Category: Ingredients

Fearless Cooking with Nopal Cactus

Growing up in the Sonoran Desert I was surrounded by all the spiny, thorny, sharp things called cacti with names like Saguaro, Cholla or Jumping, Organ Pipe, Barrel, and Prickly Pear.

Prickly pear is one of the most prolific of all the cacti and highly adaptable. Like most cacti, once the thorns are removed, it is edible. I knew that cactus could be eaten and, with a grandmother who spent time in Mexico, it would be a natural assumption that I learned how to cook with this plant. As I cooked by her side I was not shown the secrets of how to prepare and cook either prickly pear (the fruit) or Nopal (the leaves).

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Article Roundup: Summer Produce

Summer is a great time for produce of all sorts. While the exact growing season will vary according to climate, there are fruits and vegetables available at farmers markets, grocers, and possibly in your own backyard throughout the season. Chef Johnna has looked into the history of a variety of produce, showing you where each plant originated and how it was used over the centuries.

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Let’s Talk Spices, New on YouTube

One of the things I love to talk about is food history. It’s no secret I’ve spent many, many hours reading and researching where the food comes from.

I got the opportunity in January at the Arizona VegFest to share some food history. I gave this talk on the history of spices, where they come from and why some of them are on our baking racks instead in our savory recipes.

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Ancient and Modern: Dates

date palmWhat’s not to like about the sweet, soft, scrunchy taste of a date? If for some reason you don’t like them in their pure state, they can be pureed, chopped, wrapped, stuffed, and otherwise transformed into enjoyable foodie fare. Plus they pack a nutritional punch, much better than eating sugar.

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The Great Pumpkin

Pumpkins are a symbol of the fall harvest. They invoke in us the feeling that summer is over and winter approaches. As the leaves on trees turn, pumpkins are harvested and piled up in attractive displays in the grocery stores, ready for us to pick, choose, and buy.

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Chocolate: Food of the Ancient Gods

Chocolate pervades every part of our society, from candy bars to hot cocoa, from truffles to molten lava cakes. Most of us enjoy a good chocolate bar any day of the week and a steaming mug of cocoa can warm the soul on a cold winter’s evening. Chocolate is the food of lovers, given on Valentine’s Day to show devotion. Supposedly cacao contains some aphrodisiac qualities, but before you exchange Viagra for chocolate, remember that this has not been proven yet.

However you like your chocolate, what exactly are you enjoying and why? Reams of paper and millions of computer bytes have been used to explain chocolate, argue its merits, and dispel or repute myths.

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An Apple A Day

Over the next three months apples are in full bloom and while I can get them year round in my market, the fall season is the time they really shine. But what is an apple and where did it come from?

Apples were once tart, bitter, and almost inedible. The tree can be traced back to Kazakhstan and the surrounding area. Apples belong to the Rose family (as well as peaches) and at one time there were over 10,000 varieties of apples. Today there are about 7,000 classified varieties. In the American market we see only a handful of these apples.

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The Magic of Mushrooms

Mushrooms are a part of our human heritage, our collective consciousness. Ancient cultures used psilocybin, the “magic” mushroom, to open the “gates of heaven” and communicate with the gods. Fungi grows in every part of the world; in crevices, on trees, in cow poo. They’ve been used for over 3,000 years in Chinese medicine as a way to prevent cancer and heart disease and promote longevity.

Recipes for cooking mushrooms can be found as early as the 4th century A.D. in the collection “Apicus, Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome.” Cooking techniques can be found referenced in ancient Egyptian tablets and mushroom motifs are prolific in the pre-Colombian art of the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica

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Whats In a Bowl: A Brief History of Rice

Somewhere in Asia or India between 3,000 and 7,000 years ago people began to cultivate a wild grass known as rice. In several Asian languages the word for rice and food are the same, indicating the importance of this grain in the daily diet of Asian countries.

There are several mythologies surrounding the origin of rice.

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For the Love of Lemons

Lemons have been around for thousands of years. In all the articles I examined, I found that experts can't agree on where they originated. Speculation says they come from Northern India, Burma, and/or southern China. Lemons are a cross breed between lime and citron. Citrus has long been domesticated and genetically altered. One of the more easily manipulated plants, lemons have been cross-bred with a variety of other citrus. No matter where they are from, this remains fact.

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Books by Chef Johnna

  • Delectable Vegan Soups -------------------------------------------------------
  • Things Vegans Fry: Crunchy Comfort Food for Vegans

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