Edible Greens to go
with the Holiday Decorations
I know it is the time to deck the halls and fill our homes
with living greenery. Though they smell and look great, these are not good to
eat. I would like to discuss some edible
greens today. These might be ones that
grow where it is still warm, where folks mean it when they sing of a white
Christmas. For those of us who actually
live with the white stuff, however, we must either pick our greens from our
storage bins, or head to the store. Fresh
is good, but frozen is also fine. Foods
that are frozen at the store were picked at the height of their goodness and
then quickly frozen to lock in the nutrients.
They may actually have more nutrition than the fresh veggies that
traveled for several days to get to your store.
The rule generally is, “The darker the green, the more
concentrated the vitamins,” but not always.
For instance, celery is chock full of vitamins and minerals. Cabbage too has antioxidants and other goodies
for our bodies. It is a good source of
fiber, folate, and Vitamin K. Kale and
Spinach are great sources for Vitamins A, C and K, and folate as well as
calcium and magnesium.
A good way to prepare these vegetables is to make
coleslaw. Chop up the cabbage, carrots
and greens finely. Mix a healthy
dressing and pour it over the vegetables and enjoy. Here are two recipes that are easy to make
and delicious to eat.
The first recipe is as basic as coleslaw can be. The second one is fancier, but still easy to
make. I was specifically asked to bring it to our Thanksgiving meal. The beautiful thing about these recipes is
that there isn’t a need for a high-fat creamy dressing. Try these this winter to add some crunch to
your meal.
Cranberry Walnut Coleslaw
(from the Cooking Matters cookbook)
Ingredients:
1 pound of
cabbage, either green or purple
3 medium
carrots
1 cup
walnuts
1/3 cup
cider vinegar
¼ cup
vegetable oil
1 TBSP
sugar
1 tsp.
celery seed
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup dried
cranberries or Craisins
Directions:
Rinse and
thinly slice cabbage. Rinse, peel and
grate or thinly slice carrots.
Chop
walnuts
In a large
bowl, whisk together cider vinegar, oil, sugar, celery seed and salt.
Add
other ingredients and mix well. Serve
immediately or up to 1 day later.
Cashew-Spinach
Coleslaw
Ingredients:
1 (16 oz.)
coleslaw or broccoli slaw mix (this is an easy way to get broccoli in people who
claim not to like it)
3-4 oz.
fresh spinach leaves or baby kale
2 carrots
cut into skinny carrot sticks, about 3 inches long
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp
ground ginger
¼ tsp salt
(optional)
¼ tsp
ground black pepper
¼ cup rice
vinegar
3 tbsp
roasted or toasted sesame oil
3 tbsp soy
sauce*
¾ cup
roasted cashews or almonds
¼ cup raw
sunflower seeds
* For those who cannot eat gluten, in place of soy sauce,
use tamari. It is gluten-free and can be
found in the Asian department of most supermarkets.
Directions:
1.
Empty the package into a large mixing bowl or
ziplock bag.
2.
Remove thick stems from spinach. Roll a handful of spinach leaves into a tight
mound on cutting surface. Chop the
spinach/kaleinto thin strips and add it to the coleslaw mix. Continue until all of the spinach/kale is
thinly sliced, or shredded.
3.
In another jar, mix the sugar, ginger, salt,
pepper, vinegar, oil and soy sauce.
Whisk to mix thoroughly.
4.
Pour the dressing over the salad and allow the
flavors to mingle and mellow for at least an hour. This can even be made a day in advance.
5.
Just before serving, add nuts and seeds and toss
to combine.
It's time to
learn some French!
As Mom talks
about coleslaw, I will be talking about some of the knife cuts used in the
components.
First we have
what is called Chiffinade. To make
this knife cut, you need a leaf of some kind, like kale. You then will roll
this up from tip to tail so that it looks like a sushi roll. You will then take
your chef’s knife and make very small cuts running from one end to the other of
this roll. You will know when you got it right when after it’s unrolled, it
becomes a series of strips.
The other main
knife cut is called a Fine Julianne.
This cut looks like a pretzel stick when done. What one does is they take the
carrot, first peeling and cutting both ends off. Then cut it into sections about 2inches long.
Next, you take your knife and cut the
carrot section into planks about 1/4 inch thick. A good way to get this size every
time is to use a mandolin. After the carrot is in planks, stack 3-4 planks high
and make a cut lengthwise 1/4inch wide. There is your Julianne, also known as
skinny carrot sticks.
Happy holidays to everyone!
Viki and Devin
