Remind Me Why People Eat Cows?

I had an amazingly delicious dinner last night—I took stock of what was in the refrigerator and needed to be used, as well as what we’d just gotten in the share this week. I grilled slabs of marinated eggplant as well as a lot of assorted vegetables, including the last of the turnips from a couple of weeks ago, and one forgotten kohlrabi, plus beans, tomatoes, and peppers.

I guess that was the main course; to accompany it, we had fresh sweet corn and southern-style greens, chard steamed and then laced with a little cider vinegar and sprinkled with crispy, crumbled bacon. So, it wasn’t entirely a vegetarian meal, but it didn’t have a hunk of meat as its centerpiece, either.

There was a lot of food on the table, and it was filling, though I didn’t feel stuffed after eating. And I know it’s good for me—a 1 cup serving of chard has 7 calories. That’s kind of amazing. Of course, the bacon adds a few more . . . but the chard also is a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, riboflavin, vitamin B6, calcium, iron, and potassium. The only negative is that it is kind of high in sodium.

There are 34 calories in a cup of cooked turnips, 48 calories in a cup of cooked kohlrabi (though it is also high in sodium), 22 calories in a half-cup of green beans, 33 calories in a cup of cooked eggplant, and about 43 calories in a good-sized tomato. I did add a bit of olive oil before grilling everything (there are 119 calories in a tablespoon of olive oil, but it doesn’t have any “bad” features according to any nutritional charts).

Vegetables are great sources of vitamins and minerals, but they don’t generally have much protein (though once our hazelnut trees are producing, we can get protein from them). For now, I got 5 grams of protein from the bacon in last night’s meal (and only 50 calories, so that’s not a bad tradeoff).

Tonight I am thinking about a vegetable quiche, which provides a lot more protein in the eggs and cheese, though also a lot more calories as well (surprisingly, many more in the eggs than the cheese). One thing I know, it will be delicious, and another day will go by without eating any cows. Though I’m happy to have them around for the milk and cheese in that quiche, I don’t need a steak or burger when I have all these great vegetables.

You read reports all the time about the daily recommended requirements of different food groups—currently it’s 2 to 4 servings of fruit and 3 to 5 servings of vegetables a day. I’m sure I’m not the only who wonders if anyone actually manages to meet this standard, except of course during high season at the Enright CSA. Then, there are times—like last night—when I eat more than my 5 servings of vegetables all in one meal!

Belgian Beet and Dill Salad

Sometimes it works out well to not manage to use up all of one week's produce before the next week's comes in--I had beets left when we got dill last Saturday, and I found this recipe to use both of them to make a lovely and tasty fall salad. The recipe comes from a cookbook I found at the downtown library, Everybody Eats Well in Belgium which I hesitated about bringing home--Belgium and Flanders are kind of known for not getting along. But I thought I'd give it a try, and so far no complaints. Turns out it's not all waffles and crepes; I've made a green bean recipe from this cookbook, too. Not that our green beans need any dressing up--they have been both delicious and prolific this season.

But back to beets and dill; another nice thing about this recipe is you can make it the night before; the longer it marinates in the vinaigrette, the better it tastes. So, eat well, eat Belgian (I just pretend it's Flemish), and try this recipe.


Belgian Beet & Dill Salad

4 or 5 small to medium red beets, scrubbed, with about 2” of green tops left on
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 small onion, sliced thin
Salt
Pepper
Lettuce or other greens
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Place the beets in a saucepan, cover with cold water, add salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered, until beets are tender, 25 to 40 minutes, depending on size. Drain and let cool slightly, then slip off the peels and slice or cube the beets. Whish the oil and lemon juice together and pour over warm beets. Add the onions and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve—at least an hour, but overnight is okay, too.

Just before serving, drain off and reserve the vinaigrette (which should be a lovely hot pink color). Arrange the beets and onions on a bed of lettuce and drizzle the beet-colored vinaigrette over all. Top with dill before serving.

Snapping Beans

I was sitting on the back porch this evening snapping green beans, prepartory to blanching them and freezing them. They were certainly nice-looking beans, and we got so many of them that I wanted to freeze the ones we wouldn't eat this week while they were still fresh. Even though they were picked on Friday, they still looked very fresh on Tuesday. I imagine some green beans you get at the store take a lot longer than four days just to travel from field to store, so I was happy to get these beans frozen while they were still so fresh.
Anyway, I got to thinking about the many, many green beans I snapped sitting on my great-grandmother's back porch. She didn't live in some old Victorian with a big back porch; she lived in a modern brick two-family with a glass-enclosed porch, but that's still where I sat when I snapped beans, right on the back stoop between the dining room and the porch. When I was done, she'd cook the living daylights out of them. (I like them a little more al dente these days.)
When I went down with a few bags of beans to put in the basement freezer, I found I still had a bag of corn and one of chopped green peppers from last season. I believe that's all that is left, except for half a jar of green tomato chutney in the refrigerator. I believe I'll make some succotash from that corn and the green peppers. Which reminds me of my Grandma Alice . . . but that's another story.