ColumnDo we really have to care about real food all the time?

Let’s be 100 percent honest with each other: sometimes eating well is a pain. It’s time consuming. It’s exhausting. So many choices to make, so many things to pay attention to and sometimes you just want to buy a damn pineapple even though you know it crossed half the world to get to you.

In these moments it’s so easy to ask oneself, “does it really matter what I eat?”

Deep down, you know the short answer to that question. Between a diet of fast food and a diet of brown rice and greens, you know which one to choose. But those are two extremes. In between is the everyday routine where real life often gets in the way of aspirational eating. Sure, you want to bake your own bread, your own yogurt and your own granola bars, but sometimes you just want to stuff your face with a butter, gluten-loaded brownie, now don’t you?

First things first: eating real food is about eating, not about eliminating. So often we focus on what we can’t or shouldn’t eat, that we forget to embrace all that we can eat. A sustainable approach to food is about appreciating food. That’s the only way that you make healthy eating a part of an everyday lifestyle.

Does it really matter what you eat? Yes, but that doesn’t mean that you need to calorie-count and drive yourself crazy with it. It just means focusing on real food, and cutting out all the junk little by little. An imported banana every once in awhile isn’t going to kill you. Packaged foods however, will.

Besides maybe providing shelter for ourselves, eating is the most important thing we do in a day. Of course it matters what we eat.

The problem with food is that we so often take an all or nothing approach. But eating isn’t about all or nothing. It’s about balance. It’s about enjoying food. It’s about founding a happy medium where you make time to cook and eat, and don’t feel like it’s taking over your life. It’s about savoring those cherry tomatoes at the end of summer, and saying no to the red produce in the middle of January, when it will bland and mealy. It’s about gathering around a table and enjoying a meal with friends.

In order to eat well, we have to prioritize. Yes, it may take longer to prepare your own food, but think about what you would be spending that time on otherwise. The average American watches 5 hours of television a day. Think if just one of those hours went to hanging out in the kitchen or around a table.

It does matter what you eat, and committing to a lifestyle where you eat well isn’t just about your personal health. It’s about the people around you; when we eat better, so do our friends, so just like you should surround yourself with good food, you should surround yourself with people that believe in good food top. It’s also about your community, about supporting the producers in your local area that are working hard to bring food to your table. It’s also about the environment; our modern day agricultural system has serious impacts around the world.

Eating real food should be empowering, not overwhelming. You have the chance to make positive change every time you grocery shop and every time you eat. Doesn’t that feel like a choice that you want to make?

Go out and eat well my friends, it’s very much worth it.

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This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Nick Harris

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Yet cooked, cauliflower is one of the more versatile vegetables I know. Great in soups, pureed as a side dish, baked into savory gratins, or my favorite – roasted.

Roasting brings out cauliflower’s natural sweetness and when it browns and caramelizes it becomes as addictive as potato chips. You can pretty much use any flavor profile you want: Italian with garlic, parsley, pepper flakes, and Parmesan; Indian with whole spices, ginger, and garlic; or sublimely simple with just salt and olive oil. You can’t really go wrong. Just use a very hot oven (400-450 F) and make sure the garlic is spread out in a single layer and not crowded (otherwise it will steam).

If you need recipes, here are two different versions of roasted cauliflower that sound like winners.

From Slashfood, the roasted cauliflower teams up with a little bit of bacon in this recipe.

And Food 52’s recent cauliflower recipe winner features gremolata breadcrumbs. I make a similar dish but I toss the cauliflower and garlicky crumbs with orecchiette pasta and top it with Parmesan cheese. The play of different textures in the dish is revelatory.

If you want to pair your cauliflower with protein into a one-dish meal, try this recipe for Curried Red Lentils and Cauliflower from Eating Well.

If it’s soup you’re craving, take my recipe for Curried Cauliflower Soup with Mustard Seed Oil for a spin.

Image: Linda N via Flickr

The post Don’t Hate the Cauliflower appeared first on EcoSalon.

