[1] This Shamrock Shake uses a topping of Lucky Charms. Cute as they are, we’d rather have green sprinkles or edible glitter (both photos © Ray’s Boathouse).

[2] If you don’t have any green garnishes, you can default to the ubiquitous maraschino cherry. Here’s the best brand from Tillen Farms, all natural and available on Amazon.

Ray’s Boathouse in Seattle is a wonderful waterfront seafood destination, serving local, seasonal fish and shellfish.

Located dockside restaurant on Shilshole Bay, a part of Puget Sound, diners can enjoy a majestic view of the Sound and the Olympic Mountains.

Ray’s Cafe, located upstairs from Ray’s Boathouse, is now serving their seasonal St. Patrick’s Day-inspired Shamrock Shake, through March 17th.

Let some people drink green beer and green Martinis: We want the green milkshake with Irish whiskey and two liqueurs.

This boozy milkshake is made with:

 
Here’s our copycat version, with many thanks to Ray’s for the inspiration. Enjoy it for dessert or as a snack.

Note that you may want to taste the shake after you’ve blended it halfway. If you want a stronger whiskey flavor, add more crème de cacao, crème de cacao or Irish whiskey to taste.
 
 
RECIPE: BOOZY ST. PATRICK’S DAY SHAKE

Ingredients For 2 Shakes

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

2. GARNISH as desired and serve immediately.

One of the latest ingredients embraced by chefs nationwide is nutritional yeast, a seasoning that adds cheesy, nutty, umami flavor—not unlike like the Parmesan cheese in a shaker can, but a little richer and rounder.

It’s naturally low in calories and sodium, and is fat-free, gluten-free, sugar-free and vegan.

It’s growing in popularity to the point where Datassential, which monitors trends at restaurants nationwide, notes a 40% growth in menu mentions of nutritional yeast over the past year [source].

Nutritional yeast, casually known by its street name, “nooch,” is a way for cooks to deliver a nutritious punch of flavor.

It has long been used in vegan cooking: combined with a purée of cashews and seasonings to create a vegan cheese, or as a topping for pastas, salads and soups.

But its use is not limited to vegan or any other diet. Its umami quality makes nutritional yeast a flavor and nutrition boon for vegans, vegetarians and meat-eaters alike (here’s the difference between vegans, vegetarians, flexitarians and and other restrictive diets).

Nutritional yeast is sold as flakes, granules or powder and can be found in natural and health food stores.

It not only delivers a big boost of flavor; it also supplies the nutrition its name promises: all nine essential amino acids, B vitamins and multiple trace minerals.

The only problem with nutritional yeast is its name. To us, “nutritional yeast” sounds like something for people with anemia. Now you know better.
 
 
WHAT IS NUTRITIONAL YEAST?

There are three types of yeast that are technically made from the same yeast species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. But are used for very different purposes.

 
Now to add on another layer of information:

There are two types of nutritional yeast, fortified and unfortified.

 
 
HOW TO USE NUTRITIONAL YEAST

You can use nutritional yeast as a seasoning for foods that can use the cheesy, nutty, umami flavor it delivers.

Vegans use it as a primary ingredient to create plant-based cheese alternatives. If you’re lactose-intolerant, kosher, or otherwise avoiding dairy products, you can use it here.

Anyone can:

 
So go ahead: Kick it up a nooch.

________________

*Coconut aminos is a salty, savory seasoning sauce made from the fermented sap of coconut palm and sea salt. You can buy it at health food stores and online.

[1] Nutritional yeast (photo © Bhofack2 | iStock Photo).

[2] Avocado toast and eggs sprinkled with nutritional yeast (photo © Vincent Rivaud |Pexels

[3] Penne rigate with mushrooms in olive oil sauce, sprinkled with nutritional yeast (photo © Engin Akyurt | Pexels).

[4] Buddha bowl (photo © Kween).

[1] Fusilli (corkscrew) pasta with white beans and kale. The recipe is below (both photos © DeLallo).

[2] Delallo”s biodynamic whole wheat fusilli. You can get it online.

[3] Lacinto kale, also known as Tuscan kale, Italian kale and dinosaur kale, among other names (photo © Good Eggs).

