Shared Plates II: Spinach Salad, Roasted Squash, Swiss Chard on Toast and Sauteed Broccoli

For a minute there, while I was living on the east coast, I seemed to forget a bit about the food politics of the northwest. In this little corner of the world, it really does always seem to be about fresh, local, sustainable. I think here, maybe more than any other place in this country, people are adverse to processed food that come in packages or have been grown with the aid of pesticides. Many take it one step further, and if food was grown by anyone outside of your state (or county) it might as well be toxic sludge. It's pretentious, and a lot of the time we end up sticking our foot in our mouth, (there are more than a few restaurants that, while they tout fresh local ingredients seem to throw the fresh-local-sustainable shtick out the window for a scallop from Maine) to the point I sometimes think we should all say "Fresh, sustainable and local, unless it's exotic, sells well, and I can't get it locally" or "Fresh, sustainable and local but make sure my wine is from Italy!" and I will be the first to admit I indulge in that behavior.

Hypocrisy aside, as my favorite comic book heroine says "It ain't all bad." I've cut down eating processed vegan goodies like Gardien products and Daiya shreds and am opting to eat what is readily available in my area on a regular basis, and trust me when I say my taste buds aren't suffering. I make a good deal of what Anthony Bourdain might deem "Peasant food," and, if Tal Ronnen could see my fridge now he would likely ream me out for making food reminiscent of Angelica Kitchen in the '70's and insist I get with the times. But you know what? I like my hippie peasant food, thank you very much, and I intend to keep it. Sometimes, I think we get so fixated on improving or changing something we forget how good vegetables can be in their natural state. This is the sentiment I kept in mind when I had a few good friends over for dinner the other night, and we had a lovely simple dinner of spinach salad, baked maple Delicata squash, sauteed broccoli, chard on toast and kale crisps.

Recipes

Quinoa and Roasted Veggies (or, what to do with all the remnants of the CSA box)

A few weeks ago, I attended “Apples in the Orchard,” a potluck/ cider press on this darling Island on which I grew up. Like most potlucks I go to, I wanted to make a dish that could feed a lot, tasted great, and didn’t cost much. I also wanted to use up all the little remnants of vegetables in the fridge from my mother’s CSA subscription that had yet to find a dish. There were a few yellow squash, some chard, mustard greens, and a red pepper. After 15 minutes of standing in front of an open fridge, ignoring my mother’s voice in my head going “Close the door! You’re wasting energy and killing the planet!” I decided to fall back on my trusted standby “I don’t know what the hell to do with these veggies!” dish. Roasted veggies and quinoa. Fast, simple, and fucking delish! Bring it to a potluck and your omni friends minds will be blown, or just make a batch and eat the leftovers for lunch throughout the week. 

Roasted Veggies and Quinoa