Karyn's Kitchen

Meet the Beets and Make Them Sweet

Even you can learn to like beets.

Wondering how to eat more vegetables when you don’t like them? Some of you have asked about tips for using beets and offered some wonderfully creative suggestions. I have been taking my time on responding because I know that others among you really dislike beets. Beets seem to be one of the more divisive vegetables: either you love them or you hate them.

While it’s fine to have personal preferences, I continue to encourage you to try things in different ways because we have more options and flexibility if we have a broad palate.

So the first thing I always ask someone when they claim they don’t like to eat a certain vegetable is, why? What is it that you don’t like? Is it the color? The texture? If it’s the flavor itself, what is it about the flavor that turns you off? It seems like everyone has an inclination toward a particular taste. Michael tends to like things sweeter than I do. I like sour and even a little bitter. What about salty? Let’s not forget umami. (Have you grown tired of hearing about that one yet?)

The most common complaint I hear about beets is that they taste like “dirt”. Okay, let’s reframe that as “earthy”. In wine terms, we would call it “terroir” and that’s actually desirable…

So what do we need to do with this earthy vegetable to make it more palatable for you? Does it need some fat or salt or sweetness for balance? There is a reason why so many salads with beets contain nuts, goat cheese or fruit in them. What about an herbal component? Remember our friend, pesto?

I like beets roasted, but you may prefer them simply boiled and matched with the appropriate counterpart.

Beets roasted with Herbs de Provence, raw fennel dressed with orange juice vinaigrette and feta cheese

When I was a child, I disliked the way beets turned everything on my plate red. Here’s an easy solution: Put them on a separate plate! Or if you put them into a salad, make sure your dressing is of the same hue. It works great. Pictured above, I put them on top of the fennel after dressing it. Then drizzled a little more dressing on top.

You can also try the golden variety if you want to introduce yourself to them gradually. The flavor is milder and they don’t stain everything.

What about the texture? You can peel them if they’re too fibrous for you. I prefer to simply scrub them, but I do cut just a little bit around the the top where the stem meets the root to smooth out the parts that are too rough. If there are any hair-like roots still attached or rough spots, I scrape those off with a paring knife too.

For a more subtle way to incorporate beets in a meal, read Take Your Burger Further With This Surprise Ingredient.

My Ode to Oatmeal and More

Use what you have to make a healthy breakfast. Steel cut oatmeal is awesome!

I have lived through lean times as well as plenty. The key is to make the best of your current situation and be content. Steel cut oatmeal, anyone?

Oatmeal with chopped dates and walnuts in a white bowl. Small light blue bowls hold dates and walnuts

When I was first living on my own, I would sometimes scrounge around in the morning for enough change to equal $ 1.72. If I could find that much, I would do a happy dance because it meant I could afford to go out for breakfast. $ 1.72 would buy me a toasted poppy seed bagel with butter and a cup of coffee. Yes, I was really living!

On the days when I couldn’t find that much change, I would pick some loquats from the tree that hung over my back fence. No one else was eating them, so I did. I didn’t even know what they were called in those days. I only knew they were edible. Eventually my Israeli friends taught me to call them by their Hebrew name, “shesek”, so I sometimes still need a reminder in English.

Steel Cut Oatmeal

And then there was always oatmeal. It’s healthy and inexpensive and I still eat it often. Now, if your only experience with oatmeal is the instant flavored kind, please don’t say you don’t like oatmeal. If you have only eaten rolled oats, try steel cut for a change. I personally prefer their flavor and texture. Yes, it takes 25 minutes to cook them. But all you have to do is boil water, so I don’t consider that to be a problem at all.

Oatmeal with whole strawberries, yogurt and almonds in a white bowl

Cooking Oatmeal

Here’s what you do: Get up out of bed. Measure a 1 to 4 ratio of oats to water. Boil the water. Put the oats in. Stir. Reduce heat to lowest simmer and go back to bed. Come back in 25 minutes or so to eat. I have a tendency to want to stir everything while it’s cooking, but I don’t even find that to be much necessary with oatmeal. Stir near the end of cooking and add whatever additional ingredients you like. Lately I like walnuts and maple syrup. I might add cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice. Fresh fruit like apples or bananas are nice. What about dried fruit? Any other kinds of nuts? Toasted or raw? Honey? Fruit jam? There are endless possibilities. You will never bother with prepared boxed cereal again.

For more on simple breakfasts from pantry staples, please read Pancakes next.

How To Make Homemade Pizza With Store Bought Dough

It’s fun and easy to have a regular pizza night at home.

