Breakfast Bites

Sometimes a little advance effort has a big pay-off. That’s most certainly the case with breakfast — the last thing most of us want to do first thing in the morning is spend a lot of time preparing/scrounging for something to eat. Specifically, something that will taste good, be healthy, and be satisfying enough to last until lunch. All three of those conditions are impossible to fulfill — although those with a sweet tooth would probably argue that the “tastes good” criteria would be met — with what you’ll find in the cereal aisle or the reduced-fat dairy section in most supermarkets. (Also known as the Aisle of Sugar and the Section of Sugar departments.)

If you’re willing to spend a little time making these breakfast bites while you listen to your favorite podcast, though, you won’t face a first-thing-in-the-morning crisis. With three kinds of whole grains, two seeds, eggs, extra-virgin olive oil, and natural sweeteners in the form of raisins and dates, these little guys taste great, are healthy, and won’t leave you hungry by 10 a.m. Plus, they’re bite-size and highly portable. How convenient is that?

Breakfast Bites
Makes approximately 60 bites.

1/4 cup sunflower seeds, coarsely ground in a food processor
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, coarsely ground in a food processor
1/4 cup teff flour*
3/4 cup sorghum flour*
3/4 cup brown rice flour*
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup date sugar
1/2 cup raisins
3 eggs, separated
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Powdered sucanat for rolling (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F and cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together seeds, flours, cinnamon, baking powder, and date sugar. Stir in raisins, separating them by hand if they’re clumping together.

Crack the egg whites into a large bowl and put the yolks in another large bowl. Whip the whites with the cream of tartar — since the cream of tartar is acidic, it helps set the whites faster — until you have almost-stiff peaks (the kind that very slowly and gently starts to fall over after you’ve lifted up the beater).

Using the same beater, whip the yolks with the vanilla and oil until the mixture is frothy and thick. Stir the dry ingredients into the yolks. The dough will be dry, but that’s okay — you still have to fold in the whites. After you’ve folded them in with a spatula, start rolling the dough into 1″ balls and placing them on the baking sheets. I find that the easiest way to do that is pinch the dough together, use your fingertips to form it into a rough ball, and then give it a little finishing “polish” roll in the palm of your hand.

Bake for 12 minutes until bottoms are golden brown. If you like, roll the hot-out-of-the-oven balls in powdered sucanat to give them a little more sweetness. I do like to roll them, so I bake the bites in 2 batches — that way, I can get the first batch sucanat-ed while they’re still hot. Let bites cool completely before storing them in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

* These are gluten-free flours. If you’d rather make a wheat-based version, use an equivalent of kamut, spelt, and/or whole-wheat flour.

Sunflower & Sesame Kale Chips

Kale chips seem to be the Hot Food Thing right now…and they’ve also been on my personal Obsessed with These Yummies list for the last two years. I’m always on the lookout for an ever-tastier chip. Last weekend, I found inspiration for my quest in the form of a side order of onion rings at The Raw Cafe in Detroit. Whatever blend of nuts and spices those crispy puppies were dredged in was culinary nirvana!

I decided to make a batch of kale chips using what I thought was on the onions: sesame, sunflower, nutritional yeast, tamari, and dried herbs. I think I’ve hit the nail at least somewhat on the head here. Or leaf, as it may be. If you happen to try those onion rings and figure out a way to reverse engineer them, by all means please let me know! Together, we’ll crack the code.

Sunflower & Sesame Kale Chips

The amount of seasoning will depend on how much kale you have, so it’s best to keep these general proportions in mind and tailor them to your needs. First, preheat the oven to 325F and cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Rinse kale, whack dry against the edge of the sink (water pretty much bounces off those crinkly leaves), and rip tough ribs away from each leaf. Tear the leaves into small pieces and place in a large bowl.

To make the seasoning, grind equal parts sunflower seeds and sesame seeds (either seed/both seeds can be raw or toasted) with a hearty dash of dried Italian herbs. Add a heaping spoonful of nutritional yeast — it should be about half the amount of the seeds. For example, if you use 2 T. each of the seeds, use 1 T. of the yeast (along with a big dash of herbs). Drizzle kale lightly with tamari*/soy sauce and mix well with the ground seeds. The goal is to have just enough tamari to make the leaves a little bit wet so that the seeds will stick. Too wet, and leaves will never get crispy in the oven.

