Roasted Sweet Corn Salad

Vegan Roasted Sweet Corn Salad with Pepitas | @naturallyella

If your summer season is anything like mine, it includes what feels like an endless amount of get-togethers and picnics. Weekends are for getting out and exploring. This roasted corn salad has made it’s way to quite a few events this summer in a few different variations. It’s easily assembled, tossed in a container, and dressed right before serving. Plus, my favorite part: the lightly fried pepitas. They add the perfect crunch in place of where I might traditionally use croutons. Don’t want to turn on your oven? Grill the corn on the cob with the spices and use a grill pan for the tomatoes and onion. Read more and see the recipe.

The post Roasted Sweet Corn Salad appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Naturally Ella

Sensational Sweet and Spicy Sambols

sambol

Being someone who loves a meal with many elements, Sri Lankan food was pretty much my dream come true. Every meal is served with plenty of sides: sauces, chutneys, relishes, and pickles, to make each bite unique and surprising. Sambol is the word for this seemingly endless collection of condiments, and I lost count trying to sample them all in a week.

I believe I mentioned in my previous post about Sri Lanka, how spicy the food is there. Like, blow-your-head-off spicy. And as if the curries themselves weren’t hot enough, the chili-based sambols on the side will certainly commit your taste buds to perplexing levels of pain.

sambol9

Pol sambol is the ubiquitous, fiery condiment served at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is probably one of the simplest dishes to make, consisting mainly of chili, shredded coconut, chili, lime, and chili – did I mention the chili? Yea. This mix ranges from very spicy to volcanically hot depending on whose table you’re sitting at.

On the second day of the trip, my tongue seeking refuge in something, dare I say it, borderline bland, I discovered one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted – and it wasn’t bland to say the least, just not sweat-inducing. Seeni sambol, a fragrant, Sri Lankan caramelized onion jam, turned out to be incredible on everything from hoppers to curries, and could turn a pretty plain bowl of red rice into something remarkably special. I became totally obsessed with this sambol and it was the very first thing I attempted to make when I came home. I really cannot tell you enough how awesome this stuff is. Do yourself a favour and make a batch soon!

sambol2

The most memorable experience I had in Sri Lanka was learning to cook traditional recipes with two women in the local village. It was likely one of the most eye-opening culinary experiences I’ve ever had – not only learning from such passionate and experienced cooks, but seeing their traditional kitchen, tools, and techniques really inspired me.

sambol6

Take their stove, for example. A large clay bench with large mounds molded into it held the earthenware pots in place, and the heat underneath was adjusted by adding more sticks to the fire, or taking them away. Genius. Above the stove was a large wooden wrack to hang beans, seeds, and herbs for fast drying, which I thought was a brilliant way to take advantage of the residual heat. Ingredients were prepped on the floor, since it’s cooler down there, and also nice to sit while you’re working. The knife to cut veggies was actually attached to a stool, and instead of holding the blade, you hold the vegetables and basically drop them on top, slicing them in the air to fall onto a grass mat. The sambol was made by grinding all the ingredients together on a huge flat stone designed specifically for this task, and as such took all of ten seconds to prepare. Spoons were made from dried coconut shells. The plates were made of woven grass, topped with fresh lotus leaves from the nearby creek. The leaves protected the plates from the saucy curries, and when you were finished your meal, you’d discard the leaf into the compost, so that there was literally nothing to wash! I mean.

