Recipe: Quick Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Parmesan (or Slightly Gussied Up with Garbanzos and Dijon)

A healthy vegetable side dish that's nice enough for Thanksgiving, yet easy enough for everyday.

Prefer your Brussels sprouts raw? Check out my scrumptious Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad with Pecorino, Chives, and a Lemony Caper Dressing.

"Not only are these not organic," I whispered to my hunky farmguy Joe  one day last winter as I grabbed two bags of Trader Joe's packaged brussels sprouts, "they're from Mexico!"

"Am I going to have to stage an intervention?" he asked, as I flung yet another bag into our cart, both of us knowing full well that I'd be picking up a few more pounds during the next stop on our St. Louis grocery shopping trip, "just in case I didn't get enough at Trader Joe's." I couldn't help myself.

Confession: I've never tasted a truly fresh Brussels sprout, let alone one that came straight from the garden. I started some Brussels sprouts seeds this year (way too late, I later learned) but they were apparently duds.

I'm also guilty of letting my imported, non-organic Brussels sprouts languish in the fridge for several weeks before eating them. Nevertheless, during the past year I've become ridiculously addicted to these scrumptious little cabbages.



I'm the sort of person who looks forward to eating leftover roasted Brussels sprouts for breakfast with a lot more enthusiasm than would probably be considered normal. Unfortunately I'm also the sort of person who almost never has leftover roasted Brussels sprouts around for breakfast because I end up devouring them all the night before.

It's a lot easier than you might think to put away an entire pound of these (thankfully healthy) little things.

I did force myself to adhere to a strict sprout moratorium last spring and summer; even in my severe sprout craving state I had trouble justifying the purchase of foreign produce when so much garden bounty was at hand. But that's all over now.

Fortunately this is the time of year when it's easy to find Brussels sprouts grown here in the US, often made even sweeter by a frost. If you're lucky enough to have a local source for sprouts, please go snap some up.

You can often find them still attached to the stalks at farmers' markets and even at some grocery stores. If not, the ratty old ones at the supermarket are pretty darn delicious.



Less Fuss, More Flavor Quick Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Serves at least one - Adapted from Fine Cooking

**Click here to print this recipe**

These are quick and easy, one bowl, one pan Brussels sprouts. There's no need to cut a little X in each stem or boil them before roasting (why do people do this?). You don't even have to turn them while they're cooking.

The unbleached parchment paper keeps the nicely browned bits sticking to the sprouts instead of the pan and also makes for easy clean up.

I finally figured out how to increase my chances of having leftovers for breakfast—roast two pounds of brussels sprouts at once. Simply double the ingredients below. I can fit two pounds of sprouts on one 12"x17" commercial half-size sheet pan.

I love to toss roasted Brussels sprouts with farfalle (bowtie) pasta and plenty of freshly grated Romano or Parmesan. For a real treat, fry up some bacon, then sauté some coarse fresh breadcrumbs in a few Tablespoons of the bacon grease over medium heat until golden and crisp. Toss the pasta and Brussels sprouts together, then top with the crumbled bacon, bread crumbs, and cheese. So good.

Basic Version:
1 pound Brussels sprouts
3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more if desired
1/2 teaspoon salt
Several grinds fresh black pepper
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or more to taste (I like lots of lemon juice)
1/4 cup (1/2 ounce) freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese

Slightly Gussied Up Version:
1 pound Brussels sprouts
3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more if desired
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
Several grinds fresh black pepper
1 to 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
1/4 cup (1/2 ounce) freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano

Optional:
Handful or two of drained and rinsed canned garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

Heat the oven to 475°.

Remove any yellow or funky outer leaves on the Brussels sprouts, then trim the core ends and halve lengthwise.

In a large bowl, toss the sprouts with the olive oil, salt, and pepper until thoroughly coated. For the gussied up version, whisk together the olive oil, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper in your mixing bowl and then add the Brussels sprouts, tossing until thoroughly coated.

