Simple Measure

When your person works at a grocery store, there are certain advantages. Free food, mainly.

In my co-op days in Vermont, I was the one stuffing the ol’ messenger bag with day-old bread, salvaged produce and (just barely!) out-dated dairy products. (It’s really just a guideline, not a hard rule, right?)

In one of life’s funny little role reversals, Jared’s doing the grocery thing since we landed in Chicago. A combined 6 years of samples, discontinued merch and the occasional past sell-by gourmet score isn’t bad, huh?

A few weeks ago he showed up with a sack full of seitan that was past it’s sell-by date. Quick— load it into freezer and now we’ve got a perfectly good supply to last us the next couple months.

Yesterday we thawed a box to try an adaptation of this main dish salad recipe from my standby cookbook, Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special. It calls for cold seitan, but I cooked it crispy instead because it felt right for dinnertime.

Crispy Seitan Salad with Avocado
Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special

Seitan is wheat gluten— or what I call “the veggie version of beef.” It marinates well, and I use it in stews, chilis, stirfry and anything that could use a little protein. Find it in the freezer or refrigerated cooler in natural food stores and sections.

1 serrano chile, seeded and chopped

3 Tbs fresh lime juice (you’ll need about 1 and a half limes)

2 Tbs fresh cilantro, chopped

1 8oz package seitan, sliced thin

½ tsp salt

½ cup vegetable oil

2 avocados (grab Hass if you can find them)

2 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded and cut into crescents

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 Tbs butter

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

6 cups mesclun or mixed salad greens (about ¼ pound)

2 tsp liquid aminos or vegetarian Worcestershire sauce

Pepper Jack cheese, cubed (optional)

Freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat butter over medium in a large skillet until melted, add garlic and sauté, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes or until it turns blond and fragrant. Add seitan, liquid aminos (or Worcestershire), black pepper and sauté, stirring occasionally, until crispy. Takes about 15 minutes or so, but keep your eye on the pan so things don’t go from crispy to burned.

2. While the seitan is cooking, combine the chile, lime juice, cilantro, salt and oil in a food processor or blender and pureé until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

3. Rinse the mesclun well, and dry in a salad spinner. Put in a serving bowl.

4. Halve the avocados, twist in half and remove the pits. Score the flesh with a butter knife and scoop the chunks out into a separate bowl. Add the cukes, red onions, tomatoes and crispy seitan. Pour the dressing over everything and stir until well coated.

5. Plate the salad and top with a healthy scoop of the seitan mixture. Add cubed Pepper Jack and serve.

Serves 4

Tonight resulted in an unexpected recipe. I called Meg after work as I walked to the train, hoping she might stop by for dinner, since Jared was pulling a double shift.

Meg: “Sure, what are we having?”

Me: “Uh. Radishes? Turnips? I think a salad… I’ve got a lot of mesclun to use up…”

Ready for the challenge, Meg showed up at my house later with a small baguette, 4 hardboiled eggs, and a soft Irish cheese called Durras.

We quickly surveyed the salad veggies in my fridge and decided to try pairing two items that were new to me until last year: young turnips and fresh summer savory.

Young turnips (aka salad turnips) taste more like radish than strong root vegetable. Likewise, the summer savory is slightly sweeter than the herb’s winter version. And both are perfect mates to toss together in a late June salad.

Young turnip salad and summer savory vinaigrette

For salad:

Mesclun (enough to fill a large salad bowl)

1 large young salad turnip, sliced

2 medium radishes, sliced

1/4 medium red onion, sliced

4 hardboiled eggs, sliced

Mix all ingredients save the hardboiled eggs in a large salad bowl. Lay the eggs over the top of the mixed, dressed salad.

For vinaigrette:

1 part balsamic vinegar combined with 3 parts extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp. Fresh Summer savory, minced (or you can use any fresh herb you like. Add more for a stronger herb flavor.)

Whisk ingredients together and serve over salad.

Serve with crusty baguette and cheese.

Makes plenty for 2.

Well, I’m glad to say I’ve got a brand new modem humming away by my feet and Simple Measure is up and running again. Thank you for your patience, and as Meg said, while the internet was down, we were keeping busy.

In between crazy schedules, the two of us found a few hours of twin time this past Sunday. On our usual route we stumbled across one of the first farmer’s markets of the season.

Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by table after table of good, fresh stuff. Should I get that bunch of radishes? No, the honey! Wait, maybe that baby garlic??

Meg saved me from buckling under the pressure, and wisely steered me towards these beauties:

…

Following hard on the heels of those farmer’s market finds is the promised recipe from Memorial Day weekend with Dad and Joellen.

