I’m sure the parents of the 3rd and 4th graders from two D.C. area public charter schools would be amazed by their children’s enjoyment of asparagus and cherry tomatoes, sautéed spinach, and fresh mint tea. Being that I only started enjoying asparagus last year, I was definitely impressed, but that just goes to show the power of fresh picked vegetables straight from the garden.

Last week and the week before, I had the pleasure of giving a cooking demo to students in the Washington Youth Garden’s Garden Science program. Located in the beautiful National Arboretum, the Washington Youth Garden provides environmental science and food education programs for D.C. youth and their families. These programs include teaching gardening and how food gets from farm to plate, how to start a school garden, how to be good stewards of the environment, and how to prepare fresh nutritious food.

All of the kids were very eager and happy to help me cut up asparagus, tomatoes, lemons and herbs. Some of them helped harvest the vegetables and herbs from the garden, while others helped to gather the scraps for the compost pile. In addition to the beauty of the garden and superior taste of freshly picked vegetables, the gratification that comes from eating something you helped to prepare was another big factor that likely contributed to the students liking the lightly cooked vegetables and even asking for seconds!

With the increased attention school gardens, childhood nutrition, home gardening, and local foods are receiving nationally from First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign and White House Garden, opportunities are increasingly becoming available for everyone to join in the efforts to improve our own and our children’s eating habits, food choices and awareness of how and what we eat.  Among national and local efforts to improve school lunches, establish community and school gardens, and advocate for better food policies, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get involved where ever you live.

Here are some resources to help you find such an opportunity, as well as a recipe for fresh mint tea, which the Washington Youth Garden kids definitely enjoyed!

American Community Garden Association
Let’s Move Campaign
Slow Food USA (Chapters nation-wide)
Time for Lunch Program (Slow Food USA)
DC Field to Fork Network
Google.com (Just do a search for your city and “community garden” or “school gardens”)

Fresh Mint Tea

4 quarts water
5 -6 single serving bags of black tea
1 bunch of fresh mint (about 1 to 1-1/2 cups packed), leaves removed (discard stems)
1 cup evaporated cane juice sugar, plus more to taste

Bring the water to a boil in a large pot. Once boiling, turn off heat and add tea bags and loose mint leaves. Let steep for about 5 – 10 minutes. Strain the tea into a heat-proof pitcher and stir in sugar. Serve warm or allow tea to cool and serve over ice.

I recently found out about an opportunity to be on Grill It with Bobby Flay on the Food Network. The network is currently looking for guests to appear on the show for its 3rd season and asking for recipes and 3-minute video clips of contenders doing their thing on the grill.

While getting on TV or having a cooking show had never been a particular aim or objective of mine since I began my journey into food blogging, when this opportunity arose, I thought, why not? Making a TV appearance with Bobby Flay would be a great experience and way to share my recipes with a broader audience as well as learn from a great chef and one of the best food TV personalities around.

So I created my recipes all centered on a Moroccan theme because I love various cuisines from around the world (Moroccan being one of them) and this North African country is known for a fragrant herb marinade (chermoula sauce) that goes deliciously with fish.  Grilled mahi-mahi with grilled shrimp and vegetable kabobs along with a fruity couscous and an appetizer of grilled roasted red pepper pita wedges is a tasty and interesting menu that I think will be great for TV and your grills this coming spring and summer.

Thanks to the generous help of my tech and video savvy uncle, I was able to put together a brief clip of me demonstrating the main dish of Moroccan-Inspired Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Chermoula Sauce.  Take a look at the video and let me know what you think! We’ll see what happens, but either way, you’ll get the recipes soon – either on the Food Network or FlavorDiva.com.

As soon as you walk into any supermarket right now, you’re sure to be met with a bold, colorful and varied display of winter squash. Acorn squash, banana squash, spaghetti squash, buttercup squash, butternut squash, and pumpkins. Have you ever wondered, “What in the world do people do with all this stuff?” I used to.

I can’t really recall anybody from my family cooking with winter squash. If that’s the case for you too, know that these colorful round and odd shaped vegetables can offer wonderful variety to your autumn meals. They’re great for roasting and mashing, and using in baked goods and soup.

I’ve only begun to learn different ways to prepare winter squash, but warm, herb seasoned soup is one of my favorite uses for it, particularly using butternut squash. Butternut squash has a deliciously mild sweet flavor that kind of reminds me of sweet potatoes and it’s one of the winter squash varieties that’s easier to peel than others.

