I love Super Bowl Sunday. It’s the first serious feast since the New Year and a great time to pull out big, hearty comfort food and  appetizers, dips and spreads.

Bean spreads have been on my mind all week. I made a big pot of bean soup last week and had cannellini beans left over that I didn’t use for the soup. The white beans turned into an aromatic spread for a Tuscan bruschetta with  crispy kale.   Alongside the white bean spread, I made this silky smooth and sultry edamame spread using avocado and nori sea salt. This is not only hearty and satisfying, it’s a healthy choice, especially brain health.

Did you ever walk into a room and forget what you went in there for?  It’s the one reason I get a ton of exercise, because I go up and down my stairs all day, forgetting what I went up for and why I implemented these. Aside from post it notes and white boards, if I can boost my brain with food, all the better.  Edamame and avocado are both considered super brain food and this doubled up solution is not just rich, tasty and addicting, it’s guilt free. The more you eat, the happier your brain and body will be.

I love it best on chewy Italian grilled bread, but it would be just as good on celery sticks.

If you are hosting a party, these can easily be made a day ahead. If  you need to take something to a super bowl party, I still love this idea of transporting it in a mason jar.

I added nori sea salt but you could use a regular sea salt.

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Crostini with Edamame Avocado Spread

High in health and flavor a combination of edamame and avocado with olive oil and lime topped with nori sea salt.

Servings 8

Ingredients

• 16 oz package edamame beans
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large garlic clove
• juice of one lime
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or cilantro
• 1 avocado
• freshly ground black pepper
• nori sea salt or you can use sea salt
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped jalapeno optional
• Italian sour dough bread

Instructions

• Put all ingredients except avocado into blender and mix.
• Peel and remove stone from avocado. Add avocado and blend.
• As an option to add in some heat, add in a teaspoon of minced jalapeno) or as much as you prefer.
• Grill or toast bread. Top with spread. Garnish with nori sea salt.

Notes

Nori sea salt is a specialty salt and you can use regular sea salt .

The post Crostini with Edamame Avocado Spread appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

The most enchanting part of cooking is taking the flavors and traditions of one heritage and blending them with another.

Succotash is a dish with corn and lima beans, but it can have tomatoes and other vegetables. Sometimes it’s green beans and corn, depending upon the season and part of the country. And, to change it up a bit, I paired fresh corn with edamame, flavored with chile salt, sweet peppers, and an assortment of spring onions.

If you have ever watched Sylvester the Cat, you may be familiar with the term, “suffering succotash.”

The origin is believed to come from the Narrangansett Native American Tribe, deriving from the word msickquatash , meaning “boiled corn.”

In Pennsylvania, it’s a very common side dish of boiled corn and lima beans. It’s best when both are very fresh and has even appeared under a pie crust. It also would not be uncommon to find a corn pie in Pennsylvania.

This is a very loose recipe. I never measured a thing. Make this to your own taste. Substitute baby lima beans or black eyed peas for the edamame.

There is a history and science to the natural pairing of corn and beans that I only discovered with my friend, Mr. Google, in researching this post.

When corn was adapted as a staple part of the diet during in the 18-19th century among poor people that used corn as the main source of food with little to no protein, they suffered from malnutrition, a chronic disease called pellagra, mainly a deficiency in niacin. This was not experienced by the ancient cultures (South American and North American Indians) who knew how to treat the corn first, by soaking it in alkali to release the nutrients. I find it wondrous that these ancients cultures knew what to do and did it well, able to live off of the corn when other sources of food became scarce.

In reading the below comments, I realize I should have put more information about this phenomenon, because it’s so interesting.

Erina writes: Beautiful, vegan!  I seem to remember succotash as being something unpleasant as a kid.  My mom never made it, but other people’s families had it.  But this version is gorgeous.  The corn that is used to make masa for tamales is cooked in lime (the alkali, not the fruit).  It then becomes “Nixtamal” (I’m sure that’s an aztec word).  They actually call the process “nixtamalization”!  People believe that process is the single most important discovery leading to the vast success of the meso american peoples.  They were well nourished!

