Six Reasons to Love Sweet Potatoes
A true nutritional powerhouse, sweet potatoes deserve to be more than just a side piece for your holiday turkey. Here are just a few reasons why they belong at the table the other 364 days of the year.
1. They help you chill out.
Sweet potatoes are a good source of magnesium, the anti-stress mineral.
2. They make you look good.
They’ve got lots of vitamin C, which aids in the production of collagen, which helps maintain the skin’s elasticity.
3. They keep you young.
Their orange color means sweet potatoes are a good source of beta-carotene, which protects against the negative effects of aging.
4. They give you energy.
Because their natural sugars are slowly released into the bloodstream, they offer a balanced source of energy, without the spikes in blood sugar, which can lead to fatigue.
5. They help you stay rested.
Sweet potatoes aid in the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep patterns.
6. They can make you happy.
A good source of vitamin D, which plays an important role in maintaining energy levels and moods.
Turn our Sicilian Chickpea and Escarole Soup into a Panzanella
We’re proud of all our Sun Basket recipes, but we do love it when our cooks improvise with the meals we send and turn them into something completely different. This week, our chef Paul Conte suggested that the ingredients for our Sicilian Chickpea and Escarole Soup could easily be turned into a panzanella, a traditional Tuscan bread salad. Here’s how he did it.
From your basket
1 ciabatta
Fresh rosemary
Peeled fresh garlic
¼ teaspoon piment d’Espelette, optional
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 or 2 shallots
1 fennel bulb
1 carrot
1 cup cooked chickpeas
Fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 wedge escarole
¼ cup shaved Parmesan
From your pantry
Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, olive oil, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or vinegar, preferably sherry or white wine, optional
Tools
Peeler, optional, garlic press or fine-toothed grater, optional, mandolin, optional, colander, small bowl, large bowl, large frying pan, sheet pan
1 Prep and toast the ciabatta
• Tear the ciabatta into 1-inch pieces.
• Strip the leaves from the rosemary; coarsely chop the leaves.
• Finely chop, press, or grate enough garlic to measure 1 teaspoon.
In a large bowl, combine the ciabatta, rosemary, garlic, and piment d’Espelette. Drizzle with 1 to 2 teaspoons oil; season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat.
In a large frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the bread and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to the large bowl and let cool slightly.
While the ciabatta crisps and cools, prep the remaining ingredients.
2 Prep the remaining ingredients
• Add lemon juice or vinegar, if using, to a small bowl.
• Peel and finely chop the shallots; add to the small bowl and let stand.
• Cut the fennel in half lengthwise, cut away the core, then thinly slice. Alternatively, using a mandolin, thinly slice the fennel.
• Scrub or peel the carrot, trim the root end; using a peeler, cut the carrot into thin strips or, with a knife, cut crosswise into ¼-inch-thick pieces.
• Rinse the chickpeas.
• Strip the parsley leaves from their stems, coarsely chop the leaves.
• Trim the root end from the escarole, separate the leaves and tear into smaller pieces.
3 Make the salad
To the large bowl with the ciabatta, add the fennel, carrot, chickpeas, parsley, shallots and lemon juice or vinegar, if using, and the Parmesan; drizzle with oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss well to coat.
4 Serve
Transfer the salad to individual bowls and serve.
La Mère Cocktail Recipe
Forget the flowers and chocolates. Give Mom what she really wants this Mother’s Day, a cocktail with her breakfast. Inspired by the classic French 75, this bubbly blend of Lillet Rose (a delicate, fruity aperitif), fragrant elderflower liqueur, and sparkling wine, the La Mère is a great way to say “thanks for all the years of picking up after me.”
La Mère Cocktail
Serves 2
Shopping List
2 lemons
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons (3 ounces) Lillet Rose
1 tablespoon (½ ounce) St-Germain elderflower liqueur|
1 cup ice
½ cup (4 ounces) chilled dry sparkling wine, such as cava or Champagne
Tools
Peeler, cocktail shaker
1 Prep the lemon zest and juice
- Using a peeler, remove the zest in wide strips from the lemons, being careful to remove only the outermost yellow layer and leave behind the bitter white pith. Twist each strip.
