Did you know you can eat Radish leaves? Well, I didn’t know that either. When I brought in the first radishes of the season, I thought, “What a shame that I have to throw away all of those greens!” So, I looked on the internet. (How did we survive before the World Wide Web came along?? 😉 Radish leaves are a little bitter in taste, but bitter is good when combined with other flavors. I like these very much with only salt and pepper, but I served them recently with the fabulous No-Fail Five Minute Hollandaise Sauce (link in instructions). Elegant and delicious! Radish leaves may also be used in salads, soups and stir-fries.
Remove tender parts of leaves from radishes. Do not use the stems.
Wash thoroughly and remove water, either with a towel or a salad spinner.
Melt bacon grease in a medium-sized skillet on medium-low heat.
Add greens.
Stir and cook until they are well wilted, about 3-4 minutes.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Try them served with 5 Minute No-Fail Hollandaise Sauce.
This is a very old recipe. My sister shared it with me. The combination of the apples and vegetables and addition of the sour in the vinegar is delicious. It is easy and quick to make, and it’s particularly nice in the wintertime. If you store fresh foods, apples, onions and cabbage will be available, even in the dead of winter. Himmel und Erde means “Heaven and Earth.”
Wash, core and cut apples into chunks.
Peel and coarsely chop onions.
Cut cabbage into small chunks.
Melt the butter on medium-low heat in a cast iron skillet.
Add the prepared apples, onions and cabbage.
Saute, stirring often, until everything is almost tender.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Add the vinegar and oil and stir together gently.
This may be served as a side dish, but is also very nice over cooked brown rice with some Tamari.
A great and delicious way to enjoy your zucchini. Finger foods always seem to be a hit with the kids. My kids especially enjoy eating these dipped in in their favorite dipping sauces. Plus, they don’t complain because they can’t tell so much that they are zucchini.
Mix the ingredients, except the fat, in a bowl.
Warm the fat of your choice in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.
Spoon fritter batter into pan with a large spoon. Gently flatten a little, if necessary.
Cook the fritters on each side until they are golden. About 4-5 minutes on each side.
Serve with homemade probiotic ranch dressing to dip in.
Freeze formed, uncooked fritters in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Once hardened, transfer to an airtight container. Cook the same, only it may take and extra minute or so.
Kohlrabi (or German turnip) is actually of the cabbage family and is a good source of fiber, Vitamins C and B6, Copper, Manganese, Magnesium, and Phosphorus. It’s also gluten-free and GAPS and Paleo legal. We call these Baby Fries because they’re only a couple inches long.
Preheat oven to 450º. Peal & chop kohlrabi bulbs. Be sure to really peel them well or you will end up with tough fries.
If your oil is solid, melt it, then pour over fries and toss to coat. Lay the fries in a single layer on a baking sheet. Generously sprinkle seasoning over fries.
Bake for 20 minutes or until browned. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve warm.
Adding a bit of healthy fat to vegetable dishes is very important so that the fat-soluble vitamins can be absorbed by the body. Here is a quick and simple way to cook Swiss Chard.
Carefully wash the Swiss chard and shake it over the sink to remove excess water.
Dice the green onion and mince the garlic
Lay the chard on a cutting board with the stalks lined up together. Slice the thick stalk portion into 1/2 inch slices.
Roll the leaves together and then slice them into 1/2 inch slices and then cut a few times in the other direction.
In a cast iron skillet, on low heat, melt together the olive oil and butter.
Add the onion and garlic. Saute’, stirring for 3 minutes.
Add the sliced stalks and saute’ for 3 more minutes.
Add the leaves and saute’ for 3 more minutes.
Salt and pepper to taste - generously!
A mild side dish that goes well with almost any main (grass-fed, sustainable of course) meat dish. In fact, I thought about it as I was typing and I would suggest it goes well with ANY meat dish!
Cut up cabbage and bell pepper into strips and place in a pot large enough to accomodate the vegetables.
Coat in butter, add water, salt, pepper and herbs de province and turn to medium heat.
Cover and steam for 8 minutes or until cabbage is tender, stirring occasionally.
Add cubed cream cheese and stir in until creamy.
Delicious spinach stuffing on portobello mushrooms. Easy to make and tastes great!
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat.
Add half of oil and the garlic.
Season caps with salt and pepper, to taste, remaining olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.
Transfer caps to a cookie sheet sprayed with olive oil.
Add spinach to the skillet and let it wilt.
Cut artichoke hearts in half and add to the spinach.
Season veggies with salt, pepper and thyme.
Remove skillet from stove top and combine stuffing with grated cheese.
Top each mushroom with 1/4 of the filling.
Place cookie sheet with mushrooms in oven for 10 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!
A fast, easy, delicious side dish, can use many kinds of veggies though brussel sprouts are featured.
Cut your veggies into similar sized pieces. I quartered the brussel sprouts.
Heat skillet (with a lid) on medium. Melt your butter (or whatever fat you’ve chosen).
