One of the things I’ve only recently started doing that has literally improved my life so much is using more of the vegetables I buy. The main examples of this are the skins and the greens.
This week, I made roasted beets and sweet potatoes, and a sort-of stir fry of beet greens, onion, bell pepper, and black beans. DELISH lemme tell you!!!
Here’s my pitch for using the skins: there’s literally no reason not to (except for that pesticides can kinda hang out there so you really need to scrub them off). It saves so much time, adds texture, looks good and ~rustic~, and best of all that’s where most of the nutritional value is. SO I never peel my sweet potatoes anymore (or regular potatoes for that matter) or my beets, or my carrots, which I didn’t use this time, or really any other veggie unless it’s important to. I’m not really sure why it became such a thing to peel vegetables, but you should stop. Unless you’re really worried about pesticides. But if you are you should consider buying organic or from local farmer’s markets or gardening yourself!!
Greens, on the other hand, are often already cut off when you buy a vegetable, especially if you’re going for convenience, which I often do, and are buying already cut up veggies or even frozen ones like broccoli, beets, celery, etc. If you do get a bunch of veggies with the greens still attached, or are lucky enough to have access to a garden, don’t waste the greens! I found out when I was at Berkeley Bowl this weekend that they sell loose beets that are already cut from their greens, and bunches that include the greens. Other grocery stores probably have this too!! I went for the bunch because I love beet greens. So many other greens can be used in exactly the same way, and almost never are!!! Avoid food waste and eat some delicious greens!!!
Without further ado, here are the recipes:
Roasted Veggies: you can use any vegetables you like but these are two of my favorites.
- 1 bunch beets (3 medium)
- 1 large sweet potato
- Olive oil
Preheat oven to 400º. Drizzle some olive oil on a baking sheet. Cut beets off their greens and save them for the other recipe. Scrub the beets and sweet potato well, and dry them off. This time I tried something new and sliced the sweet potato into large but thin slices (pictured below). Chop the beets roughly into 1 by 1/2 inch pieces. Put on baking sheets and mix around a little to distribute oil. Bake until golden and soft, about 20 minutes (depends on the size of the chunks). Let cool and then portion out.
Not a great picture (sorry) but this is what they looked like roasted! Again, the sweet potatoes are pretty big but sliced thinly (about 1/3 of an inch?). ALSO this was after I flipped all the sweet potatoes after I took them out of the oven, so the other side wasn’t this browned. The ones near the top are red because of the beets.
Beans and Greens
- 1/4 large onion
- broth, water, lemon juice, wine? maybe? (liquid of your choice)
- 1 bell pepper
- greens from 1 bunch beets
- 1 can black beans
- pinch salt
- 1 tsp dried thyme
Slice onion thinly. Place in a pan with a splash of broth and simmer until onions are soft, over medium heat. Wash and slice the bell pepper and add, sautéing until soft. Wash greens well and chop roughly, then add and cook until soft. Drain beans and add, cooking until excess liquid evaporates. Add salt and thyme and stir. Let cool, then portion out with roasted veggies.
Ahhhhh! She’s so pretty!! This is before I added the beans.
Finally, here the whole thing is:
I’ve been making my meals late at night recently so the lighting is always kinda bad…oops. But you get the idea.
Excited for this week!! Lots of yummy veggies to give me plant energy 🙂
Lunches with Louise 