Roast Potatoes with Avocado Garlic Sauce

Potatoes Are Us these days.  They can be quite dull after a while unless you take them to task and explore completely new ways to prepare them.  This particular potato recipe was adapted from another favourite blog "Oh She Glows" written by Angela Liddon. Love this site.  She is a genius and her blog is easy to read and her recipes are delicious.  

Angela Liddon's version uses new potatoes and smashes them. Super fun.  I was looking for a slightly more classical look and decided to simply slice russet potatoes and top them with her special sauce. Avocado Aioli Sauce.

Oh my.

The men in my family loved this.

Aioli is basically a Provence-style mayonnaise traditionally made with olive oil, garlic, and seasonings.  It includes egg yolks and is prepared just like our current mayonnaise that we buy in our stores.  The recipe below suggests adding Veganaise which doesn't contain eggs for those who are vegan.  Make sure the sauce is used up the day you prepare it because otherwise it will turn brown.

Slice the peeled potatoes into about 1/4 - 1/3 -inch slices.

Toss with olive oil.  The potatoes were roasted and the slices turned
 over half-way through cooking time to get a nice brown on both sides.

Serves:  6

Cook and prep time:  about an hour

3 large russet potatoes, peeled

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Fresh chopped parsley

Avocado "Aioli" Sauce:

Two garlic cloves, smashed

One large or two small ripe avocados

1/4 cup mayonnaise (Veganaise is preferred)

1/2 fresh lemon, juiced

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Slice potatoes and arrange them in a roasting pan.  Drizzle with olive oil and turn slices over so they are coated.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.  Roast for about 15 minutes.  Turn the slices over to finish cooking.  They should be crispy on the outside and slightly puffed.

While the potatoes are cooking, whir together the aioli ingredients in a blender.  Start with the garlic then add the rest of the ingredients. You will want to make the sauce as creamy as possible.

One of many presentation ideas.  A great side-dish for any meal.

Plate the roasted potatoes and spoon the avocado aioli over.  Sprinkle fresh chopped parsley over. Voila!

http://ohsheglows.com/2014/10/15/crispy-smashed-potatoes-with-avocado-garlic-aioli/



- Kim Fielding

Roasted New Potatoes with Garden Herbs and Garlic

You should smell my kitchen when these potatoes are cooking! Our continuing yield of new potatoes has me inspired to revisit good ole tried and true recipes.  This particular adaptation comes from one of our regional favourite cookbooks, Annie Somerville's Fields of Greens. Published in 1993, this is one of those books that continues to provide insipiration for cooking vegetarian.  Annie's restaurant, Greens, is still celebrated in San Francisco for innovative cuisine.  Located in Fort Mason, Greens restaurant is situated right on the bay and the views are exquisite!  Let's see, amazing food and amazing views....  this restaurant is a precious gem.

Cut potatoes are seasoned with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss with your hands.  Place ten or so unpeeled garlic cloves around the potatoes and top with fresh herbs.  This roast pan includes fresh rosemary, sage, and oregano.

Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Even before baking, this smells yummy.

Fresh thyme is also a great herb to add to this mix.

The finished product.  

With fresh new potatoes, a dollop of olive oil, fresh herbs, and dashes of salt and pepper, there is nothing artificial.  Remove the roasted garlic and herbs before serving.  Top with fresh herbs for presentation.

This recipe features just over two pounds of potatoes.  Adding in about two tablespoons of olive oil, the entire recipe contains approximately 1050 calories.  Divide by six and that is 175 calories per serving.  Divide the recipe by eight servings, and that is only 130 calories each.  This recipe provides a substantial source of vitamin C, vitamin B6, potassium, copper, and niacin.

- Kim Fielding

Fresh Tomato Salsa

One of our favourite uses for the beautiful cherry tomatoes in the garden is this simple salsa.  Simply cut the tomatoes into a uniform size.  We have several varieties so some are quite small while others are larger.  A handful of fresh basil leaves are chopped and added to the tomatoes.  You may season to taste with salt and pepper, but we find that the freshest ingredients don't need it.  Stir gently and place in a bowl.  Top with a sprig of flowering basil.

Fresh basil from the garden enhances the colorful mixture of our cherry tomatoes.

A French baguette serves as the vessel for our salsa.  Slices are about 1/3-inch thick and are rubbed with a fresh garlic clove.  I didn't use olive oil in this instance, but you can brush with garlic-infused olive oil if you prefer.  Bake at medium heat until just toasted.

