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Posts Tagged ‘kale’

Brrrr…..Soup!

Posted in Farms, food photography, Natural Foods, Oregon, recipes, tagged , , , , , , on December 10, 2011 | 4 Comments »

I had an early morning shoot today and not thinking ahead, I arrived fresh from the shower with sopping wet hair (tucked into a tidy bun), to St. Jack’s patisserie. It’s 29 degrees out. I know that’s not cold for some of you…but it’s pretty cold for us. While shooting the outdoor environmentals, (hoping that my hair won’t freeze and that I couldn’t possibly get pneumonia, right?), I thought about this soup waiting for me at home. Thick with hearty beans and bursting with winter vegetables, brothy enough warrant the pleasurable need for crusty bread to sop up the juices. A perfect soup to come home to on a brisk winter’s day.

© Dina Avila

I had more food pictures for you, I really did. But something happened and I haven’t quite figured out what. I was in a hurry yesterday and I either uploaded the images to a strange and remote location, or not at all. Instead, I offer you a glimpse into yesterday’s Christmas tree hunting adventure with Adam’s folks, and, fortunately, at the very least, the soup.

© Dina Avila

Cheers!

Kale and Pumpkin Ministra

Inspired by a recipe in Food and Wine

The original recipe calls for butternut squash pasta and gently wilted kale. I decided I wanted a heartier and richer flavored soup, so I used some of stash of fancy Peruvian Christmas Lima beans in place of the pasta and roasted the veggies in the oven.

What you’ll need~

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1 small pumpkin, or squash of your choice, seeds rinsed and reserved and cut into quarters

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon dried sage, crumbled

1 bunch kale, stemmed and chopped

4 cups chicken broth

Salt and pepper

1-2 cups beans, cooked

Parmesan for shaving

Heat the oven to 375.

Toss the pumpkin and onion with half of the olive oil, a generous pinch of salt, a couple of grinds of pepper and the crumbled dried sage. Place on half of your baking sheet.

Place in the oven and bake until the pumpkin is tender. About 30 minutes. Be sure to stir the onions here and there so they don’t char too much.

Toss the kale with the rest of the olive oil, the reserved pumpkin seeds and sliced garlic.

After about 15 minutes into cooking, add the kale to to the other half of the baking sheet.

Stir the kale every 5-10 minutes until it’s nice and crisp. About 15 minutes.

Once the kale is cooked and the pumpkin is tender, remove from the oven and set aside until the pumpkin is cool enough to handle.

In the meantime, warm chicken broth in a large saucepan and add the beans. Add the kale and onions.

Scrape the pumpkin meat out of its skin, and cube up the meat as best as you can. Toss into the broth.

Let simmer gently for about 20 minutes to allow the flavors to come together.

Serve warm with a generous serving of parmesan shavings on top and some crusty bread for sopping on the side.

© Dina Avila

© Dina Avila

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Black and White Quinoa Salad for a Gloomy Summer’s Day

Posted in food, food photography, Natural Foods, Oregon, tagged , , , , , on June 28, 2011 | 15 Comments »

I’ve been meaning to make this salad for about a week now. I had all of the ingredients gathered (sort of), and then life took over, I got busy and the week passed. Thank goodness kale is a hearty beast of a vegetable. She held together quite nicely with hardly a wilt while wrapped in plastic and shoved in the vegetable crisper.

Once again, I give Heidi Swanson credit for inspiring yet another recipe. This is how it works: I contemplate making a simple dish for dinner, and my blog, I pick up Super Natural Every Day, let the pages flutter by until something jumps out at me. This week it was her Whole Grain Rice Salad that popped off the page and said hello. Well, I didn’t have about most of the ingredients, so I used Heidi’s recipe as a guide. I poked around my kitchen and grabbed a jar of black quinoa to mix with regular quinoa, kale and cilantro make an appearance, (a combination that I feared may be fateful), dried cherries and ricotta salata. Oh, and pistachio’s for a bit of a crunch.

This was almost another case of too many ingredients in the pot (I was really worried about the kale/cilantro combo) but this salad turned out to be earthy and bright and perfect for this grey and humid summer’s day.

Cheers!

Thanks to Bon Appetit for featuring this post on bonappetit.com!

Black and White Quinoa Salad with a Champagne Vinaigrette Dressing

Inspired by Super Natural Every Day, Heidi Swanson

What you’ll need~

2 cups black and regular quinoa, cooked

1 bunch kale, roughly chopped and steamed

Handful of dried cherries

Handful of shelled pistachios

Handful of cilantro leaves to sprinkle on the finished dish

Handful of crumbled ricotta salata

Pinch or two coarse sea salt

For the dressing~

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 Champagne vinegar

7-10 cilantro leaves

8-10 dried cherries

Pinch of sea salt

Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake until blended.

Fold all of the salad ingredients together, save the cheese and cilantro, in a large bowl. Transfer to a serving dish, drizzle with salad dressing, sprinkle with cilantro leaves and a few pinches of coarse sea salt. Serve warm.

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Crepe Fail and Super Cute Bowls

Posted in artist, Asian Food, food, food photography, Natural Foods, people, portland, tagged , , , , , on March 10, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Sometimes it takes a crêpe failure to force the creative juices to flow into a meal that is not only surprisingly delicious, but incredibly simple to make.

