Pear Compote

I hardly ever eat fruit anymore now that I have been eating so many vegetables and whole grains as part of macrobiotics.  When I do eat it, the natural sweetness of the fruit doubles in intensity and delicious satisfaction.  Last weekend, the pears looked so gorgeous and so fallish, so I picked up two Bartletts and let them ripen on my counter for about 4 days.  Finally, tonight I made pear compote inspired by Natasha’s amazing peach mint compote that she served at September’s macrobiotic dinner.

I have always loved the combination of pear and ginger as well as pear and hazelnut, so I combined all of them in this recipe.  When I came home from school today, I mixed this together and let it sit while I threw two loads of laundry into the machines in the basement and went for my daily walk to enjoy the afternoon.  I love recipes that you can leave alone for a while, and, when you come back, they have work their magic with the help of time.

GINGER PEAR COMPOTE

INGREDIENTS

16 oz. apple juice (2 cups)

1/3 cup brown rice syrup

pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla (if you have it on hand, if not, it’s not completely necessary)

1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger

1/2 cup raisins

2 Bartlett pears, ripe and cut into slices

1/2 cup hazelnuts, chopped roughly

Mix the apple juice, brown rice syrup, salt, and vanilla in a large bowl.  Add the ginger, raisins, and pears.  Stir lightly to coat the pears in liquid and to disperse the ginger and raisins.  Place a plate on top of the pears and liquids.  Place something heavy (I always use my molcajete — my curious cats don’t stand a chance against that hunk of lava rock) on top of the plate.  This is the same technique that you use to make a pressed salad.  Let sit for at least an hour or longer.  When you are ready to serve, spoon out some pears with liquid into a bowl and sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts.

Eat and enjoy!

Cornbread

When I bought cornmeal for the pizza crust that I made last week, I discovered that sweet ol’ Bob had included a recipe for Gluten-free Cornbread on the back of the “Gluten-Free Cornmeal” bag.  On a side note, I’m confused as to what he’s putting in the non-gluten-free cornmeal besides, well, corn?  Maybe I need to take a closer look at the bags the next time I’m in the market.

Anyway, not to sound like a broken record, but it’s cold and rainy in Chicago, and I spent all morning cheering runners on at the Race for Congo Women on the lakefront which was fantastic and a lot of fun, but, afterwards, I was cold… and I was curious to try out some baking.

Get yourself a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Cornmeal and follow the instructions on the back.  I’ll actually print the ingredients here with my substitutions included, because he uses a lot of non-vegan ingredients.  I ate it plain straight out of the oven, but I think this would be delicious next to a serving of aduki beans and squash and some steamed or sauteed collard greens or kale.  It would also be good with carrot butter or apple butter smeared on top for breakfast.  How do you like your cornbread?  Leave me a note and let me know.  :)

CORNBREAD – GLUTEN-FREE, SUGAR-FREE, DAIRY-FREE

DRY INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup tapioca flour *

1/2 cup potato starch (I used brown rice flour instead)

1/4 sorghum flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup sugar (I used about 1/4 cup brown rice syrup)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. xanthan gum

1 tsp. sea salt

LIQUID INGREDIENTS

2 large eggs (use 2 Tbsp. flaxseed meal mixed with 6 Tbsp. water)

1 cup milk (I used rice & soy milk blend from Edenblend)

1/3 cup canola oil (I used corn oil, because, duh, it’s CORNbread, and I can’t stand canola oil)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  MIx all of the dry ingredients together.  Add the liquid ingredients.  Mix.  Spread into a greased pan.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Eat and enjoy!

* Note: Save yourself some money and buy this in a Caribbean, South American, or African market.  It’s also known as yuca flour or cassava flour.

Pizza

This is really not macrobiotic, but, on a rainy and cold fall day after a stressful week, pizza is comfort.  Sometimes I just miss bread, the chewiness, the pulling apart of it with your teeth, the full mouth feel.  My friend, Jessica, turned me on to the fact that Whole Foods makes their own boxed gluten-free pizza mix, and, miracle of miracles, it has NO SUGAR in it!!!!  Yay!  They use honey instead, so, blurring the line on whether a vegan eats honey or not, I am a big fan of this pizza crust.  Okay, honestly, I wish they had used brown rice flour instead of white rice flour, but I’ll save my pickiness for later.

