Author: eatdrinkboth

Pakoras

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Indian spiced vegetable fritters.

The perfect recipe for transitioning seasons. As we slowly roll from spring into summer, the kale and radishes are still coming in strong. I love these dipped in just about any sauce, but they go great with tamarind chutney, hummus, lemon tahini dressing, or the included recipe for mint yogurt sauce.

This recipe makes a bunch and they heat and crisp back up nicely in the oven or toaster oven. They also freeze really well, so this is a nice make ahead freezer meal. There’s a lot of room to play around with the recipe, do what feels right for you.

I prefer using a food processor to shred the vegetables, but if one is not available to you this can be accomplished with a sharp cheese grater.

Mint Yogurt Sauce Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp minced fresh mint
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 1 tsp minced fresh garlic
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Pakora Ingredients

  • 1 bunch kale, rinsed, stems discarded, leaves diced
  • 1 bunch radishes, rinsed, greens removed*
  • 1 onion
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp ground cayenne
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • flour**
  • canola oil, for frying

Combine sauce ingredients and allow to marinate in the fridge while you make the pakoras.

Place the diced kale in a large bowl and set aside.

Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet with enough oil to coat up to about 1 cm. Remember, the hotter your oil, the less the fritters will soak up. But this is a balance because you do not want your oil to smoke – watch for wavy lines to indicate heat or use a thermometer if you have it and try to keep the oil around 250-300 degrees.

Cut the onion in half, peel, and chop each half roughly into 1-2 inch chunks. Use the shredder blade for the food processor to grate the onion, followed by the radishes.

Add the shredded onion and radish to the diced kale. Add turmeric, curry powder, cayenne, and salt to the vegetable mixture and stir well to combine.

Add the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring until it is no longer visible. Continue to add flour bit by bit until your mixture comes together and can be formed into balls between two spoons.

Another way to tell it is a good consistency is if you lift a spoonful in the air, the batter does not slide off.

If you find it is too dry, simply add a little bit of water.

Super chef secret tip: Once you are ready to start frying the pakoras, add only ONE small one to the hot oil. Once it’s nice and ready, let it drain and give it a taste. This will let you adjust the seasoning for the rest of the batch as needed. I almost always add more salt.

Using two dinner spoons, shape pakoras and add to the hot oil. When you can see the edges brown, they are ready to flip. The photo below is NOT ready to flip!

Remove fried pakoras from the pan and allow to drain on a paper towel lined plate.

Serve warm with the sauce of your choice and enjoy!

*radish greens are totally edible, I always dice them along with the kale. They have a very mild taste and the fuzzy/prickly feel of them is lost when they are cooked.

**If I have it on hand, I use chickpea flour (sometimes also call besan or gram flour), if not I like to use whole wheat. Using chickpea flour makes this recipe both vegan and gluten free. I have found that the biggest difference between the two flours is in the leftovers. If you use chickpea flour, I recommend only eating the leftovers reheated, otherwise the texture cold is quite unpleasant. However, if you use whole wheat flour, I think the cold leftovers are just dandy.

Tahini lemon goddess style dressing

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This recipe features wild onions grown on our farm!

With rising grocery costs, sometimes it makes sense to produce your own version of pantry staples. There’s pretty much only one kind of dressing that I like, which around these parts is over $5 a bottle… and I’ve never met a dressing that I liked that much. Luckily, it is easy to throw together with other pantry staples I always have around.

This recipe is super easy to substitute what you may have on hand – I’ll put a reference list at the end!

Please note: the above photo is not a brand or product endorsement, these are simply the actual items I currently own.

Tahini Lemon Dressing – makes approximately two cups (about 16 servings of 2 TBSP)

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 3-4 TBSP tahini (thick – see notes)
  • 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
  • 2-3 TBSP lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp minced wild onions
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds
  • 1 tsp dried parsley

Really, really, really finely mince your wild onion greens. Make the tiniest circles possible. I like to cut them on a bias to be “fancy”.

No specialized equipment necessary for this recipe. I put it all in a 4 cup measuring cup and whisk until combined. Give it a taste and adjust any ingredient you see fit. If the texture/thickness is to your liking, you’re done! I typically add a tablespoon or two of water to get it how I like it. Put it in a container of some kind and use immediately or refrigerate.

