hearty Tunisian tomato stew

A few months back, Mary gave me some cookbooks, including Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven. The recipes are heavenly, healthful and sinfully simple.
Last night, with a nearly empty pantry and fridge, I had to make do. I realized that I haven't been eating lentils much lately, so I searched the cookbook and found a recipe in Vegetable Heaven for Tunisian tomato soup with lentils and chickpeas. Sadly, I didn't even have tomatoes, so Fred had to stop and buy some on his way over. One heaping ladleful and we were both full. We're having leftovers for lunch and likely for a quick dinner or tomorrow's lunch. The recipe yielded six hearty portions of a stewlike soup!
Here's the modified recipe:
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup lentils, rinsed (I soaked them with the spices this morning because I realized I didn't have tomatoes and couldn't cook the soup!)
1 28-ounce can tomatoes (crushed or diced)
1 green onion, chopped (recipe calls for 4 cups minced onion. Again, I was out of this! My pantry is so sad!)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste, plus a few healthy shakes of red pepper flakes
handful cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
Heat oil over medium heat and add garlic and onion. Cook two minutes, then add the lentils (which have had been soaking with the spices). Add water to cover, then add tomatoes and chickpeas. Simmer 10 minutes, then season with salt and pepper. Serve with cilantro.
I think we've been in a bit of a rut lately. We've been eating a lot of tofu and kimchi, and black beans and rice. Fred actually said last night that he's craving broccoli rabe. We found a few more recipes that we want to try soon: kale crisps (a snack food), spinach soup with basil and dill, sweet potato and pea patties, Tuscan bean and pasta stew... Though it doesn't feel like winter today, my stomach is ready for winter foods.
I also found a recipe for avocado-chocolate pie. I think I'll try it this weekend. Avocado-chocolate "milk"shakes are pretty good, so I hope I'll like this!

Recalled carrots not in Ohio

We've been seeing on CNN and reading online today that Trader Joe's and Los Angeles Saland brand baby carrots have been recalled. (Oh, and some smoked salmon has been recalled, too.) DON'T panic. So far, the carrots have not been sold in Ohio. They were mostly sold in the West. No word on whether baby carrots have been pulled from the shelves here, as a caution.
(What a great reason to buy all your produce from local growers. It's summer -- there's almost no excuse!)
You can drive yourself crazy worrying about food contamination. Lower your risks by eating whole foods. Yes, baby carrots save time. But they're not baby carrots; they're adult carrots whittled by a lathe into those little carrot nuggets. Be bold, and buy a bag with the green tops and brown stringy bits. Peel them, clean them, chop them, eat them.
Have you noticed that a lot of these recalls tend to be processed food? Canned beans, prepackaged carrots. Sure, you can get sick from eating homegrown spinach or local meats just as easily, but I'm sure the risks are lower.
Just a thought.

I'm celebrating already!

Happy Sneak Some Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Porch Day! Yes, it's a real (albeit silly) holiday. I'm celebrating already. A very kind editor brought in a bag of zucchini, and I snagged one that's larger and heavier than my forearm. (It's almost the size of my calf, really!)

I see zucchini-blueberry-banana bread and zucchini pasta in my future.

(The behemoths taking over gardens today are better in breads and baked goods; remove seeds and pulp before using.)

Last night, I used the last two small zucchini in my crisper as a quick, low-free side dish. I roasted one orange pepper, chopped it, along with a large clove of garlic and a handful of basil and oregano from my container garden. I used a box grater to slice the zucchini thinly, then sauteed it for about a minute. Yum!

We've already discussed how zucchini takes over the garden. How do you use it? I love to shred it in long strips (or grate it) and use it in place of spaghetti with my favorite sauces.

Attack of the Zucchini

It's that time of the year: The zucchini are taking over the garden, the farmers market, the neighbor's porch.
My boyfriend made a (fabulous and funny) film for the 48-hour film project, and at the viewing this weekend, a film in the holiday film genre examined a holiday that gardeners know well: Drop Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Porch Day. (Google it. Apparently, it's Aug. 8.)
I picked up a monster of a squash at Findlay Market this weekend. More than a foot long (the big ones are better for baking), it yielded more than six cups shredded. What's a girl to do? Of course, I made blueberry zucchini bread. Delicious! (I didn't have any vegetable oil, so I subbed two mashed bananas. It added a nice banana flavor and didn't change the recipe too much. I also reduced the sugar to one cup and added a handful of raspberries. Plus I use white-whole wheat flour and subbed one cup oat bran and flax meal.)
This recipe made a loaf pan and a 9" cake pan.
Yum! Guilt-free baked goods!

Second chances for slandered vegetables

There are very few vegetables I don't like: mung bean sprouts, plain red radishes (though I will eat them a la francaise, thinly sliced with sweet butter on bread) and -- until recently -- beets.

