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Basil Aioli + Steamed Artichoke

Easily prepare artichokes using one of two methods - stove top or Instant Pot. Enjoy your artichoke with a healthy, delicious & easy to prepare basil aioli. | savorandglow.com

Happy Saturday! I hope your weather is better than here in Portland – today it’s in the 70’s and raining! Boo!

Today I have a recipe I’m completely obsessed with for you: basil aioli and steamed artichoke! When I was a kid I’d always LOVE it when artichokes were in season. Growing up in California meant they grew nearby and my mom would buy them often.

My mom and brother would always dip their artichoke leaves in mayo which I thought was disgusting. Artichokes are SO good on their own, why would you ruin it with mayo? When they were all done with the leaves they would give me their hearts (aww) because they knew I loved them so much.

Easily prepare artichokes using one of two methods - stove top or Instant Pot. Enjoy your artichoke with a healthy, delicious & easy to prepare basil aioli. | savorandglow.com

Now that I live in Portland it’s so much harder to come by a reasonably priced artichoke. I didn’t think they grew here, but a couple of weeks ago I spotted them at PSU Farmer’s Market, so who knows. In any case, I’ve been buying up artichokes like crazy and enjoying them with a random basil aioli I threw together one day. I didn’t have avocado oil, so I used olive oil instead and made a mayo base. Then I threw in basil – cause let’s be real, why the heck not? I really didn’t give it any thought before I embarked on my first basil aioli adventure, and as I said, I like the taste of artichoke by itself and don’t like to affect the flavor.

BUT SERIOUSLY OMG. This basil aioli is LIFE. So. GOOD! I’ve made it several times now and it’s now officially the only thing I will ever dip my artichoke in.

The extra-virgin olive oil is an amazing touch. You really need a good olive oil to make this aioli tasty. The California Olive Ranch brand is my fave. It costs a few extra bucks, but according to my husband, it’s the “best ****ing olive oil ever.” So if you’re going to make this aioli, invest in a small bottle of the olive oil. You can thank me later.

Easily prepare artichokes using one of two methods - stove top or Instant Pot. Enjoy your artichoke with a healthy, delicious & easy to prepare basil aioli. | savorandglow.com

There are two different ways I prepare artichokes. The “traditional” way (so called because it’s how my mom makes artichokes) is to steam them in a pot. The “new” way I discovered is to use the InstantPot. Both work really well!

To prepare the basil aioli, you really need an emulsifier. In my Best Ranch Ever post, I describe allll the different ways you can make a mayo if you don’t own an emulsifier, but my number one recommendation is to just buy an emulsifier. Once you start making your own mayo’s and dressings at home, you won’t want to buy store bought stuff. There is no competition in my mind!

Click here for the emulsifier I own. It’s $40 bucks and WORTH IT. I also use it to emulsify soups and potatoes, and to blend coffee drinks.

Easily prepare artichokes using one of two methods - stove top or Instant Pot. Enjoy your artichoke with a healthy, delicious & easy to prepare basil aioli. | savorandglow.com

Nutrition

Artichokes have lots of folic acid and potassium. They also have a moderate amount of vitamins A and C, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and iron. Additionally they are rich in phytonutrients (caffeoylquinic acid, beta-carotene, cyanidols, cyanarin, eugenol, ferulic acid, luteolins and tannins), can help aid digestive problems like bloating and nausea, and assist the detoxification process by increasing bile flow. Artichokes also have a low glycemic index.

Chinese Energetics

Artichokes help promote movement of energy throughout the body, and can assist with movement of food through the digestive tract. They also help to tonify Yin, meaning artichokes will help replenish your body and are good for those who feel like they’ve been overdoing it both physically and emotionally. Similar to western nutrition, Chinese Medicine says artichokes stimulate digestion and improve appetite. Artichokes draw out heat from your body and maintain ideal levels of moisture.

