Why Reusing is better than Recycling

I really try to be conscientious about living a sustainable life, but I’m not perfect.  I ascribe to the Healthy Child, Healthy World motto that “no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”  So although I don’t do everything I know I “should” be doing to help save the world, I make better decisions now than I used to, whether it’s composting regularly, turning off lights in empty rooms or buying locally and seasonally.  I guess I try to make choices that feel doable and meaningful to me.

One habit that has become old hat for us is recycling.  Our local sanitation company provides us with a special bin to recycle lots of household items like newspaper, aluminum, plastic, and glass.  Recycling these items may be better than tossing them in a landfill, but it still perpetuates a “throwaway mentality” and I don’t think it really forces us to focus on reducing consumption.  “Why not just use another water bottle?  I’ll recycle it.”  In addition, it also requires a lot of resources and energy for a truck to come a pick up the recyclables, bring them to a facility, and then transformed into other usable materials.   I think REUSING should be the new recycling.  I bet you’re already taking reusable bags to the supermarket or farmer’s market to haul your groceries home.  But do you take the same reusable bags to shop at the mall or book store?  What about in the kitchen?  My mom visited me recently and commented that I reuse many things that she recycles or throws away.  I thought I would share some of these ideas here:

  • Plastic produce bags — is there anything unusable about a plastic bag from the produce section from your supermarket?  I bring them back to the grocery store and the farmer’s market and use them over and over again.  If there was something wet in a bag, like lettuce, I just turn the bag inside out or let it dry over my kitchen faucet.  I keep the dry bags knotted up in a basket in my garage so I can grab them on my way out.  Depending on the cashier, sometimes my local grocery store will give me 10 cents credit for produce bags, too.
  • Glass jars — Take your empty jar of coconut oil, nut butter, jelly, capers, honey (I could go on and on), wash it out and soak the label off.  If the label is particularly stubborn, a little Goo Gone can help.  I reuse glass jars for sooooooo many things.  Here’s a small taste:
  1. Storing bulk items like seeds, nuts, dried fruit, and shredded coconut;
  2. Shaking and storing salad dressings.  Also great for transporting dressings to a picnic or a pot luck;
  3. Storing fresh herbs;
  4. Giving friends leftovers, like soup;
  5. Giving a homemade food gift, like granola;
  6. Using as a rustic vase.  My friend Jenni’s table always looks great with mix-and-match jars of flowers;
  7. Storing almond milk or fresh pressed juices;
  8. Storing kids’ collections like shells or sea glass;
  9. Storing odds and ends like nails or paper clips.
  • Farmer’s market egg cartons — my local egg farmer loves it when I bring back his egg crates so he can reuse them;
  • Farmer’s market berry baskets and boxes — likewise, my local berry farmer happily takes back the plastic and cardboard baskets which he immediately fills up again with fresh berries;
  • Glass spice jars — the labels from Simply Organic spice jars peel off really easily.  We make our own cinnamon-sugar shakers, as well as shakers for flax meal, sugar and cocoa.  I imagine these would be great for powdered sugar or if you toast and grind your own spices (how impressive!);
  • Water — I wash herbs or berries in a large bowl of water and then pour that water into my outdoor potted plants.  Same goes for water used to shock vegetables after blanching.
  • Vegetable scraps — save carrot peels, asparagus ends, mushroom stems, leek tops, onion peels, celery leaves instead of composting to make fantastic vegetable stock.

Your trash might be someone else’s treasure.  Ask your kids’ teachers or art teachers if they have use for your odd and ends.  I would love to hear your ideas and learn ways you reuse!!

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Pancake Recipe

gluten-free buckwheat pancakes | pamela salzman

I have two things on my mind this week — eating anything that was forbidden during Passover (like grains) and being mindful of our consumption of limited resources with Earth Day coming up on April 22nd.   “How will she ever revert this to a pancake recipe?” you ask.  Stay with me, peeps.

Passover, which occurred last week,  is a mighty 8-day abstinence from eating all grains, except wheat turned into matzoh.  Giving up bread, pasta and most starches isn’t such a big deal to me, but my hubby and the kids start groaning after about Day 3.  “How much loooooonger?”  “How come we can’t have rice?  Jack’s family eats rice during Passover.”  “What??!!  It ends on Saturday night?  I thought it ended on Friday!”  And so on and so forth.  Same spiel every year.  Yawn.  So on sundown of the 8th day, my people were freed from bondage, ordered pizza and ravaged it like contestants on “Survivor.”   As for me, I will admit, I was missing oatmeal for breakfast.   Sunday morning I made an extra-large batch thinking everyone craved it as much as I did.  Wrong!  Everyone was craving bagels.    That brings me to my other thought for the week which is being efficient with resources and limiting waste.  I needed a creative way to use that leftover oatmeal!

