Acorn squash skins are quite leathery and the cooked flesh will pop out of it as you cut the wedges. Use a butter knife to help separate the skin and flesh if needed. This combo of winter squash, hearty wheat berries, toasted walnuts and blue cheese is the essence of fall. Soaking the wheat berries overnight is smart trick to help slash the cooking time in half. It’s the same principle as soaking dried beans.
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Strangely enough, peanuts and sweet potatoes make a great pair. Between the warm fall hues of this sweet potato soup and the crisp, bright flavors of the Fennel-Apple Salad accompanying it (get the recipe in the Nourish Weekly Menus archive), this meal is truly a feast for the senses.
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I fell in love with this simple, stunning Melone e Limone (Melon and Lemon) appetizer at our friends’ wedding recently. The peeps behind the awesome SCOPA restaurant here in Healdsburg, CA, had cut fragrant, peak-of-season melone (that’s Italian for melon) into tiny (perfect) cubes, tossed them with lemon juice and served them mini skewers with a sprinkle of sea salt as an hors d’oeuvre. I’ve made several more rustic versions since; this is my favorite. It also makes me smile because my daughter, Noemi, still mixes up the words ‘lemon’ and ‘melon’ … so this easy side dish spares her the riddle. So, pick up some fresh melone, and enjoy!
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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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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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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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Several things conspired to make this lentil soup–an overabundance of bacon in the fridge, some leftover juniper berries and a yen for soup on the chilly evening. Lentils and pork are a classic combination, and after consulting Niki Segnit’s The Flavor Thesaurus, I found that juniper berries (which I don’t use often) also have an affinity with pork. Deglazing the pan with a splash of sherry deepens the flavor while the juniper berries lend a bright counterpoint.
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This simple dish is based on a winter salad served at London’s Bocca di Lupo and featuring celeriac (celery root) as the star ingredient. Get out your mandolin or Japanese slicer to shave the veggies and cheese, or use a very sharp knife to cut them paper-thin. If you don’t have white truffle oil on hand, substitute your best, most flavorful olive oil. The salad will taste just as fresh, if not quite as earthy.
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This spin on classic chicken noodle soup is somewhat of an imagined amalgamation of my favorite Asian soups: the star anise-laced Hanoi beef noodle soup and Chinese wonton soup. The flavors bring both comfort and cold-fighting compounds to bring serious “ahhhh” to flu season. To serve, you’ll put paper-thin slices in bowls and top with the flavorful broth. The piping-hot broth will cook the chicken by the time it reaches the table.
2 unpeeled onions, halved and studded with 3 cloves apiece
5 large cloves garlic, unpeeled
7 pounds beef bones
3 pounds chicken carcasses
6 quarts cold water
2 carrots, chopped into 3 pieces each
8 whole star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 (1-inch) pieces of ginger, bruised with the heel of your knife
5 dried Asian red chiles
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup fish sauce
6 ounces rice vermicelli, cooked 3 minutes in boiling water and drained
2 chicken breast halves, cut into paper thin slices across the grain (freeze for 20 minutes to make slicing easier)
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 cup green onion, thinly sliced
1 lime, cut into 8 wedges
Char the onions and garlic in a large stockpot over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes, until well-colored but not burnt. Add the beef bones, chicken carcasses and water, and bring to a boil. Skim off the foam, gray crud and fat as they rise to the surface. Boil for 45 minutes to an hour, or until there isn’t much foam being produced any longer.
Add carrots, star anise, cinnamon, ginger, chiles and salt. Lower heat so the broth gurgles a few times each second. Let the broth cook at this low heat overnight or for an least 8 hours.
Skim broth one more time and strain through a fine mesh strainer (a Chinois or “China cap”) or a colander lined with cheesecloth. Stir in fish sauce. Rinse out the pot, return the broth to the pot, and bring back to a boil before serving.
To serve, divide vermicelli, chicken breast, cilantro and green onion between 8 large bowls. Ladle broth into each and finish with a squeeze of lime.
Serves 8
It’s amazing what you can pull together when you’ve spent time creating tasty basics. Slow-cooked duck legs with fall-off-the-bone meat can live in the freezer until you’re ready for them, and lentils come together in a flash and can keep nearly all week. The result? One nourishing entree in the form of a fresh frisee salad.
2 Revelationary Duck Confit legs
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 heads frisée, torn
1/4 cup Mustard-Shallot Vinaigrette
2 cups All-Purpose French Lentils
Place duck legs in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat and crisp on all sides, about 8 minutes total. Remove to a cutting board, pull meat from bone and shred. Add onion to pan and sauté for 5 minutes, until golden brown.
In the meantime, toss the frisée with the vinaigrette and mound into 4 bowls. Scatter evenly with lentils, onions and duck, and serve.
Serves 4
