Cauliflower Fritters with Pomegranate

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

INGREDIENTS

For fritters:
1 small head cauliflower, cut into generous 1 to 2 inch chunks
1 egg
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon of fresh lemon zest
1/2 cup soft goat cheese
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes
3/4 teaspoon table salt or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Olive oil for frying

For topping:
3/4 cup yogurt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Handful pomegranate arils

DIRECTIONS

Bring pot of salted water to a simmer  and add cauliflower, cooking uncovered until tender, about 5 to 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop cooking. Drain well. Spread on towels to dry.

In a large bowl, whisk together egg, garlic and lemon zest. Add cauliflower florets and mash with a potato masher until they’re crushed into an average of pea-sized pieces. Add cheese and stir to combine. In a small dish, whisk flour, salt, pepper and baking powder until evenly combined. Sprinkle over cauliflower batter and stir just until combined.

Heat oven to 200 degrees and place a tray inside. On the stove, heat a large, heavy skillet over moderate heat. Once hot, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of oil. When oil is hot, scoop a two tablespoon-size mound of the batter and drop it into the pan, flattening it slightly with your spoon or spatula. Repeat with additional batter, leaving a couple inches between each fritter. Once brown underneath, about 2 to 3 minutes, flip each fritter and cook on the other side until equally golden, about another 1 to 2 minutes.

Transfer to the tray in the oven to keep them warm until needed. Once all fritters are cooked, mix yogurt with cumin, salt and pepper. Spread fritters on serving platter. Dollop each with cumin yogurt and sprinkle with pomegranate arils.

Fruit and Vegetable Storage Tips

We've posted this information before, but we get a lot of questions about how best to store your organic produce to ensure it lasts longer. Organic fruits and vegetables can sometimes go bad a little faster than their chemically-treated equivalents, so storing them correctly becomes all that more important. Correct storage can also ensure that their flavours are at their peak.

Most of the time it is best to store unripe fruit at room temperature but out of direct sunlight until ripe, then refrigerate until ready to use. Store both fruits and vegetables without washing them first and clean them only just before using.

Generally, fruits and vegetables should be stored separately. Fruits are usually high ethylene producers, which means they let off a lot of the natural chemical that cause produce to ripen and, eventually, to rot. Vegetables are usually more sensitive to ethylene, so they will keep better if stored away from fruit.

Here are some other helpful storage tips:

Apples: Remove any bruised or soft apples promptly – one bad apple really can spoil the bunch. Store away from onions and garlic, as apples will readily absorb their odours. Also store away from potatoes, as they will spoil each other more quickly.

Apricots: Store at room temperature until ripe. Once ripened, store in the refrigerator.

Avocados: Store unripe avocados at room temperature out of direct sunlight. To hasten the ripening of green avocados, close them in a paper bag with a ripe tomato or apple. This takes advantage of ethylene to trigger ripening, so check the avocado every day. Once ripe, avocados can be moved to the refrigerator, where they will last up to a week, depending on how ripe they are when refrigerated. Once cut, sprinkle the exposed surface with lemon juice, lime juice, or white vinegar, and store in an airtight container. Use within two days.

Bananas: Bananas also should not be refrigerated, as they will not ripen correctly if they get too cold. The paper bag trick that works with avocados can also be used to speed up the ripening of bananas.

Beets: If beets arrive with their greens still attached, cut the greens off and store them separately, preferably in the crisper section of the fridge. Eat greens within a few days; beets will last much longer, if separated from their greens.

Eggplant: Eggplants are easily damaged by severe cold, so try storing them in the refrigerator door instead of the body of the fridge.

Garlic: Store in a dark, cool, dry place with lots of ventilation; stored correctly, garlic can last from several weeks up to one year. Ideally, however, use fresh garlic within a few weeks and do not refrigerate unless the garlic has been peeled or chopped.

Potatoes: Potatoes should be kept in a cool, dark place in a paper bag or other breathable container (not in a plastic bag). They shouldn't be refrigerated, as that will turn the starch into sugars and make them too sweet. Don't wash them until it is time to cook them. Don't store them with onions, as the ethylene put off by onions can cause potatoes to sprout and even spoil. Remove any shriveled, soft, or sprouted potatoes promptly.

Tomatoes: Refrigerating tomatoes will decrease their flavour. Store whole ripe tomatoes at a cool room temperature – away from heat sources - in a breathable container. Store cut tomatoes in the refrigerator and use soon.

