The smell of cilantro reminds me of my mom. When I was a kid, in our backyard my family had a small vegetable garden. My parents would let my brother and I pick one vegetable each and we would pick something tangible and familiar like tomatoes or cucumbers. My mom, always picked lots of herbs and her favorite was cilantro. She always talked about how nice it smelled (and it does smell good) and how good it was. And I always thought, “you can’t even eat it!” But now, the smell of cilantro always makes me think of my mom and preparing our backyard garden.

Today, I know you can eat cilantro, but I always use it just as an herb to flavor a recipe. I use it with beans, arroz con gandules, and salsas. But, I had never thought about using cilantro in a non-savory way until I looked through Green Smoothies for Every Season by Kristine Miles. Her recipe for a smoothie with pineapple and cilantro is the inspiration for today’s recipe. I know cilantro isn’t for everyone, but if you do like this herb, I think you’ll enjoy this smoothie. The drink comes out so lovely and bright. Also do you know that cilantro has vitamins A, C, and K? Yeah, so it’s good for you.

And as I said when I wrote about Farmington, I ate a ton over the holidays and so I am trying to eat a little bit better in January. That means, eating healthier and eating more fruits and vegetables. One way I like doing that is with green smoothies. I know that green smoothies don’t solve it all, and I know that to be really great they should have 50% greens, but I think any way you can get to your 5-a-day you should do it.

I’ve used Kristine Miles’ combo of pineapple and cilantro as inspiration, but I’ve decided to make it my own by pumping up the green with some spinach and also sweetening it a bit with pineapple juice. Not only is it pretty healthy, but it has a tropical feel which is so nice during dreary winter days. Since it’s winter, I used canned pineapples in juice, but feel free to use fresh or frozen pineapple. There’s a banana in this recipe too and I highly recommend freezing it. Frozen bananas make smoothies so luscious and creamy. Overall, this is totally delicious, you’ll drink it down so fast – and then, if you’re like me, you’ll feel like you’re doing yourself some good in January.

Messy level: Nothing is easier or cleaner to make than a smoothie. The messiest part is clearing up all the cilantro stalks after you’ve picked off the leaves.

Pineapple Cilantro Smoothie

 

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Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1 cup pineapple juice
• ½ cup spinach leaves
• ½ cup tightly packed cilantro leaves
• 1½-2 cup chopped pineapples
• 1 banana, peeled (frozen is preferable)

Instructions

1. If your blender is weak, add the juice, spinach, and cilantro leaves to the blender first. Blend this until the greens have been chopped fairly small.
2. Add the pineapple and banana to the blender and blend until smooth and the greens are cut into small flecks.
3. Pour into glasses and serve with a straw. Somehow smoothies taste better through a straw.

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This recipe might be the easiest and cheapest recipe I’ve ever posted. There are a couple of “flair” ingredients in the recipe, but it would be good if all you had was a bag of rice, a can of chickpeas, and bottle of teriyaki sauce. Those ingredients don’t cost much and you might already have them in the pantry. What could be simpler?

Also, I think this is a great meal to make if you’re only cooking for yourself. Is that a weird thing to say, that this is a good dish for one? Maybe…

However, when I lived alone I was always looking for recipes that didn’t make a billion servings. I didn’t like cooking that much then because I’d make eating that same meal for lunch and dinner for the next 4 days. It can get old. But this dish, is perfect for 2-3 meals. It’s perfect if you want to whip up something quick, small, and tasty.

While I stand by my original statement that this is good plain, it’s super delicious topped with pineapple salsa. It adds a little sweetness from the pineapple and some great zest fro the onions and cilantro. Yes, making the salsa is a little more chopping and prepping, but it’s tasty and beautiful.

The recipe is adapted from the a great cookbook called The Happy Herbivore. It’s a vegan cookbook, but really accessible for people who like vegetable based meals, but don’t actually want to be vegan.

Messy level: This is one spoon! You cook everything in two pots, there’s so little chopping, and it’s just so darn easy!!

Teriyaki Chickpeas and Rice

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Chickpeas

• 1 15oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ⅓ cup teriyaki sauce (or more if you like!)
• 1 tbsp hot sauce
• ½ tbsp raw sugar (just swipe 2 packets from your local coffee shop)

Rice

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup uncooked white or brown rice

Pineapple salsa

• ½ cup chopped pineapple
• 2 tablespoon chopped red onion
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• lime juice (from about ½ a lime)

Instructions

1. In a large skillet, mix together the chickpeas, teriyaki sauce, hot sauce and sugar. Let the chickpeas marinate in the skillet while you get the rice ready.
2. In a medium pot, bring the 2 cups of water to a boil.
3. Once the water has come to a boil add the rice. Cover the pot and turn to low. Let simmer until the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Rice is done when rice is tender and water has cooked off.
4. Turn the skillet with the chickpeas to medium. Heat until the chickpeas are cooked enough to our liking, usually about 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally.
5. While everything else is cooking do whatever salsa chopping you need to do in case you didn't do it before you started. Then mix also salsa ingredients together in a bowl.
6. Serve the rice in a bowl then top with chickpeas and salsa.

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I do. Especially, when I’m slogging around during the DC area’s hot and humid summers. If it’s going to be uncomfortably hot, I want to be on the beach and be able to jump into the water. But, I can’t just fly off to the Caribbean so sometimes the next best thing is to go to the pool. My apartment building’s pool is on the roof and has a great view of downtown DC, so it provides its own brand of luxurious relaxation.

