Roasted Delicata and Beet Salad

This flexible recipe was inspired by this beautiful one! My modification simplifies it (I don’t see when or why I should remove the skin from my beets!) and suggests orange juice or honey instead of agave nectar for the sweetener.

Use this week’s veggies to make this flexible salad. Here are some ideas for different directions you can take it!

INGREDIENTS

1 delicata squash

1 large beet or a few smaller ones

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup feta cheese or sunflower seeds for a vegan version

salad mix

microgreens

For the Dressing—

1/4 cup red wine or balsamic vinegar

1 tsp dijon mustard (optional)

juice of one orange or 1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp rosemary or thyme or oregano

salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Slice the delicata in half, remove the seeds and then slice into 1/2 inch slices

Slice beet in half and then slice each half into 1/2 inch slices

Put on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, sprinkle with salt, pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Roast at 400 degrees until cooked through and slightly crisped.

Toss with salad, feta or sunflower seeds and dressing. Top with microgreens and enjoy!

Daikon Carrot Salad

If you’re looking to an introduction to this awesome root, check out this article.

Daikon, just like any other radish, was something I just didn’t know what to do with beyond using it as a topping for pozole. When we committed to our first CSA with Solidarity Farm, all of a sudden we had radish diversity and I was determined to figure out how to use them. To my delight, I learned about daikon carrot salad and have loved it ever since! Plus, it’s perfect during the cold season, especially this year, because of its strong anti-inflammatory and immune boosting properties. My next challenge is figuring out a second dish to make with it. But for now, I will share this one! It’s addictive. (C:)

INGREDIENTS

1 or 2 daikon radish roots, grated into long ribbons (I use a potato peeler), or a box or two of daikon microgreens!

4 to 6 carrots, grated into long ribbons (again, a potato peeler does the trick)

juice of ½ lemon

juice of 1 tangerine or orange

2 tsp brown sugar (optional, try leaving this out and doubling the orange juice!) 

6 tbs rice vinegar

2 tbs sesame oil

salt

pepper

toasted sesame seeds (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix all ingredients (except microgreens and roasted sesame seeds, if using) in a large bowl and let soak (a.k.a. quick pickle) for 10 to 30 minutes. You can skip this step if you’re really hungry (I’ve done it) and it’s still yummy—it just gets better if you have the patience to wait!

 If using daikon microgreens instead of daikon root, toss microgreens in just before serving. Then sprinkle roasted sesame seeds over the top.

Final note: I like to make this a meal by serving it over a bed of vermicelli rice noodles (cooked according to package instructions) and topped with 2 boxes tofu, sliced and placed in a single layer on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, drizzled with sesame oil and sprinkled with garlic powder, cumin, paprika and salt.

Honey Citrus Roasted Sheet Pan Dinner

Click here for the original inspiration for this recipe.

Inspired by this Salmon Sheet Pan recipe, I am taking this quick and easy (and beautiful) recipe and simplifying it to be quicker, easier and more flexible. Oh, and maybe even better for you since I’m cutting the honey in half and replacing some of the sweetness with orange juice. If you have the time and ingredients, I recommend you try the original recipe linked above. If you’re feeling like me, this week, thinking “a glaze AND a marinade—there’s no time for that around here”…then maybe you’ll want to try this one better. You can adjust proportions of ingredients based on your preference or what you have around.

Ingredients:

to roast—-

bok choy (whole if it’s small enough, chopped into big pieces if you’ve got a large one)

bell pepper (seeds removed and sliced into wedges)

cherry tomatoes (whole or cut in half)

onion (green onions roughly sliced or any other kind, chopped into wedges)

protein of choice (the original calls for salmon, tofu, tempeh or, even more exciting, a combination of mushrooms and cashews are good vegetarian substitutes)

the marinade/glaze—-

1/8 cup honey

zest and juice of 1 orange

4 tbs freshly squeezed lime juice (and the zest of one lime)

1/4 soy sauce

3 cloves garlic (pressed or finely chopped)

3 tbs oil (try roasted sesame oil or olive oil)

pepper to taste

sesame seeds

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Line a baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper.

Mix marinade ingredients in a cup.

In a large bowl, toss the veggies with half of the glaze mix, then arrange in a layer on the lined baking sheet.

Place the protein on top of the layer of veggies and drizzle with 1/4 of the glaze.

