Cruciferous Recommends Vol. 3

A few things I'm loving right now

I love getting recommendations from creators I trust, which is why I share my recs of the moment with you every five Cruciferous newsletters. Here are a few things I’ve been loving lately. I’ve got my favorite non-cruciferous vegetable, a recipe to revive green beans past their prime, and an upcoming event I think at least some of you will want to join me in attending.

A non-cruciferous vegetable: Potatoes

Potatoes are full of vitamin C and fiber, so I’ve never been clear why health writers and dieticians sometimes recommend limiting or even eliminating them. I dare you to find a lunch as filling and satisfying as a baked potato for the same number of calories.

Spuds aren’t thought of as being a seasonal food, but they are typically at their freshest and most delicious in summer when new potatoes are harvested. When you shop at farmers’ markets, you notice the difference. I especially love potatoes from Potato Homestead and Savoie Organic Farm. Not that I’m that picky about potatoes. Tater tots are one of my ultimate comfort foods.

Recently, I made two quarts of potato salad. Afterward, I told Dan that it was a mistake and we’d never eat so much potato salad. Friends, we ate it all in four days. 

Potato salad, or any potato that’s been cooked and chilled, provides a good dose of resistant starch, which is beneficial to the gut microbiome. Add this to the evidence that potatoes are good for you.

A recipe: Air fryer green beans via NYT cooking

Use this gift link to access this paywalled recipe. It’s a really good one. I was looking for something with a lot of intense flavors and an aggressive cooking method to try to save some green beans that were looking pretty sad. Sweet and sour balsamic vinegar, garlic, and red pepper flakes were the perfect trio to bring them back to life. 

I used this same combination of ingredients to whip up a sheet pan dinner another night with cubed tofu, broccoli, and red pepper, and it was also a winner. 

A kitchen tool: Vitamix 8-ounce bowl

I use this one-cup blender so often that I’m not sure how I lived without it before. This makes it possible to blend up small quantities of cashew cream, salad dressing, and sauces that would never blend in a full-size blender or food processor. It’s a super handy thing to have in a one or two-person household.

It seems like it’s only available as part of the “blending cup and bowl starter kit,” but if you have some kitchen budget, it’s worth it. I definitely use the blending cup for smoothies, but that bowl sees cooking action at least 3 or 4 times a week. 

An upcoming event: The Creator Summit by the Food + Wellness Equity Collective

I heard about this event through cookbook author and blogger Sonja Overhiser. You may know her and her husband’s wildly successful and plant-forward food blog, A Couple Cooks.

Sonja, together with co-founder Yoli Ouiya, has planned an event to bring together creators in the food and wellness space to learn from experts about how to “leverage your platform to promote equity and drive social change.” I don’t have the world’s biggest platform, but I definitely want to do what I can to bring about positive social changes. 

The event will be filled with educational and networking sessions. I haven’t been to any events like this since before the pandemic, and I’m excited to get together with colleagues for learning and growth. 

Are you a creator in this space, too? Apply to attend! (There are only 100 spots.) It runs concurrently with the Natural Products Expo East in my hometown of Philadelphia next month.

Let me know if I should look for you there!