Mediterranean Fish Stew Recipe

Mediterranean Fish Stew | Pamela Salzman

I had some friends over for dinner recently on a Friday and remembered that it is Lent.  Lent starts about 40 days before Easter on Ash Wednesday and ends the day before Easter.  It is a very holy time for many Christians and I remembered observing as a child.  Traditionally no meat is eaten on Fridays, but fish is acceptable.  During Lent, many observers also give up something pleasurable or something that might be a challenge to go without.  When I was much younger, I asked my mother if I could give up beef or chicken (which I didn’t like) or going to CCD classes (which I really didn’t like.)   And she always instructed me that I was missing the point.  If I needed some ideas, my mother suggested perhaps my sisters and I could give up bickering with each other.  I understand my mother so much more now.

chopped onion, bay leaf and turmeric

parsley, thyme, crushed red pepper

Whether you observe Lent or not, I think you should make this absolutely delicious fish stew.  My family doesn’t love fish as much as I do, although they never complain when I make it.  There are certainly recipes they like more than others, like fish tacos (and who can blame them?) or poached salmon (“because it doesn’t taste fishy.”)  This fish stew was a hit when I made it because all the fish is mixed with other stuff, Mr. Picky explained.  Whatever works!

sliced fennel

wild halibut

This stew is brothy like a soup, but full of all sorts of chunkiness like a stew and you can easily make a meal out of it with a piece of crusty bread.  So I’ll call it a stew.   When I put this together the first time, I was thinking more bouillabaisse, the classic French seafood soup, and less cioppino, the zesty Italian tomato fish stew.   Either way I think this is the perfect light, but warming dinner.  It also cooks in a very short amount of time, so you’ll have it on the table in less than half an hour.  You can also adjust the amount of fish in the recipe without adjusting any other ingredient.  If you want lots of fish because this is your main course, then add another 3/4 pound.  If you’d like to use a mix of seafood, such as shrimp, scallops or mussels, those would all work well too.  The only thing I would advise is NOT to skip the butter.  If you have to go dairy-free, use Earth Balance.  I tried this with all olive oil and surprisingly it wasn’t nearly as good.  In fact, in my next life I’m going to double the butter.    And if you live where the temperature has been freezing since Thanksgiving and you’ve more snow storms than the previous 10 years combined, I give you permission to use as much butter and wine as you want in this recipe.  You’ve earned it!

Mediterranean fish stew | pamela salzman

5.0 from 3 reviews
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Mediterranean Fish Stew Recipe
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Serves: 4 (multiply everything by 1½ to serve 6)
 
Ingredients
  • 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter or organic Earth Balance
  • 1 Tablespoon unrefined, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 large garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1 fennel bulb, halved and chopped
  • 2 medium carrots, chopped
  • ⅔ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, divided
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 sprig of fresh thyme
  • pinch of red pepper flakes, or more to taste
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt, plus more to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • ½ teaspoon ground turmeric (optional)
  • ¾ pound of fresh tomatoes, chopped (peeled and seeded, if desired) or 14-ounce container of chopped tomatoes, drained (I like Bionaturae in glass jars.)
  • ½ pound Yukon Gold or other boiling potatoes, peeled if you like and diced
  • 10 ounces (1 ¼ cups) of fish stock (or even chicken stock or vegetable stock)
  • 1 cup dry white wine (like Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay or Sauvignon blanc)
  • 1 ¼ pounds fish fillets (use halibut, cod, sole, red snapper, sea bass), cut into 2-inch pieces (or use more fish and fewer vegetables)
Instructions
  1. Heat butter and olive oil in a heavy large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion, garlic, fennel and carrots and sauté for about 6 minutes, until tender.
  2. Add half the parsley, bay leaf, thyme, red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper and turmeric. Gently cook for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Add tomatoes and stir to combine.
  3. Add potatoes, stock and white wine. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook, covered until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.
  4. Add fish and cook another 5 minutes uncovered or until fish is cooked through. (If you decide to use mussels or small clams, simmer with the pot covered until they open.) Add more salt to taste, if desired. Ladle into bowls and serve. Garnish with reserved parsley. Nice with a piece of toasted baguette rubbed with garlic.
Notes
I buy fish stock from the freezer case in the seafood department at my local Whole Foods.  I have also tried a a good stock by Stock Options which I found in the freezer section at Whole Foods.

