In the past five years, I
have been eating more and more fruits and vegetables thanks to Melissa’s Produce.
They sell the most amazing variety of produce in Southern California and across
our great nation. Their products are readily available for foodservice
companies, restaurants, and consumers. On my trip to the World Food
Championships in Orange Beach last year, I found Melissa’s Baby DYPs at Winn-Dixie. I was so excited to see a
fellow Californian, even in produce form, I had to post it on Instagram. In
Orange and Los Angeles Counties, I have personally seen their products at Northgate, Smart & Final, JONS International Marketplace, and Vons.
If you want to know what the
produce trends are for this year, I have them for you thanks to Melissa’s. (below
each trend, is a listing of Melissa’s products):
Convenience to Save Time in
the Kitchen
Peeled & Steamed Butternut Squash is
prepped and ready-to-heat and eat right out of its convenient, single serving
package.
Coconut Heart is harvested before the meat
is fully developed with delicious and refreshing coconut water inside.
Varieties and Colors in Produce
Fresh Mixed Baby Carrots are
sweet, tender young carrots that are peeled, washed, and ready to use.
Snack-able Sized Items
Spicy Edamame is seasoned with a mix of favorite Asian
flavors including sesame, soy sauce, salt, ginger, and togarashi seasoning.
Fresh Coconuts are conveniently labeled to
indicate which eye to punch with a straw. Crack them open and the thin layer of
coconut meat is soft and sweet.
Trendy Vegetables
Okra
are small, crisp, brightly colored pods that are a mainstay of southern
cooking. They are served fried, roasted, cut up for soups and gumbo, or
pickled.
Trendy Potatoes
Baby Dutch Yellow® Potatoes (DYPs®)
are round with distinct yellowish-white skin.
Trendy Chile Peppers
Shishito Peppers are traditionally served
in Japanese cuisine roasted and tossed with sesame oil and a dash of soy sauce.
Emerging Produce: Tatuma,
Milpero, Turmeric, Organic Ginger, Thai Chiles, and Guava
Trendy Citrus Fruit
Neopolitan Tangerines are a brand-new
hybrid variety and are slightly smaller in size than most mandarins. They have
a big flavor with a very high natural sugar content and are seedless, easy to
peel, and extremely juicy.
Seasonal Fruit
Butterscotch Pears™ are directly imported
from the fields of South Korea. Each pear is carefully wrapped while still on
the trees with a protective paper cover to protect them from the elements
resulting in a blemish-free fruit. Each pear is tissue wrapped for moisture
retention and placed in form-fitting foam socks to protect them from bruising.
The prized paper-thin skin is devoid of the bitter flavor normally associated
with other pears.
Trendy Tropical Fruits
Passion Fruit is an aromatic, jelly-like golden flesh
fruit that is sweet-tart in flavor and filled with edible seeds. If the skin is
smooth and perfect, it is not ripe yet. Let it get wrinkled and dimpled and
then it is ready to eat.
Tropical Dragon Fruit is an exotic cactus
fruit that has a delicately sweet and mildly acidic flavor somewhat like
watermelon, cactus pear, and kiwi. The fruit inside ranges from white to pink
to magenta. The tiny black seeds are edible, similar to a kiwi.
Once a year, the Melissa’s
Produce family of writers and bloggers have a friendly dessert competition
where the winners are amongst the attendees.
My mom submitted her tasty
Manju recipe and won 4th place! She received two lovely cookbooks by
Ming Tsai
– Simply Ming In Your Kitchen and Ming’s
Master Recipes. I am a HUGE fan of Ming Tsai and had the privilege
of dining at his Blue Ginger restaurant back in 2009 while working on a
tradeshow in Boston.
My recipe didn’t place but if
you are on a gluten-free or ovo-lacto vegan diet, you’ll love my recipe.
Coco-Chocolate Chip Cookies
by OC Food Diva
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Yield: 16 cookies
Great for gluten-free and
ovo-lacto vegan diets
Ingredients:
1 cup peanuts, crushed into a
powder
1 tbsp grapeseed oil
½ cup granulated sugar
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate
chips
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, whisked
½ cup coconut milk
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- In
a large bowl, whisk together coconut flour, sugar, powdered peanuts, baking
soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- Add
in oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and coconut milk and mix with hands until dough
forms.
- Mix
in chocolate chips.
- Shape
into 1-inch balls, pat down to form a patty shape, and place on parchment paper
lined cookie sheet.
- Bake on the middle rack for 15 minutes until golden brown.
- Let cookies cool on sheet and serve.
I hope you will try some of
these fruits and vegetables that are trending. The color of the rainbow is
waiting for you in the produce aisle!
For more information:
If
you like this blog post, check out these:
- Review of Sara Moulton’s Home Cooking 101: How to Make Everything Taste Better by Sara Moulton + Recipe
- Review of Upscale Downhome: Family Recipes, All Gussied Up by Rachel Hollis
- Review of Whitney Miller’s New Southern Table by Whitney Miller
- Review of Flavorful Shortcuts To Indian/Pakistani Cooking by Farhana Sahibzada
- Review of Mexican Today: New and Rediscovered Recipes for Contemporary Kitchens by Pati Jinich + Recipe
