Aloha Salad (kidney diet)

I found this recipe in a cookbook for renal patients.  A lot of fruits and veggies are actually off-limits for people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) because they're high in potassium (a good thing for the rest of us but with impaired kidney function, potassium will build up to dangerous levels in the body).  So finding CKD-friendly side dishes can be tricky.  Especially since I also have to balance a number of food allergies, sensitivities and preferences within my family.  One serving of this salad (pay attention to serving sizes!) is 112 mg potassium and 26 mg phosphorus.

This "salad" proved to be quite a hit (and about the only way I've found to get my 3 year old to eat carrots without squawking).  I am not a fan of describing anything with Jello as a "salad" but it seems to be a thing here in the Heartland (and also in many 1970's era cookbooks...but I digress).  However, this "salad" was more fruit/veggie and less Jello so I'll let it ride.

Since it's a gelatin "salad", you need to make it in advance so it can set up.  My favorite thing ;)  You can also prep this in stages if you need to, like if your baby is teething and NEEDS you to hold her CONSTANTLY except for when she dozes off for a few minutes at a time.  Just a hypothetical example.  Grate the carrots, measure and mix the dry ingredients, measure the liquid ingredients, and fridge each part until you're ready to put it together.

We are avoiding artificial dyes at my house (in addition to all the aforementioned food restrictions...I told you it gets tricky to plan menus), so I got to experiment with substituting a homemade, dye-free mix for the box o' Yellow 6, er, Lemon Jello.  It turned out very well.

The tricky bit about applying this substitute widely in recipes calling for a box of Jello is figuring out what to use for flavoring that doesn't skew the liquid ratio but still gives a punch of flavor, especially if you try to create flavors other than citrus.  In this recipe, I used a bit of lemon juice in place of some of the water called for in the OR as well as a lot of lemon zest.  To substitute for other flavors, I'd look into dye-free flavoring oils over juices or extracts...you'll get more flavor without adding liquids.  If your recipe calls for water, you can swap some or all for a juice or puree but you might need to pay attention to how the acid from your flavoring liquid impacts leavening reactions.

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Creole Risotto and How Your Christmas Lights Help You Prep Ahead

Finished dish with chicken and peas

I have a new cookbook (my Mother's Day gift to myself)!  It's a vintage cookbook called Scientific Cooking with Scientific Methods by Sarah E. Woodworth Craig, published in 1911 by Ellis Publishing Co (Battle Creek, MI).

It's chock-full of adverts for Vonnegut Hardware in Indianapolis (yes, *that* Vonnegut, though Vonnegut grandpère rather than Vonnegut grand-fils) and "scientific" culinary gems like, "Brain workers want to take easily digested foods, such as eggs, fish, etc. The laborer needs quantity, and can eat of corned beef, cabbage, corn bread and brown bread, and not overtax his digestion..."

As always, I wonder what of our current "known scientific truths" will seem quaint and outmoded in a few decades.

Outmoded though their musings on digestion are, I LOVE recipes from the pre-processed foods era.  In this instance, I'm combining one of the recipes with a previous Mother's Day gift (my rice cooker) and streamlining the recipe.

Rice cooker in foreground,
Christmas lights timer in background

I've been really into using my rice cooker lately as a prep-ahead tool in combination with...wait for it...my Christmas light timer.  Most rice recipes (the vegetarian ones) can sit out at room temp for a few hours before cooking without ill effects, but really can't sit around on "warm" all day without getting burned.  Enter the timer...  Rice cookers will generally cook white rice in 15-20 minutes, plus a few minutes cool-down time or brown rice in about 45 minutes with the same cool-down period.  Count backwards from your preferred meal time, and set your timer to start at the appropriate time.  Don't forget to set the rice cooker itself to "cook" even though it won't be kicking on for awhile.

Now the recipe...the original recipe calls for making a sauce of onions, pepper, mushrooms, sherry and tomatoes separate from the rice.  I sauteed the veg, added a splash of wine and added all this to the rice cooking liquid.  I used all mushrooms rather than a mixture of onion/pepper/mushroom because that's what I had on hand.  Use more veggies, less veggies, whatever works for you.

