My legendary Kale salad

 Good Monday to you all. I've been obsessed with this salad for the last five or six months now. I eat it so often I don't even think of it as something to photograph and blog about, but since so many of my friends and family have requested the recipe I think its time to let you all in on this simple and delicious salad. The ingredients definitely vary depending on what's in my fridge/ pantry but the star remains - the simple dressing and the kale! The photo is just one example including fresh green peas & purple cabbage. Basically everything but the kale, tomatoes & some sort of cabbage is optional. The dressing is also not exact just taste until you are happy with the acid, salt garlic balance. You can also add lentils or beans to the salad for extra protein, or serve with your favorite entree - anything works!

INGREDIENTS: 

organic kale - julienned

red cabbage (or green) - julienned

romaine lettuce - julienned (optional)

cherry tomatoes - divided

avocado - chopped

hearts of palm - sliced/ chopped 

fresh green peas (optional)

radishes - thinly sliced (optional)

garlic - 1 clove minced

lemon juice - squeeze

apple cider vinegar - splash

s & p - to taste 

olive oil - drizzle

You pretty much just toss everything together until the salad is dressed really well, and seasoned to your taste. If you omit the romaine lettuce the salad will stand up over night and be great the next day. Feel free to play around with adding other veggies you like and make this your very own. 

 

Better late then never - Za'atar salmon with lemon potatoes & tzatziki

Oh hello friends. No I have not fallen off the planet or gone on a long over due vacation, or even been avoiding you. I've just been taking some mental time off to gather my thoughts, recipes and do my piles of laundry. Seriously it's been a busy last few weeks and my sheets & towels have been piled high. This post comes as a request from some lovely couples I've had the pleasure to cook for. This simple dish is quick & healthy. Like most things it's even more delicious on the bbq.

INGREDIENTS: 

za'atar - mix of dried oregano, marjoram, thyme, sumac, sesame, cumin, savory and fennel

salmon or arctic char fillets - skin on always better

yukon gold potatoes - chopped

parsley - chopped

2 garlic cloves - minced (divided)

lemon - zest & juice

Greek yogurt

mint - chopped

dill - chopped

cucumber - seeded and finely chopped 

olive oil 

s & p 

FOR THE TZATZIKI: Add 2 tbs chopped cucumber, 1 clove of minced garlic, tsp lemon zest, tbs dill & mint to the Greek yogurt with salt & pepper to taste. 

FOR THE LEMON POTATOES: Cut potatoes into desired size & par boil until slightly tender. While potatoes are cooking (10 - 15 mins) combine olive oil, chopped parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, minced garlic, s & p in a medium bowl. Once potatoes are done boiling pat them dry and fry in a hot pan with a drizzle of evoo pinch of s & p until crispy and slightly charred on the outside. Then toss them in the lemon & parsley dressing as soon as they reach desired crispiness.


FOR THE SALMON: Pre heat oven to 350. Generously dust the flesh side of the salmon fillet with za'atar s & p. In a hot cast iron pan drizzle olive oil and sear fish presentation side down (if you like to eat crispy fish skin go skin side down, if you like to remove the skin before eating cook flesh side down). Cook for 2 minutes then flip cook for another min and place in the oven for another 4-6 mins depending on how well done you like your fish & how thin/thick the fillet is.


I hope you all enjoy this recipe - happy Friday!

Lamb kefta with fennel green apple slaw

This may not be the prettiest dish I've ever written about but sure did it taste good. For the most part when I'm writing a recipe I'm usually just posting about a meal that I made spontaneously and it happened to be worth reporting on. Yes there are the times where I plan a post and stage a photograph but this just isn't one of those instances.

INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE KETFA: 
1 pound New Zealand spring lamb - ground
1 medium cooking onion - diced
2 cloves garlic - minced
pinch of cumin
pinch of sumac
pinch of paprika
small handful parsley - chopped
1 egg
about 1/4 cup almond meal
evoo - extra virgin olive oil 

PREP: Sautee the onion & garlic in a drizzle of evoo until translucent add spices & a pinch of s&p and continue to cook for a minute or two. Place off to the side to cool. When mixture has cooled add chopped parsley, almond meal, egg a pinch of s&p. Rub your hands with evoo before portioning off individual keftas. Shape into cigar shape.  Pre heat oven to 350.
COOK: Heat a cast iron pan and drizzle a small amount of evoo before searing off the keftas until slightly charred on all sides. Transfer the pan into the oven and continue to cook for 5-7 mins until the keftas are cooked through.

