Food

Put some spark in mealtime with this salad that offers up a riot of earthy, peppery, creamy, sweet, and salty flavours—all enveloped in a savoury-sweet carrot dressing. With each passing forkful, you may find yourself forgetting that it also has off-the-chart nutrients.

Tip

Purple-stained and pillowy soft, these ricotta balls are delicate and delicious with a hint of blueberry. Once assembled, they cook quickly, so prep gnudi ahead of time for a quick and satisfying meal! Instead of olive oil, finish this dish off with a drizzle of honey and transform this dish from savoury to sweet! Gnudi are best enjoyed the day they’re made.

A spread of vibrant pea hummus adds an extra layer of nuance to these lunch wraps—a great way to breathe new life into your sandwich routine. If desired, sorrel or basil can replace the mint in the hummus. And if you want to go plant only, slices of smoked/baked tofu are a good stand-in for chicken. Go ahead and use leftovers of the hummus as a dip or a spread for other sandwiches.

This dish feels fancy but is a cinch to put together. A sweet sauce of frozen cherries with a splash of heart-healthy red wine brings a touch of luxury to a simply cooked lean pork tenderloin. Cherries, packed with vitamin C and polyphenols, have been shown to have effects on heart health, including reduced oxidative stress, inflammation, and blood pressure levels.

These little bite-sized morsels are a snap to make. Traditionally, blinis are made with yeast and left to rise. We simplified the recipe using baking powder and soda. Plus, we added some buckwheat flour to make them a little nuttier. These delicious mini pancakes are the perfect foundation for any topping.

Whole grains such as spelt and other high-fibre foods such as kale, beets, and apples help promote a healthy gut and ease digestion. This fibre-packed salad has a bright, slightly sweet flavour with a hint of apple and a tangy lemon juice dressing. Choose a crisp, sweet-tart apple such as Pink Lady for best results, and don’t skip massaging the kale, which helps it to soften up. Kale holds up well, even once dressed, so any leftovers (assuming there are any) will last until the next day in the refrigerator.

Many of us have heard stories of bygone days when lobster was considered poor man’s food. Now the price of lobster makes it a special occasion treat, no longer something fishermen use as bait or garden fertilizer, which is all the more reason to avoid waste and use it entirely — antenna to tail. Ask your fishmonger to choose females for this recipe, only the female lobsters will have the roe (eggs) needed to flavor the butter for the sauce. (Raw lobster eggs are dark green and called roe, when the eggs are cooked they turn red and are called coral.) Making fresh pasta is easier than you think. If you’re not ready to take the leap, substituting your favorite dried pasta will still yield delicious results.

Celeriac, also known as celery root, is not to be mistaken for the more familiar traditional celery. Celeriac is grown for its root and not the stalk. Paired with potatoes and leeks as shown here, or added to stuffing, stir-fries, roasted vegetables, salads, and mashed potatoes, it packs a lovely flavour into any recipe.

Tasting like everyone’s favourite schoolyard sandwich, this hearty porridge will surely find a very special place in your daybreak food-hungry heart. It’s full of blood sugar-regulating soluble fibre, oats, raspberries, and chia seeds that work together to make sure this morning glory hits the nutritional jackpot. Made by grinding up defatted peanuts, peanut butter powder is a great way to infuse oatmeal (and baked goods!) with lower calorie nutty flavour. Reheat leftovers with a couple splashes of additional milk in a small saucepan. The new instant oats  You can settle for soggy instant oatmeal, or you can turn to more satisfying and nutritious steel-cut oats as the backbone for your most important meal of the day. Sounds great, but what about their long cooking time? Soaking your oats overnight is a time-saving hack for yielding porridge with perfect chewy texture in mere moments.  

A vegetarian take on the always kid-approved chicken nugget, these kebabs are sure to be a hit with the entire family. Kids will love the slightly sweet taste of butternut squash while also reaping the benefits of its vitamin A, potassium, and fibre content. Try serving these kebabs over pasta or spiralized vegetable noodles to round out the meal.

Tips

• You can make these kebabs with chunks of wild salmon or organic chicken instead of squash. Just note there is no pre-roasting required. Simply thread everything onto skewers and roast until protein is cooked through.
• Instead of discarding butternut squash seeds, try roasting them. Toss washed seeds with 1 tsp (5 mL) grapeseed oil and roast in 400 F (200 C) oven, stirring occasionally, until brown and crisp. Toasted seeds make a great snack or topping for salads or soups.

Featuring a zinc-rich pumpkin seed pesto and vitamin A- packed butternut squash, this glamorous side dish has the nutritional resumé needed to boost your body’s natural defences against those foreign invaders that are giving your head, eyes, nose, and throat a hard time. Adding a handful of vibrant pomegranate seeds gives a burst of sweet-tart flavour, and Asiago cheese has a nutty personality that pairs perfectly with buttery squash.

Tips

• Feel free to swap out Asiago for feta or goats’ cheese. Use extra pesto to elevate sandwiches, pasta dishes, and even salad dressings.
• The extra step of blanching greens like kale and herbs before blending results in an emerald-green pesto that keeps its vibrant colour for longer. After a short time in boiling water, it’s important to shock your greens in an ice bath to halt the cooking process.

