Filed under: Salads, Side Dishes | Tags: Fennel, onion, orange, raw, vegan
One of the disadvantages to having a birthday right after the holidays is that most people are tired of celebrating and eating so much rich food. Its understandable – usually I feel that way too! So to celebrate my birthday this week, I decided to host a potluck based on my birthday challenge this month. I asked my friends to bring their best healthy dish (vegan or raw got extra points!). And wow, did they bring it! We had a stunning array of food: rawsagna, sweet potato soup, kung pao tofu salad, raw lemon bars, pears with raw honey, roasted brussel sprouts, roasted beet relish, shaved fennel salad, and peanut butter chocolate cookies.
My first week of birthday challenge went really well. I felt great, full of energy and zest for all the beautiful vegetables piled in the kitchen! We started each day with a filling green smoothie, I ate leftovers and more vegetables for lunch, and for dinner? More of the same. I made a delicious and very easy baked squash and millet dish (courtesy of Mark Bittman via 101 Cookbooks here) that I would then add broccoli or greens to round it out. I hit all my target workouts for the week, and found that I can run for about 2 hours on one green smoothie!
The sun was out all week, and it was really refreshing to spend time wandering around the garden, checking out all my plants. It felt like I was catching up with old friends… seeing the tiniest of broccoli heads emerge, discovering plump pink-blue blueberries, and weeding to make room for some tender seedlings to grow. I also started seeds for peppers and eggplants (I can’t believe its time already!), and a few other winter plants that I haven’t had much luck with starting in the ground (no chickens in the garden = more bugs to chow down on seedlings). My favorite seed source is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, for their mouthwatering variety and beautiful catalog.
In trying to decide what to make for my birthday potluck, I stumbled upon this recipe for a shaved fennel salad with red onions and oranges in my favorite vegetable cookbook “The Vegetable Dishes I can’t Live Without“. What an odd combination of ingredients, I thought! What really intrigued me, though, was Mollie Katzen’s comment in the book that “I actually like it for dessert.” How could I not try it?
If you have a mandolin, this is the time to pull it out. The thin-ness of the onions and fennel is key! While I wouldn’t go so far as to call this dessert-worthy, I thought it made a nice light side to our already healthy potluck spread. And it would be tasty on a bed of romaine too!
Shaved Fennel with Red Onion, Olive Oil, & Oranges
1 large fennel bulb, shaved (chop off the top fronds and cut out the core, then slide it on the mandolin to get a cross-section cut) (4-5 cups)
1/2 medium red onion, shaved (about 1/2 cup)
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 tsp salt, to taste
3 oranges – peeled, seeded, and sectioned (I cut my slices in half)
A handful of fronds from the fennel, snipped into tiny pieces
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Combine the shaved fennel, red onion, olive oil, and salt in a medium-sized bowl and toss with a fork.
Add the oranges and stir gently. Cover and chill until cold. Just before serving, toss in the snipped fronds. Top each serving with a few grinds of black pepper.
Filed under: Main Dish, Salads | Tags: acorn squash, beets, butternut squash, carrots, chard, goat cheese, kale, lettuce
Looking back over the past year, I think it very fitting that our New Year’s Eve dinner was a gorgeous, delicious representation of our garden-grown treasures. We’ve spent a lot of time working out there, making the extra effort to eat food that is grown close to home. And I am proud to say that it is now second nature for me to plan what I eat around what I am growing and what is available! If that’s not an accomplished goal for 2009, I don’t know what is. And it definitely sets the bar high for 2010!
Looking around our winter garden, I am often struck by all the shades of green I see, from the dark evergreen of the swiss chard to the purple-green of the cabbage plants. But today I was amazed at how many other vibrant colors are out there- burgundy, bright blue, even a reddish orange/yellow marigold that came to life after its companion tomato plants died. The wonders of a garden never cease…
One of my best friends from Philadelphia recently moved out to California with her boyfriend, so we elected to spend New Years Eve at our house. I broke my collarbone on Christmas, so I’m trying to take it easy. I am left-handed, and my left arm is in a sling (to keep my collarbone immobilized), so I can’t do all the things I normally do… including cooking! Which meant I got to boss my sous-chefs around (Nicely, of course).
