Quinoa Tabbouleh

When I planted my kitchen garden this spring, I decided, sort on a whim, to put in a few Brussels sprouts plants. I've never grown them and I thought it'd be a blast to see what would happen.

Lo and behold, I've got a parsley 9-1-1! The poor plants are being overrun. And some other herbs, too. There's also oregano under those big leaves.

I need to use up that parsley before it gets run out of Dodge. And I have a feeling most people who buy a bunch of parsley at the store have the same feeling: what am I going to do now with all this?

So it's back to our regularly scheduled program: fridge salads. Today's whole grain version is a whimsical one from Bruce. It's like a traditional tabbouleh but with red quinoa instead of bulgur wheat. Honestly, it's a lighter treat on a hot summer day. This salad has been a staple around our house for the last week as the temperature has skyrocketed into the 90s.

So here we go.

Click to read more ...

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been saving this recipe back for a while. For a couple of reasons. First, it's my favorite cookie recipe Bruce ever created--and he's done a lot, what with an entire book devoted to chocolate chip cookies (which you can see here).

And second, because of the name. People freak out. "Vegan?" they say, backing up. As if I were handing them a recipe for cardboard.

So sometimes, when we make these in cooking demos--and we that do A LOT--we call them "Maple Tahini Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies." Sigh.

So what's the story with this recipe? Years ago, we used to pop into supermarkets for a quick afternoon snack, an apple and a cookie. I'd inevitably go for the vegan versions--and inevitably be disappointed. The cookies were always flabby, soft, mealy. I like crunch. I do not want a wad of chocolate chip cookie gunk in my mouth after the first chew.

So I asked Bruce if he couldn't figure out a way to make a crunchy vegan cookie. And here it is. Incredible. I promise.

Click to read more ...

Roasted Pepper and Shiitake Salad

Those bell peppers aren't the only thing burning up around here. Apparently, we missed spring in New England. It's going up into the 90s today--and it's only late May!

I fear this heat wave might mean a bad summer ahead. Who knows? The weather here is nuts: rain, snow, sleet, beating sun, heat, humidity. And that's on a Monday. Is it any wonder this place bred Puritans and other scolds?

Ah, well. In celebration of bad weather (!), I thought I'd offer some more of those luscious, make-ahead salads. We keep them in the fridge all week so we can have heaping spoonfuls of this and that for lunch every day.

The point is this: a wide variety in what you eat means you can eat less and be satisfied more quickly. Eating bored--whether you're bored or you're bored with your food--can be a recipe for weight-management disaster, as research shows. (It's pretty well documented in our new book, REAL FOOD HAS CURVES.)

So the salad.

Click to read more ...

Smoky Baba Ganoush

To go with this celebratory week of healthy salads, here's a smoky, silky, creamy spread.

Except I don't spread it. I just eat it with a spoon.

In doing lots of reading for REAL FOOD HAS CURVES, our seven-step plan to get off processed food, I came across research which proved that varied textures on a plate aid in increased satiety--and thus in eating less and being satisfied more quickly, the keys to losing or maintaining weight.

Since it's crucial that a plate of food have a range of textures, the chew-heavy salads this week benefit from something creamy on the side.

Baba ganoush to the rescue! It's an eggplant spread, made with sesame seeds or tahini (that is, sesame seed paste). It's usually got lemon juice and a few spices in the mix--but Bruce's version makes some interesting morphs to this Middle Eastern comfort food. His is smoky and quite tasty. Here's how he does it:

Click to read more ...

Caramelized Leek Tabbouleh

Continuing on with our week of summery salads in anticipation of the publication of our seven-step plan to get off processed food, here's a delicious, easy tabbouleh, a great second salad on the plate with that lentil one from the other day.

When I was in graduate school, I hated tabbouleh. Maybe it was because it was in an English department where they issued Birkenstocks on the first day. Maybe it was because of the prairie skirts. Maybe it was the patchouli.

Whatever the reason, I wanted to wolf down hunks of roasted, sweating meat, if only to be outrageous. Have you ever done that? Just be outrageous for the sheer sake of it? It's so satisfying! (Especially if you were raised in a world where people were constantly outraged by depravity without being outrageous themselves!)

