Marinated Zucchini Salad

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Erin

Start This Recipe 3-5 hours before you want to eat it

Dinner Table Rating
1 thumb per family member

Cook’s Rating
Accessibility of ingredients, ease of preparation, and affordability

Isn’t that a lovely photo? I try not to style my photos too much. Usually what you see is what it looks like on its way to the table. But I just had to add a pop of color to that plate of yellow zucchini.

This dish was a real surprise winner. I had low expectations. Honestly, I was only trying it because I had some zucchini to use up and needed a Nourishing Traditions post for the week. I’m so glad we tried it. With great flavor and with such easy preparation, it will definitely be returning to our table soon.

I think it needs to be renamed though, so I’m taking the liberty of doing that. Once it was ready to eat, it struck me that it really wasn’t so much of a “salad” in the raw (which is what I’d expected) but is more of a marinated vegetable, like an artichoke or olive or mushroom. I don’t know about you, but that’s a game-changer for me.

Zucchini Salad (Nourishing Traditions, page 196)

Ingredients

4 small zucchini
³⁄₄ cup lemon pepper dressing (p 134)
2 tsp dried oregano
8 organic Boston lettuce leaves (optional)

1. Wash zucchini and trim ends. Cut lengthwise into quarters and slice thinly.

Be careful with your slicing–too thick and you will end up with a “salad in the raw”, too thin and you won’t be able to keep it on your fork. I sliced mine about 1/8″ thick.

2. Mix with dressing and oregano and marinate several hour at room temperature. Serve on Boston lettuce leaves.

This dressing was really tasty. We’ll be using it again for our fall salads. I opted to not use the lettuce leaves and just serve the zucchini, which worked fine for us. As an alternative, you could marinate the zucchini, then toss the whole batch with a bowl of greens for a quick salad. We got into a nice cycle of cutting up more zucchini to add to the bowl when it was getting low. After about a week the dressing lost its brightness and we tossed it into a salad before mixing up a new batch.

Stir Fry Green Beans with Cashews

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Erin

Start This Recipe 30 minutes before you want to eat it

Dinner Table Rating
1 thumb per family member

Cook’s Rating
Accessibility of ingredients, ease of preparation, and affordability

Those green beans just don’t give up. I finally told the kiddos to just stop picking them. We’ll let the ones that are left dry and use them as seed for next year’s crop. So this may just be our last recipe of the season featuring green beans as the stars.

I have to say that even though I was doubtful at first about Sally’s “frenching” method, and even though I was a little annoyed that it took a bit more time and energy, I really, really like the results. And so does my family. The kiddos like that the beans are easier to chew and in smaller pieces. I think the grown-ups like that too, but we’re too busy trying to set a good example of how-to-eat-your-dinner-without-complaining that we won’t say it.

I confess to having trouble “crisping” my cashews. I’ve posted before about Sally’s fabulous method of soaking and “crisping” nuts and seeds. I’ve used it regularly on my nuts and love the results with all of them except cashews. They seem to come out kind of mushy. Does anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions I should try?

This dish was a winner in our house. I wanted it to be a main dish, so I served it over brown rice and put half of a hard-boiled egg on top of each dish. You could also try it with some marinated beef (I think ground or thinly sliced steak would both be tasty). It also gets all three stars for accessibility of ingredients, ease of preparation, and affordability.

Stir Fry Green Beans with Cashews (Nourishing Traditions, page 371)

Ingredients

2 pounds string beans French cut
1 cup crispy cashews (p 515) chopped
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp fresh ginger grated
¹⁄₄ cup naturally fermented soy sauce
1 cup water, orange juice, or chicken stock
2 tbsp arrowroot mixed with 2 tbsp water
1 tsp raw honey
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 cloves garlic mashed (optional)
¹⁄₂ tsp dried rosemary

1. Combine ginger, soy sauce, water or stock, honey, sesame oil, garlic and rosemary. Mix thoroughly with a wire whisk.

2. French cut your green beans if desired. Heat olive oil in a large saute pan or wok. Stir fry the beans until just tender, about 5 minutes.

3. Add cashews and the sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Add the arrowroot mixture and simmer until sauce thickens and all the beans are well coated.

If you can’t find arrowroot, just use some other thickener. I use potato starch, but you could use cornstarch or even a bit of flour. Each of these thickeners gives a slightly different flavor, but they accomplish the same purpose. I let mine simmer for about 10 minutes before calling it done.

Trout with Rosemary and Lemon

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Erin

This recipe is so easy that I’m a little embarrassed to call it a recipe. It’s kind of like posting a recipe for s’mores. But it was so extremely tasty that I had to share it with you.

