I had dinner last night with my mom and a few friends at Blind Faith Cafe, a vegetarian restaurant in Evanston that’s been around for over thirty years. Their restaurant menu is great, but where they really excel is the bakery, which boasts an impressive array of muffins, cupcakes, pies, pastries, cobblers, cheesecakes, cookies, and bars that are often available vegan, gluten-free, or made without refined sugar. My dad asked me to bring him back a blueberry muffin, which are apparently known for being the best in town. Unfortunately, they’re only made on weekends, so my dad had to make do with a miniature carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (poor dad). But I was stuck on the blueberry muffin assignment, so I made them first thing this morning. They’re vegan so that I could bring some to my brother and my little niece PK, who doesn’t eat dairy or eggs.

Vegan blueberry muffins:

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup coconut, soy or almond milk
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 + 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or dried

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium sized bowl.
3. In a larger bowl, combine milk, vinegar, sugar and oil. Whisk until smooth.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until just combined.
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Grease your muffin tins or use tin liners. Fill the muffin tins about 3/4 full.
7. If desired, sprinkle with a mixture of flour, sugar, and cinnamon for a streusel-esque topping.
8. Bake about 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Hosting a dinner party is a perfect opportunity to bring together all sorts of people that you enjoy spending time with, even if those people have diets and food preferences that are as varied as their professions and politics. Rather than falling back on unobjectionable standbys when cooking to please an eclectic crowd, a Mediterranean menu can provide enticing and unusual options for vegans, vegetarians, health-conscious eaters, and devoted carnivores alike.

1. Guy Fieri’s roasted red pepper hummus: As pretty as it is palatable, this red pepper hummus can be adjusted to suit your threshold for spice. If you’re using dried chickpeas, soaking them overnight shortens their cooking time dramatically.

[more recipes after the cut]

Read More

March in Chicago means that today there’s a snowstorm outside my window just when I’ve had a handful of sixty degree days to remind me how much I like spring. Yesterday it rained all day with a chilly dampness that a dozen cups of tea and my warmest socks couldn’t shake, and sometimes the only thing to do is give in and cook like it’s still February. 

Vegetable cassoulet:

• 1/2 cup dried mung beans
• 4 potatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups vegetable stock or broth
• rosemary, thyme, sage, basil, oregano, salt & pepper to taste

1. Boil mung beans in water on medium-high heat for ten minutes, then lower to medium heat and simmer for an additional ten minutes, until tender.
2. Meanwhile, peel and quarter potatoes and boil for about ten minutes, until beginning to soften.
3. Slice onion, carrots and celery and saute in olive oil for about five minutes. Add liquid and season to taste. Cook for another five minutes.
4. Combine liquid & vegetables, beans and potatoes in an oven-proof casserole and cover with a lid (I’m so thrilled to be reunited with my Le Creuset!)
5. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, until bubbling.

Sweet potato cornbread:

• 1/2 cup cooked mashed sweet potato
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, soymilk or coconut milk
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup safflower or canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9” x 9” baking pan. 
2. Beat together eggs, milk and sweet potato. Add dry ingredients, oil and stir in coconut last.
3. Bake until deep golden, about 40 minutes.

Winter is long in this climate 
and spring—a matter of a few days 
only,—a flower or two picked 
from mud or from among wet leaves 
or at best against treacherous 
bitterness of wind, and sky shining 
teasingly, then closing in black 
and sudden, with fierce jaws.
…
March, 
you are like a band of 
young poets that have not learned 
the blessedness of warmth 
(or have forgotten it). 
At any rate—
I am moved to write poetry
for the warmth there is in it 
and for the loneliness—
a poem that shall have you 
in it March.

— William Carlos Williams

               (last april in central park. hurry up, spring.)

For the last ten years, my mom has eaten largely a raw food diet, which is based on the premise that eating unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, including vegetables, fruit, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, and seaweed that are never heated above 116 degrees, can increase overall health and longevity and heal many ailments and diseases that are precipitated and perpetuated by the standard American diet. 

               (cacao, Sun is Shining, goji, acai, maca)

Ten years ago, this was an even more radical proposition than it is today, when many “superfoods” have become used as marketing tools and even the USDA is beginning to come around to the idea that eating less food and eating mainly fresh food as part of a plant-based diet can seriously curb our disease epidemics. The misconception that the raw food diet is about reducing the number of foods we can eat is based on the fact that most of the processed foods that Americans eat are made up of a very limited number of foods that are not very healthy: corn, wheat, soy, poultry, beef. When we eat a banana or a potato, it’s a single, recognizable species of banana or potato narrowed down from a huge variety of plants boasting different nutritional profiles that have been replaced by a corporate monoculture, supported by government subsidies.

