Five recipes you loved in 2022

From left to right: Clara making soup, Cowboy Caviar, a green smoothie and zucchini pizza boats.

Did you know that we share a new recipe in our email newsletter each month? To provide some fuel for this year’s meal planning, we’ve rounded up the top five recipes that got our subscribers excited to cook in 2022. 

From creative ways to eat your vegetables to a special soup created by a young Food Bank supporter, here are the dishes our community enjoyed the most:

  1. Drink your greens

    Do you want to know how you can add more leafy greens to your diet? Drink them! We recommend storing fresh kale, spinach or chard in the freezer to use in smoothies. It prevents the produce from spoiling and provides a nice texture to your drink. This hearty smoothie tastes like peanut butter and chocolate but is full of nutritious green goodness.

  2. Warm up with Clara’s special soup

    This Caribbean Pumpkin-Black Bean Soup comes to us from Clara C., an 11 year-old Food Bank supporter in El Cerrito. Clara has been compiling her own cookbook and adapted this recipe just for you. With only a 20-minute cook time, it’s a quick, cozy and delicious weeknight dinner.

  3. Cowboy Caviar

    Get ready for summer corn season by bookmarking this simple, flexible and nutritious recipe from Budget Bytes. As incredible tasting fresh corn is on its own, this Cowboy Caviar can be the star side dish at your next potluck or can be the answer to “what’s for dinner” when it’s too hot to cook!

  4. All aboard for Zucchini Pizza Boats

    Trying to boost your veggie intake? This recipe for delicious Zucchini Pizza Boats from BudgetBytes will make for smooth sailing! Zucchini—no matter if it’s grown in your garden or picked up at a Food Bank distribution—makes for a perfectly nutritious vessel to transport all that Italian flavor and cheesy goodness to your taste buds!

  5. Power up with energy bars

    Fighting hunger requires plenty of energy! These easy-to-make, homemade energy bars from Five Heart Home are packed with wholesome ingredients like oats, nuts, chia seeds, dried fruit, peanut butter and honey. The best part? The bars whip up quickly in your food processor and don’t require baking. 

Want to share a recipe of your own with your Food Bank community?

Send us an email at hello@foodbankccs.org. We particularly like recipes that use fresh fruits or veggies!