Simple Seasoned Beets 

High in vitamin C and fiber and low in calories, beets are a very healthy vegetable. 

This simple boiled beet recipe with a 5< minute seasoning makes great additions to salads and sandwiches, as a side dish to dinner tables, or to something like the chickpea bowl recipe coming up.  

Peeling the beets is quite easy with this trick of running cold water over the freshly cooked beets. This trick also works for potatoes, turnips, rutabaga, or pretty much any other root vegetable.

With a sweet and savory taste and a gorgeous red/magenta color, these beets can brighten both the flavor and visual appeal of many meals. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 bunch (6 small or 3 large) red beets 
• About 1 Tablespoon vinegar or lemon  
• 2 teaspoons honey or sugar 
• Ground back pepper 
• Salt 

Method: 

1—Wash beets and remove stems. Save beet leaves to eat raw in salads or to cook.

2—Fill a pot of water and bring to a boil. Lightly salt the water (optional). Add beets (make sure the water covers them completely for even cooking), and simmer for 20-45 minutes, depending on the size of the beets, until a fork can be inserted into a beet easily. 

3—When ready, pour beets into a colander and rinse with cold water until the beets are cool enough to hold. With the cold water still running over your beet, use your hands to rub the skin off to expose the smooth flesh. 

4—Wait a moment to make sure the insides of the beets are no longer scalding hot, then chop the beets into desired size (1 inch cubes for the Chick Pea Bowl recipe)

5—Season the beets with the remaining ingredients to taste!

This recipe tastes great served immediately and warm, or severed the next day and cold. 

Serving suggestion

Enjoy! Recipes and photos by Kate Mitchell

Day 4

Lessons:

I personally ate about 7 servings (my grandmother ate 1) worth of the potato fennel radish salad. It is a good salad, but I got sick of it after eating big bowls of it for 3 days straight. If I am cooking just for myself, I will think twice before making a second batch of something that serves 4. 

I actually found that many root greens (radish, turnip, and beet leaves) can be very interchangeable when raw. The summer roll recipe I was using as a model called for Boston bib lettuce, but I only had leftover beet and radish greens so I used those. I could not taste much difference in the leaves when they were combined with many other ingredients and covered in peanut sauce. 

Tips: It is really nice to have many different vegetables in the house at once. That way I can quickly grab a few leftover fennel sprigs, half a chive, or other vegetable and use that as a garnish or to spruce up leftovers. 

Today I made two recipes using celery leaves as garnishes. The leaves are noway favorite part

Made: 

Simple Seasoned Beets  

Beet and Chick Pea Bowl 

Farmers Market Summer Rolls 

Ginger Carrot spred  

Breakfast: leftover kale soup and potato salad 

Lunch: chick pea bowl 

summer rolls 

Photos by Kate Mitchel 

Pickled Kale stems and asparagus. 

This was a test to see if Kale stems could be eaten if they were pickled first. And I have always wanted to pickle asparagus…so why not pickle them both at the same time? 

The texture of both the veggies was amazing after they where done. The kale stems were crip and edible, if not a little fibrous, and the asparagus was wonderfully crip and tender. However I did not follow a brine recipe and my the flavor really was not great. I made the mistake of trying to pickle garlic scrapes along with some garlic cloves, and everything turned out too garlic-y. One or the other would have been fine. 

So I will just suggest just the method!

Method: 

1—Cut vegetables into 3-4 inch long slivers 

2—Bring some water to boil in a pot. Place vegetables in the boiling water and blanch them for 1 minute. 

3—Pour vegetables into a colander and run cold water over them to stop them from cooking further.

4—Make the brine of your choice!

5—Place vegetables in a large jar or heat safe container and pour the hot brine over them. Let sit until cool, then place in the refrigerator, after which they can be kept there for a month or more.

Enjoy!