Also, be sure to use all the liquid called for even if it doesn't seem to jive with the rice cooker's notion of appropriate rice-to-liquid ratio...the volume of the sauteed veggies throws things off.

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Easy-easier-easiest: Cauliflower

Cauliflower can be a messy vegetable to prep.  I find the least untidy way to deal with it is to break the green leaves off by hand, then cut the whole head in half down the center, then cut the core and stem out in a U-shape.  Break large florets into bite-size pieces. 

I'm not crazy about raw cauli, but my son adores it.  To each their own.  Here are my favorite ways to prepare it.  As always, roasting tops the list because the cauli simply turns into a different creature under the influence of the Maillard reaction.  You really do need fresh cauliflower for this one.

Pureed cauli is very hip among the low-carb crowd, but the addition of horseradish gives it an unexpected depth without wicked heat...my younger veggie-avoidant son loves this dish.  This one can be made with frozen or fresh cauliflower.

The cauli curry is a more complicated recipe with flavors that can become too competitive as a side dish, but is absolutely worth being on the radar.  Serve the curry with plain baked chicken or a simple roast, or throw in some cooked lentils for a complete vegetarian dish.  Make this with fresh or frozen cauli, or leftover roasted cauliflower (plan ahead and roast 2 heads of cauli).

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Lemon Turnips

Totally gratuitous butter shot...cuz butter is purty ;)

It's pretty easy in my opinion to come up with tasty ways to prep meat-based dishes ahead and freeze them for convenience.  Not so easy when it comes to vegetables.  So I'm on particular lookout for recipes that do work for vegetables in the freezer, like this one.

Turnips are maybe not everyone's favorite, but lemon butter makes everything delicious.  They do nicely in the freezer and are lower carb than potatoes.  They pack a good wallop of vitamin C and fiber, and even have a significant amount of calcium per serving.

If you want to do these as a freeze-ahead dish, you will need to basically prepare the turnips in advance and package them up for reheating.  You want to stop just short of fully cooking them so they don't get squishy.  I reheated mine as an oven packet while baking off Chicken Wellingtons, but they could get reheated on the stovetop if it's more convenient to your menu.

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Easy-Easier-Easiest: Celery Root

Celery root, or celeriac, is one of my favorite autumn veggies.  It's only available at this time of year, so I eagerly await it.  The edible root is covered in a nobbly, creviced peel that must be cut away with a knife...no veggie peelers here!...and has the grassy, bright aroma of celery married to the creamy, crunchy goodness of a root vegetable. 

It can be eaten raw or cooked, depending on how much time you want to spend with it.  Celery root is a happy participant in any root veggie ensemble, whether roasted alongside sweet potatoes and turnips or mashed with potatoes, or is particularly delicate on its own as a side dish.

Like apples and potatoes, cut celeriac will begin to brown so if you cut it ahead of time, be sure to toss it with something acidic like salad dressing or store it submerged in lemon water.

NOTE: While not evenly remotely related to celeriac, jerusalem artichokes (or sunchokes) are low-glycemic impact tubers harvested in the fall that you can also prepare in the following ways.
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Marigold Scalloped Potatoes

I garden in service of my cooking, so I don't usually give space or attention to plants I can't eat.  I made an indulgent exception this year and planted two boxes of annual flowers, including marigolds.  Well, as it turns out, you CAN eat marigolds!  Who knew!

Well, I've seen Monsoon Wedding so I sort of knew that marigolds were edible, but I'd never considered cooking with them until I ran across a recipe for marigold-sauced cauliflower.  Marigolds can evidently be dried and used as a saffron substitute, mostly for their coloring properties though they do have a lightly floral, slightly spicy flavor quality as well (I went outside and nibbled on one just to check). 



Citrus Garlic Roasted Chicken, with Marigold Scalloped
Potatoes and cucumbers

The following cheese sauce can be made ahead and frozen, if desired, for later use with any number of vegetables.  You could probably even fold veggies like broccoli or cauliflower into the sauce before freezing for a totally made-ahead veggie casserole.  Or you can use the sauce for scalloped potatoes, as follows, which can be made ahead and fridged for same-day or next-day cooking.