Arrange the sprouts cut side down and evenly spaced on a rimmed heavy duty baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper. If they don't cover the whole sheet, spread them around the edges for the best browning.

Roast until the sprouts are tender and brown, about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on your oven, the size of your sprouts, and how done you like them. Start checking after about 10 minutes if you prefer that they still have a little crunch.

Place the hot roasted sprouts back in the mixing bowl, add the lemon juice, Parmesan or Romano, and garbanzo beans (if using) and toss until combined. Season to taste, adding a little more olive oil if desired, and serve.

More Farmgirl Fare vegetable side dishes:

Easy, Creamy Mashed Cauliflower with Garlic

Easy Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Onions, Apples, and a Hint of Orange
Kohlrabi Purée (I love this stuff)

Napa Cabbage Broccoli Slaw with Radishes & Creamy Dijon Dressing

Shredded Raw Brussels Sprouts Salad with Lemony Caper Dressing

Still hungry? You'll find links to all of my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the Farmgirl Fare Recipe Index.

© FarmgirlFare.com, the roasty toasty foodie farm blog where some of us even eat Brussels sprouts for breakfast.

Wednesday Farm Photo: Summer Still Life

Straight 'N' Narrow Beans in the Kitchen Garden

In the mood for food? From the summer archives:
Savory Tomato Pesto Pie (for those afraid of pie crusts)
Susan's Seven Second Tomato Glut Solution
Tomato Pesto Pizza & My Favorite Basil Pesto Recipe
Swiss Chard Tuna Salad w/ Scallions & Kalamatas
Purple Basil Pesto & the Easiest White Bean Dip/Spread Ever
Parisian Daily Baguettes from Local Breads
Small Scale Marketing & Little Olive Cheek Rolls
Chives & Homemade Herbed Yogurt Cheese
Loving Lettuce & Eating Salad for Breakfast
Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad w/ Cottage Cheese
Choc-Coco Butterscotch Oatmeal Crazy Cookies
Yip Organic Banana Snap Cookies
Orange Yogurt Loaf Cake with Strawberries
Really Raspberry Tartlets w/ Easy Cream Cheese Pastry
Apple Blueberry Crumble Bars
Emergency Chocolate Loaf Cake

© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where, due to popular demand, the first line of this copyright notice is going to stay (at least for now) just the way it is — and nobody could ask for a more wonderful bunch of blog readers. Thank you all so very, very much.

Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip Recipe

This New Twist On An Old Favorite Is Perfect For Parties

Do you love hot spinach and artichoke dip? My version of this popular appetizer is cooked on the stovetop instead of in the oven and uses chopped fresh Swiss chard leaves and stalks in place of frozen spinach. It's also packed with plenty of onion and garlic for extra flavor. The easy recipe, along with lots of other ideas for what to do with Swiss chard, is over on my kitchen garden blog--just click here.

You didn't know I have a kitchen garden blog? You can learn why this Farmgirl Fare offshoot isn't just for gardeners here.

The best Swiss chard you'll ever eat is of course that which you grow yourself, and fortunately this versatile vegetable is extremely easy to cultivate. It's both heat and cold tolerant and even thrives in containers. My kitchen garden post, How To Grow Your Own Swiss Chard & Why You Should, offers detailed growing tips and--thanks to all my fellow Swiss chard lovers--the comments section is full of all sorts of delicious ways to enjoy my number one leafy green. Do you have a favorite Swiss chard recipe you'd like to share?

© 2007 FarmgirlFare.com

Recipe: Low Fat, Full Flavor Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip Recipe (and Going on Factory Tours)

Tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, and scallions: making a memory even tastier.

When I was a kid, one of the things we often did while on vacation was to go on factory tours. Except for a few, like the Volkswagon factory in Germany, these places usually manufactured or processed some sort of food. To this day, details from those visits make up some of my clearest childhood memories.

There was, for example, the pineapple factory in Hawaii where pineapple juice came out of a drinking fountain. And the tuna factory where two of the ladies cutting up large whole fish on a long assembly line smiled and pointed at me as I pinched my little nose in an attempt to escape the overpowering scent of tuna.

