Enchanted Broccoli Forest-Fire: A toasty stove-top rendition of the classic casserole

The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, one of Mollie Katzen's many beautiful cookbooks, is one that I treasure. Daniel and I got a copy in the states when we visited last summer and backpacked around for two months with it gingerly wrapped in layers of bags so as to get it safely back to the old continent. Here, we hoard it like miserly jewel-collectors, rarely daring to open its gleaming depths to those who pass through Dani's kitchen, where it sits discreetly behind a Moosewood. After all, cookbooks like that are hard to come by here, and you never know what a Swiss foodie might do if she discovered there was more to the kitchen than cheese and bread, so we like to initiate people here to the land of good veggie cooking step by step...

Anyway, the cover recipe, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest itself, is amazing, delicious, wonderful, and today, I wanted it bad. However, being the anti-candida eater I am right now, I felt a little weird eating a meal mostly consisting of rice. Also, I just didn't want to deal with baking anything. It's so warm, the birds are singing, the windows are blowing open in the breeze...all this scene is missing is the sizzle and pop of some nutty roasted quinoa.

By using quinoa as my grain, I'm eating a lot more protein and a lot fewer carbs than if I had used the usual brown rice, and lentils are even lower in carbs, being in the legume family. Plus, they're downright nutritious and delicious. We have heaps of Birsmattehof spinach (fresh from our local organic farm), and i just bought broccoli, and Hari gave me some of the succulent little sundried tomatoes Niki brought back from Israel, so it seems we have a contestant for today's mind-blowing anti-candida cookoff (a competition taking place solely in my head, but none-the-less a worthwhile pursuit). For those of you who don't have candida problems, feel free to spice it up a bit with with...whatever. I actually don't know why you'd want to improve on this amazing dish, I just keep imagining that everyone who can eat sugar must be enjoying something I'm not. But not today. No sirree, I've got one up on sugar cravings this evening.


Enchanted Broccoli Forest-Fire: a toasty stove-top rendition of the classic casserole (for 4)

1 cup quinoa
1 cup beluga lentils
1 medium head broccoli
a few massive handfuls of fresh spinach
1 stalk celery
1 onion, diced, and/or some chopped leek
10 sundried tomatoes (dry or in oil), chopped into strips
any additional veggies you may be craving/have on hand


juice of 1/4 lemon
1 tbsp fresh, chopped rosemary
odorous amounts of garlic (about 6 cloves), chopped
2 tbsp flax seed or flax seed meal
a tiny bit of sea salt
4 twists of fresh ground black pepper

optional: 10 activated almonds, chopped

Directions
Cook the lentils in water until tender, drain, and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a medium skillet and add your quinoa. Stir almost continuously until the quinoa is browned and smells roasted, 2-3 minutes. Add 2 cups water to the quinoa, cover, and cook until the water is absorbed.

While that's going on, chop up the broccoli, almonds, rosemary, garlic, and all your other veggies (except the spinach).

When the quinoa is done, push it to the side in the pan and add the broccoli, leek, onions, rosemary, and other veggies that need a bit more cooking to the pan. Add a splash of water, cover, and reduce the heat, steaming the veggies for about 4 minutes, or until shiny and tender. then mix it all up, add all the rest of the stuff, and cook until it looks and tastes good, about 4 minutes.
I'm not telling you how to live your life here, but I highly recommend some Lemon Zatar Yogurt Dressing over a nice hot bowl of this for a zingy mediterranean flavor combo that's out of this world.

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Banana Cakes for the Masses

My version of Sweet Banana Polenta Cake, From Karina's Kitchen

Migros, a massive supermarket chain in Switzerland, seems to hate ripeness. They like their avocados with the squeezability of hand-grenades, their tomatoes the color of blushing porcelain dolls, and the oranges...well, "blond" is not just the variety name.

I know this because the rack of discount items by the door is always filled with the ripest items-already marked half price because obviously the potential of smelling a ripe fruit is grounds for composting. This is especially true with bananas, one of the touchiest fruits known. The acceptable bananas leer their green little smiles at me every time I go in, and if you're like me, and don't plan your cooking projects, there's no time to buy emerald bananas and wait for them to mature.

Point being, Eve struck gold last week and found a bag of about 15 bananas, perfectly ripe and only one or two with a hints of brown spots on the stems, for just over 3 francs. That's called 'a score,' for those of you uninitiated into my mom's shopping world. Anyway, when life hands you bananas, make banana cake. I made two, and it felt good. Real good.

