I love salads and have since I was a kid. Give me a good basic vinaigrette and I will come up with the craziest salad combinations. Whatever I have in the refrigerator or the pantry is fair game. Quinoa, fresh herbs, sprouts, cooked beans, last night’s leftover vegetables, rice, whatever! I always try to wash a few heads of lettuce and make a vinaigrette on Sunday so that a delicious salad is only minutes away any day of the week.
The only tricky part about salads is making sure you’ve got good seasonal produce to work with. Lettuce is grown all year round in California, but tomatoes and cucumbers are not. So my winter salads tend to focus on things like avocados, fennel and citrus fruits. But I also love making winter salads with a base of something other than lettuce, such as kale or cabbage which are super fabulous at this time of year, and might I add super nutritious!
Dr. Mark Hyman just came out with a new book called The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook. I am a huge Dr. Hyman fan! I love his message about keeping blood sugar balanced, and I also followed his 30-day blood sugar challenge last year which had great health tips every day. I haven’t had a ton of time to really get into the new cookbook, but I immediately made the Asian Slaw since I happened to have all the ingredients on hand. Yummers!
Cabbage is one of the most affordable and nutritious vegetables. It has loads if fiber, Vitamin C and beta-carotene which aids in tissue repair. It can also help to protect against tumors and inhibit the growth of cancerous cells. Another benefit, especially at this time of year, is that cabbage can stimulate the immune system. All good stuff!
This slaw is very easy to make provided you have a good sharp knife so you can slice the cabbage thinly. It’s a nice change of pace from typical mayonnaise-based slaws (not my fave.) If you don’t have a nut-free house, definitely add the cashews as that was my favorite part of this salad. Otherwise, try toasted and salted sunflower seeds. It was great paired with a piece of simply roasted fish and baked sweet potatoes. Leftovers were still delicious the next day with a quinoa, sugar snap pea and cilantro salad. With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, cabbage will be really cheap, so stock up and cook up some news ways to enjoy this tasty and versatile veg!
½ bunch (about 1½ oz) fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
Juice of 2 limes
Sea salt
½ cup chopped roasted unsalted cashews (I used roasted salted.)
Instructions
Place all the vegetables in a large serving bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together the sesame oil, olive oil, scallions, cilantro, and lime juice, and season to taste with salt.
Pour the mixture over the cabbage and toss well.
Let the slaw sit in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Garnish with cashews before serving. Any leftovers can be stored in refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Notes
I felt as though it could have used a little more dressing, so I would add the dressing to most of the cabbage and then add more cabbage until you feel as though you have the balance of cabbage to dressing that you’re looking for.
I know so many of you are fighting cold weather and stuffy noses, so I thought I would share with you a new favorite soup in our house. My friend and student Lynette gave me the recipe because it has been popular with her family. Nothing beats a warm and hearty bowl of soup when you’re not feeling 100% and this one is particularly fantastic since you place everything into a slow cooker in the morning and it’s ready by dinnertime (also great when you’re not feeling 100%.)
People in my classes have been begging me for more slow cooker recipes, especially the dump-and-start kind. If you don’t have a slow cooker, do not fear. I will give you directions for a stovetop version. Whereas I normally prefer to saute aromatic vegetables before using them in a soup or stew since it adds more flavor, in this recipe the extra step doesn’t make much difference. Lucky us! Although the original recipe doesn’t call for it, I prefer to soak my beans to neutralize the phytic acid, a hard-to-digest anti-nutritient. Soaking is optional though, as the slow cooker will easily cook the beans to a creamy softness without soaking.
This was a perfect entree soup for dinner paired with corn muffins and a green salad. More importantly, all my kids, including the picky one, just loved it. I know some people can’t get into the idea of “just” soup for dinner. But I promise this is a hearty one. Beans are loaded with protein and fiber which both help keep you full for longer. There is also a small amount of sausage in the soup (I used chicken sausage) which you can omit if you’re vegetarian or vegan or use your favorite vegan sausage to add a little smokiness to the soup. For a more affordable dish, you can use a small ham hock for flavor instead of the sausage.
