Berries are still ripe and ready as Summer is still kicking, if weakly. So go grab them while you still can and toss together this simple and delicious berry crisp. Blueberries especially, are powerhouse little packages. Full of anti-oxidants, 4g of fiber for one cup serving as well as 1 gram protein, and only 84 calories. They also contain vitamin C, Omega-3 and Omega-6, fatty acids.

6 cups blueberries, rinsed and lightly dried
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup brown sugar Splenda
Pinch Kosher salt
Crumble Mixture:
1/2 cup all-purpose whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar
1/4 cup Splenda Sugar Blend
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (grate on a micro plane if you have one)
3/4 cup toasted chopped almonds
1/2 stick room temperature Smart Balance unsalted 50/50 blend, cubed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Toss blueberries, cornstarch, Splenda and a pinch of salt together in a bowl.

Combine flour, oatmeal, Splenda brown and white sugar, cinnamon, grated ginger, and toasted almonds in a bowl. Add butter and pinch into chunks.

Mix until it looks crumbly. Add the blueberries into a 2-quart baking dish, or into individual ramekins. Top evenly with the crumb mixture. Bake for 40 minutes or until bubbly and the crumb top is golden brown.

I like to add a creamy twist to the top with a little, Splenda sweetened, soy sour cream. Just a pinch of Splenda sweetener will do as the tang from the sour cream is wonderful with the goodness of the warm blueberries. If you like, you can also add 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest with the cinnamon and ginger for an even livelier kick. You can also add strawberries, or raspberries to this as well. Just make sure to wash and dry, and dice the strawberries in to small pieces.

Comments(0)

Kohlrabi are unique looking. Kind of a green or purple turnip, with spindly, legs growing out of the top. They are related to cabbage and broccoli and can be grown in many climates. They can be cooked or eaten raw and have about 5 grams of fiber, 2 grams of protein, and only 36 calories per cup. It is a great source of vitamin C, Thiamine, Folate, vitamin B6, potassium, and manganese. It also offers about 3% of your daily recommendation of calcium.

Kholrabi can be grated into a slaw or relish with carrots and water chestnuts. It can be sliced, or diced, or cooked in soups or stews. It has a light, watery, crispness to it reminiscent of cabbage and broccoli.

To use wash and remove greens from kohlrabi and set aside. Cut off roots and tops of kohlrabi and trim off the fibrous outer layer. Slice into 1/4″ slices or cube into 1/2″ pieces. Wash greens. Remove stems using a knife to make v-cuts in the leaves or peel them off as you would collard greens. Stack several leaves together, roll like a cigar, and thinly slice into strips about 1/4″ wide. These can be tossed into soups or salads or sauteed with the root.

Comments(0)

I love mixing these two flavors, they really work well and we’ll add some feta cheese in for texture and saltiness. You want to get a half of a small or a quarter watermelon, seedless is best, and cut it so you can dice the pieces into a medium or small dice. Reserve those in a bowl and get some pre-cooked, or fresh shrimp that you have cooked on the grill, or boiled. Chill the shrimp and begin to compose the watermelon salad. For 4 servings you will need:

1/2 large or 1/2 small watermelon, seedless (small to medium dice)

2 pounds shrimp, cooked

1/8 cup basil, chiffonade (take leaves, lay them on top of one another, roll like a cigar, and slice thinly into strips)

1 tablespoon mint chiffonade

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

1 medium cucumber, small dice

1/4 cup feta cheese, drained and crumbled.

Assemble the ingredients together except for the shrimp. Squeeze a little lemon juice and toss. Serve up 4 portions and assemble shrimp over watermelon salad and drizzle your best extra virgin olive oil on top.

Comments(0)

