Warm Farro Salad

Farro is an italian grain similar in shape and color to brown rice but richer in taste and texture. In recent years it has become much easier to find in grocery stores and is less expensive than 'fancy' wild rices. So I've been buying it like crazy! In fact, it's hard to go back to regular rice. So here is a warm farro salad that's makes a great accompaniment for roasted beef, chicken, or pork.

Free from dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, egg, and shellfish.

Ingredients
6 cooked servings of farro
1 red bell pepper
1 large zucchini
Several handfuls of fresh basil
1 tsp each of salt and pepper
1/2 cup good olive oil plus 1 tbsp for coating the veggies to roast
the juice of half a lemon
5 sun dried tomatoes
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Method
1. Chop the bell pepper and zucchini into 1cm cubes and toss lightly in olive oil. Roast on a sheet pan covered in parchment paper at 425F for about 15 - 20 minutes or until nicely browned on the edges.
2. Prepare the farro according to package directions. It generally takes under 20 minutes to cook
3. While the farro and veggies are cooking you can prepare the dressing. Add the olive oil, salt and pepper, basil, lemon juice, mustard, balsamic vinegar, and sun dried tomatoes to a blender. Pulse until smooth.
4. While the veggies and farro are still hot, add them both to a large mixing bowl and pour the dressing over top. Toss well.
Serves 6

Saffron Pepper Soup

This soup recipe calls for couscous, however you can use quinoa instead to make it gluten-free.

You'll need...

1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic
3 red shepherd peppers
2 roma tomatoes (they're fleshier and have fewer seeds than field tomatoes)
1/2 carton of vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
the juice of half a lemon
one pinch of saffron
about 1 serving of cooked couscous

Method
1. Sautee the garlic and olive oil until the oil starts to smell fragrant and the garlic is slightly brown.
2. Add the chopped up shepherd peppers and tomatoes, lemon juice, saffron, salt, and pepper, then reduce the heat to medium.
3. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and let cook for 45 minutes on low heat with a lid on. Stir often.
4. Remove the lid and let simmer for 15 - 20 minutes until slightly reduced.
5. Ladle the soup into a blender and pulverize til smooth. You can strain out the seeds and skins using a fine strainer but personally I really like the texture so I leave mine au naturale.
6. Pour a ladle of soup into a serving bowl and scoop in some couscous for each diner.

Salads in Bloom: 2 Fresh Recipes

Your Insta and Twitter feeds are likely swarming with PSL posts, pumpkin patch pictures, and snaps of cozy sweaters as the weather has officially transitioned to cold and windy. But let's bid summer one final farewell with 2 delicious, fresh, healthy salad recipes. A final hurrah before we're all stepping over ourselves to get away from the snow.

First up is a light Boston lettuce and citrus salad.

Ingredients
1 Boston lettuce
1 Florida orange, peeled and cut into cubes
1 tbsp diced red onion
1 Alfonso mango, peeled and cut into cubes
A few edible flowers (these can often be found at Loblaws)
1 tsp poppy seeds
1/3 cup sunflower or grape seed oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and black pepper to taste
1 tsp organic honey

Method
1. Tear the lettuce leaves apart into a large bowl along with the orange, mango, and red onion.
2. In a small bowl mix the poppy seeds, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and honey until well combined. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well, making sure not to over-saturate the leaves. This salad should be light and bright.
3. "Casually" drop some edible flowers on top, as though they had just sprouted there, for that magazine-ready look.

Crispy dandelion leaves with fresh fruit

Ingredients
1 bunch of dandelion leaves
1 ripe peach, diced
a handful of ripe figs (green or red) cut into halves
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp good balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. In order to get that bitter taste out of the dandelion leaves you just need to soak them in a bowl of cold water for several hours before prepping this dish. So it pays to plan ahead! If you don't soak them it's not the end of the world. But it's better if you do.
2. Dry off the leaves using paper towel. Heat up the oil in a non-stick pan. When the oil is hot (but not burnt - olive oil has a low tolerance for burning) drop the leaves in and let them crackle. You can use a grease guard to prevent spattering. This will only take a few minutes. When the leaves appear crispy around the edges you can add the vinegar and let it continue to sizzle away. Turn the heat off and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Immediately pour into a serving dish and add the fruit on top.