Want to know how to make homemade pizza with store bought dough? It’s fun and easy to do. You can put whatever toppings on it that you enjoy. No rules or restrictions about half this and that and paying extra for it. Even put a new twist on something as basic as pepperoni pizza by putting the pepperoni beneath the cheese instead of on top. You might enjoy the flavor and texture better this way.

Equipment

My friend, Roblyn, introduced us to the idea of making our own pizzas. She had a bread maker and often made her own pizza dough. I wondered how we could aspire to such lofty heights. She told us that we needed a pizza stone (or two) and then we could let our imaginations run wild.

I tried making pizza before we got pizza stones. I made my own dough from scratch and baked it on a cookie sheet. That works, but a pizza stone works so much better. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees with the stones on the lowest shelves.

Make sure you have some silicone oven mitts because I burned through all my cloth ones pretty fast making pizzas. Thanks for turning me on to the silicone ones, Moni!

The Dough

Here’s how to simplify: Buy the dough. I put some in the freezer whenever I have an opportunity to buy it. Let your husband (or whomever else in the household is more patient and precise) roll out the dough. I can roll out the dough, but my pizza shape is very avant-garde looking. Never perfectly round. Michael is very precise and although not patient with many other things, he takes his time to roll out the pizza dough. Nice and thin. Perfectly round. Astounding! A pound of dough yields 2 pizzas for us, baked for about 10 minutes or until crust is golden.

If you want to make your own red sauce, read this post next.

Improvise

While traveling, I don’t want to cart around heavy pizza stones and a rolling pin, so I will then improvise with a cookie sheet and empty wine bottle to roll out the dough. If you don’t think you can get the crust as thin as you would like it this way, make a calzone instead. That’s what we did on a lovely trip to Paso Robles. I had forgotten to bring a little extra flour for the surface where I would be rolling out the dough. Thanks, John and Staci! You were wonderful hosts. We appreciate your helping us out with the flour at our home away from home!

Karyn and Michael with their Maltese in Paso Robles

For another idea on vacation meals, please read Cheater Sket next.

Don’t Be Chicken, It’s Easy to Roast

Roast a chicken with vegetables for a simple, delicious dinner anytime.

Michael loves a turkey dinner with all the fixings, just like his mother makes. She is a pro at it, so understandably I had some trepidation about being able to replicate it…so much so that on our honeymoon, I muttered in my sleep, “I forgot to baste the turkey.”

In the years that followed, I have successfully made that dinner, but it’s a lot of work for an everyday meal. So Michael and I have agreed on what the most essential elements are, so that he can enjoy it more often. As it turns out, he is just as happy with a roasted chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy and peas. Cranberry sauce doesn’t hurt. He’s partial to the jellied variety from the can, so I don’t even bother making something from scratch anymore, even though I think that’s more interesting.

Roast Chicken With Vegetables

In the early days, I even shied away from roasting a whole chicken. I had eaten boneless, skinless breasts for so long that I imagined roasting a whole bird to be a complicated affair until Michael’s Aunt Beanie said to me reassuringly, “It’s just about the easiest thing ever. All you have to do is put it in the oven.”

Aunt Beanie was right. You can stuff the cavity and under the skin with all kinds of herbs, onion, garlic, lemons etc. But in its simplest form, it couldn’t be easier. A little seasoned salt and roasted at 425 for an hour and a half works for a 4-5 pound bird. (Rubbing the skin with a little butter first helps it turn golden brown.) Let it rest before carving. In the meal pictured above, I threw some carrots into the roasting pan during the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Peas

Peas were always my least favorite part of this meal. As a child, I would swallow them whole with my milk whenever possible. I didn’t like the texture, so I basically came to view peas as only suitable for a garnish; a pop of color in paella, for example. Then my friend, Veronica, served fresh English peas in a way that I found absolutely delicious and not mushy. She put them into a skillet with some shallots and butter. Changed my view forever. I still keep the ubiquitous frozen variety around, but instead of boiling them, I now put them into a skillet with butter for a couple minutes with some onion and garlic. Easy peasy!

For more on mashed potatoes and gravy, please read No Small Potatoes.

Simple Creole Shrimp With Rice

Shrimp Creole with rice is easy to make and so versatile.

On our first trip to New Orleans, I learned about starting everything with onions, green bell pepper and celery. (A slight variation of another classic combination of onions, carrots and celery.)

