Tag Archives: low carb recipes

A to Z Challenge 2015

Olives or Olive Oil, the Opportunities Abound

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I have a mixed relationship with olives. I never cared for the taste of them, so I wasn’t one of the kids who sat nibbling on jumbo olives perched on each of my fingertips. But I liked olives cooked into my food and the flavor that added, so most of the time, I use them in the recipe. Not that I’m adverse to serving jars or platters of the various types of olives at a gathering, but I’m just not likely to be eating them.

Olive oil on the other hand…

olive_oyl_goldnbones-250x370No, not that Olive Oyl!… is very useful in cooking just  about anything. I have a supply of that in my kitchen at all times. It’s the choice for pesto and salad dressing because it has a clean, fresh taste.

One of the oldest tree species on the planet, the humble olive has been a part of humanity — and animal – diets for thousands of years. Carbon dating has placed olive trees in Spain as far back as 8,000 years ago. Fossilized leaves were found in the volcanic ash on Santorini that go back 37,000 years B.C. Humans have cultivated it for around 5500 years or longer. The trees themselves live a long time with many being hundreds of years old and at least one dating to 2,000 years old. They came from the Mediterranean and Western Asia regions, spreading across the globe from there. It’s likely that the Spanish brought the olive to the Americas where there is no evidence of their existence prior to the 1500’s.

The olive has figured in many cultures. Its leaves symbolized peace and prosperity. It was, after all, the twig that the dove brought back to Noah to show that land, and at least an olive tree, existed after the great flood, so it also had mention in the Bible.

These days, olives are still a big crop in the Mediterranean countries. Spain is the largest producer with about 6 millions tons a year, followed by Italy with 3.6 million tons. Greece, Syria and Turkey are also major producers. Only about 10% of the crop is keep for eating while the rest are crushed to make olive oil. The main producer of olives in the US is California where they are grown on about 27,000 acres in the Central Valley. If you’ve noticed some of my previous blogs, California is a major producer of much of the food I’ve highlighted. This means that the drought conditions the west is currently experiencing will likely impact the farmers and our food chain. Expect higher prices at the market.

Uses for Olives and Olive Oil

From a culinary and low carb standpoint, the olive and its oil has many uses and is an excellent as it is low carb and good for you. It makes a great snack, if you like the taste of olives, and can be purchased with different stuffings in the pit hole, such as garlic or pimento. Or you could put a little cheese in it. Here’s a few ways you can use olives:

You can make a tepenade or spread from olives by chopping them in a food processor with garlic, olive oil, parsley and a little salt to taste. Use as a dip or spread on crackers, or cheese or vegetables.

Add olives to your salad. Chop or slice them or use them whole.

Add them to the appetizer plates for a family dinner. Try two or three varieties for color.

Nutrition information for black jumbo olives – 1 olive
Calories:6.7 Fat: 0.6 g Net Carbs: 0.2 g Protein:0.1 g

Nutrition information for olive oil 1 tablespoon
Calories:119.3 Fat: 1.8 g Net Carbs: 0.0 g Protein: 0.0 g

Recipes

a-z-olives

As I mentioned, I like to cook with chopped or sliced olives and I do have a few recipes on Skinny Girl that use olives:

Spaghetti Squash Tamale Pie
Tostado Con Carne
Bacon with Alfredo Sauce Pizza

So, folks, how do you like your olives?

All comments relevant to my posts are welcome. SPAM is not.  If the post has nothing to do with my site content, it will not be posted.

Information for this article was pulled from World’s Healthiest Foods, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia of Life

The top photo is from Wiki Commons and is used with permission – “Olives au marche de Toulon p1040238” by David Monniaux – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons –
The photo of Olive Oyl is from OliveOylloves.com, the official Olive Oyl site.

A to Z Challenge 2015, Breakfast & Brunch, Mexican/Spanish Recipes, Pork, Recipes

Nurture with Nopal

I have a fairly good-sized prickly pear cactus growing in my yard that arrived there by bird farmers or some other means and it has yielded a few pears over the past two years. Our neighbor’s desert tortoise is particularly fond of the pads and she often snacks on them. The Mexican name for this cactus is nopal or nopales and it is a source of food, nutrition and, possibly, medicines for humans.

