April is National Garlic Month! We’re close to the end of April, but fear not: the North American garlic harvest lasts through July, and you can pick up the bulbs until Fall. Even after the green stalks wither and the bulbs are drier, your garlic will remain pungent for any months if you store it well.

The trick is to keep the fresh garlic in a well-ventilated, shady place away from steam and heat. Not by the stove, in other words. I place a tension pole in a shady spot in the laundry room, not close to the washer/dryer, and hang my year’s harvest from it by the stalks. I’ve also cut the stalks off and stored the garlic heads in wicker baskets, on a well-ventilated shelf.

Buy plump, firm bulbs wearing their sheath of papery outer skin. If it’s soft or shriveled, or feels light in the hand relative to its size, it’s not worth buying.

The little bulblets inside the stalks may be worth the trouble of extracting. Press the stalk and judge if the bulblet is big enough to bother with. Sometimes they are.

Now for peeling the cloves. One way is to crush a clove with the flat side of a knife. Just place the knife over the clove and bang your fist down on the knife, taking care to avoid the knife edge. This loosens the garlic skin and makes it easy to pull off. If you prefer to peel the cloves whole, pour hot water over them for a few seconds. The peels will come off with a little help from a paring knife.

A tip for crushing garlic: throw away the metal garlic crusher. You can reduce garlic to a paste on your chopping block in seconds by chopping the cloves coarsely, then scraping the bits with the edge of your knife. One less gadget to wash, and no time spent digging garlic out, blunting your knife in the process.

Where does American garlic come from?

Approximately 80% of the garlic consumed in the United States is imported from China. Prices have gone up with the current tariff war, but some pre-tariff produce may still be found. It won’t be fresh, though. You may find garlic imported from Spain, Argentina, Egypt, India, or Mexico in your grocery store.

California produces about 90% of American-grown garlic. Local garlic very much fresher and tastier than garlic imported from China, and here’s why you should prefer it.

A commenter on Reddit who goes by hamdunkcontest manages the garlic category for a fairly large industrial food ingredients company. These are his insights regarding what American garlic consumers can expect in 2027:

“Assuming the tariffs hold, for this year specifically, some amount of the demand will still be covered by Chinese garlic that was already imported into the US. The balance will likely be covered by Indian garlic.

“The US can’t feasibly cover their current demand with US-origin product. Even if we wanted to increase production, the land we’d use to increase acreage will also need to be considered for other crops that are also impacted by the tariffs.

“What we’ll instead likely see is a modest increase in US production for next year, with the balance of the gap being covered by: 1) Indian or other small tertiary sources, 2) demand being reduced by companies reformulating garlic out of recipes, and 3) Chinese garlic that is illegally dodging the tariffs, though things like falsifying the country of origin.”

It’s enough to make you uproot your lawn and plant garlic, isn’t it? Many in the US and Canada do.

Green Prophet’s editor, Karin Kloosterman, says that in her native Ontario, the local CSA brings the garlic harvest down to one July weekend when they announce that the garlic’s ready to pull. The news spreads around the community by word of mouth and that’s how home gardeners known when to start digging.

Here I go to the local open-air market and revel in the garlic abundance.

But I can’t hang around reveling too long, because the season is short, a month at the longest. I ensure a year’s supply of local garlic by buying a tad more than I’ll need, to account for some inevitable loss over the months.

Eating Garlic a Natural Medicine

People have been claiming health benefits from eating garlic for centuries. Today we include:

Eating a raw clove daily keeps your heart strong, as it reduces cholesterol and blood pressure, and prevents blood clots.

Garlic is known to be antibacterial and antifungal.

Raw garlic, freshly cut, works as a home-remedy antibiotic in a pinch. In other words, sliced raw garlic applied to an infected cut, scrape, or pimple will clear it up. Mashed cooked garlic also works. Obviously, a serious infection calls for standard medical help.

Is all this talk about garlic getting you hungry? We have some great garlicky recipes, like this vegan roasted cauliflower dish and creamy roasted garlic soup. I recommend the soup as a delicious pick-me-up for any time you’re tired and disheartened.

And if you’re not convinced that garlic is the answer to the world’s woes, try this decadent garlic bread recipe from the American food writer Ruth Reichl (taken from her Substack newsletter, La Briffe):

Make Decadent Garlic Bread

1 loaf sturdy French or Italian bread
1 stick sweet butter
1 head garlic
Zest from 1 lemon (optional)
¼ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley or chives (optional)

Begin by cutting the bread in half, lengthwise (a serrated knife helps). Preheat oven to 350⁰ F.

