3 Farmers Market Veg, Orange Sesame Dressing
After nearly two weeks of three curry meals a day in Kerala, India (more about that at a later date,) I’m craving some lighter style fare and this simple combination of 3 Farmers Market Veg with Orange Sesame Dressing fits the bill.
The same as lots of folks, I tend to arrive at Farmer’s Markets with one focus in mind, choosing whatever looks fresh and appetizing.
I love hakurei turnips and for the most part have simply been sautéing them in butter over the past couple of years upon the initial high recommendation of the farmer selling them. I hadn’t however, realized before reading an early summer post of Cheri at My Savory Spoon that the attached greens were very tasty eating too.
So you can lop off the hakurei turnip greens and add them to this mix, or you can set them aside for later adding them into a pot of soup, a stir fry, or even in combination with the Swiss chard greens.
This recipe uses the bekana greens.
Above are the bekana greens which like the hakurei turnips have a Japanese origination inspiring the combined Orange Sesame Dressing. They’ve a rather earthy flavor in their initial cooking and mellow tenderly in the cooking process. If you happen upon these bright fresh greens on your next Farmer’s Market jaunt they are well worth a try. Otherwise, you can create this similar veg dish similar as many folks do at the weekly seasonal Farmer’s Market, use whatever provides the best pickings of the day.
3 Farmers Market Veg, Orange Sesame Dressing
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 8-10 pink colored Swiss chard ribs, cleaned
- 12 hakurei turnips, washed
- 1 bunch bekana greens (hakurei turnip greens may alternatively be used) washed, lightly dried with paper toweling
- 1 tablespoon orange rind
- 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
- For the dressing
- 1 teaspoon orange rind
- juice from one large orange, strained
- 1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- good pinch coarse kosher salt
- good pinch cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Chop the Swiss chard ribs into half inch pieces, set aside
- Trim radish ends, cut in half down the center
- Stack bekana leaves, roll up, cut into one inch slices then cut in half
- Heat oil in a large sized nonstick saute pan on low heat
- Add in Swiss chard ribs, cook two minutes
- Tumble in the hakurei turnips, stir throughout and cook another two minutes
- Stir in bekana greens on top of the veg, lifting and tossing as they steam before wilting between the sauteed vegetables, cook two to three minutes to mellow the bekana leaves into a sweeter rather than raw, earthy flavor
- Transfer cooked vegetables to a bowl tossing in the orange sesame dressing
- Arrange dressed vegetables onto a platter, top with orange rind and sesame seeds. Serve warm straight away
- For the Dressing: In a medium sized bowl whisk together the juice from the orange, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. Sprinkle in the salt and pepper, whisk, check seasoning adding in a bit more of any dressing ingredients as desired.
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