Traced Elements

Category: recipes

  • Nidhi Raina’s Kushari Crowd Pleaser

    Nidhi Raina’s Kushari Crowd Pleaser

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    Kushari is a vegan Egyptian dish originally made in the 19th century. Influenced by Indian cuisine such as khichdi (lentils and rice) and Italian macaroni, kushari was sold on food carts, and evolved to a restaurant staple. It’s honest worker–food and is still served in roadside stalls and restaurants all over Egypt. This is Nidha Raina’s version. 

    Ingredients:

    2 large yellow onions sliced
    1 cup brown lentils
    1 cup brown rice
    1 tsp ground cumin
    1/2 cup olive oil
    6 small cloves garlic
    1 tsp roasted cumin
    1 tsp salt
    1/2 tsp cayenne
    2 Tbsp vinegar
    1 cup tomato 🍅 sauce
    1 medium chopped tomato
    Mint 🍃 to garnish
    Method:
    1. Cook lentils in water with half tsp of salt..  Simmer till it’s tender on medium low heat.
    2. Cook the brown rice in two cups of water and a pinch of salt on medium heat till all the water is absorbed.
    3. Crisp fry the sliced onions in 1-2 tbsp oil in a 🍳 and set aside when done.
    4. Prepare sauce in a saucepan on medium low heat.  Heat 2-3 tbsp oil and add garlic, cumin, salt and cayenne followed by vinegar. Add the tomato 🍅 sauce and cook on low heat for ten minutes. Add 1/4 cup water 💦 to thin the sauce if needed.
    5. To serve, place the rice on a small platter.  Top with lentils and garnish with onions, freshly chopped 🍅 and fresh mint. Serve the sauce warm on the side.
    Serves 2-4 small portions
    This recipe is even better as a leftover. To add more levels chop kale, spinach, or sliced mushrooms and enjoy it next day! This recipe originated in Egypt 🇪🇬 and I find versions of this in both east and west!
  • Pemberton (by Way of India) Curry – 3 Ways:

    Pemberton (by Way of India) Curry – 3 Ways:

    If I ever write a cookbook it will be called Why the Heck Not? Culinary Adventures Without Leaving Home.

    I am an improviser, both in cooking and baking. Sometimes the results are forgettable, but sometimes everything works. This curry worked. It was a matter of getting “rid” of odds and ends in the freezer and using up odds and ends in the fridge. Curry, like soup, is a good destination for those odds and ends. I will endeavor to contribute recipes to Traced Elements that call for ingredients that come from Pemberton – or can be grown in Pemberton. This curry is a winner: Pemberton Russet potatoes, Pemberton asparagus, parsley, and tomatoes, Pemberton-raised chicken and chicken broth.

    The three ways part is this: the curry can be served over a bed of rice or quinoa. However, if it is simmered down, it can be a samosa filling (samosa dough recipe and samosa-assembling and baking method is courtesy of Shelley Adams’ awesome first cookbook Whitewater Cooks).

    Then finally, because I love soup, this curry can become a warm and satisfying one. I do not own a microwave, so leftovers are much easier to heat, eat, and enjoy if you just add a cup or two (or more) of chicken broth to them.

    Versatile Pemberton Chicken Curry with Asparagus and Tomato:

    Ingredients:

    3 cups Pemberton-raised cooked and diced chicken breast or thigh meat*

    2 cups sliced Pemberton-grown green gage plums (pits removed)*

    1 large yellow onion, diced

    2 tbs olive oil

    2 cloves Pemberton-grown garlic

    2 large Pemberton-grown russet potatoes, baked, cooled, peeled, and diced*

    1 large Pemberton or Lillooet-grown beefsteak tomato, diced*

    2-3 cups Pemberton-grown asparagus, cooked and diced*

    1 cup minced parsley

    2 tsp salt

    2 tsp pepper

    2 tsp curry powder

    2 tsp cumin

    1 can full-fat coconut milk

    3 tbs gluten-free soy sauce

    2 cups low/no sodium chicken broth*

    *Indicates this ingredient came directly out of my freezer.

    Method:

    Use a large heavy-bottomed stainless steel soup pot or a cast iron stew pot. Add 2 tbs olive oil and warm up on medium-low heat. Add diced onion and minced garlic. Let it cook slowly on low-medium heat so the onion caramelises. Do not rush this part. When the onion and garlic mixture is golden brown, turn the heat to medium, and add your diced chicken, sliced green-gage plums, diced tomato, parsley, asparagus, and potato. Let it sauté around so the flavours mingle and cook. Then add your cumin, curry powder, salt, pepper, and soy sauce. Sauté a few minutes more. Finally, add your coconut milk and 2 cups chicken broth. Let it simmer 10 minutes.

