Fennel has soooo many health benefits, just to mention a few, (and im too lazy to write in my own words right now so im opting to copy and paste haha), According to eatdrinkbetter.com: "Fennel is high in vitamin C, and it’s also a good source of dietary fiber, potassium, magnesium, and copper. Fennel’s distinct anise flavor comes from anethole, a compound that that has been shown to suppress inflammation and cancer." also, "1 cup of raw fennel has a mere 27 calories, but an abundance of vitamin A, folate, calcium, phosphorous".... and lots of other goodies.
Rustic Baked Fennel
(taken & slightly modified from wherestherevolution.blogspot.com)
Ingredients:
* 1 large fennel bulb, quartered
* 1 15 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
* 8-10 oil-cured black olives, roughly chopped
* 2 large cloves garlic, crushed
* 1/2 tsp. dried Italian seasoning (ours contains oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, and marjoram)
* salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
* 3 TB extra virgin olive oil
Instructions:
* Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
* Arrange fennel quarters in small baking dish, spaced evenly apart
* Add garlic and black olives
* Top with the tomatoes (with juice)
* Sprinkle with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper
* Drizzle olive oil on top of mixture (to taste), making sure to brush the exposed fennel with oil
* Cover with aluminum foil and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until fennel is tender (note: baking time varies depending on size and thickness of fennel bulbs)
* Remove cover and bake for 10 minutes more
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PARSNIPS.
More commonly referred to as "white carrots"....at least that's what I always thought they were anyway! Here's the featured recipe. delicious!
Puréed Roasted Parsnips Recipe
(taken & slightly modified from simplyrecipes.com)
Ingredients
* 2 lbs parsnips, peeled, stringy cores removed,chopped (about 1 1/2 pounds after removing cores)
* 3 Tbsp butter, melted
* 1 1/2 cup water
* 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
* Salt and pepper to taste
Method
1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Peel parsnips, make a cut off the top of the fat end of each parsnip. This will show you extent of the inner core. Often this core is stringy and woody, especially at the larger end of the parsnip. When you are prepping the parsnips, cut around this core.
2 Place chopped parsnips in a medium sized bowl, add the melted butter and stir to coat. Lay out the parsnips on a roasting pan in a single layer. Roast in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, at 400°F, until lightly golden, turning the parsnips once half-way through the cooking.
3 Put cooked parsnips into a blender or food processor. Add 1 1/2 cups water, and pulse until puréed to the desired consistency. Add more water if necessary. Add nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.
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Last but NOT least.....
a SHITLOAD OF BROCOLLI.
In last weeks box of veggies there were 4 full size crowns of brocolli, this week, another 4-5. ....they were starting to look a little "under the weather"...so I thought..."I need to use these up quick!"....thinking...thinking.....thinking....
BROCOLLI SOUP!
(taken and slightly modified from blog.modernpaleo.com)
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp ghee or butter
1 yellow onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 crowns of broccoli
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper
Method:
Remove the florets from the stem of the broccoli. Cut large florets to a similar size as the small florets. Dice the broccoli stems.
Add the olive oil and ghee to a soup pot, and place over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, saute the onion and celery until the onion is translucent (about 5-7 minutes).
Add in the broccoli and garlic, and saute for another minute or two.
Pour in the chicken broth. Bring to a simmer. Cover the pot, and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.
Puree the soup in a blender in batches. Cover the blender with a towel, as the lid tends to fly off when hot soup is being pureed due to steam pressure. Return the soup to the pot, Taste and season with salt and pepper. Once heated through, the soup is ready to eat!
FYI: YUM. Myself and the roommate, big fans of this one.