dry ingredients

By now you know I am serious about pancakes.  I make them twice per week, very often varying the flours or even adding pumpkin and spices to the mix.  I love that everyone has fun customizing his or her own with fruit, nuts or chocolate chips.  Yesterday I made a a lovely batch of oatmeal pancakes with some of the leftovers from Sunday’s excess.  I added a good cup’s worth of steel cut oatmeal to gluten-free oat flour and buckwheat flour, which gave the pancakes these fantastic tiny little chewy bites.  I am a big fan of texture and whole grain flavors, so I adore these pancakes.  If you’ve never tried buckwheat flour, it has a great wholesome earthiness, but it does lend an odd, grey color to the batter.  By the way, buckwheat has no wheat in it and isn’t even related to wheat.  In fact, it is a relative of the rhubarb family, which is why it’s gluten-free.

leftover steel cut oats

 

gluten-free oatmeal pancake batter |pamela salzman

Oat flour is quite simple to make yourself if you don’t feel like buying it.  Just process rolled oats in the food processor until powdery.  That’s it!  If you need or want the oat flour to be gluten-free, you must buy oats/oat flour that is labeled as such, because otherwise it can contain trace amounts of gluten.  If you’re like my husband and are wondering how they take the gluten out of oats, they don’t really.  Botanically oats should not contain gluten, but they do share crop space with gluten-containing grains and often they are processed in facilities which also process wheat and barley, for example.  So the oats can pick up gluten that way.  But if you prefer, feel free to use my standard whole wheat pastry flour for the oat and buckwheat flours.  It just won’t be gluten-free and it will taste more like my traditional buttermilk pancakes, but with a little chew from the oats.  I tend to adorn these pancakes with the same yummies that I would add to a bowl of oatmeal — diced bananas, chopped walnuts, and the like.  But strawberries are incredible and plentiful right now, so we all included them yesterday and my husband tossed in his standard handful of blueberries.  Mr. Picky eats these pancakes just fine, but did declare my “normal” pancakes are his first choice.

add fruit to pancakes before flipping | pamela salzman

Extra pancake batter?  We won’t waste it!!  It will stay good in the refrigerator for a few days and can be used to make fresh pancakes later in the week.  If you use buckwheat flour, don’t be put off by the gumminess of the batter.  It’s very normal and still turns out perfect pancakes.  You can also make all the pancakes at once and freeze them for another day.  I like to put a piece of parchment paper in between each piece so they don’t stick together.  Another idea is to use the pancakes instead of bread for a sandwich or a roll-up.  Any other creative ideas for using up oatmeal or pancakes??

 gluten-free oatmeal pancakes | pamela salzman

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Pancakes

Pamela
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Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup oat flour
  • 1 cup buckwheat flour or substitute whole wheat pastry flour for all or part of the oat and buckwheat flours
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking soda
  • pinch ground cinnamon optional
  • 2 cups buttermilk*
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 Tablespoon 100% pure maple syrup
  • 1 cup COOKED oatmeal preferably steel-cut
  • 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
  • Melted unrefined coconut oil for brushing the griddle

Instructions
 

  • Preheat a griddle to 400 degrees or medium heat. (Not all built-in griddles are the same. 350 degrees may be fine for you.)
  • Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.
  • In a medium bowl or 4-6 cup measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, maple syrup, melted butter and oatmeal until well blended. (Or combine all wet ingredients in a blender and add to dry mix with oatmeal.)
  • Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
  • Brush the griddle with coconut oil and spoon about ¼ cup of batter onto the griddle. Add blueberries, chocolate chips or diced banana to the surface, if desired. When bubbles start to form on the surface of the pancake and the edges become slightly dry, flip it over and cook until done. Maintain the heat on medium-low or 400 degrees.

Notes

*No buttermilk? Sub half unsweetened yogurt and half whole milk. Or use 2 cups milk, omit the baking soda and use 1 Tablespoon baking powder instead.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Gluten-Free Millet and Shiitake Pilaf Recipe

I waited several years before I taught a recipe with millet in my classes.  Why?  Because I was afraid.  Afraid my (adult) students wouldn’t like it.  Afraid I would turn them off to millet forever.  Afraid I would lose credibility as someone who could offer them nutritious food that tasted great and that their families would probably eat.  And then I realized this is exactly the attitude I am trying to teach my students to avoid.  It’s such a mistake to fear introducing new foods to your family because you’re not sure if they’re going to like them.  So it was really silly of me to be reluctant to teach Millet and Shiitake Pilaf, which I absolutely love, love, love.