    **If you are making samosas, let the mixture simmer until there is not too much liquid as that will make the samosas too watery and will not stay formed. At the same time, you don’t want your curry mixture too dry either. Just remember your curry mixture will be encased in raw dough and baked so you don’t want the curry mixture to soak through.

    If you are making curry you are almost done. Cook a pot of basmati rice or quinoa and pour your curry over it. You may want to garnish with a chutney and papadum! I would like to make my own chutney but for now it is Major Grey’s from the supermarket.

    And if you are making soup, you will want to add 2 to 6 cups more chicken broth, depending on how thick you like your soup.

    Samosas (Yields 12):

    Samosa dough ingredients (adapted from Shelley Adams’ Whitewater Cooks – her first cookbook)

    3 cups spelt flour

    ½ tsp salt

    ½ tsp baking powder

    ¼ tsp turmeric

    ¼ tsp paprika

    2/3 cup cold butter cubed (for those of you who like to measure ingredients on a kitchen scale, that works out to be 152 grams)

    2/3 cup cold water

    1 egg, beaten

    Method:

    To make dough:

    Place all dry ingredients in food processor and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles sand granules. Then slowly add enough water until the dough comes together (you may not need all the water). Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

    To assemble samosas:

    Roll out dough on a piece of parchment paper until quite thin. You will need extra spelt flour to sprinkle so your dough doesn’t stick to your rolling pin. You don’t want thick dough or else your samosas will be too heavy and stodgy. Cut out portions of dough using the lid of a sour cream container (about 4 inches in diameter). Remove your circle and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Place a scant ¼ cup of your curry mixture in the centre of your dough circle and fold the circle in half, making a half-moon. Crimp your edges. Do this with the remainder of the dough and curry. Makes about a dozen. Then brush all your samosas with an egg wash using a pastry brush. You will likely have curry mixture left over, and you can freeze that for future meals, as long as your chicken was not previously frozen.

    Bake your samosas in a 350F oven for 30 minutes. Serve with chutney.

     

  • Southern Style

    Southern Style

     

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    For those who do not know me, my name is Raven. I own a little bakery in one of the greatest mountain towns ever, Pemberton in British Columbia. I have a deep love for gluten, wheat, and all that it brings to my life. Today initially I wanted to write on a traditional favourite from where I grew up in the Southern Appalachian mountains, cast iron skillet cornbread. But as I sifted through this wheat-lover’s cupboards I found I had all the ingredients except my beloved wheat flour. What was I to do? With complete reluctance to change my topic, I let my topic change me.  Because for some reason there was, in the deep lost corners of my cabinet, a small bag of Gluten Free Flour.

    One of the very real and important things I want to say about my love for cornbread is that it comes to me with a remembrance of home, of the Appalachian mountain culture and all that I hope to share with you over time.

    It is important to me that food represent something more than nutrients. It is, as Elizabeth David said, and this is a very loose quote to be sure…

    “every bite we eat is not just food, it’s our culture, our history, our memories of ourselves, of our families, of times when we were particularly happy.”

    So today, I created for myself a new memory.  I hope you too, as you cook for yourself, your family and friends, find the time to honor and create memories of food filled with life and memories.

    So I now give to you my recipe for Gluten Free Skillet Corn Bread.

    1. The most important step is get a cornbread skillet.  Like this one that my mom gave to me when I first settled down. It’s of great value but not of the  monetary kind, and is only as good as the time you put into it, the “seasoning.”IMG_6626
    2. Gather all your ingredients, as organic as you can afford and as local as it can be.
    3. Next, turn on your oven to 425 degrees F.  Then put your cast iron skillet onto the your stove top on med low heat.
    4. Add 1/4 cup of a high heat tolerant oil.  I prefer grapeseed,  but please just no olive oil. While your oil is warming —
    5. Grab a med mixing bowl, whisk, spatula, and a measuring cup.
    6. Then, add into your bowl, 1 cup of buttermilk, 3 large eggs, 3 tablespoons of organic sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, 1 tablespoon of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of baking soda and whisk it up.
    7. Note: after many years of cooking I do not mix my dry ingredients all together.  If you have that compulsion, it is ok.
    8.  Now add 2 cups of stoneground yellow organic corn meal, followed my 1 1/2 cups of my favourite wheat flour replacement Cup4Cup.  I do believe in this product and it is an amazing.
    9. Whisk it all together to make a batter…now add 3/4’s of that what-should-now-be-very-warm oil from your skillet and mix in.
    10. Take your spatula and pour the batter into your hot skillet.  The idea is that we are doing two things — frying it a tiny bit, as we love to do in ol’ Dixie, but we are also keeping your cornbread from sticking.
    11. For 4-5 mins let it cook on the stovetop, then put it into the oven until its done.  How long’s that you ask? At least 30 minutes, but it depends on your oven. Just until you stick a knife into it and it comes clean.
    12.  Your cornbread finally is done when you flip it out of the pan in awe and admiration that it actually did not stick to the pan.
    13. How do you eat it? With butter. Lots of butter! Who am I kidding?!  Gluten free, maybe, but without butter what do we have?