I remember watching thousands of Hershey's chocolate kisses riding stair-step conveyors at the Hershey factory in California, and being disappointed when the tour of the "real" factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania turned out to be nothing more than an amusement park type ride.

As an adult, I happily toured the Ben & Jerry's ice cream plant in Waterbury, Vermont not once but twice. I tasted ice cream right off the assembly line and saw the original note sent to Ben & Jerry from a fan—written on an ice cream carton lid—suggesting they create a flavor called Cherry Garcia.

I also discovered that through much experimenting in the early days, Ben & Jerry determined the best way to break up Heath Bars into the perfect sized chunks for their Heath Bar Crunch ice cream was to drop a case of the candy bars onto the ground from a stepladder. They employ a slightly more advanced technique now.

While touring the Jelly Belly jelly bean factory a few years ago, my mother learned that the flavored outside layer on each jelly bean is applied by tumbling them around in what look like gigantic clothes dryers. And at the on-site gift shop, Jelly Belly "seconds" are packaged up and sold as Belly Flops.

After a tour of the memorabilia-filled Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, a friend of mine had a chance to taste several flavors of soda only available outside the U.S.

Factory tours have become quite popular, especially with families, because they're interesting, usually kid-friendly, and often free. There are even books devoted to the subject. Watch It Made In The U.S.A.: A Visitor's Guide To The Best Factory Tours and Company Museums by Karen Axelrod and Bruce Brumberg promises to "help you and your family discover information about more than 300 ordinary and extraordinary products most of us take for granted."

While factory tours are fun for people of all ages, I do think the fascinating glimpses they give us into what often seem like whole other worlds have the most profound effect on children. Every once in a while Joe still fondly recalls the tour of a potato chip factory he took with his Cub Scout troop some forty years ago.

The most memorable factory I've ever visited was actually the one closest to home. It was a tortilla factory owned by the mother of my very first friend (we "met" when we were just a few months old), and one year she treated our Brownie troop to a personal tour.

We saw enormous vats of masa, watched tortillas travel along what seemed like miles of conveyor belts, and were given handfuls of warm tortilla chips by the ladies running a machine that magically coated the chips with nacho flavored seasoning.

Even without the tortilla factory, my friend's mother stood out from the crowd. She put an antique wooden carousel horse with a tail made from real hair in the living room, zipped around in a classic Porsche roadster, and once fed us French toast for dinner. They were a family of expert skiers and had a snow cabin full of bunk beds up in the mountains. She was the only mother in the neighborhood we called by her first name, and her entire face lit up when she smiled.

She also spent a lot of time devising ways to get people to eat more tortillas. Long before the days of desktop publishing, she and her mother put out a newsletter called Tortilla Talk, which they filled with interesting recipes using tortillas and tortilla chips.

Back in early August, the first ripe tomatoes from the garden and an ongoing cottage cheese kick prompted this e-mail message to my mother: What was that stuff you used to make a long time ago with cottage cheese and salsa or tomatoes or whatever? And what did you do with it once you made it—just eat it with chips?

The recipe for 'Gayle's Caliente Cottage Cheese Dip' arrived in my inbox soon after, and I wasn't surprised to find that it was from Tortilla Talk. Below it my mother had added, Gayle could be Mrs. Pete Wilson. I've since learned that the recipe did indeed originate in the (now) former First Lady of California's kitchen.

I took the original six-ingredient recipe, applied my More More More motto to it, and came up with this colorful, veggie-packed version I've been devouring ever since. It's always nice when something that's so good for you tastes so good, too. It's even low fat.

So what memorable factory tours have you been on?


The more color, the better is what I always say.

Farmgirl Susan's Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip
Makes about 3 cups

Gayle's recipe called for 3 dashes of Tabasco and a 4-ounce can of diced green chiles, which were a staple in many pantry cupboards in our neighborhood when I was growing up. I opted to use a chopped fresh jalapeno pepper instead, but canned chiles would add a nicely flavored kick.

