Spring is in the air and on kitchen tables all over the valley as area residents celebrate warm, sunny days, the first garden crops and the opening of area farmers markets.
With the movement toward healthier and “greener” living gaining traction, it’s no wonder that eating and growing fresh produce has achieved such popularity.
While we on the West Coast can take credit for launching the edible garden craze, the rest of the nation is quickly catching on to this delicious and nutritionally beneficial trend that allows for the joy of growing fresh edibles.
Just when we could use it, here to help gardeners enjoy a healthier lifestyle is the “Sunset Edible Garden Cookbook” with detailed gardening advice and more than 180 recipes using luscious homegrown fruits and vegetables.
Just added to online inventories and bookstore shelves, this cookbook combines Sunset magazine’s fast recipes with practical gardening tips that will garner beautiful, delicious produce year after year all across the country, not only here near its home base.
Sunset has inspired millions of readers to partake in food that is not only great-tasting, but also intrinsically healthy. Thus, with this useful follow-up to the “Western Garden Book of Edibles,” Sunset shows step by step how to cultivate a garden, celebrate the season’s bounty and enjoy healthy recipes using garden-fresh produce at the dinner table.
In addition to color photographs accompanying inviting recipes for everything from tomatoes to corn, peas to lettuces, the “Edible Garden Cookbook” includes harvesting and storage tips to help identify the right way to pick and preserve freshness.
Nutritional data comes with every recipe and is given for each crop, too.
“When you have a garden filled with great ingredients, your cooking starts to revolve around whatever is ripest and best that day,” writes Margo True, Sunset’s food editor, in the introduction to the new book.
“So we’ve organized this cookbook around the crops themselves, starting with vegetables, pausing for herbs and finishing with fruits.
“Each recipe is designed to celebrate the flavor and beauty of homegrown produce and the work that went into raising it. That’s why we’ve kept the cooking simple.”
True notes that for every vegetable or fruit, “we list basic ways to cook it — steam, roast, sauté and so on. With these techniques as your guide, you can season the food any way you like and create your own recipes.
“Or you can choose from the full-blown recipes that follow, many of which were inspired by the test garden here at Sunset.”
The Sunset food editor says one of her favorite parts of the new book is the “Extra Reward” section in a number of the chapters, “which tells you how to use the less familiar parts of a plant — radish leaves, for instance, they’re mild-tasting and nice in salads — or how to use a fruit or vegetable at a certain stage in its life cycle. True ‘new’ potatoes, harvested while the plant is still green, are moist and fragile, with skin as delicate as tissue paper.
“When you’ve put effort into growing something, why not use it to its fullest?”
Icebox Salad
Sunset Edible Garden Cookbook
The top layers of chopped vegetables keep the dressing from soaking and wilting the bottom layer of lettuce. This salad improves after a few hours in the refrigerator; the dressing works its way into the peas, cucumbers and radishes, the flavors meld and the vegetables become sweeter.
Serves 12 as a first course or side dish.
2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
1 small head romaine lettuce
10 oz. sugar snap peas, ends trimmed
1 bunch radishes (about 12)
1 English cucumber
4 green onions
2 cups shelled fresh peas (about 2 pounds in pods)
1-3/4 tsp. salt, divided
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. minced dill
4 large mint leaves, minced
1/2 cup finely chopped chives (about 1 bunch)
Line a fine-mesh strainer with 2 layers of cheesecloth and put strainer over a bowl. Put yogurt in strainer, cover with plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes.
Tear romaine into bite-size pieces. Arrange evenly in a 9-by-13-inch baking pan or other 3-quart dish.
Chop sugar snap peas and arrange evenly on top of lettuce. Trim and thinly slice radishes. Arrange them on top of sugar snap peas.
Peel cucumber, halve lengthwise, and using a spoon, scoop out and discard pulpy flesh and small seeds in the center. Cut each half lengthwise again and chop. Arrange cucumber on top of radishes. Trim green onions, thinly slice white and light green parts, and sprinkle evenly on top of cucumber.
Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add shelled peas and 1 tsp. salt. Boil for 1 minute, drain and plunge peas into ice water to stop cooking. Drain peas. Dry peas thoroughly on paper towels and sprinkle evenly over green onions.
Transfer yogurt to a bowl (discard liquid beneath strainer). Stir in oil, remaining 3/4 tsp. salt and the pepper, then stir in dill and mint. Spread yogurt mixture evenly over salad and sprinkle with chives. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours and up to overnight. Serve cold, cut into 12 pieces.
Ravioli with Snap Peas, Pea Shoots and Minty Pea Pesto
Sunset Edible Garden Cookbook
Both sugar snap peas and their tender young shoots are combined with fresh mint and cheese ravioli for an easy and original dish.
Serves 4.
1 small garlic clove, peeled
4 oz. Parmesan cheese, cut into chunks
1-1/2 quarts loosely packed tender pea shoots, separated into 4- to 5-inch pieces, divided
1/2 cup loosely packed mint
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 pound fresh cheese ravioli
2 cups sugar snap peas, ends trimmed
Mince garlic in a food processor. Add Parmesan cheese and whirl until grated. Add 2 cups of pea shoots, the mint and oil. Pulse until coarsely puréed. Scrape into a small bowl and press plastic wrap against pesto.
Cook ravioli according to directions, adding snap peas during the last 2 minutes. Drain; return to pot. Whisk pesto, then gently toss three-quarters of it with the ravioli. Add remaining pea shoots and toss gently. Serve immediately with remaining pesto if you like (or save it for a sandwich).
Creamy Lettuce Soup
Sunset Edible Garden Cookbook
This French classic rediscovered makes a wonderful spring soup.
Serves 4; makes 7 cups.
1-1/2 pounds green lettuce, such as 1-1/2 large heads romaine or 2 heads butter lettuce
2 large leeks, white and light green parts only, split lengthwise, rinsed well and sliced
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg, plus more for sprinkling
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 quart reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup half-and-half
Cut ribs from lettuce and chop. Chop leaves. Set both aside separately.
Cook leeks and lettuce ribs in butter in a 5- to 6-quart pot over medium heat with nutmeg, lemon zest, salt and pepper, stirring occasionally until tender, about 10 minutes.
Stir in lettuce leaves and broth, cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until lettuce is tender, 1 to 2 minutes.
Whirl soup in batches in a blender until very smooth, pouring as blended into a large bowl. Return soup to pot and stir in half-and-half. Heat, stirring over medium heat until steaming (don’t let it come to a boil), about 2 minutes.
Ladle soup into bowls or cups and sprinkle with more nutmeg on top.
Fava Bean and Pearl Couscous Barley
Sunset Edible Garden Cookbook
Serves 4.
1-1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup pearl (Israeli) couscous
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. red chile flakes
1/2 tsp. finely shredded lemon zest
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
About 2 pounds fava beans, shelled and peeled*
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat broth and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add couscous, oregano and chile flakes. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until couscous is tender and most of the liquid is evaporated.
Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest and juice, oil and fava beans. Add salt and pepper to taste.
*Note: How to peel fava beans
Shell the beans from the fava pod. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the beans to the water and rinse with cold water until cool enough to handle. Then peel the rubbery outer skin from each bean. Tear it at the bean’s round end (use a paring knife or your fingernails) and pop out the bean. Peeled fava beans are very perishable and will keep only a few hours. Chill in an airtight container.
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