Sprout & Pea

There’s a first time for every­thing and this week was both my first bike acci­dent and my first time mak­ing lentils. My week­end started off great with friends and fam­ily in town– birth­day cel­e­bra­tions, brunches, din­ners, a whole lot of cake and a whole lot of love. On Sun­day, we decided to make the most of my guests’ last day in town and also take advan­tage of the fleet­ing 80 degree weather. So, my friends rented some bikes and we set out for the tour de Brook­lyn (not to be con­fused with the Tour de Taco- an actual annual and awe­some event). Things started out great and it was shap­ing up to be a beau­ti­ful after­noon. Then it hap­pened– my tire and the side­walk got into a lit­tle quar­rel that resulted in my face meet­ing the ground. Read more:

Farro is a grain that I adore. It has great tex­ture, is packed with pro­tein, is low in gluten, and I have been itch­ing to cook with. Unfor­tu­nately, I always have a hard time find­ing it, so when I came across some in a mar­ket the other day, I decided to splurge a lit­tle on the pricey pack­age. I set out to pre­pare a light farro salad, but after con­sid­er­ing run­ning to the mar­ket for some fresh arugula, I exam­ined my refrig­er­a­tor for left­over ingre­di­ents and quickly changed my mind. With leeks and a green tomato in hand, I started chop­ping and sautéing ingre­di­ents for my impromptu dish. By the time the farro fin­ished cook­ing and I added it into the sautéed veg­gies and topped with some parmi­giano reg­giano, I real­ized I had made myself a risotto.
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This week was one of re-​​using left­overs and dishes inspir­ing new dishes. It all started with a deli­cious Fen­nel, Leek & Red Beet Salad. With some leeks left­over from this, I decided to buy some arti­choke hearts and feta which I suc­cess­fully made a great arti­choke dip with– one that rivals the tra­di­tional mayo-​​tastic party food in both taste and health fac­tor. With the tasty fla­vors in this dish lin­ger­ing in my mind, I decided to use the very same ingre­di­ents the fol­low­ing night, this time incor­po­rat­ing pasta and lemon. Read more:

I had some leeks left­over from my fen­nel, leek and red beet salad, so I thought I would attempt to make one of my favorite dips-​​healthy style. Mayo-​​packed arti­choke dip is one of my favorite dips to serve at par­ties. I fig­ured that there had to be a way to make this dish a bit health­ier, so I ditched the mayo and sim­ply com­bined chopped up arti­chokes, leeks and feta with a lit­tle olive oil in the food proces­sor and blended and baked. Read more:

Grow­ing up, my mom was a big fan of black licorice and bought it on occa­sion as a spe­cial treat. I still remem­ber the first time she gave me some to try and how repulsed I was by the fla­vor. I can pic­ture every­thing about the moment — the mini mart we were in, lean­ing in to smell the long black candy before I took a bite, eying the per­fectly tasty red licorice right next to it won­der­ing why my mom enjoyed this ter­ri­ble smelling food so much. So, it’s no won­der that my mom never pre­pared or served me the healthy veg­etable with a sim­i­lar aroma and taste. Thank­fully, over the years my palette expanded and one day I decided to give the licorice like fen­nel a try. Read more:

Both my friend and I have been fight­ing a nasty cold this week, so yes­ter­day I invited her over for some home­made veg­etable soup and a movie. I had some nice root veg­eta­bles left over from my root veg­gie salad and on her way over, my friend picked up some veg­etable broth and some fresh green chard and leeks and this was all we needed for a good, hearty soup.
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