Healthy recipe repository
I just discovered a great resource from the Nutrition department at Harvard School of Public Health – the Nutrition Source. This website collects tasty, healthy recipes from great chefs around the globe, and provides recipes for the home cook, as well as for the institutional cook. Definitely worth taking a look and trying some out.
Barley barely makes the cut
So I was in the grocery store, and I saw some pot barley with a recipe for beef and barley stew on the back. Well, I’m a sucker for a good stew so I decided to give it a go. I’ve tried two barley dishes now and I have to say, if I were starving on a desert island or in a zombie apocalypse, I’d be glad to see some barley… but I’m not sure I’ll actually buy it again.
Continue reading this entry »
Spinach surprises me
I’m not normally a spinach fan, although I occasionally like to mix some frozen spinach and lemon juice in with my rice while it’s cooking. But yesterday I decided to try something new – a spinach, mushroom and goat feta tart!
I know, I know, it sounds complicated. But it literally took me less time to prepare it than the oven took to heat up, and then it was just a matter of setting a 40 minute timer and waiting. So simple.
Bok Choy
A few days ago, I ate at a Chinese restaurant in my neighbourhood and was surprised by a delightful new vegetable which was served as a side to my dish: Bok choy. The bok choy was very tasty – crisp, fresh and soaked in a delicious soy and garlic sauce.
Today, I tried my hand at replicating this. I didn’t get it quite right, but the result was pretty good – and super quick!
After washing and trimming the baby bok choy, I heated about 1 tablespoon (tbsp) of vegetable oil in a small pan with 2 tbsp of low-sodium soy sauce, 1 tbsp of water, and about 1 teaspoon each of pre-chopped garlic and pureed ginger – both of which I buy pre-prepared for convenience. I added the bok choy to the pan once it had started sizzling a little, put a cover on the pan, and steamed it for about 3 minutes. And that was that!
Anyone got a favourite bok choy recipe I should try?
Nice Resource for Food Preservation
I recently stumbled across a really useful website at the University of Georgia called the National Center for Home Food Preservation. This site has tips on how to freeze, can, pickle, you name it… for a ton of different types of veggies.
One of the best tricks I’ve learned to help increase the amount of veggies I eat, is to make enough of each dish to freeze some. Alternately, I prepare extra veggies and freeze them – washed, peeled, chopped, sometimes blanched, and generally ready to use – in individual sizes so that next time I need some carrots, or onions, or whatever, there’s a handy little package in the freezer ready to throw into the pot.
For instance, I used the tips on the site to freeze three bunches of collard greens – which I’ve mentioned before are hard to find in my neighborhood. Now, next time I want to make collard greens and corned beef, I can just grab a package of chopped, frozen greens from my freezer.
For some veggies, it might not be worth it to freeze your own compared to just buying pre-frozen… like peas, or corn… but for veggies you can’t buy frozen, I definitely recommend it.
Kale, again
Remember the kale and chorizo soup? Well, I froze the left-overs in 1-cup ziploc bags and today I heated some up for a quick lunch. Definitely just as good second go round. Next time I think I’ll make a double batch, so I have lots to freeze for lazy days.
Cucumber Soup
A friend recently made me a delicious Korean dish, cold cucumber soup.
Although this recipe is pretty simple – barely more than thinly cut cucumber in sugar water – it was amazing. Served with an ice cube in each bowl, on a warm summer evening, this is a perfect appetizer or palate cleanser to end a meal.
I haven’t tried making it, but this recipe looks about right.
Ode to the Blueberry
Recently, I’ve been eating a lot of blueberries – I mean, mountains and mountains of blueberries. Fresh, local blueberries have just started showing up in the shops, and wow! The blueberries they have in winter just can’t compare. These blueberries are rich and sweet and so full of flavour. I’m in love!
Kale
Yesterday I bought some kale, thinking that I could substitute it for collard greens in my greens and rice with corned beef recipe, since my local grocery store doesn’t carry collard greens regularly, but do often have kale.
But today was the sort of day when you want something warm and steamy. So instead, I’m going to try this recipe from my favorite recipe site: cookstr.com.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
UPDATE: What a success! This recipe was easy, tasty and just what I was craving.
I’ve had bad luck with kale recipes in the past – too tough, or too slippery… but this soup had none of those problems. I even cheated and used pre-cooked turkey chorizo, instead of fresh tofu chorizo, and it still worked out fine.
I used a whole bunch of kale, so there was about 10 cups of soup. I’ve attempted to store this up for later by freezing it in 2-cup amounts – which work out to have cost about $2 each, and have about 200 calories. Not bad for a quick lunch or side dish for supper when it’s time to thaw them out.
Broccolini
If you want a change from regular broccoli, broccolini is a fancy looking alternative with a less strong flavour.
According to wiki, it’s a hybrid between broccoli and Chinese kale (also called kai-lan). I’ve never tried Chinese kale, so I can’t say if broccolini has acquired any flavour from that plant.
I found an easy broccolini recipe that suggested brushing it with olive oil, sprinkling with salt and roasting in a hot (400-450F) oven for 10 minutes until tender. While this produced a fairly tasty snack, the broccolini became really soft. I think it would be tastier a bit more crunchy, especially while salty and oily.
Overall, I prefer the milder taste to regular broccoli, but I think I need a new recipe.
Anyone have any suggestions on how to cook broccolini?
