Cold Sweet Potato Salad

I love sweet potatoes. I LOVE them. more than pumpkin, more than butternut squash, more than most other vegetables I believe. I recently discovered that unfortunately, sweet potatoes are not much better for you than regular potatoes, particularly once peeled...but they are still a bit better and they taste amazing. I think orange veggies in general are my top choice, but these delectable yammy things are definitely the best.

Since it has been super hot recently, I have been looking for ways to prepare things with minimal oven/stove usage. Hence, cold soups, salads, slaws, etc. In my journey to Australia one of the actually good things the cafeteria served (on rare occasions) was a cold sweet potato salad. Fairly simple in ingredients, i never procured a specific recipe, but I ate it enough to make some educated guesses as to the ingredients, and looking online for other sweet potato salad recipes I was able to come up with a cold salad that satisfied my tastebuds to the max.

Here is the recipe, I hope it is as enjoyable to others as it was for me! One note, I am picky and for me the consistency of the sweet potato needs to be good: baked enough that it is not crunchy, but also not mushy either, to really set of this dish well. But if that doesn't matter to you, it really doesn't effect the flavor in the slightest.

Cold Sweet Potato Salad

Ingredients

3 med. or lg. Sweet Potatoes

4 c. Baby Arugula

2 Tbsp Rosemary

2 tsp Parsley

1 Roasted Red Pepper, chopped

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

¼ of a lg. Red Onion (about ½ cup chopped)

2 Tbsp of the Roasted Red Pepper Juice (if it came from a jar) or 2 extra Tbsp Olive Oil

3 Tbsp Lime Juice or Lemon Juice

Salt and Pepper to taste

Process

-          Preheat oven to 400 F, cube the sweet potatoes in 1 inch pieces, place on greased baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or so, until softened and not crunchy, but not mushable either (should still hold their shape when forked). Allow to cool

-         
       Mix the Arugula, Rosemary, Red Pepper, Olive Oil, and Onion in a large bowl

-          Add the Sweet Potato, remaining Olive Oil/Red Pepper juice, Lime/Lemon Juice, Salt and Pepper. Mix well

-          Refrigerate until ready to serve!

Notes

-          Might also be good with a tad of mint instead of the Parsley.

African Cooking

So, this week I went to the library as is custom every Friday. I always spend so much time at this lovely place, and I recently discovered the cooking section. Chock full of interesting books I picked out a few that looked try-worthy (I would have taken them all, but that was just not feasible, limited space on our shelves etc.). One of these was the African Kitchen. Designed as the journey of the authors through Africa and the various meals they had along the way this book is a fun read as well as a cookbook with phenomenal photography.

Many of the recipes looked scrumptious (green banana and lentil salad, cold apple and curry soup, and more), but I can't make them all at once, so I chose a few to try out. The first of which is Jeanette's Charkalaka. Looking up the word Charkalaka, I found it means a cabbage salad basically, sort of like a coleslaw without mayonnaise. We had all the ingredients, thus I gave it a shot.

Traditionally made for large gatherings, the ingredients are readily accessible not only in Africa, but pretty much everywhere. This recipe makes quite a bit of food and does not have too much strong flavors other than the spice and taste of the veggies themselves, so it is appealing to a wide audience perhaps.

Jeanette’s Charkalaka (Spicy Cabbage Salad)

Ingredients

1 Onion, sliced

2 Garlic cloves, crushed

1-2 Chili’s

some Olive Oil

1 Green Pepper, chopped

1 Red Pepper, chopped

1 Yellow Pepper, chopped

1 large Cabbage, sliced thinly

1 lb Carrots, grated

1 Tbsp Paprika

½ Tbsp Cayenne

16 oz canned or frozen Peas

Salt and Pepper to taste

Process

Sautee the Onion, Garlic, and Chili together until the onion starts to color

Add the Peppers, Cabbage, Carrots and cook for a few minutes until they start to soften

Add the spices and the Peas and cook until vegetables are a little softer 

Serve either warm or cold. Makes quite a lot of food, a half recipe would probably feed four people quite well.

Notes

 

I used this recipe from the African Kitchen by Josie Stow and Jan Baldwin. The original calls for a whole Tbsp of Cayenne, but I found that to be WAAAAAY too spicy for my taste, so, my recommendation is ½ Tbsp for those with less heat tolerance, you can always add more if it is not spicy enough, but once it is spiced you can’t really take that away!

we have also found that this is actually better served cold. It gives time for the flavors to sink in and bring each other out, as well as tempering the spicyness to a certain degree (a lesser degree..harhar)

Veggie (Vegetarian, even Vegan if wanted) Stuffed Tortillas

These are yummy. End of story, ok not quite end of story, they are also easy to make and filling and very good representational of a 'typical' Mexican dish, at least in my house.

Again, courtesy of some friends of ours in Wisconsin, this has become a regular feature at our dinner table. The recipe here is for the whole shebang, but we often just make the filling and let people design their own burritos/tortillas/whatever. Since it keeps fairly well and my family is fond of Mexican food for dinner and lunch, we also usually make a lot and don’t worry if it is not all eaten on the first night. It is even good the next day either in a tortilla or even just by itself and cold in my opinion.

Lastly, I promise, though this recipe seems long and convoluted, it is a very simple easy thing to make.

