The flavors are really wonderful, full of all the things I love when I attempt an Asian profile.

This is a very fast meal and best eaten immediately, although I can attest to the leftovers being pretty tasty.

Ingredients for Shrimp with Peanut Sauce

I use Shrimp, peeled, deveined. (I always use Trader Joe’s Argentian frozen shrimp, which are already prepped. Serve over rice or cauliflower rice.

• Peanut Butter
• Coconut Milk
• Fresh Ginger
• Fresh Lime
• Sesame Oil
• Chili Oil
• Garlic or Shallots
• Tamari Sauce or Coconut Aminos
• Cilantro
• Scallions
• Chopped peanuts for garnish (optional)

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Keto Shrimp with Peanut Sauce (Gluten Free)

Enjoy easy dinner shrimp with peanut sauce with lime and ginger.

Course Main Dish

Cuisine Asian

Keyword Peanut Sauce, shrimp

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon avocado oil
• 1 pound shrimp peeled, deveined

Peanut Sauce

• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or any vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated
• 2 tablespoons cilantro or basil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons tamari or coconut aminos or soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili oil or red chili flakes
• 1 lime juice and zest
• 3 scallions

Instructions

• Saute shrimp for a few minutes just until done in oil. Remove. Set aside.

Peanut Sauce

• Add all ingredients except cilantro together. Mix well.
• Add to frying pan and warm through. Add a little water if needed.
• Add shrimp to sauce and warm up on low, just until shrimp are warmed.
• Top with cilantro and chopped scallions ,

The post Shrimp with Peanut Sauce – EASY DINNER (Low Carb) appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

A visit to Puerto Vallarta before I knew Mr. Spinach Tiger with someone else I refer to as the surfer heel, if I can use a very old fashioned word, led me to a near death experience and an authentic lunch in the middle of nowhere in Mexico.

The Near Death Experience.

Our hotel had a secluded beach and a riptide someone forgot to tell me about. The surfer heel insisted we venture further out into the water from the shore and as usual he went ahead not looking back. He never noticed that I got caught in an undertow only a few feet from shore. The good looking outdoor bartender came to my rescue, got me out of the water and somehow my top, that came off in the rough waters, got back on. I was too frightened to care about that at the time and am grateful there were no cell phone cameras back then to embarrass me.

The guests were stunned. Not because of my wardrobe malfunction nor my near drowning, but that surfer heel didn’t even look back or take notice. Finally, he realized I wasn’t there and he came back to find himself at odds with all the guests. They shook their heads with disgust and wondered what a nice girl like me was doing with someone like him. This was the vacation that led to the demise of this relationship and that wasn’t the worst of it.

The Unsettling Beach in the Middle of Nowhere, Mexico

The next day, he insisted we rent a car and drive from the semi-safe tourist part of town to a smaller town where odd looking stray dogs run wild and tourists are no where to be found. While he was surfing, I had the pleasure of sitting on a very unsettling beach, scared to death that something worse than an undertow was going to come along. It was time to end this relationship and wait for a real man who put me first.

Mexican Lunch in the Middle of the Nowhere, Mexico
The food was surprisingly good and that’s when I tasted my first real guacamole, assembled from chunks of avocado with simple ingredients

Budro’s Tableside Guacamole

The next time I tasted anything as good was at Boudro’s Texas Bistro in San Antonio. I had dinner there with Mr. ST one Valentine’s week many years ago, comforted in the realization that I had waited for the right man.  They took a picture of us on the patio wrapped in blankets which Boudro’s provides its guests.  Romantic that he is, he framed the picture and has it on his desk.

He became just as smitten with the their famous tableside guacamole and recreated the recipe as soon as we got back home, adapting it to his own taste. The serrano pepper can be left out, but we love it. 

His guacamole is legendary, and there is none better anywhere here in Nashville. He’s very particular about it, and I enjoy watching him do his table side magic especially because it always takes us back to that night in San Antonio, serving as a reminder to me how different my life could have been with the wrong person. (Although I’m not sure about those sunglasses. I think they are long gone, but he thought he looked like Bono. I laughed too).

