fruit – Page 7 – GUTSy Performance Nutrition

Apricot-Carrot Muffins

July 20, 2014by Rebecca3 Comments

During the summer of 2009, I ventured off to northeastern Washington, to spend a week at an educational cooking school at Quillisascut farm. It was a Slow Food Youth experience, and the week is ingrained in my memory. Myself and a dozen or so other 20-somethings came together from all over the country to spend a few days harvesting fresh produce, making delicious meals from scratch, baking bread in a wood-fired oven, milking goats, making cheese, and learning about the domestic arts in general. For me, it was paradise and the kind of experience that in an ideal world I’d like to recreate for other people on my own farm someday.

During this time of the summer when local apricots are in season and soon-to-be-gone for another year, I remember those few days at Quillisascut. That week, in addition to all of the above, I ate a lot of apricots.

The farm is located in a remote region of Washington state, hours from any major metropolis, and the experience was all about living off what the local region produces. Aside from the foraged huckleberries for breakfast, the only fruit to be had that week was apricots–and there were A LOT of them! I am a snacker by nature and in addition to apricots in our meals, I probably downed between 15 and 20 a day just in passing, because they were uber ripe and in need of being used–and I like to eat!

Prior to that experience, I had never had much of a thing for apricots. Sure, I like all fruit and I grew up with grandparents who would bring us boxes of whatever was in season from their nearby orchards. We definitely had gluts of apricots growing up, and my mom would make apricot upside down cake and jam. Yesterday, I called her and she was doing just that!

These days, since Quillisascut, I’m all into the apricot season. In the last couple weeks, I’ve had them in savory grain salads, in breakfast porridge, in these muffins, in a coming-soon vinegar concoction, and I’ve been downing them just as is–which is often the best way!

Apricot-Carrot Muffins, makes 6 large or 12 standard muffins

This recipe is an update of one I posted a few years back. It is now gluten and dairy-free. Use the ripest apricots and the sweetest carrots that you can find–you will taste the difference. Feel free to use the original recipe if you have no dietary restrictions.

1 cup gluten-free flour

3/4 cup oats

1/4 cup oat flour

3/4 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 cup diced fresh apricots

1 cup grated carrots

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. canola oil

3/4 cup almond milk

1. Make oat flour by grinding 1/4 cup oats in a food processor until fine.

2. Bring together the flours, oats, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, and milk. Pour into flour mixture. Give the bowl a couple of turns with a spoon and then stir in the carrots and apricots. Only stir until mixture is just incorporated.

4. Spoon evenly into muffin tins.

5. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F for approximately 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and the insides are set.

Summertime

Coconut Mint Raspberry Panzanella

July 2, 2014by Rebecca6 Comments

We had a raspberry patch growing up that stretched down the fenceline in our backyard. My siblings and I would spend a good amount of our summers wedged between the barbed wire cattle fence and the berry bushes, grazing. Though we often were given chores that included picking green beans or weeding in the garden, picking raspberries never made the list. We spent so much time picking and eating each red jewel one by one that I can recall only once or twice having a bowl of berries big enough to make their way into the house. Even then, there were usually no more than a small handful reserved for my dad, who didn’t have time to stand around in the backyard and eat berries all day.

If we were lucky enough to have an abundance of berries that made their way inside, they were eaten for breakfast, simply, swimming in a bowl of milk.

These past few years, I have avoided purchasing raspberries, not because I don’t love them, but because I have a tough time justifying shelling out so much for a small punnet that I could have picked and gobbled by the red-stained-handful in a matter of minutes. I always tell myself that as soon as William and I live in a place that is ours, berries will be the first green thing we put into the ground.

I tend to spend a lot of time waiting though, in many areas of my life, and I’ve finally come to the realization that what I sometimes consider to be patience is actually avoidance. Waiting is not always the answer. If not now, when?

Even though we are not yet in a place to plant our own berries, the time to eat them is now, when they’re fresh, in season, and local. By the handful. In salads. Because raspberries can do more than liven up sweet things; more too than liven up a bowl of milk.

Coconut-Mint Raspberry Panzanella, serves 3-4

This salad was inspired by all the ingredients I had on hand, and when allowed to sit out at room temperature for an hour or so before eating, the raspberries ooze their flavor into the dressing and bread. Of the bread, you can use any hearty day-old loaf. I have been making variations of loaves from Jennifer Katzinger’s Gluten-Free and Vegan Bread. All the recipes I’ve tried are splendid. The lettuce in this is a mix of gentle leaves, though if you’re in the mood for something heartier, any type of mild-flavored green should do the trick.