There are so many ways to go with this beginning. One way to go is to make a Creole Shrimp dish. I start cooking my rice first. Whether you use a rice cooker or not, rice is easy. It can sit in your pantry for some time as long as it’s sealed properly and you can cook it any number of ways. I currently use a rice cooker, but I cooked it on the stovetop for many years.

Just boil water. Add half the amount of rice and reduce to the lowest heat to steam. Cover and wait. Cooking time depends on the kind of rice and your heat source. You can adjust the ratio of liquid to suit your needs. Less water yields drier rice. As long as your stovetop burner is not too hot, that should be fine. It’s okay to peek and fluff gently every 20 minutes or so. What kind of rice do you have? Wild rice cooks longer than others and requires more water. White rice cooks the fastest. My brown rice takes about 40 minutes. See what works for you in your kitchen.

Creole shrimp over rice with roasted corn

So, what do we have here? Began with chopped onions, bell pepper and celery in the skillet with olive oil. Let it cook a little bit while I stirred and then added some shrimp stock and canned tomatoes. You could quit here by reducing heat to let it do its own thing for 15 minutes or so after adding spices. I used French thyme, paprika, smoked paprika, a tiny bit of oregano and basil. I would have put a bay leaf in there, but I only had one left, so I decided to save it for another dish.

Making Roux

I decided a little late in the game that I wanted to add a roux. Usually I would start with the roux, but I often change directions in the middle of cooking. This is why I don’t usually tell Michael ahead of time what he’s having for dinner. I just say, “You’re gonna love it” because I often make it up as I go along.

A roux is basically equal parts of oil and flour. There are different methods to make it, but because I was in a hurry, I did the fast method. Into another skillet, I put about a tablespoon of flour and about a tablespoon of grapeseed oil. Over high heat, I whisked it quickly until it turned brown and then added to my vegetable mixture. It thickens the dish and adds a nice smoky flavor. We like a dark brown roux, but if you’re new to making a fast roux, I would recommend being careful because it can go from dark brown to black very fast.

Roasting Corn

Here’s an easy and delicious way to do corn that I learned from our friend, Tim. Rinse the corn while leaving it in the husk. Put it in the oven at 350 and let it coook for 45 minutes.

Once I’m almost ready to serve dinner, shrimp goes in to cook with sauce because it only takes a few minutes to turn pink, which means it’s ready.

Now, go experiment in your kitchen and have some fun.

Want more ideas for seafood? Please read Caesar Salad next.

Plant and Grow With an Eye to the Future

Try planting veggie scraps for zero waste cooking.

I applaud my friend Tina, who is making the most of her available land by deciding to plant a vegetable garden. I can hardly wait to see how everything matures. So many varieties she has chosen!

a newly planted vegetable garden with evergreens in the background

For many of us who cannot plant so extensively, we can still think about small, edible things we might grow in a pot. I wouldn’t describe myself as having a green thumb, but my friend, Debra, told me once years ago about green onions.
“Throw the root ends into some dirt and they know what to do.” Yes, she was right. Even I can grow green onions in a pot. Zero waste cooking!

green onions growing in small terra cotta pot

You can try planting a celery stump in a small space too. I have also planted a sliver of beet root. They are both sprouting leaves. We shall see where it leads!

Do you have a sunny spot for some tomatoes? There is nothing like a home grown tomato! How about some fresh herbs?

I heard that Swiss chard doesn’t need much sun. It’s also beautiful.

I saw these artichokes yesterday and thought they were breathtaking. Usually harvested for food before they’re allowed to flower, these were allowed to bloom so that we could appreciate their beauty.

Everyone loves flowers. Could you plant edible ones? Nasturtiums have a delicious peppery flavor, besides being visually stunning with their bright orange hue.

What can you plant and grow?

See what a difference even just a tiny sprinkling of green makes by viewing Pepper Prepper.

It’s Party Time With Pantry Pasta Perfection

Here’s one of my favorite simple meals.

It’s wonderful to be able to throw together a quick meal from the pantry. If you have dried pasta and a can of tomatoes, you’re in business. I try to get some protein into all simple meals, so let’s talk about one way to do that.

The Sauce

Puttanesca is a flavorful pasta sauce that you can prepare with very little fuss. Into a skillet with some olive oil goes minced garlic, then a can of drained anchovies. Smash them up into a paste and add some canned tomatoes before the garlic gets too brown. Add some red pepper flakes, capers and kalamata olives and as soon as your pasta is ready, the sauce will be too.

