Recipe Sat Jun 07 2008

Gnocchi and Fresh Picked Asparagus with Lemon

This is one of many quick, fry-pan meals I've been thinking up on the fly. For the last last several months, I've been using the same system for various dinners. First: a few of the freshest vegetables you can find, sauted in olive or peanut oil, preferably including some sort of leafy green. When the leaves cook, soften and wilt, they tend to melt around everything else in the pan and wrap it all together. Second: a protein, like any cooked bean, tofu, tempeh, seitan or nut. Third: a starch or grain - rice, gnocchi, pasta, a nice bread to serve on the side, or any grain you can think of. Fourth: a savory sauce - something with a decent amount of salt and a nice, full flavor.

Last night, I chose fresh-picked matchstick-thin asparagus with leftover gnocchi, canned cannellini (creamy white kidney) beans, kale and thinly sliced spring onions. Tamari, lemon juice, hot sauce, and a touch of nutritional yeast brought it all together. The bright lemon taste amplifies the freshness of the vegetables, the tamari (or soy sauce) gives much needed salt, the nutritional yeast lends some depth, and the hot sauce adds a touch more sweat on a hot day's forehead to make me feel really alive.

Sauté the spring onions (just the little bulbs, and not their tough greens) in a bit of hot olive oil until they go soft. Add pre-cooked (canned) beans, leftover cooked gnocchi, and 3 or 4-inch lengths of asparagus - each ingredient in about equal amounts by sight. Cook until hot, and then deglaze the plan with enough tamari to make everything just a touch darker. Mix the nutritional yeast in a bowl with lemon juice and hot sauce to dissolve, and then add to the pan. Add the leafy green (chopped kale) last, cook just until wilted, and then serve in bowls.

When I want a heavier meal using the same system, I substitute tahini or natural peanut butter instead of nutritional yeast. Seek out local ingredients whenever convenient. I'm a big fan of the Co-Op Image hot sauce my friend Kerry brought me, from peppers grown in a nearby community garden.

— Chris Brunn / Comments (0)