healthy

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Dip Into India

This dip is a winner, pure and simple.  Rich yet light, warmly spiced, and with a gorgeous sunny yellow color… now, who wouldn’t want to sink a pita chip into a bowl of this goodness?  I threw this together for hubby’s and my “farewell condo” party and it was a huge success with our dip-loving friends.  I particularly loved the bits of caramelized onion sprinkled throughout.  They speak to my veggie loving soul.  Dipping a pita chip into this curried cauliflower goodness really is like dipping into the flavors of India!

Enjoy!

Dip Into India

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced fine
1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
1/4 cup lowfat sour cream
dash nutmeg
dash cayenne pepper
dash freshly ground black pepper
cilantro (optional)

  • Fill a small saucepan with water, a few inches deep, and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Add cauliflower, reduce heat to simmer and cook, partially covered, until tender when pierced with a fork – about 10 minutes.
  • When cauliflower is tender, drain completely and transfer to a mixing bowl.  Using a fork, mash to your desired consistency – I like it a bit chunky, but you can go smoother if you want.  Who’s to stop you?
  • In a small saute pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and salt, and saute until tender and translucent.  When onion is cooked, add curry powder and sugar and toast until fragrant, about 1 minute.
  • Transfer onion and spice mixture to mixing bowl with mashed cauliflower.  Add yogurt, sour cream, nutmeg, cayenne and black pepper and stir to combine with a spatula.
  • If desired, mix in a tablespoon or two of chopped cilantro, and garnish with cilantro.

Source: Adapted from Delicious Dips

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Mediterranean Bean Dip

I made this dip on my last week in my condo, as a way to clean out my pantry a little bit (so I’d have fewer cans and jars to move, which is key) and also to have something to contribute at my last condo social event.  This white bean dip, flavored with bright lemon, sun-dried tomatoes and chives, is certainly delicious.  But I know better than to call it hummus.  After meeting Katie, I now understand that hummus is just that, hummus, and anything else is… well… something else.  It’s like Champagne, a little bit.  One of my pet peeves is when people refer to sparkling wine as “Champagne” when it’s not.  Hello, Champagne is from the Champagne region of France.  Anything else is sparkling wine.  And there’s nothing wrong with sparkling wine, as long as you don’t try to pretend it’s Champagne.  This is kind of like that.  This dip is not hummus.  So I’m going to be respectful and not try to pretend that it’s some kind of “White Bean Hummus with Sun-Dried Tomato and Chives.”  I’m going to call this what it is – a delicious, creamy, flavorful dip made with cannellini beans and sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil.  It calls to mind various Mediterranean flavors – the white beans and sun-dried tomatoes and olive oil suggesting Italy, with a little whiff of Greece from the tahini (I use a Greek brand).  Yum.  Not hummus… but delish.

Mediterranean Bean Dip

1 can white (cannellini) beans, drained and rinsed, liquor reserved
1/4 cup (approx.) extra-virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons tahini
salt and pepper
3 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, rough chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh (or freeze-dried) chives, plus more for garnish

  • Place beans, oil, lemon juice and tahini in the bowl of a blender and pulse to combine.  Add reserved bean liquor, a tablespoon at a time, until the dip reaches a smooth and creamy consistency.  (This is something you have to judge for yourself; I can’t tell you how much bean liquor it will take.  It totally depends on your blender and your beans.)
  • Take a quick taste and decide if the dip needs any more lemon or tahini for flavoring.  If so, add the ingredient a little at a time, tasting as you go along, to achieve the right flavor.  Season to taste with salt and pepper, then blend.
  • Blend in roughly chopped pieces of sun-dried tomato – but don’t over-blend!  You want the tomato to be evenly dispersed throughout the dip, with flecks of red visible and the rest of the dip a creamy, pale pink color. 
  • Remove dip to a bowl and stir in chives.  Scoop into serving bowl and top with additional chives, if desired.

Source: Covered In Flour, method from Good Things Catered

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Baked Halibut and Mushrooms

This is one of the easiest weeknight dinners I have ever made, and one of the tastiest.  I try to put seafood on the table about once or twice a week, because hubby and I love it and it’s generally very good for you.  But it can be hard to think of creative ways to cook fish without breading it, and it’s tricky to get it to cook through without drying out.  One thing that I love to do is to bake fish with veggies on top of it.  The veggies keep the fish moist and impart a little of their flavor, and for all the health and flavor benefits they bring, these recipes couldn’t be easier.

