mint

Clean Slate: Quinoa Salad with Zucchini, Mint, & Pistachios

Leah Short — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 21:33:15 +0000

In my previous post, I mentioned how I’m cooking from the Clean Slate cookbook and seeing if I actually enjoy clean eating. Before, I assumed clean eating meant bland eating, and I’ve learned that’s absolutely not the case! For breakfast I’ve tried Barley with Pineapple, Coconut, & Flaxseed. It sounds unusual but tasted so good! Next up was trying something for lunch. I picked this Quinoa Salad with Zucchini, Mint, & Pistachios because it’s all of my favorite ingredients and I usually have most of them on hand.

So, how’s it taste?

Another hit! I loved the combination of flavors in this salad, plus it was really easy to put together. Instead of cooking the zucchini in a pan, next time I’ll roast it and increase the amount. I love, love, love roasted vegetables, especially zucchini so the more the merrier! I really like the contrast of textures with the quinoa and crunchy pistachios. The pistachios also gave it some saltiness. The mint and lemon brighten the salad, while the scallions gave it a touch of subtle heat (and more crunch!). I took this salad to work for lunch several days in a row and the leftovers were just as tasty, although I will warn that the quinoa continues to soak up the oil and lemon juice so it can get a bit dry.

Even with such simple ingredients, this was really filling for lunch. I’m finding out clean eating is really tasty eating! The dishes you see in the pictures above are part of the Martha Stewart Collection white dishware available exclusively at Macy’s. Fantastic dishware for everyday use, plus they’re dishwasher and microwave safe!

Yield: 4 servings

Quinoa Salad with Zucchini, Mint, & Pistachios

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water
1 cup quinoa, rinsed & drained
coarse salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup roasted salted pistachios, chopped
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves, chopped, plus more for garnish

Directions:

1. Bring the water, quinoa, and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until liquid has been absorbed and quinoa is tender but still chewy, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl; fluff with fork and let cool.

2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini; cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and golden, about 7 minutes. Add garlic; cook until fragrant (do not let brown), about 30 seconds. Season with salt and pepper, and add to quinoa.

3. Stir in scallions, pistachios, lemon zest and juice, and mint. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

per serving: 286 calories, 13g fat, 36g carbs, 8g protein, 5g fiber

Source: Clean Slate by the editors of Martha Stewart Living

Disclosure: I received a copy of Clean Slate: A Cookbook and Guide: Reset Your Health, Detox Your Body, and Feel Your Best and the Martha Stewart Collection white dishware at no cost. All opinions expressed here are solely my own, as always. This post contains affiliate links.

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Ginger Julep

Leah Short — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 13:47:39 +0000

Oh how I love a good cocktail. No matter where I am drinking one, even if it’s on my couch, I feel like I’m somewhere special having a grand time. It could be simple like my go to Jack & Coke, or you can get fancy, like this Ginger Julep! I adore mint juleps and this one takes that classic drink and spices it up with ginger. There’s also a touch of orange juice to round out the flavors. The drink starts by making your own ginger-mint syrup. It’s really quite easy to make simple syrups and the flavor possibilities are endless. This one has mint, ginger, and orange peel. Once your syrup is ready and cooled, pour it in a glass with orange juice and good bourbon. Garnish with crushed ice and more mint and you’ve got one fancy cocktail! (Even if you’re like me and drink it on the couch in your yoga pants.)

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Goat Cheese & Mint Pesto Sandwich

Leah Short — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 16:36:16 +0000

Oh how much I love this Goat Cheese & Mint Pesto Sandwich. I first had it at Pinewood Social here in Nashville and it’s been in my dreams ever since. The bad news? It’s no longer on the menu. Oh the horror! What a dream crusher to have this awesome sandwich once and never be able to have it again…until today! I made my best attempt at recreating it at home. It came really really really close, so I’m happy. It’s goat cheese, mint pesto, sprouts, and thinly sliced cucumbers and apples. It sounds like nothing spectacular, but trust me, it is. It’s perfect for when you’re craving something really flavorful, but not heavy.