For all you gluten-boycotters, I am very sad to say that one was NOT gluten-free...probably the first gluten-containing product I have made in 2 years. But I made it for the folks at B. Yoga to enjoy, and it seems needless to deal with gluten-free baking for people who mostly don't care...well, I still felt guilty measuring up wheat flour, like a shadow from the past was lurking around the corners of the mixing bowl, but I stayed strong, and the cake was rumored to be good, so you can make it for someone you love but has unfairly strong digestion, or you can just modify that little puppy and see what's what.

The base recipe was for Tried and True Banana Bread from Savvy Vegetarian. I used half spelt, half wheat flour, powdered egg replacer instead of the cornstarch mixture, and margarine instead of oil (unusual, but I had it). I also hucked in the last of the dried bananas, chopped up into rounds. I didn't bother taking a picture, because who cares, it has gluten anyway. Grin...

The other, the edible one, is essentially Karina's Sweet Banana Polenta Cake, from the always fabulous Karina's Kitchen Blog, with just a smidge of Erinization:

I did egg-free, with egg replacer for somewhere around 2 eggs,
random leftover soy creamer for the milk,
margarine for oil,
vanilla bean instead of extract,
an added grated apple because...I can,
and my sugar was actually a blend of 1 tbsp molasses, 2 tbsp agave, and 2 tbsp sugar beet syrup.

I also chopped up a banana and stirred it in to get nice melted banana chunks in the finished cake, which was so good I think I should triple the amount of chopped banana next time-and you should too.

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Calico Kichiri and Rosemary Roasted Carrot Hash with Fresh Sprouts

I looooove lentils. LOOOOOOOOVE them. All colors, shapes, sizes, and preparations. Which is probably why I can’t really manage to discriminate when it comes to creating Indian lentil dishes. Kichiri is ‘supposed’ to be made with red lentils, which is fantastic, but I wanted black lentils today, so that’s what I made. Continuing the blasphemy, I added nutritional yeast to imitate the consistency of red lentils. Recipe-sticklers beware, it was sinfully good and I don’t regret a moment of it.

The roasted carrot hash was half glorious inspiration and half poor planning-Having seen the roasted carrot dip on Just Bento, I thought it would be a perfect spread for the yummy cornbread my roommate just cooked up. After roasting the carrots, I remembered for the 100th time that we broke the food processor a few months ago. Huh. Carrots are not very mortar and pestle friendly. I used a bread knife to hack them into tiny pieces, and tried anyway, but the slippery little suckers still evaded all mushing attempts and just squirmed around my mortar mischieviously. Confounded, I tossed them into a bowl and drizzled balsamic vinegar and bragg’s over them, tossed, and tasted-WOAH that’s good!


The mustard sprouts and steamed chickpea sprouts really topped off the simple kichiri and tangy carrots. I steamed the chickpea sprouts for about 10 minutes on the lowest heat to get them tender and served them still warm over everything. So-oh-ohhhhh good. I ate two helpings and packed more for dinner, because with this good of a taste, repetition is a blessing!

Note: for the record, this meal was so satisfying I couldn’t manage to eat any more for dinner. The magic of sprouts, veggies, lentils and rice is that it’s absolutely everything you need and want, all in one delectable bowl.

Calico Kichiri

Ingredients
1 leek, sliced into rounds
1 small red onion, roughly chopped
1 cup brown rice, long or short grain
¾ cup beluga lentils
3 cups water

½ tsp cardamom powder, or 4 whole pods
1 tsp turmeric powder
3 cloves garlic, chopped (or some garlic powder-I admit it, I used powder today…)
1 tsp finely chopped ginger root
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
½ tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp oil

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat and add the onions and leek. Cook, stirring, until they are tender and shiny.
2. Add the spices, garlic and ginger, continuing to stir. Scrape the bottom of the pan if it starts to stick, and just keep stirring for about a minute.
   
3. Add the lentils and rice, still stirring, for 1 more minute.
   
4. Add the water, cover, bring to a boil, and reduce heat. Cook for 30 minutes or until almost all the water is absorbed and everything is fully cooked.
   
5. Stir in the nutritional yeast. There should be a little liquid left to create a saucy consistency with the yeast-if needed, add a drop more water, and you will get a wonderfully thick mush as it cools on the plate, stiff enough to stay on the spoon when you turn it sideways.comfort food consistency!
   

