Amazing, scrumptious, sensuous, delicious -- have I convinced you yet?

The Huz's doctor recently recommended that he try to get more fiber in his diet. Now, we pretty much eat only whole wheat pasta and whole grain breads (and, incidentally, avoid high fructose corn syrup which is a whole 'nother rant) and I've been trying the new white whole wheat flour from King Arthur flour in some of my baking, too. We're fairly conscious of what we eat without being fanatics about it. But the Huz has always had stomach issues, so his doc wants to try a diet change before going to stronger meds. And we're all good widdat!

So I've been making granola and bran muffins, and we picked up some fruit for snacks today, and we've always done fairly well with veggies except on pizza nights, so we're on our way to a fiber-licious diet.

Everybody knows that legumes are an excellent source of fiber. What you may not know is that they're packed with minerals, and their skins contain flavonoids, which are powerful antioxidants. Researchers are even suggesting saving the water you soak dried beans in and using it in soup, because soaking leaches the flavonoids out of the skins but doesn't destroy them.

OK, you may have noticed that we're three paragraphs into the post and I haven't mentioned what the recipe is yet. That's because I know as soon as I say the name of it I'm going to lose some of you. But here's where I advise you NOT TO STOP READING ONCE YOU SEE THE TITLE. Because this recipe is so amazingly tasty, even if you don't like the ingredients separately, I really, really recommend that you just try it once. The combination of ordinary ingredients somehow lifts everything to the level of sublime. It is scrumptious, amazing, sensuous, delicious, [your adjective goes here]. Seriously. Would I lie to you?

AND you can use canned beans, and do a lot of the prep ahead of time (not that it takes a lot of prep) so the recipe can come together pretty much at the last minute, making it ideal for a weeknight meal or a meal with friends. Please try it and let me know how you liked it!

Roasted garbanzo beans and garlic with swiss chard

From Bon Appetit, with my comments added

Garbanzo beans

2 15.5 ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained (about 3 cups)
10 garlic cloves, peeled (this is part of why it's so yummy; I'm going to use more next time)
2 large shallots, quartered (I used onions and thought it was great)
2 small bay leaves, preferably fresh
1 tsp fennel seeds (didn't have this, omitted it without apparent harm to the results)
salt and pepper to taste
1¼ cups extra virgin olive oil (don't let this scare you, it doesn't all end up in the dish)

Chard

2 T extra virgin olive oil (can use some from the beans)
6 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed
3 small bay leaves, preferably fresh
2 shallots, sliced (I used some chopped scallions & onions, worked fine)
2 bunches Swiss chard, center stems cut out, leaves coarsely torn (save the stems for baking with butter & parmesan cheese, also a winning recipe that I'll try to post later)
2 c low-salt chicken broth

Beans:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine first 5 ingredients (through fennel seeds) in 8 x 8 x 2 glass baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour oil over; cover dish with foil. Roast until garlic is tender (important! taste it. If it still has any bite to it, roast it some more. It should be sweet and mild), about 45 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, cover, and chill.)

Chard:
Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic, bay leaves, and shallots. Cover; cook until shallots are tender, about 2 minutes. Uncover; add half of chard. Toss until chard wilts and volume is reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add remaining chard. Toss until chard wilts, about 2 minutes. Add broth. Cover and cook until chard is tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season chard with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to a large sieve set over bowl and drain. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)

Drain garbanzos, reserving oil; discard bay leaves. Combine garbanzos and chard in large skillet. Add 2 T oil reserved from garbanzos. Toss over medium heat until warmed through, moistening with more oil by tablespoonfuls if needed, about 5 minutes. Season with salt & pepper, remove bay leaves, and serve.

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this weekend at Anna's Cool Finds. If you have a recipe for a yummy dish that has herbs, veggies, flowers, or other plants, then it qualifies for Weekend Herb Blogging, and you might want to send annalou (at) ix (dot) netcom (dot) com an email about your post. Or maybe you're just interested in creative delicious food that also delivers a vitamin, mineral and fiber blast of health to your bod ... then just drop by Anna's Cool Finds this weekend to see what your fellow bloggers have dreamt up!

[1/27: the recipe for baked chard stems]

friends

It's nice to have friends, isn't it? It was nice to hear from Barbara, most forgiving AND prompt of blogging friends, who saw my post yesterday and immediately dropped me a quick comment letting me know she's still there. Hi, Barbara, and thanks for the idea to put up some pics of Simba. He's lookin' good, isn't he?

It was good to hang out with friend R after church this morning for a half an hour or more, catching up on her news and sharing mine.

