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Miso Roasted Brussels Sprouts
As we head into the holidays, the focus obviously shifts to any and all dishes for entertaining. Side dishes and treats, mains and snacks. ‘Tis the season of all the eating! The Miso Roasted Brussels Sprouts are begging to be the star at your Thanksgiving or Christmas meal! Trust me, this is a veggie that can steal the show!
I enjoy creating the sweets and treats recipes, because let’s be real, the joy that healthy treats can bring is palpable. I’d like to wrap that feeling up with a pretty bow and give it as a gift. That said, when it comes to the holidays, my heart will forever remain with sides and veggies. I love a good, plant-based side dish. So much room for creativity in the vegetables. The mains are usually pretty traditional, those are generally on lock down. I just truly enjoy the challenge of creating exciting enough veggie dishes that will please the masses and especially those that won’t be the forgotten soldier at a table full of meaty mains and their carb-loaded friends. I literally have made it my mission when I feed people to make the vegetable(s) the first thing to disappear from the plate, rather than the last. This dish 100% is successful at doing exactly that.
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How-To Preserve and Freeze Fresh Herbs in Olive Oil
Living in California, worrying about not having access to the fresh local herbs in the winter, isn’t exactly an issue, but I do remember what it was like living in New York. The minute the first frost hits in the early fall, there is a scramble to save plants and there is a huge sense of loss when you can no longer just walk into the yard and snip off your favorite fresh herbs. If you are
luckysmart enough to have your fresh herbs in pots, you can just bring those in, otherwise you can kiss them goodbye until the start of the next season.This simple method for preserving fresh herbs is a really great way to keep the fresh flavors of your summer garden or the local farmers market – all through the fall and winter. When thawed or just heated right up from frozen, these frozen cubes work great in stews, sautés, soups, roasts and more. Besides being super helpful and functional, this project is super fun and very simple – it would be a really great and educational project to do with kids.
Regardless of how cold it gets where you live, this is such a great, money-saving way to make the most of your herbs. For me, I love this method of preserving because oftentimes I will buy a large amount of fresh herbs for a recipe that I am testing, however if there are any leftover, they tend to go bad or get sad and wilted before I can get to them again. -
Summer Squash Salad with Basil Vinaigrette and Crispy Prosciutto
Summer is definitely all about the fuss-free eating, but to me, it’s also all about enjoying the abundance. With so much beautiful produce in season, there is no shortage of foods to be inspired by and get creative with.
To me, zucchini gets all the love during the summer and admittedly, I likely eat a farm’s worth myself every year. But lest we forget about the yellow summer squash, the beautiful golden sibling to the zucchini. While the flavor is very similar, the only real major difference is their skin color, so I find the yellow squash to be as equally versatile as the zucchini and it too is a mainstay in my summer kitchen.
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Grilled Scallop and Veggie Skewers with Green Tahini
I am not sure about all of you, but our grill becomes the center of many meals this time of year. Without any AC at all and many hot summer days of working from home, tossing a light and healthy meal on the grill at the end of a sweaty work day sounds like the perfect idea. But, also a perfect idea? Dinners that can be thrown together start to finish in under 30 minutes.
These Grilled Scallop and Veggie Skewers with Green Tahini are what summer weeknight meal dreams are made of. I love serving these alongside an herby cauli-rice. They’d also be great with regular rice, other grains of your choosing or atop a big green salad.
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Gluten-free Mediterranean Flatbread
Did you know that May is Celiac Awareness Month? I shared the following over on my Instagram account but I thought it was worth mentioning here, as well.
While I discovered my own severe gluten intolerance over 11 years ago, I was actually never properly tested for Celiac (until it was too late) and now as many years later, as additional health issues have shown up to the party, many of which you guys have read about right here on the website – I now certainly suspect Celiac to be the underlying cause. (Though I denied this truth for many years)
That said, frankly speaking, my 11 year journey of eating 100% gluten-free and guiding others on their path, no matter the need, it has always been about celebrating food, exploring ingredients and hopefully encouraging others to get excited to be in the kitchen and create. Fresh, seasonal, nutrient-dense whole foods – to me it’s all about the amazing things that are naturally gluten-free, rather than supplementing with overly processed substitutes.
