THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods


Also visit our main website, TheNibble.com.





PRODUCT: Amy’s Organic Soups

Just in time for the cold spell come three hearty soups from Amy’s Organic.

If you don’t know this brand, try it and become one of the many fans. The products are organic, tasty and better for you than most supermarket brands.

Amy’s aims to appeal to vegetarians and vegans as well as the general audience.

The three new soups include Chunky Tomato Bisque, Fire Roasted Southwestern Vegetable and Spanish Rice and Red Bean.

  • Chunky Tomato Bisque is creamy, velvety and sweet as sugar. Alas, that’s because there are 14g of sugar is per serving—almost three times as much as the other two varieties. You’ve heard us say this before, but there is more sweetener hidden in our food supply than is necessary or healthy. That Amy’s uses organic evaporated cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup means nothing to your glycemic index.

 

  • Fire Roasted Southwestern Vegetable Soup is vegan, a flavorful mix of tomato, potato cubes, roasted corn, bell pepper, black beans and onions. Green chiles and chipotle are listed on the label, but we tasted pepper rather than chile heat.
trio-230

Stay warm this winter with Amy’s Organic
soups. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

  • Spanish Rice & Red Bean Soup is mis-named. Spanish rice is a spicy white rice side dish prepared with tomatoes, onions and green peppers. Putting the words “Spanish rice” in front of this red bean soup with tomatoes, corn, bell pepper, zucchini and brown rice (which is the eighth ingredient on the label—i.e., not a whole lot of rice) is misleading. But the soup is hearty and nicely peppery.

 

The line is gluten free, certified organic by QAI and kosher by Ner Tamid K. The soups are low fat, cholesterol free, high in fiber and have no GMOs.

Comments off

TIP OF THE DAY: Use Those Toffee Crumbs

Toffee-230

Enstrom’s toffee is the buttery best—
and it’s also available in sugar-free!

Today is English Toffee Day, so get yourself a box.

But don’t toss out the “crumbs” at the bottom: They’re delicious on ice cream, cheesecake, yogurt or cake frosting.

In fact, Enstrom’s, one of our favorite toffee makers, sometimes sells crumbs by the bag for toffee fans who find many other uses for them (call—they’re not on the website).

Comments off

PRODUCTS: Packaged Diet Meals

Continuing with New Year’s diet resolutions:

More than a few people we know turn to packaged diet entrées for weight loss or maintenance. The portion-controlled single servings help eliminate the risk of overeating.

But Consumer Reports found that some give you so little to eat, that you need to add more food. Others are very high in sodium.

Consumer Reports looked at 24 leading microwaveable meals—22 frozen and two shelf-stable—including Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers. Consumer Reports evaluated the nutrition info for each meal based on its label.

Here are some topline findings:

kashi

Delicious, low calorie and low in sodium.
Photo courtesy Kashi Company.

  • Fourteen of the meals were tasty enough to recommend (that is, they rated very good in taste).
  • Eight meals had more than the 600 milligrams of sodium that Consumer Reports set as a maximum, based on generally recommended guidelines. Healthy Choice Complete Meals Sweet & Sour Chicken, Lean Cuisine Cafe Classics Steak Tips Portabello, and Kashi Black Bean Mango had the least sodium of the tested meals, each with an impressive 450 milligrams or less.
  • While no clear winner emerged among brands, Kashi was the only brand to earn a very good rating for all of the meals included in the test. They’re a little pricier than some of the others, but deliver the quality.

You can find the whole report in the February 2010 issue of Consumer Reports Magazine.

 

Comments off

TIP OF THE DAY: Banana Split Breakfast

banana-split-230

Replace the ice cream and whipped cream
with cottage cheese and yogurt. Photo
courtesy California Milk Advisory Board.

For a healthy and festive breakfast, split a ripe banana, add two or three small scoops of cottage cheese and top with different flavors of yogurt and fresh fruits.

Sprinkle with granola or cereal flakes and you have a delicious “banana split.”

It’s worth buying special banana split dishes—the entire family will love this one!

Comments off

RECIPE: Falafel Sliders

This recipe was the grand prize winner in the 2009 Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off. The inspired idea of falafel sliders is the creation of Amy Siegel of Clifton, New Jersey. Enjoy the recipe, courtesy of Manischewitz,

RECIPE: MARVELOUS MEDITERRANEAN FALAFEL SLIDERS

Ingredients

  • 1 envelope Manischewitz Falafel Mix from 6.4 oz box
  • 2 pounds ground turkey*
  • 1 cup mint leaves, chopped (plus more for garnish)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large Bermuda onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 can tehina (tahini)
  • 12 3-inch soft rolls
  • 1 head Bibb lettuce, washed and patted dry
  • Pepper
  • Water

    *Use regular instead of “light” ground turkey for best results in this recipe.

falafel-sliders

The 2009 grand prize winner: Falafel
Sliders by Amy Siegel. Photo courtesy
The Manishewitz Company.

Preparation

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine falafel mix, turkey, mint leaves, black pepper to taste and 3-4 tablespoons cold water, to moisten. Shape mixture into 12 small patties.

2. Heat a grill pan or large skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. Grill patties for 3-5 minutes per side, until no longer pink in center.

3. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add olive oil and Bermuda onion. Sauté for 10-12 minutes, until softened and golden.
4. In a small bowl, stir together tehina with ¼ cup water. Add more water to make a thinner sauce, if desired, set aside. Heat rolls in a 250°F oven for 5 minutes, or until warm.

5. To assemble sliders: On a plate, place bottom half of roll, lettuce leaf, cooked patty, onions, 1 tablespoon tehina and top half of roll. Garnish with additional chopped mint leaves. Serve remaining tehina sauce on the side for dipping.


The history of falafel.

Find more of our favorite international recipes.

 

Comments off

The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures
RSS
Follow by Email


© Copyright 2005-2024 Lifestyle Direct, Inc. All rights reserved. All images are copyrighted to their respective owners.