The Bean recently celebrated his sixth birthday. We had been listening to a Sterling North novel about a boy growing up in the Great Lakes region and doing lots of fishing. So guess what he wanted to do for his birthday? Of course, he wanted to go fishing. Now, neither the Sweetie Pie nor myself have ever spent much time fishing. I suppose we could have tied a string on a stick for him, but we didn’t really think that would be very satisfying. So we called in the experts–some family friends who are very skilled fisher-people. Sure enough, the Bean came home with three beautiful trout and a big smile.

Thankfully, the nice people at the pond had cleaned the fish for me. Otherwise this might have been a completely different post. So I was presented with three fresh fish and a plea of “Could we please have these for dinner?” What mother could say no to that?

I couldn’t find a recipe that quite matched the ingredients I had on hand and was simple enough to whip up after a day of birthday celebration. I ended up doing my own thing, and checking other recipes for clues on times and temperatures. The fish took five minutes to prepare and then was in the oven. And it cooked just long enough to give me time to saute some potatoes and throw together a salad. Dinner was on the table in 20 minutes. Perfect.

Everyone at the table loved this dish and asked for seconds. I was surprised by how much flavor the fish picked up from the lemons and fresh herbs. You could play around with it and substitute other herbs, and even other citrus. Maybe orange and oregano? Or lime and basil? You could also try cooking this on the grill, or even on the campfire.

We had one fish left over that we put into a frittata the next day, which worked beautifully. I nibbled a few bites while it was cold and thought it would also have been tasty in a salad. So, I recommend making enough to have leftovers, because it’s just as tasty cold the next day.

Plan to Eat users, click on the recipe title to import the recipe into your account.

Trout with Rosemary and Lemon

Ingredients

3 fresh trout cleaned, heads removed
1 organic lemon
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Slice half of the lemon into thin slices. Cut the other half into wedges.
Sprinkle the inside of each trout with salt and pepper. Inside each one place lemon slices and a sprig of rosemary. Place the trout and the lemon wedges into a glass baking dish and drizzle with olive oil.
Bake on center rack for 10-15 minutes, until fish flakes easily with a fork. Don’t overcook! Serve with roasted lemon wedges.

This recipe is being shared on Cybele Pascal’s blog. Click on over for lots more allergen-friendly yumminess!

Tomato Dill Soup

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Erin

Start This Recipe 1-2 hours before you want to eat it

Dinner Table Rating
1 thumb per family member

Cook’s Rating
Accessibility of ingredients, ease of preparation, and affordability

The weather here has recently turned a bit fall-ish. It’s like nature took Labor Day seriously and said “Hey guys! Summer’s over!” So on the first cool, rainy day we had I decided that we simply had to have some soup for dinner. I hadn’t planned any soup because I hadn’t expected cold, rainy weather so soon. But there it was, and I had to have some soup. This one was just. perfect.

This soup gets all three stars for being accessible, easy and affordable. It also gets all six thumbs up! Which means that even I, with all my food allergies, was able to eat it too. Any dish that we can all sit down to eat together is a real winner in our house.

Tomato Dill Soup Nourishing Traditions, page 220

2 medium onions peeled and chopped
3 celery stalks coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons butter
8 ripe tomatoes peeled, seeded and chopped
2 cups homemade chicken stock (p 124)
¹⁄₂ teaspoon dried green peppercorns crushed (omitted)
sea salt or fish sauce and pepper
¹⁄₄ cup fresh dill chopped
piima cream or creme fraiche (p 84)

1. Peel and coarsely chop the tomatoes.

Don’t feel obligated to peel your tomatoes. I chose to, because I was using tomatoes from my garden that happen to peel very easily (even without scalding). If you’re feeding your mother-in-law, or a picky preschooler then by all means, peel your tomatoes. Otherwise, I say don’t bother.

2. In a large soup pot, saute onions and celery gently in butter until tender. Add tomatoes and stock. Bring to a boil and skim. Add crushed peppercorns. Simmer about 15 minutes.

I had the last of my garden carrots in the fridge so shredded them and threw them in the soup too. No one noticed, and I boosted the veggie content. Win-win! Skimming while the soup is boiling removes any impurities from the stock that rise to the surface. Pre-Nourishing Traditions I was in the habit of just stirring it back in. Now I skim. I will say I notice a huge difference in the amount of skimming needed when using a high-quality organic chicken to make my broth as opposed to a conventional chicken.

