Parsley Sauce is delicious. Raw. Bright. This Super Food is super good for you.
When I was a kid, going to the Sizzler for dinner, I’d always eat the garnishes off the plate – kale & parsley. That was the only way it was served back then – as the throw away garnish. Dark leafy greens are like the tattered end table that has ended up as the million dollar discovery at the Antique Road Show. Jackpot!
(Do you know that the Kale Caesar salad from Market Hall in Rockridge is the most popular deli case item, selling for 12.99 per pound and it’s not even organic kale. Note: Please buy organic kale for you and your loved ones. Kale is one of the most highly toxic pesticide crops and is on the Dirty Dozen list to alert you to buy it organic.)
Back to our beloved parsley…
Sniffing around on the internet – there’s quite a lot of glamorous news about parsley – like it beats out kale in vitamin K (who knew?). And that it dates back to the Ancient Greeks, who used parsley to decorate athletic victors as well as and to adorn the tombs of the deceased.
It’s a traditional element in the Jewish Passover Seder, signifying the bitterness that the Jews endured for so long as slaves in Egypt. Apart from haroset (made from apples, walnuts and honey), the parsley dipped in salt water is my favorite part of the meal.
Wait! Do you care about this prose – or do you just want your recipe?
I’d really like to know.
Here’s the loot! Make good use of it. You deserve every drop.
This parsley sauce is wonderful as a low fat dressing for grains or salsa on tacos.
As a quick, Indian Summer meal – I’ve poured it over black-eyed peas, with a side of sauerkraut. Since I also had a little jar of Stef’s Magic Carrot Sauce, I tossed in a splash of that too as an added flavor burst.
The below recipe is written by memory and approximations – until I make it again, this is the best I can offer as your starting point. Which in my opinion is the way you will be set free from recipes.
Try it – I bestow on you these Orgasmic Kitchen “5 Rules of the Road”:
FEEL INTO THE SAUCE
DISCOVER THE BALANCE POINT OF SALT:FAT:ACID
TASTE AS YOU GO ALONG
YOUR PALETTE IS A TUNING FORK
COOK (& PLATE) IN TECHNICOLOR
PARSLEY SAUCE
1 Bunch of Italian Parsley (you can use curley too but it can be more bitter), Rough chopped into thirds
Juice from one Lemon
Salt
1/3 cup Olive oil
1/4 C Water
Blend all ingredients on high for about 1-2 minutes, until if emulsifies.
It should look like a bright, light green creamy sauce.
If you want a more Parsley Pesto style sauce add to above and blend:
2 cloves of garlic
2 T white miso
1/4 cup raw or slightly roasted almonds
PRESTO PESTO TIME SAVER: Make a larger batch and freeze it. I like to freeze it in individual size portions 1. Pour the pesto sauce into an ice cube tray or muffin tin and place in freezer. 2. Once frozen, pop them out and store in a ziploc in the freezer until use.
In the photo you’ll see my homemade kraut of chioggia beet, cauliflower, napa cabbage, ginger and leek…fermented in my kitchen cupboard for 2 weeks.
There are tons of RAW sauerkrauts now available. Buy yourself a jar – the sour will satisfy beyond measure, while the probiotics heal your digestive track. Seriously. Go. Now. Get your kraut on.
Oh! and the black eyed peas – what I love about black eyed peas is that they don’t need pre-soaking, but still have the consistency of beans. So if you’re craving beans and in a time pinch, black eyed peas are your girl. Plus, I love that they are eaten traditionally on New Year’s Day – and in the spirit of renewal, I eat them any time of year with the intention of calling in the new.
NOTE: If you take nothing else from this prosaic parsley preso – ALWAYS cooks your beans & legumes with a 3″ strip of kombu seaweed. Promise me that. Will you?
BTW: The magic carrot sauce – well, sorry, can’t reveal the recipe – it’s seriously delicious & seriously top-secret. We will, however, consider creative offerings as barter for the recipe.
