"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." – Mary Oliver

Tenderheart Cook #43, #44 and #45

Fennel quickles

A quick pickling recipe for fennel.

The Quick Lowdown:

  • Ingredients: fennel, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, white sugar, fennel seeds, black mustard seeds (I just used regular)
  • Prep work: Slice up the fennel. Heat the other ingredients then pour over the fennel. Easy-peasy.
  • Dirty dishes: chopping board, knife, saucepan, container for the quickles
  • Family-friendly: Maybe, dependent on their toleration of pickles and fennel
  • Regular rotation worthy: If I have Fennel, I will make this again.

Pickled fennel nicoise

The Quick Lowdown:

  • Ingredients: fennel quickles, green beans, eggs, cucumbers, it was supposed to have black olives which I didn’t add.
  • Prep work: this was easy, there was just a small amount of chopping, The eggs, beans and potatoes are all cooked in the same saucepan one after the other.
  • Dirty dishes: Saucepan, knife, bowl, colander, cutting board.
  • Taste: This was lovely and fresh.
  • Family-friendly: Yes
  • Regular rotation worthy: I would make this again. It would make a yummy lunch.

Miso-Roasted Pumpkin and Chickpeas with Kale

The pumpkin and chickpeas are coated in a miso glaze and then roasted in the oven. This is served on a bed of kale massaged with olive oil, sea salt and lemon. This makes a hearty, satisfying vegetarian meal.

The Quick Lowdown:

  • Ingredients: white miso, mirin, olive oil, maple syrup, pumpkin, chickpeas, kale, lemon, pumpkin seeds.
  • Prep work: A bit of cutting. Massaging the kale. It was easy.
  • Dirty dishes: roasting tray, knife, bowl, cutting board.
  • Taste: Good
  • Family-friendly: Yes—if they eat kale. G enjoyed this one.
  • Regular rotation worthy: Yes.

Do you eat vegetarian meals very often? If you do the cooking, does your household have difficult food restrictions or preferences?


Comments

12 responses to “Tenderheart Cook #43, #44 and #45”

  1. Melissa, how would you feel about moving to Nova Scotia and being my full-time chef for a few months.
    Everything you make sounds delicious…

    1. I would love to visit Nova Scotia, but I think G might have a bit to say about not having his chef to cook for him.

  2. I love beans and eat vegetarian a lot. However, lately they have decided not to like me as much… So I don’t eat them as much, but I still often will eat meals with no meat. It’s just a little harder to get protein without beans!

    1. Yes, our daughter can’t eat too many legumes, but now she’s out of home I don’t need to worry as much about that.

  3. Oh this sounds GOOD. Both of these! My mouth is especially watering at the pumpkin and chickpeas. I LOVE both of those things, and the miso glaze sounds incredible. Hmm. It sounds so good I’m going to do a google search for a similar recipe.

    1. I think you would like it and now would be the perfect seaosn for your to try it.

  4. These dishes look a bit more adventurous than what I’m usually up for, but I do wonder if the pumpkin one would work with sweet potatoes in place of pumpkin. Pumpkin is sort of the leading role, so maybe not. I love sweet potatoes. I do like pumpkin seeds too. I almost never eat vegetarian. The only person whose foods are specific/catered to in our family is mine – because of my dang celiac disease.

    1. The good thing about this book is that she lists substitutes at the bottom of the page and she listed sweet potato as a substitute for the pumpkin.

  5. I used to be a vegetarian for eight years or so. Then back to meat. But I could easily eat meat free. Since the pandemic most of our meat has been swapped by substitutes.
    All of these recipes look so good. I would eat them all.

    1. I still like my meat and fish but we eat vegetarian quite a lot, mainly for health and environmental reasons.

  6. I love fennel, such an underrated vegetable!

    1. I know. I love the aniseed flavour.

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