My Favorite Lunch

Thanks to Martha's sister Liz and her husband Rich we own a copy of Pot on the Fire, by John and Matt Lewis Thorne.  There's lots to like about this book of food essays and recipes.   It's chapters cover the disarmingly simple ("Perfect Rice," and "Quintessential Toast") to the more complex ("Sticks-to-the-Pot").  Moreover, it is a book that has shown me how to be enthusiastic and rigorous about cooking without being pretentious.  It has helped me answer, "Where am I in this whole food/cooking thing?"

I probably have a rotating list of things I call my "favorite lunches," but I think this is the first one I consciously named that.  I don't think the authors intended this to be a lunch recipe, but if you have 20 to 30 minutes to prepare it, and access to a kitchen, it makes a great one.  With simplifications by me:

Variation: white rice, dandelion greens, feta, walnuts.

Rice with Spinach, Goat Cheese and Walnuts

Serves one.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons of chopped walnuts
• 1 large bunch or 12-ounce bag of fresh spinach
• 1-1/2 cups cooked white rice, more or less depending on your appetite
• 1-2 cloves garlic, chopped.
• olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder (grinding your own isn't a bad idea, but if you want to be eating in 20 minutes, don't start now)
• 1-1/2 to 2 ounces goat cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

Start cooking your rice.
Rough cut or tear the greens, then wash and set aside to drain. Don't spin.
Toast the walnuts and set aside.  You can toast halves and chop after.

Preheat a large lidded saute pan and add some olive oil.  Smash and mince the garlic clove.  Add it and the chili powder to the pan and stir.  When the garlic has cooked but before it browns, add the wet spinach, some salt, and cover.  After a couple minutes, stir with tongs, coating the spinach with oil and spices.  Cover and cook a couple more minutes until entirely wilted.  Uncover and stir to finish cooking and boil off some of the moisture.

Serve cooked spinach over warm rice in a large bowl.  Top with crumbled cheese, walnuts, and a generous grind of black pepper.  Adjust salt as needed.

NOTE:  This is a great recipe for playing with substitutions - different greens/veggies, different grains, different cheeses, and different nuts can all yield super satisfying results all within the same framework.  Cooking time for grain will determine eating time (e.g. brown rice), so adjust as needed.

Variation 2: brown rice, bok choy, cottage cheese, sunflower seeds, garlic chive.