This vegan and grain free Instant Pot salad combines chewy wild rice and tender sweet potato with grapes and clementines in a lemony herb dressing. Perfect for summer alongside grilled meats or for fall alongside baked meatloaf.
I have meaningful work and it's an amazing thing to be able to write that statement.
What does this have to do with the Instant Pot Fruited Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad recipe I'm sharing today? The short version is that I discovered the dressing I'm using in this salad (I've got a DIY version, too, see the Note below) via my work with Minnesota Central Kitchen turning rescued/donated ingredients into meals for hungry people in the Twin Cities area.
If that's enough for you please feel free to scroll on down to the recipe.
I like to use my Instant Pot to prepare meal components--not just meals. In the summertime that means cooking--and freezing--endless ears of freshly shucked corn, or steaming potatoes for potato salad or my Grilled Garlic Scape Pesto Smashed Potatoes recipe. In the fall and winter that means preparing winter squash and root vegetables.
If you find yourself with an abundance of oddly-shaped sweet potatoes from your Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, the farmer's market, an ugly produce subscription service or your own garden--try this recipe! It's a terrific way to use cooked sweet potatoes in a simple and satisfying soup.
Egg bites flavored with parmesan cheese and peppers, brightly colored thanks to fresh spinach. These vegetarian snacks pack a protein punch--straight from the Instant Pot!
Green Eggs No Ham! Use the electric pressure cooker to make these colorful tasty protein bites any time of year--not just for Dr Seuss' birthday breakfast!
I like to offer recipes for a variety of eaters, so after I developed my Sous Vide Sausage Egg Bites I was thinking about vegetarian options. I tried a couple of recipes and methods before settling on this one. First I used mozzarella, and then feta, but I wanted a stronger flavor so I ended up with parmesan.
Start your day with a homemade protein-packed meal. This recipe is a copycat version of Starbucks Sous Vide Sausage Egg Bites made in the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker.
I'm continuing my Instant Pot on Campus series with today's recipe post. These recipes use few ingredients and don't require much preparation--perfect for busy college students or anyone with less time or fewer kitchen skills who still wants to eat cheaply by making meals at home.
Each recipe in the Instant Pot on Campus series will have the following categories--What to Buy at the store, What You Need in the kitchen, How to Level Up, Troubleshooting, and of course the recipe + how-to video. I'll including tips for saving money while shopping, affiliate links to products I use, and hints for making this recipe suit your own tastes.
This comfort food combines taco-seasoned meat with cooked rice and salsa in a hearty bowl of family-friendly food. This recipe is great to serve a crowd, too. Use the Instant Pot for easy clean up!
This is not a pressure cooker recipe, but I am including it in my Instant Pot on Campus series for a couple of reasons. First, this recipe is a family favorite which my son has cooked on the stovetop many times under my tutelage. I'm posting it on my website so that he can access it without sending me texts at 10:49pm asking how to make it.
Second, using the Sauté function on the Instant Pot or Mealthy (or Brown on the Presto) makes your electric pressure cooker function like a high-sided electric skillet. When I make this dish in my 12 inch cast iron skillet I inevitably fling some of the contents all over the stovetop as I'm stirring. That results in a thorough cleaning not only of the skillet but also of the stove. Using the Instant Pot to cook this meal saves clean up!
The third reason I'm sharing this is because I think that electric pressure cookers are hidden gems for disabled cooks. Instead of having to strain to access a stovetop to brown meat--or pay to modify the stove height--cooks can position the electric pressure cooker on a convenient flat surface and work in comfort. Wear an apron and mind the splatters, though.
These sweet muffins are packed with fruit--pineapple--and vegetable--sweet potato which add depth and character to a tender breakfast treat. Topped with maple sugar for crunch, this muffin is an all around satisfying snack.
Welcome to Muffin Monday! I've been having so much fun baking muffins for the Detachment that I'm bringing a new one for you this month--a sweet potato muffin with pineapple in the batter.