For a more spectacular presentation, don't chop the marigold petals.  Scatter them whole in between layers of potatoes.

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Easiest-Easier-Easy: Cucumbers

We're almost at the end of cucumber season, but I figure better late than never.  Actually, the reason I haven't posted anything yet about cukes as a side dish is b/c all the cukes in our house get gobbled up plain, as is, for snacks and appetizers.  Nary a cuke to pickle even.  I get about one cuke every few weeks to do something "interesting" with, so I don't have a whole lot of pictures either. 

The best things to do with cukes, in my opinion, is dress them lightly with a vinegar dressing that compliments the flavors of your main dish...herbal, Asian and spicy are the trio here.  I also like cucumbers served instead of crackers on an appetizer tray, combined with other summer fruits and veggies in a salad, in summer rolls, in gazpacho or in a smoothie.

Depending on the variety of cucumber, I may or may not peel.  With most "regular" cukes, I'll peel about half the skin off in strips, giving the cucumber a striped look.  If the peel is especially tough or bitter, I'll take it all off.  With Asian or English types, I usually leave all the peel on.

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Easiest-Easier-Easy: Acorn Squash

Acorn squash is not really my favorite of all squashes because of its scalloped, hard-to-peel skin.  I do like its flavor and versatility, however.  I cut the skin away with a knife rather than a vegetable peeler, and will be satisfied with getting most of the peel off.  The bits of green peel that are left bother me, but aren't inedible LOL

It is a mildly flavored squash and lends itself to slicing into cute rings.  All of these recipes can be made with sliced rings or chunks of squash. 

This is a perfect time of year for grilling...the worst of the summer heat has passed (in most areas of the country) but it's still warm enough to dine al fresco.  Throwing your veg on the grill with your main dish is one of favorite menu plans, and acorn squash can be grilled just as nicely as summer squash.  The roasted recipe is a pretty classic way to handle acorn squash, and the batter-fried recipe is tweaked from my aunt's suggestion...let me say that I may never eat acorn squash any other way from now on.  Yum!

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Easiest-Easier-Easy: Tomatoes

I am not a tomato fan.  Really.  But I adore the smell of a tomato plant and a fresh tomato tastes NOTHING like a grocery store tomato, so we grow them with abandon come summer.  I'll wind up canning quite a few just as is or in tomato soup or pickled (talk to me in October about pickled green cherry tomatoes).

Other ways to use an abundance of fresh tomatoes include: canning, green beans with tomatoes, grilled marinated okra, oven-baked zucchini, frittata, tomato sauce (enchilada and pizza), tomato soup, Bloody Mary mix or any place else you'd used canned tomatoes or prepared tomato juice (just blitz the tomatoes in a processor or blender, then strain through a fine-mesh strainer for juice).

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Greens au gratin

I had scads of end-of-season chard in my garden, and this is what I did with it.  It's similar to the holiday favorite broccoli-n-cheese casserole.  You can use any combination of greens you want, just be sure to cook them and drain them very well.  You'll need about 5 cups cooked for this recipe. 

Before cooking

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Easy-easier-easiest: Okra

Please don't change the channel just because you *think* you don't like okra!  I studiously avoided it for a long time, but finally caved to household pressure (ie my husband) and made oven-fried okra once...I am now hooked!  It is not slimy when cooked (although it is slimy while cutting, to be completely truthful).  Okra season (NOW) makes a welcome break from the mid-summer zucchini-fest as well. 

Now for the hard-sell...Okra is low calorie when prepared plainly as in the grilled recipe below, high in vitamins K, A, and C and as well as folic acid and fiber, and is one of the most antioxidant-dense green veggies out there. 

We grow our own okra now as it's not always easy to find fresh okra at the store. Frozen is OK for most purposes, but fresh is best. If you happen to have an abundance of fresh okra, slice it and freeze it in 1-2 cup amounts (clumped up is fine) to use in stews and gumbos.

How can you not give it a go? Especially when even my veggie-avoidant 16 month old just asked very politely, using signs, for more okra? Come on people...

