Need a New Sustainable Recipe This Summer?

Try making Elote Corn! This savory and refreshing dish is perfect for a summer day!

Ingredients:

4 ears of corn

1/3 cup of sour cream / Mexican crema

1/3 cup of mayonnaise (you can substitute with vegan mayonnaise)

1 teaspoon of ancho chili powder

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 tablespoons of finely minced cilantro (optional)

1/2 cup of crumbled cotija cheese (optional)

1 teaspoon of Kosher salt

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (if grilling)

1 pot of water (if boiling)

1 Lime

Instructions:

– In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, sour cream, most of the chili pepper, most of the cumin powder, and the 1 teaspoon of salt. The remaining chili powder and cumin will be used to garnish the corn at the end. Set aside.

– Prepare the crumbled cotija cheese and cilantro, these ingredients will be used to garnish the corn at the end.

Grilled Corn

– Brush grill grate with vegetable oil. Heat grill to high heat. Place corn directly on the grill. Grill corn, turning occasionally until cooked and lightly charred for about 10 minutes.

OR
Boiled Corn

– Boil your peeled corn for 10 minutes. After boiling, carefully remove and pat dry.

– Brush the corn with the mayonnaise and sour cream mixture.

– Sprinkle the cotija cheese crumbles (optional), chili powder mixture, and cilantro (optional) in that order.

– Squeeze lime over the corn and serve immediately.

Extra Tip!
You can cut the corn off the cobs and serve with spoonfuls of the mayonnaise /sour cream mixture and serve as a side-dish with other foods!

Craving sushi but worried about the sustainability of seafood?

Miss your favorite fish, but can’t make the dish?

Don’t fear, we have a solution for you!

Here is a sustainable fish dish to satisfy your sushi cravings. This branzino (also known as Branzini, Mediterranean seabass, European seabass) ceviche is perfect for 2 people as a dish or for 4 people as an appetizer!

Ingredients:

– 1 lb Branzino filleted (use the freshest fish possible, if it smells fishy, don’t use it!)

– 1 to 1 1/2 tspn coarse kosher non-iodized salt (Note: use less salt if using fine salt)

– 4 to 8 ounces of lime juice

– 1/2 a small red onion

– 1 ounce of cilantro or micro cilantro sprouts (optional)

Instructions:

– chop the red onion into thin slices

– Dice the branzino into bite sized cubes

– Place the red onion slices and branzino into a bowl

– Add salt into the bowl and stir the mixture with a spoon. Stir well for 10-20 seconds

– Add the lime juice into the mixture

– Adjust the salt for taste

– top with cilantro

If you want to learn more about sustainable fish options, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium guide to seafood.

Vegan Chili (composed of Veracruz Sauce, Tomato sauce, and toppings together)

How to read this recipe:

– Look at all ingredients for Veracruz Sauce, Tomato Sauce, and prepare them all as dictated before starting.

– Ensure that you have 1 large stock pot, a blender or a hand-blender, and one sauce pan.

– Follow the order as written.

– If you need more salt, add more miso, soy sauce, or salt before serving.

Veracruz Sauce

Needs: Stovetop burner

8 Roma tomatoes (optional) sliced in half with cores removed

2 Red Bell peppers – Deseed and cut into large halves

2-3 Jalapenos – Deseed if you don’t want this too be too spicy

1 large yellow onion (or 2 small ones) – Cut in half

Instructions

– On your stove top burners, place the jalapenos, tomatoes (optional), onions, and red bell peppers over the flame.

– Place until relatively charred and blistered then rotate. Repeat until there is decent blistering over each ingredient.

– Reserve the veggies on the side

– Gentle note: Please open your windows and allow the air ventilation to prevent your home from becoming too smoky.

Tomato Sauce
Needs: One large stock pot for chili, one sautee pan for garlic

– 1 large can of crushed tomatoes/whole peeled tomatoes/diced tomatoes

– 1 spoonful of tomato puree

– 6 – 8 cloves of garlic crushed and minced

– 3 – 5 tablespoons of olive oil (enough to coat the bottom but not drown ingredients in 2 pots)

3 – 5 large spoonfuls of miso paste

2-3 Bay leaves

Instructions: Stockpot

– Pour some of the olive oil into a stockpot.