In my opinion everything is better, more alkalizing and more nutritious with dark leafy greens. I hope you are finding new and delicious ways to incorporate this food group into your diet. Kale seems to be the “it” leafy green of the moment, that it’s nice to see another leafy green in a recipe. Collard greens are used in this soup, but I’m sure cabbage or kale would be equally delicious here. This recipe is a keeper no matter how you make it!
Slow Cooker White Bean Soup with Sausage and Collard Greens
Author: adapted from my friend Lynette who adapted it from Real Simple Magazine
Serves: 6
Ingredients
1 pound dried beans (such as cannellini or great Northern), picked through for stones or debris, soaked* for at least 6 hours in cold water and drained
½ pound andouille sausage links, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise (I used a 12-ounce package of Applegate Farms chicken apple sausage)
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 sprigs fresh thyme
8 cups low-sodium or unsalted chicken or vegetable broth, preferably homemade
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar
sea salt and black pepper to taste (salt will vary based on what stock or sausage you use)
unrefined olive oil for drizzling (optional)
Instructions
In a 4-6 quart slow cooker (mine is a 6.5 quart and it turned out great), combine the beans, sausage, onion, celery, and thyme. Add the broth and stir to combine.
Cover and cook until the beans are tender, on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or HIGH for 4-5 hours.
minutes before serving, remove and discard the thyme sprigs and add the collard greens. Cover and cook until the greens are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.
Drizzle with olive oil, if desired.
Notes
*You don’t have to soak the beans if you don’t have time, but it makes them more digestible. You do need to soak them for the stovetop version.
For a stovetop version, sauté onions and celery in 2 Tablespoons olive oil. Add soaked, dried beans, sausage, thyme and stock. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook covered until beans are tender, bout 60-90 minutes. Add greens and cook until tender, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with olive oil if desired.
My favorite thing about the weekends and vacations is lingering over breakfast. Weekdays are (sadly) so rushed that we don’t really have more than 10 minutes to sit down and enjoy our morning meal. Not only are we lacking time to relax and enjoy, but the five of us never eat breakfast together during the week since we’re all on different schedules. Of course, I’m guilty of the worst offense of all which is eating in my car on the way to work. I keep thinking getting up earlier is the answer, but somehow that hasn’t been the solution. It’s a dreadful habit and I am completely embarrassed that I don’t walk that talk, but I would rather eat my porridge slowly in my car than inhale it in 30 seconds at the kitchen table.
The weekends are a whole different story. I love making breakfast foods that take a little more time. Just the smells of something wonderful from the oven make me giddy with anticipation while I sip my tea out of a real mug, not portable one, and the newspaper spread out everywhere. Typical weekend creations are baked frittatas with lots of veggies, whole grain waffles (who has time to wash a waffle iron on a Tuesday morning?), and this amazing, versatile Baked Oatmeal recipe. I make steel cut oats once or twice per week, but the weekend demands something a little more special. I originally spotted this recipe by Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks fame in Whole Living Magazine a few years ago and instantly knew this would become a regular for us. I have made this recipe with mixed berries and with thinly sliced apples on the bottom — both delicious — and on my to-do list is to come up with versions using coconut and pumpkin puree and spices. Mr. Picky likes this enough that I think I could sell this as an after school snack if I tossed in a few chocolate chips. Heidi’s originally called for sliced bananas on the bottom, which were great if you love a super sweet intense banana flavor.
Oats are super hearty and filling and make a great start to the day. If oatmeal tends to raise your blood sugar too much, make sure you pair it with some protein and fat like nuts. Walnuts are in this recipe, but I’ve used sliced almonds and pecans too. Of course, if you’re nut-free, feel free to omit them altogether and enjoy this recipe all the same. Baked Oatmeal can be easily adapted for dairy-free people by using an alternative milk and coconut oil or Earth Balance; and for vegans by dropping the egg. It doesn’t slice as nicely without the egg, but it’s no big deal.