I love making Brussels sprout leaves as a side dish. When you cook them they crackle and pop and sound like popcorn. Of course I use butter at the restaurant, but olive oil works too! You don’t even have to pan sear them, unless you’re good at it, and want to hear them crackling. If you have Brussels sprouts from the market chances are you will have leaves left over from preparing them for use. Take your paring knife and cut the sprouts from the stalk if you got them on the stalk. Then wash them in a sink full of clean water, and begin to trim off the ends about 1/4 ” up. Some leaves will fall off and this is great, they’re the outer leaves kind of like a mini-cabbage. I like to get salmon fillets with the skin off, because for this we want to slow bake the fillets and the skin wouldn’t remain crisp. You can get a side and cut it for your family or bake it whole and then cut it to serve. I sprinkle it with Kosher salt and cracked black pepper, then rub it with some basil pesto, just to coat. On a non-stick sheet pan, or cookie pan, or lined with parchment, bake at 300 for about 10 minutes, until opaque and cooked through. To prepare the sprout leaves, after you finish trimming the ends of the Brussels sprouts, and collecting the leaves, cut them in half lengthwise and have a pot of salted, boiling water ready to blanch. Have also at the ready a bowl or container of ice water to shock the sprouts to stop the cooking process, and to maintain a crisp, green color. Submerge the sprouts in the water with the leaves you picked as more will fall off the sprout in the water. After one minute or so, when the water returns to a boil, carefully strain the sprouts and quickly plunge into the ice bath at the ready. Drain them after they cool off and you are ready to heat up the sprouts as you need them. The ice bath method helps when you want to save some for later and keeps your vegetables crisp and green.
While the salmon is baking, and after you’ve blanched your sprouts and gotten more leaves. Heat up a saute pan with about 2 teaspoons olive oil and toss in the leaves and some sprouts with some slivered garlic and warm through. Season with salt and cracked black pepper and a squirt of fresh lemon, and enjoy with the slow baked salmon.

Comments(0)

Summer is heating up now that we are well into July. Browsing the farm stands I have seen some gorgeous produce and cheeses.  I am so thrilled to have taken home a bunch of chiogga beets today and I enjoyed them simply roasted, served with some Capri, or ‘chevre” for us Americans.  Chiogga is an Italian open air pollinated variety found in many markets.  They are pictured in the center of the beets I photographed, a pinkish color. Inside they are a pinkish-white, striated in coloring.

Beets offer sound nutrition, an easily digestible source of carbohydrates, are high in folic acid, vitamins B1, B2, B6, C and A. They contain a powerful antioxidant, betalain, which gives them their coloring, helps ward off heart disease, certain cancers, and lowers inflammation. The greens are definitely edible, and  easy to prepare and have higher concentrations of iron as compared to spinach! For about one cup of beets you get almost 4g of fiber, 2g of protein and with high levels of water, only 58 calories.

While they should always be washed well before consumption, beets can be eaten raw as well as cooked. I choose golden or candystripe varieties for raw consumption, and buy them as ‘baby beets’ and just peel and slice them. Eaten like this with some cucumber slices and a little sea salt you have a great cool and crunchy snack. Beeturia is the coloring of urine or stool with the increased consumption of beets. It is harmless, but can be startling at first. It really tends to show when you eat them raw. Don’t let that stop you though! The sweet, earthy, crunch of young, raw beets, is wonderful. And when cooked, they become richly textured and are easily paired with so many ingredients.

The greens are an excellent source of minerals as well and are similar to Swiss chard. In fact, beets and Swiss chard are just different varieties within the same plant family! So when you trim the tops, save them in the vegetable crisper for later use.

Some ingredients I love to pair with beets are: Avocados, nuts, stone fruits such as peaches, cheese like chevre or capri, baby greens, chicory (including endive), citrus, onions, garlic, yogurt, pickling spices (in preparation for pickling), tarragon, dill, lemon, parsley, chervil, oregano, whole grains like barley, other root vegetables like heirloom carrots, beans and legumes such as lentils.

They can be grated raw to top soups or to be mixed into a carrot slaw for vibrant coloring or as an appetizer atop an endive leaf with some yogurt and lemon juice.

To roast them you just want to select your beets and make sure when you purchase them they are not shriveled, or have too many blemishes on them and that the tops are leafy and healthy looking. The tops aren’t perfect indicators of the root, but as they are such good eating, I’d look for leafy ones. Then you just preheat your oven to about 375F and get your good olive oil and after washing the beets, no matter the size, rub them well with olive oil and sprinkle coarse salt like Kosher or sea salt on them. Wrap them tightly in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet in case of any dripping. You can put them in a casserole dish with aluminum covering them it they are smaller, or wrap them in groups just in the aluminum foil, as is.

