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Creamy Mushroom Sauce

By Christy on April 15, 2012 in Main Dishes, Recipes

This sauce is yummy on steak, chicken, or in the case of the picture, pork. I recommend dredging chicken or pork in seasoned flour and browning first. Set protein aside to make sauce then finish cooking in the sauce for smothered pork chops or chicken.

8 ounces mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1/2 small onion, cut into thin slices

1 bay leaf

1 sprig thyme

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

Use the pan you browned the meat in for maximum flavor. You need about a tablespoon of oil in the brown to soften the vegetables. Add the onions to the pan over medium heat. Stir until translucent. Add the sliced mushrooms to the pan. Add bay leaf and thyme. The mushrooms will give off water as they cook. Continue stirring over medium heat until liquid is evaporated and mushrooms begin to brown. Deglaze pan with wine and reduce by half. Add milk. If you are making smothered pork chops or chicken, add them back to the sauce at this point. Simmer about 8 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove bay leaf and thyme stem before serving.

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Homemade Veggie Bouillon

By Christy on March 9, 2012 in Soups, Uncategorized, Vegan

As a rare cold winter day hits Austin, my craving for a warm bowl of comforting soup heats up. But who has time to spend all day chopping and simmering? Fortunately, I have a secret weapon in my freezer I can reach for in times like these. My homemade veggie bouillon has no msg or unpronounceable preservatives. Just farm fresh veggies and salt.

Before you ask, yes, you really do need all the salt to preserve the vegetables. You only use about 1 teaspoon of the bouillon per cup of water, so the overall salt content in the final soup is rather low.

Use the bouillon as the base for a homemade soup, to punch up a sauce, or mix with sour cream for a veggie dip.

Vegetable Bouillon

3 carrots, scrubbed and peeled, cut in 1 inch pieces

3 celery ribs, cut in 1 inch pieces

1 leek, white part only, sliced

1 medium onion, peeled and quartered

12 sun dried tomato halves

8 ounces mushrooms (crimini, white button, portabla, whatever you like)

2 cloves garlic

1 bunch parsley, leaves and stems

7 ounces of salt

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon pimenton or smoked paprika (optional)

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it forms a smooth paste. Will store in fridge for about a week, store in freezer after that. Use approximately 1 teaspoon per 1 cup of water.

Hints- I have a smaller food processor, so I have to do this in 2 batches. You can add as much as you can fit in the bowl and pulse it down to add more if you need to also. This recipe is very versatile and you can use almost any vegetable you want. Don’t like mushrooms? Substitute parsnips. Want a Mexican style soup? Use cilantro instead of parsley. The sun dried tomatoes are pretty important to rounding out the flavor for me and fresh tomatoes would add too much liquid so I would not sub those out but experiment with your local box to find what works for you.

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Slow Cooker Coconut Collard Curry

By Kathryn on January 30, 2012 in Gluten-free, Main Dishes, Recipes, Vegan

The collard greens from Gundermann Acres in last week’s Local Box were ENORMOUS. I was a little intimidated by the giant leaves when I unpacked them from the box– they were too large to fit in my crisper drawer! I should have expected as much, since collards are one of the more zaftig cruciferous veggies that flourish in Texas in the winter. The leaves are very large and curvaceous!

Dealing with such a huge green can be challenging– especially when the leaves are too large to fit in you biggest soup pot! The best solution I have found is to chop up the collards very fine, and cook them in a spicy curry.

This curry recipe is an adaptation of Salt & Paprika’s Slow Cooker Chicken Curry, published on Tasty Kitchen. I replaced the chicken in her recipe with chickpeas and collards, and amped up the spice in the curry sauce considerably by adding chilies, cayenne, ginger and turmeric. I also like to use fresh tomatoes in my recipe, instead of a small can of tomato paste, as she suggests.

I didn’t change a thing about Salt & Paprika’s clever preparation method, however: dump all the sauce ingredients in the food processor, whir, and you’re done! Thanks to that shortcut, this meal is prepped in under half an hour every time.