Fresh Thanksgiving Ideas

It may seem like fall just started, but believe it or not, it's already time to think about Thanksgiving dinner. It's only one week away! A lot of people have their core Thanksgiving recipes established from previous years, but if you're looking for new ways to spice up your autumn feast or going gluten-free for the first time, check out these ideas for an organic Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving is a great time to indulge and load up on all the heavy carbs, meats and sweets that you may skip at other times. But if there's only rib-sticking stuffing and heavy gravy on the table, you can indulge so much that you fall asleep and miss the real point of the holiday -- getting together with friends and family to enjoy each other's company and express gratitude. This Thanksgiving, try to make sure your vegetables are on the table too -- and not just those of the potato variety.

If you're tired of the more traditional brussels sprouts, why not bring a Kale Salad to the meal? Add cranberries to the kale salad and you'll really be feeling festive. Speaking of salads, you could also try an Apple Fennel Salad or even just stick with your basic green salad and get it into the spirit by adding a Cranberry Vinaigrette. Or go with a warm salad and serve this Roasted Beet and Carrot Salad, which is sure to fit in on the Thanksgiving table.

Just about everyone has plenty of go-to recipes for Thanksgiving gratins, casseroles and stuffings. But what about soup? A light starter round of a brothy, vegetable-full soup is a great way to begin a meal and allows you to get in some much needed nutrients before turning to the sweets. Try this Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Pear Cider or maybe this twist on Carrot Soup that adds miso and sesame oil. You can also get your greens in by starting with this Creamy Broccoli Soup. Or make the soup the centerpiece and pull out all the stops by serving White-Bean Soup with Bacon and Herbs.

For the gluten-free-ers, Thanksgiving can be a treacherous time. Even if you can eat wheat yourself, chances are there will be someone at your meal who can't, so why not play it safe and make as much of the dinner gluten-free as possible? Not only does this mean not planning to cook your bread stuffing in the bird and load the table up with mac-n-cheese, wheaty gravies and pumpkin pie, but it also means checking your ingredients. Making a marinade, broth, gravy, soup? Read everything for hidden glutinous ingredients and make as much from scratch as you can.

Good thickening substitutes for wheat in things like gravy and roux are tapioca starch, arrowroot starch or sweet rice flour. And if you really want a stuffing, why not try making it with rice and or even cornbread, as in this Gluten-Free Cornbread Stuffing with Maple Roasted Acorn Squash? Or check out these tips for making gluten-free stuffing.

Of course, the main event at any Thanksgiving meal is the dessert table, which is often loaded with intensely sweet and wheaty pies. If you need that traditional pumpkin pie to be present but are looking for a gluten-free alternative, try this recipe for a gluten-free pie crust. And if you're wanting to branch out a little, what about trying this Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie with Praline and Coconut-Pecan Crust? Other great dessert ideas that don't involve a lot of time rolling out pastry include roasting or poaching whole fruit, as in this recipe for Poached Pears. You can even skip the fruit (/squash) part altogether and try serving Hazelnut-Caramel Bars. Get simple and comforting with Cornbread Pudding or chocolately and decadent with Chocolate Mousse Tart with Hazelnuts.

However you do Thanksgiving this year, just remember: this particular autumn feast was made for giving thanks and eating well. Keep stress out of it and eat what makes you happy.

Gluten-Free Apple Dutch Pancake

Adapted from Serious Eats

INGREDIENTS

Note: If you don't have oat or brown rice flour, you can sub in a different combination of your favourite gluten-free flours. The total flour amount should equal 2/3 cup, but some gluten-free flour combinations absorb more liquid than others. If you use a different flour, start with the recommended four tablespoons of milk when you're making the batter and ff the batter seems thick, add more milk, one tablespoon at a time. Batter should be thin. If you're not gluten-free, feel free to make this with wheat flour!

For the batter:
1/3 cup gluten-free oat flour
1/3 cup gluten-free brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
4 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the filling:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter
1 large green apple, peeled, cored, and sliced

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 425 °F. In a medium bowl, whisk together oat flour, brown rice flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. The batter should be thin. Let batter stand for ten minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and set aside. Melt butter in a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle sugar mixture over melted butter, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine. Cook until sugar begins to melt, then reduce the heat to medium-low and carefully place apple slices in a circular pattern in the pan. Cook until sugar mixture begins to bubble up around apple slices, about three minutes. Turn off heat.

Slowly pour batter evenly into the pan and transfer the pan to the preheated oven. Bake until pancake puffs and is golden brown, about fifteen minutes.

Slice pancake into wedges and serve warm as the perfect fall breakfast or dessert.

