With the 4th of July almost here, and summertime in full swing, here is a really wonderful veggie burger recipe to share with friends, even meat-eating ones. If you bring these to a potluck (or barbecue or block party), bring extra.

• 1 cup water
• 1 /2 cup dry bulgur wheat
• 1 can (approx 15 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 container (6 oz.) plain yogurt
• 1 /4 tsp. allspice
• 1 /4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 /4 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 /4 c. fresh mint leaves, chopped
• 1 /2 c. shredded cucumber (the small flavorful pickling kind)
• 2 whole-grain hamburger buns
• 4 leaves romaine lettuce
• 1 medium tomato, sliced
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• salt & pepper 

Heat the water and 1 /2 tsp. salt to boiling.  Add bulgur, reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-12 minutes until water is absorbed.

Meanwhile, mash beans with 2 tablespoons of the yogurt until almost smooth.  Then add cooked bulgur, allspice, cinnamon, cumin and half the mint.  With lightly floured hands, form 4 equal-sized patties.

Heat olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add burgers, cook 4 minutes, flip and cook 4 minutes more. Set each burger on a bun half.

Combine cucumber, remaining yogurt and mint, 1 /2 tsp. each salt and pepper. Layer the burgers on the buns with lettuce and tomato, spoon yogurt sauce over top.  Serve open-face.

Summertime!  Put this in your blender and drink it!

• 1 whole orange, peeled
• 1 small-med zucchini
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled
• 1/4 cup raw cashews
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup oats, quinoa flakes, or soaked buckwheat groats
• a handful of ice

Blend all the ingredients in a high-speed blender until creamy. Makes one very generous smoothie, or two smaller ones to share. Thank you to Heather at Gluten-Free Cat for this awesome recipe, the closest thing to a creamsicle that you’ll find anywhere in or near the vicinity of me!

Here’s a pretty amazing recipe from my hero Mark Bittman.  Traditionally, falafel are deep fried, but baking is easier, cleaner, and probably better for you. Falafel is great; once upon a time I lived on it for two years. You can eat it in whole wheat pita with lettuce, tomato, and cucumbers, and drizzled with tahini. You can thin the tahini with a little more lemon juice and/or water, and pour it over falafel and greens to make a yummy salad. Of course, you can also eat falafel cold, one at a time, straight from the refrigerator, for breakfast.

• 1 3 /4 cups dry chickpeas
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 Tbsp. cumin
• 1 /2 – 1 tsp. cayenne
• 1 cup fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped
• 1 – 1 1 /2 tsp. salt
• 1 /2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 /2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 4 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 /2 cup tahini (sesame paste)

Place the chickpeas in a large bowl and cover with water by at least 3 inches.  Soak for 12-24 hours, checking the water level a few times and adding more as needed to keep the chick peas covered. Once the chickpeas are done soaking, preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas, and add them to a food processor along with the with garlic, onion, cumin, cayenne, parsley or cilantro, pepper, baking soda, lemon juice, and one teaspoon of salt. Pulse the mixture until minced, but not pureed. Add water bit by bit, by the tablespoon if necessary, but keep the mixture as dry as possible. This is a good time to stop, taste, and add more cayenne if you’d like.

Grease a large rimmed baking sheet with 2 Tbsp. olive oil. Using the palms of your hands, roll approx. 1 tablespoon of the chickpea mixture into a ball about 1 1 /4 inches in diameter. The recipe should make about 20 balls.

Place the balls on the baking sheet, one by one as you make them, and then flatten them into thick patties with the flat open palm of your hand. Brush the falafel tops with the remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil, and then bake 10-15 minutes per side until golden-brown.

To serve, whisk the tahini with the remaining 1 /2 tsp. salt and 1 /2 cup water until very smooth, and drizzle over falafel.

This recipe makes approx. 8 servings.  Once the chickpeas have soaked, it takes about 45 minutes. Leftovers are great refrigerated or frozen. To reheat, wrap them in foil and bake 15-35 minutes at 350F until hot all the way through, time depending on whether they are cold or frozen.

My dear friend Lila comes for dinner almost every Friday night, and she always brings a couple of loaves of this bread for us to enjoy. You might say that we are spoiled, and you would be right. This is a great recipe, flavorful and satisfying. She’s made it with almonds, and she’s made it with pecans. Both are great, though the crust of the pecan version, a cross between crunchy and chewy, is slightly more satisfying to me.

Dry ingredients:

• 1 1 /2 cups almond or pecan flour*
• 3 /4 cups tapioca starch (substitute arrowroot starch for a paleo version)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

Wet ingredients:

• 7 tbsp almond milk or water
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp honey (substitute maple syrup for a vegan version)
• 4 tbsp ground flax seed

Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the wet ingredients and allow to sit for 5 minutes. In a separate larger bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Then add the wet ingredients to dry. If the dough seems stiff, add more water. Consistency should be more like a thick batter than a stiff dough. Don’t overmix.