My family seems to eat this straight as is, but I love pouring on some extra almond milk or (when I wasn’t dairy-free) dolloping a little yogurt on top. I have access to fresh blueberries grown in a hothouse all year so I decided to splurge and use them here, but if you are only working with citrus and bananas at this time of year, you can always use frozen fruit. Although, I just saw the first fresh strawberries at the farmer’s market last weekend which means good fruit is on the horizon and more delicious Baked Oatmeal possibilities await you.
Author: Pamela, adapted from Super Natural Everyday via Whole Living Magazine
Serves: 6
Ingredients
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (look for gluten-free oats to make this a gluten-free recipe) - Do NOT use steel cut oats
½ cup walnuts, almonds or pecans, chopped, divided
⅓ cup 100% pure maple syrup (or ¼ c. for a more subtle sweetness)
2 cups whole milk or plant milk like unsweetened hemp milk, almond milk or flax milk
1 large egg or flax egg or ¼ cup applesauce
1 ½ Tablespoons unsalted butter, unrefined coconut oil or organic Earth Balance, melted and cooled slightly, plus more for greasing baking dish
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen berries, divided
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking dish.
Combine the baking powder, cinnamon and sea salt in a large bowl. Stir in the oats and ¼ cup nuts.
In a separate bowl, whisk together maple syrup, milk, egg, melted butter, and pure vanilla. (You can also combine these ingredients in a blender.)
Scatter 1 cup of the berries on the bottom of the baking dish and then cover with the oat mixture. Pour wet mixture into the pan over the oats and spread evenly. Sprinkle the rest of the nuts and berries across the top. You can make this up until this point the night before and refrigerate, covered.
Bake for 35 minutes or until the oat mixture is set and wet ingredients are absorbed.
Notes
So many people have made this recipe many times, so I don't want to abruptly change it BUT I mix everything together in the same bowl and pour it into the prepared baking dish. You can also assemble this the night before, cover and refrigerate it, and bake it uncovered in the morning. Leftovers are great cold, room temp or reheated.
Right now is probably not the most exciting time of the year for fruit, even in Southern California. Sure, we have amazing citrus coming our of our ears, but that’s pretty much it. Pomegranates and persimmons just finished. Even the apples we buy now were picked a few months ago and kept in cold storage. They’re great for cooking in desserts or on top of morning oatmeal, but they’re not as crunchy, crispy, and juicy as they were in November. Mr. Picky keeps asking me, “are strawberries in season yet?” Almost, little guy.
But like I said, citrus fruits are in full force and I buy a wide assortment every week, including blood oranges, navels, Satsuma tangerines, and grapefruits, to name a few. You probably already know that citrus fruits contain tons of Vitamin C, a very powerful antioxidant which is so helpful during cold and flu season, but keep in mind fresher is better since fruits lose 10% of their Vitamin C every day they are off the vine. My family goes through quite a bit of citrus fruit between breakfast, lunch boxes, and after school snacks. Sometimes I’ll even put some citrus segments in salads just for fun. Blood oranges are especially tasty in Raw Kale Salad or mixed greens with an Asian vinaigrette.
But I have made an interesting observation about grapefruit and my family. They absolutely love grapefruit, but when I buy them, they seem to sit around untouched. Everyone seems to think of grapefruit as a breakfast-only food and no one takes the time in the morning to cut them for eating. Is it that we’re always short on time in the morning? Is it that everyone is too lazy? Perhaps a little of both. I supposed grapefruits do take a few minutes more to prep than other citrus fruits since merely peeling a grapefruit leaves the white bitter pith which no one really cares for. But if I segment a bunch of grapefruits when I come home from the market and put them in a container in the fridge, the kids fight over the last bite. I’ve even seen Mr. Picky sitting at the kitchen counter with a bowl of grapefruit, a fork and his homework. Would you call this “healthful convenience food?” If so, I’ll take the extra time in the beginning of the week to do this for my family if it means they’ll eat fruit instead of the Halloween candy they don’t know I know they have stashed under their bathroom sinks behind the extra toilet paper. What, was I born yesterday?