This day made me take a long hard look at how much stuff I use in the kitchen. Water, electricity, appliances – these women were literally using nothing but things from the earth around them and it made me wonder how we’ve come so far from that connection. Cooking has become so overblown, and it was this experience that reminded me to cook simpler and eat simpler. Get closer to the earth. I don’t have some grand solution, but it’s food for thought.

sambol8

I’ll share a few notes on the recipes…
You will likely think I’ve lost my mind when you begin the task of slicing two pounds of onions (#worthit), but I promise you it is the correct amount, and you’ll see that it cooks down to nearly nothing. I tried half this amount my first time and it just simply wasn’t enough. If you’re going to go for this, you may as well make a batch that will last you at least a few meals, right? Fresh curry leaves are a definite preference for this recipe, but I’ve never been able to find them here in Copenhagen so I used dried. They’re not great, but better than nothing. If you don’t want to gnaw on whole spices or curry leaves you can remove them after the seeni sambol is cooked, but it can be a bit of a treasure hunt situation, just sayin’. Once I’ve smashed the cardamom pods, I like to remove the outer skin and just add the inner seeds to the spics mix. I tend to leaves the cloves and curry leaves in since I like those bursts of flavour.

The pol sambol recipe I’ve written here is admittedly, a wimp’s version. I’ll admit that I can only tolerate spice until it begins to overwhelm the other flavours in the food, so mine is strong but still edible on its own. I invite you to go with your instincts on this one and dial up the heat to suit your tastes. If you can find freshly grated coconut (or a fresh coconut that you can grate yourself) by all means use that instead of the desiccated variety! Some versions of pol sambol include curry leaves, but because I only had dried I left them out. If you can find fresh ones, add about a sprig for this recipe, and crush them well before incorporating.

As far as serving these two sensational sambols go, they are pretty much great with All. The. Things. Rice dishes, curries, stews, soups, wraps, sandwiches, salads…I mean it! Once you taste them I’m confident you’ll find infinite uses for them. The first photo is of steamed brown rice and the Kale Mallung recipe that I wrote from the last Sri Lankan post – still a major fav around here. I love this meal for breakfast with a poached egg, lots of seeni sambol and, ahem, lightly sprinkled with the pol sambol.

sambol3

sambol7

 

A huge thanks to Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts  and Sri Lankan Airlines for making this incredible trip possible!

Show me your sambols on Instagram: #MNRsambol

The post Sensational Sweet and Spicy Sambols appeared first on My New Roots.


My New Roots

Chickpea & Sweet Potato Noodle Soup

sweetpotatonoodles

It’s pretty clear how I’m handling winter this year: lots of big, bold, spicy food. Chili, saffron, ginger, and paprika are on heavy rotation these days, and I’m surviving cold days with hot meals infused with far-away flavours.

The inspiration for this dish came from harira, a spicy Moroccan and Algerian soup that is traditionally eaten during Ramadan. I made it a lot when I first went vegetarian, about 16 years ago, but after adding several more recipes to my repertoire, kind of forgot about it. In the interest of internally thawing out my bod, I thought I would dust off this old favourite and give it a couple updates.

sweetpotatonoodles10

You’ll often see a lot of harira recipes calling for rice or pasta, but I wanted to go the grain-free route on this one, so I pulled out my trusty spiralizer and make noodles out of sweet potatoes! As much as I love “raw noodles” like spiralized zucchini and beet and carrot, let’s face it: beyond their appearance, they aren’t fooling anyone into believing they are pasta. But something really amazing happens when you cook vegetable noodles just a little bit – they actually become rather tender, yielding, and able to absorb other flavours. Sweet potato noodles are definitely a favourite of mine, especially in cooked dishes like this one. They add great texture, and of course, noodle-free oodles of nutrients (try saying that five times).

sweetpotatonoodles4

You don’t have to soak the lentils for this dish, but it will cook faster it you do, plus the lentils themselves will be far more digestible. And of course you can use canned chickpeas instead of cooking them from dried, but because you won’t be blending them up (into hummus, for instance) I promise it’s worth the effort for not-totally-mushy results. If you’ve never tried cooking your own chickpeas from scratch, maybe now is the time to take the plunge! You’ll never go back, I promise. 

sweetpotatonoodles3

 

In other news, I’ve added two new recipes to the My New Roots App! If you’re craving a little more in the way of raw, juicy sunshine, here are two brand-new and exclusive smoothie bowls for your pleasure: the Zippy Zucchini Smoothie Bowl and the Plum Dandy Smoothie Bowl. If you have the app already simply update it, and if you don’t, you can download it here.

appcollage

And this week I’m in Sri Lanka, all thanks to Cinnamon Hotels for kidnapping me from the icy cold and transporting to me to a tropical paradise full of exotic fruits, cerulean 29° ocean water, and annoyingly perfect palm-tree-sunset-white-sand-beach situations. If you don’t want to be jealous, you should probably avoid my Instagram, okay?

