It's Gumbo Time Y'all

For my spin on the traditional Creole dish gumbo, I concocted a roux made with whole wheat flour and canola oil rather than white flour and butter. A roux is used as a base to thicken sauces and stews and is composed of a fat and flour.  The more you cook a roux, the darker and more nutty and flavorful it becomes. I started with a golden roux for the gumbo and built the dish with a mirepoix, low sodium chicken stock, casing free andouille style chicken sausage, skinless boneless chicken thighs, some additional flavor enhancers, and topped it off with some jumbo shrimp. The other spin I took was an abridged and boosted version of red beans and rice. I used farro and kidney beans and threw in some peas for added contrast. The farro sub provided many more nutrients than traditional white rice and added a little more sophistication.

Gumbo with Red Beans and “Rice”

Adapted from John Besh’s recipe in the Nov. 2011 Food and Wine

Serves 8

½ cup canola oil

½ cup whole-wheat flour

1 large onion finely chopped

1 celery rib, finely chopped

2 green bell peppers, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup tomato paste

2 ½ quarts low sodium chicken broth

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 ½ pounds casing free all natural andouille chicken sausage

2 ½ pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

8 jumbo shrimp, cleaned 

Cooked farro

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup organic frozen peas, defrosted

Toppings

2 scallions, thinly sliced

Pickled jalapeño

Hot sauce

1.     Brown chicken thighs in 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot. They should not be fully cooked, but nicely colored. Removed from pan and set aside.

2.     Combine oil and flour and cook over moderately high heat, stirring continually until flour mixture is golden and smooth, around 5 minutes.

3.     Mix in onions, garlic, celery, bell peppers, and cook over moderately high heat, stirring frequently for around 10 minutes until vegetables are tender. Stir in tomato paste and cook for a minute. Add stock, Worcestershire sauce, oregano, thyme, and bay leaf. Cut the chicken into cubes and add it back into the pot with the sausage. Simmer for 2 hours; discard the bay leaf, and season with salt and pepper. Throw the shrimp in 3 minutes prior to eating and allow to pinken and curl.

4.     While the gumbo simmers, cook the farro and add the frozen peas into the pot for the last minute to heat. Drain, toss with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and combine with kidney beans.

5.     Serve Gumbo along side the red beans and “rice” and garnish as you please.

The roux and sausage added a great smoky component to the gumbo. All of the flavors melded together nicely, and the farro was a delectable nutty and chewy addition to soak up the sauce. I looked over a lot of different variations of gumbo recipes while concocting this dish, and it is apparent that there are a plethora of variations on a common Creole theme.

This dish was nutrient rich and provided a great balance of:

Lean protein from the beans, chicken, and shrimp

Fiber, iron, and complex carbohydrates from the farro, peas, and kidney beans

Monounsaturated fat from the olive oil and canola oil

As usual, the gumbo got better with age and provided plenty of leftovers to fuel me through my rigorous study sessions leading up to finals.

On another note…I just found out I will be completing my internship at New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope! So excited to be starting my 27 weeks of clinical rotations and be one step closer to becoming an RD!

Happy Eating Radish Heads!

 

Farro Study Break

Whole faro with sun dried tomato anchovy pesto, broccoli, peas, boston lettuce, red onion with an apple rhubarb spritzer

Let the studying beginning…..but I couldn’t continue without refueling with my favorite grain…FARRO!

Farro is a whole grain and contains, fiber, protein, and iron and when paired with legumes create a complete protein. 

I can not seem to get enough of these nutty chewy Italian morsels!

Maybe I'm Just a Cornball

Peach, Blackberry, and Cherry Crumble

Arugula with corn, chickpeas, avocado, artichoke hearts, red onion and a mustard vinaigrette

Farro with spinach pesto, sundried tomatoes and arugula

With the weather so hot and humid, it has been hard to get motivated to get into the kitchen and cook, unless accompanied by an ice cold class of pinot blanc. Even with the liquid motivation, it has been hard to spend more than 15 minutes in my galley of a kitchen standing over a hot stove. So, to avoid passing out from heat stroke, I have been indulging in simple summer salads, faro tossed in pesto, and even a fruit crumble to reward myself for enduring the kitchen heat.

My crumble did not live up to my mother’s, but I did try and incorporate a healthier spin on this fruit filled dessert that could not have been easier. I layered sliced white peaches, pitted cherries, and blackberries in a pan. (Be sure to fully load the dish because the fruit shrinks when it cooks). I then mixed whole-wheat flour, oats, brown sugar, Earth Balance Spread, cinnamon, and nutmeg and layered it on top of fruit. After baking for 40 minutes, the crumble was crisp on top and gooey and delicious on the inside. A perfect treat topped with vanilla fudge swirl frozen yogurt!

Corn is coming to its peak, and it is such a simple and delicious vegetable to integrate into salads, pastas and breads or to enjoy in its unadulterated form. Corn is a starchy vegetable, which means that it counts as a carbohydrate as well as a vegetable and has slightly more calories than non-starchy vegetables such as broccoli or carrots. This certainly doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have benefits, and is still an excellent vegetable to eat in order to get your daily veggie fix.

These crunchy little morsels are loaded with fiber, Vitamin C and have cancer fighting phytonutrients that can also promote adequate vision and heart health. Try and get corn as fresh as possible, because as soon as it is picked, the natural sugars start converting to starch. Additionally, when simply boiling or grilling or popping, be mindful of what you put on your corn. People tend to smother their golden nuggets in butter or cheese. Try and cut back and enjoy the simplicity in the sweet and crisp summer delicacy, otherwise you turn a healthy item into a fat attack.

Here are some simple solutions to keep your corn light and delicious:

Air pop popcorn and season with different spices like garlic powder, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, or a little parmesan cheese or eat naked with the addition of a pinch of sea salt.

Cut kernels from the cob and mix them with various types of salads, salsas, or soups.

Roast the corn on a grill for a smoky flavor.

Or simply boil for 2 minutes for a crunchy and sweet summer time delight.

Beet It

Chilled Golden Beet Soup

Stewed golden beets with garlic, onion, hot curry and vegetable stock. Pureed and finished with fat free plain yogurt and scallions.

Farro salad with organic garlic and herb goat cheese, rainbow chard, zucchini and mustard vinaigrette.

Farro is a nutty, slightly chewy grain that originates from Italy. It is a whole grain, meaning that it retains the complete properties of the wheat including protein, fiber and iron. When cooked, farro becomes slightly creamy and its versatility ranges from salads, soups and risotto-like dishes. To add an even more creamy consistency to the farro, I mixed in a little goat cheese, while the grain was hot so it melted and encased the grain with flavor. For a contrast in color and increased nutrient content, I added steamed rainbow chard, sautéed zucchini and finished the dish with homemade mustard vinaigrette.

Rainbow chard is the colorful version of swiss chard. It has slightly more nutrients since it possess more carotenoids, which are the colorful pigments found in plants and animals. Carotenoids act as antioxidants and may reduce the risk of certain cancers and heart disease. Rainbow chard is also a high oxalate green, meaning it contains calcium in an unabsorbable form and has binders that prevent calcium absorption. Boiling the chard can help reduce the levels of oxalate. Rainbow chard also contains high levels of vitamins A, K and C and can act as a lovely addition to a main dish or stand alone as a substantial side.