Summer has arrived! Almost. There are still a few cool days that keep rearing their heads but that is quite alright with me. Those ever so slightly cool evenings make for a perfect night to have friends over for a meal and some red wine. My friend and I have spent this past week tag-teaming inventive recipes using our giant box of Lancaster Farms CSA veggies. Friday night after work, she and I and a few other friends gathered in my kitchen and “impromptued” a perfect fall-into-summer dinner.

With an enormous bag of mustard greens, we had plans to cook them down with some onions and garlic and were playing around with thoughts of mixing in some white beans. On my subway ride home, I started daydreaming about our meal and decided that a poached egg would round this out perfectly and my friend agreed. While the greens were sautéing, we tossed a few ideas back and forth until my favorite white bean puree recipe popped into my head. My friend’s eyes widened with excitement when I said we should place the greens on top of this and so that’s exactly what we did. After photographing the first dish, so it wouldn’t get cold, we all sat down at the table and had at it family style. It was gone in seconds and we proceeded to devour the next two plates of it in minutes. It was a perfect Friday night with the best company and a surprise meal that pleased us all. For a great podcast and article on the health benefits of mustard greens, check out� WNYC’s Last Chance Foods. Here’s how to make this dish…

Serves 3

Bean Puree:
1 can can cannellini beans (drain and discard liquid)
1/8 cup vegetable broth
1 clove garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbs white vinegar
2-3 tbs apple cider vinegar
1 sprig of rosemary

Combine beans, vegetable broth, olive oil and vinegars in food processor and blend until smooth. Add garlic and rosemary and pulse until mixed in.

Mustard Greens:
1 bag of mustard greens
1 large white onion diced
3 cloves of chopped garlic
2 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Add onions, garlic and olive oil to a medium-large pot (I used a Le Creuset). Sautee over medium-high heat until the onions begin to soften. Slowly add the mustard greens, tossing and allowing to cook down. You can cover the pot for a minute or two to help cook down the greens, continue adding the mustard greens until entire bag is cooked down. Season with salt and pepper to taste (I added a few small pinches of salt)

Poached Egg:
In a separate pot, boil about 2 inches of water and add a few tablespoons of white vinegar. Once water comes to boil, reduce to simmer. Crack an egg into a small cup and pour egg into simmering water, using a spoon to pull the whites of the egg towards the yolk. Let simmer for about 3-4 minutes. Remove egg

While the eggs are poaching, prepare your plates with a large scoop or two of the bean puree and top with the mustard greens. When eggs are ready, place on top of the greens and sprinkle with cracked black pepper.

After a winter of very heavy meals and far too much eating out, I am looking forward to a creative summer in my kitchen. With the cool temperatures dragging on, I’ve been in a bit of an inspiration lull over the past few months, but that all changed last night when my first CSA delivery from Lancaster Farms arrived.  This is my first time joining a CSA. My reservations have always lied in the excess of food that would come along with a weekly delivery that feeds a family of four. So, when two of my friends showed their interest in splitting a half share and we calculated the cost to work out to about $3 per week for each of us, all of my hesitation went out the window and we signed up that day.

There’s something about the transition into summer that makes me crave the season’s bounty and the season’s bounty I did received last night. Amongst a giant box of beautiful leafy greens and radishes were some gorgeous red scallions. I had never cooked with red scallions before and was uncertain if their flavor profile differed from the common green scallion that we’re all used to. While searching for more information, I discovered an interesting way to cook this slightly milder onion. Scallions with lime and thyme is something that I would never have thought of, but I’m grateful to have stumbled upon this recipe because the combination is mouthwatering. I tossed the sautéed scallions on top of some ricotta on a little toasted bread and drizzle some honey over it. My sweet and savory loving palette was quite please by the combination and my friend used her half of the share to make the very same snack. I think the text message I received from her after she took her first bite pretty much sums up this dish: “Holy crap, that was AWESOME!!!”. Here’s how to make this simple but bursting with flavor bruschetta…

4 Pieces of sliced baguette toasted lightly with olive oil
1 cup fresh ricotta cheese
1 bunch red scallions
juice of one lime
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs fresh thyme plus extra for garnish
Honey to drizzle on top

Slice white and red parts of the scallions in half and pull apart creating thin strips. In a medium pan, add olive oil, red scallions and thyme and sautee over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Add the lime juice and saute over medium heat for another 5 minutes or so or until the scallions are softened. Meanwhile, spread ricotta on toasted bread. When scallions are finished, place on top of the ricotta and drizzle with honey and sprinkle with more fresh thyme.

Until a few days ago, hazelnuts were rather foreign to me. It’s a nut that for one reason or another, I have never experimented with in the kitchen. That all changed when I was preparing a rather bland salad at work and was kindly offered some of the protein packed nuts to help liven up my greens. I was amazed at how much they enhanced my boring lunch in flavor and texture and how satisfied I felt from a light meal. So on my way home that night, I picked some up and started tossing around ideas of how I might incorporate them into my dinner.

I came up with what is pictured above and what is also now one of my favorite dishes. I’ve made pasta with brussels sprouts before, but something about the texture and flavor of these slightly sweet nuts brought this meal to a whole new level. They’re packed with healthy vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber and fats too. After a little research, I also learned that they contain flavonoids which may support brain health, improve circulation and reduce symptoms associated with allergies. Be it for a snack, salad or big meal, grab some hazelnuts, enjoy and experiment. Here’s how to make the pasta…

1 cup quinoa pasta
Water for boiling pasta
1 cup semi-crushed toasted hazelnuts
1 cup shredded brussels sprouts
2 tbs butter or vegan butter
Little less than 1/8 cup dry white wine
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated parmesan / grana padana if desired

While the pasta is boiling, add brussels sprouts to butter in a medium pan and sauté for a few minutes over medium-high heat. Add the white wine and sauté over medium heat for another minute or two. Add hazelnuts and continue to mix in pan over low-medium heat. Strain pasta and pour ingredients in pan over the pasta. Season with salt and pepper to taste and top with some grated grana padana.