A few notes:

  1. This dressing is supposed to be thick. Tahini naturally separates into solid and oil. Knowing this, I recommend pouring off the oil on top (save it to add back in to the tahini jar) and using the nice, thick slugdey bits from the bottom of the jar. This is compensated for at the end when you add in water until the dressing is the consistency you prefer.
  2. This is meant to be customized to YOUR taste! I err on the side of more lemon and more tahini. If you think it is lacking in salt, add a dash more soy sauce until it tastes right to you.
  3. If you’re not a big garlic person, start with half, or leave it out! You need to make food you like so that you eat it.

Substitutions

  • use whatever oil you have and enjoy if canola isn’t your jam
  • tahini probably should stay tahini, but cashew or sunflower seed butter could definitely work here
  • white or sherry vinegar in place of apple cider vinegar (you could use a little less even)
  • if you have gluten concerns but aren’t vegan, worcestershire sauce could easily replace the soy sauce, but start with half as much
  • you could use chives or green onions in place of the wild onions, either fresh or dried
  • sesame seeds and parsley are the most optional ingredients, they won’t really make or break the dressing (but I like them in there, a lot!)

Also, if I haven’t shared this kitchen hack before: if you have a recipe that calls for fresh parsley and you have to buy a bunch from the store, dry the rest! Most recipes call for a few tablespoons, at most, and drying it is not only an easy way to save on wasting the rest, but it is so cost effective!

Seasoning Cast Iron Wedge Pan

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Before getting into the nitty gritty, I’d like to take this moment for a small public service announcement to remind y’all that you can eat legumes, greens, and whole grains any day of the year, not just January 1st. Protein, fiber, calcium, iron, and a whole swathe of other vitamins and minerals are needed daily!

We found this cast iron pan (among many other “treasures”) in the garage on our property. A garage that had fallen way into disrepair during the 6+ years the home was vacant. After four months, we have finally gone through the majority of [mostly trash] that was left to us in the massive structure. However, a few useful things were spared by looters, such as this cast iron wedge pan! When we found it, not only had it grown a nice, thick layer of crunchy rust, but it was also full of all sorts of other garage-nature detritus. I don’t have a photo of the crusty, fuzzy mess that it started out as, but as you can see below after the first round of half an hour of steel wool scrubbing, there was a lot of work left to go.

There is a ton of information about the “best” way to restore and clean a cast iron pan. I lay no claim that proclamation, and only serve to illustrate what worked for me. This took a few days, and many hours, to get the pan back down to the original iron. The most useful thing I came across was to soak the cast iron pan in a 1:1 white vinegar and water solution.

This was one of the coolest and most disgusting things I’ve ever done in our kitchen! I am not a fan of vinegar, so the smell is especially strong to me, then combine that with acrid, bubbling iron oxide… whew. But look at that chemical reaction GO. I alternated overnight soaking then scrubbing twice. Below is the result after the first night of soaking, followed by an hour of scrubbing.

Still a bunch of rust left, but enough clear areas to fuel my hope that this was a surmountable task that was probably worth the undertaking. Another night of soaking (in the same 1:1 vinegar and water solution) and another morning of scrubbing yielded:

So nice! I scrubbed the last bit of rust off the handle before starting to season. A well seasoned cast iron skillet is one of the most versatile kitchen tools. My dad likes to brag that he can boil water and cook pasta in his with no ill effects to the nonstick surface. However, how to season a cast iron skillet is definitely a polarizing point of contention. I consulted a few different sources and decided to combine tactics. Oven to 400°F, one rack in the middle and one on the lowest setting with a sheet of tinfoil to catch any drips. The highest smoke point neutral oil I typically have on hand is canola, so canola I used.

Speaking from experience of poorly seasoning cast iron pans many times, I can say with certainty that the most important thing you can do is make sure your layer of oil is as thin as possible. If you touch the oiled skillet with your hands and it either feels greasy or leaves a shine on your skin there is too much oil. Even when you think you have wiped away every possible speck of oil, wipe a few more time using either a new towel or paper towel each time.