Table-side Presentation for Authentic Guacamole

Table-side guacamole is something you can do when your guests arrive, but give them a drink first. The entire assembly takes about five minutes.How to  Make Sure the Avocado is Ripe Enough, but not too Ripe

There is a little brown stem (button) on the tip of an avocado. If you flick it off, you will see either a brown spot (too ripe) or a green spot (ripe enough)

Peel Your Avocados. Did you know you can peel avocados. Let me show you here.

Chop your cilantro with this Tuo Cleaver, my new favorite kitchen tool.



Tableside Guacamole and a Beautiful Presentation

The key to a beautiful presentation is to have everything ready to chop freshly on the spot peel the avocados. This is much easier than you may think and I did a post on it.  Peeling the avocado makes it easier to cut into attractive slices for some dishes or nice chunks for this one. It might be a good idea to have your onion pre-cut, but dice the tomato fresh.

Pin This ↓

So tell me, did you wait for Mr. or Mrs. Right? Did it take you as many dogs as it took me?

More Avocado Recipes from Spinach Tiger

• How to Peel an Avocado
• How to Ripen an Avocado
• Avocado Margarita
• Avocado Shrimp Salad
• Avocado Chicken Pasta
• Chocolate Avocado Smoothie (low carb)
• Baked Avocado Egg with Lime Hollandaise

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Authentic Guacamole and Tableside Presentation

Authentic Guacamole and how to do a nice tableside presentation.

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Mexican

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• Note: To make enough guacamole: use 1 avocado per person and adjust ingredients accordingly.
• 4 avocados
• juice squeezed from 1/2 large orange
• juice squeezed from one lime
• sea salt black pepper
• 1/2 purple onion diced
• 1 small tomato diced
• handful of cilantro chopped
• 1 serrano pepper diced very finely (optional)

Instructions

• Assemble the following into a bowl:
• Peel avocados or carefully spoon out the flesh, keeping the avocado and intact as possible. Cut into large chunks.
• Squeeze the juices of orange and lime over avocado.
• Season with salt and pepper
• Add in chopped onion, tomato, cilantro
• Carefully mix together. You don’t want the avocado turned into mush.
• Season again with salt as needed, perhaps another squeeze of lime.
• Serve immediately.

Video

The post Authentic Tableside Guacamole appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

What is Carnitas?

Carnitas means little meats. This carnitas is pork braised in broth for at least 3 hours, then pulled apart, crisped up and caramelized in the juices under the broiler or in the oven. I usually double this recipe and braise the meat in this 7 quart cast iron dutch oven.

You can only imagine how exciting the last part of the cooking is.

One of my favorite ways to eat pork tacos is with this red cabbage slaw.

I also love to have my carnitas with salsa verde, recipe found here.

We did this dinner for a recent birthday, because it’s a great crowd pleaser and doesn’t take a lot of time to put together. You can braise in a cast iron dutch oven, which is what I did, or make it in a slow cooker.

Pork Carnitas, Braised in Slow Cooker or Dutch Oven then Baked to Crispy

You will need to use the oven for the final twenty minutes, when the shredded pork cooks away in its juices and gets crispy on the ends. I was lucky enough to find a orange chipotle salt at Whole Foods, a new addition to their spices. It added that extra kick, but I didn’t include it in the recipe, because not everyone would have access to it.

My husband’s famous guacamole or sliced avocados are a must.

Perfect for a Cinco de Maya party, serve carnitas, which can be made ahead, even frozen.

Pair with Homemade Fresh Citrus Margaritas or strawberry lime basil sangria.

Sauces for Carnitas

Roasted Salsa Verde

Make a Corn Tomato Salad as a Side.

Grain Free, Gluten Free Tortillas

Enjoy these easy Carnitas and let me know how the recipe works out. It’s one of my  “go to” crowd pleasers.

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Easy Carnitas, Slow Cooker or Dutch Oven

Easy Carnitas with tortillas.