Using yellow or orange tomatoes and/or sweet peppers will make the dip even more colorful. As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients whenever possible. They really do make a difference.

Ingredients:
1 16-ounce container organic cottage cheese
1 cup chopped Roma, San Marzano, or other paste tomatoes (about 4 large)
1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
3 large scallions (green onions) white and green parts, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped (optional)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
Mix all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Feel free to add even more veggies if you like. The original recipe says to chill at least 3 hours before serving, then pass with tortilla or corn chips. Waiting a few hours, or even overnight, does improve the flavor, but, as usual, I nibbled away while I chopped and mixed, and it tasted just fine to me.

It's funny, though, how you can add so many ingredients to a container of cottage cheese and have it all fit back in the original container. This dip will keep two to three days in the fridge.


Turn it into instant coleslaw!

What else can you do with it?
Personally I think this dip tastes great just plunked in a bowl and eaten with a spoon, which is the way I've enjoyed most of the six or so batches I've made over the past few months. It's a nice (and healthier) change from plain cottage cheese. If you haven't used up all your cabbage making my Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw, simply combine some Fiesta dip with shredded cabbage for another new twist on coleslaw.

You could also use it to fill an omelette or top a baked potato. Or make a quick vegetarian burrito by stirring in a can of black beans and a can of corn into either the plain dip or the coleslaw and wrapping it all up in a flour tortilla, perhaps with an extra sprinkling of chopped fresh cilantro. You could probably even spread some on a sandwich.

Can you tell I love this stuff?

Still hungry? You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the Farmgirl Fare Recipe Index.

© FarmgirlFare.com, the always on tour foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote acres.

Three No-Cook Summer Recipes:Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw, Easy Vegetarian Tacos & High Kickin' Creamy Tomato Dressing

When Life Gives You Five Enormous Cabbages. . .

Okay, life didn’t exactly give me the cabbages, but when they’re twenty cents a pound and locally grown, in my book that’s practically free—and obviously meant to be. So that was why one day last summer I tossed twenty pounds of cabbage into my supermarket shopping cart.

Once in the kitchen with my bounty, I realized there was no way all those cabbages were going to fit in my already crowded refrigerator, which meant I had to store them in a cooler with ice packs. I then proceeded to stuff myself with cabbage until I was sick of it, which is of course what true seasonal eating is all about.

I was also determined to come up with new ways to enjoy this extremely nutritious member of the Cruciferae family of vegetables. Inspired one day by various ingredients that were all hanging around the kitchen hoping to be eaten soon, I tossed them together with a few pantry staples and created this colorful salad that I immediately named Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw.


I’d forgotten all about it until a couple of weeks ago when I arrived home toting five locally grown cabbages. Obviously I didn’t come down with a case of self-restraint over the past year. Fortunately these little darlings weighed in at less than a pound apiece. They even all fit in the fridge.

The slaw was as good as I’d remembered it, and would be perfect for a potluck. While it tastes great on its own as a side dish, a snack, or a light and healthy lunch, this time I decided to try stuffing some of into warm homemade taco shells. I topped these refreshingly different vegetarian tacos with chopped tomatoes, cilantro, a drizzle of dressing, and a dollop of sour cream. Oh yeah.


Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw
Serves 4 to 6 — Recipe may be doubled

This delicious and healthful coleslaw-type salad doesn’t actually contain any jumping beans and is more Tex-Mex than Mexican, but when it comes to dubbing new dishes I’ll admit that sometimes catchy wins out over reality. Besides, with a name like Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw, you might even be able to talk any picky little eaters at your table into seeing if they’re able to pop a bite in their mouth before it jumps right off their fork.

The snappy tomato dressing, which was inspired by last summer's Seven Second Tomato Glut Solution (oh how I wish I had that glut this year), whizzes together in seconds in the blender and can be used on all sorts of other things besides this slaw (see my suggestions at the end of the recipe), but you can always use a bottled dressing instead. Trader Joe’s sells a lowfat creamy cilantro dressing in their refrigerated section that’s full of flavor but not calories.

