“Every vegetable has its time.” ~ Russian proverb

Swiss chard is almost kept a secret. It is one of those vegetables people ate during the depression, and only grandparents still eat it. Except at our house, maybe.

Since Swiss chard is hardier than spinach (and only a tiny bit less nutritious), this leafy green is perfect for the home garden that doesn’t necessarily get all the attention it deserves. We can cut off leaves to encourange growth all season, and then, if the winter is warm enough, it will even come back the following year, so it is also a good economical decision.

Rainbow chard is a variety of Swiss chard that is known for its colorful stalks – pink, red, orange, yellow, and white. Bundling a few stalks of each color together in one bunch makes it easy to see where the “rainbow” reference comes from. In the garden, it is also visually appealing when planted along a border where the stalks can be seen.

Note that the stalks of rainbow chard are a little tougher than those of the regular chard so they require a bit of extra cooking, which is exactly what makes them perfect for this beautiful soup. Choosing a bunch that looks very fresh also helps.

Lemony Spring Vegetable Soup
Makes 8 cups
Time: 35 minutes

6 cups lightly flavored vegetable broth
6 stalks rainbow or Swiss chard with leaves
¼ pound asparagus
1 small zucchini
½ cup orzo
1 cup snow peas
1 green onion, including white part
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
¼ cup lemon juice

While this soup is very easy, it does require a bit of timing, so expect to pay attention to the clock.

Measure the vegetable broth into a pot over medium-high heat.

Meanwhile, cut the chard stems into ½ inch pieces and add them to the broth as it heats. Immediately cut the asparagus into 1-inch pieces and add them to the broth. Dice the zucchini into ½ inch pieces and add them as well. Boil gently for 15 minutes.

Add the orzo to the soup and boil for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, slice the chard leaves into strips about ½ inch wide. Remove any strings from the snow peas and cut them into thirds. Thinly slice the green onion.

After the orzo has cooked for 7 minutes, stir in the chard, snow peas, and green onion. Cover the pot and continue cooking for 3 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and lemon juice. Serve while hot.

This soup makes a nice first course. Or, serve it as a light luncheon soup along with some whole wheat bread spread with hummus for extra protein.

If you haven’t entered the So Delicious sponsored giveaway yet, be sure to check out last Monday’s post!

“He was a great actor. People think it’s easy to fall down and get hit in the head with a coconut. And, every time, he’d find a different way to do that.” ~ Sherwood Schwartz, speaking of Bob Denver in his role in the Gilligan’s Island TV show (1916 – )

The Natural Products Expo West is an annual event where those in the business of making and selling products for the natural market get to show off their stuff. This year, the Anaheim Convention Center (California) was host to 3533 vendors. I watched this video and was feeling envious over all those samples being handed out, not to mention the fun of people-watching when celebrities showed up to help promote some of their favorite products.

Obviously realizing that Mosaic Kitchen is also of celebrity status equal to Jillian Michaels (wink, wink), the folks at So Delicious have invited us to help them promote some of the products that will be making a debut this year. Tough job, eh? Like you don’t already know that So Delicious Coconut Milk Beverage and Coconut Milk Creamer are always at the top of my grocery list!

Here is the message I received about the new products: “We have new No Sugar Added Coconut Milk Frozen Desserts (only 1 gram of sugar) coming out in May. New dairy-free and soy-free Greek yogurt (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry) arriving in stores this summer. And, an outstanding vegan Nog (no eggs here) coming out in November.”

Well, those good people have offered to sponsor a GIVEAWAY of 5 coupons for free So Delicious products and a case of Popchips to one of Mosaic Kitchen’s lucky readers (sorry, US residents only this time).

To enter the drawing, just post a comment on this page telling us how you envision using one of the brand new So Delicious products by Friday, April 1st. Make sure the e-mail address you include is valid because that’s how we’ll let you know if you won. We’ll let everyone else know who the lucky person is next Monday.

For me, I’m thinking a scoop of one of the No Sugar Added Coconut Milk Frozen Desserts is going to work really well melting all over the top of some warm, egg-free, dairy-free bread pudding naturally sweetened with bananas and raisins.

