Napa Cabbage Salad with Asian Pears and Red Pepper Ginger-Miso Dressing
4 servings
Looking for a salad that’ll be a hit at the next potluck, barbeque or picnic? It’s fresh and packed with flavor, with a great variety of ingredients so each forkful is a refreshing, fun combo. Add cold rice noodles, shredded rotisserie chicken, tofu cubes…and you’ve got a main dish. Just wait to dress it until you get where you’re going and you’re all set.
The dressing is a keeper. Great for dipping veggies, or just licking off your fingers!
Ingredients
6 cups chopped Napa Cabbage
1 bunch scallions, sliced into rounds
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup toasted almonds, chopped
2 cups thinly sliced Asian pears – Asian is best, but bosc pears are also good
Leaves from 1 bunch cilantro, picked
Dressing:
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded/chopped
¼ cup tahini, or hulled white sesame seeds
¼ cup water
1-2 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp Tamari
2 Tbsp light miso
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp peeled, minced ginger
Juice of 1 lemon
¼ to ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, depending on how thick you want dressing
Salt to taste
Dash of cayenne pepper
Directions
Toss together in a bowl: Napa cabbage, scallions, carrot, pear and cilantro.
Prepare dressing: Put celery, bell pepper, tahini/sesame seeds, water, garlic, tamari, light miso, ginger, cayenne and lemon juice into a (ideally, high-speed) blender jar. With blender running, slowly pour EVOO through hole in blender lid until desired smooth consistency is reached. Adjust salt to your taste.
Dress salad somewhat lightly, you’ll have extra but you can always add more later! Stir in half of the almonds and scatter the rest on top.
Note: You can prep the ingredients the night before and store them separately, except for the pears since they discolor and don’t taste as good as when you first slice them. Only mix ingredients together when ready to serve.
Cabbage has really been having a moment over these past several years. After 4,000 years of cultivation, you don’t need to be a food anthropologist to see that we are officially in Cabbage 2.0. Where it is a bumbling brassica bowling ball no more!
Roasted cabbage wedges and thickly sliced “steaks” are popular ways to enjoy this newly-trendy veggie, with crispy toasted edges giving way to comforting, savory softness once you cut into it. With that in mind, savor this combo of salty-funky-spicy sauce and crispy, crunchy breadcrumbs or potato chips paired with the latest Cinderella of the veggie world!
1 medium green or savoy cabbage, cut into 8 wedges
½ cup panko breadcrumbs or crushed potato chips
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
½ tsp garlic powder
Salt to taste
1-2 Tbsp chopped parsley
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°. Line an edged sheet pan with parchment paper. Cut cabbage in half lengthwise, and each half into four wedges, again lengthwise.
Mix 6 Tbsp of butter with miso and gochujang paste. Brush all over cabbage wedges, including the base.
Lay wedges on their sides on prepared sheet pan and roast for 30 minutes. Remove pan from oven and flip wedges over so they’ll cook evenly. Cook another 30 minutes, rotating the wedges’ positions on the pan half-way through if some are cooking faster than others. Wedges should now be charred on the outside and slightly crispy.
While cabbage is roasting, make topping. Melt remaining 2 Tbsp butter in a pan. Add breadcrumbs/crushed potato chips, garlic powder and sesame seeds. Stirring constantly to avoid burning, toast until golden. Remove from pan immediately to stop cooking.
Sprinkle cabbage with crunchy crumb mixture, followed by chopped parsley. Adjust salt level to you liking. Serve.
Topping a combo of veggies with biscuits is sure to please. Change the filling depending on what you’ve got on hand, including a few cups shredded rotisserie chicken in place of cauliflower, etc.
Make it vegan by subbing the dairy ingredients for plant-based versions.
Ingredients
Filling
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1 ½ cups veggie broth
1 Tbsp hot sauce (like Cholula)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 medium carrots, peeled/sliced
2 cups butternut squash, cut into ½ inch pieces
2 cups cauliflower florets
¾ lb mushrooms, sliced
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tsp fresh thyme, minced, or 1 tsp dried
Biscuit Topping
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp granulated sugar
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut in small cubes
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup whole milk, plus extra to brush biscuits before baking
Optional: Freshly chopped parsley, for serving
Directions
Prepare Filling:
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9” x 13” baking dish. Whisk together veggie broth, cornstarch and hot sauce. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onion and sauté 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute, until fragrant. Add celery, carrots, butternut squash and cauliflower. Cook/stir 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and tomatoes, stir to combine. Re-whisk cornstarch/broth/hot sauce and add to skillet. Stir in thyme.
Add veggie mixture to prepared baking pan. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes.
Prepare Biscuit Topping:
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and pepper. Add butter and blend into flour using a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse meal. Add 1 cup milk, cheddar and thyme, gently storing just until a sticky dough forms. Do not over-mix.