2-3 cups cubed hearty bread

1 Tbs. + 1 tsp. coconut oil, divided

2 cups cooked garbanzo beans

1 medium onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic

2-3 green onions, chopped

3-4 cups lettuce

1 cup raspberries

1/4-1/2 cup sprouts

Dressing:

~ 1/2 cup mint leaves, chopped

3 Tbs. orange juice

2 Tbs. rice vinegar

2 Tbs. coconut oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.On on a baking pan, toss the cubed bread with 1 tablespoon of the oil and season with salt and pepper. Once all of the bread is coated, bake for 10-15 minutes or until bread pieces are deep golden brown. Remove from the pan into a large serving bowl.In the same pan used for the bread cubes, toss the onion and whole garlic cloves. Toss them with the remaining teaspoon of oil and some more salt and pepper. Roast for 10-20 minutes or until the onions are golden and getting tender. Remove from the oven, remove the garlic cloves from its skin, and mash. Toss the onions and garlic over the bread cubes. At the same time add in the garbanzo beans.

While the onions are roasting/cooling, make the dressing: Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until the mint is broken into a puree and it becomes a creamy, coconutty mixture. Taste it for seasoning, and adjust if necessary.

In the serving bowl, gently toss in the lettuce, raspberries, and green onions. Spoon the dressing on top and stop when it has as much as you desire (you might have a bit left over). Toss everything together to combine and season to taste with more salt and pepper.

Summertime

Raw Buckwheat Porridge with Hazelnuts & Rose Water

June 22, 2014by Rebecca4 Comments

Almost a year ago, I wrote about a new beginning, my desire to meet new people, and to connect to place. Having grown up on a ranch where we were seemingly always connected to neighbors who often shared their honey, lamb, fruit, or eggs while we returned the favor with armfuls of zucchini, beef, and cookies(!), it is natural for me to connect to a place through its food and farmers. Food is precious, unique to place, and meant to be celebrated as such. I’d like for us all to return to that mantra, in whatever way we can best make it so.

I have high aspirations to grow my own, get to know my farmers, and to share the abundance. The truth is though, I live in a tiny dark apartment under a canopy of giant oak trees. It is shady and I haven’t even been able to successfully grow herbs in the windowsill. I have a community garden plot full of packed clay soil, but at least it’s growing something. (Lots of things, actually!) I’m working on it.

Because life also has room for trade, trying flavors from afar, and celebrating with foods that just won’t grow nearby, I have been finding ways to integrate local flavors into even the most international of themes. It is a balance and I’m still fine-tuning. Mostly though, I’m excited that the Willamette Valley is seeing a resurgence in local grains and pulses–and millers!

Though there are dreams aplenty ’round these parts, I’m holding out for a larger piece of land for my buckwheat and oat plot. In the meantime, I’m excited to be trying out a couple different varieties of “dry beans” in the garden. There is more to eating locally these days than fruits and vegetables–and that is exciting!

How do you connect to your community?

This porridge is raw, Middle-Eastern and June-inspired, and features edible flowers as part of this month’s Recipe Redux theme. There are roses blooming now and the weather has been continuously summer-like. Buckwheat is gluten-free, nutritious, locally grown and processed here (albeit still somewhat seasonally available), and super quick to blitz up on an early summer morning when there is a desire for nutritious, filling, and uncooked.

There are local hazelnuts and honey too, along with rose petals that can be gathered and dried. All together, I’ve gathered the makings of a quick, super delicious breakfast. Top with the berries of the season: Here, we are right at the beginning of blueberries.

Raw Buckwheat Porridge with Hazelnuts and Rose Water

Serves 2–3

3/4 cup raw buckwheat groats, soaked overnight

1 1/2 tsp. rose water

1/2- 3/4 tsp. ground cardamom

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 Tbs. raw honey

1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

blueberries, by the handful

dried rose petals, to taste

Drain soaked buckwheat and pour into a food processor. Pulse a few times until the grains are starting to break apart.
Measure in the rose water, cardamom to taste, vanilla, and honey. Puree until smooth.
Pour out into your container of choice and top with hazelnuts, berries, and rose petals. Enjoy!