I work in the Financial District in downtown San Francisco. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday there lies a daytime farmer’s market within lunch break’s radius—pretty hot stuff. Yesterday I walked down to the Ferry Building with the happy opportunity to improvise a night’s dinner. We had two boneless pork loin chops in the fridge and a small bag of Far West Fungi shiitakes, and the rest was up to me.

I thought I’d share this one for its ease, healthfulness, and deliciousness, though I know using boneless pork loin chops gets me no head to tail points for sustainability. Oh well. What I did is make a simple shiitake quinoa and fava leaf timbale, pan-grilled the pork chops and topped those with jus-tossed fiddlehead ferns.

Fava greens are becoming one of my favorite greens—that’s saying something, I love greens. Mustards, collards, kales, chards, sure. But part of the beauty of being a Mariquita Farms CSA subscriber is the terrific greens that come in our box: spigiarello kale, orach, agretti, different spinaches and bok choy. But for a weekly greens fix, the kind women who vend for Heirloom Organics at the Ferry Building are perfect. They had at least three kinds of spinach yesterday, plus arugula rabe, the fava leaves, orach, mustards, and more. But back to favas—they have just the right amount of bitterness and earthiness to complement the fiddleheads and the savory quinoa.

Here’s the recipe, more or less. I stemmed, rinsed, and sliced a cup or so of shiitake mushrooms, and sautéed them over med-high heat in a tablespoon of olive oil, until they softened and released their juices (about five minutes). I added a cup of well-rinsed quinoa, stirring to coat the grains in the oil and mushroom jus, and let cook for a conservative minute. Then I added a cup and a half of chicken stock, brought it to a simmer, covered the pot, and let that cook for fifteen minutes. After twelve or so, I noticed the liquid had receded too much and added a little bit of water, tasting the quinoa to check for doneness. That’s a better method than following a formula.

Meanwhile, I very simply washed the fava greens well. I heated one tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet, and added the leaves, again stirring them to coat each leaf. I reduced the heat to medium-low, and added two pinches of black smoked salt and a turn of pepper. At this point, you just keep your eye on them. When they’re tender, they’re done. It seems like you could keep cooking these nearly forever, if you wanted, and they’d be fine. You could also eat them raw. This is the epitome of easy cooking.

When the quinoa was cooked and the water was gone, I took the pot off the heat and let it rest, covered, for a couple of minutes. Then I seasoned the quinoa, and stirred in a tablespoon of sweetened butter. C’est tout.

This was actually a terrific side dish for the pork chop and the fiddleheads, but could almost be a (gasp) vegetarian meal in itself!