While I was segmenting grapefruits, a technique you can also use for larger oranges, I decided to demo how to cut smaller citrus into “pinwheel” slices. These take a little less time and make for a beautiful presentation for citrus salads or to add to winter salads.
I didn’t have any images for this post, but I have done a citrus pinwheel salad with oranges, blood oranges, and tangerines which is just so pretty. On the site I posted a salad with spinach, blood oranges and beets to which you can add seared wild salmon. That is a great light meal for a weeknight or guests. Grapefruit and avocado is a classic pairing. However you slice them, citrus fruits are worth the effort!
how to segment citrus fruit
Using a very sharp knife, slice a bit off the top and the bottom of the grapefruit so it sits flat on a cutting board.
Starting at the top of the grapefruit, cut the peel away from the fruit following the natural curve of the fruit down towards the cutting board. The idea is to take off the peel, white pith and membrane, but not to remove too much of the fruit. Continue around the entire grapefruit until no more peel is remaining.
Take the grapefruit in one hand positioned over a bowl (to catch the juices) and the knife in the other hand. Identify the white lines in the grapefruit which separate the segments from each other and slice as close to the white line as possible cutting down to the center of the grapefruit. Cut alongside the membrane holding the segment and wedge the piece out with the knife.
Continue with the remaining segments. The leftover membranes can be eaten if you like.
how to cut citrus pinwheels
Using a very sharp knife, slice a bit off the top and the bottom of the fruit so it sits flat on a cutting board.
Starting at the top of the fruit, cut the peel away following the natural curve of the fruit down towards the cutting board. The idea is to take off the peel, white pith and membrane, but not to remove too much of the fruit. Continue around the entire piece of fruit until no more peel is remaining.
Place the fruit on its side and slice crosswise into pinwheels.
I know I’ve already posted a How-to-Make-Almond-Milk-from-Scratch recipe. In fact, I gave you three different versions! But my how-to involves slipping the skins off the soaked almonds before blitzing them in your blender which is really no big deal. The reason I do that is because I went to an ayurvedic cooking lecture many, many years ago and the teacher went into great detail about almonds. Almonds are wonderful and alkalizing and high in protein and good fats, BUT (I was hanging on the edge of my seat when I heard that “BUT”) they can be very hard to digest unless they are soaked. AND the skins can be a little bitter. AND the skins cause wrinkles. Whaaaaaat???? I will tell you no one was listening until she said that and then every manicured brow in the room went up. “Did she say almond skins cause WRINKLES?”
So obviously do you really think I was going to start eating almond skins after that? Silly question. Duh, noooooo. Of course I never did any research as to the validity of that statement and I still haven’t. But I did research how to make almond milk from other sources and everyone says to slip those skins off, perhaps due more to a bitter aftertaste than the wrinkles theory. But your friend Pamela here has gotten much busier since my last almond milk post and I have become practically dairy-free, so I have been making almond milk about twice a week. And there came a point when I decided that slipping those almond skins off was GIVING me wrinkles! Or maybe because I was doing it while watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Oy. Anyhoo, I decided to see what would happen if I soaked the almonds, drained them and blended them in fresh water WITH their supposedly bitter, age-advancing skins. Gasp. No difference. Same delicious taste and my skin still looks like it did before I drank the almond milk. Life-changing moment!
I also now exclusively use a nut milk bag (I know, sounds nasty, but totally fabulous!) instead of my fine mesh sieve to squeeze out every last drop from the blended almonds. If you don’t have a nut milk bag (gives me the willies every time I type that, but a great product, really!), a fine mesh sieve works great. You just really want to press down on the pureed almonds or squeeze them with your hands as I am convinced that the creamiest part of the almond milk comes from that last squeeze.
I use almond milk all the time, especially to finish off hot breakfast porridges like oats and millet. I use it in acai bowls and smoothies, as well as chia seed pudding and desserts. The girls have been using it over granola and my friend Matt pours it over cereal and in coffee. Just remember, homemade almond milk is pure goodness with no preservatives so it doesn’t last as long as the stuff in a box. What else do you use almond milk for?