Butternut squash soup can be prepared various ways to give it flavor. It may include chicken broth or vegetable broth, cream or milk, or sprinkles of parmesan cheese, and the choice of spices to use are endless. I’ve seen two recipes that feature curry in the soup. I’m really looking forward to trying the recipe Dr. Sunyatta Amen, one of my dance instructors, recently featured for a tasty looking butternut squash soup that includes Thai curry and coconut milk.

My recipe uses vegetable broth, apples, sage and thyme. The apples add another mild layer of sweetness to the soup that contribute to its seasonal taste. Also, I especially love seasoning butternut squash soup with sage. Just like winter squash, sage reminds me of fall due to the herb often being used in roasted turkeys and dressing (stuffing). Using vegetable broth gives the soup a light flavor, but you can easily interchange it for chicken broth, which will add more body to the soup. Either way, it will be delicious!

Do you have any other way you like to prepare winter squash or butternut squash soup?

Butternut Squash Soup
Serves 4 – 5

Adapted from Deborah Madison’s recipe in
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

2.5 – 3 pound butternut squash
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to drizzle
1 small onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage leaves
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and cut into cubes
1 quart vegetable broth (4 cups)
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
Fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Slice off the small top end of the squash, then with the squash standing upright, carefully cut it in half with a large chef’s knife (be careful). Scoop out the seeds of both halves of the squash and discard.

Drizzle and rub a little olive oil on the flesh side of both halves of squash including inside the cavities. Then, placing three cloves of garlic in each cavity, place the halves skin side down on a baking sheet and roast uncovered in the oven for about 30 – 40 minutes or until squash gives to pressure when touched.

Remove roasted squash from oven and allow to cool for about 10 – 15 minutes. Heat three tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat in a large Dutch oven or saucepan, and add onions, sage and thyme and cook stirring occasionally for about 5 – 8 minutes.

Scoop the flesh from the cooked squash into the pan (discard skin) and squeeze out the roasted garlic from their peels into the pan as well (discard peels). Stir together, add vegetable broth and apple cubes and bring to a boil briefly before lowering the heat to a simmer. Simmer soup for 20 minutes before pureeing in batches in a blender or with an immersion blender. Taste for additional seasoning and serve.

Roasted French green beans with cherry tomatoes; this is truly a seasonal dish. These tender, yet crisp green beans, also known as haricots verts or French filet beans, are thin and slender and as a result, cook quickly. That should be some solace over the fact that they can be a little hard to find.

I bought these beans at the farmers’ market this past Sunday along with some bright red cherry tomatoes that were very tiny, but full of flavor. In fact, I’ve never tasted a cherry tomato that tastes so good.

I know that I’ve made some similar comments in several of my posts over the summer, but believe me, it’s the honest to goodness truth. I guess that’s just a testament to how much there is to discover about food that’s fresh picked and in season.

Inspired by a recipe for roasted vegetables by Ina Garten in her latest cookbook, I simply tossed these beans and cherry tomatoes with a little extra-virgin olive oil and kosher salt, and then roasted them at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes. They came out of the oven cooked, but still a little crispy with the warm tomatoes bursting their tart, yet sweet flavor onto the pan.

If you aren’t a big fan of crisp green beans, you can boil the beans first for about five minutes before roasting them with the tomatoes.  I wouldn’t roast them for more than 10 minutes because then they tend to wilt and overcook.

Also, if you can’t find French green beans, the next best thing are young, small green beans. Since these beans aren’t always readily available in supermarkets, so don’t plan to make this recipe and then shop. Go shopping first, and if you come across some beautiful haricots verts or small green beans that catch your eye, come back to this reference on how to enjoy them.

French Green Beans and Cherry Tomatoes
Adapted from Ina Garten’s Oven-Roasted Vegetables

1 pound of French green beans
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Rinse and drain vegetables and spread them out in one layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the beans and tomatoes and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Toss the vegetables to coats, and then sprinkle with the other half teaspoon salt. Place the pan in the oven and roast for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven, add a little fresh cracked black pepper and serve.

Lucky me! After getting up at the crack of dawn this past Sunday to work eight hours in the hot August sun at the farmers’ market, helping to bring fresh, locally grown produce to Washingtonians, I was greatly rewarded. One of the gracious farmers gave me a box full of beautiful, organic heirloom tomatoes!

