Frizzled onions are a delicious garnish on just about anything. Photo courtesy Silk Road Palace | New York City.

Onion rings are a calorie splurge, not including all the sugar- or worse, the high fructose corn syrup-laden ketchup they’re topped with.

But you can enjoy a few “frizzled onions,” thin shoestring slices, with less guilt. As a garnish atop fish, poultry, meat or garnish, they satisfy that craving more economically than a large side of onion rings.

If you want to make this recipe less spicy, cut back on the black pepper, cayenne and chili powder.

FRIZZLED ONIONS RECIPE

Ingredients

*Buttermilk substitute: For 1 cup buttermilk, substitute 2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar plus enough milk to make 1 cup.
 
Preparation

1. HEAT oil to 375°F in a deep fat fryer or heavy stockpot.

2. SLICE onion rings thinly, ideally using a mandoline or vegetable slicer.

3. PLACE onion rings in a large bowl, separated; cover with buttermilk.

4. COMBINE flour, salt, black pepper, cayenne, and 1/2 teaspoon of paprika in a medium bowl.

5. DRAIN onions from buttermilk and dredge in the seasoned flour. Shake off excess flour.

6. DEEP-FRY until crisp and golden, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

7. SPRINKLE with remaining paprika. You can serve the frizzled onions immediately, or keep at room temperature for a few hours.

Don’t bring a serving dish to the table:
Spoon out portions into—or directly bake
them in—ramekins. Photo courtesy Blake’s
All Natural.

Healthcare professionals and everyone who’s successfully kept off weight will tell you: You don’t have to give up your favorite foods. Just eat them in small portions.

Unfortunately, we live in a “supersize me” culture. When we pay to eat out, we want our money’s worth: We’re pleased by huge portions and comment negatively on smaller ones. Research shows that, although people are more aware of the higher calorie intake of large portions, they tend to feel justified eating the amount that’s put in front of them.

But when you cook at home, your advantage is the ability to control the amount of food they prepare as well as the portion size.

With that, our tip of the day is: Make it mini.

One way to ensure smaller portions is to buy smaller muffin tins for cheesecake, cupcakes, muffins, potato and pasta dishes, starchy sides and other carb-laden treats.

Or, bake mac and cheese or scalloped potatoes in ramekins or parchment cups. We put our PaperChef Parchment Cups—Tulip Cups and Lotus Cups—to use. Beyond baking with ease, parchment cups are great for portion control with an attractive presentation.

Steer away from bringing a serving dish or pot to the table. Pre-fill parchment cups, ramekins or other small dishes with individual portions and bring them to the table, where everybody gets one. To avoid seconds, pack any extras from the recipes into portion-control cups and stick them into the freezer.

This recipe is by Matthew Kadey for PaperChef.com.

MINI MAC & CHEESE CUPS

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COOK the macaroni according to the package instructions, until al dente.

2. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F.

3. DRAIN the pasta, return it to the pot and stir in the Cheddar cheese and ½ cup of the Parmesan cheese.

4. LIGHTY beat the eggs and stir in the milk and yogurt.

5. ADD the egg mixture to the pasta mixture along with the sun-dried tomatoes, chives, cayenne, nutmeg, mustard, salt, and pepper. Mix well.

6. DIVIDE the mixture among 12 parchment cups (this recipe used PaperChef Tulip Cups).

7. HEAT the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.

8. STIR in the bread crumbs and cook until browned, stirring regularly.

9. STIR the remaining 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese into the toasted bread crumbs, sprinkle over the pasta mixture and bake until set, about 15 minutes.

10. COOL for 5 minutes before unmolding.

MINI SCALLOPED POTATO CUPS

Ingredients

This recipe yields 12 appetizer-size servings.

Use ramekins to control portion sizes. Photo courtesy PotatoGoodness.com.

Preparation

1. PREHEAT oven to 350°F and spray 12 small ramekins with nonstick cooking spray.

2. PLACE potatoes in a microwave-safe bowl; cover and microwave on HIGH for 6 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile…

3. MELT butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute more. Slowly stir in half and half, cooking until mixture is smooth.

4. ADD cheeses, a little at a time; then stir in remaining ingredients.

5. SPOON into prepared ramekins and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly.
 
Do you have a favorite portion control tip? Please share!

Rich in flavor and texture: a delicious potato-
mushroom casserole. Photo courtesy
PotatoGoodness.com.

