Recipe: Quick and Easy Refried Black Bean Dip with Tomatoes, Onions, and Cilantro

Going Bonkers for Canned Beans


Leftover Grilled Pork and Garden Tomatoes Became a Quick and Healthy Late Summer Lunch

I'm a big fan of canned beans. I buy them by the case and always have stacks of them on hand in the pantry. They're cheap, convenient, keep for ages, and go with practically everything. Don't get me wrong—I think it's great that everybody seems to be jumping on the dried bean bandwagon these days (my Roasted Garlic Lover's White Bean Soup is one of the most searched for recipes on Farmgirl Fare), and I'll be the first to admit that canned beans aren't as tasty as home cooked.

But while I live for slow food and cooking from scratch—and routinely let homemade chicken stock simmer for five or six hours on the stove (which not only tastes fabulous but makes the house smell so good)—last year's plan to start cooking up a pound of dried beans once a week still has yet to begin. Sometimes you just need to bypass your best intentions and head for the canned bean aisle instead, because everybody knows that canned beans are infinitely better than no beans.

For years I've snacked on garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas) simply rinsed and sprinkled with salt. I also toss them into everything from Arugula Pesto to Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup. A handful of garbanzos or kidney beans can turn a salad into a meal, and canned black beans are the star of my Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw.

A while back I discovered cannellini beans, which are sometimes called white kidney beans, and quickly began adding them to everything from Greek Salad to summer squash sautés. Then I got hooked on white bean spreads, which have to be the easiest appetizer ever. Plunk a rinsed can of beans, some sort of flavoring, and a little olive oil into the food processor and whiz for a couple of seconds. I started with pesto and quickly moved onto pretty much anything in the pantry: artichokes, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, and that yummy olive bruschetta stuff sold in pretty octagonal jars at Trader Joe's. White bean spread is guilt-free and addictive.

Full of fiber and nutrients and a good source of protein, beans are one of the healthiest foods around, and moderation isn't really necessary. But when I began craving cold leftover baked beans for breakfast a while back, I started to get a little concerned. And when I found myself standing in the kitchen scooping up refried black beans straight from the can with tortilla chips, I knew I could do better.

So what do you like to do with canned beans?




Quick and Easy Refried Black Bean Dip

This is the kind of thing I love to have in the fridge because it keeps me from grabbing a cookie or a slice of chocolate cake or a handful of cheese and crackers instead of something healthier and more substantial when I walk into the kitchen starving. It's incredibly versatile and can be made in summer with juicy, vine-ripened tomatoes or in winter with some good canned tomatoes.

Use it thick as a dip with tortilla chips or a burrito filling, or thin it out and top a platter of nachos. You can even turn it into a dressing for a Tex-Mex inspired salad like the impromptu one pictured above that I made last summer with heirloom tomatoes from the kitchen garden and chunks of leftover grilled pork.

As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients, as they really do make a difference in so many ways. Quality of canned beans can vary greatly by brand, and I've found that the organic ones taste best. Cans of organic beans are readily available in natural foods stores and many supermarkets and can often be found for the bargain price of about a dollar apiece. Some stores, such as Whole Foods, will even give you a case discount if you stock up and buy 12 cans at a time.

1 can refried black beans (I like the jalapeno flavored kind)
1 cup chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)
1/4 cup (or more*) chopped onions or scallions
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cumin (freshly ground is amazing)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 4-1/2 ounce can chopped mild green chilies or 1/2 cup salsa
Large handful cilantro, chopped

Garnishes:
Cilantro
Salsa
Sour cream
Shredded cheese
Chopped scallions
Chopped tomatoes
Avocado chunks
Guacamole

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. This dip tastes best after the flavors have had a chance to mingle, so try to make it up at least a few hours before serving and let it chill in the fridge. Serve warm or cold, garnished as desired.

Still hungry? Here are more Farmgirl Fare recipes that call for canned beans:
Arugula Pesto, Arugula Pesto Cream Cheese Spread, & Arugula Pesto Pizza
Basil Pesto and White Bean Spread
Colors of Summer Tomato and Fresh Vegetable Salad
Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw & Quick Vegetarian Tacos
Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad with Cottage Cheese and Broccoli Stalks
Fast Black Bean Soup/Chili
Broccoli, Onion, and Garbanzo Bean Soup
Roasted Red Pepper, Tomato, and Artichoke Soup
Quick Cream (or Not) of Artichoke Soup
Swiss Chard Artichoke Soup with Garbanzo Beans

*6/09 update: I'm loving my sweet spring onions from the garden so much I tossed at least a cup of them into today's batch of dip. Delicious!

© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the bonkers for beans foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares recipes, stories, and photos from her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres—and leftover baked beans for breakfast are actually rather tasty, especially when warmed up and served over a piece of toasted homemade honey bran bread.

Quick & Easy Gazpacho (Chilled Tomato Vegetable Soup): A Healthy No Cook Summer Recipe

It's All About Less Fuss, More Flavor

Beat the heat with this simple and refreshing, healthy gazpacho that's packed with tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, onion, and garlic.

It's funny how you can go so long without ever knowing about something, and then once you do you're instantly bombarded by it. That's what happened to me a while back with sherry wine vinegar.

I'd never heard of it before, saw it listed in a recipe, and then suddenly it seemed like half the recipes I came across during the next couple of weeks were calling for the stuff—which I still haven't been able to find for sale anywhere (update: found some!).

Then it was the phrase 'my bad.' I saw a book of cute animal photos called I'm Sorry. . . My Bad!, couldn't figure out the title, and the next thing I knew I was hearing my bad everywhere—including in a seven-year-old movie I'd already watched twice.

Lately it's been gazpacho. Of course I was already familiar with this cold soup, but I'd never actually made or tasted it. Back in August I was served some during a Sunday brunch with friends, and after one dainty slurp I was hooked.

"This would be the perfect thing to keep in the fridge all summer long!" I exclaimed, and immediately demanded the recipe. The hostess opened up a battered copy of Mollie Katzen's beloved New Moosewood Cookbook and proceeded to tell me how she'd personalized the recipe over the years, including stirring in a little yogurt and garnishing it with a dollop of sour cream.

That afternoon the gazpacho flood began. I found a recipe for it sitting in my e-mail in-box when I arrived back the farm. And another one in a magazine I flipped through that evening.

Gazpacho was suddenly everywhere on the web, too, and I discovered my foodie pal Finny had just whipped up a batch using tomatoes from her garden. On and on it went. I took this as a big red sign and dove in.

Gazpacho is, according to this article in Saveur magazine, "the definitive Andalusian dish, and—with the possible exception of paella—Spain's most famous culinary export." I've also learned that it has approximately three million variations.

The basic idea is that you combine bread, olive oil, and vinegar with some other ingredients (often fresh tomatoes and cucumbers), blend it up (or not), and serve the resulting mixture chilled. But just what are the other ingredients?

During some quick research I found recipes that called for—are you ready?—all of the following things: tomato juice, V8 juice, fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, stale bread, bread crumbs, cucumbers, green peppers, yellow peppers, red peppers, piquillo peppers, jalapeno peppers, chopped green chiles, radishes, leeks, garlic, celery, white onions, yellow onions, red onions, scallions, shallots, olive oil, vegetable oil, dry white wine, white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, tarragon vinegar, sherry wine vinegar, lime juice, lemon juice, lemon zest, unflavored gelatin, green olives with pimientos, chicken stock, a beef bouillon cube, chipotle chiles in adobo, sugar, maple syrup, honey, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, basil, oregano, tarragon, chervil, chives, cilantro, dill, ginger, parsley, yogurt, sour cream, fava beans, avocado, almonds, green grapes, crab meat, zucchini, and water. Water?

The June 2008 issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food has a tropical gazpacho made with mangoes, cucumbers, and buttermilk. In The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook, authors Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins included a recipe for green gazpacho that calls for arugula, watercress, yogurt, and three raw eggs.

In The New Basics Cookbook (one of my all time favorite cookbooks), Rosso and Lukins offer up a more traditional version and admit that they've been known to add a bit of vodka to their mugs "so that it becomes a Spanish Bloody Mary," which I thought sounded like a very good idea.

Gazpacho garnishes ran from chopped tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and onions to black olives and chopped hard-boiled eggs. Croutons were mentioned all over the place.

