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

Quinoa Salad with Fresh Vegetables

Served on a lettuce leaf, this is a beautiful side salad. 

Son #3 was all about magnesium this morning.  He wanted to talk about the benefits, what it does for your body, how he takes a supplement, and ya di ya....  I know magnesium is really good for you so I cracked open my nutrition books and another book which I love, The World's Healthiest Foods by George Mateljan, to refresh my memory on sources of this wonderful element.  The best sources are dark leafy greens such as chards and spinach (but of course!).  However, it is abundant in many of our foods if you love to eat vegetables, beans, seeds, and cold water fish such as halibut and salmon.  Tofu is also a good source of magnesium.

Inspired by Taylor's enthusiasm, I decided to create a salad recipe using the food guides for magnesium.  Pumpkin seeds were added because they were in the "very good" category as a contributor for magnesium.  Quinoa and tomatoes also provide decent doses of magnesium.

In the salad here, I soaked red quinoa, drained it, and then forgot about it for a couple of days while we hosted a dinner party and, well, it got lost behind all the food in the fridge.  It was sprouting!  No worries.  I gave it a quick dip in hot water to soften it and it is delicious and sweet.



Red or white quinoa will suffice.

Servings:  3 as a main dish, 6 as a side dish
Prep time:  not counting the time I forgot it was in the refrigerator, about 30 minutes

1 C. quinoa, rinsed and drained, then cooked
A handful of mixed cherry tomatoes, quartered
Fresh corn shaved off of one cob
Several sprigs cilantro finely chopped, a few sprigs left for decoration
3 scallions thinly sliced, white parts only
1/4 C. pumpkin seeds
1/2 lemon juiced, a tablespoon or so of olive oil, salt, and pepper, added to dress the salad

The quinoa is underneath all the yummy additions to the salad.

Toss all the ingredients together with dressing.  People think I am crazy but I usually just squeeze a lemon or lime over the salad, drizzle with oil, then season with salt and pepper.  I toss with my hands and taste frequently to make sure the dressing or seasoning is right. 

Raw pumpkin seeds are a very good source of magnesium.

This salad provides about 220 calories as a side dish with about 4 grams fiber, 7 grams protein, and about 8 grams fat, most of which is mono- or poly-unsaturated.  Over half the daily required amount of copper, manganese, and iron are in this salad with magnesium coming in at about 1/3 the daily requirement.

So back to magnesium.  It is vital to bone health in that it helps with bone mineralization.  It is vital to the ATP cycle (think energy production in our cells), helps with myelin sheath health (nerves), heart health and immune function boosts.  Magnesium relaxes muscles and nerves.  It is hard to overdose on magnesium, but the common symptoms are diahrrea if you decide to up your intake of it. 

As always, your best sources of nutrients to stay healthy are in the food choices you make in your diet.

Experiment and enjoy!

- Kim Fielding

Creamy Mushroom Soup with no Cream



A drizzle of olive oil, a reserved sautéed mushroom, and a sprig of
fresh thyme make for a lovely presentation.

I can't rave enough about the My New Roots cookbook written by Sara Britton.  Plant-based recipes are beautifully photographed and easy to follow.  Sara has been writing a blog for some time and if you prefer vegan (mostly) foods, her inventions are divine.

This mushroom soup is an adaptation of the Oyster Mushroom Bisque featured in the cookbook.  I swapped out the oyster mushrooms for regular mushrooms and otherwise improvised where needed.  My sons and husband loved this.  Not a drop remained in their bowls.

The key to creaminess is the use of pureed white beans.  What a concept!  Pureed beans can be used in other recipes to add protein and fiber with none of regular cream's calories.  I will be making this for company because it is that good.

Serves 4 - 6
Prep and cook time:  45 minutes

3/4 lb. white mushrooms, wiped clean
1 Tblsp. coconut oil
3 medium onions, chopped
2 large leeks, sliced, tough dark green tops discarded
Fine sea salt
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, plus additional sprigs for garnish
3 large garlic cloves, minced
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 quart vegetable broth
1 can white beans (navy, cannellini, Great Northern, butter), drained
Freshly ground black pepper
Cold-pressed olive oil, for drizzling

Make sure to remove any grit out of the leeks.