The inspiration for this muffin came from the growers of these Stokes purple sweet potatoes--Frieda's. My first exposure to purple sweet potatoes came via the Mile Creek Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. I had so much fun combining orange and purple sweet potatoes in my Overnight Sweet Potato Monkey Bread and playing with the vivid colors to make my Mardi Gras Braided Bread that I searched all over my new city until I located some purple sweet potatoes at my local natural foods coop.
Today's post is an update of one I wrote back when the big purple mountains were the little green hills. Back before I knew what SEO was, back when I'd be silly and creative with my post titles.
I've updated the post--but the behaviors I described back then are behaviors I still practice--today!
Since I am primarily a visual learner but I want to make these simple behaviors accessible to every learning style, I've created a series of short videos to help show what I mean. Let's get started!
Keeping your kitchen environmentally friendly is more than buying certain products. It's practicing certain behaviors that help to reduce waste and save you money. Did you know that about 31% of the solid waste in the US is food waste? I learned that scary fact at a Montgomery County Food Summit and wrote about my tips for reducing food waste here. I want to do more than reduce my food waste, though. I want to stretch my food dollars to make more meals for my family.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle becomes Reduce (x3), Reuse, Repurpose, and Regrow
The first R is Reduce. I practice 3 different "reduce" behaviors to save money, get fit, and do my part to save the planet. The biggest one is that I deliberately reduce the amount of meat I eat. I pay attention to the portion sizes and often use meat as a garnish. For example, instead of each person getting a single steak on a plate I'll grill a couple of steaks, slice them into strips, and we'll each have a serving of steak strips. It's plenty for us to eat at one sitting and there's usually leftovers for another meal. What's the best way to eat less meat? Eat more veggies! Here's a post I wrote on how to boost the vegetable content of your meals all day long.
I'll stretch a pound of ground meat into 6-8 servings by combining it with finely chopped vegetables. Some of my favorites include onions, celery, carrots, bell peppers, shredded zucchini or kohlrabi, chopped mushrooms, and corn. I use that veggie mix in tacos, in meatloaf, and in casseroles aka Hot Dish.
Here are some of my tried and true recipes to stretch meat:
One simple change I made to reduce the amount of food I eat is to reduce my every day plate size. Breakfast and lunch are often on 6½ inch plates. Snacks and desserts are on 5½ inch dishes. And dinners? I use an 8 inch "lunch" plate! I do keep my 11 inch dishes to use on Thanksgiving and other 'gimme all the sides' holidays when I'm wearing my eatin' pants. Piling food onto a smaller plate makes a smaller amount of food look more abundant, and that's another way I reduce the amount of food I need to buy.
The final Reduce I'd like to share is about drinks. If your go-to drink is tap water, more power to ya! I save money and reduce the amount of waste I'm generating by reducing the amount I spend on fancy single serve drinks. This doesn't mean I don't meet a friend for coffee--that's the happy exception to my daily normal. I bring a cup with me when I go out to reduce the single use packaging waste. I choose to make my go-to fancy drink (for me, Iced Chai) at home. Here's my DIY Iced Chai recipe. This Spring I'm testing out different methods to make a DIY version of the slightly sweet fruity tea that we like to drink on expeditions.
This lemony cream sauce is the perfect accompaniment to the juicy crunch of fresh blackberries and enhances the delicate flavor of the salmon. Serve over pasta with a side salad or green vegetable to make a colorful complete meal in about a half hour.
I'm breaking a bunch of rules with this recipe. First--fruit with fish? Okay. Been there, done that with my Salmon in the Company of Good Oranges recipe. Second--a cream sauce for fish? Well, why not? I mean, I like an Everything Bagel (focaccia recipe) with cream cheese and smoked salmon after all. Finally--I'm sharing a recipe using a produce item OUT OF SEASON?? Yes. Yes, I am. I'm in the middle of a spring snow storm and I need to think Happy Thoughts of warmer times. Working with these photos and remembering this memorable dish gives me hope that Spring--and eventually the summer berry season--will arrive.
