Parsnip in Spicy Cashew Sauce

Parsnip is often confused with parsley roots. Although they look very much alike there is one huge difference between them. Parsley leaves called flat leaves or Italian parsley are edible and are popular in many cuisines as a fresh garnish, salad ingredient, or a dry herb. Parsnip leaves are toxic and cause a reaction similar to that provoked by poison ivy. Therefore you can buy bunches of parsley root with leaves but parsnip is always sold without them, which would help you to distinguish them at the first glance.

I am familiar with parsley root, which is very popular in Polish cuisine, where it is added to many dishes for its strong flavor. Parsnip is much milder. It is sweeter than carrot but has a slightly earthy taste. It has also many important nutritional values. First of all, parsnip is an excellent source of dietary fiber. It is also rich in vitamins C, B, folic acid, and minerals such as iron, calcium, copper as well as many antioxidants which give parsnip anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.

I have already tried a couple of parsnip recipes but none of them was worth sharing, until last week when I made a spicy parsnip dish. The sweetness of parsnip sometimes is a little bit overwhelming, but in this particular dish it nicely neutralizes the spiciness of the sauce made of Indian spices and chili. Rather fast and easy, it also turned out to be a wonderful vegetarian and quite a nutritious dish.

Parsnip in Spicy Cashew Sauce
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
2 lbs of parsnip peeled and cut into cubes,
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped,
4 garlic cloves,
1 medium onion cut in four,
2-inch piece of ginger root, peeled off and sliced,
2 jalapeno peppers or two hot green peppers,
1/2 cup toasted, ground cashews,
3 tbsp vegetable oil,
1 tbsp cumin seeds,
1 tbsp. coriander seeds,
1tsp turmeric,
salt and pepper,
juice from one lime,
coriander leaves to serve.

Preparation:
1. Place onion, garlic, ginger and jalapenos in a blender. Add about 1/3 cup water and blend all the ingredients until a smooth paste forms.
2. Heat the oil in a large heavy duty frying pan. Add cumin seeds and toast them for about 30 seconds, until they get darker and fragrant. Add coriander seeds, turmeric, and ground cashews, and mix all the ingredients.
3. Pour in the jalapeno paste and fry until water evaporates.

4. Add tomatoes and parsnip to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in about a cup of water, mix and let it simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes until parsnip is tender. Add extra water if parsnip is still hard. If sauce is too watery at the end boil it quickly until the liquid evaporates and sauce thickens.
5. Add lime juice to the dish and cook for another minute. Before serving, sprinkle with fresh, chopped coriander leaves.
Serve with flat breads.

Herbed Potato Salad with Green Peppercorns

Maybe because it was already many months ago that I last made a potato salad, this one tasted so good when I made it last week. I made it to accompany grilled meat. And because a long weekend, which traditionally starts the grilling season is coming up, I decided today to share the recipe for that salad.

Potato salads or salads with potatoes as their main ingredient are quite popular in many cuisines. But because they are so known I always look for a new and refreshing ideas on how to prepare them.

Last winter, I bought in an Indian spice store a large jar of green peppercorn pickles. Although I shared the jar with my friend I was still left with a lot. I added them to a fillet mignon steak sauce, but still the jar remained rather full.

Last week I decided to make a potato salad from baby potatoes I got at TJ. My herbs are already blooming in my herb yard, so I thought that a herb potato salad would be a great accompaniment to grilled meat I was preparing.

But although herbs were exceptionally fresh and I added a lot of chives, the salad seemed still too mild when I tasted it. Then green peppercorns came to the rescue. I added a generous spoon of them and the salad became instantly stronger, almost spicy when you bit a peppercorn. It tasted great with grilled beef.

Of course you do not need to buy a 27-oz jar or a yearly supply of peppercorns. A small jar sold in most food stores is absolutely enough. But it is worth trying as the salad season begins.

Herbed Potato Salad with Green Peppercorns

Ingredients:
1 lb of baby potatoes or wax potatoes,
1/3 cup mixed fresh herbs such as dill, chives, oregano, tarragon and thyme, finely chopped,
3 tbsp low fat Greek yogurt,
2 tbsp mayonnaise,
1/2 tsp sugar,
2 tbsp olive oil,
1 tbsp green peppercorn pickles,
salt to taste.

Preparation:
1. Cook potatoes, let them cool and place them in a large bowl. Cut the large potatoes into small cubes.
2. In a small bowl pour in oil, yogurt, mayonnaise, sugar and pinch of salt. Whip all the ingredients using a whisker.
3. Add chopped herbs to the dressing. Mix again.
4. Pour the sauce over the potatoes, sprinkle with peppercorns and mix.

A Very Spring Zucchini Pasta

To be honest, I have been waiting so intently for the zucchini blossoms to appear at my local market to try some interesting recipes, which I recently spotted in some Italian culinary magazines, that I forgot about the zucchinis themselves. So, maybe, before I buy these blossoms or, if and until, they finally bloom in my garden, I would like to share a zucchini pasta recipe. This is one of not too many vegetable pastas that my picky kids enjoy a lot, so I cook it fairly often.

Usually, I have been making it with large green or yellow zucchinis and dried basil leaves, a combination which in this vegetarian recipe works perfectly. I grate the zucchinis on a large hole grater and make a creamy sauce with them, flavored with dried basil. But, the other day, I got a bag of beautiful, small and green baby zucchinis and decided to use them instead.

This time I only sliced the zucchinis as they were tiny. And, instead of the dried basil, I used the more seasonal fresh basil, which is already growing in the pots on my deck. I also cooked the whole wheat pasta that becomes increasingly popular and easy to buy. It has a little bit stronger taste so it goes nicely with a delicate taste of the zucchini sauce and provides fiber, proteins, and even a good amount of Omega 3 fatty acids.

Zucchini Pasta
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
1 box (about a pound) of Barilla multi grain penne or De Cecco whole wheat penne,
2 tbsp olive oil,
1 pound of baby zucchini or regular zucchini,
1 medium onion, chopped,
2 garlic cloves, minced,
1 cup table cream,
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves or 1 tbsp dried,
shredded Parmesan,
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Cook pasta according to the instruction. With whole wheat pasts, this will take a little bit longer than regular, about 11-13 minutes,
2. Preheat oil in large heavy duty frying pan and fry onion until transparent.
3. Cut baby zucchinis into thin slices or if yuo have the normale size zucchinis, grate them on a large hole grater. Add them to the pan with the onion. Mix and cook all the vegetables together on a medium heat until all the water from the zucchinis evaporates and they start to turn gold. Add minced garlic and fry everything together for about 2 minutes.

4. Finally, pour in the cream, mix and bring the sauce to boil. If it becomes too thick, add an extra hot water from the pot with boiling pasta.
5. Season the sauce with salt and generously with freshly griound pepper, add chopped basil and mix everything well together.
6. Drain pasta, pour the zucchini sauce over. Finish with shredded Parmesan and serve with red wine.