Ultimately I decided to go the very simple route with both ingredients and technique. I've never understood the common practice of adding purchased tomato juice to gazpacho when you could just use more fresh tomatoes instead, which is what I did.

I also skipped the traditional stale bread, went easy on the olive oil (one recipe I found called for 1½ cups!), and used white balsamic vinegar because that was what I had on hand.

There's no need to blanch, peel, seed, or force anything through a sieve in my version, and all of the vegetable goodness ends up right in your bowl. I wasn't trying for traditional, but I did leave out the gelatin, shrimp, and raw eggs. Besides being delicious, this gazpacho also happens to be extremely good for you.

If you've never had gazpacho, I urge you to give it a try, even if, like me, you're not a big fan of cold soups. This recipe is basically a thick juice, which can be sipped rather than slurped—and easily made thinner—if desired.

What do you like to put in your gazpacho?

Some people refer to gazpacho as liquid salad.

Farmgirl Susan's Simple Summer Gazpacho
Makes about 6 cups (48 ounces)

**Click here to print this recipe**

While flavorful, vine-ripened tomatoes are of the utmost importance here, this is a perfect opportunity to use up those not-so-perfect-looking specimens you might have hanging around. Make it a day ahead if you can, as the flavor increases dramatically after sitting overnight in the fridge.

Weighing your ingredients makes things so much easier, especially when you're dealing with the often disparate sizes of fruits and vegetables. As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients; they really do make a difference.

2½ pounds vine-ripened tomatoes (about 8 medium), preferably heirloom and organic, chopped
2 medium cucumbers (about 13 ounces), chopped
2 small sweet red peppers (about 8 ounces), cored and chopped
1 yellow or white onion (about 8 ounces), chopped
3 to 4 cloves garlic (1 heaping Tablespoon), finely chopped
1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon honey (or 2 Tb. if your tomatoes aren't real sweet)
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper

Optional:
Yogurt
Sour cream
A squirt of hot sauce, such as Sriracha
Celery stick and a splash of vodka

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Using a counter top blender, purée the vegetable mixture in small batches until smooth. Combine and stir well. Adjust seasonings to taste. Let sit for several hours or overnight in the fridge.

Serve chilled, with a little yogurt stirred in and/or a dollop of sour cream on top if desired, along with any other garnishes you like. This gazpacho will keep for three to four days.

Got a bumper crop? More Farmgirl Fare recipes featuring fresh tomatoes:

Easy Homemade Tomato Vegetable Juice (like V8 but better)

Greek Salad Pitas with Baby Spinach and Quick Kalamata Olive Tapenade

Greek Style Panzanella Salad

Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw (and Tacos) with High Kickin' Creamy Tomato Dressing

Middle Eastern Vegetable Salad (Fattoush)

No-Cook Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce with Basil, Capers, & Kalamatas

No Sugar Green Tomato Relish

Savory Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Pesto Pie with an Easy Cheesy Biscuit Crust

Sun Dried Tomato and Fresh Tomato Artichoke Pesto (for pasta and more)

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 fresh picked foodie farm blog where the mornings may be nice and nippy (hooray for polar fleece season!), but our late-planted tomatoes and cucumbers in the kitchen garden are just now at their peak, and since putting up portable electric fencing is still hot and sweaty work even if it is only in the 70s outside, I see at least one more batch of refreshingly cool gazpacho being whizzed up in our early October future.

A Fresh, Lowfat Twist on Cole Slaw: Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad Recipe with Garbanzo Beans, Broccoli Stems, & Cottage Cheese

Colorful, crunchy, and good for you - pass the salad, please!

During a live chat last year with Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, authors of the bestselling Silver Palate cookbooks (and The New Basics, one of my all time favorite cookbooks), my foodie friend Sonia asked an interesting question:

I think that we all tend to read a recipe and then make it our own by adapting it to our tastes or to what is readily available in our areas. At least, that's how I usually cook. For example, the stuffed tomatoes recipe in the Silver Palate calls for ricotta and spinach, and although ricotta is readily available here in in Hawaii, I have a goat farmer friend up the road who makes chevre, so I use that recipe, along with Malabar spinach from my garden.

I'm curious, though—when someone tells you they have changed your recipe around, does it bother you, or are you pleased that you at least gave them a starting point?