Naturally Sweet and Easy Banana Bread Pudding
Serves 8
Time: 10 minutes active + 45 minutes in the oven

8 cups of ½-inch whole grain bread cubes, a little stale
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup raisins or other dried fruit
3 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed (1½ cups)
3 cups unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk Beverage
2 teaspoons vanilla
Maple syrup to garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 350° F and generously grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

Toss the bread cubes, cinnamon, nutmeg, and raisins together in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the mashed banana, coconut milk, and vanilla. Pour the mixture over the bread cubes, toss lightly, and transfer the mixture into the prepared baking pan; pat it down a bit to level but do not compress.

Bake for 45 minutes. The top should be a little crispy, but the center moist. This pudding is only mildly sweet, which means it is just fine for breakfast and best eaten warm. For those who crave more sweetness, drizzle a teaspoon or two of maple syrup, or add a scoop of So Delicious non-dairy frozen dessert like we did for the photo (that flavor is Coconut Almond Chip, by the way, until the no-sugar added varieties arrive..).

“You have to eat oatmeal or you’ll dry up. Everybody knows that.” ~ Kay Thompson, singer, dancer, and author of the Eloise books for children.

Aside from unwanted ingredients, a chief complaint about processed foods is the amount of packaging involved, especially in the case of individual servings. While some are a decided convenience, the cost of those packaging materials is passed on to the consumer at the cash register and, most importantly, at the landfill.

When it comes to those little envelopes of oatmeal, the time saving benefit turns out to be almost negligible while the cost comes in at about twice the price of making it ourselves. Sifting through the hype to get to the root of what we are actually receiving in exchange for our investment yields some surprising results.

Instant oatmeal is simply a mixture of the thinly cut oats with a little oat flour added to help it thicken faster. Still 100% oats. They are packaged in little paper envelopes so the user doesn’t need to measure, but here is a tip: Those little packets contain less oats than the standard ½ cup (40 g) serving size so one packet isn’t enough, and two is more than we need. Good plan on the marketer’s part, isn’t it?

Instant Oatmeal
Makes 10 individual servings
Time: 5 minutes

5 cups quick oats (about 1 pound)

Grind 1 cup of the oats in a blender for about 30 seconds, until it has a flour-like consistency. Mix this oat flour into the remaining oats.

At this point the mixture can be stored in a covered container, ready for use to make plain oatmeal or to season each individual bowl at the time of preparation.

Preparation instructions:

Measure ½ cup of the oat mixture into a pint-sized canning jar or other microwave-safe container. Add seasonings as you wish, such as…
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons raisins or other dried fruit
1 tablespoon chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon ground flax seed

Stir in 1 cup of cold water, milk, or non-dairy beverage. The oatmeal can be covered with a tight fitting lid and transported at this point if you wish. When ready to eat, remove the lid and cook the mixture on the microwave oven’s highest setting for 90 seconds. The oatmeal should be hot but not boiling.

NOTE: Use a towel or pot holder to grab the jar because it will be hot! The oatmeal will thicken on standing for a minute or two.

If a microwave oven is not convenient, simply stir a cup of boiling water into ½ cup of the instant oats and allow to rest for 3 minutes. Stir again before eating. This will make a very thick oatmeal; just add a little more boiling water to reach the preferred thickness.

Alternatively, if you want to season the entire container at once just multiply the single-serving ingredients by 10: 5 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 ¼ cups of dried fruit, ⅔ cup chopped walnuts, and ⅔ cup ground flax seed, for instance. Shake well before each use to redistribute ingredients. Use ½ cup + 2 tablespoons of the mixture containing dried fruit and nuts with 1 cup of water or milk to prepare as directed above.

“Many thanks for what you have taught us,” the peasants said to the soldiers. “We shall never go hungry, now that we know how to make soup from stones.” ~ Marcia Brown, American author (1918 – ) from her book, Stone Soup.

This one is for the kids.

The story of Stone Soup is the telling of an old folk tale designed to teach a lesson about sharing and, in modern day terms, teamwork. The story, as Marcia Brown wrote it in 1947, is about three soldiers in need of food and a place to sleep, as they pass through a French village

Going door to door begging, the soldiers are met with rejection as each family claims to not have enough food or beds to accommodate themselves, let alone strangers. Finally, the soldiers decide to start a huge pot of soup for the whole village to share, beginning with water and some “special” stones. Through their gentle suggestions, the soldiers get the community members to contribute little bits of vegetables, grains, beans, and meat, to end up with the best soup they have ever tasted.

Depending on the culture the original folk tale comes from, the story’s travelers might be a monk, a wandering peasant, or soldiers returning home from war. In place of stones, the “starter” might be buttons, large nails, an axe head, or a block of wood. In Portugal, the fable evolved into a national dish, Sopa de Pedra (Soup of Rocks).

