Tag

fall

Farmer's Market Lunch Recipes Quick and Easy Salad Vegetarian

Lentil and Delicata Squash Bowl

written by Ali

This is the weekend before the Thanksgiving food storm here in the US. You might be (like I am) getting ready to grocery shop and start the pre-cooking process to get ready for the upcoming Thursday feast. You might be preparing to test out a cream gravy with sausage recipe and getting ready to buy up dozens of eggs to make pumpkin pies, Black Friday brunch, and fruitcake. You might be contemplating making marshmallows and gingerbread as a prelude to the next big holiday, because let’s face it: Thanksgiving is the gateway holiday to all manners of foodie sin. Seriously – how great is that?

But just in case you need a little break between the turkey and the Christmas ham, you might re-purpose some of the seasonal veggies you have lying around and make this Lentil and Delicata Squash Bowl. Beluga lentils are cute, tiny lentils that cook quickly and have a nutritional punch. Delicata squash is just wonderful – largely because you don’t have to peel it and can roast it up in no time at all.

I’m linking this recipe up to My Legume Love Affair #101, courtesy of Briciole and Lisa’s Kitchen and encourage you to take a look at the other legume recipes that are being added. Susan, of The Well Seasoned Cook started My Legume Love Affair and I encourage you to check out her page.

Lentil and Delicata Squash Bowl

Serves 4

1 cup beluga lentils
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 Delicata squash
2 parsnips
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup almonds
2 avocados
4 hard boiled eggs

Tahini Dressing
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup water
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Pinch of salt
A few grinds of fresh pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the lentils and salt, cover, and turn the heat down to a simmer. Simmer for 20-25 minutes or until lentils are soft and water is absorbed. Set aside.

While the lentils are cooking, prepare the squash and parsnips. Cut the squash into 1/2 inch slices and de-seed each slice. Cut the parsnips into cubes. Put the squash and parsnip cubes in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 50-60 minutes, flipping the squash and parsnip cubes once so both sides get golden brown.

Make the tahini dressing by combining the tahini, water, lemon, salt and pepper in a small bowl or jar. Whisk until thoroughly combined.

To assemble the bowls, split the lentils between four bowls. Divide the squash, parsnips, avocado, almonds, and hard-boiled eggs between each. Spoon the tahini dressing over the top and enjoy!

November 19, 2016 2 comments

Beverages Farmer's Market

Apple Cider Sangria

written by Ali

I decided I needed to get on the apple cider train earlier rather than later this year. I’ve been very intrigued with the idea of making sangria with something other than wine – like hard cider. We also had a bag of apples that needed to get used up and I just didn’t have time this week to be creative. Apple cider sangria was clearly the answer.

I’m also moderately obsessed with Wild Turkey’s American Honey Whiskey. I’m not sure how I ended up with this in the liquor cabinet but I’m thinking it was because I needed it for a recipe for barbecue sauce this summer and all the other whiskeys were more expensive than I was willing to pay. Or I hadn’t had coffee yet, started making crockpot barbecued ribs and realized I didn’t have any whiskey and this is what I ended up grabbing at the liquor store. If the latter is the case, the moral of that story is either to always check your recipe before you do your week’s shopping or never buy booze first thing in the morning. Whatever the story is, I really like this whiskey – it’s sweet, making it completely unnecessary to add a sweetener to any drink it’s used in. It also has that smokey whiskey bite that I’m a fan of.

Back to the sangria – I used a hard cider that had a hint of ginger in it, which was a nice touch for this apple cider sangria. Serve this with a hearty stew or a dish with wild mushrooms and watch the leaves fall.

Apple Cider Sangria

Serves 4

1 bottle hard cider
2 cups apple cider
1/2 cup honey whiskey or similar
2 apples, sliced into 8 slices each

Combine all the ingredients in a carafe or pitcher. Refrigerate for at least two hours to let the flavor fully develop. Enjoy!

November 11, 2016 0 comment

Beverages Farmer's Market

Roasted Spiced Apple Sangria

written by Ali

Apples, pumpkin pie spice and wine – the absolute perfect combination as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been thinking a lot about the booze-forward sangria I had in Indianapolis several weeks ago and decided it was absolutely time for a sangria creation, so pumpkin pie spiced some apples, roasted them, tossed in some Chardonnay and a good dose of brandy and came up with Roasted Spiced Apple Sangria.