When you are satisfied you can’t get any more oil off, place the skillet directly on the middle rack upside down. Set a time for one hour and walk away. After the hour is up, turn off the oven and walk away again until the oven and pan have cooled down to room temperature (many hours). Then repeat this process at least twice (my recommendation) before using.

Pictured below is second oiling after first seasoning. See those pools of shiny oil in the corners? That shows that more oil needs to be wiped off.

When you do use your newly seasoned pan for the first time, be sure to use copious amounts of grease–butter, oil, lard–and continue to do so when cooking for the first dozen or so uses. This will continue to add to the layers of seasoning. Some random site on the internet said cornbread was a good first food to cook in a newly seasoned pan which was perfect confirmation bias as that was exactly what I had planned to do.

And oh my stars it worked. It actually, really worked!

Hopefully I’ve inspired you to tackle your own sort of strange behemoth undertaking. If you do, I’d love to hear about it! The wedge pan seems a ridiculous invention, and next up I think I’m going to try scones or frittata slices. Any suggestions for other foods you think would be nice to eat in a triangle shape?

And If you’re wondering why this post doesn’t contain any sort of recipe to eat, drink, or both, that’s because we are a diehard Jiffy mix family. Mix, bake, butter the warm top, enjoy.

Duck Fried Rice

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Tis the season to use up those leftovers. Lucky for me, I have this space as a personal, online recipe book.

Our Fall Feast was a bit toned down this year, what with fixing up a 90 year old house and planning how to plant two rolling, hilly acres (plus gully) – chickens and sweatpants, here I come! We cooked up a meager spread: roast local duck, green bean casserole, mashed taters, stuffing, and homemade local pumpkin pie. As usual, a 4 pound duck turned into many, many meals. I got the chance to look back to a few winters ago, and adapted my leftover goose pot pie recipe to this duck and what we had in the fridge. I’ve been working on my pie crimp game, can you tell?

Also, for the first time in 5 years, I didn’t overcook the duck! Thanks, in part, to a new recipe site I discovered, which also served as the catalyst for throwing together what was, for sure, the best fried rice I have ever made at home. The trick, it turns out, is to not skimp on the oil. Surprise, surprise – look at that oil shimmer!

Quick and simple to throw together – the hardest part is needing cold (preferably at least day old) rice. Based off the recipe from Hank Shaw.

Ingredients – added in the order listed

  • 1 large carrot, peeled, small dice
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 large onion (I used yellow, any type will do)
  • 1 tbsp duck fat (substitute high smoke point oil of your choice)
  • 2/3 cup frozen peas (thawed)
  • 2/3 cup leftover duck, shredded/chopped
  • 1 inch ginger chunk, peeled and minced
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 cups day old rice (I used Nashiki sushi rice)
  • 2 tbsp canola oil (divided)
  • 2 eggs, whisked
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce (divided) – check label for “wheat” if you are gluten intolerant

To a large fry pan or wok, add carrot and olive oil over medium heat. Stir and cook while you dice up the onion. After a minute or two, with the carrots fragrant, add the diced onion and duck fat. Cook 5-10 minutes until carrots are fork tender and onions are lightly browned. Add thawed (or fresh!) peas, cooking two minutes more. Add duck, but do not stir. Add ginger, garlic powder, and one tbsp of canola oil, then rice, stirring well to coat the rice in oil. You may need to decrease the heat at this point.

Crack two eggs into a bowl and (fork) whisk vigorously until creamy yellow. Move rice mixture to one side of the pan (if your stove is not level like mine, move to the higher side of the pan). Add the remaining 1 tbsp canola oil to the naked side of the pan. Once lightly shimmering, add whisked eggs to the oil. As the eggs start to firm and cook, gently fold them from the sides, creating fluffy sheets of scrambled eggs. Once they are done to your liking, stir all together with the rice mixture. Turn the heat back up to medium, leveling the fried rice in the pan and let cook, undisturbed for 1-2 minutes. Pour 1 tbsp of soy sauce around the edges of the pan and quickly stir to combine. Allow the mixture to sit for one minute and repeat with the remaining soy sauce.

