Here’s a wonderful recipe for you to try! Especially after weekends of the kinds of food extravaganzas that the coming weeks are sure to bring, this salad will be a great choice for helping your digestive system to get back on track. Lentils are a very special food. Not only are they a fantastic source of protein, but they are also rich in fiber. There are only a few categories of foods that can make that claim. Not just that, but they are delicious, especially as prepared in this recipe. Continue reading
Category Archives: Lentils
Real Breakfasts for All You Champions
Last week I wrote about the sorry story of how boxed cereals came to predominate morning choices for breakfast; this week I’m sharing some of my own breakfast choices. The first thing I am going to point out is that my breakfasts do not differ significantly from other meals I eat through the day. That is to say, I don’t keep a separate list of breakfast options from lunch and dinner options. While I would say that I probably eat less spicy stuff at breakfast time, it’s more of a suggestion than a hard-and-fast rule, as you will see.
A major category of breakfasts in my house is the leftovers I find in the refrigerator, with or without a little extra something. So it could be that I heat up a bowl of leftover stir-fried vegetables, and that might be enough by itself, but I might also add some leftover rice if there is any. Or maybe I will fry an egg and slide it on top, or melt a slice of cheese (vegan for me) on top. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Red Lentil Soup for Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins tonight at sundown. High Holiday foods tend toward the sweet and the circular: sweet to represent our wishes for a sweet new year, and circular to symbolize the seasons that run one into the next, round and round, year after year.
So it is traditional to eat many different kinds of fruits, especially apples, prunes, pomegranates, dates and apricots; and sweet vegetables such as beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and leeks (sliced into rounds, of course), as well as black-eyed peas and lentils. And lots of honey, especially for dipping bread and apples. Continue reading
Making Special Meals Even More So (plus a recipe)
The other day my son-in-law and I were talking about my upcoming plans to pass along some of our dishes (the ones we use for meat meals), and instead start using my mother’s beautiful china. Those dishes, which lived happily and visibly in my parents’ house for sixty-plus years, have not been used at all for the past 10 or 15 years, and it seems a waste for us not to be using them now. So it will be out with the new, and in with the old. And also, since we don’t eat meat very much anymore, chicken and turkey not more than once or twice a month, and beef no more than once or twice a year, I had the idea to move the meat dishes out of the kitchen itself, and into a little pantry off the kitchen. That way, they will be nearby when we need them, but the rest of the time we will be able to fill the kitchen cabinets with items we use a lot more often. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Red Lentil Soup for the New Year
This coming Monday evening, as the sun slips below the horizon, we will begin our celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah dishes traditionally tend toward the sweet and the circular: sweet for a sweet new year, and circular to represent the seasons that run one into the next, year after year, around and around. Instead of the usual braid, even challah is twisted into rounds at this time of year. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: French Lentil Salad
If you like lentils as much as I do, this simple recipe is probably looking pretty good to you. I would not have thought of mixing a classic dijon vinaigrette with lentils, but it works oh-so-deliciously. These lentils are exactly the kind of thing I love to find in the refrigerator when I don’t know what I’m looking for. To make this recipe easier (pandemic style), feel free to skip the bay leaf, substitute 1/2 tsp. garlic powder for the garlic, and use some kind of halfway decent Italian dressing instead of the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, and spices. Then if you can get yourself or someone else to peel and slice a carrot and onion, the whole recipe will come together. Good enough. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: A Week of Menus and Recipes
I suppose it was inevitable, but last week I entered quarantine in a small apartment in Jerusalem for up to two weeks. Purely a precaution, no worries. Plus, there’s a balcony. And sunshine and wifi, so I am totally fine. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Butternut Mulligatawny Soup
No matter what anyone says, spring is not around the corner. More like it’s around a blind curve. It’s 19 degrees, and as cold as winter gets. I can’t even contemplate eating cold food. This soup, with a blend of warm and aromatic spices, should work pretty nicely to warm you up from the inside out.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Simple Lovely Lentil Soup
Partly because we were in the middle of a snowstorm, and partly because we were having lots of company for dinner last Friday evening, I decided that I wanted to come home from work to a lovely pot of soup to get things started.
But, as usual, I didn’t have a lot of time to get everything organized Friday morning, so I decided to see how simple I could make it and still end up with something worth sharing (and eating!). Basically the only work was chopping the potatoes and onion, which you could even get ready the night before, theoretically, if you wanted to get ready even faster. Here’s what I did: Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: My Recipe for Baked Beans
This recipe is 100% my own! It’s not super sweet like canned beans, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t sweet at all. You will find that the combination of molasses plus onion plus slow cooking gives these beans a complex mix of spice and sweet that’s flavorful and satisfying to the extreme. It’s guaranteed to warm your bones, whether you’re indoors or out. Continue reading