Botanical Kitchen - Karina Hines

05/31/2026

Happy Spring —This week’s menu celebrates the fleeting gifts of spring, using a few simple ingredients to bring beautiful, food-as-medicine meals to your table. Cooking with the seasons is one of the most practical ways we can practice self-care. When we align our meals with what is growing around us, we naturally invite a diverse range of good ingredients to help us bring beautiful, anti-inflammatory meals to the table.

Some Spring Self-care Cooking Ideas + Ingredients

Hakurei Turnip Greens: Tender young Hakurei turnip greens make an excellent salad green. They add a mild, peppery flavour and delicate texture to your bowl, along with a rich profile of minerals and plant compounds. Try them mixed with other greens, or build a simple steamed sweet potato salad topped with fresh mint and dollops of our Green Spark Pesto, made directly from the turnip greens as in the free recipe below.

Asparagus & Swiss Chard: Lovely gently poached asparagus + peas blending it into quality broth or stock makes a lovely light, soothing green soup. For something heartier, fold fresh asparagus and young Swiss chard leaves into a flavourful, high-protein quinoa risotto to support sustained energy.

Rhubarb & Raspberries: For a nourishing baked treat, stir together thinly sliced fresh rhubarb and freeze-dried raspberries into homemade gluten-free oat-flour muffins. Making your own oat flour is incredibly simple: just add rolled oats to a blender and process for 30 seconds.

Lilac Blossoms: It is lilac season right now, and the blooms are stunning this year. A fleeting kitchen gift, these edible blossoms make a beautiful and fragrant garnish for fruit salads, baked goods, and desserts.

Everyday food is a powerful tool for your health. By choosing fresh, whole ingredients, you actively reduce inflammation and support your body's natural balance.

I hope you take a moment this week for yourself to step into the kitchen, gather a few spring-forward ingredients, and enjoy the simple and grounding act of cooking for self-care and healthcare.

My food as medicine membership offers a 14-day free trial so you can follow an anti-inflammatory eating style and the growing season each week and leverage the healing power of food through your member portal + toolkit.

https://www.botanicalkitchen.com/about-botanical-kitchen-membership/

05/25/2026

My dinner tonight.. all fabulous local food ~ hyper-seasonal fiddleheads over miso
with roasted haddock, my seaweed spice blend & some gorgeous greens.

anti-inflammatory
high fibre
essential minerals + vitamins
protein + omega 3
probiotic + prebiotic
heart + thyroid + hormone + immune

Everyday food as medicine meal ready in under 30 mins.

05/23/2026

Spring brings a different rhythm back to the kitchen with fresh flavours, flowering herbs + vibrant greens, a welcome shift to how we cook and eat after a long winter’s heavier meals. The ingredients become greener, brighter, more bitter, mineral-rich + lightly salty, with tender leaves, bitter herbs, sea vegetables, wild foods + early vegetables finding their way back to the table.

There is something deeply restorative about this time of year. Crisp asparagus, peppery rocket, tart rhubarb, tender greens, chive flowers + fiddleheads each bring something distinct to spring cooking, inviting simpler meals built around freshness, flavour + seasonality.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, spring is traditionally associated with the liver and gallbladder systems, and many of the green, bitter + mineral-rich foods of spring have long been valued for their stimulating, restorative qualities + liver and digestive support.

Fresh spring foods bring so many food-as-medicine benefits to the table. Here are some of the seasonal ingredients you can find at your local farmers’ markets, in gardens, local stores + throughout this week’s recipes.

Seasonal Food as Medicine Highlights

Fiddleheads — the jewel of spring here in the Northeast — are the tightly furled fronds of the ostrich fern, with a subtle earthy, green flavour. A hyper-seasonal wild food, fiddleheads are foraged and eaten as spring vegetables. Uncooked fiddleheads can be toxic, so it is important to boil or steam them for 10–15 minutes before using in recipes or eating them.

Asparagus is one of spring’s great seasonal vegetables with fresh, green, mineral-rich flavours. Traditionally valued for its natural diuretic properties, asparagus also contains prebiotic fibre to support digestion and gut health.

Rocket (arugula), mustard greens + bitter herbs bring the sharp, peppery, bitter flavours of spring alongside chlorophyll, minerals + plant compounds traditionally valued for supporting digestion, liver function + seasonal transition.

Spinach brings soft, mineral-rich green flavours to spring cooking along with chlorophyll, antioxidants + fibre that help support liver function, digestion + a healthy gut microbiome. Naturally rich in folate, iron, vitamin C + vitamin K, spinach has long been valued as a deeply nourishing spring green

Rhubarb is one of the first perennial vegetables of spring. Though most often used like a fruit in desserts because of its tart, tangy flavour, rhubarb also works beautifully in savoury cooking. Naturally rich in antioxidants, vitamin C, minerals + fibre, rhubarb brings tart, astringent flavours to spring cooking that have long been traditionally valued for helping tone tissues + support digestion.

