Garlic Scapes

Garlic Scapes

Finally had the guts to scoop up some whimsical garlic scapes from the local farmer’s market recently. There in season now.

Garlic scapes are a curling verdant shoot (stalk) of garlic with a fairly pungent flavour - a cross between garlic and green onion. As garlic grows, the garlic scape begins to curve. As the garlic plant matures, the scape straightens, creating more support for the bulb but resulting in a much tougher stalk that is no longer very useful in the kitchen.

The most popular thing do to with garlic scapes is to turn them into pesto. Here’s another tasty option: blend them into avocado soup.

Chilled Avocado Scape Soup

Makes 2 Servings

This soup does not store well so enjoy it all at once.

1 ripe avocado
3 ice cubes
1/3 cup water
2 garlic scapes, finely chopped
½ to 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
Juice from one 1 lime
Pinch of salt and pepper

Add all ingredients to a blender and puree until smooth. Garnish with fresh cilantro if desired. How ridiculously easy was that?

Quinoa for breakfast

You know Well Fed Man loves to stuff his tummy with quinoa. Beyond a toothsome nutty flavor, whole-grain quinoa ponies up big time amounts of numerous nutrients such as folate, protein, fibre and magnesium. So when something is so tasty and incredibly nutritious why confine it only to dinner. Here’s a new take on classic breakfast porridge.

Quinoa Porridge

Makes 2 servings

½ cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup water
½ tsp cinnamon
pinch of coarse salt
½ cup low-fat milk or unsweetened soy milk
1 small apple, diced
½ cup blueberries or sliced strawberries
¼ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

Add quinoa, water, cinnamon and salt to a small pot and bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until most of the water has been absorbed. Add milk and simmer uncovered for an additional 10 minutes. Stir in apple, berries and nuts. Let sit, covered for 10 minutes before serving. The porridge will thicken during this time. Drizzle with maple syrup before serving if desired.

Cacao Butter

Cacao Butter
www.navitasnaturals.com

One of the coolest products I have come across in a while is cacao butter from one of my favourite food companies Navitas Naturals.

Loaded with an unmistakable chocolaty flavor and aroma, cacao butter is the cream-hued fat extracted from cacao beans and most often employed to add flavour, scent, and smoothness to the chocolate we adore (technically, to call a product chocolate it must contain cacao butter.)

This is a perfect option for vegans who shun butter from Bessie.

While this Mayan butter is loaded with saturated fat – 8 grams in 1 tablespoon - don’t fret, as most of it is in the form of stearic acid which research shows has no detrimental impact on cholesterol levels and heart health.

Melting at body temperature, cacao butter is vanity fare pulling double duty as a wonderful skin moisturizer. Though, I prefer it in my tummy.

Find it at some health food stores or online at www.navitasnaturals.com

What to do with this uber-butter? Here are a couple recipes that will have chocoholics begging for more. (Psst….you could also use regular butter if needed).

Sweet Potato Brownies

Applesauce makes brownies taste, um, fruity. Believe it or not, pureed sweet potatoes are a better option.

4 tablespoons melted cacao butter
2/3 cup cocoa powder (Navitas has this too)
½ cup whole-wheat flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder (optional)
2/3 cup sugar
1 largish sweet potato, peeled
1 whole egg
1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract

Slice sweet potato and steam it until very soft. Mash it well with a fork or potato masher. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small pan over very low heat melt the cacao butter. Remove from heat and stir in cocoa powder. Set aside. In a bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in sugar and sweet potato puree. Mix in egg. Add vanilla to cocoa mixture and then add cocoa mixture to flour mixture and stir well. Spoon the chocolate goodness into an 8-inch lightly greased square pan. Smooth the top and bake for about 20 minutes or until an inserted knife emerges with just a few moist crumbs. Let cool and try to practice moderation.

Chocolate Tofu Pudding

10 ounces of soft (silken) tofu – about ½ of a package
¼ cup cow, hemp or soy milk
4 to 5 tablespoons melted cacao butter
2 ounces chopped semi-sweet baking chocolate or your favorite dark chocolate
¼ cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla.
Cacao nibs (optional)

Place all ingredients except the vanilla and nibs in a blender (I use my trusty Vita-mix). Blend for a couple minutes until a smooth chocolate mixture emerges. Let cool for a couple minutes then add vanilla and blend again for about 10 seconds. Pour into a container and chill in the fridge for a couple hours. Before serving, top with cacao nibs.

