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Browsing Tag: Kale

Chickpea, Kale, and Acorn Squash Pappardelle Pasta

A bowl of Chickpea, Kale, and Acorn Squash Pappardelle Pasta

Chickpea, Kale, and Acorn Squash Pappardelle Pasta is too good not to share!

It’s early April as I’m writing this, with an unseasonably warm temperature projected for today: 79 degrees! Seventy-nine degrees! Having grown up here in Metro-Detroit and encountered many a snow flurry this time of year, I know what an anomaly this 79-degree day is. It’s not weather that calls for a pasta dish laden with hearty greens and a creamy squash sauce. Or is it?

Creamy (Dairy-Free) Sweet Potato, Kale, and Cannellini Bean Soup

Two crocks of Creamy (Dairy-Free) Sweet Potato, Kale, and Cannellini Bean Soup

Soul-soothing vegan goodness – that’s Creamy (Dairy-Free) Sweet Potato, Kale, and Cannellini Bean Soup!

It’s March, and here in Michigan, March means mega wax-and-wane weather. We’re in the midst of a warm spell bringing temperatures in the mid-60s, which feels downright Floridian after winter’s ice and chill. Four days from now, the high is projected to be 38 degrees. Basically, the weather is ever-changing, its progression nonlinear, unpredictable. And unpredictability can feel disconcerting, especially for me of the Type A personality and lover of planning and order and checklists – and especially in these wholly unpredictable COVID times. But you know what soothes a soul in the midst of uncertainty? Soup. And Creamy (Dairy-Free) Sweet Potato, Kale, and Cannellini Bean Soup is a soup soul-soother (try saying that three times fast) of the utmost order!

Tuscan Kale, Cannellini, and Prosciutto Salad

Hello, all! This is my first post on A Cookable Feast in a year and a half, and writing it admittedly felt daunting at first. But now, as I put the finishing touches on it, I’m feeling very happy to be back.

After blogging pretty consistently on here for almost three years, I hit a wall in early 2018. I posted only twice that year and not at all in 2019 – despite establishing a goal for myself in the beginning of that year to post recipes monthly!

I created and photographed this Tuscan Kale, Cannellini, and Prosciutto Salad recipe in 2018. I meant to post it in 2019 – and then earlier this year, when it was more seasonally appropriate. A salad made with prosciutto, kale, Parmesan cheese, and a maple balsamic dressing doesn’t exactly scream spring, does it? But I decided to post it now because I’ve been really wanting to get back into blogging here – and given the extra time I have on my hands due to life-impacting world events, I figured I really have no excuse to get this up.

Fennel, Cranberry, and Mint Kale Salad with Orange Honey Vinaigrette

Fennel, Cranberry, and Mint Kale Salad with Orange Honey Vinaigrette 1I find comfort foods are critical during these chilly, gloomy winter months in boosting my morale – but so are fresh fruits and vegetables. They remind me that sunnier days are coming! That’s why I love this Fennel, Cranberry, and Mint Kale Salad with Orange Honey Vinaigrette recipe!

This dish feels like the quintessential winter salad to me. It contains hearty, seasonal elements: fennel, cranberries, oranges. It’s brightly colored and full of vibrant flavor, helping to ease the winter blahs. And the mint adds a freshness that makes spring feel THAT much closer.

Creamy Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup

Creamy Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup 1

Hello, all! How are you surviving the increasingly shorter days – you doing OK? I’m speaking to my friends in the Northern Hemisphere, of course. To our friends in the Southern Hemisphere: I hope you are enjoying your summer and all of that gorgeous, brilliant, abundant sunlight! Wave hello to the beach for me.

I, for one, am NOT a fan of the darkness that rules this time of year. If I let it, it will bum me out. Because of this, I’ve been determined since the end of Daylight Savings time to embrace any positive aspects of the longer and longer nights that I can find.

Darkness is . . . cozy. It gives me an excuse to burn candles for hours on end. It gets me to bed earlier, because it feels like stark midnight at six p.m. Looking on the bright side!

And during days when I can’t summon a rosy sentiment about the weakening sunlight, I am hell-bent on wholly distracting myself from it. One majorly reliable way I do that? Making and eating good food, of course! And this Creamy Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup is pretty darn good, I must say.

Autumn Salad with Creamy Parmesan Dressing

 

Autumn Salad with Creamy Parmesan Dressing 1

Hello, all! Happy, happy Friday!

I have been fantasizing about letting myself loaf around the house in solitude this weekend in my fleece sweatpants, binging on the rapidly accumulating glut of recorded TV shows on my DVR. I feel a real need to be lazy, which is not my usual instinct. Generally I’m a run!-go!-create! kind of gal. But I yearn to refill my well: sling some colored pencils on my adult coloring book, get lost in a breezy novel, stare out the window at the brightly colored fall landscape. Snooze with my cat. How good does snoozing with a cat sound???

Fall is good for refilling our energy wells.

Fall is also good for food. I am loving being back to this cozy-weather diet! In the throes of fair summer, that seasonal diet enthralled me; I obsessed over fresh tomatoes, peaches, watermelon, berries, and zucchini, not knowing how I could let go of them. But now I find that my tastes have shifted naturally back to root vegetables, squash, hearty soups, and food that is generally richer and more satiating. That propensity toward heavier fare inspired this salad’s creamy Parmesan dressing.