I love starting out the day with some hearty energy sustaining grains. This recipe is this easiest way for you to have whole grain, gluten free pancakes lickity split! Make some batter and keep it in the fridge all week for fresh cakes or make a bunch and freeze em.
If you like your panqueques super fluffy, you’ll be sorely disappointed, here. Sorry.
If you like sinking your teeth into hearty german bread with soul, keep reading and get ready to salivate with delight when you sit down to enjoy your bounty.
The BASE BATTER is tres healthy and easy to make and massively versatile – I’ve even adapted in into pumpkin muffins. They are gluten-free and vegan, using flax meal instead of eggs as a binder. Because of the millet, these are especially great for diabetics (assuming they go easy on the compote).
And once cooked, they are super-versatile. They were the hit appetizer for a Thanksgiving banquet I designed last year, topping them with my chipotle pumpkin seed pesto and pickled red onions. YUM YUM YUM.
Below, are two options. There’s also a video of me cooking the pancakes and making the rueben. Time stamp at 2:04.
Savory Whole Grain Pancakes with Apple Persimmon Compote (Vegan / Gluten-free / Sugar-free)
Base batter – Soak in a blender overnight: 1 cup millet 1 cup buckwheat 2 cups water (add a 3rd cup if you like them more crepe like)
After soaking, Blend on high and add: 1 tsp salt 2 Tbs flax seed
If you’re a purest and don’t want a savory pancake don’t add the following ingredients:
2 green onions
Handful of cilantro, approx 8 stems and leaves
1/2 tsp cumin
Once thoroughly blended, add and pulse:
1/4 cup frozen corn
1/8 cup pine nuts
On medium-high flame, heat a high heat oil in a skillet. Pour batter and cook until the edges are brown, the top appears bubbly and dry. At this point, it should be easy to flip. (If you struggle with your spatula, they aren’t cooked enough).
Fruit Compote (use any fresh seasonal fruit)
Ingredients:
1 apple
1 fuyu persimmon
2 cups water
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp kuzu root (or arrowroot, although not as nutritiously beneficial. And please eliminate corn starch from your pantry. ‘Nuff said.)
NOTE: If you use kudzu root starch vs. arrowroot – you’ll reap the benefits of one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in Chinese medicine – known to reduce hangovers, alcohol cravings, upset stomachs, migraines and allergies. Pretty good deal!
Preparation:
Dice the apple and fuyu persimmon. (Peel the apples first if they aren’t organic, since they are one of the highest pesticide crops of all produce)
Simmer in 2 cups water with 1/8 tsp sea salt until the fruit is tender.
Measure 2 tsp kuzu root powder and dissolve into cold water. (This is key – Kudzu added directly to hot liquid will coagulate). Add to simmering fruit and stir until thickened.
Serve the pancakes with a generous pour of compote and accessorize with julienned basil or mint.
Garnish with julienned fresh basil, thyme or mint
Shopping List SAVORY VEGAN PANCAKES
[ ]Millet
[ ]Buckwheat
[ ]Sea Salt
[ ]Ground Flax Seed
[ ]Green Onions
[ ]Cilantro
[ ]Cumin Compote
[ ]Apple
[ ]Fuyu Persimmon
[ ]Kuzu Root Powder – available in Asian section at Whole Foods or online at http://www.EdenFoods.com
[ ]Fresh Basil, thyme or mint
*****
When I was in 5th grade, my dad checked me out of school every Wednesday to go for Jewish Deli. We each always ordered the same: for me, a bagel, lox and cream cheese; for Dad, a Rueben Sandwich.
With the wild variety of mushrooms available in the winter time, I’ve created a vegan rendition, repurposing the savory pancakes and accessorizing with my favorite packaged foods that I suggest you keep on hand.