Stay cozy out there!
xo, Sarah B

The post Chickpea & Sweet Potato Noodle Soup appeared first on My New Roots.


My New Roots

Peanut Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach

Peanut Stew with Sweet Potatoes and SpinachCooked Red Onions

At this current point in time, I have over 800 recipes on this site from over an 8 year time span. It would be slightly crazy to think that all of the recipes kept a normal rotation in my kitchen. I go through phases with most of these recipes. Some I’ve made for a year and then forgot all about while others have found their place in my kitchen. This peanut stew has been a staple since making it the first time after tasting a similar stew at a CSA potluck.

Read more and see the recipe.

The post Peanut Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Naturally Ella

Chipotle Sweet Potato Tacos with Black Beans and Guacamole

Chipotle Sweet Potato Tacos with Black Beans and Guacamole

Recipe first published on February 17th, 2012. Last updated on October 20th, 2015.

Chipotle Sweet Potato Tacos with Black Beans

If you follow me on instagram, you probably already know that Mack and I are currently soaking up all things fall in Illinois (M is at home working, so I promised him I’d make a pie upon return). Coming home always brings with it a bit more nostalgia, especially during fall. The feel of the crisp air, watching the leaves change, and being curled up in my youth bed (which is a three-quarters antique four-post bed that creeks amazingly loud with every move). And so I’ve let my nostalgia spill over to the blog by sharing these tacos (and another recipe on Thursday). Both are a couple of my favorite recipes from the archives that have been updated with new information and new photos.

Read more and see the recipe.

The post Chipotle Sweet Potato Tacos with Black Beans and Guacamole appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Naturally Ella

Curried Twice-Baked Sweet Potato

Curried Twice-Baked Sweet Potato | Naturally EllaCurried ChickpeasCurried Twice-Baked Sweet Potato with Vegetables and Chickpeas | Naturally Ella

I only feel slightly bad that it’s only the middle of October and I’ve already shared a handful of sweet potato recipes. I’ve embraced fall full force even though Northern California is downright hot right now. This is an updated version of an older recipe on the site but it’s one that sees a regular rotation in our house. I’ll actually bake the sweet potatoes ahead of time, usually on Sunday. That way you only have to cook the vegetables and assemble everything on the weeknight.

See the Recipe.

The post Curried Twice-Baked Sweet Potato appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Naturally Ella

Sweet Potato Curry with Brown Rice

Sweet Potato Curry with Brown Rice| http://naturallyella.com

A wise person once told me that after you have a kid, one perceives time as though it moves at roughly double the speed as it did before. Even in these past few months, I can tell that to be true. I look at Mack and am amazed that he was so tiny only a few short months ago. I scroll back through my emails to reply back to an email I thought came in last week only to realize it’s been a month. And most days, I’m lucky if I look at the clock before 3pm rolls around (being a work from home mother is no joke.) I am living in a rather large fog that I keep reassuring myself will eventually clear into a new sense of normalcy and routine.

The one thing that’s kept me sane throughout these months has been cooking. It’s helped to keep my brain a bit sharper and to keep a bit of my creative juices flowing. I’m constantly brainstorming new ideas, coming up with new recipes I want to try (this list has hundreds of recipes, it’s both exciting and scary), and challenging myself to simple, vegetarian meals that don’t take hours to prepare (as documented through my lunches that may one day become a recipe for the blog).

See the Recipe.

