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Fall Superfood, The Sweet Potato

September 27, 2015 — 3 Comments

sweet potato vine

My food prep practice has helped me introduce more variety into our diet and reduce waste. I don’t aspire to fit all my preparation for the week into one day, like many of the serious preppers. My goal is to consolidate my cooking in order to have a few days each week free from major kitchen cleaning. The reward is so valuable to me that it inspires me to improve my strategy. I believe 3 days at leisure with a selection of prepared meals available is ideal for me because I do enjoy cooking. My perfect style is like having a delicatessen at home that never runs out of treats. Sometimes specialty items can be purchased to fill in for home-made, but cooking from scratch is what I like to do and the way I like to eat. Trader Joe’s helps me a lot when I don’t want to fuss, but I have a goal of eating more whole foods.

This autumn season I want to develop some new variations on some old themes. Chowder, chili, and cornbread are on the menu for savory foods. Tapioca pudding and bubble teas are on the new frontier of desserts. I like deconstructing desserts, then building small portions when I want a bite. Deconstructing lends itself to food prep, since you can create the elements to be combined later as desired.

There is one healthy food I want to include more often in new ways. That food is the mighty sweet potato. Most of the dishes I prepared in the past were sweet, like soufflé or sweet potato pie. I recently tried a savory sweet potato salad with cilantro, bell peppers, cumin and chiles. That savory recipe has inspired me to experiment with the spicy/savory realm. There are good reasons to include sweet potatoes in your diet:

Potassium rich
Fiber source
High in antioxidants
Low glycemic index

This healthy root vegetable will be featured on our fall table in as many new ways as possible. What is your favorite sweet potato recipe, gentle reader?

sweet potatoes

Pomegranates and Persephone

September 23, 2014 — 3 Comments

pomegranate

pomegranates

One of the most symbolic of all the foods we harvest in the fall is the pomegranate. This is the fruit of the dead Hades gave the goddess Persephone before she was retuned to her mother. The pomegranate seeds she ate in the underworld created a magical bond she could not break. She was doomed to return to Hades for three months each year. This complicated story is about birth and death, cycles and seasons, sabotage and fate. She was kidnapped and raped by her husband Hades who planned to keep her forever. Persephone’s mother, Demeter, goddess of fertility, went into such a tizzy about her daughter’s kidnapping that Zeus, her husband, finally relented and brought Persephone back to her. The entire incident could have ended at that, but the pomegranate seeds she ate magically sealed her relationship with Hades and the underworld. She was, after all, since her kidnapping and rape, the queen of the underworld. Now we have three months of winter, and during that time Demeter will not produce crops or warmth for the land. Each spring when Persephone returns from her underground realm life begins anew and Demeter gets busy providing ample food for humans.

The ruby red color and the delicious taste of the pomegranate makes an exotic ingredient in all kinds of dishes and drinks. Here are a few ways to honor Persephone and enjoy the season:

Pomegranate molasses is available at Middle Eastern grocery stores, and is a wonderful ingredient. It is very handy at the bar. This beautiful alcohol free drink is named after the queen of the underworld: