Planning Ahead for the Holidays

This is a very good time of year to begin thinking about what you’d like to make for the upcoming holidays. Especially if you are planning to host vegetarians and/or vegans, but not only. These recipes are amazing no matter what your style.

My kitchen counter is once again covered with pumpkins and onions, and here are two extraordinarily delicious and unusual recipes for your pumpkins and onions. If you have the time, try to get the onion recipe made the day before, because as good as they are, they taste even better the next day! These two recipes are keepers, and they are special enough for holiday celebrations, too, so keep them in mind for the weeks ahead. The pumpkin (in particular) makes a beautiful presentation, and slicing it at the table is a nice and memorable touch. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Tofu & Peas on Quinoa

I created this recipe for one of our family celebrations this past December. Of course I used frozen peas. The vegans ate it as their main course, and everyone else was happy to see another dish to try. Enough said.

1/2 large Vidalia onion, diced small
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and minced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. chili pepper
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. garam masala
2 tsp. tamari
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup quinoa
1/2 cake tofu, diced approx. 1/2-inch
1 cup frozen (or fresh) sweet peas

1. Prepare 1 cup quinoa per directions on the package to yield approximately 2 cups of cooked quinoa. Set aside to cool for 10-15 minutes and make sure all the water has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork.

2. Heat olive oil on med-high heat, and add diced onion, stirring occasionally until the edges are barely beginning to brown. Stir in the diced ginger and garlic. Add diced tofu, continuing to mix occasionally, until the edges are becoming golden. 

3. Add salt and pepper, serrano pepper, and cardamom, and stir for 30 seconds until well mixed. Immediately add the sweet peas, turn down the heat to low, and add tamari plus 2 Tbsp. boiling water. Stir to mix well, and cook for a minute or two just until the peas turn bright green.

4. Thickly cover the bottom of a shallow serving bowl with the cooked quinoa. Cover the quinoa with the tofu-pea mixture. Squeeze lemon over dish, and serve with a thin slice of lemon on top. Serves 3-4.


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Delicata Squash in Santa Cruz

The delicata is a small, lovely squash that looks gorgeous and tastes a little bit sweet. One of my favorite features of the delicata is that, unlike most other squash, the skin of the delicata is edible (and delicious)! 

The first time I ate this particular dish was while celebrating the wedding of dear friends who live in Santa Cruz. In keeping with an old family custom, and in order to easily identify the affiliation of each guest, the guests of one partner were invited to wear gold while those of the other partner wore cream. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Vegan Cholent (Crockpot Stew)

A happy reprise of my seasonal fall cholent recipe, from when my dad was still here to enjoy it with us:

This past week, I made a version of this recipe for the first night of Sukkot, the fall harvest festival, and we ate it inside our beautiful sukkah that my husband built last week. It warmed us from the inside out in the chilly weather. And then it was gone, I mean really GONE, just a few hours later. Even my father, who said “I don’t like cholent,” ate a huge bowlful and said he changed his mind. Please make a note of that. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Two Brand New Salads

A couple of weeks ago we were making plans to a host dinner for a large group, and I got inspired to come up with a couple of new salads to add to our regular lineup. I sat down, started thinking, and before you knew it, I had come up with recipes for two brand new salads. And with a bonus — not only did they use up some of the contents of our pantry, they added only a few items to the shopping list!  Continue reading


Three Kinds of Charoset 2024

At our upcoming Passover seders to be held on Monday and Tuesday nights this coming week, we will be serving a number of different kinds of charoset (kha-ROE-set). In addition to our traditional apples-and-walnuts charoset that I make each and every year, we’ll be serving two other truly extraordinary charoset recipes. I want to share for a moment that my mom and my Grandma Rosie actually taught me to make charoset in a large wooden chopping bowl (such a special memory), a bowl that continued to hold a place of honor in my parents’ house for many, many years after Grandma Rosie was gone. Things go much faster now with the food processor, though I always process each ingredient separately almost to the desired consistency, and then add them all back together for a big stir with a big fork. Otherwise you are likely to get fruit-nut spread, which is a different recipe entirely.  Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Good Brownies

We are going to a neighborhood holiday cookie party this afternoon, and so I decided to share an idea for something sweet and delicious.

A lot of people think that the only sweet food I eat is fruit. While it is true that I almost never eat items containing ingredients that I would categorize as “food-like,” such as high-fructose corn syrup, white flour, or maltodextrin, I definitely enjoy my share of desserts. For example, I have made peanut butter cups from quality dark chocolate and organic peanut butter (one ingredient — peanuts) that are sublime. And this past week I stopped in at Fantasy Candies to buy some holiday gifts, and I picked up some pecan chocolate bark for myself. That was also pretty yummy.

So yes, I, too, love recipes like these. The ingredients are all real food, all nutritious, and the results turn out way more delicious than any product wrapped in cellophane. Besides that, you can feel really good about feeding this to people you love. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Autumn Recipes for Pumpkin and Onions

If you are starting to think about Thanksgiving, I’d like to offer up these two recipes. I have posted these recipes once before, and made them many times in the past, though not recently to be honest. But they remain lifelong favorites. If you have been looking for a vegan main course, you may be interested to know that not only does the first recipe taste fabulous, but it also makes a very impressive presentation. The onions are just an unusual, beautiful and flavorful side dish. If you have time, I would recommend that you try to make the onions the day before you’re planning to eat them, because as good as they are, they taste even better the next day. And while these are great recipes for holidays and celebrations, you could also prepare them on the weekend, and then have them for dinner on a chilly Sunday evening. Something about this stuffed pumpkin recipe says love, love, love… Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Carrot-Mint Salad

I ate my first carrot-mint salad many years ago at the table of a Moroccan-Israeli neighbor who brought her culinary heritage with her when she came to Cleveland. She taught me that there is something unbelievable about the mix of sweet carrots and mint. Sometimes the simplest combinations create the most remarkable tastes. Here is a carrot salad from Claudia Roden’s Book of Jewish Food. It is such a delicious recipe that I once watched a table full of people make a bowlful disappear in hardly any time at all. It’s a great recipe for every day, but it’s also wonderful for special celebrations. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Cauliflower Latkes

At our house, the ingredients for potato latkes have been collected on the kitchen counter, and our guests will begin to arrive around 4:30. It’s hard to imagine getting tired of potato latkes, but here’s a recipe for something a little different that you may be excited to try later this week if and when you’re ready for a change. Continue reading