Enjoying Amaranth Greens With A Green Veggie "Sloppy Joe" For A Spring Meatless Monday Plate

A few weeks ago, I found these gorgeous Amaranth greens at the Farmers Market.

Amaranth greens grow year round, but these, and their colors, fully resonated with the arrival of Spring. They are typically eaten young and blanching them can help reducing their slightly bitter flavor. They are actually very nutritious, being rich in vitamins A, C and folate, as well as minerals. To me, they offer a great alternative to spinach, which I love, but is so consumed these days. So I grabbed a large bunch, knowing it would be perfect for a Meatless Monday meal.

Blanching amaranth greens can help reducing their slightly bitter flavor.

This being said, it is not a green I have huge experience with, and I searched the blogosphere for some inspiration on how to best used them. I found Martha Rose Shulman's use of them with black beans quite enticing, as it looked easy to make on a work day, and as I immediately envisioned it as a filling for a "green sloppy joe". While making this recipe, I used young garlic which I had on hand. And instead of using actual buns, I used roasted portobello mushrooms which I had also found at that Farmers Market run. I used a method posted on LiveStrong's for roasting the mushrooms: oven heated at 450degF, mushrooms brushed with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and roasted for 10-12 minutes. For those reading from afar and perhaps unfamiliar with a sloppy joe is made: my green sloppy joe was simply assembled by putting one roasted mushroom on a plate, layering a good cup of the amaranth filling, and adding a second mushroom on top, sprinkled with some sesame seeds.

This season, snap peas have been wonderfully sweet and crunchy - these from Happy Boy Farm at the Berkeley Farmers Market.

To accompany this dish, I decided to get some inspiration from my New GreenMarket Cookbook, which offers great seasonal market fresh recipes from NYC chefs. This year, we've been fortunate to have wonderfully sweet and crunchy snap peas, which were perfect to eat on their own. So I took inspiration from the sugar snap pea and whipped ricotta tartines. I replaced the whipped ricotta with a small block of firm tofu found at the market, whipped with olive oil, a little vinegar (lemon works too), chives, fresh mint, about 1/4c soaked raw cashew nuts, and salt and pepper.

A quick and easy herbed vegan "cream cheese".

This made a more-ish vegan "herbed cream cheese" which I spread on homemade multi-grain and seeded crackers (more on this another time :)). To finish, I simply layered chopped snap peas and radishes on the "cream cheese", omitting the dressing called for in the original recipe. While I did not have any sweet pea shoots on hand that day, I could have dressed the peas and radishes as per the recipe, but I like the freshness of radishes and snap peas without it.

The full Meatless Monday plate.

I loved this plate. The "Green Sloppy Joe" was delicious, and felt quite light. And the herb cream cheese was not only great with the crackers, it was a nice accompaniment to the Joe too. So, amaranth is now definitely on the list of things to buy more often. :)

By the way:

• This plate is gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, so it will satisfy quite a number of eaters :).

Quick and Fresh Summer Eats From The New Greenmarket Cookbook

Typical summer produce such as cucurbits, tomatoes, and squash have been in full abundance in the past few weeks.

Leading to buying a lot of cucumbers, tomatoes, and summer squashes. Looking for inspiration to use all these buys, I turned to the New Greenmarket Cookbook by Gabrielle Langholtz, Editor of Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn. The book is a collection of recipes involving local, seasonal, market-fresh produce and developed by Chefs committed to using those produce, and culinary and food movement leading figures such as Michael Pollan. The book is a gem, not only because of the gorgeous pictures and enticing eats, but because of the additional information it contains, namely Gabrielle Langholtz's introduction to the history and rise of the Greenmarket program, its ties to and importance for the community, and the features on local farmers and producers.

Returning from a local Farmers Market run with lemon cucumbers, and fresh herbs, I started by making the Cucumber Soup, contributed by Kenneth Wiss from Diner and Marlow & Sons. It was very simple to make: chop veggies, de-seed as needed, add herbs, oil and seasonings, blend.

Though, in full disclosure, I had forgotten to put the lime juice, the herbs made the soup very fragrant and pleasant on a summer eve, perfect for a non-fuss but nice week-end dinner.

My next foray into the book's summer recipes followed from the purchase of two really large beefsteak heirloom tomatoes at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Gorgeous looking, they seemed to fit the bill for Food52.com co-founder Amanda Hesser's Brown Butter Tomatoes.

Brown butter, with good quality (preferably organic on my end) butter, is always a memorable experience. I had never tried using it with fresh tomatoes so I was intrigued but it worked beautifully!

Again, a very easy recipe: slice tomatoes, make brown butter, pour over tomato, season with nice salt and pepper. Finish with market fresh berries for good measure. Done. This was a great simple mid-week dinner eat.

Last but not least, I had two bags of squashes from the same run at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, including tender zephyr squashes and sweet small zucchinis, and had fresh radishes too. So I set out to make the Raw Squash Salad, a recipe by Seamus Mullen from Tertulia, for a light end of week lunch. As I wanted a fast prep in the morning, I used my blender to slice the vegetables and quickly whipped the lemon vinaigrette, for which I used some orange blossom honey from that Farmers Market's run too. I decided to skip the cheese listed in the recipe, and add a few fragrant edible flowers to complement the salad. It was absolute love at first bite. The utter highlight of this recipe: the vinaigrette, which combined so perfectly with the veggies. I only regretted to not have made enough for 3 servings.

So those Summer on a plate moments will keep me coming back to the book for more inspiration as the seasons unfold. :)

By the way:

• Union-Square Market, where I got my copy, and Greenmarkets around the city sell the book, but for non NYC-dwellers, the book is available online.
• While this is a book about NYC markets, it will inspire (home) cooks all around as all products will be available in local markets.
• All these eats are gluten-free, are or can be made low in FODMAP, and will please veggielovers, vegetarians, vegans (for the first and last salads), Meatless Monday eaters, paleo and healthy eaters alike.