Roasted Spiced Apple Sangria is a great drink for the fall days we’ve been experiencing here in the PNW. Last weekend, we were thoroughly prepared for a massive storm, though what we got instead were some heavy winds and quite a bit of rain. It was a good weekend to curl up with the dog, a book, and sangria, with either Madeleine Peyroux or Pink Martini playing on the I-Pod. I was a little productive – I sorted through all of my summer clothes to decide what still looks good enough to be around next season and then finally un-boxed the box that was labeled winter clothes. I moved all my sandals to another closet to resist the temptation to try to pretend sandal season is still here and end up, instead, with soggy feet.

I can only imagine how tasty these roasted and spiced apples would be with a little freshly whipped cream, so I encourage you to double or triple the recipe and have a few of the apples on hand for other purposes. So pull out the blankets, listen to some jazzy music, and watch the rain fall with a glass of Roasted Spiced Apple Sangria in hand.

Roasted Spiced Apple Sangria
Serves 4

1 bottle chardonnay
1/2 cup brandy or apple brandy
2 apples, cored and sliced
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lay out the apple slices on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Sprinkle the pumpkin pie spice and brown sugar over the apples. Roast for 50-60 minutes, turning the apples once or twice. The apples are done when they are soft and caramelized on both sides. Let the apples cool.

When the apples are cool, put them in a jar or carafe and cover with the brandy and chardonnay. Stir or shake. Let the sangria sit for at least two hours, but preferably overnight. Serve with a few more apple slices and some of the roasted apples. Enjoy!

October 21, 2016 0 comment

Farmer's Market Uncategorized

Winter Squash Guide

written by Ali

Once upon a time, there were only three kinds of winter squash in my life: pumpkin, acorn squash, and butternut squash. My family grew acorn squash, and I remember eating them roasted with salt, pepper and butter, which is probably the most perfect way to eat an acorn squash. I also have fond memories of one of our dogs when I was growing up hunting the acorn squash – she was convinced that they were a threat to our safety and would regularly bark at them. Butternut squash came a little later in my repertoire of winter squash, right around the time I started finding pumpkin pie pumpkins in the grocery store. I think it’s safe to say that these three squash were my go-to squash for a long time. I added Kabocha squash when I lived in the Marshall Islands, as these green squash were sold as local pumpkin in the market and made a great addition to curry.

Then I moved to Roseburg, Oregon and joined a CSA. Suddenly, each week in the early fall brought a new winter squash and brought me scrambling to figure out what to do with them all. One squash led to another and then I was buying many winter squash from the farmer’s market and the u-pick farm and stashing them in the coldest room in the house so I could eat them all winter long.

Now that we live in the Portland area, we set aside a Sunday morning to make a trip out to Sauvie Island, which is a popular spot in Portland to find farm stands. Bella Organic Farms on Sauvie sells a multitude of winter squash, and I had to contain myself as there’s just only so much squash I can eat in a season. So here’s a tour of the squash I bought at Bella Organic Farms and links to recipes for each. You’ll definitely be seeing some of my own recipe creations for these squash throughout the fall and winter.

Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash is a great food for a low carb or carb free diet, as its stringy insides make a good substitute for pasta. You can roast spaghetti squash whole and then cut it open, de-seed and pull out the stringy insides.

Favorite recipes
Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Garlic Spaghetti Squash with Herbs

Skinny Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

Spaghetti Squash with Kale and Chickpeas

Kuri Squash

Kuri squash is a lovely orange squash with an intensely orange interior. It’s great as a pumpkin substitute for pies, as well as blends smoothly as a base for soups.

Favorite Recipes

Roasted Red Kuri Coconut Curry Soup

Roasted Kuri Squash Soup with Smokey Harissa and Chickpeas

Red Kuri Pumpkin Pie with Chocolate

Black Futsu Squash

Black futsu squash is one I haven’t cooked with before. I saw it at Bella Organic Farm and thought it looked interesting. So here are two recipes to check out if you find one of these beauties:

Black Futsu Squash in Sweet Coconut Cream

Roasted Black Futsu Squash with Hazelnut Sage Pesto

Galeux d’Eysines Squash

The Galeux d’Eysines squash is another squash that I haven’t cooked before. I also couldn’t find many recipes that feature this winter squash, so I’m sure I’ll be posting a recipe or two of my own before too long. In the meantime, here’s a soup recipe that uses this unusual squash.

French Pumpkin Soup

Buttercup Squash

The Buttercup squash is another pretty squash that has a unique appearance. It’s also very versatile for cooking.