The optional cooked chicken turns this into a heartier dish that’s perfect for a summer supper with friends, or for feeding people who simply can’t fathom the idea of eating a vegetarian taco.

As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients whenever possible. They really do make a difference in so many ways. Cans of organic black beans and organic corn are versatile pantry staples, and both can often be found for about a dollar.

3 cups (about 9 ounces) shredded green cabbage
1 cup (about 3 ounces) shredded purple cabbage
2 large sweet red peppers, diced
2 medium carrots, grated
4 large scallions, chopped
1 15-ounce can organic black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-ounce can organic whole sweet corn, drained or 1-1/2 cups cooked fresh corn
2 cups shredded or diced cooked chicken (optional)
Salt to taste

2-1/2 cups High Kickin’ Creamy Tomato Dressing (see recipe below)

In a large bowl, combine green cabbage, purple cabbage, red peppers, carrots, black beans, and corn. Stir in chicken if desired. Add 2 cups dressing and mix well, adding another 1/2 cup dressing if desired. Salt to taste. Serve immediately, or for best flavor, chill for several hours or overnight. Slaw will keep in the fridge for 2 to 3 days.


Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw Tacos
Few Tablespoons olive or canola oil
Corn tortillas

Optional toppings:
Chopped vine-ripened tomatoes
Chopped fresh cilantro
More High Kickin' Creamy Tomato Dressing
Sour cream
Guacamole or diced avocado
Shredded cheese

Heat 2 Tablespoons oil in a large skillet. Add two or three tortillas. Using tongs, turn tortillas over so that both sides are covered with oil. Let cook, turning once or twice more, until just starting to crisp, 2 to 3 minutes. Set on a paper towel-lined plate and sprinkle lightly with salt. Cook the remaining tortillas, adding more oil to the skillet as needed.

To serve, fold warm tortillas in half and stuff with Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw and optional toppings, drizzling with more High Kickin’ Creamy Tomato Dressing if desired.

High Kickin' Creamy Tomato Dressing
Makes about 3-1/2 cups

1 pound juicy, vine-ripened tomatoes (about 3 medium), coarsely chopped
1 cup yogurt (I use lowfat or nonfat)
1 cup sour cream (I use lowfat)
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
1 Tablespoon ground cumin, preferably freshly ground
1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds, preferably freshly ground
1 teaspoon chile powder (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, adding a little more tomato if it’s too thick. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 days. Warning note: The heat from the chile powder in the dressing becomes more pronounced the next day.

Other ways to enjoy this dressing:
--Mixed into a Tex-Mex potato salad
--Drizzled over a platter of sliced garden tomatoes
--Tossed with a green salad
--With a plate of grilled summer squash
--In your favorite chicken salad
--As a quick way to give rice salad a kick

© FarmgirlFare.com, the cabbage crazed foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres.

Farm Photo: 8/13/07

Purple Kohlrabi Leaves In The Kitchen Garden

A year of Farm Photos ago:
8/7/06: Sweeping Off The Truck--Or Dancing With The Broom?
8/8/06: The Story Of The Cat Cabin
8/9/06: Feather Wait
8/10/06: Nothing Subtle About Our Dan
8/11/06: Tweet
8/12/06: Waking Up The Farm
8/13/06: Everybody Gets Tomatoes This Time Of Year

Give Beets A Chance: Recipe for Caramelized Beets with Garlic

Harvesting young beet greens with Baby Cary last spring.

"Who here likes beets?" I asked my cooking class students. Almost everyone raised their hand.

"Wow. A room full of beet lovers. This is great. Okay, do you like garlic?" Enthusiastic nods all around. "Then I'm going to tell you the easiest, amazingly delicious way to prepare them."

It didn't matter to me (or my students) that this was a class on making cream cheese pastry. Certain things simply need to be shared no matter what the circumstances, and my recipe for Caramelized Beets With Garlic is one of them.