Making Stone Soup at home is a fun way to involve kids in cooking, allowing them to choose which ingredients they would share to make the community effort into the tastiest soup ever. Since random bits of nature might not always result in a safe choice, we decided to go with using stainless steel spoons as the magic ingredient for today’s barley soup. After all, the beauty of a folk tale — and soup — is that we can make it fit our own situation.

Barley is a fiber rich whole grain available in a few varieties. For this soup, use whichever type (pearl, hulled, or hulless) that is available to you. Since we’re cooking it in a slow cooker, disregard any package instructions for pre-soaking. Be aware, however, that the pearl barley is less absorbent so will yield a somewhat thinner broth. http://www.barleyfoods.org/BarleyFacts-Nutrition.pdf

NOTE: Without the spoons, this is simply a barley soup. For vegetables, we used a combination of cabbage, carrots, red onion, fingerling potatoes, and green beans.

Barley Spoon Soup
Serves 6
Time: 10 minutes active + 8 hours simmering

4 stainless steel spoons (optional, of course)
4 cups chopped, mixed vegetables and potatoes
6 cups of a vegetable broth
¼ cup barley (any kind)
1 cup chopped sausage (we used Field Roast)
1 (15-ounce) can navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Measure all ingredients directly into the electric slow cooker. Stir to combine, cover, and set on low for 8 to 12 hours. Remove bay leaf and spoons before serving.

Just for fun…

Borrow Marcia Brown’s Stone Soup from the library or purchase it here: http://www.amazon.com/Stone-Soup-Favorites-Marcia-Brown/dp/1591127351/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1300754916&sr=8-2-spell

Read the Swedish version of Nail Soup and the Estonian version of Axe Soup here: http://www.berattarverkstan.se/engstory.htm

Or, watch a short video of the telling of Disney’s version of Button Soup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnyjm6Po71E

“Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need.” ~ Julia Child, American chef and television personality (1912 – 2004)

Somehow we ended up with too many fresh vegetables at the end of last week. Not a lot of anything in particular, but a bit of everything – a couple of carrots, a sweet potato, an onion, one large parsnip, one large mushroom, zucchini and summer squash, half a bag of spinach… You get the idea.

When life gives you too many veggies, it is time to haul out the roaster. Not only are roasted vegetables especially tasty, but they then become a very quick and easy addition to any number of dishes: Toss them into a salad, mix them with pasta, use them to top polenta, or turn them into a delicious sandwich filling, as we did here.

The important part is to use whatever vegetables you enjoy!

Roasted Vegetable Wraps
Makes 8 wraps / Serves 4
Time: 65 minutes (most of it in the oven)

¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
8 cups vegetables (see note below)
2 teaspoons McCormick’s Vegetable Seasoning blend
4 cups baby spinach leaves
1 cup prepared hummus
8 flour tortillas (8- to 10-inch diameter)

To roast vegetables:

Preheat oven to 450° F.

Note: Cut vegetables into pencil-width sticks, about 3 inches long. Keep the root vegetables like onions, potatoes, carrots, and parsnips separate from the softer vegetables like summer squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and peppers. Do not use leafy vegetables except for the spinach as called for later.

Measure the olive oil and balsamic vinegar into the bottom of a roasting pan or large casserole dish. Add the root vegetables and toss to coat. Place in the oven (do not cover) for 30 minutes, stirring once after 15 minutes.

Add the remaining vegetables. If the pan seems dry (some vegetables absorb more oil than others), add 2 tablespoons more olive oil and 1 tablespoon more of the balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with the seasoning blend and toss to coat. Return to the oven for 15 more minutes. The goal here is tender crisp, not mushy.

Remove from the oven and immediately stir in the spinach leaves. Cover the pot and let stand for 10 minutes. Remove cover, toss again. Use to make the wraps at whatever temperature you prefer – they are equally tasty when hot, room temperature, or chilled.

To assemble wraps:

Warm tortillas according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Spread each tortilla with 2 tablespoon hummus in a vertical line up the center. Top with ½ cup seasoned, roasted vegetables. Fold the bottom 2 inches up, then fold the right side over to just cover the vegetables. Roll over to the left to make a snug wrap. Secure with a toothpick or wrap tightly in paper if the sandwiches won’t be eaten immediately.