Sprouts (while packed full of nutrition -- they're like the stem cells of the vegetable world) and radishes are just too bitter for me. My beet aversion dates back to childhood, when a friend's mother was on a canned beets-and-cottage cheese diet. (Hey, it was the '80s. It was a crash diet that didn't work.) She ate them straight from the can, and the earthy smell and texture was overwhelming to my 7-year-old palate. Beets weren't common in my house, so I never tried them again until my French host mother served me a pickled beet salad. It was OK, but I still wasn't on board the beet wagon.

This summer, I have a goal to pick one vegetable I've never cooked or eaten each week. So far, I've discovered that rainbow chard (eaten but never cooked at home) is my new favorite green, kohlrabi is a great in a gratin and mung bean sprouts are tolerable in small doses when doused with a sweet Korean barbecue sauce.
And beets, glorious beets! I'm a fan. I roasted them with olive oil and rosemary from my garden, cooked up some quinoa and mixed grains and sauteed the beet greens. Two hearty nutritious lunches. Beets are high in sugar, but they're fabulous! They're still not as high on my "veggies I heart" list as chard, red peppers or broccoli, but they're a great second-string vegetable. I imagine that this fall, they'll find a place on my table more often.
Are there any vegetables you once loathed that you've learned to love? Any vegetable you just can't stomach?

Are you a fan of bean sprouts? How do you serve sprouts?

10 foods for the rest of your life

Polly just told me that she read that a great number of Americans live on 10 foods or so. (I hope I'm not stealing her thinder by blogging about this!) Among the most popular are: fried chicken, french fries, chocolate chip cookies and Kraft mac-n-cheese. Hmm. All I'm going to say is you are what you eat. But it made me think: What if I had to live on 10 foods for the rest of my life? Assuming I want to live a long life, I can't make those foods champagne, chocolate truffles and French cheeses. I'm a food geek, I know.
OK, so here is my nutritionally responsible list, because I'm in a good-food mood. Condiments don't count, right? Not on my list, they don't! What a tough list! This was a silly plan! Honestly though, these foods form the basis of my diet now!
1. Tofu. Rich, creamy, delicious. Fried, made into smoothies, substituted for ricotta in pastas. Yum!
2. Red peppers. In pasta sauces, sauteed in stir-fries, mixed into salads. So sweet when roasted, so packed full of goodness! (A great source of Vitamin C, with tons of beta-carotene)
3. Tomatoes. Seriously. I know it's a fruit, but have you ever met a more versatile one?
4. Eggs (cage free, vegetarian, certified organic. I'll pay the $2.50 a dozen at Madison's to know my eggs come from happy chickens.)
5. Rainbow chard good raw or cooked, it's as good for you as spinach and it's fairly mild in taste. Plus, it's just so pretty. Look up the nutrition on this one. It's a superfood in my book. And unlike a lot of greens, it doesn't taste like grass! 1 cup=35 calories!
6. Blueberries (or raspberries). Tough choice, but I think I like blueberries (especially wild ones) a little more. I love them with yogurt or just as a snack or dessert. Berries are SO good for you!
7. Yogurt. Not that HFCS-sweetened, fruity stuff in mini plastic cups. Nope, I want real, plain yogurt, low-fat or full-fat, never fat-free. Tangy, rich and full of active cultures that keep your insides happy!
8. Whole grains (probably quinoa or Trader Joe's Harvest Grains orzo-baby chickpeas-red quinoa-couscous blend)
9. Salmon. Alaskan wild. Be kind to the fish.
10. Chickpeas. Delicious, rich, and the basis of hummus! Who could resist!

So what 10 foods would you choose? (I just realized that I left out chocolate! Can I start over?!)

Sexiest vegetarians

Yay! Veggies are sexy!
From the Associated Press:
NEW YORK – Carrie Underwood and Kevin Eubanks have been named the "world’s sexiest vegetarians" in PETA’s annual contest.
Results were released Tuesday by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Underwood, 24, a Grammy-winning country singer, won the title in 2005. Eubanks, 49, leader of NBC’s "Tonight Show" band, is a newcomer to the winner’s circle.
Eubanks leapt ahead of his competitors with help from Jay Leno, who encouraged viewers to vote for Eubanks and “bring honor” to the late-night NBC talk show.
"I’m gonna keep this campaign going," Leno said during a recent show after sharing a photo of a shirtless Eubanks with his audience. Leno said the shot, in which Eubanks is holding a backpack and posing against a woodsy backdrop, wasn’t doctored.
Runners-up in the contest, which the animal rights group said drew more than 110,000 votes on its Web site, included Joaquin Phoenix, Milo Ventimiglia, Kristen Bell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jared Leto and Lisa Edelstein.
Last year, Prince and Bell, who starred on the "Veronica Mars" TV series, were picked as the two sexiest vegetarians. Previous winners also include Natalie Portman, Andre 3000, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Shania Twain, Tobey Maguire, Lauren Bush, Josh Hartnett and Alicia Silverstone.
Wonder who else is a vegetarian?

