Fruits, Vegetables and other Produce
Sweet Potatoes
No doubt you will have meatier topics to contend with over holiday dinners this year, but a perennial favourite of mine tends to be the ongoing yam-vs-sweet-potato debate. Culinary histories (and their provenance) being [...]
Watermelon
Watermelon is generally thought of as a late-summer fruit, but as our season tends to be a little later on the prairies, we can easily see local melons well into the early fall. They [...]
Mexican Street Corn Salad
The best part of summer is all the delicious fruit and vegetables that are available to us. You can’t beat the freshness! While it’s already September, we are lucky to be able to enjoy [...]
Grilled Peach Salad
With peaches in season, we just can’t get enough of the juicy fruit. They are perfect for snacks and always welcome for a picnic. They are great on their own, but grilling the peaches brings [...]
Peach-Tomato Burrata Salad
Impress your guests with this gorgeous tomato, peach and burrata salad that makes the most out of late summer's garden bounty. Peach-Tomato Burrata Salad 1 burrata cheese (or fresh baby bocconcini)Whole cherry tomatoes and slices/wedges [...]
Garden Tomato Bruschetta
When tomatoes are in season, Italian should be on the menu! Make the most of the crown jewel of your garden with this delicious bruschetta. This recipe can also be added to hot, cooked pasta [...]
Caprese Naan Pizza
This is one of my weekly go-to’s in the summer. We pick up fresh naan at the market and make it our weekend pizza, so simple! Do not skip salting your tomatoes, this helps some [...]
Watermelon Gazpacho
The summer has been exceptionally hot this year. The last thing anyone wants to do is to turn on the stove or even the bbq. Easy meals are key and especially ones that require little [...]
Strawberries
The strawberry perfectly illustrates the convoluted, often arduous, journey many fruits and vegetables have taken to our plates. How this odd little fruit, indigenous to most of the world for thousands [...]
Fennel
I’ve often wondered why fennel isn’t more popular than it is. Certainly, it’s more common now than in recent years, but I find many people are still somewhat intimidated by this lovely vegetable. It [...]
Celery and Celery Root (Celeriac)
Celery gets an undeservedly bad rap. David Lebovitz has said, rather harshly, I think, that ‘it’s like eating green water held together with a lot of fibres.’ It’s either considered a sad dietary punishment [...]
Pineapple
With a paucity of anything remotely local or seasonal this time of year, we look to the tropics to lighten our hearts as well as our stomachs. A pineapple in February is a celebration, [...]
Quinces
By Ellen Kelly Quinces, like so many of the fruits and vegetables we’re familiar with today, have quite an intriguing, if slightly convoluted, history. Originating in central Asia over 4000 years ago, they soon [...]
Brussels Sprouts
I’ve always thought everyone should be as delighted as I am by these miniature cabbages; so cute, so tasty, so versatile, but we all know the trouble with Brussels sprouts. You had an unfortunate [...]
Peaches
Peaches are part of the rose family, related to almonds, plums, apricots and cherries. They’re all drupes; in other words, fruit with flesh surrounding a hard shell containing a seed. This isn’t essential information, [...]
Cauliflower Fritters with Hollandaise Sauce
Most food trends are fleeting, generally (these days) driven by social media; Instagram triggered the unicorn Frappuccino® — and a thousand swirly purple unicorn foods after it — and TikTok recently brought us a [...]
Greens
By Ellen Kelly Thanks to the relatively recent onslaught of hydroponic baby-this and micro-that all tidily provided in little plastic clamshells, we no longer have to do without greens for endless months. Don’t get [...]
Rhubarb
By Ellen Kelly I seldom disagree outright with the inimitable English-cookery writer Jane Grigson; I quite enjoy her acerbic wit and opinionated stance on pretty much everything. But we part ways when it comes [...]
Winter Citrus Salad
January is National Citrus Month and the abundance and variety of oranges, grapefruits and citrus in the grocery stores always excites us. We love browsing the produce section in the market, looking for new [...]
Garlic
By Ellen Kelly I admit, my youth (spent for the most part in southern Alberta) was not blessed with garlic. I had Italian and Eastern European friends; dinner at their homes was often an [...]
Brunede Kartofler
We’ve turned the 12 days into the 12 tastes of Christmas as we visit tables all over the world during the holidays. From KFC in Japan to injera in Ethiopia join us on a [...]
Pomegranates
By Ellen Kelly The pomegranate has many religious and mythical distinctions, with the end result being somewhat muddled, I find. Since its cultivation predates written history, I suppose that can be forgiven. The name [...]
Hy’s Little Gem Wedge Salad
Little Gem lettuce is a small lettuce that is a cross between romaine and butter lettuce offering both a crisp and sweet bite. It pairs nicely with the blue cheese, cooked bacon and buttermilk [...]
Roasted Squash and Greens Pie
Harvest season is pie season, with so much produce at its peak at the same time, affordable and abundant, begging to be piled into pastry. And while fall brings to mind mile-high apple and [...]