Serve warm as is, or add your favorite additional toppings such as sesame seeds, chili garlic paste, and/or scallions. I bet this would also be great with a side of kimchi.

My personal complaint about restaurant fried rice is always the rice:everything else ratio, but following this ricepe (see what I did there?) flips the ratio and then some. Rejoice, for the egregious amount of oil(s), fiber form the vegetables, and protein in the duck make your body absorb the carbohydrates (glucose) from the rice much more gradually, keeping your energy level and your belly full.

Squash Season + the best way to freeze pumpkin puree

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Late autumn, time to hunker down and store some vitamin A! Pumpkin and winter squash season is well underway, and I don’t know about you, but we are up to our elbows in fleshy orange goodness. It started with a Halloween carving session, tempered by a current lack of compost pile and desire to cut down on waste.

I went rogue and cut my pumpkin open from the bottom. It wasn’t the most resounding success and it was difficult to line up perfectly, but it was worth it for not having to stick my arm into the pumpkin to light the candle!

Seeds were roasted (rinsed, patted dry, 5 mins at 350 until dry and tacky, tossed with olive oil and salt, roasted ~20 minutes, stirred roughly every five minutes until lightly golden brown and smelling toasty) – the best we’ve ever made; and the innards were cooked down on low heat over many hours (at least eight) until darkened, thickened, and smoothed out with an immersion blender before cooking down some more. Carving pumpkins are notoriously watery, cooking them down takes more than twice as long as squash grown for comestibles.

This was all, of course, prior to cooking any of the cucurbits purchased for the purpose of consuming.

This puree has already taken many forms:

  • Dog treats and sea salt sage crackers

  • Savory cheesy scones (perfect for breakfast sandwiches)

And I experimented with the best way to freeze pumpkin puree. Using a 1/2 cup measuring spoon and muffin pan, I tried three ways. Oiled, wax paper lined, and plain. The verdict?

If your muffin pan is nonstick, save yourself time and oil. Plopping the pumpkin in plain lets it pop out easier than ice in an ice cube tray. Store in a zip top bag in the freezer for sauces, soups, and baked goods throughout the winter.

PSA: do not use wax paper, it sticks and tears and you’ll have to thaw the pureed pumpkin and start all over again. Or you can thaw it, add some maple syrup, and experiment with dehydrator pumpkin leather. Will it work out? Or will we end up with chunks of sweet, crunchy pumpkin bark? Update pending… still a few more hours of dehydrating to go.

All this from the typically discarded innards of carving pumpkins! Not yet pictured, from the intentionally roasted galeux d’eysines squash: ricotta and pumpkin manicotti, pappardelle pie, and likely some sweet treats to come.

Let me know if you are interested in any of the above recipes, and I’m open to suggestions on what to do with the remaining 10 or so pounds of orange gold!

Curry Chicken Salad

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A nice fridge and pantry clearing staple. Some people like eating warm things when it is cold and cold things when it is warm, but I believe the sweet, warming spices in this dish, though served cold, let it straddle the line for an any weather meal.

Ingredients (makes 6 servings):

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast*
  • 1 cup diced red onion
  • 1 cup diced celery
  • 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1/2 c chopped cashews
  • 1 cup reduced sugar dried cranberries

Chicken Baste:

  • 1/2 c mayo
  • 1/2 tsp each turmeric, curry powder, garlic powder
  • pinch salt

Yogurt Dressing:

  • 1/4 cup natural sour cream (see note)
  • 3/4 c plain low-fat yogurt
  • 1/2 tsp each turmeric, curry powder, and garlic powder

Two methods of chicken preparation:

  1. Preheat oven to 375. While heating, combine basting ingredients. Pat chicken dry and evenly coat with mayo mixture. Place on foil-lined baking sheets and roast ~15-25 minutes until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 for 15 seconds. Set aside to rest.
  2. Alternately, for a lower fat version, simmer chicken in water or low-sodium stock until falling apart tender. This can be done stove top or in a slow cooker.