Serves: makes just about 3 cups (to make closer to 4 cups of almond milk, use 1⅓ cups almonds and 4 cups water)
Instructions
Soak 1 cup raw almonds in bowl with plenty of room temperature water for 6-8 hours. (Soaking will make the almonds softer and more digestible.)
Drain the almonds in a colander and rinse with fresh water.
Place the almonds in a blender or Vitamix. Add 3 cups fresh water and blend until the nuts are pulverized.
Strain through a fine mesh sieve, cheesecloth or a nut milk bag into a glass bowl. If using a sieve, use a spoon to scrape the almond meal around and allow as much liquid to drain through.
Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate, covered for up to 4 days. Add the remaining pulp, sweetened with honey or maple syrup, to hot cereal, granola or fruit.
Notes
Almond milk with coconut water: Soak almonds in regular water, but use coconut water to blend with the soaked almonds.
Almond milk sweetened with dates: Follow directions for basic almond milk, but blend soaked almonds with water and 8 pitted dates. You can add a drop of vanilla and sea salt, if you like, but it is delicious just like this. Of course you can sweeten almond milk with stevia or honey or whatever you like, but I think dates are the best! You don’t need to sweeten the remaining pulp if you choose to eat it since it is already sweet from the dates.
Daughter #2 asked me the other day if I was “ever going to put that thing away?” She was referring to my slow cooker, of course. Not that Daughter #2 is complaining since she’s the first one to the dinner table every night and has always been the easiest one to cook for. But she had a point. That slow cooker has has become part of the family!
But I wasn’t about to shelve my new baby so soon. Just when I thought cooking a whole chicken couldn’t get any easier, I decided to put my Easy No-Fail Roast Chicken method to the test in…the slow cooker. Believe me, I don’t normally mess with the easiest, most popular dinners in my repertoire. But roasting a whole chicken is something that needs to be started well before I get home some days and I need a back-up. That and I was on a roll and feeling lucky, so I figured this was going to work like everything else I’ve been trying. I decided to prep the chicken in basically the same way I do an oven-roasted chicken — rubbed on the inside and out with some kosher salt early on, stuffed with a bit of fresh thyme and some crushed garlic and cooked on a bed of onions. I usually add cut lemons to the cavity, but I was nervous that cooking the lemons for a long time would result in a bitter taste, so I left those out. The only other change I made was to rub the outside of the chicken with a little olive oil mixed with paprika so that the skin would get a little color and not be pale and unattractive.
The conclusion is that I think I should call this recipe “Easier than Easy No-Fail Roast Chicken and Still So Darn Good.” The chicken was predictably fall-off-the-bones. In fact, I had a hard time getting the chicken out of the slow cooker in one piece! My kids love super soft meat and my husband likes chicken that is beyond well done. I’ve made chicken once or twice a week for the last 17 1/2 years and he has asked me every single time if the chicken is cooked through. No comment on whether or not that is annoying since my husband occasionally reads my blog AND Valentine’s Day is coming up. Get my drift? My point is that this chicken satisfies everyone, including me since it takes all of 5 minutes to prep and you can do it 8 hours before you want to eat dinner. “Is this cooked through?” “Darling, it’s been cooking for 8 hours.”
So you all know I am completely obsessed with making homemade chicken stock. I swear, if teaching cooking classes and blogging doesn’t work out, I will go into the homemade stock-making business. The world must know the goodness of homemade stock somehow! So before I served this chicken to the family, I removed and reserved all the bones. I put the bones back in there with a chicken back I had in the freezer plus some stock veggies (onions, carrots, celery) and water and I made chicken stock overnight. It was delicious. And because there was no skin and foam and such, it turned out to be such a clear stock with minimal fat. It’s crazy not to try this! (Sorry I don’t have photos. It was too dark in my kitchen and the images didn’t turn out well.)
