Side Dish

Whole Foods Cooking Class Part 3

May 28, 2014 by Zucchini Runner in Food, Life, Main Dish, Side Dish | 4 Comments

It’s our first harvest from the garden… a zucchini!!  Shocking, I know. 😉 (For those of you who read the original garden post, go and check it out again; I’ve added some updates near the bottom! Or just check it out if you want inspiration for starting your own garden!) The recipe below was inspired by the Quinoa Stuffed Zucchini recipe already on the blog, which wasn’t my recipe at all, but I loved it so much I posted it anyway – and of course gave the book credit! Check out that page when you are done here, for another amazing stuffed zucchini recipe. I was also inspired to stuff our first harvested zucchini, because my mom was telling me stories about how she would stuff zucchinis from our garden when we were kids! “They would hide under the big leaves and grow as long as your forearm! I had to scrape out the seeds and stuff them!”I kept telling her I think that happened before I was born… because I barely remembered it happening… being the youngest of 5 isn’t easy sometimes.

This lunch came about because we needed something quick during the work week – we both work from home so that makes cooking healthy lunches on the fly much easier! It started as just beans and rice, so we could get a complete protein cheap and easily… then I decided to stuff them! Since the only other stuffing of a zucchini I’ve done is the one I just mentioned above, I think this qualifies as a recipe I’ve never made before, so I’m using it as my week 3 assignment for my Whole Foods Cooking Class at SWIHA. 🙂 I felt very excited as I was whipping this up in the kitchen and therefore it was a “little dash of this, a little dash of that” measuring system. 😉 Below is a quick breakdown of the recipe.

1 c. uncooked brown rice, cooked in 1 3/4 c. water for 40 minutes (yields ~ 2.5 cups cooked rice)
1 tbsp. coconut oil (stir this in after the cooking is all done)

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1 – 7″ zucchini, cut lengthwise, with seeds and some flesh gutted and baked in a 350ºF oven, in a pan with 1/2″ of water for 10 minutes

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For the filling, combine in a warm skillet:
1/2 c. onion, diced (cooked alone until somewhat translucent ~5 min on low-med heat)
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
zucchini guts

Season the filling directly in the skillet with the following spices to taste:

  • cumin
  • parsley
  • chili powder
  • cayenne powder
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • favorite salsa (can use as a seasoning and stir into skillet, or use as a topping; pictured below)

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This is one of my favorite salsas! It really packs a punch in the spice department, but the flavor is SO GOOD – which is rare to find.   IMG_2983

The end result of this new recipe experiment was very tasty, filling and easy to prepare – with little hands on time. The brown rice of course took about 40 minutes to cook, but it takes about 5 minutes to get it started and then you just leave it and do other things!

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This recipe serves two and I will definitely be making it again! Yay for my Whole Foods Cooking class and a winning recipe this week! (albeit a little late… whoops!)IMG_2988

Rainbow “Rice”

March 10, 2014 by Zucchini Runner in Main Dish, Side Dish | 2 Comments

Do you ever have those days where you stare into the fridge, hoping it will tell you what to make for dinner? Well, that is kinda how this recipe became reality. We’ve been trying to expand our food horizons and while cauliflower used to hate me, we’ve now come to a mutual understanding. By the time this dish was hitting our taste buds, we were both pleasantly surprised by the delicious and light flavor! I’m excited to keep experimenting with different cauliflower rice flavors! It’s so nice having a new versatile veggie to work with.

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What you’ll need:
1-2 tbsp coconut oil
4 large green onions, diced OR 1/2 a brown onion, diced
3 cloves garlic

1 head of cauliflower, reduced to rice size bits in a food processor
3 small carrots, diced
1/8-1/4 head purple cabbage, diced
4 kale leaves (no stems), diced (you can also add or use fresh spinach, chopped)
1 large bok choy leaf, diced (optional, just add the flavors you like! load it with veggies and color, get creative!)
1/4 c. water

2 tsp Parsley
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp Basil
1/4 tsp Rosemary
1/4 tsp Sage
1/8 tsp Thyme
Pink Himalayan Salt – a few dashes

Heat a very large skillet with the coconut oil on medium to low heat for about 1-2 minutes. Add the onions and stir, cooking for about 3-5 minutes or until they start to become translucent. Add the garlic and stir. Now you can add all the veggies that have already been chopped and are ready to go. Mix well to combine. Add half the water, and cover with a lid (if you can) and steam for about 5 minutes. Make sure you don’t brown or burn the veggies, you just want them cooked with a little crunch. While the veggies are cooking, you can prepare your spices in a small dish.

Remove the lid and stir again. Sprinkle all the spices on top, add the remaining water and stir well to combine. If necessary, you can add a little more water for steaming, but don’t add too much to make it soggy. Replace with lid and cook for another 5-7 minutes until veggies are desired tenderness.

This was a great side dish, or in our case, we used it as a light dinner which was later supplemented with some heavier foods. (Sometimes this is necessary with evening workouts or sports!) The most important part of this recipe is to just enjoy and add the flavors you like best – have fun with different veggies and spices!

The below slide show is the second batch of this same recipe that I made. Follow the instructions above regarding the onion; both times I forgot to add the onion first! Also, I think I used way more cabbage on the second batch and I food processed it versus chopping it up, which made the cauliflower purple; not as pretty as the first batch!

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