3. Puree soup with a handheld blender. Thin soup with water if necessary, and season to taste. Stir in the dill. Simmer gently about 5 minutes. Ladle into heated bowls and serve with cultured cream.

For all my cooking I have, somehow, never added an immersion blender to my kitchen. Not having one is a true deterrent to preparing pureed soups. The alternative (processing it in batches in the blender) is unwieldy and time consuming. I recommend the minor investment of buying an immersion blender if you plan on making lots of soup. I think this may be the year that I break down and buy one.

Be sure to taste your soup and season with salt and pepper. Tomatoes are acidic and it can be hard to get just the right balance. Sometimes I end up adding in a little bit of honey too in order to get the flavor just right. Keep tasting until it suits your preference.

I’m considering cooking up a huge batch of this soup for the freezer. I know those fall days will soon turn into winter days. This soup was so warm and comforting, it would be a nice one to have on hand for a quick lunch or dinner.

Zucchini Frittata

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Erin

Start This Recipe 1-2 hours before you want to eat it

Dinner Table Rating
1 thumb per family member

Cook’s Rating
Accessibility of ingredients, ease of preparation, and affordability

We had our first rainy fall day last week. I think I had something like pasta salad on the menu for dinner, which didn’t really strike me as a great dinner for a cold, rainy day. So I scrapped those dinner plans and instead cooked up this tasty frittata and some yummy tomato soup. Today I’ll give you frittata and then you can come back on Sunday for the soup.

I did change the method of this recipe a little bit, because, like I’ve said before, I just don’t like things that are needlessly fussy. Sally has you transferring things from bowl to pan to bowl and back again. I like my way better. It’s much simpler. The method below is the method I used. I’m sure Sally’s method works too. I just think it’s more complicated.

This dish earned all three stars. Everyone at the dinner table ate their firsts and had seconds. The withheld thumb is my own since my food allergies don’t allow me to eat dairy.

Zucchini Frittata Nourishing Traditions, page 442

3 medium zucchini julienned
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 eggs
¹⁄₃ cup piima cream or creme fraiche (p 84)
1 tsp organic lemon rind finely grated
pinch dried oregano
pinch dried rosemary
sea salt and pepper
1 cup monterey jack cheese grated

1. Using the julienne slicer of a food processor, cut 3 medium zucchini. Salt and drain in a colander for 1/2 hour. Rinse and squeeze dry with a paper towel.

My food processor doesn’t have a julienne blade, so I used my coarse shredding blade. The recipe worked just fine. Perhaps better, because the smaller pieces meant that no one at the table suspected they were biting into (yet another) zucchini. I did choose to salt and drain the shreds. The smaller pieces meant that I would be more likely to actually draw out some water with this method. And I know what happens to frittata when your vegetables have too much water in them. It’s not pretty. So while in past posts I know I’ve snubbed the salting and draining step, here I think it’s warranted. Don’t skip it if possible.

2. Preheat your broiler. Beat eggs with cream and seasonings.

I had just enough piima cream left over from the stuffed zucchini for this recipe. And those eggs came from a neighbors chickens. I felt like a bona fide Nourishing Traditions foodie at this moment! If you don’t have piima cream and don’t feel up to making it, you could use sour cream or a high quality whipping cream. I think either of these would also give nice results.

3. Melt the butter and olive oil in the pan. Saute the zucchini for a few minutes until just softened. Spread out the zucchini evenly in the pan and pour in the egg mixture. Cook over medium heat about 5 minutes, until the underside is golden and the edges are starting to set.

You’ll need to use a heavy-bottomed pan that can go from stove-top to oven for this recipe. I like to use my cast iron skillet for frittatas. It’s well-seasoned because I use it all the time so I never have problems with food sticking to it. You may need to tilt the pan a little bit in order to evenly distribute the eggs.

3. Sprinkle cheese on top and place under the broiler for a few minutes until the frittata puffs and browns. Let cool thoroughly. Cut into wedges and serve.

If your frittata is getting too brown and it’s still not set, just lower the temperature in your oven and stick it in the main oven for about 5 minutes. Remember, it will also cook a little bit more as it’s sitting there out of the oven cooling. Be sure to let it cool thoroughly before trying to slice it. When I serve frittata I like to make it early in the day so that it can cool in time for dinner. Then I slice it and return it to the oven for a quick warm-up before serving it. If you try to cut it while it’s still hot it will make a huge mess and you will end up with something more like a scrambled hash.

You can bet this one will be returning to our dinner table this fall. I think we’ll try swapping out the veggies and seeing what other combinations we can come up with.