Tomato Salsa with Cucumber "Chips"

From: Food and Wine

Get ready for Super Bowl weekend with a delicious healthy take on the traditional chips-and-salsa combo that is nearly fat-fee and refreshing.
Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 1/4 pounds tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large seedless cucumber, sliced 1/4 inch thick


Directions:

In a bowl, toss the tomatoes with the onion, cilantro, jalapeño and lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Serve the salsa with the cucumber chips for dipping.

Guasacaca

Brought you from
My Own Kitchen

My husband's family is quite the mix. With Italian and German ancestry and born and raised in Venezuela, the meals that come out of our kitchen are both diverse and delicious. Today I have a recipe for Guasacaca - whose name is derived from the word Aguacate (Avocado).

Ingredients

1 medium onion
2 ripe avocados
1 large red pepper
2 cloves garlic
Fresh Parsley
Fresh Cilantro
3 tbsp Vinegar
1 Lime Juiced
Salt to taste
Black Pepper to taste
1 cup olive oil

Optional:
Hot sauce or jalapeño

Directions

1. Peel and Pitt the avocados, then chop roughly.

2. De-seed the pepper and chop roughly.

3. Peel garlic cloves and onion and chop roughly.

4. Remove stems from Parsley and Cilantro leaves.

5. Put everything except the olive oil into a food processor and blend until mostly smooth. Then slowly start adding the olive oil until completely smooth.

6. Make about an hour before you plan to serve it.

Optional:
7. If you want a chunkier style Guasacaca, then have an extra avocado set aside, peeled, pitted, and cubed. Gently mash in the extra avocado chunks about 5-10 minutes before serving.

This sauce is great for putting on any kind of cooked meat or starchy side dish. 

Baked Brown Rice Croquettes

INGREDIENTS

Rice balls:
1 1/3 cups brown rice
2 2/3 cups water
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
3 eggs
1 cup finely cubed mozzarella
3 Tbsp grated Parmesan
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped, lightly packed
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely minced
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Coating:
2 eggs
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
Fresh ground black pepper (to taste)

DIRECTIONS

Soak the brown rice overnight in the water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, until the water is absorbed. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork, and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, mix together the other ingredients for the rice balls. Stir in the cooled rice until all the ingredients are well combined.

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat the bottom of a glass baking dish with a generous layer of extra virgin olive oil.

To make the coating for the rice balls, whisk together the eggs and olive oil together in a small bowl. In a separate small bowl, stir together the bread crumbs with the black pepper.

Wet your hands to keep everything from sticking to you. Shape some of the rice mixture into a 2-inch ball, then dip it into the egg and oil mixture and then roll it around in the bread crumbs to cover it evenly. Place it in the prepared baking dish.

When all the rice mixture has been shaped and coated, bake until the bottoms of the balls are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. Turn them over and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. Drain on paper towel and serve hot with a side of salsa or pasta sauce for dipping.

Makes about 18 2-inch croquettes.

Jalapeno and Mint Tofu Stir-Fry

INGREDIENTS

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
About 4 cups of your favourite stir-fry vegetables (zucchini, bell pepper, carrots, broccoli, bok choy, etc.), chopped
1 block extra firm tofu, well pressed and diced
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced or grated
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced (or to taste)
1 1/2 cups packed mint leaves
2 Tbsp rice vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Add garlic and sautee, stirring constantly, until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Add onion and other vegetables and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until cooked desired amount. Add tofu, toss, and remove from heat.

Remove from heat.

Place the remaining ingredients into a food processor or blender, and process until mint is finely minced.

Add sauce to the tofu and veggies and reheat until hot. Serve over rice.

Spicy Black Bean Cakes

INGREDIENTS

Lime Sour Cream
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsp lime juice
1 small fresh jalapeno pepper, minced
Sea salt to taste

Bean Cakes
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
6 cloves garlic, pressed
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, finely diced
1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 (540 mL) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
Sea salt and pepper to taste
2 cups grated raw sweet potato
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain dried bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

To prepare lime sour cream, mix the sour cream, lime juice, 1 small minced jalapeno, and salt together in a small bowl. Cover, and refrigerate.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Cook diced onions until softened, about 1 minute. Stir in garlic, 2 diced jalapenos, and cumin; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Transfer contents of skillet to a large bowl. Stir in black beans, and mash with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in sweet potatoes, egg, and bread crumbs. Divide into 8 balls, and flatten into patties.