Spread chips out on baking sheets so that none overlap and bake for 25 minutes or until chips are crispy and starting to turn brown. Eat immediately. You’ll probably wish you had more.

Enjoy!

* Be sure to use wheat-free tamari if you’re making gluten-free chips.

Mushroom & Tomato Tapenade

Traditional tapenade includes the holy trinity of salty garnishing ingredients: olives, anchovies, and capers. It’s an intense blend of flavors and a perfect example of the “a little goes a long way” school of thought. For this batch, though, I’ve decided to go alter the main ingredients and go with the holy trinity of umami, or savoriness: olives, mushrooms, and tomatoes. While both the olives and canned tomatoes are salty, the mushrooms gentle their saltiness and provide a smooth, rich base.

Throw in the herbs and aromatics, and you’ve got yourself a versatile purée that you can use alone as a dip, thinned with more tomatoes as a sauce, or as a flavoring to add to other dips and sauces. If you blended it with a dash of extra-virgin olive oil, you’d have a great dressing for a bean- or lettuce-based salad. I opted to enjoy my tapenade as a spread for an impromptu giant cracker — namely, a corn tortilla I pulled out of the freezer and pan-toasted for a few minutes over medium heat.

Mushroom & Tomato Tapenade

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 small onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
At least 20 pitted black olives (or green, if you prefer)
15 oz. canned diced tomatoes
1 T. Italian herbs

In a large skillet, sautée mushrooms and onions with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat for 8 minutes. Stir in garlic and olives and continue to cook for another 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and herbs and let simmer for at least 10 minutes, reducing heat to medium-low if the tapenade is bubbling too furiously. You want to reduce the mixture slightly, but not to the point of cooking away the tomatoes.

Purée the finished tapenade in a food processor until mostly smooth. (You can leave it chunkier if you’d prefer.) Not only is the tapenade ideal for dips, sauces, dressings, etc. — see intro paragraphs for more ideas — you can freeze it in ice cube trays for easy access in case you’d like to have it on hand as instant soup seasoning.

Enjoy!

Mashed Potato Cake with a Poached Egg

We’ve all been there: you made too much of a side dish and wound up with more than you could chew. Literally. So you stick it in the fridge and figure that you’ll get around to eating it eventually…but then you don’t, and you wind up pitching your grocery dollars instead of eating them. It happens to the best of us.

That nearly happened to me when I had a pot of mashed redskins in my fridge. Luckily, though, when I was pondering what to have for breakfast one night (yes, I think it about it the night before in order to facilitate the whole getting-ready-in-the-morning process), I remembered those potatoes and decided they’d make a great base for a poached egg. Moreover, I decided they’d make great mashed potato cakes upon which to perch the egg. And the best part? The cakes only take 10 minutes total, so if you time the poaching right, you’ll have piping-hot potatoes and eggs to enjoy first thing in the morning.

Mashed Potato Cake with a Poached Egg

Mashed potatoes*
Egg(s)

Shape the potatoes into hamburger-sized patties no more than 1″ thick. Heat a dab of butter over medium heat until butter is melted, then gently lay on the potato patties. Cook for 5 minutes before very carefully and very gently flipping over the patties. Add another dab of butter if the pan is dry. Cook for another 5 minutes, reducing the heat by a notch or two since now the pan will be very hot and the cooking will be in full swing. Patties should be golden brown on both sides.

While the potato cakes are cooking, bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Crack in an egg (or two) and reduce heat to medium. Stir the egg gently to make sure it isn’t sticking to the bottom of the pan. Simmer it for 3 minutes. Eggs tend to foam over as they poach, so you want to stand right by that pot and keep an eye on it for those 3 minutes. The goal is a gently simmer the egg, not boil it — you may need to reduce the heat to medium-low or even low. Skim any rising foam off the top and discard it so that it doesn’t splash onto the stove and make a hard-to-clean mess.

Remove poached egg from water with a slotted spoon and place on top of the potato cake. Garnish with herbs and/or cracked black pepper if desired.

Enjoy!

* To mash potatoes, cut potatoes — in this case, redskins — into 1″ cubes and simmer them for 10 minutes. Drain well and mash with whatever extras you’d like: a pat of butter, a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, a soft cheese such as ricotta or goat, some snipped chives, a dash of dried herbs, etc. I mashed mine with some sauteéd garlic and chopped parsley.