This gift was right on time. I had just finished thinking about how I wanted to take advantage of the season’s tomatoes by either canning some tomatoes, or making and canning tomato sauce. That way, I could have peak tomato flavor even after the summer ended.

Every good cook and cookbook I’ve come across that talk about tomatoes always say that if  you’re going to make fresh sauce, do it with vine-ripened, freshly picked tomatoes. Otherwise, go for store-bought canned tomatoes, which are canned at peak season (if you can’t can your own, which is time consuming I know).

So I used six pounds of my tomatoes (the ones that were of a plum variety) to try my hand at marinara sauce. It turned out pretty well – absolutely delicious in fact! As I tasted my final product, I thought, “Man, where has fresh, homemade tomato sauce been all my life?!”

Cooking the basil and thyme seasoned sauce took a little longer than I expected. I thought I could get away with just simmering it for an hour, and I could have, but I wanted a thicker sauce that was more like the consistency I’m used to. Still noticing a little wateriness, I continued to simmer the colorful mixture, which had my place smelling wonderfully from beginning to end, for about an hour and 45 minutes.

I wasn’t quite ready to attempt the canning process yet. Thankfully, I still have half a box of tomatoes left from which I’m going to make more sauce to can and hopefully have my own little stash of marinara sauce to use when the weather’s cold, but my taste buds want to be reminded of summer.

Do any of you have experience with canning? Also, the color of my sauce wasn’t as red as I expected (it turned kind of orange). I’m still researching why that was the case. If you have any info on this, please share!

Summer Fresh Marinara Sauce

6 pounds ripe plum or Romano tomatoes
1 /4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 celery stalk, minced
4 cloves garlic minced
8 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves striped and chopped (discard stems)
1 handful fresh basil leaves
2-1/2 teaspoons salt
Fresh cracked black pepper

Fill a large non-reactive stockpot or Dutch oven with water and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes. After 15 seconds, immediately transfer tomatoes to a large bowl of cold water. Now you should be able to easily pull the skins right off the tomatoes.

Seed the peeled tomatoes by cutting off one end and squeezing the seeds out or cutting tomatoes into quarters and removing the seeds with your hands. Roughly chop tomatoes and set aside.

Wipe pot clean and add olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook for about eight minutes. Then add celery and garlic, and cook for another 2 – 4 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and stir.

Add chopped, seeded tomatoes, a pinch of sugar and stir. Stir in the thyme and remaining salt. Take half of your handful of basil and chop it, then add to pot. Stir the pot, slightly reduce heat and simmer uncovered.

After 30 minutes, chop and add remaining basil. Continue to simmer for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours stirring occasionally. The longer the sauce cooks, the more the water cooks out of it and the thicker the sauce, so cook to your desired consistency. Finally, lightly puree the sauce with an immersion blender or pour the sauce in a regular blender in batches. Taste for additional salt, pepper and sugar if needed.

Serve over pasta or vegetables. Sauce can be kept refrigerated for up to four days.

I’ve been putting off writing this post for two weeks now. Why? Partly because I’ve been ridiculously busy with other activities and partly because I’m conflicted about the traditional southern potato salad. The chunky, seasoned white potato and mayo mixture is a mainstay on many southern and African-American tables during family gatherings, especially in the summer. However, it’s not the healthiest thing you can eat with its high fat content from the mayonnaise, and there in lies the conflict.

I was never really crazy about potato salad while growing up, although almost everyone in my family was and still is (on my Dad’s side in particular, many are crazy about my mom’s potato salad). But, over the years I’ve come to enjoy a little dab of the homemade stuff every now and then (portion control is key).

Speaking of homemade, if you’re going to eat potato salad, please, please, PLEASE, make sure it’s homemade! I’ve never tasted a store-bought, mayo-based potato salad I thought was any good, and I’ve been to a lot of church functions and back-yard cookouts where more and more people are taking the store-bought route.

This recipe below is my attempt to get as close as possible to my mom’s recipe, which she pulls from her memory every time she makes it, adding ingredients by sight and feel rather than specific measurements. I called her up and asked her to give me her estimates of amounts used.

Two things are key, she told me, to making a good potato salad — use a large, waxy variety of potato and “always use Duke’s” mayonnaise. My mom swears by Duke’s mayonnaise. She says that she has made potato salad with several other brands of mayo and she says it’s never as good as it is when it’s made with Duke’s.