First off, let me introduce you to this fantastic seed.  Millet in this country is used more as bird feed than a nutritious and tasty side dish, which is nuts because it has been cultivated for many thousands of years.  I know millet looks like a grain, tastes like a grain, and cooks like a grain, but it is actually a seed.  Millet is gluten-free and kind of similar to quinoa, but a bit drier and it has a slightly nutty, corny flavor.    It is naturally alkaline, which is not easy to come by in a grain or seed, as most are slightly acid-forming.  Millet is also considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains/seeds.  It is nearly 15% protein and rich in B-complex vitamins, as well as iron, magnesium and potassium.  Wow!

Are you wondering why you have never tried it, let alone heard of it before?  Crazy, I know.  I buy millet in the bulk section at my local natural foods supermarket, but there are several manufacturers including Eden, Bob’s Red Mill, and Arrowhead Mills which sell it packaged.  I use it the way I would any other grain, in a pilaf, a salad, in soups, even pureed with cauliflower for an awesome mashed potato substitute.   One of my favorite breads is a millet bread by Food For Life.  I’ve seen many recipes for millet porridge which call for doubling the liquid and stirring the millet constantly to make a super creamy, hot breakfast cereal.  Personally, I prefer millet in a savory preparation, but many people love millet this way.  Besides the cauliflower mash which I’ll show you how to make one day, a pilaf is my favorite way to eat millet.  I especially love the soft texture of the mushrooms and onions with the dry millet.  But if you aren’t a fan of mushrooms or your kids won’t just pick the mushrooms out like Mr. Picky, leave them out and use something else like peas or asparagus tossed into the pot with 5 minutes to go.  Just like my students last year, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much you like millet and that it’s not for the birds!

Have you tried millet before?  I’m always on the look-out for delicious ways to prepare it, so please share!

Millet and Shiitake Pilaf

Pamela
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Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 1 ½ cups millet rinsed and drained
  • 1 ½ Tablespoons unrefined cold-pressed olive oil
  • 1 large onion diced
  • 1 clove garlic finely chopped
  • 8 ounces shiitake mushrooms stems removed, caps wiped clean with a damp paper towel and chopped into 1 –inch pieces (you can use any mushroom, but shiitakes are so much more nutritious!)
  • 3 1/3 cups water or homemade chicken stock use 3 1/2 cups liquid if you're NOT going to eat it right away since the millet will dry up as it sits
  • 1 ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • a little chopped parsley or shaved parmesan cheese for garnish optional

Instructions
 

  • In a 2-3 quart saucepan, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the onion, garlic and mushrooms until softened.
  • In the meantime, place the millet in a heavy skillet over medium heat and roast until dry with a toasty aroma.
  • Transfer the millet to the saucepan with the onion mixture and stir to coat. Add the water and salt and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 25 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Turn off heat and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Notes

Millet dries up and gets fluffier as it sits. Leftovers will firm up considerably in the refrigerator, so add a little liquid when reheating.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Egg-Free Avocado Caesar Salad Recipe

I hope you all had a lovely Easter or Passover holiday.  Ours was so nice thanks to my mother-in-law took care of the meal and all I had to do was show up with desserts.  But now I’m ready to move on from anything to do with coconut or eggs.  In fact I am going to be a rebel and just omit eggs in recipes where you would normally expect to find them!  I can be crazy that way.   One thing that has surprised me in teaching cooking classes the last few years is how many people have food intolerances/allergies.  If you or one of your kids is one of those people, you are not alone.  The most common allergens I run across with my students are gluten, dairy, nuts and eggs.  There are others of course, like soy, corn, mangos and shellfish, to name a few.   Then there are people who can’t tolerate garlic, which I’m not sure how I could live without.  But eggs is a big one.  So it’s always in the back of my mind when I come up with a recipe and I try to share egg-free versions of anything I teach.

 

Caesar salad dressing is traditionally made with olive oil, garlic, anchovies, lemon juice or lemon juice and red wine vinegar, mustard and raw egg yolks.  Normally I substitute mayonnaise for the egg yolks because I’m not always comfortable serving kids raw eggs, but sometimes mayonnaise contains egg, too.  So to make this dressing egg-free, but still creamy, I tried using one of my favorite rich, nutritious foods — avocado — and a new favorite salad dressing was born.  The color is a tad green, but you won’t notice it once it’s tossed with the lettuce.  And the avocado does nothing to change the flavor of the dressing so you would otherwise have no idea that you weren’t eating a regular Caesar salad.  Do I dare say this is even better than a normal Caesar?  I made this for a working lunch at home yesterday and my assistants and I couldn’t stop eating it.  So goooooood!

