Category: Fruit

  • Experience Nutrition: The Farm at South Mountain CSA Recipe: Summer Peach Apricot Salsa

    Experience Nutrition: The Farm at South Mountain CSA Recipe: Summer Peach Apricot Salsa

    What an honor to intuitively create recipes with the beautiful produce grown by hard-working, passionate farmer Billy Anthony at the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona.

    This is the final CSA recipe of the season, Recipe #54, and I’m so happy to share a Summer recipe with you, inspired by the peaches and apricots growing at The Farm.  At this point, the farmers are focusing on summer crops, including tomatoes, which I’m really looking forward to.

    Self care at The Farm. While picking up the CSA to create this week’s recipe, I was mesmerized by the breath-talking Autumn Beauty Sunflowers.

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    For the CSA Members, the May 16, 2020 Share includes:

    • Roots: Beets, Carrots
    • Greens: Salad Greens, Swiss Chard
    • Veggies: Zucchini
    • Fruit: Grapefruit, Peaches, Apricot
    • Herbs: Lemon Basil, Mint, Lemon Thyme, Rosemary
    • Eggs
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    The Farm at South Mountain CSA: May 16, 2020

    Recipe: Simple Peach Apricot Salsa

    This week’s recipe was inspired by the peaches and apricots. It’s a simple, fresh recipe to enjoy with hummus, or as a topping for fish or chicken.

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    The Farm at South Mountain: Arizona Peaches

    Serves 2

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    • 5-6 peaches
    • 5-6 apricots
    • ¼ cup grapefruit juice
    • 1 tbsp grapefruit zest
    • 4-5 mint leaves, minced
    • Not from The Farm CSA
      • ¼ cup white onion
      • 2 mini red peppers
    • Pinch sea salt

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    Ingredients: Peach Apricot Salsa

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    Mise En Place: Peach Apricot Salsa

    SIMPLE STEPS

    • Mince all fruit and veggies into small pieces.
    • Gently toss all ingredients.
    • Taste and adjust with additional grapefruit juice and sea salt to suit your taste preferences.
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    Peach Apricot Salsa: Mix Ingredients

     SIMPLE PLATING

    • Enjoy with hummus, or as a side salad.
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    Peach Apricot Salsa. Classic Hummus.

    Stay in touch with us on www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ and Instagram @experiencenutritionaz and tag us #experiencenutrition on your plant-based culinary creations.

    Sedona Plant-Based Cooking Retreats. At this point, we are planning on hosting the Plant-Based Farm-to-Table Cooking Retreat in Sedona, September 18-21, 2020 and also customizing for small groups “when the time is right” in the next few months. Please let me know if you’re interested in learning more about the retreats. Click for information about the retreats and beautiful photos from our September 2019 retreat.

    By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Culinary Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.

  • Experience Nutrition: The Farm at South Mountain CSA Recipe: Arizona Spring Roasted Roots & Fruit

    Experience Nutrition: The Farm at South Mountain CSA Recipe: Arizona Spring Roasted Roots & Fruit

    As always, it is my honor to create recipes with the produce grown for the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) by passionate farmer Billy Anthony at the Soil & Seed Garden, at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona.

    It is especially touching this week, during the Coronavirus Pandemic while we are all staying at home, and cooking more. And, in Arizona we are transitioning from the Spring to the Summer crops, so we still have roots, along with summer crops, such as zucchini. – Melanie Albert

    When I picked up my CSA this week, The Farm felt very still and calm, in align with the quietness of our Earth…a little video capture:


    For the CSA Members, the items in the May 9, 2020 CSA include:

    • Beets
    • Carrots
    • Glacier Lettuce
    • Salad Greens
    • Zucchini
    • Swiss Chard
    • Grapefruit
    • Lemon Basil, Mint
    • Eggs

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    RECIPE: Roasted Roots & Fruit. Honey Grapefruit Dressing.

    This week’s recipe was inspired by the peaches, and paired with beets, carrots, and grapefruit. Since grapefruits are still available, enjoy a simple dressing with a few extras: honey, mustard, and mint.



    Serves 2

    Roasted Roots & Fruit

    Enjoy creating this dish, inspired by The Farm’s sweet fruit and roots: peaches, grapefruit, beets, and carrots.