Ingredients
2-3 cups sliced wild mushrooms, I love using king oysters and chantrelles
1 clove garlic, diced
olive oil
Savory Pancakes
Daiya Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Miso Mayo
Sauerkraut, I use a red cabbage and beet blend for the exquisite color contrast
Preparation
Saute sliced mushrooms in olive oil. Turning once browned. Add diced garlic, pinch of sea salt and a dash of vinegar to finish.
Meanwhile, on a hot griddle, prepare griddlecakes from leftover breakfast batter. Once flipped, sprinkle Daiya shredded vegan cheese to melt.
Remove pancakes onto a plate or cutting board. Add cooked mushrooms, miso mayo and top with sauerkraut.
Enjoy with a garnish of pickled veggies or sautéed kale. Delicious!
OPEN SESAME…I love this…and like magic doors open.
Keep licking this sesame salt wonder and you’ll be amazed at how wonderful you feel.
Here’s an article by Harold Kulungian that explains more in depth the value of this treasured japanese condiment. Included at the end will be a more indepth recipe that uses a higher salt to sesame ratio than I use. Experiment and find what you like.
GOMASIO A Macrobiotic Secret of Natural Healing by Harold Kulungian
Gomasio is the principal table condiment in the Macrobiotic way of natural foods diet. Use it in lieu of salt to season your food at table, giving hearty delicious taste.
Gomasio also functions as a medicine in itself, due to its powerful ant-acid biochemical effect–a thousand times more effective than AlkaSeltzer, which is Yin, fizzy. You can take 1/2 to l teaspoonful directly on the palm of your hand, and suck on it well, before swallowing: strengthens digestion and improves energy immediately. You can sober up a drunk person, and cause his sanpaku eyes, with the whites showing beneath the iris, to come back into focus quickly from 1 or 2 teaspoonsful.
Together with a simple bland diet of slow-cooked whole grains and legumes in iron pot, gomasio will accelerate the de-acidification of the digestive tract and improve the assimilation of the food, to heal anemia, hypoglycemia, multiple sclerosis, and especially all the inflammatory disorders and diseases that are ultimately due to an excessively acidic diet.
For example, the original designation, “multiple neuritus,” by which MS was formerly known, indicates acid-inflammation of the nerves from excessively acidic diet. Gomasio is also wonderfully healing for all other blood-related diseases–which means virtually all diseases, including diabetes and cancer.
So beginning with the daily use of gomasio in one’s diet, one obtains a key secret to rapid effortless natural healing of virtually any health problem, since gomasio changes the quality of the blood very quickly.
Just one example I’ve witnessed: A nursing mother eats or drinks something acidic and 5 minutes later the baby starts to cry because her milk has become acidic and is giving the baby painful belly-ache, known as colic. So the mother takes gomasio and de-acidifies her blood quickly, and her milk also. The baby suckles the gomasiod milk and immediately stops crying because the milk has been returned to an easily digestible alkaline quality.
Western Medicine knows nothing about de-acidification as the basis of natural healing. The doctors have never tasted and experienced the healing effects of gomasio. So it is a huge challenge to offer this gift in such a way that their pride won’t prevent them from tasting it, accepting it, and discovering the natural healing experiment in their own bodies.
Believe me, this is a real problem, as I can testify from sad experience. A few years ago, after reading Dr. Bernard Lown’s THE LOST ART OF HEALING (Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, 1996), I telephoned the renowned Harvard cardiologist, and invited him: “Dr. Lown, how would you like to discover the lost art of healing?” “Oh, I’d be very interested in that, indeed!” he assured me. So I sent him three Macrobiotic books, including a cookbook, some of my recent writings, a quantity of my fresh home-made gomasio, plus a 32 oz. bag of pure sun dried LIMA SEASALT.
For a month I wrote him each week a substantial letter, responding to the problems in the case histories he included in his book of patients who had died of heart disease despite the good doctor’s prescriptions. No response as promised, so I telephoned him again: “Dr. Lown, have you received the books and letters and gifts, the gomasio and sea salt I sent you, to relieve your lower back-pain from iodized salt?”
