Robin Asbell's Real Food Digest

Veggie Crackers and Edamame Schmear from Crackers and Dips

Chances are, you learned to bake cookies in grade school, and over the years, you have tried your hand at muffins, maybe even yeasted breads. Depending on your love of the oven, you may even had some success with layer cakes and double crust pies. But have you ever made crackers?

Crackers, somewhere along the line, became something that nobody makes at home. We all grew up with saltines to crumble in our soup, and they arrive in a box, never from the oven.

Well, like so many foods, crackers are best when homemade. They are not that much work, either. If you have rolled out a pie crust or made cut-out cookies, you can master crackers.

A new book, Crackers and Dips, More Than 50 Homemade Snacks (Chronicle Books $19.95) has brought Ivy Manning’s amazing cracker recipes to your kitchen. Manning is a prolific food writer whose previous books are The Farm to Table Cookbook, and The Adaptable Feast. She also writes for Cooking Light, Bon Appetit, Fine Cooking, Living Without and the Oregonian, and does travel writing, too.

Manning has created a useful book that will guide you through your cracker explorations. I was completely won over by her approach, as she points out that most crackers have plenty of questionable additives, and then proceeds to make your favorite flavors using whole, natural ingredients. She also makes an economic case for DIY, since your typical box of crackers is really a bunch of packaging that contains crackers made from flour, oil, and salt. At their simplest, crackers are some cheap food to make at home.

Of course, Manning didn’t devote a whole book to plain crackers, but to exploring versions of favorite crackers made with better ingredients, and to creating new and exciting crackers. They are all worth making. They are not all vegan or vegetarian, but there are lots of good crackers and spreads in the book that are. She even gives a number of gluten-free options, for the cracker-craving GF diner.

So dust off that rolling pin and pre-heat the oven, it’s time to make crackers!

I picked this vegan-friendly veggie cracker, which is tinged red from tomato paste. I think I ground the veggie bits a little too finely, and will leave them in slightly larger pieces next time.

All in all, delicious!

Rolled out and cut in squares

Garden of Eden Vegetable Crackers

My all-time favorite cracker growing up was the tangy, salty crackers studded with dehydrated vegetables, cut out into vegetable-like shapes. I’ve sorted out how to re-create the veggie-flecked crackers at home, with lots less sodium, sugar, and fat but all the savory flavor I remember. They may not be health food, but they are addictively delicious!

For the dehydrated vegetables in the recipe, I use the chunky bits lurking at the top of Knorr Vegetable Recipe Mix pouches. You can also buy dried vegetable blends in bulk at natural foods stores (sometimes labeled “soup vegetables”), or make your own blend with dehydrated bell peppers, dried onion flakes, and sun-dried tomatoes.

MAKES ABOUT 80 CRACKERS

2 tbsp dehydrated vegetables (see headnote)

1 cup/130 g whole-wheat flour

1 cup plus 2 tbsp/145 g unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp fine sea salt

1/2 tsp sweet paprika

2 tsp granulated onion powder

1 tsp granulated garlic powder

1/4 cup/60 ml extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp/135 ml water

1 tbsp tomato paste

Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C/ gas 6. Using a clean spice grinder or a mortar and pestle, grind the dehydrated vegetables until they are fairly fine; pieces should not exceed 1/16 in/2 mm wide, or the crackers will be difficult to roll and cut.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dehydrated vegetables, whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, sea salt, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. Add the olive oil and rub it into the flour mix­ture with your fingers until it is completely incorporated and the mixture is crumbly. In a small bowl, whisk together the water and tomato paste. Add the water mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and slightly elastic, about 20 strokes. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes. (The dough can be made ahead up to this point. Refrigerate the wrapped dough for up to 24 hours.)

Lightly dust a clean work surface and a rolling pin with all-purpose flour. Divide the dough into two equal-size balls. Roll out one ball of dough until it is 1/16 in/2 mm thick, picking up the dough occasionally and rotating it to make sure it’s not sticking to the work surface and adding more flour as necessary. If the dough springs back as you are rolling, set it aside and start rolling out the second ball; this will allow the gluten in the first ball of dough to relax, thus making it easier to roll out.

