Green Options

Cupcakes are still the dessert du jour, but forget chocolate and vanilla — try the green Matcha Meringue Cupcakes instead. Two secret ingredients give them a delicate green hue — finely grated lime peel and matcha green tea powder, a premium powdered green tea that’s used in the Japanese tea ceremony. Use organic ingredients to make the recipe even greener.

Even though these cupcakes are still a sugary, the addition of matcha green tea powder means each one will boast the benefits of green tea including weight loss, lowered blood pressure, decreased stress levels and increased energy. So when you try the Matcha Meringue Cupcakes recipe, you can feel a little less guilty about indulging.

One thing that I love about cooking the Passover Seder for my family is that I get two chances to make a memorable meal. While the menus always differ between the two nights of celebrations, I usually incorporate a few similar elements to try out twice.

I am never going to win with the traditional recipes from the old country - these would be inexpertly executed versions of my grandmother’s legendary matzo balls and kugel. Instead, I try to reimagine a dish I love within the dietary restrictions of the holiday: no leavened bread, no corn products, no rice or whole grains, no legumes. (Growing up with the yearly Passover semi-fast has been an education in corn additives, I will tell you, but that’s a story for a different post.)

This year, I focused on dessert. Several bakeries manage to make Kosher for Passover cakes and cookies from matzo crumbs, but these have the cardboard-y taste and alarmingly fake consistency of diet foods. Instead, I coopted this addictive matzo bark recipe from Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn. But what should go with it? Why, ice cream of course!

This is a recipe to impress! In fact, any time I use phyllo dough, my friends and family rave about the results. Like baklava, this recipe uses honey and walnuts to make a sweet treat. As always, organic ingredients produce the best results for your health, taste, and the environment. It is challenging to find organic phyllo dough, but you can get it from the Fillo Factory! If your phyllo dough is frozen, be sure to defrost it thoroughly. It takes great patience to separate each piece of flaky dough, so this recipe is not one to attempt when you are in rush.

Greek Walnut Pie

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

To make the pie filling, combine in a medium-sized bowl, then set aside:

• 1 cup honey
• 1 Tablespoon whole wheat flour
• 1 Tablespoon melted butter
• 2 eggs or 3 Tablespoons of soymilk mixed with 1/2 teaspoon of arrowroot powder
• 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups chopped walnuts

In Part I, we took a pretty close look at the process of turning healthful soy beans into delicious tofu. Now let’s talk about the different texture varieties: silken/soft, firm/extra firm, etc.

Soft/Silken

Soft/silken tofu is undrained tofu, and it contains the highest moisture content of all fresh tofus. Its texture can be described as similar to that of very fine custard. In Korea and Japan, traditional soft tofu is made with [...]