- Juice enough of the lemons to make 3 tablespoons juice, or 1½ ounces.
2 Make the cocktail
In a cocktail shaker, combine the Lillet Rose, lemon juice, and elderflower liqueur. Add the ice and shake vigorously until thoroughly chilled, about 20 seconds. Strain into chilled flutes and top with the sparkling wine.
3 Serve
Garnish each drink with a lemon twist and serve immediately.
Nutrition per serving: Calories: 130, Protein: 1g (2% DV), Fiber: 2g (8% DV), Total Fat: 0g (0% DV), Monounsaturated Fat: 0g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0g, Saturated Fat: 0g (0% DV), Cholesterol: 0mg (0% DV), Sodium: 5mg (0% DV), Carbohydrates: 13g (4% DV), Total Sugars: 9g, Added Sugars: 0g (0% DV). Not a significant source of trans fat.
Bonus recipe—ingredients not included in box.
Plant a Garden in a Sun Basket
Your Sun Basket arrives full of fresh produce, but that doesn’t have to end once you’ve unpacked it. You can turn the empty box into a container garden—and keep the vegetables growing all year long.
These box container gardens are also a great way to recycle our ice packs. Cut open the plastic bag (you can put the empty bag in your recycling bin) and bury the gel in the dirt. Made from 98% water and 2% non-GMO cotton, the water in the gel slowly dissipates into the soil, providing a steady source of moisture to the seeds and roots, leaving only the biodegradable cotton behind.
Here’s how we did it:
Materials
Empty Sun Basket box, top flaps removed
Gardening gloves
Soil
Compost
Scissors
Sun Basket ice pack
Trowel
Seeds
Plant stakes
Pen
Step 1
Fill the empty Sun Basket box three-quarters full of soil. Spread approximately 1” of compost evenly over the top.
Step 2
Cut open one end of the Sun Basket ice pack with scissors. Lay the gel on top of the compost. Fill the rest of the box with more soil, leaving approximately 1” between the top of the soil and the edge of the box. Smooth the top.
Step 3
Using the tip of the trowel, make furrows for the seeds, following the packet instructions for depth and spacing.
Step 4
Plant the seeds in the furrows.
Step 5
Using a pen, write the name of the plants on the stakes and place at the head of each furrow.
Spray the soil lightly with water. Keep the surface moist, but not soaking wet, until the seeds sprout. And continue to water according to the instructions on the seed packet.
For outdoor use only. In case of heavy rainfall post-planting, box may need reinforcement—tie a few lengths of heavy-duty twine around the outside of the box.
From Rags to Bags
Seems like we never have a market bag when we want one, yet we always seem to have more t-shirts than we need. Sun Basket’s DIY maven, Christina Stork, has found a clever solution with these easy-to-make t-shirt totes. With just a couple of strategic cuts and a single seam, she turns a shirt into an upcycled bag.
Materials
T-shirt
Self-healing mat, optional
Tailor’s chalk or felt-tip marker
Scissors or rotary cutter
Sewing thread
Sewing machine
Instructions:
1. Lay the T-shirt on a flat surface or self-healing mat. Using tailor’s chalk or a felt-tip marker, trace semicircles around each arm and around the neck of the T-shirt. Trace a horizontal line across the bottom of the tee shirt 8 to 10 inches down from the underarm seams.
2. Using scissors or s rotary cutter, cut along each line of chalk or marker. What remains should look like a tank top.
3. Turn the T-shirt inside out. Using a straight stitch, sew the bottom closed about ½-inch above the cut line. Repeat with a zigzag stitch over the straight stitch, to reinforce the bottom of the bag.
4. Turn the bag right side out and head to the farmers’ market.
John France Raises Citrus Fruits and Grapes, but He’ll Tell You That His Most Important Crop is Dirt
When you squeeze lemon juice into your Sun Basket meal or stir some of the fresh zest into a dish, you’re not likely thinking about dirt, but John France is. France is one of our favorite citrus farmers, and owner of France Ranch and Homegrown Organics in Porterville, California near Bakersfield. According to France, soil is everything when it comes to farming. Ultimately, all the major characteristics of that lemon, including the sugar levels, the size, the smoothness of the skin, and the ability of the fruit to handle the rigors of picking and packing, are determined by the quality of the ground it grows in. That’s why France focuses much of his attention on maintaining soil and developing a balanced ecosystem underground.