Spoon into parchment-paper-lined small loaf pans. Bake 30 minutes. Turn out onto a cooling rack. Wrap up the loaves and share them with friends to enjoy together!  *Lila uses Bob’s Red Mill almond flour, but you could also grind blanched almonds (or other nuts) in a blender or food processor, as long as you’re careful not to overgrind them into almond butter. Pecan meal can be purchased at nuts.com.

Many thanks to Alea at myrealfoodlife.com for this recipe.  It won’t rise all that much since it’s gluten-free, egg-free, and yeast-free. But it’s still worth it. The flavor is beyond delicious and the texture of the crust is unbelievably good!

A kale celebration for kale lovers everywhere (!), this recipe comes (with many thanks) from Angela at vegangela.com. If you don’t happen to have any kale right now, you can still make this salad with any other greens growing in your garden or sitting in your fridge. Radicchio is a good addition, too.

Do I post a lot of recipes for kale? Maybe. But I know hardly anyone who eats enough green, leafy vegetables.

A few nights ago, I unwrapped five large stalks of broccoli from the tin foil in which I had safely wrapped them a full week earlier. If you did not know, tin foil is far and away the best way to store broccoli (and celery). I sliced off the bottom 1 1 /2 inches of the stalks, and then carefully peeled them all the way up into the florets. I sliced the stalk into 1 /2 inch slices, and broke the florets into generous, bite-sized pieces. Then I found this recipe from Lia Huber at Nourish Network. The addition of smoked paprika to this recipe gives broccoli, already a powerhouse vegetable, an extra-terrific “kick.”

When I was a little girl, I used to help my Grandma Rosie make pickles.  She pickled cucumbers, green tomatoes, and even garlic, which sometimes turned an interesting blue color as it soaked in the pickling juice. We loved her homemade pickles, and we still do in the years when I make them in the fall.

Curtido is popular in Latin American cuisine, and is great paired with stuffed tortillas. I never saw my grandmother make anything remotely like this, but I have a sneaking suspicion she would have adored it. It makes a festival of flavors on your tongue, and my Grandma Rosie was all about flavor. Here’s a great recipe for curtido, which is a little bit like sauerkraut but only lightly fermented, and with a whole lot of attitude.

If imagining how good this is going to taste isn’t enough for you, then you may be interested in the fact that fermented foods are especially good for our bellies. It turns out that fermented foods are rich in probiotics, the way nature intended. This recipe is basically a nutritional powerhouse.

• 1 small cabbage, cored and outer leaves removed
• 3 large carrots, peeled
• 1 small-medium onion
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled
• 1-2 handfuls of kale, center ribs removed
• 1 green apple, peeled and cored
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 /2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups raw apple cider
• 1 1/2 cups water (more as needed)

Shred the vegetables, ginger and apple in a food processor, or chop finely with sharp knife. Place in large bowl and mix in the oregano and red pepper.

Spoon the vegetables into 2 quart-size jars and press down hard with your fist or the back of large wooden spoon until they are packed down as tightly as possible. Leave a 1-inch space between the top of the cabbage and top of the jar.

Mix together the salt, vinegar and water, and then pour equal amounts into both jars. Add a little more water if needed so the liquid is rises just slightly higher than the cabbage mixture.

Cover tightly and leave to ferment at room temperature for 3 days. Then enjoy your curtido, and transfer any leftovers to the refrigerator.

Once again, my friend Toby comes through with a delicious soup made with a creative combination of veggies and flavors. This soup is like gazpacho, raw and vegan; the creaminess comes from the cashews.

It’s great at room temperature, or stored in the refrigerator and eaten cold. You could take it to work for lunch, serve it with a green salad for a light supper, present it as the first course for a special dinner, or even turn it into a wonderful veggie dip, dressing, or sauce by using less water.

• 2 red peppers, cored
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1 cup celery, thinly sliced
• 1 cup cashews, raw or toasted
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp miso
• 1 /4 cup lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2+ cups water

Blend together the first nine ingredients, and then add water to desired consistency.  If you feel inspired, you can garnish the soup with corn or chunks of avocado.

Cabbage has a tendency to seem kind of boring, but I think it’s just the name that’s so blah. The truth is that it is a fabulous and nutritious vegetable with strong and complex flavors. You can develop those flavors by braising it in a hot frying pan with a little olive oil, for example, the simplest possible way to bring out its complex sweetness and deliciousness.

 

But you can dress it up, too. Cabbage is wonderful with the strong flavors of toasted nuts and sesame oil, the acid of rice vinegar and lime, and the excitement of cilantro. Here they are, all together, in this recipe:

• 1 small-medium cabbage, shredded finely (remove core and outer leaves)
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and shredded coarsely
• 1 cup cilantro, finely chopped (use parsley if you prefer)
• 1 cup almonds, toasted and chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon tamari (wheat-free soy sauce)
• 1 teaspoon honey (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix together all the liquids in a small bowl. Then mix the shredded cabbage, carrots, salt, and half the almonds in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the cabbage mixture, mix well, and sprinkle the top with the remaining almonds. This is a great salad to take to a potluck, by the way. And it might not seem like it, but it’s great for leftovers.