Experience Nutrition

Tag: simple culinary

Experience Nutrition: The Farm at South Mountain CSA Recipe 57: Roasted Beet Hummus. Keffir Lime Leaves Pesto
I am so honored to intuitively create recipes for The Farm at South Mountain CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) members. And, I’m happy to share this week’s Winter Arizona recipe with you, which was inspired by the beautiful beets and the incredible herbs: Thai Basil & Kaffir Lime Leaves.
Winter CSA Week 3: 12.05.20
- Red Beets
- Purple Top Turnips
- Rainbow Swiss Chard
- Mixed Sweet & Hot Peppers
- Calendula edible flowers
- Thai Basil
- Kaffir Lime Leaves
ROASTED BEET HUMMUS. THAI BASIL & KAFFIR LIME LEAF PESTO RECIPE

Hope you enjoy roasting the beets and using them in my, now favorite hummus. Make a small batch of the pesto for contrast to the hummus.

The plant-based cooking video shows you step-by-step to prepare this incredible, tasty, healthy dish.

Steps to Prepare the Dish
1. Soak the garbanzo beans the night before you plan to create the beet hummus.
2. Cook the garbanzo beans for the hummus.
3. While the beans are cooking, roast the beets.
4. Next, toast the pine nuts.
5. Make the pesto.
6. Make the hummus.
7. Mindfully plate the beet hummus and pesto with the CSA Swiss chard and sweet peppers.
All Recipes Serve 2

THAI BASIL & KAFFIR LEAVES PESTO

Create a simple, delicious pesto with this week’s Thai basil and kaffir lime leaves.

SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup Thai basil leaves
- 1 tbsp Kaffir leaves, minced
- ¼ cup pine nuts, dry toasted
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Pinch sea salt
SIMPLE STEPS
- Toast pine nuts in dry pan on stove for about 2 minutes.
- Place all ingredients, except olive oil, into a small blender.
- Blend for about a minute.
- Add the olive oil to the blender and blend another minute.
ROASTED BEETS

Use this Quick Roasted Veggie method to easily cook roots.

SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
- 2 beet roots, sliced
- 2 tbsp fresh Kaffir lime leaves, minced
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Pinch sea salt
SIMPLE STEPS
- Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Cut beet roots into slices.
- Mince Kaffir lime leaves, taking out the stem.
- Place beets into roasting pan.
- Drizzle with olive oil, Kaffir lime leaves, and sea salt.
- Roast for 10 minutes.
- Toss the beets.
- Roast another 10-12 minutes.
ROASTED BEET HUMMUS

Create this simple, delicious, beautiful hummus with The Farm’s beets.

SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
- 2 beets, roasted
- 2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
- ¼ cup tahini
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- Pinch sea salt
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
SIMPLE STEPS
- Place beets into food processor and process for about a minute.
- Add all other ingredients, except olive oil.
- Process for 2-3 minutes.
- Stream in olive oil and process another 1-2 minutes.
- Enjoy with CSA sweet peppers.
Plant-based farm-to-table recipe intuitively created by Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Award-winning cookbook author, Creator of the Plant-Based Food Art Movement.
December 5, 2020
Experience Nutrition: Cook at Home Roasted Veggie Bowl with “Social Distancing.” 5 Tips to Roast Veggies Perfectly Every Time
Now that we all all cooking more at home, it’s a great time to learn a few simple culinary (it’s cooking!) methods.
With a plant-based way of eating, we do eat a lot of vegetables. With this in mind, it’s important to know several different simple culinary skills to prepare vegetables, such as roasting, steaming, sautéing, and raw.

One of my favorite ways to cook veggies is roasting. With this method of roasting, we cook the veggies spread out “distancing” in the oven to brown the outside, while keeping the center a little soft. We can roast all kinds of veggies which gives us a nice variety of tastes, textures, and colors. – Melanie Albert

Visit our new Experience Nutrition YouTube Channel for the video of the Roasted Veggie Bowl Recipe.

Thank You Farmers and Farmers Markets

Today’s roasted veggies were created with produce from local farmers: The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, and Blue Sky Organic Farms, Litchfield Park, Arizona. All of the veggies were in CSA’s (Community Support Agriculture) offered by the farms during our Coronavirus stay-at-home.

In Arizona, we are so fortunate that our farmers and farmers’ markets are considered essential grocery stores. Thus, we still have the opportunity to purchase beautiful food from our farmers, and they can continue to harvest and sell to our community. Thank you!

