Category Archives: Nourishing, Fast, Fresh Recipes

Chicken and Mushroom Saute with Marsala Cream Sauce

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This sauce is more silk than velvet, which works beautifully with any type of mushroom, from cremini to morels.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast (1/2 a breast), cut into 1-inch cubes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
1 pound mushrooms (your choice!), sliced
3 thyme sprigs
1/4 cup dry Marsala wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons heavy cream

In a large saute pan, heat 2 teaspoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and chicken to pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and saute 3-4 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer to a bowl (make sure to get all the garlic out or it will burn in the next stage).

Return pan to heat and warm the rest of the olive oil (4 teaspoons). Add shallots, mushrooms, thyme sprigs and another sprinkle of salt and pepper and toss to coat with oil. Cook for 10-12 minutes, turning often, until mushrooms are soft and slightly gilded.

Pour Marsala into pan and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom. Let cook for 2 minutes or so, until all the liquid has burned off. Add chicken and garlic back to the pan. Pour in chicken stock and bring to a boil for 3 minutes to thicken a bit. Pour in cream and give everything a stir. Bring to a gentle boil for 3-4 minutes, until the sauce has thickened enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon.

Remove thyme sprigs and serve.

Carla Hall’s Spicy Carrot and Ginger Soup

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This carrot and ginger soup recipe demonstrates “Top Chef” contestant and cohost of “The Chew” Carla Hall’s deft touch with nourishing ingredients. It’s also the type of healthy everyday food she favors that leaves room for some well-chosen indulgences. She uses herbal tea bags as bouquet garni to infuse flavor and silken tofu instead of heavy cream to give this carrot soup body. Unsweetened carrot juice underscores the flavor of the fresh carrots while coconut water adds a subtle tropical note. “Using vegetable and fruit juices in addition to or in place of stock is another way to add layers of flavor,” says Hall.

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Chocolate Amaranth Pudding

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As we’ve noted before, amaranth has a gelatinous quality that makes it ideal for pudding. If you’re fan of rice pudding or tapioca, you’ll probably like this, too. Our version is spiced with a little ancho chile powder and ground cinnamon, and sweetened with coconut sugar. You can cook the amaranth in unsweetened coconut milk beverage found in the refrigerated section of health food stores (rather than the thicker, richer canned coconut milk you’d use in our Spring Vegetable Curry), or use almond milk if you prefer less pronounced coconut flavor.
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Devilish Egg Salad

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My husband claims to not be very fond of egg salad . . . but he loves deviled eggs. I, on the other hand, can’t be bothered with filling those fragile egg white shells. So this egg salad recipe is my compromise. It tastes like spicy deviled eggs (with a little added heft from minced celery), but it’s a much easier way to use up those Easter eggs. Heaven.

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Halibut “Burgers” with Minted Napa Cabbage Slaw

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This halbut burger recipe, adapted from Jill Silverman Hough‘s book 100 Perfect Pairings: Main Dishes to Enjoy with Wines You Love (Wiley), is simple way to showcase halibut, which is in season in spring and summer. Wild-caught Alaskan halibut is the most sustainable choice. “Napa cabbate has a juiciness, a refreshing crunch that regular cabbage doesn’t–which helps the slaw nicely complement a similarly light and refreshing piece of fish,” says Hough. She recommends opening a bottle of Pinot Grigio to serve with this burger. It will also work well with Chardonnay, especially if you spread some mayonnaise on the buns or boost the amount of blue cheese in the slaw. “Oh both!” says Hough. This dish is great for warm-weather entertaining because you can do much of the prep work in advance and then it comes together in no time.

halibut-burgers-napa-cabbage-slaw

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Dayna’s Matzo Ball Soup

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Dayna Macy includes this matzo ball soup recipe, which she makes for Seder every Passover, in the “Feast” chapter of her book Ravenous: A Food Lover’s Journey from Obsession to Freedom (Hay House). “The one ‘Berkeley’ thing I added was a piece of kombu to the stock to give it some minerals,” says Macy. “If you’re not serving it during Passover, feel free to add 1/2 pound of your favorite cooked pasta,” she adds.

