This is an incredibly simple sauce to pull together and throw on a pizza or pasta. Essentially you do everything you would do for normal pesto, treating your spinach as basil. Just to refresh your memory, here's a guide to making Winter Pesto:

Ingredients:

A bunch of fresh spinach- get as many handfuls as you can fit in your bag of fatty, elephant eary spinach leaves

A nutty element- as I've said before, pine nuts are traditionally used- but those can be pricey, so feel free to use peanuts or walnuts as a replacement

2-4 Tbsps. Olive Oil

2 Garlic Cloves

Salt and Pepper

Opitonal Ingredients: You can throw in some grated parmesean cheese or a dash of white wine to perk up your pesto

Winter Pesto

Step 1: Take your spinach leaves one by one and cut away the stalk using a fancy trick my belle-mère told me about. Simply hold the leave from it's stalk, letting it dangle upside down, then take your knife to it, cutting in a downward motion and seperating the lovely leaf from it's less appetizing stalk.

Do this to all of you spinach leaves and put them in a colander. Wash thouroughly to be sure to get the parts of the farm we don't want to eat off of them.

Step 2: Throw your spinach in a blender, and then pile the rest of the ingredients on top. Start slow with the olive oil, you can always add if you need more liquid (or complement with the wine). Same goes for the salt and pepper, start slow and adjust for taste later.

Step 3: Add parmasean (or not, for a vegan or poor man's pesto), some salt and a pinch of nutritional yeast, if you've got it.

Step 4: Start blending! I noticed that Winter pasta is a lot more liquidey than it's basil buddy, probably because spinach retains more water. Don't be surprised if your pesto seems a bit watery, its supposed to and it's in some ways preferable because it coats pasta really well that way.

Step 5: Enjoy the fact that Winter has great things to offer, and that you don't have to wait until next Summer to have fresh pesto!

In my home, we're pretty much subsisting on soups and stews and other hearty Winter fare, so this was a nice change to our menu. If you are having fun and being creative with cold weather cuisine, please share your recipes, advice, and pictures of finished products on the "Cuisine d'hiver/Winter Cooking" discussion on our facebook page!

Libellés : DIY, Iron, recipes, seasonal, vegetarian, Vegetarian Nutrition, Winter

When winter weather kicks in, I love busting out this lovely lemonade, sweetened with unrefined sugar and with an added kick of ginger. Lemons and ginger are both high in Vitamin C and Magnesium which means that they both aid in the absorbtion of the great-for-your-immune-system Vitamin C. For the nutrition-minded drinker, this quaff is an ideal winter sipper and immunity booster. For those of a more taste-oriented persuasion, I can assure that this a real pallet pleaser, and it goes great with whiskey, as well!

So, here's what you need:

6-8 lemons (if they're hard to find/expensive/out of season, I think you could probably just replace these with limes)

Lemon zest, from two or three of your lemons

14 cups of water

4 inches of fresh gingeroot, cut into dimes

2-3 cups of unrefined sugar, depending on how sweet your tooth is

And here's what you do:

Step 1: Throw sugar, water and sliced ginger root into a big pot, bring to a boil (stir occasionally)

Step 2: While the water/sugar/ginger mix is coming to a boil, squeeze the juice from your lemons into another bowl. Zest two or three of your lemons and throw that in there as well.

Step 3: Once your water mix has come to a boil, remove it from heat and let it cool for 10-15 mins.

Step 4: Remove the slices of ginger, using a straining spoon

Step 5: Once the sugar ginger water is good and cool, add your lemon juice/zest. Stir well so it all mixes to gather. Have a taste and adjust accordingly, adding more water to offset sweetness, etc.

Step 6: Figure out a way to get the juice into bottles that will seal well and conserve your elixir for the matter of days it takes you to drink it all!

I hope you this drink brings you health and happiness in the coming Winter months!!

Libellés : DIY, Magnesium, recipes, Vegetarian Nutrition, Vitamin C, Winter

One of the most common arguments that people use against buying organic and local foods is the added expense that comes with the lifestyle. It is true that buying organic can often be more expensive, but that is definitely not always the case. However, there are many cases in which ethical shopping can be affordable and even cost-effective. One of the more interesting possibilities offered by many organic food markets is the option buying bulk dry goods.

For under an Euro each, I can usually get a week's supply of rice and granola from biocoop. I've also started buying dried beans in anticipation of soup and chili season. While dried beans are a bit more of a time commitment than their canned confrères- they need to be soaked overnight and then pre-cooked before use- I found out that they have many benefits. Along with being less expensive and easy to store, dried foods also have certain health benefits, such as reducing the amount of sodium in your diet, which is found in most processed and canned foods. Most people have a sodium intake which is high above the recommended daily allowance. Cutting sodium out of your diet can significantly reduce your risk of high blood pressure.

Along with dried beans and grains, dried fruit also offers several health benefits. While they can be pricier (I recently bought delicious dried cranberries from biocoop for 31 euro/kilo- expensive, but worth it), dried fruits provide essential nutrients for all, but especially for vegetarians who can benefit from the iron found in dried apricots, raisins, and other fruits.

Libellés : biocoop, Bulk, Dry Goods, Iron, Sodium, Vegetarian Nutrition