While chicken is cooking (or cooling) fine dice 1 whole red onion (yield ~1-1.5 cups), roughly 6 large celery stalks, and 1/2 cup cilantro. Cashews can be chopped with a chef knife or lightly smashed with a meat tenderizer–I recommend using a plastic zip top bag for this method to *mostly* contain the mess. Reduced sugar dried cranberries can be left as is or roughly chopped. Combine in a large bowl.

When chicken is cool enough to handle, shred or dice bite sized–however you prefer your chicken salad. I alternate between the two depending on if I am feeling like curry chicken salad salads (diced) or curry chicken dip and wraps (shredded).

In a separate bowl, combine sour cream, yogurt, and spices. Taste and adjust seasoning to you preferences–start with less if you are hesitant and add slowly, fully incorporating before tasking again. I like to taste by mixing a teaspoon of my filling with a little bit of the yogurt dressing (knowing that over time the flavors will meld). Once you have the spice you like, stir it all together and enjoy! Will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to a week.

*You can absolutely use bone in skin on if that is what you have/prefer, I would recommend basting the chicken and allowing to marinate refrigerated for 30 minutes or so to impart more flavor as you will want to remove the skins before chopping/shredding.

Note on sour cream: I have a strict preference for sour cream labeled as “natural”. It is made without stabilizers and typically only has three ingredients: cultured cream and skim milk, and enzymes. However, you can totally omit this and just use yogurt! Plain Greek yogurt and skyr work especially well as sour cream substitutes.

A note on plant-based… why would I label a chicken recipe “plant-based”? Because it is. This recipe is based in plants, the majority of the ingredients are plants, which is how you arrive at the definition of “plant-based“. As a dietitian, I think this is a really important distinction that all I talk about in all my classes. Plant-based does not exclusively mean vegetarian or vegan, it just means you mostly eat plants. Take it a bit farther, and you’re focusing more on whole (less processed) foods and incorporating small amounts of animal products that have (preferably) been raised in a regenerative and humane way. Plant-based and planet-based are the way to health.

Nutrition information:

Zone 10a Gardening

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It’s like not riding a bicycle for 10 years and deciding today is going to be the day! Except the only passage of time was a three hour plane ride, 45 minute drive and here we are. Gardening anew. Five full USDA hardiness zones warmer. My first foray into growing my own food was in zone 9a and mostly container gardening, here we are coming full circle back south with more gardening and nutrition knowledge.

Carambola (starfruit) Averrhoa carambola, seedling. Took weeks to germinate, but sprang up double its size in only four days! The kalanchoe snapped off of a cluster of plants outside an office building and begged to be brought back with me. In the middle are Eqyptian walking onions I brought down from MI and green onions scrap planted from the farmer’s market. Most of these have been repotted already as you’ll see below.

I’d forgotten just how FAST things can grow in a tropical climate. A “tropical savanna”, to be more precise, with an average monthly temperature at or above 64.4F, hot & wet summers, and “cold” & dry winters. When I moved here, I was told there are four seasons: rain, hurricane, tourist, and fire. I moved here during the first and am now in the thickest of the third.

For the next few weeks, the only gardening space I have is a lanai (screened-in porch) that gets mainly northern and then highly filtered west sun for about 45 minutes. The next big feat will be in securing an actual grow space, but what that will look like is still fluid at this point: apartment windows or patio, community garden space, or purchasing a property all remains to be seen. It’s definitely stressful, but I do have some good plants to show for the move.

I was gifted a box full of dragon fruit cuttings – both red and white fleshed, some of which have finally started to show new growth! These are quite temporary homes for these plants, they need a much sturdier and larger trellis, but I was so excited to get them started I just went for it with some square dowels from the hardware store.

Most of my new edibles here have been gifts or scraps. I’m up to three avocado trees, five moringa trees (seeds purchased at market), one carambola seedling, and three calamondin (Citrus × microcarpa) trees (free off craigslist). On the docket, space prohibiting, are kumquats and pigeon peas gifted from a coworker. I’m patiently waiting on any one of three canistel (yellow sapote, eggfruit) Pouteria campechiana seeds to germinate. According to the Extension services down here that may take up for four months.