    r-xx

  • Eggs and the place we call home

    Eggs and the place we call home

    1. The best eggs I’ve ever eaten were done over easy, and served on crusty toasted hazelnut and currant bread that was smothered with melted butter and peanut butter. A strict vegetarian, I hadn’t eaten eggs for years, but started craving them while pregnant with my first son. This decadent breakfast, repeated many times through the pregnancy felt so nourishingly good. My son, Isaac, was born a huge, healthy baby (it must have been the eggs) at home in Victoria on a rainy day in May. The next day my potato plants were a foot taller. My son’s father might have been hard to live with, but he was an amazing gardener and grew a jungle of food and flowers in our backyard.
    2. My friend “Chicken Jen” (who lived down the road from me in Sooke) turned a residential lot into a productive and wild vegetable and herb garden in less than three months, with the help of  home-made portable PVC dome chicken coops. The chickens removed sod, and aerated and fertilized the soil in each successive round bed that she planted, and her “ladies” gave her surplus eggs to sell. Her vision for her abundant garden, created while her kids were only two and four, still astounds me. 13 years later, the nickname Chicken Jen has stuck.
    3. I moved from the island to Whistler with Isaac and my new partner. I was pregnant again. Our access to food and gardens dried up in the mountain resort. Sure, we could get good local food at the farmers’ market, but we didn’t know the farmers. We no longer hacked down chard from our front yard, or picked brambly blackberries, or gardened for 10 months out of the year. We missed eating farm fresh local eggs.
    4. After seven years in Whistler, our growing brood (I’d had one more child) moved to Pemberton. We bought our first home, got a dog and planted a garden. On one of my first rides around town, I discovered the egg box on Urdal Road and I knew we were home. We traded zucchini, cucumber and greens from our first lush, wild backyard garden for composted manure from our neighbour’s farm and for heirloom eggs in every colour.. Having access to real food right where we live, and knowing where it comes from is a big deal. It’s something we love about living here and it’s not something we take for granted.
    5. Let’s play local food Jeopardy. The answer is: Bog’s, the Wag’n’Wash, the Animal Barn, AC Gas, Stay Wild, the Owl’s Nest, Mile One, Collins Cross, the egg box on Urdal, the farmer’s market, Brooke and Kevin’s place, and Pemberton Valley Wellness. The business names themselves reveal  the flavour of this funky little town. The question: Where can you buy local eggs in Pemberton?
    6. The secret: Everyone has their own source. If you don’t time it right on delivery days, you could be cruising around town, visiting all of these locations without realizing they’re part of a hyperlocal egg market. Alternatively, you might well disappoint your family by coming home empty-handed. Sorry, kids, no pancakes this morning.
    7. You’ll be late, too, because you’ll have talked to friends and neighbours all over town. During our first couple of months in Pemberton, I would frustrate my partner every time I biked to the store to get milk for his coffee. My 15-minute round trip would invariably take an hour or more, slowed by the pull of  my grocery store conversations.
    8. Eggs are a window into the local food system in Pemberton. Local food is grown in abundance by experts and amateurs throughout the valley—but you need to know where to go to get it. And to find out where to get it, you need to talk to people. That’s the fun part. If they made it easier, something would be lost.
    9. We have a great farmer’s market and some awesome local businesses and CSA programs to get the straight goods right from the source. But you can also find your eggs or fresh basil or seed garlic on the Pemberton Food and Farm Facebook page, a matchmaking service for people looking to buy or sell food, seeds, plants or other random farm and garden stuff. Looking for a Thanksgiving turkey, alpaca wool, goats or egg cartons? Selling tomato starts, plums, bushels of basil? The source or recipient are only a couple of messages away.
    10. Farming and backyard growing in Pemberton is surprisingly untrendy. People just raise food and grow stuff here because they can, or because they love to, and it just makes sense. Keeping backyard chickens isn’t new, and while I’m tempted sometimes to imagine myself as more of a homesteader than I actually am, I don’t think I have the heart to deal with bear proofing and the collateral damage when raccoons or cougars or coyotes get into the coops. I barely have the heart to steal eggs from aggressive chickens.
    11. Every egg carton has a story. One of our local egg suppliers sells her daughter’s eggs and tracks the cartons to see if they get returned to her shop. One of the farmers at the market in the summer said new cartons cost more than twenty cents apiece—that puts a serious dent in his egg profits. Farmers don’t become farmers to get rich. But what is shared and supplied and circulated in this community is rich. It’s the soil, the place, the creatures, the stories.
    12. Eggs have been one of the nutritional threads in raising my kids—one of the first meals they could cook for themselves—one of the nutrient dense meals I’ve eaten through pregnancies, breastfeeding and birth. One of the food sources that connects us to the place where we live.
    13. My baker’s dozen. I’m lucky if there are eggs in my house or it’s back to part 5 of this story.  My favourite homegrown breakfast:

    11 o’clock braised greens & eggs

    INGREDIENTS

    • A few giant handfuls of greens from the garden (kale, chard, spinach, collard or beet greens)
    • A few cloves of garlic (homegrown if you can), peeled
    • Coconut oil
    • A couple of eggs
    • Flax oil
    • Condiments (homemade kimchi, sauerkraut or hot sauce & Bragg’s)
    • Ground flax seed
    • Leftover brown rice (optional)

    INSTRUCTIONS

    • Wash greens and tear into large pieces.
    • Wilt greens and simmer garlic with a splash of water in a pan with a lid.
    • Add a small amount of coconut oil to the pan.
    • Add a couple of eggs and fry them up in the same pan.
    • Serve eggs and your pile’o’greens with hot sauce, Bragg’s, flax oil, flax seed, and homemade kimchi or sauerkraut (*recipes for vegan kimchi and sauerkraut to follow in future posts).
    • Add a scoop of warm leftover brown rice, if you have some.
    • Eat with thanks. Be nourished.
  • For the love of baking: Zoe Martin shares a cranberry orange scone recipe

    For the love of baking: Zoe Martin shares a cranberry orange scone recipe

    I am that person. The one in a restaurant who looks at the dessert menu first before deciding whether or not to order a starter. I am the person who would much rather have a chocolate bar over a packet of crisps, sorry chips.

    Yes, I have a sweet tooth, to which my waistline can attest, and I put it down to my genes. For example, my dad could polish off half a packet of digestive biscuits in one sitting, but he could also cycle for miles on end so that he worked them off again!

    Throughout my childhood, I loved to visit my Granny’s house as there would inevitably be the chance to lick the spoon clean, god forbid nowadays, of some kind of raw cake mixture. (BTW I survived just fine!) She would always have drop scones, griddle scones, cherry cake, tea cake or shortbread on hand in a tin in the larder. The first two of which were mouth-wateringly delicious, especially with her home-made Bramble Jelly, something that I have yet to attempt to make.

    So if you invite me to a potluck, or if I’m popping round to friends, I am likely going to be the one bringing something sweet – brownies, cupcakes, muffins, apple pies – you get my drift. (Good job I don’t have many gluten free friends!)

    When my husband was away recently I found myself at a loose end and what better thing to do than make something? For this particular occasion I decided that scones seemed like a good idea so set off in search of the perfect recipe – Pinterest is great tool for research! I happened upon this one for Cranberry Orange Scones which looked like they might go particularly well with a cup of tea while catching up with a friend. And they did! Soft, fluffy and buttery with the perfect hint of orange (I had even added a bit more than suggested in the recipe), chewy cranberries and, actually, not overly sweet.

    fullsizeoutput_7beNow that I have this recipe tested I should be able to take the basic recipe and create my own flavours. As they say, practise makes perfect!