Using a pastry wheel or pizza cutter, trim any irregular edges (save the scraps). Cut the dough into 2-in-/5-cm-wide strips. Transfer the strips to a baking sheet, spacing the strips 1/2 in/ 12 mm apart. Sprinkle the strips sparingly with kosher salt and use the bottom of a measuring cup to gently tamp it into the dough. Prick the strips all over with a fork or comb and cut the strips crosswise into 2-in/5-cm squares. Repeat with the remain­ing dough and scraps.

Bake until the squares are light brown around the edges and firm to the touch, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the pans once from top to bottom and from back to front while baking. Watch carefully; these crackers go from perfectly done to burned very quickly. If some of the crackers are done before others, transfer them to a cooling rack and return the undone crackers to the oven for a few more moments. Cool the crackers and store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Wasabi Edamame Schmear

The fresh, clean flavor of this thick soybean-based dip, or schmear, as I like to call it, goes well with the sesame seeds on the Crispy Wonton Triangles and the soy and mirin flavors of the Senbei. It’s even more virtuous served with thinly sliced carrots and blanched pea pods. The heat from the wasabi will intensify with time; so if you prefer just a whisper of wasabi, add it right before serving.

MAKES 1 1/2 CUPS/360 ML

One 12-oz/340-g bag frozen shelled edamame (green soybeans), defrosted

1/3 cup/75 ml water

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tbsp sesame butter (tahini)

2 tsp wasabi paste (not powder)

Fine sea salt

2 tbsp vegetable oil

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the edamame, water, lemon juice, sesame butter, wasabi paste, and 1 tsp salt. Pro­cess until the mixture is smooth, about 4 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the work bowl once or twice while blending. With the machine run­ning, slowly add the vegetable oil and process until incorporated. Taste the dip and season with salt, if needed. Keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Beans, Full of Healthy Fiber or FODMAPS?

Right off the bat, let’s get one thing straight between us. Digestion is very important. Everybody eats, and digests food, and it’s nothing to be skittish about. Digestion is so central to your health and well-being that we can’t really afford to ignore it.

Especially when it’s not going well. For millions of people, it’s not going well.

For people with digestive issues, daily discomfort and symptoms can be crippling. For years, a visit to a doctor to seek help for things like chronic gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation and the like has been a frustrating experience. Most doctors will tell patients that they have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and offer very little help. The typical advice is to avoid alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, and stress. Maybe it’s dairy products, they say, and of course it may be hormonal. Each patient is left to try to figure out which foods make her symptoms worse, by experimentation.

But there is another way. At the 2013 IACP conference, I attended a seminar by Patsy Catsos on food issues, and I learned about a component in foods that just might be the source of much of this trouble.

According to Catsos, there is a whole other way of eating for IBS. The culprit, it seems is a component in foods that is called FODMAPS. This stands for Fermentable Oligo-Mono and Disaccharides and Polyols.

What the heck are those?

The key thing to understand is the fermentable part. For people with “normal” guts, eating foods that ferment in the digestive process is seen as good. Grains, beans, and lots of vegetables and fruits contain fermentable bits, and the good bacteria in the digestive tract flourish while breaking them down. But for the IBS sufferer, this process causes problems. I asked Catsos if we know why this happens to some people.

“We don’t fully understand why fermentable carbohydrates cause more trouble for some people than for others. It is beginning to look like the gut microbiome of people with IBS is different; their resident microbes might produce more or different types of gas.” said Catsos.

It seems that consuming FODMAPS has an “osmotic effect,” which means that as they are digested, the gut pulls in water from the body, with disastrous results. for IBS sufferers, this causes pain, bloating and diarrhea, or constipation. As gut bacteria consume the FODMAP sugars, they give off gases, also causing problems.

So, if you are one of the 20% of Americans with IBS, it might pay to find out more about FODMAPS. It’s also good to know that their effects are cumulative. Eating a little bit of one one day might be fine, but as they add up over the day, their effects become pronounced.

There are groups of foods that contain certain FODMAPS, and these are the main categories.

LACTOSE

Dairy products contain lactose, a common FODMAP.