Course Entree

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword braised pork steak, carnitas, tacos

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 4 hours hours

Total Time 4 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 4 pounds boneless pork shoulder see notes
• sea salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion coarsely chopped
• 2 jalapeno seeded and ribs removed, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic peeled and sliced
• 1 orange cut in half
• 4 limes divided
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon chile powder
• 2-4 cups beef broth or water
• tortillas
• 2 red onions diced to serve with carnitas
• handful cilantro
• guacamole or sliced avocado

Instructions

• Trim excess fat from pork shoulder. Cut into 4 separate pieces.
• Salt liberally.
• Heat tablespoon of olive oil in dutch oven and brown pork pieces on all sides. Remove, set aside.
• Add onions, pepper to pan. Cook for two minutes. Add garlic. Cook for one minute.
• Add in juice of orange and orange pieces, juice of limes. I refrain from adding in lime pieces, as the lime can add bitterness.
• Add pork back in.
• Add in just enough water or broth to cover 2/3 of the meat. Add cinnamon Stick and chile powder.
• Cover and braise for 3 1/2 hours.
• Place in slow cooker on high for 4 hours, or low for 10 hours. (You may need to add in a little more water. Check hourly if you are using dutch oven.
• Remove from oven. Strain pork from broth., making sure to save broth. Pull pork into pieces. Strain the broth.
• Pull pork in pieces and place on large baking sheet. Pour about 1 cup of broth over pork. You want the crisp up the ends a little, but still keep pork tender.
• Bake in oven at 375 degrees F. for approximately twenty minutes until most of the broth is gone and the meat has crispy crackling edges.
• Serve with tortillas, chopped red onion, cilantro, sliced avocado, lime slices.
• You can freeze for up to three months.

Notes

I  have also used 5 pound carnitas with bone. 

The post Easy Carnitas, Slow Cooker or Dutch Oven appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

This shrimp avocado salad recipe is a go to in our house. Sometimes we eat it with big corn chips. Sometimes we use this as an in between meal when we know we’re going to a big fat food event. I make this at least twice a month.

While this shrimp avocado salad  recipe may seem like light fare, it’s filling because of all that good fat from the avocado.

In the summer we cut corn right off the cob and into the salad for an even better bite.

You can make the shrimp avocado salad recipe  your own in so many ways, by adding corn, beans, olives, or even making lettuce wraps or tacos.

One of the secrets as to why this is so good is how I cook the shrimp. I use this recipe. You could stop right here and enjoy this simple, yet nuanced shrimp appetizer adapted from Marcella Hazan.
The key to making anything taste good is a combination of fat, acid and salt.

The avocado provides plenty of fat, so be sure to add in plenty of acid and taste for salt. Also,if the shrimp can sit in olive oil and lemon for a while and soak in the citrus, the taste will be all the better.

We don’t like to refrigerate tomatoes, so if you want to make this ahead, just do the shrimp, onion and cilantro part. Add in your tomatoes and avocado right before serving. Never ever refrigerate tomatoes. It turns them mealy and deems them tasteless.

I used grape tomatoes because it’s not tomato season yet and these taste best at this time of year. In the summer, I’ll replace with fresh summer heirloom tomatoes and perhaps add some fresh sweet corn right off the cob.

You can extend the bulk of the salad by tossing it with a handfuls of romaine lettuce. You can add a crumbly cheese like a ricotta salata or feta.

However, you choose to adapt this shrimp avocado salad recipe, make it your own!

Click Here for More Shrimp Recipes from Spinach Tiger

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Shrimp Avocado Salad

Shrimp avocado salad is a perfect low carb entree, appetizer and can be used as a party dip, by slicing shrimp in smaller pieces.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• Cook Shrimp
• 1 pound raw cooked shrimp
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 teaspoon champagne or red wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt or 1 piece celery
• Make Salad
• 3 tablespoons red onion finely diced
• 2 small avocado
• 3-4 radishes optional
• 1 pint grape tomatoes or 2 tomatoes chopped
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• juice of one lime
• 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• sea salt
• black pepper

Instructions

• Cook Shrimp
• Put water in large sauce pan.
• Add vinegar and celery (or celery salt)
• Once water boils, add shrimp.
• Once water boils again, turn off stove. Shrimp should be pink and cooked.
• Drain. Take shrimp out of shell, which should occur easily.
• Drizzle with olive oil and squeeze lemon on shrimp. Refrigerate.
• Peel and slice avocado into bite sized pieces.
• Slice grape tomatoes lengthwise and again cross wise into bite sized pieces.
• Clean and slice radishes thinly. This will give a bite to salad and is an option.
• Juice the lime.
• Once shrimp are cold, assemble with ingredients, including cilantro.
• Toss with remaining olive oil, lime juice and vinegar. Most vinegars will work, but red wine vinegar or a white champagne vinegar works best.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Taste to see if more vinegar or salt is needed.

