Eat Your Flowers

In Chicago I don't declare it Springtime until I can see full-fledged leaves unfurling on the occasional tree. That being said, I think we've finally arrived to that time here.  I thought it might be a good opportunity, then, to do a little four-part series on flowers in food.  This is mostly just an excuse for me to buy roses for myself, perhaps, and to take pictures loaded with petal colors.  What can I say?  I'm a girl.

I'm not going to tell you what all of the recipes for this series are going to be, but I can tell you that they will include all of the flowers seen in the below photo, with each focusing on one or two in particular: Hibiscus, Violet, Rose, and Lavender were chosen to be the main players. Two of the dishes, including this first one, are savory.  The other two are desserts.

This first dish feels a little like an exception when you look at the pictures since I went a little wild buying a confetti pack of edible flowers of a dozen varieties to sprinkle on the finished salad.  The focus is supposed to be on the hibiscus flower vinaigrette, but I will admit that in the plated finish it's the look of a sea of wildflowers on the greens that steal the eye away from the deep plum-colored dressing.

Still, when it comes to flavor, the hibiscus' role reigns supreme.  There is a wonderful tart, fruitiness to these flowers that makes their tea perfect for dressing a salad, which is how I did it - by making a tea out of the dried flowers.  I found the flowers in a Persian shop near my home, but you could also use dry tea blends or hibiscus juice, even, which is available in health food stores, etc.  Just adjust things like honey or vinegar according to your tastes.

If you'd like to use the flowers, which are great for all kinds of things, like this amazing jam from Sanjana at KO Rasoi, here is a good source for them at a decent price.

I served this dressing over fresh organic mesclun mix with goat cheese croquettes (just goat cheese mixed with fresh chives and dredged in egg/flour mixture before a quick pan-fry) and mixed edible flowers.  The flowers should be labeled "edible" in florists or found in the fresh herb section of the grocers, and are grown without harmful pesticides.  If bought in packs, they often include certain varieties of chive flowers, marigolds, nasturtiums, etc.  They all have their own flavors that range from "nutty" to "citrusy", but tend to be subtle in flavor. 

Next week I'll share another fun recipe including flowers, I hope you'll stop by!

Recipe: Hibiscus Flower Vinaigrette

What you need to get...

1/2 cup hibiscus flowers
8 oz boiling water (to make a strong hibiscus tea)
3/4 cups olive oil
2 tablespoons thin-sliced shallots
Small handful of fresh tarragon, chopped
Small nob of fresh ginger, grated or minced very fine
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar (red wine vinegar also works - if using balsamic, omit honey)
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon kosher/sea salt
Cracked pepper

What to do with it all...

Add your boiling water to your hibiscus flowers and allow to steep for 10 mins. Remove flowers and allow tea to cool to room temperature.

In a medium non metal bowl, combine the rest of your ingredients except the olive oil and allow them to "mingle" while the tea cools.  Once tea is cooled, whisk in.  Whisk in olive oil, adding in a steady stream until incorporated.  Store in refrigerator for at least an hour before use.

Makes 2 cups of dressing

Midweek Meals: Healthy Delicious Lima Bean Spread with Olives and Yogurt OR How Lima Beans Are Like Christopher Walken

Ok, so I'm posting a midweek meal on a Friday, bu it's been quite a busy week with school and the like and I wasn't able to post photos until today... sure, I could've posted the recipe on Wednesday, but without photos, lima beans are boring in most people's opinions (though I hope you will be forever changed on that after this) and just imagine what they'd be like without the pictures?  I would be a food blog pariah overnight!

After all that bashing of poor Mr. Lima, I think I should be fair to him and tell you there's more to him then smelly, shrivel-y/mush side dish afterthoughts.  The words LIMA BEANS make children collectively shudder and dive under kitchen tables around the globe, I have no doubt.  But the Lima has a bad rep for what really is a pretty amazing little legume: healthy, easy to cook and most importantly quite tasty when properly handled.  Problem is I don't think most people know what to do with them.

Kind of like Christopher Walken.  Amazing actor, right?  I know if I were a Hollywood director, I would be looking at him and thinking "Wow, this dude is freakin' amazing... but how the heck do I cast him?"  He can't play a down and out single father or run around the screen with a gun searching for the kidnapped Declaration of Independence, now can he?  His lines would take 5x as long to say, for one thing.

Just like Mr Walken, the lima bean can't just be thrown into a dish willy-nilly and without taking into consideration its special set of talents. For one, limas have a very nice rich/butter flavor and texture if they're not overcooked.  This recipe takes the lowly lima and puts him in the role he deserves: as a healthy, tasty and even elegant spread that makes a great midweek guilt-free snack!


