Superfoods Month: Simple kale salad

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Today's Superfood: Kale
Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium, iron, potassium

It took me a while to get used to raw kale. I like greens just fine, but I've always preferred them cooked. I thought raw kale would be bitter and tough.

Then I tasted Sippity Sup's kale "Caesar" salad at a Food Bloggers Los Angeles potluck. Tuscan "dinosaur" kale finely shredded, bright and lemony, dressed with salty anchovies and showered with grated cheese - this kale salad won me over.

Now that I'm trying to eat more greens (thanks to sage advice from my health coach, Rachael Pontillo of Holistically Haute Wellness), I'm turning to kale salad at least a few times a week. I'm too lazy to open a tin of anchovies, so I keep it really simple: kale, lemon, olive oil, grated cheese, salt and pepper. I actually prefer this salad made a few hours ahead - the acid and salt wilt the kale and smooth the bitter edges slightly.

Click here for a list of all the Superfoods Month recipes in this series

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Simple kale salad for Superfoods Month

by Erika Kerekes January-7-2012

A bright lemony salad using raw kale. Use whichever variety you prefer - Tuscan kale will wilt a little more than curly kale.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch Tuscan or curly kale
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup parmesan, Romano or Grana Padano cheese, grated
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Wash the kale well by submerging it in cold water, swishing it around, then lifting it out of the water so the dirt remains in the bottom of the bowl. Dry in a salad spinner or a clean towel. Strip the leaves away from the center stem and cut the leaves crosswise into thin strips. You want to get the strips as thin as possible.Put the kale into a large bowl and add the lemon juice, olive oil, grated cheese, salt and pepper. Toss well. Serve immediately if you like your kale very stiff, or let the salad sit at room temperature for 20 minutes or in the refrigerator for at least an hour if you prefer it a bit wilted.

Details

Prep time: 9 mins Cook time: 1 mins Total time: 10 mins Yield: 2 servings

Superfoods Month: Simple lentil soup from Shockingly Delicious

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Happy Superfoods Month! This delicious Superfood recipe comes via veteran food writer Dorothy Reinhold. Dorothy writes the recipe blog ShockinglyDelicious, where she specializes in scrumptious, tried-and-true, scary-good recipes that you might need a 12-step program to wean yourself from. Dorothy and I have known each other for years - our kids went to preschool together - but now we've bonded over blogging!

Today's Superfood: Lentils
Protein, fiber, iron, manganese, folate

I didn’t grow up eating lentils, probably because my mother didn’t like them. That was a surprise revelation to me a few years ago when I gave her a lentil concoction I had made. I thought it was delicious, and wanted to share. She ate some, and politely told me it didn’t float her boat because she hated lentils.

What? The woman who cooked for a clan of six every single day for decades, and who introduced her suburban family to bagna cauda, who made her own frijoles refritos from scratch despite the fact she was Italian, not Mexican, who practically invented homemade salted caramels 45 years ago and who knows her way around Parmesan vs. Pecorino?

I was stunned. Luckily, she never told us about that hatred growing up, so I had no preconceived notions about lentils. I loved them when I tried them because they cook relatively quickly, and absorb whatever wonderful flavors, herbs and spices you pair with them.

I have since learned that they may be small, but they are nutritionally mighty, contributing to a happy heart, a happy digestive system, and stable blood sugar levels.

This wonderfully rich-tasting soup is my latest lentil addiction. While dried lentils cook relatively quickly and don’t need to be soaked like dried beans, I have speeded up this soup even more by using packaged steamed lentils from Melissa's Produce, which are readily available in most grocery stores.

Like most soups, this one is even better if you make it a day ahead and store it in the refrigerator. When you reheat and serve it the next night for dinner, the flavor will be richer, if that is even possible!

Lentil soup for dinner after work? Oh yes, and the leftovers for lunch the next day!

Click here for a list of all the Superfoods Month recipes in this series

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Superfoods month: Best ever simple lentil soup

by Dorothy Reinhold January-5-2012

A quick and hearty soup perfect for weeknight dinners.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 ribs of celery, chopped
• kosher salt to taste
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 17-ounce package Melissa's steamed lentils
• 4 cups low-salt, fat-free chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• grated parmesan cheese (for garnish)

Instructions

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the onion, carrots and celery and a pinch of kosher salt and cook until tender, about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.Add the tomatoes and their juice, rosemary and bay leaf, steamed lentils and another pinch of salt, broth, water and a few grinds of fresh pepper. Bring to a simmer, stir, cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. Remove and discard the rosemary and bay leaf.Serve, garnishing each bowl with a sprinkling of Parmesan.

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 50 mins Yield: 4 servings

Superfoods Month: Spiced sweet potato coins

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Today's Superfood: Sweet potatoes

Carotenoids, Vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium

I served these sweet potato "coins" on New Year's Eve, hoping they would bring us good luck and prosperity for 2012. Sliced into rounds and roasted with chili powder, lime juice, garlic and olive oil, these sweet potatoes taste great hot or cold. Make extra to stock your lunchbox the next day.

