Purple to the People: Fig Food Co.'s Carton of Beans

A lot of cool products come to my attention. Sometimes, I’m asked to review them either in my capacity as a blogger or in my role as Purple Asparagus’ head spear. Other times, I just happen upon them during my many trips to the grocery store. To share these quality products, I start this new series: Purple to the People.

These days, most of us know to avoid BPA or bispenol A, the industrial chemical used to make certain plastics and resins since the 1960s. Studies suggest that BPA may have a negative effect on the brain development of infants and children – certainly nothing that we moms want to happen.

To avoid BPA, I switched all my sippy cups to stainless canteens. I disposed of all non-BPA free plastics. The one remaining source of BPA I found difficult to excise was canned goods, particularly beans. While I love beans cooked from scratch, it’s just not always feasible with my busy schedule. Given this, I couldn’t have been more pleased to come across Fig Food Company’s products.

Fig Food Company’s beans are packed in BPA-free cartons, not cans. What’s just as appealing as its commitment to safety is their convenience. With a perforated top, this Tetra Pack can be opened without utensil, a terrific feature for someone who regularly demonstrates recipes. (There’s nothing worse than arriving to a venue and realizing that you’ve forgotten a can opener!)

This simple pasta is a delicious and easy weeknight supper.

Chickpea and Chard Pasta
Serves 4


1 box chickpeas
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
1 pinch red pepper flakes
2 large leaves of Swiss chard, trimmed and cut cross-wise into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons white wine
1/2 pound spelt pasta
Parmiggiano-Regianno to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the spelt pasta according to the package. Reserve a 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid before draining the pasta.

Drain the chickpeas. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic. rosemary. and 1 pinch red pepper flake and cook for about a minute or until fragrant. Pour in the wine and 2 tablespoons water and stir in the Swiss chard. Cook until the greens are wilted. Stir in the chickpeas and salt and pepper to taste.


Stir in the pasta and a tablespoon or two of the pasta cooking water. Serve topped with freshly grated cheese.

Dirty Little Secrets Inside the Fridge

Refrigerators hold the dirty little secrets of a family's lifestyle. I learned this while catering when I saw more than my fair share of refrigerators. Are they sugar fiends or health nuts? Look to the fridge. Are they avid cooks or do they eat out regularly - all you have to do is open the fridge.

This is one of the reasons I loved Robin's Bite's feature Inside the Fridge. I was tickled when Robin asked me to participate. To read more and to learn my dirty little secrets (that is Coke on the top shelf, and yes, that is premade baba ghanoush), visit Robin's site.

Egg Rolls and Geo Politics: Cooking Chinese with Kids

Kids are funny, aren’t they?

I don’t know about yours, but my son’s favorite playthings are often not even toys. Give him a map and hours later you’ll find him tracing his way from Maine to California. Google maps and GeoMasters are tied as his favorite iPad apps. Neither he nor I could live without our car’s GPS; we’re simply motivated by different needs.

Maps aren’t his only geo-political obsession. I have a whole slew of his drawings of the flags of the world dating back to 2010.

Late last year, we hatched an idea that combined his love of nation states and my love of cooking. Regularly, we plan to focus on a country. We dedicated a blank book to this purpose. In it, he’ll draw the nation’s flag and pair it with a few quick facts about the selected country. For my part, he and I will cook together a meal from the country.

Starting with China, we launched our project on Saturday to coincide with the country’s New Year. We made Egg Rolls and Shrimp Toast from scratch and enjoyed Stir-Fried Hoisin Pork with Peppers from Grace Young’s Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge.

Chicken Egg Rolls


A few years ago, I comandeered a few my mom's old cookbooks including The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook by Gloria Bley Miller, and this recipe is adapted from one in that book.

Makes 10

Raw ingredients

2 tablespoons dried porcini
1/4 pound chicken breast
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon tamari
2 1/2 cups bean sprouts
4 cups fresh spinach, loosely packed, sliced into 1-inch ribbons
The greens of 2 scallions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons tamari
2 tablespoons peanut oil
Egg roll skins
Vegetable oil for frying
Sweet and Sour Sauce for dipping

Soak the mushrooms in hot water.