    Ingredients for the scones:

    • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    • 2 tbsp sugar
    • 1 tbsp baking powder
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1/2 tbsp grated orange zest (from 1/2 orange)
    • 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into chunks
    • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
    • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream + 1 tbsp to brush the top
    • 3/4 cup dried cranberries
    • 1 tbsp coarse/raw sugar to sprinkle the top, optional

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    Ingredients for the glaze:

    • 2/3 cup powdered sugar
    • 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

    How to make:

    Makes 12. Preheat oven to 400˚F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

    1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and grated orange zest. Add the butter pieces and use a pastry cutter (or 2 knives, or hands like I did) to cut the butter into the mixture until you have coarse pea-sized crumbs.
    2. Toss in the dried cranberries and stir gently to combine. Make a well in the centre and set aside.
    3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and use a spatula to stir until just moistened.
    4. Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and pull it together into a round disk, about 3/4″ thick. (Note – it doesn’t have to be perfect, in fact it looks more home-made when uneven and rough looking!)
    5. Cut the disk into 12 equal wedges and pull apart slightly. Brush the tops of scones with 1 tbsp of heavy cream and sprinkle the top with raw sugar, if desired.
    6. Bake for 15-17 minutes until golden.
    7. Place the scones on a wire cooling rack and let cool for 15 minutes.
    8. Whisk together the powdered sugar and the freshly squeezed orange juice, adding more or less for desired thickness, and then drizzle over cranberry scones.
    9. Eat and enjoy!

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  • Soup’s On – Recipes that Make it Easy to Eat Your Veggies in Winter

    Soup’s On – Recipes that Make it Easy to Eat Your Veggies in Winter

    First off, thanks to Lisa for getting this website/blog off the ground. There is so much to write about regarding food, especially in Pemberton.

    I consider myself first a baker by choice, and a cook by necessity. I still use my oven a lot but in the last few years I have really grown to love making soup. I adore soup and it is my preferred form of food, in all seasons except summer!

    You can use so many odds and ends in soup. You can improvise. You can make things vegan, or dairy free, with so many alternatives. Soup can often be a complete meal in a bowl, which is helpful for kids’ thermoses taken to school.

    I find in the winter a plate with a bit of starch, a piece of meat or fish, and some veggies on the side is not appealing. I would way rather slurp my meal from a steaming bowl. Chinese medicine, from what I understand of it, states that cooked veggies are easier to digest, and I find it so much more appealing to eat my veggies surrounded by broth in soup-form in cold weather.

    This soup recipe started with me looking for a butternut soup recipe online. I found something quite good, or looked as if it had potential, and I made it. I got 7 butternut squashes from my in-laws who had planted a bunch with my kids in their garden. I needed to do something with them because I don’t have a cold room with the perfect temperature that prevents winter veggies from rotting. I need to get my squash roasted, pureed, and then frozen.

    I took that initial recipe and have changed it so much that it is an entirely new recipe. I find cauliflower is such a versatile veggie that it can be added to a ton of dishes. The key is that it needs time to sauté slowly which brings out the sweetness and flavour.

    My rules of soup-making are: take your time to sauté the veggies low and slow. Second: I add my herbs to the sauté process – I find this adds flavour. Sometimes I will also add a bit of parsley or cilantro at the end, but I always add a lot of those two when I am sautéing my veggie base low and slow. Third: I always double, triple or quadruple cilantro or parsley called for in recipes. (Cilantro and parsley are two items I always have in my fridge.) Ditto for pepper. I always add more than called for.

    So here it is:

    “Mug of Gold” Butternut-Cauliflower Soup with Spinach:

    Ingredients:

    1 large yellow onion, medium dice

    1 large cauliflower- remove and chop florets into very small pieces

    2 tablespoons pure olive oil

    1-2 garlic cloves, chopped (optional)

    1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated

    1/2 – 1 cup parsley, roughly chopped

    1 teaspoon curry powder

    1 teaspoon coriander

    2-3 teaspoons cumin

    1/4 teaspoon cloves

    2-3 cups puréed pumpkin or butternut squash

    1.5 cups blanched spinach

    5-6 cups chicken stock*

    1 cup plain, unseasoned tomato juice** (home canned ideally): (optional) OR if you don’t have unseasoned tomato juice, just use more chicken stock

    1/2 cup full fat coconut milk

    pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

    1 tsp salt, or to taste

    2 tsp pepper, or to taste

    Chopped parsley for garnish

    DIRECTIONS:

    Sauté cauliflower florets in olive oil with onion, garlic, and parsley. Sauté until cauliflower is browned nicely and caramelized.

    Add salt, pepper and spices.

    Add puréed pumpkin or butternut squash.

    Add blanched spinach.