This would look beautiful served on a Mediterranean platter don't you think?

An entire bowl of this salsa (just over one cup) offers 35 calories, almost a third of your daily requirement for vitamin C, a couple grams of fiber, and negligible fat.  Add four or five slices (about 2 ounces) baguette baked without oil.  The baguette provides 175 calories, another 2 grams of fiber, and brings the total protein count up to 9 grams.  Fat is is still minimal.  This could be a side-dish for a meal!

Hint:  Another idea is to make the flavors more "South of the Border". Swap out the basil and add cilantro instead.  A squeeze of lime if you wish and some finely diced red onion and you have altered the tomato salsa into another cuisine.  Again, super simple and refreshing on hot summer days ahead.

- Kim Fielding

Beluga Lentils with Fresh Garden Vegetables

Hmm, what to do with all this goodness?  Let's create something.

Some of the first vegetables to come out of the summer garden are squash, bell pepper, and new red onions.  Adding in some cauliflower and cabbage that needs to be used up, let's make a salad!

Lentils are a great base for all things added to it.  They provide an excellent source of fiber as well as trace minerals, protein, and B vitamins.  Add in the nutrition from the vegetables and you have a nutrition-packed side dish.

Serves: 8
Cook and prep time:  about 40 minutes

2 cups dried Beluga or black lentils, picked through and rinsed
Olive oil, 2-3 tablespoons
Fresh garlic, 1-2 cloves, minced
Your choice of vegetables.  We used the above combination of cabbage, orange cauliflower, crookneck squash, green pepper, and new red onion.  Cut them into a uniform size.

Cook the lentils according to package directions.

While the lentils are cooking, prep the vegetables.  Thinly slice the cabbage, cut the cauliflower into small florets, dice the crookneck squash and green pepper, and thinly slice the red onion.

I love the colors.

In a suitable pan, heat a couple tablespoons olive oil with garlic for 30 seconds. Add prepped veggies to pan and cook until wilted and fragrant.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

These are ready to be added to the lentils.

When the lentils are just tender, drain them and add in the cooked vegetables.

This dish was really easy to prepare.  Left-overs are delicious.

Nutritional analysis for 1/8 of the recipe:  about 300 calories, 12 g fiber, almost 9 g protein, 16 g fat with the majority being monounsaturated and polyunsaturated (only 6% saturated), 32 g carbohydrates, over half your daily allowance for iron, almost half your requirements for vitamin C, plus lots of other vitamins and minerals.

- Kim Fielding

Fresh harvested Yukon gold potatoes.

This is such a fun time of year for gardening.  We always say we will cook what is fresh-picked but sometimes I am suprised with what son #2 brings inside.  I had planned on making a pasta dinner with left-over chicken and some other veggies from the garden, but this was too good to pass up.

I am sorry I don't have a picture of this meal, but it played out like this:

Serves:  5
Prep and cook time:  about an hour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Thinly slice 3 large Yukon golds.  Place slices in an oiled baking dish (I used a 7 x 10-inch size) and cover with either your choice of broth or gratin ingredients.  I chose to use gratin-style ingredients which included a little butter, a little half and half, and salt and pepper.  I wish I had chosen broth.

Bake until fork tender, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your left-over chicken and the rest of your meal. I cubed the meat and set it aside.  We washed fresh lettuces and made a salad that included avocado, green bell pepper, sliced almonds, and a homemade vinaigrette.  Then, we sliced up a fresh melon and garnished the platter with fresh raspberries and blueberries from the garden.  (Our melons aren't ready yet but I found a couple of beauties at the Farmer's Market)

I no longer dress salads but put vinaigrette on the side with a small spoon so people can drizzle it over their greens if needed.  I found that we weren't eating all of our dressed salad in an evening and hated to see how much went to waste.  A dressed salad doesn't keep.  An undressed salad, if it isn't finished and everything is still fresh, can be the base for a salad the next night.

The cooked potatoes came out of the oven.  I spread out the cubed chicken over the potatoes and topped with shredded Comte cheese. Back into the oven, we waited until the cheese melted and then pulled it out to serve.

Voila!  Baked potatoes topped with chicken and cheese (not too much), fresh lettuces salad, fresh melon and berries, and left-over lentil salad with garden veggies.

To make this vegan/vegetarian,  cook the potatoes with broth and serve with our left-over lentil salad, fruit, and greens salad.

Experiment, explore, and enjoy!

- Kim Fielding