Red & Blue Herbed Potatoes

While I haven’t been here—at The Sensitive Pantry—so often lately I have been out and about with friends and family. In between we’ve been dodging (or not) hurricanes and freak October snowstorms that have left us on two occasions without power for more than 5 days each time.

Yes, life has been clipping along at a fast pace. Even so, the individual events—in snapshot form—hold good memories. Lovely images of friends walking together on the beach, meeting up at the farmers’ market with someone who gets as excited as I do about organic vegetables, and the sounds of generators humming throughout the neighborhood while we chat lazily with the folks next door.

One of the highlights of my fall weekends is coming to a close and I’m feeling blue about it. Most Sunday mornings I grab my shopping bags and head out to one of two local farmers’ markets. Most times I meet up with Stephanie from Gluten-free by Nature (and on occasion Amber from Bluebonnets and Brownies) to stroll about in the perfect weather, gushing over organic broccoli raab and San Marzano tomatoes (sigh), delighting over the fresh fish, checking out the adorable alpaca and catching up on all that’s going on in our separate worlds.

It’s pretty simple—it makes me really happy to spend a few hours this way every week. Really happy. So easy to do. So simple. So nourishing—in so many ways.

Come to find out there’s a winter market about twenty minutes away. Bazinga!

Up next—homemade roasted tomato ketchup from organic San Marzanos!

Red & Blue Herbed Potatoes

One of the organic farmers offers a great selection of potatoes. The red and blue varieties are boldly colored throughout. This quick recipe is as simple as it is beautiful.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you have a convection oven use the Convect Roast setting.

Scrub and dry:

About 8-10 small to medium organic red and blue potatoes

Cut them into equal sized pieces. I cut mine in half long-ways and then in about 3/8 inch strips (again cutting along the long side).

Rinse the potatoes in cold water and dry thoroughly.

(I used a ziploc bag for the next two steps.)

Toss with:

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

Sprinkle and toss to coat with:

2 teaspoons almond flour
2 teaspoons grated pecorino romano cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons mixed dried herbs: thyme, sage, rosemary, oregano
salt and pepper

Place the potatoes in a cast iron frying pan and roast in the oven for about 20-25 minutes until fork tender.

Makes about 4 servings.

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Link up your farmers’ market recipes!

Stephanie and Amber created some really wonderful dishes from their farmers’ market purchases—a lovely Pumpkin Sage Cake (gluten-free and vegan) from Steph and mouth-watering Kielbasa, Apple and Kale Hash from Amber (naturally gluten-free).

Have any favorites you’d like to share?

Recipes are not restricted to allergen-free recipes. Link sharing available through December 15, 2011.

Recipes using ingredients found at your local farmers market.

1. Pumpkin Sage Cake - Vegan	2. Kielbasa, Apple & Kale Hash	3. Farmers' Market Apple Crisp	4. Kuri Squash Soup
5. Kale, Cabbage, Bean, and Sausage Soup	6. Raw Parsnip Sushi	7. Chocolate Beet Cupcakes	8. Spicy White Bean and Kale Stew
9. Butternut & White Bean Kale Patties	10. Roasted Brussels sprouts and cipollini onions	11. Roasted Sunchoke Salad	12. Maple Sweet Potato Puree
13. Farmer's Market Frittata	14. Black Bean Chorizo Chilii with Butternut Squash	15. Raspberry Pancakes	16. Totally Addictive Kale Chips

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Grilled Cabbage & Potato Packets

Cabbage seems like a fall vegetable to me. It should be paired with corned beef or boiled with potatoes. It should be blanched, stuffed with rice and ground beef, covered with tomato sauce and steamed in the pressure cooker. That’s fall cooking in my book.

So why—in the middle of the hottest summer in 70 years—am I getting a cabbage at every CSA pick-up? What am I going to do with all that cabbage?

I can tell you what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to boil it or blanch it or steam it. My kitchen—and my hair—won’t tolerate all that heat and moisture. Nope.

You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to grill it.

The first cabbage grilling attempt: cut into quarters, brushed with oil,  sprinkled with salt and pepper and seared on a hot grill. Then roasted with the grill turned down to medium/medium low, lid closed, until tender. It worked well but was bland.

It needed to be jazzed up a bit. Enter the onions and new potatoes and grated pecorino romano cheese. Oh yeah. That’s what it needed.

So, go ahead, CSA. Give me more cabbage. We had this twice in one weekend and we’re ready for more.

Grilled Cabbage & Potato Packets

What you’ll need to make one packet, which is enough for 2 or 3 people as a side dish:

1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced

1 small red or yellow onion, thinly sliced

5 or 6 small red potatoes, sliced about 1/8 inch thick

olive oil, about 1 or 2 tablespoons total

salt and pepper

grated cheese, 1 or 2 tablespoons per layer (about 1/4 cup total)

Heat your grill.

Cut off a piece of aluminum foil—about 14-16 inches. If your foil is very thin double it. Line the foil with a piece of parchment of the same size.

You’re going to create a mound in the middle of the parchment by layering the ingredients. This should be maybe 5-6 inches wide by about 8-9 inches long.

Layer in this order (see the pictures above): cabbage, onions, potatoes. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and grated cheese. Repeat one or two more times. End with a layer of cabbage.

Wrap the parchment tightly. Wrap the aluminum foil around the parchment packet closing the top and ends tightly.

Reduce the heat of the grill to medium (use your best judgment since some grills are hotter than others). Place the packet on the grill and cook about 30 minutes turning once. You can test the potatoes by carefully (really carefully! ‘cos it’s going to be hot and steamy in there) by removing the packet from the grill and gently opening it to take a peek and test with a fork. Return to the grill if the potatoes are not soft.

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