And Julee replied:

I really take it as a compliment that someone has made [one of] our recipes and chosen to make it their own. That's what cooking is all about. I have an insatiable curiosity, and so sometimes I want to make the familiar, sometimes the new!!

Since I started Farmgirl Fare three years ago, I've heard from people all around the world who have made my recipes. While I love to know that you've enjoyed them, I also love it when you tell me that one of my recipes inspired you to head into the kitchen and create something of your own.

The other day I received this note from Sarah:

I read your blog regularly, and the other day I was bored at work so I was looking back through your archives. I was intrigued by your broccoli soup with chickpeas. I didn't follow your recipe at all except for the suggestion of an addition of a can of chickpeas.

I had a 2 month old head of cauliflower in my fridge and so I put some onions, garlic, celery, and cauliflower in some broth, cooked it up, added a can of beans, pureed and voila! I did have some pesto on hand so I added a teaspoon of that to the soup and it was amazing. My cat even ate a small bowl of the stuff! Thank you for the inspiration! I don't usually follow recipes but read them compulsively and rework them.

So not only did I inspire Sarah to whip up something delicious with that languishing head of cauliflower in her fridge, but I now have a tasty sounding new recipe for cauliflower soup as well.

Fortunately my dear friend Kat feels the same way as Julee and I do, because although I doubt anyone would recognize her Fresh Veggie Salad in this recipe, it was my inspiration.

Two things about Kat's salad jumped out at me: the intriguing combination of cabbage and spinach (something I'd never thought to do), and the addition of cottage cheese, which I've been tossing into all kinds of stuff lately, like this Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip.

With those two ideas in mind, I simply took her recipe and ran with it.

Kat's version is versatile; she's rolled it up in chicken breasts, used it in omelets, and even tossed it on a pizza. Mine might be versatile, too, though I have yet to move beyond just gobbling it out of a bowl—or straight from the dish in the fridge.


This flavorful salad is low fat, low carb, and packed with fiber—but you don't have to share that part if you don't want to.

Farmgirl Susan's Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad
Makes about 8 cups - Inspired by Kat's Fresh Veggie Salad

This is actually the second Kat-inspired salad I created. The first version was made with spinach, but since I never got around to planting any spinach this past spring, I simply made due with what I had on hand this year—and that was plenty of homegrown Swiss chard.

I also took advantage of our scallion bounty. I'll hopefully get around to sharing the spinach version, too, but since I know a lot of you are looking for new ways to use up all your gorgeous Swiss chard right now, I figured this one needed to come first.


Freshly harvested Swiss chard from the Kitchen Garden

There's a nice crunch to this salad, in part because Swiss chard—which is easy to grow from seed—gives you a bonus veggie: the stalks can be chopped up and used like celery. Choose colorful varieties of chard such as Pink Lipstick, Canary Yellow, and Orange Fantasia and you'll have some of the prettiest 'celery' around.

If you tend to throw out broccoli stalks and only use the florets (shame on you!), this is a great place to toss them instead.

This pseudo slaw—which would be perfect for picnics and potlucks—looks best right after it's been mixed up, but it tastes best after it's chilled for a couple of hours. I use a large serrated knife to thinly slice the cabbage and a big chef's knife to slice the chard, which I kind of roll up into a bundle before cutting.

As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients; they really do make a difference. Organic garbanzo beans are a staple in my farmhouse pantry and can usually be found for under two dollars a can. I often buy them by the case.

4 cups thinly sliced Swiss chard leaves
1 cup chopped Swiss chard stems
2 cups shredded green cabbage
1 cup shredded purple cabbage
1 or 2 large handfuls peeled & chopped broccoli stems
7 or 8 large chopped scallions (green onions)
1 15-ounce can organic garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1 16-ounce carton cottage cheese (I use low fat)
1/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon onion powder or granulated onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder or granulated garlic
Salt & pepper to taste

More chopped scallions for garnish

Combine Swiss chard leaves, Swiss chard stems, green and purple cabbage, scallions, and garbanzo beans in a large bowl. Add cottage cheese and mix well.

Add vinegar and stir to combine. Sprinkle with onion and garlic powders and mix well. Salt & pepper to taste, adding a little more vinegar if desired. Garnish with chopped scallions and serve.

