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March 2021 Indy Style: National Celery Month and Spring Flavors

By Lori Taylor

Mar 12, 2021, Updated May 19, 2021

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We’re celebrating National Celery Month at The Produce Moms and we brought the festivities to the Indy Style kitchen!

With hearty Minestrone Soup, Buffalo Tater Tots, Ants On a Log, Buddha Bowls, an incredible Angel Food Cake, and more, we’ll show you all the recipes you need for a fun, flavorful spring. There’s something for everyone in the wide range of recipes we made in our March 2021 Indy Style segment!

Did you know that your taste buds change every six months? Celery may not be the first vegetable on your mind when you think of your favorite foods, but it’s a nutritious, crunchy, and flavorful addition to many meals. If your kids turn their noses up at celery but it’s been at least six months since they last tried it, serve it to them again for National Celery Month. They might just change their minds!

Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup

We recently published our recipe for Minestrone Soup designed for slow cookers. This traditional soup is brimming with tasty veggies and soul food flavor. Featuring Dandy® celery and many other nutritious veggies, this is a meal made to satisfy and energize. But if you don’t have the time or the slow cooker, you can make this soup in a stockpot, too! We showed just how easy and versatile this recipe is in our March 2021 Indy Style appearance.

Fresh, crunchy celery blends with ingredients like carrots, onions, beans, and diced zucchini for a dish that will become a family favorite. But all these ingredients can make for a lengthy grocery store run, something many of us want to avoid while COVID-19 is still at large. Fortunately, some of these ingredients might be things you have stashed in your pantry, like cans of beans or tomatoes. This is the perfect opportunity to use them!

Get the recipe for Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup here!

Cauliflower Drop Biscuit

These Cauliflower Drop Biscuits take some work, but the results are worth it! Their fluffy texture and cheesy flavor are the perfect addition to any meal. Grain-free and keto-friendly, their vegetable base makes them a nutritious substitute for traditional cheesy biscuits. Your family won’t be able to get enough of them – the cast in our March 2021 Indy Style cooking session sure couldn’t!

To prepare these drop biscuits, you’ll need to finely process your cauliflower. This veggie is filled with water. While we’d normally be excited about that, for this recipe you need to evaporate the water thoroughly in a skillet. Then just add the rest of the ingredients, mix, and bake!

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs cauliflower separated into florets
• 1 large garlic clove
• 2 eggs or 1/3 cup egg whites
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp any firm cheese shredded & tightly packed (we used Pepper Jack)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper ground
• 2-3 tbsp green onion sprigs finely chopped
• Cooking spray

Directions

1. In a food processor, add cauliflower in batches and process until fine crumbs. Smaller than in my photos. In the last batch, add garlic. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Preheat non-stick skillet on medium-high heat and spray with cooking spray. Add cauliflower and cook for 5 – 7 minutes or until a bit golden, stirring frequently and watching closely not to burn.
3. In the meanwhile, whisk the eggs in a medium bowl. Add cornstarch and whisk until dissolved. Add pre-cooked cauliflower along with cheese (except 3 tbsp), salt, pepper, and green onions; mix well.
4. Line muffin tin with liners or spray with cooking spray. Divide mixture evenly among openings and top with remaining 3 tbsp cheese. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool a bit and serve hot or cold.

St. Patrick’s Day Ants on a Log

For St. Patrick’s Day, forego “ants” for “shamrocks” to make a fun and festive treat! Cheese slices are perfect for cutting into fun shamrock shapes to top your log. Using Dandy® celery, we made two versions of our St. Patrick’s Day Ants on a Log: one with peanut butter and one with cottage cheese. Which is your favorite?

Ingredients

• Dandy® Celery Sticks
• Peanut Butter
• Cottage Cheese
• Cheese slices for cut out

Buffalo Tater Tots On a Stick

Looking for some hors d’oeuvres that are simple, yet delicious? Try these Buffalo Tater Tots  On a Stick! They’re both easy to make and easy to eat. These snacks are great for St. Patrick’s Day. After all, what’s more Irish than potatoes?

To make these Buffalo Tater Tots, we recommend making your own hot sauce. A bit of honey will give it an addicting sweet-and-spicy flavor. Then toss the tots in the sauce before baking them to a golden brown. Finish this easy recipe by skewering the tots, blue cheese, and Dandy® celery. Serve with a cup of hot sauce for dipping.