Canistel was described to me by my new farmer friend David as “sweet pumpkin”, which in no way does this fruit justice. It is in the top five of best things I have ever eaten. Like a golden egg yolk in color and creamy texture–there’s nothing like it. We went to the Botanical Gardens last weekend and found a tree they were growing trellised as a hedgerow. I love it:

Other than that, cooking has been strange. Learning how to use an electric stove again (first time with the glass top version though) has been quite a steep hurdle. Combine that with almost the entirety of our belongings still in a storage container and it has reduced cooking much closer to being a chore than something enjoyable.

Hopefully as we get settled into a more “permanent” living situation, and now that I’ve completed my M.S., there will be more time to explore the unique ingredients that this climate offers.

Local is Now

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Spring is barely here in southeastern Michigan. The snow drops have just finished blooming, with a new flurry of narcissus and tulips taking their place. The grass is trying its best to eke out an existence and the trees are beginning to bud. But this bleak, brownish, massive temperature swing time of year doesn’t mean our food has to look the same. For dinner last night, we had a mostly local feast: chorizo tacos on corn tortillas with cilantro, microgreens, red onions, and feta cheese. A side of elote and red rice. The corn I froze this past summer, the rice was seasoned with salsa I canned in August from all local ingredients–save the cilantro, that’s local now. The non-local ingredients from last night were avocado, some spices, sour cream, and the rice. The sour cream could have been local, as could have been some of the spices. This is the food I want everyone to be able to access, afford, and enjoy.

An important thing to keep in mind is that not all local food is created equally. Ask about regenerative management techniques such as cover crops, compost, and grazing management. However, understand that (based on you location) some crops cannot flourish without intensive management. A hearty example is strawberries. This fruit is susceptible to many pests and fungi. It is possible to have an organically managed, regeneratively grown strawberry, but is unlikely to be affordable on any sort of local, large scale (at least here in MI). So either we eat something else, or we allow wiggle room in the standards we hold food to. Transparency in marketing and products is what will make a local food system thrive.

More examples of completely homemade, almost fully local meals (save seasonings and grains, though again they could be).

What is most important to me, not just as a dietitian, but as a person, a citizen of earth, is food access. This push for local, sustainable managed foods is meaningless if it is not accessible and affordable to all. Markets and food hubs in my area have done well to heed this rallying crying, but this is an exception to the norm. Many “farmer’s markets” still face the issue of one I left behind in Georgia: the food is mainly from resellers and/or most vendors are not selling food at all. There is so much work to be done to create an equitable and just food system, but creating demand is one thing those of us who can afford to can impact. Buy yourself the best food you can afford and commit to supporting markets and producers who are trying to foster access to all. This is not a bad place to start.

My most recent full-local concoction was this sunchoke hash with spinach, canadian bacon, shallots, and the first walking onions of the year. Leave me a comment if you are interested in the recipe. This was my first time trying sunchokes and I am absolutely smitten.

Pink Coleslaw

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This is the first, but certainly not the last, of my odes to cruciferous vegetables. Part love note to cabbage (Brassica oleracea), a bit of food science and experimentation, and sort of a recipe.

Cabbage nutrition: 100 g (a heaping cup chopped) of cabbage will put you back 25 calories, mainly from carbohydrates including an impresive 2.5 g dietary fiber. Cabbage is an excellent source of vitamin C (just over 33% of DV), contains 1.3 g of protein, and a host of phytochemicals.1

If ever there were one really good, uninteresting fact about myself it is that I do not like vinegar. I’ve said for over a decade that pickles are my kryptonite. What a travesty when your burger and fries comes with a pickle atop the fries, rendering them soaked in pickle juice and inedible. We all have that one thing. This distaste expands to most condiments (ketchup, mustard, mayo, dressing), though my tastes have slightly evolved. I will eat balsamic vinegar because it is sweeter, goddess dressing is the only type I will use (though this is lemon juice based), ketchup is reserved for sweet potato fries (otherwise they are too sweet), and I do enjoy the sweet zucchini relish I can every year (apple cider vinegar in this one). However, one other exception continues to exist outside this rule.

