More Vegetable Love

I know I just did a salad post, but I have another one for you, and it's really simple (just like the other salads--can a salad be complicated?). It's also the best and most satisfying thing I've eaten in a long time. Hit the spot.

Cook up a pot of lentils. French ones--they're green and also called "le puy" lentils. They cook, at a simmer, in about 20-30 minutes. All the better if you add aromatics to flavor them--carrot, celery, onion, bay leaf, garlic.

Now, roast some beets. Red or gold, either one. Or both. Cut them into cubes--not tiny cubes--about the size of dice. Roast at 400 with salt and oil until they get soft and a little crispy on the outside.

Make a balsamic vinaigrette. Don't think too hard about it because you've got lots of flavors going on here to begin with. Toss spinach in the vinaigrette.

Pile the spinach on your plate. Top with lentils. Scatter beets over the top of the lentils. Scatter goat cheese over top of the beets. Or have the goat cheese on toasts on the side.

Perfection.

Beet-Cabbage Salad

If you've been following this blog for a while, you know I have a thing for fermented mixtures of vegetables. Something about semi-noxious fumes coming from big bowls of salted veggies makes me happy in ways that few other things do (it's probably partially a romantic notion, partially a food security issue). And the bigger the bowl (or vat or crock) the better. Fermented things have a way of living for a long time. I recently gave away my last jar or purple sauerkraut, which was made at the beginning of summer 2009, and the flavor was incredible. If you make a batch of sauerkraut, make it big and set aside a couple jars for later.

Now, one thing I don't do to my ferments is can them. I firmly believe that if you're going to bother fermenting something, you ought to be concerned about the little organisms living inside it. That's sort of the whole point. I mean, if you don't mind having all those good-for-your-gut bacteria cooked out of your sauerkraut or kimchi you can buy jars of it, which have already been conveniently pasteurized and sterilized. With homemade sauerkraut you can control the amount of salt, be completely sure of the origins of your cabbage, and you can add whatever you like. If you have a root cellar or a cool basement, keep your vast stores of ferments there. If not, keep them in the fridge, and plan accordingly. If you don't tend to have much expendable space in there, make only a quart or two at a time. It's easy enough to make on a regular basis.

This particular ferment is another "quick pickle." Wash and trim 4 large red beets. Boil them until fork-tender and cool until you can handle them. Reserve the beet juice. Slip the rough skins off (or use the dull side of a knife to scrape off the skins), and cut the beets into 1/4" strips. Thinly slice a medium-sized red cabbage. You want the pieces to be bite-sized or at least manageable. Also roughly chop several cloves of garlic--I'll leave the quantity up to you. Mix the beets, cabbage, and garlic in a large bowl. Sprinkle a tablespoon of salt over this mixture. In a small saucepan, bring to a boil 2 cups apple cider vinegar, 1 cup reserved beet juice, 1/4 cup sugar, 10 peppercorns, 6 cloves, 2 bay leaves, and any other additions you might like (star anise, caraway seeds, allspice berries, crushed red pepper...). Immediately take off the heat and let cool a bit--no need to let it cool all the way. Pour over the cabbage mixture and stir to combine thoroughly. Allow this to sit at room temperature for several days to a week, keeping the veggies underneath the liquid (you can use a plate that's weighted down). You'll start to smell that fermented aroma. Refrigerate in jars, making sure the liquid is above the cabbage mixture (you can add water if the liquid isn't high enough).

martha stewart definitely does not...

put red beets into a kale and potato gratin.

since red beets and kale are perhaps my two favorite vegetables, we decided to put them together in a really delicious joy of cooking recipe. you just layer potatoes and onions and kale with some butter, salt and pepper, and then pour cream over the top and bake. easy, perfectly delicious, and pretty healthy for something with butter and cream in it.

but whoever came up with this recipe probably thought about putting beets in, and then had a subsequent thought that beets dye everything they touch a very distinctive color. namely, red. and the addition of cream sort of diluted the bright red into a really sickening bubble gum pink.

so, next time, golden beets maybe? and even though martha stewart would never put anything like it in her magazine, it was extremely tasty. i had seconds. heck, i snuck back into the kitchen while john was watching the sopranos and furtively gobbled a big forkful. good enough to make me forget my manners and lose my decorum. really good.