HotM 18: Preserving the Harvest (Round-up)

Heart of the Matter (HotM) is an event designed to promote healthy eating and heart disease awareness. Specifically, each month Joanna, Ilva and I ask you to devise recipes around a specific theme that are healthy for your heart and your body and share them with the rest of us. We archive all the wonderful entries at the HotM blog, so that whenever you need a heart-healthy recipe for any occasion, you have a plethora of options to choose from. HotM has been going strong now for over a year, and we are grateful to all of you who have participated in this important event - people who have been sending in entries from the very beginning, people who have hopped on in the middle of the ride and those just now joining in.

The entries for September's theme of Preserving the Harvest comprise a surprising variety of wonderful ways for you to extend the harvest of whatever season you may be celebrating in your end of the world - sit back, grab a cup of green tea, and start planning your pantry...

The ever-faithful HotM participants, Jai and Bee from Jugalbandi, conjured up a Roasted Tomatillo Salsa. Their delicious photography and just getting ahold of the recipe for this salsa ought to be enough on its own to send you running to their site, but you'll have to read their post to get the full effect of their entry - it's hilarious!

Hailing from my old stomping grounds in Eugene, Oregon, Culinaria Eugenius has created one of the most unique entries we recieved: Vegetable Salts! What a cool way to use up extra vegetables, reduce your sodium intake while upping the flavor quotient, and have cute little jars of your own making to add to the pantry! Not only that, this woman is a Master Preserver! Check out her fabulous blog for additional recipes (and witty commentary) - from fermented pickles to dried tomatoes and beyond!

Ever end up with so many of the same vegetable that you just didn't know what in the world to do with it? Sarah from the blog, What Smells So Good?, used up her 11 lbs of carrots and got a big dose of beta carotene to sweeten the deal by making her Curry Carrot-Ginger Soup. Sounds like a wonderful way to start the cooler season to me! While this is probably an easy-to-freeze recipe too, she also suggests a great way to use up extra food: give it away to your loved ones!

Melissa, our resident nutrition expert from Gluten Free for Good, tells you all about the health benefits and nutritional details about apples, then shares her recipe for dehydrating them and turning them into healthful, tasty and easy to carry snacks that you can take with you no matter where you want to go - whether to school, to work or even hiking up a 14,000 foot peak!

Tanna, from My Kitchen in Half Cups recounts her experiences in making Preserved Lemons and takes you through a photographic feast of links and useful recipes so that not a single one goes to waste. Then, to help you even more, she provides links to other sites that have made Preserved Lemons too so that you can load up on wisdom from other bloggers and new ways to use these beautiful and tasty treats before you begin making your own!

Over at the blog, My Diverse Kitchen, Aparna made a beautiful and delicious-sounding Apple Tomato Raisin Chutney to go with some tasty-looking and innovatively-seasoned crackers. This chutney sounds like it's heaven cooked together in a pot: tomatoes, ginger, apples, anise, cinnamon, onions - the list of lovely ingredients goes on and on. Go check it out!

Forget buying those dried out, tasteless and scentless red pepper flakes from the store to put on your pizza or add spice to a dish. My lovely co-host, Ilva, from Lucullian Delights offers her simple method of sun-drying chili peppers. She keeps her Dried Chili Peppers in her kitchen for use the entire winter long, making them available whenever she needs them. What a great idea!

Last of all, I conquered my fears of fermenting my own foods and made kimchi (kimchee). It's a great, heart-healthy (and body-healthy) way to use up a head of Napa cabbage and adds tons of flavor to all types of foods. You can read about it at my blog, The Accidental Scientist.

Thank you to everyone who participated! If I somehow missed your entry or you forgot to send it in, please email me and let me know so that I can add you to the round-up. Join us next month for a new theme, when Ilva is host!