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Herbs and Spices

Spring Pea Salad with Walnuts and Za’atar Yogurt

April 27, 2018

This spring pea salad uses farm fresh peas and combines them with green onions and crunchy walnuts. It’s dressed in a yogurt-based sauce that is seasoned with za’atar, a Middle Eastern herb and spice blend. 
Spring Pea Salad with Walnuts and Za'atar Yogurt Recipe | FakeFoodFree.com

 

Pea salad. We’ve had a love-hate relationship for as long as I can remember. 

It has a bit to do with the pea salad I grew up with – canned or frozen peas and a mayo-based dressing. My family loved the stuff at get-togethers, but I always skipped over it in favor of macaroni or potato salad. 

But spring pea salad? This I can get behind. It sounds the same, but there is a key difference. 

Fresh peas. 

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Simple Slow Cooker Mung Bean Soup

November 11, 2015

Simple Slow Cooker Mung Bean Soup Recipe | Fake Food Free | An easy, comforting meal for the busy holiday season.  
Soon, we’ll be frantically running out to the supermarket to get overlooked ingredients. Soon, we’ll forget what it’s like to shop during the holidays and find ourselves elbowing our way to a check-out line. Soon, we’ll be waiting in line at the post office (something we swore we’d never do again) to get gifts mailed before the last possible hour. 

Soon, no matter how hard we try to stay in control, things are going to get crazy. 

I love the holiday season, crazy or not. So I say bring it on! As long as I have some lights sparkling in the living room and cookies in the oven at some point throughout the season, I’ll take it. 

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Roasted Butternut Squash with Pear and Red Walnuts

October 7, 2015

Roasted Butternut Squash with Pear and Red Walnuts Recipe | Fake Food Free
This butternut squash dish is not sweet. I repeat, this dish is not sweet.

If you are like me, no matter how many versions of winter squash you’ve made or been exposed to, your brain still thinks of nutmeg, cinnamon and maybe even maple, when you envision the rich, orange, tender squash.

Okay, I’ll admit that this does contain cinnamon. But cinnamon is one of those interesting spices that can swing sweet or savory. It this case, it’s savory. 

The secret to this recipe is some heat. You don’t have to burn your mouth off, but use at least a medium spicy chili powder. I could even see a chipotle chili powder working. When you use these deeply flavored spices you get a beautiful balance of slightly sweet squash, with earthy pear, a bit of heat and crunchy walnuts. 

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Lentils with Curry Turkey Meatballs and Lemon Spinach

July 8, 2015

In this recipe, slow cooker lentils are topped with turkey meatballs and then brightened with a sprinkle of fresh spinach for an easy one-bowl meal!
Lentils with Curry Turkey Meatballs and Lemon Spinach | Fake Food Free | Slow cooker lentils are combined with turkey meatballs and topped with fresh spinach in this one-bowl meal!

I tend to eat in earth tones. It’s something I didn’t realize until I began photographing my food.

Think about it. The occasional leafy green aside, many healthy foods are pretty much a big bunch of off white, beige and brown.

Lentils, beans, chickpeas, cauliflower, oats, onions, garlic, meats, mushrooms — all pretty much the same boring color. It’s unfair, too, because they can be pretty darn delicious. 

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Steamed Japanese Yams with Curry and Lime

May 13, 2015

These tender, steamed Japanese yams are flavored with curry powder and a twist of lime. They make a great side dish or snack!

Steamed Japanese Yams with Curry and Lime | Fake Food Free 
I’ve been intrigued by the world of potatoes and yams for some time. I think it probably started when we traveled to Ireland. Visiting the food markets there opened me up to the reality that there were more varieties than the red skinned and russet I was familiar with.

Then my potato passion moved to my own garden when I was growing red and white skinned potatoes. The excitement reached epic proportions the year I grew Adirondack Blue potatoes (what many people refer to as purple potatoes) and harvested 15 pounds from the garden!

I’m not growing my own potatoes right now, but the adventures have not ceased. They continue with cuisines and cultures that I have to admit took me completely by surprise. I’m not sure I ever expected to find so many Asian varieties of potatoes. They are of the sweet potato and yam family, and they are all over my favorite farmers market in Oakland. Purple, white, orange, yellow — it is seriously a rainbow of taters out there. 

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Lemon Walnut Salad Dressing

March 13, 2015

This salad dressing combines tangy lemon and creamy walnuts for a flavor that will bring out the best in mixed greens, pasta or grains!

Lemon Walnut Dressing | Fake Food Free

Salad season will soon be here. That probably sounds a little strange coming from someone who now lives in a place that most people would consider spring and summer year round.

I always thought that my salad cravings were controlled by the seasons, but I’ve learned that this is not the case. Apparently they are controlled by the months on the calendar. Despite sunshine and vegetables being plentiful all the time, I still really only want salads April through August. 

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Pickled Daikon and Kohlrabi Salad

March 10, 2015

This tangy pickled daikon and kohlrabi salad makes a super simple side dish for spring!

 Pickled Daikon and Kohlrabi Salad | Fake Food Free 

I’m a big fan of pickled veggies. Asparagus, long beans, cucumbers, carrots — pickle it and I love it. Last year, I gave up on pickling for long term preserving. Meaning no water bath pickling, etc.

I just can’t seem to master the art of keeping things crisp, and the batches end up being too large for us to finish in a reasonable amount of time. 

