Cabbage and Bean Chili with Herbed Cornmeal Dumplings

It has been "April Showers" all day long here in Colorado.  I do love the Spring rain and it puts me in the mood for something warm and comforting.  Hence:  Chili and Dumplings! 

When you eat "vegetarian-ish" for as long as I have, you come across about a million different chili recipes.  I, myself, rarely make the same chili twice because it is such a great way to clear out the pantry and the crisper!  Especially when the grocery budget is tight, I love to challenge myself to make dinner with whatever is on hand.  It often makes you combine things you wouldn't normally have thought to put together and it forces you to get creative with a limited number of ingredients. 

So, inspired by the rain and the contents of my pantry and fridge, I give you this chili.  This dish is deliciously warming and full of flavor!  The cabbage gives it lots of texture and crunch, while the beans and dumplings make it homey and filling without being heavy.  Not to mention the beautiful color pallete of bright purple cabbage, green onions, a rosy-red broth and pale, golden-yellow dumplings.  In the words of Ina Garten, "What's not to like?!?" 

Cabbage and Bean Chili with Herbed Cornmeal Dumplings
serves 8-10

1 cup dried black beans, cooked
1 cup dried kidney beans, cooked
2 T olive oil
1 T peanut oil
1 green pepper, diced
1 red onion, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups red cabbage (about 1/2 a small head), sliced and washed
1 28 oz. can diced San Marzano tomatoes
6 cups vegetable stock
1/8 cup maple syrup
1 T cumin
1-3 tsp cayenne, to taste
salt and pepper
Herbed Cornmeal Dumplings, recipe to follow

In a large soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat, add olive oil and peanut oil.  Add pepper, onions and celery and saute until soft, about 7 minutes.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add cabbage and stir well.  Cook until volume of cabbage is reduced by almost half, about 10 minutes.  Add tomatoes and stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and stir in maple syrup, cumin, cayenne and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, covered, about 15 minutes.

Gently drop the dumplings onto the surface of the chili and cover again.  Cook until dumplings have puffed up and are firm, about 25 more minutes.  Serve.


Herbed Cornmeal Dumplings
makes 14 dumplings
adapted from a recipe posted by Bon Appetit's website in January of 2011:  http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/01/mixed_greens_and_sausage_soup_with_cornmeal_dumplings

3/4 cup white flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 T sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coarse salt
3/4 cup almond milk or other milk substitute (or regular milk)
1 1/2 T peanut oil
1 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add the wet ingredients and stir to combine.  Add chopped herbs and stir once more to combine.  Allow mixture to sit for at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours.

Wetting your hands periodically with cold water, roll dough into golf ball-sized pieces.  Drop into hot liquid, cover, and cook for 25 to 30 minutes.

Spring Has Sprung Pasta and Pesto

Nothing says "Spring" quite like fiddlehead ferns!  They look a bit like they belong in a fairytale (which is one of the things I love about them) but they also taste wonderful.  If you've never tried them, fiddleheads are a little bit like asparagus only more mild and sweet.  Asparagus is also at it's peak right now, which is the only way I like to eat it.  Although it is available shipped from South America year-round, you can often find locally-grown asparagus this time of year and it is much tastier!  Look for slender-looking stems with tight, green buds at the tip.

The pasta I used is Maestri Pastai's Foglie di Carciofo (meaning "artichoke leaflets").  It is a bit of a specialty item (you can, of course, find it at Marczyk's if you are lucky enough to live in Denver) but it is also one of my favorite pastas ever.  It is an Italian import made with semolina and dehydrated artichoke and looks like pale green petals.  Not only is it rather pretty but it's also wonderfully toothsome and delicious.  If you can't find this particular product, though, you can certainly substitute for just about any good pesto-grabbing pasta shape you can think of such as orecchiete or penne. 

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is the pesto.  I absolutely adore pesto, not only because it makes everything taste amazing but also because it is so quick to put together!  This one calls for equal amounts of mint and basil for a brighter, "springier" flavor.  Other than that, and the welcome addition of fresh lemon juice, it is a pretty typical pesto.  Make sure to set aside a few leaf clusters for a pretty garnish.