This one pot Instant Pot meal combines bacon, blue cheese, and mushrooms in a satisfying meatloaf cooked alongside sweet potatoes. If you like a bacon, blue cheese and mushroom burger, you'll like this meatloaf!
I feel like I should put that out there since you can see packaging materials in my photos. When I bought the first package of this ground beef with pork & bacon blend I thought it would be terrific in a meatloaf--and easy to make do if you cannot find the same product. After all, many grocery stores sell a "meatloaf mix" or "meatball mix" which has ground beef and ground pork. I've never seen one with bacon before, though, which is what caught my eye.
Simon is giving the food the side-eye. I think he knows he's not getting any.
When I read further on the packaging--small batch, local, got their start selling at farmer's markets, donate 1 meal for every package sold--well, I was sold. So I'm happy to share with you what brand of ground meat product I'm using--MightySparkFood--just know that I'm sharing because I like the product I purchased, not because the company is aware I exist and asked me to develop this recipe.
[Using my best How to Speak Minnesotan] So, the recipe, then. When I developed my Turkey Meatloaf with Wild Rice recipe and Feta for my Instant Pot Basics cooking class, I did so because I'd wanted to use this product but I had a student who did not eat pork. [I've made that recipe 4 times in the past 2 months and apparently never bothered to grab a camera during the process. Stay tuned, the 5th time is the charm.]
An Instant Pot version of the classic creamy chicken & wild rice soup. Laden with mushrooms, carrots & celery, this soup cooks from frozen chicken breasts in under an hour in an electric pressure cooker.
Yes, it's been a while. I've been teaching a series of Instant Pot Basics cooking classes for the past two months. We make this recipe in Class 2: Cooking from Frozen. My students have inspired me to create some new recipes for the Instant Pot that I'll be sharing here now that I'm in between classes for a bit, so stay tuned!
I love using my IP for soup. The ability to sauté the veggies, deglaze the pan, and then add the rest of the ingredients and walk away is heavenly! Because I'm sharing soups with my folks and my girlie as well, I've had days this winter when I've made 3 different soups in a single morning. My days are not All Soup All The Time, though. Mostly I've been spending my time shoveling since Minnesota decided to welcome me in a Big Way. We live on a corner, so after the first 5 or 6 snowfalls we really got the hang of shoveling this place. I even shoveled a racetrack in the backyard since there's so much snow. (You can see video of the dogs running their track on my FB and IG feeds.)
When I make an assortment of cookies, such as for a holiday cookie tray, I like to have a variety of tastes. Consider these as the Rules of a Cookie Tray. There should always be something chocolate. There should always be something not chocolate. There should always be a bar cookie. There should always be Peanut Butter Blossoms. And most important--all of these cookies should be easy to make since you're making so many of them at once.
I got this recipe from my friend Lasar back when we lived in Hawaii. She called them Tasty Raspberry Treats and that's how I always think of them. Since I try and make my post titles a wee bit more descriptive, however, I've renamed them Raspberry Jam Oatmeal Bars because if you're looking for a way to use your homemade jam, this is a lovely one.
My mother's recipe for lefse--the soft potato flatbread beloved by Norwegians and their descendants at home and abroad. This recipe uses potato flakes for an easy, smooth dough.
We sat amazed as Mother worked the dough. Could her palms sense when it became too warm? Within those hands a shape began to grow. Rolled out, it moved towards its proper form.
She sprinkled flour as she rolled them out. The rolling pin moved lightly in her hands. She turned each lefse over and about, As swirling worlds take shape when God commands.
First rolled up on a stick, and then unrolled; The cookstove added age-spots to each side. Once done, they were removed for us to fold; A simple task that we performed with pride.
Each bite one takes can recreate this mood; What we call "lefse" is not merely food.
This poem appeared in the February, 1989 issue of the Sons of Norway Viking.
I'm sharing my mother's lefse recipe today because, more than any other food, lefse represents a Norwegian Christmas to me. I want to leave a record of this recipe for my children in the technology available to me today.
