Food

Slaw is a traditional raw favourite. We’ve jazzed it up with a macadamia nut mayonnaise, giving it a Hawaiian flavour.

This fresh herbed chunky tomato sauce is chock full of flavour, and is the perfect accompaniment to the silky shaved zucchini ribbons.

The delicious avocado has a lovely creamy texture that adds a perfect smoothness to this cold curry-spiked soup.

This elegant fish and tuber combo is a healthy alternative to fish and chips—and it’s surprisingly easy to prepare. Although sunchokes are crispy and delicious eaten raw, roasting them, as in the following recipe, really brings out their innate, nutty sweetness.

Freekeh is prepared similarly to rice and other grains. It is available in both cracked and whole forms. Cracked freekeh takes approximately 20 to 25 minutes to cook, while the whole grain takes 40 to 45 minutes. You can use freekeh just as you would any healthy whole grain. Its unique nutty flavour imparts an exotic cachet to even the most banal of recipes! The following recipe can be prepared as a side dish or stuffed inside peppers or squash for a vegan entree.

Although cactus leaves are picked while young and tender, they still contain spines and eyes, which must be removed thoroughly before the leaves are ingested. A vegetable peeler and a sharp paring knife are the best tools to accomplish this task. The flavour of the leaves—similar to asparagus or a tart green bean—makes them a winning addition to soups, stews, and stir-fries.

Ancho chili peppers are the dried version of the poblano chili and have a smoky-sweet flavour that is well suited for glazes. They are available at Latin markets, specialty foods stores, and some supermarkets.

Here is a nutritional upgrade of the iconic soup that offers a fiery Asian twist. The searing serrano chili pepper is a smaller and more potent version of the jalapeno. If you want your soup to pack more of a punch, include more serrano seeds.

Chipotle peppers are smoked, dried red jalapenos. In cans they are packed with a tomato sauce called adobo and make a wonderful smoky addition to salsas, chilis, soups, and pasta sauces. Most supermarkets now carry chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. If you really want to bring the heat, up the amount of chipotle used in the tomato jam by 1 tsp (5 mL). A little goes a long way, so freeze extras for future use.

Here’s a meal worthy of a fine dining establishment. Grainy mustard is a whole seed-laced version of the condiment and is also often labelled “Dijon.” It comes in a range of heat levels from mild to nose-clearing. It adds texture and verve to mashed and puréed vegetables. Removing as much moisture as possible from scallops is the key to achieving a good sear.

This silky sweet side dish is sure to make tasters coo with delight. Mustard is the unexpected flavour booster offering a tempered kick.

First created in Dijon, France, creamy Dijon-style mustard has an assertive yet refined flavour that can gussy up sauces and salad dressings. It’s most often a mixture of yellow and more pungent black mustard seeds that is produced according to strict French guidelines. Poaching chicken breasts, which have a tendency to dry out during cooking, is a great way to keep the meat deliciously moist. This salad can serve double duty as an elegant dinner entree or a nutritious workweek lunch.

For millions of Thailand denizens, the day doesn’t start until they have slurped up their noodle soup from open-air stalls to take a bite out of the chill in the early morning air. Here in Canada you may find this delightful soup more to your liking for lunch or dinner. To turn up the heat, the Thai will often stir in some guise of fiery paste or sauce such as the recipes that follow. And always make sure to stuff each bowl with a generous amount of lively herbs.

Pad Thai is one of the dishes that first comes to mind among Canadians when thinking of Thai cuisine. Sadly, most North American restaurant versions are little more than a big plate of uninspiring saucy noodles. A good pad Thai will be a medley of carefully matched ingredients that combine to create a plateful of sweet, sour, and salty flavours. If your wok or skillet is small, you may need to make this recipe in two batches.

Yellow Squid Curry

Bring some island flavour to your table with this recipe. The fruit salsa helps to quell the spicy shrimp and also provides a good hit of vitamin C.

This stir-fry dish comes together quickly and is a crowd pleaser. Make sure to have plenty of extra napkins on hand. You can ask your fishmonger to quarter cleaned, cooked crab for you.

More flavourful than tilapia, catfish provides a range of vital nutrients including thiamine, selenium, phosphorus, and vitamin B12. The body requires vitamin B12 for proper nervous system functioning as well as red blood cell and DNA formation.

Much like its cousins salmon and trout, this northern swimmer is a good source of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), two superstar omega-3 fats that may reduce the risk for heart failure and depression.

They might be small, but nutritionally, sardines are giants. They are loaded with omega-3 fats, selenium, bone-building calcium, and vitamin D. A 2012 study by researchers in Denmark involving more than 10,000 subjects found that those with the highest blood levels of vitamin D were up to 64 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack.

Perhaps the phrase “holy mackerel” stems from its nutritional pedigree. Casting your line for a 3 oz (85 g) mackerel serving provides nearly 2.3 g of omega-3s, plus laudable amounts of vitamin D, protein, niacin, and vitamin B12.

Also referred to as black cod, sablefish from the deep waters of the North Pacific has a pearly-white buttery flesh with a similar texture to halibut. It’s exceptionally high in heart-healthy omega-3 fats as well as selenium, an antioxidant linked to reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. Currently, wild sablefish populations in the waters off Alaska and BC are healthy due to stringent catch limits and sustainable fishing methods.

Nutrient-rich pumpkin seeds are an ideal thickener for this bright sauce. Extra sauce can be frozen for up to three months. If your chicken is thick, try pounding it flatter with a kitchen mallet to speed cooking. Consider serving with steamed greens. Canned tomatillos are available in the Latin section of grocers.

This Indian-style flatbread is delicious as an accompaniment to a meal or on its own as a snack. The addition of spinach provides a good source of vitamin A and iron. If you are short on time, omit the filling and cook the bread on the stove while dinner is simmering or baking away.