So how do you use recipes? Do you follow them to the letter? Improvise with what you have on hand, is in season, or that you think might taste even better? Or do you simply look for inspiration and then just totally wing it? If you've written about a favorite recipe creation on your own blog, you're welcome to include a link to it in your comment.

Related posts:
How To Grow Swiss Chard from Seed & Why You Should
Recipe: Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip (and other ways to use Swiss Chard)
What To Do with 125 Scallions
How To Grow Arugula — Seed to Salad Bowl in Less than a Month
How To Grow Your Own Gourmet Lettuce from Seed

Other salads & potluck/picnic fare you might enjoy:
Swiss Chard Tuna Salad with Scallions & Kalamata Olives
Sour Cream & Onion Dip (and foodie travel)
Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip (and factory tours)
Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw & Quick Vegetarian Tacos
Colors of Summer Salad
On Loving Lettuce & Eating Salad for Breakfast
Summer in a Bowl
The Easiest Greek Salad Ever

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 greener than green foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories, photos, and recipes from her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres—and we're slightly obsessed with salads (and cake).

Recipe: What To Do With Kohlrabi? Purée It!

And Eating by Silly Food Rules

These resprouted purple kohlrabi plants are very, very safe.

Life is complicated. Something as basic as eating shouldn't be, but leave it to us humans to let this vital, natural act all but take over our lives. Even though most of us now have the luxury of hunting and gathering our food from the farmers' market and garden and grocery store rather than out in the wilds, we nevertheless think about it constantly.

But instead of worrying whether we'll be able to take down a bison to feed us through the winter, our days are now dominated by smaller, more specific—and yet still often overwhelming—details, such as figuring out how to produce meals that will simultaneously support our health, our budget, and the never ending desire to lose ten pounds.

But it's the often ridiculous rules and rationalizations we've come up with that really send us over the edge of edible obsession. You know, those little things that make perfect sense only because you've conveniently convinced yourself that they do.

For instance, some people believe that calories don't actually count if you've snitched the food from someone else's plate. Or that a healthy breakfast can consist of an enormous hunk of chocolate cake as long as it's accompanied by a large glass of milk (this would be me).

Nitrate-fearing health nuts will gleefully wolf down a mile-long hot dog if they're sitting in a sports stadium, and people who would never allow a bag of refined sugar into their homes are routinely seen walking around carnivals with their faces buried in clouds of cotton candy.

Some people are more practical, only consuming certain foods if they're in season, or setting spending limits and refusing to pay more than a dollar for a can of tuna or 89 cents for a bunch of parsley.

Then there's the inordinate number of us who know that when it comes to eating, anything goes if you're on vacation.

The beauty of vegetables is highly underrated.

Ever since I moved to the country and started planting an enormous kitchen garden, many of my self-imposed food laws have to do with buying fruits and vegetables. If I don't—or can't—grow something, then I have no problem paying for it.

But plunking down cash for so-so stuff that I have in great abundance at certain times of the year? Can't do it. Swiss chard from the supermarket? Certainly not. Kale? I can't. Tomatoes? No way. It's the same with basil, turnips, arugula, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, sweet peppers, pak choy, radishes, strawberries, and all sorts of other stuff.

In a moment of weakness last summer I forked over two dollars for a miniscule packet of fresh dill—which grows wild in my garden but never when the cucumbers are ready—and the stress almost killed me.

I do, however, make a few exceptions for year round essentials that I grow but not well (or not enough of), such as onions, broccoli, and parsley. And if I could find a decent source for it, I would probably buy kohlrabi every single week.

Kohlrabi, from the German words kohl (cabbage) and rabi (turnip), is not actually a cabbage or a turnip. Cultivated in Europe since at least the mid 1500's, this cold loving member of the brassica (cabbage) family is low in calories, high in fiber, and a good source of several vitamins and minerals. Although kohlrabi has been grown the U.S. since at least the early 1800's, it still has yet to become very popular.

Sweet and mildly flavored, kohlrabi can be braised, boiled, stuffed, sliced, scalloped, steamed, julienned, roasted, and sautéed. You can grate it into slaw, toss it into salads, slip it into soups and stews, snack on it raw with dip, and stir-fry it. You can even wrap it in foil and grill it.

