We’re starting a new feature on the blog!  In response to all the many requests for real food recipes, Your Health is on Your Plate is adding a recipe corner entitled “Your Healthy Plate.”  After this week’s debut, “Your Healthy Plate” will add a new recipe toward the end of each week.  That way, you’ll have time to gather your ingredients and get ready for some weekend cooking!

“Your Healthy Plate”  is exactly that.  YOURS.  Send us recipes that you love, and we’ll post them along with your comments.  Tell us what what worked, and — more importantly — what didn’t.  Send your own made-up recipe, a recipe you inherited, or (like Ellen below) something you enjoy making from a well-loved cookbook.

What challenges are you finding?  Is there a chance that you are still using Crisco or non-dairy (pareve) margarine?  Need some alternatives?  Can’t get your little one to eat zucchini?  Share your challenges, and let’s find out what other people in this informed, committed, and hungry community have tried when faced with similar situations.   

We’ll kick off “Your Healthy Plate” with one of Ellen’s favorite recipes adapted from the Moosewood Restaurant Low-fat Favorites Cookbook.  Not that I’m a fan of removing nutritious fat from cooking, but that’s what they named the cookbook.  It’s on page 169, if you’re interested.  

1 large onion, diced

1 red pepper, chopped

1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas

10 oz. frozen (or 1 large bunch fresh) spinach

2 cups plain yogurt

juice from 1 lemon

garlic

mint

cumin

coriander

salt

Saute the onion in olive oil on medium heat until soft and clear.  Add a few shakes each of cumin and coriander.  Add one chopped red pepper.  Add 1 and 1/2 cups of cooked chickpeas.  That’s one can, if you’re using canned chick peas (also called garbanzo beans or ceci).  Add approximately 1/4 cup of the chickpea water (or tap water), plus more if necessary to keep the mixture moist.  Cook until the red pepper softens.  Add the chopped spinach, and when it wilts, sprinkle it right away with the lemon juice and salt.  

Add minced garlic plus mint to 2 cups of plain yogurt to make a tangy, spicy sauce.  My friend Ellen, who sent this recipe, said she didn’t have any mint on hand, so “I raided a teabag.”  Yeh, that definitely sounds like her.

The recipe recommended serving the chickpeas and spinach over orzo, but Ellen chose bulgur wheat.  She also suggested brown rice and pita as other possibilities.  Another alternative might be to steam or stir-fry some more greens separately, and then to serve the chickpea mixture on a bed of wilted greens.

Bon appetit!  …and thank you, Ellen!