As for the potatoes, I used the kind she uses the most, large red potatoes. The main thing to remember for potatoes is to use a waxy, thin-skinned variety because they hold their shape better than, for example, russet potatoes, which are ideal for baking.

What are your thoughts on potato salad? Do you love it, hate it or usually buy it by the container in the store? Let’s chat about it in the comments section below!

Potato Salad, Traditional and Southern
Serves 5 – 8 (depending on serving size)

1 1/2 pounds large red potatoes, about 6
(or another variety of waxy potato)
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
4 tablespoons sweet relish
2 hard-boiled eggs, diced
1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/2 white onion, finely diced (optional)
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds (optional)
1 1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Place rinsed and scrubbed potatoes in a large stockpot and fill the pot with water until the water covers the potatoes by one inch. Place the pot over high heat, cover and bring to a boil. Once water comes to a boil, reduce heat to med/medium-high, partially cover pot with lid allowing steam to come out, and cook potatoes for about 40 minutes or until fork-tender.

Meanwhile, hard-boil your eggs and set aside to cool. Peel and dice them once cooled. When potatoes are cooked, drain them from the water and set aside to cool. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes with your hands, dice the potatoes and add to a large mixing bowl. 

Add diced eggs and remaining ingredients except for the celery seeds, salt, and pepper and gently fold and combine everything together. Sprinkle celery seeds over mixture and add salt and pepper to taste gently folding and combining once more. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Over the past several weeks I’ve been going through stacks of food magazines that I have piled up in my apartment due to a hectic schedule that has me putting my leisure reading on hold. Working my way through copies of Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Living, Saveur and Edible Chesapeake, I’ve clipped a handful of recipes I want to try that look great for summertime.

Bon Appétit’s beautiful photo of their caesar potato salad with sugar snap peas caught my eye as well as my interest in wanting to try a chunky (rather than mushy) potato salad that didn’t rely on mayonnaise.  Not that there’s anything wrong with the traditional homestyle potato salad, but I’ve never been a huge fan. However, everyone raves over my mom’s potato salad recipe so I plan to feature that soon.

In the meantime, if you’re looking to try something different, this warm fingerling potato salad with just minor differences from Bon Appétit’s version can add a new texture and flavor to your next summer cook out or dinner. And here’s another bonus, it doesn’t take long at all to make. Let me know what you think!

Warm Fingerling Potato Salad
Adapted from Bon Appétit’s
Caesar Potato Salad with Sugar Snap Peas
Serves 4 (Double the recipe to serve more)

1 lb. unpeeled, assorted fingerling potatoes (tri-color), scrubbed and sliced 1/2 inch thick 
1 handful of sugar snap peas (about 4 oz.)
4 radishes, scrubbed and thinly sliced
2 tbs diced red onion

Dressing
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbs dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Steam potatoes for 8 – 9 minutes. Add peas and steam for 1 – 2 minutes more. Transfer potatoes and peas to large bowl and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. In another bowl, whisk together lemon juice, mustard, garlic, cheese and olive oil to make your dressing. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Add the sliced radishes and diced red onion to the peas and potatoes. Pour dressing over the vegetables and gently toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I’ve be gone for a while, I know. Your feed readers and inboxes have been void of my recipes, tips, and prodding to get you in the kitchen for nearly six weeks now, but it’s not without good excuse. My life has been packed with two new endeavors adding to my schedule – a new part-time job as a market manager at the Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market and an online food writing class (food writing bootcamp).

With a ridiculously tight schedule over the past month, I must admit, I’ve cooked very little, and I’ve been reminded of the great challenge so many of us face to cook fresh, tasty and nourishing meals for ourselves and our families with the spare, precious time we have outside of work and other responsibilities and activities. None the less, I’m still convinced that it’s possible. As a result, I’m going to work on featuring more quick meal solutions in future posts.

My new job on Sunday mornings working the farmers’ market has already proven to be a great experience for me. FRESHFARM Markets is a nonprofit organization that runs eight farmers’ markets in D.C. and Maryland. As an organizer of producer-only markets, the organization focuses on providing economic opportunities for area farmers and strengthening the local food movement in the Chesapeake Bay region.

Despite having to get up at 5:30am two to three Sundays a month to help my partnering market manager set up before the 9am opening bell, I’m having a great time learning more about seasonal produce (Ever heard of ramps? Do you know when asparagus is in season?), meeting the farmers, and simply enjoying the wonderful environment of a community farmers’ market. The wonderful smell of fragrant, fresh cut flowers and the beauty of the array of colors from seasonal fresh produce make the job a pleasure.