The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona, April 2020

Farm-to-Table Spring Roasted Veggie Bowl

Enjoy this tasty roasted veggie culinary method and create a bowl with brown rice and beans for a perfect lunch. Use this recipe as a guide to roast crispy on the outside and soft on the inside veggies. Choose a few of your favorite vegetables from your local farmers that are right in your kitchen and enjoy roasting beautiful, tasty veggies at home.

Roasted Veggie Bowl: The Veggies, Olive Oil, Sea Salt

SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
- Blue Sky Organic Farms
  - 1 fennel, root sliced
  - 1 spring green garlic, sliced
  - 1 leek, chopped
  - 3-4 celery stalks, sliced
  - 3-4 cauliflower florets
  - 3-4 broccoli florets
- The Farm at South Mountain
  - 2 beets (golden and red), sliced
  - 1 radish (breakfast), sliced
  - 1 turnip ( scarlet) sliced
- Grocery Store / My Pantry
  - 1 sweet potato, sliced
  - 2-3 TBSP organic extra virgin olive oil
  - Pinch sea salt
- Extras
  - Plating: Brown rice, beans
  - Garnish: Edible flowers
SIMPLE STEPS
- Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Chop all veggies into equal-sized pieces.
- One-by-one, place veggies in a bowl.
- Coat veggies with olive oil and sea salt.
Chopped veggies ready to be coated with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.
- Place veggies flat side down on unbleached, natural parchment-paper- lined flat sheet pan.
Veggies “social distancing” on the parchment-lined sheet pans.
- Cook for 12 minutes.
- Flip.
- Cook another 12-15 minutes.
Roasted veggies. Ready to be mindfully plated.
- Enjoy as a veggie bowl.
TOP 5 TIPS TO ROAST VEGGIES PERFECTLY EVERY TIME
1. Coat the chopped veggies thoroughly with oil.
2. When placing on unbleached parchment paper, be sure the veggies do not touch each other.
3. When placing veggies on parchment paper, place flat side down, so the side of the vegetable can brown.
4. Flip veggies about half-way through the cooking process.
5. Pay attention to veggies while they are cooking, as they cook at different speeds. More dense vegetables (like beets and sweet potatoes) take longer to cook than water-rich veggies, like onions.
If you are enjoying our Experience Nutrition Blog, with simple plant-based recipes and lifestyle tips, please subscribe to the Blog, our www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ , and new YouTube Channel.

By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Cooking Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.
April 14, 2020
Experience Nutrition: “Stay-at-Home” Quick Roots & Greens Sauté. Featuring The Farm at South Mountain Spring CSA
Since October 2018, I have had the honor to create weekly recipes for the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) at The Farm at South Mountain, an urban farm less than a mile from my home. To date, I’ve intuitively created 47 recipes for the members of the CSA. Each Friday, I pick up the incredible just-harvested CSA produce and herbs at The Farm from lead farmer Billy Anthony, and then come home and create a recipe for the Saturday morning CSA bags.
Cooking at Home. Right now, while more and more people are cooking at home with the Coronavirus “stay-at-home” I’m finding it even more important to share my recipes to more and more people, beyond the CSA members.

For those of you who are cooking at home, I invite you to use this recipe as a guide to sauté a simple, tasty roots and greens dish. Use whatever roots (radishes, turnips, beets, carrots) and greens (kale, collards, dandelion greens) your local farmers are growing. And, for citrus, feel free to use a lemon, orange, or grapefruit.

For the CSA members, I hope you enjoy creating this recipe with the beautiful local Arizona produce in your CSA.
- Citrus: Grapefruit, lemons
- Roots: Beets, Turnips, Mixed Radishes
- Greens: Sugar Snap Peas, Braising Greens, Gem Head Lettuce
- Farm Salad Bag with Glacier Lettuce
- Mint
- Eggs
Please share your culinary creations with us on Instagram @nutritionauthor @thefarmatsouthmountain.

Honestly, it was a little emotional picking up my CSA at The Farm on Friday, March 27, 2020. Here’s a glimpse.

Roots & Greens Sauté Recipe

Thanks to Lead Farmer Billy Anthony of the Soil & Seed Garden for growing such beautiful, tasty produce for our community. We appreciate your dedication, especially while we are Coronavirus social distancing.