Basil Aioli + Steamed Artichoke
 
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Ingredients
Basil Aioli - using an emulsifier/stick blender
  • 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 egg (make sure it is pasture raised and organic)
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp granulated garlic
  • ⅛ tsp of pepper
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 15 basil leaves

  • Artichokes, however many you want to cook
  • Water
  • Garlic, minced (optional)
Instructions
Instant Pot
  1. Trim the artichoke leaves using scissors, and cut off the stem of the artichoke. Pour one cup of water and place a metal trivet into your InstantPot. Place the artichoke(s) on top of the trivet and put desired amount of minced garlic on top of the artichoke(s).
  2. Put the lid on the InstantPot, close the venting valve, and set to 'steaming' for 20 minutes. Allow the InstantPot to naturally release pressure.

The Traditional Method (stove top)
  1. Trim the artichoke leaves using scissors, and cut off the stem of the artichoke. Pour about one inch worth of water in a large pot along with the artichoke(s). Put desired amount of minced garlic on top of the artichoke(s).
  2. Place the lid on the pot and bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and allow to steam for at least 30 minutes. Actual timing will depend on your artichoke. Sometimes 30 minutes is enough, and sometimes you might need up to an hour. To protect my hand from the heat, I use tongs to try to pull an artichoke leaf out. If it pulls out easily, the artichoke is done.

Basil Aioli
  1. While waiting for the artichoke to cook, prepare the aioli! Place all of the ingredients except for the basil into a large/tall container or mason jar.
  2. Use a stick blender to emulsify. Start emuslifying with the stick blender on the bottom of your container. Very slowly work your way up until all of the oil has been emulsified.
  3. Remove the stick blender from your container, add the basil, and then use the emulsifier to chop up and blend the basil into the aioli.

If you want to use a whisk or a food processor to make the aioli, refer to my Best Ranch Ever post. If using a whisk, you'll need to finely chop the basil or use a Ninja (or something similar), and then stir the basil in to the aioli. If using a food processor, add the basil into the food processor after creating the aioli.

Easily prepare artichokes using one of two methods - stove top or Instant Pot. Enjoy your artichoke with a healthy, delicious & easy to prepare basil aioli. | savorandglow.com

Copycat Chipotle Black Bean Dip

Last March my husband and I were walking through Trader Joe’s and we came upon their Chipotle Black Bean Dip. We immediately put one in our cart, and once we cracked the jar open it was love at first bite! As with most food that I enjoy, I was inspired to recreate it in my own kitchen. And so I did!

This black bean dip is an easy to make replica of Trader Joe's Chipotle Black Bean Dip. It takes less than 15 minutes and has squeaky clean ingredients! | savorandglow.com

This bean dip rocks because of its smoky, chipotle-y, and super rich flavor. I like to eat mine as an appetizer or snack with plantain chips, but they’re also awesome with normal tortilla chips, nestled in a taco shell, or as a side dish in your next south of the border themed meal.

The bonus: this is the easiest thing to make. Ever. AND, it’s healthy. TJ’s version has sugar and food additives. By making it yourself you have the benefit of knowing exactly what is in your bean dip. Are you excited? I am! 😛

Sidenote – if you don’t want to or don’t have the time to make your own copycat bean dip, it’s not the end of the world. Besides the less-than-desirable ingredients, I think TJ’s version is pretty clean and I would DEFINITELY still buy it myself. You gotta make compromises and sometimes that means you eat food additives and a little more sugar than you’d like. Not the end of the world.

But if you’re a DIY-er like me, have a few spare minutes, and totally geek out over squeaky clean ingredients, read on!

So what’s in my copycat dip? Let me tell you:

Extra-virgin olive oil
Onion
Garlic
Tomato paste
Coriander
Chili Powder
Smoked Paprika
Chipotle powder, optional
Black beans (shocker, I know!)
White vinegar

The biggest surprise is the chipotle is optional. In order to get the desired chipotle flavor, I had to add a whole heck of a lot of chipotle which made it unbearably SPICY! I compensated by adding in smoked paprika, and the taste of my copycat recipe still ended up a good replica for TJ’s version. And you can still add in very small amounts of chipotle powder, just be careful!

