Category: Sides

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Hey all, this is going to be a quick one. I’ve been chasing my tail since last week, and finding I barely have time to catch my breath. This holiday break is going to be a much needed rest period for me as I try to see how I can do better to manage my schedule in the new year.

Lexi chose this week’s Food Matters recipe: Pureed White Beans with Tons of Fresh Herbs. I didn’t have tons of fresh herbs, so I went with caramelized onions and red chard instead. It made my bean dip pleasantly pink! See what the gang thought up over here.

WHITE BEAN DIP WITH RED CHARD AND CARAMELIZED ONION
adapted from Food With Presence <-- I go to school with her, and you should check out her site for some awesome inspiration!
serves 4-6 as an appetizer

2 cups cooked canellini beans (soaked overnight and cooked for 35-40 mins or until tender)
2 onions, halved and sliced
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 bunch red chard, or 5 leaves, de-stemmed and sliced thinly
juice of one lime
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp maple syrup
1 drop stevia (this is my not-so-secret ingredient in just about everything)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground ginger
salt and pepper to taste

Caramelize your onions by sauteeing them in the coconut oil on med-high heat until soft. Turn the heat to low and continue to cook them for 45 minutes, stirring once in a while so they don’t burn. You can have the beans cooking at the same time as the onions and be prepping the chard and pre-mixing the rest of the ingredients while the beans and onions cook. Once the onions are all nice and brown they are done! Remove them from the pan, turn up the heat to med, and stir in the chard along with a splash of water. Cook for 2-3 minutes until softened. In a bowl, coarsely mash the beans with a fork and then mix in the rest of the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper and voila! Bean dip.

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I am totally loving this week’s Food Matters Project pick by Aura of Dinner with Aura. I love potato latkes and fritters of all kinds, and these are really, really delicious.

I don’t regularly follow recipes, but this week’s recipe looked so good as is that I couldn’t resist.

Aura’s blog has the original Mark Bittman recipe up on it, and really, you should just check out her site because she’s quite lovely. Her recipes and photographs commonly have me drooling at my computer, so I’m sure you’ll find something you like over there.

I used a whole egg instead of just an egg white, because I couldn’t be bothered to separate an egg. Plus, all the good stuff is in the yolk, so I’m a proponent of just eating the whole egg. I also used my gluten-free all purpose flour to keep it wheat free on the home front.

I baked these bad boys at 350F for 10 minutes each side – for a healthy alternative to fried fritters. Aside from that, I actually followed Bittman’s recipe. I know, it’s hard to believe.

Try these out, you won’t regret it! And see all the other fantastic variations on the recipe over at The Food Matters Project.

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So much is happening around here! I’m really excited to not only be hosting this week’s Food Matters Project recipe, but also to be a new manager of the Project (along with Lexi of Lexi’s Kitchen). I’m hoping that we can breathe some new life into it and get people talking about it. It really is a fantastic project – you can find out more about it here – and we are always happy to have more participants, so if you think you might be interested, please do join us for a recipe or two and I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I do! You can find the other group members’ interpretation of this recipe here.

And don’t forget to check out our newly updated Pinterest board for tons of recipe inspiration!

This week I chose a Raw Butternut Salad with Cranberry Dressing, mostly because I was in student-mode when I was looking through the cookbook. I knew I would have a lot going on this week and so I tried to pick something that wouldn’t be too time consuming. Also, I had never tried raw squash before!

Plus, even though we already had Canadian Thanksgiving, there’s still plenty of time to squeeze in some healthy side dishes for American Thanksgiving – and this one is suitable for a gluten-free and vegan diet.

The squash was just a little crunchy, made softer by the cranberry sauce. I added pecans and a couple drops of stevia because my sauce was quite tart. Also of note is that 1 tbsp of ginger ended up making a reeeeeally gingery sauce, so if that’s not your thing you might want to go a little easy on the ginger. I added a pinch of cinnamon because I just couldn’t resist. I would definitely make this again as a quick side dish. It comes together really quickly, making it perfect for a weeknight dinner.

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Okonomiyaki is a popular Japanese dish sometimes translated to something like “Japanese Pizza”, but it’s really much closer to a potato pancake – yet with cabbage instead of potato. It’s typically loaded with toppings and covered in a sauce and mayo.

I have for you a healthier, veggie-friendly version. Cabbage, leeks, onions. Delicious.

Even with no potatoes, the taste is reminiscent of a potato latke… but full of cabbage, and with it a healthy dose of vitamin C, anti-inflammatory nutrients, and antioxidants. Cruciferous vegetables for the win!

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Phew! We just got back from our fantastic Rockies trip and it was oh so fun. We did some hiking and some jumping in glacier-fed lakes and rivers, some sight-seeing and some hot spring dipping. Pictures to come!

After many days on the road, and much too much junk food, I was thankful to arrive home to our bright green CSA share and a refreshing summer Food Matters Project recipe.

Alyssa chose this week’s recipe, Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce, and I couldn’t help but envision it in the giant collard greens tumbling out of our CSA bag. After all that road trip eating (read: junking), my body was begging me for a variety of veggies… wrapped in veggies. Perhaps also dipped in a most deliciously sweet and tangy almond and sunflower seed butter concoction.

Chop up some green onions, cilantro, and red pepper, shred some beets and carrots, scoop some avocado, rinse off some kelp noodles…

Kelp noodles?! These things are awesome! I purchased them at my local raw food store, Organic Lives, and I’ve also seen them at Whole Foods.