In my farmers’ markets right now, there are piles upon piles of peppers: Gypsy peppers, banana peppers, poblano peppers, and many unnamed varieties.

My challenge is that I do not like them raw and, even cooked, they are a bit hard for me to love.

I think that is because all year round, misguided restaurants put peppers in salads, in Thai dishes, in pastas, and on pizzas. My personal pet peeve is red pepper hummus and they seem to be the go-to garnish when the cook needs something red. Unfortunately, like every out-of-season vegetable, hothouse bell peppers flown from far away don’t have a whole lot of anything interesting to say.

Can’t we just boycott them except in the fall? And then celebrate them by including them thoughtfully in seasonal dishes? Let’s do it! Here are three recipes to get you started on your pepper celebration.

From Food and Wine, here’s a one-dish meal featuring braised chicken and olives.

Eating Well gives us a savory lentil salad that I would make a big batch of to eat throughout the week.

And for something completely different, Savory Sweet Life brings us a simple sweet red pepper relish. Make up a bowl and serve it in the winter if you must have red peppers.

Image: Andrew Morrell

The post Pick a Peck: It’s Time for Sweet Peppers appeared first on EcoSalon.

This week summer came to the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time in a while, leaving fog-drenched residents blissed out but panting from the searing heat. Seems to be the perfect time to eat chilled soup for supper.

When most of us think of cold soup, gazpacho, or perhaps chilled potato leek soup, comes to mind. But a look around the web reveals a rich treasure of creative concoctions using summer ingredients and flavor profiles.

Martha Stewart Living has a giant chilled soup section with a whopping 40 recipes for chilled soups.

My two top picks are the Cucumber-Buttermilk Gazpacho with crunchy Spain-inspired garnishes and the Chilled Corn and Coconut Soup.

If you’re like me, you’re still trying to think of creative ways to use the zucchini onslaught. This recipe for Chilled Zucchini Soup from Epicurious fits the bill.

I’m not crazy about gazpacho. The kitchen sink mentality of cooking evident in most gazpacho recipes always makes me feel like I’m spooning salsa into my mouth. The different vegetables don’t seem to ever hang together into a cohesive whole. However, while this Chilled Tomato Soup with Cilantro and Yogurt Swirl from Eating Well gives a nod to gazpacho, it sounds much simpler and way more interesting, due to the addition of smoky chipotle chiles and the well considered garnishes.

Main image: Ulterior Epicure via Flickr Creative Commons. Other images from Martha Stewart Living, Epicurous and Eating Well respectively.

The post Chilled Summer Soup Recipes for Sultry Evenings appeared first on EcoSalon.

Eggplant gets such a bad rap. Lots of people think it’s bitter because it certainly can be when it’s out of season and has traveled far to get to your table.

But eggplant can also be sweet, flavorful, meaty, and so versatile. What other vegetable is so at home in India, Thai, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Italian, and French, and Spanish cooking? Not many that I can think of. Plus it’s high in fiber, nutrients, minerals, and antioxidants. What’s not to like?

Summer is peak season for eggplant of all types, so we’ve scoured the web for a variety of different types of recipes to suit whatever mood you’re in.

I love a good baba ghanoush dip with a smoky, roasted or grilled flavor. Here’s a twist on that classic dish from Eating Well magazine that includes feta and sounds absolutely wonderful. Bring on the pita chips.

From Provence, Saveur magazine offers this recipe for ratatouille. Ratatouille combines so much of what’s good about summer and is perfect as a light entrée, a side dish, an appetizer – or for breakfast with eggs. It can be eaten hot, cold, or at room temperature and travels exceptionally well for outdoor summer eating.

One of my favorite dishes in Thai restaurants is spicy sautéed eggplant with chilies and Thai basil. Here’s an approximation from Vegetarian Times. Not being a vegetarian, I’d definitely substitute fish sauce for the soy sauce, as its unique flavor is one of the hallmarks of Thai cuisine. I’d also use fresh red chilies instead of flakes. But that’s just me.

