Lemony Asparagus Confetti Salad

Ingredients:

Please note that brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice. Plan your time accordingly, or cook the rice in advance. Using a rice cooker makes the job easier because you can turn your attention to the other ingredients while the cooker takes care of the rice. I find the rice cooker makes better rice than I can make by any other method and is well worth the money.

• 3/4 cup uncooked brown rice (1 rice cup)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 2 lbs. fresh asparagus, rinsed, trimmed and chopped into 1 inch pieces
•  1 cup turnip or other fresh greens, rinsed and shredded
• 1.5 cups precooked or (low-sodium) canned Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

 Rinse and cook the rice according to package directions, or preferably cook in a rice cooker using the rice cooker's directions. While the rice cooks, prepare the other ingredients as follows:

 Heat up the oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and saute about 5 minutes until beginning to soften. Add the ginger and cook for three or four minutes more. Add the asparagus, cook for two minutes more, then add the greens and continue to cook for another minute or two until the greens just begin to wilt. Set aside until the rice has finished cooking.

When the rice is done, drain if necessary--this should be unnecessary if you used a cooker according to its directions. Stir the rice, the beans, and the asparagus mixture together in a large bowl. Drizzle the lemon juice over the mixture and stir well. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to three days. Serve warm or cold.

Vegetarian Wheat-Berry Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

I recently ordered wheat berries from my local online food co-op because I wanted to experiment with them. I am finding them a delight to work with and to eat. I have to plan ahead, though, because they require pre-soaking and then 50 minutes of boiling to cook.

I took two cups of wheat berries, pre-soaked them, and cooked them overnight on low in a slow cooker. They came out a little mushy but delicious. And I have enough wheat berries to freeze some and to cook a couple of meals this week.

But what to cook?

One answer came when I received a big, beautiful cabbage from my CSA. Here it is, stripped of a few of its outer leaves:

I decided to make stuffed cabbage rolls with the outer cabbage leaves, the wheat berries, some fresh radishes, and some other ingredients I had around the house. I had never made stuffed cabbage before, but it was a lot easier than I thought. I thought I'd share the recipe along with some pictures.

First, take some root vegetables and mince them very fine. I used a food-chopper to save time. Suggestions are a small onion, a carrot, two cloves of garlic, and two mild-tasting radishes. Then chop up some unsalted raw almonds, maybe 1/4 cup's worth. Also cut up some fresh dill and oregano with kitchen scissors.  Keep the almonds and fresh herbs separate from the other ingredients.

Next, Heat up some oil and cook up the root vegetables for a few minutes until the onions and carrots begin to soften. Remove from the heat and stir in two cups of wheat berries along with the almonds and herbs, and set aside. Here's a picture of what the filling looks like when done.

Heat up water in a steamer. Strip off the outer leaves of a large cabbage, wash them, and cut the tough stems at the back of the cabbage even with the rest of the leaf so the back of the leaf looks fairly flat and even. If the cabbage leaves are very large, cut them in half. Steam 4 cabbage leaves, or four halves, if they are large, in the steamer until the leaves turn bright green and soft-looking, about 3 minutes. Add more leaves and repeat until you have enough. I found 8 halves filled a 9x9 glass baking dish nicely. Here is a picture of the leaves when steamed.

While the leaves are steaming, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Take some bottled or canned low-sodium tomato sauce (8 oz.) and spread just enough to cover the bottom of a 9x9" baking pan. Take each leaf (or half) and put 2 tablespoons of the filling in the middle and roll up as shown.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5, roll the mixture up (away from you) to make a roll. Here is what the finished roll looks like:

 Add the rolls, seam-side down, in the casserole dish:

Take the remaining tomato sauce and mix it with 2 tablespoons of salsa. We used a very spicy tomato salsa that I'd made from my own garden vegetables last summer. Newman's Own makes some nice salsas that are not overly high in sodium, however, if you need to purchase store-bought. Cover the cabbage rolls with the sauce/salsa mixture:

Bake this for 35 minutes or until bubbly and heated through. Let sit for two or three minutes before serving.

Wheat Berry Salad Recipe

This recipe is adapted from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook and is quite good. Be sure to plan the time to pre-soak the wheat berries before you cook, and use a sweet-tart apple. I used Pink Lady apples, but Granny Smith or Gala will do nicely. Once soaked, this takes less time than you think to make, because all the chopping can be done while the water is heating up and the berries are cooking. This recipe  serves six.

