Summer is starting to wind down, and it’s time to say goodbye to weeks of eating far, far too much delicious ice cream. Thanks for all of the great comments and suggestions. You guys really helped take this challenge to the next level!
After six weeks of grueling, scientific research, here is my favorite flavor and the runner-up:
One of my favorite parts of the week is picking up my Growing Communities veg bag from Hackney City Farm. As I’ve written before, a veg bag is the British equivalent of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box, filled with organic and mostly locally grown produce. Following a veggie burger as well as carrot potato pancakes, I’m doing more fun kitchen experiments figuring out how to use all the random vegetables that come my way. It’s the veg bag game! Can’t beat anything that combines games and food: two of my favorite things on the planet besides panda babies.
Growing communities is nice enough to include a recipe in the bags each week, which I’ve found to be a great starting point for figuring out what to make. It’s amazing how many dishes can be made based on what can often be found in your average kitchen - today I debated a pasta primavera and a stir-fried eggplant with brown rice - but decided to riff off the Courgette and Cheese soup recipe from the bag. The fun part of the game is playing with ingredients depending on what I’ve got lying around and seeing what deliciousness results. I didn’t have any cheese, but I did have cherry tomatoes and some verging-on-stale whole wheat bread so I tossed them both in for a texture similar to ribollita (a Tuscan soup made with stale bread). The bread makes it hearty, but it’s got the lightness of a vegetarian as well as dairy-free soup. Depending on what you’ve got lying around, you can make any adjustments as well. Enjoy!
Do you ever have an insatiable craving for a delicious, summery burger — but don’t want the autolyzed yeast extract and soy protein isolates contained in many commercial veggie patties? There’s no need to go without! You can make your own grain-free version using just a handful of healthy ingredients. Organic french lentils and fresh portobello mushrooms combine to make a nutritious, mouthwatering vegan burger.
Summer is my favorite season. It’s the time of year for sunset barbecues and dinners on the patio, and for strings of tiny Italian lights and flickering Moroccan lanterns. Summer plays the beautiful hostess of longer days and breezy nights, polka-dotted sundresses, and peals of joyful laughter coming from children playing in the backyard.
There’s no better time than summer to indulge in a sliver of chocolate cake, so rich in contrast to the simplicity of the gingham tablecloth and the mason jars overflowing with wildflowers. This cake is made without using wheat, corn, or dairy ingredients, yet it is unmistakably, deliciously, chocolate.
This twist on classic pizza ushers in summer with a tender gluten-free crust, garlicky oven-roasted tomato sauce and the zing of fresh herbs. You could top this with homemade mozzarella cheese or soy cheese, but what if you’re avoiding both dairy and the highly-processed soy isolates found in many cheese alternatives? Is it even possible to imagine – much less create and enjoy — a pizza without wheat and cheese?
Of the adjectives used to describe gluten-free baked goods, the word “fluffy” rarely makes the cut. Heavy, solid, crumbly, dry — yes, any and all of those. Those of us living sans gluten have gotten used to the slice-and-toast routine when it comes to wheatless breads. Fresh-out-of-the-oven-fluffy has all but vanished from our vocabulary. These fruit-sweetened beauties, though, change all of that.
For starters, the batter actually rose above and beyond the baking tin’s edge. When’s the last time you remember anything gluten-free doing that? These muffins even manage to disguise shredded fruits and vegetables without coming anywhere near the dreaded dense description.
Goodbye flat, vaguely muffin-shaped globules. It’s time to move on.
Most of us have a love/hate relationship with dill. If you grew up on Scandinavian-inspired dishes, as I did, you no doubt have a fond appreciation for its distinctive flavors — I loved to feel dill’s feathery-soft leaves against my hand when exploring in my mom’s garden as a girl. On the other hand, if your only association with dill is soggy, sickly-green supermarket pickles, then you might not be quite so keen on the herb.
Often overlooked, dill — from the Norse dilla, meaning, “to soothe” — possesses surprising characteristics. Among its little-known superpowers are antibacterial and calming properties; the annual herb can be made into a stomach-soothing tea. Dill has been popular since Biblical times, and is even mentioned as a valuable commodity in the Gospels: “You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.”
Traditionally used in food to season fish or as a balance to yogurt’s tanginess, dill can also be used to brighten this protein-rich, vegan-friendly, summery rice salad.
Wheatless Wednesday, along with her currently more popular cousin Meatless Monday, were the brainchild of Herbert Hoover during World War I. Already active as a food relief administrator in Europe, Hoover was appointed to preside over the U.S. Food Administration in 1917, just before the United States entered the First World War. It would be twelve more years before Hoover was inaugurated as the 31st president of the United States, but by that time he was already a household name.
Hoover’s massive food preservation program encouraged Americans to reduce food consumption so that the food supply for the troops and war-torn Europeans would remain strong. The uniqueness of his plan– as opposed to later World War II efforts — was that Hoover’s program avoided rationing, while still successfully reducing American food consumption by 15%.
I’m visiting my parents in Boston and decided to make a fruit tart dessert for a family brunch. I headed to Whole Foods, the closest grocery store with both organic and local produce options. No matter how you feel about the chain, it’s pretty cool that all their produce is helpfully labeled as ‘organic,’ ‘conventional,’ or ‘local,’ sometimes even with a profile on the farm of origin. It makes it easier to know what you’re buying, but it can still leave you standing dazed amid the Chilean grapes and California clementines, paralyzed by the complexity of options in front of you.
Raw nuts are a healthy addition to any diet, and in my house we go through them almost faster than we can buy them. They’re a great snack on their own, added to recipes, or turned into milk.
Every week after I’ve make homemade nut milk (our favorites are almond or Brazil nut) I’m left with nut pulp I’ve strained out of the milk mixture.
This pulp (which by the way can be frozen for later use) is great when dried and ground into nut flour, or used in recipes like the raw truffles my family enjoys so much.
This recipe is quick, easy, healthy, and delicious!
If you’ve ever seen an episode of the canceled Nickelodeon show Invader Zim, you’ll undoubtedly know that Zim’s robotic pet, GIR, loves waffles. He always seems to be cooking up a batch of them at the most inopportune moments. As my fridge never seems to be without a ready-to-go bowl of waffle batter, I can definitely relate to GIR’s waffle obsession.
But unlike GIR, who has only a vague idea of what he’s put in the batter (What’s in ‘em?” Zim asks in one episode. “There’s waffle in ‘em,” GIR responds), I can vouch for every single corn-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, wheat-free ingredient. Plus, the recipe is so versatile, you can practically customize the waffle to your morning mood.
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