Potato-Black Radish soup

Ingredients
4-5 medium sized potatoes, chopped in cubes
half of a big black radish, thinly sliced
1 big yellow onion, chopped
some garlic, minced
olive oil
about a glass of white wine
enough vegetable or chicken broth to cover while simmering
sour cream (optional)

Steps
Heat the olive oil, sauté onions and garlic. Add the potatoes and stir on medium heat. Add white wine and after it evaporated cover the potatoes with a fair amount of broth. Cover with a lid and let cook on medium heat. When the potatoes are almost done, add the black radish and cook for a short time until tender. Purée and season with salt and pepper. Serve with some sour cream (optional).

recipe from shopper Myrtha Zierock Foradori

Sarson Ka Saag

Ingredients
1 lb mustard greens and other field greens, coarsely chopped
½ cup water
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 fresh green chili pepper (ex. Serrano), minced
¼ cup cornmeal
½ teaspoon cumin seed, toasted 2 minutes in a hot dry skillet
~ salt
~ butter
~ fresh lemon or lime juice

Steps

1. In a large saucepan, gently simmer the greens in water with the ginger and pepper.
2. When the greens are tender, slowly add the cornmeal and mash the mixture with a wooden spoon. Cook until thickened, 7-10 minutes.
3. Top with butter to taste, lemon or lime juice to taste, and cumin seed to taste.

recipe from Ayers Creek Farm

Beans and Greens Soup

Ingredients
1 cup Dutch Bullet beans
1 bunch curly endive, washed and cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
3 cups stock (vegetable or chicken)
~ water
~ salt
~ pepper
~ Pecorino Romano (optional)

Steps

1. In a medium pot, add beans and enough cold water to cover beans with one inch of water. Soak beans overnight.
2. Drain beans, rinse and put back in pot. Add enough water to cover beans by one inch. Add bay leaf and place pot on medium high heat. When the water begins to boil, lower heat and simmer beans until tender. Drain, reserving 1 cup of liquid.
3. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Sauté briefly until garlic is fragrant. Add endive, sauté until greens wilt.
4. Add beans, cooking liquid and stock. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated Pecorino (optional).

Frikeh Salad

recipe by Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans

Ingredients
1 cup cooked frikeh (see note)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice, Blossom Vinegar's apple-habanero vinegar, red wine vinegar, or white wine vinegar, or a combination
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
a couple of tablespoons of chopped herbs - parsley, fennel fronds, mint, marjoram, chives (maybe some basil as well)
~ salt
~ freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

optional - diced tomato or cucumber, pine nuts, toasted slivered almonds, chopped preserved lemon, sweet or hot peppers (roasted or raw), a handful of rough chopped arugula or watercress, or anything you might like in your salad

Steps

1. Combine the frikeh with everything except the cheese.
2. Let marinate 1/2 an hour at room temperature, or up to 4 hours in the refrigerator (or longer without the added options - just toss these in after you remove the marinated frikkeh from the fridge).  If you have refrigerated the frikeh, allow it to come to room temperature before serving. 
3. Scatter the cheese over the frikeh salad & serve (with grilled or baked fish or chicken, or grilled vegetables).

NOTE: Cooking frikeh is pretty simple. Rinse the frikeh to remove grit and chaff. The ratio of uncooked frikeh to water is 1:2. Just put water and frikeh into a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover the pan and lower the heat. Let the frikeh simmer for 30-40 minutes until nearly all the liquid is gone.

Bean, Kale, and Polenta Soup

from Ayers Creek Farm newsletter (link):

There are various versions of this classic northern Italian soup, Infarinata, that bring dry beans, cornmeal, and kale together with a bit of pork. In a conversation over lunch, Linda Colwell reminded us that La Jota of Trieste is also a variation on this rustic soup, using sauerkraut instead of kale, and fragrant with cumin. Our friend and former neighbor, China Tresemer, helped us put together this recipe.

The recipe calls for unsmoked but cured pork: guanciale or pancetta, but in a pinch, a piece of salt pork will do. You can make this dish without the meat as well. Likewise, savoy cabbage, rocket or escarole can be used for the greens. For beans, we use Borlotto Lamon which has a deep nutty flavor and pleasant sweetness. The water the bean cooks in yields a delicious broth. There are several reasons why this variety is not more available commercially: Pole beans cost more to grow. The Lamon must be handpicked and has just three or four beans per pod compared to the usual five to seven. It also ripens late, splits in the rain, and is prone to viruses. Mere details, other than that it is perfect, the most glorious of the cranberry beans.

Serves 4

Ingredients
3 cups (525g) Borlotto Lamon dry beans
Water
4 ounces (100g) unsmoked but cured pork, minced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 carrot, minced
1 onion, minced
1 stalk celery, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 sage leaves, fresh or dried, minced
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes, preferably your own
~ Salt and pepper
8 stalks of kale, collards, or lacinato kale, rib removed, minced
1 1/2 cups (210 g) medium-coarse flint cornmeal
~ good olive oil

Steps

1. Soak the dry beans in plenty of water overnight. Drain the beans, add fresh water to cover the beans by about 2 inches (5 cm), bring to a boil, then turn down the heat, and simmer until tender, 40 to 90 minutes.
2. In a soup pot, sauté the pork in the olive oil until it begins to turn golden. Add the minced carrot, onion, and celery, and sauté gently until the vegetables are soft. Add the garlic and the minced sage leaves. Add the tomatoes. Cook until the mixture thickens a bit, about 12 minutes. Add salt to taste. Chop the kale leaves and add to the pot. Add the beans and their liquor, topping the soup off with more water to create a good broth. Season with salt to taste.
3. Bring the soup to a gentle simmer. While the soup is simmering, trickle in the cornmeal, and stir occasionally until the polenta is tender, about 40 minutes. Season to taste with salt.
4. Serve the thick soup in shallow bowls with a good ribbon of the olive oil on top.