Remember my foodie friend Paulina and the cooking school she created for me in July? At that time we talked about getting together in the fall to do some fall veggies. At the beginning of December, Paulina's Cooking School 2.0 was in session!
Paulina is a fabulous cook, uses natural ingredients, and would love to open a cooking school one day. She has been so kind to help me on two different occasions to learn to cook with some ingredients outside the box for me. I resolve to eat better in 2013 and Paulina can help us all do that!
Let's start with hearts of palm.... I had no idea what this even was! Due to limitations, either seasonal or geographic, we ended up buying this in a can. My face says it all- it was gummy and tasted like the vinegar it was canned with. Gross!
We also had this FUNKY cauliflower from the farmer's market. I had no interest in eating it, so we skipped right over it. It came in green or orange. Funky!
But, lucky for us, we came away from the day with three recipes that I really liked and would make again, starting with Paulina's Sweet Slaw. This is made with brussel sprouts! I had no idea a brussel sprout can be eaten raw and is essentially a small cabbage. So, a salad made from brussel sprouts is a slaw.
For the slaw, we simply cut the brown stalk part of the spout off, then sliced them up to edible size pieces. Paulina wanted a sweet dressing, so she mixed up lemon juice, honey, olive oil and some whole grain Dijon mustard, pictured below. The mustard serves as a binding agent in salads and gave us the tangy taste to counter the sweet of the honey.
We also added crumbled bacon and it was a great option when you are tired of a standard lettuce salad.
Paulina took the remaining brussel sprouts and cooked them according to 101 Cookbooks blog. I wasn't a huge fan of them cooked (they were soggy to me after just loving them as a slaw), but if you like sprouts, this recipes gives them good flavor and the cheese is delish on them.
More cooking school coming soon!
