Trop Pops

Although I try to be a little conscious of when fruits and veggies are actually in their natural season, sometimes it's just too easy to listen to an end-of-season-scraggler calling my name from the grocery store shelves... which is how I ended up with this very, very green pineapple on my counter.

At first I was nervous it wouldn't ripen, how could one expect it too when it's SO green?

Less than two days later I found myself, for once, feeling lucky to live on the top floor of a pre-war building as I watched gold creep up the spikey clusters and after watching a pineapple ripen with an unnatural speed I knew there was one thing that part of this pineapple absolutely had to be used for - popsicles!

Sticking with the tropical theme, I grabbed some coconut flakes and water, some leftover homemade candied ginger, and some similarly ripening bananas, and voila - Trop Pops were born.

Happy Melting!

Trop Pops

Ingredients

• 2 bananas, very ripe
• 1/2 c pineapple, frozen
• 1/4 c candied ginger, chopped
• 1/4 t coconut flakes, unsweetened
• 1/2 c coconut water (such as Vita Coco)

Combine

1. Slice the bananas, place them in a plastic bag, and freeze overnight.
2. Toss the bananas into the bowl of a food processor and blend on high speed until they are the size of small crumbs.
3. Add in the pineapple, candied ginger, and coconut, and blend on medium speed for 30 seconds to a minute until they are well incorporated in the mixture.
4. Add in the coconut water and blend again for one minute until smooth.
5. Spoon the mix into a popsicle mold and freeze overnight.
6. Enjoy!

They Call Me Miss Pickle

Sometime between me living on college cafeteria food and me falling so in love with food that I started a food blog, I made the decision to learn how to cook.


I kid you not, the process began with me manipulating Knorr packaged dinners, think a small step above Kraft Mac n Cheese, but eventually I moved on to just using the sauce packets that were sold separately and mixing them into other ingredients.


Strangely, this taught me more than you would think about cooking: like how different liquids changed the flavor and consistency of the sauce, what shape I liked various veggies cut to, and how to stagger the addition of ingredients without turning half to mush while leaving the other half raw.

As I dragged my friends through this process I managed to pick up a mish-mash of passed down advice which included how to soak onions:


'Why would we do that?'

"I dunno, it's how my mom does it, I think it's Romanian..."

Sold.


For that dinner we took our chopped up Vidalia onions and tossed them into a bowl of water with a little pinch of salt and waited.  A few minutes later the water had passed through each piece, taking with it the sharp onion burn and the dramatic crunch, but leaving behind the mellow sweetness and a pleasant crunch.


Since then, whether it's labeled as soaked, a quick and dirty pickle, or macerated, I've discovered that this is a pretty common means for manipulating veggies that have too much bite or too much crunch without actually bringing them under heat (yay Summer-friendly recipes).  In the case of onions, this process will make them less spicy and more flavorful while still allowing them to bring that desired crunch to a dish.  Read: your breath won't smell half as bad if you soak onions before bringing them to work for lunch.


Happy soaking!

Soaked Onions and Other Stuff

Ingredients

• Vegetables, thinly sliced or chopped
• Vinegar, warm water, or boiled water to cover
• 1/2 - 1 t salt

Combine

1. Stir together the salt and liquid until the salt is dissolved.
2. Add in the veggies.
3. Let soak for 15 minutes or longer before enjoying!

Some Suggestions:

• Beets: use half boiled water and half white vinegar for the liquid and 1-2 t of salt. Soak for 2-3 days before enjoying.
• Carrots, radish, or fennel: use half boiled water and half vinegar with 1/2 t of salt. Soak overnight before enjoying.
• Vidalia onions:  Use warm water and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, and let soak for 15 minutes.  For more flavor use balsamic vinegar (or half water, half vinegar) and 1/2 of salt, and let soak for 30 minutes.
• Shallots: use red wine vinegar for the liquid and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Soak for 15 minutes.
• Garlic: use half warm water and half white vinegar with 1 teaspoon of salt.  Let soak for at least 15 minutes.
• Hot peppers (like jalapeños): use lime juice for the liquid and 1/2 t of salt.  Soak for 30 minutes.

Two Pea Pasta with Basil Mint Pesto

So technically edamame isn't a pea, which means this is truly a one pea pasta, but our focus isn't on the technicalities here people.

Our focus is on a little lean, green protein that was strong enough to help a dream dish be realized.

A dream dish that is cool and simple enough for a hot evening, complex enough to fuel a soul with enough energy for whatever it may need, and delicious enough to eat again the next day because not even the most dedicated kitchen enthusiast looks forward to turning on their stove twice in the summer.

A dream dish that is different, light, and successful... successful in disguising pasta that is.

What kind of person goes around disguising pasta?  The kind who wants pasta to be more than just a carb, who wants to elevate it to a whole new level, who wants to use it like it's bread aka the god of all carbs, as a pure vehicle for the deliciousness that it carries with it.

After my first attempt at this dish, I found myself staring down at my bowl.  It was good, all the ingredients I dreamed of were in it, and yet something was not quite right.  I had made the basil mint pesto as one normally would but it seemed like a dull comparison to my dream version, the shallots felt out of place, the peas looked like an afterthought since the shells didn't pick them up exactly how envisioned. Staring down at the pieces of edamame trapped beneath the pasta in a pesto bath, I realized my mistakes.