Rosemary Roasted Carrot Hash

Ingredients
4 carrots
1 very large sprig of rosemary
a pinch of salt
2 tsp bragg’s or tamari
2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).
Wash the carrots and chop them into large chunks. Sprinkle them with a bit of salt, set the rosemary on top, and wrap it all in a piece of foil. Bake for 30 minutes, or until tender.

After they have cooled for a moment, use a large knife to dice the carrots into very small pieces. Minced might be the word. Toss them with the vinegar and bragg's and serve over or beside your main course, warm or cool. In the summer, we’ll have to revisit this with fresh basil leaves chopped up in it…

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Sweet Apple-Banana Muffins

(Fresh from the Oven)

(Our muffin brunch on the train to Biel)

Since completing a fast in January to kick off the new year, it's been hard for me to find sweet things that don't completely knock me into a coma for the rest of the day. Sugar is just so STRONG! When I saw the theme for this month's Go Ahead Honey-It's Gluten-Free, I didn't know what to do..."Sweets for Your Sweetheart," huh? Oh great, how can I pull off a sweet fit for Valentine's Day when I'm barely managing to finish an apple on my own lately?

Come Valentine's Day morning I still had no idea. Finally, in the late morning, leaving the yoga studio, a little light-bulb went on somewhere above my head: "Hey Daniel, let's make muffins!" Not too sweet, not too heavy, and yet, when a truly good vegan, gluten-free muffin comes along, nothing to be scoffed at. We were both so excited to try our hand at an allergen-free muffin recipe that the whole day became a workshop in the kitchen, grains and flours flying everywhere, and sticky guar-gum fingerprints attached to every surface, including the keyboard, after we looked up this recipe for inspiration, from Karina at the Gluten Free Goddess.

The hard-won result was a beautiful tray of pink-tinged muffins, boasting apples, bananas, dates, and the sweet toasted flavor of roasted red rice flour. We whipped them out of the oven and ran to the evening satsang class before even getting a chance to test them. And in fact, it wasn't until the next day, on the train to Biel, that we unpacked our late Valentine's picknick and took the first bite. I was terrified, having had many a grainy, chewy GF muffin in the fast few years. It was like a dream. They were delicious. The mix of fruity flavors, the light sweetness, and the delectable moist texture melted in my mouth and left me pleasantly unburdened from the usual sugar-crash. A perfect Valentine's Day sweet, but don't think for a moment you won't want them every day.

Sweet Apple-Banana Muffins

Ingredients:
1/3 cup rice milk (and/or yogurt)
3/4 cup banana puree
1/3 cup apple sauce
2 tbsp agave nectar
1/3 cup vegan butter (and/or oil)
2 tbsp flax meal soaked in 2 tbsp hot water for 5 minutes

150 g dates, pitted and chopped
1 medium apple, chopped

1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp guar gum
1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tsp kuzu powder*
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup amaranth flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup red rice flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C)

Cream together the wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the apples and dates. The batter should be thick but thoroughly moist, like a drop biscuit batter almost. It should slide off the spoon, but with a little encouragement. add some rice milk if needed.

Scrape the batter into a greased, 12-muffin tray and bake for 20-30 minutes, until lightly browned on top.

Notes:
*If you don't have kuzu, use tapioca instead of chickpea flour in the recipe, and you should have enough of a starchy element from that

On the flours: We used so many types of flour because we had little bits of each left over! you could easily simplify and use just buckwheat, millet, and rice, or some other combination. Still, if you do have the supplies available to follow this mix, the taste and texture are pretty rewarding!

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Roasted Beet Risotto with Sage and Chickpeas

(Risotto served here with sauteed chard, leek,
and lentil sprouts, and vegan mint raita)

The only beef I have with rice dishes lately is that I crave something, simply, juicier. I love a bowl of brown rice, and with some tamari and nutritional yeast to moisten the grains, it’s certainly enjoyable. I might describe it as satisfying, healthy, nutty, and earthy. Great. But it’s a far cry from mouthwatering, or fingerlickingly creamy, which is what I really want this week. I’m searching for something more like the vegan, gluten-free equivalent to the texture of fresh-grated parmesan melting over basil lasagne.

Enter risotto, the transvestite, showgirl sister of the simple boiled rice bowl. How often have I heard brown rice dishes defined by non-vegans as “why they would never go vegan”? Enough to know that they are not thinking outside of the box. A brown rice risotto is a truly luxurious meal, and one that everyone can enjoy, vegan, omnivore, and devout carnivore. This one is so tenderly soft, melty, and moist I think even my Swiss roommate would forget to ask if it had cheese, and of course, we know the answer.