2 cups wheat berries
7 cups water
1 cup chopped unsalted almonds
2 medium apples, cored and chopped
1 cup chopped dried apricots
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup apple juice
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 cup lemon juice

Cover the wheat berries in water that covers by two inches and soak for 6 to 8 hours or more in the refrigerator. Drain the water and set aside the wheat berries. In a large stockpot or Dutch oven bring the water to boil. Add the wheat berries and let them simmer, uncovered, for 50 minutes. They will have a firm, chewy texture. Drain the water and set aside the wheat berries to cool.

Transfer the wheat berries to an extra-large salad bowl and add the other ingredients. Mix everything thoroughly and serve. The lemon will prevent the apples from discoloring, so this can be covered, refrigerated, and served the next day.

If you've forgotten to pre-soak the wheat berries, they can be cooked in about the same amount of time in a pressure cooker if they haven't been soaked.

Save Money: Dry Beans vs. Canned

In recent years I have come to appreciate homemade beans cooked from scratch. Beans are high-protein, high-fiber, inexpensive, and nutritious. Canned beans are convenient, but they are relatively pricey and often high in sodium compared to dry beans. There are an amazing array of varieties of dried beans to try, too. While cooking dry beans saves money, it takes a little planning. There are several options, but most cooks start with step 1:

Step 1: Pre-soak the beans. About 8-12 hours before you plan to cook the dry beans, put them in a colander, inspect, and rinse them. "Inspect" mostly means to check them over to be sure there are no pebbles mixed in with the beans. Any funny-looking beans can also be thrown away at this point. Put the rinsed beans in a large bowl or pot and cover with lots of water. Put the bowl in the refrigerator and allow the beans to soak.

 I put beans in to soak before going to work in the morning if I plan to cook them for supper. I'll soak them overnight if I plan to start cooking them in the morning. If pre-soaking beans seems like too much time or trouble, you will need to use a pressure cooker to make your beans. Go to "Option C," below.

Step 2: Drain the beans in the colander again and rinse them again. Discarding the soaking water is important because you will discard most of the sugars that make the beans "gassy" when you discard the soaking water. Now the beans are ready to cook, and at this point you have choices for Step 3:

Option A: Cook the beans. Put them in a large pot, cover with at least two or three inches of water and add one or two bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Then boil the beans, uncovered, until they are tender. How long this takes depends on the variety of beans and other factors. You'll need to research cooking times for the type of beans you are making, but the longest-cooking beans take up to 1 hour and 30 minutes to cook. Remove the bay leaves.

Option B: My favorite, and the reason I often start beans before work. Bring the beans to a boil as in "Option A," but only boil for 15 minutes. Transfer the contents to a slow-cooker and set the slow-cooker on low. Let the beans cook for several hours (about 8) or overnight. The advantage of the slow-cooker over the next method is that you can make more beans at once this way. Use some right away and store the rest in their own broth or soaked in water in the freezer to use later. The reason for boiling the beans before transferring to the slow-cooker is that some beans can be toxic if they are cooked insufficiently. The 15 minutes at a boil will ensure your beans won't make you or your family sick, so don't skip this step, even if it's a little more time and trouble. Remove the bay leaves.

Option C: The pressure cooker. Be sure to follow the directions on your pressure cooker. Do not overfill the pressure cooker. Generally you need to put a little oil in the water with the beans and the water to keep the beans from getting too frothy while in the cooker. Using a pressure cooker, you can cook pre-soaked beans in under 10 minutes and even cook unsoaked beans in under 30 minutes. If you choose not to presoak, I would discard the water the beans were cooked in and give them a good rinse to avoid a "gassy" product. Remove the bay leaves.

With pre-planning there is no reason to buy more expensive canned beans when you can cook up tasty, low-fat, low-sodium dry beans for your dinner. Use the cooked beans in chili, soups, salads, and all your favorite recipes in place of canned beans. One of my goals for my garden this summer is to grow some of my own beans to can or to dry for use next winter. Beans are not only good in your kitchen, they are good for your garden, too, because they help to fix nitrogen in the soil.

Slow-Rise Batter Bread (Yeast Bread)

Those of you who are regular readers know that my husband, Don, is a cardiac patient. He is on an low-fat, low-cholesterol, ultra-low-sodium diet to protect his heart and to keep his blood pressure low. Most commercial breads, even whole-wheat breads, carry a higher sodium content per slice that he should consume. He also tries to keep his overall carbohydrate intake down. He especially avoids the high-glycemic carbohydrates from the likes of white flour or potatoes, because these most reduce the effectiveness of some of his medications.