[4] Dried cannellini beans from Fortuna Sausage (photo © Fortuna Sausage).

In our continuing series of green main courses for St. Patrick’s Day, we present a simple dish that’s chock full of protein from beans, plus and vitamins and bright green color from kale.

The fragrant, garlicky greens and white beans team up with fusilli pasta, the familiar corkscrew shape.

You can use whole wheat fusilli for even more nutrition.

The name fusilli comes from fuso, spindle. The shape was traditionally “spun” by skilled pasta makers who rapidly twirled spaghetti around a rod, resulting in a long corkscrew shape called fusilli lunghi bucati.

It is still made in that long shape, along with shorter corkscrews.

This popular shape was born in Sicily and spread throughout southern Italy and the rest of the peninsula.

One reason why: The corkscrew curves are great sauce catchers and easily hold thick meat sauces, like Bolognese sauce.
 
 
RECIPE: FUSILLI WITH CANNELLINI BEANS & KALE

Want more green? Add broccoli, broccolini or broccoli rabe.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COOL the pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving ½ cup of the pasta cooking liquid. Meanwhile…

2. HEAT the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Reduce the heat and add the garlic and anchovies. Simmer on low for 20 minutes. While the mixture is still warm, add the butter.

3. RETURN the heat level to medium and add the tomatoes. Cook for 6-7 minutes, stir in the red pepper flakes, and then add the kale.

4. COVER and cook for 10 more minutes, until the kale is tender and wilted.

5. ADD the beans, pasta (and some of the pasta water if needed for thinning), salt and pepper. Toss, plate, and serve with grated parmesan cheese.
 
 
MORE GREEN RECIPES

 
>>> CHECK OUT THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PASTA
IN OUR PASTA GLOSSARY >>>

OK, a green-topped pizza is not just for St. Patrick’s Day. You can go green any time you’d like a pizza with assorted green veggies.

Think green for spring; green for summer; green for National Pizza Month, October; and green for National Pizza Day in the [typically] cold, gray weather of February 9th.

Depending on the green vegetable, you’ll get supplies of calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium, and vitamins K, C, E, and many of the B vitamins.

Do the healthy and nutritious green vegetables offset the carbs in the crust?

Well…it doesn’t hurt to think so.

The recipe for Brussels Sprouts & Broccolini Pizza is below.
 
 
GO GREEN WITH THESE VEGETABLES

Top your pizza with a selection of these green veggies:

In The Oven

 
After The Pizza Comes Out Of The Oven…

Toss these on top:

 
There are others, including the not-very-green artichoke hearts and fennel.

And if you want to go super-green, tint ricotta cheese with green food color.
 
 
RECIPE: BRUSSELS SPROUTS & BROCCOLINI PIZZA WITH PESTO

This is an easy weeknight recipe.

If you can’t find broccolini, then broccoli rabe or regular broccoli florets and their stems (yes, slice the stems like pepperoni!) do just fine.

Broccoli and Brussels sprouts are both better-for-you cruciferous vegetables and the basil pesto adds antioxidant vitamins and phenolics, calcium, dietary fiber, magnesium, potassium, vitamin K, zinc, and protein from the cheese and nuts in the pesto.

You can substitute any of the vegetables in the recipe above for the broccolini and Brussels Sprouts.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 500°F. If you’re using ready-made dough, skip to Step 4.

2. COMBINE the flour mix and yeast packet in a large mixing bowl with 1-1/4 cups lukewarm water. Stir with a fork until dough begins to form. Knead by hand for 3 minutes, or until the dough is soft and smooth.

3. TRANSFER to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. (After this step, you can refrigerate for use within 1-3 days.) Meanwhile…

4. BRING 2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepot. Add 1 tablespoon of salt. Blanch the broccolini by submerging in the boiling water for about 3 minutes. Once they are bright green, remove them with a slotted spoon and transfer immediately to a bowl of ice water to halt the cooking process. SAVE the boiling water.

5. BLANCH the Brussels sprouts in the same pot of boiling water, by submerging for about 2 minutes. Once they are bright green, drain and transfer them to a separate bowl of ice water. Once vegetables have cooled, drain and pat dry.