Smoke Alarm Awareness Day

October is just around the corner, and you know what that means, right? Thanksgiving, yes. . . but more importantly, Fire Prevention Week (October 6th -12th) and Smoke Alarm Awareness Day (October 12th)! In honour of the occasions, Green Earth Organics is partnering with AlarmRecycle to collect your expired smoke alarms, CO alarms, and combination smoke and CO alarms for recycling. Two little-known facts about smoke and carbon monoxide alarms: 1. Smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years and carbon monoxide alarms every two to five years. 2. Smoke and CO alarms should be properly managed and recycled due to a component called Americium-241--not tossed in the garbage. Look after your home and the planet by replacing and recycling your old and worn-out smoke and CO alarms. Green Earth Organics is offering collection to clients who want to recycle their alarms, and there is no limit to the number of alarms you can submit. Simply email us at info@greenearthorganics.com.

 AlarmRecycle is a not-for-profit program that accepts used or expired smoke alarms, carbon monoxide (CO) alarms, and combination smoke and CO alarms for recycling. For more information and to find your nearest drop-off location, visit www.alarmrecycle.ca or call 604-732-9253 (1-800-667-4321 toll-free).

The Art of Reading Recipes

Since our business is food, we spend a lot of time reading, creating, and testing recipes. One of the exciting things about food delivery is that you can sometimes end up with produce that you don't know what to do with--and that's where we come in. We have a wealth of recipes on our blog, from simple to truly complex, that are designed to keep you cooking, and to walk you through how to fall in love with fruits and vegetables you didn't even know existed. But in order to use those recipes well, you have to understand that the recipe is its own unique form of writing. It seems like it should be straightforward, right? It tells you what to do and you do it. Well, yes--and no.

The recipe, like any other kind of writing, has its own shortcuts and secret handshakes. Here are the tricks that we know that will allow you to make sense of just about any recipe out there--and then make a meal with it.

1. Start at the beginning--and read the recipe all the way through. Every word. There could be hidden or assumed ingredients in the instructions, or maybe you'll learn that the salt needs to be split up over two parts of the meal. A recipe is a map, so make sure you know where you're trying to end up before you start going. Once you know all the ingredients called for, check that you have everything in your kitchen before you start cooking. You may always have sugar around, or you may have just run out--and you don't want to find that out in the middle of baking.

2. Pick a recipe that's going to work for you, for this meal, today. You won't know this until you've read the whole thing through. Things to look for: is there any part of the recipe that needs to be prepped ahead of time (like the day before) and do you have time to do that? Is the serving yield enough or too much for what you need (if too much, split the recipe in half before starting)? Do you have enough time before you need to serve this meal to prepare and cook the entire recipe?

3. Follow the order laid out for you in the ingredients. In general, ingredients are given in the order they will be used, so look to the order for easy clues on what will be combined with what, or which ingredients will be added last.

4. Commas are there for a reason. This is mostly for measuring stuff for baking, but commas are also relevant in the world of exact cooking measurements. What, you may ask, is the difference between "One cup of almonds, chopped" and "One cup of chopped almonds"? The answer is everything. In the first--"one cup of almonds, chopped"--the recipe is telling us to pour whole almonds into a cup measure, ensure we've got one cup there, and then take them out and chop them. In the second--"one cup of chopped almonds"--you first chop your almonds, adding the into your cup measure as you go, until you reach one cup. The amounts end up being very different, so when you're reading a recipe, believe in the power of the comma.

5. The little extras (at least, some of us think they're extras): things like preheating your oven. Is it really necessary? Yes. If the recipe tells you to preheat, then preheat. Especially for baked goods, which need to hit the oven at the right temperature (usually pretty hot) in order to rise properly.

6. But when is it done? The final step of a recipe--taking it out of the oven or off the stove at just the right time--is often the most daunting. Heat can differ widely from oven to oven, so using a recipe's exact time marker (40 to 45 minutes, for example) doesn't always do the trick. It is a good estimation and guide, however; just make sure that you stay nearby and check the oven as it gets close to the allotted time. The best way to know when something's finished? Make it more than once. The more familiar you get with a recipe, the more you can begin to trust your own judgment.

And remember--the recipe is there to help you, not to intimidate you. Have fun with it!

Warm White Bean Salad with Wilted Onions

Serves Eight

INGREDIENTS

6 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 410g (14oz) tins of cannellini beans
generous squeeze of lemon
1 tbsp parsley, very finely chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a frying-pan over medium-high heat and add onion. Sauté until onion is soft but not browned. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Add the beans and 2 more tablespoons of the oil. Add salt and pepper and let the beans heat through. Add lemon and the parsley. Taste to adjust seasoning. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining tablespoon of oil.