Recipe Review from 9/13/2021

Saturday we celebrated a couple of birthdays with take-out sandwiches from the Lazy Moose in Moose Lake, taking our lunches to Moose Lake State Park. We'd never been and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to explore. We followed our outing with steak kebabs and prawns on the grill at home. A most satisfactory day. For the week itself, the Husband was gone overnight a couple days with work business, so meals were super simple. Made a chili on Sunday while watching football, simple, easy, delicious.

Peony from this Spring's garden

The Meal Plan: Sat (L) The Lazy Moose (take-out) (S) Steak kebabs with prawns
Sun (L) leftover kebabs (S) Bourbon Chili
Mon (yoga) - sweet potato and kale salad
Tues - chili
Wed (yoga) - chili
Thurs - sweet potato and kale salad
Fri - sweet potato and kale salad

Lunches - black bean and rice burritos (co-op), fruit


Massaged Kale Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato & Black Beans (Eating Well, Sept 2021) vegetarian
In theory this should have been the perfect dish for me - in reality there is so mush stuff on this that it was more than I could eat and messy. Yes, messy. All the little bits (quinoa, pumpkin seeds, beans, feta) fell to the bottom of my bowl which left me with kale and sweet potato chunks to stab with the fork. Frustrating and disappointing. The solution - skip the kale or make it a much, much smaller portion.

As there is already enough chopping, and cooking and dicing in this recipe, I skipped the kale after that first attempt and served the sweet potato over the quinoa and beans, topped with feta and pumpkin seeds with a tich of dressing to keep things moist and brighten all the flavors. That made for a very tasty dish and one that I could recommend.

Also noting, I made much of this ahead of time - I had a tub of cooked quinoa and chickpeas in the freezer. I cooked the sweet potato in the morning and assembled the dressing while making breakfast. Kale was the only thing I needed to chop right before dinner and while I was re-heating the potato and quinoa. It's still putzy, but not an hour and a half before dinner putzy.

Recommended with some alterations.

Serves 4

1 large sweet potato, cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
½ teaspoon salt, divided
6 medium shallots, peeled and quartered
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 large clove garlic, grated
1 pound kale, stemmed and torn
1 (15 ounce) can no-salt-added black beans, rinsed
1 cup cooked quinoa
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
½ cup unsalted pepitas, toasted

Position racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 425°F.

Toss sweet potato with 1 tablespoon oil, chile powder and 1/8 teaspoon salt on a large rimmed baking sheet. Toss shallots with 1 tablespoon oil and 1/8 teaspoon salt on another large rimmed baking sheet. Roast the vegetables, flipping once, until tender and caramelized, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk lemon juice and garlic with the remaining 3 tablespoons oil and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Add kale and massage with the dressing until bright green and shiny and the volume is reduced by about half. Add beans, quinoa, feta, pepitas and the shallots. Toss to combine and serve topped with the sweet potato.