Ginger Pickled Carrots 

Just like the dill pickled carrots I have posted before, these carrots demonstrate again how good pickled carrots can be. You can use these ginger ones in all the same ways you might use the dills, such as in salads, sandwiches, as a garnish or even just for snacking. The flavor in these however lend themselves more to Asian dishes. I used them in summer rolls (recipe coming soon) with much success. 

I also found that you can sort of “second hand pickle” by storing other vegetables in the brine after some of the carrots have been eaten. I tossed in leftover pieces of bell pepper and cucumber, and found they stayed crisp much longer then they would have otherwise. And they also had a great flavor boost as well. 

The ginger slivers, after all the pickled produce had been eaten, can be enjoyed as well. They taste just like the pickled ginger that comes along with sushi! Though the ones from this recipe are a bit more fibrous.

It is best to let them sit in the refrigerator for a day before you try them to allow the flavors to mellow and blend.

Ingredients: 

• 1 bunch carrots 
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 
• 3 Tablespoons salt 
• 3 Tablespoons sugar 
• 2 inch nob of fresh ginger 
• 3 cups water 

Method: 

1—Cut carrots into 3 inch long and 1/2 inch thick slivers 

2—Bring some water to boil in a pot. Place carrots in the boiling water to blanch them for 1 minute. 

3—Pour carrots into a colander and run cold water over them to stop them from cooking further. The goal is to have carrots that are nice and crisp but not too crunchy.

4—In a small pot, combine the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. 

5—Place the carrots in a large jar or heat safe container and pour the hot brine over them. Let sit until cool, then place in the refrigerator, after which they can be kept there for a month or more.

Enjoy! 
Photos and recipe my Kate M

How to Save Wilted Greens

-Sad Leaf :(

Oh no! I waited to long to use my kale and now it no longer has that durable, crispness. The kale seems smaller…and I do not know how well the kale will cooked in this wilted state. Ice water to the rescue! 

This trick can save nearly any leafy green that was forgotten about for one day to long. I used this for radish greens, spinach, baby card, etc.

Method: 

—1 Fill a bowl large enough to fit your greens with cold water and ice 

—2 Submerge the greens in the water and leave for 15-20 minutes, or however long it takes for the leaves to regain their crispness and body. 

—3 When done, pat dry and use! 

-Happy Leaf! :)

How to Save Wilted Greens 

-Sad leaf :(

Oh no! I waited to long to use my kale and now it no longer has that durable, crispness. The kale seems smaller…an  

Oh no! I waited to long to use my kale and now it no longer has that durable, crispness. The kale seems smaller…and I do not know how well the kale will cooked in this wilted state. Ice water to the rescue! 

This trick can save nearly any leafy green that was forgotten about for one day too long. 

-Happy leaf! :)

Method: 

—1 Fill a bowl large enough to fit your greens with cold water and ice 

—2 Submerge the greens in the water and leave for 15-20 minutes, or however long it takes for the leaves to regain their crispness and body. 

—3 When done, pat dry and use! 

Happy leaf saving!

Kale Soup

Here is a recipe using the vegetable scrap broth made from the recipe below! This soup is full of vegetables, and thanks to the chick peas and brown rice, it can be a complete meal. This soup can be enjoyed warm or cool, for dinner or for lunch. For the rice, you could substitute with another boiled grain like barley, or use some pre cooked pasta. White beans can also be subbed for the chick peas. This dish also goes great with some shredded chicken pieces as well.

Ingredients:

• One bunch kale 
• 1 bunch carrots 
• 4-6 garlic scrapes 
• 1 heaping cup cooked brown rice (add more if you wish.)
• About 2/3 of a head of celery 
• 1 can chick peas (I did not drain them)
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil 
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin 
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper 
• Salt
• 7-8 cups broth 

Method: (If going to use the scraps made from the vegetables going in making a broth, chop these vegetables before and save them in the refrigerator.)