Make this simple sauté with roots, greens, and the lemon from your CSA, along with an onion.

SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
- 1 medium purple daikon or another radish
- 1 medium turnip
- 3-4 stems kale
- ½ cup sugar snap peas
- 5-7 stems dandelion greens (from Farm Salad Bag)
- ½ white or red onion, or 2 green onions, sliced (not in CSA)
- 1 lemon, ½ juiced and zested
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Pinch sea salt
- Garnish: Few mint leaves
SIMPLE STEPS

Mise en Place (Everything into place)
- Thinly slice radish and turnip with mandoline or knife.
- Pull center stems out of kale and tear leaves into bite-size pieces.
- Slice onions into moon-shapes.
- Zest the lemon.
Cook
- Pre-heat sauté pan on medium heat on stovetop.
- Once the pan is warm, place onions in pan, sauté until soft, for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add sliced radish and turnip to the pan.
- Drizzle sea salt, lemon juice, and lemon zest onto the radish and turnip.
- Sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Move radishes and turnips to the middle of the pan.
- Add snap peas, kale, and dandelion greens to the edges of the pan to cook with the olive oil.
- Drizzle a pinch of sea salt onto the green veggies.
- Cook for about 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Plate
- Plate the roots, greens, and sugar snap peas onto the plate.
- Garnish with mint.
More Plant-Based Cooking Recipes. I look forward to sharing additional recipes and ideas with you, while we area all “at home” during the Coronavirus. Please check back, as I’m also shooting some simple cooking videos for my Experience Nutrition YouTube Channel.

Sedona Cooking Retreats. A few people have been asking about the 2020 Sedona Plant-Based Cooking Retreats. We have not yet cancelled the June 12-15, 2020 retreat, and at this point I’m pretty sure we will hold the September 18-21, 2020 retreat. Let me know (Mel@MelanieAlbert.com) if you are interested in either retreat, and I will keep in touch with you. Just fyi, link to the retreat information.

By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, LLC in Phoenix, Arizona. Plant-Based Farm-to-Table Leader, award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building and retreat leader.
March 28, 2020
Experience Nutrition: The Farm at South Mountain CSA Fall Radish & Purslane Chopped Salad
by Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Intuitive Cooking Expert, Award-winning Cookbook Author, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition
After our long hot summer, our local Arizona farmers are harvesting the early Fall crops. Billy Anthony, Lead Grower at the Soil & Seed Garden, located at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, harvested fresh veggies, herbs, and hibiscus roselle for the first week of the Fall 2019 CSA.

Soil & Seed Garden, Fall Week 1 CSA. October 19, 2019

Late beauty at The Farm at South Mountain picking up the first week of the CSA…

The Farm at South Mountain. Fall 2019 CSA. Week 1: October 19, 2019.

What a beautiful Fall Salad Box. Love the edible flowers.
- 1 salad box
- 4 oz lemon basil
- 1 bunch Sora radish
- 1 bunch French breakfast radish
- ½ quart rosemary
- ¼ quart hibiscus roselle
- 2-3 eggplant
- 1 bunch rainbow chard
- 1 lime
- 6 pullet eggs
Radish. Purslane. Swiss Chard Stem Chopped Salad.

I intuitively created a simple, quick salad inspired by the Soil & Seed Garden early harvest of radishes & Swiss Chard, with the juicy fresh lime.

Simple Ingredients
- Salad
  - 5-6 radishes, Sora and French breakfast, minced
  - 3-4 Swiss Chard stems, thinly sliced
  - 5-6 stems Purslane, chopped
- Dressing
  - ½ lime juiced, about ¼ cup
  - 1 tbsp lime zest
  - ½ cup olive oil, twice as much oil as lime
  - 10-12 lemon basil leaves, chopped
  - Pinch sea salt
- Garnish: Edible flower, sliced radishes, lemon basil leaves
Swiss Chard. Lemon Basil. Purslane. Radishes. Lime. Salt. Olive Oil.

Simple Steps

Salad Dressing
- Squeeze lime juice into a small Mason jar.
- Add twice as much olive oil.
- Shake.
- Taste and adjust lime and oil, for balance of acid and fat.
- Add lemon basil and pinch of sea salt.
- Shake and use in salad.
Simple “Acid Fat Salt” Salad Dressing

Salad
- Chop all ingredients.
Mise en place…All ingredients in place…for the Radish Purslane Salad.
- Place radishes, Swiss chard, and purslane into bowl.
Mindfully place chopped ingredients into small bowl.
- Gently toss.
- Add dressing over the veggies and toss.
Gently toss the veggies with the salad dressing.
- Garnish with edible flowers, radishes, lemon basil leaves.
- Enjoy!
Yum. The simple Chopped Salad.