FRUCTOSE

All fruits and vegetables and many natural sweeteners contain some fructose. But, IBS sufferers can usually do well with fruits that have a balance of fructose and glucose, and by keeping that cumulative effect in mind. High fructose to glucose fruits include apples, pears, stone fruits, watermelon and blackberries. Better choices are Strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, kiwi, ripe bananas, and citrus. Honey and agave are high in fructose.

FRUCTANS

These are fermentable fibers found in wheat, whole grains, and in some fiber supplements. They are also in onions and garlic. For non-IBS people, they are great. For the IBS patient, they are not.

GALACTANS

Like fructans, these indigestible starches are a favorite of bacteria in the gut. They are in beans, pistachios and cashews.

POLYOLS

A naturally occurring  sugar alcohol that is also used like an artificial sweetener in sugar-free foods. They are present in mushrooms, sweet corn, and stone fruits. Mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, and other -ols are to be avoided, as they cause the “osmotic effect.”

In light of all the problems people are having these days figuring out their food allergies and intolerances, the FODMAP concept is worth learning about. I often meet people who are convinced that they are allergic to gluten or some other food, when they may be FODMAP sensitive. I asked Catsos if she saw this too.

“Yes. I try to get the word out on that as often as I can. I believe that many people who feel better on a “gluten-free” or a “dairy-free” diet are really feeling better because they are eating less FODMAPs. Avoiding all gluten and dairy is probably overkill for many of these folks. Extra dietary restriction make life more difficult and expensive, and make it more difficult to get the nutritional benefits of a varied diet. I work with people every week who are very excited to find out they can enjoy yogurt or bread again without pain.”

If giving up wheat gives you relief from digestive symptoms, it may well be the fructans, not the gluten. As much as I love to sing the praises of healthy foods like whole grains, beans, and onions, there are people out there who just can’t tolerate all that fermentation going on inside them.

In the end, most people with digestive sensitivites become their own food detectives. If you have these issues, keep a food journal, and see if you can find a pattern. A FODMAP elimination diet, in which you cut put all the food groups with the offending sugars for 2-3 weeks, may make you feel better. Then, Catsos says there is good reason to be hopeful.

And if you have been frustrated by your doctor’s lack of info on this issue, that is changing, too, according to Catsos.

“Drs. Peter Gibson and Susan Shepherd (from Australia) spoke at the 2011 American College of Gastroenterology Annual meeting. Since then, awareness of the diet has grown by leaps and bounds. It’s true, in the past doctors had very few effective treatment options to offer people with IBS, a situation I can assure you was very frustrating for everyone involved. Of course, doctors aren’t trained to guide patients through an elimination diet. They don’t have the time or inclination to talk about label reading, recipe modification and menu planning with their clients. Doctors are learning how to recognize good candidates for the diet, though, and hopefully will refer them directly to a registered dietitian.”

For more on Patsy Catsos MS, RD, LD, and info on her books, check out www.ibsfree.net

Brik Pastry purse at Milennium

It’s an oversimplification, but you could say that there are two approaches to food. One is home cooking. Most of us don’t have exotic ingredients or hours to spend in the kitchen, so we stick to things that are relatively straightforward. Then there is restaurant fare. Restaurant chefs need to give you more bang for the buck, so they source hard to find ingredients, or showcase some tricky techniques, or use their kitchen full of prep cooks to build multiple components and sauces for dishes.

And some restaurants pull out all the stops, and really put something interesting on the plate. Such is the case with Milllennium, where chef Eric Tucker applies creativity and technique to a menu of pure plant foods. The result is a beautiful presentation of amazing food, on a par with any high end restaurant.

You would think that vegans had something to prove.

This year’s conference of the International Association of Culinary Professionals was held in San Francisco, and I was hungry to attend. I’ve been to SF once before, and made a pilgrimage that time to Millennium. This time, I would  tempt some less-vegan colleagues to come and sample really good plant-based food.

We were not disappointed.

In fact, my friend Dan from Napa, a dedicated omnivore, had a few doubts about coming, at first. It’s really good, we assured him, really, really good. You have to understand, members of this organization are really into food. When you tell them it’s really good, it had better be.