First, it started with inspiration. I was cruising Lara Ferroni’s blog, Cook and Eat, and came across her crêpe recipe. So simple and so beautiful. With fond recollection I remembered the last (and only) time I made crepes. It was my 38th birthday two November’s ago. Granted I was under the influence of morning mimosas, but the crêpes turned out perfectly with nary a hiccup…that I’m aware of, at least.

Kale, citrus, cipollini onion and sausage. How could I go wrong? But something went terribly astray. I don’t know if the batter was too thick or thin, if the pan was too hot or cool, too dry or too wet. No idea. Whatever the cause, I failed. Utterly. Goopy bits of crêpe batter clinging to my spatula (maybe I need a thinner spatula??), an expletive of frustration, a text of failure to Adam, and then reassessment.

I poked around in my pantry, because dammit, I was going to cook and post something today. Besides, I know you love reading about my kitchen failures. Their fun, aren’t they? And I know we all relate. It’s kinda like reality TV, but better. And less trashy.

Anyway, I put on Leonard Cohen, stepped away and made some pictures of these fantastically cute bowls I picked up from a local ceramic studio. The artist Puji is beautiful and talented. Like her on Facebook and then buy her wares.

Aren’t these the sweetest dishes ever? Irresistibly adorable. And yeah, I’m broke now, but, hey, I have cute bowls.

Cheers!

Udon Noodles with Citrus Sautéed Kale and Cipollini Onions

I think this a wonderful base for a vegetarian meal. Or to serve as a starter. Maybe add adzuki beans for little protein? I stirred in chicken apple sausage, but thought visually this dish was much prettier without it.

Also, I went a little heavy on the ground ginger and red pepper flakes to balance the sweetness of the onions and the tangerines. Definitely doctor yours to taste.

What you’ll need~

One bunch kale, stems trimmed, leaves coarsely chopped

1 cipollini onion thinly sliced

2-3 honey tangerines, or citrus of your choice, wedges cut into thirds

Olive oil

Splash of champagne vinegar

Red Pepper flakes

Ground ginger, or fresh if you have it

Salt and Pepper to taste

One bundle, about 3 oz udon noodles

Bring a pot of water to a boil and add noodles. Let cook for about 3-4 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.

Warm olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add onions a tangerine chunks and stir until onion is translucent and tangerines start to caramelize. About 4-5 minutes.

Add a splash or two of vinegar, a generous sprinkling of ground ginger and crushed red pepper flakes.

Toss in kale and stir until it just starts to wilt.

Using your hands, because udon likes to stick together, gently pull apart noodles and drop them in the pan stirring all the while with your third hand :)

Mix it all together until well combined and serve piping hot in very cute bowls.

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A Twist on Portuguese Kale Soup

Posted in food, food photography, people, recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

The weather is shifting toward the cooler months and my mind wanders to soups and stews, root vegetables and warmth. A gradual introduction of heavier meals feels appropriate and I decided to make a light soup to get the digestive juices flowing.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my Azorean dad could, or perhaps preferred, to cook one or two things. One of them being Couves Soup. The Couves, or kale, grew on the hill next to the house we grew up in alongside the ubiquitous fava beans and under an ever-present cloud of white cabbage butterflies fluttering nearby.

I can’t exactly remember what was in my dads Sopa de Couves, but I do remember that is was simple. Brothy, fresh, with maybe a root vegetable or two thrown in to the pot. My version has a little more going on, and I suspect it’s closer to what you might find on mainland Portugal but just as simple and fresh as my dads.

Many of the recipes I found online called for linguica or chorizo. I wasn’t in the mood for something quite as oily as linguica (as much as I do love it) so I spiced up some ground turkey thigh and made turkey meatballs.  I wanted to keep the flavors bright so instead of cooking the kale in the broth, I gave it a quick steam and added it at the end. The kale was crisp and flavorful and pleasantly lacked that sulfurous taste and odor you can get if you cook it for too long.

Portuguese Kale Soup

What you’ll need:

1lb white beans, cooked or canned

2 large leaves of Lacinato kale, cut into ribbons

2 sweet potatoes, cubed

1 lb  ground turkey thigh

1 sweet yellow onion, chopped

2-3 carrots, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1-2 handfuls fresh Italian parsley, chopped

2 bay leaves

2 tsp fresh oregano

2 tsp dried marjoram

1-2 tsp red pepper flakes

1-2 tbsp paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

16 oz chicken stock

Water

Salt and pepper to taste

If you are using dried beans, soak beans overnight in cool water. In the morning drain and rinse the beans. Place beans in a large pot and add chicken stock and enough water so you can add the other veggies keeping the soup brothy.

After the beans have been cooking for about 20-30 minutes, add the carrots, sweet potatoes, onions and bay leaves.

In the meantime, oil a baking sheet or Pyrex and preheat the oven to 350. Place the ground turkey thigh in a large bowl; add crushed garlic, fresh oregano, marjoram, cumin, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and a generous sprinkling of paprika. Oil your hands with a bit of olive oil and stir and mash the turkey and herbs together until well blended.  Make turkey meatballs by rolling a bit of the mixture in your hands. You want your meatballs to be bite size. Place meatballs in baking a dish and sprinkle a bit more paprika on top. Bake for about 30 minutes.

When the beans and vegetables are about cooked, place cut kale in your steamer and steam for about 10 minutes or until desired crispness.

Stir turkey meatballs into soup. Add fresh parsley and cooked kale to bowls when serving.

Serve with a hearty Portuguese red and a chunk of crusty bread smothered in butter.

Cheers!

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