I've seen recipes where kohlrabi was covered in cream, sautéed with anchovies, stuffed into empanadas, fried into cakes, served with hollandaise sauce, and turned into a cinnamon brunch bake. This vegetable is versatile.

(2011 Update: Farmgirl Fare readers offer up even more ideas for what to do with kohlrabi in the comments section of this post.)

Unfortunately all of these cooks are wasting their time—and their kohlrabi. For in my opinion, the only thing you should ever be doing with kohlrabi is turning it into purée. Trust me.

So what are your silly food rules? Come on, I won't tell anyone.

Purple kohlrabi in my kitchen garden (read about growing kohlrabi here)


Kohlrabi Purée Recipe
Serves up to six
Adapted slightly from The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins (authors of The Silver Palate Cookbook)

**Click here to print this recipe**

The Silver Palate ladies, who are self-described kohlrabi fans, say that "kohlrabi, once tasted, can become an obsession, for it seems to exude freshness," and liken it to an almost peppery version of broccoli. They do include two other kohlrabi recipes besides this purée in The New Basics Cookbook (which is one of my all time favorite cookbooks), but I figure that's only because their editor told them they had to.

Kohlrabi is usually available from May to December and comes in both white- (which is actually green) and purple-skinned varieties. The insides of both are white. Since my motto is, Why go with green if you can choose purple instead? I always grow the purple variety in my organic kitchen garden.

Look for kohlrabi bulbs that are about 2½ inches in diameter. Any larger and the skin may toughen and need to be peeled, and the insides can be woody. Freshly picked kohlrabi will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.

You'll need both the bulb and the leaves for this recipe, which is where my problem comes in. By the time the bulbs have formed on the plants, insects have usually ravaged the leaves. They'll grow back if given the chance, as you can see in the top photo of these old plants I discovered buried under weeds last fall, but by then the bulbs will no longer be edible. Fortunately the young leaves are wonderful in salads.

This spring all the leaves remained untouched, but most of the plants never formed bulbs. Apparently this cool season vegetable doesn't care for our drastic late winter and early spring temperature fluctuations. But I did manage to harvest kohlrabi enough to make one batch of this glorious purée.

You can read more about my experiences growing kohlrabi (with other gardeners chiming in in the comments section) here.

If you don't have any kohlrabi leaves, kale would probably make a good substitute.

Kohlrabi plants are beautiful. Kohlrabi purée is not, which is why I haven't included a photo. This is actually a good thing, because if you believe that guests should only be served food that is pleasing to look at, you can save this recipe for a time when you only need to feed yourself.

Rosso and Lukins suggest serving kohlrabi purée alongside your favorite meatloaf instead of mashed potatoes, but I turned it into a main course and managed to devour an embarrassingly large amount while standing in the kitchen.

I've adapted the recipe slightly, mostly because I'm not the type of person who ever has 3 Tablespoons of chicken stock hanging around in the fridge. The mushrooms add a nice flavor, but I've left them out before, and the purée still tasted delicious.

4 kohlrabi bulbs with leaves
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 ounces cultivated mushrooms (I used Baby Bellas), quartered
3 Tablespoons cream (or milk, chicken stock, olive oil, or water)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Trim the kohlrabi bulbs, peeling them if the skins seem tough. Rinse the leaves (discarding any that are yellow) pat them dry, and coarsely chop. Set aside. But the bulbs into 1-inch chunks.

2. Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil, and add the kohlrabi chunks. Reduce the heat and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a skillet. Add the onion and sauté over medium-low heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, another 1 to 2 minutes. Don't let the garlic brown.

4. Add the mushrooms and the reserved kohlrabi leaves to the skillet. Cover, and cook 5 minutes. Then uncover, and cook, stirring, until all the liquid has evaporated, 3 minutes. Set the skillet aside.

5. Drain the kohlrabi chunks and place them in the bowl of a food processor (I love my 12-cup KitchenAid processor). Add the mushroom mixture and the cream (or whatever substitute you're using). Purée until smooth. Salt and pepper to taste.

6. Transfer the purée to a saucepan and reheat over low heat, stirring, 2 minutes. Serve warm.

Makes 6 portions. (I love that they don't actually say it will 'serve' six people, but that it does indeed make six portions.)

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 fresh veggie foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares recipes, stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres—and we're nuts about kohlrabi.

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.

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.