That said, given the nature of my work and the fact that not everyone has the ability to work from home, cook all three meals a day completely from scratch and that many of you have a whole family to feed – I am also always on the look out for gluten-free products that will make life easier, while not being loaded with terrifying ingredients. Read the rest of this entry »
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Raspberry Vinaigrette
Happy Friday, friends! I am still away on a little anniversary getaway with my husband. We’re in Palm Springs soaking up all of the desert goodness, celebrating 9 years of marriage and 13 years since our first blind date. We try for a vacation every year for our anniversary, it’s so important for us to stop the clock, step out from our busy lives and just celebrate each other for a few days. Especially since we both work from home, going away is a really nice opportunity to just be with each other, without the distractions of our work and life. We get to relax, talk, reminisce and most excitingly, nap in the middle of the day, just because we can.
I think one of the (many) things I love most about our love, is that Mark still has the ability to surprise me, even after all of these years. He’s always keeping me guessing and on my toes and he is always willing to try something I made, just to support me.
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Massaged Kale Salad with Sweet Potato Noodles, Persimmon and a Smoky Orange Vinaigrette
It’s that time of year again, the web is a buzz with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pie and all the sides, so here we go!! This salad celebrates the best of the season and not only is it beautiful, but it packs a punch in the flavor department. It is sure to impress anyone you serve it to and I can promise this salad will be the Knight in
shininggreen armor at any carb-heavy holiday meal.
Amongst this crazy busy time of year, I would bet we could all use a massage or two, so let’s treat our kale, too. Seriously though, all joking aside, if you haven’t yet experienced the magic of massaged kale, you need to get on this train. I find many people think that they don’t love raw kale, I agree, it’s not super palatable in it’s raw form. It’s rough, fibrous, strong and often times bitter, but you would be shocked what a 5 minute rub down can do for this popular superfood. The flavor mellows, the texture becomes more silky and it’s infused with the soft flavors of the olive oil and citrus.
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Roasted Sweet Potato Rounds with Garlic Infused Olive Oil and Fresh Herbs
Sometimes, less really is more. I feel like there can be a lot of pressure in the recipe developing world, to go further, to come up with super crazy flavor combinations, to mix unsuspecting ingredients together or to be the first to come up with the next big food idea. Those big ideas and crazy creations often spread like wild fires amongst other bloggers, some ideas may become infamous on Pinterest, but ultimately I find for me it can all just be a thankless rat race. When I am cooking for myself or others, I always come back to the idea that less is more, don’t over-think it, K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid). The most simple recipes here on Tasty Yummies are typically the most popular. I like to be able to cook recipes with ingredients that I already have on hand, on a week day, I don’t want to run to 45 stores to get all the ingredients for one dinner. I like easy, smart and quick.
Life has been busy this month, one of the busiest I can remember in a long time. There have been countless trips, more hotel rooms than I can count, flights, visits with family, conferences, events and so much more. When I come home and I look at my to-do list and the next round of travels, I feel overwhelmed, so the last thing I can imagine doing is developing some epic creation in the kitchen. If I feel that way, I have to imagine that many of you do, as well. The last few weeks have been about easy meals, bone broth and homemade soup, crock pot meals, grilled local grass-fed meats, ALL the veggies and lots and lots of salads.
As life has me spinning and the message to “Honor Yourself” has continuously presented itself to me over the past few weeks, I have been trying very hard to give myself the space to do this. This isn’t an easy feat when life is feeling wildly out of control. I found myself fighting a cold last week, likely from all of the going and not properly taking care of myself and I am sure being on planes and in hotels with lots of germs, didn’t help either. Since I didn’t have the space to fully allow my body to heal, earlier this week I felt myself fighting off a sinus infection. I realized no matter how hard it would, I had to stop. Breathe. Give myself space to ground in. I found time to meditate, I sat with my feet in the sand at the ocean, I took a walk with my hubby and our pooch.
It isn’t easy to stop going when life is crazy and it doesn’t always feel good to say no to the bigger and “better” things in life, but ultimately when we can nourish ourselves, we are in a much better place to then nourish those around us, in our family and in our community. A fact I was reminded of recently by a friend.
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Dad’s Greek Dressing Recipe
How this website has existed for over 5 years now and I haven’t yet shared this recipe, is beyond me! My Dad’s world-famous Greek Salad Dressing recipe is notorious among anyone who has ever tasted it. There is perfection in it’s simplicity, a recipe that after you’ve made it once, you will wonder why you haven’t been making it for years. I have seen many overcomplicated recipes for Greek salad dressings, but listen to me folks, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel or to add extra flavors where they aren’t needed, AKA Keep it Simple, Stupid.
