posted by Anjali on August 6, 2012
Remember when kale leaves were just decorative accents in between the bowls in a salad bar? Nobody ate them. Sometimes they were even fake. But then — perhaps in a fit of monotonous midwinter vegetable insanity — people started playing around with kale. Baking it into chips. Rubbing it raw with a lemony vinaigrette. Whizzing it into green smoothies. Falling in love.
Now it’s time to jump on the bandwagon of the newest kale trend: grilled kale. It’s summery, it’s smoky, it’s crispy and charred and tender and it’ll make you fall in love with kale all over again.
Grilled kale leaves tossed with a little oil, salt and lemon or lime juice are addictive enough on their own, but the things you eat with your fingers while standing barefoot in the kitchen aren’t always what you want to bring to a dinner party. For that, you might want to add chunks of ripe peach, tart cherry tomatoes and a salty miso-lime dressing, which makes the plate of charred greens much more presentable and even more tasty.
I grill my kale leaves on a grill pan, which gets very smoky; open up all the windows and turn on a fan if you go this route. On the plus side, you can cut the leaves into bite-size pieces before grilling without worrying about them falling through the grates. If you’re lucky enough to have an outdoor grill, use whole leaves and either cut them up after grilling, or plan on eating the salad with a knife and fork.
This miso-lime-walnut oil dressing is one of my favorites for any type of grilled vegetable. It’s tart and salty in a way that complements the smokiness of grilled summer squash, scallions, carrots, anything really. It also magically makes peaches taste faintly like mango. Even if kale leaves you cold, give the dressing recipe a try.
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posted by Anjali on July 26, 2012
A couple weeks ago I went up to Yakima, WA to visit the fruit fields and cherry processing facility of Rainier Fruit Company. A cherry processing facility. Are you excited yet? You know that episode of The Simpsons where you see a glimpse of Milhouse having the time of his life at his dad’s cracker factory? It was kind of like that for this fruit-loving lady.
Cherries are one of My Top 3 Fruits* and I learned so much during my day with Rainier, which I wrote about on The Kitchn earlier this week. I also ate the best cherries of my life, which I’m afraid have ruined me for all other cherries henceforth. I may need to move to Yakima.
We also visited the company’s organic blueberry fields and tried a few different varieties. Some interesting facts I learned about blueberries:
• During harvesting, the buckets the blueberries are put in never touch the ground, in order to avoid bacterial or fungal contamination. The pickers use special stands that keep the buckets off the ground.
• The white “bloom” on blueberries help protect them from rot, and should not be washed off until just before eating.
• Bees have to chew through the flower on blueberry bushes in order to pollinate them. Persistence!
• A blueberry is ready to pick when you can pull it off the branch with just the slightest amount of pressure.
• Falcons help protect organic blueberry fields! Read more about that in my other post about the trip for The Kitchn. I totally want to take up falconing now.
If all my travels involved really good fruit, sunshine and trained birds, I’d be a very happy person indeed.
* …Peaches and mangoes, if you’re wondering.
(Information for this post was gathered during a press trip sponsored by Rainier Fruit Company and Whole Foods Market. All views and opinions expressed in this post are my personal views.)
posted by Anjali on July 17, 2012
It’s been a whirlwind of a summer: the past three weekends spent out of town, first with family, then with friends, then with strangers who became friends; two big work events that had me commuting to Malibu more times a week than should be legally allowed; and a new-ish bi-weekly recipe slot on The Kitchn, which is both a lot of fun and a lot of work.
That pretty much sums up this summer: both a lot of fun and a lot of work. But jamaica — jamaica is a lot of fun and almost no work, which is what I think summer should be.
Made with dried hibiscus flowers, jamaica is tart, refreshing and beautifully pink. It’s my go-to drink at taco stands, where it is usually ladled from giant jars into big styrofoam cups. The truth is, when I try a new taco stand I am usually hoping for two things, neither of them taco related: 1) that their pickled carrots and jalapenos are made in the style I like, and 2) that the jamaica is good.
There is one way to make bad jamaica and that is to add too much sugar.