Did I mention that Caesar salad is also very simple to prepare at home?  That’s one reason I’m not likely to order it in a restaurant.  I have a thing about ordering food in a restaurant that can be easily made at home.  I don’t mind paying for handmade pasta, high quality sushi, or foods that are either unusual or labor-intensive that I can’t reproduce at home.  But even the novice cook can make a delicious Caesar dressing for a fraction of a restaurant’s price.  I can buy an entire head of romaine lettuce at the farmer’s market for $1 and probably make Caesar salad for 4-6 people for under $4.  You’ll think twice about spending $12 for one portion.

 

Salads are a great way to use the topping bar method with your kids.  Many children do like Caesar salad,  but if yours are unsure about all that lettuce, allow them to add whatever they like to their plate, even if it’s something that you might not eat on the salad — olives, pecans, dried fruit, popcorn, avocado, chopped up chicken tenders.  That’s not what’s important.  We’re just allowing them to have some control over what they eat while encouraging them to eat the same food we do.  They’re still finding their way.

I don’t add cheese to the actual Caesar dressing, but instead sprinkle it on top of the chopped lettuce and then toss with the dressing.  If you are dairy-free, you can leave the cheese out completely or substitute Parma (vegan “Parmesan cheese”) or nutritional yeast and a little extra sea salt.  And if you’re vegan, omit the anchovies and add a drop of vegan worcestershire sauce.  Dairy-free and vegan peeps, did you think I was only going to give love to my egg-free friends?  I have more than enough to go around.

Avocado Caesar Salad

Pamela
5 from 2 votes
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Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • Dressing makes about 1 cup:
  • 2-3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 3 Tablespoons unrefined cold pressed extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 ripe avocado pitted and peeled
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt you can add more if you’re skipping the cheese
  • freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon anchovy paste or 1-2 anchovies** optional, but traditional
  • 1-2 garlic cloves finely chopped
  • 6 Tablespoons water
  • Salad:
  • 1 head romaine lettuce washed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
  • ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese* or a wedge shaved into thin strips
  • croutons for garnish if desired

Instructions
 

  • To make the dressing: Combine all the dressing ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Add a little more water to make it thinner, if desired. Taste for salt and pepper, but be conservative with the salt since the cheese is salty.
  • Place the lettuce in a serving bowl or on a platter and sprinkle with grated cheese and croutons. Depending on the size of your head of lettuce, you may have more dressing than you need, so just toss lettuce with enough dressing to coat lightly. Or toss salad with dressing and garnish with shaved cheese.

Notes

Other options: You can also take a head of romaine, cut it in half, brush with olive oil and grill it for a Grilled Caesar Salad. Other sturdy lettuces could be radicchio, endive or red romaine.
*Try Parma or nutritional yeast for a dairy-free option.
**Vegans can drop the anchovies and add a drop of vegan worcestershire sauce instead.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Egg Salad Recipe and Other Things You Can Do with Hard Boiled Eggs

I’m thrilled to have my mother and my 4-year-old niece visiting me this week from New York.  We’re having a great time catching up on magazines, tivo’d shows and of course, cooking.  After she read my post the other day about hard boiled eggs, she said, “so I used to overcook my eggs?”  I speak the truth on this blog and I asked my mother if she remembered the telltale green ring around her yolks.  She remembered.  We reminisced about always eating egg salad sandwiches for lunch the day after Easter, and for old times’ sake I thought it would be fun to make them with my mom again.

The two of us had a little egg salad cook-off with my mom making the version I grew up with, which is no more than chopped up hard boiled eggs combined with mayonnaise, relish and a pinch of salt.  Always delicious and that little bit of sweetness from the relish makes this egg salad kid friendly, unless you’re Mr. Picky who thinks egg salad is one of the “scariest” foods out there.  2 plain hard boiled eggs for Mr. Picky, please!  I whipped up my favorite version of egg salad which is loosely based on a recipe from my heroine, Alice Waters and her fabulous book, The Art of Simple Food.  My more grown-up egg salad may taste more sophisticated than the old version, but I assure you it is just as simple, absolutely delicious, and still kid-friendly (for kids that would actually eat egg salad.)  And look, Mom, no green ring!

Hard boiled eggs are rather bland and the texture is soft, so I like balancing all that out with a little salty bite from some capers, some mild onion flavor from either fresh chives, shallots or green onions, and the smallest dash of cayenne for some kick.  I don’t see how people can eat egg salad on squishy, bland white bread, and not just because white bread is tasteless and devoid of nutrients (maybe I should tell you how I really feel.)  Egg salad just pairs so well with some texture and flavor, like from a nice hearty sprouted seed bread or other earthy, flavorful bread — always toasted.  After enjoying this tasty sandwich with my mom the other day, I asked myself why I never make egg salad.  It was such a simple and satisfying lunch with a side green salad.  Daughter #1 gave the egg salad a try and became a convert, although with mouth half-full announced she liked it just fine, but wouldn’t be taking any egg salad too school for lunch — “I don’t want egg aroma in my backpack all day, thanks.”  Whatever.

