Posts Tagged: kale
herbed beet puree + spicy kale chips
Job hunting is…draining. At least it is for me. Maybe it’s an introvert thing? I consider myself confident, but when it comes to selling my skills and potential contribution, I start to feel awkward. I’d rather put my head down, get the work done, and the let the results speak for themselves. Then there’s the fact that searching for work is a time suck that leaves little room to create and develop – two things I feel a pull toward and wonder if are requisite to next steps career-wise, anyway.
At some point after I start to get irritated over how to allocate and find more time, I remind myself that frustration is wasted energy. You just gotta hustle.
The hustle, my friend, is not fueled by cronuts. It is most powerful and efficient when its source of energy is whole foods, particularly ample servings of vegetables. I’ve been prioritizing making my meals and snacks as nutrient-dense as I can manage, forgoing my previous habit of popcorn for lunch.
So, despite a feeling of busyness, my lunches are starting to mean business, as is the case with this meal of roots, greens, and fish. It’s saturated with color, richly textured, and includes multifarious flavors (sweet, earthy, tangy, herbaceous, salty, smoky, spicy) while still feeling cohesive.
Each vegetable component is lovely on its own. The beet puree is punchy & nutty and the thyme flavor is quite strong. Both creamy and velvety, it would be a lovely dip but I also had no trouble putting it down solo, one spoonful at a time.
I don’t think I need to tell you why kale chips are great, but after trying numerous seasonings, I’d say this version with smoked paprika is in my top five. In addition to the crunch and salt, the spicy factor makes these delightfully addictive. If I’m making them for the kids, I use about half the paprika, but I prefer to make a whole batch for myself anyway. After all, I need to keep my energy up.
Back to the hustle.
Herbed Beet Puree
3 medium beets, washed and trimmed
1/3 c tahini
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place the beets on a large piece of aluminum foil, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, and seal tightly. Roast until pierced easily with a fork, about 45 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, gently rub off the skins.
Add the cooked and peel beets to a blender or food processor, along with the tahini, lemon juice, thyme, and salt. Process until smooth and creamy. Serve under pan-seared salmon.
Smoky Spicy Kale Chips
method adapted from Oh She Glows
1 bunch kale, woody stems removed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1 teaspoon smoked hot paprika
Move two baking racks as close to the center as you can and preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Cut or tear kale into chip-sized pieces. Rinse and pat or spin fully dry. You could also at this point store them in an open container in the refrigerator to completely dry out.
Split the greens between two half sheet pans. Drizzle each with half the olive oil and massage into the kale or collards to fully coat. sprinkle with the salt and paprika, and toss to combine. Spread in a single layer; if you have any extra, reserve to roast as a second batch.
Cook for 15-20 minutes, swapping the baking sheets at the 10-minute mark, until the chips feel dry to the touch but are not browning. Serve on top and alongside pan-seared salmon.
crispy lentils with walnuts and za’atar
This week, I finally caught up on my blog feed after getting horribly backlogged over the holidays. I couldn’t bring myself to “mark all as read” because I have serious FOMO, but honestly I’m glad I took the time because my favorite blogs killed it – wrapping up 2014 and starting off 2015 right. I also just read Lean In, so I’m either two months or two years behind, depending on your yardstick.
Bearing that in mind, today’s recipe is not Valentine’s Day themed, as that would require the kind of forethought I can only applaud others for commanding. I dream of being that kind of writer one day. Except not really because I’m too busy dreaming about a full night’s sleep.
(But rest assured I will not miss Pi Day, partly because pie and partly because this.)
What I have for you instead of a chocolate dessert or romantic dinner menu is something more unassuming – I think “humble” is a good word for lentils – but no less rousing to eat. I love lentils’ earthiness but sometimes their texture is lackluster, so for this dish they get a little makeover via a fry in a hot skillet to become satisfyingly crispy. For extra crunch, I add chopped walnuts that become aromatic as they cook alongside the legumes. Everything is coated in a generous sprinkling of za’atar, an herbaceous and tangy spice blend of sumac, sesame seeds, and thyme. The sesame seeds also toast up in the pan, deepening their flavor. Oh, and I threw some kale in there for some extra goodness, to find it also became delightfully crisp at the edges.
I’d been coming back to this dish for a while, especially to use up leftover lentils, but didn’t find it notable enough to share until I began adding lemon zest. See, there are a lot of hearty flavors going on here, and they needed a little uplift. The zest brings a brightness to the meal that simultaneously balances and boosts it. Topped with a fried egg, I’ve been relishing it for breakfast, although it could just as easily stand in for lunch.
So there you have it, your non-Valentine’s Day recipe. It’s not glamorous, but it’s really good.
Crispy Lentils with Walnuts and Za’atar
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
1 c julienned kale
1 c cooked lentils, cooled and patted dry*
1/2 c roughly chopped walnuts
1 tsp za’atar
2 tsp lemon zest
2 eggs
olive oil
salt
Add a splash of olive oil to a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onion and saute until translucent. Add the kale and saute until bright green. Stir in the lentils, walnuts, za’atar, and two big pinches of salt and continue to saute until the lentils are crispy and walnuts are fragrant. This whole process takes 7-10 minutes.Stir in the lemon zest.
At this point if your skillet is large enough you can move the lentil mixture to the side, otherwise divide it among two plates before frying the eggs. Add another big splash of olive oil to the pan, crack in the eggs, and sprinkle each with a little salt. Cover and cook until the edges are crispy, whites are just set, and yolks still runny. Plate the eggs over the lentils and serve warm.
Serves 2
*I like to keep my lentils in a mesh strainer overnight in the fridge to cool and drip/air dry.The drier the lentils are, the more easily they’ll crisp up.
