split pea & barley soup

After making a delicious split pea and barley soup in my food science lab last Wednesday, I decided to recreate it at home, doubling the recipe so we could have some leftovers to reheat for a quick meal. The soup takes about 2 hours total to make, but most of the work is accomplished in the first half hour. Dicing carrots, celery, an onion, part of a red pepper and mincing garlic are time consuming. Here's a paraphrase of the recipe (you can't really go wrong, so experiment and enjoy your own version):

heat veggie oil in a large pot until shiny, add the veggies, onion and garlic at medium heat until the onions become "glassy" (about 10 min). Then add split peas and barley (ratio of 2:1), salt and about six times the amount of water as split peas (so one cup split peas means 1/2 cups barley, 6 cups water, 1.5 tsp salt). Bring this to a boil then cover and simmer for at least one hr. I recommend waiting until the split peas have essentially disintegrated. If you want a thicker soup, remove the lid and continue cooking; the water will evaporate. Add salt, pepper and other herbs to taste (I liked adding rosemary from the plant I then managed to kill--not enough water...oops!) and...Enjoy! It's perefct for the cold weather that has now arrived.

(I apologize for the lousy picture; I forgot to photograph the soup before storing the leftovers)

almond or rice milk?

A couple of weeks ago I purchased both almond and rice milk to determine which, if any, I preferred to cows milk. At first, I wasn't a huge fan of the almond milk, but after adding it to my oatmeal, decided I liked it and would happily drink it as a milk substitute. Rice milk, on the other hand, still has a very strange flavor and aftertaste; one I remember from my childhood when I drank it due to a milk allergy. This latter milk-substitute is not one I will choose to imbibe, but I will recommend it to those who cannot or do not wish to drink cows-milk and cannot drink almond milk. There are other substitutes to consider as well, such as oat-milk. Experiment, see what you prefer, and don't forget to glance at the label to ensure that you're also getting your necessary (i.e. essential) nutrients such as calcium.

beets and their leaves

On my way home I decided to purchase a bunch of beets from the union square farmer's market. I love their sweet taste. Once I had them cooking away in boiling water (skins on to prevent excess nutrient and pigment loss) I realized that I had never used the leaves of beets. Not wanting to dispose of these somewhat bitter-tasting green leaves with purple stems and roots, I searched the internet for beet-leaf recipes. I came across one that reminded me of a simple recipe we used for kale, spinach and other leafy greens in my Food Science Lab (ie cooking class): olive oil and garlic. This online recipe recommended, among others, some red chili flakes and onions, which I decided to incorporate. I sauteed the little onion pieces I had, added chili flakes, and because I was out of garlic cloves, added onion and garlic powder. I then added some water, the bite-sized beet leaves (no stems) and a lid. After a few minutes of steaming they were finished. The sweet beets and the spicy, garlicky beet leaves were quite a contrast and delicious!