Ingredients:
2 peaches, with seed and skin, removed
2 cups of quality vanilla ice cream
1/3 cup of whole milk
Thank you Frog Hollow Farms!
Independently owned, organic grocery store. Our Annex serves prepared foods and offers a selection of wine and beer. Our florists are here to help you with fresh local cuts and dried bouquets.
Our friends at Frog Hollow Farms posted this great recipe for Peach Shakes! Imagine switching out frozen yogurt for the ice cream for a Peach Lassi drink! You’re welcome!
Cool down with this quick recipe to use up those almost to the end of the season !
Ingredients:
2 peaches, with seed and skin, removed
2 cups of quality vanilla ice cream
1/3 cup of whole milk
Method:
In a blender, add the ingredients and blend until well incorporated (about 45 seconds)
Serve in a tall chilled glass, garnish with a slice of peach.
Enjoy!
Thank you Frog Hollow Farms!
“No-Pollo” Verde Soup with Sweet Corn (Vegan, Gluten Free)
Total Time: 30 minutes (5 minutes prep time 25 minutes cooking time)
Yield: 2 quarts (4x16oz portions)
This bright, slightly tart soup tastes just like the chicken version but is completely free of animal products! It’s also a quick pull together that tastes like it has been cooking on the stove all day.
1 cup chopped yellow onion (aprox 1 medium yellow onion)
1 cup chopped carrots (aprox 2 large carrots)
1 cup chopped celery (aprox 2 large stalks celery)
1 cup diced yellow creamer potato (skin on)
2 cups corn (aprox 2 ears of corn)
1 box Imagine No-Chicken Broth (32oz)
2 cans Herdez Salsa Verde (7oz cans)
1/3 cup olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
Use a food processor to chop first the onions, set aside, then the carrots, set aside, then the celery, set aside. I pulse my machine about 20 times to get the size I like. Take the corn off the cob with a sharp knife and then using the back side of the knife squeeze the “milk” from the cob, set aside. This contains the germ of the corn kernels and will help thicken your soup. Wash your potatoes and dice them, set aside. I like to leave the skin on because there’s a lot of nutrition in it.
Put the olive oil in your soup pot and set your heat on medium/high. Add the onions and cook until they start to color a bit. Add the carrots and cook a little longer. Finally add the celery and cook until slightly soft. In total the veggies should take 5-8 minutes. Add the Imagine No-Chicken Broth. Add the diced potatoes. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. After 10 minutes add the Salsa Verde and the corn. Cook until the potatoes are soft. If it is too thick then add a little water until it has the broth/veg ratio you prefer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Recipe courtesy of Wilted Made.
The weather was so great last weekend that we decided to grill outdoors! So we fired up the grill using mesquite wood and put on a wonderful pork loin roast from our El Cerrito Meat Department. Just salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil and cooked until it had an internal temperature of 145F. The plantains we chose were blackened on the outside and we split them lengthwise (leaving the peels on). With a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper we placed them cut side down first. When we flipped them over and we brushed them with a mixture of honey (Bay Area Bee Company), ginger spread (The Ginger People) and fresh Meyer lemon juice. It turned out great! We chose to serve them up on tortillas with our favorite toppings. What is your favorite thing to grill right now?
Aji Panca Butternut Squash Risotto
6 Servings
Ingredients
To Prepare
by WineAndBeer
RECIPE
Broccoli and Quinoa Salad (adapted from Bon Appétit Magazine)
Good make-ahead side dish or vegetarian entrée.
Serves 6 as a side or 2-3 as an entree.
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup Alter Eco dried white or red quinoa, rinsed (ON SALE)
2 small or one large head of broccoli, stalk end trimmed (about 1 pound)
6 pitted dates, chopped
3 scallions (green onions), thinly sliced
4 ounces (about 1 cup) Rumiano sharp cheddar cheese, cut into ¼-inch cubes (ON SALE)
1/3 cup diced roasted almonds
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons or more fresh lemon juice
Salt—for boiling the quinoa and to season the dish
PREPARATION
Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add 1/2 cup of quinoa and return to a rolling boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook at a lively simmer, uncovered, 12-15 minutes. Taste quinoa to make sure it’s tender. Once tender, drain quinoa in a fine mesh strainer, shaking off as much excess water as possible. Dump the drained quinoa back into the saucepan and cover saucepan, placing two layers of paper towels underneath the lid.
Shave off thin layers of the broccoli florets with a knife, rotating the stalk, until you reach the thicker stems. Trim stems off the stalk and peel the stalk with a vegetable peeler until you reach the tender, light green interior. Chop stalk into ÂĽ-inch cubes and add to the bowl.
Add the dates, scallions, cheese, almonds, and quinoa. Add several generous pinches of salt and the red pepper flakes and toss to combine. Add olive oil and lemon juice and toss again. Cover salad with plastic wrap pressed directly onto the surface of the salad. Let sit at least 30 minutes before serving (or transfer to an airtight container and chill for up to 3 days). Toss again, taste, and re-season with additional salt, red pepper flakes, and/or lemon juice if needed before serving.
