pesto grilled vegetables with israeli couscous, quinoa and baby chickpeas

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

So William Shakespeare wrote in his timeless play, Hamlet. Admittedly, wit is not my strong point, and perhaps being long-winded is where I go astray. I brainstormed for a long time about a more succinct title for this post, but in the end I was willing to forego cleverness in favor of capturing the soul of this recipe. In the interest of clarity and informativeness, I give you Pesto Grilled Vegetables with Israeli Couscous, Quinoa and Baby Chickpeas. If you're the impatient type, I'll throw you a bone. This recipe is quick enough to make for lunch.

The inspiration came from a package of "Harvest Grains Blend" I picked up at Trader Joe's. It's a mixture of Israeli couscous (which is basically tiny round pasta balls), orzo (rice-shaped pasta also known as risoni), baby garbanzo beans (also known as chana dal) and red quinoa. The brilliant thing about this blend is that all of these "grains" take about the same amount of time to cook. I find that this mix is a little short on the quinoa, so I supplement from my own stash. Quinoa, by the way, is a superfood, with very high protein content and a unique combination of amino acids, such that NASA is considering it for its Controlled Ecological Life Support System [more on the benefits of quinoa]. Just like Tang, if it's good enough for astronauts, it's good enough for me. (All right, in the interest of full disclosure, I've never tasted Tang and I don't blindly follow celebrity endorsements, but hopefully if you haven't already tried quinoa, you'll give it a go. It's delicious and really good for you.)

I grill my veggies on a George Foreman Grill. It sits on my kitchen counter and gets a lot of use in the summertime. If you don't already own one, I highly recommend it; just make sure you get the model with the removable grill plates, because otherwise it's a real pain in the neck to clean. This reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite comedians, the late Mitch Hedberg. "This shirt is dry clean only... which means it's dirty." Infer what you will.

The exact proportion of veggies to grains doesn't really matter here. You can't go wrong; these quantities are provided as a guideline. If you don't usually work with asparagus, here's how to prepare it: Hold the spear at both ends and bend it until it breaks. The natural breaking point is where the tough, woody part ends and the soft, yummy edible part begins. This tip came to me courtesy of my brother-in-law Ed, a former NYC chef. Thanks, Eddie!

One more note: This recipe is vegan except for the Parmesan cheese on top (and maybe the pesto sauce depending on your choice of sauce). I think the cheese is essential to the flavor of the dish, but if you're vegan, I'm sure you already know of a few alternatives. Some high-quality sea salt should do the trick, for example.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend (or your own mixture of Israeli couscous, orzo, baby chickpeas and red quinoa)
- 1/4 cup (additional) red quinoa
- 1 3/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced into rounds
- 1 zucchini, sliced into rounds
- 12 asparagus spears, broken to remove the woody bottom part
- Half a small eggplant, sliced into rounds
- 6 stuffing-sized portobello mushrooms, sliced
- Half a large red onion, sliced into rounds
- 3 tablespoons of pesto sauce (I recommend Basiltops Dairy-free Vegan Pesto, which I get at WholeFoods, but any ready-made pesto sauce will do... or of course you can make your own)
- Freshly grated Parmesan
- Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Put the water, olive oil and grains into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for about 13 minutes.
While the grains are cooking, heat up the grill, slice up your veggies and toss them on. I brush them with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt once they're on there. Keep an eye on them, as different veggies take different amounts of time to cook. Once they're grilled, chop them up into smaller pieces. By now, the grains will be done (I recommend tasting them to be sure - all the water should have evaporated), so add your chopped grilled veggies right to the cooking pot, and then your pesto sauce. Stir to combine. Spoon the mixture out into bowls and top with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Katherine's Note:
I think this little recipe is deserving of its long magnific title; it is so awesomely easy and delicious. I love TJ's for offering such a creative and appealing mix with this blend. I looked around online to see if anything else is written about it, and someone suggested incorporating it into a soup, which I think is a good idea also.

