Category : Recipes

Green smoothie recipe

Trying to think of an innovative way to use your freshly-picked fruit? Look no further! “Green” smoothies are a fantastic way to drink your fruits and veggies. Forget the caffeine: when you need an energy boost, a nutrient-rich homemade green smoothie will be just the ticket.

Sometimes my "green" smoothies turn out purple or pink because I use a higher quantity of fruit - but I just love this shade of bright green!

The best part about green smoothies is that for the most part, you can’t taste the leafy greens at all. As long as you use a higher ratio of fruit to leafy greens, the flavour of the fruit will completely override the green taste. The banana is really useful for making the smoothie creamy, and the seeds offer high-quality protein and fat to compliment the fruit and leafy greens.

This recipe is highly adaptable in terms of the various leafy greens, liquids and fruit that you can use. Have fun playing around with it! And be sure to email us at [email protected] with your new creations. We love finding new recipes for using all the local fruit we pick, so keep those recipes coming.

Basic Green Smoothie Recipe

Ingredients

- 1 cup water (can also use 100% pure fruit juice* or any type of milk)

- 1 handful leafy greens (my favourite is spinach because it breaks down easily in the blender, but green leaf lettuce and romaine lettuce work very well too)

- 1/2 frozen banana (peel the banana before you freeze it and put it in a tightly-sealed container to save yourself hassle when you bring the frozen fruit out of the freezer)

- 1/2 cup other frozen fruit (blueberries work awesome here, but any fruit will do)

- 1 – 2 tablespoons ground flax or chia seeds (optional)

Directions

- Add all ingredients into a blender

- Blend on high until everything is very well-blended and smooth (add more liquid if necessary, a couple tablespoons at a time)

- Pour into a tall glass and enjoy!

What’s your favourite smoothie recipe? Have you had a green smoothie before? What creative recipes do you make with the fruit you pick?

*Try pressing your own fruit at home and make fresh fruit juice with the fruit you pick through Fruit Share!

Many Winnipeg homes (at least those 40 years or older) have an obligatory rhubarb plant stuck somewhere on their property.  Some, who enjoy rhubarb, even have two or three plants.  But rarely are there homeowners with over 20 plants.  So, when we got a call from Melissa offering up her 20-30 rhubarb plants we were thrilled!

Our volunteers picked a whopping 62 pounds of rhubarb in Melissa’s backyard.  That’s over 400 stalks of rhubarb which would make about 60 rhubarb pies, or five batches of Grandmere’s Rhubarb Marmalade, a family recipe submitted to us by Summer, one of the volunteers who helped on this pick.

We know Winnipeg Harvest was able to put their 1/3 to good use as well.

Grandmere’s Rhubarb Marmalade

Ingredients:
12 lbs rhubarb
10 lbs. sugar
6 oranges

Preparation:
Squeeze the juice of six oranges and use the grated peel of three.

Wash and chop rhubarb small.

Layer rhubarb with the sugar and orange in a large, heavy pot (traditionally:  cast iron was always used!) and let it sit overnight.

Stir once to mix in the sugar.

Next day, cook slowly for 6 hours or until thick, stirring often.  Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

Enjoy!

Savory Rhubarb

Green rhubarb lends itself nicely to some savory rhubarb recipes.  I decided to try my hand at Rhubarb Ginger Relish and Rhubarb Barbecue Sauce.  Oh yes, I kid you not!

Rhubarb Ginger Relish

A compilation of various recipes I found, again on a quest to find something with as little sugar as possible.  But, hey, it’s rhubarb – some sugar required!

Ingredients:

2 cups diced rhubarb

2 cups chopped onion

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp allspice

1 tsp salt

Preparation:

In a saucepan, combine all ingredients.

Bring to boil and continue to boil gently until mixture becomes thick, about 20-30 minutes.

Taste and adjust seasoning according to your preference.

Place in hot, sterilized jars.  (see previous post)

Heat process your jars if saving for more than 3 months in the refrigerator. (see previous post)

 

Rhubarb Barbecue Sauce

Who would have thought!  This one came from the Washington Post and I almost followed it exactly!

Ingredients:

2 tsp canola oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cups rhubarb

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp water, plus more as needed to thin the sauce to your preferred consistency

2 tsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp cider vinegar

1 tbsp honey

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 tsp salt

Fresh ground black pepper, or cayenne pepper

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Preparation:

Heat oil in a saucepan.

Cook onion in saucepan until soft and translucent -do not brown.

Add the rhubarb, brown sugar and water.  Bring to boil and cook until rhubarb is soft, about 6 to 7 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let the mixture sit in the saucepan for 15 minutes.

Add mustard, vinegar, honey, ketchup, salt and pepper to taste, stirring to combine.

Transfer to a blender and puree, or use an immersion blender in the saucepan to puree until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

To serve, warm the sauce. For a thinner sauce, add water, apple juice, if desired, or the cooking juices from whatever main ingredient the sauce is being served with.

Enjoy!

 

Rhubarb

Let the picking begin!

This week we had our first rhubarb harvests.  Check out the tally on the side to see how much we’ve collected and where we’re donating it.

Thanks to all our fruit owners for giving us access to their rhubarb and thanks to the volunteers who are picking and sharing it.

