We had exceptionally warm weather in Vancouver recently, with temperatures rising to 26C-28C in the afternoon. I enjoy this beautiful city at any season, but when it is warm and sunny, it is merely the best place on earth! This is my 7th spring in Vancouver, but I do not remember having such a warm weather in mid April. For this reason my previous recipe was a hit in our household for the last couple of weeks.
Apart from gorgeous weather, April brought along more good news, and one of them is return of the fiddlehead ferns season! Although frozen fiddleheads can be found in commerce all the year round, fresh ones are available in spring for a few weeks only. As fiddleheads are available only for a short while, it is a good idea incorporate them into your diet. Fiddleheads contain numerous vitamins and minerals; they are a good source of antioxidants, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, potassium and dietary fiber.
Given the short-lived season for fiddlehead ferns I bought some, as soon as I saw them available. Fiddleheads remind me of young green beans that I enjoyed sautéed with onions and garlic or in tomato sauce. I sort of crave tomatoes now and then, so the autoimmune-compliant fiddleheads sautéed in nomato sauce sounded pretty tempting to me. A note of caution here: fiddleheads can be toxic if not cooked thoroughly. It is not recommended to cook them al-dente and general recommendation is to boil them for 10 to 15 minutes.
- 16 oz fiddlehead ferns
- ½ cup pumpkin purée*
- ¼ cup bone broth or water
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt or to taste
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- Basil leaves for garnish
- Lime or lemon juice to serve
- In a large-size saucepan bring water to a boil.
- In the meantime clean and trim the fiddleheads.
- Once the water is boiling, add the fiddleheads and cook for 10 minutes over medium heat.
- While the fiddleheads are cooking proceed by preparing the nomato sauce. In a small bowl combine the pumpkin purée with bone broth, balsamic and apple cider vinegars, garlic, onion, and salt. Set aside.
- Once the fiddleheads are cooked, drain them under cold water to stop the cooking process and to fix the color.
- In a large non-reactive sauté pan preheat the coconut oil over medium high heat, add the nomato base and cook for 1 minute.
- Stir in the fiddleheads and cook stirring occasionally for 3 to 5 minutes or until a part of the liquid is absorbed.
- Garnish with basil leaves, drizzle with lime juice and serve!
Maria is the blogger behind the Zesty Paleo website. As a Hashimoto's patient for more than a decade, Maria has constantly been taking steps to improve her quality of life, including nutrition and lifestyle choices.
I love foraging for fiddlehead ferns in the spring! We live in the Oregon coast range and have access to some great places for picking them in the wild. I love the creativity you put into this nomato sauce! I haven’t made one with pumpkin as a base yet, look forward to trying!
Lucky gal! I love picking in the wild, so I think that I will look into possibilities to do it in Vancouver surroundings 😉
It is on my bucket list to try these one day. They don’t grow in my area, but I hope to catch them on vacation at some point. They’re so gorgeous!
I know, I take advantage of their short season by cooking them in a variety of ways, for example I also sauté fiddleheads with onion, garlic and bacon…mmm