6. CUT the prepared pizza dough in half. Roll out the dough into a circle on a floured surface and spread evenly with pesto. Top with mozzarella, broccolini and Brussels sprouts.

7. BAKE for 12-15 minutes, or until the crust becomes golden. Remove the pizza from the oven and top with the Parmigiano-Reggiano and pepper flakes.
 
 
>>> GREEN GODDESS PIZZA RECIPE <<<
 
 
>>> THE HISTORY OF PIZZA <<<

[1] A harbinger of spring: asparagus and spring peas (photo © Oath Pizza).

[2] Avocado lovers can slice or dice avocado, here atop serrano ham (photo © Avocados From Chile).

[3] Brussels sprouts and broccolini top this green pizza. The recipe is at below (photo and recipe © DeLallo.

[4] Another harbinger of spring: pea shoots and green peas (photo © King Arthur Flour).

[5] One of our favorite toppings for a Margarita pizza: arugula (photo © Good Eggs).

[6] Here’s the recipe for this Green Goddess Pizza © (photo © Broma Bakery | DeLallo.

[1] A bottle of Yondu seasoning concentrate (photo © Yondu | Serpio).

[2] Pasta and other sauces will taste better. Spaghetti With King Trumpet & Maitake Mushrooms (photo © Yondu).

[3] Splash some Yondu into a stir-fry to heighten the flavors (photo © Yondu).

[4] Three-minute vegetable soup with Yondu. The recipe is below (photo © Yondu).

Some home cooks have kitchen secrets for enhancing the flavor of cooked foods.

For my mother’s generation, it was MSG, created in Japan in 1908 by a biochemist who was trying to duplicate the umami taste of kombu, a seaweed used as a base for many Japanese soups.

He found that MSG balanced, blended, and rounded the perception of other flavors in the food.

When it became broadly used in the U.S. in the 1960s, MSG was found to add more flavor than the time-honored bouillon cube or broth.

But it affected some people negatively. Its use became controversial.

So many people returned to the bouillon cube and broth; and over time, other alternatives entered the flavoring mainstream.

Today, many kitchens add flavor with fish sauce, flavor bases, miso, oyster sauce, soy sauce, tamari, umami powders, and lesser-known flavor sauces like coconut aminos and liquid aminos.
 
 
2020: YONDU SEASONING

A favorite new discovery, Yondu* is a versatile savory seasoning from Korea that brings out the inherent flavor of your ingredients.

It’s a premium plant-based seasoning concentrate that’s an all-purpose, instant flavor booster.

It enhances the flavors of each individual ingredient in your dish, while balancing the overall taste with delicate flavor.

We love it!

Yondu provides natural umami flavor by slowly fermenting and simmering its ingredients:

 
The company uses the term “vegetable essence” to describe its product, but we’re not sure how that translates to most people.

Even though one of the meanings of essence is “an extract or concentrate obtained from a particular plant or other matter and used for flavoring or scent,” we don’t think it’s a common use in the U.S. for food.

The magical combination of ingredients delivers layers of flavors that we just can’t get from the herbs and spices on our shelf.
 
 
YONDU USES

Even if you don’t use flavor bases, your eyes will be opened when you add a couple of teaspoons of Yondu to your cooking. It instantly seasons:

 
And when we have no fresh herbs in the fridge, we toss in a splash of Yondu.

For a low-calorie pick-me-up, microwave a cup of water with some Yondu for a terrific broth that tastes like it’s been simmered for hours (and in fact, it has been so simmered).

You may find yourself buying bottles as stocking stuffers for friends who cook or are dieters.

Check out more about Yondu on the company website, Yondu.us.
 
 
RECIPE #1: 3-MINUTE VEGETABLE SOUP

Water + Yondu = delicious vegetable broth (photo #4). Make this 3-minute soup: You’ll have a major “aha!”
moment.
 
Ingredients Per Serving

 
Preparation

1. BOIL for 3 minutes, then add 1 tablespoon Yondu. That’s it!
 
 
RECIPE #2: YONDU VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients Proportion

 
Preparation

1. WHISK vigorously to combine.
________________

*Yondu Vegetable Essence has no relation to Yondu, the Marvel Comics character.