Fabulous Friendy Waggs Shares a Beet Recipe

A little beet jem from my fabulous friend (from Philly!) Christine. I am hoping to find a yogurt substitute to try this baby out!!! Will keep you posted, of course.

 

 

Beet recipe:

 

3 or 4 large beets, trimmed and well scrubbed.

garlicy yogurt (1/4 cup)

fresh chives (1/8 cup)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon dill

 

1. Boil the beats in water until tender (about 30 minutes)

2. Drain and let cool.

3. Peel the beets. If you don't feel like it, that's okay.. you can eat the skin.

4. chop into bite size pieces

5. toss with garlicy yogurt, lemon juice, dill and chives.

6. serve chilled.

 

I made this a few days ago and it actually turned out pretty good!

 

Garlic Scape Pesto with Quinoa Pasta

Yes yes... its been almost 2 months since my last post. I think I might have gotten burned out on cooking (easy to do w/ a small kitchen, no dishwasher, and at times little patience). After sending a CSA recipe (which included the week's food offerings) to Miss Christine Waggener, she sent back a quick, easy, and delicious recipe for garlic scape pesto. Before I got sick, I didn't even know what a flippin' scape was, so that has been a tasty, educational experience. 

I opted to not include the Parmesan cheese, even though Woodman's does carry a tofu version. Also, I did not have the 1 cup of scapes the recipe calls for, so I did with what I had - and it was really amazing. I liked that I didn't have to go out and buy a bunch of stuff to make it, prep was simple, and it made my apartment smell (as Christine notes below) like baking lasagna.

I had been wanting to try quinoa pasta. I really am not a big fan of the quinoa flour (it has a rather strong smell which seems to stick around after baking w/ it). Brown rice gets to be a little old after awhile, so I am happy to report that the quinoa pasta I bought at the coop was really delicious and easier to make than some of the other gf pastas.

So... here you go.

Garlic Scape Pesto:

Preheat oven to 400

about 1 cup of chopped garlic scapes

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

olive oil

salt and pepper

tomato sauce (plain or jarred pasta sauce)

mozzarella cheese (1/4 - 1/2 cup optional) you could substitute tofu or dairy free cheese for this) - you can omit this if necessary

Optional: a little bit of thyme, oregano, basil, whatever else you would put in Italian food.

Throw the garlic scape, walnuts, parm cheese, salt and pepper into a food processor and process until smooth-ish. add the olive oil in a stream while its being processed (maybe about 1 - 2 tablespoons.

Take it out and put it in a small casserole dish. mix about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce and the mozz cheese or tofu. you can add more or less to get the consistency that you want.

Bake it for about 40-50 minutes. take it out half-way through and mix it up. You want the garlic to cook thoroughly otherwise it will taste like a whole crapload of raw garlic.

The olive oil will sizzle and bubble a little in the oven so leave some room between the top of the dish and the pesto. Don't need to cover it though.

But no seriously, its pretty good, just put it on pasta like a sauce or rice or in a sandwich wrap. It makes a lot but you can freeze it for later. it smells like lasagna when its cooking.

If its still too garlicy you can add more tomato sauce later...