ColumnWhy cardamom is your new best friend.

High end ramen, breakfast for dinner, sparkling water: We spend a lot of time discovering and discussing food trends on Foodie Underground. It’s a dichotomous pursuit. There are the evenings spent complaining to friends about how fed up with the foodie world I am (bone luging, really? yet another cupcake store, must we?). Naturally, in the next sentence, I’m going on about my sea salt and olive oil polenta cake in the oven.

“Sea salt, Anna, really?”

“But sea salt is really good in cake. I swear.”

Pause.

“Want to try this cardamom chocolate cake instead?” Tease all they want, I know they’re not going to turn it down.

No matter how much your friends roll their eyes at a foodie’s obsession, one can always quell their serving of sass with what one cooks up. Appreciation for good homemade food is universal.

But about those trends. Today: cardamom.

Go take a look in your spice cabinet. What do you see? A half-empty container of powdered ginger that’s more yellow mass than powder? Vietnamese cinnamon you haven’t used since that botched chai recipe in graduate school’s chai-and-soy-I-don’t-do-coffee days? Turmeric that you don’t dare use because…well, because it’s so damn technicolor?

Get rid of them – all of them – and make room for cardamom, your new spice of choice.

I have a personal long-standing love affair with cardamom, it being the basis of practically every Swedish baked good ever created – thank you, Vikings. It has been a longtime staple in my culinary adventures, but lately I’ve noticed that whenever I see a restaurant that employs one word for its name (or two words connected by an ampersand in Helvetica of course), I can be certain there will be cardamom on the menu. Cardamom is the food world’s latest It Spice.

This spice deserves any accolade a food lover gives it. It’s versatile, delicious and sexy in everything from desserts to main courses. Yes, it’s expensive, coming in after saffron and vanilla, but there’s good reason that this India-born spice is the new épice du jour.

Here are five reasons you should (and will) fall in love with cardamom.

1. Cardamom is exotic. It is sexy.

Cardamom has a distinct and complex flavor. Bonus: Anything you put the spice in is automatically going to sound more alluring that the original version.

Just read the following variations out loud:

Orange ice cream. Orange cardamom ice cream.

Roasted potatoes. Cardamom roasted potatoes.

Saffron macaroons. Saffron-cardamom macaroons.

And so forth. Thanks to this spice, you can instantly turn yourself into a creative, culinary genius, which of course will be a hit for your food-related dating endeavors. It’s marketing, baby! (Fortunately, the product backs up the hype.)

2. Cardamom goes well with coffee.

“Must be some Scandinavian thing,” a friend of mine responded to a comment I had made about never being able to put too much cardamom in my coffee.

I’m not certain putting cardamom in coffee is an actual Scandinavian habit, but my Swedish-born mother has been doing it since before I can remember, and she buys cardamom in bulk quantities to ensure that we never run out. Having the economic sensibilities of every other food-loving twentysomething, I always fill a plastic bag up when I go home to visit my parents to avoid having to purchase it myself.

Add a pinch (or two, or three) to your morning brew and let it work its magic. You’ll quickly understand my obsession.

3. Cardamom is both sweet and savory.

The beauty of cardamom is that it goes just as well with pastries as it does in a lamb tagine.

For a quick and easy sweet tasting cardamom recipe, try my favorite Cardamom Cake.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 7 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk

Instructions:

-Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add in butter with your fingers and mix until crumbly consistency.

-Add in egg and milk and mix until a batter consistency.

-Pour into a greased 9.5 inch circular baking pan. If you want to, sprinkle with sliced almonds or orange zest. (The one pictured above uses Swedish Pearl Sugar, which you can buy at IKEA or import food stores).

-Bake at 400 F for about 30 minutes.

4. You can get creative with cardamom.

I have found that any recipe that requires any element of spice can be adapted to include cardamom. Food52 ran a contest with cardamom inspired recipes, resulting in everything from Bellinis to granola.

If you have yet to go out on a foodie limb, cardamom could just be your gateway spice. Start small. Add a little cardamom to your hot chocolate, for example. Then graduate to more complex creations, like cardamom in a butternut squash soup.

Just remember to go easy; too much cardamom and your recipe will taste more like medicine than food.

5. You can please omnivores, vegans, the gluten-intolerant and your grandmother. 

There’s a cardamom recipe for everyone.

