Bok Choy Salad Recipe

Recently I learned that bok choy is the number one vegetable in China. It seems to be the number one vegetable in my CSA box lately. It's a very healthy vegetable with a ton of vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin K plus and is even a good source of calcium and iron, but I have to admit, after serving it steamed or sautéed again and again, I was looking for a new way to prepare it. As luck would have it, at a Chinese New Year's dinner I stumbled upon a terrific dish at Fang restaurant . It was served raw, as a salad with a soy and sesame vinaigrette alongside some chunks of short rib. Bok choy is very mild flavored but it has great texture. The leaves are tender and somewhat herbal without being bitter, and the stems are very juicy and crisp. I had never considered using bok choy in salad but after trying that dish, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Looking around online I found plenty of Asian inspired recipes for bok choy salad, and a few takes on coleslaw and even ......

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Sautéed Mixed Greens Recipe

Bags of organic arugula at the store always tempt me. "Buy me!" they say, "Eat salad for a week, it'll be great!" Of course after three or four days the bag is half full and the contents start to look rather wilted and sad. Then comes regret. Why did I buy that bag in the first place? Recently I found the solution to the problem of wilting greens, a problem that I'm guessing may also be yours. It turns out arugula is quite wonderful when lightly sauteed in olive oil. It's somewhat bitter and earthy but in a good way. It's even better if you mix it with some other greens. I use a bit of frozen spinach which is mild but silky and some fresh escarole which has a lovely spring flavor and juiciness when it's cooked. The mixture of flavors and textures creates a compelling dish that isn't just a terrific side dish, but begs to be layered in a grilled cheese sandwich. With or without ham or bacon, this is good stuff! I buy arugula a lot. But y......

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Penne with Rapini & Italian Sausage Recipe

I know there are other things to do with rapini but I am stuck in a happy rut. I always eat it exactly the same way. Rapini also called broccoli rabe looks like a leafy miniature broccoli and has a slight bitterness to it that marries well with the richness of Italian sausage. Toss that combination with a little onion, garlic, chili flakes and pasta and you're in business. Broccoli rabe or rapini was something I ate in Italy, there it was blanched and then sauted in olive oil with garlic. Only in Italy it was called broccoli rape pronounced "rah-pay". But I imagine the "rape" name has not helped it much in the popularity department in the English speaking world. If you look it up in the dictionary it turns out to have even more names--rapa, raab, rappone (for big bunches I guess) Italian turnip, taitcat and turnip broccoli. In Italian rapa means turnip and broccoli means broccoli. As for the identity crisis--am I a turnip or am I broccoli? It is a relative of......

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Baby Bok Choy Recipe

Isn't baby bok choy appealing? It has such a graceful, almost elegant look about it. I cooked up some baby bok choy from my organic produce delivery just last night and it was as delicious to eat as it was pretty to look at. Bok choy is in the same family as cabbage but has a milder flavor. It's a good source of both vitamin C, vitamin A and calcium. It's available year round, though Fall and Winter are when it is most prevalent. Because it is so widely available and inexpensive to boot, it makes a good vegetable to get to know. Baby bok choy is easy and fast to cook, just stir fry, steam or saute it. The delicate flavor shouldn't be overshadowed by heavy sauces; it's delicious plain or with a splash of Chinese flavorings such as soy sauce, oyster sauce or garlic. You can serve it whole or sliced up, but I find cutting it into halves or even quarters is easiest. You want the crispy base to cook quickly so the leafy greens don't overcook. I realize I haven......

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Syrian Lentil Chard Soup Recipe

When I was growing up, "leafy green vegetable" meant spinach. At some point swiss chard was added to the repertoire and then bok choy. But that was really it. Oh sure, we had salad every night, but no other cooked leafy greens. Later on I discovered the sharp bite of mustard greens, the silky mellowness of cooked escarole and the spicy bitterness of turnip greens. These days my organic market delivery brings me kale and collard greens too. But I still like spinach and swiss chard for sentimental reasons. Another category mainly skipped over in my childhood was legumes. We ate Mexican refried beans, chili beans, and baked beans, but that was about it. I guess if I had been raised in the South I might have been exposed to more beans and greens, but I wasn't. In college on a budget I lived on black beans, and in Italy I discovered white or cannellini beans. Out on my own I experimented with lentil stews and soups of all kinds until I discovered a recipe for Syrian lentil ......

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