Baked Halibut and Mushrooms

2 halibut fillets (or any firm white fish)
extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper (or truffle pepper, optional)
1 package mushrooms, sliced (cremini are nice, but button will work too)
fresh thyme leaves (optional)

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • In a small baking dish, drizzle olive oil over the fish and season with salt and pepper (or truffle pepper – mmmmm).  Cover with mushrooms and drizzle a bit more olive oil over the mushrooms.
  • Bake 25-30 minutes, until fish is firm and mushrooms are done.
  • Serve with mushrooms still atop fillets.  If desired, sprinkle fresh thyme over cooked fillets.

Yield: Serves 2.

Source: Covered In Flour.

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Tilapia with Citrus Bagna Cauda

I realized just how behind I am on posting – this move threw me all off, but I’m back now, I swear – when I saw that this dish, hubby’s and my Valentine’s Day entree, was still in draft form.  And that’s a shame.  I hate to think I’ve waited so long to share this with you all, because it’s wonderful.  Tilapia is one of my favorite – perhaps my all-time favorite – kinds of fish.  Although I do love tuna.  And halibut, and sole, and really good salmon.  Anywho.  This tilapia is wonderful, gently sauteed and coated with a bright, fresh-tasting sauce of citrus and herbs.  It was easy to make, too – bonus!  I’m definitely not going to wait for next Valentine’s Day to make this again.

Tilapia with Citrus Bagna Cauda

For the Bagna Cauda Sauce
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 anchovy fillet, minced (yum!)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon chiffonaded fresh basil (or chives)
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon orange zest

For the Fish
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tilapia fillets
salt and pepper

  • To make the bagna cauda sauce, combine the oil, butter, and anchovy fillets in a nonstick saute or fry pan and warm until the anchovy melts.  Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds, until fragrant.  Remove from heat and add the juice, herbs and zest.  Season to taste with salt and set aside.
  • Wipe out the fry pan with a paper towel and add additional olive oil.  Season the fish with salt and pepper and saute until just opaque and still tender – approximately 3 minutes per side.
  • Plate fish and dress with the bagna cauda sauce.
  • Optional – garnish with chives.

Yield: Serves 2.  I reduced the recipe, which originally served 6.  For the original proportions see…

Source: Adapted from Giada’s Family Dinners, by Giada de Laurentiis

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Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

I think this just may be my new favorite spaghetti sauce.  It is simple to make, inexpensive, tangy from the olives and capers, with a subtly spicy kick from the red pepper flakes.  Making puttanesca sauce from scratch is barely more effort than opening a jar of Prego, but it’s much tastier – not to mention, you control the quality of the ingredients and there are far fewer preservatives.  Plus, saying “spaghetti alla puttanesca” is fun.  Now, who can argue with that?

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, medium-diced
kosher salt
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced anchovy
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon oregano
1 can crushed San Marzano tomatoes in juice
1/4 cup green olives, sliced (substitute black olives)*
1 tablespoon non-pareil capers, rinsed
whole wheat spaghetti

  • In a heavy stockpot over medium-high heat, heat olive oil until shimmering, then add diced onion and season generously with kosher salt.  Stir frequently until onion is slightly caramelized, 12-15 minutes.
  • Add tomato paste, garlic, red pepper flakes and anchovy, and stir until anchovy has melted and garlic is golden, about 1 minute.  (Your kitchen now smells amazing, by the way.)
  • Boil water for spaghetti – I prefer whole wheat – and prepare spaghetti according to the package directions.
  • Add crushed tomatoes, oregano, olives and capers.  Stir to combine all ingredients, then turn heat down and allow sauce to simmer while pasta finishes cooking.
  • Divide pasta into bowls and top with sauce.  Add a sprinkle of extra oregano if desired and serve.  Couldn’t be easier!

Yield: Serves 2 for dinner, with leftovers.

Source: Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

*The original/traditional recipe calls for black olives, but I can’t stand them, so I substituted green.  Feel free to experiment with different olives, or go back to tradition if you actually like black olives.

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Roasted Halibut with Salsa

If you’re looking for ways to eat light-n-healthy in 2010, here’s a great tip: roast fish slathered in salsa.  I saw this trick on “Get Fresh with Sara Snow,” or “that hippie show,” as hubby likes to call it.  Fish is tricky to cook – you certainly don’t want it underdone, unless you’re serving sushi!  But in the effort to make sure that fish is cooked through, I (and probably many others) often end up with fish that’s so dry as to be virtually inedible.