Peel and finely chop the garlic. Melt a stick of sweet butter, and add the garlic.

Slather the garlic butter onto the bread, cut side up, with a brush. Let it soak in. Use it all, and evenly spread the bits of garlic all over. Now is the time to salt it if you want to, and to sprinkle on the zest.

Bake the loaf, cut sides up, 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven and wait to take the final step just before serving.

Turn the heat up to broil. Add cheese, if using. Broil for about 2 minutes, watching carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn. Sprinkle with herbs just as it comes out of the broiler and serve immediately.

My note: include all the optional ingredients. It’s the best garlic bread you’ll ever eat.

Happy National Garlic Month!

Cook on – Recipes that feature garlic

Creamy Roasted Garlic Soup — Creamy Roasted Garlic Soup

The Ultimate Hummus Recipe — The Ultimate Hummus Recipe

Ful Medames and Musabaha Recipes — Ful Medames and Musabaha Recipes

Vegetarian Haricot Bean Stew Recipe — Vegetarian Haricot Bean Stew Recipe

Noodles and Lentils Recipe — Noodles and Lentils Recipe

Baba Ganoush Recipe — Baba Ganoush Recipe

Grilled Vegetables With A Middle Eastern Accent — Grilled Vegetables With A Middle Eastern Accent

Spinach and Cheese Bourekas Recipe — Spinach and Cheese Bourekas Recipe

Shakshuka, Tunisian Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce — Shakshuka, Tunisian Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce

Late-Summer Pickled Peppers — Late-Summer Pickled Peppers

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Big, gnarly fava bean pods are in season right now, just as winter gives way from cool nights to bright, warm days. Heaps of the greens loved in the Middle East appear in the shouks (Arabic word for market): peas, string beans, asparagus, and for a short while, these fresh fava beans.

Somehow vegetables with short seasons excite the imagination and appetite more sharply than produce that’s available all year around. Good Middle Eastern cooks have many recipes for delicate fava beans, and this turmeric-fragrant soup is one.

Fresh beans are peeled twice: once when when you slide them out of their pods, and again when you squish each bean out from its rubbery covering. True; a little extra work. But it’s a restful task, and the soup is wonderfully herby, and redolent of green Springtime.

The preparation time listed relates to fresh beans. Frozen beans won’t need the peeling.

You’ll notice that the recipe calls for a fair amount of cilantro, but you can easily swap parsley for it if you prefer.

Fava Bean Soup Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups fresh or frozen fava bean pods
1 large leek, well washed and sliced ​​into thin rings (about 2 cups)
2 celery stalks sliced
2 carrots, sliced thinly
2 zucchini, diced
2 large potatoes, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
A bunch of coarsely chopped cilantro (about a cup)
8 cups/2 liters water or more as needed

Pull the strings off each pod and open it along the slit to expose the green beans. Use your thumbnail or a small knife. Push the beans out. Make a small cut in each bean, along the black stripe on its side, and squish it free of its sheath.

If using frozen beans, skip this step.
Heat olive oil in a deep pot over medium heat. Add the leeks, celery, carrots, zucchini and potatoes. Add turmeric, salt and black pepper, stir and let the vegetables cook gently for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add 8 cups of water, stir and bring to a boil. Cook, covered, for 45 minutes over medium heat until all the vegetables are tender.

Add the peeled fava beans, bring back to a boil and continue cooking for another 45 minutes. Check the soup once or twice: if necessary, add a little water.

Using a potato masher, mash the vegetables very coarsely.

Taste for seasoning and add a little more salt and pepper if needed.

Turn off the heat and add a bunch of finely chopped cilantro or parsley.
Serve right away, and enjoy.

Love fava beans and want another recipe? Try this fava bean Iranian salad

The post Fresh Fava Bean Soup, A Vegan Springtime Recipe appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Purim holiday is coming up next week: this year, 2026, it occurs from the evening of March 2nd until the evening of March 3rd. (In Jerusalem, where Shushan Purim is celebrated, the festival takes place on the following day, from March 3rd to March 4th.) Read about Purim and building a good society here.