And it was nice to have friends over for dinner tonight for the first time in ages, F & J, parents of the late Zeke and new parents of zany Zane, who came along for dinner but didn't eat much. At least not much of what I cooked, which was (for the foodies amongst us) organic spring greens w/ tomatoes & celery and a mix of some very garlicky leftover homemade caesar dressing and a vinaigrette; roasted veggies (golden beets, fingerling potatoes, mushrooms, sweet potatoes seasoned with cinnamon, cumin, and sweet paprika, and spicy cauliflower), seared shrimp with a balsamic-brown sugar reduction, rice, and for dessert some vanilla Haagen Daz with cubed mangoes and optional chocolate sauce. A bit of wine, a bit of sun tea, and a good time was had by all. Most especially BY me, because I got to hang out with friends, the Huz, Simba, and a sweet-tempered baby boy. It was so relaxing, with good conversation ranging over acting, travels, work, family, and a tiny bit of current events. They stuck around till little Zany just really needed his own bed, and afterward my very best friend of all and I washed dishes & cleaned up the kitchen together and talked about the upcoming week. It was all so blessedly NORMAL!

loves me dem sprouts!

There are lots of folks out there who don't like brussels sprouts, and even though I'm not one of them, I can understand why, especially if we're talking frozen sprouts here. Fresh are definitely better. The Huz has always been among that number, so for years now I've limited myself to having them when he's not around for the meal.

Usually I roast my sprouts, either whole, halved, or quartered, often eating them with a healthy (read: big!) sprinkling of salt and some balsamic vinegar. I like to keep some already cooked in the fridge and eat them cold as a snack or pop them in the microwave to warm them up. To prep them I always used to cut off a teeny slice of the stem end of the sprout, which is usually dried and hardened, to expose fresh sprout flesh. In the process of slicing off the stem, you'll get some loose sprout leaves, and I've usually discarded them but not worried too much about it if they got in the roasting pan with the sprouts. And that's how I discovered that I really loved the separated outer leaves, roasted.

So the next time I made them, the slice off the bottom of the sprout was not so teeny, so as to liberate more outer leaves from the sprout for roasting. And the next thing you know, I was aiming for lots of leaves and leaving only tiny bits of sprout core for roasting. I sprayed the leaves with Mazola Pure spray canola oil (no point in using those aerosols with the extra chemicals, I figure) and spread them evenly on the bottom of the roasting pan. They roasted beautifully in under 20 minutes in a 425-degree oven, and then I salted them quite a bit and ate them like potato chips. Yum!

And would you believe it, The Huz likes them too. We're both delighted. Brussels sprouts are one of those cruciferous veggies that we've all been encouraged to eat lots of because of their cancer-fighting properties. Research shows they contain phytochemicals that strengthen the liver's ability to detoxify cancer-causing toxins. It's always nice to find out that you like something that's good for you!

If brussels sprouts still seem like too much of a stretch for you, check this article on the Diet Channel for lists of other, perhaps less challenging antioxidant-rich veggies like arugula, watercress, and radishes and see if you can find a few that you might be willing to add to your diet.

This is my first entry in a long, long time to Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging. Check out her roundup of posts about herbs, veggies, fruits, and even flowers this Sunday evening!

P.S. Anonymous asked what kind of camera I use to take my pics. It's just a Canon PowerShot S1 IS, which I chose because it had a 10x optical zoom, never noticing that it didn't have a macro mode! So I don't recommend it for food bloggers. I'm looking for a smaller camera that does have macro mode ... anyone have any recommendations?

Technorati tags: brussels sprouts WHB Weekend Herb Blogging

serendipity soup

Serendipity is a wonderful thing. Two nights ago I was rummaging around to see what I might have on hand to use to throw something together for dinner, and I serendipitously came up with this soup, which the Huz has declared a keeper. I still want to fool around with a few variations of it, but it's on our list of favorites and although I'm very short on time these days, I didn't want to let too much time go by before sharing it with you --- and getting the recipe down before I forget it, of course!

The fact that it contains lentils may limit its audience somewhat, but! If you're not a lentil lover, before you go "Ick!" and leave, let me just mention that it's not like the usual thick lentil soup. You know the kind, somewhat pasty from mashed lentils, thick and a bit grainy. (I actually like that kind, too, but this isn't that!) Rather, it's a thinner soup, with the lentils still intact, tempered with onions and tomato, balanced with Italian sweet sausages, and then smoothed with a bit of cream. If any of that entices you at all, then you can find the full recipe here, on my recipe website.

The orange cast to the broth comes from tomato sauce and turmeric. Turmeric is a strong spice that can be used in moderation in most dishes without compromising the flavor. It is suspected to be one reason that people in India have a very low incidence of Alzheimer's disease. I've been trying to add a tiny bit in most dishes, even my morning blueberry-loaded oatmeal. I'm counting on turmeric and Sudoku to keep my brain from going AWOL as I approach my twilight years!

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this weekend at Real Epicurean. If you have a recipe for a yummy dish that has herbs, veggies, flowers, or other plants, then it qualifies for Weekend Herb Blogging and you might want to send scottsinclair AT nerdshack DOT com an email about your post. Or maybe you're just interested in creative delicious food that also delivers a vitamin, mineral and fiber blast of health to your bod ... then just drop by Real Epicurean this weekend to see what our fellow bloggers have dreamt up!