The post Sweet Potato Curry with Brown Rice appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Naturally Ella

Roasted Za’atar Sweet Potatoes with Couscous

Roasted Za'atar Sweet Potatoes with Couscous | http://naturallyella.com

On occasion, I get stuck on flavors/foods. For some time, it was chipotle, then I moved on to smoked paprika. Right now, I’m all about za’atar. It’s such a lovely addition to many meals and works extremely well with a myriad of vegetables. It’s easy to make with just three ingredients: sumac, thyme, and sesame seeds.

See the Recipe.

The post Roasted Za’atar Sweet Potatoes with Couscous appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Naturally Ella

Dal Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Dal_stuffed_sweet_potato_1

One of the first recipes we posted on this blog, soon six years ago(!), was an Indian lentil soup. Looking back on that photo and the short text that came with it, I definitely feel that we have learned a whole bit about food photography, recipe writing and blogging during these years. But one thing that stands strong from that old post is the actual recipe. We still make that lentil soup often, most regularly during the cold months (which in Scandinavia translates to 9 out of 12 months). Everyone in our family likes it and it’s a very quick and hassle-free recipe to cook when you also have to keep an eye on two kids running laps around the apartment (or one of them is running and the other one is toddling and wobbling after her).

My point is that lentil stew or dal, as it is called in India, has always been one of our favourite comfort foods and we just haven’t posted it enough here on the blog.

Dal_stuffed_sweet_potato_2

So when we were approached by Swedish spice company Santa Maria, asking us to create a few recipes for their new range of organic and fair-trade spices, we realised that this was the perfect opportunity to make another dal. Anyone that has cooked a dal knows that the spices play a really central role in the recipe. This is a new version of our old recipe. We added apricots for extra sweetness and decided on a new way of serving it – stuffed inside baked sweet potatoes. This is probably the most comforting dinner we have ever made, with lots of warm, sweet flavours that contrast the tangy yogurt and fresh pomegranate seeds on top. We usually make this as a weekday dinner with an extra large batch of lentils that last through the week. If you crave more greens, the sweet potato is gorgeous together with a fresh salad.

Santa Maria actually had a film crew in our house while we shot this recipe and have released a video and some additional photos along with the recipes on their site.

Dal_stuffed_sweet_potato_3

Stuffed Sweet Potato with Dal
Serves 4

This makes a quite generous serving of dal so you will probably (hopefully) end up with some leftovers. You will thank us the day after, it tastes even better then.

4 medium sized sweet potatoes

3 tbsp butter, ghee or coconut oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped
4 dried apricots, roughly chopped
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tbsp organic turmeric
2 tsp organic cardamom
1/2 tsp organic chili flakes
2 carrots, sliced
1 2/3 cups / 400 ml /  red lentils
4 cups / 1 liter water
1 tsp sea salt flakes
2 fresh tomatoes, cut in boats
70 g spinach or baby spinach

Topping
1/2 cup / 125 ml natural yogurt
1/2 cup / 65 g toasted pumpkin seeds or sprouted green lentils
1 pomegranate, seeds
fresh coriander/cilantro

Preheat the oven at 400°F/200°C.
Give each sweet potato a tiny slit at the top and place them on a baking pan.
Bake for about 45-60 minutes or until the skin is crisp and the flesh is soft. Prepare the dal while the potatoes are in the oven.
Place a large pot on medium heat. Add butter, onion, garlic, apricots, ginger, turmeric, cardamom and chili flakes. Saute for a few minutes, until the onion is soft and the kitchen has a lovely scent from all the spices. You can add a splash of water if they start to get burned. Add carrots and lentils and let cook for two more minutes, then add water and salt and give it a good stir. Decrease the heat when it starts to boil, put the lid on and let simmer for 15-25 minutes (depending on the lentils). Stir occasionally to make sure the lentils aren’t getting burned. Add more water if needed. Remove from the heat when the lentils almost have dissolved, add tomatoes and spinach. Taste and add more salt or spices if needed.

