Food

A quick tomato braise helps keep a splurge fish like sablefish tender and moist (read: much less risk of overcooking), while leaving you with a sumptuous sauce to spoon up. This dish can also be made with other white-fleshed sustainable fish such as Pacific halibut, lingcod, and tilapia. Consider serving with roasted potatoes.

Gravlax is a traditional Scandinavian preparation of fish, cured with seasonings and dill, resulting in deliciously velvety flesh. In this version, beets bring earthy, sweet flavour and bright, bold colour to cured Arctic char. The cured char should be used within five days. Substitute salmon or rainbow trout for the char if you like.

More ways with cured char

• Stir together cream cheese with chopped herbs and lemon zest, spread on rye crackers, and top with slices of cured fish.
• Fold into soft scrambled eggs or add finely chopped pieces to devilled eggs.
• Use in place of smoked mackerel in the Mackerel Potato Egg Salad recipe.
• Try it with cooked linguini.
• Smash avocado on toast and top with slices of cured char and microgreens.

These power bowls—featuring a gathering of buttery wild salmon, whole grain millet, radishes roasted to sweet perfection, and a lively mango sauce—are sure to wake up your lunch or dinner routine. Plus, in a bowl, everything is deliciously mixed together instead of getting pushed around on a plate. The millet, roasted radish, salmon, and mango sauce can all be made up to three days in advance for quick assembly.

Easy does it

This composed salad has it all: meaty smoked mackerel, radicchio for a bitter edge, the vinegary snap of pickles, and creamy potatoes. And this method of hard-boiling eggs will give you a nice soft (but not too runny) yolk. You can also roast the potatoes in the oven if you like them crispy.

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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.

This is a bit of a take on a popular dish in a local restaurant. A crispy coating on flattened chicken takes mere minutes to cook and is delicious grilled or pan-fried. Served on a bed of roasted garlicky tomato salad with arugula and a smattering of fried capers, it’s perfect for any gathering.

Last summer when my first planting of squash seeds didn’t grow, I planted another batch. Then I decided that growing squash down the retaining wall at the back of our home might also be nice (which it was!). Then, to my surprise, all three batches of squash seeds grew into a wide variety of gorgeous organic squashes. So I began creating new and different ways to enjoy this vegetable. Imagine my anticipation when I created this recipe and then waited for the ice cream maker to churn out the finished product. Then there was the first bite. It was heavenly! I had created my new and favourite way to enjoy squash—in ice cream. This delightful treat, which doesn’t actually contain pumpkins due to my overflow of squash, tastes like creamy pumpkin pie without the crust, or perhaps even better.

Don’t throw away those apples that are spongy and past their prime or the peels and cores from making your favourite apple dishes! You can quickly give these castoffs new life as delicious and nutritious apple vinegar. With minimal effort and a minor time and cost investment, the simple process provides delicious, health-building vinegar in a couple of weeks. You’ll notice there is sugar in this recipe. It acts as a natural preservative so the apples don’t just rot, and it provides food to encourage the growth of probiotic cultures. Apples aren’t high in natural sugars, so without the added sugar, they would just grow mold and other unwanted microbes. But don’t worry: the beneficial bacteria eat most of the sugar, causing them to multiply as they go. The result: high quantities of beneficial, health-building bacteria.

This dairy-free cheese has a deliciously salty and savoury taste with a rich, buttery texture from walnuts. The walnuts also give it a distinct but ever-so-mild flavour that makes it unlike any other cheese. Even if you’re not a fan of walnuts, I encourage you to buy some high-quality raw walnuts from the refrigerated section in your local health food store. Walnuts also offer high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, which your body needs to protect your brain, maintain a healthy immune system, balance moods, and reduce pain and inflammation in your body. Walnuts are also a good source of vitamins B6 and E as well as minerals like magnesium and potassium. This recipe takes only about 10 minutes of actual preparation time, but the flavours are superb when the walnuts are allowed to culture for a day. Of course, you can culture it for less time if you simply can’t wait to enjoy your next batch. It is delicious on its own, or you can cut it into disks and serve it with your favourite crackers, grapes, or figs. Alternatively, spread it on freshly toasted bread, and savour the rich flavour as it slowly melts from the warmth. Mmmm.