Quinoa
Broccoli
by WineAndBeer
I love entertaining at home. Compared to dining out, it’s more personal, relaxed, and affordable.
As a former restaurant manager and sommelier, I have a few tips to help you pull it off effortlessly at a moment’s notice.
WineÂ
I find it helpful to stock up (12 or so bottles) and have diverse inventory on hand. At Annex Wine & Beer, we offer a 10% discount if you buy a case or more. Couple that with some bargain items like our Closerie des Lys Blanc for $8.99, and you get great savings. That makes racing through bottles a little easier to swallow!
Wine Shopping list:
Our wine specialists at the Annex can help you curate a terrific summer drinking list with both familiar favorites and new varietals!
Food Prep and Shopping Suggestions:
These finger friendly bread based snacks are great for noshing at formal and informal gatherings.
Step 1: Slice 1 to 2 loaves of French bread (try an Acme baguette) into 1/4-inch-thick rounds.
Step 2: Brush each slice with olive oil (Burroughs Family Farms Bulk Olive Oil is on sale right now. And it’s delicious!) or melted butter (I love how affordable and tasty the Cadia butter is)
Step 3: Place the rounds on baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees until crisp throughout and lightly golden around the edges, about 15 minutes.
Toppings:
1. Spread with Coeur Chevre organic fresh goat cheese, orange marmalade (try one from Frog Hollow or Full Belly Farms, both are located right across from the cheese section) and fresh mint.
2. Spread with fig jam (Inna just delivered their black mission fig jam!), top with blue cheese (Farmstead Original Blue) and prosciutto (try La Quercia) or ham (I love True Story).
3. Spread with fig jam, top with goat cheese and chopped walnuts (grab a bunch from our bulk bins).
4. Spread with butter, top with thinly sliced bread-and-butter pickles (Woodstock or Cadia are both great choices).
5. Spread with hummus (grab our Annex made pre-packed Hummus), top with olive tapenade (try the Divina Kalamata olive spread).
These toppings are all items that are fairly easy to either keep in stock or grab quickly from one of our stores.
Here’s to happy, memory-making gatherings!
-Sarah
by WineAndBeer
If you are anything like me and you love crunchy, crispy, salty snacks, I invite you to try this delicious (and simple) recipe using kohlrabi!
Kohlrabi is one of the most underrated and forgotten vegetables in our winter produce line up. It is a cultivar of cabbage and is part root, part leafy greens. The root part can be eaten raw (think slaw) or cooked. The greens can be used as you would kale, collards or other winter greens. With so much versatility, it’s a wonder this root doesn’t get more love. Perhaps the recipe below will help to change all that!
Savory Kohlrabi CrispsÂ
Ingredients:
Directions:
Enjoy!
If you end up baking these at home, please feel free to share your results with us on Instagram @naturalgroceryco
by WineAndBeer
In our house, we refer to broccoli florets as “little trees.” We’ve done this since our son was starting to eat solid foods. He LOVES broccoli and other green vegetables to this day (now he’s five)!
With winter in full gear, broccoli becomes one of our winter staples. It’s in the brassica family (along with other cabbage) and is hearty enough to withstand the chilly winter weather.
The word broccoli has Italian origins and stems (pun intended) from the word “broccolo” which means cabbage sprout or flowering crest of the cabbage. The word broccolo is rooted (another pun!) in the Latin broccus which means “projecting.”
Now that we have the etymology covered, here’s one of our favorite ways to prepare our “little trees”:
Steamed Broccoli with Pistachio-Orange Dipping Sauce
Prepare the Broccoli:
Cut 2 heads of broccoli into bite sized pieces. Steam or blanch until just tender. Set your timer for 5 minutes then test a piece with a fork, or knife point. When cooking the broccoli, remember to lightly salt the water, and that the broccoli will continue to cook with residual heat once you remove them from the steam or water, so you want them to be almost ready when you remove them to cool.
Prepare the Pistachio & Orange Sauce:
If it tastes flat, add a teaspoon more vinegar and a dash of salt. If it tastes too sharp (indicating too much garlic), add the juice of another 1/2 orange and another handful of pistachios.
The consistency of the dip should be like hummus. Add olive oil and water to adjust as needed.
This recipe will be a little different each time you make it because all these ingredients vary… oranges are different sizes and have different amounts of juice, garlic is more or less potent depending on its age and olive oils are different depending on varietal and harvest date. So, play with your ratios each time. Taste along the way. Try the sauce with the steamed broccoli to get the full flavor profile.
If you have a little one in your house, this is a great recipe to make together. At this point our son instructs us on salt level, acidity and overall balance. And he LOVES dipping his “little trees” into this sauce!
