Sarah Britton, the brains behind the wildly popular food blogMy New Roots, is working to make wholesome, health-centric food sexier. And with hernew book, Britton's also making this idea simple. The new mom is often pressed for time, so she's cooking simple food—she actually describes her recipes as "basic" and "Monk's food."
These are the kind of dishes that come together fast and feel healthy and filling at the same time. "I don't have more than 20 to 25 minutes to cook, so I'm using lots of herbs, lots of citrus zest. When vegetables are fresh, they don't need intervention; you're just cutting and garnishing and you look like an amazing cook."
Her secret lies in this mantra, written in the intro paragraphs of her book: "Take your dish to the next level simply by finishing it off with one, two, or three of the following:citrus zest, fresh herbs, and lightly toasted nuts or seeds." If you always have these basic, relatively inexpensive, and easy to find ingredients on hand, you can upgrade any dish instantly. "You can do one, two, or all three things at once. All three is really going to flavortown," she says. Ready to head to flavortown? Here how:
Fresh Herbs
Britton started her culinary career working in a restaurant with no menu in Copenhagen, and while creating dishes on the fly, she quickly learned the value of tossing a bunch of fresh herbs into a dish. "It's so simple and cheap and it just transforms anything," she says. "You can take a simple pot of rice and just by adding herbs, it becomes really delicious."
Try one chopped herb for distinct flavor, or use a combination: parsley, mint, dill, and cilantro are all good to add to virtually any dish. When your herbs start to look a little sad, just chop them up, cover with oil, and refrigerate to create asalsa verde-likesauce that can be drizzled on roasted meats, stirred into salad dressing, and tossed with grilled veggies.
Toasted nuts
Just like a salt dish, Britton always keeps a bowl of toasted nuts or seeds on the side of her stove top. Next time you toast nuts or seeds for a recipe, just do a little extra. She suggests sprinkling them on salads, soups and stews, quinoa, or morning oats.
While herbs should primarily be added in at the end of cooking, toasted nuts and seeds can often be added earlier in the cooking process. "Toasted nuts and seeds are really nice cooked into soups," she suggests, and we're all about using them forcrusting meats and seafood.
Citrus
Citrus zest and juice can brighten up any dish, and we're big fans of squeezing some on top of everything from roast chicken toscrambled eggs. Citrus is also the star of Britton's lentil soup, her most popular recipe by far. "It has some good spices," she says, "but the secret is cooking lemon slices in with the soup. It permeates everything, and creates a very surprisingly deep flavor, even for soup."
Britton suggests using all three ingredients with this dish: sprinkle on fresh chopped parsley and toasted pumpkin seeds to really take it next level.