Choosing cheese moulds

• 2 cup (472 mL) Pyrex bowl for small blocks of cheese
• 1 quart (952 mL) for medium to large blocks of cheese

Traditionally, kefir is made using cows’ milk, but you can also make kefir with plant-based milks. Here’s a simple recipe for making your own kefir from cashew milk, but feel free to try other types of milk as well, such as almond, sunflower seed, or coconut. The sweetener feeds the kefir microbes, so there will be minimal sugar left in the final product. You’ll notice that the grains will grow in number over time. You only need about 1 Tbsp (15 mL) of kefir grains to keep your kefir going, so you can remove the extras and either eat them, give them to friends, or put them in the compost.

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

Umami-rich black garlic is the darling of this savoury fall dish. If it’s your first time cooking with black garlic, you won’t be disappointed. Sweet yet earthy, the sticky properties of fermented garlic add depth and datelike sweetness to the lightly seasoned lentils.

Tips

• Substitute oven-roasted regular garlic cloves for black garlic, if you wish. It’s not quite the same effect, but roasted cloves will add a subtle sweetness to the dish.
• Black garlic’s datelike flavour and sticky texture is also unique combined with chocolate. Dip individual fermented black cloves into melted chocolate and set aside to harden. Savour like a delicious chocolate truffle.

Here is a light and healthy version of moussaka without the meat and heavy cream sauce. Perfect for a weekday meal. Jazz it up for guests with additional assorted grilled veggies.

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There’s a myriad of recipes for using the beautiful garlic scape—from pesto to grilled side dishes, whirled into hummus, tossed into a stir-fry, spun into a soup, or used as an artful garnish. Scapes look and taste delicious and don’t have the harsh bitter or zingy garlic overtone. The season for scapes is short, so this little scape vinegar recipe is perfect for giving you a few extra months of cherished scape flavours. It’s perfect for a salad pick-me-up or splashed onto a stir-fry.

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A savoury breakfast bowl is just the thing to slow down and linger over after a busy week. If you’re short on time, skip the roasted chickpeas and substitute a sprinkling of toasted pumpkin seeds or roughly chopped almonds.

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This big bowl meal is a riff on the classic Vietnamese sandwich that is at once spicy, salty, sour, sweet, and aromatic.

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Taco night will never be the same once you try out this recipe. Millet is a gluten-free seed that cooks up quickly and has a mild sweetness to it. Millet provides us with a good source of manganese, which helps regulate our metabolism.

Tips

• When shopping for a ripe mango, there are a few tips to keep in mind.
  • Look for mangos that are full, plump, and rounded.
  • A ripe mango should be slightly giving, just like a ripe peach or avocado, but not soft or mushy.
  • Finally, smell a mango near its stem end; it should smell sweet, fragrant, and fruity.
• Firm white fish such as lingcod or halibut, and even shellfish such as scallops and prawns, work well in place of the salmon in this recipe.

Just one bite and you will fall head over heels for this completely plant-based meal bowl that is not only vegan but also gluten free.

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By replacing the base of this bowl with cauliflower rice instead of the grain we amp up the nutritional value, while drastically cutting the calories and carbohydrates otherwise consumed.

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This big pot of hearty meat-free pasta sauce delivers deep tomato-umami flavour and will leave your house smelling like a million bucks. And, yes, you can prepare pasta in advance and enjoy delicious noodles all week long. To keep things vegan and add another layer of good nutrition, sprinkle on this savoury nut and hemp heart mixture in lieu of traditional Parmesan. You can also use it on salads and soups or when making pesto. The ragu is also excellent strewn over baked potato.

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Rustle up a big pot of this hearty chowder, and you’ll be spooning up a nutritional windfall all week long. Canned salmon may seem like a step-down ingredient, but it holds up better in leftovers than fresh fish. And canned wild sockeye or pink salmon are sustainable catches of the day that are chock full of heart-healthy omega-3 fats.

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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

Say goodbye to those #saddesklunches by packing up this make-ahead satisfying salad that will leave your fellow workers wishing they weren’t eating another sandwich. South of your taste buds, however, your body will benefit from the nutritional bounty in this salad. Freekeh is a high-protein and fibre-rich Middle Eastern wheat that is harvested young and roasted for a smoky flavour.

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This comforting baked oatmeal recipe—stuffed with nutritional bell-ringers such as apples, carrots, and walnuts—is a perfect meal solution for harried mornings when you don’t have the time or energy to hover over a pot of simmering oats. It’s also a perfect option for weekend brunches when you’re in the mood for entertaining. Bake ahead of time and reheat in the oven or microwave until warmed through. Try serving with a couple dollops of thick yogurt and blueberries.

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