It is fun to read that NASA article about the potential use of quinoa on the long space mission. It is actually an easy-to-read and informative summary about the grain. I am a big fan of having quinoa as a breakfast cereal, and I had read somewhere that it is important to rinse it in cold water before using, but didn't remember why. In the NASA article, it's explained that the grain has a coating of saponin glycosides, a bitter chemical that the plant naturally uses to deter insects. These saponins can presumably interfere with digestion, and may taste bitter anyway, so be sure to rinse.

And I am happy too that you brought up the long term space mission because it gives me a chance to plug one of the best short stories I have read in recent years: Lostronaut, by Jonathan Lethem. Luckily it is available online. If you are a lover of fiction, check it out.

carrot-oat cake

I have only recently noticed that Whole Foods provides a large selection of recipes on its website. The first one I saw was for this vegan carrot-oat cake, and I immediately wanted to try it. I have already made it a few times, and am quite pleased with this healthful treat.

I love classic carrot cake, and one of my favorite recipes back in the day was the version in the Moosewood Cookbook, which calls for 3 sticks of butter and 4 eggs. Then, of course I wanted homemade cream cheese frosting, which I believe had equal parts butter and cream cheese, and a load of confectioners sugar.

Needless to say, a recipe like that is really best for special occasions, ideally for a large group of people so that there isn't any leftover in the fridge tormenting you. This recipe though, is the perfect alternative dessert, satisfying yet wholesome. I am thinking about how to convert Molly Katzen's inspired but rich banana bread recipe in this same way.

I like the recipe as it is. I love to toast the coconut a bit on medium low heat before baking to enhance the flavor, just until the color changes slightly from white to a creamy light tan. Also, I used golden raisins instead of currants. (I actually made these myself out of green grapes, but that is totally unnecessary. I am just in love with my dehydrator.) Lastly, I used a larger pan than the recommended 9" square, which makes for thinner bars, so I decreased the cooking time 15 minutes. I think mine is around 8"x 12"

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled or quick cooking oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups grated carrots
1 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup dried currants
1/2 cup unsweetened finely shredded coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly oil a (9-inch) square baking pan and set it aside.

Pulse oats and walnuts in a food processor until coarsely ground. Transfer to a large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt and mix well. In a second large bowl, combine carrots, maple syrup, currants, coconut and vanilla. Add carrot mixture to flour mixture and stir until completely incorporated. Transfer to prepared pan and bake until cooked through and deep golden brown, about 1 hour. Set aside to let cool before cutting into squares.

curried cauliflower

One of my favorite cooking blogs is 101cookbooks.com. The author, Heidi Swanson, maintains a fabulous collection of healthy recipes that have been a source of inspiration for me since I first discovered her blog a little over a year ago. She's also a talented photographer and accompanies each blog entry with one or more beautiful photos of her culinary work, artfully presented. Consequently, being a photography enthusiast myself, the inspiration I take from her extends beyond the kitchen. Many of the recipes she has posted have become part of my regular cooking repertoire, but the one I am sharing today is truly among my favorites. She calls the recipe Feisty Green Beans, and she found it in a book called Easy Green Organic by Anna Getty. I prefer to make this dish with cauliflower instead of green beans, which Heidi suggests as a variation. I've tried both and prefer the texture of the cauliflower here. I've also made it vegan, but it's just as easy to add the dairy products right back in if that's your preference (see original).