He asked whether he would have to stop for a burger on the way home. We did have something to prove.

As soon as Dan got a look at the menu and wine list, he looked relieved. Millennium has a selection of Organic and Sustainable wines that are paired with all the dishes on the menu, and as a Napa insider and wine aficionado, Dan was impressed with their choices. He recommended the Eight Arms The Octopod Syrah from Santa Cruz, and the Folkway Revelator, and over the course of a the meal, I enjoyed them both thoroughly. The syrah was a good pair with the spices of my entree, and the Revelator was a big, exciting wine full of dark fruits and balancing acidity.

I had a flatbread appetizer, but the main event was my entree, the Brik Pastry Purse. Here is the description:

Brik Pastry Purse
cashew saag with sun dried tomato, chard, potato & winter squash,
cardamom & fenugreek scented moong dal, seared brassicas with Achar-orange glaze,
caramelized red onion & tamarind chutney

The plate was a collection of flavor packed components, so that each bite might be spicy and savory, tangy and fruity, or sweet and sour, or a combination. The dal was deep and spicy, and chunks of cauliflower and brussels sprouts gave it some crunch, and the chutney and orange elements brightened the plate. Inside the shatteringly crisp pastry, a creamy cashew base gave some weight to the roasted vegetables and tangy tomatoes. The sensory effect was surprising enough to keep me engaged and focused on the dish, even with a table full of interesting conversation.

At that point, I really didn’t need dessert, so I shared a bite of one of my companion’s divine treats. The vegan dessert is often unfairly maligned, and at Millenium, they put the lie to the myth that you need butter and cream for a good dessert. Creamy, rich, and chocolatey, this intense dessert would thrill even the most skeptical omnivore.

Chocolate Almond Midnight

Chocolate Almond Midnight
almond cashew crust, mocha chocolate filling,
raspberry sauce, white chocolate mousse

Oh, and Dan?  He enjoyed the meal throughly, from the Cornmeal Crusted Trumpet Mushrooms to the Nettle Tamale filled with Pumpkinseeds and Sweet Potatoes, and of course, the wine.

There was no stop for a burger, he assured me when I saw him the next day.

So, if you are even in San Francisco, make a reservation at Millennium. It’s worth the trip.

Diet Food?

Are you still worried about the fat in nuts, avoiding them because you heard that they are too high fat? Well, banish those thoughts. Researchers have been looking at the benefits of nuts, and it turns out that eating nuts is associated with lower body weight, as well as many incredible health benefits.

Dr Robert Mattes, a prof of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue, gave a presentation at the 6th International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition in March. He concludes that nuts are so satisfying that you can eat them in the morning, and you will compensate by eating fewer calories later, automatically. Eating nuts for breakfast has also been shown to prevent blood sugar spikes throughout the morning, and they are low on the glycemic index. Also, the fact that we don’t really pulverize them completely when we chew means that some of the nut calories are not absorbed.

Other studies have linked eating nuts to brain health, cardiovascular health, and more. Vegetarians and vegans can look to walnuts for valuable EFA’s, in a really tasty package. Raw nuts are slightly more beneficial, since some nutrients are damaged by heat, but if you like toasted nuts, keep on eating them.

All nuts contain lots of fiber, some protein, and each one has unique qualities.

If you have a taste for almonds, you are indulging in one of the healthiest nuts, with a big dose of vitamin E, calcium, and almost all healthy monounsaturated fat.

Walnuts? Famed for those Essential Fatty Acids that everyone takes fish oil to get, but much tastier.

Pistachios have been found to have the highest levels of LDL cholesterol lowering plant sterols of all the nuts, and they have bonus high levels of potassium. Hazelnuts have extra folate, the B-vitamin that protects against birth defects, and possibly cancer and heart disease.

If you love your Pecans, they are cholesterol-fighters, and they are loaded with beta-sitasterol, the latest natural cure for prostate issues.

So, do you ever eat nuts for breakfast? One easy way is just to sprinkle them into your granola, muesli, or hot cereal. Sprinkle them over pancakes and french toast, or scatter them on your morning fruit. The nuts will slow down your absorption and digestion of those healthy, complex carbs, keeping you full all morning.