Pasta with Shredded Grass-Fed Brisket Recipe (slow cooker version, too!)

pasta with shredded grass-fed beef brisket | pamela salzman

Just because I don’t eat meat, doesn’t mean my family doesn’t love it and ask for it.  So I will make it on occasion, but my rule is that it has to be grass-fed.  Read my other brisket post about why.  I make beef more in the winter than in the summer because it has a very warming thermal nature, and becomes even more warming when cooked with onions, which means it can actually raise the thermostat in your body and heat you up a little.  Perfect these chilly nights, and I know so many of you have been suffering through the worst winter ever!  It’s almost over! (I hope!)

pat meat dry, season and sear

chop veggies

I’ve been making a version of this recipe for about 15 years, and my grandmother made something similar which everyone loved.  Of course grandmothers never write recipes down because they don’t measure anything (a pinch of this, a sprinkle of that.)  Thank goodness for google which helped me come up with a great roadmap for one of my family’s favorites.  In fact, my older daughter has requested this dish many times for her birthday in past years!

dry red wine and organic diced tomatoes in a glass jar

brisket and sauce before and after

This is different from the brisket I learned how to make for Jewish holidays.  That brisket is braised in an oniony sauce as well, but it’s sliced whereas this one is shredded and the sauce is more tomato-veggie, much more Italian.  We used to eat this over wide pasta, like pappardelle or fettuccine or egg noodles.  But spaghetti and even orecchiette are great.  Since I don’t make as much pasta as I used to, we have been enjoying this more over cauliflower mashed potatoes or polenta.  For those of you who are hooked on spaghetti squash, I think this would be great on it!

cut and shred

Brisket is one of those very tough cuts of meat that can only be made meltingly tender by cooking it low and slow for a long period of time with lots of moisture.  Don’t try and grill, sear or stir-fry brisket.  You’ll end up with the toughest, chewiest meat ever.  Yuck!  You can also use chuck roast in this recipe since that cut also needs a long, low and slow preparation.  Since it takes three hours minimum to cook, you’ll need to get this going early in the day or do it in a slow cooker, or make it the day before and reheat it.  All methods will result in a super soft, very flavorful brisket and sauce.  Although I personally think the flavor is a little better the next day.  And, this will freeze beautifully!  I think this sounds like a good weekend project for those of us who will be stuck inside from monsoon rains (not complaining, just saying) or the bitter cold.  Hoping this can help you find a way to stay cozy this weekend!

pasta with shredded grass-fed beef brisket | pamela salzman

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Pasta with Shredded Grass-Fed Brisket
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Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 ½-3 pound piece of brisket, preferably grass-fed
  • sea salt or kosher salt
  • freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 3 Tablespoons unrefined olive oil, divided
  • 2 large onions, chopped
  • 2 medium carrots, chopped
  • 2 medium stalks of celery, chopped
  • 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 2 cups rich chicken stock or beef broth (use whichever you have that’s homemade)
  • 1 14- to 15-ounce can diced tomatoes or 18-ounce glass jar
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 pound pasta, cooked and drained
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Pat brisket dry and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Heat 1 Tablespoon of oil in a large oven-proof pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Sear the meat on both sides until nicely browned, about 12 minutes total.
  2. Transfer meat to a platter. Add 2 Tablespoons oil to the pot and then add the chopped vegetables and garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and sauté over medium heat until tender and golden.
  3. Stir in the wine, stock, tomatoes and bay leaves and deglaze the bottom of the pan by scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil and place brisket back in the pot. Cover and transfer pot to the oven. Braise the meat for 3-4 hours or until tender enough to shred with a fork.
  4. Remove from the oven and transfer meat to a cutting board. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Remove excess fat from the meat, cut into 2-inch chunks, and shred with two forks.
  5. If you would like a smoother sauce, pureé the vegetable mixture either directly in the pot with an immersion blender or in a food processor or blender. Otherwise you can leave it chunky. This can be done a day before and reheated in the same Dutch oven over medium heat on the stove.
  6. Add the shredded meat back into the sauce and stir together. Serve over cooked pasta or polenta, millet-cauliflower mash, mashed potatoes or cauliflower-mashed potatoes.
Notes
Use less liquid if you want less of a sauce.

