I recently teamed up with my friend Nicole over at Vestige Home to create this fresh and easy spring meal. Nicole makes gorgeous, hand-carved wooden creations, like the walnut bowl pictured here.
(Photographing food is always ten times easier when you have beautiful dishes to work with!)
Inspired by a CSA bounty, we settled on a greens and shiitake saute over this brown rice mix that Nicole picked up from a local New Jersey farm. I had no idea rice could be cultivated right next door to me in New Jersey. The farm, Bloom Moon Acres, uses a dry farming technique, allowing them to produce rice on a local scale.
The rice was the perfect nutty, chewy compliment to the tender spinach and mustard that came to top it. I’d recommend using a black rice or a black and brown rice mix yourself when making this recipe.
In addition to spinach, we also used komatsuna. Komatsuna is a Japanese mustard green with a flavor profile that lays in between spinach and mustard.
Many Asian markets carry it, and often it can be found at Whole Foods, too. If you can’t find it, swap the komatsuna for baby mustard greens — and you may want to go light on the mustard, depending on how bitter it is.
Top the dish with some toasted onions and a squeeze of lemon, and you’ve got a delicious and beautiful light lunch.
Spring Greens with Shiitakes and Almonds over Rice
- April 7, 2017
- Serves 2-3
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Ingredients
- 1 cup black or brown rice (or a mix)
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups spinach, chopped
- 2 cups komatsuna Japanese mustard greens or baby mustard greens, chopped
- 1 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced
- 1/3 lemon
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted over dry heat
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
- Step 1
- Cook rice according to package instructions. (For brown rice, this means 2 parts water, 1 part rice. Place in a pan, cover, and bring to a bowl. Then simmer for 45 minutes, or until rice is tender.)
- Step 2
- In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high. Add onion and garlic, and saute until onions are nearly translucent. Stir in mushrooms, and cook another 3-5 minutes, until mushrooms get a nice sear.
- Step 3
- Stir in greens, and season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook, stirring regularly, until greens are tender, 3-4 minutes. Squeeze lemon on top, and adjust salt and pepper, if needed.
- Step 4
- Divide rice between bowls, and top with greens. Scatter almonds across each bowl. Serve.
