Eating Seasonally: Winter

Eating seasonally is a wonderful way of enjoying fresh produce that is pack-full of vitamins, nutrients, and flavor.  It encourages creativity and pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones, as we experience new flavors and textures, that we may not have had throughout the rest of the year.  While we may not associate winter with fresh produce, it is in fact a season that offers an array of fruits and vegetables with tart, tangy flavor; along with some more calm flavors. 

Winter Produce:

• Onions & Shallots

• Parsnips

• Pears

• Persimmons

• Pomegranate

• Potatoes

• Radishes

• Sweet Potatoes

• Turnips & Rutabegas

• Winter Squash

• Beets

• Broccoli

• Brussel Sprouts

• Cabbage

• Cauliflower

• Citrus

• Fennel

• Garlic

• Greens

• Leeks

• Mushrooms

Winter Root Soup (serves 6-8)

Method:

Melt butter in a large, stainless steel pot and add onion, leeks, carrots, turnips, rutabaga, and parsnips*.  Cover and cook gently about 1/2 hour over low heat, stirring occasionally.  Add stock, bring to a boil and skim.  Add garlic, thyme, and cayenne.  Simmer covered, for about 1/2 hour until the vegetables are soft.

Remove thyme and puree soup with handheld blender.  Season to taste.  If soup is too thick, thin with a little water.  Ladle into heated bowls and serve with cultured cream.

* I could not find parsnips at my local grocery store so I substituted them for 4 stalks of celery, sliced.

Recipe by Sally Fallon, in her book Nourishing Traditions.

Ingredients:

3 medium onions, peeled and chopped

2 leeks, washed, trimmed and sliced

4 carrots, sliced

2 turnips, peeled and sliced

1 rutabaga, peeled and sliced

3 parsnips, peeled and sliced*

4 TBS butter

1 1/2 quarts chicken stock

Several thyme twigs, tied together

4 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed

Pinch of cayenne 

Sea salt or fish sauce and pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

Creme fraiche

Mushroom Barley Risotto

Method:

Bring stock to a gentle simmer in a 3 qt. pot.  Hold at a simmer.

Heat the oil in a stainless steel pot; add onions and garlic and saute until translucent.  Add the mushrooms and saute until golden.  Stir in the barley until coated with olive oil and is toasty.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add wine in and stir until absorbed into barley.

Add stock to barley 1/2 cup at a time.  Allow each cup to fully absorb into barley before adding the next.  Continue stirring and adding stock until barley is al dente.  (If you need, add more stock than the 1 qt.)  When barley is al dente, add salt and pepper to taste.  Add butter, parsley, and Parmesan cheese, stir well and remove from heat.  Serve hot, sprinkled with additional Parmesan cheese.

Recipe based off of Trader Joe's Mushroom Barley Risotto package.

Ingredients:

1 qt. Low Sodium Chicken Stock

4 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 cup onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 1/2 cups of Crimini mushrooms, chopped

1/2 cup white wine

__ Barley

2 TBSP butter

4 TBSP Parmesan cheese, grated

1/4 cup of parsley, chopped

Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Winter Citrus Salad (serves 2)

Method for Winter Citrus Salad:

In a large bowl, combine baby kale, pomegranate seeds, oranges, kumquats, avocado and red onion.  Toss salad and enjoy with spicy orange vinaigrette.

Method for Spicy Orange Vinaigrette:

Toss ingredients in high-speed blender and blend.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

* Kale upsets my stomach, so I opted for dark, leafy greens.

** If in stock, you can use blood oranges instead.  They add a beautiful color to the presentation of the salad.

Recipe based off of The Chalkboard Magazine.

Ingredients for Winter Citrus Salad:

4 cups of kale*

1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds

1/2 cup of navel oranges**, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup of kumquats, peeled and sliced

1/2 an avocado, peeled, and chopped

1/4 red onion, peeled and chopped

spicy orange-vinaigrette

Ingredients for Spicy Orange Vinaigrette:

2 TBSP Champagne Vinegar

1/2 cup + 3 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/4 cup blood orange juice

3 TSP honey

1/2 jalapeno

Juice of 2 Meyers lemons

Himalayan pink salt and black pepper, to taste