For a simple muesli, just mix a cup of rolled oats with 3 cups of your preferred non-dairy milk and a handful of dried fruit and put it in the fridge overnight, tightly covered. The next morning, just serve it with a handful of chopped whole almonds, walnuts, pistachios, or your fave nut.

Nutty Muesli

You’ll feel fuller, nourish your brain, and above all, enjoy that delicious breakfast.

Freekeh and Radish Salad

By now you have heard of Meatless Mondays, a growing movement in which people give up meat just one day a week. Well, that turns out to be really easy, and effective, too. When a million people opt for beans over beef, that means that thousands of pounds of beef are spared.

That single quarter pound burger patty represents 6.7 pounds of animal feed, 52.8 gallons of water, 74.5 square feet of farmland that were used to grow the feed, and 1, 036 Btus of fossil fuel energy. The US has a huge appetite for meat, second in per person consumption only to Luxembourg. All those farm animals that we consume are producing lots of waste and methane gases, too.

Link to NPR Story on Meat Consumption

So why not celebrate eating plant based, for a week? You’ll find that it is easier and more satisfying than ever. Already vegetarian? Pledge to go vegan for the week, and pare down your carbon footprint. It’s almost Earth Day, so it’s fitting that we are talking about making a move that is so friendly to the Earth.

It’s Spring cleaning season, so what better time to boost your veggie consumption? We read over and over about how beneficial plants are to your well-being. If you spent the winter eating hefty stews and cheesy casseroles, this is a perfect opportunity to lighten up.

So, if you are an omnivore, you just need to plan in some hearty protein foods, like beans and grains, as well as all those leafy greens. Some people like to transition by eating mock meats, like veggie burgers. I’m always going to recommend that you pick the most whole-food option, so look for the veggie burger that has whole beans, grains, nuts and seeds, not soy protein isolates. For that matter, maybe you can just opt for the beans, nuts and seeds. They are quite delicious in their own right.

So click on over to the pledge site, where you can receive some free materials in the mail on how to go veg.

Link to Compassion over Killing to sign up for the pledge.

For my part, I want to offer you a really satisfying, hearty salad that fits the season perfectly. A few years ago, I posted a blog and recipe featuring Freekeh, and it has been one of the most popular posts on my blog. I thought I might tickle your fancy with another Freekeh fantasy.

The Freekeh Blog and Recipe

Freekeh-Radish Spring Salad with Edamame

Serves about 6

1  cup Freekeh
2 1/2 cups water
12 medium red radishes, chopped, and a handful of the leaves, if they are fresh
1 cup shredded carrot
3 medium scallions, minced
3 cloves garlic
3 cups salad spinach
1 cup mint, fresh
1/2 cups olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups shelled edamame, thawed

Boil water in a 2 quart pan with a tight fitting lid. Add grain to boiling water, be careful, as it can boil over as you add the grain. Cover and set on lowest flame. Check in 20 to 25 minutes. When water is absorbed,chill the freekeh. Chop radishes, shred carrots, and chop scallions. Chop garlic, spinach and mint, add olive oil, lemon juice, pepper and salt and process. Mix all in a big bowl with the edamame.

Yes, there is a Whole Grain Sampling Day, and it’s actually Wednesday, the 3rd of April.

It’s the brain-child of the Whole Grains Council, and it’s their latest brilliant effort to introduce delicious whole grain foods to a wider audience. This blog is part of a whole bunch of blogs that you can visit today to sample some amazing whole grain recipes.

Click Here to learn more.

But we are not stopping there. The good folks over at the Whole Grains Council have arranged to samplings at grocery stores across the country. Take a trip to the store, and you should see friendly sample people doling out authentically whole grain treats. Pop into a participating cafeteria or restaurant, and you will be offered that whole grain option you always wanted, like a whole wheat tortilla instead of white, or a wheaty bun for that burger.

Kids in schools will get to taste whole wheat pizza at lunch, a surefire way to introduce them to whole grain goodness. Watch out, there might even be a sampler handing out granola bars at the local park, mall, or campus.

