YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Curried Lentil, Tomato, and Coconut Soup

If you are not familiar with the celebrity chef, Yotam Ottolenghi, now would be a good time to get acquainted.

Everything Yotam touches turns to gold. I am sure that his kitchen must have more than three dimensions. He mixes ingredients better than I mix metaphors.

If you don’t already have one of his cookbooks [Ottolenghi (2008), Plenty (2010), Jerusalem (2012)] in your home, prepare yourself. YO takes flavor to the next level. Look at this list of ingredients – I’ve used all of them, but never to such glorious effect. And it’s not just flavor. He takes texture to the next level, and color. You could make this and turn an ordinary dinner into a celebration, or share it with a deserving friend, or make a memorable contribution to a workplace potluck. This recipe falls into the category of “contributions from the heart.” You have to try it to believe it. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Liquid Sunshine Soup in November

Please enjoy this recipe, an earlier version of which I posted in November 2011:

This past week I found myself the proud possessor of a lovely hubbard squash. Add to that the butternut squash that came in a CSA box last month, and the bags of carrots that continue to come every week, and which are piling up in the refrigerator, and, as my dad used to say: “It’s time to get choppin’!” Continue reading


Colorful Meals (with a few recipes)

In the past few days we’ve had vegetable-bean soup made with Moro beans from Rancho Gordo, fresh tomatoes on toast made from Simple Kneads’s sourdough bread, tossed green salads with peppers and radishes, pickled red onions, fresh guacamole, orange-grapefruit salad sprinkled with pistachios, green grapes, cherry tomatoes, and fresh blueberries. And there is almost always homemade bread made from my husband’s hands with King Arthur’s whole wheat flour. 

Our meals do not exactly have a theme, but they always have a lot going for them. It’s all about vegetables, and fruits, and color. On a regular basis we make our way through red, green (light, medium, and dark), white, yellow, brown, orange, purple and blue produce. That’s a lot of colors. And, as my mom taught me, the more colors at a meal, the better. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Stuffed Peppers and Split Pea Soup

While our kitchen gets its makeover, the refrigerator, microwave, toaster oven, and water kettle have temporarily taken over a corner of the den, and we are doing our best to use up everything we have. It’s a little bit like camping out, except it’s inside your own house. So I’m trying to be extra-creative.

Our lovely little makeshift pantry has a variety of goodies including a half-empty bag of quinoa, and containers of various dry items such as peanuts, raisins, and cashews; and canned beans, baba ganoush, tomato sauce, and pickles.  Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Greens-and-Grains Winter Salad

I love eating food in season, and many of the ingredients for this recipe have winter written all over them. Leftover nuts and dried fruit from the holidays. Quinoa, a staple in the cabinet. Some fall apples and a few leftover stalks of celery in the fridge. And a sweet memory of the large box of oranges sent every year to my parents by friends who used to spend their winters in Florida. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Citrus Edamame Salad

You are in for a treat this week, but not that kind of treat. This salad is fantastic on its own, in a scooped out tomato, alongside a slice of butternut squash, or on a bed of greens or grains (quinoa, whole wheat pasta, or brown rice, for example). You can spoon some into the bottom of a Ball jar to start building a to-go lunch for work or school, and it makes a wonderfully colorful addition to a large festive serving platter covered in fruit slices, dips, pickled veggies, crackers, chunks of cheese, smoked fish, and the like. And did I mention how great the leftovers taste? It’s packed with flavor, protein, phytonutrients, nourishing fats, and fiber: in other words, it’s the whole package. Enjoy! Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: October Soup

I was looking back through old posts, and discovered this one from 2011, eleven years and almost 1000 posts ago. Though I do not remember who gave me this recipe, I do know that it came from someone I was working with at the time.*

I arrived home from work one particular evening to find my daughter frying onions, and I asked her what’s for dinner. “I don’t know,” she said, “this is as far as I’ve gotten.” Her amusing reply put me in mind of a guy named Jeff whom I had met many years prior. He became famous in our family, and remains there to this day, because of something he used to say: “First I fry the onions and garlic, and then I decide what to make for dinner.” And that is what my daughter was doing. Continue reading


Lovely Legumes

Today, I would like to talk about the wisdom of beans. When I say beans, I am not talking just about kidney beans, black beans, red beans, or lima beans. I am also talking about hummus (made from chick peas), edamame (fresh soybeans), lentils, and peanuts, to name a few more. There are hundreds and hundreds of kinds of beans, and they all have their own shape, color, texture, and flavor. There are dozens of types of lentils, too, each with their own distinctive colors and flavors and uses. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Buddha Bowl

Here’s a really delicious, really simple, really elegant way to be kind to yourself when you’ve had a long day and there are little bits of this and that in the fridge. Seems like there are a lot of days like this lately — which makes it extra important to find easy ways to nourish yourself. The important things to remember here are, first, that you can make this a hundred times and you will never get tired of it because it will never be the same twice, and, second, that steps 5 and 6 are as important as the earlier steps for satisfying both your brain and your appetite. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Rainbow Peanut Noodles

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes, and I thought you might like to know how to make it. It makes a fantastic dinner, and superb leftovers for lunch the next day, or even breakfast!. A forkful twirl from the fridge for a yummy snack is also a reasonable option. If you want, you can get the cabbage, peppers, and carrots ready the night (or weekend) before to cut down on worknight evening prep time. This recipe is perfect with any kind of noodles, including gluten-free ones. The reason it is so filling is because it is full of all kinds of different phytonutrients, which you can tell by how many colors it contains, as well as all the super-nourishing fats in the form of peanut butter, sesame oil, and fresh soybeans. Continue reading