Ingredients:

1 small head of cauliflower, cut into florets	1/2 t. paprika	2 T. Earth Balance vegan buttery spread
1/2 c. golden raisins	1 t. ground cumin	1/3 c. coconut milk
1 T. olive oil	1 t. ground coriander	1/4 c. sliced almonds
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced	1/2 t. curry powder	1 handful finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced	1/2 t. sea salt	salt and pepper to taste
3 bay leaves	1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1/3 c. white wine	6 oz. extra-firm tofu cut into half-inch cubes

Method:
Remove the block of tofu from the packaging, drain the water, cut it in half (save half for later - you can store it in the fridge in a container with a lid, covered with water), wrap the half you're using with a clean towel, place it under a heavy object, and let it sit for a while to squeeze out the extra water. Wash your fresh cilantro, pick off the leaves and chop them up until you have about a large handful. Slice your garlic and dice your onion. Start a pot of boiling water on the stove and salt it well. While it's heating, chop up your head of cauliflower into small florets and then wash them. If you found a large head, only use 3/4 of it and save the rest for later. Once the water is boiling, toss your cauliflower in, but only let it boil for a minute, just enough for it to lose its raw edge. Drain and plunge the cauliflower into ice water so it stops cooking. Alternatively, you can just rinse it thoroughly with cold water. Set aside.
Heat about a cup of water in a tea kettle or whatever you have handy, until it boils. Place the raisins in a small bowl and cover them with the hot water; let sit for five minutes, drain and then set aside.
Heat your largest skillet over medium heat. I use a saute pan. This is a lot of food and you need to be able to stir it around. When the pan is hot, add the oil, garlic, onion and bay leaves. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the onions and garlic start to brown a little bit. Add the wine and cook until it has mostly evaporated.
While it's cooking, unwrap your halved block of tofu and chop it into small cubes.
Remove the bay leaves from the pot - but be careful not to burn yourself. Stir in the paprika, cumin, coriander, curry powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Stir in the tofu cubes and the raisins and cook until heated through, about a minute or two. Add the cauliflower and then the vegan butter. Stir until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat source and stir in the coconut milk, then most of the almonds and most of the fresh cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Spoon the mixture into bowls and top with the remaining almonds and cilantro.
This will serve about three or four people as a main dish. To stretch it further, you could serve it with rice.

Side note: If you've never heard of Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread, you might be a little put off, like I was at first, by the name. "Buttery Spread" sounds like an empty promise, like some frightening chem lab concoction reminiscent of the way Cheez Whiz isn't really "cheese"... Well, if that's the case, then you should know that Earth Balance is made with natural vegetable oils, is not hydrogenated and has no trans-fats or anything gross like that. I recommend it if you're trying to cut dairy out of your diet, because it's pretty tasty. On the other hand, if you're okay with dairy, then you can just use regular butter (preferably organic, unless you like antibiotics and synthetic hormones in your food), or you could also try ghee, which is "clarified" butter, meaning that the milk solids have been removed.

multigrain rolls

"Hide Bread" from the Big Sur Bakery

This recipe originally came from The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook, a visually stunning cookbook that also tells the story of the restaurant’s proprietors and life on California’s central coast. The recipe came from one of the friends of the Bakery, Terry “Hide” Prince; however, take warning from the name, as you’ll probably need to hide some of these away from the rest of your family if you want to have any left for yourself.

These rolls, densely brimming with grains and seeds, are akin to English muffins, in that you have to toast them before you eat them. That being said, Thomas’ pale in comparison – both literally and figuratively. No yeast is required; this is soda bread at its finest. Choose a dark beer that you would like to drink, but if you have an aversion to using alcohol I believe water is an acceptable substitute, although I have not tried this myself. Try not to be daunted by the long list of ingredients. Almost all of them can be found at any decent supermarket, and those you can't find - particularly the grains and seeds - can be substituted with any others. The actual process is surprisingly simple and when you consider how amazing these taste, you'll see that they are entirely worth the effort.