“Look, I receive things in the mail all the time! I can’t reply to all these things!” “But, Dr. Lown, you assured me you are interested in discovering the lost art of healing, didn’t you?” “Thank you very much, but at my age I’m too old to discover Macrobiotics.” Whereupon he hung up–another dramatic example of what Toynbee calls “The Great Refusal.”
From his STUDY OF HISTORY, volumes 5 and 6 on “The Disintegrations of Civilizations,” Arnold Toynbee concluded that the ruling class of a collapsing civilization will never be receptive to creative solutions coming from outside their ranks. Macrobiotic holistic medicine is from the Orient, from Japan.
The late Lima Ohsawa (1899-1999), First Lady of Macrobiotics, in her cookbook, THE ART OF JUST COOKING (Autumn Press, 1974, 1981), had this to say about the importance of home-made gomasio:
“It is in the preparation of simple foods like rice and gomasio that a cook’s real skill is tried. It is far easier to assemble a rich gourmet feast than to produce consistently delicious, well-balanced sesame-salt. Mastery of this simple condiment means mastery of the center of your life.”
A powerful statement, certainly, and one that can only be tested by experience, especially long experience, as I have tested it. I always come back to gomasio with new relish for life due to its tonifying effect, giving new strength and energy.
Lima’s recipe recommends a proportion of 15 parts sesame seeds to one part salt. I make it just a little stronger, about 12 to 1. But since a quantity of salt always remains imbedded in the grooves of the suribachi, for you to dig out with your fingers and lick it (very delicious!), after you have finished grinding it, it’s wise to use just a little extra salt.
Here are the directions for use with a 9 inch standard suribachi, a Japanese mortar, with grooves in it, that comes with a wooden pestle, and can be ordered through a natural foods store. Without a suribachi, you cannot make gomasio; so don’t think of making it via the shortcut of an electric blender. It won’t be gomasio, but something else?
First roast 3 tablespoons of sea salt in an iron skillet until it turns grey, well cooked. The best salt for making gomasio is LIMA SUNDRIED SEASALT, because it is fairly fine to begin with, high in minerals, and much easier to grind into a fine powder than a courser salt.
Let the salt cool before handling it, to avoid getting burnt. Then pour it into the suribachi and grind it briskly into a fine powder, the finer the better.
Next roast 2 cups of un-hulled whole brown sesame seeds in the same large iron skillet, on low heat, stirring constantly to avoid burning. Be sure to turn the heat down to low after roasting the sea salt, or the sesame seeds will start popping right out of the skillet, and you’ll have to quickly clap a lid on them. The seeds must be roasted or toasted until they are crisp and will make a clicking sound when pressed between your thumbnail and forefinger.
Now comes the lovely ritual of grinding the seeds on top of the roasted and ground salt. Use only enough pressure to crack the seeds, so that their oil will coat each grain of salt. You do not want to make a mush, a paste. By using just the right amount of pressure, the gomasio will come out light and sandy. Grind in a spiralic movement from the bottom and then up the sides of the suribachi, for left handers in a clockwise direction, for righthanders in a counter-clockwise direction. It is a beautiful exercise, so enjoy it, though it may take almost a half hour to grind the 2 cups of seeds until they are 95% crushed.
Store the gomasio in a crockery bowl with lid, or wooden container, or a tightly closed glass jar, and keep in a cool, dry place. DO NOT REFRIGERATE, since a moist place would cause it to spoil quickly. I have many times kept gomasio for 6 months without it spoiling and still tasting fine. How long it keeps depends on how it was made and stored.
Passover starts tonight, April 14, at sundown and is the Jewish holiday that lasts 8 days and commemorates FREEDOM.
At Passover, families, extended families, friends and friends of friends come together for a ceremonial dinner, called a seder, in which we eat symbolic foods and read from the Haggadah – which is a libretto that tells the story of the the Jews flight from slavery in Egypt to freedom.