Cooking a whole chicken in a slow cooker opens up so many possibilities for what you can do with the meat. You don’t have to cut the chicken into traditional breast, thigh, drumstick pieces. You can use the meat just as you would rotisserie chicken meat and heaven knows there have been more articles on what to do with rotisserie chicken meat than how to get your baby to sleep through the night. Just to remind — chicken soup, enchiladas, tacos, pot pie, sandwiches, salads and so on. For those of you who do not have a slow cooker and feel excluded, please revisit the Easy No Fail Roast Chicken Recipe. I still love you and I will put away the slow cooker and come back to you. Eventually. Wink, wink.
1 whole roasting chicken, about 4-5 pounds (save the neck for stock)
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4-5 cloves garlic, crushed
½ bunch fresh thyme or a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 Tablespoons unrefined olive oil
1-2 teaspoons paprika
1 brown onion, peeled and sliced into thick slices
For the stock:
Some additional bony chicken pieces if you have them, such as backs, necks, wings and/or feet, up to 2 pounds
2 brown onions, cut into large pieces
3 carrots, cut into large chunks
3 celery stalks, cut into large chunks
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
water (amount depends on size of your slow cooker)
Instructions
When you get home from the market, unwrap the chicken and remove any giblets from the cavity. Save the neck for stock.
Take a heaping tablespoon of kosher salt and rub it around the inside of the cavity. Any remaining salt on your hands can be rubbed on the outside of the chicken. Rewrap the chicken and refrigerate until ready to cook. This can be done up to two days in advance.
The day you are making the chicken, remove it from the wrapping and sprinkle a few pinches of black pepper, as well as the garlic and thyme in the cavity of the chicken.
Truss the chicken by tying the legs together. Rub the outside of the chicken with olive oil and paprika.
Place the onion slices on the bottom of the slow cooker insert and place the chicken on top of the onions. You do not need any liquid, I promise. Cover and cook on LOW for 7- 8 hours or HIGH 4-5 hours.
Serve with the cooked onions and pan juices, if desired.
Notes
Leave whatever you didn’t use in the slow cooker (juices and onions). Remove all the bones from the entire chicken and place in the slow cooker with any additional chicken parts you have, including the neck from the chicken you just cooked. Add vegetables, vinegar, and enough water to come up to about an inch from the top. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours or overnight. My slow cooker automatically goes to WARM mode after 8 hours. Strain and use immediately if you don’t see too much fat at the top or cool slightly and refrigerate. When cold, skim and discard any fat from the top. Stock can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
The last school the kids attended allowed cupcakes with 2-inch high thick blue frosting to be handed out at 10:30 am on your child’s birthday. And if I do the math, that was about two birthdays every month. The school also made a big deal about celebrating holidays with food, so my child went to school on Halloween and loaded up on candy even before she started trick or treating. Then there were the ubiquitous bake sales and Friday candy, soda and pizza sales to raise money for whatever. Nevermind the disruption to classroom teaching and the disastrous effect on learning, but what a poor message this sends to the children about food and how much we care about their health.
The public schools my kids attend now have a policy against any food (even if you wanted to bring in kale chips) being sent in for birthdays and holidays. If your child is in elementary school and you would like to mark his birthday, feel free to buy a book to donate to his classroom and volunteer 15 minutes to read it to the students. All the kids will also give him a big card that says all the things they like about him. Is this freakin’ awesome or what? Just a happy birthday with no sugar rush before noon. No bouncing off the walls when he gets home. No pressure to be the mom who brings in the treat with the most sugar or artificially colored candy. I always lost that one.
I think 99% of children get more than an appropriate amount of sweets and treats outside of school that we don’t need to give it to them in places where it doesn’t belong. Don’t even get me started on snack after soccer games. BUT, I am of course a reasonable, fun mom who encourages eating a wide variety of wholesome foods with the occasional treat. Actually, I allow treats more often than I’d like to, but the message is that those are not foods to be eaten more than once a day, preferably only once or twice a week. But when a special holiday like Valentine’s Day rolls around, I am the first one in the kitchen baking up something special for my darlings.
