I met my husband-to-be on a snowy, romantic February 18th many, many years ago. So when I heard that Doug Katz was making a “meatless monday vegan dinner” this past Monday, February 18th, husband cleared his schedule and I made us a reservation right away!

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Now you may or may not know that I’m not a vegan. I’m not even a vegetarian. But I LOVE real food, and that’s why I wanted to spend an evening at fire food & drink.  

Once we had all been seated and the restaurant was full, Doug came out from the kitchen and told us a story about how times have changed: Maybe 8 years ago he decided to make a vegetarian dinner, but 3 weeks later he had just 18 reservations. It took a long time to get up the nerve to try something like that again, but this time the dinner — no longer vegetarian, but now vegan — sold out in only a few days! And we were ready to eat!

It was a great celebration. Drinks were passed first; I chose a champagne-gin concoction with a sugar cube and a thick slice of orange peel. Plates of fritters filled with mung beans, scallions and parsnips were placed before each diner, and we spooned over them the tamarind, coriander, and mint chutneys already set out on the tables and whose fragrances I appreciated the moment I stepped into the restaurant.

A salad of roasted chioga beets (these may have been the best beets I’ve ever eaten), leeks, pomegranate seeds, walnuts, and baby greens, all tossed with a spicy walnut vinaigrette, was my favorite of the evening.

Chickpeas, roasted tomatoes, dry cured olives and almond couscous came in warm bowls and were a perfect choice for a very cold, windy, snow-blowsy February night.  

The fourth course was a sweet potato-black bean cake decorated with a smoked chili adobo sauce and, alongside, a watercress salad dressed with cilantro and lime vinaigrette. Sweet, sour, spicy and earthy, all at the same time. By now I was waaaaay full.  

Dessert was called “dark rum baba, cherry compote, almond nougatine granite, candied orange.” I didn’t see any left over anywhere.

So…thank you to the entire staff at fire for making the magic happen once again. And happy anniversary to my very wonderful husband.

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I make applesauce every year in the fall, but I’ve never made it this way ’til now.  We have a lot of apples on the counter, and I love the idea of turning apples into applesauce without having to cook down the apples.  

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4 apples (peeled, cored, and chopped)
2-4 T fresh lemon juice, depending on the type of apples
1 T maple syrup
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg

Blend together the apples and lemon juice in a blender until the mixture becomes chunky but not too smooth. Add a teaspoon or two of water if necessary to get things moving.

Empty the apple mixture into a bowl, and then stir in the maple syrup and spices. This tastes even better the next morning.  Serve it in a wine glass for a fancy dessert, or spoon it on pancakes, or stir it into yogurt.  Also, you can take some to work for an afternoon snack.

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I really don’t like wasting food.  I try to use everything, and if I can’t use it, then I offer it to the chickens.  Or sometimes the dog.  She loves grapes and kale.  And apples.

The magic of this recipe is in its simplicity.  The peppers stand out on their own, with almost nothing, not even salt and pepper, to detract from their brightness.  The contrast between the sweet peppers and sour vinegar makes a magically wonderful and stimulating flavor.

If you’ve never visited “Your Health is on Your Plate” before, visit Lets Start at the Very Beginning to get a jumpstart protecting the health and well-being of the ones you love!! Then check out “A Milestone Celebration — Your Favorite Posts” and “The Most Popular Blog Posts of All” for more great ideas and recipes! Wondering why I capitalize the “f” in Food? See Food with a Capital F.

2-3 T olive oil
5-8 red peppers (rinsed, seeded, and sliced into strips)
1/4 cup vinegar (white or cider)

Eat this salad hot, cold, straight, or spooned over fish, or chicken, or a bed of lettuce.  I’ve taken some to work every day this week.  And it was very good.

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Thank goodness for quinoa, for pistachios, for Bon Appetit (January 2013), for Mark Bittman at the New York Times, and for thebittenword.com.

If you’ve never visited “Your Health is on Your Plate” before, visit Lets Start at the Very Beginning to get a jumpstart protecting the health and well-being of the ones you love!! Then check out “A Milestone Celebration — Your Favorite Posts” and “The Most Popular Blog Posts of All” for more great ideas and recipes! Wondering why I capitalize the “f” in Food? See Food with a Capital F.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, finely chopped

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup quinoa, red if available, rinsed well in a sieve

1 1/2 cups chicken broth or water

1/4 cup shelled raw pistachios (unsalted), chopped

3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallot, season with salt and pepper, and cook until soft, about 5 min, stirring occasionally, until soft. Add quinoa and cook, stirring frequently, approx 5 min more, until quinoa starts to toast and smell kinda nutty. Add broth and bring to a boil.

