I’ve heard for some time that beet greens (literally, the green, leafy part of the beet plant) are quite tasty, and I like greens, so I was curious to try them.  But I never did, because beet greens are always sold with beets attached, and if I bought them, I might have to use the beets.  I guess I could have cooked the greens and tossed the beets, but that just seemed wrong.

So I was amazed when I discovered nearly beet-less greens at the farmer’s market. There exist varieties of beets that are grown primarily for their greens.  The greens grow big and tasty, and the beet (root) part is small, stunted, and not meant to be eaten. Perfection! At last I could try some beet greens in good conscience.

The verdict: tasty.  They’re very mild, and ever-so-slightly sweet, not cloyingly sweet like beets.  In fact, they taste more like spinach than beets, and had almost none of the bitter flavor that so many people dislike about greens. If you like eating healthy but aren’t a fan of kale, you might give these a try.

I prepared my beet greens the way I prepare most unfamiliar foods: sauted with olive oil and garlic. I served them over polenta, with some mozzarella cheese on top.  The bunch in the picture made a greens-heavy meal for one, but could comfortably have fed two.

We decided not to travel this year – instead, we’re going to stay home and enjoy a rare long weekend in our new house that’s not dedicated to a home improvement project.  With all the work around the house that we’ve been doing, and a bunch of travel on top of that, it seemed like this was a good year to take it easy.  And while I’ll miss seeing my family and having our traditional menu, having dinner just for the two of us means we can have an all-vegetarian meal, which I’ve always wanted to do.

There are three strategies, in my mind, to vegetarianizing Thanksgiving: 1) make all your favorite traditional dishes, and just skip the turkey, which is what you’d do at a regular Thanksgiving dinner anyway, 2) concoct a protein-full main dish that fills the role of turkey in the meal (though, please, let’s not try to make something that looks or tastes like turkey but isn’t – there’s so much better food out there), or 3) make something extra-special that’s not traditional at all.  (I know one vegetarian who has an elaborate Indian dinner every Thanksgiving, and how could you go wrong with that?)

We’re doing something between 1 and 3 – a mix of tradition and other seasonal foods.  We’re also trying to gauge how much to cook for a 2-person dinner, and thus making fewer dishes than we otherwise would.  We’re still finalizing the details (I might like one more side dish), but here’s our plan:

• Sweet potato ravioli
• Mushroom-cream sauce
• Cranberry bread
• Apple pie

I promise to post some recipes later on!

If you’re still looking for ideas, check out last year’s big round-up of vegetarian Thanksgiving main courses, or Mark Bittman’s list of 101 prepare-ahead Thanksgiving dishes.  One of my favorites from his list:

60. Marshmallow topping for adults: Roast or boil chunks of sweet potato, put them in an oiled baking dish, top with dots of cream cheese, and sprinkle with a mixture of brown sugar, chopped pecans and chopped fresh sage. Broil until lightly browned.

What’s on your menu?

Pasta with spinach sauce and crumbled Roquefort

I was actually planning on making it this week before I read this article, which isn’t surprising considering how often I eat pasta, but it still felt as though they read my mind.  I like this dish because it feels fancy, but takes no more time to prepare than just cooking pasta.  I even bought special cheese for it, because I was feeling adventuresome.  I bought Roquefort, partly because I’ve never had it and partly because it may soon be unavailable in this country, thanks to ex-President Bush and his bizarre last-minute trade laws.  This one does seem ludicrous even by his usual twisted standards.  I understand promoting American products in a bad economy, but how does taxing a cheese that can only be made in one little village in France going to help?  What did that cheese ever do to him?

The cheese was delicious, and well worth the adventure.  This is one of those cases where, for me, paying extra for the good stuff makes a real difference.  It was strong, but creamy and not sharp.  It was very rich!  In its place, you could use any sort of gorgonzola or a mild blue cheese.  Or, you could use a generous helping of parmesan for a different twist on the same.

Pasta with Spinach Sauce

• 1/2 lb pasta (shells are good)
• 1 lb of frozen chopped spinach
• 2 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• Crumbled Roquefort or gorgonzola, or grated parmesan (as much or as little as you like)

1. Start the pasta cooking.
2. While it cooks, mince the garlic and saute in olive oil over low heat until it starts to brown.
3. Add lemon juice and spinach; stir over medium heat until the spinach melts and cooks.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. When the pasta is done, drain and toss with sauce.  Stir in cheese, or sprinkle it over top.

My first idea was rhubarb muffins.  They were the perfect snack, especially for this week since I was in a training for three days, and needed plenty of sugar.  They’re also easily transported, unlike pie, and so easier for one person to eat a lot.  I found an abundance of recipes on the web; I chose one that involve walnuts and streusel topping.  I put in about 50% more rhubarb than the recipe suggested, and could have added more.  The great thing about rhubarb is that it dissolves as it cooks, so the muffins had bits of sweet-tart rhubarb flavor hidden throughout.

About half my rhubarb was left over; so I could make one more dish.  I had one in mind; years ago I found a recipe for a nice, savory rhubarb sauce.  It was recommended to go with fish; I wanted to put it on tofu and chard.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the recipe anymore, so I tried to recreate it from memory.  I remember most of the pieces: sweet onions, rhubarb, sugar, herbs, maybe raisins.  What I did:

• Chop a vidalia onion and saute on low heat until really soft.
• Add the chopped rhubarb (I used six stalks, all I had left) and some sugar.  Saute.
• Add white wine, some herbs like thyme and tarragon, and simmer until the rhubarb falls apart.
• Add salt, pepper, and some chives, cook another minute, then serve.

It came out pretty well, but not quite like I remember.  I suspect I’m forgetting a key ingredient; either that, or my memory has exaggerated the deliciousness of the original.  But my version was tasty, and fairly versatile in that it could go on anything where you don’t mind the flavor being overwhelmed by the sauce.  (Tofu is clearly the ideal candidate.)  Next time I might make the sauce ahead of time, and marinate the tofu in it.

I didn’t get any more rhubarb this week, but I did get a quart of strawberries, which leaves me with the opposite problem: how do I choose what to do with them when there are so many options???

What are your favorite ways to use rhubarb?  What should I try next time?