Place each sweet potato on a plate. Make a cut at the top and squeeze the ends together to open. Add a couple of spoonfuls lentil stew in the potato (you can carve out some flesh if you prefer more filling but we just fill it with as much as we can fit, messy is good). Top with yogurt, pumpkin seeds, pomegranate seeds, fresh cilantro and some freshly ground black pepper. Enjoy!

Green Kitchen Stories

Vegetarian Sweet Corn Recipes for Summer

I am about to jump on a plane bound for Illinois. It will be the first time Mack will meet most of the family and all I’m hoping is that the plane ride goes okay. I’m actually excited to be catching the end of summer in Illinois- it’s been something I miss every year (minus the humidity- I’ve never missed that). I always feel that there’s a certain quality to small-town, slowed down summers.

In honor of heading back to the midwest, I thought I’d shared with you some of my favorite sweet corn recipes from the archives of the site. I won’t ramble on again about my love of sweet corn but I will say that if you can pick some up before the season ends, do it. This is just a sampling of the sweet corn recipes I have on my site and if you want to see the full collection, pop over to the sweet corn page!

corn cakes with zucchini salsa- Sweet Corn Recipes | http://naturallyella.com
Corn Cakes with Zucchini Salsa
A bit more on the preparation side, these corn cakes are one of my favorite sweet corn recipes/summer treats and with the addition of the zucchini salsa, it’s a colorful dish!

Goat Cheese and Sweet Corn Pasta- Sweet Corn Recipes | http://naturallyella.com
Goat Cheese and Sweet Corn Pasta
A more recent addition to the recipe archives, this pasta is easy and one in a long line of goat cheese/sweet corn combinations. A great quick, weeknight dinner.

Sweet Corn and Goat Cheese Stuffed Peppers- Sweet Corn Recipes
Sweet Corn and Goat Cheese Stuffed Peppers
I always eat my fill of stuffed peppers in the summer and sweet corn is nearly always in the filling. This recipe is a bit older and today I’d probably add grains but it’s up to you!

Sun Dried Tomato and Sweet Corn Farro Risotto- Sweet Corn Recipes | http://naturallyella.com
Sun Dried Tomato and Sweet Corn Farro Risotto
I’m a big fan of using farro in risotto and this dish is hearty and full of summer flavors.

Roasted Corn and Ricotta Enchiladas- Sweet Corn Recipes | http://naturallyella.com
Roasted Corn and Ricotta Enchiladas
A bit on the unusual side, these enchiladas are one of my favorite enchilada variations. I’m addicted to chipotle flavor and it blends well with the smoothness of ricotta.

Freekeh Salad with Sweet Corn, Feta, and Arugula
Freekah Salad with Sweet Corn and Arugula
This has been my go-to summer salad. If you haven’t tried freekah before, this is a great starting point. Freekah and sweet corn make for a wonderful combination.

Grilled Corn, Onion, and Whipped Cilantro Goat Cheese Quesadilla- Sweet Corn Recipes
Grilled Corn, Onion, and Cilantro Goat Cheese Quesadilla
I’m constantly making quesadillas and this is a bit more extravagant than what I would normally make. However, it’s well worth and one of my favorite sweet corn recipes.

Vegetarian Black Bean Taquitos- Sweet Corn Recipes | http://naturallyella.com
Sweet Corn and Black Bean Baked Taquitos
While corn isn’t featured prominently here, it definitely adds and makes the insides a bit more filling. Try these for a great movie night snack.

Sweet Corn Recipes From around the web that I love:

Tostadas with Sweet Corn Hummus from Love and Lemons
Sweet Corn, Peach, and Cherry Salad from Flourishing Foodie
Sweet Corn and Black Bean Tacos from Cookie and Kate
Baked Green Chilaquiles with Sweet Corn + Summer Squash from The Bojon Gourmet
Sweet Corn Arepas from The Fauxmartha

continue reading

The post Vegetarian Sweet Corn Recipes for Summer appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Naturally Ella