Healthy and satisfying. That's how I would describe this dish. It's easy and it has all the components, noodles, veggies, and meat. My husband loved this because he loves broccoli and he doesn't get it very often.
Buying frozen turkey meatballs and keeping them in the freezer makes it easy to whip up a quick meal on busy nights. I buy mine at either Trader Joe's or Mother's Market. Make sure they are all natural and don't contain and bunch of artificial ingredients.
I used soba noodles for this dish, which is buckwheat, but you could certainly use a whole wheat pasta.
Ingredients:
1 bunch broccoli rabe
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/3 cup Parmesan, freshly grated
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
3 garlic cloves
Salt and Pepper
1/3 olive oil
1 package turkey meatballs
1 lb Soba noodles
Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Blanch the broccoli rabe for a couple of minutes. Remove and drain well, reserving the water to cook the soba noodles. Chop coarsely and add to a food processor. To the processor add the pine nuts, Parmesan, red pepper flakes, garlic, salt and pepper, and pulse until it's a large mince. Add the olive oil and pulse for a second. I like to leave a little bit of chunk to the pesto and not blend it until smooth but you can make it however you like it.
In a large skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil. If you bought fully cooked meatballs heat through for a few minutes. If you bought raw, cook them according to package directions. Then add the pesto and heat through.
Meanwhile cook the soba noodles in the reserved pot of water according to the package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of the water. When the soba noodles are done add to the skillet and toss all ingredients together. If needed add a little of the reserved water to loosen up the sauce. Serve warm garnished with a little more grated Parmesan.
Focusing on nutrition means I'm constantly looking for ideas, especially for breakfast. I recently became addicted to black rice so making it for breakfast seemed like a great idea. I make this and have it in the refrigerator for several days. I simply take out a portion, heat it up, and it's ready to eat.
Black rice contains magnesium, iron, potassium, and zinc. It is packed with protein and is slow to release to help with energy. It is also high in amino acids and antioxidants. This is why it is thought to be helpful with fatigue.
1 cup black rice
1 can full fat coconut milk
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 vanilla bean, split
1 Tbsp maple syrup, or coconut palm sugar
1/3 cup coconut flakes, toasted
Almond milk to serve
Fresh fruit
Nuts
Rinse the rice well and drain.
In a medium saucepan combine and water, coconut milk, salt, vanilla bean and rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a very low simmer, with the lid ajar, and cook for 45 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked. Remove the vanilla bean. Add the maple syrup to combine. You could use coconut palm sugar in place of maple syrup.
Toast the coconut in the oven, or toaster oven, until only slightly brown. Add a sprinkling of it over the bowl of rice, pour on a little almond milk. I might also add some fresh fruit if I have it, like strawberries, and some nuts. I especially like pumpkin seeds.
If you want to bump it up some make some homemade almond milk for this. I recently tried it and gosh it was so good.
Madeleine's. Those cute little French cookies that are soft and fragrant and perfect with tea. I've always loved them but haven't spent much time perfecting the making of them. Until I decided to play around with Lavender. I bought food grade lavender one day and decided I was going to make these cookies and a lavender ice cream. I have yet to try the ice cream but it's on my to do list for this summer.
Now lavender can be tricky. It's rather strong to me so I would go easy on it in this recipe. If you absolutely love it however, feel free to let yourself go nuts. I buy lavender essential oil and use it in my bath, and on a heat wrap for my neck. It's also great for rubbing on the temples if you have a headache. But cooking with it seems a bit more risky.
Now I don't know about you but I don't keep lavender honey in my pantry so I had to make my own. I buy a good local honey from my local farmers market so I just added a small tsp of lavender to a tablespoon of honey. I let it sit in a bowl for a couple of days to, hopefully, extract more of the flavor. Depending on your lavender, you can crush it up very fine, which I would suggest so you don't get those bits in the finished product.
You will need a Madeleine pan for this recipe. You can find them at kitchen supply stores. I've had one for years because I always thought I would make these on a regular basis. Ha! Who was I kidding?
Ingredients:
9 Tbsp butter
4 large egg whites
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
6 Tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1 Tbsp lavender honey
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Butter and flour the pan. Tap out any excess flour.
Your almond flour needs to be fine. I usually buy almond meal because it is readily available to me but then I put it in my vitamix, or food processor, and grind it so that it is more of a flour. This will create a lighter cookie.
Melt the butter in a small skillet until it starts to turn brown, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites briefly then add the sugar, white flour, and almond flour and mix until smooth and well blended. Place the honey in the microwave and heat for 5 to 10 seconds then pour into the batter. Add the brown butter and beat to blend.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of the batter into each Madeleine mold.
Bake until tops are dry and tester comes out clean, about 13 minutes. Allow to cool 5 minutes in the pan, then tap out, and allow to cool completely. I have a pan that is larger than most so I filled mine with more batter and increased the baking time to 16 minutes.
Once they are completely cool you can dust them with powdered sugar.
To make additional cookies you will need to completely wash and dry the pan then butter and flour again. It's no fun when the cookies stick!
I have to say I don't make pasta much anymore but this one was calling my name. I try not to eat gluten very often so I made this with pasta made from quinoa. There are lots of options available these days so choose a pasta that works for your family.
Secondly anything made with winter squash interests me. Using it to make a sauce for pasta seemed like a healthy idea. This is creamy without cream, it's only squash and broth.
Prepare all your ingredients. Wash and chop everything so that you are ready to cook without interruption. This process is called mise en place. Its the process of organizing and arranging ingredients in the kitchen for the cook. Its much easier to cook a recipe when you have everything at ready, in front of you. I didn't always practice this, and I'd get in the middle of a recipe and then have to stop to chop something and it was much for difficult, and often frustrating, to get something prepared. Once I took cooking classes this was required and I quickly learned how beneficial it was, so now I do it every time. It saves time and my sanity in the kitchen. My husband is great at this. He's my sous chef and he's always up for what we call "slicing and dicing" to help get the ingredients ready.
Both kabocha and butternut squash are perfect for purees, they cook up soft and smooth, so choose the one you prefer or can find easily.
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 oz pancetta or bacon, chopped small
1 Tbsp fresh sage, finely minced
3 cups kabocha or butternut squash, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Sea Salt
Freshly cracked Pepper
2 cups chicken stock
12 ounces fettucine or linguine
1/4 cup pecorino, finely grated
Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet on medium high heat. Add the pancetta and cook until crisp. Add the sage and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon remove the pancetta from the skillet and set aside.
Add the squash and onion to the skillet, salt and pepper, and cook until slightly brown about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one minute more. Then add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and allow to cook and reduce about 15 to 20 minutes until the squash is soft. Allow to cool slightly, then puree. Add the puree back to the skillet and add in the pancetta back in. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Reserve one cup of pasta water. Add the pasta to the skillet with the squash, add a little pasta water at a time until you get a nicely coated pasta. Add the grated pecorino and toss well.
To serve, mound in a bowl or plate, grind a little freshly cracked pepper over it and slice a few pieces of pecorino on top using a vegetable peeler.
Note: I found that I had more squash then I needed so the next time I make this I might remove a little of the squash and keep it for another meal. This squash is very rich so you need to determine how much of it you want on your pasta. I prefer mine a little lighter, but you may like using it all so experiment.
This puree would also be good to use in a risotto or as a sauce for grilled foods.