If you know lefse, then you probably get it. Unlike other traditional Norwegian foods, [cough lutefisk cough] lefse doesn't seem to divide people. It is universally loved. Who doesn't like a tender flat potato bread, spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar? For me, only dark brown sugar will do but I'll bend enough to add a shaker of cinnamon sugar to my Christmas Eve smorgasbord for those weirdos who may prefer it. You savory lefse eaters . . . well, keep on being you.
The reason that I'm sharing my mom's lefse recipe and not just pointing you to Alanna's cousin LeAnne's excellent video tutorial (found here) is simple. My mom's way is different than what LeAnne does, and I want to be authentic to my mom's recipe.
It's a funny thing, the concept of authenticity. What makes a recipe authentic? Is it the way you or yours learned it or the way the most popular chef of the time chose to make it? In a FB food blogger group we recently had a lively discussion about authenticity and tradition as they relate to recipes. [Can a carbonara sauce be a carbonara sauce if you choose to use pig belly not pig cheek? I'm not going to touch that debate, but I'll happily eat a plate of whichever meat is used in the carbonara you prepare for me.]
My mother learned how to make lefse when she was a county extension agent in Minnesota in the 1950s. Her office was in the Pennington county courthouse, and she had a demo kitchen complete with multiple ovens and an overhead mirror. One of her functions was to prep the 4H kids who were doing demos at the fair. [The county fair was very early in the season, before the produce was ripe for showing/preserving, so they did all sorts of demos instead.]
Early one summer Doris Belanger won a blue ribbon making lefse at the county fair. That meant she'd be taking her lefse demo to the state fair at the end of the summer. In order to help polish her demo, my mom first had to learn from Doris how to make lefse. [I guess this isn't even my mom's lefse method, it's at least Doris's mom's mom's method.]
Doris taught my mom, and all summer long the 4H leader and mom met with Doris while she practiced. They gave tips on how to improve her presentation. At the state fair, Doris won a blue ribbon. She was comfortable and relaxed while making lefse, and her picture even appeared in the Twin Cities paper! In thanks, Doris's grandpa made my mom a grooved rolling pin on his lathe, and Doris's mom took a slat from an apple crate and carved a lefse turning stick which we call a spuda [spoo-duh--I don't know how to spell this].
See one, do one, teach one.
My mom demonstrated this method during Scandinavian Week at the 1976 Bicentennial Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife on the National Mall in Washington, DC. If you know lefse, you get it, and tourists in the crowd who knew lefse would crowd around after each session, chatting and enjoying samples.
Mom has even appeared on Norwegian TV in a program about how Norwegian Americans celebrate Christmas. Now it's my turn to demo this method, this time using the internet. I'm still using my mom and her equipment, though.
mixing up a batch of dough
shaping before rolling
failure is always an option--and a tasty one too
This video shows my mom making the first piece of a batch of lefse. She rolls out the dough until we can see the pastry cloth markings through it which is how we ensure it's thin enough. Then she checks to make sure it's not bigger than the paper towel it will cool on. Finally she rolls it up on the spuda and carries it to the griddle.
Once she's sure the griddle is very hot, she unrolls the lefse onto it. [Mom knows her griddle heats evenly and doesn't need to spin the lefse for even cooking.] After the lefse is blistered on one side, she flips it over and cooks the other side. Then she picks up the lefse and walks back to the paper towel, realizing on the way that we need a new location for the finished stack so we're not walking all over the kitchen while doing the lefse dance. It's kind of a cardio exercise.
Potato Lefse (Recipe from Marjory Olsen Olson)
This recipe was developed in a university agricultural research facility in Crookston, Minnesota in the 1970s. Crookston is in the Red River Valley where potatoes are harvested and processed into instant potato flakes.
