1.27.2012

cramming vegetables every which way

I posted about watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead and the quest for a juicer, but haven't updated you since then. We found a juicer on Craigslist, a Champion 2000+, and though we haven't used it all the time like I thought we would, we've used it a handful of times. It has certainly inspired a different mindset in my dinner preparation, albeit accidentally. I went a little overboard buying produce to juice...as in the fridge was crammed full of collards, kale, chard, turnip greens, spinach, cauliflower and fruits.The result was a week crammed with veggies in every manner possible. Here's a little recap:


Creamy cauliflower and greens soup with grilled hummus sandwiches (I saw on Facebook Jen was having them and totally loved that idea)


This is a chicken, chard coconut curry sort of concoction. Martha Stewart has a recipe for Chicken Spinach Casserole, that's pretty good, but I didn't want all that cream. Instead I subbed the half and half with coconut milk, added curry powder, ginger and lemongrass and deleted the bread crumb topping.


Last night we had leftover stew. Basically the liquid is a quick chicken broth mixed with leftover cauliflower soup with shredded chicken, carrots and chard.


Thursday night I made a big ol' batch of green juice. The colors (before mixing together into a muddy green) were fantastic thanks to kale, apples, lemon, oranges, and carrots. Oddly enough, kale juice has a faint banana flavor to it. Who woulda known?

What's your favorite sneak-a-veggie recipe?

3 comments:

Chiot's Run said...

Juicing seems to be all the rage right now. I somehow just can't get into to as I'm a big fan of texture when it comes to food. Perhaps someday I'll look into it - until then I'll just see what you're doing with it!

Love that you found a used juicer instead of buying new!

ashley said...

We love the chicken and risotto recipe from “Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy.” The base is a pestata: carrots, celery, and onions, which are food-processed into a thick pesto-like base. The final dish is creamy and has a lot of flavor … you would think it has a lot of cheese in it, but really it’s the hidden veggies. (I think Lidia uses pestata in several of her dishes. Great way to sneak in the good-for-you-stuff.)

Kate F. said...

Funny you say that about kale juice--I often notice a faint banana flavor in sautéed kale but figured I'm just crazy!