So now I’m into quick pickling. A few veggies, a vinegar mixture, a couple hours in the fridge and a manageable amount is ready to serve. 

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Smoked Salmon Sandwich

January 18, 2015

This smoked salmon sandwich is a re-creation of one of the many great meals we had in Copenhagen. It’s super simple, but so delicious!

Smoked Salmon Sandwich with Dill Pesto and Avocado | Fake Food Free   

We had a mission to try all the Danish specialties we could get our hands on during our recent trip to Copenhagen. That meant a lot fish — pickled herring, curried herring, gravlax and a delicious smoked salmon sandwich. 

I’ve had that sandwich on my mind since we returned. The flavors here aren’t unfamiliar, but the idea of smoked salmon on a sandwich was new to me. It’s not something I would think to make at home, but that has all changed now. 

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Chili Garlic Bean Salad Recipe

August 16, 2014

Chili Garlic Bean Salad | fakefoodfree.com

This was supposed to be a three bean salad.

I went to the pantry and grabbed three cans of beans, drained and rinsed them and added them to the mixing bowl. It wasn’t until I was halfway done making the recipe that I looked down and thought – wow, all those dark beans look the same. It turns out I grabbed two cans of black beans instead of one black and one can of kidney beans. It seems I have a problem with attention to detail.

Oh well, you are getting a little less variety, but not at the cost of good flavor or a darn easy recipe.

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Swedish Crisp Bread with Cumin from Tina Nordström’s Scandinavian Cooking

May 15, 2014
Swedish Crisp Bread with Cumin from Tina Nordström’s Scandinavian Cooking | Fake Food Free

Unless you count frequently visiting the IKEA marketplace and staying well stocked in lingonberry jam, I have little experience with Scandinavian cuisine. Had the opportunity for more experiences arisen, I would have snatched them up as it’s an area of the world that has always intrigued me, and one that has been on our travel list for a while. It’s just that even in this diverse food scene that I now live in, Scandinavian still doesn’t top the list of well-marketed options.

When I saw Tina Nordström’s Scandinavian Cooking I knew I needed a copy for my cookbook shelf. What a unique addition! I can safely say that I have nothing like this book in my collection. It not only fills a cuisine void, it is also a pretty outstanding cookbook.

Tina is a Swedish celebrity chef, host of the PBS show New Scandinavian Cooking and author of several cookbooks. This book, which she describes as the most comprehensive book that she has written, is speckled with family photos, letters and personal essays that give you a peek into her life. It’s comfortable style makes you feel as if you are in the kitchen cooking with her or dining at her family table. It’s an intimate feeling that you don’t get from many cookbooks.

After feeling at home as a result of the intro, next I was drawn in the by the food photos. They are exactly how I love them – moody and intriguing with a classic comfort that makes you feel happier by simply viewing them.

Next the recipes were there to educate me. It wasn’t enough to see the delicious titles. I just had to read the intros and ingredient lists to see what the food was all about. The book is a true lesson in Scandinavian cooking. I learned so much. Especially that the cuisine goes far beyond fish and my beloved lingonberries.

Whenever I explore new foods, I always go straight to the bread. I’d like to think that it’s not because I like carbohydrates so much. I’d rather think that it’s because breads, crackers or buns and rolls of some form or another tend to be at the foundation of so many cuisines (and if it isn’t bread it’s often rice or noodles).

That’s the first reason why the Swedish Crisp Bread with Cumin caught my attention. The second, was all the flavors. Yogurt, cumin and anise in a flatbread-like crisp? Sign me up!

I can’t stop gushing over the great flavors in this recipe. The tang of the yogurt with the spices is unlike any crisp bread or cracker I’ve had before.

Swedish Crisp Bread with Cumin from Tina Nordström’s Scandinavian Cooking | Fake Food Free

I didn’t get mine rolled out quite as thin as the version pictured in the book, so on the second round of baking I decided to cut them into squares to create crackers. It worked great. Either way they are delicious.  (I paired them with a quick spread of thick sour cream and herbs from the pantry.)

If your shelf has a void when it comes to Scandinavian cuisine, this is the cookbook you want to fill it with.

Swedish Crisp Bread with Cumin

Excerpted with permission from Tina Nordström’s Scandinavian Cooking: Simple Recipes for Home-Style Scandinavian Cooking by Tina Nordström. Photographs by Charlie Drevstam. Copyright, 2014. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. 

From the book:
I think it’s easier to bake crisp bread in a frying pan. It’s quite traditional and delicious with gravlax and some lemon mayonnaise (see page 92). Or try some green pea guacamole (see page 252). You can even break the crisp bread into a bowl of tomato soup.

30–35 CRISP BREADS
3 cups (700 ml) wheat flour
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) rye flour
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) yogurt
1/2 cup (100 ml) olive oil
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp salt
6 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp ground anise seeds

DIRECTIONS:
1. Mix all ingredients into a smooth dough.
2. Roll the dough out into flat pieces and bake them for about 4–5 minutes per side in either a cast iron frying pan without any grease or oil, or in the oven at 425ºF (225ºC) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
3. Store the crisp bread in a metal box in a dry location.

Swedish Crisp Bread with Cumin from Tina Nordström’s Scandinavian Cooking | Fake Food Free

Disclosure: This book was sent to me for review purposes. I was not required to write about it and received no compensation for doing so. 

 
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