1—Wash all produce. Cut off ends of the celery and save the leaves for for a garnish or for a latter recipe (or just eat them there). Peel away the strings and chop into 1 inch cubes. Chop carrots into 1 inch cubes/rounds. Rip kale leaves away from stem and tear into bite sized pieces. Chop garlic scrapes into 1 inch segments. 

2—Bring broth to a light boil. Add the vegetable ingredients and then reduce to a simmer. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 20-30 minutes. 

3—Add rice and chick peas. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed

Serve with grated parmesan cheese or toasted chopped nuts.

  

Enjoy!

Recipe and photos by Kate Mitchell 

Vegetable Scrap Broth 

What do you do with all those carrot tops and and vegetable peels? You many have noticed that I often say to save those things in my recipes, and here is how you can use them! This recipe helps use every part of the vegetable, so you can get the most of your money and the farmer's market 

There is a basic guid for making your own vegetable broth, and that is to have a carrot + celery + onion combination as your base. Once you have that, you can add the ends and skins of almost any other vegetable. I found I did not have to keep the onion part of the formula, but I would defiantly recommend keeping 2 of the 3 in your broth. 

If you do not want to have the scraps taking up space in your refrigerator, you can freeze them until you have amounted enough to make a batch of broth with. 

What I did was keep a container in the refrigerator where I would put my scraps. Also, I pre cut the vegetables for the soup recipe I was going to use the broth for and put those fresh scraps right into the broth as it was steeping. 

Prep time: Varies, but not much more than 15 minutes total 

Total Time: A little over one hour 

Yield: About 7 cups of broth 

Ingredients:

• (That I used) 
• About 3-4 loose cups of:
• Carrot tops 
• Fennel stems 
• Kale stems 
• Celery bottom plus peels 
• Radish tops 
• Half a cucumber’s worth of peals 
• 6-8 cups of water 
• 1 teaspoon bullion
• Salt and pepper to taste 

You can also use potato peels, onion hearts and their outer peels, ginger peels (effects taste a bit. But if thats what you want, awesome.) and herb stems. 

There are some vegetables to avoid using in your broth, such as cabbage, and beets, as it will turn the broth a bright purple and might leave a overly strong flavor.

Method: 

1—Place all ingredients in a large pot 

2—Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer for an hour

3—After the hour is up, taste the broth. If the flavor is too mild, let simmer for a little longer

4—Remove vegetable scraps and compost or discard 

Store for a later us, or add vegetable pieces to make a soup! 

Enjoy! 

Recipe and photos by Kate Mitchell 

Black Bean Patties 

Who needs meat when you have beens and rice and veggies? These patties have a complete protein, along with the nutrient rich yet low calorie density vegetables for extra texture and flavor. 

In these I used brown rice, but you could also use quinoa or bread crumbs. It gives the patties a lighter texture.

The chard works very well in this dish. The cooked leaves were tender and the flavor lends well. You probably could use regular “adult” chard as well.

The end result goes *really* well with ketchup. I highly recommend it. 

For serving ideas, you could put them on slider buns, serve alongside scrambled eggs, as a plain side dish, or eat them as is, like I did :) 

Time: 25 minutes 

Makes: about 5 small patties, or two servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup black beans, drained
• 1/2 bell pepper, chopped 
• 1/2 cup brown rice
• 1 chopped scallion, including the greens
• About 2 handfuls of baby chard 
• Salt 
• Pepper 
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli pepper 

Method: 

1—Drain and rinse beans and wash produce.

2—Chop pepper into 1/2 inch cubes. Remove large stems from the card and rip/chop into smaller pieces. Chop scallion finely.

3—Heat 1 teaspoon of oil, or about 1/4 cup water, in a skillet and add the vegetables. Cook until soft, about 7 minutes.

4—In a medium sized bowl, combine rice, beans, vegetables, and seasonings. Mash with a potato masher or with a large for until the mixture turns into something that you can pick up and form into ball with your hands. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. 

5—Form the mixture into small patties, about 3 inches in diameter. Heat a little more oil in the same skillet and fry the patties until they start to get slightly brown and can be flipped over. 