There’s feasting at home on the night and the next day, and to make sure everyone gets good things to eat, families send out packages of treats to friends and neighbors. Traditional goodies are hamentaschen, and other treats like our chocolate nut clusters .

Now here’s another treat for sending around: a delicate nut-filled Moroccan pastry called Haman’s Fingers. It’s a sweet take on savory Moroccan cigars.

Haman’s Fingers
Yield: 20 rolled pastries

Pastry Ingredients
2 cups whole walnuts
2 cups whole almonds
½ cup sugar syrup (recipe below)
1 tsp orange blossom water (optional)
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp allspice
¼ tsp kosher salt
15 sheets of frozen phyllo pastry, thawed overnight in the refrigerator
1 stick (½ cup) melted butter

Syrup Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp orange blossom water or 1 tbsp lemon juice
Zest of 1 orange

Directions

Remove the phyllo dough from the freezer to the fridge the night before starting. 2 hours before starting, remove the package from the fridge to room temperature. When ready to start, open the package and cover the phyllo with a damp towel or plastic wrap, to prevent drying out.

Make the syrup:
Bring water and sugar to a boil. Reduce the heat to a steady simmer and cook uncovered for 20-25 minutes, until syrup has reduced to about ⅔ cup. Add orange blossom water or lemon juice and orange zest. Set aside to cool.

Prepare the filling:
Place the walnuts and almonds in a food processor. Pulse until the texture resembles coarse crumbs, with some chunks.
Add ½ cup of the sugar syrup and the cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, salt, and optional orange blossom water. Pulse another couple of times until mixture comes together. Don’t overwork the filling; you don’t want a smooth paste, bu a mixture with some texture.

Roll the pastry:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Place a sheet of baking parchment on your work surface. Melt the butter (30 seconds in the microwave should do it) and set it aside to cool.
Place 1 sheet of phyllo on the baking parchment. Brush with melted butter. Place a second sheet over it, brush with butter. Do the same with a third sheet, finishing with brushed butter.
Roll the filling into a tube shape on a clean surface. Place it half an inch from the edge of the phyllo layers, on the long side. Carefully roll up the dough. Slice it into 4 pieces.
Transfer the cigars to the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining phyllo and filling.

Glaze the fingers:
Brush the finished cigars with more butter and then brush generously with syrup. There will be some syrup left for a final glazing.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and while still hot, brush with additional syrup to glaze.
Trim any filling that oozed out of the “fingers” off with a knife.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days.

Recipe and photo via Chabad.org

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It’s late winter, almost spring in the Mediterranean, and the time to harvest wild greens is now. In a week or two, the best will be gone to seed, gotten leggy and tough, or infested with bugs.

I went out foraging for nettles, my favorite wild edible. I was aiming to make nettles dumplings, or as they’d be known in Italy, malfatti. See our other 5 ways to eat iron-rich nettles. And here we show inventive ways to make dumlings.

Malfatti means “badly formed,” and these dumplings, quickly shaped in the hand, have an awkward, rough look. Traditionally, spinach is the leafy ingredient, and the malfatti come out white speckled with green. These, based on nettles, are a rich, dark green.

I found this recipe in the late Leda Meredith’s book, “The Forager’s Feast.”

When I mention harvesting nettles to people who don’t forage, I get plenty of rolled eyes and the usual question: “Don’t you get stung, picking them?”

I do get stung. In my first years of picking nettles, I found that wearing gloves and taking scissors along was the way to deal with them.

Snip the stems and holding them with the scissor blades, put them down, all facing one way. That makes them easier to handle when rinsing them and hanging them up to dry.

But that was years ago. I pick nettles with bare hands now, and while I feel the sting, I don’t mind it anymore. Remember, all the sting goes away in the cooking. If you’re new to eating nettles and curious about their flavor, I’ll say that they don’t taste like spinach.

All wild greens are described as tasting like spinach, but the truth is that each has its distinctive taste, as with artichokes and lettuce, which are botanically related but taste nothing like each other. Nettles’s taste is dark, if you like, and a little salty; a little like seaweed.

This is how I learned to make delicious green malfatti. Like the ancient recipes that start, “First go out and catch a rabbit,” you need 4 ounces of raw, rinsed nettles that you went out and picked yourself.