Coconut & Maple Macaroons

Macaroons are the hottest thing in high-end pastry and chocolate shops right now … but when you think “macaroon,” you’re probably thinking of something different. Although classic French macaroons consist of chocolate cream sandwiched between two disks of almond meringue, when the concept was translated to the American dessert lexicon, the recipe changed. Drastically.

Each kind of macaroon has its own charm, and both are irrefutably delightful. The French ganache-and-meringue version is crunchy and creamy at the same time; the American version is based on coconut and is charmingly chewy. Odds are that each will strike your fancy at a different time. When you want to make a quick and easy dessert, for example, you’ll probably have a hankering for the American macaroon. It requires zero heating of any kind and can be made in about two minutes. The French version is considerably more involved. While “project”-style desserts are ideal if you have some time on your hands and curiosity in your nature, sometimes a make-it-in-fewer-than-five-minutes dessert is exactly what you’re looking for.

Coconut & Maple Macaroons
Makes 12 macaroons. Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.

1/2 cup + 1 T. unsweetened coconut flakes
3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
2 T. maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Sprinkle some cocoa powder on a large plate and have another empty clean plate nearby. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, mixing well. Use your fingertips to roughly pinch the mixture into 12 equal balls, then roll each ball into a smooth ball on the dry, clean palms of your hands. (Your fingertips will be sticky from having mixed everything together.) Place the macaroons on the clean plate as you go. Wash and dry your hands thoroughly — the idea is to ensure that the macaroons stick to themselves rather than your hands — and then roll each macaroon in the cocoa powder to finish. Alternatively, roll in almond flour or finely ground pistachios or any other finely ground nut.

Macaroons can be refrigerated for up to a week. They’ll dry out slightly and actually improve in texture upon standing. (Although I like them freshly made, too.)

Enjoy!

Chive & Spinach Pesto

It’s not just the grass and tulips that are in full bloom: the chives are growing like gangbusters, too. Seeing all of those tall-but-still-tender chives put me in a pesto kind of mood. (Green + herb = pesto in my mind.) It’s still a bit too chilly for basil, though, so I opted to use chives and spinach instead. Not only is spinach another early-growing tasty edible, its fresh, sweet flavor offsets the garlicky nature of the chives.

If you’d like to make a raw, spicy version of this pesto, use baby spinach and simply toss everything in a food processor. I prefer a more mellow taste, so I opted to steam the spinach and then wring it out before adding it. (You don’t want watery pesto!) I also adore the nutty, warm flavor of sautéed garlic. Either way, you’ll have a plateful of spring flavors.

Chive & Spinach Pesto
Serves 2. Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.

2 servings whole-grain pasta of your choice (I used Tinkyada’s brown rice fettucini; be sure to get gluten-free pasta if you’re making a gluten-free dish!)
8 oz. baby or curly spinach (use baby if you’re making an all-raw pesto)
Garlic (optional)
Chives (if your chives are fresh and strong-flavored, start by only using about three individual chives; taste your pesto before adding more so as not to over-chive it)
Handful of pine nuts OR sliced almonds

Prepare pasta according to package directions. If you’re making raw pesto, toss remaining ingredients in a food processor — perhaps skipping the garlic altogether since chives are potent all on their own — and blend until smooth, drizzling in a bit of extra-virgin olive oil and a shake of sea salt before doing the final blending.

If you’re making a more mellow pesto, steam the spinach for 3 minutes or until wilted. Drain well, pressing the spinach into the side of the colander with the back of a large spoon to really get the water out. While the spinach is draining, chop the garlic and sautée it in a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium-low heat for 3 minutes or until just starting to turn golden brown.

Scoop the garlic into a food processor, add drained spinach and chives, and blend. Add pine nuts and blend again, scraping down the sides of the processor. Drizzle in a little more oil if you’d like a richer taste and smoother consistency. Salt to taste. (If you’re serving the pesto with cheese or something salty, you might want to skip salting the pesto.) Serve with cooked noodles, veggies, sautéed chicken, or as a dip for crudites or bread, garnishing with additional pine nuts if you like.