If you are in Mr. Picky’s camp and think egg salad is too scary or if you went all out, decorated a bazillion eggs and need something more than just an egg salad recipe, here are some other yummy ideas:

  • Sliced on top of toast with smoked salmon or sliced avocado.
  • Deviled eggs — I think this recipe for Caesar Salad Deviled Eggs at Smitten Kitchen looks interesting.
  • Nicoise Salad — a composed salad of potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, tuna and hard boiled eggs.
  • Cobb Salad — here’s a more healthful version by Ellie Krieger.
  • In a filling for empanadas.  I love my recipe which uses mixed greens, to which you can add a chopped hard boiled egg or two.
  • Pan Bagnat — a sandwich with sliced hard boiled eggs, tuna, tomatoes, onions.  Check out Alton Brown’s recipe here.
  • Chopped over steamed or roasted asparagus.  Then drizzle with one of my favorite everyday salad dressings.

Do you have any great ways to eat hard boiled eggs?  I’d love to know!

Egg Salad

Pamela, adapted from The Art of Simple Food
3.50 from 2 votes
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Ingredients
  

  • 4 hard boiled eggs peeled
  • 3-4 Tablespoons mayonnaise I like soy-free Vegenaise
  • 1 heaping teaspoon of capers drained and chopped
  • 1 Tablespoon chopped chives my favorite, scallions or shallots
  • tiny pinch of sea salt or to taste
  • a few grinds of freshly ground pepper
  • a dash or two of cayenne pepper doesn’t make it spicy, just better

Instructions
 

  • Coarsely chop the eggs and place in a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and combine well. Taste for seasoning.
  • Serve on toasted whole grain bread with greens like watercress or your favorite lettuce. I always love a little avocado, too!

Notes

Other delicious additions to the egg salad: diced celery, Dijon mustard, fresh parsley
My Mom’s Egg Salad
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
3-4 Tablespoons mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons sweet relish
pinch of salt
Mix everything to combine well.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 

How to Make Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs: Foolproof Every Time

5 eggs resting in a bowl

Hard-boiled eggs are a kitchen essential, whether you’re prepping for a holiday, looking for a protein-packed snack, or making an egg salad. With a few simple tips, you can make perfect hard-boiled eggs with bright yellow yolks and easy-peel eggs every time. 

5 eggs resting in a bowl

Why You'll Love This Simple Recipe

Many of you might be preparing to boil eggs for Easter or Passover. Growing up, dyeing Easter eggs was a tradition in our house, though my sisters and I always wished for more than just 4 eggs each! We never wasted food, so 12 eggs was the right balance. 

 

Eggs are an affordable, protein-rich food, and research now shows we don’t need to worry about the cholesterol in them. Most of the fat in eggs is unsaturated, and the yolk’s phospholipids even help reduce cholesterol absorption.

 

Making the perfect hard-boiled egg is so simple, yet it’s one of those kitchen skills that can elevate so many meals. With this method, you’ll have consistently cooked eggs every time, and peeling them will be a breeze. Plus, they add so much to a variety of dishes like this breakfast salad or this lobster cobb salad. 

Give this a try and let me know how it goes—I promise, once you master it, you’ll never go back to guessing how long to boil eggs again!

Ingredient Notes

You don’t need any fancy equipment or special ingredients to make perfect eggs! This foolproof method is my favorite way to make them and has served me well for many years! 

 

  • Eggs (brown eggs or white eggs-as many as you’d like to cook)
  • Cold water
  • Ice (optional, for the ice bath)

Step-by-Step Instructions

Watch this “how to make perfect hard boiled eggs” video if you want to watch me make these in action. 

eggs resting in a pot of water

1. Start with Cold Water
Place eggs in a saucepan or a large pot in a single layer. Pour enough cold water to cover the eggs by about 1 to 2 inches. Starting with cold water ensures the eggs heat gradually and prevents cracking.

2. Bring the Water to a Boil
Cover the pot and set it over high heat. Bring the water to a rolling boil. Be sure to keep an eye on it, as it can go from simmering to boiling quickly!

3. Turn Off the Heat and Let Sit
As soon as the water boils, turn off the heat but keep the pot covered. Let the eggs sit in the hot water for 10 minutes. This allows the eggs to gently cook without becoming overdone, ensuring tender whites and bright yellow yolks.

perfect hard boiled eggs in an ice bath to stop cooking

4. Transfer to Cold Water
After 10 minutes, carefully remove the eggs from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and transfer them to an ice water bath (a large bowl of ice water) or rinse them under very cold running water for a couple of minutes. This step stops the cooking process and makes peeling easier.