My love of coleslaw was born out of necessity. When I was staying with a German ex-pat in Belize for three weeks, the cheapest meal I could buy was fried chicken (a thigh and a drumstick), a homemade tortilla, and coleslaw. This dinner set me back about $4 and could usually carry me over to the next days lunch. I would cut my tortilla into quarters, strip some chicken from the bone and top it with coleslaw like an open-faced sandwich.

While it seems that pink/red coleslaw has found it’s place recently on some hip menus and it realistically doesn’t taste any different than it’s non-pink counterpart, sometimes you don’t want to eat pink food! After a bit of internet research, I found no good consensus on how to incorporate red cabbage into coleslaw without changing the overall hue. First, let’s look at why red cabbage turns coleslaw pink.

Plant foods (fruits, veg, legumes, nuts, and seeds) are full of antioxidants, but I’m sure you’ve heard that before. A group of these naturally occurring antioxidants are called phytochemicals, which are typically responsible for the rainbow colors of produce. Red cabbage is rich in anthocyanins and sulfur compounds – turning red in acid and blue in basic solutions. When cooking, red cabbage will usually turn blue; to mitigate this, add acid (vinegar, lemon juice, or fruit) to the pot to retain the red color. Red cabbage contains more antioxidants than its green counterparts, though green, chinese, and savoy cabbage have shown higher anti-inflammatory capabilities.2 That’s where this coleslaw comes in, best of both worlds plus some carotenoids from carrots for good measure and extra vitamin A.

To avoid the leeching, color changing anthocyanin, I tried four methods.

Salted, dried, soaked in water, and soaked in white vinegar. I let these all set for two hours. You can see the vinegar began it’s work immediately. The hope here was that any of these techniques would be enough to pull out anthocyanins from the cabbage.

Left to right: vinegar, salt, water, dry.

Prior to mixing with green cabbage, carrot, and dressing (mayo, white vinegar, cayenne, and celery seed*) I drained, rinsed, and dried each of the samples (except the dry, that one I kept… dry).

This is what each looked like after an hour in the fridge – without and with flash.

This is what each looked like after an overnight (12 hour) rest in the fridge, before and after stirring.

There was no real noticeable taste difference between any of the samples. I drained the liquid off (and combined all the samples for eating) to showcase the subtle difference in saturation and hue present in each. Still left to right: vinegar, salt, water, dry.

Lightly drawn conclusions: If you don’t want your coleslaw to be pink, don’t use red cabbage. If you have your heart set on using red cabbage, but want your coleslaw to be as non-pink as possible, I suggestion slicing your red cabbage, blotting with a paper towel, and leaving it uncovered in the fridge overnight to dry out. A further step to take is waiting to add the red cabbage until serving.

Conversely, for the pinkest possible coleslaw, I suggest using red cabbage in place of green and swooning at your neon culinary masterpiece.

*I prefer using apple cider vinegar, but my partner prefers white. If I’m making it for both of us, I default to white vinegar. We go real heavy on the celery seed in this household.

Cover photos are homemade coleslaw and pulled pork (homemade barbecue sauce and local pork), on a homemade wheat bun and homemade fried local chicken and coleslaw on homemade naan.

  1. Cabbage, raw. FoodData Central – USDA. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169975/nutrients. Published April 1, 2019. Accessed February 19, 2021.
  2. Rokayya S, Li CJ, Zhao Y, Li Y, Sun CH. Cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata) phytochemicals with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2014;14(11):6657-6662. doi:10.7314/apjcp.2013.14.11.6657

Stuffed Acorn Squash

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Elevating a tried and true cold weather meal, the following recipe for Teriyaki Tofu Stuffed Acorn Squash will give you the opportunity to learn new skills, practice techniques, and master a new sauce for your arsenal.

Teriyaki Sauce – this will keep, unadulterated, for up to three months in the fridge.

