It is bloody cold right now which equates to a high level of importance placed upon colourful salads like this one. Salads loaded with superfoods like pomegranate, avocado, hemp seeds and sauerkraut are great for any season. This Rainbow Superfood Salad with Lemon Basil Dressing is highly adaptable to what’s in season and the dressing has the perfect balance of zing and creaminess that just keeps you wanting more. If you love a good salad dressing as much as I do, my lemony tahini dressing is another great one to have in your repertoire.
I like to add sauerkraut to my salads for extra probiotics and insanely delicious crunch factor. I can even manage to sneak it past sauerkraut skeptics (they don’t know what they’re missing). If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of sauerkraut and other ferment foods check out my article on 10 reasons to eat sauerkraut and some delicious recipes. Eating fermented foods with every meal literally changed my health. Not only are they delicious but they improve digestion, mood, and reduce inflammation.
I wrote this recipe for the lovely Irena’s Eat Drink Paleo blog. If you don’t know about her website check it out because she has a plethora of delicious recipes!
Potent little packages of pure goodness. My heart sped up when I saw two huge bunches of the most perfect italian parsley in our CSA box this week. What a treat, and on top of that, gorgeous fresh mint bundles and long spindly green onions. Wild oregano has replaced grass in our yard, its one of the few things the chickens don’t nosh on. So what does one do when the herbs are all a plenty? Mix copious amounts with buttery rice, summer vegetables, fresh mango and hearty meatballs. Yes, yum.
I didn’t think I was hungry enough to devour a huge bowl of this herbed goodness, but I was wrong. Even with chop sticks it all disappeared pretty fast.
I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?
Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.
Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?
Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.
I Worried
by Mary Oliver
If there’s a poem to summon to the surface the realization that worry is of no use this would be it. Not that I’ve fully grasped that concept yet, it seems still there is always something to fret over.
Whether my taurean moon is stirring worry over money and bills or I leave the house certain I left the stove on. The eyes of many may close when we rest our heads at night, but the minds are another story. My head hits the pillow and that is where the real fun begins, the continual thought stream until the sandman’s magic dust forms a crust so thick I can’t help but drift away.
There is a light, a reprieve, sleep arrives and worries melt away and wander around our dreams. A new day, and a chance to let it all go, brush it off. As I meander through my mind, I wonder, is there any purpose to imagining the worst, focusing on the bad? I’ve never been one to ignore the gritty, less appealing details of life. Life is messy. Plants don’t grow in sunshine and rainbows, they grow in shit and darkness. Yet there is a balance, a line we walk along which crossed too often into fears allure causes dis-ease. Especially when fears bubble up in a selfish hungry manner. Stepping into the world beyond our thoughts takes courage, but more than that it takes connection. Living in our heads is boring after some time, there’s a whole big wild world out there beckoning us to just release and be vulnerable.
I’m happy when my mouth is on fire, when my heart is on fire, when my soul is alight. One worry has at least been squandered and that is not having any hot sauce. I’m slightly ashamed to say this bugs me, there’s something fundamental about always having hot sauce on hand. This recipe makes sooooooo much, you can give it away, hoard it for months or a little of both. It also makes a great marinade for pork or chicken, but be warned, very very spicy.
In a large pot melt the coconut oil, add whole garlic cloves and brown on all sides.
Add the diced onion and cook until translucent.
Using a mortar and pestle or an electric spice grinder, combine allspice, cloves,peppercorns,coriander seeds and thyme, if using a mortar and pestle smash the ginger with the spices, if not, throw it in the pot.
Add carrots, habaneros, salt, sugar, vinegar, water and lime juice. Cook until carrots are tender and puree until super smooth. Adjust thickness by adding more water until desired consistency is achieved.
Makes a large amount (10 C) of hot sauce and lasts in the fridge for a long time.
Cleaning out the fridge to make space for fresh stuff is a dreaded task in my books. I avoid it at all costs, but then again, if there’s fried rice at the end of the rainbow its not so bad.
This post is a loose recipe as what you have in your fridge is likely different from what I have in mine.
But I wanted to outline some essential basics when it comes to making the perfect friend rice every time.
1. Heat
The common assumption with fried rice is that you want to use really high heat. This isn’t the case. If we do this, everything turns into a sticky sad mess. Cleaning burnt rice from our pans is something to avoid at all costs. Instead, starting with a generous amount of oil or fat and going slow and steady will win the race.