Oh, and limas are full of fiber, magnesium and iron.  They're said to reduce cholesterol and even have a property that is supposed to "detoxify" bad sulfite preservitives (like in red wine).  The recipe also has garlic, yogurt and olive oil for added health points!


Recipe: Lima Bean Spread with Olives and Yogurt

What you need to get...

1 pound fresh or frozen lima beans (if fresh, blanch first in boiling water for 5 minutes)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dry Greek herb mix (dill, oregano, mint, rosemary)
1/4 cup plain yogurt (thick or Greek-style preferred)
10 pitted kalamata olives
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt to taste (won't need much)

What to do with it all...

1. In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil on medium and add lima beans and herbs. 
2. Saute until soft and very little color (about 5 mins)
3. Add garlic and remove from heat - allow to cool slightly (don't let the garlic cook much, or it will get bitter)
4. Using a slotted spoon, transfer lima bean mixture to a food processor (leaving the olive oil to add back later)
5. Add olive and blend - pouring olive oil in a steady stream to incorporate - until mixture is spreadable but still a little chunky
6. Fold in yogurt and serve with whole wheat bread or pita, crudites, or heck, toss with pasta or layer in a veggie lasagna!

Midweek Meals: Healthy, Quick Mediterranean Vegetable Saute

Vegetables are amazing.  In looking up nutritional content for the ingredients for a midweek meal, I learned some very nifty things about what I was eating...

Eggplant - Is a fabulous "diet" veggie.  It's low in fat and calories, high in thyroid-supporting manganese and a good source of fiber.  Another interesting thing about eggplant?  It has more nicotine than any other edible plant!  Though you'd have to eat a bushel of eggplant before you reached the concentration of nicotine found in just one cigarette, so it's probably not the best idea to light one up, sorry.

Cauliflower - Considered a "nutritionally dense" food, cauliflower is a happy place to find vitamin C and a host of phytochemicals to fight cancer.  There are also studies that show it may work as a estrogen regulator (due to indole-3-carbinol) and glucosinolates that could help your liver detoxify.  Happy news for pub crawlers!

Chickpeas (garbanzos) - A nice low-fat source of protien and fiber.  Tossing a can of these precooked babies into your veggies gives your 29% of your protien in every serving.


Green (or French) beans - Great for your bones as they contain 25% of your vitamin K in each serving (helps fight osteoperosis), and a good amount of calcium.  Many sources believe that green food sources of calcium are betterfor the body then dairy sources, too, by the way!  I know my favorite clinical professor way back when I was in school as a bodywork therapist always paraded that theory.

In 2010 I'm making efforts to revive an old way of eating that worked really well for me, but I just got away from.  On the weekdays, I would focus on vegetarian and seafood meals only and enjoy meat only on the weekends.  I always felt like I had great energy when I followed this with care.  The problem came in when I was too busy to make proper meals and ended up eating potato chip dinners.  Bad, bad!  That's where having some nice pre-planned recipes that I love come in handy.  For me, it's motivational to know why the foods I'm preparing are good for me, too, so I've been doing my research!

Essentially, these recipes are going into a sort of food journal for me to improve my eating habits.  In doing so, I figured why not share them with all of you, too?  I'm planning to add some recipes that are based on fun healthy foods lists (if such a thing can be called fun?) such as the recent New York Times article on The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating (thanks to Cheryl for printing that out for me!).

So what do you think?  Would you like to see more recipes like this one?  What are some of your favorite healthy foods to include in weekday meals? 

Recipe: Healthy Quick Medditerrean Vegetable Sautè

What you need...

1 can chickpeas
3 cups chopped eggplant
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 pound whole fresh green beans
3 cups chopped cauliflower florets
2/3 cup chopped yellow onion
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon dry dill (or small bunch of chopped fresh)
1 tablespoon dry oregano (or small bunch chopped fresh)
1 tablespoon dry mint (or small bunch chopped fresh)
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 lemon, juiced and zested
1 cup vegetable stock or water
Olive oil for sauteing
Salt and pepper to taste

What to do with it all...

• Heat (on medium) enough olive oil in a large heavy bottom sautè pan to coat it
• Add your onions and cauliflower florets and allow to sautè for 3 mins or until they get a fragrant
  
• Add eggplant, red pepper and green beans and cook for another 5 - 8 minutes on medium, stirring occassionally
• Add all the rest of your ingredients, toss/stir to combine and cook on medium-low until cauliflower is just fork tender (about 10 mins)
• Serve over rice!