A lot on her plate: Kale + almond pesto linguine

In conclusion to this cooking series, I decided to take on one of the harder recipes or at least one that takes more steps. In chapter 4 was where I knew I would find bigger meals, and that's where I discovered the kale and almond pesto linguine recipe. "It's delicious, super-simple to whizz up, economical, and will completely negate any guilt you might feel (you shouldn't) about eating big old bowl of pasta." (Birkett pg. 133) This recipe require quite of bit of preparation, so I got the groceries in the afternoon and started cooking early in the evening.

 

Ingredients:

-3 spring onions roughly chopped

-4 garlic cloves peeled but left whole

-80g of curly kale

-1 1/2 cups of flaked almonds

-4 tablespoons of olive oil

-35g of flat-leaf parsley

-35g of basil leaves

-pinch of red chili flakes

-1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice

-25g of grated parmesan

-sea salt and ground pepper

-75g of linguine

The first job was to sterilize a jar through washing it in a hot dishwasher cycle and drying it in the oven for 10 minutes. I just used an old cherry jar for this. while that was in the oven drying, I washed the kale, parsley, and spring onions. I then chopped up the kale, garlic, and spring onions into coarse pieces.

  

Next, I brought a large pan of salted water to a boil, adding the onions and garlic. I cooked them for 3 minutes until they were soft, then added the kale. "Add the kale and cook for no more than 40 seconds, until it's bright green and floppy. Don't overcook it as it will lose that lovely bright green color." (Birkett pg. 133)

I then lifted the kale out of the pan and onto a plate, taking the onion and garlic pieces out as well and adding them to the food processor along with the olive oil, parsley, basil, lemon juice, and chili flakes I had previously put into the processor. I then blitzed it a couple times until it formed a thick paste.

Once finished with this, I started up another pot of boiling water, and added the linguine pasta. Once it reached al dente, I put it in a strainer to get rid of excess water.

I portioned the pasta for two, combining the pasta and pesto sauce together with some parmesan to garnish. I then put the excess pesto in the jar and put it in the fridgerator to use for another time.

I think that out of all the recipe's I've made from this book, this one was the most gratifying to make. I've enjoyed pesto before and have always wanted to make my own. Looking back on this experience, I'm glad that I picked this book to cook from, as it taught me a lot about choosing the right ingredients, and how to incorporate great ingredients in your daily meals.

Q: Looking back,what was the most gratifying meal you've made or have helped make?

 

A lot on her plate: cheat's seeded crackers

Hello again! This past weekend, I was flipping through my cookbook looking for something I could make quick with ingredients I already had in my fridge. The recipe on page 94 looked promising, showing appetizing tortilla chips and humus which sounded easy enough to me. "Aside from being a brilliant way to use up surplus tortillas, these little belters are great with dips, and deceptively easy to make, though they give the impression you've gone to quite a lot of trouble." ( Birkett pg. 94) This recipe only required few ingredients and thankfully I had everything, not needing to go to the store like I had to do in the past.

ingredients:

- whole wheat tortillas
- various spices ( I used paprika
and another blend of spices)
- one egg
- chia seeds
-humus (optional)
special equipment:
-pastry brush

The first step was to heat the oven to 350 degrees, then make the egg wash that would be spread on the tortillas. So to start, I cracked one egg into a bowl and whisked it, along with half a tablespoon of paprika and a couple dashes of spice blend.

  

I next took 4 tortillas and cut them into eight equal triangles, then put spread them evenly on a parchment paper lined tray.

  

Taking the egg wash with a pastry brush, I brushed a layer of egg wash on all pieces of tortilla. After that, I generously sprinkled chia seeds over the top. " I've used chia seeds on top because they're packed full of omega-3 fatty acids and help aid digestion." (Birkett pg. 94)

  

Once finished with that, I repeated the steps to make another tray of the same thing. I then took the finished preparation and popped it into the oven to cook for 10-12 minutes.

  

After about 7 minutes or so, I took both trays out of the oven. I flipped all the pieces over, and reglazed them with the egg wash and chia seeds, putting them back in the oven for the remainder of time.

  

After 5 more minutes later, I finally took them out to cool before putting them in a glass tray with some humus to add.

This recipe was by far one of the easiest, so easy that I ended up making it again later in the week, along with one of my previous recipes, the kale smoothie. It's a great and healthy alternative to store bought chips, as you can modify this recipe any way you want using different spices and dips.

Q: What are your favorite kind of chips to eat? Have you ever tried making your own chips before?

