Eat Your Heart Out!
23 Mar
Hearts of palm ceviche is great for sharing or a simple light lunch for one.
What’s in a name? I’m always interested in reading about names, if they affect how we view ourselves and how others view us, or if a name can be an indicator of a person’s personality. Before the advent of the internet, I thought I was the lone Cadry in the world. When my cousin, Darcy, was in kindergarten and learning how to spell her name she’d scramble the letters from D-A-R-C-Y to C-A-D-R-Y. My mom was pregnant with me at the time, liked the name, and decided to name me that. While there were always several Heather’s, Christina’s, Elizabeth’s, and Laura’s in my classes, I was always the only Cadry.
Sometimes it was disappointing. Sometimes I wished that I could find personalized pencils with my name on them or personalized license plates for my bike. Most of the time I liked it. I always had a story to tell when meeting someone for the first time. It made me feel unique. Years later I learned with a simple Google search that there are several Cadry’s that share this planet. It seems that most of them are men, and it’s a fairly common last name. On the upside, I also found several sites that manufacture personalized pencils. You win some, you lose some.
On the subject of names and how they affect our perceptions, let’s look at hearts of palm or as some call it, swamp cabbage. It is harvested from the inner core of certain palm trees. It’s similar in taste and texture to artichoke hearts, long and cylindrical, delicious in salads, and available fresh, canned, or jarred. (I prefer jarred over canned, because the delicate flavor of the palm can pick up a metallic taste in cans.) While it was once considered poor person’s food, it later became a sought after commodity, difficult and expensive to obtain, and a key ingredient in “millionaire’s salad,” so-named because of its high price.
The first time I used hearts of palm, the texture reminded me of the mock crab meat (white fish) that I used to eat growing up. It is for this reason that I thought it would make a great vegan ceviche. Meat-based ceviche is made by “cooking” raw fish in citrus juices. My vegan ceviche is a who’s who of vitamin C with hearts of palm, red onion, avocados, cilantro, and lime juice. This cool and satisfying appetizer is great for weekend gatherings or to enjoy with a Corona on a warm spring day.
It’s important to note that there is some controversy around hearts of palm, because of deforestation concerns in the Amazon. It’s good to check the sustainability of your hearts of palm before purchasing. It is grown in several places including Costa Rica, Brazil, Ecuador, and Hawaii. Some producers harvest only the new shoots of the palm that come up at the base of the plant and don’t destroy the tree.
Bless Your Hearts of Palm Ceviche
Serves 4-8
Ingredients:
- 1 14 oz. jar of hearts of palm, drained and sliced
- 12 cherry tomatoes, sliced into quarters
- 1 avocado, cubed
- ¼ cup red onion, chopped small
- 2 Tbsp (heaping) fresh cilantro, chopped
- Juice of 1 lime
- Slices of fresh or jarred jalapeño peppers, to taste
Combine ingredients and serve with slices of jicama, celery sticks, tortilla chips, or toasted corn tortillas.
For those of you who use jarred hearts of palm from Trader Joe’s, they had this to say about the sustainability of their hearts of palm.
Hi there,
Our Trader Joe’s Hearts of Palm product comes from small scale family
farms in South America. These farmers are certified by ProForest, which
ensures that they meet strict social, environmental and technical
criteria. With regard to environmental criteria, the assessments are
carried out at the landscape and operational level at both the farms and
processing facilities. These assessments cover environmental impact on
the soil, water, air, biodiversity and local communities. The lands the
farmers use are not lands that were deforested. The lands used to grow
the palm fruit are lands previously used for agricultural purposes
(cattle, rice, banana).Thank you,
Nicki K.
Trader Joe’s
Customer Relations