Note: This recipe requires chilling the dough before rolling it out. If I'm planning to cook the lefse in the morning, I'll mix up the dough the night before and leave it in the fridge to chill overnight. If I'm planning to cook in the afternoon, I'll mix up the dough while I'm having my morning cuppa and chill it until I'm ready to cook. You'll need several flat surfaces--to roll out the dough, to cook the lefse, and to hold the cooked lefse until you're all finished. Once you set everything up (and have flour all over the kitchen) you might as well keep on going until you've used up all the dough.
My Mother's Lefse
By Kirsten Olson Madaus
A recipe for the soft potato flatbread beloved by Norwegians and their descendants at home and abroad. This recipe uses potato flakes for an easy, smooth dough. Total time does not include chilling the dough, but does include cooking all the pieces of lefse.
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Yield: 15 pieces
Ingredients:
2 cups water 3 Tablespoons vegetable shortening 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter 2 teaspoons salt ½ cup milk 2 cups potato flakes (mom & I use Hungry Jack--bang the measuring cup on the counter to settle the flakes) ¼ teaspoon baking powder 1 Tablespoon sugar 1½ cups unbleached all purpose flour plus more for dusting the . . . well, everything
Instructions:
In a 3 quart pot bring water to boil (or use a large oven safe bowl and microwave on full power for 3 minutes), remove from heat and stir in shortening, butter, salt, milk, potato flakes, baking powder and sugar.
Cool to room temperature. (If I'm planning to cook in the morning, I'll start this the night before and let it chill in the fridge overnight. If I'm planning to cook in the afternoon I'll mix up the potatoes in the morning and let them chill until I'm ready to cook.)
Transfer 1 cup of this potato mixture into a medium bowl (keep the rest refrigerated until ready to use--which can be another day or two). With your hand, work in ½ cup of flour.
Divide into 5 equal portions. On a flour-dusted pastry board and with a flour dusted grooved rolling pin, roll each portion to dinner plate size and as thinly as possible. [On a Foley pastry frame, we roll until we can see the markings through the lefse.]
Bake on a very hot griddle (around 400 degrees Fahrenheit), flipping once, until flecked with brown. Total cooking time will be 60 to 90 seconds. It's quick.
Lay each piece on a paper towel and cover with another paper towel forming a stack.
Once all the balls of lefse dough have been cooked, cover the stack with a kitchen towel while they cool.
Fold and place on a serving tray once cool. Cover them with plastic wrap to keep from drying out.
Serve at room temperature, spread with butter and dark brown or cinnamon sugar.
I know other folks' traditional recipes start with whole potatoes. For more recipes using potatoes, please see my Potato Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.
Mashed potatoes made decadent with cream cheese, roasted garlic, and sour cream. Make them ahead of time and reheat in the oven or the slow cooker. Great for holiday potlucks, kids having dental work, or just because this is such a great recipe. Thanks, MA!
The third occasion was after my spouse returned from a deployment, when I was stuffing him full of all his favorite dishes night after night. I even shared some of those leftovers with folks who found themselves unexpectedly in a hospital far away from home. Thanksgiving knows no boundaries.
Making a Thanksgiving meal from locally sourced farmer's market or Community Supported Agriculture farm share ingredients? I got this.
Eating with the seasons means that change is constant. Come to think of it, being a military spouse means the same thing. Being a parent means the same thing--once you get a handle on one age, growth and development means your newfound knowledge is sorely lacking. Again. Heck, I guess being human means that change is constant. I'm getting off track.
This website focuses on using seasonal produce, and it's Fall, so we're talking apples, apple cider, buttercup and butternut squash, and that's just the start of the alphabet. As the seasons change so does the offerings in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share and at the farmer's market. Just like my dogs warmly greet me even if I just ran upstairs for a pair of socks, I warmly greet the arrival of each new season (although with considerably less tail wagging).
I like everything about this--the contrasting textures of apples and pecans with the soft bite of the figs and cheese. I like the sweetness of the honey balancing the tartness of the apples. The crunch balancing the creaminess. It's very satisfying to eat because it hits on so many levels, which is pretty awesome for a dessert because you don't end up eating larger amounts simply to be satiated. Yet this dessert is easy to make--and easy to source locally.
