Side Dish – Page 2

Mango Salsa

August 26, 2015 by Asharae Leave a Comment

You guys. Where did summer go? Somehow we’re here, at the end of August, and my Facebook feed is filled with photos of kids going off to their first day of school. I was shocked a few weeks ago when we were walking around Target and found that the whole back corner of the store was filled with school supplies. Between our traveling and shooting weddings every weekend this summer, the months have slipped past me and I barely noticed. If I woke up tomorrow and someone told me it was still April, I would honestly believe them.

We’re traveling in and around Chicago the next couple weeks and the chill in the air here is much more noticeable than it was back in North Carolina. There’s a distinct fall-ish feel which I really do love. That doesn’t mean that I’m ready to relinquish summer foods though. This recipe for mango salsa is one of our favorites to make in the summertime! It’s actually a recipe that my husband Tim created when we lived in Seattle several years ago. It was the perfect colorful dish to combat the dreary summer we had while we lived there.

This salsa goes great with chips, fish tacos, on top of a quesadilla, or even over grilled chicken. Try adding more jalapeño to give it more of a kick, and feel free to adjust the lime, sweet chili sauce, and cilantro to taste.

Mango Salsa

Tim Kroll

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Ingredients

1 large ripe mango pitted, peel removed, diced
2 roma tomatoes diced
1/4 c red onion diced
1 small jalapeño seeds removed (optional), diced
1 Tbs sweet chili sauce
1/2 tsp salt
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 Tbs fresh cilantro chopped

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Enjoy with chips, on fish tacos, or over a quesadilla!

Oven-Roasted Parmesan Garlic Broccoli

April 8, 2015 by Asharae 2 Comments

You guys. This recipe is a little treasure. Recently a friend of mine shared that she had tried roasting broccoli in the oven one day and never looked back. I took her advice and tried it myself and even though I loved broccoli before, this takes it to a whole other level.

The little broccoli stalks get nice and tender, and the “leaves” get crispy and delicious. With a little salt and pepper, a couple cloves of garlic, and some olive oil, this simple side dish couldn’t get much easier. Squeeze some lemon and grate a little fresh parmesan over the top and you’re ready to enjoy!

I adapted this recipe from one called “Magic Broccoli” over on Recipe Tin Eats – I just discovered her blog and imagine I’ll be spending lots of time combing through her delicious looking recipes soon! Hop over there to she what she’s cooking up!

Oven-Roasted Parmesan Garlic Broccoli

Adapted from Recipe Tin Eats

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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Ingredients

1 bunch broccoli washed and cut into florets
2 cloves garlic sliced
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 Tbs olive oil
Fresh squeezed lemon juice
Freshly grated parmesan

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
Toss broccoli and garlic together on a rimmed baking sheet with 2 Tbs olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 10 minutes, remove from oven and flip broccoli. Roast for 10 more minutes, or until stalks are tender and tops start to get crispy.
Remove from oven, sprinkle with fresh lemon juice and parmesan. Serve immediately.

The Best Guacamole

January 29, 2015 by Asharae 3 Comments

Confession time. I’ve been holding onto this recipe for a long time. As in I-took-these-photos-last-February long time. And I offer you my deepest apologies. This guacamole is seriously delicious, and it should have been in your life a long time ago. I usually don’t write my recipes down for things like salsa, tzatziki, and guacamole – but last year I finally wrote this one down to share with all of you. And then I promptly – ahem – misplaced the recipe card. (Okay, maybe I lost it, never to be found again.)

Since we’re nearing the end of football season, and in anticipation of the big game (can I call it the Super Bowl here? Is that allowed?) I figured it was the perfect time to recreate this recipe for you to enjoy!

If you like a little texture to your guacamole, feel free to add diced onions and perhaps don’t mash your avocados all the way. If you’d rather have smooth guacamole, you can mash it to your heart’s content. The jalapeños are also optional in this recipe – if you remove the seeds, they don’t add too much heat, but you’re welcome to leave them out if you’re sensitive to spicy food. I prefer this recipe with lots of white onion for crunch (even though I photographed it with red onion) and a jalapeño or two for added heat. The lime and cilantro help to balance out the jalapeño and onion and add an extra level of deliciousness. Mmmm. So good.

The Best Guacamole

Asharae Kroll

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Servings 6 -8

Ingredients

4 ripe avocados see note below about choosing avocados
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne
Juice of 1-2 limes
Handful of cilantro leaves chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional about 1/4 c red or white onion, minced
Optional 1 jalapeño, seeds removed, diced

Instructions

Remove avocado from the peel. The best way to do it - carefully using a sharp knife, cut all the way around the avocado, end to end. You'll gently cut around the pit in the middle. An easy way to remove the pit is to carefully, but firmly press a sharp knife into the pit (please be careful - don't want you to lose any fingers in the name of guacamole!) Once the knife blade is pressed into the pit, take the avocado half in your hand and gently twist the avocado one way and the knife the other direction. The pit should release from the avocado. Save one of your avocado pits to use in a minute. Once you've halved all your avocados and removed the pits, use a butter knife to cut the avocado into pieces, being careful not to cut through the skin. Use a spoon to scoop the avocado pieces out.
Combine avocado with the rest of ingredients and mash together until guacamole reaches the consistency you prefer. Enjoy with chips, on tacos, with a quesadilla, or eat straight with a spoon - I won't judge.
Place the avocado pit you saved in with the finished guacamole - this helps keep it from turning brown so quickly. Store in an airtight container and enjoy within 3 days.