For all these reasons we have learned to make our own bread. Some readers may be surprised to read that bread does not need added salt, but it's true. In fact, yeast works better without sodium in its environment, so making unsalted bread is a snap. We have also learned how to work making home-made bread into our busy lifestyles on a regular basis. We both have jobs and many other projects and commitments in our lives. 

The answer for us has been to make a slow-rise batter-bread. Advantages are that the loaves do not have to be kneaded, a time-saver, and the dough can be left to rise on any cool spot in the house, which is great because warm spots are in short supply in our home at this time of year. Most of these ideas come from King Arthur Flour's 200th Anniversary Cookbook, my absolute favorite cookbook for basic baking, ever. (I know I plug King Arthur products a lot, but it's due to genuine love for the company's products). 

Making the bread is actually quite fast, the rising time is quite long, so by planning ahead and making the bread on a routine basis, I spend very little time on the bread, can get all kinds of other things done while it rises, yet have fresh, hot loaves available almost whenever we need them. Side-benefits are terrific flavor from the slow rise of the regular (NOT fast-rising) yeast and the delightful smell of bread rising and baking in the house. The resulting bread has a rich, almost sourdough-like flavor, too. 

This method uses less than the usual amounts of yeast and flour found in regular bread recipes. Before you start, you should know how to measure flour accurately, an essential part of baking bread. Visit this link for details and even a video on how this is properly done. I also recommend you know how to proof yeast. Search online for all kinds of how-to articles and videos, or read up in the King Arthur Flour cookbook or some other resource. 

You will also need two bread-loaf pans as well as the ingredients mentioned in boldface below.

When I wake up in the morning, I start the bread before I go to work. But if I want bread in the morning, I start it in the evening before bed. There are all kinds of variations on this recipe, but the basics are like this: take two cups of lukewarm water (about 80°F), one or two tablespoons sugar, and mix them together in a pre-warmed large glass or ceramic bowl. I add 1 teaspoon REGULAR yeast and proof the yeast. Once I am satisfied that the yeast is active, I add two cups of flour, usually 1 3/4 cup whole wheat and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour. I make all kinds of substitutions and variations at this point; I am quite a creative baker. For ideas on how to do this, I suggest consulting the King Arthur Flour cookbook, or leave comments below and I will respond as best I can. 

After you've stirred the flour(s) into the water,cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and leave the dough, called a "sponge" at this point, in a cool spot to rise. The ideal temperature is between 50 and 60°F. For even slower rising times and an even more flavorful bread, the sponge can be covered and left to rise in the refrigerator, but I rarely have room in the 'fridge for this.

Several hours later, after getting home from work, for example, you will find that the sponge has risen considerably or "doubled." Mix two more cups of whole wheat flour into the sponge to form the batter for your bread. If you like and can eat (optional) salt in your bread, this is the time to add it in (no more than a tablespoon at most; Don and I skip this step for the sake of our health). Another option, whether you add salt or not, is to add a tablespoon or two of (optional) vegetable oil. The benefit of the oil, besides its flavor, is that the bread will keep a little better after it is baked. The disadvantage is the added fat and calories, so the decision is up to you. The bread should come out fine whether you add the oil or not. Stir them in with the flour just until they are well mixed and no more. 

The batter will be quite wet compared to a regular bread at this point. This is what makes it a batter bread. It does not require kneading and will come out quite moist, but its texture will be much coarser than a kneaded bread. Let the batter rest for a few minutes while you grease the two bread pans.

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans, cover the top of the pans with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and leave to rise again. Since your yeast have multiplied and are hopefully very active at this point, your dough should rise a little faster. How long will mostly depend on the temperature. When I am cooking supper in the evening, for example, I will often put the loaf pans on the counter near the stove or oven to benefit from the added warmth. Let the dough rise until it is about an inch or so from the top of the pans. 

Toward the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put the pans on a rack in the middle. Bake for 35 minutes, then remove and turn out on to a rack to cool. 

My final recommendation is to allow the loaves to cool completely before eating or storing them. This is the hardest part, because the bread will smell so wonderful, you won't want to wait to cut into the loaves. They will keep better and be moister if you do not allow the steam to escape from them by cutting into them too soon, however. 

Sometimes I care; sometimes I can't resist temptation.

Wrap the uneaten portion of your loaves tightly and store on the counter at room temperature. Use within the next two to three days. Other options are to store them in the refrigerator or freezer, but this will rob your loaves of moisture. 

Enjoy!