Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables for grain bowls. It cooks quickly and tastes amazing when roasted. Additionally, it pairs well with many different flavors. As a result, I’ll be making these broccoli bowls often this fall. In fact, the hardest part of this recipe is waiting for the broccoli to roast. Read more and see the recipe.
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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.
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As the cauliflower was roasting in the oven and I was busy preparing the other vegetables, the smell of burnt plastic started oozing through the kitchen. I could hear our pyromanic son laughing as he ran from the crime scene into the next room. All the dials for the stove top were switched on to full heat and our poor old spatula was melting away on the stove. I had barely scraped it clean before I could hear him giggling again, this time from our bedroom. In less than a minute, he had managed to pull out every pair of clothing he could possibly reach from our wardrobe and was currently bathing in a sea of trousers. “No harm in that” I thought and left him for a minute to check on the cauliflower and continue preparing the vegetables and chickpeas. All of a sudden it went quiet in the bedroom and then … “squeeeeak” the sound of pebbles scraping against glass, cut through the apartment. Isac had just figured out that he could use our iPad as a skateboard and was skating away in the hallway.
He’s an awesome little guy but sometimes he is simply a hooligan with more energy than the sun. This cauliflower salad, however, turned out perfectly regardless of how much he tried to disrupt it.
Anyone following us on instagram must have noticed our love for the Middle-Eastern spice blend Za’atar. We always keep it within reach and use it on avocado toasts, salads, soups and omelets. The slight tartness from the dried and ground sumac berries is well balanced with nuttiness from toasted sesame seeds and herbiness from thyme.
We have been collaborating and creating recipes with spice company Santa Maria and when they asked what spice blend we thought was missing from their product range, the obvious answer was za’atar. So now we have created a Green Kitchen Stories special edition Za’atar blend for them and it’s available through this competition on their site (only in Sweden, sorry!).
This recipe is however available for everyone, regardless if you are using our za’atar blend or another one (often available in spice shops, delis and Middle-Eastern food stores). You can also make your own by combining 4 tbsp sumac, 4 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, 2 tbsp dried thyme, 1 tbsp dried oregano and 2 tsp cumin.
In this recipe, roasted cauliflower florets are sprinkled with za’atar and mixed into a fresh salad with avocado, spinach, parsley and cucumber slices and topped with small pomegranate jewels. It is served with creamy chickpeas drenched in yogurt and tahini and also sprinkled with za’atar. If pomegranate isn’t in season, it can be replaced with raisins (preferably yellow).
Roasted Cauliflower with Za’atar & Yogurty Chickpeas
Serves 2 very hungry persons or 4 normal
1 head of cauliflower
1 good drizzle of olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 large cucumber, seeded
1 avocado
1 x 400 g /14 oz tin chickpeas (or 200 g cooked)
50 ml / ¼ cup natural yogurt
1 tbsp tahini
1-2 tbsp za’atar spice blend
1 handful parsley
1 handful spinach
seeds from ½ pomegranate
Preheat the oven to 220°C / 450°F. Divide the cauliflower into florets and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and toss until all is combined. Roast for 20-25 minutes, until soft and golden and with slightly crispy edges.
Meanwhile, prepare the other vegetables. Divide the cucumber in half. Use a teaspoon to scrape out the seeds and cut into 1 cm / 1/3 inch slices. Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and use a spoon to scoop out the flesh. Cut into large chunks. Rinse the chickpeas thoroughly. Pour them into a bowl and mix with yogurt and tahini until all is mixed.
Remove the cauliflower from the oven and sprinkle generously with za’atar.
Add all salad ingredients to a large bowl and toss carefully to combine. Make space in the side and add the yogurt chickpeas. Top with pomegranate seeds and a sprinkle of za’atar. Enjoy!
Thank you Santa Maria for the fun opportunity to create this spice blend and for sponsoring this post. All words and opinions are our own.
If you are not a beet lover, this beet pasta is not for you (but check below for a good swap). The beets are roasted whole, peeled, then pureed with a bit of cream, lemon, and dill to make a puree. The dill/lemon combination might seem a bit counter to most beet pairings but together, this pasta feels like a winter dish looking forward to spring. As for lunch, I prefer this pasta for dinner and to make extra roasted beets for this avocado salad. Also, if you were hoping for homemade pasta made with beets, check out this recipe. Read more and see the recipe.
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For the longest time, I did not like spaghetti squash. I loved the creaminess of the butternut squash and the earthy flavor of the acorn squash. I had a hard time getting past the stringy texture. Once I got past what it wasn’t, I fell in love with what it was. Roasted Spaghetti squash became a staple as a base for sauces, roasted vegetables, and everything in between. This particular version includes one of my favorite recipes- the crumble. It’s a mixture of brown rice, chickpeas, and pecans that I’ve found to be the perfect topping for salads, potatoes, and as one reader commented, stuffed cabbage. I typically make a larger batch than the recipe calls for to use throughout the week. Read more and see the recipe.