On a recent Friday, my friend and I were going to be off of work in the early afternoon and we had our hearts set relaxing by the pool. It was a hot and sunny morning, but no sooner did we get back to the apartment and change into our swimsuits that it started to rain. And not a little polite sprinkling that might pass quickly. It was a heavy rain, sheets of rain, buckets of rain – and also thunder and lightning. So there would be no sunshine, no pool, no Caribbean beach – but by golly, there could still be frozen cocktails!

My relaxing beach-inspired Friday was not to be ruined by a little rain. To make it feel like we were at the beach, I even stepped it up a notch and put the piña colada in a hollowed out pineapple. You need to have a special tool for this. If it’s possible to clean out a pineapple with just a knife, I don’t know how to do it.

Now, the pineapple slicer is one of those kitchen gadgets that you see in stores and think WHO NEEDS THIS?! That’s what I think when I see the strawberry huller or avocado slicer. Isn’t that what knives are for? Why can’t people just cut things? But this pineapple slicer is awesome.

Before I had it, I thought, “how often do I even buy a pineapple?” And the answer was almost never because it costs like $7 to get 12 cubes of pre-cut pineapple and $4 for a fresh pineapple. And that $4 pineapple also comes with the fear of cutting off my fingers and hacking at the fruit so badly that it comes out as mush. But, once I got the slicer it made pineapples so easy. Now, I worry it’s a slippery slope that soon I’ll be buying the banana slicer and mango pitter, but so far it’s just the pineapple slicer. So let me show you how it works and then we’ll get to the piña colada recipe.

Cut the top of the pineapple off.

Align the serrated circle at the bottom with the core of the pineapple.

Press down gentle to secure the slicer in the pineapple. Twist the top handle. Keep twisting until you’ve reached the bottom of the pineapple. You can feel it when the blade is getting toward the bottom and you can see when you’ve twisted far enough.

Pull the handle up firmly.

Now you have a beautiful spiral of pineapple and a hollowed out shell.

Awesome right? It’s like opening a bottle of wine, only it’s a pineapple. If you’re going to use the shell for a glass you can get a knife in there and cut out the core, but that’s optional. Now let’s get on with the recipe. Don’t get too caught up on exact measurements with this one because it’s really all about taste. This recipe serves about 4 people.

Ingredients:

Contents of 1 pineapple

1 cup coconut cream

1 cup coconut milk

¾-1 cup rum

Ice (as much or as little as you like)

Pineapple juice (I just added the juice from the fresh pineapple, but you can definitely add more)

Directions:

1. Cut the pineapple into pieces that are manageable for your blender
2. Add pineapple, coconut cream, coconut milk, rum, and ice. Blend until smooth
3. Taste. Add more of any ingredients until the taste is to your liking.
4. Pour into glass or hollowed out pineapple. Serve with straw – extra points if you have a curly straw or paper umbrella.

Enjoy! This week I actually am at the beach (in New Jersey – not the Caribbean) so I won’t be posting. Hope you have a great week, I’ll be back after a week in the sun.

Messy level: Low! Everything gets poured into one place. If you use a pineapple as your glass you don’t have to do any dishes!

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For some reason I have an aversion to posting regular recipes. You know, the ones that use the ingredients already in my fridge. For some reason I feel recipes should be “blog-worthy” and impressive. But really, we all need some delicious and easy  every day recipes like this teriyaki turkey burger.  It’s a great weekday dinner recipe and brings a little summer into the kitchen. 

Now usually when I make recipes like this, burgers or meatballs or meatloaf, I just eyeball the seasoning. I sprinkle the spices I like. I keep going until I can  see little granules of spice. For this recipe I measured out teaspoons of spice, but I still recommend the old eyeball test.

The burger is good as is, but you can kick it up a notch with a pineapple ring. Heat up a grill pan (or a skillet) and cook the pineapple until you have some brown lines. Top the burger and be delighted.

Messy level: Two spoons. Yes, it’s basically dumping ingredients into the bowl, but you have to get your hands mucked up in the meat, which is why it’s a two spoon recipe.

Teriyaki Turkey Burgers

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Serves: 5

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground turkey
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ¾ cup of bread crumbs, divided
• 1 egg
• ½ cup of teriyaki sauce (I used Trader Joe's Island Soyaki), plus some extra sauce for finishing
• 5 slices of pineapple (I used canned, but by all means uses fresh)
• 5 buns

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix together the ground turkey, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, ¼ cup of breadcrumbs. Add up to ¼ cup more of bread crumbs if the mixture is too wet and won't hold together. Use your hands to mix it all together.
2. Add the egg and teriyaki sauce.
3. Using your hands mix and mash and squish is all together. If the mixture feels too sticky, as in you can't really make a patty or it's all stuck to your hands, then add the remainder of the bread crumbs.
4. Once everything is all mixed together, make patties! Mine were about ¾ of an inch thick.
5. Heat a skillet on medium-high (or grill, or George Forman grill) and cook the burgers. Instead of using oil we cooked it in more teriyaki sauce to give the burgers more flavor - Do what you like.The burgers should take about 4-6 minutes per side.
6. Optional: if you have a grill pan (or in your skillet, but you won't have lines) take the slices of pineapple and heat them. This shouldn't take long at all, it should be a quick sizzle, just enough to warm the pineapples and create those beautiful dark grill lines.
7. Put the burgers and pineapples on the bun and then put a dollop of teriyaki in the hole of the pineapple. EAT!
8. bit messier.

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