Live Hummus with Fermented foods

This is how I make hummus. All the fermented things add natural probiotics to the diet and act as a natural preservative. I recognize you might not have all these things in the house, so feel free to substitute, and tell me what happens!

*Try this with white beans, black beans, fava beans, and other legumes.

Into a food processor, add:

• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cloves garlic (I use pickeled garlic from making cucumber pickers)

Chop garlic with seasoning.

Add:

• 4 cups cooked or sprouted chickpeas, a.k.a. garbanzo beans, that's two cans -
  SAVE THE WATER/cooking liquid, save a few chickpeas for garnish.
• About 1/16 (1"x1" piece) of a preserved lemon
• 1.5 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice (about half a small lemon)
• 1 Tablespoon live pickle juice (optional)

Blend until smooth.

Add:

• About 1/4 cup (2-3 oz) water from chickpeas
• 2 Tablespoons Tahini paste
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Garnish with with extra chickpeas, a drizzle of olive oil, and a little fresh, quality cumin or zaatar.

Chickpeas are high in fiber and iron, and have been shown to help regulate blood sugar. Hummus is an excellent way to turn some raw vegetables into a hearty snack.

All About Iron & Black Lentil Salad

I did pretty well in high school and college.  Multiple choice tests, essay tests, I could handle them all, with the exception of oral Spanish tests.  Now I'm in my third trimester of pregnancy and most of my tests involve my blood, not my brains.  My blood is in severe need of after-school enrichment in order to pass the hemoglobin portion of my retake-test.

Adult women need about 18 mg of iron per day and pregnant women need 27.  However, not all iron is absorbed equally.  The body absorbs iron from animal sources (heme iron) much better then iron from plant sources (non-heme iron).  For instance, 100 mg of egg has 2-3 mg of iron, all of which is absorbed by the body, 100 mg of boiled spinach has 4 mg, but only about 1.2 mg is absorbed.

Odds & Ends Afterlife: Five Bean Soup

Last week I made a hearty. delicious soup while shooting the most boring 15 minutes of video footage known to man.  I kept the soup and scrapped 13.5 minutes of video.  I added salt to the remaining 2.5 minutes, and here it is:


video url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f94nRxNeU_0

Soup is a great way to use up little bits of grains or legumes that aren't enough for a full serving.

Hearty Lentil Soup

Today I am making soup for a family in our community who is sitting shiva.  Our condolences to the family and friends of Nechama Gittel Chaya (Norma) Kuras.  I've always thought my lentil soup is very comforting, but this is the first time it will really be put to the test. 

In addition, this is the first time I am making it with dry lentils (not canned) and without store-bought broth.  If you want to use those time-savers. see Easy Lentil Soup.

Some other things I'm doing differentley include using my food processor to thinly slice the veggies, and cooking two kind of lentils separately.  Lets get started!

1. Chop 2 onions, 3-4 carrots, and 1 celery root/celeriac or parsnip (both optional), and 1 sweet potato/yam (also optional, but tasty) and start them cooking with oil in a pot.

2. Add a sprinkling of flour, celery, mushrooms, and tomatoes. to the pan.

Spicy Green Lentils

I was sick the last few days, so today I was looking for something simple and hardy, but healthier than the pizza my husband ordered when I was out of commission yesterday.  There are a couple things I always think I should eat more of: beans/lentils and quinoa.  Here is an easy lentil dish that received the official "yummy" from my husband.

About 1 cup of green lentils to 1.5 cups water.
1. Check lentils for stones and rinse.
2. Boil water, then simmer.
3. Add  seasonings.  I used cumin, white pepper (that's just what I happen to have), smoked paprika, a spice mix that I think is called "Philadelphia" (may contain any of the following: Paprika, Red pepper, Anis, Black pepper , Garlic & Crushed peppe,Onion.) but you could use chili powder or grill spice in America, and a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste.
4. Add salt to taste at the end, mix and serve.

Leftover suggestion: throw cold lentils on baby green, or eat plain with a little vinaigrette.

P.S. My version of spicy probably wouldn't be measurable in Scoville heat units.  I like to taste my food, not feel like my mouth is on fire.  You can spice it up according to your family's taste preference.

Black Bean Dip & Pita Chips

At the end of my Mom's visit a couple weeks ago we were down to some whole wheat pita that was going stale and some of the more shelf stable veggies.  I realized in the afternoon that we didn't have much to eat, so I started soaking some raw beans.  That evening I simmered them and then added onions, carrots, garlic, a couple mushrooms, and a couple sprigs of rosemary that was about to go bad.  About half the mixture I left as soup with mild seasonings and half the mixture with less liquid I blended in the food processor with a mixture of chili powder type spices and middle eastern spices (like cumin), and of course, salt (no pun intended).

For the pita chips, I cut each pita like a clock into 6-10 sections, then split each apart.  I rubbed each side with a little olive oil (spray works great) and toasted it in the oven.  The dish was a big hit.  Even my kids said it was "super yummy."

Pumpkin (or squash) Soup & Easy Lentil Soup

I thought I would share the following two non-recipes I wrote down for my Aunt Nan after I made it when she was visiting last Thanksgiving.  I actually served it in the toasted hollowed out pumpkin.  In America I had more tools and seasoning.  Here in Israel, I just bought a food processor and I don't use boxed broth.

I scraped out all the meat from the pumpkin (or roast the squash until you can peel off the skin easily) (toss the seeds). For Pumpkin - I would start this roasting in the oven if you have that available, but you'll need a really big pan (otherwise just add raw and cook longer).  Then I fried up 3 chopped carrots, 3 stalks of celery, I think 1-2 onions, a couple cloves of garlic, mushrooms and anything else you want (less for smaller squash).  When it's soft, add more oil and flour (I guess this is optional, but I like the flavor it adds to creamy, non-dairy soups.)  I use grapeseed oil, canola is fine.  Let the flour cook and keep scraping the bottom.  Add a little broth now if it's sticking too much.  Add the pumpkin (if it's still raw, it just takes longer)  Here I added a whole carton of "Imagine No-chicken broth", but you could use other liquids, and scrape up all the flour.  Add any fresh herbs like thyme, sage, or rosemary.  My soup comes out a little greenish, but it's yummy, use less herbs if this would bother you.  While it's cooking/simmering add other seasonings.  I like to pull my spices out and sniff them to decide on a good combination, but for this soup, I used a mix of savory (listed above) and sweeter: nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice...  Sea salt, a little fresh ground pepper or chili pepper, I added a drop of honey and agave syrup...You could probably get away with less or different ingredients, I'm just trying to remember what I did.  When everything if soft and smells good, blend with a hand blender or in food processor.

For an easy lentil soup:  You start as above, but skip the sweet flavorings, and use fresh thyme or lavender (leaves only) and definitely use flour.  You will use about 2 cans of lentils (I like the organic red lentils), but blend after adding only half a can and all the spices.  You can blend out a few chunks or random areas at the end, but I like the mouth feel of having a creamy soup with lentils still intact.

A delicious variation I just tried was more Indian style I used more fresh garlic, lots of Cumin, chili powder, a little ginger, and cinnamon, and a can of tomatoes (added in the beginning and completely blended).  Good luck!

You might also like: Hearty Lentil Soup