5. Peel and Enjoy!
Once the eggs have cooled for a few minutes, peel them and enjoy! Whether you’re slicing them for potato salad or enjoying them with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, you will have perfect hard boiled eggs every time.

Recipe Tips

  • Use older eggs: Fresh eggs are harder to peel. For best results, buy eggs a few days before you plan to boil them for easier peeling.  If this isn’t possible, add a half teaspoon of baking soda to a quart of water to make the cooking water more alkaline.  Also, allow the eggs to firm up in the refrigerator before peeling.

  • Let the eggs chill: Consider leaving the eggs in the ice bath for at least 10-15 minutes. This helps with peeling and ensures they stop cooking.

Storage Tips

  • In the fridge: Unpeeled hard-boiled eggs can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Keep them in an airtight container or the carton to prevent them from absorbing fridge odors.

  • Peeled eggs: If you’ve already peeled them, store them in a container with a damp paper towel to keep them moist. Peeled eggs are best eaten within 2-3 days.

cooked eggs peeled and cut to show the yolks

Fun Ways to Use Hard-Boiled Eggs

Hard-boiled eggs are such a versatile food. You can slice them up to top salads, mash them for egg salad sandwiches, or turn them into deviled eggs for a delicious appetizer. Another favorite is adding them to a grain bowl for an extra boost of protein or serving them alongside some avocado toast. Here are some other options:

  • Sliced on top of toast with smoked salmon or sliced avocado.

  • Deviled eggs — I think this recipe for Caesar Salad Deviled Eggs at Smitten Kitchen looks interesting.

  • Nicoise Salad — a composed salad of potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, tuna and hard boiled eggs.

  • Make my Lobster Cobb Salad.

  • In a filling for empanadas.  I love my recipe which uses mixed greens, to which you can add a chopped hard boiled egg or two.

  • Pan Bagnat — a sandwich with sliced hard boiled eggs, tuna, tomatoes, onions.  Check out Alton Brown’s recipe here.

  • Chopped over steamed or roasted asparagus.  Then drizzle with one of my favorite everyday salad dressings.

Recipe FAQs

1. How do I make eggs easier to peel?
Using older eggs (around a week old) makes peeling easier because the egg white shrinks slightly away from the shell as it ages. Also, the cold water bath after cooking helps loosen the shell from the egg.

2. Can I cook more than one egg at a time?
Absolutely! You can cook as many eggs as you like using this method. Just make sure the eggs are in a single layer at the bottom of the pot, and there’s enough water to cover them.

3. Why do my yolks turn green?
That green ring around the yolk happens when eggs are overcooked. The method I shared ensures perfectly cooked yolks that stay bright and yellow!

4. What if I don’t have ice for the ice bath?
No problem! If you don’t have ice on hand, just run the eggs under cold water for a couple of minutes to stop the cooking process.

 

5. How long should I cook them if I want a soft-boiled egg?
For soft boiled eggs, follow the same method but reduce the sitting time to 6-7 minutes for runny yolks and 8-9 minutes for jammy eggs.

More Delicious Recipes

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How To Make Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

Pamela
Hard-boiled eggs are a kitchen essential, whether you’re prepping for a holiday, looking for a protein-packed snack, or making an egg salad. With a few simple tips, you can make perfect hard-boiled eggs with bright yellow yolks and easy-peel eggs every time. 
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Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Ice Bath Time 10 minutes
Total Time 22 minutes
Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Side Dish
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

  • Eggs

Instructions
 

  • Place the eggs in a pot that’s big enough so the eggs won’t crash into each other. Fill the pot with enough cold water to cover eggs by an inch.
  • Put heat on medium-high and bring the water to a full boil. Cover the pot, turn off the heat and set a timer for 10 minutes.
  • In the meantime, prepare a bowl of ice water to accommodate the eggs. When the timer goes off, transfer the eggs from the pot to the ice water bath with a slotted spoon. Or drain them in a colander and run them under cold water if you’d like to eat them immediately.
  • Store them in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Notes

  • Use older eggs: Fresh eggs are harder to peel. For best results, buy eggs a few days before you plan to boil them for easier peeling.  If this isn’t possible, add a half teaspoon of baking soda to a quart of water to make the cooking water more alkaline.  Also, allow the eggs to firm up in the refrigerator before peeling.
  • Let the eggs chill: Consider leaving the eggs in the ice bath for at least 10-15 minutes. This helps with peeling and ensures they stop cooking.
  • Storage: Unpeeled hard-boiled eggs can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Keep them in an airtight container or the carton to prevent them from absorbing fridge odors.
    • Peeled eggs: If you’ve already peeled them, store them in a container with a damp paper towel to keep them moist. Peeled eggs are best eaten within 2-3 days.
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Coconut-Almond Tart with Strawberries Recipe