Just follow the instructions on the box.  It’s very simple.  The trick, though, is what to do about the eggs.  No problem.  For each egg that the recipe calls for, mix 1 Tbsp. flaxseed meal with 3 Tbsp. water.  Voila.  Sally, my “twin”, introduced me to the use of flaxseed meal as a binder last January with the best brownie recipe EVER… but you’ll have to pester her for that one.  I’m under sworn secret recipe guardianship.  :)  Not only do you get a good binder, but the flaxseed adds a nutritional bonus to your comforting baked treat.  Over Christmas break, I want to try my hand at creating some cookie recipes using this trick.

The other substitution I did was to use brown rice syrup in place of the sugar it called for.  Also, after I mixed all of the ingredients together, I added about 1/3 cup of cornmeal to hold the dough together and to give it some extra flavor and crustiness.  Sherrie suggested this, and it made a terrific difference in the flavor.  It’s not necessary, but it adds a little special something.

This pizza dough turned out really well.  The first time I made it was at Sherrie’s house, and we used a deep pan that I think people use for cooking chickens?  Or maybe lasagna?  I’m not sure what it’s called, but it had high sides.  I recommend using this kind of baking pan if you have it, because the pizza crust rose and ended up chewy and fluffy like focaccia.  When I made it a second time at home (see pic above), I used a baking pan, and it was more like a thin crust pizza.  Still good but the first version was absolutely sumptuous.

Cheese is really unnecessary.  In the pic above, I smeared a homemade pesto sauce over the unbaked crust first.  I added garlic to this pesto version, because I was feeling a bit under the weather.  Then, I sauteed mushrooms and onion slices in olive oil, and spread these out over the pesto sauce before baking in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.

If you want cheese on your pizza, I recommend this cashew cheese.  You are supposed to make it two days ahead of when you want to use it, but I don’t believe that’s entirely necessary, since you’re cooking it.  This cheese is smooth and light and tastes delicious when cooked on the pizza.

Be creative, have fun, and eat well.  By the way, I think pizza is an excellent party food and good for people who are not used to the more unusual ways of gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free eaters.  It’s familiar.

Rutabaga and Yam

I am infatuated with rutabagas.  Greatly ignored in American cooking, they are beautiful and delicious!  Just look at that gorgeous purple blending into yellow.

For some reason, I always thought rutabagas were enormous, unwieldy roots.  I have this vague memory of my mother telling a story when I was a child of my father struggling to cut a rutabaga for  Thanksgiving.  ???  Maybe the rutabagas in Georgia are gargantuan?  Maybe my memory is foggy.

At any rate, rutabagas are not unwieldy at all.  I am trying to expand my diet beyond my staples of kale, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, parsnips, squash, and onion.  Every time I go to the market, I try to find something that I have no idea what to do with.  I let it sit in my refrigerator for days while we get acquainted with each other.  Then, eventually, I figure out what to do with it.  Yes, I’m that annoying person in line at the checkout with all of the weird produce that the cashier has to ask, “Is this a turnip?”  No, it’s a rutabaga.  Smile.  :)  As if I had any clue before that day.

I looked up some information on rutabagas, and what a find!  According to Wikipedia, the word “rutabaga” comes from the Swedish word “rotabagge” which means “root ram”.  I’m not really sure what a root ram is, but, that explains why rutabaga has been more commonly known as “Swedish turnip”.  Before pumpkins were available in the UK, they were used as jack o’lanterns and were (I LOVE this!) an ancient symbol of  a damned soul.  Buah-ha-ha-ha!  I always thought that damned souls would either look a lot worse, like say a horseradish root or much more devastatingly beautiful, like an eggplant.

Rutabagas apparently resulted from a cabbage mixing with a turnip.  According to “Vegetarians in Paradise” (really?), 3 1/2 ounces of rutabaga has:  561 IU vitamin A (beta-carotene), 48 mg calcium, 53 mg iron, 23 mg magnesium, and 326 mg potassium among many other fantastic minerals and vitamins.  Not bad at all.  Especially for a damned soul.