For baby beets you want to roast them until just tender, about 30-45 minutes if they are small. Medium to large beets can go longer, also just until tender. About 1 hour 20 minutes. You also don’t want to peel them before cooking. Leaving the skin on helps lock in nutrients and flavor, especially if you plan to boil them until tender. Which, of course leaches some color, and rather than boil, bring it to a boil then gently simmer until tender. It’s worth the wait to roast them though, I believe, as you can impart better flavor to them through the use of herbs and garlic if you like.

Once you have cooked your beets until tender, let them cool enough so you can handle them, then what I do is with a not-so-important, yet clean, kitchen towel, gently rub off the skins. They will come off nicely when cooked enough. You could also use a sturdy paper towel or two for this technique as well. Once out of their fibrous skins, they are ready to use as you wish.

Beets do well as a side dish as is when they’re tender and young, or tossed lightly in a dressing, or as an ingredient in a salad or main dish. You could simply roast and peel some baby golden, red, and chiogga beets and drizzle them with olive oil and fresh pepper and that is a wonderful presentation of a simply perfect ingredient. In a spinach salad they really compliment the mineral, bite of the spinach leaf.

Baby beets and spinach with dark cherry balsamic dressing

2 cups roasted, peeled,  baby beets- quartered

4 cups baby spinach

For the dressing:

1/4 cup dried cherries

3 Tablespoons balsamic vinager

1/4 cup cranberry juice

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Whiz all together in a blender and save the rest for later. Make sure you season to taste with some salt and pepper.  If you like this goes well with toasted pine nuts, a teaspoon or two sprinkled over the salad, should do the trick.

Roasted beet barley “risotto” serves 4

2 cups roasted, peeled, beets, diced

1 1/2 cups barley, rinsed

3-4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock, or even water. Heat the liquid of your choice until it just simmers on the stove top.

1 small, white onion, minced

1 clove of garlic, smashed

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan

2 Tablespoons olive oil

In a dutch oven, or similar type dish, on the stove top, heat the olive oil and onions until they become translucent. Sprinkle a little Kosher salt on them to help. Pour in the barley and stir well to coat the grains in the olive oil and onion flavor. A ladle or a few cups full at a time, pour in the hot liquid you have chosen to use, stirring. Once the initial liquid has gone in add the garlic. Just like risotto, only you don’t need to stir as often, just to make sure things aren’t sticking on the bottom. When all the liquid has been absorbed and the grains are fully cooked, stir in the beets and cheese. Turn off the heat and make sure it is seasoned correctly. If you used red beets, the risotto will appear bright fuchsia. If you like, you can stir in the washed beet tops, chopped roughly, into the ‘risotto’ for extra color.  This dish is phenomenal under a grilled fillet of North Atlantic Salmon!

Beet and yogurt parfait serves 2-4

2 medium, roasted red, peeled, beets-sliced into rounds

1 cup blueberries

Greek style yogurt, any flavor you choose

3 tablespoons chiffonade mint leaves (pick the leaves off the stems, lay on top on one another, roll up like a cigar and slice thinly into strips)

Simply layer the beets, blueberries and yogurt into pretty dishes, or glass parfait cups with a sprinkling of mint leaves.

Beet root and carrot smoothie serves 4

2 cups young, carrots, washed, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup washed, peeled, baby beets (raw)

1/2 cup non-fat yogurt

1 cup apple juice

1 cup ice

In a blender puree ingredients until smooth. If you would like, you can sweeten the smoothie up a little with some Splenda sweetener.

Comments(0)

Since moving to Boston, I have been continually pleased by the farm fresh produce available here. Daily markets in the middle of the city and neighborhoods create a movement up here. Towards slow foods, sustainability, and heirloom varieties of vegetables, fruits and even poultry and meat.
So of course my newest treat is Capri, or Chevre to us Americans. It is goat cheese, just made here. Any by here, I mean here. Just a half an hour drive from the city lies pristine farmland. Vistas of the old home, you really do know why it is called the New England, when you come out here. Westield Farm in Hubbardston, Ma, is where one of my favorite cheeses is made. Capri. I’m no cheese expert, so I can’t tell you why, but it tastes better than the Chevre you buy at the store. I think it’s because it is fresher. It still has a light and airy texture. I’ve never experienced light and airy Chevre unless I manipulated it to that consistency. As you can see from my picture above, I was enjoying it with a freshly picked strawberry from Verrill Farm.