Katherine and I have made these together a handful of times, and have come to take great liberties with the recipe. For one, we’ve veganized it, substituting coconut milk for the buttermilk recommended in the original. If you are concerned, don’t be. No coconut taste remains. Otherwise, we’ve altered (read: significantly increased) the amount of grains and seeds, such that the rolls just barely hold together after they're baked, but what this version lacks in structural integrity, it more than makes up for in flavor. The following is our own version of these delicious rolls:

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour	1/2 cup sunflower seeds	2 tablespoons dulse flakes
1 cup (sprouted) whole wheat flour	1/2 cup quinoa	1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup flax seed (meal)	1/3 cup millet	1/2 cup dark beer
1/2 cup sesame seeds	1/4 cup amaranth	2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup oat bran	1 teaspoon sea salt

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a frying pan, toast the flax seeds until just warm. Grind them into a meal using a small blender or spice/coffee grinder. (We recommend using the Magic Bullet with the flat blade.) Use the same pan to toast the sesame seeds, oat bran, sunflower seeds, quinoa, millet and amaranth.
Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, stir them together and make a well in the center. Add the beer and coconut milk and mix with a wooden spoon and eventually your hands, until a thick dough forms. Sprinkle the dough with flour and turn out onto a floured surface, then roll into a log about 2 inches in diameter. Of course, you can work with half the dough at a time, if that's more manageable for you. Cut the roll(s) into 1.5-inch slices, then form them into patties with your hands. Place the patties on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes.

A few other notes: Most recently, I used sprouted whole wheat flour for the wheat flour in the recipe. While this almost certainly added nutritional value to the rolls, it did not alter the taste much, as compared to using regular whole wheat flour, so the regular stuff works just fine. The original recipe called for whole flax seeds, but unless they're ground, those tend to pass right through the digestive system without imparting their myriad benefits. Toasting the seeds and grains beforehand is optional but recommended (this was Katherine's idea and it's brilliant), as doing so brings out a toasty, nutty flavor that is just wonderful. Finally, the dulse (seaweed) can be found at a health food store (see photo so you know what you're looking for - you may have to crumble it into pieces by hand in order to measure it in tablespoons, or you can buy it already in flake form).

To serve these, you'll need to toast them first. Then, they taste amazing smeared with ghee (clarified butter) and some raw honey, but you should feel free to experiment with the toppings.

spring kicharee

Kicharee is a special Indian dish that is highly lauded for its therapeutic benefit. It is a very simple preparation of cooked mung beans and rice sauteed with ghee or oil and spices. According to herbalist Michael Tierra, "Kicharee is well balanced and high in easily assimilated protein. It also has blood purifying properties." He says that it "can be eaten everyday as a healing food, for fasting, establishing pH balance, for a mono-food cleansing diet, or for those recovering from a serious illness or surgery."

I have been regularly following the blogs of Michael and Lesley Tierra as part of my herbalist training, and recently, in a post called Diet and Herb Tips for Spring Health, they offered a unique Spring Kicharee recipe that expands the basic recipe to include several vegetables: "Burdock to cleanse the Liver and Blood, carrots to support digestion and fluid metabolism, shiitake mushrooms to strengthen Blood and immunity and support Liver function and kelp and dark leafy greens to detoxify the Liver and provide important minerals."

Here is their recipe:

• 3 cups water or chicken stock
• 1/2 cup rice
• 1/2 cup mung beans
• 1 small strip kelp, washed
• 1/3 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds or powder
• 2 Tblsp. ghee (clarified butter) or sesame oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 1 burdock root, scrubbed and thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced
• 1 cup chopped dark leafy greens (dale, collards, dandelion, mustard)
• Seasonings: salt, lemon juice

"Cook rice, beans and kelp in water or stock for 45 minutes. Brown spices in oil. Stir fry onion, mushrooms, burdock and carrot in spiced oil. Boil greens in an inch of water for five minutes and strain. Combine all ingredients together. More water or stock may be added to make soupier, if wanted. Add any desired seasonings."



Stefanie and I worked on this recipe last week. I started the night before by pre-soaking the mung beans and rice separately since I have read often that this step unlocks the dormant energy in these foods by beginning the germination process, and also makes them more digestible. Then when we got started we cooked these in some homemade vegetable broth with the strip of kelp (kombu). I have been adding kelp to my beans for a while now, since I read Paul Pitchford's comment, in Healing with Whole Foods, that kelp is "excellent added to beans, as the minerals help to balance the protein and oils in them and increase digestibility."

