Tasty! Now what? Arugula Edition

There are two kinds of cooking: practical and show-off. My entries will focus entirely on the former because that is how a vast majority of the time in the kitchen is spent. Oh sure you can talk a good game, but somehow there never seems to be time to hit up the local organic farmer’s market on a Tuesday afternoon to pick up some hand-crushed saffron for the slow-cooked paella masterpiece you’ve been coveting. No. The significant other is coming home in 20 minutes, there’s a load of laundry to be done, and we haven’t even addressed the question of playing with kids and/or Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

So this entry will be a series in what I’m calling “Tasty! Now what?” pairing two easy recipes that share one (or more) ingredients that have a limited shelf life. Nothing offends my sense of efficiency more than buying something for a tasty dish, using half, then watching the rest slowly die in my fridge.

Today’s entry is arugula. Super tasty and I swear it starts wilting the moment you even look at it. Two dishes will be presented, both produce large volumes and make fantastic leftovers. And both can finish off that 1/3 of a container of arugula you have laying around. Plus it helps decision making: spot the leftover arugula at 5:45 and the rest of the dinner practically cooks itself.

Lentil-chickpea salad

(adapted from Time for Dinner)
Ingredients:

1 cup dry lentils
½ small onion
Feta cheese (I like about 4-5 oz, Elisabeth prefers 7 oz)
Four fistfuls of arugula
One container of grape tomatoes
Olive oil & vinegar.
1 can chickpeas

Utensils

large bowl, medium-size pot (1/4 gal or so), medium sized bowl

Cooking Overview
Extremely simple with two paths: lentils cooking and simmering in the medium pot and basic chopping of veggies into the big bowl. 20 minutes with practice.

Path 1: Bring 2 cups water to boil. Add lentils and boil for 5 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 min until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Remove to bowl, pour in several tablespoons of balsamic and chill in fridge.

Path 2: During the boiling process prepare the following veggies and add them to the big bowl: halve one box of cherry tomatoes. Mince/liquefy half one small sweet onion. Add one can chickpeas. Mince one garlic clove. Crumble 5 (to 7) oz feta cheese. Tear the arugula up as you add it.

Once the lentils are mostly chilled, add to the big bowl and toss with some olive oil, balsamic and salt and pepper. It’s delicious fresh and almost more delicious a day later when all the flavors sink into each other.

AAA Pasta
(adapted from Rachel Ray)
Ingredients

12 oz spinach fettuccine
Butter
Olive oil
1 large shallot
½ cup white wine
1 lb fresh asparagus
1 cup broth
1 can artichoke hearts (I get them pre-quartered)
Three fistfuls of argula
Two lemons (to zest!)

Utensils

Largest frying pan you own. I said the BIG pan. No, bigger than that. Oh, and your favorite pasta pot. And a strainer.

Cooking Overview

Timed properly, everything that needs to be chopped can be chopped while the pasta is cooking. 30 minutes total.

Beginning: start boiling the pasta water at the same time that you throw 1 tbsp of butter along with 2 tbsp of olive oil in the huge pan.

While both are heating/metling, dice shallots and add right as butter finishes melting.

As the shallots are sautéing, rinse and chop asparagus into 1”, set aside.

Now add wine and reduce until the pasta water boiling (~2-3 minutes tops depending on how much better your stove is than mine)

Add pasta to water and throw asparagus into the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes (the pasta I have takes about 8 minutes to cook)

Chop the artichokes (I chop the already quartered artichokes in half to make them more bite-sized), then calmly zest lemon or two

2min to go until pasta done: asparagus should be nice and cooked so add broth & eighthed artichoke, reduce heat.

Drain pasta and transfer to huge pan, add lemon zest and 3-4 torn fistfuls of arugula

Shaved parmesean takes it to the sublime. Not that powdered shit, real shaved parm.