Grapefruit Avocado Spinach Salad

To continue the citrus theme, I’ve got a grapefruit recipe for you this week.  After requesting suggestions in my last post, Dear Cousin Shiela gave me a rough outline of a recipe that she is fond of.  The original recipe comes from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites.  I don’t have this book, however, so I sort of winged it based on Shiela’s description.

I prepared the dressing first, and separately, so it would be ready to go once the rest of the salad was.  Overall, I think I put too much garlic in the dressing, so the ingredient list below reflects a more toned down version.  You’ll probably have left-over dressing for use in other yummy salads.

I used a bunch of Bordeaux Spinach that I got in my CSA share and it was yummy and added some color.  Of course, I think the original recipe probably utilized plain old green spinach.  We had this for lunch with some fresh bread and brie – the combination of bitterness in the salad (grapefruit, garlic and spinach) and the slight sweetness of the bread and brie was divine.

Grapefruit Avocado Spinach Salad

• 1 grapefruit, sectioned and cut into smaller pieces
• 1 avocado
• 1 bunch spinach
• 1 clove finely chopped garlic
• 1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together the olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper to make the dressing.  Set aside.  Toss together salad ingredients and drizzle with dressing.

Mesquite Flour Pancakes

Early last fall one of my coworkers surprised me by bringing in two large buckets filled with mesquite pods she had collected from her property. She knew that I have a baking habit and thought I might be able to use the pods. All I had to do was take them to get ground into flour/meal. In Tucson we have a great organization called Desert Harvesters who set up at several locations around town in the fall to grind mesquite pods. Sadly, I managed to miss two different weekends when they had set up to mill the pods. In the end, the lovely pods that I had been gifted became infested with some sort of bug while sitting in my garage. I can not tell you how wasteful I felt. I had such a great opportunity, and I blew it.

Fortunately, acquiring mesquite flour isn’t terribly difficult in Tucson. Mesquites are the most common shrub/tree in the desert Southwest. The pods, ground into a flour or meal, have been a part of local cuisine for hundreds of years. In fact, several studies have show that, like many other desert foods, the sweetness of the meal is deceiving. In truth, mesquite flour can be wonderful for controlling blood sugar levels. Obviously, this is a boon to people with diabetes, but I think it’s really great for all of us.

I picked up some flour from my beloved Native Seeds/SEARCH. It is also available here, here and here. It’s a little pricey, but is used in smaller quantities and in combination with regular flour.

These pancakes have no sugar in the batter. In the picture, they are show with honey as a topping. For the gluten-free folks out there, just substitute your favorite gluten free flour mix for the all-purpose portion of this recipe and you’re all set!

Mesquite Flour Pancakes

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup mesquite flour
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups milk, maybe slightly less
• 2 eggs, well-beaten
• 1/2 stick butter, melted

In a large bowl sift together the all-purpose flour, mesquite flour, salt and baking powder.

In a separate, smaller bowl whisk together the eggs, butter and milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. There will probably be some lumps, but if you mix too much your pancakes will get tough.

Pour your batter onto a hot , lightly greased skillet in 2 T increments for silver dollar sized pancakes or in 1/4 c dollops for full-sized pancakes.

Serve with warm honey, maple syrup or fruit preserves.

___________________

UPDATED 1.7.09:

Check out Peter’s comment below if you are planning to make these gluten free.  The picture below is his and shows the difference between waffles with mesquite flour subbed in using his method and plain GF flour waffles (looks like moslty just color to me).  He offers some experience with GF flour mixtures that I don’t have, hopefully it helps!

Black Beans & Rice

So, originally I was planning to post a true German Apple Pancake recipe today. Thing is, the recipe I tried this weekend was…well, it was absurdly sweet*. And really eggy. And not exactly what I was going for. Stay tuned, though, I’ll be doing some more research and bringing those almost-savory apple pancakes to you shortly.

Instead, I bring you the meal that saved our aching stomachs after we ate the INSANELY sweet pancake I made. This simple, humble meal? Black Beans & Rice.

D and I met in a sort of study abroad program in college. I say “sort of” because we were only abroad for a month of the semester. We spent most of our time in D.C. interning and studying all things International Environment and Development. Then we went to Costa Rica for a field practicum. Which is another way of saying that our program paid for all 12 of us to go on vacation** for a month.