Ingredients

• 5 TB butter
• 2 TB Frank’s Red Hot sauce
• 2 TB honey
• 1 16 oz bag frozen tater tots
• Dandy Celery cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3-4 oz of blue cheese chunks
• Skewers

Directions

1. Start by preheating your oven to 425 degrees. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Once melted, stir in hot sauce and honey. Remove from heat.
2. In a large bowl, toss tater tots in 3-4 TB of hot sauce mixture.
3. Bake tater tots for 30-35 minutes until golden. Skewer tots with a piece of blue cheese and celery, and drizzle with remaining sauce.

Angel Food Cake with Lemon Curd + Edible Flowers

Angel Food Cake is a spring food through and through – and none more than this bright, cheery, fruit-filled version! Featuring lemon and strawberry flavors and Instagram-worthy colors, this is a cake that will wow your family and friends. Best of all, its ingredients will only cost you a few dollars!

Not every delicious cake is made from scratch. Why spend the extra time when store-bought Angel Food Cake tastes just as good? Give your cake some extra love with homemade lemon curd using Pro Citrus Network lemons. To add some eye-catching color, we also sorted the edible flowers from the greens found in BrightFresh® Microgreens and sprinkled them on top of the cake.

Ingredients

• Store-bought Angel Food Cake
• Lemons
• Edible Flowers
• Strawberries

For Lemon Curd:

• 4 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup (134g) granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest (about 1lemon)
• 1/3 cup (80ml) fresh lemon juice(about 2–3 lemons)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
•  Tablespoons (86g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

Directions

1. Fill the bottom pot of your double boiler with 1-2 inches of water. (Or use the DIY double boiler method listed in the notes.) Place on high heat. Once the water begins to boil, reduce to low heat to keep the water at a simmer.
2. Place egg yolks, granulated sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt into the top pot of your double boiler. Using a silicone whisk, whisk until completely blended, then continue to whisk as the curd cooks. Constant whisking prevents the egg yolks from curdling. Whisk and cook until the mixture becomes thick, resembling the texture of hollandaise sauce, about 10 minutes. If curd isn’t thickening, turn up the heat and constantly whisk.
3. Remove pan from heat. Cut the butter into 6 separate pieces, then whisk into the curd. The butter will melt from the heat of the curd. Pour curd into a jar or bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top so it is touching the top of the curd. (This prevents a skin from forming on top.) The curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Once cool, the plastic wrap can be removed.
4. Refrigerate the curd for up to about 10 days.

Oven Roasted Cabbage

We know not everyone likes boiled cabbage, but this crispy Oven Roasted Cabbage is a game-changer for cabbage haters. If you like roasted Brussels sprouts, you’ll probably like Oven Roasted Cabbage – the two veggies are actually in the same family.

With just a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, green cabbage chunks turn into crunchy snacks. This no-nonsense recipe requires only some slicing and some time in the oven to produce your Oven Roasted Cabbage. It’s perfect for tossing into salads or just munching on from a bowl.

 

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Ingredients

• Green Cabbage
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Slice the cabbage into 1″ thick rounds. Don’t worry about coring the cabbage – the core will get soft in the oven & you can either eat it or discard it after the cabbage rounds roast.
3. Spray a foil-lined baking sheet with olive oil or your nonstick spray of choice.
4. Brush the tops of the cabbage rounds with Olive Oil. Season with Salt & Pepper.
5. Roast at 400 degrees for approximately 35 minutes. Cabbage will be slightly browned when finished.

Rainbow Buddha Bowls

Buddha bowls are an easy way to make a statement and pack your meal with veggies. These trendy dishes don’t follow many rules, so make yours how you want! We used brown rice to make our bowls, but you can use any kind of grain as the base. From there, have fun mixing and matching your ingredients!

We used North Bay Produce Snow Peas, kale, red cabbage, and shelled edamame to fill our March 2021 Indy Style Buddha Bowl. Next, we drizzled Tamari, a gluten-free soy sauce, and sesame oil over the bowl and added some Sunrise Fresh Dried Cherries for a sweet, fruity garnish. Finally, we finished the bowl with avocados slices, super-nutritious BrightFresh® Microgreens, and everything-but-the-bagel seasoning.

Ingredients

• Brown Rice
• Microgreens
• Edamame
• Snow Peas
• Avocado
• Red cabbage
• Kale
• Sunrise Fresh Dried Cherries

Our March 2021 Indy Style Favorites

This month may bring crazy weather, but you can add some delicious consistency to your diet with the dishes we brought to our March 2021 Indy Style show! From tasty cakes to hearty soups, Buddha Bowls to buffalo tots, we made something for everyone today. What recipe was your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

Watch all of The Produce Mom’s March Indy Style Segments here!