Category — Grains

The greens in my garden had grown to Popeye-esque proportions and it was time to use them up.  So, on Saturday afternoon, I pulled up beets and hacked off the leaves to make beet green chips.  So easy.  So kid friendly.

Then on Sunday, it was showtime for the swiss chard.  Now, the little guy loves stuffed grape leaves from Raw Sugar, so I gambled that stuffed swiss chard would also be familiar enough to casually slide onto the dinner table without an upturned nose or a scowl.

And it almost worked.   Once he realized that they contained meat – MEAT! – he warmed up to the idea.  Although, I say that in the most lukewarm of ways.

Look at those little bundles... so cute.

Now, the rolls weren’t overly tedious to put together, but it’s a dish that’s best saved for the weekend when you have a bit of extra time.

Handy tip #1:  You’ll want to find some nice large swiss chard leaves with as few holes as possible.  Luckily, it’s the perfect time of year for finding swiss chard in the market if you’re not growing them yourself.

Handy tip #2: Don’t pick swiss chard wearing pajama pants on a Sunday morning when you live next to a church.  The raised eyebrows from passers-by had me believing that God frowns upon flannel snowflake prints.  Oh well.  Such is the life of the urban gardener.

(For the fashion record: I was wearing a normal fall raincoat over the jammies.  Nonetheless, the addition of slippers to the snowflake ensemble was likely the downfall.)

I followed this recipe for Bulghur and Beef-stuffed swiss chard from the Washington Post almost to a tee.  I made a slight modification to the herbs – tossing in extra parsley, oregano and lemon balm that I had gathered in my PJ outing.

As we tucked into our dinner, it struck me that without any thought or planning, most of our dinner was home/locally grown.

Home: chard, tomatoes, onions, herbs, homemade chicken stock
Ottawa: ground beef (Bearbrook Farm)
Canada: bulgur
Unknown: rice

We’ve come a long way from just being very mindful about shopping for local ingredients and reading the labels.  Now it’s part of how we cook.  Having a garden has trained us into the “use it or lose it” mentality.  If you have a CSA box, you’ll know the feeling.  If there’s anything that irks me more, it’s letting good food go to waste.  I believe some people refer to that as being Scottish.  Stereotypes aside, I don’t like wasting food.

And these swiss chard rolls?  They will be gobbled up before you know it.  No waste.

This week’s “Thursday night challenge” was what to make for lunch on Friday.  With a random assortment of veggies in the fridge (carrots, two butternut squash, celery) I wasn’t sure what to do.  And getting to the grocery store just wasn’t an option.  Enter Google.  Tap tap tap.  Boom.  Epicurious recipe for quinoa and squash stew.  Yes.  I had tons of quinoa in the cupboard, the tinned tomatoes and 95% of the required ingredients… close enough.  Once “the kid” went to bed on Thursday night, I prepped all the veggies: chopped the onions, garlic, butternut squash and measured out the quinoa.  Everything was ready to go for Friday morning.

With everything chopped, the cooking time was minimal (about 20 minutes each).  And the result was pretty good.  It probably would have been four forks worthy if I had the fresh mint and cilantro for garnish.  For my tastes, I think it could have used a bit more sweetness – maybe some raisins would have been nice.  The quinoa was super and the tumeric made it look a little more Kasbah and a little less “granola mom”.

I think you could be generous and make extra quinoa – I found I had MUCH more stew than quinoa.

Boyfriendly rating: 3/5 (Using the fresh herbs probably would have helped.)

Brown rice pilaf AKA “it’s just too cold to go out to grocery shop, so let’s make something using up stuff in the pantry.”  It’s -37 with the windchill today and the thought of stepping out any farther than our mailbox is out of the question. So, today I decided to whip on the brown rice pilaf from the Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way cookbook.

This cookbook is a super reference is you happen to buy a lot of your pantry staples in bulk (like we do).  This book has great recipes and covers the basics of how to cook all types of whole grains – because who can remember the proportions of water for brown rice or quinoa?  Not me.

The recipe sounded really interesting – toasted spicy walnuts, dried cranberries and a hint of Marsala wine to pull it all together.  It didn’t sound like your basic ho-hum pilaf.  This recipe turned out even tastier than I imagined.  The nuts and spices make it a hardy side dish or a light meal.  The marsala wine adds a touch of sweetness that contrasts the nutty flavour of the rice.  And the balance between the sweet dried cranberries and the salty/spicy nuts hit the spot.

Boyfriendly rating: Total winner.  A balance of sweet and salty with a healthy dose of fiber.

Nuts:

• 1 Tbsp butter or olive oil
• 1/2 cup of walnuts (I used walnuts and an extra handful of almonds)
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon and a dash of allspice and nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt (the original recipe calls for more, but I found it a touch salty)

Rice:

• 3 cups of cooked brown rice (1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water – cook on low heat for 40 minutes).
• 3 Tbsp Marsala wine
• 3 Tbsp dried cranberries

Method:

Cook the brown rice.  You can do this ahead of time since it takes about 40 minutes for it to cook.

Prepare the nuts in a frying pan – they should toast up in a couple of minutes.  Keep your eye on them.

Toss cranberries and wine into the rice – allow it to cook for a few minutes until the wine is absorbed.  Stir in the nut mixture.   Serve!