Speaking of asparagus, the season for this vegetable is now – end of April through June. I’ve never been a fan of asparagus. It was always too fibrous for me; however, thanks to my friends at the market, I’ve discovered that fresh picked asparagus, which can rarely be found in a supermarket (check the signs, most supermarkets sell asparagus from Peru or California), provides a more enticing experience.

Wanting to put this discovery to the test, I picked up a bunch of asparagus from the market and simply sautéed it up at home. It was good! Much better than what I normally taste in asparagus. The taste was familiar, but fresher and the texture was crisp. Head out to your nearest farmers’ market and give asparagus a new try. It’s quick to prepare and can be steamed, sautéed, grilled and served with just about any main entrée. It also tastes good raw providing that it is truly fresh – eaten within one to two days of being picked.

Sautéed Asparagus
Serves 4

Note: Be sure to use fresh picked asparagus and cook as soon as possible. Trim off tough ends before cooking.

2 bunches fresh, locally-grown asparagus
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Squeeze of fresh lemon (optional)

In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium heat then add trimmed asparagus spears and cook for about one minute. Tossing occasionally, continue to sauté asparagus for another two to three minutes. Season with salt and pepper and a quick squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Serve. 

If you’re a no-meat-no-animal-products-eatin’-gave-up-pork-a-long-time-ago soul you’ll feel right at home in Bryant Terry’s Vegan Soul Kitchen. Bryant Terry, an Eco-chef and food justice activist originally from Memphis, TN, has offered us all in Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy and Creative African-American Cuisine, a different take on soul food that is familiar, yet new and especially tasty.

At this point in the post, I know I already have the vegans and vegetarians hooked, but if you’re still skeptical or scared off by the word “vegan” (as I’ve discovered that many people are), trust me – read on. You eat vegan food all the time without even realizing it (a handful of grapes, spinach sautéed in olive oil, tea, and even french fries).

Vegan simply means food that is free of animal products, including meat, seafood, dairy, eggs and honey. While I’m not vegan or even vegetarian, I eat that way often. And just how many of my recipes can be adapted for the vegan or vegetarian, Bryant encourages folks to make his recipes work for you and add meat or dairy if that’s what you need. In his words, “freestyle and be creative.” 

African-American cuisine has always been creative, often times out of necessity (eg. chitterlings, pig feet, etc.). According to Bryant and contrary to popular belief, our cuisine has also traditionally been full of healthy, fresh foods such as home-grown fruits and vegetables. “This book is about the creative use of nutrient-dense vegetables, fresh fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and legumes that make some bangin’ dishes,” Bryant writes.

As with all of my cookbook reviews, I tried out several of the recipes myself before coming online to sing the praises of Vegan Soul Kitchen (VSK). Cooking from these recipes was fun and educational. The Citrus Collards with Raisins Redux were really delicious and proof that you don’t have to simmer your collards for two to three hours with a ham hock or smoked turkey leg in order for them to taste good. I will definitely be making these on a regular basis.

The Open-Faced BBQ Tempeh Sandwich with Carrot-Cayenne Coleslaw was also pretty tasty. It was my first time cooking tempeh, a fermented soybean patty that can be sliced, diced, marinated, grilled, baked, etc. The tempeh strips marinated in a homemade BBQ sauce and served over focaccia bread was filling and I can see myself using the marinade for chicken as well. I also enjoyed the Green Beans with Roasted Shallots and Walnuts, and the Black-Eyed Pea Fritters with Hot Pepper Sauce (aka homemade hot sauce).

Bryant also includes many beverage recipes in VSK, which I really like. I made the Orange-Orange Pekoe Tea sweetened with agave nectar and the Lavender Lemonade. I loved the Lavender Lemonade! Are you familiar with Pink Lemonade? I remember drinking it in the past and never thinking that it was probably colored with some kind of synthetic food dye. Well here’s your answer for an all-natural pink lemonade that’s easy to make. The lavender water made from steeping lavender buds gives the lemonade its color. Of course culinary lavender isn’t easily found just anywhere but since I pick up interesting ingredients when I come across them, I actually had some culinary lavender in my cabinet. You can purchase lavender online or in specialty spice shops.