The post Shrimp Avocado Salad Recipe appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

There is a story to this healthy asparagus soup recipe that I’m not sure how to talk about.

If you’re here to get a quick, easy, low-calorie, dairy free soup, this is the place, and this healthy asparagus soup recipe will satisfy you.

Friends, this is a long post. I don’t expect most of you to read it. I know you’ll just jump to the recipe and that’s okay. But if you’re interested in knowing a little more about me, my weight struggles and my passion to help others with amazing food, you can take a read.

There’s more to this healthy asparagus soup recipe that should interest you.

Asparagus is highly anti-inflammatory. If you’re not familiar with what inflammation can do in your body, it’s not a pretty picture. It’s the root cause of many cancers and chronic diseases. This article outlines the many chronic illness related to inflammation. I talked about my own auto-immune disorder here.

In fact, many chronic diseases can be reversed into remission if we go on the attack with big fat healthy food that fights inflammation, like asparagus.

The benefits of asparagus go well beyond anti-inflammation, with cancer fighting properties and will act as a natural diuretic. This is a wonderful soup if you’re detoxing.

Asparagus and Fennel make a good team.

I added an entire fennel bulb, celery, and super spinach leaves to the asparagus. There is no need for anything else, not even onion. You can add in a splash of olive oil and I added chia seeds for texture.

A Wild Coincidence. You Decide.

Just as I finished this first sentence on anti-inflammatory foods, a neighbor knocked on the door, distressed at his diagnosis of having a non-alcoholic fatty liver, also known as NAFLD. We sat and talked about the seminar I had attended just 4 hours earlier which talked about inflammation and fatty liver, which is a wild coincidence.

I knew just enough about NAFLD and metabolic syndrome to point him in the right direction, and scare him just enough to motivate him, because old habits die hard.

He admitted to a recent year of over indulgence and a retreat from exercise. Now of course, we all know, blah blah blah, eat healthy, exercise more. None of this sits on our shoulders typically until we get scared. Sometimes being scared is not enough.

Sometimes, it has to be a bigger value outside of ourselves. This week I took three days to do a liquid diet to detox my body, my mind, my spirit, in behest of the sanctity of life. For me, this includes the sanctity of our organs, our body, how we take care of ourselves, our own life.

I told my friend, “you either eat to live, or you eat to die.”

Food can have life giving or life taking effects on organs, our cellular system, our health. We know this, but since we can’t see it happening inside of our bodies, we forget it. We get overtaken the sensory pleasures of the brain.

I was a fat teenager and it wasn’t fabulous.

I understand that. I’ve been there friends. I was highly addicted to sugar and carbs as a fat teenager. Yes, I used to weigh a whopping 197, in an era before obesity began. When I lost the weight, my best friend (who was shamefully thin and embarrassed by her thinness) said to me, “I had no idea your fat bothered you.” I thought, “did I really hide myself and my feelings so well?”

It’s not fabulous. It’s like feeling locked up inside. There is no freedom because even at 17, mobility was difficult. Instead of remembering the polar bears at the national zoo, my memory is how I had to stop and sit on every park bench. It was not a big fat fabulous life. It was painful, physically and mentally. There were no big girl clothes in regular stores.

This is why I want to help people enjoy food, and I would never ask you to give it up. 

There are so many things coming together that are compelling me to share more healthy recipes that are enticing, satisfying and life giving.

I could write volumes shouting out a cheer for big fat healthy food that makes people happy. I don’t think depriving people of the sensory pleasure of food is the way to go. I never want to take away the joy of eating, only the pain of it.

This Healthy Asparagus Soup Recipe Fights Inflammation and can be the start of a good thing for your body.

Of course this soup is not a cure, just a beginning, a start, a small life-giving recipe, as are so many of the recipes here.

Sure, there are some desserts that are high carb, high sugar, and they are meant to be treats.

