The Strawberry Gazpacho Of My Beach Dreams

We’re in the middle of a very strange weather pattern all over this piece … and by piece I mean the Northern Hemisphere. I happened to read this little article on the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang’s blog explaining this whole jet stream pattern we’re seeing right now. Six low pressure pockets are stuck in a sort of traffic jam. Apparently these things can lead to some pretty extreme weather events – flooding, wildfires, blizzards. And, while some of the US has been hit by some pretty nasty, even deadly, stuff recently, we in the DC area can count our lucky stars. This whole thing is only giving us a few rainy days sprinkled in with some lower than average temperatures.

But here’s the thing, these jet stream patterns can lead to the weather “sticking” around for quite a while. The next week looks pretty chilly around these parts. It’s good and bad all at the same time. On the one hand, I’m still not totally ready to get rid of my cooler weather wardrobe. That baby weight is sticking like glue and it’s been tough to get into a workout routine that isn’t just “let me take the stairs three flights…eh, screw it”. But while sitting at my desk at work, quite winded from all those stairs (or not), I dream of beach season.

We’re only a few short weeks away from Memorial Day weekend, the official kick off of sand, sun and surf for people in the mid-Atlantic region. For others, like my sister-in-law’s family in Orange Beach, AL, it’s beach season all the time. SIGH.

This season is bittersweet for me. Thanks to Founding Foodie Amy introducing me to Dewey Beach, DE, I’ve been a member of a pretty awesome beach house with her on the same block as the beach. Membership gets you every other weekend from Memorial Day till Labor Day for an extremely sweet price. It’s just ridiculous. But…I’m a new mom. And babies are not part of my membership. Sadly, I’ll be transitioning out of the house this season. For half of the summer I’ll be relying heavily on my amazing husband to take our little boy for the entire weekend. Awesome, yes, but also I cherish my weekends spent with him. It’s going by so fast…

But then I remember, while sitting at my desk at work [insert craziness here] that I really need the beach. Which brings me back to the weather. It’s been chilly for this time of year for sure, but to get into the spirit I thought I would pretend it’s hot out, close my eyes and picture myself at the beach house working on a quick and easy dinner. Something cooling, something refreshing, something … gazpacho.

Gazpachos are soups made with raw veggies (most have a base of tomatoes) served cold. Here’s where I might lose you … what if you added strawberries? Personally, tomatoes and strawberries sound like an add combination, but after some recipe Googling it turns out this is a thing. And there are quite a few interesting twists. I combined a few of my favorite ideas and made a Frankenstein-like-monster chilled soup. Cucumbers and mint add a cooling effect; jalapeno, garlic and goat cheese add a savory effect to balance out the sweetness of the berries. I also saw recipes that used green pepper, tarragon and fennel, just to name a few.

Not only would this work on a hot day because it’s cooling and light, but let’s talk about how easy this is. It’s raw. Chop some stuff up, throw it all into a blender, chill and eat. No one wants to slave over a stove in the heat. Perfect!

Cooling Strawberry Gazpacho
Fresh local strawberries are a must. Paired with ripe tomatoes, you’ll get a deep red and super flavorful gazpacho. Also, depending on the power of your blender, chop the ingredients as little or as much as need, for example, a Vitamix can handle larger chunks.

Soup
1 pint strawberries, hulled
5 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 medium cucumber, preferably English hothouse, peeled and chopped
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped (amount to your taste)
1 clove garlic, crushed
juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons honey
freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Garnish
2 ounces goat cheese, softened
zest of 2 limes
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Add all soup ingredients to blender. Turn on high and blend until all combined. Optionally, strain the soup to remove any larger bits that didn’t get combined smoothly. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

When done chilling, season with more salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a dollop of the goat cheese garnish.

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The Real Deal Strawberry Fruit Roll Up

There were some childhood staples that didn’t make many appearances in my childhood. To put it in context, I’m an 80’s kid all the way, so the staples were lots and lots of sugar and some pretty bitchin’ cartoons.

