Moroccan Harira

Thanks to having a food-allergy friendly menu, Busboys & Poets is a favorite DC area haunt of the Mister and I.  Which as an aside, if you have to avoid gluten, you need to run not walk to the closest Busboys and get their GF hazelnut chocolate cake, it's like Nutella in cake form.  Just sayin'.  Any way, back to the topic at hand.  Busboys serves an amazing vegan version of a traditional Moroccan stew called harira.  It's essentially a spiced chickpea and lentil stew, and unlike many stews, this one is actually quite healthy.  So after the Mister went bonkers for the harira at Busboys, I made it my personal mission to recreate it.  This is another all-purpose Crop Share veggie recipe, but it will make a great vehicle for the bundle of parsley you'll all be receiving.  And while this stew has it's fair share of heat to it, you can easily cut back on the cayenne and then serving each bowl with a dollop of sour cream or plain Greek yogurt will help cut any additional heat.  They say you need to fight fire with fire, so perhaps this is just what this weekend's hot forecast calls for.

Moroccan Harira

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

3 celery stalks, diced

4 carrots, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp ground ginger

2 Tbsp turmeric

2 Tbsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne

3 Tbsp tomato paste

2 cups stewed tomatoes (not Italian style), drained

5 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1 bay leaf

2 Tbsp Kosher salt

Ground black pepper

2 cups chickpeas, drained

1 cup brown lentils

1/2 lemon, juiced

Bundle of parsley, chopped

Sour cream (dairy-free or regular) or plain Greek yogurt to garnish

In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic and saute until tender, about 4-5 minutes.  Reduce heat slightly and add all of your spices, being careful not to allow any of them to burn on the bottom of the pot.  Add tomato paste and stir until well blended.  Add stewed tomatoes and stock, taking care to get any bits off the bottom that have started to stick.  Stir until blended and creamy.  Add bay leaf, salt and pepper.

Stir in chickpeas, cover pot, reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.  Stir in lentils, cover and simmer for an additional 30 minutes.  Check part way through lentil cook time, and add more stock if needed.

Add lemon juice and chopped parsley, and adjust seasoning to taste.

Serve each bowl with a dollop of sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, and garnish with an additional pinch of fresh, chopped parsley.

Adapted from v:gourmet (http://vgourmet.ca/tag/vegan-harira/)

Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Potatoes

During my time in Ireland I became obsessed with stuffed potatoes.  No, not just the broccoli & cheese or "loaded" baked potatoes we have here, these were stuffed potatoes on a whole other level.  The Irish call them jacket potatoes, and think huge puffy winter jacket kind of jacket, because they are stuffed to the gills and then some with all sorts of yumminess.  Basically what we'd normally reserve for an elaborate salad bar, they will shove into a fresh baked potato.  So when I stumbled upon this recipe in the fall, it was love at first sight.  A stuffed potato that would make the biggest jacket potato blush!  Being chock full of veggies, this will be a great recipe to come back to through all seasons, and the perfect way to use the zucchini we're giving you this week.  I've even made it with baked sweet potatoes, so if you still have some leftover from last week, stuff them up!

Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Potatoes

Ingredients:

4 baking potatoes or sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tsp, divided use
4 links of apple chicken sausage, sliced into 1/4 rounds
1/2 sweet onion, sliced thin
1 cup crimini or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 zucchini, sliced thin
1 yellow squash, sliced thin
1 14oz can diced tomatoes, some juice drained off but not all
1/2 tsp dried dill or 1 Tbsp fresh chopped dill
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Rub potatoes with olive oil, stab a few times with a fork to allow for ventilation when baking, and place in middle rack of oven to bake for 50-60 minutes.  While potatoes bake, prepare all the sausage and veggies.

In a large skillet, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add chicken sausage and onions, gently tossing and cook until the sausage begins to brown.  Then add the mushrooms and garlic, and allow for mushrooms to begin to brown.  Add in red pepper, zucchini and yellow squash, and cook for about 2 minutes.  Then add in the tomatoes with a little bit of the juice from the can, the dill and your seasoning.  Cook for an additional 2 minutes and then remove from heat while you wait for the potatoes to finish baking.

Once potatoes are done, carefully remove them from the oven (wooo hot potato!!) and allow them to cool slightly.  Then slice lengthwise down the potato and fluff the the inside with a fork to loosen everything from the skin.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and season with a dash of salt & pepper.  Then generously top with the sausage and veggies.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream if you so desire.


Recipe adapted from The Cozy Apron (http://thecozyapron.com/reminiscing-a-little-over-vegetable-stuffed-potatoes/)

Sauteed Swiss Chard

My first encounter with Swiss chard was during the Fall Crop Share round, and it has quickly become one of my favorite leafy greens.  Much like kale or spinach, Swiss chard is fantastic sauteed up with some olive oil and garlic, and this recipe below from Epicurious is my all-time favorite for sauteed Swiss chard.  I like to add a dash or two of red pepper flakes, and of course some grated Parmesan!  While this works great as a side dish, you can easily make it a meal by tossing it with some grilled chicken.

Sauteed Swiss Chard

Ingredients:

1 large bundle of Swiss chard

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

Click through to view the rest of the recipe on Epicurious...

Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Until now I'd never actually cooked with rhubarb before, and the only time I've ever eaten it was on my very first visit to meet the Mister's grandparents in Indiana.  Grandma Jackson definitely won me over to the strange looking fruit...er vegetable, er what the heck is this thing, a tree?  While we know rhubarb is tasty, we all wonder, what exactly is this thing that looks more like a means of self defense than something to be used in dessert?  Well let's just say the jury is still out, or more accurately the jury ruled and confused things further.  While rhubarb is indeed a vegetable, a U.S. Customs Court ruled in 1947 that it was a fruit and thus, here in the States, it's been considered a fruit ever since.  Either way, it is delicious and I was excited for its maiden voyage in my kitchen.  Inspired by the Barefoot Contessa recipe I shared the other evening, I decided to use what I had on hand to whip up a gluten-free and dairy-free version, plus reduce some of the sugar content.  The only downside was burning the roof off my mouth because I couldn't wait to dig in!

Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh rhubarb, ends trimmed and diced

2 cups fresh strawberries, tops removed and quartered (or triple berry it with 1 cup strawberries, 1/2 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup blackberries)

¼ cup local honey

¼ cup brown sugar

½ cup water

1 Tbsp cornstarch

2 tsp vanilla extract (Note: most imitation extract contain gluten, so check labels or make your own)

½ cup Bob’s Red Mill Shortbread Cookie Mix**

½ cup ground almond meal

¼ cup sugar

3 Tbsp Earth Balance Margarine (for dairy-free, or use any butter of your choosing)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a bowl, combine rhubarb, strawberries, honey and brown sugar.  Dissolve cornstarch in water and then add to fruit mixture.  Add vanilla extract, plus another dash for good measure.  Mix to fully combine all ingredients and then pour into baking dish.

For crumble topping, in a separate bowl, combine Bob's Red Mill Shortbread Cookie Mix, almond meal and sugar.  Then by hand, rub margarine into the mixture until it's crumbly.  Use more or less butter if needed.  Sprinkle over top of fruit and dot the top with small pieces of butter.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour.  Allow to cool for a few minutes (seriously, the roof of your mouth will thank you) and serve with vanilla bean ice cream, if desired.  We recommend So Delicious Vanilla Bean, made with coconut milk!

**Easily enjoy this gluten-full (ha!) with 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour and a pinch of salt!**