When I was a little girl, I loved any holiday where candy was involved.  I was crazy about sugar and my mother didn’t allow many sweet treats in the house, so I really looked forward to those “special occasions.”  Lucky for me, my auntie was all too happy to satisfy my sweet tooth whenever possible.  She was and still is an unbelievable baker as well as a top customer at her local chocolate shop.  You name the holiday, she had the matching sweets, especially on Easter, which was like sugar-on-steroids.  There were small little foil-wrapped bunnies for our baskets, large chocolate boxed bunnies, jelly beans in every color of the rainbow, chocolate eggs and the best one of all — a ginormous chocolate-covered coconut egg.  Imagine a moist, dense, sliceable orb of sweetened coconut covered in milk chocolate — I was obsessed with this confection!  Believe me, I’m not trying to tempt you here.  It was so sickenly sweet, I am sure if I had a bite of it today, I would be nauseous.  Definitely not worth it!

I’m no longer obsessed with that coconut egg (or candy, for that matter.)   But since then, I’ve always associated Easter with coconut, which is funny because it’s really a season-less food.  And in the last decade since I’ve been on the health food path, coconut has found it’s way to me in many forms, none of which is sweetened with sugar nor coated with chocolate-flavored sugar.  Today I rely on unrefined coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut water and unsweetened shredded coconut and my body is much happier with me.  So when I was coming up with a new Easter dessert a few years ago, coconut immediately came to mind.  But since I also celebrate Passover with my husband’s family, I wanted something I could serve on that holiday, too, so no grains or flours allowed.  Lastly, I wanted a delicious dessert that wouldn’t make me feel sick after I ate a slice.  And this is what it really boils down to for me.  I rarely eat sweets and when I do, I’m not looking for dessert to take care of my nutritional needs.   So whereas it’s nice in theory to know I may be getting a few extra minerals from unrefined sweeteners and unprocessed ingredients, I just want a tasty treat that doesn’t make me feel like hell afterwards.  Like this coconut tart!

 

This tart is so delicious and light, but it also happens to be gluten-free, vegan (if you use coconut oil), Passover-friendly, and adaptable to the fruits of the season.  I love making this tart with strawberries now since they are absolutely everywhere and super luscious.  But I’m sure you can picture this like a traditional fruit tart with raspberries, blueberries, kiwis, ripe peaches and/or apricots.  If you don’t like coconut (seriously?), you probably won’t love this, but you can always swap your favorite (hopefully not too toxic) crust for this one.  The coconut custard is very subtle and not overly sweet, so do give it a chance.  For those of you looking to get a jump-start on your holiday baking (I love the way you think), you can definitely make both the crust and the pastry cream 2-3 days in advance and keep both covered in the refrigerator.  You can even wash, dry, and slice your strawberries the day before and keep them covered in the fridge, if it makes your life easier.  It’s best to wait until the day you serve it to spread the cream on top of the crust to avoid it becoming soggy.  Leftovers (what leftovers?) should be kept refrigerated otherwise you’ll run into the same soggy crust issue.  For my other two favorite go-to Easter and Passover desserts, check out my Lemon Ice Torte, which I’ve been making since 1991 (gasp!) and Coconut Macaroons.  With desserts like these, you won’t be tempted by your kids’ Easter baskets!

Coconut-Almond Tart with Strawberries

Pamela
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Servings 8

Ingredients
  

  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil or unsalted butter plus additional for greasing pan
  • ¼ cup 100% pure maple syrup preferably Grade A
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup almond meal or almond flour
  • 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ½ vanilla bean halved lengthwise
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • ½ cup coconut milk not light
  • 1 ½ Tablespoons 100% pure maple syrup preferably Grade A
  • pinch fine sea salt
  • 2 ½ Tablespoons non-GMO cornstarch such as Bob’s Red Mill or Rapunzel
  • 1/3 cup cold water
  • 1 dry pint strawberries sliced

Instructions
 

  • Make the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously coat a 9 ½ -inch tart pan with removable bottom with butter or coconut oil. Whisk together coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla until well blended. In a mixing bowl, combine almond meal, coconut and salt. Add wet mixture to the mixing bowl and stir to combine. It will be quite sticky. Press into bottom and up sides of pan. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
  • Make the filling: Scrape vanilla seeds into a small saucepan, and add pod. Stir in the almond milk, coconut milk, maple syrup and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard vanilla pod.
  • In a small bowl, combine the cold water and cornstarch and whisk until smooth. Pour into the coconut milk mixture and simmer, whisking constantly, until mixture is thickened like pastry cream. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Transfer cream to the refrigerator and chill.
  • Just before serving, pour custard into crust and spread evenly. Arrange berries decoratively on top and serve immediately. Best kept refrigerated.
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Baked Chicken with Artichokes and Capers Recipe