The Meat Lover: Cocoa Cardamom Steak Rub

The Vegan: Cardamom Macadamia Nut Pancakes

The Europhile: Fig and Cardamom Spiced Tiramisu

Your Conventional Grandmother: Cardamom-Spiced Meatloaf

The Bacon Lover: Sugared Cardamom Bacon

The Gluten Intolerant: Cardamom and Orange Quinoa Cookies

The Bartender: No. 4 – a cocktail with gin and cardamom

Now get yourself to the grocery store and stock your spice cabinet. You have delicious to do.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Image: Veganbaking.net, Anna Brones

We know what you’ll be making for brunch today. 

Welcome to Sunday Brunch, a new weekly series that’s bringing you inventive and delicious brunch recipes from our favorite food blogs around the web. Today, it’s Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Cake from Turntable Kitchen in the oven. And since Turntable Kitchen is known for pairing music with food, they even made us a special brunch playlist to serve up with this recipe.

Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Coffee Cakes
Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
*Serves a crowd

The cake:

• 3 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 sticks of butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 1/4 cups of sugar
• 1 16-ounce package of sour cream
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

The chocolate cinnamon swirl:

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

The pecan crumb:

• 3/4 cup of flour
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 3/4 cup of roughly chopped, toasted pecans
• 6 tablespoons of cold butter (unsalted), diced into small cubes

1. Start by making the pecan crumb topping by putting all of the ingredients, save the butter, into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add the butter, pulsing until fully incorporated. Chill in the refrigerator while you make the cake.

2. Whisk the sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon in a small bowl to combine to make the swirl.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and butter a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

4. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter until smooth and light. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy.

6. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure to beat well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all of the ingredients are mixed.

7. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla. Next, beat in the dry mix in three additions (don’t over mix the batter).

8. Pour about 1/3 of the cake batter into the pan, spreading it evenly. Top with half of the chocolate-cinnamon swirl mixture.

9. Pour another third of the batter and top with the rest of the chocolate-cinnamon swirl mixture.

10. Pour in the rest of the batter, smoothing it evenly. Sprinkle with the crumb topping.

11. Bake for about 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

12. Once cool, cut into crowd-serving-sized squares or rectangles.

*Note: if you are using a smaller pan, you should keep in mind that the cake will take much longer to cook (up to an hour and forty five minutes). To make sure you don’t burn the crumb topping, make a foil tent and cover the pan while you bake.

Sunday Brunch is an ongoing series featuring brunch recipes from some of our favorite food blogs around the web. New recipes every Sunday, so that you’re ensured a gourmet weekend. Bon appetit!

With all the 8 essential amino acids your body needs, quinoa is an impressive complete protein. Although it has only recently made its way onto the menus of trendy fare here in the US, its history dates all the way back to 3,000 B.C.E., where it was grown in the Andes. Now the grain that the ancient Incas called the “mother grain” is quickly making its way into healthy diets around the world.

Just why is quinoa good for you? Here are five excellent reasons:

- Quinoa is gluten-free.
- This particular grain contains more protein than any other grain, around 12-18%.
- It is an alkaline grain, which helps to balance the acidic foods that often make up a large part of our diets.
- Quinoa contains high amounts of magnesium, which helps with cardiovascular health.
- And talk about versatile; you can eat quinoa for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even dessert.

Sound to good to be true as a dessert? Test out this gluten-free recipe and you’ll be just as amazed by the delicious qualities of quinoa as the healthy ones.

Quinoa Spice Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 large organic apple, peeled and diced
3 organic eggs
1 stick organic butter, melted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup organic raisins (optional)
dash of nutmeg or allspice
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract (or switch out for orange extract)

Cook quinoa and set aside. To cook quinoa, bring two cups of water to a boil. Add quinoa and a dash of salt and let simmer for 12-15 minutes, or until water has cooked off.

Mix dry ingredients.

Whisk butter and eggs together and add to dry mixture.

Combine all ingredients, including quinoa, and stir in apple pieces.

Pour into a greased 9-inch round pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes at 350F.

The best part about this recipe? It tastes great with a multitude of extras thrown in. Play around with a handful of chocolate chips and some candied ginger for a real treat.

Note: This recipe works great for vegans too – just switch out the butter for margarine and the eggs for an egg replacer.

Images: Anna Brones, Anna Brones

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Victoria Everman.