SLOW COOKER VERSION
-Sear meat on both sides in a skillet or Dutch oven.  Transfer to slow cooker.
-Saute vegetables until tender.  Season with salt.
-Deglaze pan with ⅔ cup wine, 1 ½ cups stock and same amount of tomatoes as stove-top recipe, making sure to scrape all the brown bits from the bottom of the pot.  Transfer contents plus bay leaves to slow cooker.
-Cover and cook on LOW for 7-9 hours or HIGH 4-5 hours.  Proceed with remaining steps 4-6 above.

 

Moroccan chicken with dates recipe (slow cooker version, too!)

Moroccan chicken with dates | Pamela Salzman

You all know I live in Southern California and perhaps you know we are having a very mild, but super dry winter.  We actually have a serious drought happening here.  And you might also know that 99% of my entire family lives in the New York/New Jersey area.  And they’re having a veerrryy different kind of winter.

prep the chicken

So most of our phone calls the last few weeks have been kind of like this:

Me: “Hi!  It’s me.  What’s new?”

Sister/Mother/Father: “It’s snowing.  AGAIN.  The kids are off from school.  AGAIN.  It’s absolutely freezing out there.  Seriously, this is the worst winter EVER!”

Me:  “Bummer.  But I asked, ‘what’s neeeewwww?'”

Same old, same old.  I miss the talks we used to have about currents events, movies, what we’re making for dinner, what we ate for lunch.  Interesting, riveting stuff.  Instead, it’s all blizzard all the time!  Thankfully, winter doesn’t last forever and they’ll all be able to get back to business before we know it.  Easy for me to say, I’m sure.

onion, carrots, coconut oil and spices

 

prepped

But if I were in the middle of a polar vortex, I would quickly buy a one-way ticket to L.A. I would make super-warming foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We may not be able to control the weather, but we can control the thermal nature of what we eat.  And I say, heat me up!  High on my list would be this Moroccan chicken with dates which I taught in my classes last February.  I know it seems like there are a lot of ingredients in this recipe, but half of them are spices, all of which are warming to the body, and anti-inflammatory, too.  These spices, including ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, cumin and a pinch of cayenne are also quite flavorful and make this otherwise simple chicken dish, something very special.  There’s also a little bit of sweetness from the cinnamon and from halved dates which rank as one of my favorite foods on the planet.  A little earthy, a little sweet, a touch spicy and a little tart — it’s one of my favorite chicken recipes!

slice open the dates to remove the pit

In these images, and for dinner last night, I served this with an apricot couscous (I’ll post the recipe next week.)  This will have a very tasty, but brothy sauce which just begs for something to sop it up.  Couscous, which is pretty dry, is the perfect side dish.  But you don’t need to make it with any seasonings or herbs.  Even plain would be just the right side for this dish.  Otherwise, if you’re gluten-free, steamed rice, quinoa or millet would be amazing here.  I also served it for dinner with simply sautéed Swiss chard, but check out this recipe for raw grated carrot and beet salad.  That would be fabulous, too.

bring to a simmer before added browne

add chicken to mixture

I have made this recipe in the slow cooker, as well.  Please read the directions for how to adjust this recipe for the slow cooker.  Both versions are amazing and will help warm up your core.  At least until the next snowfall or tomorrow, or both, as the case might be!