Bake for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how long your protein needs to cook (mushrooms are usually done in 10 minutes, tofu is safe to eat undercooked so it just depends on how crispy you want it, but maybe the salmon doesn’t have that flexibility) and how well-cooked you like your vegetables.

Save the last 1/4 of the glaze and add it as you pull it out of the oven just before serving.

Strawberry Orange Popsicles

Beautiful simplicity (two ingredients—maybe three if you wanna get fancy) and a gentle exercise in planning and patience (gotta think ahead and wait for them to freeze) followed by an exercise in focus (gotta eat it before it melts). Homeschooling looks like this sometimes…activities that serve me just as much as my kids and are best completed outside in the sunshine. So, here it is—a flexible Strawberry Orange Popsicle recipe (adjust proportions to your liking):

1 cup strawberries (chopped)

2 cups orange juice

ideas for a third ingredient—mint, basil, or even microgreens (we’ve got purple kohlrabi this week!) if you’re feeling adventurous or are looking for ways to get your kids to eat more greens.

Instructions:

1. Blend all ingredients.

2. Pour into your popsicle mold. Here’s an article with ideas of how to make popsicles without a mold.

3. Wait a few hours.

4. Go outside, sit in the sun and enjoy.

Citrus Strawberry Cabbage Salad

Here’s a quick and easy salad using this week’s fruit and veggie rainbow. Adjust the ingredient proportions to your liking and enjoy alone as a refreshing snack or as a side to a hearty meal.

Ingredients:

Lettuce (this week, we’ve got red romaine)

and/or

Kale

Cabbage (this week it’s red cabbage, which is really more purple)

strawberries (sliced)

microgreens (this week, it’s tatsoi and kale mix!)

citrus (orange, tangelo or tangerine will do! peeled and cut in wedges)

vinegar (balsamic or apple cider)

olive oil

salt and pepper

nuts (optional to add protein—Use whatever you’ve got around—try almonds, pistachio, pepitas, walnuts or pecans)

Instructions:

Just rinse, chop and mix or layer ingredients. Save the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to drizzle and sprinkle over the top. Feel good about the mountain of vitamins and flavor you’re putting into your body.

Orange Thyme Mermelada

Orange Thyme Mermelada is cooking!

Ok, I told my kids this morning that we were making “mermelada” today. They were thrilled and had no further questions. But, if I’m sharing this with a broader audience (beyond the ears of my five and two year olds!), then, i feel I should do my due diligence to make sure I’m calling this what it really is…so, I did my research: The recipe I came up with was inspired by this jam recipe but I cut the sugar by more than half, more than quadrupled the amount of zest and tripled the thyme. Since the sugar is so low, it’s no longer a jam because I doubt it would keep the way jams should. We will be sure to eat ours this week! Maybe it’s more of a compote…it’s definitely citrusy deliciousness. Doesn’t even need the toast…we’ve been eating it by the warm spoonful this morning.

Ingredients:

6 oranges (zest four of them and set the zest aside, then peel and chop those 4 oranges into 1 inch pieces getting rid of as much of the white pith as you can; use only the juice of the last two oranges and compost the rest)

1/2 lemon (both zest and juice, no pulp or pith)

1/2 cup brown sugar (or any sugar, really)

6 sprigs of fresh thyme (if you’ve got it) or 1 tbs dried thyme, or leave it out…

1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. In a small pot, add chopped orange segments, orange juice, lemon juice, salt and sugar.

2. Uncovered, bring to a boil and let simmer on low heat stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes.

3. Add orange zest, lemon zest and thyme leaves and continue to simmer, stirring every few minutes until it thickens (maybe another 30 minutes, but stay close because it could be sooner).

4. Grab a spoon and enjoy. Refrigerate and it should keep a few days!

How to eat it up? Spread it on toast, top your pancakes or crepes, flavor your plain yogurt, pair it with cheese (maybe even in a grilled cheese sandwich!), mix it with olive oil and vinegar for a salad dressing or glaze a savory dish—maybe roasted tempeh, meat or mushrooms…

Makes about 12 ounces, a little over a cup.

Brainstorming Kale--A Summary for Many Moods

Check out this Types of Kale art print by Marcella Kriebel.

