Food

Always a crowd pleaser, this delicious and creamy hummus will certainly be the star at your next family gathering. When you’re cooking for crowds, making an easy appetizer makes your life so much easier. This festive dip is made from just a few ingredients, and it’s great alongside fresh vegetables for dipping. Far from traditional, this irresistibly creamy hummus is made with cannellini beans and roasted red peppers, two pantry items you may very well already have on hand. Spread any leftovers on sandwiches and wraps. This hummus will keep covered in your refrigerator for up to seven days.

The most prominent colour of the farmers’ market throughout the year is undoubtedly green. Baby kale is a softer-tasting option than “adult” kale and can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. This unique green is the kind of golden treasure vegetable you can find when visiting the farmers’ market. Kid-friendly kitchen jobs: Making the pesto, mixing the dressing, and tossing the salad. Kid-friendly food swaps:  Use boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of salmon, and romaine lettuce instead of peppery arugula. Toss steamed or roasted new potatoes into this salad for a creamy contrast, or mix in cubes of toasted sourdough bread for homemade croutons.

Turn cauliflower into a gluten-free, kid- and adult-approved pizza base to hold onto homemade crushed tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, and a sprinkle of fresh rosemary. Kid-friendly kitchen jobs: Shaping the cauliflower into pizza rounds and building the cauliflower crust pizzas. Kid-friendly food swaps: If rosemary and Parmesan are too powerful for your kids’ palates, replace them with thyme and mozzarella. In September, farmers’ market tomatoes are abundant. Try a fresh sauce made with yellow, orange, or heirloom tomatoes instead of the classic beefsteaks used here.

Peaches and radishes introduce kids to the adage, “What grows together, goes together.” They can also learn about the different varieties of these foods. Kid-friendly kitchen jobs: Peeling peaches (if choosing to do so), stirring yogurt, mixing salsa, and building their own tacos. Kid-friendly food swaps: Substitute trout for black beans. It’s available at farmers’ markets across Canada and provides a sustainable choice for getting more omega-3s throughout the year. If your kids don’t like trout, use shrimp or chicken instead. Change your salsa with what’s in season at the farmers’ market. Grapes and cucumbers in fall or tomatoes and plums in late summer are just a couple of new ideas to try.

Nothing beats an egg (no pun intended) fresh from the farmers’ market. Employ any tender, seasonal green and herb as the weather changes in this quick, wholesome meal. Kid-friendly kitchen jobs: Snapping the tough ends off asparagus or cracking eggs into a bowl and whisking. Kid-friendly food swaps: Use mild cheddar cheese in place of goat cheese on half of the frittata if the latter is too strong for their palates. Try broccoli and rosemary in winter, spinach and basil in summer, and kale and sage in fall. Or, head to the market and see what’s fresh.

From coast to coast to coast, Canada is home to a number of wild berry varieties. Many, like mulberries, even grow in urban backyards. Berries are one of the easiest wild foods to locate during the summer months—a very good thing, as you’ll want to make these fudgy blondies more than once. Use the wild berries available in your neck of the woods such as wild blueberries, Saskatoon berries, mulberries, or salal berries.

This is a fun way to add some colour and sneak a few veggies into a brunch favourite. It’s great with roasted, steamed, or even pickled beets. Feel free to serve these waffles with yogurt and honey instead of the usual maple syrup. Make waffles ahead and freeze until ready to use. You can pop them in the toaster or reheat under the broiler.

A savoury breakfast makes a welcome change from the overload of sweet stuff often served at brunches. While it’s not necessary, a poached or fried egg on top makes this dish even more divine. For crispier, almost hash brown-esque cauliflower, be sure to finely chop the florets. Try blending hummus with a handful of chopped basil to pump up the flavour.

Baked avocado boats turn über custardy and even more decadent with a soft yolky egg tucked inside. The trick to preventing tough, chewy kale is to massage the leaves into tender deliciousness. A bit of added salt helps break down tough fibres in the kale, making it tenderer.

Basil or mint?

Migas has many different variations, yet the common requirement is scrambled eggs with crunchy crushed tortillas. Basically, this is like eating mixed-up tacos for breakfast. It’s great for crowds or picky eaters since all the fixings are dished up separately—“help yourself” style. Serve with a black bean salad for a robust brunch.

Freeze chipotles for later

A mishmash of Anglo-Indian dishes, kedgeree traditionally uses smoked haddock and boiled rice. This version has a West Coast twist with both smoked and grilled salmon. There are a lot of elements to the dish, so many hands make light work.

