West Coast kitchen garden

Happy Valentines Month! Whether you are spending it with a partner, a friend or solo, you should be celebrating it with something sweet like this ultra easy, Chocolate Hazelnut Tart! Rich and creamy with a delicious hazelnut crust and a sweet-tart raspberry sauce this is the ultimate melt in your mouth dessert and a quick, easy “cake” recipe.

Japanese inspired Miso Baked Oysters are bright and tangy with lemon, an unctuous riff on Oysters Rockefeller. Oysters baked over spinach with a rich and zippy sauce and topped with a touch of cheese to seal in the creamy goodness. But guess what? just omit the cheesy topping for a dairy free dish!

This Thai Vegetable and Steak Salad Bowl is Week 4 of January’s healthy dinner recipes. This salad has a lovely bright and punchy vinaigrette style dressing and the salad is packed with fresh veggies and herbs. Basil, cilantro and mint plus Thai chilis if you choose to include them, make this meal in a bowl sing. This is one of my very favourite low carb, high nutrient salads!

Wild Mushroom and Lentil Stew is the recipe for week 3 of my healthy January dinners. This vegetarian stew has deep, rich and delicious flavour from caramelized onions and the same varieties of mushrooms I used in my Wild Mushroom Soup recipe.
Lentils are full of protein and more importantly for vegetarians, iron. The green lentils I used for this recipe have 12 grams of protein, 25% of your daily recommended intake of iron and 5 grams of fiber per 1/4 cup!!! Definitely a nutrition powerhouse.

Chirashi sushi bowl recipe (often Chirashizushi in Japanese restaurants) is my second healthy eating meal for January. This recipe is so easy to customize that it’s great for families with picky eaters. Beautifully arranged ingredients over rice make a delicious and unique dish for company or enjoy this one bowl meal during movie night at home. There are a few theories behind the origin of Chirashi, the seasoned rice dish with delectable ingredients scattered over the top. The word itself means to scatter. Some say it was during the 1600’s when Japanese people were ordered to live frugal lives including plain rice.

Today’s Italian White Bean recipe is fantastic as a make-ahead dish, super simple, minimal and economical and can be a vegan main dish or side dish. This dish takes some time to simmer but is mostly hands off and with a bright hit of fresh herbs and garlic at the end

This week’s recipe is inspired by one of the dishes I tried recently at Pluvio in Ucluelet. My version is much simpler I’m sure, but gets deep flavour from roasting the cauliflower and stirring in a little hazelnut oil at the end adds a nutty richness. (Below a pic of the delicious Pluvio version which was garnished with local sidestriped shrimp-HEAVEN!)This soup is a perfect starter but also a light lunch or dinner. I served mine garnished with homemade croutons (crispy outside, soft inside), parsley and fresh hazelnuts grown right here in Campbell River. It is equally good made vegan by using nut milk and veggie stock instead of dairy and chicken stock. Enjoy my friends 🙂

What makes this mushroom soup different than others is that the mushrooms are pureed with a secret ingredient for the body of the soup. A small amount of this amazing flavour bomb enriches and deepens the flavour and makes this stand out from every other mushroom soup you’ve likely ever tried.

Summer is prime time for perfect, fresh vegetables whether from your own garden or the farmer’s market. In our house we are mostly eating them raw and plain as fast as we can pluck them off the vines or from the ground but sometimes we want that little extra. With a plethora of perfect beans, I decided to briefly blanch them and serve them with a piquant aioli flavored with a bunch of gorgeous basil, some parsley and chives and up the umami with some anchovies.

A simple and easy dessert with a cake that takes under 30 minutes to make and bake. The strawberries and rhubarb are gently cooked with a little sugar and thickener to create an incredibly luscious filling. Topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream flavoured with lavender syrup or vanilla, this is a crowd pleaser.