On Friday I handed a draft of my thesis to the members of my committee. Berkeley does not have a thesis defense, so all that stands between me and a PhD are three signatures. Hallelujah! I am decidedly sick of my thesis topic and ready to move onto the Next Big Thing, although I'm not sure I'm ready to leave Berkeley. I want to write about what has happened in the last nine months and what I plan to do in the future, but I don't want to get carried away on my first post-thesis (draft) post. That's how injuries happen. So, in the following, all you'll get is a recipe. But it was yummy, and it gave me immense pleasure to be cooking, guilt-free, in the kitchen again.
Warm Spring Root Vegetable and Lentil Salad over Braised Greens
Kyle also distributed a draft of his thesis on Friday, so in celebration on Saturday night, I cooked for the first time in weeks. For much of the past month our diet consisted of burritos, pizza and Indian take-out, so I was in the mood for a vegetable-heavy healthy meal. I wanted something that tasted healthy. A trip to my favorite grocery store left me with several bunches of beets, a couple bunches of beautiful multi-colored young carrots and a mysterious green that looked like a white kale, but that doesn't seem to exist. I was a little uncertain what to do with it all, but I found some lentils in the freezer and the following dish was born. The weather here in Berkeley has been unusually gloomy and I think this salad captures the it's-raining-and-i'm-still-wearing-sweaters part of spring.
For the salad:
2 cups of cooked french lentils*
2 bunches of beets or 4 large ones
2 bunches of fresh carrots, sliced lengthwise into spears
1/2 cup of pepitas
1/3 cup of balsamic vinaigrette
(mix 2-3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar and thrown in a bit of nice mustard. adding a pinch of herb de provence is a nice touch)
For the greens:
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/3 cup of white wine
1/3 cup of water
1 bunch of kale, or collards, or mustard greens, or chard + any good greens from the beets
olive oil
salt and pepper
Turn the oven on to 350 F. Wrap the beets in foil. Roast them until tender, which can range from 30 min to a half an hour. While the beets are cooking, throw the pepitas in a roasting pan and put them in the oven on a different rack. Roast until nicely browned, approximately 5 min, although it will depend on how hot the oven is at that point. In the meantime, slice the the carrots into thin strips, toss with olive oil and salt. When the pepitas are done, put them on a plate and transfer the carrots into the roasting pan. Put the pan back in the oven and cook the carrots until browned, 10-20 min depending on the size. I had two bunches of pretty multi-colored small carrots which did not take long. While the carrots are cooking, heat the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat, add the garlic and the stems of the greens. Cook until the stems are soft, then add the leaves, wine, water and a few pinches of salt. Stir then cover and cook for 10 min or until the greens are tender. Once the beets are done, peel them and cut into bite sized pieces.
Mix the beets, carrots, pepitas and vinaigrette together. You can put them into a covered oven safe bowl and put them in the still warm oven to warm through until you are ready to serve. Heating them up will sweeten the balsamic vinegar, which is a nice touch. Serve over the greens. Some feta or goat cheese would probably be a good addition as well.
* Lentils freeze well, so I often make a whole pot of them and then put them into the freezer in small containers for later use.