FOR THE SLAW:
fennel - julienned 
green apple - julienned
purple cabbage - julienned
green cabbage - julienned
cucumber - ribbons
mint - gently tear leaves
basil - gently tear leaves
FOR THE DRESSING: 
apple cider vinegar 
apple butter, 
dijon mustard
evoo 

PREP:  Chop & slice all veg. In a small glass jar combine 1 tsp apple butter, 1tsp dijon mustard, 4 tbs apple cider vinegar, 1/3 cup (or so) evoo and pinch of s&p. Toss everything together. 
Enjoy!

Mothers Day rhubarb & red plum scones

 It was a sunny beautiful mothers day in Toronto. I spent my day cooking (obviously) for my own mother. Planning the brunch menu was kind of difficult because my mom hates runny egg yolk, which eliminated 90 percent of the gourmand breakfasts I had in mind. After racking my brain I decided to go with a delicious go to brunch item tortilla espanola also known as tortilla de patatas. It's a very simple Spanish dish consisting of eggs, caramelized onions, & paprika fried potatoes. I also served my fabulous kale salad, which I promise to post once the photos are ready, but today is all about my new yogurt scone recipe. You can use 3/4 cup of berries or dried  fruit in this recipe if you like, I used some leftover rhubarb & plum compote and the outcome was amazing. Using yogurt instead of milk gives these scones a light chewy texture kind of  a hybrid between an English muffin & a scone. This simple quick recipe is a must try at your next brunch gathering. They key is to keep the butter cold and handle these as little as possible.

* I will post the recipe for the compote later this week.


INGREDIENTS: make about 6-8 large scones
2 cups ap (all purpose) flour
2 tsp baking powder 
3 tbs sugar  
1tsp cardamom 
1/2 cup butter - cold & grated (about 1/4 large stick)
pinch of salt 
2 eggs - 1 for egg wash 
3/4 cup plain yogurt 
1/3 cup rhubarb & plum compote - can substitute other fruit jam 
handful chopped rhubarb - optional 
coarse sugar - optional 


PREP: Pre heat oven to 350. 
Line baking sheet with parchment or silpat mat if you have.
Sift flour, sugar, salt, cardamom & baking powder, then add grated butter. Toss mixture lightly with your fingers. In a separate bowl beat egg then add yogurt & compote or fruit. Combine the two until they just come together. Spoon mixture on to baking sheet into flattened rounds. Brush each scone with egg wash & a sprinkle of coarse sugar.
BAKE: for 10-15  mins (until firm) 
NOTE: I baked for 13 mins at 325, but my oven is hot and extremely temperamental. 

Like it!

Hello lovely readers. Just want to send out a big thank you to everyone who buzzed my Pasta Fagioli recipe on foodbuzz.com. Today I'm once again asking for some support and about two seconds of your time. I'm trying to build my page and audience up on facebook and I would greatly appreciate your "Likes". Please either click the like button on the side bar or visit me here https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Tomato-Snob/273764805978365 and click like it.
Thanks yall and have a grrrreat weekend.
xo
Jaime aka The Tomato Snob

Pasta Fagioli aka fazool

UPDATE: Thanks to all who buzzed this awesome recipe, It's made the top 9 www.foodbuzz.com
 
