Cooking Method: Sauté

Peas & Pancetta with Radish Salad by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

I created this dish to bring to a friend’s house for a Spring brunch. It’s versatile: it can be served alongside lamb, ham, salmon or any number of egg dishes. It can be made ahead and/or served at room temperature. And if fresh peas are still elusive at your market, frozen peas will do just fine.

Warm Kale Pesto Pasta by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

There’s a big, wide world of uncooked kale recipes out there. And I readily admit to not liking raw kale, it’s way too chewy for me. I do however, both cook with and eat kale: I chiffonade it (thin slivers) and add it to soups, I sauté it with shallots or onions and make a frittata and am fond of thin slivers of kale added to my Italian-style green beans which I slow simmer in tomato sauce. I eat my kale cooked.

A couple of weeks ago, I started coming across multiple recipes for Kale Sauce Pasta and was curious. The recipes called for removing the kale from the stem and cooking it in in boiling salted water until tender. It was then drained and pureed with delicious ingredients, like parmigiana cheese and extra virgin olive oil. Most of the recipes were attributed to Josh McFadden, an Oregon Farm-to Table Chef and author Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables. In turn, he attributes his Kale Sauce Pasta recipe to the very famous River Café in London. And someday I will dig through my piled boxes of stored cookbooks and find the original inspiration (recipe), but until then…..

Farmer’s Market Bounty with Lentils by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan Every Monday

Every Monday morning on my walk to Foodie’s Market I pass a (very) small Farmer’s market which has just finished setting up for the day - everything is lined-up, orderly and pristine and I love being ‘first-in-line’. This week I bought small red onions, carrots, green beans, garlic and some very, very long, wild scallions. The scallions’ long greens were over 2 feet! And the farmer assured me they were delicious. So, of course I bought some. Here's what I did with my Bounty: I separated the scallion whites and greens. I peeled and sliced the carrots diagonally. I also peeled and shaved slivers of garlic, then found some petite black lentils in the cupboard. Gathered a few pots and pans, olive oil, butter, and some warm
spices (cumin & coriander). Let’s begin.

Sesame Ramen Noodles with Ginger & Chicken by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

This is a pretty quick & tasty supper (or lunch!) using the NON-INSTANT version of ramen noodles. (I used a brand we have at Foodie’s store called ‘Oceans Halo’) It comes together in one pot using ground chicken, minced onions, celery, bok choy and diced cucumbers…because I had them and because cooked cucumbers have a very interesting texture. Feel free to use any vegetable or green that you think would work in this dish.

Cauliflower Hummus with Cashew Crema by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

Hummus has blown-up in recent years. What used to be defined and made only with chickpeas and tahini, has grown to embrace a myriad of vegetables and flavors. Twenty years ago, I never thought I would be eating ‘chocolate hummus’—and it’s delicious, BTW. So why cauliflower? It does seem like such a winter vegetable; smooth cauliflower soup recipes abound in January and February. But it’s being sold in the farmers’ markets now! And I know that long, slow cooking, will turn it into a sweet and delicious puree. The cashew crema is the substitute for the ubiquitous tahini. It is creamy, rich and smooth and adds a subtle, nutty background flavor. It’s simple to make, just soak unroasted and unsalted cashews overnight, drain, rinse and puree to a smooth nut-cream. And any leftovers can be saved to add to pasta dishes or used as a vegan-cream sauce.

Curried ‘Rotisserie’ Chicken Salad by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

I wanted roast chicken for dinner last week, but I didn’t want to cook it. So, I did the next best (or best) thing, I bought a rotisserie chicken. It was delicious, but I had about ¾ of the chicken leftover. And it’s July, so making soup did not appeal to me for the same reason that roasting a chicken didn’t appeal to me either. But chicken salad did appeal. Wash your hands and don a pair of disposable gloves that I’ve previously suggested you keep stocked as part of your ‘batterie-de-cuisine’ (your stash of kitchen tools and equipment). Directions are below for breaking down and shredding the rotisserie chicken. This recipe is based on a yield of about 3 cups or 12 ounces of shredded chicken meat, both light and dark meat combined. Adjust ingredient amounts according to the amount of chicken
you have.

Korean-inspired Rice Bowl with Gochujang Dressing by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

A rice bowl is a delicious and versatile meal. You start with a ‘flavor idea’ and then build your bowl from there. I bought a jar of Korean gochujang paste and built my rice bowl around wanting to use this ingredient. (Gochujang is a sweet & spicy fermented paste popular in Korean cooking; the sweetness comes from fermented rice and the ‘heat’ from chili peppers.) Once I decided to build a sauce with the gochujang paste and peanut butter (!) the rest of the ingredients just tumbled into the bowl.

‘FLUFFY’ BROCCOLI by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

I am constantly searching for ways to make vegetables more delicious and appealing…so I’ll eat more of them. A bowl of just-steamed plain broccoli or green beans will never ‘speak’ to me! This preparation will yield tender-cooked broccoli that’s just perfect for adding to other dishes. It’s very, very versatile. Here, I added the ‘fluffy’ broccoli to cooked udon noodles that I dressed with a store-bought Asian flavored vinaigrette. Or go ‘Italian’ by adding the fluffy broccoli to cooked penne pasta tossed with extra virgin olive oil and grated Parmigiana cheese. Spice it up with some diced pickled pepperoncini peppers. Move-over avocado toast! Spread your toast with mashed chickpeas or hummus and top with this ‘fluffy’ broccoli. Make scrambled eggs and add a couple of spoonfuls of prepared ‘fluffy’ broccoli before serving. Ready to try it?

Shrimp Toast with Zucchini, Creamy Feta & White Beans by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

I have been seeing ‘Beans-on-Toast’ recipes pop up on websites all spring and summer. It is an iconic
British dish made with small white navy beans baked in a sweet-ish sauce; not unlike our own iconic
New England Baked Beans.

With a little love and some creativity, the dish can be more than a quick, cheap bachelor’s dinner it once
was! Zucchini, onions, garlic and tomatoes are simmered together and made creamy with the addition
of crumbled feta. Grill the shrimp separately or add to the simmering vegetables to cook through and
present the finished dish with grilled slices of French bread. It’s a modern version of the original and
equally satisfying.

Black Bean, Mango Lime Salad by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

Our store manager told me the salad wasn’t pretty but was delicious!!  And I had to agree with him!

Instead of adding a shiny oil-based vinaigrette to finish the salad I opted for a chipotle ranch dressing (Drew’s Organics, Chipotle Ranch, 12-ounce, Dressing & Quick Marinade).  The dressing did coat the beans and altered the black bean ‘shine’ but the finished dish had a richer and more complex flavor.

The salad comes together fairly quickly, many of the ingredients are already prepared. Use your favorite brand of cooked black beans, try the prepared chipotle ranch dressing (Cindy’s makes a version also) and you can even buy already-cut mango pieces. (Or watch a YouTube video to learn how to peel and cut a mango if you haven’t done it.)  Mangoes are fairly cheap right now, about a-buck-apiece.  One mango will yield about 8 ounces of peeled fruit and/or 1 ¼ cup diced fruit.