Moroccan chicken with dates | Pamela Salzman

 

5.0 from 9 reviews
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Moroccan Chicken with Dates
Author: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 3 ½ pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken parts such as breasts (I like them split), thighs or drumsticks, seasoned with 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt when you get home from the market or brined for an hour (1/4 cup kosher salt + 2 cups water) EXCEPT if you use kosher chicken. See this post for how and why to brine chicken.
  • 1 Tablespoon unrefined coconut oil or olive oil
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 3 medium carrots, peeled and cubed
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • ½ teaspoon ground turmeric (feel free to add more if you like it)
  • ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
  • 1 ½ cups chicken stock
  • 5 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
  • 12 dates, pitted and halved
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro, if you like it
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and add to the pot in one layer. Do not overcrowd. Cook until browned on the underside, then turn over and browned on the other side, about 15 minutes total. Transfer chicken to a baking sheet or platter and repeat with remaining chicken if there’s some still left to do.
  2. Add onions and carrots to the pot and sauté until tender and translucent, about 6 minutes.
  3. Add cinnamon sticks, salt and remaining spices. Sauté about 1 minute, or until fragrant.
  4. Add stock, 3 Tablespoons lemon juice and dates. Deglaze the pan by scraping the brown bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil, add chicken pieces back to pot skin-side up and cover. Lower heat and simmer until chicken is completely cooked through, about 40-45 minutes. An instant-red thermometer should read 165 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the breast.
  5. Add lemon juice to pot and stir to combine. If sauce needs thickening, transfer chicken to a platter and simmer sauce until it is reduced. Sprinkle everything with cilantro and serve.
Notes
SLOW COOKER VERSION:

Use bone-in, skinLESS pieces of chicken
Use a skillet to brown chicken, and sauté vegetables and spices.  Add only ¾ cup of stock to the pan and the same amount of lemon juice as in the original recipe to deglaze the pan.  Do not add the dates until 20 minutes before serving.
Transfer the browned chicken, and the vegetable, spice, stock and lemon juice mixture to the slow cooker and cook covered on LOW for 7-8 hours or HIGH 4-5 hours.
20 minutes before serving, stir dates into the slow cooker.  Add remaining lemon juice and garnish with cilantro, if desired.

 

 

Vegan mac and cheese recipe

Vegan Mac & Cheese|Pamela Salzman

If someone tried to coax me a year ago with a “vegan mac and cheese” recipe, I would have politely said, “no, thank you.”  First of all, I actually don’t really like mac and cheese.  Not the boxed kind and not even the homemade kind.  Weird, I know.  And sad for my husband who looooooves it.  I used to have to make him the famous “Ronald Reagan’s favorite mac and cheese” recipe all the time when we first got married.  Tons of butter, cheddar cheese, milk, stomach ache for me.  Just not my thing.  It’s now the 21st century, and we’re both eating differently and I am open minded to alternative recipes.

potatoes, carrots, shallot, onion cook the veggies in water, but cover them everything into the blender"cheese sauce"

Although open minded or not, I’ve always felt if I’m not going to like the real deal, why would I like something pretending to be the real deal?  And most vegan mac and cheese recipes call for fake processed cheese or nutritional yeast and they’re just not that tasty, in my opinion.  Are you with me?  Well, according to myself and according to Mr. Picky who still doesn’t like cheese except Pecorino Romano in some soups and on pizza crust, this mac and cheese is the bomb.  I think it’s better than mac and cheese and he likes it because he has watched me make it and is confident there is not a morsel of cheese, real or fake, anywhere in this dish.

bread crumbs

 

You may have seen on a month ago a picture I posted of “vegan nachos” I made for the kids.  Here it is below.  That’s the same sauce for this!  You may have also seen a strange looking bowl of yellow stuff on my baked potato bar.  Same vegan cheese sauce!  Do you see the potential here?  What about as a dip for steamed veggies?  I might even make a soup out of this.  We are not just talking about a mac and cheese recipe.  We are talking about a life-changing delicious not-cheese sauce.   This sauce is a miracle.  It is made from potatoes, cashews, carrots, onions and a bunch of other completely natural foods blended into creamy, cheesy deliciousness.  Completely digestible (unless you are nut-free, in which case I am so sorry.  Buggers.)  I know I sound crazy.  I wouldn’t believe me either.