The Whole Grains Council is the organization that gave us the whole grain stamp, which you can rely on to simplify shopping. Any bread, cereal or other product bearing the stamp has been certified to deliver half a serving of whole grains, while products labeled 100% whole grains give you a whole serving. The stamp helps you quickly and easily tell the real whole foods from the pretenders.

 In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Culinary Advisor to the Council, which means that when they get a question about cooking or baking with whole grains that they don’t have the answer to, they send it out to a the advisors. It’s an honor to be part of the distinguished group.

So, cook up some quinoa, and stir up these tasty muffins. They are really yummy, just smear with some almond butter and you have a light breakfast or lunch.

Red Quinoa-Pumpkinseed Muffins with Lime

Makes 9

1/2 cup red quinoa, 11/2 cups cooked
2 cups kamut or whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup organic sugar
1 tablespoon lime zest
3/4 cup almond or soy milk
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup raw pumpkinseeds, chopped

1. Cook the quinoa: Bring a cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan, then add the quinoa and return to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover, cook for 14-15 minutes. Uncover and check, the water should all be absorbed. Let stand for 5 minutes, covered, then uncover and let cool.
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Place muffin papers in 9 cups of a muffin pan, then spray the top of the pan with vegetable oil. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, sugar, and lime zest.
2. In a cup, whisk the almond milk and flax seeds and let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk in the oil and lime juice. Stir quickly into the flour mixture. Add the cooled quinoa and half of the pumpkinseeds, and quickly fold into the batter. Fill each muffin cup to the top. sprinkle remaining pumpkinseeds on top.
3. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in a center muffin comes out with no wet batter clinging to it. Cool on racks.

  When you ask most people what keeps them from eating as healthfully as they aspire to, the most common answer is time. Yes, some people say money, or that they just can’t control themselves when they smell Cinnabons at the Mall. But the real issue for most people who try to get a meal on the table after work is time.

So, I will share the best habit that you can cultivate in your quest to eat better. And that is to make batches of food ahead of time that you can draw from all week long. Don’t cook a cup of rice for tonight’s dinner, cook three, and stash the rest to heat up later in the week, or stuff in a burrito, or make fried rice. If you are going to cook, always look at making extra, so that the 15 minutes you spent on that cooking procedure isn’t just for one meal, but for two or three.

Most of the articles on this topic center on cooking up meat, so let’s take a page, and make it vegan. Instead of picking chicken off the bones, let’s prep a “protein” to slide into a few meals over the week. If you make a habit of this, you will thank yourself every time you open that refrigerator and realize that you have a meal ready to go, if you just assemble it. Today, I am prepping tofu. Tofu is infamous for being time consuming. Pressing it, marinating it, then frying it in copious amounts of oil makes really tasty tofu, but it is daunting, especially for beginners. So here is the fast and dirty way.

Once you have this baked and ready, you can slap it in a sandwich, cut it up and put it in wraps, stir fries, soups, or into pastas. Really pressed for time? Tear open one of those foil packs of curry, or a can of soup, and float these tofu cubes in there. Cook up a pot of brown rice or quinoa and when it’s done, stir some shredded kale and tofu chunks into the hot grain, cover, and eat when its all hot.

Set yourself up one day a week, and you will be so happy to open that fridge and see your tasty tofu, all ready to fill your belly!

E-Z Tangy Onion Tofu Cutlets

I used the Wildwood Extra Firm 20 ounce block of tofu, which is so firm that you don’t need to press it at all. Just pat it dry. I sliced it into four long slabs, but you can slice the block either direction, and make smaller cutlets.

Serves 4

20 ounces extra firm tofu

1/4 cup tamari

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

3 tablespoons agave

1/2 yellow onion, slivered

olive oil for pan

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Dry the tofu and slice in slabs. In a cup, mix the tamari, rice vinegar, and agave. Spread some olive oil on a sheet pan with a rim. Place the fou on top and cover the slabs with half of the onion slices, then drizzle half of the tamari mixture on the tofu. Bake for 20 minutes.