You might find it interesting to know that corn on the cob was also the first “street food” in America. What I most like about this is that it’s simple. Shuck, cook, eat. I still find foods kept in their most natural state taste and look the best.

If you can’t grill your corn for this recipe, you can easily cut it off the cob and stir fry it in a hot cast iron pan to get that charred look on some of the kernels.

A variation is substituting the edamame with some pink eyed peas, black eyed peas, purple hull peas or other bean. Then I call it Tennessee Caviar, which I will post as soon as I see some fresh pink eyes.

This is a loose recipe. You may find many ways to vary the dish, starting with grilled corn.

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Modern Succotash: Corn, Edamame, Tomato, Avocado

A well-balanced salad of corn and beans can be eaten as a meal, or as a side dish.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 4 cups grilled or microwaved corn 8 ears
• 2 sweet red peppers
• 2 cup edamame
• 2 cup diced tomatoes
• 2 avocados
• 3 spring onions or 1 tablespoon red onion
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lime
• dash cayenne pepper

Instructions

• Cook corn, either by grilling or microwaving (see below).
• Grilled Corn: Mix butter with lime zest, cayenne pepper and salt to taste. Spread lightly on corn (a little goes a long way) and grill directly on grill. You can wrap in tin foil if you want make in advance and reheat.
• Grill, cool and slice off cob.
• Dice onion.
• Zest lime.
• Squeeze juice of lime.
• Cook frozen pre-shelled edamame or use lima beans according to package.
• Mix corn, edamame, peppers, onion in bowl.
• Toss with olive oil, lime zest, dash cayenne, chile salt. (see note).
• Refrigerate overnight.
• Add cubed avocado right before serving.
• Season with salt and pepper.

Microwave Corn

• Cover each corn with wet paper towel. Place in microwave 3 ears at a time.
• Cook for four minutes. The corn will fall right out of the husk.
• Once cooled shuck corn and cut corn into a bowl.

Notes

Regarding cooking corn, you could also cut it off the cob and do a quick stir fry to brown it a little. Let it cool and proceed with making the salad.

The post Modern Succotash: Corn, Edamame, Tomato, Avocado appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Notice that word “responsibility.” I intentionally used that word because I know there are folks who dread anything called a resolution because they make them, break them, feel like a failure and forget to pat themselves on the back for all the responsibilities they intentionally met. Through the normal course of a year, people often do heroic, kind, decent things and yet only remember what they didn’t do. Sometimes a person with bad character has enough grit to accomplish all of his or her goals, but doesn’t necessarily act with responsibility. We often witness super star athletes easily win their trophies, put their heart and soul into their goals, get fit, lean, mean, and then fall from grace due to character issues. They know how to achieve “healthy” as far as the eye can see.

But, there is so much more to healthy. What does it mean to you? Does it include a life style approach of uncompromised, beautiful, delicious food that emphasizes whole, fresh and local ingredients, only to light up a cigarette at the end of the meal. Or run to the gym five times a week and smoke on the way home, followed by a frozen diet meal full of aspartame and other questionable ingredients. What ingredients? Uniformly raised chicken that has a life you wouldn’t want your flies in the back yard to live, but your meal is 280 calories and you look great (on the outside).

That was me years ago, a diet possessed, exercise over-achiever who actually smoked on the way TO the gym. Now those days are far in the past. I started running, and I quit smoking cold turkey. I switched my diet to NO DIETS EVER AGAIN, and I lost some weight. It was not a new year’s resolution. My brother died and more than ever, I wanted to respect “life.” Everyone’s life, including the animal I was going to eat. Overnight, my viewpoint changed. And, this new mentality became all about making good choices from the big picture.

Food companies will try to convince you more than ever in January that they are offering you a new and better you. You can eat their version of a gourmet meal, and still lose weight. Other companies will come at you with weight loss pills, which will wreck your nervous system or possibly the nervous system of those around you. Yes, you will “appear” healthier on the outside. That show the Biggest Loser is funded by several such companies and they plug their products throughout the entire show, while teaching America that the only way to tackle morbid obesity is killer exercise, but they never share with us what these people are eating. It’s a bizarre show, but I’m hooked into watching it. Pounds disappear by the hour. People lose 29 pounds in one week, but we get no explanation.