This black bean dip is an easy to make replica of Trader Joe's Chipotle Black Bean Dip. It takes less than 15 minutes and has squeaky clean ingredients! | savorandglow.com

Nutrition

Black beans are a good source of folate, manganese, magnesium, thiamin and fiber. One serving of this has about 9 grams of protein. If you want to make this dish a fun project, you could sprout the beans which will increase the protein content by 15-30%! If you sprouted the beans and paired this dish with some rice (if you can tolerate it) you’d have a complete protein and a good vegetarian meal (I’d still add lots of veggies though).

Chinese Energetics

Black beans are warming and sweet and correspond with the energetics of the Kidney. They are good for reproductive organs and tonify Yin and Blood. The black beans can be sprouted in this recipe, and sprouting is energetically most relevant in spring and summer. Sprouting makes the food super vital and abundant in Qi.

Copycat Chipotle Black Bean Dip
 
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Serves: 3
Ingredients
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • ½ of a medium onion, diced finely
  • ½ tsp minced garlic (~1 clove)
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tsp coriander
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1.5 tbsp smoked paprika
  • ¼ tsp of chipotle powder, optional (be careful, this will add a lot of spice)
  • 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
  • 1 15.5 oz can of black beans (drained), or 1 ¼ cup of soaked, sprouted and cooked black beans
  • 1 tbsp white vinegar
Instructions
  1. Heat a small sauté pan over medium heat. Add olive oil to the pan and then the onion. Sauté for five minutes or until onion becomes translucent.
  2. Add garlic, tomato paste, and all spices. Continue sautéing for a few minutes until the tomato paste darkens. Take pan off the heat.
  3. Combine the tomato mixture with black beans and white vinegar in a blender or food processor. Blend until desired consistency (I like it with no chunks). Add salt to taste and enjoy!

his black bean dip is an easy to make replica of Trader Joe's Chipotle Black Bean Dip. It takes less than 15 minutes and has squeaky clean ingredients! | savorandglow.com

Quinoa Pesto Salad – GF, dairy free, PCOS friendly

I’ve been building up to this Quinoa Pesto Salad recipe for a week now. It includes all that I love about summer – basil and tomatoes! I figure I can call this a “salad” because it’s eaten cold, and the pesto has both basil + parsley – bring on the leafy greens!

Last week I posted my recipe for simple and quick pesto. I also posted a couple of “how to” articles: roasted garlic (which is needed for the pesto unless you opt to use garlic powder) + roasted mushrooms. So now my friends, it’s time to put it ALL together!

This Quinoa Pesto Salad is super easy and delicious! It requires only six ingredients, and can be prepped over the weekend for an easy weeknight meal! | savorandglow.com

It’s so freakin’ easy, here’s how I’d do it: roast the garlic and mushrooms at the same time, meanwhile cook up some quinoa and get all the pesto ingredients ready to go. When the roasted garlic is done, you can put this last ingredient into the blender/food processor and voila! Pesto! You could easily do this prep work on the weekend during batch cooking, OR prep like items when cooking other meals. So for example, if I was baking potatoes for dinner on Monday night, I would also throw in the mushrooms and garlic so they’re already done when I need them later in the week.

And if you really want to make life easy, you can always purchase store bought pesto! Trader Joe’s has an amazing one that I’d recommend, check it out here.

This is a super easy, delicious and nutritious weeknight meal. Here’s what you need:

Pesto
Roasted mushrooms
Quinoa
Tomatoes
Prosciutto
Mozzarella – optional

As you can see, not that many ingredients! All of the prep work is super quick except for the roasted mushrooms and garlic – which you don’t need to babysit. The key for weeknight meals is to do the roasting when you have time to wait for it, and not when you get home from work starving!

