Fresh baby carrots are beginning to surface this month. They’re especially delicious eaten fresh from the garden. However, if you’re looking to sip a soothing bowl with healing spices, simmering young carrots in a lovely broth really delivers. We added nutty-tasting wild rice to up the protein quotient along with added fibre, potassium, and zinc.
Cooked wild rice has about 30 percent fewer calories than brown rice as well as 40 percent more protein. And it’s native to the Great Lakes region of Canada.
Rinse 1 cup (250 mL) rice thoroughly under cold running water. Then simmer, covered, in saucepan with 3 cups (750 mL) water or stock and a generous pinch of salt. Check after 40 minutes. As grains begin to split, rice is done. You want rice to have a little body and not be mushy. Drain well and use in soups and stir-fries. 1 cup (250 mL) dry = 3 1/2 cups (850 mL) cooked.
Per serving:
Per 1 cup (250 mL).
In large, heavy saucepan, heat oil. Add cumin and mustard seeds, and sauté until they begin to pop, about 1 minute. Add onion, gingerroot, and garlic, and sauté until onion is soft and clear, about 2 minutes. Do not brown. Add a splash of water, if needed, to prevent it from sticking. Add carrots and remaining seasonings and stir in. Then add broth and bring to a gentle boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until carrots are tender. Remove from heat.
With hand-held immersion blender or in food processor, purée soup until creamy. Return to saucepan. Stir in 1 cup (250 mL) cooked wild rice and cider vinegar and heat through. Add more seasonings, to taste. To serve, ladle into bowl and garnish with remaining wild rice and optional garnishes.
Yogurt completely transforms the texture of these chicken thighs, making them tender and flavourful with bright notes of lemon and cilantro. Ideal for a day trip, these can be marinated in the morning and cooked in the evening, but they also work well when cooked in advance and packed for a picnic to be eaten cold. Marinade mentions Marinate chicken thighs for anywhere between 4 and 24 hours. Discard excess marinade that has been in contact with raw chicken. It should not be consumed uncooked.
Citrusy and slightly sour sumac and a touch of maple syrup enliven pickled onions in a perfect complement to this salad. Kale and Napa cabbage stand up for hours to the sweet and puckery dressing, and hearty farro will keep you going while on the road. This salad is sure to be a favourite for picnics, backyard potlucks, or road trip lunch stops. Dressing for dinner This salad stands up well, even while dressed, for up to 4 hours. (Truth be told, I’ve often happily eaten it the next day.) In fact, time helps kale to soften up and become even more delicious. If you’re travelling for a longer period, make the pickled onion dressing as described above: let it stand for about 20 minutes, and then add all the oil and pack it into a separate container so you can finish the salad when you arrive at your destination. The pickled onions are also great with steaks or chicken.
These wraps are perfect for an overnight journey when you want to have something quick and satisfying the next day. Sweet smoked paprika adds just a hint of smoky flavour to sweet potatoes, which join with spinach and red pepper to dress up eggs in a pleasing way. Make these wraps anytime and stick them in the freezer for your next excursion. Pack them frozen and they’ll have time to thaw on the journey, or put them in the fridge the night before you travel so you have something convenient and tasty to eat before you set off. Leave the ketchup bottle behind, and serve them with your own smoky red pepper sauce. Freeze with ease While foil is convenient for freezing and reheating these wraps, to cut down on waste, freeze wraps in a single freezer-proof container. Insert a small piece of parchment between each wrap so they don’t stick together. This will allow you to remove individual wraps easily when you need them.
While sablefish’s texture and fat content stand up admirably to the heat of the grill, this firm fish is also delicious poached. For this recipe, sablefish’s luxurious taste is combined with a light fragrant broth of lemongrass and ginger punctuated with the heat of Thai chili. Sustainability status Sablefish, also known as butterfish or black cod, is a rich and satisfying fish, plentiful in omega-3s and sourced sustainably from the Pacific Northwest. Skin and bones Sablefish has large pin bones. Ideally, your fishmonger will remove them, but if not, before you begin, locate them along the fish’s centreline and, using a pair of needle nose pliers, grasp them firmly to remove. You can leave the skin on for this recipe, which may help the fish hold together a little better while cooking, but it can be tricky to peel the skin away from the cooked fish and discard before plating. I opted to remove the skin first and simply keep a close eye on the cooking time, being careful to remove the fish from the poaching liquid before it flakes apart.