I was curious and intrigued about cooking with the fresh burdock root. Over the years, I had tried the dried burdock in different tea blends, and wondered if the fresh vegetable would have the same strong bitter flavor I remembered. I also didn't know where to find it. I figured Whole Foods was my best bet, but I looked over the whole produce area a couple times and couldn't see it. I asked an employee, and she said that yes, they had it but she would have to get it from the back, and a few minutes later she returned with two long pieces, each over two feet long. I asked her why it wasn't out on the shelves and she said that they didn't think it fit in right with everything else.

I think she was referring to the truth that burdock is a very humble looking vegetable, but when we prepared the kicharee we found that it is impressive in its own earthy way. It has an appealing pungent aroma and taste similar to artichoke. And in the dish its crispy texture contrasted well with the chewy yet equally earthy shiitake mushrooms. In the background the ghee and spices elevated all the ingredients to something satisfying and soulful.

We were happy with our results. In fact, during the research for this post I found another variation by Michael Tierra from a long time ago, and I would love to try that one soon.

Stefanie's note: It might be worth noting that we sprinkled the dish with bit of sea salt, which really brought out the flavor. This is a delicious meal. It is easy to understand why kicharee makes a good single-food diet when detoxifying or healing. My body clearly felt so happy and comfortable digesting this food and it felt very nourishing to eat it. Additionally, on a more intangible level, I believe the mushrooms, burdock root and carrots, which of course grow in the earth, are all very grounding and stabilizing for one's spiritual and emotional well-being.

raw onion bread

For the past couple of weeks, a special schedule of Mysore-style ashtanga yoga classes was offered at our yoga studio Ki-Atsu, and Stefanie and I attended as many as we possibly could. The teacher was the proprietor Ki's son Olivier, who had spent a total of five months over the past year studying yoga intensively in India, with most of that time spent in Mysore. These classes were excellent. Olivier was very attentive and provided wonderful adjustments and helped me with some bits of instruction that I was lacking. And I enjoyed the atmosphere he created in the room with a mantra box and incense.

After class one day last week the three of us met for lunch at the Go Raw Cafe. I don't remember how the subject came up, maybe we mentioned some raw flax crackers that Stefanie and I made recently, but Olivier told us about the onion bread served at his favorite raw restaurant in the world, Euphoria Loves Revolution in Santa Monica. Conveniently, the cookbook: RAWvolution: Gourmet Living Cuisine by Matt Amsden was on the shelf nearby. We pulled it down, and were immediately impressed by the recipes and photography. The Onion Bread looked fabulous, and we made it ourselves a couple of days later. It is an incredibly simple recipe, and tastes amazing. The following is our version of the recipe, which we altered slightly from the original:

Ingredients:
3 lg yellow onions
1 C flax seed, ground in a high speed blender
1 C raw sunflower seeds, ground in a high speed blender
1/3 to 1/2 C nama shoyu, depending on the level of intensity you prefer
1/3 C olive oil

Directions:
Peel and halve the onions.
In a food processor, cut the onions with the slicing disk.
Transfer to a large mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients, and mix until all are thoroughly combined.
Spread 2 cups of mixture evenly on a dehydrator tray with a teflex sheet.
Repeat until all the mixture is used. Dehydrate at 100 for 24 hours.
Flip the crackers onto a tray with mesh only and remove teflex.
Dehydrate another 12 hours. Once dehydrated cut into 9 equal pieces.

We love this bread and plan to start making it regularly. We used 1/2 cup of nama shoyu, but next time we'll try 1/3 cup because it was a little bit too salty.