I can hear the protests now, “I don’t like anchovies.” “What are capers?” First off, I would be willing to bet that you have probably eaten something that you enjoyed with anchovies in it, but you just didn’t know it. Michael’s father likes anchovies on his pepperoni pizza. That may be too much saltiness in one bite for a lot of people, including Michael. But put some anchovies in a sauce, salad dressing or a rub and it adds a special something that’s undeniable. If you’re not sure, try starting off with just a little bit. Taste and see if you don’t agree.

Capers are flower buds pickled in a salty brine. Buy them in a jar just like olives and they can hang out in your fridge until any time you need a little kick of flavor. Michael claims he doesn’t like capers, but if I grind them up in the food processor so that he doesn’t see them or bite into one whole, it’s all good. Everyone is happy. I have also experimented with putting the capers into a tea ball or small strainer so that they can lend a little flavor to the sauce while preserving them whole so that I can enjoy them.

Adding Protein

So, I said protein, right? This sauce is a natural for all kinds of fish. You could skip the pasta and just serve it with the fish, in fact. Most often, I poach some fish in the sauce just before the pasta is ready. Remove the fish and reserve a little sauce to put on top before adding the cooked pasta to the pot of sauce.

If you’re having a party and serving many people, bake the fish. If you’re out of fresh and frozen fish, toss in a can of tuna or salmon. If you’re out of pasta, try it with polenta or another grain. Can you make a version of this sauce without some of these ingredients? Of course! Can you add other ingredients? Of course! Let us know what you create.

linguine puttanesca with fish on a white plate

Ingredients List:

olive oil
garlic
anchovies
red pepper flakes
kalamata olives
capers
canned tomatoes
pasta
fish

For more on using anchovies, please read Caesar Salad next.

Undressing the Dressing: Secrets Revealed

Learn to make healthy homemade salad dressing.

It amuses me whenever someone watches me prepare a simple meal and suddenly they gasp in amazement, “You make your own salad dressing?!” Um…yes, I guess I take it for granted that everyone does. If you haven’t, rest assured that it’s very simple. I hardly ever buy bottled dressing because healthy homemade salad dressing is so easy.

Making Dressing

Usually I start with a clove of garlic and a pinch of salt in my mortar. I mash that up with my pestle and then add some kind of acid to it. Fresh lemon juice is my favorite, but it could be any kind of citrus juice or vinegar that you have available.

I keep a variety of vinegars in my pantry as they each have their own distinct qualities and they have a long, if not indefinite shelf life. Balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar and rice vinegar are among my favorites. Then I take a fork and use it to slowly whisk in some olive oil. That’s it. Couldn’t be simpler. Taste it as you go and you will find the ratio that works for you. (If I didn’t have a mortar and pestle or food processor, I would mince the garlic and then mash it with the flat side of a big knife, put it into a bowl and whisk in the rest of the ingredients.)

Now, it doesn’t mean you have to stop there. You can layer in all kinds of additions to change the personality of this dressing. Fresh or dried herbs of your choice, dijon or some other kind of mustard, additional spices, fruit jam, honey, miso paste etc. etc. etc. Just think about how you want to balance the flavors in a way that appeals to you and your family.

More Than Veggies

So here’s a salad where I added dried mint to the basic dressing. Finishing up some fresh produce here, with the addition of some leftover farro and canned black beans. Dried grains and canned beans are elevated to a higher level when they’re paired with something fresh. If you’re spacing out your shopping trips, it’s nice to consider combining in this way: something fresh, something dried, something canned…and always finding a new purpose for your leftovers!

tossed salad with radicchio on a white plate — Radicchio with romaine, tomatoes, avocado, black beans, farro, green onion and cilantro with lemon mint vinaigrette

For more salad inspiration, please read Meet the Beets next.

Pancakes From Scratch Are the Best

Pancakes: one of the best simple meals.

I am one of those people who wakes up hungry and one of my first concerns in the morning is what I will eat. As a child, pancakes were my favorite. I would cry if we went out to a restaurant and they didn’t serve pancakes…for dinner. My perplexed young mind wondered, “What kind of a dump doesn’t serve pancakes? What’s the point of going out to dinner?”

One of my favorite simple meals, I could still eat pancakes any time of day. Once when Michael and I were dating, he called at 10 PM and asked what I was doing. “Making pancakes,” I answered nonchalantly. “Making pancakes?!” he exclaimed incredulously. “Do you know how fattening those are?” I thought to myself, “What’s so fattening about one egg and 2 tablespoons of olive oil?” (And that’s for a batch that would feed at least 2 people.) It took me years to realize his understanding was that pancakes were made with bacon fat. If that’s the way you make them, that’s fine. But that’s not the way I grew up eating them.