If you notice, I’ve been introducing more gluten free, grain free, sugar free desserts made with Swerve, a non-harmful sweetener.

There are hundreds of full-health, life giving recipes, so please take a good look around. Most of them are very easy to make. All of them are delicious and should bring food joy to your life.

If you like asparagus, you may love this article on how to cook asparagus perfectly. 

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Asparagus Soup Recipe, the Anti-Inflammatory Detox Soup

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 pound asparagus
• 1 fennel bulb
• 4 stalks organic celery
• 2 handfuls of organic baby spinach
• 4 tablespoons parsley
• 2-4 cups organic bone broth I used homemade chicken stock
• 1 lemon
• 1 lime
• sea salt
• pepper
• olive oil for garnish
• chia seeds for garnish

Instructions

• Trim asparagus tips. Cut asparagus in 3 to 4 inch pieces.
• Trim celery tips. Save leafy greens to use also. Cut into 3 to 4 inch pieces.
• Trim fennel bulb. Slice into pieces.
• Heat broth in a pot. Add asparagus, fennel, celery salt, pepper.
• Boil for around 5 minutes. The vegetables do not have to be completely cooked, as they can finish processing in vitamix.
• You can decide for yourself how thick you want your soup to be. You don’t have to add all the liquid broth into vitamix at once.
• Add in raw spinach and parsley. (Don’t cook these in the pot).
• Process in Vitamix.
• Taste for seasoning. Add more salt, pepper as desired.
• Squeeze lemon and lime as the last thing.
• Add in juice from half the lemon and the whole lime. Taste to see if you want more.
• If the soup isn’t hot enough, you can reheat in pot.
• Serve hot. Garnish with chia seeds.

Notes

This was two dinner sized servings. If serving cups, this could be 4 servings.

The post Healthy Asparagus Soup Recipe appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

When I was asked to develop a recipe using Chex Cereal, I knew within ten seconds what I wanted to make, drawing on inspiration from the legendary Chex Mix.

I created Oven fried, Crunchy Nutty Chicken Strips with a Spicy Honey Lime Peanut Sauce.

That’s quite a mouthful of description and quite a mouthful of flavor. 

I knew the recipe would have to have nuts and a little of that same magic the Chex  Mix has. 

It took me a few tries to get the exact texture I was looking for. I wanted the bites to be very crunchy without deep-frying. I successfully oven baked the chicken and was very happy with the results.

I was happy to see on the box that Corn Chex Cereal is Gluten Free and contains no colors from artificial sources, and no artificial flavors or high fructose corn syrup. The cereal is light and only 120 calories per cup, making it a great ingredient to cook with in addition to having for breakfast.

In choosing my recipes, I am always thinking about other moms and dads who are looking for healthy, easy and satisfying ways to feed their families. That’s very important to me, because if we prepare our own food and involve our children, we enrich our family life and our health.  Engaging everyone in the cooking process helps a family bond, and helps children establish good habits.

The Cooking Process

Mixing Corn Chex and Chopped Peanuts gave me the crunch I was looking for and I didn’t have to deep fry them.

I dredged the chicken strips first in coconut flour, then egg, then into a mixture of  Corn Chex and chopped peanuts, and then oven baked for a 14 minutes, which gave me time to make the sauce.

Adding a finely chopped herb such as parsley, basil or cilantro works well for garnish, adding that little bit of color and extra flavor.

These chicken strips make a great party food. Use lettuce leaves. Drizzle the sauce in advance and top with even more of the crunchy Corn Chex Cereal peanut topping.

I tested this recipe three times to make sure you will find it easy and delicious. You can use a food processor, and get your kids to press the button. Boys especially seem to love button pressing gadgets in the kitchen. Or you could just use a rolling pin.  You will need to process the cereal and the peanuts separately and then mix them together.

The end result was crunchy, nutty, and when dipped into the spicy, peanut lime sauce, it became a perfect bite.

A bit of brainstorming led me to thinking about all the ways we could eat these.

How to Incorporate the Corn Chex Cereal Crusted  Chicken Strips into More Dishes

• Serve chicken strips with a carrot slaw stir fry.
• Serve chicken strips on a salad, using the peanut lime sauce to make a dressing. Add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil to the sauce.
• Serve chicken strips over rice noodles, tossed with peanut sauce.
• Serve chicken strips with a homemade ranch dressing, ketchup or honey mustard for a traditional take.
• Make small bite sized nuggets.