Nettles Malfatti Recipe

Serves 2 as a main dish; 3-4 as a hot appetizer or side dish

Ingredients:

4 oz. – a tightly packed 1/2-cup of raw nettle leaves – stripped from the stems. My note: ignore any seeds present; they’re also excellent nutrition when young and green.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and chopped finely
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or more if liked
1/2 cup cup flour for rolling the malfatti in
About 1/2 cup melted butter and 1/4 cup grated extra Parmesan for saucing the malfatti

Instructions:

Blanch the nettles. Bring a medium-sized pot of water to a boil.

Drop the nettles in and cook for 3 minutes. I set the timer on my phone to avoid over-cooking. You’re only blanching the greens here.

Have ready a bowl of cold water. Remove the blanched nettles from the hot water with tongs or a slotted spoon and immediately drop them in the cold water. Let them sit for a minute or so or until cool.

Drain the nettles in a colander or sieve, and squeeze as much liquid out of them as possible by pushing them hard against the side of the colander. Do this over a bowl, to catch that dark-green juice. It’s tasty and sky-high full of nutrients. You can add it to soups or green smoothies later.

Coarsely chop the wad of squeezed-out nettles.

Empty the pot you boiled the nettles in. Pour the olive oil in and set it over medium heat to warm. (Leda’s tip for reducing the washing up by one pot).

Cook the onion in the oil until soft and translucent, stirring, 4-5 minutes.

Using the knife blade of a food processor, blend the onions and nettles together with the salt and pepper, eggs, breadcrumbs, and cheese until you have a coarse paste.

Scoop the nettles mixture into a bowl, cover it, and refrigerate 6 hours or overnight. I’ve let it mature as long as 24 hours.

Set a large pot of lightly salted water to boil.

Either flour a surface like a baking sheet with the 1/2-cup flour, or dump the flour into a wide bowl. Either way, flour your hands. You’ll need to flour your hands again at intervals.

Pinch off a generous tablespoon of the chilled dough and roll into a torpedo shape. Some prefer a nice round dumpling like a mazah ball; your choice. In either case, your palms will be green.

Roll each malfatti in the flour and set it aside on a floured surface while rolling the rest. If your bowl is wide enough, just place them around the inside and roll the rest of the malfatti in the flour heap in the center of the bowl.

Gently lower the malfatti into the water, which by now should be boiling. Don’t crowd the dumplings; they swell and need room to move. You’ll know they’re close to done when they rise and bob around. Cook them 4-5 minutes, no longer or they’ll break apart. You may need to do this in 2 batches.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the cooked malfatti to a platter or serving bowl.

Gently pour melted butter over the malfatti, and sprinkle with the extra grated Parmesan. Serve right away.

Some take malfatti to another level by baking them, cooked as described above, in a bechamel or a tomato sauce for 15 minutes at 350° F – 175°C. Sprinkle with more cheese before serving.

The post Make nettle dumplings, also known as nettles malfatti appeared first on Green Prophet.

Imagine a pancake stuffed with sweet cheese. You may dream that the pancake’s filled with nuts, instead. Then imagine it was drizzled with perfumed syrup while still warm. Garnish it, in your dream, with pistachios and whipped cream. You’re dreaming of qatayef, the fabulous, fabled, Arabian dessert.

Qatayef – also spelled katayif or qatya’if – is traditionally eaten at Ramadan (get our Ramadan vegetarian ideas here), but it’s a treat anytime. In fact, it’s a treat that’s gone through history.

A recipe for qatayif appears in a tenth century Arabic cookbook by the writer Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq, who compiled recipes going back to the eighth and ninth centuries. People have been eating qatayif for a very long time.

The filled pancakes are still popular in the Middle East. All over the Levant, people buy qatayif from bakeries and pastry shops, or pick some up from street vendors. They can even buy them frozen and ready to fry at home. So can you; if not at a local Middle Eastern grocery store, then online.

But there’s nothing like home-made, although it does take some time and patience. Plan to cook qatayif on a free morning, or when you need to put your mind on something with gratifying results.

First, make the batter. Choose a nut stuffing or a sweet cheese one (recipes below). Or halve each recipe and have both kinds.

Eat, and drift off to qatayif heaven.

Photos by Laila Ibrahim via Serious Eats.

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Grapevine leaves are usually thought of as wraps or savory little parcels stuffed with rice and/or meat. But as our previous post on fish grilled in grapevine leaves shows, the leaf of the grape is more versatile than that.