Click here for a list of all the Superfoods Month recipes in this series

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Spiced sweet potato rounds ("coins")

by Erika Kerekes January-3-2012

Sweet potatoes roasted with lime juice, garlic and chili powder make a great side dish or snack. With high levels of vitamin A, vitamin C, carotenoids and potassium, sweet potatoes top the "superfoods" list. Choose thin sweet potatoes to keep the rounds small (like coins).

Ingredients

• 3 pounds small sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean, unpeeled
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 3 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line one or two baking sheets with aluminum foil.Slice the sweet potatoes into 3/4-inch rounds and put them in a large bowl. Add the lime juice, chili powder, garlic, olive oil and salt and toss well. Spread the sweet potato slices in one layer on the baking sheet (depending on the size of your sweet potatoes, you may need two baking sheets).Roast the sweet potato slices about 45 minutes, turning them halfway through the cooking time. The sweet potatoes will be soft, slightly wrinkled, and glazed with the oil mixture. Remove from the oven and serve. The sweet potato coins are equally good hot, warm and cold.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 45 mins Total time: 55 mins Yield: 4-6 servings

January is Superfoods Month in my kitchen

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It's January 1, the first day of 2012, and it's time to make New Year's resolutions. Every year I vow to lose weight, exercise more, yell less, stop using the treadmill as a closet, keep my desk neat. Most years I make progress, then backslide, then drop the whole thing in frustration. I know I'm not alone. 

This year I'm trying to think about things differently. I want to get healthier. I want to feel better. If those things come with a few less pounds, great. But even if not, I want to take steps in the right direction.

For the past few months I've been meeting with health and nutrition coach Rachael Pontillo of Holistically Haute Wellness. We're working on incremental changes to my diet, exercise habits, and overall approach to life and stress. "Incremental" is the important word in that last sentence. I don't do well with "always" and "never" rules. My goal is to create some new, healthier habits that will crowd out some of the old, less healthy habits over time.

With Rachael's guidance, I've been adjusting my diet, including more greens, more water, less animal protein, less wheat, and more whole grains. I look for nutritional powerhouse foods: kale, quinoa, nuts, cabbage, squash, avocado, mushrooms. Creating new habits is hard - but I'm determined.

I'm declaring January Superfoods Month here In Erika's Kitchen. All month I'll post recipes for the healthy, nutritionally sound foods I want to eat more of. And I'm doing this with the help of many friends - some food bloggers, some not - who will be guest posting and sharing their favorite "superfoods" recipes. Stay tuned.

Got a "superfoods" recipe you'd like to share in a guest post during Superfoods Month? Email me at ekerekes [at] yahoo [dot] com - the more, the better!

Feel free to grab this badge if you're posting about Superfoods on your own blog!

 

Spaetzle with truffle butter

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Spaetzle with truffle butter (photo: Lynne Hemer)

I put fresh spaetzle on my Trufflepalooza 2011 menu last summer with some reservations. 

Truffles pair well with pasta, but I'd already done spaghetti with truffles (2009) and truffled mac and cheese (2010). Spaetzle, a simple pasta-like egg dumpling, seemed like a good next step. My Hungarian mother-in-law makes spaetzle often and my husband loves it. I even own a spaetzle maker.

Why the concern, then? Superstition. Twenty-plus years ago a longtime friend flunked her final exam at a prestigious culinary institute because of spaetzle. It was the last thing she was asked to make, and she blanked. She's over it by now, but clearly I'm not.

I sucked it up and made the spaetzle, and I'm glad. The homemade spaetzle with truffle butter were a huge hit at Trufflepalooza. The chewy little dumplings are boiled first to cook them through, then tossed in a hot saute pan with truffle butter to crisp the edges and get that musky truffle flavor into all the little crevices.I served the spaetzle on their own, but they'd make a great side dish paired with steak, roast chicken or any other simply prepared protein.

You can make your own truffle butter or buy it at a gourmet market (I like Sabatino brand truffle butter). You don't need to buy the most expensive truffles to make truffle butter - canned or frozen truffles work fine if the fresh ones are out of reach.

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Spaetzle with truffle butter

by Erika Kerekes December-30-2011

Fresh egg dumplings dressed with truffle butter make an elegant side dish. If you don't have a spaetzle maker, use a potato ricer with a large-hole insert or a colander.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 4 Tbsp truffle butter
• 1 fresh white or black truffle (optional)

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.While the water is boiling, whisk together the flour, eggs, milk, salt and pepper. You'll end up with a batter that's somewhere between pancake and muffin batter in thickness.Turn the flame down so the water is simmering. Put a dollop of batter in the holder of the spaetzle maker and run it back and forth over the holes. Bits of batter will drop through into the boiling water. This part takes some practice (or a lot practice if you're a spaetzle dunce like me). If you're using a colander, use a spoon to push the batter through the holes. Use the spoon to scrape the outside of the colander to get all the batter off. The spaetzle will be knobby and irregular. Simmer the spaetzle about 3 minutes; they don't take long at all. Fish the first batch out of the pot with a slotted spoon and put them in a bowl. Add a little olive oil and toss to keep the spaetzle from sticking together. Cook the rest of the spaetzle in batches, adding more oil as necessary.When all the spaetzle has been boiled, heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the truffle butter and the cooked spaetzle and toss gently until the spaetzle is crisp along the edges. Serve immediately, grating fresh truffle over the top if you've got one.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: 8-10 servings (as side dish)