Freestyle Friday: Cleaning Out The Fridge

Roasted Roots with Carrot Top Pesto

Admittedly I made this simple dish because I desperately needed a healthy meal and my carrots have been sitting in my fridge for too long. I also wanted to practice my plating technique with something I threw together. I found that it does a great job showcasing my carrot top pesto. So yeah, enjoy!

Roasted Roots with Carrot Top Pesto

Ingredients

• 4 Carrots 
• 1 Large Sweet Potato
• Fresh Ginger 
• Olive Oil
• Carrot Top Pesto

 Directions

1. Wash your carrots and potato
2. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees F 
3. Peel and grate the ginger into a paste and rub over the carrots generously (if I could do it again I’d try picking the carrots in a ginger mixture but I feel that it added enough to it to make this step worth it)
4. Cut the sweet potato into bite sized bits 
5. Lightly coat the sweet potato in olive oil and place into a roasting pan lined with foil
6. Place the carrots on a rack and put them into the middle shelf of your preheated oven (no oil needed for the carrots)
7. Take your pan of sweet potatoes and put them there as well
8. Cook for about 45 minutes and remove
9. Halve the carrots to reveal the gorgeous orange flesh
10. Plate the potatoes and carrots and drizzle on the carrot top pesto

Currently Listening To: Icarus – Bastille 

When a Chef Gets Stupidly Abrasive About Serving Vegans and Vegetarians

I just want to…

Another Kale Salad Recipe

Tangy Tuscan Kale Salad with Fragrant Orange Quinoa and Red Onions

So normally I make my kale salads with tahini for a thick and creamy dressing but sometimes I want to nix the fat content as much as possible so here one with apple cider vinegar instead for a salad that is soft but still raw. 

 

Ingredients

• 1 Bunch of tuscan kale, center stem removed
• 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar 
• 1/2 a small red onion, sliced
• 1 cup of Cooked and cooled Quinoa
• Optional: 1/8th tsp of orange extract
• Sugar to taste

Directions

1. Cook the quinoa (2 parts water, 1 part quinoa) and allow to cool, you can cook the quinoa using the extract for a more aromatic dish
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the vinegar and just enough sugar to take most of the bite out of the vinegar 
3. Add the red onion and allow to sit for 5 minutes
4. In the meantime, chop the kale into a mouth manageable size
5. Then massage the kale into the vinegar and allow to sit for 10 minutes, mixing periodically, allowing the acids to break down the green
6. Finally, add the cooled quinoa and mix it all in

When I cook for myself I tend to stray to the healthier side so I add very little sugar to mine. Others might need anywhere from 1/4 tsp to a tbsp depending on how much you enjoy acidity. Either way, it’s a quick and simple dish you can make rather quickly and it has the potential to be ridiculously healthy.

A Rainbow of Carrots (And a Carrot Top Pesto Recipie)

I do love springtime in Michigan. It’s a time when the second largest exporter (under California) of produce starts to wake and all the goodies and treats start becoming available. This morning, one of my urban farmer friends from ACRE Detroitposted on his Facebook that the first batch of rainbow carrots were ready for harvesting and I jumped on the opportunity to get my hands on some.

He even delivered it to my door. Such a nice guy! 

It’s Good For You: Curried Lentil Stew with Ramps and Quinoa

I just got back from a particularly intense workout session with Kimo at Truebody Fitness and I was starving. I try to keep fast and processed foods to a minimum in the house so I always have to quickly whip something up if I want to eat. I also needed it to be healthy and productive to recovery after some rather intense strength training (intense for me anyway, Kimo is a beast). I knew I needed a source or protein to build muscle, some electrolytes to replace what I sweat out, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and some healthy fats to help me absorb all this. I also needed a good source of antioxidants and anti-infammitories to help my body recover from the work out.

Here’s what I came up with using the leftovers in my fridge and some crap from my pantry.