This recipe is said to have originated in France. I can’t guarantee it did, but  a dish like this one logically evolves wherever mushrooms and vineyards thrive in the same local. The tangy, woodsy flavor of the grapevine leaves complements the earthy mushrooms. Olive oil and garlic are natural added ingredients. You’ll be wafted to the Mediterranen when you lift the leaf cover and the irresistible aroma rises.

A jar of grapevine leaves in brine makes cooking quick and easy if you can’t get fresh leaves. Make sure to extract the leaves gently from the jar, because the brine makes them fragile. Although you’re not filling and rolling them, as in Iraqi stuffed grape leaves, you may want the unused leaves to make dolamades some time later.

You’ll need a shallow baking dish with either a tightly fitting lid or foil to cover the dish well.

The leaves covering the mushrooms will be dark and crunchy. If you cooked this with fresh grapevine leaves, they will be tender enough to eat, and tasty.

Any remaining cooking juices can be added to a sauce, poured over steamed vegetables or stirred into mashed potatoes.

Photos by Miriam Kresh

The post Recipe: Mushrooms Cooked in Grapevine Leaves appeared first on Green Prophet.

If you’ve only ever eaten grapevine leaves as dolmades, you’ll be surprised to learn that those tangy grape leaves add luxurious flavor to a variety of other dishes.

You’re lucky if you have access to a green, growing grapevine in the spring, when you can pick the fresh leaves and process them at home. It’s easy enough. Just a matter of blanching them briefly in boiling water, then cold. You’ll have the satisfaction of successful foraging.

But say you have a yen for stuffed grape leaves and it’s way past the season for picking. You can forage the leaves, already preserved in brine, at your local grocery store. Here’s our Iraqi Stuffed Grape Leaves recipe for starters.

Keep a jar of grape leaves in the pantry for inspiration. Go vegan, or not. Choose to wrap cheese, or mushrooms, or fish in grapevine leaves. We’re offering you the first in a series of grape vine leaf-inspired recipes to brighten meals any time: grilled fish in vine leaves, then dipped in a spicy-hot, herby sauce. The fish is marinated for an hour in a coriander-based chermoula dressing.

Note: the chilli sauce is also wonderful with our chicken-stuffed mulberry leaves, which our editor Karin kitchen-tested and loved.)

Recipe and photo from Recipes From A Moroccan Kitchen by Ghillie Bașan.

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Legalization of recreational marijuana in American states is on the upswing, spurring entrepreneurs to devise new ways to use the flowering psychoactive herb such as CBD and THC as an ingredient in retail food products. California-based chef Christopher Sayegh is taking Arab haute cuisine even higher, cooking up traditional Middle Eastern fare infused with cannabis.

Marijuana edibles created by companies such as Wyld offer a popular alternative to the traditional way we enjoy weed (smoking marijuana by joint, pipe, or bong).

They also offer a convenient – and discreet – way to consume cannabis, particularly for those who dislike smoke. Many users report that edibles offer a more relaxing high than smoking pot – described as a “full body” high instead of a “head” high.

On the downside, the effects of edibles can be unpredictable, varying wildly among users.

To date, 24 US states have legalized medical marijuana and recreational pot use is fully legal for adults in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia. Cannabis is now legal in Canada. As the stigma surrounding marijuana gradually lessens, the entrepreneurial rush to capitalize on its appeal increases.

According to cannabis investment and research firm Arcview Group, legal pot sales in the US totalled $1.2 billion in 2015, a 232 percent increase over 2014.  They predict sales to exceed $22 billion by 2020.

Let’s get back in the kitchen with Chef Sayegh. Midway to a degree in molecular biology, he dropped out of university to explore cooking, then honed his culinary skills working in Michelin-starred restaurants in New York and California.

Sayegh got in at the start of the edible drug craze. In 2014 he started The Herbal Chef, his Los Angeles-based business that focuses on cannabis-spiked foods. “I am trying to give people a cerebral experience,” 24-year-old Sayegh told Indoology. “But I’m also really careful in how I take them along on this journey.”

“I am literally changing people’s brain chemistry as the dishes go on,” he said, “By the third course you feel it a little, by the fourth a bit more and by the fifth course, you’re starting to hit your groove. So it’s like a symphony,” he added. “I have to make sure that as the come-up is happening, the dishes correspond with that and as it’s coming down, the same happens.”

