Roasted Kale

My husband has been away for a couple of days for some job interviews in Maryland. The apartment is pretty lonely without him. For the past two nights, I hung out with my friend, Elissa, a total sweetheart whose face and smile never fail to brighten my day. Last night would have been another fun hang time… However, I felt like being alone and enjoying some time with myself, doing the things that I like. And that’s exactly what I did, sat around while catching up with my husband on the phone, napped on the couch, dragged my butt off the couch and worked out, called my family and chatted with them while I was walking to and from the gym, and started cooking dinner when I got home.  

I had a bunch of kale that I have been meaning to cook for a few days now, but never got around to. So I took care of that and decided to roast them with leeks, garlic, ginger, a generous amount of salt, and some freshly cracked black pepper. Pretty amazing!

Kale has a distinct, earthy green taste with a tinge of bitterness. The leaves are also sturdy which helps the kale maintain its substance so that you can still taste it when you add into whatever you are cooking. Unlike spinach, it doesn’t wilt into nothing when put in contact with heat. Biting into a kale leaf and savoring its wholesome flavor always takes me to a happy place. The sturdiness of kale leaves also makes it perfect for roasting. It just made sense to toss all the ingredients in one big pan and roast them altogether for a couple of minutes. After roasting, the leeks lent a delicious sweetness, the garlic added a depth of flavor, and the ginger bites were spicy-cool.

This roasted kale went perfectly well with some quinoa. I devoured these on my yoga mat in the middle of the kitchen floor. That’s how good this meal was, I couldn’t even make it to the dining table.

 

Guys, before I share the roasted kale recipe, I want to share a loose recipe of the quinoa dish that I had with the kale. First, I cooked some red quinoa. Then I stir-fried minced spring onions (white and green parts), diced carrots, diced kale stems, chopped shiitake mushrooms, some dill, and a little bit of salt. I then tossed this stir fry with the quinoa and served it as a bed for the roasted kale. Delicious!        

 

Roasted Kale

10.5 oz or 300 g kale, roughly chopped

2 leeks (use only the white and light green parts, see *notes*), rinsed and sliced in rounds
2 tablespoons ginger, minced
2-3 large cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
freshly cracked black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. While the oven is heating up, prepare the ingredients.  

Place the kale, leeks, ginger, and garlic in a large roasting pan. Pour in the olive oil and toss everything together using your hands. Add the salt and pepper and continue to mix everything using your hands.

Place the pan in the oven and roast for 8 minutes. Turn off the oven and remove the pan. Stir everything well and place the pan back in the oven for 2 more minutes.

Serve warm over a bed of quinoa!

*Notes*

Save the dark green tops of the leeks to use for making homemade stock.

Chicken Fajitas (Roasted Style)

Words are not easy to come by these days. These fajitas were made quite a while ago, but because I didn’t really have an interesting story to share, I procrastinated writing about it. Now, the memory of how these exactly tasted like is vague… but I do know one thing for sure, they were good!

 

These fajitas were made with just two chicken thighs. Not a lot of meat but that’s the way I cook… use less meat and load up on the veggies! You won’t even know what’s missing. The chicken thighs that I used were not boneless. Truthfully, I prefer chicken with their bones in, there’s just so much more flavor in them that way.

 

The chicken thighs roasted in the oven along with the fajita vegetables. When the chicken was done, the meat was shredded off the bones and tossed back in the roasting pan to coat them with the lime and spice-infused chicken juices. These savory shredded chicken pieces were then tossed together with the roasted vegetables. Absolutely delicious! The only thing that makes this even better is serving it with a side of guacamole.   

 

Roasted Chicken Fajitas

Seasoning Mix
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly cracked
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Chicken
2 chicken thighs, bone in
1 teaspoon of seasoning mix
juice from 4-5 key limes, depending on size
2 teaspoons olive oil

Vegetables
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 large bell pepper, (I used green), sliced
2 carrots, sliced into fat 1 and ½ inch sticks
2 oz cremini mushrooms, or more, sliced
3 garlic cloves, smashed using the back of a spoon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
the rest of the seasoning mix

corn or flour tortillas


Stir the salt, pepper, and all the spices well together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Place the chicken thighs in a non-reactive bowl. Rub a teaspoon of the seasoning on the outside of both chicken pieces. Pour in the key lime juice and olive oil. Mix everything well with your hands. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 2 hours. Turn the chicken pieces over so the other side also gets soaked in the marinade after an hour or so. When it is time to roast the chicken, move the pieces to a slightly oiled, small roasting pan. I used a round cake pan for this.