Not only will my dad share this delicious recipe with anyone who asks, but he so generously allowed me to share it here on the website. I feel like I am sharing a family secret here. I grew up enjoying this dressing on every salad, with every plate of homemade souvlaki and now it’s a favorite in my own kitchen.
During my parent’s visit last week, we of course, had our typical Sunday night Greek dinner, a tradition in our family, which I miss like crazy. Our feast was complete with grilled leg of lamb, roasted potatoes, homemade dolmades (tutorial coming soon) and a huge Greek salad. Dad and I made a batch of this dressing together for the salad and I love that he has made it so many times he doesn’t even have to measure any more. He get’s the oil to acidity ratio down and the rest just gets tossed in, basically by sight. A little whirl in the blender, a taste and he can tweak any little details from there.
My dad always says the key is no matter how much you are making, sticking with 2 parts oil to one part acid (and for the acid, 2 parts vinegar to one part lemon). You can opt for balsamic vinegar or red wine, but I have to say this dressing really shines with the rich balsamic. The feta cheese is optional, so if you are vegan or have to avoid dairy, it is still delicious without it, but I have to highly recommend it. The creaminess, the salty, tartness. It’s so good. Seriously, you will want to enjoy this dressing with a
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Grain-free Zucchini Fritters with Roasted Garlic and Heirloom Tomato Compote
This second to last week of August is always about the time I start to get sad that summer is nearly over. My garden is producing less and less, the sun is setting earlier and I know fall and winter are just around the corner. To be honest though, with living in Southern California, it is hard to remember all of that. We’ve still been having 90 degree days and the sun has been shining like crazy. But in looking at my garden and our various fruit trees, seeing many of them nearing the end of their cycles, I am reminded the next season is nearly upon us.
My veggie garden has been a source of so much joy and great food for us this summer, but it has also been a source of much frustration for me. I am still learning how to garden out west, it is so much different than it was in New York. With the lack of rain plus watering restrictions due to the draught, I struggle to remember to water my garden in the proper times. What ends up happening is it gets watered every few days. Somehow the weeds are all growing at alarming rates, they are taking over in fact, while my vegetable plants have moments of looking like they could just keel over and die at any moment.
Thankfully, though they are both slowing down significantly, I am still getting a decent amount of heirloom zucchini and heirloom tomatoes from our garden. Two things I could never tire of. So, I have been trying to get creative and come up with fun new ways to enjoy them.
These crispy Grain-free Zucchini Fritters are so simple to make and they are so beautifully complimented by the fresh and flavorful Roasted Garlic and Heirloom Tomato Compote. To me this is just summer in one perfect dish!
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Meet Our Sponsors: Terra Delyssa Olive Oil
As a Greek girl, I grew up on olive oil being the main everyday cooking oil in the house, it was used for savory cooking, salad dressings and even some baking. Sadly the quality, authentic single-source olive oil I knew as a child, isn’t always so easy to find, these days. Many olive oil companies are producing subpar multi-source oils, created from orchards treated with pesticides and chemicals or even worse, they are stretched further by adding cheaper vegetable oils or other olive oils made from olives coming from place other than what they clai . As someone that truly loves and appreciates good olive oil, this is always apparent on the first taste.
Authentic, Single-Source Olive Oil
I happened upon Terra Delyssa’s delicious high-quality olive oils at Expo West, earlier this spring, as I perused the aisles and aisles of natural products. Their booth was literally the first one that I stopped at. What struck me immediately was the bright colors and the bold graphics (come on, I am a designer, after all). But, what really kept me interested, as I got to chatting with them and tasting their delicious oils, was learning that their oils are all single source, that many of their products were organic and that all of their oils are produced without the use of pesticides or chemicals.
An Olive Oil That Does Not Hide It’s Origin
I love that Terra Delyssa can boast that their oils are produced and sold by the same farmers who harvest their olives by hand and care for their trees without the use of any pesticides or chemicals. Their olives are all harvested by hand and crushed within 24 hours of harvest — most of the time, within four hours of harvest — guaranteeing a fresh aroma and a lower acidity level. Terra Delyssa is the only 100 percent Tunisian olive oil on the market. The olives used for Terra Delyssa Olive Oil are grown in orchards that have been passed down through generations of olive growers. Tunisian olives produce oil with a delicate, mild flavor with hints of fruit and olive. Every single bottle of Terra Delyssa Olive Oil is 100 percent traceable and can be traced back to the field where the olives were grown.