Salsa is a great way to solve that conundrum and add some wonderful flavor and nutrients without many calories.  The salsa keeps the fish moist and flavors the fish throughout, while the fish still cooks through.  Now, in the interests of full disclosure, I made this dish with halibut steaks.  If you choose to use fillets, as I may very well do in the future – hubby isn’t a fan of bones in fish – you will want to adjust the cooking time downward, as the fillets will cook (and dry out) more quickly than most steaks.  I’d check fillets after 10 minutes, unlike these steaks, which I checked at 20 minutes and found they weren’t quite done.  This is a versatile recipe – not only can you substitute fillets for steaks, but you could substitute other types of fish as well.  I think this would be delicious with salmon or tilapia and would be a wonderful way to dress up cod as well.  That’s the best part about this recipe, in my book – for someone who loves salmon, like hubby does, or for someone who generally prefers white fish, like me (I like salmon too, but I’ve had so much of it since meeting the hubs that I’m starting to burn out)… it’s equally good.  No matter what kind of fish you choose to make, moist and flavorful are good characteristics.

Roasted Halibut with Salsa

2 halibut steaks (or fillets)
2 tablespoons store-bought salsa
kosher salt and black pepper

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Season halibut steaks with salt and pepper.  Spread salsa over steaks in an even layer.

  • Roast for 20-25 minutes, until cooked through (you can tell if the fish seems sturdy when you poke at it).

Source: Adapted from Sara Snow.

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Green Soup

Don’t be scared: this only looks like pond scum.  I promise you, it tastes much better.  (Not that I know what pond scum tastes like…)

I bought my copy of Anna Thomas’s Love Soup some months ago and simply haven’t had time to cook anything from it.  This is sad, and not a reflection on Anna at all – most of her recipes are very easy and tempting.  It’s just that my schedule has been so hectic that I feel like I’ve barely sat down since mid-October.  If nothing else, that fact alone means I’m crying out for some homemade soup, which in my book is about the most comforting, lovely food imaginable.  Of course, when I finally got the opportunity to make myself some soup, I found I had misplaced my copy of Love Soup.  (It’s probably in my den buried under the 36 bottles of wine that hubby and I bought in California.)  No worries, though – I knew exactly what kind of soup I wanted… green soup!  Anna touts her green soup – which is actually a whole category of pureed soups with some sort of dark leafy green – as a perfect post-holiday cure-all.  She’s not kidding.  I made this fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants version of Anna’s green soup, sans cookbook, and it was delicious – light but also warming, comforting, nutritious and tasty.  The perfect January food, in my opinion. 

Green Soup

2 Carnival squash, tops lopped off and seeds scooped out
extra-virgin olive oil
kosher salt and black pepper
1 shallot, minced
1 carton (4 cups) vegetable broth
1 bunch Swiss Chard, stems trimmed out and leaves julienned
2-3 cups water
salt and pepper for seasoning
2 tablespoons Ricotta cheese (optional)

  • Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  After preparing the Carnival squash (that just happened to be the variety I had laying around the kitchen, left over from a farmers market visit – but you can substitute any hard winter squash), dress them with a generous drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast squash for 45 minutes, then remove from oven to cool.
  • While squash is cooling, warm a glug of extra-virgin olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add the minced shallots and sprinkle with salt; stir occasionally until softened and slightly caramelized (about 5-8 minutes).
  • Trim the skin from the cooled Carnival squash and large-dice the squash flesh.  Add to the softened shallots and stir briefly.  Pour vegetable broth over squash and shallots and stir to deglaze the pot.  Add julienned Swiss Chard leaves and stir to combine.
  • Reduce heat to medium-low and cover pot.  Allow soup to cook for 30 minutes, until flavors meld and squash and greens are completely soft.  Turn off heat and process the soup in a blender or food processor, or in the pot with an immersion blender (my choice) if you have one.
  • Add water and cook soup on medium heat for another 10 minutes.  Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.  The soup is good as-is, but if you would like a little creaminess, stir in up to 2 tablespoons of Ricotta cheese.

Source: Adapted from Anna Thomas’s Love Soup.

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Warm Bean and Edamame Salad with Feta

I love January.  Does that make me weird?  I also love Mondays, for the same reason – because I love a fresh start.  I’m that annoyingly perky girl at the office on Mondays – the one who says things like “Big day!  Lots to do!” and drives everyone crazy with her enthusiastic list-making.  I just love that feeling of being revved up, motivated and ready to go.  And in January, I take it to extremes.  I’m all about the healthy eating and I’m the most over-zealous gym rat you’ll find.  I make the same resolutions that everyone else makes.  I always go into January with plans to: (1) get more organized; (2) run a half marathon; and (3) be all zen and peaceful and stuff.  I always have high hopes for the year ahead, and even if I miss the mark on some of my resolutions, I never stop believing that I can make positive changes.  And at the end of the year, even if I’ve fallen short in some areas, I’m usually so happy with the way things are going in my life that I really have no complaints.  I’m annoying that way too.