The recipe below is adapted from Annemarie Colbin’s book The Natural Gourmet.  Be bold.  Eat a rutabaga…. and enjoy!

Rutabaga-Yam Mash

RUTABAGA-YAM MASH

INGREDIENTS

1 rutabaga

1 yam

1/4 tsp sea salt

1-2 Tbsp oil (I used sesame oil, Colbin recommends butter)

Cut the rutabaga and yam into chunks (don’t bother peeling them).  Put in a pot, and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and cook until soft (about 30-40 minutes).  Drain the water.  Mash or puree them (I just mashed) with the oil and salt.  Serve warm.  Eat and enjoy!

* Note:  I felt like the yam overpowered the rutabaga.  Next time, I would use 2 rutabagas for every 1 yam.  I think I would also throw a parsnip in to see how they all interact.  Some spices you could add for more flavor would be nutmeg, sage, or rosemary.  By themselves, though, the rutabaga has a slight spicy and sweet undertone.  It’s definitely not bland.

** Another note:  This is a great dish for Thanksgiving to replace the boring and very yin regular ol’ mashed potatoes.

Kinpira Soup

The edges of the leaves are starting to turn golden and orange, and some of the elm trees have already released their feathery yellow leaves to the whim of the wind.  Alliteration, anyone?  :)

Yesterday was a gray day in Chicago but still rather warm beneath a cool breeze.  A perfect day to make soup.  I learned how to make Kinpira Soup from Natasha Valodin who runs a macrobiotic cooking center in Skokie.  She’s an amazing woman who truly glows from the inside-out.  This is her recipe.  According to her recipe, this soup is good for vitality, strengthening blood and calming emotions (I’m hoping for a lot of the last part).

KINPIRA SOUP

INGREDIENTS

1 carrot cut in matchsticks

1 burdock cut in matchsticks

1/2 cup winter squash cut into chunks (leave the skin on — I used butternut)

1 onion diced (I used leek instead, because it’s still warm outside, and I had one)

1/2 cup cabbage, sliced

1-2 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 strip of wakame

1 tsp. miso

tamari or shoyu to taste

optional for garnish: ginger, scallions

1. Heat the oil in a pan.  Add the burdock and carrots and saute.  I also added daikon, because it was getting soft in my refrigerator.  Saute for a few minutes, then cover with water and bring to a boil.  Cover with a lid and simmer on low for 30 minutes.

2.  Add the squash, cabbage, and onion (or leek) and continue to cook until the veggies are soft, about 20 minutes.  Add more water so that the veggies are covered.

3.  Add about 1 cup more water and the wakame.

4.  Return to a boil and add the miso and tamari.  Cook on low for 3 minutes.

5.  Serve garnished with ginger and scallions if you wish.

Eat and enjoy!

Scrumptious Squash Pie

Apple Pie

I have always been a cookie girl and have never been too intrigued by pies.  I always felt like there was too much mush and not enough pie crust.  My views on the matter have done a 180 since starting macrobiotics, however.  I’ve made two squash pies in the past two weeks and finally remembered to take a picture on the second round.  Pies have so many benefits.  They satisfy a sweet tooth.  They are very adaptable and flexible to many types of experimentation.  They look beautiful and therefore are excellent potluck and picnic participants.  The first squash pie went to the amazing performance of Redmoon theater in the park by Lake Michigan.  The second squash pie stayed at home and was devoured by me.  The apple pie was shared with my two dear and engaged friends, Jess and CP, as the cherry on top to an incredible gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free homemade teriyaki pizza made by Jess.

I’ve been playing around with the pie crust, and I think I’ve hit upon the right combination.  I’ve been using the pie crust to make cookies as a snack to take to work, but I need to play with the recipe more before I publish it.

The pie crust is based on the recipe for a wheatfree crust in Kristina Turner’s “The Self-Healing Cookbook”.  However, I thought the oats called for in the original recipe made the crust too crumbly (plus, I’m allergic to oats and ended up quite sick after the first squash pie version).  The squash pie is also from her book.  The apple pie is based on the recipe from Annemarie Colbin’s book “The Book of Whole Meals.”