Something tells me that you organized cooks out there are in the midst of planning your Easter and Passover menus.  Am I right?  My mom had me on the phone the other day trying to get side dish suggestions for her traditional Easter leg of lamb.  After I spoke with her, I took a call from my mother-in-law to go over her Passover menu.  This year we’ll be staying in California for the holidays and I’m on dessert duty.  I’ll be making lots of coconut macaroons, my traditional lemon ice torte and a raw cashew cheesecake that I’m obsessed with.  But if I were hosting Easter or Passover at my home (not that there’s anything wrong with lamb and brisket), I would make this Baked Chicken with Artichokes and Capers.

Normally, I don’t post a recipe until after I have finished teaching it, but I am just so excited about this chicken I can’t wait another day.  It might be my favorite chicken recipe to date, which says a lot since I prepare chicken quite often.  This dish has it all — great flavor, ease of preparation, healthfulness and seasonality.    But really chicken isn’t even the star of this show.  I actually came up with this recipe to work around one of my favorite springtime vegetables, artichokes.

I am going to cheat a little here.  There are times when DIY is the way to go, as in chicken stock.  And there are times when there is not enough patience in the world that could get me through trimming the number of artichokes it would take to fill this saute pan.  (Although I am the same person that trimmed 10 pounds of Brussels sprout leaves for Christmas Eve dinner.)  What’s different about this situation is that Trader Joe’s has come to my rescue with frozen artichoke hearts, an absolute gift and an affordable one, too.   Not only do I always have a bag in my freezer at all times, but the other ingredients here are pantry staples, too — capers, white wine, bay leaves, mustard, which are all delicious with artichokes.

You may have followed similar recipes for chicken and dredged the chicken in flour first before browning it.  The flour does help to the thicken the sauce a bit, but we can avoid the dredging altogether by adding the mustard to the sauce, which gives great flavor, as well as some body.  Be sure to read my latest post on the secret to great-tasting chicken and you can decide if you want to salt the pieces or soak them in a wet brine.  Both ways are very easy and definitely worth doing.  Please note in that post that kosher chicken should not be salted or brined since it has already gone through a salting process.  To make this recipe with boneless, skinless pieces, check out my recipe for Lemon-Thyme Chicken and follow those steps.

For a winner spring holiday lunch or dinner, pair this chicken with this asparagus salad or minted sugar snap peas, and some roasted new potatoes.  I have a seriously fabulous vegan and gluten-free coconut tart coming your way soon!

Baked Chicken with Artichokes and Capers

Pamela
5 from 1 vote
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Servings 4 -6

Ingredients
  

  • Brine: do not brine kosher chicken
  • 1 cup hot water
  • ¼ cup kosher salt
  • 1 cup ice water
  • 3 pounds bone-in skin-on chicken pieces
  • 2 Tablespoons unrefined olive oil or coconut oil
  • 1 medium onion diced or sliced (as you prefer)
  • 3 cloves garlic cloves sliced
  • a big pinch of sea salt or more if using unsalted stock
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1/3 cup dry white wine
  • 2 bay leaves don’t worry if you don’t have them
  • 12 ounce bag frozen artichoke hearts or packed in water
  • 2 Tablespoons capers
  • 2 Tablespoons whole grain or stone ground mustard
  • ¾ cup chicken stock preferably homemade
  • Chopped fresh parsley for garnish optional

Instructions
 

  • In a large bowl, dissolve salt in hot water. Add ice water and check to make sure brine is cool. Add chicken to brine and allow to soak for 45 minutes, and up to an hour and a half. OR sprinkle ½ Tablespoon of kosher salt on the chicken when you get home from the market. Rewrap it and refrigerate it until ready to cook. (Do not brine kosher chicken.)
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove chicken from brine and pat dry with paper towels.
  • In an ovenproof skillet or braising pan, over medium heat, add the oil. Brown chicken on both sides. Transfer to a plate and reserve.
  • Add onions to skillet and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Add garlic, salt and pepper and sauté another minute or two. Carefully add wine to pan, and deglaze by scraping any brown bits on the bottom.
  • Add chicken, bay leaves, artichoke hearts, capers, mustard and stock to pan and bring to a boil. Place in oven for 30-35 minutes, until chicken is cooked through, basting after 15 minutes. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley, if available.
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