Since this pesto is made with chives and spinach rather than basil, it will keep longer in the fridge (basil oxidizes and turns black very quickly; chives and spinach do not). Leftover pesto can be kept for 4 days and is great for everything from flavoring soups — just stir in a spoonful! — to garnishing roasted veggies.

Enjoy!

Egg & Spinach Breakfast Tacos

Breakfast tacos are a beautiful thing when you make them yourself: you can use whatever filling you’d like, you can use whatever toppings you like, and you can make your tacos as hearty or as light as you’d like. And the best part? These tacos only take about five minutes to make, ten if you make your salsa right there on the spot. (I had made salsa the previous day to accompany a different dish, so I was able to skip those five extra minutes.)

Seeing as these were breakfast tacos, I opted for an egg and spinach filling, but you could just as easily use leftover cooked meat or seafood if you’d like … or you could do an all-veggie taco. Tasty toppings would include everything from cheese to plain whole-milk Greek yogurt (which is even smoother and creamier-tasting than sour cream) to chopped avocados. The only requirement is to have fun creating your Mexican-themed morning meal!

Egg & Spinach Breakfast Tacos
This is sized for a single portion, but feel free to double, triple, or even quadruple it.

For the salsa (which you can make well ahead of time and serve with a variety of other dishes):
Black beans, drained (my favorite brand of canned beans is Eden since they use BPA-free cans and sea salt)
Chopped red bell pepper
Cooked corn kernels (I used thawed organic frozen corn)
Chopped fresh cilantro
Squirt of lemon or lime juice
Dash of sea salt

For the tacos:
3 small or 1 large 100% corn tortilla
Handful of spinach
2 eggs, lightly scrambled in a bowl

See second paragraph for optional toppings suggestions.

To make the salsa, simply combine ingredients in a bowl and toss well. Salsa will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.

To make the tacos, place the tortillas in a large skillet over medium heat to warm them. The tortillas will probably curl with the heat, so you may have to turn them occasionally and press down on them slightly to try and flatten them out a bit.

While your tortillas are warming, heat a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil or a pat of butter in small skillet over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the spinach. Cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes or until spinach has shrunk considerably. Add eggs and continue to cook, stirring often, for another 3 minutes or until eggs are softly cooked through.

Spoon eggs into heated tortillas and top with salsa and any other toppings you may wish to add.

¡Disfruta!

Mediterranean Lamb Pizza with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

If pizza had originated in Morocco rather than Italy, I have a sneaking suspicion that lamb would have been the meat of choice, not pepperoni. (Or perhaps pepperoni made with lamb. Hint, hint… I can only hope the American Lamb Board is reading this!) And perhaps the sauce would have been been made the way I made this one — with roasted red peppers instead of tomatoes. It’s a fun twist on the traditional marinara staple, plus it’s a handy way to go tomato-free if tomatoes aren’t on your dinner guest’s list of favorite foods. You could, of course, go with a combo sauce if you’d like. If you’re feeling particularly brave and happen to have some spicy Moroccan harissa on hand, you can include that, too.

I opted to maintain the Mediterranean attitude by topping the pie with goat’s-milk feta and rosemary-scented asiago cheese. (Sartori produces a sublime version of the latter, made with grass-fed milk and copious amounts of dried rosemary.) You could stick with the tried-and-true mozzarella, but if you’re going to go with generous amounts of herbed sauce and flavorful ground lamb, you might as well enjoy a cheese that makes it presence known.

Mediterranean Lamb Pizza with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

1 pizza crust (store-bought or this easy whole-grain and gluten-free crust recipe)

For the sauce:
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 of the onion reserved for the lamb topping)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
16 oz. (1 pound) of roasted peppers, either jarred (drained weight, not the total contents weight — just be sure to DRAIN THE PEPPERS BEFORE USING!) or home-roasted, run through a food processor until fairly smooth
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. dried mint
Sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes

For the lamb topping:
1 lb. ground lamb, preferably pastured
The reserved onion from the sauce
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. dried mint

Cheeses: about 1 cup of grated/crumbled goat’s- or sheep’s-milk feta AND/OR asiago (I used Sartori’s rosemary-scented asiago)

Prepare crust according to recipe (or package directions if store-bought). To make the sauce, heat a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat for 1 minute and then add onions. Sautée, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until onions are starting to turn translucent. Add garlic and reduce heat to medium-low. Continue to cook for another 2 minutes or until garlic is fragrant. Add remaining sauce ingredients and allow sauce to simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low if the sauce starts to boil.

