Locavore Cooking Class at the Des Moines Social Club

This spring Iowa Food Cooperative is hosting the first Locavore Cooking Class series at the Des Moines Social Club. The first class in the series was January 5 and was a fantastic time! The theme was cooking with storage vegetables and featured frozen corn and apples from Iowa Choice Harvest, fresh greens and sweet potatoes from Lee’s Greens, and carrots from Huber Family Farm. Be sure to join in the fun by registering for our next class on February 2 where we’ll make Fettuccine Alfredo using Country View Dairy yogurt, Zaza’s Pastas, and Pickle Creek Herbal Garlic!

Local Food Cooking Classes

How the Class Works

Once everyone arrived in class we shared a champagne toast and introduced ourselves. Amanda Mae Phillips, Des Moines Social Club’s Culinary Director, said every time you cook it’s a celebration. We agree, especially if you’re cooking with fresh local ingredients! We divided into teams of 2-3 people to tackle the menu Amanda created for our class. Throughout the class Amanda was available for help, but we learned as much cooking with each other as we did from her!

Copy of 3 Easy WaysYou Can HelpIFC Find NewMembers!(6)

Salad with Corn-Apple Topping
One team created a warm topping for our salad mix from Lee’s Greens by heating the frozen sweet corn and apples from Iowa Choice Harvest and adding in pomelo, champagne, and seasoning for extra flavor.

Sweet Potato Wedges
We sliced our sweet potatoes from Lee’s Greens and coated them thoroughly with olive oil and spices from AllSpice. Then we grilled them until they were crispy but soft.

Carrot Gratin
The star of the show was Carrots Au Gratin made with Huber Family Farm Bolero carrots, WW Homestead Dairy Butter, and La Quercia pancetta. This was rich, creamy, and delicious!

Copy of 3 Easy WaysYou Can HelpIFC Find NewMembers!(7)

What Did People Say?

Once the meal was complete we sat as a group to enjoy our food and talk about why eating local is so important. We all agreed that even if it wasn’t good for our environment and community, eating local is still worthwhile because the food tastes so good!

It was so fun learning new ways to cook with local food! I love that the IFC is doing this and definitely plan to attend future classes.

-Shelene Billups, IFC member and class attendee

This class was both entertaining *and* educational! I learned how to turn locally sourced ingredients to fancy-pants dishes that could impress friends and family alike! The best part was sitting around with my classmates, enjoying the delicious foods we prepared and extolling the virtues of local veggies and the perfect egg sandwich. I will definitely be attending future classes.

-Liz Johnson, class attendee

As local food lovers it was refreshing to enjoy an amazing meal without having to do all the work, pick up a few new tricks, and get to take home leftovers. Included in the course fee was culinary instruction from DMSC’s Culinary Director, champagne, a delicious meal, leftovers to take home, and a bag of salad greens from Lee’s Greens!

Register for February’s Class Here!