After a glutenous Passover Seder a few weeks ago, my body needed to reboot with something light and refreshing, but of course I had plans to attend another giant feast the following day at my friend’s Easter Brunch. So I took it upon myself to bring along a dish that was a bit on the healthier side- carrot, ginger and scallion salad. I had never made this before but it’s a snack that I often pick up from the Whole Foods salad bar (for entirely too much money). Rather than looking up a recipe, I grabbed the main ingredients and improvised on a dressing. This was one of the simplest and yet most satisfying dishes that I’ve made in some time and it was exactly what my body needed after an evening of brisket and mashed potatoes. It was also a perfect complement to a table of delicious but heavy pancakes, quiches and cheese and bread. Here’s how I made it…

3-4 medium carrots sliced into thin half circles
5-6 scallions finely chopped (white and light green parts)
1 medium sized piece of ginger – half zested and half finely chopped
3 tbs sesame oil
4-5 tbs sherry vinegar
1 tbs honey
Sale and pepper to taste

Combine carrots, scallions and ginger in a bowl and mix together sesame oil, vinegar and honey. Pour dressing over the veggies, mix and season with salt and pepper.

The weather has been all over the place lately and with that, so have my eating habits. It seems that this warm one day, freezing the next pattern also seems to send me into a pattern of home-cooked healthy meal one day, mac and cheese at my favorite local spot the next. On one such recent warm day, my body had had enough of eating out, so when I awoke to the sun shining, I immediately jumped from my bed and headed to the market for some breakfast inspiration. Low and behold I cam across a vegetable that I have been itching to play with.

I’ve never cooked sunchokes (or jerusalem artichokes) so I grabbed a bag of them, along with some fresh sorrel and returned home to a kitchen of my favorite staple ingredients, including eggs, lemon and a fresh block of parmesan. If you’ve never had a sunchoke, the best way to describe it is the taste of an artichoke and the texture of a potato. Sorrel, a unique leafy green, looks like any other salad leaf, except that when you take a bite of it, it emits a tangy-almost sour or lemon-like sensation on your taste buds. I thinly sliced the sunchokes and sauteed them with a little bit of garlic and olive oil. When finished, I mixed the sunchokes with the sorrel, tossed in some fresh grated parmesan and lemon zest and topped it all with a poached egg and of course- more cheese and lemon zest (two of my favorite ingredients). My impromptu breakfast hit the spot and kickstarted my relaxing Sunday. Here’s how I made it…

5 sunchokes thinly sliced
Handful of sorrel chopped or torn
Zest of one lemon
2 tbs grapeseed oil
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan or grana padana cheese
2 small cloves of garlic chopped
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 egg
2 tbs white vinegar

Heat garlic in olive oil over medium-high heat for a 1-2 minutes and then add sliced sunchokes. Toss and cover and let sit over medium heat, tossing occasionally. While sunchokes are cooking, bring 2 cups of water with 2 tbs white vinegar to a boil. When sunchokes are soft and finished cooking, remove from pan and mix sunchokes, garlic and sorrel together. In a separate small bowl, mix together grapeseed oil, lemon juice and a pinch of salt and pepper. Dress sunchokes and sorrel with dressing and top with lemon zest and parmesan. Reduce boiling water and vinegar to a simmer and crack egg into it, scooping the whites towards the yolk. let simmer for 3 1/2 minutes. Remove egg with slotted spoon, place on top of warm salad and top egg with a bit more lemon zest and parmesan.

Thai food is my weakness in the winter. I say weakness because when I’m craving it, I always order in from my favorite spot down the street and enjoy an ultra veg night on my couch with a good movie and a glass of wine. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but after ordering thai food a few too many nights in one week, I decided it was time to take this craving and turn it into something productive- and a bit healthier.

I’ve never cooked thai food but figured that the elements of my favorite dish were pretty simple – I always order in ginger chicken or ginger vegetables with brown rice. So, I settled on swapping the rice for some protein packed red quinoa, mixed in some veggies, and sauteed it all with those classic thai flavors – ginger, garlic, lemongrass and lime. When I was done cooking, I plopped right back down on my couch with a nicer glass of wine than usual and indulged in a delicious and healthy dinner. To my surprise, this hit the spot just the way my favorite thai restaurant does. It was the exact medley of flavors that I was craving and to top it off, I didn’t feel weighed down as I often do after take out. It was a light and nutritious meal that certainly satisfied. Here’s how I made it…

1.5 cups red quinoa
Water (measure based on instructions on package)
Juice of one lime
1-2 tbs grapeseed oil
1/2 stick of lemongrass very thinly sliced
1/2 a small white onion thinly sliced
2 inch piece of ginger thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic chopped
1 bell pepper chopped into thin slices
1 head of napa cabbage chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring water and quinoa to a boil and add a few squeezes of lime juice and a pinch of salt. Let simmer and cook for 15 minutes or until all liquid has been absorbed. While quinoa is cooking, heat lemongrass, ginger, garlic and onions in grapeseed oil over medium-high heat. Continue to saute until all ingredients have softened (note- lemongrass took a while to soften so be sure to slice very thinly. You may want to heat the lemongrass first for a bit longer). Add peppers and cabbage, juice of half a lime and salt and pepper to taste. Mix together, cover and let cook, stirring occasionally. Once quinoa is finished cooking, add to pan with veggies and stir together.