spring pea + fava bean guacamole with root chips

Today is the start of one of my favorite weekends of the whole year. 

I'm a huge fan of summer and this weekend signifies the start of the summer for us here in the east coast. Although summer's official start date is not until late June, this is the weekend for us that the grill get uncovered, some new plants get planted, and the flip flops get dusted off. 

One of my favorite things about summer is cooking and hanging out with friends. Grabbing vegetables straight from the garden or the nearby farm stand, and having people over for a causal meal is just the best.   

Backyard BBQs, beach picnics, long leisurely brunches. That's what summer is all about. 

I love to have nibbly bits around whenever we are entertaining, and guacamole is always a popular snack. Sure, you can buy gaucamole in the store, but it is so much better (and impressive) when you make it at home. 

I love to fanci-fy otherwise simple foods. Adding peas and fava beans is a super easy way to make a regular guacamole a little fancier. Since it is not officially summer yet, this snack is a marriage of a few great spring vegetables that you can still find right now, and one of my favorite summertime snack foods. 

I am keeping this short and sweet, because I am off to cook for a big girls dinner tonight. I am so excited to kick off the summer with a huge home-cooked meal celebrating friends.  

Happy weekend!

 

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4 delicious + healthy smoothies for summer

Now that summer is approaching, I am all about smoothies. For breakfast, for a snack, or just for fun. 

Today, I am sharing my four of my favorite smoothies recipes over at Modern Parents Messy Kids.

Head over there for some juicy info on all the super ingredients in these smoothies, and of course, for some more pretty pics. 

Here are the recipes I am sharing over there today:

Chocolate Almond Butter

½ cup of almond butter

1 cup of rice milk

2 tablespoons of raw cacao powder

1 ripe banana

3 tablespoons of hemp seeds

Acai Blueberry Chia

1 cup frozen organic blueberries

1 packed of frozen acai

1 Greek style yogurt

½ cup of rice milk

Peach Mango Carrot 

1 ripe mango

1 ripe peach

1 carrot

1 cup of rice milk

1-2 tablespoons of flax

Happy Green Smoothie

a handful of spinach (kale, or any dark leafy green will work)

1 avocado

1 ripe banana

1 apple

1 tablespoon of flax or hemp or chia seeds

a couple of leaves of cilantro / parsley (optional)

1 + cups of water

SOME GUIDELINES FOR MAKING A SMOOTHIES

• To make the smoothies, it is best to add the liquid first, and then about half of the ingredients. Blend, and then add the remaining ingredients. At the end add about 3-4 ice cubes and blend one last time.
• Always be sure to remove any stems or seeds from the fruit, and if your ingredients are organic do not peel the skin (they contain lots of healthy nutrients). Also, be sure to dice the ingredients, it makes for easier blending.
• Always look for what is fresh and in season, and organic is always best. Frozen is great too, especially for the fruits that are not in season, but be sure to look for frozen organic ingredients as well.
• The ingredients listed here are mostly a guideline. Feel free to add in other ingredients that you think would work well or leave something that you do not like or have on hand. Experiment. Find out what works for you.
• You can make these ahead of time, and store them in an airtight container in the fridge. Mason jars work great for this. They will stay fresh for about 1-2 days.
• Have fun + enjoy!

quinoa + white bean burgers with a ramp + chili pesto

I cannot believe that this is the first ramp recipe I am posting this season, since ramps have been on my plate at almost every single meal I've had at home over the past few weeks. Breakfast: side of crispy ramps, lunch: raw ramps in my salad, dinner: ramps any way I can think of. 

Ramps, all day every day. 

I'm hoping you have not been overwhelmed by onslaught of ramp recipes this year .... if you're anything like me, you'll never be sick of ramps. 

But this recipe is not just about the ramps. They're sharing the spotlight with this quinoa burger. If you've been following along here for a while, you know that I have done a few variations of a quinoa burger, shifting ingredients and preparations around each time. This might be my favorite one to date. 

The very first recipe I posted for a quinoa burger went internet famous on me. And by internet famous, I mean it has made it's way around Tumblr (not as exciting as being YouTube internet famous). To be honest, I don't even think it was the burger that was getting all of the love, I think it was the avocado spread.

Because let's face it, when it comes to a veggie-type burger, it is just as much about the sauce as it is the patty. 

And with that, the conversation gets turned back to ramps.

 

I've tried some pretty interesting and awesome ramp preparations this year. There is so much you can do with them. They're great raw, sauteed, pickled, or incorporated into a sauce, like this recipe here. 

Last night I watched my father-in-law chop a few up and mix them into some homemade guacamole (I'm pretty sure he thought it was green onion). It was so good. 