The Humvees of the food world

I recycle. I don't eat meat. I take the bus. I rarely drink bottled water. I take my own bags to the grocery store, reuse containers when possible and often wrap gifts in newsprint. (Hey, I work for The Enquirer. It's fitting and environmentally friendly!) And I often eat organic produce. It hadn't occurred much to me how that produce is affecting my carbon footprint.
Then I started reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life," by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver.
Kingsolver, her husband and two daughters decide to move from the Arizona desert to a farm in Virginia that Hopp had bought years before. The mission: To remove themselves from the gas-guzzling mass market food web for a year and rely solely on home- or locally grown, organic food -- with a few key exceptions. The book doesn't lecture or take the moral high ground; rather it is part memoir, part novel as you follow the family's gastronomic journey.

Six eyes, all beloved to me, stared unblinkingly as I crossed the exotics
off our shopping list, one by one. All other pastures suddenly looked a lot
greener than ours. All snack foods come from the land of Oz, it seems, even the
healthy ones. Cucumbers in April? Nope? Those would need passports to reach us
right now, or at least a California license. Ditto for those make-believe baby
carrots that are actually adult carrots whittled down with a lathe. And all the
prewashed salad greens emanate from California... As fuel economy goes, I
suppose the refrigerated tropicals like bananas and pineapples are the Humvees
of the food world.

Kingsolver, a lifelong foodie and avid gardener, writes chronologically, from the family's last day in Tucson to their enjoyment of their first asparagus of the season. Though the family's diet is limited by the season, they eat meat they and their neighbors have raised, along with local eggs and dairy. The book includes essays by biologist and college professor Hopp, which expand on and reinforce with scientific fact the topics Kingsolver addresses. Camille adds her own thoughts and recipes.
The book has topped countless best-seller lists, including ours.
Kingsolver points out that "The average food item on a U.S. grocery shelf has traveled farther than most families go on their annual vacations (4)." Kopp, her husband, adds: "If every U.S. citizen are just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels (emphasis added) of oil every week. (5)
U.S. farmers now produce 3,900 calories per U.S. citizen a day, twice what we need and 700 calories more than in 1980 (14)... mostly in the form of soybeans and corn.
I'm only a few chapters into the book, but already I'm hooked -- and I'm conscious of my own food-buying habits. I've got two brown thumbs and an apartment, so growing my own nourishment is out of the question. But I did consider this: If I'm buying lettuce from California and organic red peppers from Chile, how good should I feel about that? In the long run, is organic produce really that much better for me if it's increasing my carbon footprint?
I plan to blog more about this as I keep reading. Have you read the book? What did you think? Do you pay attention to where your produce originates?
Later this week, I'll write about how produce has been selected and cultivated for better transport and appearance with little regard for taste, along with the story behind heirloom vegetables. I love this illustration that Kingsolver offers to show the growing season. It's a nutritional pyramid but in calendar form.

Eat your veggies!

Check out the Life centerpiece on Wednesday. It's all about getting kids to eat their vegetables (and fruit, although that is usually easier because it's sweet) . Truth be told, there are plenty of big kids who snub veggies, too. But there are lots of things you can do to keep veggies tasty (and healthful).

Don't overcook them - You know who you are, you brown-broccoli, flaccid-floret eating maniac. Just step away from the stove. Slowly... Slowly... Try steaming your veggies until they are just tender and the color is bright and gorgeous. They will taste better, retain more of the nutrients and have a far more appetizing (at least according to many palates) texture. Don't have a steamer? Try a metal colander and a saucepan with a few inches of water. Add a lid and you're cooking with gas. Or electric. Or wood. Or whatever...

Season, season, season - Did I mention you should season your veggies? I'm not just talking about salt and pepper. Green beans, for instance, take on a sweet yet savory flavor when you add a little onion and basil. Garlic is heavenly on just about anything... I also recommend a bit of real butter or a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil just before serving. Rosemary and lemon juice (add it just before you eat, or it can bleach your pretty colors) are also delish with veggies.

Ro-, ro-, roast your veggie - If you just HAVE to cook the heck out of your veggies, roast 'em. I can't promise the nutrient value is what it would be if you were to eat them raw, but heat and a slight char might make you fall in love with vegetables. (Even brussel sprouts!) Overcooked or not, at least you tried, right?

What do you do to perk up your veggies? And drowning them is "cheese food" doesn't count, cheater!

Nicci

Photoillustration by Michael E. Keating