After chopping each vegetable ingredient, toss into a roasting pan. Sprinkle salt all over and pour in the olive oil. Mix with your hands. Add the rest of the seasoning and mix well, making sure that everything gets coated with it. Let sit in the refrigerator until the oven is ready for roasting.

Set an oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake the chicken skin side down for 15 minutes. Pull it out of the oven and flip the chicken pieces to expose the skin and place it back in the oven. At this time, move the pan of vegetables into the oven as well. Set the timer for another 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, pull out both roasting pans. Flip the chicken pieces one more time and stir the vegetables. Place both roasting pans back in the oven and set the timer to 10 more minutes.

While the chicken is roasting, pull out your desired number of tortillas. Stack them on a piece of foil large enough to cover every inch of the tortilla stack. Completely wrap tortillas with the foil and place in the oven during the last 10 minutes of roasting time.

When the timer goes off after the last 10 minutes, turn the oven off. Pull out the chicken pan, but leave the vegetables and the tortillas. Carefully move the chicken pieces to a plate or chopping board and shred with two forks or a fork and a knife. Move the shredded chicken back to the roasting pan and stir to coat it with the juices left in the pan. Remove the vegetable pan from the oven and throw in the shredded chicken meat along with the leftover juice from the chicken pan for added flavor. Toss to mix everything together.

Carefully remove the tortillas from the oven. Serve the roasted fajitas on the tortillas with a side of guacamole and salsa or hot sauce.

Mother’s Day + Family + Sunday + Japanese Spiced Roasted Beets

DFJ and I are enjoying a quiet Sunday… We’re just chilling, doing different things but checking in on each other every now and then. Most of the time, I still can’t believe we are husband and wife now. Every time I think about this, my heart gets so big it hurts and I feel like crying joyous tears of happiness.

My day didn’t start out great though. Early this morning, I had a terrible dream of losing my mom. In my dream, I saw myself keeping it together until I finally realized that it was real. All of a sudden I unleashed all the anguish I have been holding in and hurled myself against the wall and on the floor in despair. Finally, when I thought I couldn’t handle the pain anymore, I woke up staring at DFJ’s bare back. That’s when I realized with great relief that it was JUST a dream. Thank you, dear God! What would my life be like if I lost my mom? I don’t even want to imagine it… she is a huge part of me and I owe her so much for shaping me into the woman that I am now.  

I called home to greet my mom a Happy Mother’s Day but she wasn’t there, so I talked to my sister instead. She is so busy and unavailable every time I call home, so I was glad to finally be able to catch up with her. My little sister, whose hand I used to hold, is now a career woman. Hard to believe! She was only a senior in high school when I last saw her and thinking about how long it has been since then makes me miss her even more so. We used to sleep next to each other even in our older years and we would fall asleep holding hands for fear of ghosts. Haha!  

While my sister and I were talking, I chopped beets, parsnips, potatoes, cauliflower, asparagus, and stale bread for roasting. This week’s Food Matter’s Project, Japanese Spiced Roasted Beets, chosen by Sandra of Meadows Cooks, called for turning on the oven pretty high. Since it has been almost 100 degrees F over here for the past week, I decided to make the most out of turning on the oven and roasted as many vegetables as possible! It was a big accomplishment at 9:30 in the morning on a Sunday. To celebrate, I made us a brunch that included veggie scraps: cauliflower stalk and leaves and asparagus ends in scrambled eggs with roasted potatoes and bagels.

After brunch, DFJ went right to his laptop to prepare slides for an interview talk in Maryland next week while I cut up his old fraternity t-shirts in an attempt to make this. Not very much success since he is way bigger than I am. Instead of using my finished product as a workout tank, I will have to use it as an apron instead! No more craftiness for the day.  