Image: Specialkrb

The post 3 Recipes Using Summer’s Most Versatile Fruit appeared first on EcoSalon.

Okay, so you know how to shop the farmers’ market and you know that when you shop the farmers’ market, it’s easy to buy what’s local and in season because that’s what the farmers are selling.

But most people still do the majority of their shopping in grocery stores. When faced with six kinds of apples from New Zealand displayed right next to tomatoes from Mexico, pineapples from Costa Rica, and lettuce from California, what’s a local, organic eater to do?

Make Seasonal, Local, and Organic Your Mantra:

Seasonal: If you know what’s in season when in your area, it makes it easier to buy seasonally, even in the grocery store. See below for a handy seasonal produce guide.

Local: Take a look at the grocery store signage to find out where the produce was grown. It’s one thing to buy bananas from Costa Rica, if you must have your bananas, but it makes no sense to buy September’s apples from New Zealand when they are harvested in almost every region in the U.S during the fall.

Organic: Look for the USDA Certified Organic label. Buying organic minimizes your exposure to toxic chemicals and supporting organic growers is better for the planet. If you’re worried about the extra expense, remember that if you buy locally grown organic produce at peak production, prices will be lower.

Once you start eating seasonally, you’ll discover a new joy in food. When you’ve waited all year for that first juicy, local, ripe tomato, instead of eating cardboard flavored ones year round, you’ll enjoy it so much more.

Seasonal Produce Guide:

Many items overlap into two seasons and items grown underground, like fennel, carrots, radishes, and beets can be grown year-round in some parts of the country. Temperate climates also support nearly year-round availability of some greens and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and mustard greens. This list will be helpful for most parts of the country.

Spring – Asparagus, snap peas, English peas, snow peas, green garlic, artichokes, greens, lettuces, fava beans, radishes, potatoes, carrots, leeks, spring onions, kiwis, citrus, strawberries, rhubarb

Summer – Corn, green beans, summer squash, tomatillos, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, peppers, basil, berries (all types) Stonefruit: peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, figs, grapes

Fall – Greens, beans, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, winter squash, fresh shelling beans, sweet potatoes, root vegetables, tomatoes, tomatillos, pears, apples, Asian pears, figs, grapes, melons, persimmons, pomegranates,

Winter – leafy greens, winter squash, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, root vegetables including beets, turnips, rutabega, fennel, carrots, potatoes, celery, citrus, dried fruit, pears and apples (stored from fall)

Enjoy these links to seasonal recipes for some of each season’s most characteristic produce items.

Spring:

10 Recipes for Artichokes from Cooking Light

Pea Recipes from Eating Well

Summer:

Corn Recipes and Tips from Epicurious

Stonefruit Recipes from Saveur

Fall:

Tomato Recipes and Tips from Epicurious

Apple Recipes from Smitten Kitchen

Winter:

Broccoli Recipes from Mariquita Farm

Winter Squash Recipes from 101 Cookbooks

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

The post Eating Local and Organic By the Seasons appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s officially summer. Every weekend there’s at least one barbecue to attend, and sometimes more than one a day. Do you panic when asked to bring a side dish to go with the grilled protein option? Are you bored with the usual pasta, potato, three-bean, and coleslaw options? I hear you.

Here are a few interesting takes on the classics from around the web.

Simply Recipes is serving up a nice Asian Napa Cabbage Salad in place of the usual boring coleslaw. Great with grilled chicken, beef, pork, or whatever is on the menu.

From Eating Well we’ve got a bean salad that provides the sweetness of a classic three-bean recipe but with tomatoes for a balancing acidic note. Great with burgers or steak.

The Kitchn is offering this delightful sounding potato salad with fava beans and fennel. If you can’t find fava beans (they are a spring crop) substitute frozen edamame.

Next time somebody invites you to a barbecue, don’t panic. Just say: “I’ll bring a salad”

Image: Nikki L

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