A lot of good uses for this kind of cheese are just by itself as a snack on a cracker, or with fresh berries as pictured. Substitute it for cream cheese or neufchatel in dishes. Instead of whipped cream on a dessert, a tablespoon of this will suffice.

Browse the link to see more about the kinds of Capri they make. Many flavors and styles to choose from, as well as online ordering for those not local, and some recipes.  Just remember the Pain Free Diet rules when cooking with Capri, especially desserts.

Comments(0)

Spinach has come a long way. From mushed, green, ‘yuck’ that an entire animating company had to create a wise-cracking, corn cob smoking, sailor in order to have children want to eat it, to ‘chic’, calcium rich, fiber-filled, anti-oxidant powerhouse that it is today. It features in vogue salads and baby mixes at restaurants and Whole Foods and green markets all across the land. So it’s no surprise that it has transformed from giant, sandy leaves straight from the farm which needed much washing, to tender, tiny, tasty, baby leaves cleanly packaged in plastic.

More than nutrition, I love spinach for it’s versatility. It’s mineral, earthy, simplicity lends it to many dishes where spicier stand-outs like arugula, and mizuna and radicchio may become divas.  Speaking of these, they also pair well all together to bring harmony to any salad. Spinach can be served hot and wilted and comforting, or raw, cool, and crisp with your favorite salad ingredients. As a substitute for lettuce on sandwiches or an ingredient in a smoothie. Some examples of ingredients I love to pair with spinach are:

Garlic, curry, ginger, sesame seeds, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, cardamom, nutmeg, Parmesan cheese, tofu, chick peas, eggs, chicken, fish, shrimp, lobster, cantaloupe, blueberries, strawberries, bitter greens, scallops, asparagus, cheese of all kind, it loves spices and herbs. And so on and so forth.  Playing a minor role, support, or starring spinach is easy to prepare.  Raw is easy, just make sure it’s clean, and most supermarkets carry packaged spinach that is pre-washed. If you still want to clean it when you get home an easy way to was all greens is to sanitize your kitchen sink and rinse. Plug the drain and fill it 3/4 full. Dump your greens into the water and swish around gently allowing dirt or sediment to fall to the bottom of the sink, and the clean greens to stay on the surface. If you have a salad spinner use it to dry the leaves, or if you don’t own one, you can use a colander to drain the greens. You will have to wait until they air dry or gently scrunch them with a clean dish towel, or paper towels. Be careful not to bruise the greens with this method as they are tender. A great method of adding carrots into a spinach salad, or any salad for that matter, is to use the peeler to continue to peel off long, thin strips of carrot which will curl off into your salad and add height and texture. They will be more tender as well and easier to eat.

Spinach and Scallops

2 lbs of fresh spinach, stemmed and washed, not dried
1 lb of bay scallops
3 large cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed with the broad side of a knife
¼ cup of dry white wine
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Kosher salt, to taste
1 teaspoon of grated lemon zest
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Pat dry the scallops in a paper towel, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large non-stick saute pan, over medium heat. When the oil begins to shimmer and you can smell it add the scallops and brown on both sides for about 2 minutes each depending on size. Remove from the pan and turn the heat down to med-low. Add the garlic and lemon zest and cook for 20 seconds, stirring continuously. Add the wine and lemon juice and reduce until almost dry. Add the scallops back in and the spinach and toss occasionally until wilted, season to taste with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Poppy seed Salmon Strawberry Salad

1 bag baby spinach

4 6 ounce salmon fillets, skin off

4 teaspoon poppy seeds

4 ounces  chevre, crumbled lightly (use your choice)

1 pint of fresh, ripe strawberries, tops off and quartered

1 1/2 cups red grapes

1 small, crisp red onion, halved and sliced thinly

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard or whole grained

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Heat a non stick saute pan that can go into the oven as well, with olive oil to medium. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on each salmon fillet. In a bowl full of the poppy seeds, coat each salmon fillet on the top side in the seeds and place that side down into the pan and sear until a little crisp, about 2 minutes. Flip with a fish spatula and cook 2 minutes on the other side and pop into a preheated oven set to 375 or 400, for about 5 more minutes. Remove from the pan and add the red onions and cook until soft. Add the garlic and cook for a minute but not browning, add the sherry vinegar and white wine and parsley. Let everything begin to simmer and add the Dijon or whole grained mustard and stir well. Whisk in the olive oil and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Turn off the heat and toss ingredients, except the salmon, together with the warm dressing. Sprinkle the Chevre in and spoon out portions of salad and top with the warm salmon.

