Organic Blackberry Sorbet

As the dog days of summer drag on, nothing beats the heat quite like a tasty frozen treat. Fortunately, fresh fruit sorbets are incredibly easy to make and much better on your waistline than ice cream.

organic blackberry sorbet

So delicious and so easy to make!

Since all fruit sorbet recipes follow the same basic pattern (1. make simple syrup, 2. add fruit, 3. blend and chill), you can get creative with whatever fruit is in season in your area. For this recipe, I used a a pint of delicious organic blackberries fresh from the Bend Farmer’s Market — the hardest part of this recipe was not eating all the juicy berries before the syrup was ready!

blackberry sorbet ingredientsOrganic Blackberry Sorbet Recipe

Ingredients (4 servings)

  • 1 cup water
  • 2/3 cup organic sugar
  • 1/2 organic lemon
  • 1 pint (16oz) organic blackberries
blackberry sorbet recipe mixedblackberry-sorbet-blendedblackberry-sorbet-cuisinart

Instructions

  1. Make a simple syrup by bringing the sugar and water to a boil, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Remove the simple syrup from the heat and pour in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Rinse the blackberries and add to the mixing bowl. Let the blackberries steep in the hot simple syrup for about 10 minutes.
  3. Using a hand mixer, blend the berries and simple syrup into a puree. Squeeze the juice of the half lemon and stir into the mix. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the mixture for at least one hour.
  4. Start up your ice cream maker (I used a Conair Cuisinart 1.5-quart ice cream maker, which is the perfect size for this recipe). Pour the blended mixture into the ice cream maker. After 10-15 minutes of churning, the sorbet should be ready to go; check the consistency as the sorbet solidifies to get the perfect texture.
  5. Scoop out the sorbet and serve, or store in a freezer-safe container for up to 2 weeks.

Super Fresh Farmer’s Market Salad

farmers-market-salad-recipe

I love this time of year for all of the wonderful produce we have available at the Farmer’s Market and this is one of my favorite salads. This is a recipe adapted from Kathy Casey’s Northwest Table Cookbook. I’ve made this recipe so many times I’m not sure how different it is from the original, but it is so delicious and easy. These days I need as simple as possible… otherwise I likely wouldn’t feed myself.

Farmer’s Market Salad (Serves 4)

Salad Ingredients

  • 2 ears of corn, husked
  • 2 bell peppers (your choice, but I like red and yellow best)
  • 2 large heirloom tomatoes, sliced into 1/3 inch slices
  • 1/3 cup garden fresh basil, chopped

Dressing Ingredients

  • 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
  • juice from 1/2 lemon
  • 3 T. olive oil
  • 1.5 T balsamic vinegar
  • 1-1.5 t. honey
  •  2 t. stone ground mustard
  • salt and pepper to taste

Serve with sliced baguette.

Instructions

  1. Prepare your dressing. Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a medium size bowl and whisk until well blended. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Turn grill onto high heat. Brush corn with a little olive oil and grill. Grill until each side is marked. Set aside. Once cool slice the corn from the cob and put in the bowl with the dressing.
  3. Grill peppers next using high heat until the skins are blistered. Brush with olive oil as necessary. Once cool remove the skins and seeds. Slice the peppers into 1/4 inch thick strips. Add the peppers to the dressing and stir gently.
  4. Allow the corn and peppers to sit in the dressing for 15-30 minutes. Add the basil just before serving.
  5. On a large plate or medium sized platter lay out your heirloom tomatoes and top with the corn and pepper mixture. Garnish with any extra basil leaves and dig in!
Steve Craig
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Moroccan Spiced Carrot Bruschetta

One of my favorite restaurants in Bend is a Lebanese restaurant called Kebaba, and I always have to order their carrot and feta jam…. its so deliciously sweet and savory. Somehow we ended up with four bags of carrots in our refrigerator, so I figured trying to recreate this deliciousness was a good way to put a dent in our carrot stash. I however did not make carrot jam, but chose to make some pickled spiced carrots instead and used goat cheese instead of feta… and french bread instead of pita, so it really wasn’t the same at all, but it was equally as delicious. I came across a recipe on EdibleFeast.com that looked just about right, modded it out and here is my EdibleFeast/Kebaba inspired Moroccan Spiced Carrot Bruschetta.

healthy-carrot-recipe

Moroccan Spiced Carrot Bruschetta (serves 6 as an appetizer)