  • soy sauce – any variety, any brand. Low sodium is fine. If you are gluten-free, soy is notoriously not, check the ingredients label diligently!
  • mirin – high sugar, low alcohol content rice wine. What I’ve been able to find easily is “aji-mirin” which is basically a cheap alternative, but it works!
  • dark brown sugar – yes, light brown sugar will work just as well, but I prefer the deeper molasses taste from dark brown sugar (always)

Combine the above in equal amounts. If you aren’t sure that you will like the final product, start with 1/4 cup of each and a very small sauce pan. Over medium heat, stir continuously until the sugar has dissolved. Bring the heat up to medium-high, stirring and scraping down the sides of the pot occasionally until it has come to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally until it has reached your preferred sauce consistency. Err on the side of too thick as the moisture from whatever you toss in your sauce will thin it.

This sauce can be dressed up with minced fresh ginger and/or garlic. Store leftovers in a lidded contained in the fridge. If you have added any ingredients beyond the initial three, I would recommend using leftovers within a week. I like to make a batch of rice at the same time as a base for quick and easy savory breakfast. Toss with some vegetables (raw, roasted, sauteed) and your favorite protein. You can even dress it up with a fried or soft boiled egg.

We are a household full of kitchen gadgets, but one thing we have so far gone without is a spiralizer. Maybe this dish would have been cuter topped with a vegetable nest, but these super easy matchstick veg can be made with the pokey side of your vegetable peeler. This goes for anytime you want matchsticks without the agony of hand cutting them, such as coleslaw. Use the peeler as normal, but pokey side to your vegetable. In this case, I used both carrot and watermelon (daikon) radish. After matchsticking, I placed the veg in a bowl covered with cold water and into the fridge. This keeps them crisp for days.

To roast acorn squash:

  • preheat oven to 400°F
  • halve squash from stem to tip, scoop out and discard the seeds and stringy goopy bits, and generously coat both halves inside with oil (olive, canola, or vegetable are fine) and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  • place squash on pretty much anything oven safe with low sides, cut side up
  • roast, basting the squash with oil that has dripped off the edges into the “bowl” a few times, until the flesh is easily pierced all the way through with a fork.
  • ** if you prefer not to use so much oil: lightly oil a baking sheet, place the squash inverted – cut side down – onto the baking sheet. This way, it will steam itself.

For crispy tofu:

This trick was learned through trial and error. While I LOVE fried tofu, I despise frying things. It takes a lot of oil, it’s messy, the clean up sucks, and me and the house smell like used oil all day. Yum… Instead, try this:

  • Start with extra firm tofu. If you have a tofu press, skip to the next step, if not: Remove from the packaging and dry with a tea towel. Wrap the tofu in a different tea towel, and then another fluffier towel. [note: any kitchen towels are fine, I like to use not fluffy ones for touching the tofu. If this makes you uncomfortable and lint-fearing, wrap the tofu in a piece of paper towel first before layering in cloth]
  • Place the tofu on a flat surface. Top the tofu with heavy stuff. Things I have previously used: multiple large cookbooks, bricks/stones, Kitchenaid stand mixer, bowl full of potatoes… use your imagination, but make sure the heavy things will not topple or if they do that they are not breakable. I like to use the back corner of my countertop where the weight can be supported on two sides by the walls. As the tofu settles, the weight will likely shift and may even fall off. Leave for 30 minutes up to two hours.
  • Remove weights and wrapping, and slice the tofu vertically into ~ 1/2 inch slices. Lay the slices directly on the rack of either a toaster oven or full size oven (depending on the spacing of the rails on your racks, you may need to finagle this a bit). Turn the heat on to 350-375°F and bake until evenly, lightly browned, approximately 25 minutes. Turn off the oven, prop the door open and let cool slightly before removing.

This crispy tofu will pair perfectly with the rice and teriyaki sauce awaiting you for breakfast. I like to eat it exactly as is or slice it further into strips for use in salads or wraps.

To beef up this stuffed squash, I sauteed some wilting bok choy, totsoi, and onions, which I tossed with the cubed, crispy tofu.

This can easily be served in the squash, as is, straight from the oven. To make it look fancier, I used a circular mold to create a roasted squash “bowl”, set atop some local pea shoots. I filled this with the tofu veg mixture, drizzled on some teriyaki sauce, topped with matchstick carrots and watermelon radish. The combination of different textures and flavors of seasonal, local vegetables was delightful and can, of course, be adapted with whatever you have on hand.