Last summer's tiny but tasty beet harvest.

One of the best things about homegrown beets is that even if you abuse them, they will still taste delicious. The plants will put up with frosty mornings as well as hot and humid summer days.

The beets you see above were planted late and thinned too late (those are the giant thinnings in the top photo). They were also left in the ground until July 31st, so some of them ended up much too big—and looking a little strange.

I then stuffed my poor harvest in a plastic bag and stashed it in the refrigerator for two months because I wanted to save it for my beet-crazy mother's upcoming visit. I was sure the beets would be tough and woody (not to mention half rotten), but I should have known better--beets from the garden do not hold a grudge. They were wonderful.

It's not too late to plant some beet seeds in the garden. Check out my kitchen garden blog post, How To Grow Beets from Seed and Why You Should, to learn how.

Farmgirl Susan's Caramelized Beets with Garlic
There are plenty of other ways to cook beets, but even if I have a 100-pound harvest someday I will probably never try any of them because I am so addicted to these.

The two most important things you need when making this recipe are plenty of beets and plenty of time. Beets shrink down a whole lot while cooking, and if you or a kitchen companion is a hungry nibbler, they'll shrink down even more. Start with way more beets than you think you'll need; my foodie mother and I ate this entire harvest in one sitting.

Cooking time will vary depending on how big a pile of beets you're cooking, the size of your beet dice, and how high you set the burner on your stove. Figure a minimum of 45 minutes, but it'll probably take more like an hour (trust me, it's worth the wait).

So easy. Scrub your pile of fresh beets under running water. If the skins seem a bit thick or tough, you can peel them. (I’ve never made this with store bought beets—or ever bought beets at all, come to think of it—so I don’t know what the skins are like.) Trim the tops and bottoms, then cut into about 1-inch dice.

Pour a generous amount of your favorite olive oil in a large skillet or pot and heat (a cast iron skillet works great and is one of the best kitchen bargains around). Add the beets, stir to coat with oil, then cook slowly, stirring often.

Meanwhile, peel several cloves of garlic, sprinkle them generously with salt, and chop them up. When the beets are fully cooked and caramelized, make a hole in the center of the beets and add the garlic, stirring around to make sure the garlic touches the bottom of the pan and cooks.

Cook about 1 or 2 mintues; do not let the garlic brown. Stir the garlic into the beets and serve.

If you happen to have any leftovers, they taste great the next day, either reheated or straight from the fridge.

Still hungry? You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the Farmgirl Fare Recipe Index.

© FarmgirlFare.com, the beet loving foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres.

Recipe: Easy Spinach Soup Made with Fresh Spinach

This tasty, healthy, non-dairy soup is packed with fresh spinach and cooks up in about 40 minutes.

To me, fresh baby spinach is about as good as it gets in the vegetable department, and I could happily eat spinach salad five times a week. So you might assume that I devote a large portion of my kitchen garden to growing spinach each year. How I wish.

Spinach is fairly easy to grow from seed, but the plants prefer a long, cool growing season, not the wildly fluctuating temperatures we have in Missouri each spring and fall.

The other problem with growing spinach is that you need to plant a lot of it. Those 'bunches' of fresh spinach for sale at the market? They're not one single clump like a head of lettuce. Each one is actually about 50 little spinach plants made up of just a few leaves apiece and bundled together with a twisty tie.

Now start doing the math.

Even if I could get a decent spinach crop to grow, I'd need about two acres of plants to feed my habit, not to mention hundreds of hours to tend and harvest them. Store bought spinach is suddenly a steal.

Unfortunately, conventionally grown spinach is always near the top of the Environmental Working Group's Most Contaminated Produce List. Thankfully fresh organic spinach is readily available. So I expend my energies in the garden growing Swiss chard (heat tolerant! cold tolerant! easy to grow from seed!) and treat myself to purchased organic spinach, which I buy by the pound and usually turn into enormous salads.

