Almond Butter Parsnip Fries

Finding another way to use almond butter (or any other nut butter) is the last thing I need, but I had been wanting to try this recipe for a while. It is from Oh She Glows, where Angela claims that these fries will change your life. I was a bit sceptical since parsnips are not my favourite vegetable, but I'll try anything coated in almond butter. You can find the recipe for these here.

The coating on these fries is absolutely delicious. It is a great combination of sweet and salty, which works wonderfully with the roasted parsnip. The only a problem I had is with cutting similarly sized fries to prevent over cooking some and under cooking others. But that could be easily solved. I have made these a few times since, as this is a great option for spicing up boring winter root vegetables.

Green in the Kitchen Tip #1 (yes this may turn into a series..)

I have mentioned before how I have been trying to be less wasteful in the kitchen. This also helps to save some money. One aspect of cooking which tends to be wasteful (vitamin waste anyway) is cooking water. I usually don't think twice about dumping water that I cooked pasta or vegetables in, but a couple weeks ago I was steaming some artichokes, and I added a garlic clove and bay leaf in the water that was boiling. When I took the artichokes out I noticed how green the water was, and fairly flavourful too (yes I tasted it). It was basically garlic and artichoke infused water. Instead of pouring this down the sink I kept it in the fridge until a day later when I made some rice. I used this flavourful (and probably vitamin enriched) rice to cook the rice instead of water. Perfectly good use for my extensive mason jar collection.

Looks yummy, right?

Saving cooking water to use later for cooking pasta, rice, or other grains hardly saves you a penny, but it does add a little something to the dish, saves a little bit of water, and adds some vitamins that would otherwise be lost. I noticed on Easter that this is a practice my Nonna uses. She cooked the pasta in a green tinged pot of water which I am assuming was from the beans or rapini she prepared earlier. Why throw away perfectly good water?

To my fellow Canadians, tomorrow is May 2nd, election day! Don't forget to VOTE!