Take the tofu out and turn the slices with a metal spatula, then cover the topw with onions and tamari mixture. Bake another 20.

Cool on a rack, then store tightly covered.

March is National Nutrition Month.

Isn’t it nice to have a whole month to reflect on healthy eating? The thing is, there are so many differing ideas on what constitutes a good diet that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. I know, I read and write about food, and sometimes it feels like I’m in the middle of a food fight.

Ironically, we have this wonderful thing called eating, which should be a source of great pleasure, entertainment, and sustenance. But we can’t seem to agree on what to eat.

We have the paleos and the vegans, and everybody in between, weighing in on what to eat. Talk food anywhere and someone will interject, with great passion, “I heard flax makes men have prostate problems,” or ” Grains are bad for you.”

As a culinary teacher, I teach classes on vegetarian, vegan, whole grains and gluten free cooking across the country, meeting people who are hungry for good food, and for information about good food. I’ve been a private chef for about 20 years, too, specializing in cooking whatever the client believes is the best diet for her.

It’s taught me not to judge. Really. I love to eat, I understand that some people just love to eat differently than I do.

The one universal truth to all of these ways of looking at food? KEEP IT REAL.

By that I mean kick refined foods. Avoid processed stuff. Eat whole grains and beans and vegetables, and avoid danishes that come wrapped in thick plastic that keep un-refrigerated for a year. I also urge everyone to avoid industrial meat and dairy that are fed and injected with unnatural substances. Our hungers are no reason to treat animals like cogs in a machine.  On the vegan side, it saddens me to see people eating so much fake butter and fake cheese.

Of course, if you have ever read my blog, I would rather that you went meatless, and kept all dairy and eggs as very occasional foods, too. But I get it that the majority of the population is not going to go that way.

We all live in the same brave new world, where un-real food looks disarmingly delicious, tempting us from the grocery store shelves. Often it’s dressed up in sheep’s clothing, deliberately promising things it doesn’t deliver, like whole grains, when it’s really mostly white flour.

But overall, it’s really simple and straightforward to make Real Food choices. Stand facing the buffet and ask, which of these options is the most whole? Is it something I could make from real ingredients in my kitchen, or did it require an industrial process to create it? Is it white and refined?

Of course, you can decide how and when to go ahead and eat the cookie. I’d rather it were a whole grain, raw sugar cookie, but if the occasional white flour goodie passes your lips, that is between you  and it.

So there you go, nutrition month. If I can make any impact on anyone, I hope I can get them to eat more veggies, more whole grains, more incredibly beneficial beans and lentils. Whatever more is to you, is up to you.

Composed Salad with Creamy Cashew Lemon Dressing

Serves 4

Dressing:

1/2 cups raw cashews, soaked

1 clove garlic, peeled

1/2 teaspoon salt, cracked black pepper

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup vegetable stock

1 tablespoon agave syrup

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

 Salad:

1 1/2 cup black beans, drained, 1/4 small red onion, a splash of red wine vinegar

1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa, tossed with 1/4 cup basil or parsley, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon olive oil

1 head romaine

2 medium carrots, julienned

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large golden apple, sliced

1/2 cup broccoli sprouts

sprinkle of chipotle powder

1. Make the dressing, drain the soaked cashews and put them in a serious blender with the garlic and salt and process. Scrape down and add the lemon juice and vegetable stock and puree. Add the agave and drizzle in the oil with the machine running.

2. Mix the beans, vinegar and red onion,  quinoa and basil, and prep the veggies. On four large plates, spread the romaine, then arrange the veggies and toppings. Drizzle with dressing, then sprinkle with chipotle for a spicy garnish.

Ever heard of a “blog hop?” Neither had I , when my good friend Sandra Gutierrez asked me to participate in one, I said, of course. The blog hop is simple: I, and a group of other authors answer a series of questions about our upcoming projects. You, my virtual friends, can “hop” from blog to blog, checking out what is in the hopper for this group of prolific and talented people.

It’s also like a game of tag, and the authors that I list below will then bring some other writers on board, and on and on.

