For the love of Produce...

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  • purplefizzy
    purplefizzy Posts: 594 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    muszyngr wrote: »
    senalay788 wrote: »
    Plates of sadness. Sorry.
    But if this works for you, you do you.

    We are still talking about weight loss here right? ha ha

    You can lose and still eat wonderful, tasty food. I think that's the purpose of this thread. It's great to get ideas on how to cook different vegetables, and see different produce from around the world. I don't criticize what people eat, but I grew up on a farm with basic meat and potatoes, so I'm familiar with that and want to branch out. Lose weight and have fun, the internet opens up a whole new world of recipes.

    Definitely

    I never take photos since that would require me to use nicer plates or at least not mixing bowls for things like salad and soup, and plus I'm not good at it, but maybe I will try. Some delicious produce-forward dishes lately:

    Yesterday for lunch I had pacific cod with zucchini noodles to which I added my last cauliflower and carrots from my garden, as well as some of my garden's chard (I still have more), plus some cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, green olives, and of course garlic. Sauteed in a little olive oil (noodles added just before it came off the heat), and the cod served on top. Drizzled with some white wine vinegar.

    For dinner I had a basic salad (oil, vinegar, and an Italian seasoning mix for the dressing, I use less oil than in a standard vinaigrette to cut cals): romaine, tomatoes, carrots, celery, radishes, and a few chopped kalamata olives. With it I had a chicken chili (although it ended up more like a soup) made with tomatoes, various peppers (chipotle and jalapeno), garlic and onion, a dried bean and lentil mix I bought from a local middle eastern grocery, shredded chicken thighs, and lime juice. I actually made this as part of my current experiments with my instant pot and used some homemade chicken stock in it as well. I didn't actually bother juicing the lime but just quartered it and tossed it in and that worked great. The soup's broth turned out really delicious, spicy/tomato-y/lime-y.

    Neither of these dishes would have been hard for me to fit into a weight loss diet -- I had fewer than 1350 cals yesterday (not intentionally).

    I also recently made a "parsley pesto," (it also used sesame seeds in place of pine nuts), which I had on pasta and veg (I always use what is on hand, I think it was mainly cauliflower, zucchini, and mushroom) with some salmon. This was less low cal (since pesto), but the pesto was strong enough that you really didn't need to use a lot, and really tasty.

    Screengrabs of these captions. Thanks! Needed the inspo.
  • spinnerdell
    spinnerdell Posts: 230 Member
    Gorgeous golden beets, lemurcat! Did you grow them?
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    edited November 2020
    Gorgeous golden beets, lemurcat! Did you grow them?

    No, got them from the farmer's market. The cabbage is from my garden. I may try to grow beets next year, though.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    Does red lentil/winter squash soup count as produce, if I put onions, elephant garlic, and some homegrown fresh sage in it? (There were toasted pumpkin seeds in there, too. I caramelized the onions, added the chopped elephant garlic to the pan with the chopped sage leaves to soften, then pureed all of that plus the pumpkin seeds and some smoked paprika with the food processor, and added to cooked red lentils mixed with a couple cups of the roasted smashed Georgia Candy Roaster squash I'd frozen back in September.) Topped with a blop of chevre and a few more whole pumpkin seeds . . . edible, if I do say so myself.

    8x8f3hbqjbac.jpg

  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Does red lentil/winter squash soup count as produce, if I put onions, elephant garlic, and some homegrown fresh sage in it? (There were toasted pumpkin seeds in there, too. I caramelized the onions, added the chopped elephant garlic to the pan with the chopped sage leaves to soften, then pureed all of that plus the pumpkin seeds and some smoked paprika with the food processor, and added to cooked red lentils mixed with a couple cups of the roasted smashed Georgia Candy Roaster squash I'd frozen back in September.) Topped with a blop of chevre and a few more whole pumpkin seeds . . . edible, if I do say so myself.

    8x8f3hbqjbac.jpg

    Just a note: I dry my extra sage leaves. Just rinse well and pull off the stem. On a tray, line w paper towel and spread out the leaves. Let dry, could be a week, depending on the dryness of the air. If you have a sunny window, put them there. A tip I got from the village that my MIL comes from--after they're dry, put them in a paper bag and hang in your pantry. I used to put them in a glass jar, but they keep better this way. You can do this with rosemary, oregano, and laurel leaves too.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,553 Member
    I freeze sage too. I love crumbled fried sage for pimping up bland foods such as boiled potato.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,553 Member
    This is not a fresh produce question but a tinned bean question.

    Lately I have been serving seared fish on a bed of tinned beans warmed in a sauce such as bisque. Last night was the first I tried white kidney beans which was a bit of a revelation. They seemed to have much thinner skins than other beans I've tried (canellini, chick peas) and absorbed the flavour of the sauce really well.

    Any other recommendations for bean varieties that pick up a lot of flavour from the sauce they are warmed up in?
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 12,946 Member
    @acpgee -- While they have a sweet flavor, and while I'm not sure I've seen them in cans, I bet adzuki beans would meet your needs. They are very tender. They cook quicker than most beans, and I think I've read that some people cook them without soaking. I've been keeping them in my rotation lately, but I've also been sprouting my beans before I cook them.

    Beware; if you cook them too much, they fall apart. Cook at a low simmer with the lid off, and keep an eye on them.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,553 Member
    We can actually get tinned adjuki beans in the UK. I will also look for beans in jars. The tinning process subjects food to really high temperature which might not be the case for jarred beans.

    https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/300936782
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    No photo, since I used an ugly bowl, but on Friday I made a cod soup with green beans, peas, and chickpeas, as well as tomatoes, onion, and garlic. I made two servings, but before I heated up the second half for lunch yesterday I added a bunch of chard from my garden, which was great in it -- I love greens in soup in general.

    Yesterday evening I had more of the cabbage from my garden (along with pork, yes I used apple cider vinegar) and then roasted carrots and radishes.
  • purplefizzy
    purplefizzy Posts: 594 Member
    edited November 2020
    acpgee wrote: »
    This is not a fresh produce question but a tinned bean question.

    Lately I have been serving seared fish on a bed of tinned beans warmed in a sauce such as bisque. Last night was the first I tried white kidney beans which was a bit of a revelation. They seemed to have much thinner skins than other beans I've tried (canellini, chick peas) and absorbed the flavour of the sauce really well.

    Any other recommendations for bean varieties that pick up a lot of flavour from the sauce they are warmed up in?

    Corona beans.
    Hard to find here. Giant heirlooms. Maybe less popular in 2020? ;)

    Fun bean read:
    https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/how-and-why-to-cook-with-big-bigger-beans-article