As you probably already know, we really love our veggies. While we have days of quick dinners, and grab and go veggie snacks we also love taking time to play with them in the kitchen. Here's some feasting we've enjoyed lately while busy staying at home and eating local this winter ;) Sourdough tempura, Garlic mashed potatoes, Beet ravioli, and Napa Salads both Canadian and Mediterranean Styles.
Sourdough tempura: Whether you love the tang of sourdough and have some leftover starter, or are getting around a gluten intolerance, we've recently discovered that you can make a sourdough tempura! By mixing an egg into a about a half cup/125mL/125g you can create a lovely tempura batter. It can be thinned further with water, but you loose some crunch. Drop into hot oil and cook till the veggies are done, we like sweet potato 3-5mm slices cooked for 5-8 minutes till golden. Don't have sourdough? You can use an egg, 1/3c water and 1/3c of ice cold water to do the same trick, minus the sour ;)
Garlic mashed potatoes... a classic satisfying warmth, we boil a pound of potatoes. Meanwhile, we mince 2 or 3 cloves of garlic and a shallot (about 2T of shallot) then sauté in 1-2 Tablespoons of butter. Once potatoes are soft, we drain and return to pot to mash with the sautéed goodies. Perfect for plating under a salmon, steak or tempeh.
Beet ravioli: Originally recommended to us by a CSA customer years ago (thank you Melissa!) we're still enjoying these. Slice beets as thin as you can (mandolin ideally) and steam. Once soft and cooked, you can tuck anything in between them. Best plated right onto the serving plates, these are assembled then enjoyed (no further cooking). Leave space around the edges for the beet slices to seal, and top with a sauce if you like. A favourite filling we tried recently was sautéed shallots with parmesan, finely chopped garlic, greens, onion or shallots, oregano, and parmesan with a herbed tomato sauce reduction on top.
Napa Salads While Napa typically inspires Asian salads, we've gone Mediterranean and Canadian too! Just pick your favourite flavours, try to add a few different textures and have fun it's a very versatile veggie. Our favourite Canadian salad dressing is olive oil, apple cider vinegar, tarragon, salt and pepper with chopped Napa, toasted sunflower seeds, golden raisins, royal gala apple, and grated carrot. The Mediterranean variation is a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, mint, mustard, salt and pepper with chopped Napa, toasted walnuts, crumbled Feta, chopped olives, and grated kohlrabi. Red onion if you like it, and croutons make me happy whenever I get to make them, so throw some on if you like them too!
