Find Your Balance

Minted, misoed and mighty good. Or, reasons why I love my food processor.

August 12th, 2009

How’s everyone’s week going? I feel like it’s been a mighty productive one so far. In addition to my usual blogging, yoga teaching and health counseling clients I have been preparing for this weekend’s workshop, The Yoga of Food. If you live in the Boston area please come so we can meet face to face. It’s gonna be awesome!

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to post about how we stumbled on Land’s Sake farm last week in Weston, MA. I fell in love with their freshly picked organic veggies, including baby white and purple potatoes. But what on earth was I going to do with them? I haven’t cooked much with potatoes recently. (By the way, have you had purple potatoes? They have such an awesome, rich, deep color. Foodies and artists alike go bananas for ‘em, I’m guessing.)

I suppose I could have splurged for some grass-fed beef but, hey, this was a last minute thing and we were having company. $20/lb. for grass-fed meat is cool sometimes, but I’m no millionaire. So off to a veggie solution my mind went….hmmmm….what to do with potatoes?

How would you use purple potatoes to create a gorgeous summer meal?

I remembered a comment by Heidi saying that sometimes her summer dinners include steamed potatoes and green beans tossed with…something. I couldn’t remember what so I had to come up with something on my own. Pesto! A-ha! And then I one-upped myself. MINT Pesto!

Is this starting to sound good? It sounded good to me. Mint feels like a good way to perk up potatoes for a summer meal, doesn’t it?

Of course I still needed something else and since meat wasn’t happening I found a good veggie burger recipe and modified the heck out of it. Came out awesome with a smear of white miso and collard chiffonade. Fancy!

So I guess what I’m saying is…it’s definitely possible to impress your family and guests with an easy vegetarian meal. You probably knew that already. But I’m just sayin’.

Chickpea Miso Burgers
4 cups cooked chickpeas (I used canned, sue me!)
2 medium onions, chopped
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
2 Tbl. chili powder
1 cup clover sprouts (or other green veg)
2 eggs
2 Tbl. tahini
S+P
white miso

Combine all ingredients in food processor. Shape handfuls into patties and place on a dish, not touching. Refrigerate while you prepare the rest of the meal. When ready to cook, heat butter or oil in a skillet on medium heat. Cook patties on each side for about 5 minutes. Top with white miso.

Mint Pesto Potatoes
2 lbs. potatoes, cut into 1″ pieces
4 cups fresh mint
1 cup olive oil
1 cup walnuts, pan toasted
1 garlic clove, crushed
2-3 Tbl. lime juice, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
S+P

Steam potatoes until tender. Rinse under cool water so they don’t over cook and set aside. In blender, combine all other ingredients except oil. While blending, pour oil slowly in via the feed tube. Toss pesto with potatoes to coat.

This post is part of Cheeseslave’s Real Food Wednesdays, Nourishing Days’ Food Roots, and The Nourishing Gourmet’s Pennywise Platter Thursdays. Whew!

And don’t miss Katie’s contest to win a Saladacco Spiralizer! Turn your veggies into gorgeous pasta with that bad boy.

19 Comments farming, frugal living, organic, recipe, vegetarian