A Rustic Spanish Dish

If you live in my neck of the woods you know that Summer continues to linger and Fall is working hard to make itself known. 

Fall is my favorite time of year - beautiful trees, apple cider, pumpkin everything and cool, crisp weather. I love hoodies, tights, sweaters, sweatshirts and fires in the fireplace. Spiced Chai, and warm soups and stews. The only downside - putting the garden to bed. 

To be honest, this year rivals last year with respect to harvest and critters. We’ve had amazing cucumbers, tomatoes, greens, herbs, kale, collard greens, cauliflower, pepper (poblano, red, yellow,banana and green), broccoli and beans. Still to come; brussels sprouts, squash (buttercup, butternut and acorn) last count about 15. One pleasant surprise - watermelon at last count we have 6 - 4 will definitely mature and we’ll eat them, other two - not sure - but hey 4 watermelon is better than none right?

On Sunday the weather was cooler and I wanted to make a simple yet warming dish that used up some of the tomato bounty so I opted for a Spanish beans and tomatoes and for good measure I added a couple handfuls of spinach and some olives. The prep time for this dish is about 10 minutes and cook time 25 so dinner in 35 minutes leaves you lots of time to clean up the kitchen and spend the rest of the evening curled up with your favorite book.

I found the base recipe at https://veggiedesserts.co.uk/spanish-beans-tomatoes/

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika 

1 Tbsp or more siracha (to taste)

2 x 400ml/14oz cans butter beans (lima beans), drained and rinsed

chopped fresh tomatoes - enough to fill 2 butter bean cans

Sea salt and black pepper

2 large handfuls spinach, roughly chopped

10 - 12 green olives - sliced in half

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the onions and fry, stirring continuously, for 3-5 minutes until translucent but not browned. Add the garlic, paprika and siracha and fry for a further minute. Add the beans and tomatoes. Stir to combine, add the olives and season with salt and pepper. Stir well and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes, checking regularly so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. As it finishes, stir the spinach through to wilt.

Serve hot or cold, as tapas or a side dish, sprinkled with the fresh parsley.

Bursting with Flavors!

We had a fabulous holiday weekend. I took Friday off to catch up on all those things that you never have time to do, one of which was renew my drivers license. While it took 1.5 hours to do that and I realized the process was one of the MOST inefficient I’ve ever seen, I’m glad that is over. Next up, I need to renew my passport; I think I’ll go the mail in route this time. 

We spent Saturday at the Renaissance Festival. I like to go every few years because if I go every year the experience loses its fun - same with the State Fair, which we went to last year - looks like I’m good for about 3 more years on both fronts. My favorite part of Saturday - avocado fries, crispy outside and creamy inside I think I could survive on avocado fries.

Fast forward to Sunday we did a long hike with Dan’s sister Sue and her husband Brian. The guys are heading to half dome in a couple weeks and they wanted to do some training so we tagged along. Our reward was a delicious Indian dinner in St Croix Falls. Dan and I were driving through there a while ago and saw a sign that said vegetarian so we stopped and were delighted with our find. This time we not disappointed. I tried a curry dish that had carrots, broccoli, peppers, onions and plantains; kind of a sweet and savory in one bite - yum.

And what was our garden doing while we were not home? producing more things like this beautiful Brandywine tomato, eggplant, cucumbers, peppers and not quite yet ready we have brussels sprouts and squash - can’t wait. 

Fast forward another week - I’ve not been good about finishing my posts and getting them up there - mainly because I’m exhausted. I’ve been crazy busy at work; we’re kicking off training tomorrow, a webinar on Wednesday add that to my normal stuff and we’re busy. I’ve also been working to keep up with the garden harvest - no small task. 

This weekend I realized that unless I did something with all those tomatoes - we were going to have to trash them. Soooooo I made a tomato pie; flaky crust, caramelized onions, sheep feta and tomatoes, lots of tomatoes. I don’t have a hard and fast recipe but I’ll give you the basics. 

Start by thinly slicing 3 medium to large red onions - if you are a Pampered Chef fan, use the simple slicer on 1 - it makes them paper thin. To a heavy pan add olive oil and the onions. Saute until translucent and then lower the heat, cover and let cook for about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 - 20 minutes. 

While the onions are caramelizing, thinly slice the tomatoes and put them on a paper towel to absorb the moisture.

Assemble the pie; place a layer of tomatoes on the bottom, then a layer of onions and a layer of feta. Sprinkle shredded basil, rosemary and thinly sliced garlic on top. Repeat the layers 2 more times. Bake in a 375 degree oven for an hour. 

That brings me to today. Our neighbors have an apple tree and gave us some apples so Dan hauled out the trusty apple peeler and I tossed them in the crock pot with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and 3 Tbsp of brown sugar for 4 hours. I let it cool and then put it in containers - it’s sleeping in the freezer waiting for us to open it after we finish the jar our neighbors gave us. 

I also decided it was time to start working on the collard greens - we have a lot - yikes! I have a favorite recipe, which I refer to as collard green wraps.

Ingredients:

12 - 15 collard green leaves - washed, thick part of stem removed

1 large onion diced

2 carrots peeled and diced

3 stalks celery - diced

1 poblano pepper - seeded and chopped

2 banana peppers - seeded and chopped

1/2 bag of Morningstar farms veggie crumbles

oregano

sage

basil 

3 - 4 cloves garlic minced

Salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet, saute onions, celery and carrots until tender, add peppers, spices (this is a to taste thing) I don’t measure I toss in tsp, stir and taste and keep adding it’s a process. Add the veggie crumbles, stir until heated and then turn off the heat. 

Fill a large pot with water, turn on high and wait until it boils. Add collard green leaves 2 - 3 at a time and blanch for 3 - 5 minutes, drain. Lay a single collard green leaf on a flat surface, spoon 2 - 4 Tbsp filling (depends on the size of the leaf) in the top third of the green, fold in sides and then roll. Place seam side down on a plate, continue until all filling/greens have been used. 

My normal go to recipe/ sauce for the greens is a spicy marinara but today I’m going to pop them into the freezer and wait for a chilly fall day and top them with the marinara I made 2 weeks ago. 

Next up - squash and brussels sprouts