These days, I love tabbouleh salads: light, easy make-aheads. And with caramelized leeks, even inspired.

Click to read more ...

Curried Pumpkin Soup

My world looks like this:

Yes, that's a collie next to one of the snow mounds in front of the garage. A seventy-pound collie. Happy as can be. Fur coat and all.

Me? Not so much. Oh, I'm not too bad. Yet. Winter is what it is. It's like your crazy great aunt, the one with the Wurlitzer. It's a cold day and you can't go out to play so she demands you play a concert while she vacuums. (Perhaps I had an odd childhood.) Anyway, winter won't be denied.

But it can be combatted. You can crank out show tunes on the organ when she wants hymns. Or you can make a curried soup. Your choice really. But a winter vegetarian chaser seems just the thing for these chilly days. And without going over the top, it's a pretty fine meal all around.

Click to read more ...

Persimmon Salad

Persimmons are a talisman of my childhood. Not a pleasant memory, mind you--but a stern warning. My grandfather had an American persimmon tree. In Virginia and along the eastern seaboard, indigenous persimmon trees can be scraggly, a bush on steroids. But at his home in the sandy soil of central Oklahoma, the trees become monsters, rough-barked, sometimes over a hundred feet tall.

And bear a wicked fruit that's full of alum, astringent, inedible--until the first hard freeze. Then that orange globe turns mushy brown, even black-specked. The alum morphs, the sweetest sugars bloom, and the whole thing is like a soft, gooey bit of fragrant jelly, held together by a collapsing skin. One bite before the freeze--a frost does not count--and there won't be a drop of moisture left in your mouth for hours. But one bite in your winter woolies and you could swear you've fallen into a world where trees bear candy.

Despite the stern warning, I took the famed bite. I was about eight or so. And I learned the lesson. That I never wanted to eat another persimmon.

Until I found that American persimmons weren't the only game in town. These days, we can find Japanese persimmons, sometimes sold under the name Fuyu (just one of the varietals). They're luscious: candy-like, sweet, sort of firm like a tomato--and in our markets right now. They need no freeze to turn them sticky-sweet, ridiculously fragrant, and irresistible. You might not find them at a run-of-the-mill supermarket but more likely at a high-end one--or better yet, an Asian grocer.

We live in a world without seasons. But not when it comes to Japanese persimmons. They come and go. And they're in right now. Don't hesitate. It takes almost no effort to make them into this fine winter salad. Seasonal eating at its best.

Click to read more ...

Spinach Pie

I'm quite excited about it. Well, not the spinach pie, per se. Although it's pretty tasty. I'm more excited about what it stands in for: one of the recipes from our new book, REAL FOOD HAS CURVES, a step-by-step plan to get off all processed food. (It's available for pre-order on amazon here.) In seven steps, we go through the science of taste, the roots of overeating, their connection to processed food--and offer concrete ways to relearn satiety without a slather of tasteless fat, salt, and sugar. It's a guarantee to lose weight. But more important, to get off processed food for good.

Spinach pie is one of the recipes in the book--and here's a slightly morphed version, certainly in the spirit of the recipe that appears in the manuscript I just handed in.

Click to read more ...

Autumnal Wheat Berry Salad

Autumn is one of the best reasons we live in New England. And one of the best reasons we live at the elevation we do (1350 feet above sea level--nothing compared to places out west but fairly high for this part of the world) is that we get astounding color. Incessant frosts begin in mid-September. This picture was taken in our backyard--and it tells the tale: a glorious colorscape.

Which also means it's time to start hunkering down. Yesterday, I chopped out withered plants in the garden while Bruce took the air conditioners out of the bedroom windows and did a little cleaning in the garage. All part of shutting the door on winter.

But not before we celebrate this season. And here's our way: a wheat berry salad that's still got all the raw goodness of summer produce while offering a little taste of the chill to come: hard roots, deep (rather than bright) flavors.

Click to read more ...

Chilled Arugula Soup With Preserved Lemon

I made this one up on the fly. Well, Bruce and I make up all our recipes. No copying in this house. But I made it up and served it to people without first testing it. So I was nervous. Listen, I love chilled soups. Like the plum version in the post below. But a chilled arugula soup? I thought it would be perfect between the courses, a real palate cleanser. But maybe. . . .

Click to read more ...