    Add coconut milk, tomato juice (if using), and stock.

    Bring to boil, then simmer on low 10-15 mins. Cool 5-10 mins.

    Blend in batches (in high powered, such as a Vita-Mix blender*** if possible)

    Adjust salt and pepper. Also you may want to add more stock if you find the consistency is too thick. Do not add more tomato juice, as more than one cup will overpower the butternut.

    Serves 8.

    *Chicken stock: I roast a chicken once a week. That evening I will put the carcass in a large stock pot with a ton of veggie ends/trimmings that I save in a large Ziploc in my freezer. In that bag I will add: cauliflower stalks and leaves, parsley ends, onion ends, green onion ends, carrot ends, celery ends, sweet pepper stems, etc. etc. The only “end” that doesn’t work is potato ends. And the veggie should be clean. I add the “ends” to the chicken carcass (works out to be about 3 cups of veggie trimmings), fill the pot with water, add 2 bay leaves and about 30 whole peppercorns. Then I bring to boil and simmer for 2 hours. After cooling I drain the broth and when cool, freeze in containers. I pick the meat off the carcass and this meat I will use in soups later.

    **Tomato juice: I home canned some juice after canning Lillooet tomatoes. I think the most simple juice is best, so you could use the juice from a can of commercial tomatoes. If you don’t have a mild and unseasoned juice like this, omit the tomato juice and just use more chicken stock.

    ***Blender: If you like blended soups then a high-powered blender, such as a Vita-Mix, will make the smoothest soups.

     

     

    Take your time sautéing the veggies!
    A mug of gold…this version was spinach-free. Using spinach makes the soup a bit darker.
  • Nidhi Raina’s Bad Boy Rutabaga & Turnips

    Nidhi Raina’s Bad Boy Rutabaga & Turnips

    Yes, we live in Spud Valley, but let’s not overlook the other root vegetables that also flourish in Pemberton’s silt-rich soil. Today, local cook and the wizard behind Nidhi’s Cuisine, Nidhi Raina, gives turnips and rutabagas their due.

    I’ve never eaten either, unless it was by mistaken, so it’s surprising to learn that rutabagas and turnips are among the most commonly grown and widely adapted root crop. Rootdown Farms, IceCap Organics and North Arm Farm all grow ’em.

    Turnips (brassica rapa) and rutabagas (brassica napobrassica) are relatives – part of  the Cruciferae or mustard family, of the genus Brassica. They are similar in plant size and general characteristics.

    rutabaga centre stage in rootdown organic farms winter csa box
    The rutabaga, centre stage of Rootdown Organic’s winter harvest box.

    They are cool-season crops and can be grown as either a spring or fall crop. Rutabagas are the slower grower – needing on average 90 days. Turnips, have a field to plate timeline of 40 – 75 days, depending on the variety.

    raidshes and hakurei turnips at Rootdown organic farm
    Hakurei turnips cosying up to radishes at Rootdown Organic Farm.

    Bad Boy Rutabaga & Turnips

    by Nidhi Raina

    Here is the very first recipe inspired by rutabagas and turnips sitting on the supermarket shelf begging to be wowed into a delight on a dinner table this February 2018.

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    Number of Servings: 4
    Ingredients
    2 Medium Rutabagas
    4 medium Turnips
    1 medium yellow onion
    1 medium tomato
    1/2 inch fresh ginger
    1 small jalapeno
    1 tsp coriander powder
    1 tsp sweet paprika
    1 tsp turmeric powder
    Salt to taste
    1/2 tsp brown sugar
    Flat leaf parsley leaves or sliced green onion
    1 cup water
    3 tbsp olive oil
    Method
    1. Wash, pat dry, peel and chop rutabagas and turnips into inch sized pieces.
    2. Chop tomatoes and onion and set aside in separate bowls.  Slice the jalapeno and discard seeds.
    3. Grate the ginger and set aside.
    4. Heat the olive oil on medium heat. Add the onions, ginger and jalapenos and cook till onions are golden in color.
    5. Add the tomatoes, coriander, paprika and turmeric powder.  Cook for a minute.
    6. Add the rutabagas and turnips and toss in the mix so its well coated.  Add salt to taste.
    7. Cook the vegetables with 1 cup of water for 15-20 minutes on medium heat making sure the vegetables hold their shape.
    8. Add the sugar towards the end and fold in.
    9.  Serve warm on brown rice or quinoa.
    10. Garnish with a few parsley leaves or sliced green onions.