This is just my opinion, of course, totally biased because I love tartness and can’t stand too-sweet drinks. Feel free to disagree; I just won’t be ordering any jamaica from your taco stand, sorry. (I’ll still try your pickled carrots though.)
The good news is that in addition to being a lot of fun and almost no work, jamaica is very easy to make as sweet or as tart as you like. It’s also high in vitamin C and other antioxidants, and may help lower blood pressure.
Plus it tastes good in a margarita or mixed with rum. I’m just saying.
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posted by Anjali on June 18, 2012
What, more beans?
Look, I warned you. I’m a bean girl. And to be fair, this bean dish was not chosen by me. It was chosen by a committee, an eight-member group better known as The Crawfish Boil Committee, who spend countless hours every year putting together a bang-up party and food-fest better known as The Annual Crawfish Boil. This year they needed a red beans and rice upgrade and I, being a bean girl, volunteered to tackle the project.
The mission: vegetarian red beans and rice for at least 150 people. The problem: I have never eaten authentic, New Orleans-style red beans and rice. The other problem: my kitchen is sized for 2-4 people, not 150 people. The final problem: it’s hard to make beans exciting when two feet away there is some guy in overalls dumping a giant vat of steaming-hot crawfish down a newspaper-covered table. It just is.
More exciting than beans.
But despite all the problems, I was happy with my final beans, which were based on a Gourmet recipe that had encouraging reviews. The cloves and allspice add an almost Middle-Eastern undertone, while the Tabasco and chipotle provide a little heat. The chipotle also adds some smokiness, my addition along with smoked paprika, to make up for the lack of smoked sausage. If you were making it for a smaller group, a little vegetarian sausage would probably be a nice addition. It wasn’t in the budget for my giant pot o’ beans, but the crowd still ate them up.
A special thanks goes to committee member Todd, who as far as I know has zero to less-than-zero interest in cooking, but had some strong recommendations for making vegetarian red beans better, namely green bell peppers and Worcestershire sauce. He was right.
Looking for more healthy vegetarian bean recipes? Here are a few favorites:
→ Middle Eastern Spiced Lentils & Kale with Caramelized Onions (Mujadarah)
→ Black Bean & Pumpkin Soup with Peanuts & Lime
→ Garlicky Chickpea & Arugula Salad
Vegetarian Red Beans and Rice
{ Ingredients }
1 pound dried small red beans, washed and picked over
1 large onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper, chopped
2 celery stalks (with leaves), chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups water
4 bay leaves
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh oregano
1 canned chipotle chile in adobo, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (Annie's Naturals or other anchovy-free brand)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon Tabasco
{ Directions }
The night before, put the beans in a large bowl and cover with cold water.
Preheat the oven to 225 °F and arrange the racks to accommodate the pot you'll be cooking the beans in.
Drain the soaked beans. In a 5-quart dutch oven or other heavy pot with a lid, place the beans and all remaining ingredients except the salt and the Tabasco. Bring to a boil over high heat on the stove. Cover and place on the middle rack in the oven.
Bake for 30 minutes and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Bake for another 30 minutes and add the second teaspoon of salt. Bite into a bean to test for doneness; if they are still hard, return the pot to the oven for another 30 minutes or more. (Depending on the freshness of the beans, they make take longer to cook.) When the beans are cooked through, add the Tabasco and more salt if needed. Remove the bay leaves and thyme and oregano stalks. Serve over plain rice.
Additional Notes:
• If making this recipe for 150 people, 12 pounds of beans is about right.
• This recipe can also be made in the slow cooker.* Cook the beans on HIGH for 3-4 hours. (Time again depends on the freshness of the beans.)
• The Tabasco is added at the end because acidity slows the softening of beans and I have a feeling my first couple batches took longer because I was adding it at the beginning.
*But not more than two pounds of beans at a time. Trust me.
My name is Anjali and I'm a food writer, former personal chef and current graduate student studying to be a registered dietitian. The recipes I share here are what I like to cook at home: healthy, economical, mostly vegetarian meals that are easy to prepare at the end of a long day of work or school. 