2. Flavour
Rice is a sponge so we want to make sure there’s plenty of tasty yummies for it to soak up before adding it to the mix. The basic flavour base that I like to use is a hearty amount of flavourful fat, some chopped bacon and sausage or coconut oil, an onion finely chopped, 3-4 garlic cloves finely chopped, an inch piece of ginger, finely chopped,carrots,celery and some sort of hot pepper. For this version I had a chipotle, very non traditional but still utterly delicious. You could try adding other things too, green onions, cumin seeds, masala, lemongrass…To deglaze the pan I like to use rice wine vinegar, infused vinegar or tamari but water works in a pinch. Just a few Tbs and then we can add the rice.
3. Rice to Vegetable ratio
Make a big pot of jasmine rice. For the best rice, cook it in chicken or vegetable stock with plenty of sea salt, this small step makes for big flavour. The amount of rice will be at your discretion, don’t put too much or it’ll be bland. Next is the addition of leafy fast cooking vegetables like swiss chard and kale, added last minute they cook a bit but still maintain their vibrance.
4. Egg
There are two types of people- those who mix the egg into the rice and those who like a fried egg on top of their rice. I happen to be of the latter category, but J is a mixer. For mixing the egg with the rice I crack however many (usually one per person) into a bowl and whip it with a bit of oil. On medium-low heat pour the egg over the rice, tilt the pan around and cover for a few minutes. This just give the egg a chance to get nice and golden crispy on the bottom of the pan without sticking. After a few minutes, mix it all around, sometimes I like to add some raw cheddar (I know, I’m such a traditionalist) cover again and let it get even more crispy.
5. Extras
The fun part of fried rice are the extra goodies, we love to eat it with some fermented homemade sauerkraut or kimchi. Toasting some seeds or nuts for a topping is a great textural addition. Sesame seeds, a drizzle of hoisin, sunshine sauce , miso, toasted seaweed, fresh mango…endless possibilities.
There you have it, the perfect clean out the fridge fried rice, different every single time but always delicious. Take your time, I know it’s supposed to be a fast meal but slowing down just a bit makes it extra good and filled with crispy crackly bits of egg, rice, flavour and good veggies!
I really wasn’t sure what to name this deliciously multi faceted concotion of mine. Originally I wanted to follow in my ma’s footsteps and make traditional sloppy joes for Halloween (she used to make little pepper faces on the buns for us-so cute). The dilemma was that I didn’t want the whole bun deal. So of course the yams come in, caramelized yam slices soak up sloppy sweet spicy beef pretty well. But it was still incomplete, the messy appeal of a sloppy joe was lacking, so I created these crispy thin flatbreads that work wonders as makeshift utensils. Top that with fresh roasted salsa verde, avocado and colourful rainbow chard and you’ve got yourself a pretty classy dish, a sloppy jane indeed with a south of the border flare.
Happy Halloween! I dressed up as the cat in the hat, J wore a creepy mask and baby Mav was a little skeleton, we had our own dance party to Whitney Houston, the monster mash and Fresh Prince of Bel Air. J threatened to tape my singing ‘I will always love you’ so that our future kin can laugh at my desperate quaking voice. I so wish I could sing like Whitney. I wrapped a bunch of mini homemade oh henry bars for the trick or treaters but alas, no little princesses and vampires came a knockin’. I guess our place is a little out of the way, but it’s our first Halloween here so I wanted to have treats just in case. Oh well, they certainly won’t go to waste.
Preheat oven to 400F, Line a baking tray and place the sweet potatoes and tomatiollos on the tray. Bake for 40 minutes.
In a large skillet melt fat or oil and add onion and garlic, cook until the onion starts to turn golden.
Add chile, chipotle and beef. As the beef starts to cook, raise the heat and add the molasses, stir on high for 2 minutes and turn heat to low.
Add in worcester sauce,oregano,cumin,chili powder and salt. Cover and let simmer on low.
To make the salsa verde, take the roasted tomatillos and add them to a blender or food processor, in addition to one clove garlic, lime, and cilantro. Blend on high and set aside.
Combine Tapioca flour, coconut flour, water, cumin and salt until smooth, it should be quite thin.
Heat a frying pan with a bit of your favourite cooking fat or oil, dropping about ⅛th C mixture into the pan and swirling the batter around the pan each time for small little flatbreads. They take about 2 min. per side to get nice and crispy. Repeat until finished.
Remove yams from the oven and sprinkle with a tsp cane sugar, turn oven to broil and brown the tops for a few minutes.
To assemble, arrange yams around the edge, sloppy in the middle, and all the fix ins around the edges of your bowl.
Hey I'm Chantelle, my alter ego would be a mermaid if I wasn't such a terrible swimmer. I love writing authentically and cooking in my pyjamas. My favourite pastimes include eating avocados, travelling the world and hanging out with a toddler.