Oh dear, here I go again, opining and not offering you anything good. I hate to hear a lecture, but as you can see Spinach Tiger earned this name. When I feel strongly about something, I tend to roar. But I’m not roaring at you, my friend. I’m roaring at the companies out there who are misleading us with unhealthy choices to get healthy.

So my ten in 10 is going to be all about taking responsibility and changing perspective on healthy living, eating and cooking good food while not compromising with short cuts that lack good character and integrity. When we travelled Italy for 16 days, we both came back at our lowest weight in years. We ate bread and pasta, drank wine and ate gelato every day. Was it something in the food or was it something “not” in the food? We came home afraid to eat because we felt so good. I want that feeling back. Italy is the slow food center of the world. I want to adapt to this lifestyle as much as possible. So here are my 10 in 10 and I promise to keep you posted, while providing you a good meal choice.

Spinach Tiger’s Personal Ten in 10 (for the next ten weeks)

1. Buying local and fresh as much as possible, by shopping the farmer’s market, even in snow.
2. Willingness to spend a little more to buy organic meat from my local farmers.
3. Regular exercise schedule that includes weight training and cardio 4-5 times per week.
4. Using my new super duper food scale to stay real with what I’m eating and write it down.
5. Eating out only once a week in a locally owed restaurant that chooses to cook local and fresh.
6. Eating well balanced meals with limited carbs and including breakfast.
7. Flexitarian Diet – some meat, but many meatless meals, not because I believe meat is bad. I just believe vegetables are awesome.
8. No aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, or other such additives.
9. Cooking more with agave, or using organic sugar in low to moderate quantities.
10. Count calories, lose 10 pounds.

Seared Scallop Salad
And as promised, here a recipe for a healthy dinner or lunch. I only use wild sea scallops and, although pricey, this is in lieu of eating out, which would cost a lot more. I chose apples and pears because our local farmer was selling apples at the farmer’s market which is held outside. It was snowing and we felt good to buy from him. (We also bought an organic chicken, which I will feature later in the week). I’m so proud of the Franklin Farmer’s Market for staying open in the winter and in snow (which we aren’t used to in Nashville).

There is minimal oil used because I use a cast iron pan, which deliver perfectly seared scallops every time.

The combination of apple, pear, edamame and crisp greens with scallops is more than delicious. We liked it so much at lunch, we went and bought more scallops and ate it again at dinner. I received a salad spinner for Christmas. Goodbye pre-packaged greens. Hello fresher, cheaper greens!

Talk back to me. What are you doing to get healthy? If you have any good ideas, please share.

I bought these apples from my local farmer who was selling them outside in the snow, thus, my snow picture.

Recipe for Seared Scallop Salad

• 1 pound, wild sea scallops, rinsed well, muscle removed, patted dry
• blood orange olive oil or regular olive oil
• 1/2 cup edamame
• 1 apple, washed, diced with skin
• 1 pear, washed, diced with skin
• 3 heads or 6-8 cups, Romaine lettuce (or your favorite greens)

For the dressing:

• Blood orange olive oil (or regular with a squeeze of orange
• Rose wine vinegar or wine vinegar

Instructions

1. Wash salad thoroughly, spin dry and tear into bite size pieces. Add in apple, pear and edamame. Feel free to add in anything else you like such as some orange slices, or green peas instead of or in addition to edamame.
2. Toss with olive oil, just enough until greens are wet. Add in vinegar, salt and pepper and taste to make adjustments.
3. Put just enough oil in pan to cover surface. Heat pan very hot. Put in room temperature scallops to close to room temperature. Ice cold scallops will not cook in center. Do not crowd pan or they will steam and not sear.
4.  Season scallops with salt and put in pan. You should hear a sizzle. Turn to medium high heat, and cook for about 3-4 minutes. You’ll know when they are ready to turn, as they slip very easily. Cook on other side 2 minutes approximately. You’ll know they are ready, when they are browned and slide.

The post Ten Ways to Get Healthy with Integrity in 2010 and Seared Scallop Salad appeared first on Spinach Tiger.