Ramps are a little more pungent and exciting than green onion, but the two can be interchanged in almost any recipe. So if you cannot find ramps where you are, or when their short season is over, then go ahead and sub green onion. 

Okay, back to the burgers. These burgers are super versatile. You can switch up, increase, or leave out pretty much any ingredient listed, including the egg, since I know some of you would prefer a vegan version. In the past, my quinoa burgers were made without egg, however the egg really helps to bind. If you prefer not to use the egg, by all means leave it out. Just be aware that they will be a little more delicate (they fall apart easier). 

You can go crazy with the toppings. For mine, I just added some arugula and some thinly sliced red onion but you can also add avocado, and any other veggie you can think of. If you want a gluten or bread-free option you can leave out the bun and serve it over a salad or in a lettuce wrap. 

The only non-negotiable part is the ramp pesto. You cannot leave out the ramp pesto, it really is the best part.

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shaved asparagus + carrot salad with a toasted cumin vinaigrette

 

This past weekend, Michael and I celebrated out 1 year anniversary. Our anniversary is on Cinco de Mayo, and I kind of love that we share our anniversary with a silly, happy, tequila drinking, mexican food eating holiday. I cannot believe it has been one year already, this has undoubtedly been the fastest year of my life. Well ...  know what they say .......

We didn't make a big deal over our anniversary. We spent the day attending a culinary class that Michael had gotten me for Christmas. For dinner, we had sushi at a no-frills, hole-in-the-wall sushi place down the street from us. It was peaceful, perfect, exactly how I wanted it to be. 

In celebration, I thought about posting a fun cupcake recipe for you here, or maybe even a mexican-themed dish, but I just wasn't feeling it. I have been really into spring vegetables and salads recently, so instead I thought I would go with one of my newest and prettiest salads. 

Simple, perfect, not over the top, just how our anniversary was spent. 

We are in the height of asparagus season right now, and the asparagus that I've been finding at the markets have been so good that they are just as deliciuos raw as they are cooked. If you can find them, the white asparagus are a real treat. They have a slightly brighter taste than the green, and they go so well together in this salad, visually and taste-ually (is that a word? I don't think so). 

The carrots add another layer of taste and color to the dish. I looked for colorful carrots, and could not find any, but if you are lucky enough to find some I am sure they would make for a stunning presentation. 

Thinly slicing and marinating vegetables has a way of making raw vegetables taste "cooked". You can eat this totally raw, or if you want a little more umph to it you can add in rice, quinoa, millet, or any grain or you like. I loved the look of the red rice. I'm big into color coordination here if you haven't been able to tell. 

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the best olive oil cake you'll ever have

It's no secret, I love a good slice of olive oil cake. 

So when I was asked by Cup of Jo to submit one of my favorite recipes for her "best you'll ever have" series, I immediately thought of my absolute favorite, go-to cake.

This olive oil cake is super easy the make and has an awesome and unique flavor. One of my favorite things about this cake is the ingredient list, especially the use of olive oil over butter. Meyer Lemons are also a favorite because they have a slight sweetness to them that you will not find in a regular lemon. 

People either love olive oil cake or have never heard of it, and the ones that have never heard of it often love it as soon as they try it. 

To see my post + more pictures, you can head over here on Cup of Jo. 

Or, you can also get the recipe here (below). Enjoy!

olive oil cake with rum glaze

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 cup coconut palm sugar (or regular white sugar)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (good quality, but not too strong of a taste)
1/2 cup lemon juice (preferably Meyer)
Zest of 1 lemon (preferably Meyer) 
2 eggs

For the rum glaze (optional):
1 tsp. dark rum
2 tsp. almond milk (or regular milk)
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Method 

• Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Oil a regular-sized bundt pan. (If you don't own a bundt pan, you can make this in a 11x7 rectangular dish or round cake pan.)
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients, and whisk. Then make a well in the dry ingredients and add in the wet ingredients. Whisk until everything is combined.
• Pour the batter into the pan and place in the oven to bake for approximately 45 minutes. When it is done, the edges should be brown and pulling away from the sides of the pan, and if you insert a tester it should come out clean. Let the cake rest for several minutes, then carefully remove from the pan. Allow it to cool slightly on a wire rack.
• While the cake is cooling, you can make the rum glaze (if using). Whisk together all of the glaze ingredients in a small bowl. Then, using a spoon, drizzle the glaze over the cake. In about 10 minutes, the glaze will harden.
• You can serve the cake warm (which is my favorite), or you can allow it to cool and serve. (If you prefer a denser cake, be sure to wait until it cools.)