Measuring

For pancakes and baked goods, I make an exception to not following a formula. If you don’t measure properly, you won’t get the desired results and you can’t taste along the way to see if it’s right. I made the mistake of not explaining this to my young friend once who so kindly volunteered to make us some pancakes when I wasn’t feeling well. From bed, I called out the instructions, eagerly anticipating her creation.

Bless her heart. I didn’t even recognize what she brought me. After inquiring about the process, I realized that she didn’t know how to properly measure dry ingredients. Flour must be leveled off with a knife. Baking powder must be leveled off with its lid. Salt and sugar should not be heaping spoonfuls–just level with the top of the measuring spoon. Sift through a mesh strainer to break up any lumps of baking powder or baking soda.

The Foundation

Mix together dry ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour
3 teaspooons baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt.

Mix together wet ingredients:

1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoons oil

Combine everything and mix just until the batter is wet. Lumpy is fine. Don’t overmix it.

If you have buttermilk, that’s even better! I use it so infrequently that I don’t buy it often. If I’m not too impatient to get cooking, I might add a bit of lemon juice to some milk and let it sit for 20 minutes instead. To the batter described above, you can add any number of fruits, spices and/or nuts. Be sure to mix fruit with dry ingredients before combining with the wet ingredients. You could experiment with different kinds of flour. My favorite spice is cardamom. It works so well in both sweet and savory dishes, so I love to add it to my pancakes.

Two blueberry pancakes on a white plate with a pat of butter. Small bowls of walnuts and blueberries sit in the background with a bottle of maple syrup that is almost empty. — Michael made these blueberry pancakes for me after learning how simple it is

If you don’t have milk, try oat milk. It’s not exactly the same, but it works. Try with a little yogurt too. I have experimented with all kinds of concoctions when I have been out of an ingredient for pancakes. You don’t have to be intimidated!

Michael likes his pancakes topped with coconut syrup, which we discovered on our honeymoon in Hawaii, but I prefer real maple syrup. Growing up, we often didn’t use syrup at all. My mother thought molasses or honey was healthier, so that’s what we used. You could skip syrup altogether and make a fruit compote instead. Or you could….here I go…on and on once again…

How do you like your pancakes?

If you enjoy simple meals for breakfast, please read Ode to Oatmeal next.

Become Fearless About Preparing Fish

Learning how to prepare fish is simple.

I find fish wonderfully versatile and I love experimenting with all different kinds, which is why I find it so sad when I see this oft repeated scene at the fish counter: Someone interested in trying out a fish they are unfamiliar with asks how to prepare it. Inevitably the fishmonger replies, “Grill it, bake it or broil it.” The once curious person sighs in disappointment and replies, “Just give me some salmon.”

What just happened here? The fishmonger was technically correct in his answer, but it wasn’t enough information. What the customer really wanted to know is, “How do I make it taste good?” That, my friend, is the name of the game.

How do I make fish taste good? Pair it with something interesting.

Cod with mushroom sauce, roasted sweet potatoes and asparagus

Make a Sauce

Here is an example of a simple sauce that elevates something ordinary into extraordinary. Sauteed mushrooms in a little butter and olive oil, then added minced garlic, and then some white wine. Let it reduce. Once the fish had finished cooking, I added the liquid from its baking dish and let the sauce keep working while I began plating everything.

Keep it Simple

You can cook everything at 400 in the oven. Just be mindful of the different cooking times. Sweet potatoes take the longest at about 30 minutes. Stirred them a few times so they got some color on all sidees. The cod wasn’t fully thawed, so it took about 20 minutes.

A word to the wise: do not overcook your fish! This is one reason so many people think they don’t like fish. If it’s so dry that you have to drink a couple of glasses of water to eat it, then it’s overcooked! Test it with a fork to see that it flakes in the middle. That’s it. Some fish you may want to merely sear and others you would prefer medium-rare. Cod is best fully cooked, but not overcooked! Here’s a video on the subject:

Asparagus

Asparagus takes the least amount of time. In my opinion it should never, ever be overcooked. Repeat: Never, ever. These stalks weren’t very thick. They took about 15 minutes roasted in the oven. (If you boil asparagus, they only take a couple minutes. Once they turn bright green and are fork tender, take them out.)

Did I overhear you asking the guy at the fish counter how to cook that exotic fish? Are you ready to try?

How about making some ahi tuna? Please read Ahi Tataki next.