Mindfully enjoying the visual brightness of the salad.

The Radish inspired salad with the radishes at the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain.

Thanks so much to Farmer Michael for all the passion and hard working in growing the beautiful food at the Soil & Seed Garden.

FARM-TO-TABLE PLANT-BASED COOKING CLASSES AT THE FARM with Melanie Albert and Farm Operations Manager Billy Anthony

I am so honored to be leading hands-on intuitive cooking classes at The Farm at South Mountain for the 4^th year. For the classes this season, Lead Grower Billy and I will be walking the Soil & Seed Garden the week prior to each class to develop the food strategy for the classes. Billy will harvest the morning of the classes, and you’ll have the opportunity to intuitively prepare dishes, guided by Melanie.
- November 3, 2019, 11am-1pm. Click to purchase tickets.
- December 8, 2019, 11am-1pm. Click to purchase tickets.
The beauty and food art during our Plant-Based Cooking Events at The Farm at South Mountain.

SEDONA PLANT-BASED COOKING RETREAT: November 15-18, 2019

In September 2019, I hosted the first Sedona Plant-Based Cooking Retreat. Based on the life-changing retreat with incredible cooking, hiking in Sedona, and friendships, I decided to host the next retreat in November. Learn more on www.ExperienceNutrition.com/sedona-retreats/

Or, to answer your questions about the retreats, please feel free to contact me (Melanie Albert): 602.615.2486 or Mel@MelanieAlbert.com

Permelia and Melanie enjoying our Avocado Tartare!

Getting started with our mindful chopping for our fresh Tomato Gazpacho and Avocado Tartare.

WOW! Yoga at Cathedral Rock. Dreams come true!
October 23, 2019
Experience Nutrition: Arizona Farm-to-Table Summer Salad: Get the “Food Art” Steps

By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Plant-Based Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
During the summer in Arizona, our local farmers work very hard to grow beautiful produce for us in our 100+ degree weather, so I love to create beautiful dishes with it.

Earlier this week while I was chatting with a friend who reminded me that there are often “behind-the-scenes” steps in creating a beautifully plated dish. So with this Summer dish, I’m sharing with you the full steps from the vision of the dish to the final plate.

I hope you enjoy this “food art” lesson.

Step 1: Stop by the farm and farmers markets to see what’s in season. This was especially important to me the last few weeks, as I was traveling in the Boston area, Cocoa Beach, Florida, and Barbados, so I lost track of what would be growing seasonally in Arizona.

My first stop was The Farm at South Mountain, where Farm Operations Manager, Billy Anthony is growing hundreds of pounds of beautiful heirloom tomatoes.

The Farm at South Mountain: Beautiful Heirloom Tomatoes

My next stop was the Downtown Phoenix Public Market, where I often shop and lead cooking demos. I was happy to see that the farmers were growing some of my summer favorites. Thanks Blue Sky Organic Farms for the collard greens and leeks; and thanks to Maya’s Farm for the rainbow carrots.

Step 2: Pause and enjoy the beautiful produce from our farmers. Begin to visualize the creation of a beautiful dish. With intuitive cooking, once we learn cooking techniques and practice with recipes, we can intuitively create beautiful, tasty meals.

Step 3: Pause again and choose a few different types of produce with different colors and textures.

Step 4: Cut the veggies and fruit in different shapes.

Step 5: Pause, yet again, and intuitively notice if any of the produce “fits” together. Today, for me, it was a simple avocado salsa (or guacamole) with the tomatoes, avocado, colorful carrots, lemon, and sea salt. And, the fresh peaches and butterscotch melon with a squeeze of lemon seemed to go together nicely.

Avocado Salsa

Peaches & Melon

Step 6: Arrange all of the ingredients and components (the Avocado Salsa, Peaches & Melon) in a plating “mise en place.” That is, all ingredients mindfully organized to be ready for plating.

Step 7: Looking at the plating “mise en place” begin to visualize how the plate will look. Then, sketch out the plating of the dish, using colored pencils or markers. In the sketch include where the different foods will go onto the plate and the order to plate them.