If you’re trying to cut calories, this curry is perfectly delicious on its own. It has a stew-like texture thanks to the soft collards, with nice buttery bites of chickpea throughout. I prefer to serve it over Jasmine rice, with a generous pat of butter. Either way, be sure to garnish the finished curry with plenty of chopped, fresh cilantro.

Slow Cooker Collard Curry (serves 4)

2, 15 oz cans of chickpeas, drained
1-2 pounds collard greens, chopped into very fine ribbons
2 large tomatoes, quartered
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1, 15 oz. can coconut milk
4 oz. can green chilies
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
Cilantro to garnish

Place the chickpeas and collards into the slow cooker. In a food processor, blend together tomatoes, onion, coconut milk, chilies, garlic, and dried spices. Pour this mixture over the chickpeas and collards, and stir to combine. Cook on low for 6 hours.

One hour before serving, stir together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Add to the slow cooker and mix well. Cover, and allow to cook undisturbed for the remaining time.

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Mashed Rutabagas

By Kathryn on January 12, 2012 in Recipes, Side Dishes

Rutabagas are coming! Rutabagas are coming! We’re expecting a big shipment of these nutritious root vegetables from Just Peachy Farms in Palestine, Texas next week.

Rutabagas are in the brassica family of vegetables, along with turnips, cabbage, kale, and Brussels sprouts. They’re one of our favorite winter items, since they cook up well in recipes with potatoes, carrots, beef and other hearty fare.

Just Peachy’s rutabagas are small and tender, with a mild flavor. They are still in the ground as we speak, and farmer Billy Moore will be harvesting them for our Local Box over the weekend. In preparation for the harvest, Billy shared with us one of his favorite rutabaga recipes:

Mashed Rutabagas and Onions (serves 4-6)
4-6 cups peeled, diced rutabaga
1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Cook rutabaga and onion in a small amount of boiling salted water until tender. Drain and mash; add butter, salt, and pepper. Mash rutabaga and onions well.

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Five Ingredient Breakfast Casserole

By Kathryn on January 9, 2012 in Breakfast, Main Dishes, Recipes

Happy New Year! It’s the second Meatless Monday of 2012, and we’re continuing our series of super-easy vegetarian recipes for January.

My family loves “breakfast for dinner” once in a while, and this quick and easy breakfast casserole is on heavy rotation at my house. Leafy greens, local eggs, and fresh potatoes make this casserole much healthier than your typical cheese-laden hashbrown supper, and it’s very quick to put together. It makes a ton of leftovers, too– perfect for breakfasts later in the week!

One thing that really helps with all the chopping in this (and most any) vegetarian supper is a food processor. I used both attachments that came with my machine to prepare this dinner, and the whole thing came together in about 10 minutes of hands-on time.

If you don’t have a food processor, plan to add about 10 minutes to the prep time for chopping, whisking, and slicing.

Five Ingredient Breakfast Casserole (serves 18-24)

1 yellow onion
1.5 pounds Yukon gold potatoes (about 5 medium potatoes)
1 bunch tender greens, stems removed
18 eggs
2 cups milk or plain soymilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9×13 casserole dish.

Wash the potatoes and tender greens and pat dry. Peel the onion and chop it into quarters. Chop the potatoes into quarters. Slice the potatoes and onion very thinly by feeding them through a food processor fitted with the slicing disk. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot, add potatoes and onion to the skillet and cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While potatoes and onions are cooking, fit the food processor with the chopping blade and finely chop the greens. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs with the milk. (The chopping blade of the food processor is perfect for this, too, if you have a large enough machine. Watch out, though– overfilling the bowl of the food processor makes a big, egg-y mess.)

Once potatoes and onions are softened, place them in an even layer in the prepared casserole dish. Top with the chopped greens. Pour the egg mixture over the top of the casserole. Bake for 40 minutes, until the middle of the casserole is set and the edges are golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.