Are you making a special New Year’s Eve dinner? This dressed up fingerling potato dish in a rich wild mushroom sauce is a festive side. Plus, it’s an easy, one-skillet dish.

It’s from the United States Potato Association, which has many more delicious potato recipes at PotatoGoodness.com.

PAN FRIED FINGERLING POTATOES WITH
WILD MUSHROOM SAUCE

Ingredients

Preparation

1. MELT butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes; cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender. (Tenting with foil will speed up cooking.)

2. STIR in fresh mushrooms, garlic and shallot; cook for 10 minutes more. Add broth, dried mushrooms, mustard and herbs; cook over high heat for 5 minutes or until most of the broth has cooked off.

3. STIR in crème fraîche and cook for 5 minutes more. Season with pepper and fresh thyme.
 
DO YOU KNOW YOUR POTATOES & MUSHROOMS?

Make your holiday salad more Christmasy with beet ribbons, stars, dice or julienne strips.

You can curl beets (as well as carrots, turnips and other root vegetables) by cutting a continuous ribbon from the raw vegetable; then steam lightly.

Add baby lettuces, toasted walnuts, and your choice of blue cheese, feta or goat cheese for a flavorful Christmas salad.

Other ways to make curled vegetable garnishes:

Here are more ideas for Christmas salads and a beet salad recipe.

Add some beets to your Christmas salad. Photo courtesy Triomphe Restaurant | NYC

Beautiful beets, in a variety of colors, are in
season now. Photo courtesy Capitole Grille |
Nashville

If you see asparagus, apricots, cherries and other spring-summer foods in the market, they’re not from here. Off-season fruits and vegetables are grown in countries below the equator where the seasons are reversed.

They’re then shipped many thousands of miles to your market, giving you produce that has been sitting for weeks in shipment, and has required lots of fuel to get it to you.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental action group, wants you to eat what’s in season. They’ve created an app to show you what’s in season in your area. You can use it on the NRDC website or download it from the iTunes Store.

Is the app perfect? Well, it’s a good start, although it told us that tomatoes were in season in November in New York. Perhaps they meant dried tomatoes.

Yet, we like the app for its ability to highlight foods we should be considering. It will expand your repertoire by encouraging you to try different recipes; you’ll discover new favorites. And you’ll save mone by purchasing what’s in season.

There are other ways to find seasonal produce, of course: simply search in your browser for “fall produce,” “fall vegetables and fruits” or “seasonal produce” and your state.

 
Find our favorite vegetables and recipes in our Gourmet Vegetables section. The fruits are here.

Would you like a kitchen herb garden, but lack the necessary windowsill space?

Pick up a Living Wall planter from WoollyPocket.com. It’s available in seven colors.

All it needs is a wall space that’s 13 inches x 18 inches.

Fresh basil, dill, parsley and other favorites will soon be yours for the snipping!

Plant herbs on your wall. Photo courtesy Wooly Pocket.

The Chicken Caesar is one of America’s most popular salads: grilled chicken and romaine topped with an olive oil dressing and grated Parmesan cheese.

Chicken and cheese are a delightful combination. So here’s a different spin on the classic Caesar: Switch out the Parmesan for another flavorful cheese.

The idea comes from Landana, which makes a delicious Olives & Tomatoes Gouda cheese. The Gouda is flecked with sun-ripened tomatoes and mild olives, Mediterranean flavors that are delicious with chicken.

You can also use blue cheese, pepper jack and flavored Cheddars like those from Cabot Cheese (Chipotle, Garlic Herb, Hand Rubbed Tuscan, Horseradish, Hot Buffalo Wing, Hot Habanero, Smoky Bacon and Tomato Basil, plus Jalapeño Light and Pepper Jack Light).

CHICKEN & CHEESE SALAD RECIPE

Preparation time: 20 min minutes
Servings: 4

For a change, switch out the Parmesan in a Chicken Caesar Salad. Photo courtesy Landana Cheese.

In addition to changing cheees, this recipe adds grapes and nuts/seeds.
Ingredients

 
For The Dressing

 
Preparation

1. GRILL. Cut the chicken breasts into strips and grill in a grill pan.

2. TOAST. Toast the nut mixture briefly (how to toast nuts).

3. MIX. Mix the dressing ingredients.

4. COMBINE. Combine the lettuce, chicken, cheese, grapes and nuts into a serving bowl. Toss with the dressing.

The Caesar Salad was named after the restaurateur who created it. What would you call this salad?