If you have peanut issues, you can substitute another nut such as almonds, pecans or cashews or no nuts and serve with ketchup.

So tell me, do you have any go to meals that you can cook for your family in under thirty minutes? And, how might you serve these peanut Corn Chex Cereal crusted Chicken strips?

You can connect with Chex on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter and for more inspiration.  
I would love to connect with you on facebook and instagram where I share cooking tips and my latest photos and recipes.

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CornChex Crusted Chicken Strips with Honey Lime Peanut Sauce

Oven Baked, Not Fried, Crunchy CornChex Crusted Chicken with Spicy Honey Lime Peanut Sauce, great for kids, and parties.

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 14 minutes minutes

Total Time 24 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Chicken Strips

• 8 chicken strips
• 1 teaspoon salt or as needed
• 2 cups CornChex measured before crushing
• 1/2 peanuts chopped,
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon chopped herbs such as parsley or basil for garnish

Honey Lime Peanut Dipping Sauce

• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• juice of 1 lime
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons canola oil or olive oil
• 1 teaspoon red chile flakes
• 1 tablespoon chopped peanuts for garnish

Instructions

• Season chicken strips with salt.
• Using a food processor or rolling pin, crush the cereal.
• Mix together the crushed cereal and peanuts.
• Dredge chicken strips in coconut flour, then egg mixture, then CornChex and Peanut Mixture.
• Bake at 425 for 14 minutes. Turn over at 7 minutes.

Honey Lime Peanut Dipping Sauce

• Combine all ingredients to make sauce. You can add more or less peanut butter and chili flakes to your own taste.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, my own original recipe and photos. All opinions are my own,

 This post is brought to you by CafeMom and Chex

The post Corn™Chex Crusted Chicken Strips with Honey Lime Peanut Sauce appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

The Secret Recipe Club was quite helpful this July 4th as I served beautiful Meringue Cups  (which I call pavlova) with lime cream and freshly picked blueberries.

Each month, I am the secret recipe club assigns the members another member’s blog to choose  This month I was blessed with Kim’s blog,   Everyday Mom . She has enjoyed cooking since she’s five years old and now she cooks for her three children passing down her passion. As I browsed Everyday Mom,  I made my mind up quickly, happy to find a recipe I could turn into a red white and blue July 4th dessert. The recipe adapted this recipe from another blog, which was her secret recipe back in May 2012.

Kim especially liked this because she could make it with her kids, showing them how to separate eggs, etc. She notes a very important rule for separating egg whites. Always use 3 bowls when separating eggs. Each egg white must go into a separate bowl before it’s incorporated into the larger mix just in case the egg doesn’t break correctly. Not knowing this simple trick could be very frustrating. I decided to use a double boiler because the first time I attempted the lime curd, it burned too easily and I had to make it over.

I often use herbs in desserts.  The basil in the lime is my own twist. I have it growing rampant in my garden and it’s finding its way into several recipes. I served two desserts on July 4th and both incorporated herbs from my garden.

These are easy to make, and the best part is that they can be made a few days ahead and even assembled several hours in advance. The recipe uses the egg whites for the meringue cups and uses the egg yolks for a basil  lime curd which is then mixed with fresh whipped cream. Berries top it off and these are blueberries I picked myself at the Golden Bell Blueberry Farm behind my house.

This is how the pavlova cups look prior to baking. I used a piping bag. They are baked for two hours in a very low heated oven of 225 degrees.

It rained July 4th, and these served to cheer everyone up. When they were on a white flat platter, they made a very pretty presentation, but it was too dark by the time we ate them and I couldn’t get a nice picture.