Nopales are native to Mexico and spread over the Southwest in general. The root species is the Opuntia cacti. There are actually 114 known species of this cactus family and the leaves of all of them are edible. In Mexico, the cactus pads are popular in many foods dishes, using both raw and cooked pads. In the spring, the cacti produce beautiful, colorful flowers that mature into prickly pears or tunas, a seedy fruit that can be made into jam, jellies and juices or eaten fresh. The taste is described as a blend of watermelon and strawberry, but I haven’t noticed it so much. I tasted the uncooked pad and found a similar taste to watermelon with just a touch of sweetness.

Using Cacti

When dealing with this cactus, you need to take care to avoid the many little spines that inspire the name prickly pear. Gloves or tongs are very useful in handling these items. In order to use the pads or the pears in cooking, you need to carefully remove the spines. Here’s a video from Rivenrock Gardens, a company that sells Nopales, on how to clean the pads.   Cleaning Pads

The pears are equally as tricky to work with, but there is a quick trick to peeling them and using them without stabbing yourself. Using tongs or forks to handle the pear, you follow the basic directions in this video from The Produce Guy for cutting the pear, just being careful not to touch them with your hands. It helps to wear gloves. If you buy them at the grocery, they are probably already cleaned of the spines so they are safe to handle.

Here’s a tip: If you do get one of the spines in your hand, use white glue to remove it. Simply spread the glue over the sore spot, let it dry and pull it out. It will grab the hair fine spine with it.

Health Benefits

At this time, many of the possible health benefits are being researched, but it is believed to be of use in treating type 2 diabetes. It is high in fiber and pectin, which can reduce sugar absorption in the digestive tract. It is also rumored to be good for treating colitis, obesity and high cholesterol. As more research is done, it will be interesting to see if this is an effective food.

Nutrition information for 149 g (about 1 cup)
Calories:22 Fat:0 g Net Carbs:2.0 g Protein:2 g

I have only used Nopal a few times in the past couple of years, but here is a recipe from this site:

Prickly Pear and Orange Marmalade

Here’s a new recipe that uses the pads:

Nopalitos with Chorizo and Eggs

1 young Nopales Pad, cleaned trimmed, and cut into strips
1/2 cup Pico de Gallo
1 Serrano Pepper, chopped
4 large Eggs
1 teaspoon Mexican Oregano
1 teaspoon Chile Powder
1/2 cup Chorizo sausage
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar Jack Cheese
1/4 cup Queso Fresco
4 Low Carb Tortillas, 7 inch

Cook strips of nopalitos in water with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon oregano. Drain when they are tender.

In a skillet, heat one tablespoon oil, then add the nopalitos for a few minutes. Add the Pico de Gallo, Mexican oregano and Serrano peppers and continue to cook until the onions are almost done. Remove to a bowl.

Add a little olive oil to the pan, then add chorizo sausage and stir fry until it is lightly cooked. Add the vegetables back to the pan and add chile powder.

Beat eggs in a bowl, add a bit of salt and pepper and a little more oregano. Add eggs into the mixture, continuing to stir as they cook. Sprinkle cheddar jack cheese over the top and remove from the heat.

Warm up tortillas over the burner or in the oven. Serve eggs and sprinkle a little Queso Fresco over the top.

Serve with tortillas. Makes 4 servings

Nutrition Info per serving
   Calories: 339 Fat: 24.1 g Net Carbs: 6.9 g Protein: 23.3 g

* If you can’t find tortillas, you can eat them with a low carb flat bread or pita bread or without bread. Low Carb tortillas are 3 nc per tortillas, so that would be 3.9 nc for the meat and vegetables.

All comments relevant to my posts are welcome. SPAM is not. If the post has nothing to do with my site content, it will not be posted

Information for this article came from Wikipedia, Web M.D., Nopal Export, Nutrition and You.com and Rivenrock Gardens

All photos taken by R. Averett and copyright Skinny Girl Bistro

A to Z Challenge 2015, Recipes, Vegetables & Salads

Munching on Mung Beans

Well, not really. I haven’t actually seen a mung bean in my grocery store, so I suspect I will need to visit an Asian market to actually find the bean. But what I do find at the market is bean sprouts and the majority of those consumed in the United States are from the mung bean seed. Those are those delightfully crunchy sprouts that go so well in Chinese food and in salads. But as for the beans themselves, they are also mashed into a mung bean paste that is used in Asian and Indian cooking. What are we missing out on?

