healthy eating | Bewitching Kitchen

When I was a child, becoming an orphan was my greatest fear, and I literally lost many nights of sleep worrying about it. So, when I learned that one member from the Secret Recipe Club was about to be an orphan this month (the person supposed to pick a recipe from the blog had a problem and could not complete the assignment in time) I decided to perform a virtual adoption… 😉 My “encore” post for this month’s reveal day comes from Without Adornment, and you can visit it clicking here. Bean, the hostess, has a site loaded with gluten-free recipes, and absolutely gorgeous photography. Due to the time constraints (I had less than 24 hours to pick a recipe, make it, and write about it), I had to go with a simple dish. But, it all ended perfectly for me: I had no idea what to eat for lunch after working out, and her chickpea salad came to the rescue. Delicious, refreshing, light, healthy, but also filling enough to carry me through a busy Sunday afternoon…
CHICKPEA SALAD
(adapted from Without Adornment)

1 can of chickpeas
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced
Grape or Cherry tomatoes to taste
salt and pepper
grapeseed oil
lime juice
white balsamic vinegar

Boil 2 cups of water in a small sauce pan. Drain the chickpeas from the can, and drop them in the boiling water for 5-10 second. Quickly drain them and rinse with plenty of cold water. Reserve until cold.

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients from chickpeas to tomatoes. Make a simple dressing with oil, a squeeze of lime juice, a little balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Drizzle over the salad and….

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

This salad gives me the chance to introduce you to a reasonably recent acquisition from the Bewitching Kitchen… a spiralizer! Or a spiral-cutter… or… whatever you want to call it…
I like raw carrots in salad, but prefer if they are cut paper-thin. This gadget gave me the exact texture I was hoping for. The very thin ribbons get perfectly seasoned and retain just a little crunch.

Chickpeas & boiling water: this is a tip I learned from Barbara Tropp, in her book Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking. She recommended to rinse all sorts of canned products in boiling water, to remove what she described as the “tin taste”. The improvement in flavor is quite noticeable. So I normally do it whenever I use chickpeas, beans, and water chestnuts.

Bean, it was fun to get to know your blog, I wish I’d had more time to devote to it, your Lemon Cupcakes seemed absolutely scrumptious! 😉

ONE YEAR AGO: A Soft Spot for Chevre

TWO YEARS AGO: Seared Tuna, My Own Private Idaho

Anne Burrell has a way to get me into the kitchen and make her recipes shortly after watching her show. Last week she made kale chips, and I was mesmerized. They were very simple to prepare and she munched on them with so much gusto, I could not wait to try some. Serendipity happened: I arrived at the grocery store for my weekly shopping, and found bunches of organic kale that looked absolutely perfect. I left the store with a huge smile on my face, hoping that Phil would get as excited about kale as I was (yeah, right ;-)).

KALE CHIPS
(from Anne Burrell)

1 bunch of kale leaves
olive oil
salt and pepper

Wash the kale leaves, dry them well, cut them in half lengthwise, removing the central, thick stem.

Place them in a single layer over a rimmed baking dish, spray olive oil lightly over the leaves, season with salt and pepper. Repeat the misting with olive oil on the other side of the leaves. Gently toss them around, trying to distribute the oil throughout the leaves.

Place them back on the baking dish in a single layer, trying not to overlap them too much. Bake on a 250 F oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Keep an eye on them, remove leaves that start to crisp up too much.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Before….

and after….

These chips are addictive! I hope you’ll give them a try, even if kale is not your favorite veggie. I kept the small amount that was left inside a bowl covered with plastic wrap, and two days later enjoyed the last pieces, still crispy and delicious. Add less salt than you think they need (sorry, Anne Burrell): the leaves shrink a lot during baking, and the salt tends to get concentrated on spots.

Husband’s verdict: Two thumbs up!

ONE YEAR AGO: Weekend Pita Project

TWO YEARS AGO: Tried and Tasted Roundup