2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for brushing toasts

Coarse salt

Freshly ground black pepper

6 medium-sized or 12 baguette-sized 1/2-inch slices of bread of your choice (I used our ciabatta rolls!)

2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled (a soft or crumbly goat cheese would also work)

Few drops of lemon juice (optional)

Fill a large bowl with cold water. Add leeks and use your hands to pump them up and down in the water a bit, separating the rings and letting the dirt and grit fall to the bottom. Transfer to a dish or plate for a minute; no need to dry them.

Meanwhile, heat a large, heavy skillet over medium. Once hot, add butter and olive oil and once they’re fully melted and a bit sizzly, add the leek slices, still wet. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover with a lid and cook leeks for 25 minutes, stirring them occasionally. Adjust seasoning to taste.

While leeks cook, brush bread slices with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt. Run under broiler until lightly toasted. You may either spread the cheese you’re using on now, while the toasts are hot, or sprinkle it on at the end. Divide leeks among toasts. Sprinkle with cheese, if you haven’t spread it underneath. Add a few drops of lemon juice, if desired. Eat at once or gently rewarm a bit later.

from smittenkitchen.com

Asian Tacos? You aren’t reading this wrong! This innovative recipe juxtaposes two cuisines for a delicious take on miso-mushroom stirfry. Shitake mushrooms are a great source of iron, and studies have shown they are also excellent for cardiovascular and heart health! Stop by Nature’s Corner for all of your fresh, organic produce, shitake mushrooms and sweet pea shoots! If asian tacos sound a little too “wacky” for you, give these a try wrapped in organic rice paper or as a salad.

Shitake Mushroom & Lentil Asian Tacos (serves 2)

// miso herb sauce //

3 garlic cloves

2 Tbsp. white or yellow miso

1 Tbsp. honey

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

pinch of red pepper flakes

3 Tbsp. orange juice

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2 packed cups basil leaves

1 packed cup cilantro

3 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil

1 1/2 Tbsp. extra virgin coconut oil, divided

half of a yellow onion, diced

6 oz. shitake mushrooms (halve any large ones)

3/4 cup cooked lentils

2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

sea salt + pepper

small tortillas

1-2 super ripe avocados

3/4 cup fresh grated carrots

sweetpea shoots, for garnish

For the sauce, pulse the garlic cloves through the rice vinegar in a food processor to blend. Once mixed, add in the herbs and give a few more pulses to chop. You want it slightly textured. With the motor going, drizzle in the oil. Taste and adjust as you prefer. Cover and set aside.

Heat 1/2 Tbsp. of the coconut oil in a large saute pan. Add the diced onion and saute until just translucent. Add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt and just leave them to heat up and start to release moisture*. Once they have reduced in size, about 4 minutes, add the remaining coconut oil and saute to mix. Add the lentils and another pinch of salt and pepper and saute to warm through. Lastly, add the vinegar and stir to scrape up any brown bits in the pan.

For the assembly line of the tacos, heat the tortillas over a stove flame until a bit charred. Smash about a quarter of an avocado down the center. Top it with a few pinches of grated carrots, a portion of the mushroom mixture, a generous dose of the sauce (don’t be shy, it’s all the gusto here) and top with the sweetpea shoots. Enjoy warm.

from sproutedkitchen.com

As we’ve come to depend on a handful of commercial varieties of fruits and vegetables, thousands of heirloom varieties have disappeared. It’s hard to know exactly how many have been lost over the past century, but a study conducted in 1983 by the Rural Advancement Foundation International gave a clue to the scope of the problem. It compared USDA listings of seed varieties sold by commercial U.S. seed houses in 1903 with those in the U.S. National Seed Storage Laboratory in 1983. The survey, which included 66 crops, found that about 93 percent of the varieties had gone extinct. More up-to-date studies are needed.

With the warm weather upon us, it’s time to tune up your bicycle and get riding! Monmouth County is lucky to have great local bike shops, and hundreds of miles of sidewalks and bike trails. We would like to reward those who choose these available methods to get around.

In an effort to continually help and encourage alternative means of transportation in our community, we reward those individuals that arrive to our store using environmentally friendly methods. We call it our Carboncredit, and it’s pretty simple:

If you get to our store by walking, riding a bike or electric scooter, taking the bus, skateboarding, rollerblading, skipping, running, or even walking on your hands, we’ll take 25-cents off your purchase. It’s as simple as that. In addition, don’t forget to B-Y-O-B… bring your own bags instead of using our store supplied disposable bags, and you’ll get the same 25-cent credit.

When you check out, just mention to your cashier how you got to our store. If it fits the Carboncredit description, we’ll take 25-cents off your entire bill.

BEET GREEN CHOPPED SALAD // Serves 4 as a side

1 bunch of beets, including fresh looking greens

olive oil for cooking

4 scallions, white and light green parts

1 cup cooked and cooled quinoa

1 small avocado, diced

1/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds

// tahini dressing //

2 Tbsp. tahini

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1-2 tsp. agave nectar, depending on desired sweetness

3 Tbsp. water, or as needed

hefty pinch of salt and pepper

1 clove of garlic finely minced

1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp. finely chopped chives

Preheat the oven to 450′.

Cut the greens from the beets at their stem. Rub a bit of olive oil on the skin of the beets, sprinkle with salt and wrap them all in a foil pack. Set on the middle oven rack and cook for 45-55 minutes until you can easily piece through with a knife. Set them aside to cool.

While the beets roast, clean and dry the greens. Chop off and discard the long red stems. Chop the greens and put them in a large mixing bowl.

To prepare the dressing, whisk together the tahini, lemon juice, vinegar, agave and water. Mix in the garlic, hearty pinch of salt and pepper and drizzle in the olive oil while whisking. Add more water if you prefer it thinner. Mix in the chives. Adjust to your taste and set aside.

Once the beets are cool enough to touch, you should be able to just push the skin off with your fingers. Use a paring knife to help it along. Dice the peeled beets. Thinly slice the scallions. Add the beets, scallions, quinoa and avocado to the mixing bowl and toss with a generous amount of dressing (note: the salad will turn pink from the beets. If this bothers you, you can toss everything without the diced beets, and sprinkle them on top). Sprinkle in the sunflower seeds, give it one more toss.

recipe from sproutedkitchen.com

Brooklyn is fast becoming the borough of farms. On Thursday, Bright Farms, a private company that develops greenhouses, announced plans to create a sprawling greenhouse on a roof in Sunset Park that is expected to yield a million pounds of produce a year — without using any dirt. Read on…