Recipe: $5.50
Per Serving: $1.38 (4 servings)
This is a funny mistake of a dish.
One day over the holidays I was visiting a friend and we decided to make cornish game hens, stuffed with wild rice, onions, walnuts, and figs. As per the wild rice directions, we cooked it in chicken broth and onions. But we also threw the dried figs and walnuts in there rather than mixing them in at the end. Let me tell you, that rice NEVER cooked. I mean, wild rice struggles more than other grains when it comes to absorbing liquid, but when competing with dried figs and onions, it stood. no. chance.
After about 1 hour, we still had crunchy wild rice. We cooked it in the hens anyway, then had to scrape it out and eat the delicious hens. The strange thing was that the flavor of the rice mixture was DELICIOUS, but it was clearly not cooked. We later boiled the mixture in water for a long time until it finally became soft and we discovered an amazing new side dish/flavor additive: onion-fig-broth mush. (Lovely name, right?)
Skipping the wild rice part, I've made this caramelized onion-fig saute numerous times, and my favorite way is by mixing in a little kale, walnuts, and shredded chicken. I served this recipe last week for a bunch of friends, alongside quinoa and homemade 100% whole-wheat buns and everybody loved it! (Or at least they said they loved it!)
So, you should make this. It's savory sweet heaven in your mouth.
*Welcome to anyone visiting from The Nourishing Gourmet!
Caramelized Fig-Onion-Kale Saute
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon butter
- 10 dried mission figs about 1 cup
- 1 large onion sliced
- 2-3 ½ cups chicken broth preferably unsalted (or vegetable broth)
- ¼ - ⅓ cup walnuts or sliced almonds, toasted
- ½ - 1 bunch kale roughly chopped
- salt to taste
- optional: 1 cup cooked wild rice quinoa, or shredded chicken
Instructions
- Melt butter in very large, deep-dish sauce pan and add onions. Caramelize for about 20-30 minutes over low heat.
- Add 1 cup chicken broth and chopped figs.
- Caramelize this together until broth is mostly evaporated, then add 1 more cup broth. Repeat until all chicken broth is mostly evaporated and figs and onions are dark and sweet.
- With just a little broth left in the pan, mix in shredded chicken (optional) and add chopped kale and nuts. Cover and let steam for about five minutes.
- Add ½ cup more broth if necessary, stir together, and serve.
Nutrition
Best mistake ever! I tried chopping up some whole almonds I had in the pantry... they do NOT get as soft as walnuts. I'm going to add the almonds in the beginning next time to see what happens.
I like to toast the walnuts because they get soft, and then I can just add them at the end. We had this again last night over Soba noodles!
This looks delicious.
It really, really, really is.
Sounds so amazing. Do you think it would work if I substituted spinach for kale? We don't really have kale around here.
Yes I definitely think it would work with spinach! I'd add it at the end to make sure it doesn't get too soggy.