This is the antithesis of typical soupy potato salads. Crispy spuds, the bitter edge of radicchio, buttery trout, and a tangy dressing create a palate-awakening salad that just begs for social media stardom. And all the flavours will speak to you even at room temperature, so this salad can also accompany you to the office, potlucks, and picnics. (However, it’s best to keep cooked fish chilled.) For a thicker dressing, you can replace 1/4 cup (60 mL) of the kefir with a good quality mayonnaise.

Frozen asset

It’s a shame most people consider mussels a restaurant dish—something to order off a menu and rarely, if ever, to serve at home. But this recipe demonstrates that all you need is a handful of ingredients and a nice big pot to turn them into a knockout meal that might seem fussy but is easy enough to make on a busy weeknight. Serve with crusty bread for soaking up the flavourful broth or spoon it over cooked brown rice. For two servings, you want to use about 1 1/2 lbs (750 g) of mussels.

Tips

• Mussels are naturally high in sodium, so if you’re following a sodium-reduced diet, pay close attention to your sodium intake on days you eat mussels.
• Mussels will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator if placed in a bowl and covered with a damp paper towel. They’re sold alive, so never keep them in a plastic bag—that suffocates the little guys.

If you’ve ever seen a spiky green fruit with a starchy, fibrous interior, you may have been looking at a jackfruit. Although it is a fruit and doesn’t contain significant levels of protein, its texture makes it a tasty plant-based substitute for pulled pork. In this dish, opt for the canned variety, which will save you the time and considerable effort it takes to clean fresh jackfruit. When paired with jackfruit’s meaty texture and barbecue-grilled corn, these smoky stuffed poblano peppers make for a deliciously satisfying meal.

The thyme-scented dough for this flatbread takes only a few minutes to put together, but it develops flavour as it rises slowly in the fridge over several hours. Plan to make the dough in the morning for an evening cookout, or the night before for a lunchtime get-together. Cooked quickly on the grill, slightly charred plums, red onions, spinach, and a hint of goat cheese provide a fantastic flavour punch.

Choose your favourite hearty grain bread and pile it high with this savoury mixture of mushrooms and leeks. Bright green watercress adds a peppery snap to this quick, light lunch or snack.

Fall is plenteous mushroom season. Mushrooms, both fresh and dried, are available all year round, but fall brings out the best of the best with a myriad of varieties. Whether you cook with fresh or dried, the healthy components of mushrooms provide a compendium of antioxidants, no matter what the season.  

This Mexican-Mediterranean hybrid dish gleans its tempered kick from parched ancho chilies, the dried form of poblano peppers known for their smoky quality and sweet to moderate heat. It’s a fantastic saucy, and comforting, appetizer or meal on its own. Serve with crusty bread to sop up every last bit of the red sauce, or spoon over cooked grain.

If you’re a fan of sardines and looking for a new way to incorporate them into your diet, these lemon-scented fishcakes are sure to satisfy. They’re tender on the inside and crispy on the outside. And for the timid, the strong “fishy” taste of canned sardines is subdued, especially when the patties are adorned with a vibrant tomato-red pepper sauce. You can store formed uncooked fishcakes in the fridge overnight. If needed, quick-cook oats can be used as a substitute for bread crumbs.

In Japan, it’s a custom to eat kabocha squash on the day of the winter solstice as a symbol of good health. In fact, kabocha squash contains cancer-fighting antioxidants such as beta carotene and lutein. It’s also full of fibre and vitamins A and C. We’ve made a roasted version dressed in a sweet and tangy marinade that’s sprinkled with sesame seeds before roasting in the oven. The remaining marinade, full of ginger, tamari, and red pepper flakes, is used as a dressing to further flavour the squash.

Homemade salad dressing should be an integral part of everyone’s cooking repertoire—the basic formula is easily adjusted based on what you have in the cupboard. The nutty flavour of pumpkin seed oil combines beautifully with peppery arugula.

A big pot of chili is the perfect batch-cooking project, as everything is prepared in one pan and leftovers become even more flavourful. Here, butternut squash forms the base of a sumptuous sauce, while plenty of beans and veggies pack each bowlful with big-time texture. You can make it vegan by swapping out the turkey for a couple blocks of crumbled tempeh.

Deep freeze

A little bit of cooking and a high-speed blender is all that’s required for this delicious soup. The mild flavours of asparagus mingled with fresh sweet peas, sautéed garlic, and a hint of mint and lemon bring a medley of savoury, sweet, aromatic, and fresh together in one bowl.

DIY lemon-infused olive oil

Bet you’ve never considered making breakfast or Sunday brunch on the grill. Consider cooking your egg-soaked bread over flames as a way to coax even more flavour out of brag-worthy French toast. You can also use slices of brioche bread and whatever fruit happens to be in season. Of course, nobody could fault you for topping it all off with a drizzle of maple syrup. If you want it dairy free, you can use dairy alternatives such as oat milk and coconut yogurt.