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Pavlova Cups with Basil Lime Cream, Fresh Berries

Meringue cups also known as pavlova cups are paired with lime cream and berries

Course Desserts

Cuisine American

Prep Time 3 hours hours

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 3 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Pavlova Cups

• parchment paper
• 4 egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• dash salt
• 1 cup super fine sugar

Lime Cream

• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon lime zest
• 4 tablespoons butter cut into pieces
• 4 fresh basil leaves
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions

Pavlova Cups

• Beat egg whites until foamy
• Add in cream of tarter, salt and sugar
• Beat on high until stiff and resembles marshmallow cream
• Using parchment paper, draw 3 1/2 inch cirlces
• Turn parchment paper over and using template, pipe meringue starting in center. Do a double piping on outside to form cup.
• Bake at 225 for two hours. Cool completely. These are best made several hours before serving, up to a few days.

Lime Cream

• Make lime curd. zest limes. Set zest aside.
• Whip eggs and sugar until frothy. Use a double boiler and put egg mixture in top pot over simmering water. Add in butter and lime juice. Cook stirring constantly until the lime curd coats the back of a spoon.
• Add in basil. Cool completely.
• Prior to serving, mix heavy whipping cream until stiff.
• Remove basil leaves. Mix into the lime curd. Refrigerate.
• Mix whipping cream, lime zest and lime curd together to make the cream. If not using right away, refrigerate.

Assembly

• Place lime cream in center of meringue cup. Top with Berries, garnish with basil.

The post Pavlova Cups with Basil Lime Cream, Fresh Berries appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

When I go to Napa, I equally enjoy the food shopping as I do the restaurants. This recipe incorporates Rancho Gordo snowcap beans and Round Pond Estates hot sauce.

I bragged about Rancho Gordo before and  will probably do so again and again. This is a personal endorsement, not a paid one, and I’m not saying you should run to their website and order beans. I’m just saying it’s possible not only to taste beans in a more delicious way than you might be used to, but when you know about an heirloom crop that takes a little more effort and is not about producing the biggest crop, but the tastiest crop, you might start to respect the bean a little more, and stretch yourself to find ways to cook them in new and exciting ways.

I was determined to give the next bag of beans (snowcaps) its due respect. I wanted to redefine for myself what a bean soup could be.

Snowcap beans look like this after they have been soaked overnight. Snowcaps are similar in meatiness to a cranberry bean, but bigger, prettier when cooked, and one of the most requested beans at Rancho Gordo. The creaminess of a potato inspires chowder-type recipes. I just heard that they don’t have snowcap beans right now, but that they do have a good stand in, Royal Coronas.

I have posted many various bean recipes and soups but never with seafood. I took a chance making a bean and shrimp soup, only to find out that my husband doesn’t like seafood soups. After twelve years of marriage, revolving around a lot of cooking and dining out, I was taken by complete surprise. He orders seafood 90% of the time. How could he not love this? It was going to be a lot of soup for me to eat if I didn’t figure out a way to make it with some twist that would change his mind.

I decided to use pancetta, shrimp, red chiles, and for a garnish, spanish olives, fresh tomatoes and lime. I think the lime did the trick. Each layer of flavors hits you one at time all the way to the end with that squeeze of lime. And, the citrus adds brightness and balances the the heaviness of the beans.

On a whim, I made my own corn tortillas, but with no tortilla press, I had to hand roll. This is the perfect accompaniment, and the first time I have every enjoyed a corn tortilla by itself. A flat bread, tortilla chips or crostini would also be good choices.

I used red chili peppers which lost their heat the next day, so an added sprinkling of red pepper flakes would be suitable along with the hot sauce.

By the way, he ate the soup!

You CAN make this soup with canned beans as I  did in this recipe. 

More Soups from Spinach Tiger

Ribollita

Italian Bean Soup with Crunchy Rice

Minestrone

Spicy Sausage Soup

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Soup for Winter. Snowcap Heirloom Beans with Shrimp, Green Olives, and Lime with Homemade Corn Tortillas

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 1 pound peeled deveined large shrimp (maintain shells)
• olive oil
• 2-4 ounces pancetta finely diced
• 2 red chili peppers seeded diced
• 2 carrots chopped
• 3 celery chopped
• 1 onion diced
• 2 garlic cloves finely diced
• 8 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 1 pound cooked beans see below in notes
• hot sauce
• salt and pepper
• sliced Spanish olives
• chopped fresh tomato
• lime wedges
• chopped Italian parsley for garnish

Instructions

• In separate small pan, boil two cups of water with shrimp shells. Drain, and reserve.
• Saute pancetta in olive oil, rendering the fat.
• Add vegetables until softened.
• Add garlic cloves. Saute for a minute. Add in chicken broth, and shrimp broth.
• Add beans and continue to cook until soup is simmering, about 30 minutes,
• At this time, use an emulsion blender to blend some of the beans to a puree to bring creaminess. You may need to add in extra water also. It should still be a soup, not a stew.
• Add in shrimp and continue to cook until shrimp are pink.
• Serve with garnish of, olives, tomatoes and lime, sprinkling of parsley, and corn tortillas or crusty bread.
• Season as needed with salt, pepper and hot sauce.

