Seasonal Foods: White Bean Salad

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White Bean Salad makes a nice winter meal and is good topped with homegrown sprouts.

This recipe is safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

Even though some types of beans are allowed on the SCD, I have avoided eating beans for many years. Recently, I have tried to reintroduce a small amount of beans into my diet.?I have found that careful soaking and numerous washing of the beans has helped make eating beans possible.?If you are on the SCD and find beans difficult to digest you might find these methods useful.

Soaked, Cooked and Rinsed White Beans
2c dried organic white beans or cannelloni beans
6c-8c filtered water for soaking
Soak the beans overnight in enough water to cover them with about 2-3 inches of water above the beans. Pour off the soaking water and rinse the beans very well. A large colander or sieve works well for rinsing. Pour the soaked beans into a large sauce pan and cover with fresh water. Have at least an inch of water above the soaked beans. Bring the soaked beans to a boil and simmer for two hours. After cooking, wash the cooked beans again in fresh, cold water until the cooked beans run clean.

White Bean Salad Dressing
2-3 organic garlic cloves, finely grated
1-2T local raw honey
1tsp sea salt
1tsp dried organic dill weed
1T Homemade Whole Seed Mustard or organic Dijon mustard
1c organic cider vinegar
1c organic extra virgin olive oil
Finely grate the garlic cloves and put into a mason jar. Add the honey, sea salt, dill weed, mustard, cider vinegar and olive oil. Shake well and set aside for later use.

White Bean Salad
1 large onion, sliced thinly
1-2c White Bean Salad Dressing
4c frozen organic green beans, chopped
5-6c cooked white beans, rinsed and drained
Finely slice the onion into thin rings. In a large bowl, add the onions to 1c of White Bean Dressing and stir well. Let the onions soak in the dressing for about an hour to soften them. During this time, lightly cook the green beans in a small amount of water for 5-10 minutes. Cook the green beans less for a crunchier salad. Drain the green beans and add them to onions and dressing and stir well. Add the drained white beans and stir well. Taste the salad and add extra dressing, if needed. Chill the bean salad before serving. Any remaining dressing can be used with any salad.

Seasonal Foods: Beet Chips

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Beet Chips are a great early spring food to help empty out your root cellar.

Spring is the time to clean out the root cellar. Beets are the last item left in my root cellar. I got these beets last October. The rodents found the beets tasty too. These beets are very sweet and have kept very well over the winter even with the rodent damage. Beet Chips are a good way to use up old beets.

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Beets are the last root vegetable in my root cellar. You can see the rodent damage to the beets.

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Mix the sliced beets with the sea salt and enough olive oil to completely coat the beets.

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Thinly spread the beet slices on two baking trays.

4 large organic beets, thinly sliced
1/4c organic extra virgin olive oil, enough to coat
1tsp sea salt
1 organic bird’s eye pepper, ground (optional)
Cut the beets in half and thinly slice. Try to get the slices the same size. In a large bowl, mix the beet slices with olive oil and sea salt. Use just enough olive oil to cover the beets thoroughly. Cook the beets at 250F for 2 hours for a chewy chip or 300F for 2 hours for a crisper chip. Stir once or twice during the cooking process. At the lower temperature the beets dry out more than cook. At the higher temperature the beets will be crispier but watch the chips carefully to avoid burning. If you start to see the chips discoloring remove from the oven and cool. Sometimes it will take more time to cook the beets if the beets have a high moisture content.

Remove the beet chips from the oven and let cool. The beet chips crisp up during the cooling process. If some beet chips are underdone, remove the chewy or crispy chips from the tray and return the underdone chips to the oven for another 30 minutes. Watch carefully and be patient!

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Have patience with the cooking. It takes time.

Seasonal Foods: Rhubarb Crumble

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Rhubarb grows like a weed in my garden — but I’m not a fan of this sour stem — until now!

This recipe is safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

One of the wonders of eating local foods is looking forward to those seasonal foods that come just once a year. In the last few weeks, I have been enjoying asparagus. I only eat asparagus in the spring when it is in season. I look forward to local asparagus every year and eat my fill. Of course, loaded with butter, sea salt and garlic!

Rhubarb is another story altogether. Rhubarb grows like a weed in my garden. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of this earlier seasonal food. The biggest thing I dislike about rhubarb is the tradition of loading this stem with sugar to make it edible. Since sugar doesn’t even come into my household, that’s not an option. As I contemplated the bounty of rhubarb on my kitchen counter, the answer came to me. My sweetest dried fruit in storage is raisins.

This is the recipe I came up with. My girls liked it so much they asked me to make more the next day. This “dessert” can also be eaten as a healthy “breakfast”. It is good with raw cream or raw whipping cream.

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It’s great to be able to eat fresh foods from the garden while using storage foods from my pantry.

Rhubarb Filling
6-8c garden rhubarb stems, sliced on the diagonal
1/4c organic butter
1-2 large pinches sea salt
1c organic raisins

Topping
1c organic walnuts
1c organic sunflower seeds
1/4c organic butter, cut into small cubes
1/2tsp sea salt
1tsp organic cinnamon, ground
1/2tsp organic allspice. ground

Melt the butter and sea salt in a stainless steel pot. Add the sliced rhubarb and cover. Cook at a very low temperature and stir occasionally to avoid sticking. Water will start coming out of the rhubarb. When this happens add the raisins. Soften and cook the rhubarb and raisins for about 15-20 minutes, then remove from heat. The sweetness of the raisins will contrast the sour of the rhubarb nicely.

In a food processor, lightly grind the walnuts and sunflower seeds together. Add the sea salt, spices and butter and lightly grind until the butter is incorporated with the nuts and seeds. The consistency should be crumbly. Do not over grind.

Pour the rhubarb filling into a 12″x12″ glass baking tray and flatten. Add the topping over the filling and lightly flatten. Cook at 300?F for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. This dessert is good warm or cold. Add a big pad of butter, if eaten warm, or for breakfast.

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Rhubarb Crumble is good warm or cold. If eaten warm add a big pad of butter. If eaten cold, try some raw cream or raw whipping cream.