               (bee pollen)

In fact, eating a raw food diet brings to the forefront all kinds of foods that many people are unfamiliar with, or just don’t consider eating as part of their everyday diet. While cooking is never involved, foods are soaked, sprouted, juiced, dehydrated and/or blended to create meals that are exciting as well as nutritious. I’ve had experiences in raw food restaurants that included everything from raw nachos (at Karyn’s in Chicago) and porcini ravioli in truffle cream sauce (at Pure Food and Wine in New York) to tiramisu (Quintessence, NY) and gourmet chocolate truffles (David Wolfe’s Sunfood store in California). I spent a long weekend visiting my parents at San Diego’s Optimum Health Institute, drinking tons of rejuvelac (which recently made an appearance on Bizarre Foods!) and feeling cured of an entire college semester of Coors Light & tater tots. I’ve experimented with making raw food: zucchini spaghetti with raw marinara, bright violet raw blueberry chocolate pie.

               (chia seeds)

While there are obviously still days when I eat the worst of the standard American diet, as attested to by pictures of french fries and chocolate chip cookies - and enjoy it plenty! - having a fluency in raw food and its benefits is a huge asset whenever I want to take a break and push my body’s reset button. I believe strongly in the health benefits of a largely raw and plant-based diet, and whenever I come back to visit my parents, I have a green shake every morning for breakfast. It combines a bunch of incredibly nutrient-rich foods, takes less than five minutes to make and produces immediate positive effects.

Green shake:

• 1 cup liquid base: I tough it out and use partly water and partly tea made from herbs like cat’s claw (supports intestinal and immune health, anti-inflammatory properties), pau d’arco (anti-fungal) and reishi mushrooms (an immunostimulant). If you’re going for tastiness, coconut milk, almond milk or any fresh juice are good choices.
• 1 tbsp maca, for strength & stamina
• 1 tbsp raw cacao, the least processed version of chocolate, for antioxidants
• 1 tbsp Sun is Shining superfood, which includes algae for weight loss and general health, probiotics for digestive health, and a whole bunch of mineral-rich land & sea vegetables
• 1 tsp goji berry powder, for antioxidants and brain health
• 1 tsp acai berry powder, for heart health
• 1 tbsp tocotrienols, for Vitamin E, an antioxidant 
• 1 tbsp chia seeds, which include essential fatty acids, calcium, phosphorous and magnesium
• A generous pinch of bee pollen, rich in enzymes, amino acids and phytonutrients
• Our friend Stacy, who travels around the country teaching all kinds of people about the “happy shake,” uses a fresh spinach base and adds frozen fruit at the end. This is definitely a more likely way to attract new converts, and I’d absolutely recommend it for your first shake!

1. Blend all the ingredients together in a good-quality blender (a Vitamix is the best) and drink immediately. This is the only breakfast that ever keeps me feeling full until lunchtime, completely energized and actually feeling better about everything. That’s not bad, for a shake. 

One of the perks of staying with my parents is that my best friend from high school is also home in Evanston taking her gap year/funemployment, so we get to relive our glory years on a daily basis (okay, that’s a stretch, but yesterday we went to the mall and I bought flare jeans). In high school, Mary was a picky eater, but trips around the world and time abroad in Tanzania and France widened her worldview and her palate. She gets excited now about Himalayan pink sea salt the way she used to about pizza-flavored Goldfish. Also, she’s a fantastic cook: her mustard-broiled salmon recipe (coming up in the next post) is the only one I use, and she’ll turn out a honey&goat cheese pizza or chausson aux pommes like it’s no big deal. She’s also an artist, which means that she makes food not only for flavor but to create something beautiful: once I watched her delicately layer thin half-moons of apple in a tart pan for about an hour. While I tend towards a more ‘rustic’ aesthetic, we deeply appreciate each other’s cooking and we adore having the opportunity to cook for each other and trade ideas and techniques. Today I made Mary lunch, and she made me dinner.

Spelt bread:

• 1 cup + 1 tbsp spelt flour
• 1 cup milk or substitute (I mixed rice milk & coconut non-dairy creamer)
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp molasses or barley malt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine ingredients and mix well. Place in a 9x5 loaf pan.
3. Bake for about an hour and ten minutes, until golden.

The lentil dip is modified from this recipe: I used brown lentils instead of red, and I didn’t saute the spices. I also left out the oil, then added some tahini when the initial product seemed a bit too soupy.

Spicy lentil spread:

• 1 cup dried lentils
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 + 1/2 cups water
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 3/4 tsp cayenne
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 2 tbsp tahini
• salt

1. Boil the lentils and onion until tender, about 25 minutes, and drain.
2. Blend lentils, onion and remaining ingredients in a food processor and season to taste. Serve warm or cold.

To make these open-face sandwiches, I put a foil-wrapped sweet potato in the oven at the same time as the bread, then skinned it and sliced it to layer over the lentil spread on each piece of bread. Sprinkle a little rosemary or herbs de provence on top to finish.