We eat a bread, that is not leavened and resembles a cracker, called Matzoh, to signify the bread that was eaten in the desert while the Jews were in flight and had no time for bread to rise.
You know it’s close to Passover, when stores have big displays of matzoh crackers and other related matzoh products.
I grew up on Chicken soup, referred to as “Jewish Penicillan”, and especially loved Chicken Matzoh Ball soup, which is a mainstay of most seder menus. Matzoh balls are delicious dumplings made from matzoh meal, vegetables and spices and elevate any bowl of chicken soup to treat status. Maztoh balls usually come in 2 forms – floaters (light and fluffy with just a bit of chewy at the center) and sinkers (dense and resembling cannon balls). You generally get ridiculed (just a bit and lovingly) and wear the passover seder badge of shame if you’ve made a pot of sinkers. SO…that’s why I recommend using a boxed mix and following the instructions. Mazel Tov! – that’s good luck in yiddish.
Regarding chicken soup and me, I have a sorted relationship. Since we ate waaaay too much chicken at my house growing up, and since the poultry industry has inhumane standards that make me really sad, I’ve come up with this great stand-in recipe made from red lentils sans chicken. (Think chickens raised with hormone injections, living in cages with no room to move around freely, their nails growing around the wires, no access to the outdoors, the tips of their beaks being burned off…yep, that’s what really happens at Foster Farms and most chickens sold)
What I love about my Passover the “Chicken” Matzoh Ball Soup is that it does no harm to any animal and does benefit to ME and to YOU for all it’s healthful ingredients – top ones to mention – lentils, onion, burdock root and seaweed.
I confess that recently I had chicken soup which I made from a $25 raw whole chicken raised hormone-free in a pasture, eating organic feed. It is tasty, I confess but pricey. I’m still working out my ethics. I’ll let you work out yours.
The matzoh balls do use eggs, which I recommend buying organic pasture raised eggs – they are more expensive, about $1.25 per egg, but you’ll notice the difference in taste and if you really pay attention, energetically. I no longer take eggs for granted – they are laid one at a time, often one egg per day. Remember – it only seems like eggs come ceaselessly out of a lottery ball blower.
Now for the SOUP –
Passover the “Chicken” Matzoh Ball Soup
Ingredients
1 cup RED lentils, (the red one’s dissolve to create a nice body)
1 medium onion
2 carrots
2 stalk celery
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 stalk fresh sage, or 1 T dried sage
1 3″ strip of kombu seaweed
2 T olive oil
fresh parsley
Burdrock root is one of the more obscure ingredients that will give this recipe depth and power-charge your health – great for your kidneys, tonifies the blood, builds chi. It’s sold at local stored dried & diced or in it’s root form raw. Either is perfect to use and if you can’t find it, don’t sweat.
Instructions:
Mince or pulse 1/2 the onion in a food processor
Heat up light pour of olive oil in a 8 QT soup pot
Saute the onion til it starts to clarify and brown slightly
Meanwhile, rinse the lentils and add to the pot with 10-12 cups water
Add bay leaf, sage and kombu
Bring to a boil, allow to simmer and periodically skim off the foam that will spread over the top of the broth.
Chop the carrot, celery, garlic and remaining onion – a uniform medium-sized dice or a larger rough cut that are bite sized, your preference.
Add veggies to the simmering lentils.
Cook until veggies are tender, and lentils are well-broken down.
To finish this off: ADD vegetarian “chicken” broth powder, to taste or red miso paste, add approximately 1 teaspoon per cup of soup, diluted first in a small amount of water and then added to each serving. (when you boil miso, it kills the live pro-biotics that make it such a soothing healer for you digestive track).
AND THE MATZOH BALLS PLEASE:
Last year I experimented with making gluten-free, egg-free matzoh balls. They were more like sticky gnocchi than fluffy matzoh balls, so I’m sticking to my mom’s recipe – aka A BOXED MIX. This year I am using Manishewitz Low-Sodium Matzoh Ball Mix (Streitz is also a great brand) – follow the instructions on the box. Here’s where you’ll use 2 eggs and 2 T oil.
