Showing posts with label clean food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clean food. Show all posts

09 July 2013

Meals Made Easy #11 - Black Rice with Edemame, Avocado, Radishes, Pomegranate, Mushrooms & Lettuce

Coming back from a week away on vacation I had no idea what was in my fridge other than some avocados I knew I forgot. I needed something nutritious and delicious for lunch today. Scouring the fridge/freezer and cupboards I began to pull stuff out: black rice, avocado, some forgotten radishes, a pomegranate, dried mushrooms, frozen edemame, spinach flour tortilla, colby cheese, red wine vinegar, sesame oil, salt & pepper.

I first started the rice that takes 30 minutes to cook and by far the longest thing in the process, then getting to work on the rest.

I boiled some water to re-hydrate the mushrooms  Thawing some already shelled edemame & a frozen spinach tortilla, I seeded the pomegranate, chopped up some radishes & lettuce and sliced the avocado. Once the rice was done I set it in a bowl to cool. I re-hydrated my mushrooms for about 20 minutes and then chopped & cooked them in sunflower oil & ground flax for about 7-10 minutes until the smelled and tasted delicious.

While the mushrooms were cooking I added the edemame, avocado, radishes, pomegranate seeds, red wine vinegar & sesame oil to the black rice, mixing thoroughly. Once the mushrooms were cooked I put them aside and put the tortilla in the pan over medium low heat turning it every few minutes so it would harden up and cook uniformly. For the last couple minutes I added thinly sliced cheese and covered it to quickly melt.

Once the tortilla was done I added the shredded lettuce, mushrooms and black rice mixture over the top. The results: it was simple, took 30 minutes and tastes fantastic. The best part is I have left over rice mixture and mushrooms!

Ingredients:
.5 c black rice
1 c frozen edemame
8 small radishes
1 avocado
1 flour tortilla
few thin slices of cheese
small bunch of lettuce
small handful of pomegranate seeds
handful of dried mushrooms (I had hen of the woods)
dash or two of red wine vinegar
small dash of sesame oil (it's potent!)
salt & pepper to taste




23 August 2012

Soups Made easy - Melon, peach, mango chilled number

My CSA from Tangletown is in full effect and holy food. I only did a half share and I seriously have enough veggies for a family. Every. Week. My fridge and freezer are chock full of delicious.

Basil has been overwhelming but even more than that I have been getting so much cantaloupe! What does one even do with all this cantaloupe? Get creative. Melon infused vodka? Check. Diced melon? Check. I still have three large melons. I went to a good source: Clean Food by Terry Walters. This has a recipe for Carrot Fruit Soup. The base recipe seemed pretty good but I didn't have carrot juice and did not feel like juicing carrots and, of course, I love modifications. Below is base recipe and my modifications. It is good. Very fresh, delicious and makes me think summer. I garnished with both mint and basil and it offsets it wonderfully. Due to the sweetness of the fruit it tastes phenomenal all hours of the day. Thinking it will freeze well too when I want that delicious taste of summer in the throes of winter.

1 cantaloupe
1 mango
2 peaches
1.5 c carrot juice (I used 1 c orange juice)
.25 tsp ground cloves
1 tblsp lemon juice (omitted due to orange juice)
handful of mini carrots (my add-on)
sprig of mint (my add-on)
.5 cucumber (my add-on)
pinch of sea salt
blueberries, mint or basil for garnish

Peel, cut and cube cantaloupe. Same for the mango. Cut peaches. Put fruit into pot, adding juice, cucumber, carrots, cloves and salt. Bring to a simmer for 3 minutes. Take off heat, add mint. Use immersion blender or stand blender to puree. Let cool at least one hour. Enjoy!


18 May 2012

Dessert Made Easy #1 - Strawberry Rhubarb Compote with Cashew Cream

Oh the delights of seasonal offerings. While at the Minneapolis Farmers Market I picked up a huge bunch of beautifully, deep red rhubarb. Being completely naive on how to cook the rhubarbs I went to my new favorite cook book: Clean Food which outlines recipes by season (side note: I received this cookbook for beta testing a really amazing tool: No Plan Meal Plan).

ANYWAY, one of two rhubarb recipes was this wonderfully delicious and easy recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Compote with Cashew Cream. This is technically a 'summer' recipe but with the rhubarb dominating the farmers market I had to try it out.

Strawberry Compote with Cashew Creme
 I will note where I made substitutions, but did the cooking slightly outside of the recipe so will just list that. 

Cashew Cream
2 c. apple juice (I used 1.5 c. apple juice)
2 c. lightly roasted cashews (I used 1.5 c. raw cashews that I pan roasted over low heat)
3 tblsp. maple syrup (I used 1 tblsp of maple syrup, 1 tblsp agave)

In small pot, bring apple juice to a boil and remove from heat. Place cashews and syrup in food processor (I used a Vitamix; the food processor left it quite chunky, not smooth). Turn on and add juice. Blend until you have desired consistency, in my opinion the smoother the better. Refrigerate covered for at least an hour.

Compote
2 c. chopped rhubarb
.5 c. apple juice
3 tblsp. arrowroot or kudzu (both can be found at a co-op, natural foods store)
1 tsp. agar powder (vegan gelatin substitute - can be found at a co-op, natural foods store)
4 c. de-stemmed and halved strawberries (I substituted 16 oz. bag frozen mixed berries)

In saucepan over medium heat, combine apple juice and rhubarb. Simmer until rhubarb starts to fall apart, about 7 minutes. Because my berries were frozen I added after a couple minutes and had it simmer all together so they'd defrost. Add mixture to blender. Add arrowroot (or kudzu) and agar and blend until mixture begins to thicken and is fully blended. Set aside and cool slightly.

From there you can prepare a few ways. I found my cashew cream was not layering very nicely so I did a large layer of compote and then dolloped the cream on top, mixing it through with a knife which gave it a sorta pretty marbled look.

The final product was visually appealing (thought not so photo friendly) and delicious. Get yourself some rhubarb and try this out, I promise your friends will love it!