This sauteed spinach recipe wins over even those who normally snub the vegetable. Pre-washed greens makes this dish come together in a flash. You can use this technique with any tender greens, such as beet greens or chard.
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Category Archives: Nourishing, Fast, Fresh Recipes
White Bean and Chard Soup with Sausage
Perked up with chard and Italian sausage, this white bean soup recipe straddles the line between fresh and green and rich and hearty. So much so, in fact, that it would be perfectly appropriate in any season.
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Pork and Fennel Ragu
This quick ragu exemplifies my “double up-halvsies” trick. It’s got loads of onion and fennel, just a bit of pork for flavor, and half the pasta you’re used to. Yet it’s so hearty you’ll never miss the extra meat and pasta.
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 cups onion, finely chopped
2 cups fennel bulbs, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, slightly crushed
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
8 ounces lean ground pork
¼ cup dry white wine
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
(1) 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock
8 ounces rigatoni, preferably whole grain
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Heat a large non nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Swirl in olive oil and add onion, fennel and garlic. Sauté 5 minutes, until onion is translucent.
Add fennel seeds, oregano, pepper flakes, a pinch of salt and pepper, and pork to pan with onions and fennel. Stir to combine and brown pork for 3-4 minutes, chopping it up with the edge of a stiff spatula. Pour in wine and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan while wine evaporates.
Add tomato and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 15 minutes (or more if you have time), stirring occasionally. While sauce is simmering, boil pasta, drain and return to pot. Scrape sauce into pot with pasta and toss to coat well.
Serves 4
Roasted Acorn Squash Salad with Wheat Berries and Blue Cheese
Acorn squash skins are quite leathery and the cooked flesh will pop out of it as you cut the wedges. Use a butter knife to help separate the skin and flesh if needed. This combo of winter squash, hearty wheat berries, toasted walnuts and blue cheese is the essence of fall. Soaking the wheat berries overnight is smart trick to help slash the cooking time in half. It’s the same principle as soaking dried beans.
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Pork and Squash Enchilada Bake
Think of this recipe as a template for whatever leftovers you have in your fridge … sauteed greens, squash or root veggies, beans, pork or chicken. They all adapt beautifully to this dish. Enjoy a small slice for breakfast topped with a fried egg, or for lunch or dinner with a dab of sour cream and salsa and a dribble of hot sauce. It’s a GREAT gathering dish!
2 cups roasted squash, mashed to a puree (you could also use canned pumpkin)
2 teaspoons canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups prepared red enchilada sauce
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
3 cups shredded chicken or pork
1 recipe Sauteed Swiss Chard (or other leftover greens)
5 ounces monterey jack cheese, (1 cup, shredded)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix squash with canola oil, garlic and cumin.
Spread 1/2 cup sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Top with 4 tortillas, tearing as needed to fill in any gaps. Top with 1 cup squash, half the pork and chard, 3/4 cup sauce and 1/3 cup cheese. Top with 4 more tortillas, remaining 1 cup squash, remaining pork, 1/2 cup sauce and 1/3 cup cheese. Top with remaining 4 tortillas, sauce and cheese.
Cover and bake at 400 F for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until hot and tortillas are golden brown around the edges. Let stand 5-10 minutes before slicing.
Serve with sour cream and salsa, if you like.
Serves 6-8
Kitchen Sink Fried Rice
You’ll see this fried rice recipe come up every few months in Nourish Weekly Menus, always in a different guise. Sometimes with cabbage, sometimes with bok choy, sometimes with shredded pork, sometimes with spicy shrimp … you get the picture. Feel free to use add basic recipe to your rotation with anything calling from your fridge. It’s a great way to use up leftover rice, veggies — whatever you have on hand.
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Improv Cassoulet
There are so many things I love about cassoulet … one of them being its versatility. Be creative with your leftovers–beans, roasted meat, stale bread–and see what it becomes.
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 thick slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 links italian sausage, cut diagonally into 4 pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced, divided
¼ cup dry white wine
2 cups low-sodium chicken, vegetable or turkey stock
1 (14-ounce) can tomato puree
4 cups leftover cooked turkey, duck or dark-meat chicken, shredded
2 (15-ounce) cans white beans, drained
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs thyme
2 cups course bread crumbs
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup melted butter
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat, and saute bacon and onion for 12-15 minutes, until bacon is semi-crisp and onion is browned. Add sausages and 1/2 of the garlic, and saute for 4 minutes, until slightly browned.
Add wine and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add stock, tomato puree, turkey, beans, bay leaf and thyme. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly. Bake in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes, adding additional stock if necessary to keep moist.
Mix bread crumbs with remaining garlic, minced parsley, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Toss with melted butter until moistened evenly and sprinkle on top of cassoulet. Bake for another 20 minutes. Push down breadcrumbs so they are slightly moistened and bake another 20 minutes, until top crisps.
Serves 8
Pear, Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Panini
Panini are the upscale Italian cousins to the average Joe grilled cheese sandwich, and these panini, made with pear and prosciutto are a perfect match with creamy soups. Feel free to mix up the cheese; I like to add a generous grind of pepper on top of the pears before topping too. You can use any type of pear you like, but Anjou pear’s sweet, citrusy tang pairs well with the goat cheese. If your pears don’t yield slightly to a squeeze, ripen them on the counter for a few days.
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Crispy Mashed Potato Cakes
I’ve always wanted a potato cake recipe like this, and I spent some time perfecting it. Would it be better to coat the mashed potato cakes in panko? I wondered. It turned out to be too much trouble, and didn’t make the cakes that much crispier. What if I sprinkled cheese on the outside to make a crisp, savory crust? Nope. That didn’t add as much punch as I’d expected. This straightforward recipe — it takes just a few minutes to pull together if you have leftover mashed potatoes on hand — yielded the best results, and will be a potato pancake I go back to again and again. I hope you do, too.
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Peanut-Sweet Potato Soup
Strangely enough, peanuts and sweet potatoes make a great pair. Between the warm fall hues of this sweet potato soup and the crisp, bright flavors of the Fennel-Apple Salad accompanying it (get the recipe in the Nourish Weekly Menus archive), this meal is truly a feast for the senses.
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