Scallion Dip with Cucumbers

The past couple of bags from my farm share have been chock full of scallions, and I haven't been great about using them up. I happen to love scallions, and it occurred to me that they might be incredibly good as the primary ingredient in a dip. So think of this as the healthy version of full-fat-heart-attack-french-onion-dip. I also had several cucumbers on hand from last week's bag, hence this tasty, simple combo:

1 1/4c Fage fat free plain Greek Yogurt
1 large young green onion
1 cucumber
fresh ground sea salt and pepper

Slice the green onion thin. Combine the yogurt, green onion, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Peel the cucumber—I like to do it the way my mom alwas did, leaving slivers of the skin for color—then slice the cucumber into hearty slices to handle the dip. That's it! Enjoy your quick and easy 27g.

Warm Greens and Young Onions with Scallion Cottage Cheese

These two dishes don't have to be served together by any means, it just happens to be what I felt like eating. But both are surprisingly delicious. (Maybe one of these days I'll stop being so shocked at how tasty health food can be!)

Warm Greens and Young Onions
2 large young onions (just the bulb part of a scallion)
1 T. butter
1 large bunch/3 small bunches swiss chard
1 T. rice vinegar
sea salt & pepper

Slice the onions thin and set aside. Rinse the swiss chard very well (don't worry about drying) and chop roughly, using both the leafy greens and the stems. Toss the swiss chard into a heated pan with 1/2T. butter and a splash of rice vinegar and cover until cooked. Remove from pan and set aside.

Next, sautée the sliced onions in the same pan with the remaining butter and some fresh ground salt and pepper. Stir regularly until the onions are warmed through and becoming transparent.

Top the cooked swiss chard with the warm onions and serve.

Note: I don't usually cook with added fats, but here, the butter has a big impact. Plus, after eating a very low fat diet for a while, even just a little butter goes a long way for your taste buds.



Scallion Cottage Cheese
3/4c 1% cottage cheese
1 large young onion (just the green part of a scallion)
sea salt & pepper

This is really SO good (and a cinch). If you're one of those people who think you hate cottage cheese, or have never been able to get past the texture, this recipe might turn you around. It made me fall in love all over again. In fact, I just might eat this every day this week! 

Just slice the scallion very thin and mix into the cottage cheese. Top with a good bit of coarse ground salt and pepper and stir together. 

The greens with onions are packed with vitamins, and the cottage cheese is full of lean protein—27g of it. I hope you love both!

Beet, Green Onion and Goat Cheese Salad

This is one of the best recipes I've had lately, all thanks to two wonderful things: my CSA newsletter, where I got the delicious recipe. (Nope, can't claim to have come up with this one on my own!) And a new discovery at Wegmans, reduced fat goat cheese by Coach Farm. With less than half the fat of regular, this goat cheese is not quite as good as full fat when you taste it alone, but top it on a salad or anything else, and you won't even know the difference. This takes a bit of time to prepare because of the fresh beets.

Ingredients:
2–3 medium beets
1 T. olive oil (optional—I skipped it)
2 T. apple cider vinegar
2 green onions, sliced thin
3 oz. goat cheese

Remove any greens from the beets, scrub them clean and boil for about 20 minutes, until they are fork tender. Allow them to cool. Once cooled, peel off the skins and cut into wedges.

Toss together the beets, vinegar, green onions and olive oil (if you're using it), then crumble the goat cheese on top and serve. Enjoy!