Remove baking dish from oven and foil from dish. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, drop balls of dough on the filling – you should get about 12-14 biscuits. Brush biscuit tops with milk and return to oven, uncovered. Bake until biscuits are golden-brown and filling is bubbly, about 40-45 minutes.
Remove cobbler from oven and allow to rest 10 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh parsley before serving.
Scallions help make this oh-so-tasty twist on the traditional hummus mmmmm-memorable.
Buy some at the store, or grow your own…Cut off the green parts and save the white ends with the tiny roots. Pop in a glass of water and watch the greens regrow…even after just a few hours you’ll see a difference! Keep on snipping off the greens and those little white ends will keep producing for a long, long time!
Ingredients
1 garlic clove
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained with liquid (aquafaba) reserved
Juice from 2 limes (about ¼ cup)
½ cup thinly-sliced green scallion rings
½ cup packed cilantro leaves and small stems
1 cup baby spinach leaves
1 cup baby arugula leaves
¼ cup tahini
¼ tsp cumin
¾ tsp salt
¼ -½ cup aquafaba (reserved from canned chickpeas)
Directions
Process garlic, cilantro, green onion, spinach and arugula in a food processor until finely chopped. Add chickpeas, lime juice, tahini, cumin, salt and ¼ cup chickpea aquafaba. Purée 30 seconds, scrape down sides and add 1-2 more Tbsp aquafaba as needed to make it nice and creamy. Can refrigerate 7-10 days as needed, but best when freshly made.
A boule is simply a round bread, but it elevates it dramatically when you add it to your culinary lexicon, along with some garlic or herbed compound butter for slathering.
Let the bread cool completely before slicing to truly enjoy the flavor and allow for proper slicing. Use a serrated knife, gently but deliberately “saw” back and forth in long strokes across the bread to create the pieces, rather than the “press and wiggle” technique, which will leave you with a smushed slice.
Pro tip #1: Baking by weight will produce a more consistent result. We highly recommend investing in a scale when doing any bread or pastry making.
Pro tip #2: Using metric measurements allows for much easier scaling up or down. No need to try to do math gymnastics with ounces and pounds!
Ingredients
3 cups (345 g) bread flour, plus more for shaping
1 Tbsp salt
1 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
1 ½ cups warm water
Directions
Whisk together bread flour, salt and yeast until combined. Pour in warm water and stir until you have a shaggy, sticky dough. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and set in a warm spot until dough doubles in size —2 to 6 hours.
Punch down dough. Shape into a ball, twisting the dough around on the countertop with your palms (the bottom of the dough stays in place). Place dough on a piece of parchment paper with a bit of flour on it. Cover with damp kitchen towel again.
Heat oven to 450°. Put a 6-quart Dutch oven with cover in the oven and allow it to heat up while the oven preheats.
Allow the dough to rest and rise for 30 minutes. At this point you may score the top layer of your dough using a lame or very sharp paring knife. Carefully remove hot! Dutch oven lid and place dough with parchment underneath in Dutch oven and close lid. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove lid and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when you tap it with a spoon.
Open-Faced Koji Pâté Sandwich with Olives and Caramelized Onions
4-8 servings
Koji is a variety of molds – Aspergillus oryzae – that are used in fermentation and are safe to eat. It contains about fifty enzymes that break down starches in grains such as rice into sugars and makes these sugars available for yeasts to consume in the fermentation process. The use of koji dates to the 8th century, and it’s a vital ingredient in many traditional Japanese products such as pickles, sake, soy sauce and miso. If you’ve ever eaten any of these things, you’ve enjoyed the transformative process of koji.
The folks at Prime Roots have developed meat alternatives using koji, and the results are tasty and satisfying. BriarPatch carries their pâté products – Harvest and Black Truffle. Here’s a simple recipe using pâté that’s a great way to see what the Prime Roots version is all about.
Ingredients
8 slices crusty artisan bread
1 cup pitted green olives (we like Frescatrano or Castelventrano)
3 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 bay leaf
2 large yellow onions, halved/sliced
¼ tsp sea salt
2 6 oz tubs Prime Roots Koji pâté
Fresh thyme sprigs, for garnish
Directions
Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and bay leaf and stir/cook for 5 minutes until starting to soften. Add salt, reduce heat to medium low and cook for 50-80 minutes or until onions are very soft, golden brown and caramelized. Stir every few minutes as you go. Timing will depend on your type of pan, size of onions and heat of your stove.
If onions start to stick to the pan, reduce heat to low. To speed things up after 50 minutes, turn heat higher for more caramelization and stir continuously to prevent burning. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Discard bay leaf.
Slice bread, drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil and lightly toast in the oven on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
Remove bread from oven and spread each surface with pâté. Top each slice with caramelized onions, olives and thyme sprigs.