This Quinoa Pesto Salad is super easy and delicious! It requires only six ingredients, and can be prepped over the weekend for an easy weeknight meal! | savorandglow.com

Quinoa Pesto "Salad"
 
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Serves: 6 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 medium tomatoes
  • 4 ounces prosciutto
  • 1 pound roasted mushrooms
  • 2 cups pesto
  • 4 cups quinoa, cooked
  • 2-4 ounces mozzarella, optional
Instructions
  1. Dice the tomatoes and add to a large bowl.
  2. Using scissors and one slice of prosciutto at a time, cut one inch pieces into the bowl.
  3. Add the roasted mushrooms, pesto and quinoa into the bowl. If using mozzarella, dice and add to the bowl. Mix well and enjoy!
Notes
If I don't have time to make pesto, click here for the brand I like to buy.

If mushrooms aren't your jam, switch them out for roasted asparagus! I've never tried it, but I imagine one bunch of asparagus would do the trick.

Because of the prosciutto, this will go bad within 3-4 days.

 

Roasted Mushrooms

Call me crazy, but I’m a little obsessed with culinary mushrooms these days!

If you didn’t already know, I study (w)holistic nutrition at the Wellspring School here in Portland, Oregon. One of the requirements of the program is to partake in a student hosted community event. During this event I have the opportunity to set up a booth to talk about mushrooms!

I’m not a big fan of the word, but if you didn’t know, culinary mushrooms are like a hidden gem of the superfood world! SERIOUSLY. I wouldn’t dream of lying to you!

Learn all about the amazing benefits of mushrooms + an easy roasted mushroom recipe. You'll never look at mushrooms the same again! | savorandglow.com

Here are all the things you’ve ever wanted to know about culinary mushrooms:

  • Mushrooms are the fruiting body of the fungi, and there are an estimated 1.5 MILLION different kinds of mushrooms in the world.
  • Mushrooms can be classified as culinary, medicinal, inedible and poisonous.
  • Mushrooms provide vitamin D.
  • Mushrooms are antioxidants.
  • Mushrooms are adaptogens. Adaptogens have non-specific duties; they give you what you need in order to function optimally. This might include protecting your body from stress and disease, and boosting your immune system.
  • Mushrooms are immunomodulators. This means they can help boost your immune system when necessary to decrease likelihood of getting a cold or flu, help you manage allergies, and help prevent the development of cancer.
  • Mushrooms are prebiotics. This means they help feed the good bacteria in your gut!

Since there are over a million different mushrooms, I think it goes without saying that there’s more to mushrooms than the traditional button mushroom. My two favorites are maitake and shiitake.

Maitake mushrooms have an amazing umami flavor that make them oh so delicious in savory baked goods. Maitake’s also help manage weight, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

In my humble opinion, Shiitake is like the superstar of the mushroom world. I like them because they’re very common and fairly inexpensive. And not to mention, they contain SEVEN of the nine essential amino acids, which is amazing for a little fungi. Shiitake mushrooms are also great for detoxification, stimulate the immune system to help fight off infections, manage high cholesterol, are anti-inflammatory and improve blood circulation.

And just for fun, have you ever heard of a candy-cap mushroom? I couldn’t find any nutrition information about them during my research, but they are supposed to have a maple syrup flavor. Isn’t that both completely strange and amazing? I want to try baking them into pancakes or desserts!

Lately I’ve been having fun experimenting with mushrooms. Today I have a super basic recipe for you – roasted mushrooms. There are so many fun and creative ways to eat mushrooms, but I think this is a great (and normal) start.

This recipe isn’t mind-blowing by any means. Honestly, it’s barely a recipe. It’s more of a “this is how you do it” kind of thing.