This was my first time hearing about nama shoyu. I do not care much for regular soy sauce and was surprised by how much I liked the taste of this kind, which is the only raw unpasteurized soy sauce available, meaning that it is replete with the healthy enzymes and the beneficial bacteria found in other properly fermented foods.

Stefanie's note: You can find ground flax seed (also known as flax seed meal) at most supermarkets with a health food section; however, we strongly recommend buying the seeds in bulk and grinding them as you need them. This is because the seeds begin to lose their nutritional value over time once you grind them. Katherine and I use the Magic Bullet blender with the flat blade to grind our seeds, and it works beautifully.
Working the batter onto the teflex sheets takes a little practice to get it spread thinly and evenly, but after you do it once, you'll be a pro.
This recipe reminds me very much of a healthy version of the scallion pancakes you might find in most Chinese restaurants. Everyone who tried this "bread" thought it was delicious, myself included!

vegan macaroons

On a relaxing Sunday, I found some time to prepare a little treat for myself for the week ahead. Because I work at home, I find it helpful to have (somewhat) healthy sweets on hand to grab when I need a snack, to keep me from opting for a less healthy alternative. In this case, the recipe came from a cookbook entitled Raw Food, Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melingailis, which is such a beautiful book it could double as the coffee table variety. The recipes I’ve tried are delicious, if complicated. I received this book as a gift a few years ago when I was preparing to try an all raw vegan diet. As it turned out, that lifestyle (and it is a lifestyle, not just a diet choice) was not for me, but I did add a few of the recipes from the book to my repertoire before I gave up. This macaroon recipe was one of those.

The coconut oil, almond meal and unsweetened shredded coconut contribute a substantial amount of fat, but it’s good, energizing fat. It may be appropriate to point out here, for those of you who don’t know, that fat is not the enemy, and coconut oil has been given a bad rap over the years. As with anything, moderation is key. [More on coconut oil] They are sweetened with maple syrup. Purist raw foodies may object here that maple syrup does not technically qualify as raw, and they would be correct. Maple sap is heated to reduce it to a syrup. That being said, I tend to agree with the authors when they say that you do need to live a little from time to time – especially when it comes to dessert. The only other ingredients are sea salt and vanilla extract. It is a pleasant surprise that such a simple, short list of ingredients could produce such a delicious snack.

Some special equipment is required; you’ll need a dehydrator. I mixed the ingredients manually with a pastry blender, but of course a simple fork will do. Mix thoroughly – the coconut oil is the consistency of Crisco and you want to make sure it gets mixed in well so you don’t have chunks. Then I formed the macaroons with a melon baller. If you want them to be uniform in size you’ll need to press the batter into your melon baller with your fingers before you slip it onto the tray, so you create pretty little mounds that present very well. I covered my dehydrator tray with some plastic wrap. If you have screens for your dehydrator, that would be the preferred, more sophisticated option. (I’m saving up for a higher-end dehydrator, and when I get one, I’ll invest in some tray covers. For now, I’m using plastic wrap.)

1-1/2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
3/4 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1/2 cup maple syrup
2-1/2 T coconut oil
1/2 T vanilla extract
1/4 t. sea salt

The process is simple. Mix all the ingredients together, form the batter into balls and place the balls on the dehydrator trays, then dehydrate until the crust is hard but the inside is soft. It may be helpful to know that this could take a day or two, as is often the case when using a dehydrator, depending on the humidity of your climate and the moisture of your ingredients.

Katherine's Note: I am very lucky that the first time I had these rapturous cookies was in a special location. Stefanie and I were camping in a group up at Kyle Canyon near Mount Charleston last year, and under the canopy of large old Ponderosa Pines, Stefanie brought these out at breakfast and we had them along with some fine tea made from nettles harvested the day before on a hike up the Fletcher Canyon Trail. We also had a great fruit salad that I made for the trip that I believe included fresh cherries, mangoes, plums, nectarines and grapes, mixed with a sauce made of blended mangoes, cherries, and a little lemon juice and honey. Yum!