Meanwhile, heat the lamb over medium heat in a different pan. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring often to break apart meat, until lamb is starting to brown slightly. Add onions and cook for another 3 minutes or until the lamb is mostly no longer pink. Stir in garlic and herbs and reduce heat to low. Cook for another 2 minutes or until lamb is browned. Drain.

By now, the pizza crust should be ready to top and the sauce should be simmered. Make sure the oven is at 375F. Spoon sauce onto the pre-baked crust and spread evenly out to the edges. Add meat, spooning it on evenly, and then scatter cheese on top of the meat.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melting and starting to turn golden brown. Use a pizza wheel or the tip of a sharp knife to cut the pizza into 8 slices. Serve and enjoy!

Blueberry Kefir Cream

Ah, cultured dairy… The brilliance of it (how else would pre-refrigeration-technology peoples have stored their valuable milk?), the taste of it (there’s even a beer inoculated with the same lactobacillus you’ll find in yogurt — ever tried a bottle of lovely Flemish red ale?), the versatility of it (cakes are lovely when made with sour cream; so are potatoes). If you’ve read this blog very often, you know I’m a fan.

This time I opted to make the most of the glory that is kefir (which, according to a Russian woman who has attended a few of my talks, is pronounced “kah-FEER”) by blending it with wild blueberries, an egg, and a touch of maple syrup to make a sublimely delicious and probiotic ice cream. Even though the kefir tastes slightly sour on its own as a result of its culturedness, when combined with fruit, it doesn’t need much sweetener to make dessert. Or breakfast, really, considering that this ice cream packs a lot more nutrition than your typical bowl of cereal.

Blueberry Kefir Cream

1 cup kefir, preferably made with milk from grass-fed cows (this would be a major component of its nutritious aspect)
1 cup wild blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 egg, preferably from pastured hens (you’ll be eating this egg raw, so if you don’t have a good source for eggs, skip the egg; a good egg does, however, add creaminess and nutritional value galore)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup maple syrup (I prefer Grade B for its richer flavor)

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. It truly is that simple.

Enjoy!

Moroccan Salsa

From ras-el-hanout to harissa to preserved lemons, Moroccan cuisine features some of the most stunning flavors on the planet. Sadly, there’s no Moroccan restaurant in my neck of the woods, but it’s easy to include some signature North African inspiration when you’re in your own kitchen. To make this batch of salsa, I blended sautéed peppers and onions with harissa, sweet paprika, and cilantro to make a chunky tomato-based salsa that’s a fusion of Mexican and Moroccan ingredients.

Since I am an unabashed wimp when it comes to hot sauces, I only added a tiny spoonful of harissa to my salsa. If you embrace all things hot and spicy, by all means add however much harissa suits your taste buds. (Harissa is a fiery-hot paste made of hot chiles complemented by a hint of garlic, coriander, and various spices.) You can find harissa in the “ethnic foods section” at well-stocked mainstream grocery stores or in stores specializing in North African goods. Or you can use your favorite hot-chili sauce in its place.

Once you’ve whipped up your as-hot-as-you-want-it salsa, you can serve it with chips or veggies for dipping, you can use it to season soup and chili, or you can use it as a marinade for chicken, beef, or seafood. I like to ladle some of the salsa over sheep’s-milk feta cheese and eat it straight out of the bowl. It also makes a darned refreshing (and somewhat zingy) chilled gazpacho. Or toss it with cooked pasta for an easy last-minute meal.

Moroccan Salsa

1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
28 oz. canned diced tomatoes (or the equivalent of fresh chopped tomatoes)
1 heaping tsp. sweet paprika
Dab (or more) of harissa OR your favorite chili sauce
Bunch of fresh cilantro, rinsed well, damaged leaves removed, stems chopped off at the base

Sautée onions and pepper in a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat for 5 minutes or until onion is soft and nearly translucent. Stir in garlic, reduce heat to medium-low, and continue to cook for another 3 minutes or until garlic is just starting to turn golden brown. Add the tomatoes, paprika, and harissa and stir well. Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to marry.

Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Pour into food processor and add cilantro. Blend until you have a chunky-but-still-well-blended salsa. If you like, add a few dashes of sea salt to taste. You can also add more harissa if you want more tingle on the tongue. Leftover salsa can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Enjoy!

Shrimp-Crab Cakes with Avocado, Lemon & Dill

Just about everyone agrees that crab cakes are sublime. Just about everyone likes shrimp, too. So why not make shrimp-crab cakes? The tiny and amazingly cute wild rock shrimp that come in cans are ideal for making cakes since they’re already so small, plus they can hang out in your pantry right next to the canned crab until you want to whip up a quick seafood dinner. I like the wild-caught tiny shrimp from Trader Joe’s, but you can use whatever kind of shrimp you’d like. If you have some normal-sized shrimp on hand, you can simply measure out about 3 ounces of freshly cooked shrimp and mince it to approximate the size and texture of the tiny shrimp.

I’ve used almond flour in these crab cakes since 1. the mild nut flavor pairs well with seafood (creates a much richer flavor than standard breadcrumbs), 2. it’s gluten-free, and 3. sliced almonds are a pantry staple shoo-in (they’re a snap to grind into flour with a spice/coffee grinder). If you’d prefer to use whole-grain breadcrumbs, that works, too.

Shrimp-Crab Cakes with Avocado, Lemon & Dill
Makes 6 cakes (figure on 2 cakes for a lunch serving and 3 for a heartier meal). Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.

6 oz. canned crab
4 oz. canned tiny wild shrimp OR 3 oz. chopped fresh-cooked shrimp of any size
1 egg, preferably from pastured hens
1 T. prepared mustard (my favorites are stone-ground Dijon or German-style mustard)
1 tsp. dried dill
Freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup almond flour OR whole-grain breadcrumbs (I like to grind sliced almonds in a coffee/spice grinder for about 10 seconds to make fresh flour)
Lemon wedges for garnish
Chopped avocado for garnish

Squeeze the liquid out of the crab and shrimp, then place the meat in a medium bowl. Discard the liquid. Whisk the egg, mustard, dill, and pepper into the crab and shrimp. Stir in enough almond flour to make the mixture dry enough to handle and shape but not so dry that it falls apart. (Hence starting with 1/4 cup and working your way up.) Divide the mixture into 6 portions and shape each one into a patty about the size of a small hamburger.

Heat a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil or a pat of pastured butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat for 1 minute. Add 3 cakes and cook for 3 minutes undisturbed or until the bottoms are golden brown. Carefully flip over and keep cooking for another 2 minutes or until both sides are golden brown. Remove to a plate and cook the remaining 3 patties, adding more oil/butter if the pan is dry.

Serve patties with a spritz of fresh lemon juice, some chopped avocado, and a dash or two of additional dill sprinkled over the top.

Enjoy!

Almond Butter & Banana Smoothie

With its focus on nuts and fresh fruit (and coconuts and fresh herbs), I’ve long been a fan of raw food. Every raw dish I’ve ever had has been delicious and innovative. Vegan dishes are tasty, too, but unfortunately vegans seem to rely overmuch on soy and wheat products. I’m not a big fan of soy for a variety of reasons — ranging from health issues to environmental ones — and I avoid gluten, so lots of otherwise-interesting vegan dishes are out for me. Raw food, on the other hand, doesn’t use soy or wheat or anything processed…which means it’s always innovative, always fresh, and always scrumptious.

I’ve been wanting to make more raw dishes at home (especially raw desserts, which are unbelievably good!), but I don’t have a Vitamix and probably won’t any time soon. My trusty Cuisinart food processor just isn’t powerful enough to rip through damned near anything the way a Vitamix can.  (I seriously think you could powder diamonds with one of those.) Chopping nuts and grinding them into coarse meal works in some settings, but raw dishes often call for silky-smooth nuts as a main ingredient.

About a week ago, I finally had a “duh!” moment and hit upon a solution to my sans-Vitamix-but-want-raw-food dilemma: use raw nut butter! Nowadays, you can find everything from almond butter to walnut butter to cashew butter. If you’re lucky, you might even stumble upon jars of macadamia butter sitting next to jars of pecan butter. They all have different flavors, of course, but what they all have in common is that their textures all fall somewhere between velvet and satin. I might still splurge on a Vitamix someday, but in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy experimenting with already-made-smooth nut butters. They make anything taste incredibly creamy and rich.