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Easiest-Easier-Easy: Zucchini

Who doesn't have an excess of zucchini at this time of year?  You, over there?  Well, I'm leaving some on your doorstep next.  The following shouldn't be a surprise by now...I love me some roasted veggies, but given the time of year, grilling is the way to go.  The fanciest recipe I provide here is poached from my in-laws...as my father-in-law says often and with gusto, "I could make a meal of this".

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Broccoli packets for roasting or grilling

Blackberries, lemon-thyme salmon
and broccoli packet

This doesn't have to be done with broccoli or Boursin.  It's just a framework for an easy make-ahead/freezable side dish.  You could do carrot slices, cauliflower, asparagus, squash or zucchini and any kind of soft, flavored cheese.  To make it freezer-friendly, use pre-frozen vegetables and omit the extra liquid. 

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Microwaved Beet Chips

These are delicious and cooking them won't heat up the house because it's done entirely in the microwave.  Woot-woot!  Beets are a sweet veg, and the flavor-texture result here is crunchy but melt-in-your-mouth, lightly sweet and lightly salty all at once.

The two in the back left are a leetle burned, but the rest are as they should be

The tricky part is that I can't tell you how long to nuke 'em.  It depends on how thinly you've sliced the beets, how powerful your microwave is, how many slices you're cooking at once.  I can tell you that these will burn between one second and the next if you're not careful though.  Start with a short time frame, then add time in 1 minute or 30 second intervals when you're getting close.  And watch them like a hawk with your finger on the STOP button in case you start to see or smell carbonization.  As usual, I screw up so you don't have to.

What I can tell you is what I did.  I have a "mid-size" microwave (don't know offhand how many watts).  I used 4 2" diameter beets and hand sliced them as thin as possible (pretty thin, but not totally regular or even).  I made the first batch with as many slices as I could fit in the microwave (about 3/4 of the slices).  You'll see the slices go from hard, to softened, to slightly curled to leathery to burned.  I started with 3 minutes.  They were just starting to look softened, so I added 3 minutes.  Then I added 1 more minute.  After 7 total minutes of cooking, they looked a little leathery but I thought they could use more time.  At 7 minutes 45 seconds, they were done but I didn't pull the emergency stop fast enough.  Fifteen more seconds gave me smoking briquettes and a reeky microwave. 

The second batch was much smaller, so at 3 minutes they were looking just leathery.  I gave them 30 more seconds, and stopped the microwave with 12 seconds left to go.  I spread the cooked chips on a paper towel and let them stand a few minutes.  They crisped up as they cooled. 

Four tennis ball sized beets will give you four small (about 1/3 cup) servings of chips.  Or one big afternoon snack.

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Easy-easier-easiest: Corn

So it's technically not a vegetable, but when it's plentiful and cheap and fresh in the summer, it's on the menu.  Getting the corn shucked and de-silked, one of my least favorite kitchen tasks, is definitely prep-ahead friendly, as are brining and cutting the kernels off the cob. 

To help cut kernels off a cob, invert a small bowl inside a larger one.  In a perfect world, both bowls have flattened bottoms for minimal slippage.  Hold your cob on the smaller bowl and cut the kernels off with a knife...the knife edge shouldn't bang on the outer bowl and the kernels will fall right into the larger bowl instead of scattering all over your kitchen counter.

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Easy-easier-easiest sides: Lettuce

Iceberg, Boston Bibb (my favorite), Romaine, green leaf, red leaf, mesclun, radicchio, endive, chicory, escarole...it's not as boring a vegetable as it may seem.  Some lettuces are quite nutritionally dense, especially the darker green and red ones. 

There are head lettuces and leaf lettuces...head lettuces, like Romaine or iceberg, have a stem uniting all their leaves, while leaf lettuces are totally loose-leaved.  You can make salad out of or braise either type, but grilling is better suited to head types.


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Easiest-Easier-Easy: Eggplant

OK, I wish I could offer a trio of difficulty-scaled recipes for throwing together a quick eggplant side dish using only fresh eggplant and pantry staples...but I don't really like eggplant.  Sorry.  I've tried it every way to Sunday and I just don't much care for it.  The only two things I like to do with it are grill it, which is easy especially if you're grilling your main dish, and Julia Child's eggplant soufflé, which is not so easy and therefore excludes itself from this arena.  Fortunately, prime eggplant season (late summer) coincides with prime grilling season.  You can, of course, grill indoors.