If you need a vegan matzoh ball – experiment with substituting flax meal and baking powder for the eggs.
Serve one or two matzoh balls into each bowl and enjoy with a garnish of chopped fresh parsley.
Here’s to your freedom, (and the chicken’s – “Buk buk buk buk bukkaaaaa”).
One of the activities that I do that puts me in an instant state of celebration is singing in a Gospel choir. The other is going to Oakland’s Ethiopian restaurant, Cafe Colluci.
The other night, driving home from choir rehearsal, craving for Ethiopian food sweeps over my mind and taste buds. I call in to order some Buticha to go – which is kind of like hummus in consistency – creamy & thick – made from chickpea flour, olive oil, diced jalapeño peppers and tomatoes and oh!, so delicious.
As soon as I hang up, I realize that I also have a hankering for their flax seed drink. Since I know it’s made with honey, flax seed and water, I decide I’m going going to use up some of my flax seeds and experiment with making this myself.
And OH! How glad I am. It’s like getting a blood transfusion to drink this bevvie, which I soon learn is called TELBA, the Ethiopian word for flax seed.
I don’t know if I’m chronically dehydrated or if my body just loves the creamy, lightly sweet rich beverage. I think back to how much I used to LOVE thai iced teas, until I started eliminating sugar and caffeine from my diet and low and behold thai iced teas have become part of my past.
BUT TELBA – oh so good, oh! so healthy. And OH! SO EASY TO MAKE.
AND OH! How with a little added cinnamon, it resembles HORCHATA, which I love except it’s also generally made with sugar and if you’re paleo, grains are a no-no.
OH! We have solutions, to all these forbidden fruits!
Here’s what you’ll need for TELBA / PALEO HORCHATA:
Ingredients, 4 to 6 servings
Flaxseed — 1 cup
Water — 6 cups
Honey — 1 to 2 tablespoons
Cinnamon
Method
Heat a cast-iron skillet over low heat. Add the flaxseed and dry roast it in the skillet, stirring, for about 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Place the toasted flaxseed in a spice grinder and grind to a powder. Sift through a medium-mesh sieve into a bowl.
Add the water to the flaxseed in a blender, stir and let set for about 10-20 minutes to allow the seeds to soften.
Blend and serve.
Note: You can also strain into a pitcher if you want a very smooth drink. I often skip this step to keep it simple.
Add honey, a pinch of salt and cinnamon.
Chill before serving or blend with ice.
Variations for Flavor Fun
Telba Firfit: Mix telba with broken up pieces of (injera) bread and heat. Serve as a sidedish. Almost like bread pudding.
Toasted grains, unhulled barley and sunflower seeds are sometimes added to telba for additional flavor.
Experiment with varied different spices, a few together or one at a time: cardamom, ginger & turmeric is another fave of mine.
Use this instead of milk: poured over cold or hot cereal or with a piece of chocolate cake.
This is a delicious twist to a very Classic Tabouli Salad – made with cracked wheat bulgar, parsley, tomatoes, and a garlic mint parsley dressing and accents of lemon zest.
We had a good time with this at the store today, doing a cuisinart demo to make the dressing. An enthusiastic customer was my taste tester (and camera person), helping to dial in the salt, acid (lemon), fat (olive oil) ratio while a crowd looked on, having tastes and waiting patiently while we packaged it up for each one to take home a container.
Let’s backtrack to show you how to make this simple dish. Note: the second time you make a dish, it takes about half the time, once you know what you’re doing. Like riding a bike.
The cool thing about tabouli, is that the grain – cracked bulgar wheat, is actually cooked al dented, NOT on a stove, but actually just by pouring boiling water over it, and letting it sit for 20 minutes covered. Instead of using a bowl, today I made the bulgar in a canning jar – which has a screw on air tight lid and what’s so cool, is that the glass jar can handle the heat of the hot water without breaking. Just pour it over – 1 cup bulgar to 1/2 teaspoon of salt, screw on the lid, give it a shake. And voila!