Paula Wolfert’s Party Boxes
Meal kits like Sunbasket may seem like a recent innovation, but in these, as in so many things, the cookbook author Paula Wolfert was way ahead of the curve. More than 50 years ago, Paula collaborated with Columbia House, a subsidiary of Columbia Records, to launch an entertaining kit called International Home Dining. In this excerpt from Unforgettable, a biography of Paula, we explore how the service did—and did not—resemble today’s meal kit experience.
A kind of Sunbasket of its day, Paula’s “International Home Dining” service sent subscribers a box containing everything they’d need to throw a dinner party from a different country: an album of music from that country (of course), plus a half-dozen illustrated recipes, printed invitations, a four-page newsletter, a battle plan for the cooking, and a half-dozen harder-to-find ingredients and necessary equipment (think a basic cleaver and wok). Each box cost $9.95 plus shipping and handling, about $80 in today’s currency.
Starting with a French dinner party box, Paula developed what would become part of her visionary cookbook-writing style: unapologetically complex recipes, engaging descriptions to capture their flavors in vivid detail, and mail-order sources to bypass the limited American supply chain, so subscribers could achieve those flavors at home.
Even for Paula, however, the recipes for her first French party box were—in a testament to her intense classic training—absurdly complicated. Especially the first course: truites à la gelée de Riesling. The preparation involved poaching six head-on trout in a made-from-scratch court bouillon, skinning them, setting each in homemade fish aspic, then garnishing them with “flowers” of lemon peel and tomatoes (or pimiento cherry peppers) that were dipped in aspic and applied with tweezers. The trout was served with freshly made sauce verte (green mayonnaise).
“I made it all the time for friends in Paris,” she explained.
To empower subscribers to explore new culinary ideas, Paula began her lifelong practice of sweetly, if wildly, understating the difficulty of her recipes. She communicated in the vernacular of the mainstream 1969 American home cook, who was accustomed to processed food. “The recipe is not difficult but the glazing and decorating do take time,” she wrote. “If it sounds difficult, think of it in terms of boiling a potato, making a bowl of Jell-O, and decorating the Jell-O with fruit.”
The second box reminded Paula that cooking could be an adventure. It focused on Chinese cuisine, which was considered very chic. Paula enlisted the cooking instructor Grace Zia Chu to help. Born in Shanghai, Chu was an early advocate for authentic regional Chinese cooking. She emboldened Paula to break down the sprawling cuisine with breathtaking efficiency. Their menu spanned the country: seven recipes from five regions, including a Beijing pork stir-fry with tiger lily buds and cloud ear mushrooms, Cantonese spare ribs with fermented black bean sauce, and cold poached Sichuan chicken topped with tingly Sichuan peppercorns. Imagine the 1970 cook opening the box to discover those recipes along with fermented bean sauce and cloud ear mushrooms, tiger lily buds, and Sichuan peppercorns.
But it wasn’t until the fifth box that Paula discovered her métier. Columbia House let her focus on a cuisine hardly anyone had heard of at that time: Indonesian. Paula tracked down a batik importer, Madame Soeharjo, who invited Paula to come to an Indonesian community center in Elmhurst, Queens, to watch the preparation of slametan, a Javanese wedding feast.
There, Paula found a dozen Javanese women sitting on the floor grinding spice pastes called bumbus on stone mortars (cobeks) with right-angled pestles. The room was filled with the powerful scents of herbs and spices: tamarind, shrimp paste, lemongrass, kaffir (makrut) lime leaves. She was seized by a deep curiosity but didn’t stand in a corner with a notepad observing. Instead, she got down on the floor and persuaded someone to show her how to use a cobek to make some of the bumbus herself.
“I was interested in doing it the way they do it so I could feel it, so I could understand it!” Paula said. “I wanted to breathe in what they were doing.”