Their yearly Chicago visit is something we look forward to for months. It goes by too fast, but there’s always enough room for catching up, sing-alongs, and runs to the cowboy store.

Jared made sure the guitar had fresh strings and was tuned. Meg and I focused on planning a special dinner.

One big requirement: it had to be super simple. When Dad’s up we want to spend all our time with him, not the stove.

Meg had tried out this recipe on us in the past and the simple mix of chickpeas, tomatoes and rosemary make a lovely soup. And it’s quick. We paired it with one of Dad’s favorite salads, the Caprese.

Caprese Salad

Our version of Caprese salad rests its three main ingredients on a bed of spinach leaves. It takes no time to prepare, and it makes Dad very happy!

Toss the following ingredients together and serve. Makes enough for about 4 people.

1/4 lb baby spinach, washed

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

10 balls of fresh baby mozzarella, sliced (I didn’t note the weight on the package I purchased, so you may want to grab a pound to be on the safe side. No one’s complaining about extra mozzarella in the fridge if there are leftovers…)

1 pkg fresh basil, torn

Extra virgin olive oil or Balsamic vinegar for dressing

It’s here, my friends. Salad weather. You might want to prepare yourself – because it’s only 30 days and counting ’til my first CSA delivery of the season.

And that means my fridge will soon be bursting with a bushel of salad-perfect veggies EVERY week. The fresh lettuces, the baby greens, the arugula, the tetragonia and beet greens and carrot tops and… and it’s going to be delicious.

But all that organic salad goodness is still a month away. Sigh. Well, who says we can’t start practicing now?

This salad – much like Meg’s last pasta dish – was originally created from the random occupants of my fridge one day.

The cool, creamy avocado turned out to be a great match for the tangy mustard the tempeh cooks in. So good in fact, I’ve made this simple salad ever since.

Mustard-Rosemary Tempeh Salad

8 oz. tempeh (one package of LightLife Soy tempeh will do it), sliced into about 3-inch strips

3 Tbs Dijon-style mustard, plus more to taste

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbs olive oil

1 ripe avocado

Baby spinach (grab enough to fill two big salad bowls)

1/2 red onion, sliced

1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced

1. Coat the sliced tempeh well with the mustard. Don’t feel like you must stick to the recipe – use as much mustard as you need to give the tempeh a thick coating. Set aside.

2. Mince your garlic and heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. When it’s heated, add the garlic and rosemary and sauté, stirring, for about one minute.

3. Add the tempeh and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and the mustard seeds start popping. If the tempeh begins to stick, add a little more olive oil.

4. While the tempeh is cooking, cut open the avocado and cut it into wedges. Set aside.

5. Place spinach in two bowls, and lay the cooked tempeh on top. Add the red onion, and top with the avocado slices.

Serves 2

This week Jared and I had the pleasure of welcoming some old friends to town as house guests for an evening.

And that meant we needed to buckle down and tidy the place up.

Not that these guys are picky or anything – they’ve been traveling across the country for weeks, sleeping in affordably-priced motel rooms and on floors – but the apartment was practically begging for a spring clean.

It’s an event that’s always a little tumultuous around here. I attack the kitchen and bathroom, while Jared soldiers through the studio and living room areas.

The cat, wound up by the frenzy of movement, skitters around the apartment, trying to make us stop and join her in a game of tag. And that cat plays a mean game of tag — it’s tough to resist.

Sorry, Twitch. No time for games tonight. With our guests arriving the next day, we were in for some heavy-duty scrambling to get the place into shape.

The situation demanded a dinner with zero lingering. No candles. No thoughtful conversation about the day’s work. Nope, we needed to fill ‘er up quick so we could dive right into the cleaning action.

This super-easy green bean salad did the trick.

Lightly cooked green beans, a dash of lemon, extra virgin olive oil and cracked pepper, blanketed in curls of Parmesan and studded with toasted walnuts – it couldn’t have been easier to fix.

We ate fast, but not because we were in so much of a hurry… we just couldn’t put our forks down after taking the first bite.

Anyone want to invite us to a potluck or cook out in the near future? If so, I think I’ll be packing a big Tupperware of this to share with you all.

Green Bean Salad
From Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables

Serves 4 – 6 as a side, 2 as dinner.

1/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 pound fresh green beans, well-washed

1 tsp salt, plus more to taste

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 Tbs fresh squeezed lemon juice (a little more than 1/2 a lemon)

3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil (break out the good stuff)

5 oz Parmesan cheese, thinly shaved (about 3/4 cup, or more, if you’re cheese fanatics like me and Jared)

1. Heat a heavy, dry skillet over high. Add the walnuts and stir frequently until they’ve begun to brown and you can smell them toasting. Careful – these burn fast. You’ll want to pull them off as soon as they start to toast. Put the walnuts aside in a large bowl.