The creaminess I was hunting came from an unexpectedly perfect source. To start, I knew I didn’t have wine to use in my risotto, and I found myself dreading the lack of such a crisp, dry flavor. I peeked around the fridge and tried to think of something with that special “bite” a steaming white wine gives. Vinegars just weren’t going to cut it, likewise homemade pickle-brine. And then-Aha! The aged soy kefir whey on the windowsill caught my eye.

When you let a kefir whey age outside of the fridge, the beverage takes on a wine-cooler kind of quality, with an alcoholic edge to its original sour flavor. The clear, zingy drink has something strongly reminiscent of white wine, and even provides a bit of a cheesy taste too. From using water kefir for wine, it was just a short jump to using soymilk kefir for cheese, and voila, a creamy, edgy risotto lacking none of the richness a dairy version promises.

The beetroot gives a beautiful color and lovely sweet flavor to the dish, and celeriac and carrots finish off a wonderful trio of seasonal root veggies. Sage, fresh-picked from the front yard, not only looks great with the purple beet, but adds a slightly smoky undertone to the mix. Finally, chickpeas partner up with rice as our vegan serving of complete protein (grass plus legume) and lend a soft nutty texture in the process. Altogether, a multicultural, healthy take on risotto that practically sighs for you as it touches your taste buds.

Roasted Beet Risotto with Sage and Chickpeas

Ingredients:

• 2 cups short or medium grain brown rice
• About 5 cups of veggie stock or water*
• ½ onion, chopped
• 3 medium carrots, chopped into half-rounds
• ½ celeriac, cubed
• 1 very large or 2 medium beets
• 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
• 3 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
• 3 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup soymilk kefir**
• ½ cup kefir whey (or dry white wine)
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. Wash the beets and remove the greens***, being sure not to chop into the beets (leave a little stem). brush them with olive oil, wrap in aluminum foil and bake at 350 F (175 C) for 30 minutes, or until tender when poked with a fork. Let cool. Grate ¾ of the beets, coarsely chop the rest.
2. In a large pot, heat the oil and add the onions, stirring. Add the pepper and a dash of salt, and cook until the onions are transparent.
3. Add the rice, stirring, and cook for a few minutes, until the rice is very lightly browned and shiny.
4. Add the kefir whey or wine and stir for another minute or two, then add the grated beets and ½ cup stock or water, continuing to stir until all liquid is evaporated. Repeat this until the rice is about half done.
5. Add the herbs, carrots, celeriac, and 1 cup of liquid. Cover until the veggies are almost done (check that there is still liquid, stir and add more if necessary, then cover again).
6. Stir in the chickpeas, chopped beets, and milk kefir. Taste and add salt if needed, and more kefir if desired.

Notes:
*I used water and a splash of homemade kimchee brine. **You could probably use soy yogurt too. If you’re not a vegan, obviously some parmesan will do! *** SAVE YOUR GREENS!!! Chop them up and toss them in if you like, or sauté them for a gorgeous side dish to the risotto.

(I'm considering a new name:
"Disappearing Act Risotto." The bowl
never seems to stay full...)

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Five Minute Balsamic Tipped Veggies

I thought it would be impossible to make something this delicious and healthy in less than 10 minutes, but sure enough, it took just 5, even with an electric stove to slow the process. The nice thing about cooking with Swiss regional foods is that it’s incredibly easy to make authentic Italian flavors too, and the oregano, balsamic vinegar, and fennel all lend themselves perfectly to this Swiss-Italian fusion.

Five Minute Balsamic Tipped Veggies

Ingredients (for 1. Multiply by the number of people to be served for a side, or multiply by 2 for each person for a main dish):

• ¼ large head of fennel, sliced into strips.
• 1 yellow (or other) carrot, sliced into rounds
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• a few tbsp water
• a pinch of black pepper
• 2 round slices of lemon

Directions:

1. Heat a skillet over medium flame for just a moment before tossing in the carrots, fennel, vinegar, and some water. Stir to coat and cover quickly.
2. When the liquid has evaporated, continue stirring with a bit more water, and add the pepper, oregano, and garlic.
3. Add the lemon and increase the heat for 1 minute, stirring, to give a browned, roasted edge to the veggies.

Finito!

