The Making of a Midwest Bowl
1st recipe in the series:
Vegetarian, All Co-op Ingredients
This series addresses a desire that I always had to cook, but with the limitation that I consistently had of not having much of a budget or much time to devote to the craft. Or frankly, much skill. I’d like to impart to the Co-op community my love of cooking by showing that you can do it with little means, but banging flavors! All of the recipes are inspired by friends that invented these dishes, which I’ve stolen and now would like to fondly pass on to you. Hope you enjoy!
This dish is a perfect combination of minimal effort, healthy ingredients, simple to make large quantities for meal prepping, cost effective, and a damn good combination of flavors. There are many variations of veggies you can put in this dish with it still tasting amazing, but the basics are sweet potatoes, kale, and (always) a soft boiled egg. This dish tastes almost as good a few days later as it does fresh, so make sure to cook extra.
I first had this dish in Marfa, TX, while staying with a gaggle of friends who were recording an album with the pretense of dog-sitting. My friend, Tessa, a blond haired rocker that can melt your face with a drum solo, while also tenderly maintaining the cherry tomato plants of a garden, insisted on us to get these ingredients: sweet potatoes, kale, and nutritional yeast. I was skeptical at first at seeing this leafy green and orange mix of what looked like horse food, but what I had that morning for brunch blew my mind with how good, yet simple it was. We set our breakfast out on the little patio parking lot out the back of the house. The cool morning desert air, some Pavement playing through the broken pill speaker, a bowl of orange and green goodness with runny eggs, and a cup of coffee is one of best breakfasts I’ve ever had.
This recipe has traveled with me to Bushwick where I’ve adapted it for cooking by the very modest means in my apartment. To give a little spin on the basics of the dish, I’ve settled on a semi-Asian influenced, mushroom topped, version of the hash.
Serves 2-4
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp teriyaki sauce
nutritional yeast
¼ clove of garlic
½ root of ginger
1 lemon sliced
1 medium sweet potato, diced
1 bundles of kale, chopped
6 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
2-4 eggs
1 avocado
This dish is pretty common for how I like to cook my shrooms, and general stir fry. I like ‘em very flavorful. I typically cook mushrooms in many sauces, and cook them first, making them the savory heart of the dish.
Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add sweet potatoes and boil for 6 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add minced ginger and garlic and sauté. Let simmer for 1 minute.
Add mushrooms to garlic and ginger in pan.
After 6 minutes, put an amount of eggs equal to the amount of servings your cooking in boiling sweet potato pot for 6 minutes.
Add kale to mushrooms in pan. Cook until wilted.
Once egg has been in pot for 6 minutes, and sweet potatoes for a total of 12 min, take egg out first to cool and strain sweet potatoes.
Add sweet potatoes to kale and mushrooms.
Add soy sauce and teriyaki sauce to mix. Leave heat on low until ready to serve.
Gently crack egg. While holding it under running cold water, carefully peel the shell off. This technique minimizes chunks of egg from ripping off with the peel.
Divide the orange and green mixture between bowls and top with soft boiled egg.
Lastly, add sliced avocado, few drops of lemon, nutritional yeast, and sriracha to taste.
Bon appétit!
Garson