Spring Has Sprung Pasta and Pesto
serves 4 as an entree, 6 as a first course

Pesto:
1/3 cup pine nuts
2/3 oz basil leaves (one small clamshell container's worth)
2/3 oz mint leaves
3 small cloves garlic, roughly chopped
zest and juice of one lime
generous tsp kosher salt, or to taste
generous tsp freshly ground pepper, or to taste
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmiggiano reggiano, freshly grated

Pasta and Vegetables:
1 package (17.66 oz) Maestri Pastai Foglie Di Carciofo
1 T olive oil
1 bunch asparagus
1 cup fiddlehead ferns
juice of 1 lemon

Begin by cooking the pasta.  Bring a large pot of well-salted water to boil and add pasta.  Boil, stirring occasionally, until al dente.

In a food processor, pulse the pine nuts, herbs, garlic, lemon, salt and pepper until evenly chopped.  With the blade running, slowly stream in the olive oil.  Turn power off and remove blade, then mix in the parmiggiano reggiano with a spatula to combine.

Prep your asparagus by cutting the woody part of the stem (the bottom half, usually) and setting aside for use in stock or soup.  Cut the asparagus ends into 1-inch pieces.  In a large saute pan, heat olive oil over medium-high for about a minute or two, until just barely smoking.  Reduce heat to medium and add asparagus and fiddleheads.  Stir-fry until just heated through, about three short minutes.  Remove pan from heat immediately.

In a large serving bowl, toss pasta, vegetables, pesto, and lemon juice together until combined.  Adjust salt and pepper if necessary.  Serve immediately.

Spring has sprung!

The first tomatoes have made an appearance!  These are of the Sun Gold variety, which are little grape-sized, sweet, yellow tomatoes. 

Also making an appearance are the first of my Sweet Millions, another grape-sized variety.  The great thing about the small tomato varieties is that they grow up fast, and the yield is usually high.  This makes them perfect varieties for container gardening, when space is limited and getting the most out of your soil can be difficult.  I used organic potting soil and fertilized with organic buffalo compost (they sell it at Whole Foods).  So far, so good!

Black Bean Mocha Soup

Here at the Ariss household, we are major coffee drinkers!  Obe makes it every morning, drinks a cup while he gets ready and then gets one to go.  I usually only have one cup, which leaves us with leftover coffee almost every day.  In the spirit of minimalizing waste, lately I've been pouring the extra coffee into a glass milk bottle and sticking it in the fridge to enjoy later. 

But tonight I decided to put it to a different use - making my pot of beans a LOT more interesting!  Some leftover coffee and a little espresso powder, layered with luscious dark cocoa, and we've got a complex, bittersweet blend of flavors that is sure to cure your black bean boredom. 

Black Bean Mocha Soup
serves 4

1 yellow onion, chopped
1 T olive oil
4 cups cooked black beans
2 cups brewed coffee
1 cup vegetable broth
2 tsp dark cocoa powder
1 tsp espresso powder
pinch of cayenne
pinch of cinnamon
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp honey
salt to taste

In a large pot, add olive oil and heat over medium-high.  Add onions and saute until soft, about 7 minutes.  Add beans and stir to combine.  Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer.  Using a hand blender, puree soup until it becomes smooth and creamy.  Adjust salt and spices, if necessary.  Serve with rice seasoned with a little lemon juice or a poached egg, if desired.

An Ode to the Tomatoes

There's really nothing like waking up on a Spring morning such as this, when the skies are grey and the weather is cool and crisp and you can almost smell the impending rain.  In the middle of the city, streets are busy with construction noise, the screech of trains stopping short on the tracks, and so many hundreds of cars passing by, but up here on the third floor, surrounded by new life, it feels calm and peaceful. 

I woke up to see that the first blossoms on my Sun Gold tomato plant have opened.  Like the promise of rain on a cloudy day, these little flowers are the promise of a million possibilities of culinary delight!  Each day I wake up to find the tomato vine a little bit taller, or with a few more flower buds than it had before, and I can't stop imagining all the wonderful things I want to make with my tomatoes!  I can't quite express the happiness I feel about it for fear of over-romanticizing or sounding ridiculous, but I must admit that my little container garden project has brought me much joy. 

For now, I continue to excitedly wait for my plants to yield fruit and fantasize about all the ways I can prepare and enjoy them.