Add your veggies and stir gently (just gently enough to not mangle them).
When I’m sure everything has been coated in butter, I cover it and reduce temp to med-low. Let it steam/cook/saute, whatever it’s doing under there that results in tender yumminess!
I check tenderness after about 7 minutes, but it’s not usually done yet. 🙂 When tender, add your sea salt and pepper.
Serve to happy family! 🙂
A versatile and perennial favorite! Wonderful in burritos, tacos, tostadas and as a dip for fresh vegetables or home-made chips. We make ours from home-canned pinto beans so that it is quick and convenient, eliminating the time-consuming careful soaking and cooking each time. Never again need you purchase refries in a can, running the risks associated with BPA metal can lining.
In a cast iron skillet, melt the lard on medium heat.
Pour in the jar of pinto beans, including the liquid. Add the salt and spices.
Using a metal potato masher, thoroughly mash, and continuously stir the beans.
When they are mashed to your liking, continue to stir and scrape the pan with a spatula, and cook the beans until they are as thick as you like, keeping in mind that as they cool, they will thicken.
Serve warm. May be refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for later use.
Another advantage to this method is that you can buy your beans in bulk, thus saving money, and won’t have to worry that they will get too dried out during long storage.
A note about the home canned pinto beans ~ if you’ve never done this, it is very easy. You do need to have a pressure canner to process them. I soak my pinto beans for 2 days, changing water 3 times during that process. Then I simmer them for 30 minutes, skimming off the foam, fill the quart jars leaving 1 inch head space, cover with boiling water, and process for 90 minutes at 11 pounds pressure. Please do not attempt this without consulting a reliable book of instructions on home canning. I recommend the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving.
Crispy, satisfying, homemade hash browns ~ a perennial breakfast favorite!
Carefully scrub your potatoes.
Grate them, and as you do so, put them into a bowl of cold filtered water, enough to cover the potatoes.
Begin heating a heavy skillet on medium/low heat.
Pour the grated potatoes into a colander, and then rinse them thoroughly under cold running water, stirring them around with your hand.
Allow to drain and press as much water as you can out of the grated potatoes.
Pour them onto a clean dish towel and press more water out using the towel.
Add the butter to your heated skillet. Allow it to melt.
Dump the grated potatoes into the heated skillet that contains the melted butter. Spread them out.
Now you can season them. I use salt and pepper to taste, a tiny amount of ground cayenne and a nice sprinkling of paprika.
Let the potatoes cook for about 4 minutes and then start stirring them around every minute or two.
Continue to cook, moving them around frequently until they are nice and soft.
Turn up the heat a little and press them down into the skillet. Cook until the underside is as brown as you like, and flip them over (it is not necessary to keep them all in one piece) and cook until the underside is brown also.
A staple dish in many homes. Filling, delicious, and easy!
Scrub potatoes with a vegetable brush under running water until they are very clean.
Now you must decide whether to peel them or not. I grow my own, so I know they are organically grown, but if yours are not, you might decide to peel. I usually don’t, but when the potatoes have ugly skin or are getting shriveled late in the storage season, then I do peel them first.
Cut potatoes into small chunks and place in a saucepan with 2 inches of filtered water.Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and let simmer until all the potato pieces are tender when you test with a sharp knife.
Drain the water out of the saucepan and add a modest amount of raw milk to the pan ~ just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Let it sit for a minute so the milk warms up.
Add some butter - as much or as little as you prefer.
Mash your potatoes, either with a manual potato masher, or an electric mixer.
Add salt to taste. A small amount of garlic powder will give you “garlic potatoes.” Alternately, you can finely mince some fresh garlic and add that instead, if you prefer.
Really one of my favorite salads. Surprisingly, many people don’t ever try fennel because they have no idea what to do with it, others only know how to braise it. Fennel has a delicate anise flavor which goes really well with the sweet apples. Add in a little bacon and you’ve got yourself one fancy-shmancy salad that’s difficult to stop eating.
Heat a heavy bottomed skillet on low heat. Cook the bacon until done to desired crispiness. It’s important to cook it on low to render out as much of the fat as possible. Remove the bacon and allow to cool before crumbling or dicing. Set aside.
In a small bowl whisk together the bacon fat, mustard and lemon juice. Add a dash of salt. Whisk until the vinaigrette turns pale and an emulsion forms. Set aside.
Cut off the root area of the fennel bulbs and trim off any protruding stems. You can reserve any of the foliage to use as a pretty and edible garnish. Cut the bulbs in half lengthwise and then lay the halves down on the cutting board, cut side down. Thinly slice the bulbs from the top end to the root end. I cheated and used my food processor. Place into a large bowl.
Core and quarter the apples. Thinly slice. Place in large bowl along with fennel.
Drizzle prepared bacon vinaigrette over the apples and fennel. Toss to coat. Garnish with fennel foliage if desired. Serve at room temperature. Not too good refrigerated as the bacon fat solidifies. Ew.