Lower the heat, cover the pot, and simmer gently until quinoa is tender, 25-30 min (just 15 for white quinoa). Remove from heat, fluff with a fork, cover and leave for 5 min.

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We’ve been eating a lot of baby spinach the past few weeks.  Here’s something special to make with it.

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1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp onion, chopped

4 cups fresh spinach

1 cup vegetable broth

1/2 cup cooked white beans (navy, great northern)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

a pinch of nutmeg

Fry the onion in olive oil in a saucepan until soft and clear.  Add spinach and stir gently for 1-2 minutes until bright green and wilting.  Add these and all remaining ingredients to a high speed blender and spin until smooth.  Return to the saucepan, cover, and warm for a few minutes on medium heat.   

Serve with a mint leaf, or Parmesan cheese, or just a spoon.

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Go get a copy of Kris Carr’s “Crazy, Sexy Kitchen” and learn about some amazing new ways to combine flavors and celebrate fruits and vegetables!  This recipe consists of two parts, the salad and the dressing, each prepared separately as follows:

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The Salad:

1 bunch kale, rinsed

1 1/2 large carrots, washed

3/4 cup hemp seeds

1/4 cup scallions, sliced thinly

1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced and packed tightly

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, minced and packed tightly

1/4 cup fresh mint, minced and packed tightly

1/4 cup raisins

The Dressing:

1/4 cup almond butter

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 cup pitted dates

1/2 cup water

1 garlic clove

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cardamom powder

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

#1 Run the washed kale (including the spine) through a food processor with the slicing disk.  Then run the carrots through with the shredder blade to process the carrots.  Mix the kale, carrots and all other salad ingredients in a large bowl.  

#2 Blend all the ingredients for the dressing until they are smooth.  Then add 3/4 cup of the dressing to the salad mixture, and massage (or mix) in the dressing until everything is exceedingly well coated.

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Here’s something perfect for a cold snowy day.  Thank you to Angela Liddon at Oh She Glows for this simple and glorious winter soup recipe.

If you’ve never visited “Your Health is on Your Plate” before, visit Lets Start at the Very Beginning to get a jumpstart protecting the health and well-being of the ones you love!! Then check out “A Milestone Celebration — Your Favorite Posts” and “The Most Popular Blog Posts of All” for more great ideas and recipes! Wondering why I capitalize the “f” in Food? See Food with a Capital F.

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large white onion (Vidalia), diced
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 1 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp. smoked sweet paprika
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup red lentils, rinsed and drained
• 1 tsp. each sea salt and pepper
• 2 large handfuls kale or spinach, torn in pieces

1. Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil for about 5-6 minutes in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the celery and sauté 3 minutes more.

2. Stir in all the spices (cumin, chili, coriander, paprika, cayenne). 

3. Stir in the tomatoes, broth, and lentils. Boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for 20-25 minutes until lentils are tender and splitting.

4. Stir in kale or spinach, and serve.

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On New Year’s Eve we sat down with old friends to a dinner of avocado-mango salad with shallot vinaigrette, Persian rice (with lentils, raisins and dates), an exotic roasted cauliflower dish (from the food network), and grilled salmon, marinated in mango juice and served with a guava-and-lime barbecue sauce. Chocolate cake with Kahlua for dessert. It was a very special meal, as much fun to make as it was to eat. Here is the recipe for the cauliflower, which I think may have been my favorite of the bunch. I’m planning to make and eat! this cauliflower recipe again as soon as possible.

If you’ve never visited “Your Health is on Your Plate” before, visit Lets Start at the Very Beginning to get a jumpstart protecting the health and well-being of the ones you love!! Then check out “A Milestone Celebration — Your Favorite Posts” and “The Most Popular Blog Posts of All” for more great ideas and recipes! Wondering why I capitalize the “f” in Food? See Food with a Capital F.

1 medium cauliflower, cut or torn into florets (about 8 cups)
Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 medium clove garlic, minced
scant 1/2 cup pitted Medjool dates, chopped coarsely

Preheat oven to 425 F. Spread cauliflower evenly on a large baking sheet, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until golden brown at the edges, about 20 minutes.

Heat olive oil in a small skillet on medium heat, add pine nuts and stir frequently for approx. 5 min. until the pine nuts begin turning golden. Add the garlic and dates, and continue cooking 2-3 min. more until they soften.  Season with salt. 

Transfer the cooked cauliflower to a serving bowl, add the pine nut/date mixture, and toss to combine.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  

Cheers to a happy and healthy new year!

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