I discovered these flourless chocolate cakes from the True Food Kitchen website. True Food Kitchen is a chain of healthful restaurants started by Dr. Andrew Weil. It’s really the kind of food I love — natural, unprocessed, flavorful, but not extreme in one way or another. I happen to love chocolate and I drank Dr. Weil’s Kool Aid, so to speak, and believe all the wonderful benefits about dark chocolate’s antioxidant benefits and high mineral content. It also happens to be a natural aphrodisiac. Hmmmm…… Before you get any ideas, M&M’s don’t fall in the same category, sorry! I also try to limit everyone’s consumption of gluten to just a wee bit, so these mini cakes looked perfect since they are flourless. You figured that out on your own, I’m sure.
These are the bomb, no joke. I have never served them to anyone who didn’t think so, even Mr. Picky who could probably down all six of them if I let him. They’re kind of a cross between a rich and dense cake and a souffle. The cakes have a really nice chocolate flavor without making you tired of chocolate after two bites. I think they’re just great plain, but everyone loves the raspberry sauce I make to go along with them. The raspberry sauce is a great instant sauce to know how to make regardless of the cake. It’s terrific poured over oodles things like yogurt or ice cream, French toast or pancakes, even your favorite porridge. Did you catch that amazing nut butter and banana French toast I posted on facebook? You’re not my facebook fan? Bummer. You should be! This sauce would be awesome with that. How about this, let’s say you don’t have time to whip up these chocolate cakes for dessert on Valentine’s Day. Make the raspberry sauce the day before and serve it with store bought ice cream or pancakes just to have something a little special.
For lots more fun Valentine’s ideas, check out this post from last year. You won’t believe all the things you can do with a heart-shaped cookie cutter!
Author: Pamela, adapted from True Food Kitchen via Dr. Andrew Weil
Serves: 6
Ingredients
6 ounces dark chocolate, at least 70%
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter + 1 teaspoon for greasing the ramekins
6 Tablespoons unsalted creamy, raw almond butter
1 teaspoon 100% pure vanilla extract
3 eggs, at room temperature, separated
6 Tablespoons granulated cane sugar*, divided
pinch of fine grain sea salt
Raspberry Sauce
5 ounces frozen raspberries, about 1 cup
¼ cup natural cane sugar (Sucanat) or granulated sugar
⅓ cup hot water
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Over a double boiler (can use medium glass bowl over a pot of simmering water), melt chocolate, butter and almond butter. Let cool. Stir in vanilla.
While the chocolate mixture is cooling, lightly grease 6 4-ounce ramekins with the teaspoon of butter. If you don’t normally have success turning out cakes without leaving some in the pan, feel free to trace circles of parchment paper to line the bottoms of the ramekins.
Separate the eggs and place the yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add 3 tablespoons sugar and beat until a light, pale yellow color, about 6 minutes. Slowly pour the in the melted chocolate and mix until combined. Pour back into the bowl that had the chocolate. Wash and dry the mixing bowl.
In the clean mixing bowl, add the egg whites. Whisk until frothy. Slowly add the sugar and salt and whisk until soft peaks form. Carefully fold the whites into the chocolate mixture until combined. You do this by getting your spatula to the bottom of the bowl and pulling some chocolate out and over the egg whites. Turn your bowl a little and do it again. Keep pulling the chocolate out and over until you don’t see any more white streaks.
Spoon the batter into the ramekins. Bake for 15 minutes or until tops are dry and the cakes are set. They will be puffed when you take them out of the oven, but if you let them sit on the countertop, they do deflate. Feel free to eat them warm out of the ramekin or allow to cool before unmolding. If you unmold them while they are too warm, they won’t unmold easily.
Prepare the raspberry sauce: place raspberries, sugar and hot water in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. (Can be made one day ahead and kept refrigerated.)
Serve each cake with raspberry sauce spooned around decoratively.
Notes
*You can substitute coconut palm sugar for cane sugar in the chocolate mixture. If so, increase cooking time by an extra 2-3 minutes.