This salad isn't just delicious, it's also very high in nutrients and will add some fresh beauty to your next weeknight dinner.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Ingredients
5 cups white bread flour + some for dusting
2 tsp quick rise dry yeast
2.5 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 cups warm water
2 tsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

Method
Add the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt to a large bowl and mix well.

Make a well in the center and add the oil and water at one time. Begin stirring slowly until all the dry ingredients are incorporated and the dough has come together in a ball.

Dust some flour onto a clean surface and begin kneading the dough for several minutes until it's smooth and elastic.

Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for 1.5 hours. It should double in size.

Preheat oven to 425F.

Remove the plastic wrap and punch the dough in the center. Then transfer it onto a clean surface dusted with flour. Cut into 3 equal portions and roll each one into a rectangle that's about 1/4 inch thick. Dust the cinnamon over the dough evenly and then roll each one into a loaf.

Place the loaves a few inches apart on a large baking sheet and let stand for a half hour.

Place tray in preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 400F and bake for another 10 - 15 minutes.

The cooked loaves should be light brown on the outside and sound hollow when tapped.
Top the sliced bread with a smear of coconut oil, a dusting of cinnamon, and a sprinkle of raw sugar.

*You can freeze any unbroken bread in a freezer strength plastic bag. It will last for up to 3 weeks.

20-Minute Salmon and Salad

Free from dairy, nuts, peanuts, oats, mustard, egg, soy, wheat.

In the heat of summer the thought of being behind a hot stove is the last thing you want to do. But who wants to compromise on eating good food? Here's my recipe for crispy Atlantic salmon with a cucumber salad and avocado mayo. My brother and I are eating it right now! And I made it in under 20 minutes. Here's how...

Salmon

You'll need 1 portion of salmon (about the size of your fist) per person. Pat both sides of the fish dry with a paper towel and then season generously with salt and pepper. Heat up 1 tbsp. of good olive oil in a non-stick pan and place the salmon fillet in skin-size down. Cover with a splash guard if you have one because it will sizzle! Sear for about 5 minutes, or until crispy, then flip over and sear on the flesh side for another 7 minutes on medium-high heat.

Salad

Full disclosure here, I didn't come up with this recipe, I got it from Bran's mom. You can prep the salad while the salmon is cooking. Slice up 1 cucumber, mince one clove of garlic, and chop up about 1 tbsp. of dill. Add them all to a bowl and toss with salt, a drizzle of olive oil, and a drizzle of red wine vinegar. Mix well and set aside.

Avocado Mayo

Add 1 avocado, the juice of 1 lime, and some more chopped dill (about 1 tsp) to a blender or Magic Bullet and blend until creamy and smooth.

Serve 1 fillet of salmon, a scoop of salad, and a dollop of the mayo per person. Enjoy with a glass of white wine or lemonade. Yum!

Mands.

Pomegranate Salad with Saffron Dressing

Would you believe that this colorful, fresh salad was the product of a fridge clean-out? Sometimes letting fruit come to its full ripeness on your counter or sitting in the crisper can yield tasty results. See the recipe for this high-fibre side dish below.

Allergen Info
This recipe does not call for any dairy, nuts, peanuts, soy, or shellfish. It can be made gluten-free by excluding the mustard

Ingredients
1 large blood orange (any type of orange will work)
Seeds from 1 pomegranate
A few good handfuls of spring mix or your favorite baby lettuce
1 pinch of saffron
1/3 cup good extra virgin olive oil
the juice of one lemon
the juice of half a lime
1 dollop of organic honey
freshly ground black pepper
good sprinkling of sea salt to taste
1 tsp Dijon mustard (optional)

Method
1. Remove the seeds from the pomegranate by scoring the top of the skin with a paring knife and then ripping the fruit into 4 chunks. Fill a bowl with cold water and plunge the fruit, and your hands, into it. Proceed to remove the seeds underwater and then drain and dry.
2. Peel the orange and cut into segments. You can cut the chunks as large or small as you like.
3. Arrange the lettuce, orange, and seeds on a platter and set aside. Dress right before serving.
4. You will need a small mixing bowl for the dressing. Pinch the saffron in your finger tips to break up the strands or grind them down using a mortar and pestle. Add to the bowl along with the salt, pepper, lemon juice, lime juice, olive oil, and honey. Beat well. For a thicker dressing you can add some Dijon mustard but it’s not a necessity.

