In Challenge 6, cooks Chrissy Christian of Hoffman Estates and Zielinski found avocado oil courtesy of Ellyndale Foods, ground beef, spinach, millet in their mystery ingredient bags on which to work their magic.

Christian’s entry wowed judge Dan Rich with the array of ?avors in the meatballs as well as the addition of a grain salad to complement the rest of the dish. “The saltiness of the Kalamata olives is a nice way to break up the texture and ?avor of the millet,” Rich commented. Suzy Singh, Corporate Chef at NOW Foods, loved how Christian used Living NOW Millet throughout the entire dish but wished she added the cooking step to the millet and speci?ed the type of liquid used to rehydrate the gluten free grain. Singh noted that Christian could have used Ellyndale Avocado Oil instead of olive oil to sauté garlic and spinach, too. “I am obsessed with the Roasted Red Pepper Sauce,” Singh added, “but you could have utilized the avocado oil instead of the EVOO for this as well. Overall, amazing ?avor but make sure you highlight the mystery box ingredients in these challenges.” Menteer reminded all contestants to consider the most creative use of ingredients and cooking techniques in the Cook of the Week Challenge.

Singh thought Greg Zielinski did an amazing job using Ellyndale Naturals Avocado Oil throughout the challenge. “The oil has a very clean taste with a very high smoke point,” the R&D Food Specialist explained, “but you never want the oil to smoke prior to adding your ingredients as the oil will oxidize.” She noted that millet is naturally sweet, gluten free and is the ultimate ?avor absorber and combining the Living NOW Millet with chicken broth, ground beef, and vegetable tomato sauce was almost a home run. “Next time remember to reduce the wine prior to adding the broth and instead of draining the beef fat, use that in combination with avocado oil to cook the vegetables to achieve even more ?avor.” Previous Cook of the Week winner, Rich, cheered Zielinski for cooking with the season and liked how he used the grain in his dish. Rich thought perhaps that stuffed green peppers were a bit too run of the “millet” for this type of competition, though. Westin Itasca Head Chef, Menteer, graded the stuffed peppers highly for good use of product and technique. “All elements of the plate seem to go together well,” Menteer decided. The Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers moved Zielinski into the next round of the competition.