Carrot Tagliatelle

  Carrot Tagliatelle It occured to me recently that I’d never posted the recipe for the homemade tagliatelle I’d made to accompany the saged carrot pasta sauce.  Since Autumn in all its glory is on my mind these days, I figured this would be a good time to add the method for this wonderfully autumnal-hued pasta.    If you’d like to recreate the dish pictured above, [...]

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Garlicky Zucchini Noodles

These are, hands down, my new favorite food.  I eat them solo, as a base for pasta sauces and float them atop soups as a super flavorful garnish.  They are wonderful hot right out of the pan or cold the following day.  They are a great way to add more potassium-rich vegetables to your diet,  and [...]

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Creamy Balsamic Calzones

This dish was an awesome pairing of two of our favorite seasonal offerings:  asparagus and morel mushrooms.  I’ve found that roasting [rather than steaming] asparagus takes this already sublime stalk to its ultimate level of tastiness as those natural sugars caramelize and the tips slightly crisp.  I figured that if I then smothered that roasted asparagus [...]

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Stir-Fried Yuba with Okra

It’s nearly summertime and the farmer’s markets are beginning to burst at the seams with produce! Use whatever vegetables you have on hand in this. Aside from the gorgeous okra I picked up, I added some crisp bell pepper, carrots and green cabbage to give this stir-fry some color and wonderful texture. Okra and Yuba [...]

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The New Black

…is an ancient black.  Forbidden rice not only has all the nutritional goodness you find in brown rice such as a high fiber content and B vitamins, it’s also packed full of anthocyanins.  Bite per bite the rice contains more of these antioxidant flavonoid pigments than blueberries.  It’s satisfyingly chewy in texture like my beloved short-grained brown [...]

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Kale Chips

Kale chips have been the rage recently and with good reason.  Compared to the potato chip, kale chips knock the spud flat when it comes to nutritional value.  Dress them up with some healthy olive oil and sprinkle with protein-rich nutritional yeast and you have a brilliant snack!  I like to marinate mine overnight prior [...]

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Spicy Cauliflower with Olives

Cauliflower melds really well with briny Mediterranean foods like olives and capers.  Making this chunky-style pasta topper is a great way to integrate another cruciferous vegetable into your diet.    I like to serve it over olive oil-dressed spaghetti squash. Oh and…save those tender outer green leaves that cradle the caulifower!  They’re full of great phytonutrients because they, unlike [...]

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Tamarind Daal

One of my favorite Indian dishes is daal.  There are so many variants of daal that this “dish” could fill a cookbook.  I made this version after picking up a jar of tamarind paste and daydreaming about what to do with it.  The tartness of the tamarind is a wonderful surprise that is mellowed and smoothed by the [...]

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Roasted Carrot Hummus

  Hummus is a true comfort food in our house.  We love to make wraps with it or use it as a healthy and filling vegetable dip.  This version is sweeter than traditional hummus because of the roasted carrots, but it’s fabulous, especially for youngsters who tend to have a sweeter tooth.  It’s also a great way to tuck [...]

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Mediterranean Kale Salad

  To my mind, kale is the rock star of all greens.  I integrate it into at least one meal a day and sometimes it’s as easy as simply stuffing a handful of it into our morning green smoothies.  Most times though I try and keep it intact in shape and form and celebrate its texture [...]

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