You see, the thing with writers is, we are usually sequestered in our test kitchens, working obsessively on books and articles that will not see the light of day for months or even years. It’s wonderful. steaming up the windows and typing, and working with a team to make a book. So this blog hop is all about letting you all have a peek at the projects that are simmering away on the back burner.

What is the title of your upcoming book?

Actually, I can’t say for certain. My book on Juicing will probably get a more clever title, closer to publication. It’s been my experience that other books will come out with titles so similar to the working title that it will have to change before release. I was working on my most recent book, Sweet and Easy Vegan, under the title Sweet Vegan, when another booked called Sweet Vegan was published. So we changed it.

Oh, and I am also in process with a gluten-free book. Title TBA.

Who is publishing your book and what is the expected release date?

My juicing book will be published in Spring of 2014, by Chronicle Books. They published my other four books, and I love working with them.

My gluten-free book will be published in Fall of 2014, and it’s with Running Press. This is a new experience for me, working with a different publisher, and it’s exciting.

How long did it take you to research and write this book?

That’s always an open ended question, because I usually write about things I have been researching for years and years, both personally and professionally. I’ve juiced, on and off, since the late 80′s when I bought an ancient Champion juicer. Writing the book was a few months, we wanted to get it out while juicing is so popular.

With gluten-free, I;ve been working on gluten free cooking and baking since my Mom was diagnosed with gluten allergies in the early 90′s. I write lots of articles and teach lots of classes on GF, and so it was a natural fit to do a book. I had about a year to write the manuscript.

What inspired you to write this book?

I’m always inspired by the idea of helping people who have special dietary needs eat well. I’ve always specialized in allergy diets in my personal chef work, and I enjoy making sure that health-giving food tastes as good as any other food. I love juicing, and it was great to work on something that I think everyone, from vegans to meat eaters, can get on board with.

What is your favorite aspect of writing a cookbook?

I suppose I am a “creative” with an impulse to make things. I like focusing in on a larger project, and really delving into it. I also write articles, where I can look at a smaller piece, which is fun, too.

What is the hardest aspect of writing a cookbook?

Well, there are always recipes that you think are going to work that don’t, and you have to make them over and over until they do. By the end days, I am usually down to a group of recipes that have confounded me in some way, making them and eating them over and over. My husband is a good sport about it, but sometimes he gets “tester fatigue.”

What interesting things would we find in your refrigerator right now if we were to open it?

There are always recipe test leftovers in my fridge. Right now several sauces that I have been working on, and a fresh quart of green juice that I made to energize me through my day. I’ve always got kim chee, miso, sriracha, walnut and pumpkinseed oils, almond butter, and lots of veggies.

What is your favorite sound in the kitchen?

Can I say the dishwasher? It’s a quiet model and the sound means a meal has concluded. No, I love the sound of my chef knife crunching through a veggie and making that thump as it hits my big wooden board.

So, do you have an agent?

I love my agent, her name is Jennifer Griffin.

Which actors would you chose to place your main characters in the rendition of this book?

I love this question, even though cookbooks are rarely made into movies. Of course the problem is that all the actresses working in film are far more beautiful and thin than regular people, so you end up sounding vain. Or you get something like the recent announcement that Gwyneth Paltrow is going to star in Blood Bones and Butter. When I was younger, and we were discussing who would play us in the movie made about our wacky restaurant kitchen, I always wanted Susan Sarandon to play me. Somebody who can act, who could make me seem way more interesting than I really am!

As to the other characters, the veggies play themselves.

Jill Nussinow, the Veggie Queen!

Robin Robertson, The Most Prolific Vegan Author I know!

Victoria Moran, Author of Main Street Vegan and several other great books.

JL Fields, Vegan Lifestyle Coach, blogger, and soon to be author!

 Nava Atlas, prolific author and author of the amazing blog Veg Kitchen

Sandra Gutierrez, author of The New Southern Table

Tara Mataraza Desmond is the fabulous author of the equally fabulous  Almost Meatless

Ivy Manning is an amazing food writer from Portland, Oregon and author of From Farm to Table

Charmian Christie is a talented Canadian food writer and blogger about to publish her first book.

Holly Herrick is the author of five cookbooks, including Tart Love .