Determined to help subscribers achieve these flavors at home, Paula suggested they grow their own cilantro (coriander) and harvest the seeds, both then nonexistent in American supermarkets. “Coriander seeds are pungent and aromatic,” she wrote. “When they are ground, they release a sweet aroma, and their oil provides one of the two flavorings used in the production of gin! You can plant the seeds for they grow very easily into the leaf herb called Chinese parsley, or cilantro, which is wonderful in soups, salads and stews.”
Paula included recipes for a lemongrass beef satay and a rich peanut sauce. She also slipped in a step-by-step method for making coconut milk and from-scratch directions for ketjap manis (sweet soy sauce) and sambal oelek (chile paste). With importing help from Bosboom and Madame Soeharjo, she was able to send subscribers fresh kaffir (makrut) lime leaves, lemongrass stalks, and daun salam leaves, a bay-like herb with a bitter-almond flavor that’s still rare in the United States today.
A Life in Books
The thousands of recipes in Paula Wolfert’s nine-book canon encircle the Mediterranean, from North Africa to Spanish Catalonia, and stretch as far East as the Republic of Georgia. Serious cooks such as Jacques Pépin, Alice Waters, and Mario Batali all cite her among their primary influences, and claim her as one of our greatest cookbook authors.
Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, 1973
The first major Moroccan cookbook in the English language, this book introduced tagines, couscous, and every other iconic Moroccan dish to the West. “We’ve been steaming our couscous at Chez Panisse ever since [its release],” says Alice Waters.
Mediterranean Cooking, 1977 (2nd ed. 1994)
Written while Paula lived in Tangier, this book is beloved for its unorthodox organization, with chapters dedicated to classic flavors of the region instead of courses. One chapter is dedicated to garlic and olive oil, another to nightshades (eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers).
The Cooking of Southwest France, 1983 (2nd ed. 2005)
This book made Paula a living legend among professional chefs around the US, who fell hard for its modern and ancient recipes from one of France’s most delicious yet least-known regions. It helped popularize foie gras, duck confit, and cassoulet among American chefs and diners.
Paula Wolfert’s World of Food, 1988
Paula’s sentimental favorite and her biggest commercial failure, this eclectic work features unusual recipes from some of the Mediterranean’s lesser-known regions, such as Sicily and Spanish Catalonia.
The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, 1994
The volume that broke the ground for Ottolenghi and the current craze for all things Middle Eastern, this book introduced many American cooks to the foods of that region, not only its meze or small plates, but also its pantry ingredients such as Aleppo and Marash chile flakes and pomegranate molasses.
Mediterranean Grains and Greens, 1998
A book so far ahead of its time, the world it describes still does not quite exist, in this deep dive on wild greens and lesser-known grains, Paula predicted grocery stores would one day carry wild stinging nettles and purslane. So far this has only come to pass in certain parts of Berkeley.
The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, 2003
With this work, the food world finally started catching up to Paula, and she could publish some of the most unusual recipes in her repertoire, such as lamb you can eat with a spoon: a leg of lamb simmered for hours in an obscure dessert wine along with several dozen cloves of garlic, a recipe that has become a cult favorite.
Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking, 2009
Paula was obsessed with clay pots almost all her life. But when she published Couscous in 1973, Americans had so little access to Moroccan clay tagines, she had to rewrite tagine recipes for metal pots. Here, she corrected the record, celebrating the wonderful qualities of tagines, French daubières, Chinese sand pots, and countless other treasures of her vast earthenware collection.
The Food of Morocco, 2011
In her final book, Paula radically overhauled Couscous, rewriting the tagine recipes for true Moroccan clay pots, and traveling the country with photographer Quentin Bacon to give the country’s food the coffee-table-book treatment it deserves.
The Keys to Mindful Aging
In 2013, Paula was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Instead of retreating, she took it upon herself to overhaul her lifestyle in hopes of slowing the progress of the disease. She says she feels better than she has in years. Excerpted from Unforgettable, her new biography, what follows are some strategies she finds helpful. We think they could help anyone of any age looking to increase their brain power and to stave off some of the less desirable aspects of growing old.