You can roast mushrooms to put on greens, pasta salads or enjoy as a simple side dish. I have a recipe coming in a few days that will incorporate these very mushrooms, so stay tuned for that!

Learn all about the amazing benefits of mushrooms + an easy roasted mushroom recipe. You'll never look at mushrooms the same again! | savorandglow.com

Roasted Mushrooms
 
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Ingredients
  • 16 ounces of mushrooms (any kind will do!)
  • 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet.
  2. Wash mushrooms well. Add to a large bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well.
  3. Place mushrooms on the prepared baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes or so. They're done when the mushrooms are nice and browned.

 

Sources:

Babcock, Jillian. “Cremini Mushrooms Benefits, Uses & Recipes.” Dr. Axe, Dr. Axe, 20 July 2017, draxe.com/cremini-mushrooms/.

Bone, Eugenia. Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms. Rodale, 2013.

“Candy Caps 101.” Mad about Mushrooms, www.madaboutmushrooms.com/mad_about_mushrooms/2018/01/candy-caps-101.html.

Furhman, Dr. Joel. “G-BOMBS: Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, and Seeds.” ATOUR, www.atour.com/forums/health/15.html.

Halpern, Georges M. Healing Mushrooms: Effective Treatments for Today’s Illnesses. Square One Publishers, 2007.

Isokauppila, Tero. Healing Mushrooms: a Practical and Culinary Guide to Using Adaptogenic Mushrooms for Whole Body Health. Penguin Publishing Group, 2017.

Simple + Quick Pesto (Dairy Free)

Hi friends! One of my absolute favorite parts of summer is PESTO. GIMME!

I don’t like to buy those little jars at the store. First of all, they’re super expensive. Second, they’re so tiny! I’d need at least three of them to actually do something worthwhile.

So thank you but no thank you. I can make my own pesto. Which by the way, is super easy to do and is extremely cost effective when basil is in season. I’ve been buying tons of basil from my local farmer’s market and have been putting it to good use lately.

Make this simple, quick and absolutely delicious pesto in under five minutes and using only five ingredients! | savorandglow.com

When I make pesto, I make lots and lots of it. I store them in little glass mason jars and freeze them. You could can them as well. Last year, I freezed much pesto that I used my last jar in December. #winning

So first things first – get out there and buy lots of basil! If you don’t want to make the pesto right away, SKIP storing the basil in the fridge. My recommendation? Treat your basil like a flower. I put a couple of inches of water in a mason jar and display my basil proudly. It also makes the house smell AH-mazinggg.

I’ve kept my basil fresh like this for more than a week. Try it!

When you’re ready to make pesto, here is what you need:

Basil
Parsley
Pine nuts
Salt
Pepper
Roasted garlic cloves
Extra-virgin olive oil

Make this simple, quick and absolutely delicious pesto in under five minutes and using only five ingredients! | savorandglow.com

Put all your ingredients into a high-powered blender or food processor and let it whir away until you reach pesto consistency. Add a little extra olive oil if it’s too dry and add extra salt to taste. Then all you have to do is find a way to eat it! Put it on pasta or zoodles, mix it in with sauteed veggies, or simply put it in your freezer for the winter months when basil is out of season. SO MANY OPTIONS!

Simple + Quick Pesto (Dairy Free)
 
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Serves: ~2 cups
Ingredients
  • One bunch of basil
  • One bunch of Italian parsley (the flat leaf kind)
  • ⅓ cup pine nuts
  • ½ tsp salt, plus more to taste
  • ½ tsp pepper (freshly ground, if possible)
  • 3-6 roasted garlic cloves
  • 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus a little extra if necessary
Instructions
  1. Add all ingredients to the food processor or high-speed blender.
  2. Blend until it reaches pesto consistency. Add more olive oil if it seems a little dry, and taste to see if it needs more salt.
Notes
You can use roasted garlic powder in lieu of cloves. I would start with a half a tablespoon and use as much as a whole tablespoon.