Actually, the bean is usually dried for use, then boiled until they are soft. The paste can be made by removing the outer hull, cooking and then pulverizing the beans until they are a dry paste. In some regions of India, the hulled beans are used to make mung dal.  Other areas of India season the whole beans with spices and fresh coconut to make sundal.

Chinese cuisine used the whole bean to make a dessert called lǜdòu tángshuǐ. Dehulled mung beans and mung bean paste are used in Hong Kong to make ice cream. Mung bean paste is used as a filling for mooncakes in East China and Taiwan. Boiled and shelled beans are used as filling in rice dumplings that are eaten during the dragon boat festival.They can also be blended into a sweetened beverage.

In Indonesia, the beans are cooked with coconut milk and ginger to make es kacang hijau, which is a porridge-like dessert. Monggó guisado or balatong is a Filipino stew of whole mung beans with prawns or fish. Again, mung bean paste is used to make a sweet pastry called a hopia that is popular in the Philippines, Indonesia and Guyana, where it is called a black eye cake.

History

Since ancient times, the mung bean has been grown in India and is now widely grown in southeast Asia, Africa, South America and Australia. It seems to have been cultivated in the United States as early as 1835 where it was known as the Chicksaw pea. Although the beans are widely grown for human consumption, they can also be used as a manure crop and as forage for livestock.Of the fifteen to twenty millions pounds of mung bean consumed annually in the US, nearly 75% is imported. The rest is primarily grown in Oklahoma.

The mung bean sprouts are what we see most often in groceries. They are high in protein, calcium, phosphorus and some vitamins as well as low calorie and low carb. This makes them very important for providing protein in areas where people don’t have many other sources.

1200px-Bean_sprouts_04
Mung Bean sprouts – Photo from WikiCommons – “Bean sprouts 04” by Anna Frodesiak – Own work. Licensed under CC0 via Wikimedia Commons

 

Nutrition information
Mung Beans 1 tablespoon
Calories: 45, Fat: 0.2 g,Net Carbs: 5.9 g, protein: 3.1 g

Bean sprouts 1 cup
Calories 31, Fat 0 g, Net Carbs: 4 g Protein: 3 g

Recipes

Asian fusion “Dirty” rice. Photo by R. Averett

Here’s a trio of recipes on Skinny Girl that use bean sprouts in them. I think I need to expand my use, although I do use them often in salads.

Egg Foo Yung
Orange Chicken
Asian Fusion “Dirty” Rice

 All comments relevant to my posts are welcome. SPAM is not.  If the post has nothing to do with my site content, it will not be posted.

Information for this article came from Purdue University – Alternative Field Crops Manual, Wikipedia, Food for Life, Food for Awakening

Top Photo from Wiki Commons, used with permission – “ചെറുപയർ മുളപ്പിച്ചത്” by Edukeralam, Navaneeth Krishnan S – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A to Z Challenge 2015, Vegetables & Salads

Love My Leeks

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I have a long relationship with leeks. Must be that Celtic passion thing I have going because I’ve always loved leeks in my potato soup. So naturally when I stopped eating potatoes, I simply added leeks to my cauliflower soup and my casseroles and other dishes. They bring a mild onion taste that is uniquely their own. Usually, I use them as a complementary flavor to a dish, although you can eat leeks as the focal point in the dish. I recall reading that Saint David, in Welsh Dewi Sant, was said to have eaten only leeks during fasts. Okay, I don’t like them that much, but they are a great addition to many dishes from soups and stews to vegetable dishes.

Although the white bulb part is usually the big attraction for cooks, the green portion of the leek is also edible and cooks up very well. I cut up from two-thirds to three-quarters of the leeks when I clean and chop them.They do need to be cleaned very well though as those long leaves tend to hide soil within them. Once I cut them up, I run them under water in a colander and swish them around to make sure the dirt is off. They can then be put in plastic bags and kept in the crisper of the refrigerator for several weeks or frozen for three or more months.