Serving Suggestions

BREAD. This salad is delicious with fresh Italian ciabatta bread and (homemade) tapenade.

WINE. Serve this salad with a refreshing rosé or a crisp white wine.

CAESAR SALAD HISTORY

Here’s the true story about the origin of the Caesar Salad, and the original Caesar Salad recipe.

Do you like to get creative with food design? Bring fun to the dining table?

Next time you bake a potato, scallop the edges. We baked the potato, then sliced it across the top and used a kitchen scissors to create the zigzag effect.

There’s no wasted food: We added the cut-out portion, along with onions and bell pepper, to the following morning’s omelet.

Wild potatoes are indigenous to the Andes Mountains in Peru. They were first domesticated more than 6,000 years ago. Here’s the history of potatoes.

How many different types of potatoes have you tried? Check out our Potato Glossary.

Scallop your baked potato. Photo courtesy Architec.

Don’t like baked potatoes? Here are other potato recipes.

Love garbanzo beans (a.k.a. ceci and chickpeas)? Most of us have only seen these legumes canned or dried.

But you can buy fresh garbanzo beans* from specialty produce purveyors year-round. It’s an altogether different eating experience.

Each nutty green bean is enveloped in a thin, papery skin. To enjoy fresh garbanzos, simply sauté, steam or boil the beans with the skin on. Then squeeze each bean out of its wrapper, just as with edamame.

As with canned and dried beans, fresh garbanzos can be mashed into dip, tossed into a salad and made into falafel and hummus.

But first eat the fresh garbanzos plain, like edamame, as a snack or in a green salad. You’ll be charmed by the flavor.

Get some fresh garbanzo beans for yourself, send some to your favorite garbanzo bean lover. The clam shell pack can be stored for 7-10 days in the produce crisper.

The real (fresh) deal: fresh garbanzo
beans (chickpeas). Photo courtesy Melissas.com.

Californians may be able to find the Garden Green Garbanzos brand in local markets, fresh-frozen. Or, order by phone from our favorite specialty produce purveyor, Melissas.com: 800-588-0151 (currently, there is no online ordering because of price fluctuations).

GARBANZO BEAN NUTRITION

Garbanzos are high in calories, but they are all good calories. The beans are an excellent source of protein and cholesterol-lowering fiber. Their high level of insoluble fiber helps to prevent digestive disorders such as diverticulosis and IBS. Garbanzo bean group participants had better blood fat regulation—including lower levels of LDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglycerides—than the group that consumed dietary fiber from another source.

Garbanzos are an excellent source of folate (vitamin B9) and contain the antioxidant vitamins A & C along along with other good-for-you phytonutrients. Low in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium, garbanzos are a heart-healthy food.

Whole Foods Market reports a recent study where participants reported more satisfaction with their diet when garbanzo beans were included. They consumed fewer processed food snacks and less food overall.

*There are two main varieties of garbanzos. Desi are small, angular and variegated in color and were probably the original chickpea cultivated. Today, the predominant variety is the kabuli, a large beaked pea.

Fresh chickpeas. Photo by Khalid Mahmood |
Wikimedia.

HOW THE CHICKPEA GOT ITS NAME

Call it Bengal gram, ceci bean, chana, garbanzo bean or sanagalu: The chickpea is one of the earliest cultivated legumes. Remains have been found in the Middle East that date back 7,500 years.

“Chickpea” evolved from the Latin cicer, which happens to be the same root as the Roman name Cicero. The Oxford English Dictionary lists a 1548 citation that reads, “Cicer may be named in English Cich, or ciche pease, after the Frenche tonge.” By the mid-18th century, ciche peas became chick-peas.

The word “garbanzo” is a bit more obscure. It is first noted in English in the 17th century, as “calavance,” perhaps from the Old Spanish algarroba. There is also a possible Basque word parent, garbantzu, a compound of garau, seed and antzu, dry.

In ancient Greece, chickpeas (called erébinthos) were consumed raw when young and eaten as a staple food, as well as a dessert. (Today, halua, chickpeas in a sugar base that has some resemblance to peanut brittle, is a popular sweet dish in Bangladesh.)

The Romans roasted garbanzos as a snack and cooked them into a broth. Many centuries later, in 18th-century Europe, roasted chickpeas were ground and brewed as a coffee substitute.

We recommend the more conventional uses.

Check out the different types of beans and legumes in our Bean Glossary.