Now for the veggies. It’s always best to have a sharp chef’s knife. In Oakland, I take my knives to The Shaver & Cutlery Shop for sharpening. They love knives and I love them.
Toe-mato, Toh-mahto…First, trim the end off of the tomatoes, quarter them and then turn them upward so the flat end is on the cutting board, this makes it easy to trim out the seedy center. Lay them flat and then dice them by slicing them first into strips, and then the final manuever, the dice.
Peel your cucumbers with a veggie peeler, then do the same process as you did with your tomatoes, cutting out the seeds.
And cutting them down to strips, ending up with diced cucumber.
Dice your mint and parsley and set aside. Make your dressing in the blender or cuisinart with:
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup parsley, stems are fine
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
NOTE: I often make a double or triple batch of dressing to have for a second batch or to use the dressing on other things. Yum yum yum.
Pour this over your cooked bulgar, let it soak in and then toss in the veggies, garnished with parsley, more fresh mint, and a little extra lemon zest. ALWAYS taste your food before you serve it to be sure it tastes just right! In other words dial in the salt – acid – fat ratio.
That’s me holding up the tabouli with all our great bulk herbs in the background. The world of herbs & spices is your oyster! Remember to take liberties to flavor it up just like YOU like it and make it orgasmic.
CUMIN MINT TABOULI
Makes 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients:
1 cup cracked wheat bulgar
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch flat leaf or curly parsley (I prefer the texture of curly, both for taste and appearance)
4 tomatoes
1 English or hothouse cucumber
Preparation:
Put bulgar in a medium bowl and mix in 1/2 tsp. salt. Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water, cover, and let sit 20 minutes. Note: let it stand undisturbed – this will cook the bulgar to a perfect al dente.
Meanwhile, in a blender or food processer blend olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic in a blender . Add mint leaves and the ends of the parsley, remaining 1/2 tsp. salt, pepper, onion powder, and cumin. Whirl until parsley and mint are minced into the dressing and the dressing is more or less smooth. Taste and adjust salt, pepper and spices.
Chop parsley leaves. Core, seed, and chop tomatoes. Peel, seed, and chop cucumber.
Drain bulgar, if necessary. Pour dressing over the bulgar and toss to combine well BEFORE adding the veggies. Add parsley and toss to combine well. Add tomatoes and cucumber and stir to combine.
Serve immediately or cover and chill until ready to serve. Best within 24 hrs, served classically with hummos, stuff it into a wrap or enjoy as side with grilled vegetables or fish.
Note: If you’ve had this in the fridge a day or two, adding fresh parsley and / or mint will resuscitate your tabouli salad if it’s looking a little lack-luster.
Remember: We eat with our eyes and nose first, so make it look and smell delectable.
valentines day…amidst the heart shaped brown rice and sunflower seed butter rice crisp treats, i made my clients delicious thyme and marjoram infused white bean soup sprinkled with rainbow swiss chard and “oh yums”.
I have a confession. I’m a loner. Well, what am I really? A woman who loves people and is also afraid to get rejected – so I can default easily to isolation – which can look like weeks going by where I haven’t made one concrete social plan. Yeah! This realization has been painful and as I confess to you this superpower that keeps me from getting nourished by human connection, I offer this: I have made a commitment. I have implemented a bottom-line: I must have at least one social plan every weekend, preferably a Saturday night (or Friday) in order to build the muscle of connecting…regularly…with people I enjoy…maybe even love.
So, enters Angela, a new friend who I met when I was looking for a new housemate on my houseboat. The houseboat wasn’t a fit for her, but we struck enough of a fancy to start a friendship.