There were some sugary snacks we just didn’t buy in our household, like Fruit Roll Ups, which (OMG) according to Wikipedia has 5 types of sugar and comes in at a whopping 37 grams of sugar. And some cartoons were not OK – GI Joe and He-Man – but some that were OK – Transformers and She-Ra. Don’t ask; even my brain hurts trying to understand why.

But don’t get me wrong, we definitely had our share of sugar: packed into Kool-Aid, bought at the corner shop in candy form, baked into cookies and even poured into Rice Krispy cereal. Yes, poured. Would any parents today put the sugar bowl out for their kids at breakfast? You may get sent to child protective services, along with those parents who let their kids run the neighborhood.

On the one hand, the thought makes the part of me who thrives on sweet things craving. I have dreams about that gritty, super sweet milk at the bottom of my bowl after finishing my cereal. But on the other hand, the thought makes me cringe. No wonder I find sugar so hard to kick. It always finds a way of sneaking back into my life. I’m not totally back to my old sugar-in-the-cereal life, but now that I’m a mom I am thinking twice about some of the choices I make for me and my son as he starts to eat real food.

I also don’t want to swing to the complete opposite side and never let my son touch any refined sugar ever. I just want to pick and choose my battles wisely.

Fruit Roll-Ups and all those other little “fruit” gummy snacks are huge staples for lots of kids today. Half an aisle at Target seems to be devoted to this stuff. And no wonder, they are super convenient, your picky eater will eat them and maybe there is some tiny amount of real fruit in them. And, while I have baked and cooked my way through some things I wouldn’t normally make from scratch, making a legit Fruit Roll-Up sounds hard and unappealing on all levels.

So why would I try this? While thumbing through my cookbooks for inspiration on our latest month’s topic – strawberries – I hit upon the idea of making fruit leather, aka Fruit Roll-Ups sans all that sugar. This involves dehydration … which I literally just shot down when Amy suggested I make dried strawberries. She is the only person I know who owns a food dehydrator and has found a place for it in all of the kitchens she’s inhabited, regardless of the little amount of storage she has. Well, here I am … posting about dehydrating strawberries!

It turns out, you can dehydrate using your oven, although the dedicated dehydrator makes it easier and convenient. It can take many hours so, if you’re going to do this a lot, you may want to invest in a dedicated appliance so your oven is freed up.

Rolling your own fruit leather is actually a really fun and creative idea. You can do almost any fruit and mix in different flavors or sweeteners, like honey or agave nectar. Of course, the more liquid you add or the more wet the fruit is when you start to dehydrate, the longer the process will take.

In celebration of our month long love affair with strawberries and the strawberry season hitting in May in Virginia, I knew what fruit I would choose. It’s also my favorite fruit – whole, jammed, savoried, cocktailed and, now, leathered. Yes, we’ve talked about these perfectly amazing little fruits before, but since there is so much you can do with them, dedicating this month to them makes a lot of yummy sense.

 

Strawberry Fruit Leather
Throw in some herbs or sweetener to take this fruit leather up a level.

2 cups strawberries, fresher the better

Puree the strawberries, along with any additional ingredients you wish.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Evenly spread out the puree onto the parchment paper in a large rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. Place in the center of the oven and cook for 5 to 7 hours, checking after 5. The leather should start to dry from the outside in and it should be getting sticky. The leather is done when it’s sticky all over.

Once done, remove from oven and gently peel the leather off of the parchment paper. Flip over and return to the pan, then the oven for another 30 minutes.

Pull from oven and place another roll of parchment paper over the top. Roll the paper and leather up like a Swiss roll. Use a knife to cut the leather into 1 inch pieces.

Store the fruit leather in the fridge for up to several weeks. If left on the counter, moisture can get back in and cause mold to form.

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Gimme Greens… The More Bitter, The Better

But not all greens are created equal.

Some of the first greens up in the spring—like arugula, dandelion and sorrel—are much more bitter than others. And, by their bitter nature, they are not only nutritious, but also promote good digestion, help us to suppress appetite and tamp down sugar cravings.

greens7Still, bitter can be hard to swallow. Other than mixing these greens with milder ones in a salad, what can we do make them more palatable? First, let’s take a look at why you should even try with a look at how good greens are for you.

