Braised Vegetables and Protein Toppers

A variety of slow braised vegetables usually in broth or tomato and poached eggs or wild salmon are an easy one dish meal…this is a “go to” in our house, with a few staples like easy keeper (like leeks). This is a quick way to get a very comforting meal on the table in a wonderfully short amount of time. It’s a dish as happily eaten for brunch, with coffee, as it is for a light supper with some crusty white bread and a glass of wine. The leeks and spinach can be made up to a day ahead and kept in the fridge, ready for the eggs to be cracked in, and braised.

Braised Vegetables and Protein Toppers

Serves 6 

3  tbsp olive oil or grass fed butter

2 large leeks cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced

2 teaspoons raz el hangout or cumin or berber

1 preserved lemon (skin only) sliced super thin 

1 cup vegetable or chicken broth 

4  cups spinach, beet greens chard or kale or a mixture 

6 large eggs

Heat the oil or butter in a large sauté pan, (with a lid) on a medium high heat. Add the leeks, and saute 1 or 2  minutes. These should be just cooked - not too much! Add the spice (raz el hangout or cumin or berber) cumin, stock, and preserved lemon. Allow to cook for 3-4 minutes. Add your greens and allow to wilt with the lid on for about 1 - 2 minutes. Cook for a  minutes

Now add your protein. My favorite is wild salmon or eggs.

Here you can sprinkle salt and pepper on the fish or eggs. Cover and allow a simmer to cook your protein: 5 - 10 minutes. It is key is not to overcook the eggs or fish! Yolks should be soft or runny but NEVER DRY/ Fish just a tad translucent.

This time of year with so much summer zucchini coming out of the fields, I love to lightly saute zucchini served alongside these greens and a few sliced tomatoes and a crumble of feta! Oh my I am in heaven! Simple and truly scrumptious meal!

Also, consider joining John and I on the fall retreat. This October, our retreat will be in Goshin, Vermont at the Blueberry Inn. The name of our retreat is Manifesting Your Destiny. We will be journaling and writing what your deepest intentions are for your life. It’s never too late to start. It’s always good to learn something new- focus on health or wellness or maybe just be out in nature a little bit more. We will sit around the campfire, cook meals together, and tune into health challenges that may reveal new understandings! 

Please bring a journal, and layers for cold days and sunny afternoons and for a night or two around the campfire.

A sneak peak of what is to come: and of course all is subject to change:

A schedule may look like this 

5;00 - 6:00 Hot Lightly Roasted Coffee with Vermont Grass Fed Cream or Black

6:00 -7:30 Hike and Explore 

7:30 Cooking Demonstrations : Chard Soup and Poached Eggs

8:00 Breakfast:

9:00 11:00 Lecture  

10 stand and stretch 10:15 Journal for 10 minutes and share 

11:30 Question and Answer

12:00 Cooking Demonstration

1:00 Ginger and Chicken Soup & Fall Salad 

2:00 Hike 

3:30- 4:30 Lecture 

4:30 6:00 Free 

6:00 Dinner served  

Fresh Wild Fish  with Lemon Potatoes and Arugula and Tarragon Yogurt Sauce 

Fermented Slaw and Green salad 

Warm Fall Soups, Curried Carrots, and Campfire Pizza is on the menu too!

Join us  if you can!