Pot food products are made by infusing “normal” recipes with cannabis. The first wave of edibles came in the shape of simple snacks, think pot-laced baked goods, candy and popcorn. Sayegh took it up several notches, introducing cannabis to haute cuisine. He works exclusively on private affairs for people who hold medical marijuana cards. His meals, which cost up to $500 each, aim to bring diners on a unique “immersive” journey.  It’s not just about getting stoned.

The Jordanian-born cook fills syringes with a cannabis compound, and injects sauces, breads, and juicy cuts of meat. He experiments with classic Middle Eastern fare such as stuffed grape leaves and falafel, and puts a nouveau twist on Levantine ingredients: pot-primed pomegranate sorbet, and cannabis and chickpea beignets.

He has cooked up “medicated” oysters, a decidedly non-halal dish. But he returns to his roots with za’atar-topped pot biscuits (below).

Sayegh says that getting high on a cannabis meal is not a joke. “You have to be extremely careful because not only does heat play a very important role when cooking with cannabis, but you’re also taking people on a trip, literally, and you have a responsibility to make sure it’s done right.”

Consumer advisory:

There are real differences between eating and smoking cannabis. When smoked, cannabinoids enter the body through the lungs. The cannabinoids in edibles are absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in a more intense high that lasts much longer. Effects from marijuana edibles take longer to start working, usually up to an hour. However, effects reportedly last longer than smoked weed.

State laws require that total milligrams of THC and number of servings be included on the wrappings of pre-packaged foods.  There is currently no standardized regulation to advise consumers to THC content of individually cooked meals. Weight, gender, and metabolism influence how fast you’ll feel the effect from edibles.

Signs of an edibles overdose include paranoia, lack of coordination and hallucinations. Symptoms usually subside within a few hours. Stay calm, stay hydrated and eat non-cannabis food.

Images from The Herbal Chef Instagram site

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Portland, Oregon is not known for its hot, humid weather, unlike the sticky heat we get over here in the Middle East, yet it is home to a new summer treat – the SolPop.

This is one of the healthiest alternatives to ice-cream and sugar-packed Popsicles since it is made mainly from fruit and natural juices. Finally something you can give your children without feeling guilty about sugar content and chemical coloring. Read on for recipes.

The idea of SolPop began in May 2008 when Aaron Harmon, his wife Danielle Koppel and their friend Noah Cable started testing out different flavors and combinations of fruits to see what worked best. They now have almost 40 different flavors including sweet and tart, savory, coconut-based and “wellness pops” to counteract the rainy weather.

Made from different fruit, vegetables and herbs, all of which are organic, these pops take the name SOL meaning Sustainable, Organic and Local. “Sol” is also the Spanish word for sun, referring to the brightness of the Latin-American sun. These SolPops bring some of that brightness to Portland with their great natural flavours.

The principle is a light refreshing summer treat, where there is only a limited amount of sugar added in the form of cane sugar, agave and fruit cider making this dessert essentially fruit on a stick. If you are not in the Portland area, however, you should try making your own healthy fruit Popsicle.

Recipe 1 – Frozen Strawberry Pops
Ingredients:

½ cup sugar
½ cup water
2 strips lemon zest
1 cup orange or apple juice
2 cups strawberries

Method:

1. Put the sugar, water and lemon strips in a saucepan and bring to a boil, waiting until the sugar dissolves
2. Remove the lemon strips and allow the syrup to cool
3. Puree the strawberries
4. Combine the pureed fruit with the syrup and fruit juice
5. Pour this mixture into moulds and put it in the freezer.

Experiment with the fruit: all you have to do it put your choice into a blender and freeze

Recipe 2 – Simple Fruit Popsicles
Ingredients:

450g crushed pineapple undrained
3 firm bananas
450g strawberries

Method:

1. Puree the pineapple, bananas and strawberries
2. Pour into moulds

So here you have a treat you can make for yourself based on anything you have around, from watermelon (which is packed with nutrients), to mint and other herbs which have their own benefits. Play around with the ingredients and find your favorite flavor for summer.

Read more on healthy fruit treats:
4 New Ways to Have Fun with Watermelon
Indulgence Locavore Style: Homemade Strawberry Jam

The post Frozen juice ice pops recipe – for low-sugar summer treats appeared first on Green Prophet.