Ingredients

It tastes better than it looks

Step 1
a little Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic minced
1 lg. Onion chopped
1 Green Pepper chopped
1 med./lg. Zucchini sliced or chunked
1/2 cup vegetable broth

Step 2
2 cups Corn
2 cups Black Beans drained

Step 3
1 1/2 Tbsp Cumin
6 Tbsp Salsa
Salt and Pepper to taste
a little Cilantro (either dried or freshly chopped)

*Step 4 (Tortillas)
a little Olive Oil
several Tortillas (can be flour, whole wheat, corn, it is up to your preference)
Chedder Cheese shredded

*This is not an essential step, if wanted one could just serve the filling with rice (see Cilantro Lime Rice recipe), or by itself, over chips, on a plain tortilla...you get the picture

Process

Filling

Sautee together all ingredients from Step 1  in a little bit of olive oil for a few minutes.

Add ingredients from Step 2. If you desire, drain the Black Beans first so that their extra liquid is not added,  if the mix looks a bit dry, add a bit of the bean water or a little more vegetable broth. DO NOT use dried Black Beans. Cook until Zucchini begins to look slightly translucent

Once mixture is cooked enough (Zucchini is soft, not crunchy at all) add ingredients from Step 3 and continue to simmer, stirring enough to keep the beans from fusing to the bottom of the pan, until there is no excess liquid remaining.

Tortillas

Fry Tortilla in a pan with a little olive oil (to keep it from sticking) until slightly crispy brown.

Add a little shredded Cheese to melt onto the Tortilla.

Remove Tortilla from pan and add 1/4-1/2 cup of the filling and some extra Cheese.

Fold tortilla over, use a toothpick to keep it folded in half if needbe.

Repeat until desired number of Tortillas are made. To keep them warm while you make each one, put on a cookie sheet in an oven on low heat.

Serve with Sour Cream, Salsa, Chips, Guacamole or whatever suits your fancy!!!

I served with leftover Chicken from a barbeque, but it is totally optional. Obviously to serve with Chicken means NOT vegetarian

*Alternatively, if you do not want to use Tortillas you can serve this with Cilantro Lime Rice, or over chips, or just plain.

Carrots and Apples, two kiddy snack foods turned into a super easy, semi-sophisticated veggie dish

We all know that when we were young carrots and apples were two easy and healthy snack foods. Cut up and given to us in slices or baby size, we would eat them in order to get our five servings of fruits and veggies. Of course, there are many many ways to cook these two items, but I had never run across both of them together until I found this recipe courtesy of my Mom. It has since become one of my all time favorite vegetable dishes, AND the best part is, since both carrots and apples tend to be readily available all year round, it is not necessarily a seasonal dish (like things like squash casserole, or strawberry shortcake might be).

Ingredients

1-2 Tbsp butter

2 cups carrots, chopped in small pieces

1 granny smith, or other sour green apple

2 Tbsp parsley

1 Lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

Process

Heat butter in saucepan on medium high heat, add carrots and sautee on a fairly high temperature to start browning them.

Once carrots are nicely brown on at least one side, turn heat down to medium and cook for 5 minutes until they are a bit softer.

Add granny smith chopped into small triangles or pieces about the same size as the carrots.

Cook until the apple is mostly cooked, but not mush. About 5 minutes

Add parsley and cook only 1 minute more, just to blend the parsley into the dish

Remove from heat and add juice from 1 lemon and the salt and pepper

Serve and enjoy!!

And, life in Oberlin is as normal as can be. Laundry fresh from the line, ah summer.

Beets: Healthy, Natural, Delicious...yep they're tastey!

So, I realize that I have posted desserts...and not much in the way of healthy stuff. Well, summer is the season of fresh vegetables, of which I am almost as fond as desserts. So, the next few posts will both make up for my lack of posting recently, AND display some healthy and scrumptious recipe ideas for you!

First, BEETS!!! Now, before you skip to the next post, hear me out. A year ago, as far as I was concerned
Beets taste like dirt. End of story, or so I thought. Until last year I had never liked Beets because they tasted to me like the ground from whence they came. However, a good friend of the family introduced us to her 'summer sauteed beets'. We were skeptical to be sure, but upon tasting them we were shocked that they tasted...good! No dirt involved, they had a tangy bite to them with a zing from the hot red pepper and were flavored like a good summer veggie.

After breaking the beet barrier, I discovered that I actually do like beets ok, however they have to be good beets, getting canned or less than fresh, or over or underripe beets means they will taste like dirt, there is no way to avoid it. But get some GOOD beets and they are actually pretty good. 

So, here it is, the first (and for a while...only) way I like beets

Ingredients

4 fairly large fresh beets WITH greens
1-2 Tbsp butter
1 lime
1-2 tsp cayenne pepper, or powdered hot red pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Process

Cut the beets and their greens into small pieces, I do about Inch wedges for the beets and just small chunks for the greens

Heat butter in frying pan on medium heat until melted, it should at least cover the bottom of the pan, if it doesn't then add a bit more.

Put beet meat into pan and cook for a couple minutes

Add greens, (they will quickly wilt down) and sautee together until beets are desired level of softness (I usually like them a bit on the crunchy side) about 15 minutes, longer for softer beets, and if you really want them soft, turn down the heat and let them steam for a few minutes.

Turn off heat and remove from burner, add the juice from 1 lime and the cayenne pepper, stir well to spread that pepper all over the beets. Add salt and pepper

Serve and enjoy, really, no joke these beets are enjoyable!