This chickpea salad is a home-run people pleaser at potlucks because it’s vegetarian and gluten free, and it can easily be made dairy free. And although it’s super healthy, it’s definitely not boring diet food. You get the sweet pop of the pomegranate, the toasty crunch of the chickpeas, the refreshing bite of the veg, the creaminess of the tzatziki, and a salty kick from the feta and olives. With so many satisfying textures, flavours, and colours in one bite, no one will miss the meat or bread.

Pulse power

This is one of those amazing side dishes that disappears incredibly fast! It’s a fancy, restaurant-worthy recipe that is sure to impress special guests. (If you are serving a large crowd, I recommend doubling the recipe, since it only serves four as a side.) If you’ve been skeptical about arugula in the past, I encourage you to give this recipe a try; the spicy, peppery-tasting green pairs beautifully with a bold and bright pesto. If you can’t find baby arugula, be sure to chop regular arugula into bite-sized pieces so it’s easier to eat. Hemp hearts add a kick of protein and omega-3 fatty acids for a nutritional boost. This dish is amazing served warm, but the chilled leftovers taste great as well. Excerpted from Oh She Glows Every Day by Angela Liddon. ^© Glo Bakery Corporation, 2016. Photography, Food and Prop Styling by Ashley McLaughlin. Lifestyle Photography ^© Sandy Nicholson. Published by Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Canada Books Inc., a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. All rights reserved.

Chicken thighs and legs are often not only the cheapest parts of the chicken, but also the most flavourful. Instead of using pickled grapes, you can rehydrate raisins in grape juice.

Fermented Brussels Sprouts

Quark is a very low fat, high protein cheese, and the process for making it is very simple. You can whip it up at home using just one ingredient: non-homogenized buttermilk.

What in the world is quark?

Serve this as a vegetarian main or side dish with whole grain bread and a leafy salad. Tap into the pudding; the Parmesan layer cracks like a crème brûlée, giving way to the supple, velvety bounty within. If serving this to a crowd—prepare yourself. Your guests will look at you differently and revere your very presence from this day forward. To wow your dinner guests, use a handheld blowtorch, tableside, to brown the cheese topping.

This recipe offers quark au naturel. Slather generously on a croustade (the French culinary term for a crisp piece of bread) and adorn with a combination of herbs from the accompanying herb bouquet. Take quark out of fridge 15 minutes before serving, as cheeses are best served at room temperature. Edible flowers make the herb bouquet wonderful and varied throughout the summer and fall. Scarlet runner bean flowers are beautiful, as are chive flowers, borage blooms, arugula flowers, lavender, bachelor buttons, and any other herb flower. If plating for a crowd seated closely together, use a medium vase stuffed with fresh herbs and a bowl of fresh quark surrounded by croustades, with a variety of finishing salts and cold-pressed oils. Tear and taste in unison.

This versatile, flavour-packed filling can top a tostada, fill a quesadilla, or stand alone as a hot dip. Using red lentil flour for the flatbread provides an unexpected pop of colour and a tasty backdrop to balance the spicy bite.

Make it a dip

When freshly sliced, queso fresco is mild and somewhat bland in flavour; when melted, it puffs into marshmallow-like pillows with a buttery, nutty taste that will awaken your umami taste buds. The texture can vary depending on how much weight is applied to the cheese when it’s set.

Key queso fresco ingredients

Consider this broth an umami bomb and unlike anything you’ll find in the soup aisle of the supermarket. It’s a wonderful base for any Asian-inspired soup, but can also star in risottos. Or use it when braising fish such as salmon or halibut and sautéing up a bunch of sliced mushrooms.

Savoury mushroom broth is an inspiring liquid for steaming up a pan full of mussels. Owing to sustainable farming practices, mussels are one of the most eco-friendly options from the fishmonger. And they’re a cinch to prepare.

With a batch of homemade vegetable broth in the fridge, this delicious and nutritious soup is so quick to prepare that it is a definite candidate for a weekday dinner. You can swap other greens, like spinach or kale, for the chard. This soup tastes even better after being chilled for a day or two.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: making your own chicken stock is far from a high-flying kitchen feat. All that is needed is to toss some chicken pieces and vegetables in a pot and let the stove do the rest. As a bonus, you finish with tender chicken meat that can be used for sandwiches, salads, soups, and pasta dishes. Chicken wings, in particular, are great for stock. They’re an inexpensive flavour-making powerhouse of skin, meat, and bones. Beyond soup, use this stock for curries, polenta, sauces, mashed potatoes, casseroles, and cooking grains.

Making applesauce is one of the most efficient ways of tackling your bounty of apples. With just three ingredients—apples, water, and lemon juice—it’s a sweet treat you can feel good about.