Favorite Recipes

Simple Roasted Buttercup Squash

Buttercup Sage Mac and Cheese with Bourbon

Black Bean and Butternut Squash Wraps with Chimichurri Sauce

Honey Nut Squash

These adorable squash are a smaller, sweeter variation on a butternut squash. I actually found these at Trader Joe’s and thought they were just so cute! You can use these in any recipe that calls for butternut squash. Here are a few ideas:

Roast Honey Nut Squash with Rosemary and Gruyere

Twice Baked Honey Nut Squash

Butternut Squash Pancakes

Delicata Squash

I saved the best for last. Delicata squash have a super nutty flavor and they roast like a dream. Even better yet, you can eat the entire squash – skin and all. I love eating thinly sliced and roasted delicata squash rings on a salad, especially with a few toasted hazelnuts and some pomegranate seeds.

Favorite Recipes

Midwinter Delicata Squash and Greens Salad

Smoky Delicata Squash and Black Beans Baked Quesadilla

Delicata Frittata

This first photo is all the squash together…and a dog’s nose. Daisy is keeping up the fine tradition of dogs in my family who are suspicious of winter squash. The second photo is a trio of squash – possibly my three favorite:(from left top clockwise) kuri, buttercup and galeux d’eysines.

These last two are just some pretty pictures of pumpkins in the pumpkin patch at Bella Organic Farms.

I hope you enjoy the bounty of winter squash that are available this time of year. I’d love to hear about your favorite recipes for winter squash and your experiences cooking with different types of winter squash, so please comment below!

October 12, 2016 0 comment

Baked Goods Breakfast Farmer's Market Holiday Recipes

Pumpkin Pie Spice Biscotti

written by Ali

I’m so delighted that fall is here! I couldn’t resist baking a batch of pumpkin pie spice biscotti this weekend, just to celebrate the start of October. These cookies make the entire house smell like the holidays – the pumpkin pie spice is so fragrant. I’m pretty generous with ginger in my spice blend and it comes through in a nice subtle way in these cookies.

I’ve been thinking some about the pumpkin pie spice craze – I’ll admit that as soon as it started raining, I was in line at Starbucks for my first Pumpkin Pie Spice Latte for the year, which really, honestly, tastes nothing like pumpkin or spice. I’ve since been sampling similar lattes at other coffee shops and have found a few favorites to get me through the season. I’ve also thought a lot about pumpkin pie spice – I don’t know when it became de rigueur to DIY pumpkin pie spice. I remember buying the premixed spice and having it around as a staple in the spice pantry. It’s so simple to mix up the spices yourself though, so I’m happy about this particular cooking trend.

And since this post is all about starting fall off with pumpkin, I recently read an interesting article that most canned pumpkin isn’t actually pumpkin at all, but is generally a blend of other winter squashes, like butternut squash because other winter squashes are less stringy than pumpkin and make a smoother puree. This was a bit of a revelation for me: I’ve been making my own pumpkin puree for years now and every time I open up a roasted pie pumpkin, I’ve thought – this thing looks more like an orange spaghetti squash than pumpkin puree, so what am I doing wrong? Then I put the thought aside, mash it up some, and throw it in the freezer to be used in things like these pumpkin pie spice biscotti or pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. The stringiness isn’t noticeable when it’s cooked into a baked good or even when it’s blended into a smoothie, so I’ll keep on making my pumpkin puree with pumpkin.

The bottom line here is that pumpkin and spice is a winning combination. Enjoy these pumpkin pie spice biscotti with a cup of coffee (or a pumpkin spice latte) or a cup of tea and sit back and watch the leaves fall.

Pumpkin Pie Spice Biscotti
Makes 2 dozen

½ cup pumpkin puree (recipe for DIY pumpkin puree here)
1 egg
4 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (see below to make your own)
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
To dip or drizzle:
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar in a medium sized bowl. Add the pumpkin puree and egg and mix. In a smaller bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine until all the dry ingredients are mixed in.

Turn the dough out onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Divide it into two sections and form each into a loaf. Flatten each loaf out a bit on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Remove the biscotti loafs from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Use a serrated edged knife to slice the loafs into ½ slices – you’ll be able to get about 12 cookies from each loaf. Place the biscotti back on the baking sheet in a single layer. As they will not rise anymore at this point, they don’t need space between them, so you can fit all the biscotti on one baking sheet.