Notes

Cooking Beans
Prep time: Six hours or overnight
Cook Time: 60-90 minutes

1 pound snowcap beans (you can substitute another meaty bean such as white beans or cranberry beans}
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
1 celery, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled, whole
Sprig thyme
(do not salt while cooking)

Instructions
Soak beans overnight or at least six hours.
Drain, rinse, put in fresh water in large pot with vegetables.
Bring to boil, and then simmer for 1 hour or until soft.

Note: I made corn tortillas with a masa mix. I didn’t have a tortilla press, so I hand rolled.

Tell me, what is the one thing that totally surprised you about your spouses or significant other’s eating peculiarities?

The post Snowcap Heirloom Bean Soup with Shrimp, Green Olives, Lime appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

All day, I tried to figure out why this dessert haunted me, in a good way. I kept remembering how it tasted, and I tried not to eat it because, really, I made it for you, and for a mango contest, but it was so hard to resist and with each set of photos, it was disappearing fast, not just because it was melting.

Lori of Fake Food Free is hosting a mango contest and this is my entry. My idea of a perfect mango recipe is to leave the mango as whole as possible and marry it with other flavors to create something bright, delicious and memorable.

This is memorable. It’s an unusual Italian frozen custard that can be made in an ice cream maker or not. Since I don’t have an ice cream maker, I froze the custard and chopped it up a few times. I finished it in a food processor, scooped it into glasses and refroze. Right before serving, it comes out to sit for about 10-15 minutes and is eaten soft. This only enhances the flavors more. It’s the dessert I can’t wait to serve to guests and see their reaction. The rosemary is the great surprise, but it’s still all about the mango.

The Advantages of Making Frozen Custard
You will notice that there is no heavy cream in this recipe and one of the advantages is that you get to choose which milk you want to use–organic, fat free, whole, lactose free. You get to pick the eggs–cage free, local farm, organic. You get to pick the sugar, and you can choose an organic sugar, or a less processed sugar. I made one version with raw agave nectar and while the egg yolks don’t froth as much, it was still good.

This would be delicious served with these lime coconut butter thins.

Recipe for Mango Frozen Custard

Ingredients

• 3 cups milk
• Juice and zest of one large lime (zest divided)
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 ripe mango, diced
• scant 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped very very fine

Instructions

• Add 1/2 lime zest into milk. Heat until small bubbles appear, not allowing to boil.
• Beat egg yolks with sugar for 5 minutes until very creamy.
• Place a heatproof boil over a pan of simmering water (or use a double boiler).
• Add 1/4 milk into egg yolk mixture, whisking (to make sure there is no curdling).
• Add rest of milk, put bowl over simmering water (or double boiler. Mixture will be done when a spoon is lightly coated, (the water in pan will boil). Don’t allow the custard to boil.
• Cool. Add in diced mango, lime juice, rest of lime zest and rosemary.

At this point you can either put into an ice cream maker or freeze. (If you not using an ice cream maker, do not add mango.)

Instructions when not using ice cream maker

1. Once frozen, first time, set for a a few hours, remove, chop up. Place in food processor. Once smooth, add in diced mango. Repeat 2 or 3 times, until smooth and creamy.
2. I made this once with fat free milk and once with whole milk.
   Fat free milk: I had to smooth the process 3 times.
   Whole Milk: I froze and chopped up once and put in food processor. It was very creamy.
3. Scoop into serving dishes, place in freezer.
   Take out 10-20 minutes before serving. This is best eaten when soft, more like a frozen custard.

The post Mango Lime Rosemary Frozen Custard appeared first on Spinach Tiger.