vegan nachos | pamela salzman

vegan mac & cheese|pamela salzman

vegan mac and cheese | pamela salzman

The only trick with this recipe is that you have to follow it exactly!  No eyeballing measurements.  No leaving things out.  Anytime I have guesstimated an amount with this recipe, it hasn’t worked quite as well, especially with ingredients like cayenne, lemon juice (you can leave this out, but just don’t add more than indicated) and garlic.  Some of the images on this post were taken of light spelt macaroni and some of whole spelt macaroni.  My family much prefers the light spelt pasta with this sauce, but you should use whatever suits you.  I have also tried this with brown rice pasta and a corn-quinoa pasta — both super!   Once I threw some small cauliflower florets into the pasta pot two minutes before the pasta was done and made a cauliflower mac and cheese.  (See above.)  I’m sure broccoli and kale would be great, too!  Can you see how much fun we are going to have with this??!!

vegan mac and cheese | pamela salzman

Vegan Mac & Cheese|Pamela Salzman

 

 
 
 
 
 
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4.9 from 14 reviews
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Vegan Mac and Cheese
Author: 
Serves: 6 as a side dish
 
Ingredients
  • 8 ounce package elbow macaroni pasta (I like spelt.)
  • 2 slices bread, torn into large pieces (whole grain works!)
  • 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter (not vegan) or organic Earth Balance (vegan), divided
  • ¼ teaspoon paprika
  • 2 Tablespoons chopped shallots
  • 1 cup (about 7 ounces) chopped Yukon gold potatoes (you can leave the peel on)
  • ¼ cup chopped carrots (about 1 small carrot)
  • ⅓ cup chopped onion
  • 1 cup water
  • ¼ cup raw cashews (soaked for 1-5 hours and drained if you your blender is weak)
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt (use 1 ¾ teaspoons if using Earth Balance)
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic, minced (about 1 medium clove)
  • ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • pinch of cayenne pepper
Instructions
  1. In a medium saucepan, add the shallots, potatoes, carrots, onion and water and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook, covered, for 15 minutes, or until vegetables are very soft. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente, drain and put back into the pot.
  3. Put the bread pieces, 1 Tablespoon of butter and paprika in a food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until combined to a medium-fine texture, set aside.
  4. Place the cashews, salt, garlic, 5 Tablespoons butter, mustard, lemon juice, black pepper, and cayenne in a blender or food processor. Add the softened vegetables and cooking water to the blender or food processor and process until perfectly smooth.
  5. Pour the “cheese” sauce over the cooked pasta and combine until completely coated. Spread the mixture into an un-greased 11 x 8 casserole dish, sprinkle with prepared breadcrumb mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the top is golden brown. If you add veggies (such as 1 or 2 cups of blanched cauliflower or broccoli) to the macaroni, cook in a 13 x 9 dish.
Notes
I actually don't make the vegan version for us because we can eat butter.   But I have made this with Earth Balance (which is vegan) many times and it has always turned out great.  I have never made this without the bread crumbs, though.  I think they provide a nice contrast in texture to the soft and creamy macaroni, but if not everyone will eat the bread crumbs, I am sure you can leave a square of the baking dish free of them.

 

Slow cooker white bean soup with sausage and collard greens recipe (stovetop version, too)

hearty and filling | pamela salzman

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%.)

always rinse your beans before using

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.

I think these are pretty "clean."

put the ingredients in the insert and press "start"

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.

gorgeous collard greens

remove the stems and chop the greens

add collard greens 20 minutes before serving

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!

white bean and sausage soup | pamela salzman

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Slow Cooker White Bean Soup with Sausage and Collard Greens
Author: 
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 bunch collard greens, stems discarded and leaves cut into-bite-size pieces (about 8 cups)
  • 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
  1. 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.
  2. Cover and cook until the beans are tender, on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or HIGH for 4-5 hours.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

 

Slow cooker whole chicken and stock recipe

slow cooker whole chicken | pamela salzman

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!

salting the chicken early is key!

