braised cabbage, carrots and greens

Things you'll need:

Large stock pot or braising dish with lid

Medium mixing bowl
Strainer or two for rinsing and drying veggies and greens

Ingredients:

1/2 head of green cabbage
1/2 head of purple cabbage (or only one of either, your call)
2 medium yellow or sweet onions
1 bunch collard greens
1 bunch kale
2 medium carrots
3 tbsp oil (avocado or olive)
1/4 cup stock (chicken, beef or veggie)
1/4 cup red wine (nothing too sweet)
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
1-2 limes or 1 large lemon

Prep:

• Rinse cabbage and carrots, set aside to dry
• Rinse each leaf of kale and greens individually to remove earth, set aside to dry
• Pre heat oven to 350 degrees
• Add oil to cooking dish
• Cabbage: remove the core, cut into 1" wide strips, place the cabbage in a layer over the oil
• Kale and greens: remove the stems, then cut the leaves into strips about the same size as the cabbage, add the leaves over the cabbage
• Onions: Remove the outer peel, cut into thin-ish slices and cover the greens
• Carrots: cut into 1" sized pieces and toss over the onion
• Add the stock, wine, salt and pepper to the cooking dish

Cooking:

• Cover the dish and place in the oven
• After 45 minutes, remove the dish, uncover and add 1/2 of the fresh citrus juice and stir everything around, not worrying about layering anymore
• Cover and put back in oven
• After 45 minutes, remove the dish, uncover and place back into the oven
• After 10 minutes, remove the uncovered dish, add remaining citrus, stir and serve

fresh pico de gallo

Things you'll need:

Medium mixing bowl
Container(s) with lids for storage
Strainer or paper towels for rinsed veggies

Ingredients:

2-3 large tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
2-3 jalapeños
1 bell pepper
1 bunch of cilantro
3-4 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tbsp oil (olive or avocado)
1/2 tbsp salt
1/2 tbsp pepper

Prep and assembly:

• Wash the tomatoes, peppers and jalapeños and set aside to dry
• Rinse the cilantro and place in strainer to dry a bit
• Finely dice the onion, toss in the mixing bowl
• Mince the garlic cloves, toss in
• Dice the tomatoes (if the core is very stiff, remove it), toss in
• Dice the bell pepper (seeds and core removed), and toss in
• Dice the jalapeños (seeds and core removed), and toss in
• Cilantro: I prefer to remove (de-stem) the leaves by hand and then roughly chop, others simply rough chop the cilantro stems and all: I leave this for you to decide, toss in with everything else once chopped
• Add the cumin, salt, pepper and oil to the bowl
• Using your hands or a spoon, mix well then place into container(s) and store refrigerated for at least 30 minutes before serving

Options: any quick web search will find countless options for pico: any number of fresh herbs, dried chili powders are some of my personal favorites.

orange caramelized onions

Things you'll need:

Heavy soup or stock pot, and lid
Spoon / spatula for stirring

Ingredients:

6-8 large onions (yellow, red, does not really matter unless you have preference): peeled, halved then cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs avocado oil (or olive)
1 tbs pepper
1 cup (or more) orange liqueur
1 cup (or more) fresh OJ, this translates to 10-15 fresh oranges

Process:

• Heat pot to Med High, letting it get hot before adding oil
• Add oil and let that get hot
• Add onions only initially, stirring on occasion to break them up
• After 3-4 minutes add pepper, and first orange or two of juice: stir and mostly cover the pot with the lid, leave a small opening to let the steam out, reduce to just under med heat, so Med Low
• Let the stock reduce by half, stirring every 15-20 minutes. This can take an hour.
• Once the liquid is nearly gone (by sight and sound; we don't want to run out of liquid for a while, you want to create a mush of onion then start to add color (let it "dry" out)), add the first full round of orange liquids, juice and hooch. Add a few tablespoons at a time of each, stir and re-cover (leaving a small gap). It should be a medium simmer, so that it isn't harshly boiling or barely doing a thing ...
• You now just babysit it: every 20 minutes or so, stir and add orange liquids as needed.
• I normally cook this for 3-4 hours. Once you have the onions as mushy as you like, let the liquid "go" and gently caramelize ... stir and once some brown develops on the bottom, kill the heat and add a few more tbs of orange and stir to blend the browned stuff into the entire mixture. This would be a good time to add any "extra" fresh stuff.
• Let it rest for a few minutes and serve.