Pricy and unfamiliar ingredients for the vegan novice are the only real caveats I have about VSK, but with a little time and Bryant’s helpful tips included in the book, you’ll learn your way around a health food or international grocery store in no time. And, if you’re already familiar with one, you’ll learn it even better as I did (Who knew the best place to find raw, shelled peanuts is in an international supermarket?).

There are so many more VSK recipes I’m looking forward to trying including the entire chapter of watermelon recipes, including the Fresh Watermelon-Vodka Martini and Balsamic Syrup-Sweetened Watermelon Sorbet. I also already have the ingredients waiting on me to make the Candied Sweet Potato Discs and Apple Slices, Maple Almond Granola, Quinoa-Quinoa Cornbread, Almond milk, and Creamy Grits. And that’s only naming a few of the 150 recipes that fill this bold cookbook.

Leave a comment below about this post and your favorite soul food dish to be entered into a drawing to win a free copy of Vegan Soul Kitchen. All comments must be left by Friday, March 27th, 11:59pm (U.S. residents only). While you wait to see if you won, try out Bryant’s recipes below and read other coverage of Vegan Soul Kitchen.

VSK Recipes and Reviews
Read more on Vegan Soul Kitchen and check out these sample recipes. ESSENCE.com has a great interview with Bryant. Hear him talk more about soul food and the new book in his own words.

Black-Eyed Pea Fritters with Hot Pepper Sauce
Carrot-Cranberry-Walnut Salad with Cream Walnut Vinaigrette
101Cookbooks.com: Bryant Terry’s Jamaican Veggie Patties
ESSENCE: Chef’s Choice: Bryant Terry
TheRoot: Vegan Soul Food, A Tasty Read

Have you had enough chocolate yet? Well there’s more to come from me this month, but for now I’ll give your sweet tooth a break and share a recipe for a light entrée you can try just in case you had too many desserts this past weekend or have been eating heavy meals a little too much during the past several weeks. I’ve had a few recent requests for a “low-cal” dish, so here’s my response (also, check out the Light & Tasty category in the right sidebar for additional recipes).

This chicken and broccoli entrée serves as a light meal on its own and no other side dishes are really needed. The extra-virgin olive oil and butter (yes, butter … a little won’t hurt you) give it flavor along with the minced garlic and red pepper flakes; however, if you have kids or finicky folks in the house, it might not go over too well –- so try it out and see. If they boycott the dinner table, you can always make (or buy I suppose) an Alfredo sauce to go over it, but then again, it wouldn’t be “low-cal.”

This dish definitely makes a good and fairly quick lunch as well as a light dinner. I still think I need to fine-tune the cooking times and measurements of this recipe a little more, so I plan to try it a few more times and update the recipe below. However, what I’ve written here will work for you and is basically the process I followed when I first developed the recipe. Enjoy!

Chicken and Broccoli with Whole Wheat Pasta

2 cups whole wheat fusilli pasta (corkscrew)
1 red bell pepper cut into thin 2” long strips
1 bunch broccoli (about 4 stalks), use florets only
1-1/2 pound of chicken breast cutlets cut into 1” pieces
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons butter (you can substitute with an additional 3T olive oil)
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (plus more for garnish)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water (use 1 teaspoon salt) to a boil. Bring another large pot of salted water (2 teaspoons) to a boil. As water is coming to a boil, fill a large bowl (big enough to hold the broccoli florets) with water and ice to create an ice bath.

Add rinsed broccoli florets to first pot of boiling water and let water come back to a boil and continue to cook until broccoli turns bright green (about 3 – 4 minutes). Quickly drain the broccoli and then add the florets to the ice bath for 1 – 2 minutes to stop the cooking process. Drain broccoli from ice bath and set aside. Note: Don’t allow broccoli to sit in the ice bath until you’re ready to use it. It can dilute the flavor of the broccoli.

Add pasta to second pot of boiling water and boil for 6 – 8 minutes. Test a piece of pasta for doneness. Drain and set aside.

In a large sauté pan heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add garlic and dried red pepper flakes and sauté (stirring) for 1 minute. Add chicken pieces and cook on one side for 3 minutes, turn pieces over and cook for an additional 4 – 5 minutes stirring occasionally.

Add bell pepper strips, pasta, and broccoli. Drizzle another tablespoon of olive oil over everything in the pan, and add cut up pieces of the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter throughout the pan. Sauté everything together for another 7 minutes. Add cheese and gently toss with the pasta, broccoli, chicken, and bell pepper.  Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with additional grated parmesan if desired.