Having a sustainable wedding is as easy as locally-grown, organic pie. In the midst of planning my own event, I’ve found that being planet- and money-conscious is not only feasible – it is fun.

It is so easy to get overwhelmed by the wide world of weddings that you might forget about your green goals. Even I’m guilty of it. That’s where my eco-wedding blog comes in, where I catalog my visual inspirations and favorite sustainable wedding companies.

Ready to save some time and a nice chunk of change? Just check out my list of eco-conscious wedding-related companies and creative ideas that are a click away!

Ink and Wit

There are a number of wonderful eco-friendly wedding invitation companies out there, but Tara Hogan’s Ink+Wit has a special place in my heart. I’ve been a long-time fan of her letterpress art and stationary, so when the time came to began planning my own wedding, I knew she was the designer for me.

Just recently, Tara launched a pre-designed line of wedding invitations that can be easily customized and come in any Pantone color you can imagine. Working with her on my custom invitations has been a fantastic collaborative process; I couldn’t ask for anything better.

Earthly Affair

For those who like more traditional invitation designs, Jen Stambolsky’s Earthly Affair collections are just the thing. With
18 designs to choose from, you can choose the type and colors on all the styles. Though she doesn’t do custom work, she does stick firmly to her sustainable manifesto. A small, eco-friendly, affordable business – Earthly Affair is a triple treat!

Sarah Seven

Choosing a dress is one of the toughest tasks when planning an eco-friendly wedding. For the non-traditional bride, my favorite handmade gowns come from Sarah Seven. Handmade in Portland, Ore. with recycled bustiers and fabrics, Sarah’s designs are mostly above-the-knee, but she will happily customize them to any length (and color) you choose. She has also developed her first bridal line that will make any bride stand out … sustainably.

PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com

If you like traditional styles but can’t bring yourself to pay $6,000 for a dress, check out PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com. The site features over 2,000 gowns by any and all major designers you can name, all of which have been either never worn or worn only once. I’ve found over 20 gowns that fit my style, budget, and body. Of course, most gowns will need to be tailored after you receive them, but is a small price to pay compared to how much you can save!

Krikawa Rings

Sustainable rings are another difficult task for a green wedding. There are a number of great companies out there for ethical diamonds and recycled metals, but that is all too traditional for me. Instead, I prefer lab-created color “diamonds” and gems set in palladium – the lesser-known (and more affordable) sibling of platinum. Krikawa Rings specializes in both and makes some beautiful custom bands in varying prices.

Snippet & Ink Budget Tips

Saving money can easily be connected with saving the planet. Snippet & Ink, one of my all-time favorite wedding blogs because of their constant source of inspiration, has a full category of real and idea weddings based on budgets. I’ve found money-saving ideas in their posts that I’ve never seen elsewhere. Inventive and thrifty – that’s a winning combination in my book.

Martha Stewart’s Free Templates

No one can deny the mastery of Martha Stewart and her Weddings magazine is always fantastic. Add a bit of her crafty world to your wedding, thanks to her free downloadable templates. Available in a host of patterns and colors, she offers up options for everything from favor bags and seating cards to centerpieces and thank-you postcards. Who ever said you can’t get anything good for free?

Laurie Cinotto + OnceWed’s DIY Projects

Creatively-endowed or not, you can easily pull off one of Laurie Cinotto’s spectacular DIY wedding projects. Flower arranging, ring pillows, vases, boutonnieres, garlands – there are six pages of simple projects that will create a big impact for your special day. Each project has clear step-by-step instruction and pictures, including an item-by-item cost roundup to help budget. These are not to be missed!

The Small Object Cake Toppers

Be prepared to say awwww, because these cute creations are incredibly swoon-worthy. Handmade by The Small Object’s founder, Sarah Neuburger, these wooden cake toppers are made specifically for each couple and can be customized right down to their wardrobe and flower colors. Sarah recently added cupcake toppers to her list of creations, perfect for anyone with a smaller budget or quirky sense of humor.

Have your own favorite green wedding vendors? Share their website links with us in the comments section.

Victoria Everman is an eco writer, consultant, model, photographer, crafter and yogi. You can check out her process of planning a local,
eco-friendly, independent wedding at Planning an Eco-Indie Wedding. For more eco inspirations, visit her main blog at victoria-e.com.

Images: Fevi in Cayman, Victoria Everman