When Curry Powder Met Avocados: Indian Guacamole

Heidi Swanson’s new book has landed. Super Natural Everyday is inspiring in every meaning of the word. Her words make you want to record your own musings, her photographs make you want to pick up a camera, and her recipes make you want to cook with abandon. Super Natural Cooking is well-loved cookbook of mine, but Super Natural Everyday firmly ensconces Heidi as an arbiter of natural cooking. While I loved languorously paging through Super Natural Cooking over and over again, many of its recipes were reserved for special occasions or certain turns of mood, whereas the recipes in Super Natural Everyday are things that I want to cook and eat NOW, with no exception.

Tales From the Other Side of the Baking Aisle: Gluten-Free Coconut & Banana Muffins

Haven’t you heard? Gluten-free is so hot right now. No, I am not gluten-free. I’m just not hip enough to align myself with Victoria Beckham, Zooey Deschanel, Rachel Weisz, and a whole host of Hollywood glitterati. Rather, I got a whole lotta love for coconut and alternative flours of all-stars and stripes (thank you, Kim Boyce!) My coconut lovin’ kicked into overdrive after a family vacation to sunny Puerto Rico, where coconut is practically the national emblem. Street vendors sell endless varieties of shockingly sweet coconut candies while coconut water, the health craze du jour of the moment, is readily available on most street corners where it is epically served to you by a man with a machete, who lobs off the top of a coconut for you, jams a straw through its spongy flesh, and hands you what must be a gallon of coconut water for a mere dollar or so.

Thai Red Curry with Whole Grain Udon Noodles

Oh, Heidi. The 101 Cookbooks creator was instrumental in lighting my cooking fire a year and a half ago. Since stumbling across her blog I’ve come to see appreciate the beauty of seasonal cooking and off-the-beaten-path ingredients such as whole grain udon noodles, coconut oil, and shoyu sauce. All of which play a staring role in this delicious, slurp-tastic bowl of hearty, wholesome food. Part of the fun for me of cooking familiar dishes composed of unfamiliar ingredients is the the thrill of the hunt. Trolling the aisles of the MASSIVE Whole Foods here in Chicago and making a pilgrimage to the beloved Green Grocer for ingredients is all part of fun (NOTE: impatient boyfriends may not feel the same way.)

Thai Red Curry with Whole Grain Udon Noodles

3 tablespoons coconut oil
12 oz chicken breasts
fine grain sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 oz dried whole grain or whole wheat udon noodles
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons red curry paste
2 teaspoons turmeric
2 tablespoons shoyu sauce, plus more to taste
1 tablespoon cane sugar
14 oz can coconut milk
2 cups vegetable stock or water
Juice of 1 lime, plus more wedges for serving
1/3 cup slivered shallots
Large handful of peanuts
Large handful of cilantro, chopped

1.) Season chicken with salt and pepper. Grab your dutch oven and heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil over medium-high heat until swirling and hot. Add chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes on one side without moving it until it is nicely browned and detaches from the bottom of the pan with minimal prodding. Flip and cook 1-2 minutes more. Set aside. When cooled, break apart chicken into chunks with a fork. Wipe out the dutch oven with a paper towel but do not wash.

2.) Heat a pot of water until boiling. Salt generously and cook noodles until cooked but still quite firm; according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

3.) Heat 2 tablespoons coconut oil over medium-high heat in your dutch oven. Add garlic, onion, and curry paste, using your wooden spoon to distribute the paste across the mixture. Cook for 2 minutes; until fragrant. Add chicken, turmeric, sugar, and shoyu sauce and and stir to coat. Add coconut milk and vegetable stock, bring to a boil, and then simmer gently for 5 minutes.

4.) Remove from heat and stir in noodles and limes juice. Ladle into bowls and serve garnished with a sprinkling of shallots, peanuts, cilantro, and wedges of lime.

This recipe was adapted from Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson. Published by Celestial Arts, New York; 2007.