Maine sea vegetables + mineral-rich greens bring naturally salty, savoury flavours along with iodine, minerals + trace elements that help support thyroid hormone production + metabolic health. Maine sea vegetables like kelp, alaria, dulse, bladderwrack, sea lettuce + Irish moss add depth, minerality + umami to lighter spring cooking.

Chives + chive flowers bring delicate oniony, green flavours to spring cooking along with antioxidants + sulphur-containing compounds traditionally valued for supporting digestion, liver function + seasonal transition.

Sweet violets — beyond the delicate purple beauty of the flowers, which are a perfect garnish for any spring dish there is depth and power; violets have been used by herbalists for centuries as a food as medicine and remedy for clearing cysts and tumours, moving lymph, healing wounds, soothing coughs and the digestive system.

Spring foods can help you bring some true food as medicine benefits to the table along with fresh, light, leafy and vibrant flavours ~ happy cooking. Shop local + eat to thrive!

Portland Buy Local Portland Maine Farmers' Market Maine Federation of Farmers' Markets Experience Maine

https://www.botanicalkitchen.com/

05/21/2026

Wondering what to eat this week? Try this fabulous + fun food!

How to Cook Steamed Artichokes
Spring artichokes are one of the simple joys of spring, earthy with a delicate sweetness and rich, savoury flavour. Steaming is an easy, approachable way to cook them, and they are lovely served warm with olive oil, lemon + fresh herbs.

A simple, nourishing dish that brings the food-as-medicine benefits of artichokes to the table. Naturally rich in fibre, antioxidants, potassium + prebiotic compounds to support digestion, liver function + heart health.

How to Eat Steamed Artichokes
Pull the leaves off one by one and eat the tender flesh from the base of the leaf with your teeth, discarding the tough top section. As you work your way in, the leaves become more tender and edible. Once you reach the centre, scoop out the fuzzy choke to reveal the artichoke heart — the most tender, rich and savoury part of all.

Traditionally, as you pull the leaves off one by one, you dip the tender end into lemon juice, olive oil, a light, anti-inflammatory creamy sauce like Preserved Lemon Cucumber Tahini Sauce, mayo, or melted butter as you eat.

Here's a free recipe to try ~ they are fabulous, fun food!

https://www.botanicalkitchen.com/recipes/how-to-cook-eat-steamed-artichokes/

Tender spring artichokes, gently steamed and served with lemon, olive oil + herbs. A simple, nourishing food-as-medicine healthy spring dish.

05/15/2026

Here's a spring fling, clean and green and mineral-rich food as medicine for your weekend...

This week's menu here is for my Chef's Table members; for my whole plant life members, we have a Dulse Miso Tofu with Sh*take & Tatsoi.

Whatever your protein choice, eating style or allergy - I've got you covered!

The same goes if you are wondering how to cook & eat whole artichokes, they are fabulous and great for your digestion + liver.

https://www.botanicalkitchen.com/

05/10/2026

Cooking is love
selfcare
healthcare
mindfluness
intention
connection
nuturing

Nourishing food is one of the greatest gifts you can give and receive.

Anti-inflammatory food is one of the most powerful tools in healthcare and self-care — you can leverage it every meal, every day, and eat to thrive!

05/06/2026

Do you know what to eat and how to cook to best support your health?

Are you clear on which foods are soothing and which foods are driving inflammation in your body?

Join me online in the kitchen.

I walk you through it step by step in my 14-day Reset program. I created this program because I deeply believe in helping people make sustainable changes and in the power of using food as medicine

STARTING SATURDAY May 9th is my 14-day Anti-Inflammatory Food as Medicine Reset

Reduce Inflammation

→ Reduce Pain + Discomfort + Disease

Activate Metabolism + Detox Pathways

→ Enhance Cellular Function + Elimination

Support Liver Function + Detoxification

→ Enhance Hormone Metabolism + Restful Sleep

Enhance Gut + Digestive + Immune Health

→ Improve Digestion + Absorption + Elimination

Eat to Stabilise Blood Sugar + Cortisol

→ Reduce Crashes + Cravings + Brain Fog

Nourish Nervous System + Gut—Brain Health

→ Reduce Anxiety + Improve Focus + Clarity

Reset Your Habits + Restore Balance

→ Support Your Health + Eat to Thrive

Your Reset Includes

14 days of meal plan choices + practical, easy recipes in your online toolkit.