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Enchanted by Fermentation

A few days after Christmas this year I decided it was time to clean out last year's junk. No, not from my apartment; I felt like I needed something to get my body back into a good, balanced state. After moving a few months ago, and traveling for most of the year before, it seems like the very idea of taking the time to develop good habits just hasn't had space to manifest. So, with the help of Oscar, a very nice juicer I borrowed from my friend, I began a 10-day juice fast to clear the slate for the new year.

As I neared the end of my fast, I felt like I had better start preparing some healthy things to consume for afterwards, or surely I would just go back to the cupboard exactly where I left off. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I have eaten in the past and reached the conclusion that although I ate pretty healthily by most standards, the way I ate just didn't cut it. I tended to have quick meals that didn't require a lot of foresight or preparation-or leave much room for enjoyment. One solution dawned on me as I found myself gazing wistfully at jars of sauerkraut and pickles-home fermentation is a perfect way to get more involved with your food.

What ensued was a frenzy of research and experimenting, which has resulted in the erection of a "Fermentation Corner" covered in bowls, jars, and bottles in the living room next to the heater and the posting of a 'Mission Log" for recording the starting dates and notes for projects (because wow did I get lost fast without a record!). It was suddenly obvious that having live, fermented foods around is a healthy and delicious part of a good diet. It also makes for a lot more interaction with your food. Processing each item is like throwing a new thread into the weave of your daily life, and as it become habitual to think about fermentation as a part of your life, the pattern becomes more and more interesting.

The health benefits of fermentation are undeniable: mass marketing alreayd tells us how wonderful yogurt is, and this is because of the presence of healthy bacteria, which help both to break down the hard-to-digest parts of foods in the fermentation process, and aid in digestion in our systems. A great example of how fermentation can enhance foods is seen in soy products. Studies have been done (it's worth noting, these are in western countries) to show that soy products are unhealthy. What others have shown (sources coming soon) is that the 'unhealthy' part of soy is actually due to conventional processing methods. In asian countries, where soy has been a crucial part of diet for centuries, the beans are almost always fermented in some way to help break down the parts that are difficult for us to digest.

Another point I think is worth noting is the history of breadmaking. There are so many theories about gluten allergies and how they have arisen so much in recent years. Many point to white flour as the culprit, and I think there's no way to deny that it is truly difficult for any person to digest white flour, much less get nutrients from it, regardless of a gluten allergy. But whole wheat and other gluten-containing grains also give celiacs and gluten-sensitive eaters some belly-rumbles. Why?

Traditionally, all cultures gathered yeast for bread making from the air around them. this is done through a fermentation process; ground grains and water are left to collect yeast and occasionally stirred to help spread yeast and introduce oxygen. Yeast also accumulates on fruit and other foods. The process involves different types of bacteria entering the flour-water mixture and changing it in small ways which make it more hospitable to new bacteria, which finally make it a comfortable home for yeast. During this process, the grains are essentially pre-digested by the bacteria, including the parts which normally impede digestion by humans...like gluten!

Then the 'starter' is added to more flour to make dough, and the fermentation continues. Depending on the type of bread, it can be for days, and the bacteria continue to digest the grains (meanwhile creating that delicious sour flavor). So even though ancient people ate a lot of wheat, it was in a much more easily-digested form than we usually have today. How long do you think commercial bread ferments before it's baked?...yeah...

Sourdough bread and fermented soy-products are some of the better known fermentations. there are many simpler, equally nourishing and delicious dishes, which basically require no extra work on your part. Soaking grains before cooking (for anywhere from 24 hours to weeks) also allows these good bacteria to enter and start munching. It's like sending your teeth in a day early, and the result is less work for your digestive system. Or how about sauerkraut, or sauer-anything? Amazingly easy!

My point? Well, I'm not really interested in telling you what you shouldn't eat; you can figure that out by listening to your own body's responses. But for a lot of us westerners, fermentation just hasn't been a part of our lives, or not in a major way. I'd like to point out that it's really easy, healthy, and yummy (and so satisfying) to make your own live-culture foods. I never made a fermented product growing up; I never even preserved jam! So maybe I am a little over-excited by the prospect of making my own tempeh and sourdough pancakes from wild yeast, but I sure am enjoying the learning experience.

That being said, there are a lot of knots to work out too. Some things seem to work magically well, like yogurt, soured beets, kvass, and seed milks. But others (pumpkin-seed milk kefir, for example) I just haven't managed to perfect...none-the-less, you can expect a lot of fermentation recipes in the near future as I brine my way along!

You can find some great links for home fermentation in my "Fermentation Links" list; check them out, you will amaze yourself with how easy it is.

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