Category: Arugula

Arugula, either you love it or you…don’t love it. I am in the love it category and to date, I haven’t felt the need to evangelize it’s merits.

I just read a book called “Eating on the Wild Side” by Jo Robinson. A book review is beyond the scope of this blog. But, encouraging CSA members to try some food outside of their comfort zone, like arugula, that I have learned is rich in cancer-fighting compounds  glucosinolates and high in antioxidant activity is not.

I often hear how people don’t like the peppery bite or bitterness of arugula. Let me show you how to tame arugula a little with a very simple preparation. Olive oil, lemon and Parmesan cheese. The fat in the oil and the cheese tame the heat and the bitterness of the arugula. Also, tearing the arugula bruises the leaf a little and that tones the sharpness of the greens as well. The lemon’s tartness detracts your taste buds from the bitterness too and the salt adds a brightness as well.

Ingredients
1 bag of arugula, washed, dried, and torn into small bite size pieces.
a good glug of extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A chunk of Parmesan
Directions
In a serving bowl, drizzle the arugula with the oil, squeeze in the lemon juice, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss with your hands, make sure all of the leaf is covered and taste for seasoning. Use a vegetable peeler to shave thin pieces of Parmesan over the top.

If you don’t have Parmesan use any cheese. You can add anything from here, fruit, dried or fresh. Nuts are great and again help tone down the sharpness of the arugula and add protein-win!

In these pictures I am trying to show you the small amount of oil and lemon you need to dress the greens. The first is arugula torn into small pieces with oil, lemon, salt and pepper. The second is mixed. It is a very light dressing but takes the edge off the peppery bite.

Now add what ever else strikes your fancy that you have in your pantry and enjoy.

I really hope you non-arugula lovers try this. You arugula lovers already know how good this is!

Have a great week.

mo

You can use spicy salad mix or spinach, or beet greens or anything leafy. My favorite pesto is made from arugula. I like it better than basil. Anyway, let’s start here. Bag-o-arugula.

If I have been asked once I have been asked 100 times.
“Do I have to wash it?”
“Yes.”
“It looks wet, didn’t you wash it at the farm?”
“No, we put our greens in a tub of water to wash some dirt off and the odd bug, and to hydrate it so it keeps for you well. We don’t wash it. You need to wash it. Trust me, wash it.”
This is the water left in my salad spinner after I washed my arugula.

Not a great picture, but you can see dirt and weird stuff. Not too bad this time, but I still don’t want any dirt or the odd bug in my food. I’m glad every time I see what is washed off my greens that I took the time to wash it.

Ok, on to the pesto. Grab any kind of nuts you like. Pine nuts are most common in pesto, but they are crazy expensive now so feel free to use any kind of nut you like. Cashew pieces were what I had. Any nut is better roasted in my opinion, so I roasted my cashew pieces before making my pesto. You can skip that step if you like. Get your washed and dried greens, about 1/3 of a cup of any kind of nuts you like and some olive oil and a few cloves of garlic.

Chuck the garlic and nuts in the food processor and give them a spin. Stick your face in and smell that, roasted cashews and garlic. Yum.

Add exactly three glugs of olive oil and start adding your greens a few handfuls at a time.

Do that until you have all the greens mixed in and add more olive oil if you feel it is too dry. Mine didn’t need more. When the greens are all incorporated, salt and pepper to your liking.

I like to have some pesto in the freezer to have on hand in the winter. I have heard some people put the pesto in ice cube trays and put the cubes in a Ziploc bag and just grab a cube when they need it. You can do that.  I like to put the whole batch in a large Ziploc and just break off what I need. This went into the freezer.