Chop mushrooms, leaving several slices for garnish.  Heat coconut oil in a large pot and cook the onions, leeks, salt, and thyme for about 5 minutes or until the onions and leeks are soft.  Add garlic to pot and stir.

This smells heavenly!

Sprinkle the lemon juice into the pot and stir to loosen any browned bits.  Stir in the mushrooms and cook on medium heat until mushrooms are soft, about 7 minutes.

While the mushrooms are cooking, whir the vegetable broth and beans in a high-speed blender until smooth and creamy.

Once the mushrooms are cooked, remove your garnish mushrooms and set aside.  Add the bean/vegetable broth mixture to the vegetables in the pot and stir well.  Simmer for at least 5 minutes.

My reserved garnish.

Spoon the soup mixture into the blender.  Blend on high speed until completely smooth.  Add more broth or water if you think the mix is too thick.  Season soup with a generous dose of black pepper and more sea salt if necessary.  Mix again.  Pour the soup into bowls and drizzle a small amount of olive oil over, then top with reserved mushroom(s) and a sprig of fresh thyme.

Each serving (1/6 recipe) offers 200 calories, over 5 g fiber, 9 g protein, 5 g fat, lots of B vitamins, and almost half your daily requirement for copper, iron, and manganese.  Copper helps maintain the health of your bones and connective tissues, helps keep your thyroid gland functioning normally, helps utilize iron, helps preserve nerve's myelin sheath, and protects cells against damage by free radicals. 

My measure for a successful recipe.

- Kim Fielding

Buddha Bowl

This one dish meal hits all nutritional punch points: vegetables,
grains, and protein.  (I am so sorry for the dreary colors!  This
dish was exciting with it's rainbow of fresh foods.)

 "Buddha Bowl" seems to be the token name these days for "throw together" vegan meals with delicious flavors.  Some call it the fast-food of healthful eating.  My family is not vegan, but I do go through common phases where all I crave are vegan meals.  My meat-eater men have to suck it up and go along with what is presented at the dinner table.  And, luckily, they don't seem to mind.  We call it a cleansing meal or week.  No one feels guilty or bloated after these meals.  (Well okay, sometimes I get a whiner who wants meat.  I will cook something small for them on the side.)

The Buddha Bowl mix above is suggested by a favorite blog "Oh She Glows", written by Angela Liddon.  I swapped a few ingredients from the original but that is what is great about these recipes.  Use what is in season or what you have in the pantry.  This wonderful medley of farro, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, roasted garbanzo beans, and tofu, was dressed with a cashew nut sauce.  It made my family happy,  If you need to limit gluten, swap out the farro for quinoa, rice, or other grain or seed.  Just remember to keep it balanced.

We will revisit Buddha Bowls because I think they are the next generation of "pull-together" dinners for families on the go.  The idea that one can pull a can of beans out, line a bowl with lettuce, add different vegetable toppings, and whether it is vegetable only meal or animal protein included, this is a really healthy family meal concept.  My family really likes a lemony tahini salad dressing, but a basic vinaigrette works as well.

serves:  5
prep time:  30 minutes

Mixed lettuces
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and dried on a towel
1 block firm tofu, about 14  ounces, cubed*
2 Tblsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
Cooked Farro, 5 servings worth

Cashew Sauce

1/2 C. raw cashews, soaked overnight, drained
2 Tblsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tblsp tahini
1 large garlic clove
1/4 C. nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
6 Tblsp water, or as needed to thin out

*You can either serve the tofu raw, or roasted.  For roasted, place on a pan and toss with a little Tamari and oil.  Roast as you would the garbanzos.  They can even cook on the same pan.  They become chewy and my boys eat them as snack food.

