World Food and Wine
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No sauce menestra

No sauce, no wine; this is a variation of the menestra Monterrey recipe; we use the same technique.

Ingredients

4 leaves chard (4 big leaves, only white part, washed and trimmed to 1 1/2 in)
2 cups peas (shelled)
1 cup green beans (top and tail, cut about 1 1/2 in. long)
1⁄2 cup leek (leaves trimmed, cut in half lengthwise, washed and trimmed to 1 1/2 in)
2 potato (medium size, peeled and diced, or 8 small rounded ones, peeled)
1⁄4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
  salt (to taste)
  pepper (freshly ground, to taste)

Instructions

  1. Boil the vegetables over medium-low heat until tender.
  2. Strain, season, and transfer to a warm serving dish. Keep warm.
  3. Heat up the oil in a frying pan and cook the garlic until golden, 1 to 2 minutes.
  4. Coat the vegetables with garlic and oil.
  5. Serve straight away.
Yield
4 servings
Preparation time 1 hour, 30 minutes
Cooking time 0 minutes
Total time
1 hour, 30 minutes

Notes

Steam the vegetables, instead of boiling them, to avoid loss of nutrients. It may take a bit longer, but it is set and forget if you use an electric steamer. No need to strain or transfer to a warm plate yet.

Make it speed cooking by using frozen cut green beans, and frozen minced garlic. Frozen leeks or frozen chard stalks are available in some places.

If you need Grand Prix speed, try this recipe using some frozen vegetable medley. You might have to experiment to find the one that works best.

Be careful; garlic cooks very quick and burnt garlic tastes bitter.

Source

Spanish cuisine

This no sauce menestra recipe is suitable not only for speed cooking, but allows for small quantities, as well, being easy to adapt for cooking "solo" or cooking for two. Frozen vegetables are fine and they cut the preparation time even more, but, please, try this recipe using fresh vegetables, particularly at spring when they are most tender, at least once. The secret for spectacular success is to choose only tender, sweet tasting vegetables and serve straight away.

easy, healthy
vegetables, appetizer, side dish
Spanish food recipes
Food in Europe

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