Flavored almonds

The news on nuts is good: There one of the healthiest snacks you can have (Here are some healthy ways to add nuts to your diet). From sweet flavors like caramel latte, snickerdoodle and butter toffee to savory Bloody Mary, balsamic herb, or asiago cheese, California-grown almonds from Stewart and Jasper farms pack a nutrient punch with fiber, calcium, and healthy fats. They even carry almond butters and flours.

Shop Now

Fruit of the month club

Getting good fruit in the offseason can be tricky—though here’s one alternative that can get you through winter. But the food gifts that truly keeps on giving is fruit-of-the-month clubs from The Fruit Company. Choose from the Harvest Club with apples, pears and oranges, or the Exotic Club which includes persimmons, kiwi and star fruit. Organic options and various lengths of packages are available. Fresh fruit delivered to your home? Yes, please!

Shop Now

Coffee

For the caffeine lover in your life, there are more and more reasons to indulge guilt-free thanks to news on the emerging health benefits of coffee. So consider a coffee of the month club. Beans from all over the world, including Guatemala, Peru and Honduras are sent whole or ground. Grounds for Change guarantees that their coffee is Fair Trade Certified and organic, making the gift beneficial for the environment and the socioeconomics of the originating country. Decaf varieties are available, too.

Shop Now

Salsa

High in vitamins C and A, fresh homemade salsas make a fabulous and healthy holiday food gift. Looking for authentic and innovative flavors from the southwest? Try the Arizona Spice Company with salsas with fun names such as Arizona Reaper and Magnificent Mango. These award-winning condiments are all-natural; several varieties use the famous Hatch green chilies from New Mexico. Intensities range from mild, medium, hot, habanero and ghost pepper heats, so there’s something for everyone.

Shop Now

Pomegranate

Full of phytonutrients, fiber, folate and vitamins C and K, pomegranates make unique and healthy holiday food gifts. A box of seasonal Crimson Pomegranates is bright and festive in color, which can be used to make some gorgeous pomegranate recipes. Pomegranate juice is extremely high in antioxidants, too.

Shop Now

Figs and dates

The beauty of high-fiber dried fruit is longevity. They’ll keep for a while, so when the rest of the holidays fade away, this gift reminds of the sweet celebratory season. Figs and dates from Nuts.com are the perfect gift for friends following the Mediterranean diet, and are offered in pretty food gift baskets or trays. Here are 7 tips that will help you master the Mediterranean diet.

Shop Now

Popcorn

Sweet and savory flavored popcorn suits everyone on your shopping list (Do you know the real reason popcorn bags are printed with“this side up”?). Poppy Handcrafted Popcorn features non-GMO corn popped in coconut oil. Choose from jalapeno cheddar, cinnamon bourbon pecan, gingerbread and more. Sold by the bag or decorative tin, popcorn is a fun food gift idea.

Shop Now

Spices

If you want to get more health benefits from your diet, add spices. Help your friends and family explore new international tastes with unique spices from World Spice. Rubs, marinades, whole spices and blends in an impressive variety of flavors. The blends range from Adobo to Za’atar, and everything in between. Some fun finds: shawarma, orange tarragon, jerk, mulled spices, Chinese five spice and 10 different curry blends.

Shop Now

Bean soup mix

You probably know that soup delivers amazing health benefits. And nothing says comfort food better than a hot bowl of soup in the winter. Nuts.com sells decorative soup mixes including a variety of dried beans (high in fiber, protein, and magnesium). Simply add a few other ingredients, and dinner is done. Mason jars filled with colorful split peas, black-eyed peas and kidney, black, pinto and white beans make attractive holiday food gifts.

Shop Now

Avocados

Packed with fiber, folate, healthy fats and B vitamins, avocados are practically a perfect food—unless they’re not yet ripe. Which is why you need to know the trick to ripening an avocado in under 10 minutes. Take a look at the Avocado of the Month Club: farm fresh California avocados delivered to your door? If you’re not sure how your loved one could use so many avocados, just take a look at our top 50 recipes made with avocado.

Shop Now

Teas

Stash Teas sold as loose tea leaves, K-cups, or in tea bags, allow your recipient to sit back and relax after the hectic holiday season. Herbal, decaffeinated, black, green and more—with over 60 varieties, there is truly something for everyone. Some holiday-inspired flavors include Christmas in Paris and chocolate mint.

Shop Now

Citrus

Growing up in Arizona, nothing says winter to me like fresh citrus—and this particular fruit is a citrus superstar. Hale Groves in Florida ships beautiful boxes of pink grapefruit, navel oranges and honeybells. Honeybells are a cross between orange and tangerine, super sweet and bursting with vitamin C. Stick these beauties in stockings for a throw-back gift, or send a box to your relatives stuck in winter snow for a bright treat.

Shop Now

Herb garden

Growing herbs indoors works in any climate, providing cooking herbs at your fingertips. Individual herbs or an assortment of herbs in an Aerogarden are both top choices for healthy holiday gift ideas. Choose from small, medium or large units, all with self-watering systems. Keeping fresh herbs is easy with these storage tricks.