After the cashews have been soaked, add all ingredients to a blender and whir on high speed until smooth.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place garbanzo beans on a baking sheet.  Toss with a tablespoon of olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Stir garbanzos, then cook for another 15 minutes until golden and slightly crisp.

Start by roasting the garbanzo beans.

Roast broccoli and cauliflower the same way as the garbanzos.  Place on baking sheet, toss with olive oil, and season lightly.  Bake 15 minutes, turn veggies, and bake another 15 minutes or until they are roasted to your satisfaction.

In the same 400 degree oven, roast the cauliflower and broccoli.

Build your Buddha Bowl by lining a serving bowl with lettuces.  Then top with your choice of vegetables, in this case roasted broccoli and cauliflower.  Add a quarter cup of farro and a quarter cup of garbanzos.  Add a half cup of cubed tofu (this may be roasted or served fresh), then top with cashew nut dressing.

This is a simple side salad of avocado and tomato.  You may add this to the bowl,
or not.

  

Another side salad, this one fresh fruit.

For information on Oh She Glows Buddha Bowls, here is a link.... http://ohsheglows.com/2013/03/05/roasted-buddha-bowl

- Kim Fielding

Tarragon Vinegar

Fresh tarragon from the garden

After several failed attempts to grow tarragon, I was not about to waste a single leaf of this herb when it finally began to thrive in our garden beds.  I added it to salmon and chicken, salads, and finally to vinegar at the end of the season.

French tarragon is the variety most used in cooking.  In Asia, this herb is used to flavor sodas and in Europe to scent pastries.

Since this was our first attempt at making tarragon vinegar, we decided to keep it simple.  We sterilized canning jars, packed each jar with fresh tarragon, then added vinegars.  After screwing on the lids, we put them away on the pantry shelf for a few weeks before using.   Some vinegar recipes we looked at suggested heating or cooking the mixture but we decided not to follow that path.


We used three different vinegars, a different one in each jar.  Champagne vinegar
is on the left, rice wine vinegar is in the middle, and white wine
vinegar is on the right.  They have very different outcomes.

The champagne vinegar tarragon mix offered the mildest overall taste.  The champagne vinegar is not very potent and doesn't overpower the tarragon.  Rice wine vinegar and fresh tarragon produced the strongest tarragon flavor and a very pleasant seasoned vinegar taste.  The white wine vinegar mixture had the strongest acid overtones which somewhat masked the lovely fresh tarragon.



Salad vinaigrette (French style) and Bernaise sauce are two
favourite uses of the above vinegars.

To be fair, we eyeballed the amount of tarragon to vinegar ratio.  I used the white wine vinegar tarragon mix to make Bernaise sauce over the holidays and it worked just fine.  Afterwards I replenished the vinegar to the jar.  The smell in these jars is amazing if you are a tarragon fan.

Experiment and Enjoy

- Kim Fielding

Chili Chicken Soup

This soup warms your tummy.  It is a comfort food and the
toppings allow you to customize it.

I have this friend Betty who is a marvelous cook.  At our last First Friday potluck, she volunteered to bring this soup to our home.  We worked out the logistics of serving soup to 20 people with simple cups and plastic spoons and it served as a great first course for our meal.  Although it has the texture of a cream based soup, there is no cream in it.  This is also a great meal in itself with its toppings and a side salad.

The soup has five ingredients.  Not counting the toppings.  Yup, that easy.  The toppings are vital  to make it so yummy.   I chose to make it in a crockpot, as Betty did, and let it simmer all day with the bonus of making our house smell so inviting.  Normally I would use my own homemade tomatillo sauce and chicken broth in this recipe but chose to purchase all the ingredients (well, except for the broth mix) from Trader Joes.  I was not disappointed.

This particular salsa was a little spicy but I couldn't find basic green salsa.
 Flavor was great though.  Second time around I did find green salsa
and used a mix of the two.  The heat was lower.

This soup can be prepared in a crockpot or on the stovetop.  Below are both preparation methods.