PIE CRUST

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free baking mix

1 cup brown rice flour

1/4 tsp. sea salt

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

3/4 cups water

Mix all of the ingredients together until a dough forms.  Press the dough into a pie pan.  Cook at 350 F for 20 minutes.

SQUASH PIE

INGREDIENTS

Pie crust (see above)

1 butternut squash, cut into chunks

1/2 cup water

2 Tbsp. kuzu

1/4 tsp. sea salt

2-4 T. brown rice syrup (not entirely necessary, can leave out)

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. allspice (optional)

pinch of nutmeg and cloves

Cut the squash in quarters and remove the seeds.  Boil in water until soft.  Peel.  Puree the squash in a blender.  Dissolve the kuzu in water.  Mix the pureed squash into the kuzu, add rice syrup and spices.  Fill the pie crust and bake 25 minutes at 350 F.  Cool before serving.  (This pie gets firmer the cooler it is.  It’s great the next day, so you can make it ahead and keep it in the refrigerator.)

APPLE PIE

INGREDIENTS

Pie crust (see above)

6 apples (I used Gala, because those are my favorite — use what you want — be creative)

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. cinnamon (or to taste)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 Tbsp. kuzu dissolved in 1/2 cup water

1 cup almonds, toasted and chopped (or ground)

Chop the apples up (don’t peel them), remove the cores, and put them in a pot.  Cover the apples with just enough water.  Add the lemon juice, cinnamon, and vanilla.  (You can also add raisins at this point, if you want).  Boil until the apples are soft and able to be mashed.  Mash them a little.  Don’t worry too much about excessive liquid since the kuzu will thicken it up.  Add the kuzu, and stir in well.  Pour the apples into the pie crust (don’t cook the pie again).

I chopped up raw almonds and sprinkled them on top.  However, the next time I make this pie, I think I’ll toast the almonds first and then grind them a bit in the blender before sprinkling them over the pie.  You can use a different nut, if you want, or no nut at all, but the nuts really give it a good texture and keep it from being just applesauce in a pie crust.

We ate this pie with Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss vanilla ice cream……. it was divine!!!

So, there you have it.  Two very easy fall pies.  Both are dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, and stress-free.  They look beautiful, and no one will ever know what’s “missing”.  I plan on making these for Thanksgiving this year.

* I think you could use the same recipe for the apple pie but substitute pears for the apples and hazelnuts for the almonds.  Voila.  Pear and hazelnut pie.  If you want to get really fancy, you could add a little bit of frangelico to the pears while they’re cooking.  So many options!  Let me know which ones you come up with.  Enjoy and eat well!

"Pad Leftovers"

Two weeks of the school year down.  I feel like we’ve been in session for months already.  I’ve been struggling, as always, to maintain balance in my life — to take my daily walks and do my daily meditations even when I’m wiped out and stressed about school.  Those walks make me sane.  I’m also hoping to feel more grounded and better prepared in the weeks to come so that I can devote more focus and energy to eating well and getting enough rest.  I find myself getting into ruts, eating the same thing day after day, because it’s easier to making one big batch for the week than to be cooking from scratch every night.  I tend to cook fresh vegetables daily at 6 am.

After a week of millet and leeks (which were delicious, by the way, but slightly boring), I finally made myself a good, flavorful breakfast that broke my rut of grain + steamed vegetables.  I call it “Pad Leftovers”.  :)  It’s so easy, it’s laughable.  Here’s the recipe…. although “recipe” sounds almost presumptuous for such a simple, throw-it-together in one pan dish.  It’s a great dish to make for dinner and eat the next day for lunch since it’s good both hot and cold.  You could also throw in some tofu or tempeh if you wanted extra protein.  Play around with the flavors and let me know what kinds of variations you come up with.  Enjoy!

PAD LEFTOVERS

INGREDIENTS

2 cups rice noodles

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1/3 cup diced onion (or green onions or leeks)

1/3 cup green cabbage diced

1 cup (or more!) leftover vegetables already steamed (kale, bok choy, parsnip, carrot, etc.)