Shop Now

Artichokes

Consider gifting a box of these beautiful veggies straight from the California farm to your loved one’s doorstep. There’s no need to limit their use to a dip, either, just take a look at these 20 dinner recipes that put artichokes to work.

Shop Now

Olive oil

When investigating the foundation of a healthy diet, you will always find olive oil near the top of the list, primarily because the oil is linked to the prevention of several chronic diseases. Olive Oil Lovers have the answer when it comes to unique healthy holiday gift ideas. Select from olive growing regions (including Tuscany, Sicily and Valencia) or flavored oils (basil, lemon, thyme). Can’t decide? How about an olive-oil-of-the-month club to explore all types throughout the year?

Shop Now

The post 15 Healthy Holiday Food Gifts That Aren’t Fruit Cake appeared first on Taste Recipes.

With so many choices in the market, how do you know which salt is best for your recipe? Some work best in baking, others in cooking, and others for finishing the dish. Despite claims that some salts are healthier than others, it’s important to note that their actual sodium content is nearly identical. One teaspoon of any kind of table salt contains approximately 2,300 mg sodium. (If you’re looking to reduce your sodium intake, try these tips). But while all salts are technically the same, chemically speaking, they’re not all equal. Find out which salts work best for your favorite recipes.

Table Salt

This is the finely ground white stuff in the cardboard cylinder that you probably always have on hand, and that fills your salt shaker. Typically, iodine is added, but noniodized salt is easy to find in supermarkets. Table salt comes from underground deposits that are dissolved in water, treated, and then evaporated and refined. It’s best used in baking because the fine granules dissolve quickly and can be measured accurately.

Make sure you’re getting exact measurements with these Test Kitchen tips.

Sea Salt

Sea salt is coarser than fine table salt. It is crystallized via evaporation of seawater. Because it’s less refined than table salt, sea salt may contain other minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, manganese and zinc. Sea salt comes in crystals or flakes, and you can find it in specialty stores and supermarkets. It’s super versatile—perfect for finishing anything from pork and salmon to fresh salads. The small flakes also add a certain flourish to salted caramel desserts.

Kosher Salt

Kosher salt stands in contrast to regular table salt due to its larger crystals and lack of iodine. These large crystals are the perfect size for drawing moisture out of meat—part of the koshering process and how this particular salt got its name. This salt is popular among chefs and is a great option for everyday cooking.

Pink Salt

This salt is mined from a region near the Himalaya Mountains. Pink salt ranges in texture from extra fine to extra course. The pink color comes from the multiple minerals and trace elements it contains. Chefs recommend using the pink stuff as a finishing salt, just before eating the dish. It has a lighter, milder flavor than regular table salt—plus it looks super pretty!

Black Salt

Black salt, while still salt at heart, differs from the other options because of the dark color iron gives it. Typically derived from rock salt in South Asia, this option has a distinctive flavor that comes from its sulfur content.

Hawaiian black salt, on the other hand, is blended with activated charcoal and used as a finishing salt. The unique sulfur-influenced flavor may make you think of eggs, but don’t let that discourage you from using black salt on recipes that don’t have eggs. A little goes a long way, so start out light and tailor to your taste buds.

Red Salt

Sometimes known as Hawaiian or alaea salt, red salt is combined with volcanic clay to produce the reddish brown hue. The clay adds dozens of additional minerals to the basic salt formula, but overall they contribute a mellow flavor. Alaea salt is popular in Hawaiian cuisine—give it a try in these tropical-inspired dishes—but the mild flavor works well as a finishing salt, especially for desserts. Authentic Hawaiian salt is expensive and difficult to procure, but many look-alikes (and taste-alikes) are produced in California and can be found at specialty food shops.

Smoked Salt

At its core a sea salt, smoked salt gains additional flavor from being smoked over various woods. Smoked salts vary in color from light tans to rich browns, but all impart a lightly smoky flavor to food. This makes them a great addition to barbecue dishes and helps impart a little smoky wood flavor if you’re grilling indoors or using a gas grill. A sprinkle of smoked salt can add a touch of savory flavor to many vegetarian foods, too!

Gray Salt

From the French Atlantic coast, the gray color (often spelled “grey”) of “sel gris” comes from minerals absorbed from the lining of clay ponds. Rich in several minerals (magnesium, iron, calcium, manganese, zinc and iodine), gray salt is used in French cooking. Give it a try in one of our favorite classic French recipes.

Fleur de Sel

Translated as “flower of the salt,” this variety is raked by hand from the top of salt ponds near certain French villages. These are the same ponds that gray salt is harvested from, but significantly less fleur de sel is gleaned. Similar in color to gray salt or lighter, fleur de sel comes in delicate flakes are used as a finishing.

Now that you know that there’s more to salt than that cardboard canister, you can get to creating cuisine with just a little extra flair. Give a new salt a try in these impressive dinner party dishes.

The post Your Guide to Gourmet (and Everyday) Salts. Plus, When to Use Them appeared first on Taste Recipes.