6—Once browned on both sizes, they are ready to serve. 

Enjoy!

Recipe and photos by Kate Mitchell 

Enjoy!

Day 3

Got on top of plaining and things are feeling fine. There is less food in the refrigerator so it makes going in there less overwhelming. Feeling happy with all the good food I have been able to make. 

In the name of using every part of the vegetable, I will attempt to make pickled Kale stems. I once talked to someone running a no food waste cooking demo, and even he said he threw out his kale stems. However I found online (thank you epicurious.com) someone saying you could pickle the stems, so I am going to try that and see how they come out. Operation no food waste goes onwards!

Lessons: Plaining is very important. Next time I will organize what I am going to use and when, so I can place the produce I will be using at the beginning of the week in the front of the fridge and leave things that can last a few days like the napa cabbage berried in the back to be unearthed when it is ready. 

Tips: The internet is such an amazing food resource. Trouble shooting? Someone has had the same problem and has written an easy on how to solve it. I also like to get 2-3 variations of a  recipes before I make it for myself, to get an idea of what is curtail to the dish and what I can experiment with.  

SAVE THOSE CELLRY LEAVES! I once saw a professional chef use them to garnish a dish, and I found that the leaves had a wonderful sweet celery flavor and were very tender. I use the leaves in two recipes tomorrow.

Made: 

Black Bean Patties 

Vegetable Broth 

Kale Soup 

Ginger Pickled Carrots

Pickled Kale Stems and Asparagus 

Breakfast: black bean patties 

Lunch: leftover alfredo and potato salad with chicken 

Dinner: kale soup with chicken 

Zucchini “Alfredo” Noodles 

While this dish may not taste exactly like traditional linguini with alfredo sauce, it is still quite tasty while being incredibly low carbohydrate, low fat, high protein and high in nutrients. I use the same vegetable “noodler” that I wrote about in the Carrot Cucumber Soba Salad recipe, and for $20 (actually it's on sale for $11 at the moment) you get a really fun way to eat many vegetables. The zucchini has a compact texture that keeps its shape when cooking, thus the end product is noodles that you can twirl around with your fork. 

If the sauce is not rich enough for you tastes, feel free to add more oil. This dish also goes great with toasted bread crumbs (I used toasted tortilla crumbles as that was the only bread like substance in my house at the time). It gives that extra texture boost, and since the “pasta” is actually a vegetable, there is not gilt to using bread to mop up any remaining sauce in your bowl.

Serves 2 

Time: 25 minutes 

Ingredients: 

• 1 large zucchini or 2 small ones 

Sauce:

• 3/4 cup low fat or fat free greek yogurt 
• 1 heaping Tablespoon grated parmesan cheese 
• 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice 
• 2 teaspoons olive oil 
• Salt 
• Pepper 

Method: 

1—Wash produce. Get out a vegetable spiralizer/zoodler and make the noodles according to the appliance’s directions. Using the zoodler that I have, I found that holding the appliance steady on the countertop while I twisted the zucchini was the easiest method of making the noodles. I would recommend cutting the noodles a little as you go as otherwise the noodles can get so long it becomes a logistical challenge to eat them 

2—Heat a small amount of oil/butter or water in a skillet and then add noodles and cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Ideally any excess water should be cooked off by the time the noodles are done, but if not, drain any water that is drainable. Toast bread if using that as a topping.

3—Mix all sauce ingredients in a small bowl, taste to and just seasonings if needed, and mix in with noodles. 

4—Put noodles in bowls and top with crumbled toast and additional grated parmesan cheese. 

Serve warm 

Enjoy! 