As I got to cooking with Terra Delyssa’s delicious olive oils, what really struck me most was the smooth and fresh flavor profile, which makes it versatile enough to cook with every single day. Terra Delyssa Extra Virgin Olive Oil is made from the first cold press of handpicked olives, so there isn’t that acidic burn and intense aroma, that some olive oils can have. You’d think being a high quality, single-source, organic olive oil, that the prices would be outrageous, but that’s the best part – it is priced just right. The retail price of Terra Delyssa products range from $2.99 for a 250 ml to $24.99 for 3 liters. The extra virgin, organic, infused and specialty oils all fall within this price range. Amazing, right?
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Garlic Scape and Swiss Chard Pesto – Gluten-free & Vegan
Somehow in all the fun and craziness of this past two weeks, I totally forgot to post this recipe! I was going through my camera and saw the photos and thought “OOPS”! We got a beautiful large bunch of Swiss chard in the first week of our CSA share from Porter Farms and with the abundance of other greens, I really wanted to figure out something creative to do with the Swiss chard that to just cook it up. I had also grabbed a beautiful bunch of garlic scapes at the farmers market that I was contemplating making some type of pesto with. Then a beautiful post from last year on Jeanette’s Healthy Living, found it’s way to Tasty Yummies Facebook feed through someone I follow and I knew that was the answer. It was heaven sent!
I made a few changes to the recipe to make it my own, so feel free to do the same, yourself. If you cannot have nuts, obviously just leave out the walnuts, it will still be amazingly delicious. Additionally I love the very subtle spice from crushed red peppers, feel free to leave that out, if you wish. The Swiss chard was a nice addition to this pesto and nicely took the place of basil or even arugula, both of which I usually make my pestos from. Swiss chard is a highly nutritious vegetable that is an excellent source of vitamins A, C, E and K. It also provides good amounts of dietary fiber, magnesium, potassium and copper. Recent research has shown that chard leaves contain at least 13 different polyphenol antioxidants! You can read more about Swiss chard and it’s many benefits here.
Never had garlic scapes before? The twisty, curly, bright green stems are also sometimes called garlic shoots, stems or spears. Garlic scapes are the hard stem that grow above ground, soaking up the sun, while the bulb forms underneath. While the garlic scape is still young and edible, it is a curvy and tender green stalk with a small tightly closed bud on the end. As the garlic plant continues to mature, the scape or stalk will straighten and provide strength for the increasingly larger bulb below the ground’s surface, becoming too tough to eat. Garlic scapes contain a great deal of flavor and are great in pestos, thinly sliced like a scallion or chives for salads, soup, hummus, stir fries, etc. Garlic scapes have the flavor and aromatics reminiscent of garlic cloves, but not nearly as intense or strong.
I cooked up some gluten-free organic brown rice penne rigate from Jovial Foods and tossed it with the pesto, along with some of the pasta cooking water to loosen up the sauce a bit. I hadn’t yet tried this pasta, but I really liked it. It was really light, not too starchy and it had a nice bite to it. Ironically, the day I made this dish, Gluten-free Girl and the Chef posted a video about the secrets to and a “how to” on cooking gluten-free pasta. I followed their instructions and I found it to be helpful to allow the pasta to sit a bit before draining. I would be curious how this would work with Tinkyada brand pasta which I normally use, since it seems a bit starchier.
Besides pasta, this pesto would be great tossed on grilled or roasted veggies, spread on a toasted slice of your favorite gluten-free bread, over eggs, and the list could go on and on.
[print_this]Garlic Scape and Swiss Chard Pesto – Gluten-free & Vegan
- 1 bunch garlic scapes
- 1 bunch swiss chard, leaves only
- 1/4 cup raw walnuts (optional)
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- Juice from half a lemon
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
Blanch the swiss chard leaves in boiling water for about 30 seconds, just to remove chalky taste. Rinse under cold water and squeeze out the water.
Put blanched swiss chard, garlic scapes, walnuts, crushed red pepper and lemon juice into the bowl of your food processor and process until still slightly chunky. Gradually pour olive oil in to feeder tube and continue processing until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Serve tossed with your favorite gluten-free pasta, add a little of the cooking liquid from the pasta to loosen up the sauce, if you wish.[/print_this]
