Jennifer McGruther, of the award-winning Nourished Kitchen, is one of my favorite traditional food bloggers! I’ve admired and enjoyed her recipes – ALL built around nourishing, ancestral foods – these past fews years. And, now, she has published a gorgeous cookbook! The Nourished Kitchen: Farm-to-Table Recipes for the Traditional Foods Lifestyle (from Ten Speed Press) is destined to be a much-loved and much-used resource in my home. I’ve joyfully added The Nourished Kitchen to my Real Food Carolyn Recommended Reading list.
Jenny’s gorgeous new cookbook, with its deep roots in well-sourced foods, is divided into these chapters:
- From the Garden
- From the Pasture
- From the Range
- From the Waters
- From the Fields
- From the Wild
- From the Orchard
- From the Larder
Just reading that chapter list makes me happy. And hungry!
Along with 160+ recipes, Jennifer also includes a glossary of traditional foods/sustainable farming terms, resources, and Real Food advocacy groups.
The Nourished Kitchen: Farm-to-Table Recipes for the Traditional Foods Lifestyle is truly a labor of love and work of art. You WILL be inspired to create these nourishing foods in your own kitchen.
Photo by Jennifer McGruther
I’m delighted to share one of my favorite recipes, Roasted Beet and Walnut Salad with Spiced Kombucha Vinaigrette, from The Nourished Kitchen.
Roasted Beet and Walnut Salad with Spiced Kombucha Vinaigrette
Prep Time: 8 hours, 5 minutes
Total Time: 8 hours, 5 minutes
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
Salad
2 pounds beets (can use a mix of different colored beets)
1 tablespoon clarified butter or ghee
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 small red onion, sliced into rings no thicker than 1/8 inch
Kombucha Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons kombucha
1/4 teaspoon finely ground unrefined sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons cold-pressed walnut oil
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
To prepare the salad, trim the beets by removing any beet tops and the tips of their roots. Dot each beet with a touch of clarified butter, then wrap each in parchment paper and again in aluminum foil. Roast the beets for 45 to 60 minutes, until they yield under the pressure of a fork. Refrigerate the beets for at least 8 and up to 24 hours.
To prepare the vinaigrette, whisk the kombucha tea with the salt, allspice, cloves, and the walnut and olive oils. The vinaigrette will store at room temperature for up to 3 weeks, but remember to shake it vigorously before dressing the salad because the oil will separate from the tea and spices when left sitting.
Just before serving, heat a skillet over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until very hot. Toss in the walnuts and toast them for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid scorching.
Remove the cold beets from the fridge, peel them, and chop into bite-sized pieces. In a large bowl, toss the beets with the sliced onion and toasted walnuts. Drizzle with the vinaigrette, toss again, and serve.
Reprinted with permission from The Nourished Kitchen written and photographed by Jennifer McGruther (Ten Speed Press, © 2014).
Don’t miss a thing! Sign up for my free newsletter.