Serves 4

It’s All Easy (and delicious)

This weekend I invited one of my closest friends, Joella, into my kitchen to test out Gwyneth Paltrow’s new cookbook, It’s All Easy. The book is a collection of simple recipes that will feed a family and can be made quickly on a weeknight. Imagine a book for home cooks who are also busy parents and have a million tasks to accomplish after work.

I’m a fan of Gwyneth so before we dive in I’ll admit I’m biased. I loved The Royal Tenenbaums and Shallow Hal, I scroll through Goop from time to time, and I think conscious uncoupling is the most rational way to handle a split.

…And I envy her friendship with Mario Batali who I used to watch on TV all the time as a kid.

Upon opening the book there were some recipes that jumped out at me immediately. The chicken piccata, which we did make, looked stunning. The photographs in this book are top notch and create a whole atmosphere for the reader. I love that she included shots not only of the food but of her home, her interactions – her lifestyle.

I strongly agree with her statement that food doesn’t need to be complicated to be good. Several of her recipes are ones my nonna always makes, or ones I gravitate towards on weeknights. I pretty much never eat out unless I’m so exhausted Bran feels I’m at risk of fainting. And that is a very rare occurrence. I just love to cook, it’s what I do. I look forward to it at the end of the day, I often plan what I’m going to cook the night before, and I feel very satisfied when I hear murmurs of approval when others eat my food. Joella also cooks at home all the time, especially since she’s striving to incorporate more protein into her diet.

So let’s jump right in. We made three recipes from the book: Jessica’s coconut latte, lemon and herb pasta with cherry tomatoes, and chicken piccata.

Coconut Latte
We began with this recipe because we needed a little pick-me-up after work and before we poured the wine. How delicious does a coconut latte sound? I love that this recipe didn’t have to be altered to suit my allergies in any way. Very simply coconut oil, sugar, and espresso, all ingredients I already had on hand. We both loved the rich flavor of this drink and I actually went on to make Bran and myself one on Saturday and Sunday morning.

Once we were woken up we poured some wine and got ready to start cooking. Joella chose the soundtrack for the evening. We listened first to Koop Island and then some early Norah Jones (a favorite of both of ours). Our strategy was to begin the chicken and pasta in unison and hope they also finished cooking at the same time.

Chicken Piccata

Look at your food lovingly

Chicken in a delicate lemon and herb sauce with capers and lemon slices. I’ve had this dish many times before or variations of it using white wine or some broth. We sauteed the chicken breasts after dredging in flour, then added lemon slices and juice, capers, and Earth Balance vegan spread instead of butter. Again it was super easy to use substitutes for allergens, the only allergen being butter. The chicken was tender and saucy and we ate the entire plate. I could easily see myself recreating this meal some other time or especially if I had a group to feed. We served it on a bed of arugula.

Lemon and Herb Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes
Once again, this recipe was conducive to eating allergen-free. We just left out the parmesan but stuck to the recipe otherwise. It was a lot of food. You could easily serve a whole family with this dish and then have some leftover for lunches. It’s Sunday night and I still have a container full in my fridge. My only negative comment is that I felt like I needed a paella pan to simmer the pasta and tomatoes together. Joella also had a point of criticism as she thought it could have been more flavorful. It’s likely that the parmesan would have made up for that. In future I’ll add more garlic and some lemon.

We created a warm, cosy atmosphere to suit the book and meal. Then Jo got very tired of waiting for me to finish taking photos and we finally sat down to eat.

And we then we dug in! In a big way. It was somehow already 11:30 and we were starving, although we have a habit of talking so much when we’re together that we always lose track of time. Clearly this night was no exception. After scarfing down a huge helping each we settled in to watch the new season of Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix.

What we loved
This book really is great for anyone living with food allergies like myself.
There were tons of beautiful photographs that inspired me to cook.
Gwyneth gave us a window into her life which made the book feel very personal.
The recipes really were easy and used accessible ingredients.
Portion sizes were ideal for serving a family.
There are a ton of recipes in this book. A ton!

Our ratings
Accessibility of ingredients: 10/10
Flavor level: 8/10
Stunning photographs: 10/10
Covetable lifestyle and killer interior design skills: 15/10
Jessica Seinfeld’s coconut latte: priceless.

It’s All Easy sells for CAD $42.00. It’s hardcover bound with dust jacket and is available at Indigo in store or Indigo.ca