Anyway, while in Costa Rica we ate a lot of beans and rice – the start of a love affair. Back at school for our last years of undergrad (and our first years living off campus) we ate a LOT more rice and beans – in all permutations. More recently, D has been traveling to Miami every month and always makes a point to fill up on Cuban rice and beans. This dish is his version. Maybe you could call it “Cuban-New Mexican Beans & Rice?” Whatever it is called, D whipped this up while I was in a food coma from the pancake…

Again, we cooked the beans in the pressure cooker. 4 hours of soaking and 10 minutes cooking time at pressure. Can’t beat it! After they were done cooking, we rinsed the beans and added the rest of the ingredients to the pot. If you wanted, you could make this even heartier by adding chicken or, as I did today for lunch, topping with a fried egg.

Black Beans & Rice

• 5 1/2 c black beans, cooked and rinsed (2 c uncooked)
• 1 lg or 2 medium onions, diced
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 fresh green chiles, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 T Ancho chili powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 oz dark chocolate
• 3 c chicken broth, approximately
• dash of Worcestershire (optional)
• 3 c long grain white rice
• 5 c water

Toss all but the last two ingredients into a large pot on your stove top. Turn up the heat and get things simmering. The chicken stock should just barely cover your beans. Easy, right? Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Set your rice and water up in a smaller pot (or your rice cooker). Cook for 20 minutes or until rice reaches desired consistency.

Serve the beans atop the rice. Mmmm…

*Panic: did I measure wrong? No, no. The Cooking Light recipe really called for that much sugar!
**That is, of course, if you define vacation like we do: learning and exploring. We weren’t laying on the beach all day, every day. Only one or two of the days 🙂

Warm Quinoa Salad

It’s official:  N is married!  I’m so happy to have A, her hubby, as a new (official) family member!

The last 10 days have been a complete whirlwind.  Traveling.  Eating. Visiting dear friends.  Eating.  Standing up in N’s wedding.  Eating.  More friend visiting.  Eating.  You get the picture.  D and I actually created a challenge for ourselves about half way through the trip:  consume 3,000+ calories per meal.  We were joking around about it but, with all the deep dish pizza, hot dogs, doughnuts, Indian, Thai, Chinese, Italian, etc.,  I suspect we actually came close.  I guess that is one of my favorite things about Chicago – food glorious food!

Of course, now it is detox time.  I rarely eat as much sugar as when I am on vacation – even though I LOVE the stuff.  The heavy food started to do me in too.  My system is a little out of whack and begging for some stabilizing food.

I started thinking about making something with quinoa and flashed on a dish I made years ago out of Yoga Journal.  I love the nutty taste of quinoa and I figure the healthy punch it packs – complete protein, high in fiber, blood sugar stabilizer, nutrient rich, etc. – fits well into my light and filling detox meal needs.

As a chronic midday salad eater, I find this to be really satisfying for lunch in the fall and winter.  It also makes a great dinner (for 2) or side dish (for 4 or 5).  It’s also easy to double.

Warm Quinoa Salad

• 1 c uncooked quinoa
• 2 c chicken or veggie stock
• 1 c red onion, diced (about 1 medium)
• 1 medium carrot, sliced thinly
• 12-15 green beans, chopped in 2 inch sections
• 1 medium apple, diced
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 1 c spinach, sliced in thin ribbons (about 2 oz)
• 1/4 c toasted pecans, roughly chopped
• 3 T olive oil, divided
• fresh ground pepper

In a large sauce pan, heat 1 T of olive oil over medium heat.  Add the quinoa and toast lightly.  You’ll start to hear a small popping sound when they are toasted – it should take no more than 5 minutes.  Add the stock, cover and cook for 20 minutes.  When your quinoa is cooked it will look like this:

Sauté the onion and carrots in 2 T of olive oil.  When the onion is translucent, add the green beans and diced apple and cook for 2-3 more minutes.  Remove from heat.

When the quinoa is cooked, add the red wine vinegar, toss and stir in the veggie mixture.  Cover and let sit for 5 minutes.  This will cook the beans so they have a perfect crisp tenderness.  Just before serving toss in the spinach ribbons and sprinkle with roasted pecans.  Add fresh ground pepper to taste.