– Pour in the reserved ingredients from the Veracruz sauce into your stockpot.

– Add a spoonful of tomato puree

– Cook for 5 – 10 minutes on high heat. Mix the veggies

– Add the large can of tomatoes. Then place a lid on top of the stockpot.

– When it starts to bubble, mix and lower to medium heat

– Add your 3-5 spoonfuls of miso (Remember, if you want more salt, you can always add more miso later)

– Set aside your pot off the burner onto a stable platform. Place a mitten to prevent the hot pot from damaging your surface. Please be careful with your pot.

Instructions: Sautee pan (Do this while waiting for those 5 – 10 minutes)

– Add some olive oil into a pan and place on medium heat

– Add your garlic

– Wait until the garlic is browned (1-3 minutes

– Pour the olive oil and browned garlic into the stock pot

Blend the soup
Instructions:

Needs: hand blender or blender

– When the sauce is HOT, move the entire pot onto a stable surface.

– Use a hand blender to blend the ingredients in the pot (you can pour the ingredients into a blender too). Please hold onto the handle of the stock pot to prevent the pot from flying out

– Return the pot to the stovetop and heat on medium heat.

– Add your bay leaves.

Toppings:

– 1-2 small cans of black beans (washed with cold water until it runs clear)

– 1-2 small cans of pinto beans (washed and dried)
–
Optional: 4 Diced dried tofu (dou gan) blocks

Instructions:

– Add all ingredients into Pot One. Then place on medium high heat. When bubbly, reduce to low to medium-low.

– Stir and scrape the bottom to prevent burning.

– Cook and reduce for about 30 minutes to 1 ½ hours.

– Taste repeatedly to see if the salt levels are correct. If it needs more
– salt, add salt or miso. If it needs less salt, add a touch of water.

– Serve

New Year, New Habits

Want to make 2019 the most eco-friendly one yet? Follow these tips and try any of these activities for this year! Get your friends to join you in one of these activities so you can all go green together!

Green Year’s Resolutions

– Bring your own bags and containers to stores and restaurants for shopping and leftovers. Also, don’t forget your bags and containers at home!

– Take the time to recycle at home and at work.

– Don’t litter. By buying less and using less, you can drastically reduced your impact and litter from using packaging material.

– Time your showers. Try to set a record, but don’t forget to clean behind your ears.

– Try to drive even less year this year! Plan some social events with a carpool, with a bike, or with public transportation. This is a great way for kids to learn about using public transportation, it’s a great way for you to stay healthy, and it’s a good way to get together with friends and try new things.

– Plant something! Not only are plants therapeutic, but you can eat things like your own green onions and root vegetables.

– Don’t flush things that aren’t toilet paper or waste down the toilet. Clogging from these kind of materials can create infrastructural damage that reduces a city’s ability to dump water safely back into the environment.

– Try going vegetarian for a day or for a week. Many people around the world eat vegetarian dishes to celebrate an event! Try learning vegetarian recipes from people around the world!

The entire Grades of Green staff wishes you a happy new year! Let’s make this the greenest year yet!

With the holiday season approaching soon, we’re sure that you’ll be looking forward to eating a delicious meal with your friends and family. But what about dealing with the scraps and leftovers after friends and family are gone?

Instead of throwing your hard earned meal into the trash can, follow these recipes from Grades of Green Mentor and former chef, Jordan, to create new delicious dishes and memories.

Post-Holiday Soup

Soup is a versatile dish that can be used for many things. Soup can be eaten as-is, used as a base for noodles, it can be used to cook rice in a rice cooker, and it can be used to make risotto as well. Use it to make a ramen, pasta, or rice dish!

1 set of Turkey or Chicken Bones and poultry leftovers

Salt

Water

Any combination of the following leftovers you may have:

– 1 – 8 Celery stalks

– 1 – 4 Potatoes

– 1 – 4 Carrots

– 1 – 3 Onions

– 4 – 8 Cloves of Garlic

– 1 – 3 Large Tomatoes

– Up to 8 Sage leaves

Steps

– Optional: Roast the turkey bones at 400 F or 200 C for 30 minutes for more intense flavors

– Place bones and poultry leftovers into a large stock pot

– Place any leftovers into the pot

– Fill the pot with water ¾ of the way full or until you are satisfied. Do not fill above ¾ of the stock pot.