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King Kong Couscous

Leah Short — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 14:30:32 +0000

Psst…I’m giving you a sneak peek today. Coming up early next week on the blog is a shrimp showdown! I don’t want to give away too many details, but you’ll want to stay tuned for that post for sure. I’ve been having fun in the kitchen learning how to devein shrimp and cooking up a storm. Who knew it was so easy…with the right tools {hint, hint}. When it comes to shrimp, there’s one dish that always pops into my head. King Kong Couscous. It’s on the menu at East Nashville’s Silly Goose and it’s life-changing good. It’s made several appearances in my dreams and I practically jumped up and down when I found the recipe for it in a new cookbook! I can’t believe they gave this recipe away…but I’m sure glad they did!

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Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Leah Short — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 15:33:56 +0000

I’ve had my ice cream maker for a few years now and I love it. But until recently, I stuck to Philadelphia-style ice cream, meaning no egg yolks because I have a horrible track record with tempering eggs. One of my first memories of cooking was in middle school home ec where I made blondies with lovely chunks of eggs in them. Not my finest moment. So I’m conquering my fear this year and it all starts with David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop. I bought this for my mom for her birthday and had to go buy one of my own after thumbing through it. It’s the bible of ice cream pretty much. I chose Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream as my first flavor since it’s my absolute favorite!

So, how’s it taste?

Yay me! A little pat on the back for finally getting comfortable with tempering eggs. Now I’ve gone ice cream crazy! This stuff was amazing and pretty darn close to the ice cream shop version I love so much. I started with the recipe for Fresh Mint ice cream, but ended up adding mint extract. I’m not a big fan of the fresh mint flavor. It had an herby undertone that I didn’t care for and smelled really, really awful when I was freezing the ice cream. Luckily that goes away and it mellows out. I like my mint to be front and center, so the subtle fresh mint wasn’t enough for me. The added extract made it fabulous! Next time I’ll skip the fresh mint step altogether.

What really made this ice cream awesome in my book, was swirling in the stracciatella. It’s simply melted chocolate drizzled into the last possible minutes of freezing in your ice cream maker. Once the hot chocolate hits the cold ice cream it shreds it into bits of chocolate, but not enough to blend into the ice cream. In the past I’ve tossed in chocolate chips but it just isn’t the same. This method produced those little flakes of chocolate that melt in your mouth with the ice cream. No more of those big hunks of chocolate chips!

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
makes about 1 quart

Ingredients:

Fresh Mint Ice Cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
Pinch of salt
2 cups lightly packed fresh mint leaves
5 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp. mint extract
Green food coloring, optional (I used 3 drops)

Stracciatella
5 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate*, finely chopped (I used 1/2 bitter and 1/2 semi)
*do not use chocolate chips

Directions:

1. For the ice cream, warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream, and salt in a small saucepan. Add the mint leaves and stir until they're immersed in the liquid. Cover, remove from heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.

2. Strain the mint-infused mixture through a mesh strainer into a medium saucepan. Press on the mint leaves to extract as much as the flavor as possible, then discard the mint leaves. Pour the remaining 1 cup heavy cream into a large bowl and set the strainer on top.

3. Rewarm the mint-infused mixture. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mint liquid into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

4. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath. Add the mint extract and food coloring.

5. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

6. For the stracciatella, in a clean absolutely dry bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate, stirring until it's completely smooth.

7. Drizzle a very thin stream of the warm chocolate into 1 quart of ice cream during the last possible moment of churning. Try to pour it not on the turning dasher, but into the ice cream itself. If the chocolate clings too much to the dasher, remove the ice cream from the machine and drizzle the chocolate into the frozen mixture by hand while you layer it into the storage container, breaking up any chunks as you stir.

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