1 Tbsp. tamari or shoyu

1 cup fresh cilantro, cut up roughly

1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

optional – freshly grated ginger

Soak the rice noodles in cold water for half an hour.  (I.e. do this first, then feed your cats, water your plants, get dressed, etc.)  Heat the sesame oil in a pan, add the onion and cabbage.  Cook until the onion is golden.  Add the leftover vegetables.  Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring.  Add the rice noodles, tamari, and ginger.  Cook, stirring, for about 3-5 minutes.  Be careful that the rice noodles don’t stick to the pan (if they do, that’s okay — they’re really tasty when they’re crunchily burnt).  Add the cilantro.  Turn off the heat and toss everything together well.  Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.  Eat and enjoy!

A Not-Very-Typical Colombian Meal

Ay.  I did a terrible job of planning the colors for this meal that I cooked for my partner-in-cooking, Julio.  It’s all yellow and white!  The only green is the parsley that goes on top of the corn soup.  After being in Colombia for a month and helping the women that I stayed with prepare the food there, I wanted to try my own hand in my own kitchen at making Colombian food from scratch.  When I tell people that I love  Colombian food, they are usually surprised as they tend to think of Colombian food as big plates of meat and rice…. very starchy and very carnivorous.  It’s really not like that at all.

One of my favorite parts of Colombia food is the fact that lunch (which is really the big meal of the day) always consists of sopa (soup) and el plato seco (the dry plate which is usually rice with something else, maybe vegetable or lentils or beans or patecones [smashed and fried plaintains]).  On the farm where I stayed in the Cauca region in southern Colombia, they made a lot of sopa de maiz (corn soup).  The recipe below is actually a “Summer Corn Chowder” from Kristina Turner’s “Self-Healing Cookbook”.  As with most macrobiotic recipes, it’s very simple and very easy to make.  The taste of the fresh corn in the soup is creamy and sweet, perfect for an August afternoon.

I also really loved the way that they cooked the rice in Colombia.  They use white rice generally, although brown rice is available in cities.  They added diced onion, vegetable oil, and (a lot of ) salt to the water as it boiled before adding the rice.  The onion adds just the right flavor, and, of course, the salt and oil makes it really moist and scrumptious.  I think I’ll ditch the idea of the oil and a lot of salt but keep the onion trick.

Summer Corn Chowder

Summer Corn Chowder - from Kristina Turner’s “The Self-Healing Cookbook”

5 cups water

kernals cut from 3 ears of corn

1 onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1/4 cup daikon radish, chopped

3 ” strip kombu seaweed

miso, to taste

parsley

Simmer corn cobs and kombu in water for 10 minutes.  Remove cobs.  Add onion, celery, and daikon.  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Add corn kernals and cook 10 minutes more.  Dissolve miso into soup and remove kombu.  Blend half of the soup in the blender to make it creamier.  Serve garnished with parsley.

Making Pan de Bono

I am obsessed with pan de bono which is a cheese bread made with corn flour and yuca flour (otherwise known as tapioca flour or cassava flour).  For someone who usually never eats bread, to be able to go to a bakery and eat these light, fluffy, delicious breads straight from the oven was heaven.  Never mind the fact that I’m allergic to dairy and to sugar (which is in pan de bono)…. for a month, I deviated from my allergen-free diet…. and I definitely paid for it with some very unhappy kidneys.

So, I wanted to explore the process of making pan de bono myself.  In the front bowl is the standard recipe, and in the back bowl is the recipe without the cheese or the sugar.  Unfortunately, the adjusted recipe didn’t turn out so well.  It turns out that the cheese really gives the bread its chewy and light texture.  I still couldn’t get the breads to turn out as fluffy and airy as they do in Colombia.  The next time I’m there, I’m going to have to swindle my way into a panaderia and learn their secrets.

Pan de Bono before and after baking

Here’s the recipe for pan de bono, although I don’t highly recommend this one, since the pan de bono wasn’t as light and fluffy as I would like it to be.

Pan de Bono

1 cup yellow masarepa

1/2 cup tapioca flour (yuca, cassava)

2 cups queso fresco

2 eggs

2 tsp sugar

salt

Mix flours and sugar.  Stir in cheese and eggs.  Add salt.  Knead dough.  Add water if dough seems dry.  Roll dough into balls or shape into bagels.  Place rolls on greased cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 400 F.