Nutrition

Bitter greens are loaded with dietary fiber and phytonutrients that protect the plant from the sun’s damaging rays. Antioxidants, for example, are abundant in leafy green plants. They protect the plant’s DNA from the oxidative stress of photosynthesis, the process by which a plant basically harvests the sun’s energy to split water molecules apart into hydrogen and oxygen atoms in order to make sugars (McGee, 2007).

When we eat these leaves, our bodies use the antioxidants to protect us from free radical activity—or oxidation—in our bodies. Antioxidants available in leafy greens include the carotenoids, beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin, and chlorophyll, as well as vitamins C and E (McGee, 2007).

In addition to antioxidants, leafy greens contain thousands of different “phenolic” compounds. They are what give the plant color, fight off microbial threats and attract and repel animals. All fruits, vegetables, and grains contain some phenolic compounds, which, when eaten, offer similar protection in our bodies. For example, arugula and mustard greens, like other members of the cabbage family, contain glucocinolates, a class of phytonutrients, with cancer fighting properties (McGee, 2007, Masé).

Bitter Medicine

Not many of us are wired to love bitter. In human evolution the greens4bitter flavor traditionally meant poison. Bitter foods activate special taste receptors—TR2 receptors—in the mouth and other parts of the digestive tract. The T2R receptors send messages activating an increased production of saliva, stomach acid and bile. Because it is seen as a challenge to the system, foods with bitter flavors signal the digestive tract to slow down and digest food more completely (Masé, 2013).

Promising studies show a connection between T2R receptor stimulation and the modulations of physiological processes, largely in the liver, that keep blood glucose levels under control (Masé, 2013 & Dotson, et. al 2008). Bitter plants also stimulate the intestinal secretion of polypeptide YY, a hormone thought to be involved in controlling human appetite (Masé, 2013).

Bitter greens can also help ease sugar cravings. While simple sugars make our brains happy for a while, they do nothing to activate the gut—especially when eaten alone in foods void of fiber or bitter flavors that can stimulate digestive processes and help our bodies deal with glucose load. This is why some people might suffer from bloating, gas or odorous gas when sweets are overdone (Masé, 2013).

Introducing bitter greens to someone with sugar addiction will help stimulate taste receptors that they may not be using and change their digestion, appetite and eating habits. If you’ve overdone the sweet temptations lately, eating some bitter greens may be just the medicine you need to improve digestion and combat those wicked cravings!

Five Ways To Use Bitter Greens

Steam sauté your greens to use as a side dish or as a complete meal. Serving your greens with a little fat will make the lutein and other carotenes more available to your body. The recipe below, inspired by a recipe found in Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home (Moosewood collective, 2013) is an extremely versatile recipe that can make a great entrée, or reduce or eliminate the legumes and serve it as a side dish.

Black-Eyed Peas With Spinach

1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
10 ounces fresh kale, rinsed, stemmed, and coarsely chopped
1-1/2 cups drained black beans (one 13-ounce can)
ground black pepper to taste
pinch of cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

In a large skillet, sauté the onions in the oil for a few minutes until soft. Add the kale to the skillet. Stir for a minute, or two until it wilts. Add the black beans, black pepper, and cayenne if desired. Bring to a simmer on medium heat. Serve right away.

For variety, follow the instructions above using the same amount of onion, oil, salt, black and cayenne pepper and use arugula instead of kale, and garbanzo beans instead of black beans. Be sure to give it a taste before you add the black or cayenne pepper—you might find the arugula peppery enough. If the arugula is too sharp, sprinkle a bit of Parmesan cheese when serving to soften the flavors.

Pesto is always a great way to use greens. Basil usually comes to mind for pesto, but when you think outside the box, arugula, young dandelion greens, cilantro and parsley all become fantastic candidates. Here’s another great recipe based on one found in This Is A cookbook: Recipes For Real Life (Sussman, M. & Sussman, 2012). You may have to modify the recipe a bit to balance flavors.