The olive oil in the pesto was too strong for the delicate basil-mint flavor combo but wasn't strong enough to hold the ingredients together in the way I imagined.

It had to go, so in stepped avocado and out came this dream dish!

Two Pea Pasta with Basil-Mint Avocado Pesto

Ingredients

• 1 large shallot
• Red wine vinegar
• 1 small bunch of mint (1 tightly packed cup)
• 1 small bunch of basil (1 loosely packed cup)
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2 small cloves of garlic
• 1 avocado, ripe
• 4 servings of linguine
• 1/2 c edamame, shelled, frozen
• 1/2 c peas, frozen
• 2 small zucchini, cut into match sticks
• Feta as desired
• Crushed red pepper, for garnish
• Salt and pepper as needed

Combine

1. Mince the shallot, place in a small bowl with a pinch of salt, cover the pieces with the red wine vinegar and set aside.
2. Rinse the mint and basil, remove the leaves from the stems, and add to the bowl of your food processor with the lemon juice.
3. Puree the leaves for two or three minutes until they are minced, then add the garlic and puree again.
4. Add the avocado to the bowl with a pinch of salt and black pepper, puree until smooth, then set aside.
5. Fill a large pot halfway with water, add a teaspoon of salt, and bring to a boil over high heat.
6. Add in the linguine and cook for 5 minutes, then add the edamame and cook for 5 more minutes, then add the peas and cook just until the water starts to boil again.
7. Dump the pasta and peas into a large colander and rinse with cold water - note, not everyone likes to do this but I do.
8. Make sure all the water is drained off the pasta then transfer it to a large mixing bowl.
9. Add the avocado pesto to the bowl and use two forks to toss the pasta until it is thoroughly coated.
10. Toss in the zucchini then use the forks to twirl servings of pasta into bowls or onto plates.
11. Sprinkle with crumbled feta, pickled shallots, and crushed red pepper and enjoy!

I know, We know

I know, I know; we know meat is not so great for you and we're all tired of hearing about it.

As part of that we, I'm tired of hearing about it too.  As an ex-veg-head I'm especially tired of it, of constantly re-discovering that fact and feeling a pang of guilt over my decision to cross back over to the omnivore life.  It's not that I regret the decision, re-discovering meat has opened so many doors in my kitchen and made a noticeably physical difference in how I recover from my workouts, it's just that, when it comes down to it meat is bad for you.

The worst part is, it's so delicious, it's such a common part of American life, it's literally everywhere: so you forget about this reality of it.

Then it happens, your Seamless-ed company lunches have all become meat, for once you're finding yourself craving a giant bowl of green because it's been that long since you've had just that, and you hear yourself asking out loud "is meat bad for you?" right before turning bright red because yes, of course it is.

I'll spare you the bowl of raw-kale detox because even your meat-overload recovery should be delicious.

Like this bowl filled with super deliciousness in the forms of steamed bok choy and edamame, pickled shallots, zested rice, baked pressed tofu, and of course some avocado, which comes in perfectly handy when you need an enjoyable distraction from meat!

BK Buri Bowls

Ingredients

For the tofu:

• 1/4 c rice vinegar or ACV
• 1/4 c low sodium soy sauce
• 1 clementine, juiced
• 1/4 t coriander
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1/2 t chili
• 1 T sesame oil
• 1 T chili oil or hot sauce of choice
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 block firm tofu, pressed and sliced into 4-6 pieces

For the bowls:

• 1 c short or medium grain rice
• 2 t lime zest
• 2 T coconut oil
• water as needed
• 1-2 shallots
• vinegar
• salt
• 1 c edamame
• 3 bunches of baby bok choy or 1 very large full bunch
• lime wedges
• avocado
• sesame seeds
• 1-2 sheets of nori, chopped

Combine
Prep the tofu:

1. Place the block of tofu between to dinner plates and place something heavy (like your largest cookbook) on top of it.  After 10-15 minutes water should be collecting on the bottom plate - dump this out.
2. Mix the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl.  Cut the tofu into 4-6 pieces, place in the bowl, cover completely with marinade, and let sit for 20 minutes.

Prep the other ingredients:

1. While you wait for the tofu to soak, wash the bok choy, zest the lime, chop your shallots, avocado, and nori.
2. In a small bowl, cover the shallots with vinegar and a pinch of salt and set aside.

Cook the tofu, rice, and veggies:

1. Stir the rice, lime zest, coconut oil, and 2 cups of water into a small pot over high heat and bring to a boil.  Once the rice boils, reduce the heat to low and cover it with a lid.
2. As the rice boils, pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place the marinated tofu on the baking sheet and put in the center of the hottest rack of your oven.  This will need about 20 minutes total, I usually flip the pieces over after 10 minutes.
3. While you wait cook the edamame and bok choy.  For the edamame you can do this in several ways: follow directions for microwaving the edamame, or bring water to a boil in a pot and add the edamame for 5 minutes, or add to the steamer with the bok choy.
4. For the bok choy: add 1 inch of water to a large pot, place a steamer over the water, add the bok choy, and cover the pot with a lid.  Bring the water a boil over medium heat for 2-5 minutes - you may need to rotate the bok choy with tongs half way through the cook time.

Bowl it:

1. Use tongs to transfer the bok choy to a bowl and sprinkle with lots of fresh lime juice.  Spoon rice onto and sprinkle with sesame seeds and nori.  Top with tofu, shallots, edamame, and avocado.
2. Enjoy!