I made fried arepas with white corn flour for our feast, but they didn’t turn out well.  Usually, arepas are grilled but on the farm and along the Caribbean coast, arepas are frequently fried.  It’s more efficient, and it means that you don’t have to stand over a grill all morning.  On the coast, they fry the arepa once, slit it open the way you would with a gordita and slip an egg inside.  It’s very filling and really delicious.

Gluten-free girl has an excellent step-by-step post on how to make grilled arepas.  I’ll defer to her: http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2008/04/arepas.html

Last by not least, the patacones…. These are really delicious when eaten in the same mouthful as rice.  They’re very easy to make, although the sophisticated technique of frying is not quite my forte yet.  To make the patacones, buy platanos maduros.  Peel them and cut them into about 1-2 inch pieces.  Fry those pieces.  When they are a nice golden brown, remove the pieces from the oil.  Place each piece of plaintain on a hard surface sandwiched between two pieces of plastic (I used ripped out ziploc bags).  Place the plaintain on its side between the plastic, and then gently smash the plaintain until it is a flat circle.  You can use a rock or a pot or whatever works.  Place the smashed plaintain back into the oil and fry again.  It helps when you remove the plaintains from the oil to place the finished patacon on paper towel to absorb some of the excess oil, but it’s not totally necessary.  Add salt at the end when the patacones have come out of their second frying.  Eat and enjoy!  Buen provecho!

It goes without saying that the above foods do not constitute a macrobiotic meal by any means.  However, if you had the corn chowder with brown rice, arepas, lentils, and vegetables, I think you would have a perfectly fine macrobiotic meal.

As part of our unit on the book Seedfolks in my ESL class this spring, we planted seeds.  I wisely planted the leftover seeds at home, and, after the first weekend, students were asking for new plants.  ”What happened to your first plant?”  ….. “I left it in my locker, and it died.”  Oops.  …. or…. “I dropped it.”  Some of the extra morning glories and the basil were transplanted into a planter on my back porch, and I feared that a strong thunderstorm in June had wiped them out completely.  However, I was wrong.  Sometimes what plants need most is just sun and time to grow.

I went to Colombia for a month and asked my sweet next-door neighbor to just throw some water on them whenever she thought about it.  I was so happy to return a month later and find that the basil had taken off, and the morning glories were winding their way through the basil and around the railing.  A few days after my return, the first morning glory flower blossomed….. this is it in the photograph.  It was bluer than the sky and so smooth, so open and carefree and yet delicate.  Beautiful.  I discovered that morning glories bloom in the morning and then close up at night, turning a shade of indigo as they prepare to close their petals.  They never reopen.  It’s a short life.  Now, every morning, I open my backdoor and peer out with great expectation of seeing new morning glories open to the sun.  The joy that these flowers brings me was so unexpected and so lovely.  It has definitely been one of the highlights of my summer.

I have also enjoyed making pesto on a regular basis.  Usually, basil is so expensive in the market, but for $1.25 for a whole packet of seeds, I think I’m making the cheapest pesto in town.  My friend, Veronica, is the queen of pestos.  She was recently diagnosed with allergies to wheat, sugar, many nuts, and dairy, and I’m really impressed by her gusto for experimenting in the kitchen with new, original recipes.  The pestos below were inspired by her.

I used a corn and rice pasta that a friend brought me from Switzerland, but any kind of pasta will do.  The pesto on the left was made by blending basil, kale, a little sea salt, and olive oil together.  Nothing else.  No nuts, no cheese…. no frills.  Just fresh basil flavor.  It’s very light and perfect for the summer.  You have to play with the proportions to get the right texture that you like.

Two Pesto Pastas Ready to Eat

On the right, I added tofu to the above pesto recipe to make a creamy pesto sauce, and it turned out well…. well, maybe there was too much sauce and too little pasta.  The tofu was not necessary, but it’s a nice option for variety.  I preferred the taste of the simpler pesto on the left.  I made this again yesterday and added more kale, thereby thickening the pesto without having to add a ton of oil AND getting a huge nutrition boost as well.  I imagine this would be a great way to sneak kale into unsuspecting children’s diets.

