The Soaked Bean

Seeking Nourishment, Finding Traditions

Braised Butternut Squash + Polenta: Fast Slow-Food

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braisedsquashwebfinal

During nutrition workshops or consultations at some point the following question invariably comes up: how do I cook nutritious meals fast?

Maybe you, dear reader, are currently pondering the same thing.

I feel you.  All of you.  As someone who’s comfortable in the kitchen and who also really enjoys spending time there, I’ve definitely asked myself this question on many a tired Thursday night.  It’s a big one.

Everything’s moving at an increasingly rapid pace, culturally speaking.  We’re working longer hours to pay for growing expenses, spanning greater distances in shorter amounts of time, mining deeper for gases, rare metals, data.  The possibilities are limitless, expansive, vast, if only we had the time.  Time could be said to be our most precious commodity and we allocate it accordingly, seeking the fastest solutions for problems, not least such corporeal ones like what to eat tonight.

The free time we have is typically spent on leisurely pursuits—taking a walk, meeting a friend for a drink, and, more often than not, looking at a screen.  Whether it’s the news or a premium-cable series or a 90’s romcom or a video-game or an instagram feed from someone living in the wilds of Maine or Los Angeles, it’s no surprise that at the end of a long and stressful work day, we want nothing more than to plug into some other story to unwind.

And while there’s nothing inherently wrong w/ this, what’s happened is that the time for cooking, preparing a nourishing meal, has been reallocated and what nourishment we receive is a byproduct of convenience which, as we all know, is never what it’s cracked up to be (see: the tv dinner, the happy meal, the delivery pizza).

Cooking, in my opinion, is self-care just as stretching in the morning, showering on a regular basis, brushing your teeth, drinking enough water and getting some good sleep are; it should be part of our daily routine.  But it isn’t.  We’ve never been taught to integrate it into our routines as we have those other things which brings me back to that commonly-posed question.

How do I cook nutritious meals fast?  Where do I start?

Start here, with a butternut squash, some polenta, some spinach.  This is a recipe for what I like to call fast slow-food.  Fast because you’ll spend 15 minutes doing something–chopping or whisking or stirring.  Maybe 20 if you’re new to the kitchen.

Slow because the rest of the hour or so until dinner is served can be spent doing whatever it is you do to unwind.  Meanwhile a series of chemical reactions will be working for you, transforming squash, spinach, corn into nourishing meal.

There’s no secret trick or secret soy-based-shake for this.  Cooking takes practice and a bit of planning and, yes, a bit of time.  But by learning to make a few, simple recipes it will get easier and easier to incorporate them into your daily routine.  To make nutritious meals (relatively) fast.

Who knows?  Maybe the more time you spend in the kitchen, the more you’ll enjoy being there.  Dear reader, it happened to me.

Braised Butternut Squash + Polenta

Note: I haven’t cooked butternut squash in ages, mostly because I disdained peeling it.  B/c it’s braising for such a good amount of time, there’s no need to peel–the skin softens up beautifully and can be eaten.  Otherwise, you can easily scoop the squash from the skin. 

Adapted from Ottolenghi’s Plenty More

For the Squash:

  • 1 butternut squash, sliced in half lengthwise then sliced in 3 sections
  • 1/2 cup chicken bone-broth
  • 1 knob butter
  • 5 pods cardamom, crushed
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon whole black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
  • 1 section of orange rind
  • couple of pinches salt
  1. Turn oven to 200C.  While oven heats, place squash bottom-side down in a large braising pan.  Pour broth over and add herbs and spices.  Add dabs of butter on top of squash.
  2. Place in oven and let braise for 45minutes-1hour, until soft. Occasionally, spoon broth over squash while braising.

For the Spinach:

  • 1 big bunch spinach, roughly chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 knob ghee
  • couple of pinches salt
  1. Place cast-iron pan on medium-heat.  Add ghee.
  2. Add garlic and salt and cook until fragrant.
  3. Add spinach and stir, cook for 10 or so minutes, until deep green.

For the Polenta:

Note:  For maximum digestibility I soak my polenta overnight in warm, lemony water. 

  • 3 cups chicken bone broth
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup course polenta
  • 1 knob butter
  1. Bring bone-broth and water to a boil in a large sauce-pot on the stove.
  2. Whisk in polenta and turn heat down to low.  Cover and let cook for 30-45 minutes, giving the polenta a good whisk every 10 minutes or so.
  3. Turn heat off and add butter, stir.

Layer polenta, spinach and squash on plate.  Serve w/ a good grate of parmigiano, glug of olive oil, and sprinkle of salt.