Almond Butter & Banana (or any other fruit) Smoothie

Note: since nut butters are highly perishable, store them in the refrigerator as soon as you get them home. If you are fortunate enough to have a Vitamix or other warp-speed blender/processor, you can make your own nut butters by grinding shelled nuts until they’re smooth. You may wish to add a matching unrefined oil to give the butter a little more creaminess. (Use unrefined almond oil with almonds, unrefined walnut oil with walnuts, etc.)

Place a heaping tablespoon of almond butter and either 1 full-sized banana or 2 small ones (I prefer the little guys) in a blender. If you use a large banana, break it into three or four pieces before adding it. Add 1 tsp. maple syrup and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Pour in enough cool water to barely cover everything and blend on high until smooth. You can add a few ice cubes if you’d like more froth and coolness.

Enjoy!

Ricotta Poppyseed Muffin

Ricotta cheese is like a reversible coat: it has two distinct sides and both are equally appealing. Ricotta salata (or “salted ricotta”) is a hard, aged cheese that is lovely for grating and garnishing; it reminds me a lot of Parmesan. Fresh ricotta, on the other hand, is creamy and sweet and tastes like summer. Its texture reminds me a little bit of whipped cream cheese, except that ricotta made with fresh milk is incredibly lush and has none of the vaguely plastic flavor/texture of commercial cream cheese.

Seeing as fresh ricotta manages to be delightfully dense-textured and airy at the same time, I figured a heaping dollop of it would make baked goods more moist and fluffy. (Not to mention more nutritious and tasty.) I’m happy to report that my hunch was right — these muffins had a nice golden crust on the outside but were tongue-pleasingly delicate on the inside. The poppyseeds added a nice contrasting crunch.

Should you happen to get your hands on a nice tub of fresh ricotta and already have baked goods on hand, you can use the ricotta as a spread, too, just as you would butter or cream cheese. You could even slather a knifeful of ricotta onto a savory sandwich to add a whole new kind of creaminess.

Ricotta Poppyseed Muffins
Makes a baker’s dozen.

1 cup sorghum flour*
1 cup millet OR brown rice flour*
1 T. baking powder
Pinch sea salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup poppyseeds (OR chia seeds OR chopped nuts OR chopped sunflower/pumpkin seeds; the idea here is to include a crunchy accent)
1 cup fresh ricotta cheese (if you can’t find this, use full-fat cottage cheese that you’ve run through a processor/blender)
4 eggs, preferably from pastured hens
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup almond oil OR extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375F and line a muffin tray with paper cups. I find that the parchment-style cups made by If You Care work BY FAR the best.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, seeds, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the ricotta, eggs, honey, oil, and vanilla. Scoop the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and whisk well to combine. If you’re using wheat flour, stir with a spoon until barely blended.

Pour into the waiting tins and bake for 18 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Top baked muffins with additional ricotta and honey if you’d like.

Enjoy!

* These are gluten-free flours. If you’d prefer to make wheat-based muffins, use a total of 2 cups of spelt, kamut, and/or whole-wheat flour.

Strawberries with Crème Fraîche

In the wide-ranging world of dairy, there are two main classifications: fresh (or sweet) and cultured (or sour) dairy products. Fresh-milk products are made with just-milked milk that has not yet had a chance to ferment and age into more complex flavors. This includes fresh whipped cream, most ice creams*, most soft and creamy cheeses, and sweet — or what we think of as standard — milk. Cultured products include buttermilk, sour cream, yogurt, and aged cheeses that are more pronounced and cheesy in flavor. *Note that you could make ice cream just as easily with buttermilk and/or yogurt. One of the best flavors I’ve ever had was made with buttermilk.

And then there are some splendidly confusing dairy products that seem to encapsulate the best of both worlds. Crème fraîche is one of them, because although its name literally means “fresh cream” in French, crème fraîche is nonetheless made with cream that has been allowed to culture and sour. (The sourness, by the way, is not added sourness. It occurs because the friendly cultures gobble up the lactose in the milk as they multiply. The more cultures that are in the product = the less lactose. The less lactose, the less sweet-tasting. A handy bit of knowledge for anyone who has difficulty digesting lactose! And anyone looking for lower-in-sugar dairy products, too.)