Slow-cooker method:
Serves: 6 - 8
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time:  Crockpot on low, 6 - 8 hours until chicken is cooked through

6 C. chicken broth
2 - 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 15-ounce cans Great Northern beans, drained
2 C. green salsa
2 tsp. ground cumin
Topping suggestions:  cilantro, sour cream, shredded cheese, diced avocado

Add chicken broth, uncooked chicken breasts, beans, salsa, and cumin to a slow cooker and stir to combine.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4 hours until the chicken is cooked through and shreds easily with a fork.  Remove the breasts, shred the meat and add back to soup.  Stir thoroughly before serving.

Serve warm with desired toppings.

Crockpot cooking leaves time for other activities although the
stovetop cooking method goes fairly quickly.

Stovetop Method:
Serves 6 - 8
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time:  10 minutes

6 C. chicken broth
2 - 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 15-ounce cans Great Northern beans, drained
2 C. green salsa
2 tsp. ground cumin
Optional toppings:  cilantro, sour cream, shredded cheese, diced avocado

Place chicken broth in a large saucepan.

In a separate pan, poach chicken breasts and shred the meat.  Add to the saucepan with drained beans, salsa, and cumin.  Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve soup in bowls and offer your choice of toppings.  Cheddar cheese is shown below, but Monterey jack melts nicely into the soup.

Add what you like!

Each serving (1/6) provides approximately 370 calories, 7 g fiber, 40 g protein, 33 g carbohydrates, and 9 g fat.  This does not include toppings which are discretionary.  A large green salad is a perfect compliment.

I am pretty sure this is an adaptable recipe if you wish to swap out chicken for firm cubed tofu and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth to make it vegetarian.  Explore!

- Kim Fielding

Salmon with Tarragon

 

Beautiful salmon with garden herbs.  A quick and easy dinner when served
with steamed broccoli and brown rice.

Our garden tarragon is finally taking off after several rough starts.  Friends have mentioned how easy it is to grow but that hasn't been the case with us.  We finally found a somewhat shady spot with good soil that works for tarragon in our beds.

With that said, not everyone loves tarragon.  I grew up with it and it is an intuitive herb for me.  Bernaise sauce is an amazing, yet indulgent, treat as is tarragon cream over chicken or fish.  Tarragon may be used in teas and soft drinks, and has medicinal and industrial purposes as well.  I hope to make a big batch of tarragon vinegar before the end of the season to use throughout the year.  With a distinctive sweet anise scent and flavor, it is found in cuisines around the world. 

Now that our tarragon plant is thriving, I am excited to use it in our recipes.  This one is super simple!

Serves:  4 - 5
Prep time:  5 minutes

Parchment paper or foil
1 large fillet of salmon, about 1-1/4 pounds
butter or oil, as needed
several sprigs tarragon. about 2 Tbsp chopped leaves
Two lemons, zest the peels then slice fruit into wedges
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.



Zest the lemons, yellow part of the peel only.  The white pith is bitter.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.  Brush fish lightly with oil or butter then top with tarragon and lemon peel.

Season with pepper and a pinch of salt.

Cook salmon about 8 minutes.  Let set for a few minutes before serving.

Squeeze fresh lemon juice over to finish the dish.

Each 4-ounce serving of salmon offers approximately 175 calories, your entire daily need for vitamin B-12, and over half your daily need for niacin, selenium, and phosphorous.  We used Coho salmon for this recipe as it is fresh and in season through October.  It offers an ideal ratio of 3:1 parts omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6 fatty acids.

 

My Buddha lemon

Every late autumn/early winter I look forward to finding Buddha's Hand lemons in the Farmer's Markets.  They don't have pulp, juice, or seeds, but their zest is incredible.  When in season, substitute them for regular lemon zest.  I like to keep them on the counter because they exude an amazing citrusy yet floral aroma and my kitchen smells so good.  The zest and peel may be used in a variety of ways to include candied peel, flavored sugars or salt, baked goods, and infused in vodka.  They may be a little pricey, but they are a special treat.  Explore!

 

- Kim Fielding