Now, to enjoy that rhubarb here are some great recipes submitted by our volunteers and fans in 2010!

The following are some recipes that were submitted to our blog in 2010.  Just click on the link to get the full recipe.

Rustic Rhubarb Tart

Honey Oat Whole Wheat Muffins

Classic Stewed Rhubarb

Rhubarb Parfait

Rhubarb Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Rhubarb Slush Beverage

Rhubarb Crisp

Rhubarb Oatmeal Bars

Microwave Apple Crisp for One

It’s 1:30pm and after writing several articles on tasty, delicious Manitoba fruit, I’ve got a huge craving for apple crisp. I’m home alone, and I just can’t wait until everyone comes home tonight.

 

It’s time to whip up a nice little serving of Apple Crisp for One.

Microwave Apple Crisp for One
Ingredients
1 apple
1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp homemade granola or rolled oats
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp butter – melted


Preparation
Core, peel and thinly slice apple.
Place apple slices in a small microwave safe dish.

In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients.
Pour melted butter over dry ingredients.
Mix.
Pour crumbly mixture on top of apples.
Microwave on high power for 2 minutes or until apples are tender.
Top with a small scoop of ice cream.
Enjoy!

Of course, using the microwave can’t reproduce the crispy, golden crumbs that you get when you bake a crisp in the oven, but this recipe is a nice, quick alternative.

Apple Curry Soup

You know you have too many apples when you start making apple soup!

 

I was a little skeptical about this simple apple soup recipe.  Apples and onions – really?

Really, it’s great!  Simple and elegant, this soup makes an impressive first course to any special dinner.

Apple Curry Soup
Apple Curry Soup

Ingredients
1 Tbsp. butter
1 large onion, sliced thinly
4 cups vegetable stock
3 Manitoba Goodland apples, cored, peeled, & chopped
1 tsp. curry powder (or to taste)

3 sprigs of curry plant leaves (optional)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup light cream
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Sauté onion in 1tbsp of butter until soft.

Add soup stock, apples, curry powder, curry leaves and lemon juice.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and let simmer for 10 to 20 minutes until apples are soft but not mushy.
Strain mixture through a sieve or a food mill.
Compost the remaining pulp.

In another large saucepan, melt remaining butter.
Mix in flour and cook 1 to 2 minutes.
Whisk in the strained soup.
Heat through.
Adjust seasoning.

Heat cream in the microwave.*
Add cream to soup.
Garnish with sprig of curry plant.
Serve.

Makes 4 servings.

*Heating cream will help prevent it from curdling when being added to a hot liquid.
Sauté onions.
Add apples, stock and seasoning.

 

Strain mixture through food mill.

Dried Apple Rings

We finally made those oven dried apple rings that we mentioned several weeks ago. They’re fabulous!  The adults love them as much as the kids do.  They make a perfect snack for back to school.

These apple rings still have a little moisture to them.  If you are going to store them for a long time, you might want to dry them out even more by keeping them in the oven a little longer.  Storing them has not been an issue in our house since they’re all gone within a couple of days.

In an effort to be somewhat energy efficient, I throw in a fresh batch whenever the oven is already on after baking something else.

We’ve also discovered that sprinkling a little cinnamon on top before they go in the oven, is a great addition.

 

Here’s a photo gallery of how we made them.
Wash, peel, core and slice apples.

 

Soak in lemon water for 5 minutes.

 

Drain and pat dry.
Place on rack on top of cookie sheet.
Put in oven for 3-4 hours. 

 

Take out when dry – chewy but not crispy.

 

Apple Cake Recipes

My friend Kathryn sent me this link to two dozen apple cake recipes.

http://tipnut.com/make-apple-cake/

Now, which one to make first?

Drying Apples

Chris, another great FruitShare volunteer found a recipe for dried apple rings.

If you try this recipe, please let us know how it works.

Dried apples
Ingredients
4 medium tart apples
2 tbls. lemon juice
2 cups water


Preparation
Pre heat oven to 300 Combine water and lemon juice in a large bowl
Core apples and slice into 1/4 inch rings
Place apple rings in water, juice mixture and make sure to cover apple completely for 5 minutes. This will keep apples from discoloring.
Drain well and pat dry
Lightly spray 2 wire racks with cooking spray
Arrange rings on racks in single layer making sure not to touch
Set each rack on a baking sheet
put into oven one sheet on top oven rack and the other on the bottom rack.
Bake for 15 minutes
Reverse sheets in the oven.( Place the top sheet on the bottom rack and the top sheet on the bottom
Bake for 15 more minutes
Shut oven off and let rings dry in the oven without opening the door, about 3 hours.

Maple Apple Crisp Recipe


From Aleta, one of our great Fruit Share Volunteers.

I made a big pot of applesauce and Maple Apple Crisp.  Here’s the recipe I adapted from one I found in my collection.


Maple Apple Crisp
Ingredients
6 cups apples – peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 pinch salt
1/3 cup butter, softened


Preparation
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Place apples in an 8×8 inch baking pan, or a 2 litre pottery flat bottomed dish.
Toss apples with syrup.
In a separate bowl, mix together flour, oats, sugar, and salt.
Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.
Sprinkle mixture evenly over apples.
Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, until topping is golden brown.
Serve warm or at room temperature.


Serves 4-6