See you soon,
Sarah Valor
by WineAndBeer
Whole Groats
While shopping in our El Cerrito store bulk section, I was tempted to try the organic oat groats instead of the rolled oats. I was both inspired by the current sale price ($1.19/lb) and want the healthiest option for our five year old son. Our bulk buyer, David gave me another reason. He said, “why not eat things as close to the way mother-nature produced them as possible.” I can’t argue with that logic so I bought a bulk bag of groats.
Here’s what I did to process the groats:Â
1 cup of groats in 3 cups of water
Before bed, I put one cup of groats in a heavy bottom stainless steel pot along with three cups of water.
Simmering groats
In the morning, I turned the burner on medium heat and started cooking in the same pot where I soaked the grains.
Every 10 to 15 minutes, I checked the pot and stirred. 30 minutes into cooking, the groats were sticking to the bottom of the pot so I added more water (1 cup). I also added ÂĽ cup of raisins, a pinch of salt and a dash of cinnamon. 20 minutes later I added another 1/4 cup of water because the water was nearly absorbed. The groats cooked for a total of 1.5 hours. I added additional water (1/4 cup) another three times during the cooking process.
If you cook groats at home, add water as you see fit. It takes a lot to overcook groats but very little to burn them when there is not enough water in the pot. In other words, keep ’em hydrated.
Toppings: pecans, maple syrup and whole milk
Hearty Breakfast
Leftovers – tomorrow’s breakfast!
The groat cooking process took longer and required more attention than the rolled oats. However, the nutritional benefits make the extra time worth it (when time allows!). For hurried mornings, consider cooking a larger batch. Soak the groats before heading off for your day, cook them in the evening and re-heat them with a little extra water and/or milk in the morning. Or, make enough for leftovers every time you prepare groats.
Why Eat Oat Groats? Here’s what one of our wholesalers (Hummingbird Wholesale) writes about this wonder grain:
Organic Oat Groats are whole oats with only the outer husk removed.
In general, oats have more protein and healthy fats, and less carbohydrates than most other whole grains. This grain is high in beta-glucans, which work to stimulate the immune system. They contain more soluble fiber than any other grain, and oats are also beneficial for their anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-itching qualities.
Sounds like a great food if you ask me! Here’s to your morning meal!
Purple Yam
Orange Sweet Potato
Yams or Sweet Potatoes?
We all love to make yams for Thanksgiving, but did you know that you are actually eating sweet potatoes? In the United States we refer to an orange fleshed sweet potato as a yam, but they are really two completely different species. The true yam does not grow in the northern hemisphere. They are only grown in the Caribbean, Africa and parts of Asia. The Yam can grown up to 150lbs and 4.5′ in length. Their flesh ranges in color from white to yellow to pink and they have a very thick, scaly, alligator like skin.
Their flesh is also very starchy and dry. Yams are more closely related to lilies and grasses than they are to sweet potatoes, which are in the morning glory family.
Sweet potatoes are native to tropical regions of South America. Peruvian sweet potato remnants dating as far back as 8000 BC have been found. You can eat them raw, baked, boiled, steamed, roasted, broiled, grilled, fried and just about any other way you can think of!
At The Natural Grocery Company, we have a variety of different sweet potatoes to
choose from year round. The orange flesh varieties are known as “moist fleshed” and the white
fleshed varieties are known as “dry fleshed.” Here are the types we carry at both our stores:
Garnet-An orange fleshed variety that is the most popular. This is the traditional “yam” we eat at
Thanksgiving. With a dark red skin and bright pumpkin colored flesh, this sweet potato is great
prepared almost any way. It is very sweet and has a nice creamy, velvety texture when cooked.
Jewel and Beauregard-Both types have an orange flesh. These varieties have tan skin and tend
to be a little sweeter than the Garnet. I like to use the Beauregard in my sweet potato pie recipe.
It is very moist when cooked and has a texture that is not as velvety as the Garnet. Great for
making sweet potato fries or chips!
Hannah– This variety has a light tan, almost white skin with white flesh. The white flesh is
crumbly and has the texture of a russet potato when cooked. This year, I will be making a
Hannah sweet potato pie with cardamom and vanilla.
Japanese– Also a white fleshed variety, this sweet potato has a very dark purple skin. Because of
its drier texture, I like to slice these, drizzle with olive oil, cinnamon and cayenne and bake at
350 degrees until they soften and turn a golden brown color. They are also nice in soups.
Purple Stokes/ Okinawa sweet potato- This super food variety is my favorite! With a bluish
purple skin and deep royal purple flesh, this sweet potato has a texture very similar to the Garnet
but has an extra sweet earthiness to the taste. Originally from the Americas, this variety was
introduced to Japan in the 14th century and has become a staple on the Island of Okinawa where
it is eaten almost every day. This is believed to be the reason why Okinawa has the largest
percentage of people living over the age of 100 (more than any other country). This variety has
150% more antioxidants than blueberries and is wonderful prepared almost any way. Try using
these in a pie (beautiful) or mashed instead of regular potatoes. Add some extra antioxidants to
your Thanksgiving table!
By Casey Goode, Produce Manger at ECNG