In the oven, set cooking rack about 4 inches from heat source. Set oven to broil. Lightly grease baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil. Place bean patties on baking sheet, and broil 8 to 10 minutes. Turn cakes over, and broil until crispy, about 3 minutes more.

Serve with lime sour cream.

Hot Stuff for Health

Capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili peppers, is so hot that it can make your mouth feel like it's on fire. This phytochemical most likely exists in peppers to deter animals from eating them. Yet for humans, when capsaicin is consumed in a somewhat diluted form, such as in hot sauce, chili peppers, or cayenne peppers, it offers a myriad of health benefits.

How Hot is Your Pepper?

Chili peppers come in hundreds of different varieties, each with a unique flavour, coluor, shape, and heat factor. Generally speaking, the hotter the pepper, the more capsaicin it contains.

About 80 percent of the capsaicin in a chili pepper is in its ribs and seeds, which is why much of the heat is removed when these items are taken out.

Hot peppers' heat is measured using the Scoville Heat Scale. While pure capsaicin measures in at over 16 million Scoville Units, most popular varieties rank around 30,000.

Bell peppers make up the baseline, at zero Scoville Units. While the habañero pepper was once thought to be the hottest pepper, measuring in at 300,000 units, an Indian chili pepper called Naga Jolokia was tested in 2000 and received a searing score of 855,000 units!

Fight Cancer

A study published in Cancer Research found that capsaicin caused cancer cells to commit suicide. The substance caused almost 80 percent of prostate cancer cells to die in mice, and prostate tumors treated with capsaicin were about one-fifth the size of those in untreated mice.

"Capsaicin inhibits the growth of human prostate cancer cells in petri dishes and mice," says lead researcher Dr. H. Phillip Koeffler, director of hematology and oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Provide Pain Relief and Inflammation

Capsaicin is also known to inhibit Substance P, a neuropeptide that is the key transmitter of pain to the brain and is associated with inflammatory processes. Substance P can cause swelling of nerve fibers, which may result in headaches and sinus symptoms. Studies have found that capsaicin both relieves and prevents cluster headaches, migraine headaches, and sinus headaches, and it is being looked at as a potential treatment for arthritis, psoriasis, and diabetic neuropathy.

Prevent Sinusitis and Relieve Congestion

We know hot peppers can make your nose run, relieving congestion, but capsaicin also has potent antibacterial properties that fight and prevent chronic sinus infections, or sinusitis.

Burn Fat and Lose Weight

Capsaicin is a thermogenic agent, which means it increases metabolic activity. This, in turn, helps to burn calories and fat. The substance may significantly increase metabolic activity for over 20 minutes after it's eaten.

Protect Your Heart

Capsaicin may help to protect the heart by reducing cholesterol, triglycerides and platelet aggregation. It may also help the body dissolve fibrin, which is necessary for blood clots to form. Further, cultures around the world that use hot peppers liberally in their meals have significantly lower rates of heart attack and stroke than cultures that do not.

Jalapeno Hummus

INGREDIENTS

2 14 oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeds removed
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

DIRECTIONS

Process all ingredients except the cilantro in a food processor or blender until smooth, adding more or less liquid as needed in order to get the proper consistency. Hummus should be smooth and creamy. Stir in cilantro.

Serve with slices of French baguette, with crackers, with a veggie plate, or spread on sandwiches.

Cilantro-Lime Dressing

INGREDIENTS

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic
3/4 tsp minced fresh ginger root
1/4 cup lime juice
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp sea salt, or to taste
1/4 cup packed cilantro leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS

Place the jalapeno pepper, garlic clove, and ginger into a food processor or blender; pulse until the jalapeno and garlic are finely chopped. Pour in the lime juice, honey, balsamic vinegar, and salt, add the cilantro leaves; pulse a few times to blend. Turn the food processor or blender on, and slowly drizzle in the olive oil until incorporated into the dressing. Season to taste with additional salt before serving.