Ingredientshealthy-carrot-bruschetta

  • 1/2 pound (maybe a little more) of grated carrots
  • 3 T. olive oil
  • 1 1/2 T. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 1/2 T. white wine vinegar
  • 1 1/2 t. honey
  • 1/3 cup fresh parsley, minced
  • 1 large-ish garlic clove, minced or pressed
  • a thumbnail size piece of fresh ginger, minced
  • 2 teaspoons ras-el-hanout (moroccan spice blend – see below)
  • cayenne, to taste
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 5 oz. goat cheese
  • one loaf of crusty french bread

Directions for Morrocan Spiced Carrot Bruschetta

  1. Combine shredded carrots (I used my food processor because I’m lazy…even too lazy to use my mandoline) with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, white wine, honey, parsley, garlic, fresh ginger, ras-el-hanout, cayenne, and salt and pepper. Mix it up, cover it and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.
  2. Preheat your broiler. Slice your french bread into 1/2 inch slices and then toast under the broiler until just golden.
  3. While the bread is still warm spread the goat cheese on.
  4. To serve top your toasts with the carrots and you’re all set.

Ras-el-hanout

You likely have all the spices in your pantry, you do not need to go out and buy the blend, just make it yourself. This recipe is from Epicurious… I only made a couple of changes as noted below. This is a flavor combo that I’ve seen show up in other moroccan dishes that I’ve made, so I’m pretty sure my remaining spice blend will be used up quickly.

Ingredients for Ras-el-hanout

  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger (I ommitted and used fresh ginger in the recipe instead)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • dash or two of ground nutmeg (my addition)

Directions:

  1. Combine all ingredients, stir them up and store in an airtight jar. Should keep for a month or so according to Epicurious.
Autumn Adams
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Smoothie bowl: 101

Smoothie bowls. They are everywhere. Or at the very least, posted up on every foodie-nutritionist instagram/blog. So, here I am telling you that, yes, you should make them. And yes, I am totally down with this food fad.

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Here’s the thing I really like about the smoothie bowl craze, it’s a process (if you want it to be). Now, I’m not saying they are hard to make, I am saying that you intentionally pick out your ingredients, blend, pour, and decorate with all the goodness you can find. Have you ever heard of mindful eating? For me personally, making these delicious, nutrient dense bowls of vibrant color are the epitome of mindful eating. Consciously deciding on the flavors and colors, arranging the toppings in an artful pattern, and then enjoying and being grateful for the fact that you get to consume such goodness. Amen to that!

Anyways, let’s get down to it.

First off, you need a base. Now, with my smoothies I tend to add a bit more coconut water, but with smoothie bowls it’s nice to leave them thicker so that they hold up everything on top. I more often than not use all frozen fruit in order to achieve that thickness and I always use coconut water as my liquid. I also try and add some sort of superfood to my base such as spirulina, maca, camu camu, probiotic, fish oil…you get the idea. Spirulina makes a deep and intense green which adds to it’s amazingness!

Smoothie bowl base ideas:

Green: kale (fresh or frozen), frozen banana, frozen pineapple, frozen mango, spirulina, ginger, coconut water.

Acai: acai (you can buy frozen packets at health food store; near the frozen fruit!), frozen strawberries, frozen bananas, frozen blueberries, water.

Purple: Kale (frozen or fresh), maca, frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, frozen bananas, coconut water.

The options are really endless. You can find young coconut meat in the frozen section and add that with coconut water, raspberries and banana and you’ve got a gorgeous, vibrant pink base. Really, it’s all about experimenting!

Now onto my favorite part…toppings.

I more often than not buy these in the bulk section at my grocery store, but lately I’ve been seeing the brand nutiva popping up at target for SUPER cheap and they have great hemp seeds, cacao nibs, goji berries, mulberry, and chia seeds. When it comes to the fruit, I like to mix both fresh and frozen fruit for texture. Fresh banana and frozen raspberries are a favorite combo of mine.

Some other great toppings: Hemp seeds, bee pollen (local source!), pumpkin seeds, shredded coconut, granola.

And last but not least, a new favorite thing of mine to do is adding a nice swirl of almond butter on top. You achieve so much texture with creamy, crunchy, and soft when you add something from each of these categories. The next thing to do is to get after it and be creative with placement, which is super fun 🙂

Some inspiration:

Let’s here your favorite combinations for post yoga fuel!

Kelsey Bushong
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