Fortunately I’ve made all these dishes before in some form or another, so it came together smoothly: mixed greens with roasted beets, celery, and goat cheese (previous post here); Israeli couscous with kale/chard/beet greens and roasted carrots (previously posted here); and roasted butternut and acorn squash with a spicy/sweet spice rub (see recipe below). It felt great to eat such a variety of vegetables for dinner, all prepared in such a way that their textures and flavors played off each other so you never got bored! To me, that’s a true measure of success.
Happy Healthy New Year! I wish you the best in your pursuit of locally grown goodness, and hope you are inspired to start growing your own food on some scale this year!
Sweet and Spicy Roasted Squash (original recipe found here)
1/2 small to medium sized kabocha, butternut, or acorn squash
3 Tbs brown sugar, plus a bit more for sprinkling
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper or hot chili powder, more or less to taste
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbs soy sauce
Oil for drizzling
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet or two with silicon baking liner or parchment paper.
De-seed and cut the squash into slices about 1/2 – 1″ inch thick.
Combine all the dry ingredients. Toss the squash slices in this until coated thoroughly. Add the soy sauce and toss
well again.
Spread the slices in a singler layer on the baking sheet. Drizzle over them with the oil, and optionally sprinkle more sugar on them. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, then turn over, drizzle with more oil and sprinkle more sugar, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.
Serve hot or at room temperature.
Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad
Toss torn lettuce with a bit of olive oil and red wine vinegar. Top with chopped celery, crumbled goat cheese, and roasted beet slices. Cilantro would also be a nice addition.
I want to tell you about my favorite lunch. It isn’t the same thing each time, but is more variations on a theme depending on what I have. But it always starts the same – mixed salad greens.
I go out to the garden, pick a big handful of fresh lettuce, rinse and dry the leaves, and tear them into a big bowl. I drizzle olive oil and a vinegar (usually red wine, sometime white or champagne), grind some fresh salt and pepper, and toss it all up. Now here is where the variations come in.
Leftover grilled chicken? Slice it up. Goat or feta cheese? Perfect. Carrots, celery, cucumber, tomato, avocado, berries, beets…? Pick and choose. One of my favorite combinations is cilantro, avocado, blackberries (or mandarin oranges in winter), and goat cheese. Or what about lentils, roasted red peppers, and feta cheese?
For this particular salad, I pulled up a bunch of golden beets. After a quick steam in the microwave, I peeled and sliced them into the salad, and tossed it all with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt/pepper. I topped it off with a crumble of goat cheese and mixed it up a bit. And that’s it – my favorite lunch salad!
In the last few years, I’ve made it a habit to search out farmers’ markets wherever we travel. I want to see where the local people go to eat and shop, because I get a better sense of where I am when I experience what daily life is to them. On our recent trip to Peru, I was amazed at the HUGE bags of potatoes we saw in every market. And not just the brown or red potatoes you see at the supermarkets in the U.S. But every color, shape and size that you could imagine! We also learned that potatoes originated in the Peruvian Andes, and of the 5,000 known varieties of potato, 3,000 are found ONLY in the Andes. Peru’s great gift to the world! We ate potatoes a lot in Peru, and they were delicious every time – fried, sliced, sauteed, in soup, etc. I only wish I could have brought some home with me to plant in the garden!
The potatoes featured in this recipe are from the Santa Barbara Farmer’s market – I picked up a few pounds last week and grilled a few last week (no pictures, but they were yummy). But we do have potato plants growing in the garden! Interestingly, potatoes and tomatoes are in the same family (and do not do very well when planted close to each other – sibling rivalry perhaps?). I really understood the connection today when I saw how similar the leaves are. See for yourself:
This recipe is from a great cookbook I have called Simply in Season. It organizes recipes by season (spring, summer, fall, winter, all seasons), so most of the ingredients in a given recipe are also at their best in that particular season. I use this book a lot when I need ideas for a meal because the recipes are uncomplicated, they come together fairly quickly, and they taste good! Check it out here.
Garlic Potato Salad
6 cups new potatoes (cubed)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 cup green onions (minced)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary (chopped; or 1 teaspoon dried)
salt and pepper to taste
Boil potatoes in water until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Combine the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Add cooked potatoes and stir to coat. Chill about 3 hours before serving.
