Vegetables are a vibrant and vital part of a healthy diet, but sometimes it’s hard to get excited about steamed broccoli and raw carrots. Here to shine a bright light on the beauty of vegetables is chef extraordinaire, Ana Sortun. I recently reconnected with Ana at the Healthy Kitchens Healthy Lives Conference in California where she demonstrated techniques and strategies for cooking colorful, flavorful vegetables in a variety of ways kids love. And on today’s podcast, Ana shares those culinary tips with all of you.
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Ana Sortun is a James Beard Award-winning chef, a mom, and a cookbook author, and she’s married to the owner of Siena Farms outside Boston, so she knows a thing or two about making vegetables appealing to kids (and adults too). Ana joins me to dish about her recipe for Cacik, a Turkish yogurt and veggie dip, and to share her best-ever tips for cooking broccoli to perfection, making ‘real’ caramelized onions (be patient!), and introducing kids to new, and sometimes weird, vegetable varieties. We’re also giving away a copy of Ana’s newest cookbook, Soframiz, so read on for instructions on how to enter to win a copy.
Giveaway CLOSED: Want to win a copy of Soframiz: Vibrant Middle Eastern Recipes from Sofra Bakery & Cafe? To enter, leave a comment at the end of this post and tell me about your best recipe or tip for encouraging your family to eat (and love) vegetables and/or why you’d like to win Ana’s cookbook. I’ll pick the winner at random on April 18th. Good luck! (U.S. only, please)
For Ana, her first trip to Turkey was a culinary crossroads. “Everything I ate was rich, but nothing was heavy.”
Show Highlights:
- Ana talks about her daughter, Siena, and her philosophy when it comes to feeding kids vegetables.
- Make vegetables a normal, fuss-free part of mealtimes. Find out why.
- Discover a whole new way for preparing broccoli.
- Ana’s approach to teaching kids about how to love vegetables.
- Take the pressure out of liking vegetables so you don’t have to keep saying, “Eat your vegetables!”
- How Ana met her husband, and what it is like to be married to a farmer.
- Ana explains the nuances of Eastern Mediterranean cuisine.
- The importance of spices.
- The secret to caramelizing onions.
- Ana shares her journey from Paris to Turkey.
- Discover the difference between Cacik and Tatziki.
- How I used tahini to make delicious oat sesame cookies.
- Read more about the Healthy Kitchens Healthy Lives conference at the Culinary Institute of America
- Discover the story behind Ana’s newest cookbook, Soframiz.
- Ana’s favorite cookbook, Turquoise, A Chef’s Travels in Turkey by Greg Malouf
Persian-Style Carrots and Black-Eyed Peas (that we talked about on the show)
Oatmeal Sesame Cookies: I made multiple batches of these cookies for a fundraising event at my temple to benefit Mazon.
Links:
My email: [email protected]
Other Links discussed on the show:
Ana’s Favorite Cookbook – Turquoise, A Chef’s Travels in Turkey by Greg Malouf
Ana’s Recommendation for ordering spices: The Spice Box (La Boite)
Ana’s Cookbook: Soframiz: Vibrant Middle Eastern Recipes
Featured Recipe: Cacik
Today’s Sponsor:
Love how passionate you are about veggies!
My daughter is still young (2.5) but the best way so far for me to get her to eat her vegetables is by her dad and I eating them and talking about them! I would love to win this book so I can expand my cooking techniques, especially for vegetables!
Yeah for more veggies!!
I’d love to win this cookbook because I could use any and all methods to get my 7 year old to eat veggies. And the carrot and black eyed pea recipe looks great!!
After a childhood of avoiding vegetables other than cucumbers, I have a now 19 year old who only eats vegetables — I need more ideas of how to cook them in interesting, nutritious and appealing ways!
My kiddos love raw veggies with dip. I would love this cookbook to help with getting them to eat more veggies when they are cooked in meals.
My family loves cooking foods from different cultures. Currently we are exploring Indian foods, and all the wonderful spice blends that make vegetables so delicious. Loved listening to Chef Sortun, and would like to explore Turkish flavors! Enjoying your podcast!
Plan to try the oatmeal sesame cookies, sound wonderful.
I have 4 Kids and only 1 of them will try/eat just about anything. I like to offer various options when it comes to veggies so they will discover what they really like. I think this cookbook would be a great asset!!
Spiralized veggies have been great, my kids love them served like pasta.
Love encouraging people to eat veggies 🙂
We like our veggies roasted with canadian steak seasoning or other yummy seasonings (but Canadaian steak seasoning is the go-to these days)
LOVE Middle Eastern Food. I really enjoyed the podcast and Chef Sortun’s story and tips–especially about caramelizing onions!
I’ll steam carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini and serve over rice. I have bowls of shredded cheddar cheese, tomatoes, sprouts and green onions for everyone to sprinkle on top. We pass low sodium soy sauce to spice it up. My kids come back for more.
I let my kids pick out “new” veggies to try – power is with them 🙂
We offer dipping sauces with veggies
We have had good luck with incorporating lots of vegetables into meatballs. We tell the kids what’s in them so they gain confidence in enjoying veggies.
One of our favorite recipes is to roast chunks of sweet potatoes and season with honey and cinnamon.
I would like to expend my cooking skills and add more vegetarian dishes to my family menu.
The best way we found to encourage our child to eat vegetables was to include her in the growing, cleaning, and cooking of vegetables. She has her favorites and some that she would prefer to avoid. Helping her see how her food grows has been an easy way to be more adventurous.
I’d love to win this cookbook to get ideas for tasty meals that are rich in veggies!
I have a big family with plenty of grandchildren. With my Mediterranean heritage ,Italian and Lebanese , I would love to expand their enjoyment of delicious tasting foods while sharing our Middle Eastern heritage. I am looking for recipes I tasted as a child.
I’ve learned that my kids will eat a vast array of vegetables as long as I season them well and roast them either in the oven or grill. Their favorites are broccoli and cauliflower. I wish they enjoyed asparagus! Middle Eastern cuisine has always intrigued me, I would love to learn to prepare it in my very own kitchen!
I’m with you on roasting. Works like a charm every time. Even asparagus 🙂
My teenage daughter wants to go to culinary school after HS. She is very adventurous, so unfortunately many of the “healthy” mainstream cookbooks just don’t do it for her. I can tell you that the oatmeal sesame cookie recipe above blew her away. Would love to give her the Soframiz cookbook as a way to inspire her to stay on her creative culinary path!
I love that your daughter wants to go to culinary school. So exciting!!