For many years, a version of the spinach soup in Margaret Fox's Cafe Beaujolais Cookbook (I love this book) was regularly featured at my dinner table. I made it with a box of frozen spinach (as does Margaret) and plain old canned chicken broth (she made her own stock), topped it off with a dollop of sour cream, and enjoyed every bowlful. Then I moved to a farm way out in the country, turned into sort of a food snob (but in a good way), and stopped making that soup. It's been years since I've even bought a can of chicken broth.

But the other night, two soon-to-be-outdated bags of organic spinach and a large bowl of rich, homemade chicken stock called out to me from behind the refrigerator door. It was 20°F outside, and there is only so much spinach salad even I can eat.

Naturally I turned back to my beloved Cafe Beaujolais recipe for guidance, but what I ended up with was like no spinach soup I'd ever had. I won't embarrass myself by admitting just how much of it I consumed in one sitting. Okay, one sitting and one standing over the pot in the kitchen. (Have you ever looked at how much of something has been eaten, known you were the only one who could possibly have eaten it, and yet started glancing frantically around the room for someone—anyone—to blame for some of its disappearance?)

Once again, top quality ingredients shine through in the simplest of preparations. And while the gist of Margaret's recipe remains the same, I've changed pretty much everything about it except the basic instructions.

A few chopped radishes as garnish add color, flavor, and a pleasant crunch.

Farmgirl Susan's Super Spinach Soup

Makes about 8 cups — adapted from Cafe Beaujolais

**Click here to print this recipe**

So what's so super about this spinach soup? It's super fast and easy to make, super delicious, and super good for you. It's rich and satisfying and yet contains no milk or cream. The secret to its thickness is a little uncooked white rice tossed in. If you're following Alejandro Junger's Clean program, use 3/4 cup cooked brown rice instead. Note that the texture of your soup won't be quite as smooth.

As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients; they really do make a difference. I recently discovered Lundberg Farms organic white long grain rice and love it. Their brown rices are really good too.

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound yellow or white onions, chopped (about 3 cups)

1 to 2 cloves finely chopped fresh garlic

6 cups (48 ounces) organic chicken stock, preferably homemade
1/4 cup uncooked organic white rice (or 3/4 cup cooked organic brown rice, see note above)
12 ounces fresh organic baby spinach (about 8 cups packed)
1 teaspoon salt (you may need less if your chicken stock is salty)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Optional garnishes:

Sour cream of creme fraiche

A few finely chopped spinach leaves

Chive blossoms

Chopped radishes

1. Heat the olive oil in a 4 quart pot, add the onions, and cook, stirring frequently, over medium heat until translucent and just starting to turn golden at the edges, about 7 to 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 to 2 more minutes.

2. Add the chicken stock, turn up the heat, and bring to a boil. Add the rice, turn down the heat, and simmer, with the lid cracked, stirring every so often, for 20 minutes. (If you're using cooked brown rice, don't add it until step 3.)

3. Stir in the spinach, salt, and pepper and simmer another 5 to 7 minutes. Carefully puree the soup using a counter top blender or immersion hand blender.

4. Season to taste and serve hot, garnished if desired. Like most soups, this one tastes even better when reheated the next day.

Still hungry? You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes, including several more scrumptious soups, in the Farmgirl Fare Recipe Index.

© FarmgirlFare.com, the carefully blended foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares photos & stories of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres—and there's always homemade soup in the freezer.

Pita, Pita, It's Time To Eata!

BLT Pita & Garden Bounty

And about time, too. After two weeks of runaway preoccupation and dozens of little balls of dough, I ran out of steam (and stomach space) on what I now refer to as The Pita Project. (I also started hearing things like, "Pita, Pita, Where's The Meata?")

So no more excuses. I turned the oven off and the computer on, gathered together my photos and findings, and wrote a post much longer than originally intended. I had some fun, learned a lot, and am absolutely stuffed.

I appreciate your patience, and hope you will find it was worth the wait. Just click here to start reading all about How The Pita Puffed.