Solstice Stone Soup

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soakedriceToday is Winter Solstice, or Yule, the darkest day or longest night of the year, a major turning point in the wheel of the year for light is beginning to return, the Sun king or Sun goddess or God-like figure, depending on yr vantage, is born again, hallelujah, blessed-be, the darkest hour is here and soon will be gone, will be light.

As it turns out, the darkest hour is b4 the eggnog.

Christmas (celebrated just a mere handful of days after Solstice) is one of those holidays whose more earthly (read: pagan) roots have somehow slipped through the cracks, persisted.  The yule log, the mistletoe, the evergreen branch bespotted w/ trinkets, the orange pin-cushioned w/ cloves, the (yes, really) glass of eggnog; no matter what yr spiritual persuasion, whatever holiday you celebrate come December, you’re probably also enacting some age-old traditions and celebrating (even if unawares) not just birth of deity, but more earthly delights, things specific to this point in the season, when we stop leaning away from the light and start leaning toward it.

navets spinach carrots

What better reason to celebrate and merry-make?!  This Solstice, I’m giving you a most practical gift.  A how-to on soup.  That’s right, soup.  Stone soup.  You know, the kind of soup you can make w/ whatever you have on hand.  The kind of soup that gives new life to a bowl of soaked grains or beans, a bunch of wilting spinach, those few forgotten carrots.  Basic soup.  The kind of soup I imagine simmering in a cast-iron cauldron over an open hearth in a cabin in the mountains centuries ago.  The kind of soup I make in my kitchen almost weekly.  Improvisational soup.  The kind of soup that needs, not a strictly adhered-to recipe, but only some gentle guidance.  Self-love soup.  The kind of soup that is deeply–bone-deep, blood-deep, soul-deep–nourishing.

Winter is officially here and what better gift to give yrself and/or yr loved ones than a bowl of all that?

solsticesoup

Stone Soup How-To:

Preface:  There are two cooking habits to get into groove w/ for maximum stone-souping this Winter.  They couldn’t be easier, but they do require a bit of time and forethought.

Habit #1:  Soak some grains.  And/or beans.

There’s a reason for this blog’s name, y’all.  Getting into the habit of always having a bowl of some grain or bean soaking has made preparing nutritious meals on-ze-fly easy as can be for me.  Simply measure out a cup of whatever grain or bean you haven’t used in a while (I rotate through different varieties of rice, spelt-berries, wheat-berries, barley, polenta, black beans, flageolets, etc., etc.) into a bowl, cover w/ warm water and a splash of something acidic (apple-cider-vinegar, lemon, sauerkraut-juice) and let sit overnight or at least 7 hours.  This deactivates compounds that bind-to and prevent absorption of certain nutrients.  Having a bowl of a grain or bean soaking on yr counter everyday means that you’re eating different whole grains and beans everyday which means that your fiber intake is probably soarin’.  More fiber = better digestive health = better overall health.

Habit #2: Make bone-broth. Lots of it.

Having a freezer full of bone-broth is like having a secret spin-straw-to-gold kind of goblin in yr very own kitchen (and w/o all the weirdness regarding yr first-born).  See my how-to on broth here.

Onto the recipe! I’m detailing the last version of stone soup I made, w/ brown-rice, lots of spinach, carrots, turnips and potatoes, but don’t pay as much attention to the specific ingredients as to the method.  Feel free to make adjustments, substitutions; to improvise as you see fit.

#1.  Dice onions.  I usually use at least one large yellow onion to start my stone-soup.

#2.  Heat large, cast-iron pot on medium heat.  Add big knob of ghee.  Let melt and add onions.  Sprinkle w/ salt and stir.

#3. While onions are cooking, prepare your other vegetables:  mince garlic (I like to use 5+ cloves), dice carrots (usually 2), cube turnips and potatoes (2 of each), chop dark leafy greens (I use the whole bunch.  These will cook down a lot, so don’t be shy).

#4.  Add your vegetables to the pot as they’re ready.  Add more ghee if things are looking dry.  Add salt.  I usually follow the above order (1st garlic, then carrots, and so on).  Stir.

#5.  Drain yr grains or beans.  Add them to the pot.  Stir.

#6.  Add your bone-broth along w/ a bouquet-garni (thyme, sage, rosemary, bay laurel).  If you don’t have enough broth to cover the contents of yr pot, add some water.  Turn heat to high.

#7.  Once pot is boiling, skim away any surface impurities (the foam that rises to the top).  Turn heat to low, put lid on pot and simmer.  Simmer as long as it takes to fully cook yr grain/bean, checking tenderness of vegetables while you go.  For this brown-rice version, it took 40 minutes.  For bean versions it’s taken 1+1/2 hours.

#8.  Ladle up and enjoy w/ drizzle of olive oil, plop of sour-cream, squeeze of lemon, and/or whatever else floats yr vessel.

Yule tidings to ye, and merry stone-souping!