Now that my so-called hamstring injury, which really was an adductor injury, which really stemmed from my scoliosis, is finally beginning to disappear, I have been doing yoga religiously for three days in a row. Nothing crazy though… I have been doing Tiffany Cruikshank’s Groin Injury Practice, Pelvis and SI Joint Stability, and Medicine for Your Hamstrings classes. Strong, gentle, healing practices for the upper legs and hips. Just what I need plus some ice! During savasana, I fell asleep on my yoga mat and woke up feeling good and ready to do some blogging!

So here I am, blabbering about things, when I really should be telling you about the Japanese Spiced Roasted Beets that I made at 9:00 this morning. Mine is a combination of three large beets, a parsnip, and a potato. I followed the rest of the original recipe quite closely, except for using only ½ teaspoon of chili powder instead of a tablespoon. One of my favorite ways to eat vegetables is in roasted form. Since they are already delicious, most of the time, I stick to just seasoning them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. However, this recipe takes roasted root vegetables to a whole new level.

This dish is a medley of earthy root vegetables, with citrusy hints, and a spicy kick. I love the different flavors that each vegetable offers and the way the seasoning combination (orange zest, poppy seed, chili powder, black pepper, sesame seeds, and scallions) gives the roasted vegetables some spunk!

 

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother’s Day celebration. Every day should be a mother’s day… these special women in our lives deserve nothing less!   

P.S.

- For the original Mark Bittman recipe of the Japanese Spiced Roasted Beets, check out Meadows Cooks.
- To see what other FMP members came up with, check out our website.

On Fennel and Coconut Ginger Shrimp

Let’s talk about fennel! Right around Thanksgiving last year, DFJ talked about how he wanted to make roasted fennel and sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. It reminded him of the fennel we had at a delicious buffet dinner at the Keller Auditorium in Portland before watching Wicked. Before that dinner, I’ve never had fennel and before last Thanksgiving, fennel has never set foot in my house.

Now I know better… fennel is pretty amazing! It’s sweet, savory, and super versatile. You can add it to your dishes for an extra flavor complexity or you can have it be the main star with some seasonings here and there. These are the different ways I have devoured fennel: roasted either by itself or with sweet potatoes, caramelized fennel with goat cheese (from Plenty), and stir fried in vegetables. I also often find fennel bites in my fried rice and pakoras when I eat at Indian restaurants and it always makes me happy. Fennel can also be shaved and tossed in your salads!

When you buy fennel though, they come with super long stalks and fronds. For a while, I have been limiting myself to using the stalks in my vegetable stock for lack of better knowledge. Little did I know until I read this week’s FoodMatter’s recipe that the stalks can be added into pretty much anything we cook, just like we do with celery! They are even better than celery because they are so full of flavor and have a really enticing aroma. When stir-fried they end up adding a lovely hint of sweetness to your food and an extra oomph. The fronds can be cooked as well or used as pretty garnishes. To be honest, I don't think the fronds have much flavor in them, but they sure are pretty.

So, my take on this week’s FMP recipe, Stir-Fried Fennel and Pink Grapefruit with Shrimp, chosen by Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla, was a little different. I cooked my shrimp separate from the vegetables because I really wanted to try this Coconut Ginger Shrimp recipe from Sassy Radish. Oh my goodness, it was so, so, so good! There is no coconut milk in the recipe but you taste coconut in every bite and the shrimp pieces are so tender. I added more fish sauce and lime juice than was required, just a touch more, and I loved how it turned out. You need to try this recipe you guys, it will transport you straight to Asia!

 

 

Then I made some stir-fried vegetables which consisted of so many good things: olive oil, garlic, onion, fennel stalks, carrots, asparagus, orange slices, Swiss chard, spinach, salt, and pepper. I think this was one of my best stir-fry vegetable dishes ever! The combination of all the different vegetables is just so fun. All the ingredients played together nicely and turned out very well. My favorite is the touch of citrusy sweetness that the orange slices added and the savory sweetness of the fennel stalks, the fennel flavor definitely popped out and made itself known. I will have to remake this and document it next time so I can share a solid recipe to all of you.  

I served the shrimp and stir-fried veggies with brown rice and dinner was served. Best dinner ever! It sure made my husband a happy man and I always take so much pleasure in that.

 

Have a great weekend you guys!!!