It is my pleasure to share, once again, this incredibly delicious sauce. I posted it once before, over 10 years ago, but a half-empty container of almond butter on my countertop, along with a huge chunk of fresh ginger, sent me on a search for the recipe. Now that I’ve found it, I am thrilled to share it with all of you! Continue reading
Category Archives: salad dressing
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Two Kale Salads
This past Monday we had bookclub at my house, and it was really nice. We read Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi, and ate a whole bunch of delicious things, including a fantastic sweet potato soup (from Amy Chaplin’s Whole Food Cooking Every Day), rainbow carrots and baba ganoush from the West Side market, and Lynne’s fantastic kale salad, which she throws together with tahini dressing and a homemade mix of spiced almonds, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds. One of these days I’ll have to get the recipe, but I can already see her laughing and tossing back her head as she says, oh I don’t know, I just toss it all together! So, at least for now, your guess is as good as mine.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Bob’s Red Mill Quinoa Salad
You may or may not have heard, but last month, on February 10th, Bob Moore, a founder of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, passed away at the age of 94. And I felt the need to write a post about this man who made such a remarkable difference in our food supply. Continue reading
A Greens Perspective on Nutrition
Have you ever noticed that a great many different cuisines incorporate dishes that pair some type of green leafy ingredient with some type of fat-rich ingredient? In the Mediterrean it might be simply green leafy lettuce and olive oil, parsley salad with tahini dressing, or sauteed greens + pignola (pine) nuts, not to mention pesto itself (basil + pignolas, traditionally). In Northern or Eastern Europe you might find cabbage and mayonnaise (cole slaw), or spinach with bacon dressing. In the far East it might be deep-sea fatty fish and seaweed (sushi). If you take the time to look, you will find green leaves combined with fats over and over again in cuisines the world over.
This cannot be a coincidence. I am going to predict that someday we will discover that eating greens with fat increases the availability, perhaps by gut absorption, of certain nutrients in the greens. Or maybe the fats. Or maybe both. 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
Commercial Salad Dressings Are Not What You Think
Many, if not most, commercial salad dressings drown your fresh, delicious, nourishing vegetables in water and corn syrup. These products are not food, and they do not nourish you. Instead, they waste your money, and they markedly reduce the nutritional value of your salad. A while back I decided to stop at the supermarket to check the ingredient lists on four popular salad dressing brands. I think you will be very interested in what I discovered. 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: Green Herb Sauce
Here’s something you can make that will elevate absolutely everything from just good enough to supremely good enough. Spoon it onto your eggs (whether fried, scrambled, poached, or boiled), spread it around on toast, or drizzle some on your salad, pasta, cheese, tofu, chicken or salmon. Or you can eat it straight from the spoon. Basically, anything goes, and it will stay fresh in your refrigerator for a few days at least. If you don’t feel like grating a lemon, don’t worry about it. If you have a different kind of hot pepper, fine. It will still be delicious. I’m trying to keep this easy. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Salad Meets Pad Thai
This is the very best salad for a warm weather meal, and, besides that, there is a strong possibility that you could live on it. It is that good. Plus, it fills your belly and sticks to your ribs, so you won’t be hungry for a good long while. Notice one trick: cutting the vegetables very thinly increases the amount of surface area for the dressing to stick to, and that makes it so much tastier! So take your time, and don’t hurry through the prep. The right kind of cutting and chopping are the secret to this delicious salad. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Judith’s Southwest Chopped Salad
It’s time for another recipe from Judith! This time I got her to share her Southwestern Chopped Salad recipe, which is going to make you so, so happy! You can throw this together and have it for dinner all by itself, or you can take it to a party, where it’s sure to get rave reviews and unlikely to leave leftovers. Use canned black beans, canned corn, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder instead of garlic cloves — keep it as easy as you want. This is also a great recipe to set out deconstructed for kids, with lettuce in a large bowl in the center, and add-ons in smaller bowls all around, so that they think they’re the ones deciding what to eat. If you make the salad this way, you can serve the dressing separately in a small pitcher. Wink-wink. Continue reading