Recipe and photos by Kate Mitchell 

Carrot Cucumber Soba Noodle Salad 

What is better then a cold noodle salad on a hot summer day? In this salad there are vegetables cut into noodle like shapes to add more flavor and texture, and also to lower the caloric density of the dish, so you can go ahead and have a good sized bowl! I learned a few lessons from making this dish. 1, to use a large pot to cook the soba in as my noodles got all cut up into 1 inch sections by the time they were drained. They were still delicious, but just not the look I initially had in mind. The second lesson is to always be innovated, creative and on my toes when preping produce! Instead of using a vegetable noodle maker like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Zoodle-Slicer-ZS001-Vegetable-Spiral/dp/B00M6I6MG0 as I was originally plaining on, I needed to slice the produce by hand after I found the carrots and cucumber did not fit in the appliance. I recommend saving the carrot ends as they are great for making home made vegetable broth.

It's beast to eat this dish within 3-4 days otherwise it starts to get glommy and starchy

Ingredients:

1 package (or 4 servings worth) buckwheat soba noodles 

3 medium carrots 

1 medium cucumber 

1 Tablespoon soy sauce 

1 Tablespoon rice vinegar  

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil 

Ginger powder 

Garlic powder 

Touch sugar 

Method: 

1—Prepare soba noodles according to instructions on package. Put cooled noodles in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

2—Wash produce. Peal and cut out seeds from cucumber (cucumbers will very) and chop off hard ends of carrots. Either slice into noodle sized slices by hand or use a mandolin. Cut ends off carrots and mandoline into long strips by taking the whole carrot and sliding it lengthwise down over the mandoline blade. 

3—In a skillet, boil about 1/2 cup water or a small amount of oil. (I like to use as little oil when cooking as I can). Add carrots and cook for about 4 minutes, until they start to soften but are not fully cooked. Add sliced cucumber and cook until everything is cooked through, or soft to your preferences. The idea is to get them a similar texture to the buckwheat noodles. 

4—Cool veggies by running them under cold water in a colander (the same colander used to drain the noodles ideally. Saves time) 

5—Place all ingredients along in the bowl with the noodles and toss to combine. Taste and add more rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, or some sugar. 

6—Serve chilled 

Enjoy! 

Recipe and photos by Kate Mitchell 

Day 2

Feeling a lot better about the project now that I see the the veggies in the refrigerator being put to use. Now that the fennel is in its respective salad and it's big green stems are in a "scrap" container saved for broth, the amount of green stuff in my house feels a lot more controllable. 

Lessons: Communication is VERY important. I had planned to make a radish and carrot green pesto, but unfortunately someone in my house who is used to throwing them out good-naturedly cut them off for me. Oh well. Next time I will state when I get home my plans of using every part of the vegetable I can. Of all the things to be lazy with, communication is not one of them I have found. It also might be best to store cucumbers in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. I tried some internet advice and left them out on the countertop, but they had lost some of their water by the time I had got to them (3 days).

You get the odd shaped veggies and the seedy veggies at the local market. But that is such a good thing! Those vegetables might have been thrown out if they were sent to a supermarket.

I have also found that it is really easy to waste when you have a lot of food in the house. The more you have, throwing a little away seems like less of a crime. A carrot green here, one leek there…I must not let it happen! So far I have managed to waste very little. Though some fennel stems I was saving for broth did not make it back into the refrigerator…I am still pleased with my progress.

Tips: I highly recommend getting a mandoline if you do not have one already!  I have had a very small dinky one for some time now, and it has really been a pleasure. I find raw vegetables sliced paper thin easier to eat, and they take on more sauce that way too. 

Things Made: 

Carrot Cucumber Soba Noodle Salad

The second half of the Fennel Radish Potato Salad

Zucchini “Alfredo” Noodles 

There is much to be learned and much to be learned!  

Mini Blueberry Tarts With Oat Flour Crust 

There are blueberries in the market now! From eating frozen blubbery smoothies all spring, I wanted this dessert to showcase the blueberry in it’s fresh, raw glory. But sometimes a dessert needs to be more then just a bowl pf fresh blueberries (it still totally can be though!) I followed an oat flour pie crust recipe because one, my family likes to go wheat free when we can, and two, it was a lot simpler then a typical tart crust recipe. I served this at a dinner party and got great reviews from everyone.