History

Since they look like an over-sized scallion (green onion), it’s no surprise that they’re related to onions, garlic, scallions and shallots. Leeks can be traced back in culinary history for thousands of years. Believed to originate in Asia, there is evidence for them all over the Middle East and Europe. The ancient Greeks and Romans used them extensively and the latter most likely introduced them to Great Britain where they thrived. Leeks took hold with the Welsh and eventually became the national symbol of Wales. Folklore records that the aforementioned Dewi Sant encourage Welsh warriors to wear leeks in their caps to make it easy to identify their comrades during a battle against the Saxons that proved successful for the Welsh.

Recipes

leeks-a-z

Here are a few recipes from Skinny Girl that use leeks:

Cennin gyda Thomato a Bacwn – Leeks with Tomatoes and Bacon
Smashed Turnips with Leeks
Asparagus Leek Cauli-risotto
Creamy Cock-a-Leekie Soup
Spring Time Pasta

Nutrition information for 124 grams (a little over 1 cup sliced)
Calories: 38 Fat: 0 Net Carbs: 8 g Protein: 1 g
Information for this article was gleaned from World’s Healthiest Foods,   Wikipedia, and Specialty Produce

Top photo from Wiki Commons, used with permission – “13-08-31-wien-redaktionstreffen-EuT-by-Bi-frie-031” by Bi-frie (talk) – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons –

 

A to Z Challenge 2015

Kooky Kohlrabi is Great!

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Kohlrabi is one of my favorite vegetables. I didn’t “discover” it until a few years ago when one of my friends in France mentioned it to me as a potato alternative. As luck would have it, my local grocery had some in stock so I tried it. Whenever I’m looking for an option to replace potatoes in a recipe, I try it two or three ways I would cook a potato, the first being to fry it. Kohlrabi handled this marvelously, frying up nicely into a tasty plank that doesn’t taste like potato, but still gives you an excellent fried vegetable with sandwiches. It also handled the roast and boil test as well as being a great sliced vegetable in salads.

America is just now finding kohlrabi, it seems, although it’s been here since the early 1800’s. I mostly hear that people have cut it thinly or shredded it and used it in their salads or that they’ve used the leaves and thrown the bulb away or fed it to farm animals . But it is so much more. I love to mix it with cauliflower and celery root and make mashed veggies with it that can replace mashed potatoes. They don’t taste like mashed potatoes, but they have such a wonderful flavor that I don’t even care.  As a side dish on its own, cooked with butter and seasonings, it is delicious. I cannot rave enough about this vegetable!

History

This is a relatively new vegetable that originated in Germany. The name is German for cabbage (kohl) and turnip (rabi). Indeed, the vegetable comes from the same root family as cabbage, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts —  the wild mustard plant. Prior to about 500 years ago, there was no record or indication of either kohlrabi or Brussels sprouts. They appear to be cultivated varieties of the root stock. What is unusual about kohlrabi is that the vegetable grows into a round tuber on the stalk with long stalks of leaves coming out it. It’s almost like having a root above ground. While it looks odd, its flavor is similar to its cousin broccoli’s stalk, but milder in flavor. The leaves are also edible, although by the time the bulb reaches 3 inches or more in diameter, the leaves get a little tough. They can be cooked and used as you would turnip or mustard greens.

There are several varieties of kohlrabi, the green variety being seen most often. There is also a purple variety. I have grown some of each in my garden and I notice the purple variety tends to be more elongated. They like cool weather though and thus far, I haven’t gotten them to maturity before summer sets in.

The vegetable needs to be peeled as there are two layers of tough skin and fiber that are not edible. I find it easiest to parboil them for about three minutes, cool them down, then a paring knife removes these layers quickly.  I really urge you to try kohlrabi, raw or cooked, and enjoy this marvelous-tasting vegetable.

Recipes

kohlrabi-comp

 

Here’s a few recipes from Skinny Girl that use or feature kohlrabi:

Spicy Chicken Kohlrabi Curry
Hungarian Style Kohlrabi Rolls
Kohlrabi and Ham Casserole
Irish Style Celery and Kohlrabi
Broccoli with Mornay Sauce

Nutrition information for 1 cup (135 g) kohlrabi
Calories: 36.5 Fat: 0.1 g Net Carbs: 3.5 g Protein: 2.3 g

All comments relevant to my posts are welcome. SPAM is not.  If the post has nothing to do with my site content, it will not be posted.

References for this article include Wikipedia, Specialty Produce,  Kohlrabi and Brussels Sprouts Are European

Photos taken by R. Averett, copyright Skinny Girl Bistro