I finally did it. I bought fava beans at the market. I’ve been in Boulder for 5 years, which means I’ve been going to the market for five years, and every summer those big, thick fava beans frightened me. I don’t know why. They are now a new favorite of mine.

I did some research on these beans because I brought some home and had no idea what to do with them. It turns out that they are a very old bean that had been a staple in Europe way back in the day. Europeans brought them to America, but they were not necessarily a food that caught on with the mainstream. Basically, we don’t eat them as often as we eat black beans, pinto beans, etc.

But, in my humble foodie opinion… we should. Just take the time to do the following steps:

1. Slice open the pods as seen in the photo above. Remove the beans.

2. Par-boil the beans for a couple minutes. Then drain them and remove the outer waxy coating to get to the real bean.

3. Bring them back to a boil for a few minutes to make sure they are cooked.

I took my beans, put them in a food processor with some olive oil, 2 garlic cloves that I had peeled and boiled for a few minutes with the beans, and a little freshly grated parmesan.

Puree it and generously spread these green legumes on toasted bread. (My bread here was grilled, which is even better!)

The finishing touch here was some Red Alae Hawaiian Kai Sea Salt from nowhere else than my favorite place: Savory Spice Shop.

I love making cobblers for dessert in the summer with seasonal fresh fruit. Cobblers are quick and easy, but can be dressed up with ice cream or homemade whip cream. I usually make peach or pear cobblers, but this time I tried to create something new for dessert: Chocolate Cherry Cayenne Cobbler.

I couldn’t resist the beautiful red cherries at the Boulder Farmers’ Market. And when I found myself craving dessert on Saturday night, a chocolate cherry cobbler was the answer.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of sea salt
• 1 tsp (or more) of cayenne
• 1/3 cups sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 TB walnut oil
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3-4 cups cherries, split in half and pitted

Put the cherries and chocolate chips in a pie pan or any other glass baking dish. Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside in one bowl, and mix together the wet ingredients in another. Pour the wet into the dry, mix well, and pour over the cherries. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or so, until the top is baked all the way through. Ovens definitely vary, so check it after 20 or 25 minutes to be sure it isn’t over-cooking.

Turkey burgers are a great way for the carnivore in this house and the mostly vegetarian (me) to compromise. I do enjoy turkey, especially over the last year or so. It has good flavor, and something about it does not trigger the gag reflex so many vegetarians talk about when they smell raw meats. So, I’ve come to like turkey and I’m trying to find good ways to prepare it.

This was my first try at a turkey burger and it turned out great.

I bought one pound of ground turkey thigh at Whole Foods. I put it in a big bowl and added:

• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 small chopped onion
• some scallions, sliced
• 1 TB Worcestershire
• 1 TB olive oil
• some Urfa pepper flakes from Savory Spice Shop (use red pepper flakes if you don’t have the kind I used)
• a splash of Harry’s Habanero, from the Boulder Hot Sauce Company
• 3 TB of crumbled feta

I put mine on a small ciabatta bun I picked up at Whole Foods, and topped it with some local lettuce from Munson Farms, and a simple mushroom sauté of a medley of little mushrooms I picked up from Hazel Dell that I sauteed in butter, garlic, and sea salt. Those little mushrooms really didn’t need any special treatment since they were so flavorful on their own… but I do apologize for not recalling which shrooms made it into the mix.

In the end, it turned out to be a tasty burger.

Thank you Ollin Farms for this week’s share of veggies. I got some Hon Tsai Tai, Lemon Cucumbers, Beets, Paris Market Carrots (which are French heirloom), Young Yukon Potatoes, Swiss Chard, Lacinto Kale, Garlic, Zucchini, and Eggs!

I will be putting most of the greens in my Vita-Mix for my daily healthy lunch smoothie, so we will literally consume this entire pile of food. Looking forward to it.

Now here’s a good way to eat your turnips. I had 2 bunches of turnips that I got over 2 weeks from Ollin Farms‘ CSA. So, part of my CSA Challenge was figuring out what to do with turnips. To be perfectly honest, I thought I was sick of turnips. I got a bunch of scarlet queen turnips one week and they sat in my fridge until the following week when I got another bunch. I officially had more turnips than I could eat… or so I thought.

I sliced them and a local walla-walla onion I got at the Boulder farmers market, and tossed them in a dressing of:

• 2 TB Worcestershire
• 1 TB dijon mustard
• 3 TB heavy whipping cream
• 3 TB maple syrup
• 1 TB olive oil
• 1 TB grated parmesan
• fresh ground black pepper