Choose your protein style — land + sea + plant or plant-based vegan.

7 live, interactive, supportive group coaching calls with chef demos + Q&A.

Online portal with menus, recipes, self-care protocols + private community.

Flexibility to choose what you eat + which habits you want to reset.

Tracking journal to map symptoms, responses, shifts + outcomes.

A nourishing, not punishing, supportive program — simple + sustainable.

LINK to learn more ...https://www.botanicalkitchen.com/14-day-reset-program-about/

Set up for success call May 7th
RESET START call May 9th

05/03/2026

The world is getting crazier, the food system more toxic, more expensive, and less nutrient-dense than ever before… what do we do, what can we do… how do we eat to thrive? Actually, it’s easier than you think, and you're probably well over halfway there.

The question is — are you clear on which foods are soothing and which foods are driving inflammation in your body? It’s a key piece, and small shifts can make a huge impact on your health…

I walk you through it step by step in my 14-day Reset program. I created this program because I deeply believe in helping people make sustainable changes and in the power of using food as medicine.

STARTING SATURDAY May 9th is my 14-day Anti-Inflammatory Food as Medicine Reset

Reduce Inflammation
→ Reduce Pain + Discomfort + Disease

Activate Metabolism + Detox Pathways
→ Enhance Cellular Function + Elimination

Support Liver Function + Detoxification
→ Enhance Hormone Metabolism + Restful Sleep

Enhance Gut + Digestive + Immune Health
→ Improve Digestion + Absorption + Elimination

Eat to Stabilise Blood Sugar + Cortisol
→ Reduce Crashes + Cravings + Brain Fog

Nourish Nervous System + Gut—Brain Health
→ Reduce Anxiety + Improve Focus + Clarity

Reset Your Habits + Restore Balance
→ Support Your Health + Eat to Thrive

Your Reset Includes
14 days of meal plan choices + practical, easy recipes in your online toolkit.
Choose your protein style — land + sea + plant or plant-based vegan.
7 live, interactive, supportive group coaching calls with chef demos + Q&A.
Online portal with menus, recipes, self-care protocols + private community.
Flexibility to choose what you eat + which habits you want to reset.
Tracking journal to map symptoms, responses, shifts + outcomes.
A nourishing, not punishing, supportive program — simple + sustainable.

LINK - https://www.botanicalkitchen.com/14-day-reset-program-about/

Set up for success call May 7th
RESET START call May 9th

04/28/2026

As I celebrate Seaweed Week one of the ways I love to honor Maine seaweed is by gathering around it — learning about it, tasting it, and exploring how to bring it into everyday cooking.

This is one of the ways I celebrate seaweed at Botanical Kitchen — not just by talking about its benefits, but by helping people experience it directly: its flavor, its versatility, its nourishment, and its connection to place.

I’m excited to now also be offering a Seaweed Exploration + Tasting Workshop on Thursday, April 30 from 4:00–6:00 pm at O'Maine Studios. This workshop includes seaweed cooking education, guided tastings, and drinks, and is designed to explore common coastal Maine seaweeds, their food-as-medicine benefits, and practical ways to cook with them in everyday life.

And as part of Seaweed Week, I’ll also be hosting Cooking with Maine Seaweed at Pinecone Studio tomorrow, April 29 from 9:00–12:00 pm — a special opportunity to come celebrate and cook with me in person.

If you’ve been curious about seaweed, this is such a beautiful place to begin.

Seaweed Tasting Workshop:
https://hubs.ly/Q04dKZMm0

Pinecone Studio registration:
https://hubs.ly/Q04dKylY0


Experience Maine
Heritage Seaweed Maine Sea Grant Maine Seaweed Council
Portland Food Map HospitalityMaine Best of Portland Maine Maine Happenings Maine Tasting Center

04/27/2026

This week I’ll be teaching Cooking with Maine Seaweed at Pinecone Studio on April 29 from 9:00–12:00 pm.

If seaweed has sparked your curiosity lately — if you’ve been wanting to understand how to use it, why it matters, and how to bring it into everyday meals in a way that feels approachable — this class is a beautiful place to begin.

I’ll be sharing practical ways to work with Maine sea vegetables, ideas for weaving them into real meals, and the deeper reasons I return to them again and again in the kitchen: flavor, nourishment, vitality, and connection to place.

I would love to cook with you.

April 29 | 9:00–12:00 | Pinecone Studio

Register here- https://hubs.ly/Q04cB5Xl0



Heritage Seaweed Maine Sea Grant Maine Seaweed Council
Portland Food Map HospitalityMaine Best of Portland Maine Maine Happenings Maine Tasting Center