Cut the chicken breast into very thing strips. Combine cornstarch, sugar, salt, and tamari in a small bowl. Add the chicken strips and stir to coat. Let the chicken sit for 10 minutes.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Blanch the bean sprouts in the water for 2 minutes. Drain.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook a few minutes or until it's no longer pink. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Fresh filling ingredients

Cooked filling

Heat remaining oil in the pan. Add the scallions and saute for a minute. Dump in the bean sprouts and spinach and cook until the spinach is softened. Return to the chicken to pan and stir together all the ingredients.

Scrape the mixture into a colander and let drain while it cools.

Heat a large pot filled with several inches of vegetable oil over high heat.

Fill egg roll skins according to package. Set the filled egg rolls onto a plate.

When the oil reaches 375-F degrees. Add 3 egg rolls at a time to the pot. Cook until the egg rolls are golden brown. Drain and serve hot with sweet and sour sauce.

Cook a Rainbow with Your Kids

Purple carrots, had only I known you six years ago. . .

Unlike many other purple vegetables, like purple Brussels sprouts and sadly even purple asparagus, purple carrots, the ones colored through to their core retain their vivid hue after cooking. Not only do they keep their color, but purple carrots lend it to their partner ingredients in a dish.

You won’t find these carrots at your ordinary grocery store. No, for these, you’ll have to make a stop at Green City Market. Look for Vicky Westerhoff of Genesis Growers, she’ll hook you up.

Purple carrots will help your kids to eat a rainbow – a recommendation that many a dietician and doctor would make for a healthy diet. Thor and I were given a terrific tool to keep track of his rainbow consumption from my friend, Kia Robertson: a Today I ate a Rainbow Kit. He tracks what colors he’s eating on the magnetized fridge chart, I plan for our week’s worth of rainbow foods with the shopping list, and we both enjoy her delightful book, The Rainbow Bunch.

I’m sharing this wonderful tool with one lucky reader. To enter our Today I Ate a Rainbow giveaway, all you have to do is become a Facebook friend of Purple Asparagus. If you are already one of our friends, simply recommend our page to your friends. My Little Locavores kid will pull a number out of a hat this Friday.

Happy friending!


Purple Bean Soup
Serves 4
6 cups chicken stock
1 ham hock
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 purple carrot, peeled and chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
½ teaspoon cumin
3 cups cooked black beans
1 bay leaf

Pour the chicken stock into a large pot and add the ham hock. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove the ham hock and reserve for another purpose.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan or soup pot over medium high heat. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and sauté until the vegetables are softened. Sprinkle the cumin over the vegetables and cook for another minute.

Add the black beans and pour in 4 cups of the ham stock. The remainder can be frozen for another purpose. Drop in the bay leaf, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and three grinds of freshly ground pepper and bring the stock to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for 30 minutes.

Puree in a blender (be sure to cover the top with a clean dish towel) or with a stick blender. Ladle into shallow bowls and dollop with sour cream and a spritz of lime juice.

Lucky John Hops into the New Year: Black Eyed Pea and Ham Salad

When growing up, my parents hosted an annual New Year's Day party. In addition to family favorites, my mom filled the table with traditional dishes thought to impart good luck to the eater.

Several years ago, my husband and I began hosting our own New Year's celebration and I renewed my mother's tradition. Well sort of.

Rejecting the herring (I just don't want money that badly), Hopping John always graces our table though more for the flavor it provides than the luck it promises.

The second helping I returned for must have done the trick because 2012 has started on a really great note. Between a successful annual appeal, a new logo and a new office in the Green Exchange for Purple Asparagus, the New Year has been treating me well thus far.

While Hopping John with its indulgences of white rice and pork rich stock is a one a year dish, black eyed peas should not be. For a healthier, weekday version of the combination, try this Black Eyed Pea and Ham Salad. Hopefully, you too will enjoy some good fortune afterwards.

Black Eyed Pea and Ham Salad
Serves 4

3/4 cup black eyed peas
1 bay leaf
1/4 yellow onion
1 celery stalk
1/2 red pepper
1/2 chayote squash
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon butter
1/2 cup cubed ham

Soak the peas for 3 hours. Drain and dump into a medium pot. Cover with cold water and add a large pinch of kosher salt and the bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the peas are tender approximately 30 to 45 minutes.

While the beans are cooking, cut the onion, celery, and pepper into small dice. Core the squash and cut into julienne strips.

Whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl.

In a nonstick saute pan, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the ham cubes and cook until lightly browned. Cool.