Good morning yall. I've been wanting to publish this recipe for quite some time, but it seems life and work have really gotten in the way. If you've never had pasta fagioli and you call yourself a connoisseur of Italian cuisine you are a total fraud! This soup epitomizes Italian comfort food. It's a delicious dish with modest ingredients and humble beginnings.  Pasta fazool as it's called in the U.S. is one of my all time favorite soups and literally means pasta and beans. While I was writing this recipe I was blogging about the process. I promised Tess from Slow Cooking Kitchen I would let her know as soon as it was ready. This is for you Tess! 
INGREDIENTS: 
1tbs butter
1tbs evoo (olive oil)
2 carrots chopped
2 celery chopped
1 large onion chopped
4-6 cloves of garlic - thinly sliced or minced 
1/2 sprig fresh rosemary - chopped
5 sprigs fresh thyme - separate leaves
1 bay leaf
2 pinches of dried oregano
1 can pureed san marzano tomatoes
1/2 cup water - to rinse the can of tomatoes
1 quart chicken or veg stock (4 cups)
1 can kidney beans - rinsed & divided  
1 can ramano beans - rinsed & divided
1 cup (spelt) Tubetti rigati - small pasta or whatever small pasta you like
parmesan rind + 1/2 cup grated - more for serving
PREP: Chop all veg. Puree the tomatoes - just place immersion blender into the can and slowly pulse until smooth. For beans puree 1/2 before adding to the soup (this creates a beautiful creamy texture). 
COOK: In a large soup pot add butter and evoo and begin to sautee onion & garlic. After 5 mins add the fresh and dried herbs + a pinch of s&p. After another minute or so add the carrots and celery. Cook down for another 5 mins before adding tomato puree, water, stock & parmesan rind. Bring mixture to the boil (about 8-10 mins). Then add your pasta and cook covered for 5 mins. Oncover and add all of the beans (pureed and whole). Cook on a low simmer for another 10 mins or so. Add parmesan and enjoy. 
SERVE: With a drizzle of good quality evoo, a sprinkle of parmesan and crusty bread! YUM

Happy Birthday to me!

Hi all. How I've missed all you lovely readers. The last few weeks have been amazingly busy which is great, but I feel terrible for neglecting you. Yesterday was my 30th birthday. I had an excellent day filled with good food and even better company. As you may or may not know I've had to cut out pretty much all my favorite foods, which has obviously been extremely difficult for a Tomato Snob like myself. Since I have been so good and disciplined lately I decided that for this milestone birthday it would be ok to indulge slightly. I enjoyed 1/3 of a lemon cupcake that was gifted to my by the lovely lady at Cake Opera Co. as well as 4 of their unbelievable macaron. Definitely a must try if you live in Toronto. I've decided that in honor of my dietary changes and awesome display of will power over the past few months today's blog will be an ode to all the foods I've loved. Notice a pattern? Bread, cheese, butter, sugar, pasta, cream, flour yum. Have any of you ever had to cut out a food or ingredient you love?


Photo referrences: 
google
http://acozykitchen.com/
http://spoonforkbacon.com
http://www.epicurious.com/
http://donnahay.com/

The Dirty Dozen vs. The Clean Fifteen

Good evening friends, followers and whoever else stumbles upon this post. After much anticipation here it is - the post I've been promising for the last week.  In my quest to become a healthier human being and kill the evil beast that lives inside of me (which I'll tell you more about later) I've been turned on to this fabulous list. We all know eating totally organic is expensive and can be difficult depending on where you live. For the last few years I've preached local over organic, and I still believe It is very important to eat locally and seasonally as much as you can, but when you're health is in jeopardy you do what you gotta do. This list of the twelve fruits & veggies with the highest amount of pesticides vs. the fruits and veg with pesticide levels are much lower and safer for consumption. If your not sure why pesticides are bad ask yourself this "what do pesticides do?" Hmm... my simple minded logic tells me that "pest" refers to a bug and "icide" from the word suicide which means to kill yourself. From all that I think it's safe to say that pesticide must mean to to kill a pest. How would one kill a pest? Quite clearly the best possible answer would be to use poison - the cheapest most effective way to wipe out as many pests as possible in one shot. So if pesticides are bug poison and our fruits and veggies (while still growing) are  constantly being showered in this bug poison, aren't we to assume that some of this said bug poison has permeated throughout the fruits and veg that are supposedly safe to consume. I would bet that the majority of the poison doesn't wash away with soap & water. That's right we consume this bug poison with every single bite and if pesticides can kill bugs what are they really doing inside of our bodies. If you think that pesticides don't effect humans well then you are dead wrong! Pesticides in food can cause all sorts of problems for humans including skin ailments, stomach problems, hormone imbalances, difficulty with vision and cancer. I'm going to leave it at that and get back to the fact that this list is simple & easily allows you to make an informed decision when buying healthy produce for you and your family. There are only 12 things you absolutely must buy organic! The clean 15 are the safest and anything not listed sort of  falls in between. Another way to avoid pesticides is to buy greenhouse grown which we do a fair amount of in Canada, lucky us, I'm already enjoying beautiful tomatoes and cucumbers in April. 