Eat well
Many studies have shown that the Mediterranean diet is good for the mind as well as the heart, for those with and without dementia. A 2015 study in Alzheimer & Dementia; the Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association showed that even modest steps toward a whole foods regimen, such as eating one serving of seafood a week, two servings of berries a week, or two servings of vegetables a day, significantly lowered the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. At the time of this writing Paula’s diet includes:
1 serving (about 1 cup/145 g) berries every day.
At least 1 serving (1 cup/30 to 60 g) cooked or raw dark green leafy vegetables every day.
1 handful walnuts and 1 spoonful each chia, sunflower, and hemp seeds every day.
1 avocado everyday
5 to 6 ounces (150 to 180 g) wild-caught salmon or canned sardines two times a week.
5 to 6 ounces (150 to 180 g) grass-fed beef or pastured poultry two or three times a week.
Paula’s diet does not include simple carbohydrates or sugars. A Harvard study published in the August 2013 New England Journal of Medicine showed that even incremental increases in blood sugar levels are linked with an increased risk of dementia. Paula has taken this to an extreme, eliminating virtually all sugars and carbohydrates, what is known as a ketogenic diet. She believes this choice has made her more alert throughout the day. Her neurologist only advised she cut out added sugars.
Keep moving
Physically active people are less likely to experience cognitive decline and there is now research that suggests that exercise may reverse decline in certain cognitive processes. Every morning, Paula jogs a twenty minute mile on a treadmill. She practices qigong four times a week and gentle yoga three times a week. Exercise has widened her social circle and has improved her self image as well as her ability to roll with the punches.
Be in the present
A small but exciting Harvard study from 2011 showed that people who meditated about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks experienced slight growth in their hippocampus, the brain’s file center, which organizes new information. Paula meditates fifteen to thirty minutes a day, sometimes twice a day, using guided meditations from online sources such as Tara Brach. She has found that it improves her mood and emotional equilibrium.
Spend time with friends
Studies have established that socially and mentally active and engaged seniors have better cognitive function and a lower incidence of dementia. Paula has always enjoyed the company of others, and she picks a few days each week to spend with friends. Once a month she volunteers at her local senior center to lead a Memory Cafe, a gathering to learn about dementia.
Reject shame
Dementia has a punishing stigma that understandably inspires many sufferers to hide their condition. Paula is exceptionally public about her illness and draws tremendous strength from the support of friends, colleagues, and fans.
Meet Sun Basket’s Unforgettable Muse
Over her four-decade career, Paula Wolfert wrote nine seminal books on the Mediterranean, introducing Americans to cuisines and ingredients we now take for granted, including Mediterranean cooking itself. Her influence can be felt in just about every Mediterranean Sun Basket recipe, whether in a sprinkling of Marash chile flakes, which she first brought to the U.S., or in slivers of preserved lemon, for which she wrote one of the first recipes in English.
This week, we’re celebrating the release of Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert’s Renegade Life, a culinary biography of Paula Wolfert by Sun Basket’s Editorial Director for Recipes, Emily Kaiser Thelin. As Emily writes in the book, Paula may be “the most influential cookbook author you’ve never heard of.”
On our menu for the week of April 24, Sun Basket is excited to feature four recipes inspired by Wolfert. You can choose from Tunisian Chickpea Soup with Soft-Cooked Eggs and Toasted Ciabatta, Salmon Chermoula with Cucumber Salad and Preserved Lemon-Couscous, Spiced Lamb Patties with Cauliflower Tabbouleh and Tahini Dressing, and Sausage and White Bean Cassoulet with Arugula Salad.
We’re not the only ones excited about Emily’s book. Press outlets from the New York Times to the indie food magazine Lucky Peach have all weighed in on what many people feel is one of the most important cookbooks to be published this year.
Order any one of these recipes and you’ll be entered to win an Unforgettable Spice Box from our friends at Oaktown Spice Shop. The box features four of the spices that Paula helped introduce to an American audience: sumac, ras-el-hanout, and Aleppo and Marash Turkish chile flakes.*
And by ordering three of the four Unforgettable Paula recipes, you’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win the Unforgettable Spice Box and a copy of Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert’s Renegade Life signed by both Emily and Paula.*
To get your copy of the book today, go to Unforgettablepaula.com.
Photo by Eric Wolfinger
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