Not being from the South, I don’t think I ate a single black eyed pea until a few months ago. I’m not jumping-up-and-down excited about them, but they’re not bad, and since we have a couple bags of them to use up, I’ve been trying to figure out what I can do with them. My search for recipes let me to Texas caviar, which appears to be just black eyed peas and diced vegetables in a vinegar dressing, served with tortilla chips.

I wanted to make a meal rather than an appetizer, so this is what I came up with. Meat-eaters would probably consider this a side, but I think it can hold its own as the main course of a light summer supper. The flavor improved a lot after a few hours in the fridge, so plan ahead. I’m sure frozen corn would work in a pinch, but now that we’re getting into peak corn season, it just makes sense to use it!

Recipe:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 ears of corn
3 cups cooked (or canned) black eyed peas
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
4 green onions, white and light green parts only, chopped
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sugar
pinch or two cayenne pepper
salt
pepper

Slice the kernels of corn off the ears. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a wide skillet, then add the corn and saute over medium-high until it’s tender. Transfer to a bowl and let cool.

Stir in the black eyed peas, red and green bell pepper, and green onion, and toss well.

To make the dressing, whisk together the 2 tbsp olive oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste (a pinch or two of each). Pour over the salad, toss well, then let sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving. It’s even better the next day.

There’s something extraordinarily comforting about eating creamy soups when the weather gets cool. As a kid, I gravitated towards Campbell’s Cream of Asparagus with so many crushed Saltines in it that it basically solidified. These days I stay away from canned soups, but they’ve been replaced with something MUCH better.

The inspiration for this soup came from The New Moosewood Cookbook. I’ve made the recipe dozens of times, but have made quite a few of my own changes, adapting to whatever happens to be fresh at the farmer’s market or languishing in my refrigerator. It’s the perfect way to use whatever vegetables may be remaining from other recipes, and can be easily adjusted to feed a whole crowd or just you. It’s perfect with a green salad and big chunk of whole grain bread, and it will keep for a few days in the refrigerator with no ill effects.

I use 2% milk because it gives the soup a little more body than skim or 1% would. I’m not sure how soy or rice milk would work here, but if you try it with either of them, let me know! I like my soup really chunky, so I’ve scaled down the amount of liquid I add, but you can certainly add more if it looks a little thick to you.

Recipe:
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1 carrot, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 small head broccoli, roughly chopped
2 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper
2 cups water
2 cups 2% milk
1 cup shredded Napa cabbage

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large soup pot over medium. Add the garlic, onion, carrot, celery, bell pepper, and broccoli and cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes.
Stir in the basil and cook an additional minute.
Pour in the water (it should just cover the vegetables, but if it doesn’t, add a little extra). Cover the pot and simmer with the lid on for about 10 minutes (until the vegetables are tender).
Remove the cover and add the milk. Stir well, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
When heated through, stir in the Napa cabbage.
Mix well, then serve.

Or so I thought, before I moved to Korea. Now pretty much every day, I’ve found it pretty helpful to remind myself “it’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.” Thank you, Sheryl Crow.

To say that moving here has been a challenge is an understatement. I’ve battled homesickness, extreme frustration at work, and bus drivers that seem to have only one mission: to make all standing passengers fall down. Cooking has also been a challenge, because the grocery store has different produce every day, and there are a lot of ingredients I simply can’t find. I pretty much have to take what I can get and turn it into a good meal.

I’ve been meaning to make juk (thick rice porridge – it’s very popular here) for a few weeks now, but never really felt inspired. Then David Lebovitz posted about it and I took it as a sign that the time had come to do it.

Bell peppers were on sale and some fresh corn had just been delivered at the grocery store, so I decided to flavor my juk with them. There were some particularly aggressive little old ladies buying corn at the same time I was, but I managed to get my hands on a few good ears and only suffered one elbow to the ribs!

This soup is incredibly healthy – you just boil a little stock, water, and rice together until it’s nice and creamy, and then add the corn and roasted red peppers. It tastes like it’s got heavy cream in it, but it’s vegan! I made it with brown rice because it’s more nutritious than white, but either will work.

Recipe:
(adapted from David Lebovitz)
1 cup uncooked brown rice
3 cups vegetable (or chicken) stock
7 cups water
1 tsp salt, divided
3 ears of corn
2 red bell peppers
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
fresh cilantro

Combine the rice, stock, and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
Turn the heat down to low, partially cover the pan, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about an hour or until the rice is very soft. You may need to add a little water during this time if it seems to be getting thick.

While the rice is simmering, prepare the roasted red peppers. Either under a broiler, on a grill, or directly over a gas burner, char the skins of the peppers until they are black in most places. Transfer to a plastic bag and let stand for 15 minutes. Remove the peppers from the bag, scrape off the skin, and discard the stems and seeds. Cut the peppers into thin 1″ strips.

Cut the kernels off the ears of corn. Heat the oil in a medium skillet and add the garlic. After about a minute, add the corn
and saute for 3-5 minutes. Stir in the pepper strips and 1/2 tsp salt and turn off the heat.

When the rice is very soft and the mixture is like soup, add the corn and pepper mixture and stir well. Continue cooking over low heat for about half an hour, adding water if necessary to reach a desired soup consistency. Stir in the other 1/2 tsp of salt.

Garnish with fresh cilantro to serve.

(Note: any leftovers will thicken considerably in the fridge. Just stir in more water when you reheat if you want to get the soup-like consistency back)

Some vegetables are just crying out to be stuffed. That little groove in celery was clearly designed by some higher power with peanut butter in mind. I can’t look at mushrooms without thinking how much better they would be flipped upside down, stems removed, and filled with a rich savory mixture that preferably includes bacon. I don’t mind eating raw bell peppers, but I like them so much more when they’re filled and baked.

The other day I was remembering the red bell peppers stuffed with quinoa that I made a few months ago, and I realized something was missing from my life. Stuffed peppers. I haven’t found quinoa here yet, but I do have plenty of brown rice and tofu, and I knew that together they could make a few green bell peppers into a satisfying meal.

Recipe
4 small green bell peppers
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
8 ounces firm tofu, drained of excess water
1 1/2 cups cooked rice (I used a mixture of brown and white)
1 cup roughly chopped fresh spinach
1 hot red pepper (or jalapeno), chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion (green parts only)

Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Cut the peppers in half lengthwise, leaving the stems intact. Discard the seeds and membranes.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the garlic and onion.
Cook until onion is translucent and soft, then add the rice, spinach, hot pepper, and salt.
Cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes, then remove from heat.
In a medium bowl, smash the tofu with your hands until it is a smooth puree. Stir in the rice mixture and green onions and allow to cool slightly. Taste and add more salt if necessary.
Place the bell pepper halves in a baking pan and fill each with a few spoonfuls of filling.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the filling is golden brown and the peppers are soft.

NOTE: Bean threads look like thin white noodles.  Here is an example of what they look like:
photo from Amazon.com

Paella is a great one-dish meal that can be altered in myriad ways depending on what you have on hand and what is in season.  Beginning with the components of broth, saffron, and short-grain rice, from there the possibilities are endless.  For this variety, I included green beans, two colors of bell pepper, peas, and lima beans.  I sauteed chicken and sausage in a separate pan, to suit vegetarian and meat-eating tastes.  If you are not cooking for vegetarians, mix the meats in before you put the pan into the oven.  This will feed 4-6 hungry adults, and is great served alongside a simple green salad. Also, don’t be deterred by the inclusion of lima beans.  I normally despise them, but in this dish they blend innocuously into the background and just provide another textural element that is actually really satisfying.

Preheat the oven to 400 F