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If you don’t eat a lot of salads during the winter, you should. I know it sounds counterintuitive but the colder months are when greens are the freshest and best in my opinion. Also, it’s the perfect time to play around with warm salads where part of the salad topping is added warm. This addition slightly wilts the greens and cheese. In this roasted root vegetable salad, an assortment of parsnips, rutabagas, carrots, and celeriac are tossed with homemade croutons, pepitas, and fresh apple for a bit of sweetness. Read more and see the recipe.
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One of the things I enjoy most about Sacramento is the cool evenings. No matter how warm the days get, the evenings cool off and most days we’re able to open the windows (minus a the few weeks of summer when it’s just hot.) Recently, these cooler evenings have pushed me more into heartier cooking. Mac and cheese, stews, and polenta. I actually prefer polenta to most things, primarily because it’s minimal ingredients and while I do cook it for some time, it’s mainly hands-off.
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Last year my dear friend Karly mentioned that she started seeing a business coach. She was struggling to find balance with her quickly growing career while juggling a busy personal life, and found some much needed support and accountability with a coach. Consider me intrigued! I admire her for taking the initiative to get outside help with running her own business, and for gently planting the seed in my own mind. As I wrote in my last post, asking for help has never been my forte, but I’m lucky to be surrounded by many self employed friends who are always eager to share their sanity-saving tips.
Life got busier than ever with our new family and work. The business coach idea fell off my radar, as I didn’t think I could add one more thing to an already full plate. Looking back, it probably would’ve helped me more than it didn’t, but recently, it was as if the universe was giving me a gentle nudge to go for it. Don’t you love when that happens? First, our friend Chris mentioned his business coach, and what a great experience he’s had over the years. Then, I saw Karly recently and she told me she’s been seeing her coach for over a year now with amazing success (and I’ve noticed the positive changes, too). Well, that was it. In the words of my girl crush Mindy Kaling, Why not me?! I decided right then and there that I would make time to give it a shot.
Our first session started with an exploratory exercise. My coach presented me with “The Wheel of Life”. It has various labels on it like “career”, “fun”, “personal growth”, “money”, “significant other”, “health”, “friends/family”, etc. Then I rated each one on a numerical scale from least to most satisfaction. The poor little wheel was so imbalanced by the time I was finished. I wasn’t the least bit surprised since I’ve felt like a wagon with 3 wheels for a while now, but this exercise helped me decide on a few areas to improve. Even though my original intent was to focus on business, I realized that personal growth, or lack thereof, impacts every single area of my life. I think it makes sense to start with this area as I’m sure it’ll have a positive impact on all the other areas too. I’m in my early thirties, but I occasionally feel like my personal growth is stuck in the last decade (or on bad days, maybe my first decade of life, hah). Is this just me, or can you relate to that feeling?
I can’t even tell you how many insights I had in our first session. We set some goals in a few categories, and I came up with some potential solutions to issues. Before we met, I decided that I wasn’t going to sugar coat things or make excuses for myself; as a result, our conversation was authentic, passionate, real, and inspiring. One thing I love is the accountability that I now have to follow though with goals. Rather than simply saying, “oh I’d love to hire a team some day…”, I’m actively moving forward with the goal! I don’t want to stand in my own way anymore. It’s amazing how much we can hold ourselves back by telling ourselves the same stories each day. The question is – what would YOU do if you got out of your own way?
Photography credit: Ashley McLaughlin Photography
This post is in partnership with The National Milk Life Campaign. See below for more details.
I think one the hardest things to do when you have a baby is to tune out everyone else. There is advice, stories, and everything in between. It’s easy to get your hopes up or your fears churning, just by talking to one person. I was good at tuning most of it out but of course, I still had my hopes. For one, I hoped the baby weight would magically fall off of me (because that’s what I heard). The weight did drop but by week three, I had stalled and I was some distance away from my pre-baby self and I stayed that way for a few months.
To say I was disheartened is an understatement because I had heard this fact to be true from numerous sources. Given my past struggles with weight, I found it really easy to beat myself up over the slow weight loss. Eventually, after the dust settled down from the first few months, I’ve found a rhythm and my old relationship with food:a lot of vegetables, not so much sugar, and a good breakfast. I’ve shed a few more pounds and already am starting to feel like my healthy self again.
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To follow up from the delicata squash tacos I posted on Saturday, I wanted to share another (different) squash recipe. I think it’s easy to get blinded by the shear amount of butternut squash and pumpkin recipes out there when really, there’s a wide scope of delicious squash. Red kuri squash may look like a pumpkin but it’s nutty, pronounced flavor makes it perfect for standing on it’s own. Like the delicata, you can also eat the shell if you want. The nice thing about this recipe is you can choose to eat or not eat the skin (but still not have to peel!)
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