I don't do any prep to my eggplant except to slice it on the diagonal.  Many recipes call for salting for 20 minutes, rinsing, pressing, blah, blah, blah.  Slice 'em.  Wait until the last minute to brush olive oil on them because they're like sponges and will soak it up in a heartbeat.

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Cucumber Chive Flower Salad

I have recently discovered that the pale purple flowers topping chive stems are edible.  They're toothsome without being cronchy and are perfectly onion-y.  Pull the florets off the puffball of the flower and sprinkle them into salads (like the one below) or pilafs or on burgers or burritos.  If you don't have flowering chives growing in your garden, substitute about 2 tablespoons of snipped chives, sliced green onions or chopped red onion.

I use Splenda in the dressing rather than sugar as it dissolves better in the vinegar, but feel free to use an equal amount of sugar instead.

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Easy-Easier-Easiest: Beets

Fresh beets are such different creatures from the pickled beets you find in salad bars.  And a nice seasonal break from more ordinary root vegetables like potatoes and yams.

As you work with them, they will hemorrhage burgundy juice and can turn your cutting board, knives and sink into a veritable operating theater, so be prepared.  Moisturize everything permeable that the beets will contact (wood cutting boards and hands, particularly) so the dark juice doesn't stain quite so badly.  Wear vinyl or latex gloves for extra staining protection.  Warn family members not to be alarmed.

Easiest: Again, though roasting or grilling veggies may not seem like the easiest method of preparation, the fact that the recipe calls for virtually no ingredients beyond the fresh veg itself and requires no babysitting (especially if preparing a main dish using the same cooking method) earns it a gold star in my book. 

Roasted Beets
Makes 4 servings

1 lb. fresh beets
1 tbsp olive oil or walnut oil
1/2 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp balsamic or raspberry vinegar (optional)

Peel and chop beets into 1/2" chunks.  Toss with olive, thyme, salt and pepper and spread on a sheet pan.  Bake at 400F for 40-45 minutes, or grill in a foil packet for 50-60 minutes.  Toss finished beets with vinegar, if desired.

Easier: The tricky part of making chips is getting the beets cut thinly enough.  Once you've got a good thin slice though, the next hardest part is not scarfing them all down before you serve them. 

Beet Chips
Makes 4 servings

1 lb. fresh beets
1 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

Peel beets and slice them as thinly as possible, preferably using a mandoline slicer.  Alternately, cut the beets in half if needed and slice using a food processor fitted with a slicing blade.

Toss slices with oil.  Lay slices in a single layer on a sheet pan or two.  Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes (more or less depending on how thinly you sliced), turning once.  Toss finished chips with salt, if desired.

(Microwaved beet chips here)
Easy: Just delicious.  A nice change-up on potato salad, especially for cold wintry days.  If you don't have an assortment of red-orange root veggies readily available, just use more of whichever ones you do have.

Warm Root Vegetable Salad
Makes 4 servings

1 large beet root, peeled and diced into 1/2" cubes
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/2" slices
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1/2" cubes
3 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp mustard

Bring a large pot of water to the boil.  Add beet cubes and boil 10 minutes.  Add carrots and boil 5 minutes.  Add sweet potato and boil 7 minutes.  Drain vegetables well.  Mix mayo and mustard in a bowl.  Toss vegetables in dressing to coat thoroughly and serve warm. Pin It

Twice Baked Broccoli Potatoes

I do love a Bennigan's/TGIF/Buffalo Wild Wings type of potato skin, but it's one of those recipes that I'll only make if I do up a bunch all at once to freeze ahead.  Baking, then scooping, then mixing, then refilling isn't hard exactly, but it is fussier than I am willing to do usually...unless I can load the work on the front end and do next to nothing on the back end.

If you make these to freeze, be sure to freeze the potato halves on a tray first, then bag them.  You can pull out the whole batch if you want or just cook a couple.  If you cook these from their frozen state, put a small pat of butter or margarine on the top before baking.  The freezer tends to dry food out, so you need a bit of food moisturizer (i.e. butter) when you bake.

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