– Place the heat on high and boil the pot.

– Once the pot reaches a boil, place a lid on the pot and reduce the heat to low.

– Simmer for at least 30 minutes. You can continue simmering for as long as there is enough water to prevent burning.

– Optional: Skim scum off of the top of the soup with a ladle or a wooden spoon during this time to create a clearer broth.


– Salt to taste

– Strain the bones and vegetables and place the soup into containers. Do not place the lid on while the soup is hot.

– When the soup is not radiating heat through the containers, you may place a lid on the containers and refrigerate or freeze.

– Please use or freeze the soup within 5 days.

Stuffing With Leftovers

Leftover Stuffing is a tasty way to get rid of your leftovers. By mixing leftover ingredients like pulled turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, into your stuffing, you can easily rebake another few meals.

– 1-2 quarts of leftover stuffing OR 2 loaves of bread cut into small cubes

– 1 cup of stock or water

– ½ stick of butter OR 6-7 tablespoons of olive oil

– ½ – 1 quart total of any of the following:

Turkey (pulled into small bite sized pieces)

Chopped Sausage

Vegetables

Mashed potatoes

Steps

– Preheat an oven to 350 F or 176 C

– Use ½ stick of butter or olive oil to coat a baking pan. Thoroughly grease the pan.

– Mix leftover stuffing OR cubed bread with leftover ingredients and stock. Place food in the baking pan and cover with a lid or aluminum foil.

– Bake for 30 – 40 minutes.

– Serve!

Vegan Demi-glace

Save your food scraps! Vegetable peels, ends, stems, skins, and washed roots are all used by chefs to create savory stocks to make risottos, sauces, and soup bases, among other things. So save your vegetable leftovers in containers in the fridge or freeze your leftovers until you have enough. These scraps can be used to create a Demi glace or jus- a savory, thick sauce that can act as a gravy that coats roasted vegetables, steaks, pastas, breads, mashed potatoes, or whatever you’d like. Traditionally, demi glaces and jus take a lot of space, time to reduce, and loads of meat. Vegetarian Demi Glace has the ability to impart as much flavor (and possibly even more) as a traditional demi glace because of the sheer amount of different umami compounds from different vegetable scraps without taking loads of space. With a little xanthan gum, pectin, or cornstarch, you can create the same texture as a gravy or slow cooked sauce in an instant.

– 4-5 quarts of veggie scraps (NOTE: mushrooms, eggplants, broccoli, garlic, celery, cauliflower are the best scraps to use for this. Please limit beets, carrots, onions, parsnips, beets to 2 quarts out of the 4-5 quarts to prevent the glace from being too sweet)

– 6 inches of dried kombu (thick dried seaweed)

– 1 tablespoon of tomato puree

– 6-7 tablespoons of olive oil

– 2 ½ quarts of water (or until the veggies in tray are covered)

– 1 teaspoons of pectin OR xanthan gum OR cornstarch*
(If using cornstarch, boil 1 cup of water and add 1 teaspoon of cornstarch before using).

– Salt

Steps

– Heat oven to 300 F or 149 C

– Mix all the veggie scraps, tomato puree, olive oil, and kombu very well in a tall baking tray. Spread out the veggies as well as you can for even cooking.

– Place the baking tray into the oven for 40 – 60 minutes. Check and stir the scraps every 20 minutes.

– Once the scraps look heavily browned or blackened. Place 2 1/2 quarts of water into the baking tray. Be careful and do not burn yourself.

– Roast the tray again for 30 – 40 minutes

– While the tray is roasting, mix your xanthan gum/pectin and salt. Stir well. *If using cornstarch, mix the cornstarch slushie with salt. Stir well.

– Remove the tray from the oven.
– Strain the sauce from the container into a pot. Use a ladle, pour, or a sieve. Please don’t burn yourself. The leftover vegetables can then be composted.

– On medium heat, reduce the sauce for 20 minutes.

– Add your xanthan gum/pectin/cornstarch and water mixture. Please only use one option here.

– Salt to taste and stir well. The sauce should be thick enough to coat a spoon.

– Pour the sauce over your favorite foods and enjoy!