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    • 1 peach
    • 1 grapefruit
    • 1 golden beet
    • 1 red beet
    • 5-6 small carrots
    • Not from The Farm CSA: ½ red onion
    • 3 TBSP olive oil
    • 1 TBSP honey
    • Pinch sea salt

    SIMPLE STEPS

    • Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
    • Chop all veggies in small bite-size pieces.
    • Veggie-by-veggie toss in olive oil and sea salt.
    • Place veggies, spread apart on parchment-paper lined sheet pan.
    • Place grapefruit and peaches on parchment-lined sheet pan. Drizzle with ¼ tsp of honey.
    • Cook for 12 minutes.
    • Flip the veggies and fruit.
    • Cook another 10-12 minutes.

    Honey Grapefruit Dressing

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    • 2 TBSP grapefruit juice
    • 1 ½ tsp honey
    • 1 ½ tsp stone ground mustard
    • 1 tsp red wine vinegar
    • 3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
    • 6-8 mint leaves, rough chopped
    • Pinch sea salt

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    SIMPLE STEPS

    • Into bowl, place grapefruit juice, mustard, vinegar.
    • Whisk until blended.
    • Add olive oil.
      Whisk until blended.
    • Add more acid (grapefruit juice) or fat (olive oil) to balance.
    • Add sea salt. Whisk.
    • Add honey. Whisk.
    • Add mint. Whisk.

    SIMPLE PLATING

    • Mindfully plate.
    • Place grapefruit slices on plate.
    • Layer veggies and fruit on top of the grapefruit slices.
    • Dressing Options: Drizzle dressing on top of the veggies. Or, when eating, use dressing as dipping sauce.

    Plating Mise en Place…

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    Plating…


    The beautiful, tasty Arizona Spring Roots & Fruit Dish

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    Stay in touch with us on www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ and Instagram @experiencenturitionaz and tag us #experiencenutrition on your plant-based culinary creations.

    We are now beginning to think about Plant-Based Farm-to-Table Experiences for Fall 2020…hands-on cooking, team building, catering. Please reach out to me to brainstorm ideas for your organization.  Contact Melanie Albert at 602.615.2486 or Mel@MelanieAlbert.com


    By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Culinary Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.

    So beautiful…one more view of the Arizona Roasted Roots & Fruit and our incredible sunset.

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    The beauty of nature…at The Farm.

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  • A New View of Healthy Eating Healthy Recipe Blog by Melanie Albert: Arizona Peach Tomato Goji Salsa

    A New View of Healthy Eating Healthy Recipe Blog by Melanie Albert: Arizona Peach Tomato Goji Salsa

    Intuitive Cooking with our Local Arizona Farmers Summer Goodies: Peach Tomato Goji Berry Salsa

    by Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, award-winning author, speaker, retreat host, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    This weekend, as usual, I shopped at our Downtown Phoenix Farmers’ Market. Honestly, my refrigerator was quite full and I didn’t really need food, but I love supporting our local farmers, the community of like-minded friends at the market, and creating unique delicious dishes with “what’s in season.”

    Let’s take a look at some of my favorites at the Market, from flowers, to friends, to prickly pear cactus, to Armenian cucumbers…

    FOOD & FLOWERS

    FRIENDS

    When I arrive home from the market I love to simply enjoy the beauty of the food I intuitively shop for at the market.  With intuitive shopping, we pay attention to the colors, the textures, even the aroma of the foods, and buy what we are attracted to from a sensory view.

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    About a month ago, I created an Arugula Salad with Tomatoes and Peaches and recalled loving the combination. Again, these two summer fruits were the inspiration for my fresh dish which I intuitively created. When we create our dishes intuitively, we enjoy the process of mixing and matching flavors and colors to create beautiful, tasty meals. Have fun!

    Arizona Peach Tomato Summer Salsa Recipe

    Simple Ingredients

    • 1 ripe peach, rough chopped
    • 3-4 yellow and red tomatoes, rough chopped
    • 1 Armenian cucumber, rough chopped
    • ½ red onion, minced
    • 2-3 garlic bulbs, minced
    • 1 lemon zested
    • 3 tbsp capers
    • 2 tbsp goji berries soaked in water
    • Pinch sea salt

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    Simple Steps

    Gently toss all ingredients.

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    Plate and enjoy!

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    PLATING FUN!

    In addition to intuitively shopping, and intuitively creating dishes, I love to have fun plating with different looks. Thanks to Clay Madness for my new aqua plate and my favorite green clay bowl.

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    If you’re interested in additional simple plant-based whole foods culinary techniques and recipes, please purchase my book, “A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods.”  I’m happy to mail a copy to you.

    If you’re interested in a Cooking Event, Class, Team Building for your organization, I’d love to chat and create a custom program for you. — Melanie

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