2. While the skillet is heating, fill up a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Toss in the beans and the tsp of salt and let them boil, until they begin to get tender and brighter green. 3 – 5 minutes will do, but don’t overcook. Your beans should still have a crunch to them.

3. When the beans are done, drain them in a colander and run cold water over them until cool. Shake out all excess water and add them to the bowl with the walnuts. Toss together and add more salt and the pepper to taste.

4. Combine the olive oil and lemon juice in a small bowl or pan and whisk well. Pour the dressing over the beans and gently toss until they are evenly coated. Plate the bean salad and top each portion with the Parmesan shavings.

See, didn’t I tell you it was simple?

February isn’t a salad-friendly month. We’ve been fighting sub-zero weather for over two weeks here in Chicago. Trips outside aren’t the decadent strolls of spring, but quick darts from one warm shelter to another.

And with the frigid temperatures comes a steady march of uninspired soups and tired dinners of refried beans. At least in my house, anyway. Anything quick, canned, and capable of being plopped on a plate in under 15 minutes has become the unsettling norm around here.

Last week I realized I was deep in a food RUT. This discovery was like emerging from some long, dark dream where an army of bowls brimming with instant couscous and canned peas were chasing me down.

Yep, everything I’d been eating this past month had all the life cooked right out of it.

Time to bring a little store-bought green freshness into the picture… even if the pickin’s are mighty slim in the produce department this time of year. I settled on salad, but I’m no fool. It’s still icy-cold-frozen-toes-runny-nose winter. No lacy mesclun greens or shaved fennel was going to do the job here. Cold weather salad eating calls for something brawnier.

And what better way to bulk up your greens then a little soy-based “bacon” product?

I make this “BLT” salad year-round, but it really gets to shine in the colder months. Cool, crunchy romaine and juicy pear elbow for room on your fork next to warm tempeh bacon, red onion and creamy goat cheese. Grape tomatoes add a sunny, tart burst of flavor to every bite. The mix of a few choice cooked ingredients and an invigorating line up of raw veggies and fruit make this salad a standout, refreshing meal.

And lucky for whoever handles the prep work, it’s a cinch to throw together. With minimal chopping, zero grating and negligible time at the stove, you can be filling up on this delicious winter salad in less than 20 minutes. Pair it with a bowl of silky tomato soup and you’re all warmed up for the perfect February evening entertainment: a comfy couch, a warm blanket and a fresh Netflix.

You can use regular bacon in this recipe if you prefer it. But if you’re looking for a veggie option, I’ve never met a bacon imposter I’ve liked as much as Lightlife’s “Fakin’ Bacon”.

Unlike other (typically frozen) brands, these smokey strips don’t try to fool you with artificial dyes and flavors. Made from organic tempeh, you won’t find any mysterious ingredients like “soy protein isolate”. And thankfully there is no unnatural attempt to recreate bacon’s fat-marbled good looks, either.

Nope, it’s just marinated tempeh that cooks up real good in a non-stick skillet with a handful of sliced red onions.

The rest of the ingredients can all be found in decent shape this time of year, even in the most winter-devastated produce aisles.

Sure, this salad isn’t bringing spring one step closer. But it’ll give you a much needed sneak preview.

BLT Salad
I recommend going for a good goat cheese here, none of that pre-crumbled, pre-packaged stuff. Sure, you’ll have to do a little extra crumbling work yourself, but it’s worth it for the richer taste.

Serves 4

1 pkg. Lightlife “Fakin’ Bacon”

6oz fresh goat cheese, crumbled

2 hearts of romaine lettuce, chopped

1/2 medium red onion, sliced thin

1 ripe pear, chopped

1 pkg. grape tomatoes, halved

Vegetable oil to lightly coat skillet

Balsamic or red wine vinegar

Freshly ground black pepper

OK, I told you this is easy to make, and it is. Once you’ve got the veggies and pears chopped up and set aside in a salad bowl, you’re almost done.

Lightly coat a non-stick skillet with vegetable oil. Lay the tempeh strips in the pan and cook over medium high heat for a few minutes. Turn over and toss in the red onions. continue cooking until onions are soft and tempeh is browned the way you like it.

Remove the tempeh from the skillet and slice into roughly 2 inch strips. Add the tempeh and onions to the salad mix and give it a good toss. Serve the goat cheese in a separate bowl so each person can add as much or as little as they like. Top with black pepper and the vinegar or dressing of your choice.