For example, when the arugula is sharp and spicy, or when I use a dandelion green, I will use a sweeter nut — like cashew or pistachio – and go heavier on the salt.

Arugula Pesto

1/2 cup pistachio pieces (orgreens8 1/2 cup walnuts, or 1/2 cup cashew)
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups packed arugula leaves (or 2 cups dandelion leaves)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or 1/2 cup Romano cheese)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the walnuts, garlic, arugula, Parmesan and salt in a food processor. Pulse to blend.

With the machine running, Open the food tube and pour the olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Process until smooth. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Make a sandwich filler for lunch with a little kick. If you have a mild cheese like Muenster or Swiss, adding some mustard greens, sorrel or arugula and tomato slices will serve as a great contrast and make the sandwich much more interesting. Remember, that pesto is not just a pasta topper! You can also use the pesto recipe above and spread your bitter green pesto on your sandwich to get the same effect.

Add greens to your soups. Just as I’m about to serve a bowl of soup, I throw in some greens. They wilt nicely and add some flavor. If you add them too early, they will pretty much dissolve and offer very little contrast. That said, you really can’t make a mistake here: If they do dissolve, all of their beneficial nutrients will have leached into the soup!

Green smoothies are great if you’re trying to get yourself—or your children—to eat some greens. But don’t start with the most bitter greens! Start with spinach or chard and add two kinds of fruit, like apple and banana or pineapple and pear. If you are an experienced green smoothie drinker and usually use milder greens like spinach, try adding a little arugula and increase the amount each time you make one as you get accustomed to the bitter flavor. If you want to curb bitter, you don’t have to add more sweet: Try adding lemon or lime and taste as you go to see if you need more.

greens1Basic Bitter Green Smoothie

2 cups arugula
1/2 cup yellow bell pepper
1 orange peeled and seeded

Place all ingredients in a blender. Mix until smooth. If taste is too bitter, add a pinch of salt and 1/4 banana.

Though it may take a while to get used to the flavor of bitter greens, it’s worth the effort! Adding greens to your diet helps to curb sugar cravings, improve digestion and supports liver detoxification. Fresh greens are always best – so get planting! Even if you don’t have garden space, many varieties (arugula, parsley and cilantro) will flourish in a window box.

References

Albi, J. & Walthers, C. (1996). Greens, Glorious Greens: More Than 140 Ways To Prepare All Those Great-Tasting, Super-Healthy, Beautiful Leafy Greens. St Martin’s Press: New York, NY.

Boutenko, V. (2009). Green Smoothie Revolution: The Radical Leap Towards Natural Health. North Atlantic Books: Berkeley, CA.

Dotson, C. D., Zhang, L., Xu, H., Shin, Y.-K., Vigues, S., Ott, S. H., … Munger, S.D. (2008). Bitter taste receptors influence glucose homeostasis. PLoSONE, 3(12), e3974. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003974

Frawley, D. & Lad, V. (1986). The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine. Publisher: Lotus Press: Twin Lakes, WI

Kessler, D.A. (2010). The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. Rodale, Inc.: New York, NY.

Masé, G. (2013). The Wild Medicine Solution: Healing with Aromatic, Bitter and Tonic Plants. Healing Arts Press: Rochester, VT.

McGee, Harold (2007). On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of The Kitchen. Scribner. Kindle Edition.

Moosewood Collective. (2013). Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. Retrieved from Amazon.com.

Robinson, J. (2013). Eating on the wild side: The mission link to optimal health. Little Brown & company: New York, NY.

Sussman, M. & Sussman, M. (2012). This is a Cookbook: Recipes for Real Life. Weldon Owen, Inc. Published by Olive Press.

Wood, R. (2010). The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia (fully revised & updated). Penguin Books: New York, NY.

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Posted in Dear Diary
photo credit to Aaron Otis Photography 2014


July
Watermelon is the perfect summer food. It hydrates, it cools, it's sweet and juicy. We have some great ideas for your table, including a salad, ceviche cups, popsicles and cocktails. Get ready to beat the heat with us!