…in the kitchen…..lest anyone out there have a sadistically carnivorous sense of humor.

 

Naila in the Cupboard

As I was cooking up a storm today — making cat food, cooking chickpeas, making lunch — I apparently left the cupboard open and, while I was turned around, Naila jumped onto the top shelf of my cupboard.  So, you see, these are the essentials of a macrobiotic cupboard:  grains, seeds and vinegars, cat.  :)  

I probably shouldn’t post pictures like this…. no one will want to eat at my house again….

I’m really excited, because I cooked a very simple macrobiotic meal for a good friend last night, and I’m cooking both lunch and dinner for two separate friends tomorrow.  Last night, I simply made quinoa and steamed broccoli and baby bok choy (with lemon juice on the veggies).  To my surprise, my friend had never had quinoa, and now I think there’s a new convert.  When I cook, even just for myself, I try to infuse every action of cooking with love.  Food is nourishing, and eating/feeding is one of the most basic and fundamental acts of human bonding and love.  

I used to torture my friends with bizarre raw desserts (Patty, if you’re reading this, I think you know the “cake” I’m talking about).  Now, I’m finding it to be so much fun to plan menus for friends and to cook for friends with macrobiotics.  The ingredients are simple and not exotic, so people are more willing to try them.  Plus, the food is delicious and nourishing.  It’s hard NOT to like a macrobiotic dish, unless you simply have a strong aversion to the actual food itself.  It’s not a cuisine that is drowning in flavor substitutes (i.e. butter, cheese, sugar, etc.), so unless you burn the food, it’s pretty hard to make it anything but tasty.

Here’s what I’m giving one friend to munch on while I prepare dinner.  It’s a simple seed and nut mix that has a ton of flavor but no salt.  It makes for a good snack or a great appetizer for guests.  Toasting the sunflower seeds in umeboshi vinegar (I learned this trick from Chie, my macrobiotic goddess!) makes the entire mix taste zingy and salty with the actual salt.

 

Party Mix

PARTY MIX

Ingredients:

Almonds

Roasted Chickpeas (no salt) — I buy these at a tiny, fantastic Middle Eastern store in Andersonville.  These are optional.

Pumpkin Seeds

Sunflower Seeds

Umeboshi vinegar

Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat.  Toss in the almonds first, and shake the skillet around so that they don’t get burned.  Toast for about 3-5 minutes, then put into a bowl.  Repeat with pumpkin seeds.  Repeat with sunflower seeds, except now add a few splashes of umeboshi vinegar (not too much — a little goes a long way).  You might need to use a wooden spoon to move the seeds around as the moisture will make them stick to the pan a little.  Then, add the sunflower seeds to your mix.  Add the roasted chickpeas, and mix all ingredients together.  Done!

Next up…..  a very simple but flavorful recipe for cooking chickpeas:

 

Chickpeas with Spices

This recipe is from a cookbook called “Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa” by Habeeb Salloum.  It’s an excellent cookbook with a TON of great recipes.  I’m actually giving it to a friend who I know will get more use out of it since she eats dairy and doesn’t follow macrobiotics.  I’m looking forward to cooking more recipes from this book with her (once I give it to her).  It’s funny, because this cookbook has no pictures but the format is very easy to read.  I always find myself seduced by the cookbooks with beautiful photographs, but, in reality, my favorite cookbooks that I use the most are the ones without pictures.  I’m not sure what that says about me or about anything, except that some cookbooks are eye-candy and some are straight-shooters.

Anyway, here’s the recipe:

CHICKPEAS WITH SPICES

Ingredients:

2 cups dried chickpeas

4 Tbsp. olive oil

1/8 tsp. chili powder (I used this instead of the finely chopped hot pepper that the recipe called for)

1 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. cumin

salt and pepper to taste

3 Tbsp. lemon juice

Soak the chickpeas in water overnight.  Drain chickpeas and place in a pot.  Cover with water to about 2 inches over the chickpeas.  Stir in remaining ingredients except lemon juice and bring to a boil.  Cover and cook over medium heat until the chickpeas are tender, adding more water if necessary (for me, this took about 2 hours).   Stir in lemon juice.  Serve in deep dishes with cooking liquid.  

Enjoy and live well!