Now this can be done with chicken too, but I would recommend using a baking sheet with nonstick spray and slicing the chicken into strips, and sprinkling the chicken in the poppy seeds. All the flavors just come together so nicely this way. You can use blueberries instead of grapes if you like as well. Sesame seeds instead of poppy seeds can also be substituted.

Mean Green Smoothie

1 cup spinach, raw

1 cup cubed pineapple

1/2 small avocado

1/2 cup no sugar vanilla yogurt

1/4 cup ice

1/4 cup soy milk

3 teaspoons Splenda

Put all ingredients in a blender and puree until a smooth consistency is achieved. This should serve about 4 people, and is delicious.

Comments(0)

1 pound fish filet, your choice

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

3/4 cup sliced mushrooms

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup onions, finely chopped

4 teaspoons lemon juice

4 teaspoons parsley and dill, rough chop

Divide the fish into four equal portions; sprinkle with salt and lemon juice. Saute the onions in the olive oil until transparent, add sliced mushrooms and saute until tender. Stir parsley and dill into onion and mushroom mixture.

For each of the four portions, use about a 12×9-inch piece of double-thickness aluminum foil. Place each portion on foil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top each portion with the onion/mushroom mixture.

Turn foil up and around fish, and wrap securely sealing the edges. Place on a pre-heated grill, or on a baking sheet under the broiler of an oven. Cook for 10-15 minutes-turning once-or until fish flakes.

Serves 4.

Comments(0)

This is a spin off of a wonderful recipe my favorite chef had on the menu while I worked for him in Minneapolis. It’s a little ingredient rich, but it all comes together nicely and makes for a great summer salad. You have to buy really good, fresh fish for this as well, since you will be eating it basically raw.
You will need:
6 oz. fresh fillet of salmon, skin off
6 oz. fresh steak of tuna
1 Tablespoon snipped chives
1 Tablespoon minced shallot
1 Tablespoon black and white sesame seeds, toasted
2 Tablespoons toasted pine nuts
1 teaspoon chili oil
1 each, Asian pear, small dice
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 fresh mango, small dice
1 small avocado
1/2 English cucumber (medium), small dice
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1 Teaspoon chopped mint
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
1/2 bunch cilantro, rough chop
To begin, cut your fish fillets in half lengthwise to create two, thin fillets. Then dice the rest of the fish into small dices and toss with the lime juice,sesame seeds, chili oil, olive oil, pine nuts, diced Asian pear, mango, mint, shallots, cucumber, chives, salt and pepper. Reserve in a bowl in the refrigerator until needed.
With the avocado and cilantro, throw into a blender and add a little water, maybe 2 Tablespoons to get it going. Puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
To plate this you can use a ring mold and smooth a dollop of the avocado puree. Add on top of the puree some of the tartar and serve as is. You could also set the tartar on a bed of Boston Bib lettuce and dollop the avocado puree over it. Choice is yours to get creative. It is also good to know that the longer the fish sits in the lime juice and oil, the more it will “cook itself” enzymatic-ally. So if you prefer your tartar a little less rare, let it marinate in there awhile before plating.
This will serve about 4 as an appetizer salad.

Comments(0)

There are few things in life more comforting than cookies. Knowing that they are Pain Free Diet approved is one of them. Just a quick and easy variation on a classic peanut-butter cookie that will also give you some energy from protein!

3/4 cup soynut butter
1/2 cup ricotta cheese, drained.
1 1/4 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar Splenda
3 Tbs soymilk
1 Tbs vanilla extract or almond extract
1 egg
1/4 cup soy flour
1 1/2 cup brown-rice flour
3/4 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
Begin by preheating your oven to 375.
Combine soynut butter, ricotta, brown sugar Splenda, soymilk, and vanilla extrat in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Slowly add the egg. Beat just until blended.
Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture at low speed mixing just until blended. Chill the dough a little while then drop teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
You can even press the cookies down with a fork for the classic peanut butter cookie look.
Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until just set and just beginning to brown. Remove from oven and cool 2 minutes on baking sheet.
You can then remove cookies to wire rack to cool completely if desired. These are great with a chilled glass of soymilk as an after lunch snack.

Comments(0)