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.

sprinkle with paprika and olive oil

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.”

slow cooker whole chicken

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.)

lovely juices on the bottom can be used for gravy

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.

falling off the bones

 

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Slow Cooker Whole Chicken and Stock
Author: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 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
  1. When you get home from the market, unwrap the chicken and remove any giblets from the cavity. Save the neck for stock.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Truss the chicken by tying the legs together. Rub the outside of the chicken with olive oil and paprika.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

 

 

Slow cooker vegetarian chili with sweet potatoes (stovetop version, too!)

As I type this, my slow cooker has been on for 36 hours straight.  Is that allowed?  I am officially obsessed and I completely understand why you all have been too while I was under a little rock.  Wow!  I made this awesome sweet potato chili the other night, then washed out the insert and put in some beef bones to make beef stock while I slept.  Then the next morning strained the beef stock and made a grass-fed beef brisket with veggies that I turned into a delicious sauce for pasta.  I’m on fire!

Are you gearing up for Super Bowl Sunday?  I love football, so I am always excited for the big day.  What I’d really like to know though, is why does everyone make chili for the Super Bowl?  Or a lot of Tex-Mex food?  I take that back.  My family in NY will be eating sausage and peppers and a baked pasta of some sort.  Maybe it’s just Southern California, but everyone I know is ripening their avocados for guacamole to go on top of their tacos or nachos or what have you.   Just curious since I am one of these people too and I’m not quite sure how I got to be.

I do try and mix it up a little every year, but somehow chili makes it onto the menu in some way.  I have been alternating between Vegetable Chili (my favorite) and Deer Valley Turkey and Black Bean Chili, which I serve alongside a baked potato bar, corn bread and Mexican Chopped Salad which I have a feeling doesn’t resemble anything you’d get in Mexico but sure is the perfect salad to go along with everything else Tex-Mex-y.  I’m in a bit of a conundrum this year with only two days to go until Super Bowl Sunday because I have no menu yet!  There are too many things I would love to make, including this fabulous chili as well as Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos or even this terrific-looking vegetarian tortilla soup recipe I spotted on Foodily.  Alas, I have a mere one slow cooker.

Fear not, good people.  I will share with you how to make this recipe on the stove in case you either do not have a slow cooker (yet) or you only have one slow cooker and you are planning on making my slow cooker chicken tacos.  I like to have a good balance of different food groups even on Super Bowl Sunday so that it’s not just chips and animal protein all day long.  Personally, I think chili is an easy dish to do vegetarian.  All those beans are super high in fiber and protein so they’re really filling and it’s the spices that make everything taste delicious, not the meat.  This chili is really interesting because it includes a bit of sweet potato, one of my most favorite foods.  There’s a touch of cinnamon and cocoa powder which you can’t really taste, but pairs great with the chili powder.  I didn’t add any leafy greens, but in retrospect I think a few chopped leaves of chard, spinach or kale would have been a nice addition at the end.  This Super Bowl I’m rooting for you to eat something healthful!

5.0 from 4 reviews
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Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili with Sweet Potatoes
Author: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 Tablespoons unrefined olive oil (or skip this if you don’t want to pre-saute vegetables)
  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 sweet red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 jalapeno, diced (remove seeds to make it less hot or use half or omit altogether)
  • 4 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 Tablespoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1-2 teaspoons sea salt (depending on salt in tomatoes)
  • freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 28-ounce container chopped or diced tomatoes with the juice (I prefer to use Pomi from a box or tomatoes in glass jars to avoid the inevitable BPA in canned tomatoes.)
  • 1 ½ cups cooked black beans or 1 15-ounce can, drained and rinsed (click here to learn how to cook beans from scratch, otherwise Eden Organics doesn't use BPA in their cans)
  • 1 ½ cups cooked kidney beans or 1 15-ounce can, drained and rinsed
  • 2 medium sweet potatoes, about 1 pound total, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
  • 1 cup water (use 2 cups water if cooking this on the stove)
Instructions
  1. Omit this step if you cannot bear to pre-cook anything when using a slow cooker. I like to sauté my vegetables because I think it adds more flavor, but feel free to dump everything (omit the oil) into the slow cooker and press “start.” Otherwise, heat oil in a large skillet (if not using a slow cooker, sauté in a large pot) over medium heat. Add onion, peppers and garlic and sauté until onions are tender and translucent, about 6 minutes.
  2. Add spices, salt and pepper and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. If your tomatoes are unsalted, use 2 teaspoons salt.
  3. Add tomatoes and their liquid and cook for another minute or two.
  4. Pour the onion and pepper mixture into a 4-6 quart slow cooker. Stir in beans, sweet potato and 1 cup water. (If cooking on the stove, add remaining ingredients to the pot plus 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook until sweet potatoes are tender and everything is nice and thick, about 1 hour.)
  5. Cover and cook until sweet potatoes are tender and the chili has thickened, on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours.
  6. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve with desired toppings such as tortilla chips, diced avocado, chopped cilantro, and sour cream.
Notes
I have also served this with cooked quinoa and millet, which was delicious. Also, I think adding some chopped fresh leafy greens about 10 minutes before serving would be very nice, too. Swiss chard, spinach and kale would all work well.

 

Broccoli stalk soup recipe

This month I’ve been teaching a broccoli and cauliflower stir-fry in my classes.  I am using only the florets since I know the stalks aren’t as popular in my house.  It’s all very well and good, except for the fact that I’ve been left at the end of each week with a heck of a lot of broccoli stalks.  I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that I am a compulsive use-everything-you’ve-got kind of a cook.  I absolutely hate to waste food!  In fact, I started a tradition in the house called “Frittata Fridays.”  That’s when I pull together bits of leftovers and random vegetables and turn them into breakfast.  Everyone’s happy!

So in order to not throw away the perfectly good broccoli stalks, I have been juicing lots of them into our juices.  But there’s only so much of that I can take.  What else could I use them for?   On a whim I decided to see if I could turn the stalks in a pureed soup like my Cauliflower and Roasted Garlic Soup, which is one of my absolute favorites.  My biggest concern was that the stalks wouldn’t have enough flavor and the soup would taste like nothing — WRONG!  It was delicious.  Warm, rich, creamy and using one of my favorite soup-thickening techniques (cooking and pureeing Yukon Gold potatoes with the soup), it tasted like there was lots of cream or butter when there was none.

Nutritionally speaking, the stalks are quite comparable to the florets, which is awesome since broccoli is once of those super foods you should be eating a lot of (and not throwing into the garbage!)  In fact, I’m big on the whole cruciferous family of vegetables which includes all the cabbages, kale, bok choy, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, collard greens and more.  These vegetables contain incredible amounts of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, cancer-fighting compounds, and even protein.  Load up, people!

I enjoyed this soup straight away with an extra pinch of flaky sea salt and a few grinds of black pepper.  My husband stirred into his bowl a big pinch of shredded raw cheddar cheese and thought that was great.  For the girls, I made them grilled raw cheddar cheese and kale pesto sandwiches on spelt bread and they loved dipping those into the soup.  Even Mr. Picky finished his entire bowl — plain of course, with absolutely nothing added.  This was a winner all around!

 

4.9 from 16 reviews
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Broccoli Stalk Soup
Author: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter or unrefined cold-pressed olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 ¼ - 2 ½ pounds broccoli stalks, ends and any tough woody layers removed
  • 1 large Yukon Gold potato, about 8 ounces, peeled if desired and cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock, preferably homemade
  • 2-3 teaspoons sea salt
  • freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter or warm the oil. Add the onion and garlic and sauté, covered, until tender and translucent, about 6 minutes.
  2. Add the broccoli, potato, stock and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat and then lower to a simmer. Cook partially covered until potatoes and broccoli stalks are tender, about 20 minutes.
  3. Puree soup with an immersion blender or in batches in a blender. Taste for seasoning.
Notes
You can stir in shredded cheese before serving, garnish with grated Parmesan or Pecorino, top with grilled cheese croutons or chopped chives