I am all for Pumpkin Everything in the Fall. Really! That video of guinea pigs discussing the merits of pumpkin spice? A perennial favorite. [I miss our composting pigs, they were wonderful pets, although having my 3pack of dogs is enough for me now.] That does not mean I don't appreciate the wonders of other fall flavors. Especially apples. My grateful thanks to John Chapman.
When we started eating from a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm share back in 2006, one of my favorite discoveries was the amazing apples grown in the Shenandoah valley--part of the fruit share at Bull Run Mountain Farm CSA. In Ohio I found more local apple varieties to delight my senses in the fruit share of Mile Creek Farm CSA. And now in Minnesota there are yet more varieties being created over at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (I'd like to think my daughter's tuition $ will contribute to the making of the next Honeycrisp). We are having fun exploring our new home via the local produce we find on our expeditions.
I'm still exploring my new stomping grounds. Over the weekend we hiked around the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, part of the University of Minnesota--those geniuses behind the Honeycrisp apple and the apple I used in today's muffin recipe--the SweeTango. My first bite of this apple I thought 'hmm, nope, it's a bit too tart for my tastes' but it's grown on me as I work my way down to the bottom of the bag. I have a couple left and will make apple crisp out of them, but I can already tell that they're good for baking since they make a tasty muffin!
Pork chops baked with curry-seasoned green tomatoes and onions in this homey casserole from a vintage cookbook.
Each time I make this dish, I add a few tweaks on the seasonings but keep the main elements of pork chops, green tomatoes, and onions. I'm happy to report that this casserole is delicious over rice and my family still ate it all up! I used lemon pepper seasoning with the pork chops and hot curry instead of sweet curry on the vegetables--and they were very flavorful.
Right now the seasons are a bit topsy turvy. The temperature swings from shorts to sweater weather. I'm excited to turn on the oven but still using the grill. The trees have started to change colors and I foresee leaf raking in the not to distant future. Yet the tomato plants are still plugging away, producing plenty of tomatoes. Once the night temperature dips far enough, there's no amount of sunny days that will bring me red tomatoes. I need to bring them in to ripen--or learn to love green tomatoes. This recipe is one of the ways I've embraced green tomatoes, and I'm glad to re-share it with you.
I love to read cookbooks. I may be terrible at actually following the recipes, but I never come away from a visit with a cookbook without inspiration. The other day was no exception. I was looking through the index of my mom'sOK it's mine now 1950 1st edition Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook for something in the Cs, and I came across this recipe name: Cabin Casserole. I flipped to the page and saw this:
CABIN CASSEROLE
A heart-warming dish for a cold day.
Place in alternate layers in buttered casserole sliced onions
and sliced tomatoes (green preferred) . . . using in all 1/2
cup of each for each chop and sprinkling each layer with
salt and curry powder. On top, lay browned seasoned pork
chops. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees (mod. oven) 45 min.
Then cover, and continue baking until tender (30-45 min more). Serve hot.
This whole wheat treat combines the sweetness of fresh local strawberries and ripe bananas with the tang of sour cream while using less sugar than you'd expect.
You know how seeing one of those cooking videos ignites a craving? That's what happened here. I kept seeing a video for strawberry banana bread in my feed, or strawberry banana smoothies at the store, and the next thing you know I've got a hankering to make Strawberry Banana Muffins.
Conveniently I had fresh local strawberries from the farmer's market and ripe bananas on hand, plus the the endurance to make muffins. You see, while we're mostly unpacked in our new home, very little is set up exactly how it's going to stay. That means every time I cook something it involves finding the right ingredients, locating the proper tools, and doing a lot of 'hmmmm . . . this would work better over there, which means I should move that to this other place, and stick that other thing in a pile by the stairs to figure out where its new home will be . . .'. It's the standard dance of the military family in a new place--finding the best way to arrange our stuff to quickly make a house into Home.