Not counting, but it’s been many days of staying in and as much as I enjoy my home life and the freedom to create daily rhythms with my two kids as I see fit—I might be feeling a little stir crazy. I am confident this is the worst of it since the cold weather is on its way out and today’s sunshine, alone, has done wonders for my spirit. Anyway, this is the backdrop to my approach to this week’s recipe. I feel disconnected from the outside world and, as such, I’m not sure what type of recipe to share with all of you, given you may be going through any assortment of situations and feelings amidst this moment in history. So, I’ve decided to share my brainstorm and a summary of my findings rather than a single recipe. Here goes:

COMFORT Sweet Tooth and Chocolate-Fixes-Everything KALE

If you’re also feeling in a pit when it comes time to approach your kale of the week, maybe it’s time to make Kale Brownies. Based on my research, I think you can pretty much add 1 to 3 cups kale to your favorite brownie recipe. Raw and finely chopped is the way I’d go, but a more refined approach could also be to steam the kale until bright green and just wilted, then blend it up before adding it to your brownie batter. If you’ve got any floppy carrots that you didn’t get around to eating last week, you can steam one or two and mash it in, as well.

GREEN JUICE Keeps the Blues Away KALE

If you’re feeling good and want to eat light and clean (no added sugar, please), then maybe juice is the way to go. Slow juicers are fancy and nice, but you can also just use a blender and add kale, lettuce, any other veggies you want to consume—last week’s chard, and/or a stick or two of celery which gives it a yummy saltiness, a dash of lemon or orange juice. After a glass of green juice, I always feel more grounded and ready to make the best of my day.

BED OF KALE—A Foundation for Balance

If you’re wanting to keep a balance in your life through healthy, hearty and complete foods, you might feel good starting with a bed of kale as the foundation for your meal. What to put on your kale bed? Root veggies (try roasting the radish along with sweet potato with olive oil, salt & pepper), your protein (roasted garbanzos! eggs…or glazed walnuts or any other nut or seed, think pecans or pepitas), pasta or quinoa…Just chop and steam the kale, salt and season to taste, and top your bed of kale with whatever you like. Here’s a simple recipe for tilapia on a bed of kale you might want to try.

KALE SALAD—Keeping it Fresh for the Sunny Days Ahead

Some of us love salads. I must confess, this isn’t always me! But, with the promise of sunshine ahead (my kids were so excited about today’s sunshine, they took to running around the backyard naked for the better part of the afternoon) does make me feel better about eating cold food. A kale salad is quick, nutrient-dense, long-lasting and oh so flexible. My favorite version involves, at its simplest, chopped kale, orange and/or lemon juice, salt and a splash of balsamic or apple cider vinegar. Other ingredients might include nuts, seeds, avocado, carrots, apple, radish, and any kind of microgreens you’ve got around. Here’s a more specific Kale Salad recipe that runs along these lines.

I Need Food Now! KALE QUESADILLAS

This keeps happening, especially on days the kids and I get lost in the backyard working on projects. We hit a wall and need food NOW. Corn tortillas, cheese that melts and chopped kale (very finely chopped for the picky little ones, fat strips for me). Somehow, the kale helps me see this quick dish as more of a complete and healthy meal versus a hold-you-over junky snack. Sometimes, it’s cilantro, chard, or other leafy green instead of kale, but kale is my go-to favorite for this meal. Cholula hot sauce is my in-a-pinch salsa. I’ve switched to that over other hot sauce brands because it’s the only one I’ve found that doesn’t have a bunch of weird preservatives.

Citrus Roasted Root Veggies with Spicy Radish Microgreens

This sweet tang of these crispy root veggies is irresistible to our discriminating little ones. And, it packs in the vitamin C, which we all need in plentiful quantities to fight the bugs going around this season—beyond the orange, both turnips and radish microgreens contain high amounts of vitamin C. In fact, ounce-per-ounce, radish microgreens contain almost double the amount of vitamin C of an average orange. Let us know if this recipe pleases your crowd!

Ingredients:

6 cups root veggies, chopped into roughly 1-inch cubes (turnips and carrots are what we have this week. You can also include beets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips…the list goes on!)