For a more comprehensive list check out this link.

Stay healthy 'yall!

DIRTY:
1. blueberries
2. strawberries
3. apple
4. nectarine
5. peache
6. grapes
7. lettuce
8. collards
9. kale
10. celery
11. potato
12. bell peppers

CLEAN:
1. cabbage
2. asparagus
3. onion
4. sweet potato
5. mushroom
6. sweet peas
7. eggplant
8. avocado
9. kiwi
10. pineapple
11. mango
13. corn
14. citrus
15. melon

RIP My first MAC laptop

Hello lovies, I'm very sad to report It will be a few days until I'm back up and running. I'm writing from my husbands laptop right now. I have some very sad news today. My trusty MacBookPro has seen it's last day, transferred it's last file, downloaded it's final typeface. Yesterday I woke up to a very sick computer. It wouldn't turn on, so I immediately called up the Apple store at Yorkdale and took in for a repair only to find out that for $700 (plus 13% tax) I could maybe just maybe have my computer up and running again, but who knows for how long. For $700 plus it just makes more sense to get a new computer was the consensus after speaking to a bunch of MAC reps. Lucky enough a few weeks back my husband came home with a brand new Mac desktop that a guardian angel had given him as a gift. Thank goodness for this because having just started a business of my own I don't really have a few thousand dollars laying around to replace my computer. The very nice sales person at Apple sold me their one to one package which involves a data transfer to a new MAC (I knew there was a reason we hadn't taken the new comp out of the box yet). So now I'm waiting patiently for 24-48 hours with my fingers crossed that my transfer goes smoothly. This is the first  weekend in a while that I've had off and relaxing is about the last thing I can do while waiting for this data to transfer. I do deserve some time off since this week was another busy one. I can't wait to tell you all about my big event at The Sterling Room Thursday night for their annual vendor showcase. The Fooding Company rocked the house with our appetizers. When I'm up and running I'll definitely post some food photos of our delicious offerings. Have a great weekend y'all.  

Ch ch ch chia... a delicious gluten & dairy free supersnack

Hello friends. Yes I know I promised a special not to be missed post on the dirty dozen. The post is on it's way taking a little longer then expected. Last week #TheFoodingCompany was slammed with a bunch of passover orders. As I've been told by a bunch of happy well fed family and friends the holiday orders went over very well. We catered two full seders from start to finish including a number of parve desserts that actually came out pretty delicious. Who knew desserts without butter or flour could be so good. I hope everyone - Jews & Christians had a wonderful holiday weekend. Today I'm going to let you in on a wonderful (& healthy) dish i've become obsessed with. I eat for breakfast or after dinner for a sweet treat. If you've never heard about it chia seeds are the new posh health food item. I first bought it a few months ago having no clue what it was or how it was eaten. I saw it on a shelf at my go-to grocery store Lady York next to some sesame crisps snacks and fancy tamari almonds. The packaging looked cool and It seemed to have a good balance of fiber, protein and calcium. I first tried putting the chia seeds into a protein shake. It had a weird slimy texture - I wasn't into it at all. It actually took a few months and going through a detox to find out the best way to consume this super food to realize how much I really love it. I had seen this beautiful photo in Food & Wine magazine and when I was told by my Naturopath I would have to eliminate dairy & sugar from my diet for a while I decided it was the perfect time to try out the pudding.  What I have found is that fruits that are slimy just suit the texture of the pudding better, kiwi and mango are two of my favorites, however if you are watching your total sugar intake raspberries are great too. 

INGREDIENTS: CHIA SEED PUDDING - 4 servings

2 cups almond milk - original flavor has the least sugar 

1/2 cup black chopped chia seeds (I like these the best)

1/2 tsp or more stevia  or a few agave 

pinch of ground cardamom 

chopped walnuts

chopped mango 

PREP: Whisk chia, almond milk, stevia & cardamom. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or over night to set. 

SERVE: Chop up desired fruit and or nuts and enjoy.