Seaweed and other sea vegetables are rich in iodine, as well as vitamin C and iron. In fact, sea vegetables are rich in a large variety of minerals. Thanks to all that nutrient-richness, sea veggies have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties, and as well as being rich in antioxidants, they are super foods full of super goodness!

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Things have been slow going around the home-cooking front. My Dad had a heart attack on Saturday and he’s in the hospital now, waiting to see if they are going to schedule a bypass. Everyone has been doing their best to stay really positive, and I really appreciate all the kind words and support from friends. It’s been especially tough on my Mom, but I’m just hoping we can all rally together to support each other. Here’s hoping everything will turn out alright.

It’s times like these I am looking for quick and easy things to make for dinner. Reid and I are headed out of town tomorrow for our anniversary trip (4 years!) so I needed to use up some of the stuff that was lingering in the fridge. We had three big heads of kohlrabi just asking to be eaten.

In all honesty, I am this close to being over kohlrabi. We have had a ton of it from the Market these past few weeks. We tried it pureed and mixed with onions and mushrooms. We steamed the greens, and sauteed them. We grated and chopped it raw into salads, munched on it on it’s own, and tossed it onto the grill.

Then we steamed it with carrots and pureed them together. No way.

So simple, yet so delicious. With a hint of a turnip-y flavour, but a subtle sweetness from the carrot. I won’t even tell you how much of it I ate right out of the pot. So much.

This makes a great side dish. A lighter, more colourful replacement for mashed potatoes perhaps?

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Sometimes I get lost in the day-to-day-ness of things. I imagine it’s a common thing for most people. Despite my best intentions of leaving plenty of time in my week for ‘me’ time and reflection, I seem to be really packing my schedule lately. And I’ve been getting a bit lost in it all.

Mixing up which day it is. Getting dressed for a shift at the gym and then realizing it’s actually a physio appointment I’m supposed to be going to. Locking the keys in the car. Planning out a day of lazing about and then seeing an alert on my phone while in line at the grocery store telling me I have to be at work in 10 minutes. Packing lunch and leaving it on the counter. Arriving at physio without my wallet (how do you get your car out of a gated parkade without your wallet? Most likely your supermom saves the day once again).

Each of these has happened within the past couple weeks, and if I listen really hard, I can hear the voice from within saying “slow down”, “be present”.

Meal time for me is like meditation. It’s my time to focus and breathe, to be in the moment, to create, and to nourish my body. From selecting fresh produce, to washing, chopping, stirring… it’s all part of a peaceful process. A process I have grown to love and cherish.

Last weekend I volunteered at one of the local Farmer’s Markets and at the end of the day I took home a bounty of fresh, local, organic goods. In the whirlwind that has been the last few days, I forgot about the lovely garlic scapes I had snagged, but once I saw them in the crisper tonight, I knew I had to whip something up with them.

I had some fresh shiitakes and pearl onions that I thought would go nicely together. The garlic scapes, tossed in at the very end, would lend a mild garlicky flavour and a slightly crunchy texture. I had never cooked pearl onions or garlic scapes, but I’d been dying to try both.

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This was the kale dish that converted my Dad to a kale lover. A pretty serious feat if you know the guy. He was adamant this green veggie was not for him.

Now he praises the goodness of kale to all who will listen! How fantastic!

He often makes it without the dressing, relying on the natural sweetness of the apples to sweeten the dish, but I love to add some creamy, sweet tahini dressing.

This is one of the easiest side dishes ever. Promise. It also happens to be mega nutritious. I’ve been known to sprinkle in some pecans and call it dinner.

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What a weekend. This whole last week has been a total blur. It feels like we’ve been going non-stop. It is SO nice to lounge around on a sunny Sunday morning and eat that kale I meant to make into kale chips. Oh well, nutritious green breakfast it is. That’s Reid’s plate – with 2 eggs from the farmer’s market and a slice of sprouted grain toast. For a tasty egg-less version, a handful of black beans goes great with the kale. I took the opportunity to squeeze as much of the produce that was leftover in my fridge at the end of the week into this brunchy meal. Lonely carrot, meet half zucchini and remnant of red pepper.

Here’s my balcony sitting spot. Surrounded by our edible balcony forest (empty hanging baskets will soon be home to strawberries)! And framed by the bicycle – calling to me to be diligent with rehabilitating my ankle so we can enjoy summer adventures together. I’ll do my best, bicycle!

Yesterday we took the ferry over to Nanaimo for the engagement party of my best friend from highschool. It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky – filled with good company, food, and laughter.

Tonight we’re headed to my family’s big Mother’s Day gathering.

Shoutout to my Mom: You’re the BEST!

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I think it’s safe to say, Spring in the Pacific Northwest has officially sprung! All our plants are in their pots on the balcony and it’s juuuuust about warm enough to leave the tender ones out all night. Sitting out on our balcony, having a soak-up-the-sun day with our edible mini-forest, is just divine.

Other things that made me blissfully happy this past weekend:

* Family fun time at the 1st birthday party of my cousin Sarah’s little one.

* Discovering Le Marche St. George, the loveliest of neighbourhood cafes, and enjoying some delectable Sablefish brunch sandwiches.

* A backyard dinner party in the valley – fresh air and good company.

* Fresh Spring produce at the East End Food Co-op. Sunchokes! YUM!

This was my first sunchoke experience. These little guys are also known as Jerusalem artichokes… but they’re actually a member of the sunflower family. They’re rich in potassium, and they’ve also got Vitamin C, lots of fiber, iron, and thiamine.

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