Although crème fraîche is reminiscent of sour cream, it’s much creamier and smoother and more complex in flavor. And because crème fraîche isn’t produced on the massive scale that sour cream is, crème fraîche is more likely to be made with milk from grass-fed cows. Vermont Creamery is my favorite producer of crème fraîche and other artisanal, small-scale dairy products like fromage blanc, cultured butter, and quark. (Fromage blanc is a cultured yogurt-like cream made from naturally skimmed milk, cultured butter is more tangy and flavorful than fresh-cream butter, and quark is rather like an ultra-creamy cottage cheese that’s been blended into a harmonious smoothness. I fell in love with quark when I lived in Germany and discovered its velvety, fresh existence.)

Since crème fraîche hits a balance between creaminess and tanginess — and hits the nail exactly on the head when it comes to smoothness — it’s great with strawberries. Simply serve a dollop of crème fraîche alongside your organic strawberries (as the #1 most-sprayed fruit, strawberries are worth buying organic) and sprinkle on a little date sugar, sucanat, or coconut sugar.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin-Chestnut Waffles

I don’t often post recipes that involve special equipment, but these pumpkin waffles were far too delicious not to share with fellow waffle iron owners. If you don’t already have an iron, perhaps knowing that there’s a lovely (and whole-grain!) Belgian waffle recipe out there will spur you into picking up that still-in-the-box, never-used waffle maker when you’re hitting garage sales this spring.

The trick of making fluffy waffles that don’t tear apart when you open the waffle maker is to pour a full cup of batter into the maker before you close the two halves and let the waffle cook into its signature crannies and crenellations. That’s just as important as the more obvious precaution of thoroughly greasing the waffle maker before you pour in the batter. (Both of these elements are exponentially more important if you’re making gluten-free waffles since they’re much more likely to tear apart when you open the waffle maker.)

If your waffle iron is the kind that rotates 180 degrees, that’s even better — then you can make sure that both halves of the maker are well-greased before pouring in the batter. If your maker isn’t flippable, use a heat-safe barbecue brush to “paint” both halves with melted butter or coconut oil.

Pumpkin-Chestnut Waffles
Because these are true Belgian-style, only-raised-with-yeast waffles, they need to sit overnight for the yeast to have a chance to flavor and puff the batter. Simply whisk together the batter the night before rather than in the morning. I prefer to make waffles this way, anyway, because this approach means a lot less work in the morning when you want to make your breakfast with a minimum of effort.

3/4 cup mashed pumpkin, either canned or freshly baked and then mashed
1 cup whole milk, preferably from grass-fed cows
1/4 cup melted butter (1/2 stick), preferably from grass-fed cows
4 eggs, preferably from pastured hens
1 cup brown rice flour*
3/4 cup chestnut flour*
3/4 cup sorghum OR millet flour*
1 T. yeast
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Whisk together pumpkin, milk, butter, and eggs until well-blended, then whisk in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, heat your Belgian waffle maker until the “ready” light is on (or whatever happens when your waffle maker has reached the desired heat). While the iron is heating, whisk your batter briefly; it will have puffed up overnight due to the presence of the yeast.

Place a little scoop of coconut oil or a dab of butter in the center of each of the four quarters of the bottom half of the maker. Close and flip over to grease the other half. If your iron doesn’t rotate, use a heat-proof brush to brush both halves with the oil or butter. The idea is to have a well-greased waffle iron.

Pour 1 full cup of batter into the waffle maker, flip over if you can, and cook for as long as the manufacturer’s instructions indicate for your desired setting. (For mine, it takes about 5 minutes to cook to a lovely golden brown.) You might wish to flip it back over halfway through the cook time. Carefully use a heat-proof spatula and a fork to lift the cooked waffle out of the maker and onto a waiting plate. Add more oil or butter to the iron before making the next waffle. Recipe makes about 4 waffles.

I like to top my waffles with maple syrup and either pecan or walnut oil — the pumpkin is particularly nice with nuts. Or sprinkle toasted nuts on top of your waffle with perhaps some fresh fruit or freshly whipped cream.

Enjoy!

* These are gluten-free flours. If you would prefer to make wheat-based waffles, use a total of 2 1/2 cups of spelt, kamut, or whole-wheat flour.