Natural Sports Drinks

Best “All Natural” Sports Drinks

At the risk of starting with the snoringly obvious, proper daily hydration is a big part of athletic success. Especially as the mercury begins to steamroll upwards. This means you might be inclined to cram your fridge and pantry this summer with designer sports drinks like Gatorade and PowerAde that promise to hydrate and power your stride. But, before you grab one of those neon-hued designer sports drinks, read this article I wrote for the July issue of Runner’s World regarding the best performance and health-boosting beverages created by Mother Nature.

Brands to try:

Bottled Iced Tea: Honest Tea (www.honesttea.com). A huge range of flavors that are really tasty and not doused in high fructose corn syrup. In particular, the unsweetened Just Green Iced Tea tastes like, well, tea not sickeningly sweet sugar water.

Coconut Water: O.N.E (onenaturalexperience.com) or Zico (www.zico.com) offer up naturally sweet 100% coconut water in go-anywhere tetra packs (onenaturalexperience.com)

Cherry Juice: CherryPharm 100% Cherry Juice is a strictly tested Cornell University creation made with 50 antioxidant loaded whole cherries (cherrypharm.com).

Vegetable Juice: R.W. Knudson Verry Veggie packs in 9 different vegetables and heaps of lycopene. (knudsenjuices.com).

Spark up the Grill

It's barbecue season so I thought I would pass along this link to an article I scribbled for the June issue of Women's Health that's filled with tips on getting the most from your grill.

Not available in the online version, here is some added info on cool new stuff you can grill. The banana-chocolate combo is crazy good.

You Can Grill That?

Revel in the oohs, aahs and holy bleeps from your backyard guests by bucking with tradition and grilling up foods that nobody else is.

Whole Eggs: Place whole eggs directly on the grill over a medium heat. Cook for about 10 minutes or until shell is golden brown all over. Chop over grilled lettuce.

Banana: Strip back one section of the peel, leaving it attached. Cut a slit along the length of banana and stuff with pieces of dark chocolate. Replace the peel and wrap the banana in foil. Grill for 10 minutes, flipping once. Carefully open the packets and scoop out the chocolaty flesh with a spoon. Admit it, your drooling already.

Lettuce: Cut hearts of romaine in half lengthwise, brush the cut side with oil and season with salt. Grill over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minute or until you have good grill marks.

Tofu: Use only very firm tofu and slice crosswise into ¾-inch slabs. Push two soaked skewers through each slice and brush with olive oil. Grill for 4 to 6 minutes per side. Any meat marinade or rub works for tofu too.

Grapes: For your new yummiest treat, try placing a bunch of slightly oiled grapes still connected to the stems on the grate and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, turning once.

Pizza: Set up the grill for indirect grilling and brushing both sides of round dough (thin and whole-grain is best) with olive oil. Grill the raw dough directly over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes per side, or until golden. Then transfer your pizza to the indirect area and add your toppings. Cover and grill-bake until the cheese has melted. With a short grilling time, only use cooked meats because raw meat won’t have time to cook through.

Juice Scam

The other day I was wondering through the natural foods section of my grocer (what can I say, the local farmers’ market doesn’t have my fav yogurt) and noticed acai juice. Actually, I have glimpsed a lot more juices these days made with all sorts of supposedly “superfood” fruits and veggies like acai, pomegranate, purple carrot and blueberry. Suddenly old-fashioned OJ is so 90s. Thing is, most of these juices are really just fancy apple, pear or white grape juice.

Even though the cover photos will only show the chic fruits and veggies and call themselves “raspberry acai” or “strawberry kiwi,” a quick glance at the ingredient list and you’ll see that the aforementioned “junk juices” sometimes come before the more expensive fruits. These filler juices are used because they boost sweetness and they’re dirt cheap to include. Thing is, you’ll pay a lot more for pomegranate flavored white grape juice than you will for straight up grape juice. 100% acai juice is crazy expensive. 95% apple juice, 5 % acai? Not so much.

Bottom line: If you fancy juice with 100 percent of what’s on the cover, scan the ingredient list and make sure they are the only juices included or at least listed before the food industry fillers.