Drain the peas and cool slightly. Dump them into a medium bowl. Add vegetables and ham. Fold the dressing into the salad. Serve as a light main course or as a side dish.

Diet Food that Doesn't Suck: Salsa Turkey Burgers

I hate diets. There’s far too much delicious food to be eaten in this world to deprive ourselves of it.

And yet, every January, I start one. Sort of.

After a month long of indulgences, including a 4 day sojourn to the dining capital of the southern states: New Orleans, I need to recalibrate my eating.

Out go the cookies, in come the carrots. Skim milk, turkey bacon, and lots of lettuce all went into Sunday’s grocery cart.

The weight watching regime will last about a week or until I feel back to my old self. However, the turkey burger I made last night may just make the regular dinner rotation.

Southwestern Turkey Burgers
Makes 4

1 slice whole grain bread
2 tablespoons skim milk
1 pound ground turkey, preferably a blend of breast and thigh
1/4 cup finely diced onion
1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese
2 tablespoons salsa (I used Frontera Food's Guajillo)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
ground pepper
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons salsa
1 avocado

Break the bread into small pieces into a small bowl. Sprinkle the milk on top. Mix together the soaked bread, turkey, onion, cheese, salsa, salt, cumin and pepper in a large bowl using your hands. Form into 4 patties. Cook on a preheated griddle. Flip when brown and fry until cooked through.

Mix together the yogurt and salsa. Slice the avocado. Top the burger with avocado and the salsa yogurt.

Chuck a Spear at Childhood Obesity: Support Purple Asparagus

Photo Credit Kelly Angeline Photography

Today, I read two pieces of frustrating news.

The first was a gracious rejection letter from a major grant funder. After careful consideration, blah, blah, blah. Bottom line, yet again, Purple Asparagus will enter a new year nowhere near fully funded.

I must admit that even though Purple Asparagus has been in existence since 2005, it’s only been a year since our getting into the grant game. Hopefully by the time 2013 rolls around, the organization will be more sustainable financially and not entirely reliant upon the efforts of our deeply dedicated volunteers, especially my own.

The second bit of news came from the Atlantic, which reported on a study demonstrating that kids like vegetables more when served with dip or hummus.

Here’s what I’ve got to say to The Atlantic, to the Temple University researcher, and the foundation that funded the project: No duh.

“METHODOLOGY: For seven weeks, Temple University obesity researcher Jennifer Orlet Fisher served broccoli at snack time to 152 preschool-aged children and analyzed the effect of offering them various dips.”

“CONCLUSION: Low-fat dips can help children accept bitter food like broccoli or Brussels Sprouts.”

Is this seriously what passes off as research worthy of funding in this country? Times are hard and money is tight. Schools can barely pay their teachers, much less find funding in their limited budgets for nutrition education. But we can all rest assured now that Ms. Orlet Fisher has concluded without a shadow of a doubt that children like vegetables more when paired with sauce. A better, and more interesting, question would be: who doesn’t?

If the funder of Ms. Orlet Fisher’s research truly wants to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables by children, they should fund the work that we do at Purple Asparagus and similar organizations operating in cities all over this nation. With our food service and food loving backgrounds, we take it as a given that vegetables will be more appealing when paired with a sauce. We also understand that some vegetables taste better cooked.

For the vegetable tastings we organized for Chefs Move to School Chicago, the largest coordinated response to Michelle Obama’s call to chefs, we showed our kids how to make their own ranch dip and then paired them with a combination of raw and cooked vegetables. Peppers, tomatoes, and celery root were popular raw. Cauliflower best roasted and broccoli blanched. The vast majority of the kids loved what they tried.

Enough with funding for research that simply confirms common sense notions. Instead, let’s find funding for organizations that implement common sense solutions.


Photo Credit Artisan Events

If you’d like to chuck a spear at childhood obesity, please participate in Purple Asparagus’ first ever annual appeal. With an entirely volunteer team, we’ll visit monthly at least 25 underserved Chicago Public Schools this year. We believe that to break the cycle of obesity, we need to teach children about good, whole foods and so we introduce children to the joys of Carrot Tacos, Homemade Cranberry-Lime Pop, and Double R White Bean Crostini. Just $35.00 will buy the ingredients for a single classroom and every dollar goes directly to support our programming. If you love food and care about the health of kids, please support Purple Asparagus by clicking here.