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Clams with Bacon and Garlicky Spinach

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Clams and bacon have quite an affinity for one another. Take time to get the bacon nice and crispy and the onions nice and brown (you’ll need a heavy-bottomed pan for this so they don’t burn). Their flavor will infuse the whole dish.

clams-with-bacon-and-spinach

1 pound spinach
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon, plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Juice of 1/2 lemon
4 slices bacon, sliced crosswise into slivers
1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 cup white wine
3 pounds clams, scrubbed
freshly ground black pepper

Wilt the spinach in a wide, covered sauté pan over medium heat, for about 4 minutes, and pour off liquid. Remove spinach from pan, turn up heat and let any remaining liquid burn off. Swirl in 1 tablespoon olive oil and add the garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes, until golden. Add spinach back to pan and sauté for another 2 minutes, until completely wilted. Turn into a serving bowl and squeeze lemon juice over top. Remove spinach from pan; set aside.

Wipe out pan, reduce heat to medium and add bacon and onion. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until bacon is well-browned, about 10-12 minutes. Turn heat to medium-high, add thyme and white wine, and deglaze pan. Bring to a boil and let wine reduce to about half, about 4 minutes.

Add clams and reduce heat once again to medium. Cover and let simmer for 6-8 minutes, until clams are opened. Drizzle 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle black pepper over top.

To serve, place a bed of spinach in each of four wide bowls. Top with clams and broth.

Serves 4

 

Roasted Asparagus with Miso, Honey and Lime Zest

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I deliberately left the dressing for this roasted asparagus super light so that nothing, with the exception of the cayenne, would tug your tastebuds too far away from the asparagus itself. The result is bright and zingy; it also pops asparagus out of the Mediterranean profile so you can serve it with Asian-leaning dishes. If you can get your hands on an unfiltered peanut oil, like Spectrum Organic’s, you’ll gain even more flavor.

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Long-Rise Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

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Whole wheat pizza dough can be heavy, but we’ve found that using a combination of flours and a long rise gives the yeast plenty of time lighten the texture. This no-knead method is based on Penni Wisner’s no-knead bread. You can double this pizza dough recipe and freeze the extra to make pizza another time (thaw the frozen dough in the refrigerator overnight).

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Yum-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

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Alison and I got to talking about chicken the other day and were reminiscing how, when she was my editor at Cooking Light, readers couldn’t get enough of stuffed chicken breasts. And then we remembered why. They’re moist and tasty, quite elegant-looking, and cook faster than you’d think. Because they’re “beefed up” by the stuffing, you can easily serve four with only two breast halves.

mushroom-prosciutto-cheese-stuffed-chicken-breasts2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped shallot
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 sprigs thyme
1/4 cup white wine
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 slices Swiss or ementaller cheese, each sliced in half
4 thin slices prosciutto
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat and swirl in 1 tablespoon oil. Add mushrooms, shallot, garlic and thyme, and saute 5 minutes or until mushrooms are golden brown. Pour wine into pan and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom. Cook 2 minutes or until liquid has evaporated. Stir in lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, remove thyme stems and transfer mushrooms to a bowl. Wipe out the pan.

Holding a sharp knife parallel to the cutting board and starting from the thick side of a chicken breast half, slice the chicken horizontally right down the middle so that it opens like a book (I like to “open” the flap about halfway in and then carefully continue slicing towards the center until the breast lays flat). Give the thick edges a few hits with your palm to flatten them out to an equal height (don’t worry, the chicken won’t bite–just wash your hands afterwards). When you’re done, you should have a fat, heart-shaped chicken breast half at a uniform thickness of about an inch. Repeat with the other chicken breast half.

Layer the cheese and then the prosciutto evenly on top of the chicken breasts. Mound half of the mushrooms on one side of a chicken breast and press the mound down gently with your hand. Fold the other side over the mushrooms and push two wooden toothpicks through the far edges to help keep them together. Repeat with the other breast. Lightly salt and pepper both sides.

Heat the skillet once again over medium-high heat and swirl in the remaining olive oil. Carefully place chicken breasts in pan. Cook for 3 minutes on one side, then turn (keep the seam side down in the pan so the stuffing doesn’t fall out–tongs work great) and cook 3 minutes on the other. Pour chicken broth into pan, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook for another 6 minutes, or until chicken is cooked all the way through.

To serve, transfer chicken to a cutting board with tongs and cut each breast in half. Turn up the heat on the pan and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom. Place one portion of chicken on each plate and drizzle with pan sauce.

Serves 4