantro, avocado, shrimp salt, pepper, lime juice and zest and toss delicately to mix**.

** In a moment of total local gluttony, I snapped up a few soft shell crabs, simply sauteed them for two minutes a side in butter and served them on top of this salad. Totally d.i.v.i.n.e. but totally unnecessary.

About Quinoa

Quinoa is a super food.  High in protein, gluten free and rich in 8 essential amino acids like lysine, Quinoa is the ultimate grain.