The Color of Local

Color Your Way to Health

They, those guys, they say that you should eat colors. Healthy food is colorful food. The more colors you see, the healthier you will be.

One of the first things you learn if you attend farmer's markets regularly is that color changes. Each week brings a new dominant color. Early on, the color is primarily green; at the height of summer, the market radiates gold from the corn and peaches. There's a time when it's all red, peppers and tomatoes. It would follow that a localvore's plate would be so colorful. Then.

Around the start of March our plates had a color: brown. Baked Wisconsin russet potatoes stuffed with Wisconsin mushrooms, brown. RP Pasta with mushrooms, brown. Pizza with long cooked onions, brown and brown. So, let me tell you it was a real treat last night.

A simple dish, par-boil some purple potatoes; take the thaw off of a bag of frozen broccoli, drain; cook an onion until soft in a cast iron pan, season the onions with garlic; add the potatoes and broc, a bag of peas from the freezer, all of that stuff to the pan. Stir up good over medium heat. Open a package of firm tofu, dice and include. Finish with your secret sauce (my wife's had soy, tamari, hoisin and some other stuff; as I have said before, she will not reveal her exact ingredients for the blog). When the tofu comes to temperature find yourself with a pleasant break from drab food.

Cook's note: the peas can be added frozen, but the broccoli throws off too much water. A minute in the microwave and a strainer will keep your stir-fry from getting too diluted.