I’ve been mindfully plating for a few years now, and this process does take practice. Once we get into our own rhythm of sketching our dishes and plating, it becomes fluid and fun. Key is to practice, practice, practice.

Step 8: Mindfully plate the food, following your plating sketch. Know that this phase is also part of the food art process, so if your plate does not look exactly like your sketch, no worries at all. Enjoy it!

All set to plate.

Step 9: Finally, mindfully enjoy eating your plate.

Of course, first pause and enjoy your “food art”.

Enjoy…

We are only two months away from our Plant-Based Cooking & Self-Care Retreat in Sedona, Arizona September 13-16, 2019. Along with plant-based culinary skills we will also focus on mindfully plating and creating our own style of “food art”.

Please feel free to call (602.615.2486) or e-mail if you’d like to chat about the retreat and take a look at the information about the retreat on ExperienceNutrition.com/sedona-retreats

July 12, 2019
Experience Nutrition: Phoenix Summer Farm-to-Table Arugula. Corn. Tomato Salad
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
After two full weeks of traveling to Boston for my niece Mallory’s beautiful, loving wedding; to my parents’ home of 30 years in Cocoa Beach; to a stop in Barbados (while on the East Coast, of course, it makes sense to visit Barbados to explore the island and scout villas for plant-based culinary retreats.

For my close friends, an Albert family photo at Mallory’s wedding. xoxo

The Albert Family. Mallory and Phil’s Wedding. June 2, 2019.

Self-care in Cocoa Beach…breathing in the beauty of the Atlantic Ocean.

Self-Care in Cocoa Beach.

Barbados. So beautiful, I have to share right away, one of my favorite spots in the paradise of Barbados. The iconic Sandy Lane Beach.

Enjoying the serenity of Sandy Lane Beach in Barbados with my Tree Pose.

Back Home in Arizona

As soon as I was back in Phoenix, I shopped at our downtown Phoenix Public Market to purchase kale for a cooking event with the Maricopa County Summer Reading Program and bought a few seasonal goodies from our local farmers.

Saturday Stop: Phoenix Public Market

Honestly, I was not planning on cooking that morning before the Kale Salad event, but I could not resist, so I’m happy to share with you my first Arizona Summer Farm-to-Table Salad after returning to our desert.

Arizona Corn. Tomato. Arugula Summer Salad.

This salad was inspired by three of my summer favorites. Fresh corn-on-the-cob grown by long-time Farmer Frank of Crooked Sky Farms in Phoenix; Matt’s tomatoes from the Community Exchange; and baby arugula grown by Blue Sky Organic Farms in Litchfield Park. Plus, I picked up flavorful Hatun Oregano Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Fun shopping for Hatun Olive Oil at the Phoenix Public Market

Simple Ingredients
- ½ ear corn-on-the cob, kernels cut off the cob
- 1 cup tomatoes
- 1 cup arugula
- 1 lemon cucumber, sliced
- 1 lime, juiced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Pinch sea salt
- ¼ cup walnuts
- ¼ cup Kalamata olives, sliced
- 1 tbsp capers
Arizona Summer Goodies. Thanks farmers!

Simple Steps
- Pre-heat oven to broil.
- Slice corn off the cob.
Slice the corn off the cob.
- Place corn and tomatoes on a flat sheet pan.
- Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt.
Drizzle olive oil onto corn and tomatoes.
- Broil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Gather Mise en Place (all ingredients in place) to prepare the salad.
Be mindful. Mise en place to create the Arizona Summer Salad.
- Place all ingredients into a small bowl.
Place all ingredients into bowl. Then gently toss.
- Gently toss with hands.
- Plate mindfully.
- Enjoy.
Pause and enjoy your mindful plating.

Pause. Enjoy your mindful plating.

We eat with our eyes first. Enjoy your Summer Salad.

We eat with our eyes first. Enjoy your summer salad.

Plant-Based Culinary & Self-Care in the Magic of Sedona, September 13-16, 2019.

Click to learn more about the retreat on the Experience Nutrition website.

I’m excited to participate in the Local First Arizona Independents Week, June 29 – July 7, 2019. During that time, save 20% (up to $500) on the retreat. Contact Melanie Albert if you are interested: Mel@MelanieAlbert.com or 602.615.2486.

To stay in touch, visit us on Facebook and Instagram: @nutritionauthor
June 18, 2019