So for all of my brothers and sisters on the January motivation bandwagon, I have a belated holiday gift for you: warm bean and edamame salad with feta.  If you want to eat healthy, here’s a great place to start.  This salad is pure protein – creamy navy beans, crunchy edamame, and tangy feta cheese wrapped in a silky squeeze of lemon juice, a pinch of salt and a bit of pepper.  It’s filling, satisfying, packed with good stuff like vitamins and minerals – and it’s vegetarian too!  The recipe makes so much that you’ll be guaranteed bonus leftovers for your lunches… unless you invite your whole Pilates class home with you. 

Warm Bean and Edamame Salad with Feta

1 package frozen edamame beans, pre-shelled, thawed
1 can navy beans*, drained and rinsed
1/2 block Greek-style Feta in brine, cubed
1 lemon
pinch kosher salt
pinch black pepper
extra-virgin olive oil

  • In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, warm a drizzle of olive oil – just enough to coat the bottom of the pan, no more.  Add the edamame and navy beans and heat until warmed through.  Remove from heat.
  • Add juice of one lemon, Feta cubes, pinch of salt and pepper (not much salt, because the Feta is salty), and an additional drizzle of olive oil, then toss all together.

Source: Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

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Lentil and Vegetable Soup

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Organic French lentils, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots and kombu – what’s not to love?  I made a pot of this soup before going to the spa on Sunday, and it was the perfect dinner to come home to – after treating myself to a lovely massage, I continued to treat myself to a delicious, healthy dinner.  Now that’s what I call pampering!

Lentil Vegetable Soup

1 quart organic chicken or vegetable stock
1 quart water
1/2 cup French lentils
2 strips kombu (sea vegetable, available in the Asian aisle of your market)
3 carrots, sliced in thin rounds
1 zucchini, quartered and sliced
1/2 teaspoon kelp granules (optional)
kosher salt and fresh pepper
pinch of cumin, oregano and thyme
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

  • Bring water and stock to a boil in a large stockpot.  Add lentils and kombu strips (break them in half before adding them, to make them easier to eat) and cook on a low boil for 45 minutes, until lentils have begun to soften.
  • Add vegetables and season with kelp granules, salt and pepper, dried herbs and spices, and continue to cook until lentils have completely softened and the carrots and zucchini are cooked through as well, about 10-15 more minutes.  Stir in crushed tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes or so to allow the flavors to combine.

Source: Adapted from Sara Snow

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Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

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How’s this for a contradiction?  I love to bake, but I also value healthy eating.  Baked goods and healthy foods don’t always seem to go hand-in-hand.  Usually, I bake according to the principle that everyone needs a little indulgence (and you can always run it off), and I’ll have just one serving of whatever it is I bake and then give the rest away.  But I do like the challenge of taking baked goods and making them healthy… or at least healthier than they would otherwise be.   This weekend, I challenged myself to come up with a healthy alternative chocolate zucchini muffin.  I swapped out the all-purpose flour with white whole wheat and most of the sugar with agave nectar.  Just with those two steps, I incorporated whole grains and lowered the glycemic index of what would have otherwise been delicious, but pretty unhealthy, muffins.  They also have zucchini in them – obviously – so there’s a vegetable for ya.  And I cut the fat by substituting organic applesauce for butter.  You’d never know.  So there you have it – a delicious muffin recipe that’s heavy on the chocolate, light on the guilt.

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Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

2 eggs (preferably organic)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup blue agave nectar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups grated zucchini
2/3 cup organic applesauce
1/4 cup skim milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder (such as Green&Black’s Organic)
2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • In a large bowl, beat the eggs.  Add the sugar, agave nectar, vanilla extract and milk, and stir to combine.  Mix in the grated zucchini and the applesauce.  Sprinkle the salt and baking powder over the top, and stir that in too.
  • In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, and Chinese five-spice powder and whisk to combine.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches.  Stir until combined.  The batter will be thick, but if it gets too difficult to stir, add a bit more milk to loosen it up.
  • Prepare a muffin tin with liners, or spray it with a baking spray that contains flour (such as PAM for Baking).  Using an ice-cream scoop, fill the muffin wells until you run out of batter.
  • Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the top of one muffin comes out clean.  Allow to cool.

Yield: 12 muffins

Source: Loosely adapted from Simply Recipes