People have asked me (actually one person in particular, i.e. my Italian-born father) why I don’t have more pasta recipes on my site or on my class menus. I know everyone loves pasta and it’s super easy to make, but I think the internet and cookbooks have more than enough pasta recipes to keep everyone busy. But more importantly, I think most people eat waaaaay too much pasta. And not just too many times in a week as my family was guilty of when I was a kid, but also too much in one sitting.
I’m not a big fan of processed wheat flour which is nutritionally empty, loaded with hard-to-digest and inflammatory gluten, and causes a spike in blood sugar especially when eaten in large quantities. When blood sugar surges, the pancreas releases insulin, a fat-storage hormone which is also pro-inflammatory. If people could eat 1/2-1 cup of pasta in one sitting without any other concentrated carbohydrates at the same meal (that’s right, pasta plus garlic bread plus French fries is NOT a balanced dinner), and perhaps no other gluten-containing foods the rest of the day, I think we’d be in better shape, so to speak, than we are now. But it is really, really easy to overeat pasta. If you go to your neighborhood Italian restaurant, pasta is very often served as a main course, as opposed to in Italy where it is served in a much smaller portion as a first course. American restaurant portions can be upwards of 8-12 ounces per serving which is about 4-6 times the recommended serving size. Insanity.
Believe me, I love pasta as much as the next person, but I don’t love its effect on my body. When I do eat pasta, I like to load it with vegetables and limit myself to a 1 cup serving. I also try to rotate different pastas in our meals, including ones made from brown rice, quinoa and spelt. But over the last few years, I have really enjoyed finding tasty and nutritious substitutes for pasta, such as spaghetti squash, millet-cauliflower mash, zucchini “noodles” and very often polenta.
Polenta is kind of like grits, but from ground yellow corn. You can find fine, medium or coarse ground. It does have a little bit of a corn flavor if you make it with just water and salt. But add some grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese and a bit of olive oil or butter and you’ve got yourself a bowl of spoon-lickin’ goodness. I really don’t know why more people don’t eat polenta. It’s super easy to make, incredibly affordable, gluten-free and pretty nutritious (try to get organic or non-GMO.) Most of all, it’s really creamy and luxurious-tasting. I prefer it thick and pourable, rather than firm and sliceable, but that’s fine too. I like to eat it with anything that I would serve on top of pasta such as meatballs, saucy vegetables, juicy greens, sautéed shrimp and so on. I usually make the coarse-ground kind because I like a little texture, but if I’m strapped for time I’ll throw some fine ground cornmeal into the pot and I’ll have it ready in 5 minutes and it’s very silky smooth. I think my girls like the “instant” polenta better because it’s creamier. They’ll eat it with anything I mentioned above. Mr. Picky has really only had a bite or two of polenta at a sitting and he thinks it’s “okay.” He always mentions he would prefer pasta. Thanks for the feedback, dude. What I will do for the little guy is make sure I cook something else that night that I know he will eat like meatballs or lemon-thyme chicken. Because if it were up to him, we’d be eating pasta every night. Insanity!
1-3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, unrefined olive oil or organic Earth Balance (I prefer butter)
¼ cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese (optional)
Instructions
In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the salt. Then add the polenta to the pot slowly, whisking constantly. Reduce the heat to low and cook COVERED, stirring often, until the mixture thickens and the cornmeal is tender, about 20 minutes. The polenta can be eaten now, but the flavors develop more and you’ll lose some of the grittiness if you can allow it to simmer another 20-30 minutes. Not essential, though.
Stir in the butter and cheese and serve immediately or keep warm in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Polenta should be pourable and creamy. If it’s too thick, stir in more liquid.
Notes
*You can also do a more “instant” version of this using instant polenta or fine ground cornmeal (like the kind you use for corn muffins.) That will take you 5 minutes.
Other options: For extra richness, you can stir in an additional ½ cup of whole milk or plain, unsweetened hemp milk at the end, or some mascarpone or cream cheese; Mozzarella or fontina cheese.
You can also add corn kernels, roasted garlic, or herbs, such as rosemary, basil or parsley.