We both love food and cooking and so she arrives Friday night with two of the most gorgeous filets of fish from FISH, our local sustainable fish market (they sell their own catch). A pink filet of trout and a white filet of sturgeon. Stunning! I wish you were here.
With directions of how to grill each fish, Angela’s on bbq duty while I slice sweet potatoes and radicchio and concoct some fabulous sauces for the dipping.
I’m the BOSS OF SAUCE, as my friend Carin (of Culinary Magic) calls me. I whip up the most delicious caper and dill cream sauce and (drum roll please) a cilantro chipotle pumpkin seed pesto. OH MY, is that good. I put it on everything. Veggies, griddle cakes, quesadillas, fish, veggies, soup, crackers, my list to make it tomorrow since the jar is empty.
Cilantro Chipotle Pumpkin Seed Pesto
olive oil
pumpkin seeds
ground chipotle chile
cilantro
salt
splash of water
blend it all together and say YUM!
You’re probably wondering what are the exact measurements. You’ll have to wait til tomorrow when I make the next batch and I’ll update you. Til then, I advise you to trust your instincts and experiment, tasting all along the way.
That’s another way that I’m the BOSS OF SAUCE. JUST FU*&$%ING MAKE IT. NOW. TRUST. I’M WATCHING.
I know it’s hard to believe–mixing avocados and chocolate, green and brown. But trust me, this dessert is awesome for it’s simplicity and it’s health value featuring AVOCADOS which are the quintessential aphrodisiac. Known for it’s low hanging fruit that grows in pairs, the Aztecs referred to it as the “testical tree” and due to it’s sexually suggestive appearance Catholic priests in Spain forbade people to eat the avocados.
Lucky enough, this delectable food was marketed well in the 1920’s using reverse psychology, with adverstising campaigns that denied it’s aphrodisiac nature. The public now loves avocados, we can’t get enough and the New York Times confirmed in a recent article on aphrodisiacs that avocados are indeed one of the best aprodisiac foods, not only for it’s obscenely suggestive sexual shapes but for natural oils, potassium, magnesium, B6, vitamin E, all great foods for the health of our sexual organs, shine of our hair, vibrancy of our skin and a rad stimulant for hormone production.
Sounds good to me.
So my suggestion, with Valentine’s Day upon us is to ditch the heavy decadent meals and the dense chocolate deserts full of sugar (which will just want to make you sleep anyway) and offer up a light healthy meal with this as your featured mood enhancer.
Ready–here we go!
Prep time 10 min, makes 12 abundant servings.
4 Ripe Organic Avocados
3/4-1 Cup of Sweetener (Agave Nectar Syrup or Date Paste)
1 Tbls of Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Cup of Organic Fair Trade Cocoa Powder (or Carob)
Slice each avocado open lengthwise, remove the pit and scoop out the insides with a big soup spoon into a food processor or blender. Add the agave syrup or other sweetener, vanilla, and cocoa powder. Blend or process until it’s fully blended, one consistent color brown and creamy. You can instantly serve the mousse or set it in the fridge a least 1 hour in order to cool and get more firm.
Serve in cups with fresh seasonal fruit or garnish with mint. Summer fruit favorites are strawberries, blackberries and raspberries and in the fall and winter, pears. Or just pack some mousse up for a picnic or into your kid’s lunch pail as a healthy nourishing treat.
I’m big on expanding YOUR imagination in the kitchen, so…What else could you blend in for variety?
Here are a few Variations for FLAVOR & FUN–
Add spices for a ethnic twist
Cardamom for India
Cinnamon for Mexico
Lavender for France
Garnish with a pinch of Rock Sea Salt for a sweet and salty extravaganza
Note: These avos need to be ripe, so finding them in February might be a bit challenging and expensive but totally worth it. And usually, I am a huge advocate of eating only what’s seasonal, but the creamy decadent aphrodisiac is a total treat to get you in the mood, whether you’re flying solo or have a lover to indulge. HAVE FUN!!!
Orgasmic Kitchen 