D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food From Scratch (10 page)

4 cups cooked and drained cannellini beans

2 celery ribs, cut in half lengthwise and sliced thinly on the diagonal

½ small head radicchio, cut in half, cored, and sliced thinly

½ red onion, sliced thinly

About 12 pitted green olives (1 ounce), quartered

½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 teaspoon chopped fresh marjoram

½ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

½ to ¾ cup
Tomato-Garlic Vinaigrette

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

In a large bowl, combine the beans, celery, radicchio, onion, olives, parsley, marjoram, and rosemary. Add the vinaigrette (starting with ½ cup), and toss well. Season with salt and pepper, adding a little more vinaigrette if desired. Serve at room temperature within 3 hours, or cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days. Bring to room temperature and taste for salt before serving salad that has been refrigerated.

Leftover beans are great to have around for quick meals and snacks. They can be added to soups; tucked into quesadillas or tacos; eaten with eggs for breakfast or a light meal; pureed in the food processor with garlic, herbs, and olive oil to make a spread or dip; or tossed into a green salad with vegetables for a fast, nutritious meal.

YIELD:
about 6 cups beans

1 pound dried beans, picked through for stones and rinsed thoroughly (see Tip, below)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 celery rib, chopped (optional)

2 to 3 garlic cloves, chopped

Salt

Soak the beans in cold water to cover for at least 4 hours or overnight, if time allows.

Heat the oil in a large pot and add the onion, celery (if using), and garlic. Sauté until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the beans and their soaking water to the pot, unless the water looks dirty, then drain, rinse, and start with fresh water. Add water as needed to cover the beans by 1 inch. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Lower the heat to a bare simmer, cover partially, and cook until the beans are tender, but hold their shape, 45 minutes to 3½ hours (depending on the size and age of the beans), stirring occasionally. You may need to add water to keep the beans submerged.

Season with salt when the beans are nearly soft. Do not add tomatoes or any other type of acidic ingredient until the beans are nearly done, because acid inhibits their cooking. Remove from the heat and let the beans cool in their liquid. Cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days.

√ TIP
:
Because dried beans that have been harvested within a year cook more evenly and have superior texture and flavor, choose beans from the bulk bins of a busy store or buy from a grower at your farmers’ market.

Besides being tasty on grain and Asian noodle salads, this dressing is also fantastic drizzled over grilled fish or chicken or fresh sliced tomatoes, or used as a sandwich spread. Tahini is a paste made from ground sesame seeds, used often in Middle Eastern cuisine (it’s one of the essential ingredients in hummus). You can find tahini in both raw and roasted versions, in either jars or cans. It is produced both domestically and overseas. Look for it in health food and specialty stores and in the world foods aisle in some grocery stores. Any type of tahini can be used in this recipe. I buy locally produced organic, raw tahini from Artisana. Tahini should be refrigerated after opening as it goes rancid quickly
.

TIME REQUIRED:
about 10 minutes active

YIELD:
about ¾ cup

2 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole

Salt

cup sesame tahini paste

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons honey

1 teaspoon soy sauce

¼ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

With a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt. In a blender, combine the garlic paste, tahini,
cup water, the lemon juice, honey, soy sauce, and sesame oil and blend until smooth. Season with salt. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

This is just one of many different seasonal grain salads that can be made with the Simple Sesame Tahini Dressing. You can vary the grain by using brown or other types of rice, farro, quinoa, or kamut. Likewise, vary the vegetables seasonally. In summer, you’ll want to use tomatoes, green beans, and cucumbers; in fall, roasted squash and pumpkin seeds; in spring, sweet peas, asparagus, or fava beans. You could also add shredded leftover chicken, canned wild salmon, or hard-cooked eggs for protein.

TIME REQUIRED:
about 45 minutes active; 1 hour passive

YIELD:
6 servings

4 small to medium beets (see
Tip
)

½ cup (about 2 ounces) walnut halves, coarsely chopped

1 cup wheat berries, soaked for 4 to 5 hours or overnight and drained

Salt

1 bunch Lacinato or green or red kale

¾ cup Simple Sesame Tahini Dressing

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Trim the beets and wrap them in one or two foil packets, depending on their size, keeping like-sized beets with like-sized beets. Put them in a baking dish to prevent beet juice from leaking into your oven and roast until tender and fragrant, 35 to 40 minutes. Use a small paring knife or skewer to check for doneness. The knife or skewer should go in easily with a small amount of resistance. Set them aside to steam in their foil packets. When they are cool enough to handle, peel them by rubbing the skins off with your fingertips, and then cut the beets into bite-sized wedges. Alternatively, the beets can be roasted up to 5 days ahead and refrigerated, left in their foil wrappers, until ready to use.

Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

In a small baking dish, arrange the walnuts in a single layer. Toast until brown and fragrant, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

While the beets are roasting and the walnuts are toasting, set a medium saucepan with 3 cups of water over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and add the wheat berries and a pinch of salt. Lower the heat to a slow simmer, cover partially, and cook until tender and pleasantly chewy, 45 to 50 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the wheat berries sit until you are ready to assemble the salad.

Meanwhile, trim, stem, and wash the kale and put it in a vegetable steamer set over boiling water. Steam until tender and wilted, but still bright green, about 5 minutes. Remove immediately to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and squeeze out excess moisture. Chop coarsely and set aside.

When all the ingredients are ready, drain the wheat berries and transfer them to a serving bowl. Add the beet wedges, kale, and walnuts. Add the dressing and toss thoroughly. Taste and correct the seasoning with salt and pepper and serve immediately or within 2 hours at room temperature. The salad can also be covered and refrigerated for 3 to 4 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

√ TIP
:
I like to roast beets this way whenever I have the oven on for something else. It’s an energy-saving strategy and a great way to have cooked beets on hand for adding to salads anytime
.

Do you want to eat more seasonally, locally, sustainably, and healthfully, and avoid falling back on supermarket takeout or restaurants after a busy day? Here’s a system to do that, but first you must banish the image of a typical green salad from your mind.

Shop your farmers’ market and buy a variety of seasonal vegetables to have on hand. Keep your pantry stocked with grains and legumes. Cook one variety of grain and legume each over the weekend to have on hand for the week, and you’ll be able to create flavorful, balanced salad meals very quickly.

Make extra and brown-bag your lunch. Think of meat as an occasional embellishment, use up leftover cooked vegetables from other meals, and you’ll have a zero-waste, economical, and sustainable kitchen, and you’ll get plenty of vegetables in your diet without even trying.

Look at the four salad recipes in this chapter, read the seasonal suggestions in their head notes, and consider the tips below to begin to get a feel for good combinations. Pretty soon you’ll be creating your own favorites by instinct and by the season.

Use the
lists
to follow this four-step system for creating endless salads whatever the season or your mood.

1. Choose 1 salad base (or combine a grain and legume).

2. Add 2 or 3 vegetable and/or protein additions, depending on what’s in season and what sounds good to you.

3. Add 1 or 2 garnishes and embellishments.

4. Choose your dressing, and toss.

SEVEN WINNING SALAD COMBINATIONS

Lentils, roasted beets, slivered fennel, arugula, feta, and
Basic Best-Ever Vinaigrette
made with lemon juice

Brown rice, corn, cherry tomatoes, sautéed summer squash,
Fresh Whole-Milk Soft Cheese
, and
Tomato-Garlic Vinaigrette

Quinoa with sautéed mushrooms, mustard greens, sugar snap peas,
Spicy Kimchi
, sesame oil, and
Soy-Ginger Dressing

Potatoes with roasted asparagus, radishes, mixed fresh herbs, and
Creamy Herb Dressing

Chickpeas with roasted red peppers, green beans, avocado, olives, and
Simple Sesame Tahini Dressing

Rice noodles with shredded
Mustard and Bourbon-Glazed Pork Roast
, sugar snap peas, green onions, sesame oil, and
Soy-Ginger Dressing

Wheat berries, roasted butternut squash cubes, sautéed chard, toasted walnuts or pumpkin seeds, goat cheese, and
Basic Best-Ever Vinaigrette

THE PROBLEM WITH TUNA

You may have noticed that I recommend canned wild salmon, herring, and sardines, but not tuna. That’s because many species of tuna are endangered and others are caught using methods that harm the environment. Also, larger, longer-lived species of tuna can have high levels of mercury. Since it’s hard to know which type of tuna is in those little cans or how it was caught, I usually avoid it unless I can find hook-and-line caught (but not long-line caught) skipjack or some other small breed of tuna. Go to
www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx
to learn more about choosing sustainable seafood.

SALAD BASES

• Beans and legumes: any kind, from black beans to lentils to chickpeas

• Potatoes: new potatoes, fingerlings, small red potatoes, and sweet Yukon golds are fantastic for salads

• Grains: wheat berries, quinoa, brown rice, farro, kamut, barley

• Soba and rice noodles

VEGETABLE AND PROTEIN ADDITIONS

• Roasted beets

• Roasted red peppers

• Arugula, endive, or radicchio

• Steamed or roasted asparagus

• Sautéed or steamed chard, kale, mustard greens, or collards