You can make your own oat flour very easily! All you need is to place the same amount of oats as the amount of flour called for in the recipe (1 cup of oats makes approximately 1 cup of flour). 

I followed the video in the recipe link here: http://www.oatmealwithafork.com/2014/11/14/5-ingredient-no-roll-pie-crust-gluten-free-nut-free/ but found that it needed 1 more cup of flour. Funny. You can follow my recipe, or you can start with the lady’s recipe and keep adding flour until it reaches the texture as is in the video.

Makes 10 tarts 

Equipment: Muffin tin

Ingredients

Filling:

1 Quart fresh blueberries 

2 Tablespoons honey 

Lemon juice 

Cinnamon for garnish (optional)  

Mint for garnish (optional)

For Crust:

2+1/2 cup quick oats 

1/4 cup olive oil 

2 Tablespoons sugar 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

4-6 Tablespoons very cold water, as needed

Sprinkle cinnamon (optional) 

Method: 

1—Pre heat oven to 375 F. 

2—Make oat flour, or portion out of a bag if store bought. (when I made my own oat flour, I had to put it in the freezer because the act of blending the flour made it very hot) Mix all dry crust ingredients together. 

3—Add olive oil and mix to combine. Add the cold water one Tablespoon at a time, until you can make a ball with the mixture and it will stay in that form. You want to make the mixture so that it does not crumble apart when forming it, but also so that it is not so wet that it sticks to your hands. 

4—Portion out the dough into 10 spaces in a muffin tin. Form into little cup shapes, where the bottom and sides are a little less then 1/2 of an inch thick. Make indentations on the bottom of each with a fork so that the bottom will not puff up in the oven.

5—Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until they crusts are showing a golden brown color. When done take out of the oven and let cool completely. 

6—While the tarts are baking, place all the filling ingredients in a bowl and lightly toss with a spoon to cover all the blueberries. 

7—Run a small knife or spatula around the edges or each tart and carefully remove and set on a plate. Spoon enough of the blueberry mixture to from a little mound. Garnish with whatever inspires you. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Fennel Radish Potato Salad 

This is a side great for summer thanks to its minimal cooking time. This dish has more protein and much less fat then typical potato salad thanks to using greek yogurt as a base for the dressing. So I would say this is pretty much guilt free! I found it went great over a bed of baby arugula. The sweetness of the salad went well with the tartness of the greens. 

Want to use every part of the fennel plant? Save the long, tough green stems for using to make home made vegetable broth! The flavor is sweet and in broth fairly subtle.

This is a dish where it tastes best after sitting in the fridge for an hour

Total time: 20 minutes 

This recipe is for a half batch and serves 4

(I liked it so much I made a second batch with the remaining ingredients I had) 

Ingredients: 

Half a fennel bulb 

2 medium red russt potatoes   

1/2 bunch radishes

For the dressing: 

1/2 cup greek yogurt (I used fat free, but you could also use 2%)

1 heaping Tablespoon miracle whip or mayo 

1 Tablespoon honey 

Pepper 

Salt 

About 2 Tablespoons chopped greens (the parts that looks like dill)

1 Tablespoon lemon juice 

Method: 

1—Bring enough lightly salted water to cover potatoes to a boil in a small pot. Chop potatoes into 1 inch cubes and add cubes to the water. Cook until a fork can be inserted easily, after about 7 minutes. 

2—While potatoes are cooking, chop fennel cross wise into pieces that resemble the ones in the picture. They should look like little “U”s and be about 1/8 of an inch in thickness. A mandoline slicer can help with this. Either mandolin or slice the radishes as thin as possible. 

3—Add cooked potato, radish and fennel to a large bowl. Add dressing ingredients and toss until all the ingredients are well mixed. 

Serve chilled

Enjoy!