3 tbs olive oil

1 tbs honey

zest of 1 orange (zest it before chopping it to squeeze the juice, and save the zest for the end)

juice of 1/4 orange

2 tsp tarragon

1 tsp rosemary

1/2 teaspoon black pepper (more or less to taste)

1 tsp salt (more or less to taste)

juice of (another) 1/4 orange

radish microgreens

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450

4. In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil, honey, 1/4 orange juice, herbs and spices.

5. Add the root veggies to the large bowl and toss to coat.

6. Spread on baking sheet (lined with parchment paper for easy clean-up)

7. Bake for 35 minutes or until they look crispy on the outside and cooked through so they are soft in the middle.

8. Remove from oven and top with radish microgreens, orange zest and a splash of orange juice.

Another quick recipe—check out this Carrot and Turnip Mash perfect for babies and adults alike.

Guava Spinach Muffins

Our guava harvesting crew at work!

I don’t bake muffins very often, but my basic muffin recipe (that started out inspired by a protein-rich zucchini bread back when I was a high school teacher looking to feed my kids well on those long testing days) has seen several funky incarnations. This is a new one, now that I’m looking to use what I have around (I’m learning to eat with the seasons!) and feed my two hungry, growing little kids. My goals: it must be sweet enough for them to love it, not so sweet that I feel guilty about feeding it to them and enough protein and greens in there that it’s almost a meal for my stubborn little newly-turned two-year old. Sigh! Ok, so here’s the late fall recipe—-

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts

⅓ cup coconut oil

2 tbs molasses

1 tbs maple syrup

2 tbs fruit preserves (I used strawberry, and only added this ingredient because I ran out of maple syrup…you could skip this and add two more tbs maple syrup instead)

2 eggs

½ cup almond milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tbs cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

zest from one orange

1 cup chopped guava (which is about three large guavas, de-seeded…here’s how)

1 cup spinach (finely chopped)

1 cup oat flour

1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Warm up the coconut oil until it’s liquid. I did this by placing the metal mixing bowl on the stove top while the oven preheats.

3. Crush and toast walnuts for two minutes in a cast-iron pan with a little syrup or fruit preserve to candy them up. You can also do this step in the oven by laying out the walnuts on some parchment paper, drizzling with syrup and toasting for about 5 minutes).

3. Take the liquified coconut oil and add the molasses, maple syrup, fruit preserves (if using), eggs, almond milk, vanilla, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well.

3. Stir in the guava, spinach and orange zest.

4. Stir in the flours.

5. Pour mix by the spoonful into muffin tin lined with baking cups.

6. Sprinkle tops with the candied walnuts.

7. Bake for about 20 minutes. Check with a fork when you start to smell them. If the fork comes out clean, then they’re done.

Makes about 16 small muffins

Simple Guava Punch

Guava fruit (in Spanish, guayaba) comes in different flavors and colors, and its leaf, in particular, has many traditional medicinal uses.

So, today, the weather finally turned cool and my bones are already asking for warmth! The abundance of guavas in our backyard and our friends’ farms provides a key ingredient in the most exciting drink to warm up to—Ponche! The traditional recipes are delicious and complex—something to plan ahead for holiday parties. But, in just a little while, you can make this warm, sweet, aromatic drink that people young and old enjoy. You can keep it simple, or get fancy with it and experiment! Here’s a little recipe to get you started:

Simple Guava Punch

Ingredients:

5 guavas

4 cinnamon sticks

1 small piloncillo or 1/4 cup brown sugar (plus a tsp molasses, if you have it around) Note: While this ingredient is essential to the traditional versions of ponche, for those of us working to reduce the amount of sugar in our diets (Too many diabetic elders in my family for me to feel good drinking super sweet beverages anymore!)—I’ve made this without the added sugar or piloncillo, or with half the sugar, and since that’s the only version my kids have around at any given moment, they love them all!

Additional options to experiment with—oranges, apples, pears, raisins, prunes, hibiscus, tamarind, clove, tejocote…(You can add any, all or none of these!)

Instructions:

Slice up guavas (and other fruit you might want to add) as thin as possible and put in a pot with 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 liter (that’s about 4 1/4 cups) water, and any other ingredients you’re trying out including the piloncillo or sugar.

Cover, bring to a boil and immediately reduce the heat to simmer for at least 20 minutes.

Strain and serve hot. Makes about 4 cups.

Final tip—if you make this at night and let it sit overnight in the covered pot, it will taste even better in the morning when you reheat, strain and serve.