Optional:

Adding fresh basil or mint or rosemary near the end all take the flavor profile in slightly different directions ...
You can also zest the oranges and add the zest along the way for more orange intensity
Use any favorite of fresh fruit juice along with orange or in place of ...

stewed squash and zucchini

Things you'll need:

Medium mixing bowl or two
Stock pot with lid or deep (3" skillet with lid)

Ingredients:

Set A:
Onion: 1 large or 2 medium
White wine: 1/4 to 1/2 cup
Avocado or olive oil: 2 tbsp
Salt: 1 tbsp
Pepper: 1 tbsp

Set B:
Zucchini: 1 large or 2 medium
Squash: 1 large or 2 medium
Stock (chicken or veggie): 1/4 to 1/2 cup
White wine: 1/4 to 1/2 cup
Thyme (preferably fresh): 1/2 tsp 
Oregano (preferably fresh): 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1 tbsp
Pepper: 1 tbsp

Prep:

• Wash the zucchini and squash, rinse the herbs if fresh set all aside to dry
• Bring the stock pot / skillet up to temperature on a medium heat setting
• Roughly chop (medium dice) the onions
• Zucchini and squash: cut and remove the ends of each, cut them lengthwise twice (to create 4 wedge shapes) then slice each wedge into 1/4" pieces and place into mixing bowl
• Gently remove the fresh leaves of thyme and oregano and add to the zucchini and squash

Cooking:

• Once the stock pot / skillet is hot, add oil and let it warm
• Add onions and first set of salt and pepper to the pot, stir and let cook for about 5 minutes
• Add the first amount of white wine to the onions, reserving a small amount, stir and cover and reduce heat to medium low
• After 15 minutes remove the cover, stir and add in remaining wine from the first set of ingredients and cover again
• After another 15 minutes, uncover and add the zucchini, squash, herbs and salt and pepper and stir
• Add enough stock and wine to nearly cover the veggies and stir and cover
• After 15 minutes uncover, stir and check fluid levels: you don't want a soup, so at this point you should have reduced the fluid by nearly half.  
• If you still have a majority of fluid, cover again, leaving a small gap for steam to escape
• If you don't have enough fluid (the fluid is nearly gone) add the remaining stock and wine, stir and cover
• After another 15 minutes uncover and stir; there should be a small amount of fluid left:
• If there is still fluid covering "half" of the mixture, slightly cover and cook for another 15 minutes or until there is a minimal amount of fluid
• If there is a minimal amount of fluid, cover and remove from heat and serve as soon as you're ready to eat

Options:

This recipe or process works for lots of veggies and greens as well, so start to try out your favorites!

roasted root veggies and tomato

Things you'll need:

Large sheet pan: 12x17" or 13x18"
Large mixing bowl (optional)

Ingredients:

Gold potatoes: 2-3 medium
Red potatoes: 2-3 medium
Beets (any color or variety): 1-2 large or 2-3 medium
Tomato (heirloom, plum, or any ripe varieties): 2-3 large or 4-6 medium
Avocado or olive oil: 4-5 tablespoons
Salt: 2-3 tbsp
Pepper: 2-3 tbsp

Prep:

• Wash all ingredients
• Preheat oven to 375
• I normally toss the prepped food right onto the sheet pan, you can use a mixing bowl if easier for tossing ingredients
• Cube the taters into pieces no more than an inch, leave skins on, toss on pan/bowl
• Beets: I tend to take the skin off as it can get tough.  You can use a peeler or the knife you're prepping with.  After skinning, cube the same size as taters, toss on pan/bowl
• Tomato: cut them into wedges no more than an inch wide, toss on pan/bowl
• Add the oil, salt and pepper and toss all ingredients together.
• If mixing in bowl, move ingredients to pan

Cooking:

• Place the pan in the oven near the middle rack
• After 30 minutes take it our and gently fold or toss everything
• Place back in oven
• At 50 minutes in (twenty minutes from the toss) remove and check for done-ness.  If there is color and the texture you want, your done.  If you want more color, place back in oven for ten minutes.

Options: garlic, onion, brussels sprouts, fresh herbs, fresh citrus wedges, sweet potatoes, any number of chili pepper powders