Year Ahead Series 2017 | Looking Forward to Spring Food (in the Middle of Winter)

There comes a time once Thanksgiving and Christmas pass and I'm [not so] patiently awaiting Spring's arrival that even the thought of eating another sweet potato or stew just gives me the blah's. I think I suffer from Winter fatigue earlier than most, being from Florida, but I'm sure you can relate to pining for fresh green things and bright flavors even while there's still snow on the ground. These couple of months we face in-between seasons definitely pose a challenge when it comes to what we crave versus what we have access to, especially here in the Midwest.

In the spirit of looking ahead, I thought I'd share some of my favorite (economical and still seasonable) tips for incorporating those bright Spring flavors into your cooking now. After all, the beginning of the year is a time when we're typically trying to lighten up after the holidays anyway, and this style of cooking sure feels a lot less heavy than the type of fare we've likely all been eating since October.

1. Green up your plate.

My number one favorite tip for going green while waiting on Spring is to toss frozen peas into EVERYTHING.

Most of us won't typically use fresh peas, even in the Spring, unless we grow our own. It's so much easier, anyway, to go with frozen and you don't even miss out on any of the nutritional value that way.

An easy way to incorporate frozen peas when making pasta is to just throw them right into boiling water with the pasta during the last 2 minutes of cooking. They plump right up and stay bright green, plus you don't have to dirty a second pot. This works especially well with white sauces or light, acidic sauces.

Here's an idea... opt to dress your cooked pasta and peas with a drizzle of olive oil that's been heated with a couple of peeled, whole garlic cloves in it. Toast Panko bread crumbs in a tiny bit of that oil, too. Toss the bread crumbs with the oil and pasta and a shake of red pepper flakes. Finish with parmesan.

Another great way to use frozen peas is to smash them up with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and a tiny bit of lemon juice, along with whatever herbs you happen to have on hand (if any... it's not completely necessary) and spread the bright green deliciousness onto crostini or toss it with boiled baby potatoes with some parmesan, as in this gorgeous Bon Appetit recipe!

2. Brighten up with citrus.

I can't think of a better way to brighten up a dish than with the zest or juice of citrus. The cool thing is that these are actually in season in the winter! Win-win. Here are a few simple ways to incorporate that zing into your cooking now.

Make your own vinaigrette using 1 part lemon juice, 1 part olive oil, 1 tsp salt, pepper and whatever dried herbs sound good. Use it on everything -- not just salad. Toss pasta with it, marinate chicken in it, drizzle it over tilapia, or dress veggies in it before throwing them in the oven to roast.

Oranges & Grapefruit can be cut into supremes (little fleshy wedges without the peel... here's a video on how to do it) and thrown into a salad, eaten in a fish taco, served on top of greek yogurt for dessert with a drizzle of honey, and also make an excellent accompaniment to broiled fish.

3. Lighten up your cooking methods.

Grilling

I was just talking to my dad the other day about how we were going to hold out for Spring to buy a new grill. His response was, "Why? I grill all year." He lives in Cincinnati. He explained that really, unless it's pouring down rain it's not that difficult to throw on a coat, stand outside for 30 seconds and put food on the grill, come back inside, warm up, check on it a couple times, and then be done. Really, though. Think about that. If you adopt this mindset, not only will you get to enjoy all the gorgeous grilled food year-round that we're used to only treating ourselves with in the Summer, but you'll also be forced to spend a few minutes outside, breathing fresh, cold air. Let's all take a second to promise ourselves we'll try this at least once this Winter, with an intentionally positive mindset. I think it could do wonders to ward off seasonal affective disorder.

Poaching

Fish, chicken and eggs are all made to feel fresher and lighter when poached.

Poach salmon (fresh or frozen... we've done both) in green tea, as in Sara Forte's Soba Bowls with Tea Poached Salmon and Roasted Broccoli (shown above). This whole recipe is on point and feels incredibly light, but feel free to cook the salmon as instructed and then serve it absolutely any way you'd like -- over rice with lime and tamari, on a sandwich with guac and sriracha, flaked into bowtie pasta with raw, massaged kale, lemon vinaigrette and garbanzo beans, or plain and simple with a side of frozen, steam-in-the-bag veggies!

Here's a great tutorial for Haianese style poached chicken that we get every time we eat at the local Vietnamese restaurant (skip to the 20-20-20 rule). It's served hot or cold there, which is encouraging in that you don't even have to heat up the leftovers. Dip it in garlic-ginger sauce, peanut-sauce, sriracha, or whatever else sounds good. Don't be afraid to choose something off-the-shelf from the ethnic aisle.

Poaching eggs is as easy as THIS (I use the whirlpool/vinegar method, but I've found that the whole whirlpool thing is unnecessary as long as you add the eggs very slowly) Once you get the hang of it, you may never go back to frying eggs again. We love to top whole grain english muffins with smoked salmon and a poached egg in the morning. A little arugula on top brightens it up even more. They're also great on top of literally any type of bowl. Another favorite is this recipe for quinoa cakes topped with poached eggs which we love as a light dinner.

4. Go raw.

For those of us that aren't raw vegans, it can be kind of hard to wrap our heads around eating raw food as often as we probably should. A non-intimidating way we've found to get more raw veg onto our plates is lettuce tacos. This isn't even vegetarian, but it works for us and is always so refreshing. Like, we pat ourselves on the backs after we eat these, that's how light and healthy they feel. And you can mix them up to add whatever ingredients you want, so they can be different every time!

Get started with this recipe from Part & Parcel magazine, and then branch out using whatever's in your fridge. Heck, last night we made some using romaine heart "taco shells" and chimichurri marinated duck with pistachios, cilantro, scallions, lemon juice and grapefruit segments. And, we've come full circle.

Now, hop over to Pinterest where I'm saving all my favorite Eat Like It's Spring recipes including the ones in this post as well as even more ways to use what's currently in season in fresh, new ways.

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