A Spring Menu
To ease the transition into spring, try these recipes.
Whether you make them separately or as a complete meal, each one will awaken our palate to a new set of pungent and sour flavors. Enjoy!
Apple Daikon Fritters
Wet ingredients:
1 Tablespoon tahini
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1½cup fresh grated daikon radish
1 1/2 cups fresh grated red apples
Dry ingredients:
1/2¼cup flour: spelt or rice (choose the one you prefer)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons ground flax seed meal
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Grease a large glass baking tray (9x12) with vegetable oil.
In a bowl, combine the wet ingredients and stir until thoroughly blended.
Make a well in the center of the wet ingredients.
Combine the dry ingredients in the well and then incorporate with the wet ingredients.
Spoon generous heaps onto baking tray and flatten into a small pancake shape.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Enjoy piping hot with gremolata.
Gremolata
In blender, mix:
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup almonds or walnuts, ground in spice/coffee grinder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley (2 packed cups)
Blend at highest speed for 2 minutes.
Enjoy with vegetable fritters or flat breads.
Turnip and Purple Cabbage Swirled Soup
This beautiful recipe allows you to pour one soup into the other and create a spiral pattern in your bowl.
Start with two soup pots on your stove. Cover the bottom of each with olive oil and slowly heat the oil as you are chopping onions.
Chop off top and bottom of two onions. Peel skin and slice in half width-wise.
Place two halves flat on cutting board and slice each one into thin crescent moons. Follow the ridges of the onion when chopping.
When oil is hot, add onions, stir briefly with spatula, turn burner down to medium-low, and cover.
Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add salt and thyme to one pot. Add salt and coriander to the other.
Simmer for 15 more minutes.
Meanwhile, chop 4 turnips into small chunks.
Chop 1 medium red cabbage into threads, removing the hard inner core.
Add turnips to coriander-spiced pot. Add 1 Tablespoon whole ground brown mustard.
Add cabbage to thyme pot.
Add enough water in each pot to cover vegetables. Bring both to a boil, reduce to simmer, and cook with the lid on until vegetables are soft.
With an immersion blender, puree each soup. Taste for salt.
Pour turnip soup into each bowl.
Pour cabbage soup into large measuring cup with spout and the pour a spiral into the turnip soup.
Lemony Oat Cakes
Dry ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats, freshly ground in spice/coffee grinder
1 cup spelt, rice, or barley flour (choose the one you like)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
Wet ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
Zest of 1 lemon
juice of one lemon
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Grease a cookie sheet with vegetable oil.
Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir together.
Make a well in the center, add wet ingredients and stir until thoroughly blended.
With a large soup spoon, scoop out balls of batter and drop them onto the cookie sheet.
Flatten each ball lightly with the back of the spoon.
Bake for 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center tests clean.
May you plant seeds of nourishment in your life that will bring well-being for the seasons to come.