Once you’ve got a jar of verdurette in the fridge, you’ll never buy vegetable broth again .

Verdurette is a home-made seasoning mix originating in France: an umami-rich mix of vegetables and herbs  ground together and preserved in salt. The salt, which is 20% of the blend, is a preservative. A similar preserved food is our Middle-Eastern salt-preserved lemons.

A teaspoon or two of verdurette adds great flavor and character to soups, grains, sauces, even scrambled eggs. It’s always there in the fridge and lasts a year, unless you use it up sooner.

The late Leda Meredith confessed that she’d become lazy about making vegetable stock, because it’s so easy to stir a couple of teaspoons of the mix into hot water, simmer it 10 minutes, and voilà, broth. Or at least, a flavor base to go on from.

I often think of Leda when I dip a spoon into the verdurette jar, remembering her soft New York-accented voice and the flair she brought to all things culinary. I’m grateful to her memory for many life-enhancing things, and among them, this verdurette.

It’s easy to make this natural broth base yourself. Most or all of the ingredients are probably already lurking in your fridge and pantry. A food processor is the kitchen tool I recommend for making it; otherwise, be prepared to do some very fine chopping. I myself just feed everything into the food processor and let it whizz.

Verdurette consists of 5 parts:

1 part finely chopped alliums: onions, leeks, chives, shallots, garlic
1 part finely chopped root vegetables: carrots, celery root (celeriac), sweet potatoes – but not white potatoes, which discolor and go unpleasantly mushy, or turnips.
1 part finely chopped leafy greens: kale, spinach, nettles, cress, celery, lettuce, beet greens, etc.
1 part finely chopped aromatic herbs: parsley, thyme, oregano, sage, basil, etc.
1 part kosher or sea salt (non iodized)

Caution: go easy with strongly flavored ingredients like garlic, sage, cilantro and rosemary. Too much of any one may dominate the whole mix. Mild aromatic herbs such as thyme, marjoram, parsley and chives can be used freely.

Nothing from the cabbage family, including broccoli and cauliflower, should go into verdurette.

You may combine several kinds of the vegetable or herb in each category. For example, in the alliums part, use several of the ingredients listed above, or use just one: for example, only onions. If you’re like me, you’ll use whatever’s at hand in the kitchen. I like a complex mix, myself.

As long as you stick to the ratio of 1 part salt to 4 parts finely chopped vegetables and herbs, the verdurette will be fine.

How to Make Verdurette

You can make as little as a half cup of verdurette, using tablespoons to measure, and up to a gallon if you need to. But to make a reasonable first-time amount for ordinary cooking, go for 1-1/4 cup of verdurette. A digital scale helps, but cup measurements work too. The main thing is to keep the balance of 80% vegetables to 20% salt.

Finely chop or process each part before measuring. This might mean there will be surplus veg to use up some other way.

Measure 1/4 cup (40 grams)  of each pre-processed or chopped vegetable part. Note: Leafy greens should be packed in well when using cups. Altogether, there will be 1 cup mixed vegetables and herbs.

Add 1/4 cup (40 grams) non-iodized salt. 

Stir everything up thoroughly. Pour the slightly fluid mass into a clean glass jar.

Cover the jar and store it in the fridge. Now you have vegetable bouillon at hand whenever you need it.

You can start using your fresh batch right away. But you’ll notice that verdurette’s flavor becomes more complex as it continues to mature in the fridge.

You may also preserve one ingredient only, if you wish. Leda Meredith used to preserve a favorite wild edible, daylily flowers, this way.

How To Use Verdurette

When cooking with verdurette, leave out any other salt called for in the recipe.

* Add 2 teaspoons verdurette to a quart of water for a simple vegetable broth.
* Mix a little verdurette into marinade ingredients, for extra umami. Omit other salt in the marinade.
* Sauté verdurette in a little oil before adding the main ingredients for rice, soup, sauce, a braise, or stew. It goes wonderfully in a tomato-based pasta sauce. And in mushroom soup.  You get the idea.
* It’s fine to add more during the cooking, but a little at a time – verdurette is salty! Keep tasting, and stop adding verdurette when the flavor is right.
* Verdurette may be cautiously added to salad dressings, but let the mixed dressing sit 10 minutes for the vegetables to release their flavors and soften.

Top photo of green verdurette via  the garturstichfarm blog

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