A lot on her plate: super green kale smoothie

Hello! This week I decided this week to continue along the simple recipe path and make the one recipe that stuck in my mind when I first skimmed this book, a green kale smoothie.

The title may seem a little offsetting to some or intriguing to others, but this smoothie has a lot of fresh and healthy ingredients. To the author, this smoothie seems to be something she makes often, one of her go-to drinks. "Working in food involves eating out a fair bit, so I've been known to harbor the odd 'food hangover. When I was living in Vancouver I got into kale smoothies because they were everywhere." (pg. 33 Birkett)

To start this recipe, you've got to gather your ingredients and make sure you have the right equipment, which in this case was a blender.

ingredients:
-100g of kale, washed, stems removed and leaves patted dry
-thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
-1 ripe banana, peeled and cut
-20 fl oz coconut water
-2 teaspoons runny honey
-squeeze of lemon juice

equipment:
blender or food processor

The directions to this are very straightforward, "Put the kale, ginger and banana in a blender or food processor and blend to a pulp, then add the coconut water, honey and lemon juice. Blend thoroughly and drink straight away." Of course, the author says you can change some parts of the recipe to whatever you prefer. for example, "if you can't find coconut water (...a brilliant source of good things like potassium and minerals), use pineapple or orange juice instead." (pg. 33 Birkett) I tweaked the recipe a bit by splitting the portion of kale and making the other half spinach.

Following the recipe, I started with washing the kale and spinach.

   

Next, I cut the stems off the kale, putting the stalks and spinach into the blender.

  

After that was done, I cut a thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled, and sliced it. I then, put it in the blender with the rest of the ingredients.

  

Next I peeled and cut a banana and put into the blender before blending the ingredients until they turned to a think paste.

  

After blending, I squeezed and juiced one lemon, adding it to the mix.

  

Finally I added the honey, and coconut water.

  

After all the ingredients were added, all that was left to do was to blend until the smoothie was well combined.

  

After it was blended, I decided it was too runny so I added some more spinach and also some ice to make it colder.

The finished product tasted really good! "Kale is packed full of good things, from antioxidants and calcium, to vitamin C and beta carotene, and is a great way to give yourself a morning boost." (pg. 33 Birkett) She definitely had me converted from being hesitant about eating kale, to thoroughly enjoying it. Though I may not be making this smoothie as often as she does, i'll definitely try making it again.

Q: Are their any foods in particular that you're hesitant about trying? If so, why? 

Q: What are your favorite smoothie flavors?

A lot on her plate: coconut + almond granola

If you read my previous post, it showed and explained how I took the time to read the intro and author notes at the beginning of the book but it now came time to put them into action.

I scouted around the book looking for something easy to try out and settled on what looked the most simple and appealing : coconut and almond granola.

After a quick run to the store, I gathered the ingredients and set up to start cooking.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups of oats

3 oz. pumpkin seeds

1/2 g oz. sunflower seeds

1 2/3 cups flaked almonds

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 1/2 tsp mixed spices (cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg)

4 tbsp. coconut oil

4 tbsp. maple syrup

1/2 cup sultanas

This recipe is very straightforward, so basically all I had to do was mix all the ingredients, and bake the mix in the oven for 10-15 min. The first ingredients I mixed together were the oats, almonds, and shredded coconut.

The next ingredients I mixed together were the pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and spices.

    

 

After incorporating these ingredients, I mixed them all together. After that, I added the 4 tablespoons of coconut oil and maple syrup.

Finally, having all the ingredients completely mixed, I transferred the mix to two parchment paper lined trays and popped them in the oven. After they were in, I set the timer for 15 min.

Halfway through their cooking process, I took them out and tossed/stirred them, making sure they were evenly dispersed before putting them back in the oven to cook for the remainder of the time. Once they were done, and the whole kitchen smelt like maple syrup, I took them out of the oven as they had finally turned golden brown.

   

  

    

All that was left was for me was to add the sultanas to the finished mixture and make myself a bowl of granola cereal, putting the rest away in a sealed jar for future breakfasts to come.

For my first attempt at cooking one of the recipes, it went surprisingly well! But then again, it's not very hard to mix a couple ingredients together and put them in the oven for a little bit. Because of how great this recipe turned out, I look forward the more challenging dishes in the future.

Q: Do you consider yourself to be a very good cook? If yes, what/who do you contribute some of your skills to? If not, why do you think that is and what can you do to change that?