Notes

When choosing an avocado at the grocery store, look for ones with firm, smooth skin (no weird hollow spots, squishy spots, or bruises). You can check to see if an avocado is past its prime by removing the small stem - if it's still green underneath, your avocado is still okay. If it has turned brown under the stem, the avocado is past being ripe - don't purchase these. Let the avocados ripen on your counter for a few days if they're particularly firm.

Caprese Salad with Honey Balsamic Reduction and some Mid-Week Inspiration

September 10, 2014 by Asharae 1 Comment

This week I want to share a few of the things that I’ve been inspired by lately. I hope a few of these words speak to you and perhaps encourage you to read these books or visit these blogs. Enjoy!

Tsh Oxenreider and her family’s year-long round-the-world trip.

I’m completely in awe of this trip Tsh and her husband are about to set out on with their three kids. I haven’t even gotten a chance to read her book Notes From A Blue Bike which I bought back in the spring, but it’s next on the list. I love reading stories of families who are thinking outside the box – the ones who are willing to make certain sacrifices in order to pursue what’s most important to them.

The Oxenreiders are doing something which seems so radical to some, but as Tsh explains it – “Traveling is in our blood.”

I love this quote from her blog. I think it applies to so many things, particularly when it comes to taking a big “next step,” in anything from vocation to marriage to family to going on a year-long trip around the world.

“I think sometimes we feel like there needs to be this extrinsic, sign-from-God sort of reason to do something this big. But really, what if God simply delights in us following our desires? What if we’re partly fulfilling our vocation (in the literal sense of the word) by acting on our deepest passions?”

Yes. This.

These photos of the Ingalls homestead from Joy Prouty.

Go look at them. And read her words. Altogether they make me want to melt in a puddle of happiness. I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was a kid – and these photos reminded me of how much they ignited my imagination – perhaps my secret longing to build my own house, grow my own food, and raise chickens and goats has something to do with those books. I even remember a short-lived phase where I insisted on calling my parents Ma and Pa.

I think Little House on the Prairie is moving up on my list of books to re-read. But right now I’m trying to convince Tim we should read The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle aloud – it’s another of my childhood favorites. We started reading it on Sunday, and he was sweet enough to read a few chapters to me before I started snoring on the couch. Sunday afternoons man. They’ll getcha.

Anna Watson Carl and her blog The Yellow Table

I’m a relatively new reader of Anna’s blog, but I’ve been loving everything she writes. She’s a chef and a writer based in NYC and she’s publishing a cookbook this fall. It’s been a lot of fun to follow her journey via Instagram and her blog. She writes with refreshing honesty about combatting the doubts and discouragement and realizing her need for rest, refreshment, and new perspective.

I came across this post of hers recently and it really resonated with me. I too have trouble slowing down and truly resting. Working from home and running my own business is a blessing and a curse in that regard. I’m home all the time, so it seems it would be easy to relax and simply enjoy being home. The flip side of that is that I’m also always at work – there’s always more to be done – more emails to send, more blog posts to write, more photos to edit. And it really never ends. I’ve taken to (almost) never checking my email on the weekends because I simply need a break from it all. I’m slowly letting go of the guilt I can sometimes feel when I let an email go a couple days before I answer it. My heart and my brain simply need to rest sometimes.

This recipe is inspired partly by the plethora of tomatoes we have exploding from our garden right now and partly by our honeymoon over four years ago (no, we didn’t go to Italy, but we did eat at an amazing Italian restaurant in Georgia of all places.) We ordered caprese salad as an appetizer and it maybe changed our lives. Mine at least. The waiter explained that they had created a balsamic vinegar reduction to drizzle over the tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. All I remember is that that dish forever changed my dislike for tomatoes. The sweet, salt and peppery, tart combination left me yearning to figure out how to recreate that dish. Until now I’d never actually tried. I came across this recipe for a honey balsamic reduction and adapted it into my usual caprese salad ensemble. The result – delicious.

Caprese Salad with Honey Balsamic Reduction

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Ingredients

For the Honey Balsamic Reduction

1/2 c balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs honey

For the salad

3 Medium tomatoes any variety - we used Black Krim, Lemon Boy, and Better Boy tomatoes
Mozzarella buying the pre-sliced rounds makes this easy - I even slice those in half since they're so thick
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh basil chopped

Instructions

For the Honey Balsamic Reduction

Combine the balsamic vinegar and honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until syrupy and reduced to 1/3 c, about 10-12 minutes. Let cool to room temperature. Store leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge.

Assemble the salad

Layer the salad in this order - tomato, salt and pepper, mozzarella, honey balsamic reduction, fresh basil.
Enjoy!

Notes

If you're short on time or feeling lazy, you can always skip the honey balsamic reduction and drizzle a few teaspoons of balsamic vinegar over your tomatoes instead.