Bake the sliced biscotti at 325 for 25 minutes or until they are brown and crispy looking. I usually flip them over about half way through to ensure even baking on both sides.

When the biscotti are baked, open the oven door and let the cookies cool in the oven for 15 minutes for a very crisp biscotti. Pull them out of the oven and finish cooling on a cooling rack.

When the biscotti are cooled, melt the chocolate chips (in two separate saucepans) and use them to drizzle to decorate. You can also dip the cookies in chocolate and nuts or just in chocolate. Let the cookies air dry and then store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie Spice
3 tablespoons cinnamon
2 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
2 ½ teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons allspice
1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves

Mix all the spices together in an airtight container.

October 4, 2016 0 comment

Beverages

Kiwi Berry Gin and Tonic

written by Ali

Several weeks ago, I noticed that the local markets were selling kiwi berries, which just look like miniaturized kiwi fruit. Usually, I’m quick to try a new fruit, but I’d purchased some gooseberries early in the season and then let them linger in the fridge until they were unusable. I was hesitant to jump on the kiwi berry bandwagon until I knew what I could actually do with them.

But if you linger too long…I finally bought one little pint of fruit and fell instantly in love. It turns out that kiwi berries can be eaten as is – skin and all. They really are just little kiwis, with a slightly sweeter taste. They were so lovely, I went back to the store the next day to get more (because they also looked very photogenic, but I ate/used all of them before I got a good photo for the blog) and they were all gone. I searched around town and couldn’t find any more.

Fortunately, I’d split about half the berries and infused them in some gin, which means I do get to enjoy the kiwi berry season for a little longer than they are available. If you can’t find kiwi berries in your market, you can definitely use regular kiwis for this recipe. The kiwi infuses a slightly sweet tart tone to the gin.

If you live in a mild climate, you can grow your own kiwi berries. I think I see a garden project coming on for next year. In the meantime, I’m going to sit back and enjoy a kiwi berry infused gin and tonic.

The front picture is the kiwi berry infused gin. The back picture is fig infused brandy – I’m sure you’ll be seeing a cocktail inspired by this in October. I love this photo, as it seems a bit mad-scientist-about-to-go-awry.

Kiwi Berry Gin and Tonic
Serves 1

2 ounces kiwi berry infused gin (recipe below)
1/2 lime
tonic water
1 kiwi to garnish (or a few kiwi berries)

Pour the lime juice and infused gin over ice cubes in a cocktail glass. Add the tonic water and stir. Garnish with kiwi slices or kiwi berries. Enjoy!

Kiwi Berry Infused Gin
5 to 7 kiwi berries, sliced in half (or 1 kiwi, peeled and sliced)
Gin to cover the berries or kiwi slices

In a pint jar or similar container with a lid, cover the kiwi berries or kiwi with gin. Refrigerate for at least a week. When the flavor is to your liking, strain the fruit out using cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer. Refrigerate and enjoy!

September 30, 2016 2 comments

Farmer's Market Salad Uncategorized Vegetarian

Fall Root Vegetable Salad

written by Ali

I’d be the first to admit that I’ve become a little obsessed with fall root vegetables this season. Easy access to various types of late summer radishes has been so much fun. This week felt like a soup and salad kind of week, so I decided to do a fall root vegetable salad to enjoy radishes and beets. I threw in some lettuce as the base. If I ever get an avocado to ripen up, I might also toss one into this salad later this week.

Root vegetables can be very tasty raw, especially when sliced paper-thin. I don’t have a mandolin, so just slice very, very carefully. Radishes lend themselves to a dressing with rice-wine vinegar, so I combined this with sesame oil and soy sauce. I found myself checking the time every hour on Monday to see if we were any where close to lunch time.

This roasted root vegetable salad complements the roasted cauliflower soup from Monday. This would also pair well with a simple vegetarian sandwich or wrap.

Fall Root Vegetable Salad
Serves 4

Sesame Oil Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a jar and cover securely. Shake to combine

Fall Root Vegetable Salad
1 watermelon radish
2 black radishes
3 small beets
1 head lettuce
Sesame Oil Dressing
Fresh black pepper to taste

Slice each of the root vegetables into paper-thin slices. Tear the lettuce into bite size pieces. Toss root vegetables slices and lettuce to combine. Dress with Sesame Oil Dressing and grind a little fresh pepper over the top. Enjoy!

September 13, 2016 0 comment